Category: Reality

The lived world, as experienced by direct observation and scientific analysis of data.

Conserving Energy: The Overlooked Key to Mitigating Climate Disruption

January 1, 2015

Increasing production of renewable energy at competitive cost is the core strategy for environmentalists whose goal is to reduce carbon emissions and minimize the damage caused by the climate effects of global warming. The goal is to replace fossil fuel energy production with clean renewable energy production. It is widely known that per capita energy … More Conserving Energy: The Overlooked Key to Mitigating Climate Disruption

Racism and Climate Denial Are Positive Feedback Loops

December 23, 2014

Learning is usually an exalted concept – in the abstract. But the practice of learning does not often measure up to the ideal. That is clear in the way we treat our schools. Social learning reflects the failures and deficits in personal learning. Power fears truth. Institutions perpetuate the prejudices and magical thinking of their … More Racism and Climate Denial Are Positive Feedback Loops

Ending Police Brutality: It’s Not That Simple

December 8, 2014

The smart phone videos of cops harassing or beating unarmed Black males have exploded on social media. Newspaper articles discuss the various difficulties involved in prosecuting police for excessive force, murder, etc. Video pundits left and right proclaim or admit that something is just not right. They acknowledge that Black parents have to train their … More Ending Police Brutality: It’s Not That Simple

The Greatest Challenge Ever to Human Ingenuity

November 8, 2014

We usually think of innovation as creating new technologies to solve problems or improve some industrial process, or invent new products. Throughout the Industrial Age, economic growth and productivity have resulted from innovations in the production of goods and services. The integration of new technologies with labor and new energy sources, first coal, then oil, … More The Greatest Challenge Ever to Human Ingenuity

Is Development Anything Other Than Growth?

October 4, 2014

We often speak of development and growth as the same thing. But what do they really mean? Development seems to imply some form of improvement over prior conditions. Growth plainly refers to something getting bigger. Then there is “progress,” or, improvement over prior conditions. In the U.S. corporate-dominated culture, “development” is almost universally measured by … More Is Development Anything Other Than Growth?

Images of American Violence: What Sense Do They Make?

September 26, 2014

I watched the entire dash-cam video over and over again. The South Carolina State Trooper shot a young black man when he reached for his drivers license as directed. Many major news outlets played it. Maybe that is because it wasn’t a gruesome bloody scene and the victim fell beyond the dash-cam range upon being … More Images of American Violence: What Sense Do They Make?

Imperious Imaginaries and the Necessities of Now

August 1, 2014

Power over Nature is an old cultural ideal in the Western world.  It seemed largely achieved by the exploding rate of industrial invention in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  This core western value continues unabated today.  A major downside of the unprecedented successes of the industrial age is the growth of a deep  institutionalized hubris. … More Imperious Imaginaries and the Necessities of Now

Science and Our Sanity: We Need the One to Keep the Other

July 28, 2014

The world has become so complex these days that it is often hard to find solid ground to stand on. The barrage of all kinds of claims to the truth is unrelenting. Not only arguments of fact and complex detail, but subtle and not so subtle images of glory or destruction compete for our attention. … More Science and Our Sanity: We Need the One to Keep the Other