Culture & Behavior

Time and tides wait for no man

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A century of studies in ecology, and in many other fields from molecules to stars, shows that systems don’t level off for long. They pulse. Apparently the pattern that maximizes power on each scale in the long run is a pulsed consumption of mature structures that resets succession to repeat again. There are many mechanisms, such as epidemic insects eating a forest, regular fires in grasslands, locusts in the desert, volcanic eruptions in geologic succession, oscillating chemical reactions, and exploding stars in the cosmos. Systems that develop pulsing mechanisms prevail.

Zombie politics and the walking dead

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There’s a lot going on in the TV show The Walking Dead that’s worthy of comment, but there’s one aspect of the show that has struck me in particular- that the civilization we’ve built and have come to depend on, could be undermined in short order, returning us quickly to a survivalist state of nature.

Sustainability & Rio+20 – June 24

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– Al Jazeera interviews Hopkins and Heinberg on sustainability and Rio+20
– Sharon Astyk: Yet Another Last Chance to Step Up that We Blew…Ho Hum
– The Shifting Boundaries of Sustainability Science: Are We Doomed Yet? (3 articles on sustainability in PLoS journal of biology)
– New book: Planetary Sustainability Plan in “The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse”

System Failure: We are approaching the end of society as we know it — And that may be a good thing

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Paul Gilding says it’s time to stop worrying about climate change; global crisis is no longer avoidable. He believes the Great Disruption started in 2008, as spiking food and oil prices signaled the end of Economic Growth 1.0 based on consumption and waste. Coming decades will see loss, suffering and conflict, but he believes the crisis offers us both an unmatched business opportunity as old industries collapse to be replaced by new ones, and a chance to replace our addiction to growth with an ethic of sustainability.

Green, Not Growing

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We asked environmental activists if they could imagine a world without growth, and how all this uncertainty made them feel and react. Of the 91% who said they had a moderate or strong understanding of the current economic situation, 74% said a return to economic growth would not resolve the situation…

“Why not?” indeed: breathing power into possibilities

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There are endless hideous new “iconic” buildings, massive corporate egos in built form, usually home to just one organisation (such as the hideous gravity-defying monster below, surely a contender for James Howard Kunstler’s “Eyesore of the Month”). But on this day when many are celebrating “24 Hours of Possibility”, how might it be possible to see beyond all that to something that actually nourishes us as individuals, communities and local economies?

The Buffalo Commons: Redefining how we think about place, politics, and policy

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One of my working hypotheses has been that commons discourse has great power because it is able to function as an open platform. It is both general and specific. I frequently compare the commons to DNA because both are under-specified design structures that evolve and adapt in relationship to local circumstances. A certain ambiguity and incompleteness in the language of the commons is precisely what enables people to infuse it with their own specific values, needs and aspirations. And this is what makes the commons both universally appealing and particular in its manifestations.

Peak Oil and Climate Change: a Midsummer Night’s Meditation

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It is becoming increasingly clear that on the individual level at least, there is precisely no reasonable response to peak oil and climate change. This is an improv, a dance with emerging possibilities, and an invitation to get in touch with something that is deeper than reason and capable of reforming it, difficult as that may be to describe in reasonable terms.