As Night Closes In
I was saddened to learn a few days ago, via a phone call from a fellow author, that William R. Catton Jr. died early last month, just short of his 89th birthday.
Overshoot
Uncharted Territory for a System in Overshoot
We are in uncharted territory with the Ebola virus disease (EVD). This pandemic signifies a turning point for society in response to peak oil, highlighting the problem of globalization for a planet of 7 billion people.
Over the Climate Cliff
Alex is joined by Cam Walker, Friends of Earth Australia, Dr. David A. Lavers, and author Alan Weisman.
Is “the environment” now obsolete?
If we are indeed already in the Anthropocene, then "the environment" cannot be "out there." The advent of the Anthropocene has wiped out the distinction between human history and natural history.
We Can Feed the World / No We Can’t / No We Won’t
There are, and have been for a few decades now, competing narratives about food, hunger, and population.
Power, Identity and Social Change as We Enter Degrowth
I want to speak to those who feel…either confounded or bludgeoned and “powerless” facing the intransigence of modern civilization to recognize overshoot and the limits to growth. I speak also to those who have a seemingly contrary reaction: flickers of intrepidness and hope despite recognition of enormous obstacles and dilemmas…
Q&A: Lester Brown, Author – Full Planet, Empty Plates
In his newest book, Full Planet, Empty Plates, Lester Brown writes…"The U.S. Great Drought of 2012 has raised corn prices to the highest level in history. The world price of food, which has already doubled over the last decade, is slated to climb higher, ushering in a new wave of food unrest…."
Limits of Resilience
Resilience – ‘the capacity to bounce back’ … is a desirable condition. The trouble is that a lot of people perceive resilience…to be a new variety of risk management that gives them the opportunity to carry on with business-as-usual.
Peak Philosophy: The economic contraction narrative needs facts, not theory
These days, people are maxed out on every level trying to get through life as everything gets more tedious, expensive, and uncertain. The onslaught of “glittering generalities” and opinionated political rhetoric coming from popular media and paid advertising on “both” sides is enough to make many shut off and tune out – their philosophical bandwidth running at full capacity until it is choked off entirely.
Conflict and Change in the Era of Economic Decline: Part 1 – The 21st century landscape of conflict
In this essay, which will appear in five installments, I hope to explore some of the social implications of simplification and decentralization. Will wars and revolutions break out with ever-greater frequency?…Or will local food networks and Occupy groups positively transform society from the ground up?
President Declares ‘War on Entropy’
Enjoy this satirical look at the politics of energy by PCI Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg…At a hastily organized news conference, president Obama this morning called for a new national effort to restore America’s greatness by combating “entropy.”
When science is a conveyor of bad news
Science is a phenomenal institution. Sometimes I can’t believe we created this construct that works so incredibly well…Yet science seeks truth, and sometimes the truth is not what we want to hear.
