Reports

Post Carbon Institute's definitive reports provide accessible expert analysis of complex and interconnected economic, energy and environmental issues humanity faces in the 21st century.

view related reports by our fellows

Most Recent PCI Reports


Filter by:   Issue:   Person:

FOOD: Growing Community Food Systems

Erika Allen   Sep 1, 2010   

EXCERPT: Food systems can be a very powerful tool for resilience.  In a revolutionary way, you can completely trasform things without people realizing what's happening--they are aware, … >>

POPULATION: The Multiplier of Everything Else

William Ryerson   Aug 17, 2010   1 comments

EXCERPT: When it comes to controversial issues, population is in a class by itself. Advocates and activists working to reduce global population growth and size are attacked by the Left for … >>

ENERGY: Nine Challenges of Alternative Energy

David Fridley   Aug 10, 2010   2 comments

EXCERPT: Unlike conventional fossil fuels, where nature provided energy over millions of years to convert biomass into energy-dense solids, liquids, and gases--requiring only extraction and … >>

FOUNDATION CONCEPTS: Beyond the Limits to Growth

Richard Heinberg   Jul 28, 2010   13 comments

EXCERPT: The underlying premise of the classic book The Limits to Growth is irrefutable: At some point in time, humanity's ever-increasing resource consumption will meet the very real … >>

CITIES: Smart Decline

Deborah Popper and Frank Popper   Jul 20, 2010   

EXCERPT: In 2002, after decades of trying to restart economic development like most other Rust Belt cities, Youngstown made a radical change in approach. The city began devising a … >>

RESILIENCE: Personal Preparation

Chris Martenson   Jul 6, 2010   3 comments

EXCERPT: My “standard of living” is a fraction of what it formerly was, but my quality of life has never been higher. We live in a house less than half the size of our former … >>

CITIES: The Death of Sprawl

Warren Karlenzig   Jun 23, 2010   

EXCERPT: In April 2009—just when people thought things couldn’t get worse in San Bernardino County, California—bulldozers demolished four perfectly good new houses and a … >>

WATER: Adapting to a New Normal

Sandra Postel   Jun 22, 2010   

EXCERPT: Water, like energy, is essential to virtually every human endeavor. It is needed to grow food and fiber, to make clothes and computers, and, of course, to drink. The growing number … >>

Searching for a Miracle

Richard Heinberg   Nov 12, 2009   13 comments

Perhaps the most significant limit to future energy supplies is the “net energy” factor—the requirement that energy systems yield more energy than is invested in their … >>

The Food and Farming Transition: Toward a Post Carbon Food System

Richard Heinberg Michael Bomford   Mar 30, 2009   

How can we continue feeding humanity in a future of declining resources and environmental crisis? This report explores the growing vulnerabilities of the current food system, and the steps needed … >>