Why we need optimistic pessimism: the End of Growth
We're at the end of growth. Growth of the economy, of consumption, of wealth. Below I'll describe in brief why this is the case and the beginnings of what we might do about it.Last week I mentioned...
View ArticleLife After the End of Economic Growth
We're at the end of economic growth as we know it. Not everyone has realized this yet, but it has arrived nevertheless.In past weeks I discussed why this is the case - a combination of hitting a...
View ArticleTransportation After the End of Economic Growth
We're at the end of economic growth as we know it. Not everyone has realized this yet, but it has arrived nevertheless.A few weeks ago I discussed why this is the case and what some of the impacts...
View ArticleNine Pitfalls of Alternative Energy
We're at the end of economic growth as we know it. Not everyone has realized this yet, but it has arrived nevertheless as I discussed in recent diaries [here and here].As gas prices remain high and...
View ArticleBlindspots of the Green Energy Movement
Can we run our society on alternative / green energy?We know we need to get off of fossil fuels. So what should we do? I think it's possible that the green energy movement sees this question from a...
View ArticleYou and I own some Oil
You and I own some oil. It's in the ground in Texas and Louisiana.Much has been made of the recent decision to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Some are for it, others are against it. But...
View ArticleWe have an Energy ceiling, not a Debt ceiling
A good rule of thumb is that when there is consensus on an issue in Washington (or Wall Street), it's probably wrong.There's a real consensus right now in Washington, even though it doesn't seem like it.
View ArticleTowards a better measure of Everything
Can there be a good single metric that can measure everything we care about---the things that make human life good? Probably not. But maybe we can try for less bad. Right now the metrics we use are...
View ArticleInvisible waste (part 1): Water
Environmentally aware individuals are perpetually bombarded by the worst sort of false choice, one that's been drilled into us even by environmental activist organizations.You know the sort of false...
View ArticleHow much energy does the Internet use?
At the moment I'm using the Internet, as are you. In many ways, the Internet is the largest and perhaps most successful global system ever built by humanity. And yet because of the way it was...
View ArticleThe "Oil Choke Collar" on the World Economy
There's been a lot of discussion of late of an imminent downturn or a double-dip recession.Some blame the debt ceiling fiasco and the GOP's hostage taking.Others blame Euro-zone debt and banking...
View ArticleThe roads to our alternative energy future
A while back I tried to figure out whether we can keep running things the way we're running them: do we need to transition off of fossil fuels, how fast, and would we be able to provide today's level...
View ArticleBig Zero: Why Today's Jobs Report is Old News
The big news today is that no new jobs were created in the past month:Payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since September 2010, after an 85,000 gain in July that was less than...
View ArticleACTION: Time to make some Jobs calls
It's time to start flooding the phone lines in Washington. It's time to call our senators and congresspeople. Tell them you heard what President Obama said last night, and you want them to pass the...
View ArticleThe irrelevant stock market: the DOM index
There's no better evidence that the stock market has no connection to the lives of Americans than the fact that the Dow has been tanking of late. As of the close on 9/9/11 it's down about 14% over 2...
View ArticleBREAKING: New Recession Guaranteed says ECRI
The head of ECRI announced today that the U.S. economy is guaranteed to be entering a new recession. (Video below the fold.)Who is ECRI? They're a little different than the usual economists - they...
View ArticleThe End of Economic Growth
You might have heard the news: we're at the end of growth. Growth of the economy, of consumption, of wealth. That this would happen isn’t news to those who’ve followed the writings of Meadows,...
View ArticleRichard Heinberg's MEMO TO THE #OCCCUPY MOVEMENT (A Post Growth Economy)
Everyone's asking the question - what comes next for #occupywallst? Let's say we wrest control from the banks. What then?Richard Heinberg (who I'm sure many of you know for his uncanny insights and...
View ArticleThe End of Wall Street: a Steady-State Economy
Last week I established why we're at the end of economic growth as we know it. With that comes the end of Wall Street as we know it. The protests going on now may hasten that end, but the end is...
View ArticleA Psychological Carbon Tax
There's plenty of understanding that efficiency measures can sometimes (often) fail if they fall victim to Jevon's Paradox. The common response is that we need to couple efficiency measures with a...
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