Media & Communications

What is the Minimum EROI that a Sustainable Society Must Have? Part 1: Surplus Energy and Biological Evolution

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EROI theory is rooted in the biological principle that in order to survive each species on earth must procure more energy from its food than it expends attaining that food. From this basic principle the importance of energy surplus became evident, as food sources needed to “pay” not only for metabolism but also for reproduction and storage for leaner times. Part 1 of this three part series presents a brief history of the concept of surplus energy and how it has influenced both biological and human evolution.

Plastics Keep Coming after You: a Comprehensive Report and a Call to Action

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“Coming after You” means both your legacy of non-biodegradable plastics and that they are out to kill you. Now that the hilarious double entendre is out of the way, we can go on to our patient heroines. The nurturing, brave journalists about to be presented are patient as heroines and they succor untold numbers of unknown patients suffering from plastic-caused diseases.

Which Train Is Leaving The Station?

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My busy eating, drinking & breathing schedule prevented me from going down to Houston for CERAWeek this year. It’s funny how that works—something seems to come up every year. So I’ll have to use news reports to get a feel for how this year’s exciting oil & gas Schmooze-Fest went. Tuesday, March 9th was Oil Day.

How to make your own low-tech vertical farm

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Vertical farming has become a popular idea, but what is mostly forgotten is that the energy required for the operation and construction of vertical farms largely negates the ecological advantages. This also applies to small-scale systems, like those of Philips (a concept) or Inka Biospheric Solutions (a product).

Ocean acidification: Why the climate change deniers don’t want to talk about it

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It is hard to imagine a case weaker than that made by the climate change deniers against the science of human-caused global climate change. But there is one, the nonexistent case against the reality of human-caused ocean acidification. So, it’s no wonder they don’t want to talk about it.

Church in Our Times: Spirit and Security in the Face of Reality

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We’ve been hearing for years that the mainline Protestant churches are on the wane in the United States, emptying out in an increasingly atomized society. And Catholicism has been clearly weakened by recent internal events. Is the Christian church only a force on the Right in the United States?

Vermont: Neighbors and Online Networks

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When Michael Wood-Lewis and his wife, Valerie, moved from Washington, D.C., to the south end of Burlington, Vermont, in 1998, “we’d landed in what we thought was our dream neighborhood. It was walkable, near the lake, full of trees. But we were having trouble getting to know the neighbors.