I read a some articles and listened to a couple of podcasts over the last week or so, all of which, taken together, were quite sobering especially in the context of the great changes we increasingly see these days. That led me to the following thoughts on the difficulties so many have in accepting the … More Financially Deaf, Ecologically Dumb, and Energy Blind
On a recent road trip of nearly two thousand miles up the Pacific coast of Mexico, I encountered more ‘big rigs’ than ever before. On many parts of the carretera, there were many more trucks than cars. And many more pulled two trailers than I had noticed in the past. Think NAFTA. It reminded me … More Too Many Trucks: Consequences of Modern Culture
If you look at the world from an independent perspective, some things are obvious, others not so much. The Industrial Age has generated vast quantities of raw data and information (data structured to make sense). Ordinarily we are not aware of much of what our brains are doing, and that is probably a good thing … More The Shapeshifting Dominator and Us
Humans are an odd lot. We fret over the future, we lionize the past, and we are in denial about the present. Or, it might not really be about human nature, but rather about the present spot in the devolution of the dominant culture of our time. I think it is the latter. It seems … More Looking Forward: Doom Loop or Hope Spiral
My thoughts here were stimulated by a ‘Letter from the Director’ by Beth Sawin, Director of the Multisolving Institute, which I read last month. In that letter, she rightfully struggled over the ‘bad news’ that six of the nine key planetary boundaries between Earth System health and systemic danger had by then been breached. That, … More To Do or To UN-do: Is That the Question?
Well, that title sounds a bit ominous I guess. Nevertheless, we have seen various events, some quite catastrophic, which indicate that our ability to ‘hold it together’ is, well, fragile. We have also seen evidence of remarkable human resilience in confronting catastrophe, which I observed directly a couple of weeks ago. The Pandemic as Prolog … More Our Tenuous Hold on Reality
I read an article on Medium.com the other day “proclaiming that we have waited too long and the tipping point beyond which we can no longer stop the progression of climate chaos has passed. The author, “indi.ca,” is a good writer and he made a compelling case for the severity of the climate/ecological emergency that … More What if It Really IS Too Late?
Lots of evidence from social science research makes it clear that we live much more by habit than by rational decisions about most things we do and say. We live in complex social, political, and economic systems that not only overlap but influence our lives in more ways than just about anyone could list. Our … More Priorities: Living Well vs. Predatory Extraction
It was 100ᴼ Fahrenheit in Santa Fe over the weekend. Okay, no big deal compared to Phoenix at, what was it? 114ᴼF? Of course, the waters around the tip of the Florida Peninsula this week hit near hot-tub levels of around 97ᴼ F. I could cite many other examples from all over the world, of … More Everything Everywhere Coming at Us from All Directions
These days we hear a great deal about the sustainability or unsustainability of intentionally endless economic growth on a finite planet. Some argue for “green growth,” and claim that we can somehow ‘decouple’ economic growth and environmental damage so that growth can continue as a key component of business-as-usual. While that view has considerable support … More Clash of Values or Will to Power? Commerce Confronts Catastrophe
