Beliefs or images of reality, as distinct from reality
As world population passes 7 billion, straining planetary resources, aging populations in industrial nations may not be a problem if economies are reorganized to serve human needs, not return on capital.
… More New Demographic Transition: Is the Aging Global Population a Problem?
Our national politics has fully descended into the gutter at a very perilous time. The Republicans have ostensibly nominated a narcissistic buffoon. The Democratic Party establishment continues its attempts to force the only popular candidate with genuine ideas out of the race by anointing the candidate of empire. Essentially, the rich and powerful are fighting … More Is a Left-Right Coalition Against Trump Viable?
Renewable energy production will not reduce carbon emissions from over-production and excessive consumerism. A new Great Transformation is needed to limit global warming to livable levels by reconfiguring the economy to harmonize with ecological systems. … More Energy Waste Almost Everywhere
Chances for the survival of the species Homo sapiens beyond the next few decades are diminishing rapidly. Reducing the accelerating risk of extinction will require massive intervention to change our present trajectory of the global economy and change it fast. Each week, new data are reported on rapidly accelerating impacts of global warming. Multiple positive … More Calculating Survival: How to Avoid Human Species Extinction
Climate action: can we do it ourselves? If we recycle everything we can, take shorter showers, and install some solar panels, will that prevent the looming climate chaos? We could buy an electric car and low-emissions consumer products, maybe even go “off the grid.” But would that be enough to avoid climate catastrophe? Sorry. Absolutely … More Individual Climate Ethics and Social Action
Bloomberg News reported on February 3, 2016, that a new report from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts wonders whether currently very high corporate profit margins can be sustained. They are at near record levels, despite a stagnant real economy characterized by record low wages and listless job growth and declining opportunity structures. Well, according to … More Questioning Capitalism: Goldman Sachs on Corporate Profit Margins
The corporate mass media were briefly all agog about the agreement reached in Paris for the world’s nations to reduce green house gas emissions and save the planet.[1] COP21 was widely declared a success, then quickly ignored. But really, what was accomplished? A very slick propaganda pitch by the world’s political elites, that’s what. Yet, … More False Hopes and Disingenuous Agreements: COP21 and Climate Catastrophe
I have been recycling for a long time. At first it was just aluminum cans and glass bottles, especially when there was a deposit to collect. Then plastic grew to dominate the world of packaging. Of course, the process has gotten more sophisticated in the last couple of decades. Remember the 5¢ redemption on glass … More Why Recycle? Sometimes the Necessary is Insufficient
What makes the majority of politicians most uncomfortable about Bernie Sanders is not that he is a “democratic socialist” (Notice, they usually leave out the “democratic” part.) Most do not understand the concept anyway. They just find the word an easy target for the personal derision of Bernie, the disheveled outsider who has remained an … More Exxon’s Money or Your Life: Immoral Capital is Still in Charge
What’s in a word? Or phrase? Well, a lot sometimes. In the case of anthropogenic alteration of the complex ecological and climate systems, it all started with “global warming.” It was a simple and accurate term. The emissions of primarily carbon dioxide by the steady increases in burning of fossil fuels throughout the industrial era … More Global Warming, Climate Change, Climate Disruption, Climate Crisis, or Catastrophic Climate Destabilization: What Shall We Call It and Why?
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 