Media & Communications

Die Post Carbon Reader Serie: Grundlegende Konzepte

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This is a German translation of the essay Beyond the Limits to Growth by Richard Heinberg which will appear in the forthcoming Post Carbon Reader. Im Jahre 1972 erkundete das inzwischen klassische Buch “Grenzen des Wachstums” die Konsequenzen des exponentiellen Wachstums von Bevölkerung, Industrialisierung, Umweltverschmutzung und Ressourcenverbrauch.# Dieses Buch, bis heute unangetastet der Bestseller unter den Umweltbüchern, berichtete über die ersten Versuche, Computer zur Modellierung der Trends bei den Interaktionen von Ressourcen, Verbrauch und Bevölkerung zu nutzen.

Economics as if people mattered

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Robert Costanza is professor of ecological economics at the University of Vermont and director of the Gund Institute of Ecological Economics. He talks about the things most economists overlook, like the fact that growth can’t continue forever on a finite planet, and the ways our well-being is not connected with how much money we have.

When truth is unbelievable

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As a college junior I frequented a website (www.dieoff.org) where prognosticators observed that with accelerating rates of environmental destruction, overpopulation and fossil fuel depletion, modern civilization was on the verge of collapse. I kept my new-found realization that life as we knew it was coming an end to myself, for fear of being labeled a “Cassandra.” Only that’s exactly what I would soon become.

Confessions of a recovering environmentalist

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“Environmentalism, which in its raw, early form had no time for the encrusted, seized-up politics of left and right, has been sucked into the yawning, bottomless chasm of the ‘progressive’ left.” A personal, twenty-year journey through the world’s wild places and the movements to protect them is also, for Paul Kingsnorth, an education in the limits of a project that has forgotten nature and lost its soul.

Agroinnovations #99: Ecological Imperialism

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This episode focuses on the arguments in the book Ecological Imperialism, written by Alfred W. Crosby. Alfred Crosby joined me briefly to talk about this book. I have added to his comments by reading key passages from his book. Topics of discussion include the success of Europeans in the New World, the significance of Pangaea and the Neolithic Revolution, the definition and explanation of terms like Neo-Europe and portmanteau biota, the failure of the Norse explorers in North America, European Imperialism in the Canary Islands, the role of weeds, animals, and disease in European successes overseas, and a biogeographical explanation for European conquest.

Opportunity cost of growth

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Economics is about counting costs, and the cost to be counted is “opportunity cost,” arguably the most basic concept in economics. It is defined as the next best alternative to the one chosen, in other words, as the best of the sacrificed alternatives. You chose the best alternative, the opportunity cost is the second best, the alternative that you would choose if the best were unavailable. If there were no scarcity, choice would not be necessary, there would be no opportunity cost, and economics would not exist.

Peak oil, prices, and supplies – Aug 16

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-Beyond BP: Michael Klare on US Energy Policy
-Scientists Allege Federal Gov’t Tried to Muffle Plume Findings
-Oil sands toxins growing rapidly
-The Triumph of the Amateur: Remembering Matt Simmons
-Peak oil is the villain governments need
-High Oil Prices: Quantification of direct and indirect impacts for the EU)

Embodied energy: An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use

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Everyone knows that it takes energy to produce anything. The energy used in mining, transport, processing, manufacturing, delivery, and disposal is “embodied” in every product we consume, from food to diapers to televisions and insurance policies. Our traditional way of looking at energy, however, highlights only current consumption, traditionally disaggregated into agricultural, industrial, transportation, commercial, and residential sectors.

Things fall apart – slowly

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Actually, it isn’t all that slow, because a decade ago, all of this would have been largely unthinkable. The problem is that we don’t see the gradual decline and fall – we are only vaguely aware that some things aren’t quite what they used to be, and our progressive narrative tells us that they will soon be much better. But the problem is that’s not necessarily true – there’s little evidence for it. Even the most optimistic economists (and I don’t recommend the most optimistic economists ;-)) have to admit our long term economic problems are extremely pressing.