On Tuesday, a front page NYT story by David Sanger on President Obama’s proposed budget for 20011 scared the hell out of me. Diving deep into the numbers, Sanger wrote: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. In fact,…Continue Reading…
I’m starting to feel bad for No Impact Man. He’s not getting much respect lately from NY media elites. Several weeks ago, Elizabeth Kolbert dissed him in The New Yorker, prompting his eloquent and polite rejoinder here. Today, with the release of the movie that chronicles his widely publicized environmental stunt, (he must hate that…Continue Reading…
That’s probably the best we can do, says Joseph Tainter, in a forthcoming paper. Here’s the passage that will make environmentalists bark at their computer screens: Contrary to what is typically advocated as the route to sustainability, it is usually not possible for a society to reduce its consumption of resources voluntarily over the long…Continue Reading…
Andy Revkin muses on whether the recession has chastened Americans into becoming de facto minimalists, perhaps unwittingly embracing a more sustainable way of life. Sorry, but it’s way too early to tell. When I see people socking away napkins and ketchups from Wendy’s, the way my grandfather was still doing forty years after the depression…Continue Reading…
Michael Tobis obviously sees himself as a thinker of big, serious thoughts. And it is obvious that on matters of climate change and sustainability, Tobis would like his voice to have greater reach. So because he works hard to be serious and thoughtful, where others are hyperbolic and calculating, I can’t understand why he belittles…Continue Reading…
What happens when you cross John Nash’s view of human behavior with Isaiah Berlin’s concept of human freedom? You get the reason why we may never chart an environmentally sustainable course. This is the interesting argument that Kurt Cobb lays out over at The Oil Drum. His conclusion is dispiriting: The way to win any…Continue Reading…
Some months ago, Joseph Tainter published a withering essay entitled, “Collapse, Sustainability, and the Environment: How Authors Choose to Fail or Succeed.” The title is a clever play off of Jared Diamond’s 2005 best-seller. Anyone interested in an overview of collapse literature and a counter-perspective to the current popularizing of the concept should read Tainter’s…Continue Reading…