Unchecked Growth Is a Path to Poverty
Endless growth is not possible because of constraints of renewable resources like fresh water, clean air and biodiversity. Also, much of our industrial system depends on nonrenewable resources like oil and various metals and minerals, which are being depleted...
The really, really big picture: There isn’t going to be enough net energy for the economic growth we want
[Many longtime followers of the Crash Course have asked Chris to update his forecasts for Peak Oil in light of the production increases in shale oil and gas over recent years. What started out as a modest effort at...
US Climate Study: Cities Center of Risk, Opportunity
The US National Climate Assessment, a new draft study by 13 federal agencies under the Dept. of Commerce, warns that climate change is introducing to cities ample societal and business risks, but also economic opportunities. Because extreme weather is expected...
Film review: ‘Chasing Ice’
I hadn’t heard of James Balog, whose work is the subject of ‘Chasing Ice’, until I saw him give a presentation at TED Global in Oxford in 2008. It was in a session after supper, along with Nigeran novelist...
Idle No More rises to defend ancestral lands—and the planet
This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Idle No More Pow-Wow outside the Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on January 7. Photo by Steve McCullough. I don’t claim to know exactly what’s going on with #IdleNoMore, the...
Why Is the Economy Shrinking? – Richard Heinberg
Credit: Radio Ecoshock | Download Endless growth is a delusion with consequences…The spiral of climate change, peak energy, and economic crisis, with author Richard Heinberg. Fresh interview on giant new book Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. Followed by speech...
Michael Shuman Brisbane 2012
Leading American economist, attorney, author, entrepreneur and advocate for local business, Michael Shuman toured Australia in September. Shuman is the author of Local Dollars, Local Sense.
Ethiopian Dam Threatens to Destroy Indigenous Livelihoods and the World’s Largest Desert Lake
Abundance Threatened? Fish are abundant in Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake. Photo by Jane Baldwin. Over the last century, the construction of big dams to generate power, supply water and control floods has unleashed a damaging...
The Peak Oil Crisis: The Year Ahead
There are many forces at work in our world today – climate change, the Arab Spring, population growth, and mass migrations to name a few. Some of these forces may come to impact our lives in the coming year...
We’re Heading Into the Rapids All Wrong
Lately, as I ponder our societal response, or lack of it, to the challenging times ahead – the droughts and floods and heat waves and crop failures, which we’ve tasted only as appetizers so far – I find myself...