Culture & Behavior

Economics for the Story of Stuff

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Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff, the explosive online video (now also expanded into a book), provides an entertaining explanation of a glaring economic flaw. The Story of Stuff takes a look at the economy’s linear system that runs from extraction to production to distribution to consumption to disposal. As Annie says, “… you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet indefinitely.” You especially can’t grow the size of that linear system indefinitely. But that’s the misguided aim of current economic goals and policies.

Rob Hopkins helps “unleash” the Transition Town Totnes Energy Descent Action Plan

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3 years, 8 months and a day ago, 400 of us gathered here in this hall to ‘Unleash’ what we had just decided to call ‘Transition Town Totnes’. It was an extraordinary evening which I am sure some of you will remember. Since then, TTT has grown to become a powerful force in this community…At the Unleashing, we committed to work towards the creation of an EDAP for Totnes and district, and today, here it is.

Oil and larkspur – personal reactions to a disruptive event

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We tend to settle into routines. But once in a while extraordinary events disrupt normalcy. We may question assumptions and be open to new information and change. A grief process is common in these times too. The accident in the Gulf of Mexico is a disruptive event. Here’s an essay that puts it into personal perspective for me.

Asia’s epic urban sagas

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South Asians are seeing more work on the ground and hearing more policy announcements about urban development than ever before. For many who live in and around towns and cities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India (where South Asia’s biggest cities lie) this could be a good thing. The trouble is: national governments and planning authorities in Dhaka, Islamabad and New Delhi are tending more and more to follow a single ideology – economic growth will drive down poverty – and a primary route to that misplaced objective, which is greater urbanisation.

Food and agriculture – May 7

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-Organic farms ‘produce less than HALF as much food as conventional ones’
-Study shows low carbon credentials of local food
-Can U.S. farms produce food without relying heavily on fossil fuels?
-Farmers Cope With Roundup-Resistant Weeds
-Fears That a Lush Land May Lose a Foul Fertilizer
-Domestic blitz
-Pollan and Hurst Debate the Future of Agriculture

Another wake-up call for the world’s biggest oil junkie

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The explosion and destruction of the Horizon deepwater rig and the subsequent oil spill disaster are only the latest in a series of wake-up calls you’ve received. Are you listening now? Your first warning came in 1956, with the publication of M. King Hubbert’s model of US oil production, which correctly predicted its peak in 1970. When Hubbert updated his model on camera in 1976, he also nailed the peak of worldwide conventional oil production in 2005.

Confessions of a Doomer

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A month ago I visited my friend Sadie in Cincinnati. During a chat in her apartment, I confessed to a morbid fascination with the possible collapse of society. She laughed and, in a tone of gentle sarcasm, said she’d noticed my enchantment with that subject.

The principle of subsidiary function

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When a society’s problems are caused by too much complexity, adding more layers of complexity is a recipe for more problems. In the abstract, this is easy enough to grasp, but applying it in practice is quite another matter. Fortunately, the writings of maverick economist EF Schumacher come to the rescue with another of his counterintuitive but valuable insights.