Note: I do intend to continue the series on Charles Siegel’s work (he has a new book out) and reflect some more on what Paul Chefurka is doing, but I keep letting other things bubble up. Most recently the discussion that began here and continued with my last post has captured my [...]
Archive for the ‘biodiversity’ Category
are we bacteria or primates?
Posted in biodiversity, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, feminism, global warming, growth, human rights, politics, population, sustainability on January 27, 2008 | 38 Comments »
presidential commission reports on population growth
Posted in affluence, biodiversity, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, growth, human rights, politics, population, sustainability on December 23, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Back in March, after completing a two-year study on population growth in the United States, a presidential commission issued its report. The commission’s chairperson wrote in the report’s “letter of transmital”:
After two years of concentrated effort, we have concluded that, in the long run, no substantial benefits will result from further growth of the [...]
decoding Bali
Posted in biodiversity, consumption, economy, global warming, politics, population, science, sustainability on December 17, 2007 | 16 Comments »
Officially, it’s known as Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Thirteenth session, and was held in Bali, Indonesia, from 3 to 14 December, 2007. Unofficially it’s the Bali Conference or simply COP 13 (Conference of the Parties, 13th session) — even though “COP” is a standard reference [...]
sustainability fundamentals
Posted in biodiversity, consumerism, consumption, economy, energy, global warming, growth, politics, population, sustainability on November 30, 2007 | 11 Comments »
These are a few of the fundamental concepts necessary for an elementary understanding of sustainability:
carrying capacity
IPAT equation
ecological footprint
zero-sum game & ecological economics
This post provides a brief summary of these topics and links to related resources.
To put the conclusions up front:
Human activity on our planet is a zero-sum game best modeled by ecological economics.
The Earth’s carrying [...]
myriad views on overpopulation
Posted in biodiversity, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, global warming, growth, human rights, moonbats, politics, population, sustainability on November 9, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Commenting on a post over at Growth is Madness!, Magne Karlsen pointed to this op-ed piece in the Telegraph by Boris Johnson, a conservative MP running for Mayor of London. Reading this on the heels of John Feeney’s essay on BBC News site (that link links to the BBC article, see here for my [...]
population growth gets some mainstream attention
Posted in biodiversity, communication, consumerism, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, global warming, growth, human rights, politics, population, sustainability on November 6, 2007 | 10 Comments »
Climate change is now in the news every day and, with the recent rise in oil prices, peak oil appears frequently too. No one denies these issues are influenced by the large and fast growing economies of China and India in conjunction with the massive economies of the USA and the EU. It’s now [...]
subsidizing the decline of food security
Posted in biodiversity, consumerism, consumption, economy, growth, population, science, sustainability on November 4, 2007 | 4 Comments »
Subtitle: remembering to use science to improve technology
Experts say the [expansion of fishing industry] has been driven by growing populations and prosperity around the world. Almost a billion people now rely primarily on fish for protein. [emphasis mine]
As always, I’m delighted to find any reference to the problems caused by population and consumption growth [...]
good news: the pending catastrophe is real
Posted in biodiversity, consumption, economy, energy, global warming, growth, population, sustainability on October 24, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Things are looking up — an odd thing to say what with climate change, increasing world population, historic oil prices, destruction of habitat, decreasing biodiversity, increasing drought, and the increasing problems of finding enough fresh water for industry, agriculture, and home use, to say nothing of a pending recession/depression of the world economy. This [...]
documentary: ‘Planet in Peril’
Posted in biodiversity, consumerism, consumption, energy, family planning, global warming, growth, politics, population, sustainability on October 21, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The last time I recall the mainstream media seriously talking about overpopulation was thirty years ago. This week, however, one news outlet with a global reach will air a documentary (two parts, four hours total) that will address
climate change,
vanishing natural habitats,
disappearing species, and
human overpopulation.
Tune in your TV to CNN on Tuesday and Wednesday to [...]
visualizing sustainability
Posted in affluence, biodiversity, consumerism, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, global warming, growth, politics, population, sustainability on July 20, 2007 | 7 Comments »
As a kind of summary/overview, I put together a “mashup” of graphs and charts created for previous posts. Each is presented and discussed independently below, but I find this condensed presentation strangely fascinating.
(Note, the links below are to the original posts on Trinifar where the graphs and charts first appeared. See those posts for [...]
your shrinking carbon dioxide allotment
Posted in affluence, biodiversity, consumerism, consumption, economy, energy, global warming, growth, politics, population, science, sustainability on July 8, 2007 | 36 Comments »
Preface, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Fire from fossil fuels burning in internal combustion engines and electric power plants is the foundation of the global economy and makes our modern lifestyles possible. We are surrounded with the tangible benefits of fire’s energy, but its most notable by-product — carbon dioxide — goes [...]
even an 11-year-old can understand
Posted in biodiversity, global warming, growth, population, sustainability on May 12, 2007 | 43 Comments »
In a feature called Ask a Scientist, a girl in Mrs. Walker’s 5th grade class asks “How many people are alive?” and Michael A. Little, professor of anthropology, Binghamton University, New York, gives a thoughtful reply not just answering her question but talking about the consequences of continued growth in terms an 11-year-old [...]
the sustainability game
Posted in biodiversity, consumption, global warming, growth, population, sustainability on May 1, 2007 | 3 Comments »
The Sustainability Game™ is fun for the whole family! It’s addictive! You can not not play it! (For ages 0 and up, available wherever planets are sold.)
You are, in fact, playing The Sustainability Game right now. Below, after a review of the rules, are some hints on strategy.
the [...]
stop, look, and listen
Posted in biodiversity, politics, sustainability on April 22, 2007 | 5 Comments »
Three decades of Earth Days have only mitigated somewhat the destruction we are inflicting on our planet. We are desperate for a government that will take action to halt and reverse course, and we need more people to vote such governments into power.
If you are involved in some task the outcome of which [...]
biodiversity
Posted in biodiversity, sustainability on April 4, 2007 | 14 Comments »
We don’t know the number of species on Earth. Estimates go into the tens of millions with about 1.4 million having been described.
750,000 are insects
250,000 are higher order plants (flowering plants)
4,000 are mammals (human beings being one of these)
Listen to E. O. Wilson in The Diversity of Life:
The immense diversity of the insects [...]
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