Culture & Behavior

Uncertainty

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I find myself writing an odd sort of holiday message in this piece. When so many others are sending out words of comfort and joy and wishes for a happy new year, I am focused on getting in touch with life’s inherent uncertainty and insecurity which in my view is the true cauldron of creativity in our lives.

Collapse +11 years in the Napa Valley

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As I sip my morning espresso, I have a brief moment of longing for an earlier time when I could make my stovetop coffee quickly on a gas burner. It takes a lot longer using this electric one. Little did we know that gas was right behind oil in peaking. Fortunately we finally have plenty of solar-produced electricity and, once again, access to coffee. So it’s a minor inconvenience, but just another reminder of things we used to take for granted.

Why dissensus matters

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What we think we can know about the future determines how we prepare for it. The speculative bubbles that have left rubble across the economic landscape offer a useful lesson about the difference between knowing what won’t happen, knowing what will happen, and knowing the kind of things that will happen.

Energy and Ponzi schemes

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Systems ecologist and energy researcher Charlie Hall has long championed a biophysical approach to economics as an alternative to neoclassical economics which he likens to a Ponzi scheme. Why a Ponzi scheme? Each new wave of lending is made based on the faith that future flows of energy will increase sufficiently to create enough economic growth to pay off the new loans.

Towns and cities should prepare for the peak oil energy crisis

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Local governments face: (1) declining revenues due to declining property values and declining family incomes; (2) increasing costs for gasoline, diesel, and heating oil; (3) inflation in the costs of equipment, materials, products, services, and electric power …