Tag Archives: Climate change

From Greed to Co-operation

Consumerism, perhaps the most obvious of global ideals that has permeated our culture over the past century, relies on the idea of limitless resources regardless of what scientists, engineers and accountants might tell us; in that sense consumerism is as much mystical religion as it is big business. And though Climate Change and Peak Oil have captured the public imagination and are becoming considered aspects of global strategies within some multi-national corporations, most industries and governments continue as if such inconvenient truths were quite imaginary; growth, competitiveness and optimisation are still the mantras of managers everywhere. It is my hope that mechanisms like the Sirisuk Declaration will help to bring about a fundamental change of emphasis. Continue reading

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What are the Limits to Growth?

I think scientists need to speak out. Over the past 30 years, our politicians have almost grasped the idea that the resources we humans have at our disposal fall into two distinct categories, renewable and non-renewable; both categories provide limited inputs to our activities. Politicians have also almost realised that our outputs, including those that contribute to climate change and loss of habitats, must be limited to rates that enable our planetary systems to function and remain reasonably stable. Yet, inspite of their improved grasp of how and why human activities are governed by the laws of nature, most politicians seems to think that we should ignore entropic thermodynamics and simply go for growth as if such limits did not exist.

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