Rethinking Prosperity’s weekly roundup of news on the topic of economy, environment and democracy
Book Review | Failing States, Collapsing Systems: Biophysical Triggers of Political Violence — From Filmers to Farmers
February 13, 2017
“At the core of Ahmed’s argument is that we’re not facing a ‘clash of civilizations’ but rather a ‘crisis of civilization’. And at the centre of this crisis, which is all but certainly going to beset us throughout the 21st century, is the triple whammy of energy, climate and food crises.”
Type/tags: article (book review), politics, environment, geopolitics, energy, oil, Syria, Yemen, society, states
Questioning “Our Renewable Future” — Resilience (Ted Trainer)
February 14, 2017
“[Our Renewable Future] explains many of the difficulties making the achievement of 100% renewable energy uncertain. However a much stronger case can be given, indicating that present energy-affluent societies cannot be run on renewables. We can and must shift to renewables, but there must also be dramatic reduction in energy consumption, rich world ‘living standards’ and GDP.”
Type/tags: article (book review), energy, environment, society, GDP, growth, consumption, energy, renewables
Why progressive sustainability ultimately will win — GreenBiz (Alan AtKisson)
February 14, 2017
“Historically, progressive sustainability appears to be winning overall: because it is the source of new ideas and possibilities that solve the world’s real problems. Those problems will not go away.”
Type/tags: article, environment, politics, sustainability, progressivism, sustainable development goals
A Hard-Nosed Optimism — Post Carbon Institute (Richard Heinberg)
February 14, 2017
“As global industrial civilization fragments, persistence of the best of what we humans are and have achieved will require us to build resilient, enduring communities—ones with high internal levels of mutual trust, and that are capable of adapting quickly to changing conditions and responding effectively to a range of threats. Such communities arise and sustain themselves only by nurturing and prizing certain qualities of character on the part of their members.”
Type/tags: article, society, environment, economy, crisis, communities, resilience
The Transition Movements meets De-Growth — New Internationalist (Richard Swift and Naresh Giagrande)
February 16, 2017
“Co-Founder of the Transition Movement, Naresh Giangrande in conversation with Richard Swift, author of SOS Alternatives to Capitalism and a former editor of New Internationalist magazine for more than two decades. These two thinkers were brought together in the Caribbean island of Dominica, with Earthbooktv’s Jessica Canham and Timothy Speaks Fishleigh at the Earthbook retreat centre in the mountains of Dominica.”
Type/tags: media (video), economy, society, politics, transition, degrowth, capitalism
It’s more than just climate change — Phys.org (Lee Tune)
February 18, 2017
“A new scientific paper by a University of Maryland-led international team of distinguished scientists, including five members of the National Academies, argues that there are critical two-way feedbacks missing from current climate models that are used to inform environmental, climate, and economic policies. The most important inadequately-modeled variables are inequality, consumption, and population.”
Type/tags: article, economy, environment, politics, society, policy, inequality, consumption, population
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