Bill McKibben: The Planet’s Future Depends On Distributed Systems
Post Carbon Fellow Chris Martenson interviews Post Carbon Fellow Bill McKibben. Full Transcript Chris Martenson: Welcome to this Peak Prosperity Podcast, I am your host, Chris Martenson. May 2015, was the wettest on record for Texas and...
The “Sixth Extinction” Adds Urgency to Habitat and Climate Protection
The Northern Mexican gartnersnake (Thamnophis eques) lives in wetland areas alongside rivers. Over 90 percent of its riverside habitat has disappeared in the last century due to overgrazing, water diversions, wildfires and drought. A proposed diversion of the Gila...
Sustainability Metrics, Growth Limits, and Philanthropy
As the metrics of sustainability become ever more robust and sophisticated, it is ever more apparent to many of us who study those metrics that industrial civilization, as currently configured, is unsustainable. Ecological footprint analysis tells us that we...
Economics vs. the Economy
Economic theories, though social constructions, can reflect reality to varying degrees. In the face of dire environmental challenges, adopting a realistic theory is key to the survival of global civilization. The neoliberal emphasis on limitless growth and monetary flows,...
Solar Electricity Buybacks May Reduce Groundwater Depletion in India
Ramanbhai Parmar, a wheat and banana farmer in India’s dry state of Gujarat, was the first to sell electricity back to the power grid from the solar panels that drive his water pump. Photo credit: CCAFS/Prashanth Vishwanathan It’s hard...
Turning 21 in the Anthropocene
On Earth Day Eve 2015, Nate Hagens presented Turning 21 in the Anthropocene: An Invitation for Young People to Participate in their Future at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Dr. Hagens’ talk was co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Center for...
Pope Francis Rides an Encyclical
This could be big. Religious and ethical impulses are powerful shapers of human behavior. That’s why, here in the US, corporate leaders long ago found ways to use religion to promote the notions that extreme economic inequality is perfectly...
Richard Heinberg interviewed on the inevitable transition to a renewable energy future
Richard Heinberg joins Diane Horn, host of the Sustainability Segment, Mind Over Matters to talk about the themes of his new book AFTERBURN: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels. Download Originally broadcast on KEXP Seattle. Use Discount Code PCI2015...
Renewable Energy Will Not Support Economic Growth
The world needs to end its dependence on fossil fuels as quickly as possible. That’s the only sane response to climate change, and to the economic dilemma of declining oil, coal, and gas resource quality and increasing extraction costs....
New U.S. Water Rule is Crucial for Clean Drinking Water and Resilience to Droughts and Floods
An aerial view of the Prairie Pothole Region, near Wing, North Dakota. A new U.S. clean water rule protects prairie potholes and other freshwater ecosystems. Credit: Jim Ringelman, Ducks Unlimited/courtesy US Department of Agriculture. It took nearly a decade,...