A bee wrangler shows you how to mind your own beeswax
From activists to politicians, everybody loves to talk about the promise of green jobs. But in reality, who the heck actually has a green job, and how do you get one?
Culture & Behavior
Yard for share: my hyperlocavore garden
The pea, radish, lettuce, and quinoa sprouts have emerged in my new backyard garden, outracing the chervil, cilantro, carrot, and chard seeds—and Wayde Lawler, my new-found Hyperlocavore buddy, is responsible for all this.
Social Security and Medicare funding issues: even worse when one considers resource constraints
When we think about the taxes and the federal deficit, we don’t usually think of Social Security and Medicare, because in government lingo, the payments we make for these programs aren’t taxes, they are contributions, and the funding deficit for these programs is not taken into account in determining the federal deficit.
Tipping point: near-term systemic implications of a peak in global oil production – collapse dynamics
The period since the end of the last ice age provided the large-scale stability in which human civilisation emerged. Climatic stability provided the opportunity for diverse human settlements to ‘bed’ down over generations. This formed the basis upon which knowledge, cultures, institutions, and infrastructures could build complexity and capability over generations without, by and large, having it shattered by extreme drought or flooding outside their capacity to adapt. (excerpt)
Why I’m not bright green
A reader of mine named Aaron emailed me to ask if I’d respond to Alex Steffen’s latest piece at Worldchanging. (Serious Things Day II)
Deep thought – Apr 14
-Make Birth Control, Not War
-Resilience and Ruggedness: Why Faster, Bigger and More Complex May Be Better
-Building a Green Economy
-Ill Fares the Land
Some thoughts on walking and our ability to cope
Raymond De Young (Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning at the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan) sent me a recent paper he wrote called Coping With Environmental Transitions: Some Attentional Benefits of Walking in Natural Settings, published in Ecopsychology, Vol. 2, No. 1, March 2010. For tonight’s Campfire post, I thought I would quote some sections from it.
The natural world vanishes: how species cease to matter
If you are a resident of the East Coast of the United States or of Western Europe, when did you last attend a shad bake, eat an eel, or watch Atlantic salmon vault a waterfall? Community shad bakes once celebrated the return of American shad to rivers as a marker of spring. Recently though, a dearth of shad led to a “shadless shad bake” on the Hudson — a river that in its glory days supplied more than four million pounds of shad in one season.
The dark side of coal – some historical insights on energy and the economy
The descendants of those men who pulled coal-loaded barges upstream in 19th century now drive shiny cars powered by oil and work in front of computer screens. But the problem of oil is the same as it was for coal: it is not infinite and there is not enough of it for everyone.
Greece, the UK, and the EU – debt boils over – Apr 12
-Greece and the Fatal Flaw in an IMF Rescue
-UK household savings lowest in 40 years say ONS
-Sovereign debt crisis at ‘boiling point’, warns Bank for International Settlements
Making nickels squeak: clothing edition
Due to the weirdly warm weather (which has now departed for a few days of normalish April weather) that we had last week, I saw a spring sight to gladden the heart of almost anyone – a yard sale. It wasn’t at a time I could shop, and it wasn’t like I wanted anything they had – but still, the re-emergence of yard sales is like the return of the redwing blackbirds, a sign of hope.
The imperative of reforming U.S. foreign aid to empower women
Perverse incentives provided by tax codes and government subsidies are an ongoing theme of my articles in The Daly News. These perverse incentives pervade all sectors of the economy and undermine the hope for a prosperous and healthy civilization that lives in harmony with the earth. A paradigm shift away from the present destructive global economic model must entail the elimination of taxes and subsidies that reward pollution and injustice.
