Another long, fine article by Pollan in the NYT Magazine:
After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — [...]
Archive for the ‘consumption’ Category
Michael Pollan strikes again
Posted in consumption, energy, growth, sustainability on October 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
it needn’t be Dickensian
Posted in affluence, consumption, economy, energy, family planning, feminism, global warming, growth, human rights, politics, population, poverty, sustainability on March 30, 2008 | 8 Comments »
As I mentioned in the previous post, recently the Wall Street Journal published an article, New Limits to Growth Revive Malthusian Fears, with an interesting graphic at the bottom.
Here’s my redering of the WSJ data regarding how US commodity prices and world population have changed over time:
The CRB Spot Index is based on the [...]
inflation, oil, & sustainability
Posted in affluence, consumption, economy, sustainability on March 16, 2008 | 32 Comments »
In the last few weeks there has been a noticeable change in tone. Wall Street, which for the last 8 months has been seized by the mortgage and liquidity crises, has finally noticed that $100 oil and the prospects of $4 gasoline might just become a real problem. A growing number of economists are becoming [...]
IPAT & rates of change
Posted in consumption, global warming, growth, population, sustainability on February 26, 2008 | 18 Comments »
What matters more: population growth, growth in greenhouse gas emissions, or some other aspect of sustainability? The short, quick answer is easy. They’re all important, they all matter. Yet, as I wrote recently activists often fight among themselves about whose issue is most critical. Two of John Feeney’s ideas quoted [...]
housing density
Posted in consumption, sustainability, urban design on February 24, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Hill Heat is “focused entirely on covering global warming developments on Capitol Hill.” A recent post points to the Alex Steffen article My Other Car is a Bright Green City and provides links to the many blogs that commented on that piece.
Steffen makes the point that a modest increase in housing density goes [...]
excuses, excuses, excuses
Posted in consumerism, consumption, economy, ethics, global warming, politics, sustainability on February 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Everyone who participates in a relationship whether it is parent/child, teacher/student, manager/employee, or something else hears excuses for bad behavior. Thankfully, people are nearly always self-regulating. When faced with a moral dilemma, we usually do the right thing if for no other reason than to avoid self-censure, that is, to avoid thinking, [...]
the thousand item triage
Posted in consumption, economy, global warming, growth, human rights, politics, population, sustainability on February 4, 2008 | 18 Comments »
…what could be done quickly to start mitigation of our total set of global problems would be for the western world to immediately reduce their consumption rates through a combination of achievable efficiency increases, conservation, and the three Rs [reduce, recycle, reuse], followed by abandonment of … luxury consumption. — George Mobus
The key word [...]
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 »
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 [...]
a dark green future
Posted in consumption, economy, energy, family planning, global warming, growth, moonbats, politics, population, science, sustainability on January 22, 2008 | 44 Comments »
In Sowing the seeds of a future society, Ken Whitehead expresses not just a doomsday view of the future but a singularly dark prescription for what to do about it: concentrate on building remote communities that can seed the post-apocalyptic civilization. (In the comments on that post you’ll find my thoughts on Whitehead’s work.) [...]
sustainability requires justice
Posted in affluence, consumerism, consumption, economy, global warming, growth, human rights, politics, population, sustainability on January 5, 2008 | 22 Comments »
Every large corporation has a department named human resources. I never liked that term. The one it replaced, personnel, was more appropriate and dignified. Human resources sounds like we’re talking about things on par with raw materials like iron and coal — which is too often exactly how people are thought [...]
gasoline, bread, and the value of time
Posted in affluence, consumerism, consumption, economy, energy, growth, sustainability on January 4, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Recently two very different claims caught my attention:
In an interview, Matt Simmons remarked that even at $3.20/gallon gasoline was a great value. (The interview was one of the ones here but I’m not sure which.)
Two people commenting on my recent post, baking bread, a lesson in sustainability, thought that baking bread at home [...]
“happiness versus consumption”
Posted in affluence, consumption, growth, sustainability on December 27, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Colin Beavan says,
… the overarching point of the image is to show, first of all, that there comes a point where using more resources actually reduces your quality of life.
Zone 3 [overabundance] represents a lifestyle where your life and your mind are crowded with what you have and what you do and you are overwhelmed….
In [...]
baking bread, a lesson in sustainability
Posted in consumerism, consumption, economy, sustainability on December 26, 2007 | 6 Comments »
Bread making is at least 10,000 years old, coinciding with the beginnings of agriculture in Neolithic times; it’s also one of the oldest trades. What we think of as “modern” bread made with finely ground flour (both wheat and white) and a leavening agent was developed in Egypt and Rome between 3,000 and 5,000 years [...]
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 [...]
learning to think about the future
Posted in consumption, economy, energy, global warming, growth, population, science, sustainability on December 21, 2007 | 28 Comments »
Click the picture to see the full-size landscape version (850 x 673 pixels, 107 KB) suitable for US Letter or A4 size printing.
A portrait version is also available. See too the posters set on the new Trinifar Flikr page.
Now you can print a flier and hand it out to your friends, family, and [...]
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