The Forest, the Moon, and the Last Time
A stoic meditation I have been practicing is called The Last Time. The idea behind this meditation is straightforward: there will be a last time for anything you do, and because you can’t really know when that is, reflecting upon this...
Dennis Meadows on the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Limits to Growth
Only rarely does a book truly change the world. In the nineteenth century, such a book was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. For the twentieth century, it was The Limits to Growth. Not only did this best-selling...
Report: Taxing the World’s Richest Would Raise US $2.52 Trillion a Year
A new analysis, “Taxing Extreme Wealth,” by the Fight Inequality Alliance, Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam, and Patriotic Millionaires found a shocking rise in global wealth among the world’s richest people despite deepening inequality during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis,...
How Are the US and Other Countries Doing on Fighting Climate Change?
On December 8, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to spearhead his administration’s efforts to combat climate change. What does this order actually promise to accomplish? How does that compare with what other nations are doing? Is any...
Humility, Gratitude, and Solidarity
Amongst many other lessons from this past year for us at Post Carbon Institute is the reminder to stay humble. We have long warned humanity (anyone who would listen) that we were on an unsustainable, ruinous path that no...
The End of Growth: Ten Years After
A note from Richard Heinberg to our Post Carbon Institute readers: Thanks to a generous grant from Mobius Foundation, all donations made through the end of the year will be matched! Every donor will also get an exclusive link...
How Much of the Worsening Energy Crisis is Due to Depletion?
Coal and natural gas spot prices have recently soared to record levels internationally, while oil is trading at over $80 a barrel—the highest price in seven years. Newspaper columnists are asking whether people in Europe and Asia who can’t...
5 Key Things to Know About the Pandora Papers
These disclosures about the how the world’s wealthy and powerful hide their vast fortunes will hopefully turn up the heat on the politicians that maintain the wealth-hiding status quo. This week we are closely watching the disclosures emerge from the Pandora...
Evolution and Climate Change Through the Lens of Power
This essay is based on, and partly extracted from, the book POWER: LIMITS AND PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL. During the last century, evolutionary biologists developed the idea that power (defined as the rate of energy transfer) is key to...
The Only Long-Range Solution to Climate Change
This article is adapted from POWER: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (New Society Publishers) by Richard Heinberg Climate change is often incorrectly described as an isolated pollution issue. In this flawed framing, humanity has simply made a mistake...