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  • what more can I say? on the need for sustainability action

    People are compelled to act when the alternatives are worse. This gem from Sharon Astyk captures the essence of all the study I’ve been doing since launching this blog 3 years ago. Says Astyk, “It is not necessary to offer optimism…We know it may already be too late…What people feel is [...]
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    Posted: August 25, 2009, 6:30am EDT
    by Ken

  • think “one pound per mile”: on emissions reduction priorities

    Embedding balanced thinking in every day life is an essential part of the “resource literacy” we’re promoting, right? So, sustainability thinking involves much broader awareness of emissions ‘metrics’…like the numbers in this chart. Wanna know the relative emissions impacts of, say, plastic bags versus driving. Here ya go! Let’s see: if we [...]
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    Posted: August 19, 2009, 4:13am EDT
    by Ken

  • more HCA video: Ramsey Taum says keep it REAL

    There are many solid reasons to watch this presentation at last week’s Hawaii Conservation Alliance conference, especially including where Ramsey Taum ends up after a marvelous romp through native insights on sustainability. Taum opens with this quote from Marcel Proust: “”The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes [...]
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    Posted: August 12, 2009, 11:50am EDT
    by Ken

  • sustainability courses, KIUC get local news play

    Nice piece in today’s Garden Island on my upcoming series of sustainability short courses, and yesterday’s op-ed by the venerable Walter Lewis on the need for a KIUC rate hike was also kewl! Have to say our island sustainability conversation continues to amp up, and I’m getting more and more “pinch [...]
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    Posted: August 09, 2009, 2:51am EDT
    by Ken

  • climate science in Hawaii: the HCA 09 conference videos

    Yeah! Ain’t blip.tv gr8! Already, many of the videos from last week’s Hawaii Conservation Alliance conference on climate change are uploaded and waiting for your perusal. Watch ‘em here. Aside from the savings on carbon-spewing (of the inter-island variety), one reason I didn’t go this year is because I can get [...]
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    Posted: August 07, 2009, 4:30am EDT
    by Ken

  • Holdren on climate policy: lead or be cooked

    As Copenhagen looms, Obama’s science advisor John Holdren says “industrialised nations need to get their acts together..and developing countries have to join pretty soon, or we’re going to be cooked” (via newscientist). Holdren still sees a chance for Senate passage of “commitments that will move us onto a declining emissions trajectory”, [...]
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    Posted: August 03, 2009, 4:00am EDT
    by Ken

  • will KIUC listen to McKinsey? on energy efficiency strategy

    Number of comments: 1
    McKinsey unleashed another blockbuster on energy efficiency clearly showing how to get the first 30% of cost-savings and emissions-reductions, concurrently with developing new green energy sources (via greeninc). The upshot would be 23% less energy demand by 2020, and trillions not needed for new energy generation. Meanwhile, KIUC is betting against any [...]
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    Posted: August 01, 2009, 7:36am EDT
    by Ken

  • military spending must shift to reflect climate security

    With our military budget now approaching $700B annually, a new report from IPS urges Obama to shoot for a minimum of $30B in each of the next 20 years for climate change initiatives, including R&D and retrofits for government facilities (via grist). Grist’s Kate Sheppard notes that this need not be [...]
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    Posted: August 01, 2009, 7:04am EDT
    by Ken

  • sustainability ain’t philanthropy: Werbach on corporate strategy

    Sustainability is not about “doing good” or “protecting the environment”, says Adam Werbach, and corporations must integrate sustainability into their core business strategies (via SFS). “Yes, it’s important to reduce waste and toxins in a company to protect our diminishing natural resources”, says Werbach. Still, “an environmental strategy is not enough to [...]
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    Posted: August 01, 2009, 7:00am EDT
    by Ken

  • resilience path: turning cost centers into savings vehicles

    The thing about investing in your own energy or food production is that you not only reduce your monthly costs but also end up owning productive assets. John Robb sees this as financially bootstraping communities seeking to bolster their resilience (via globalguerillas). According to Robb, owning a windmill, solar array or garden [...]
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    Posted: July 30, 2009, 12:37pm EDT
    by Ken

  • ahoy Senator! boaters want emission reductions, too

    Citing the horrors of ocean acidification, a major boating company has launched a ‘call-your-Senator’ campaign to push for a climate bill even stronger than Waxman-Markey. Kewl! West Marine sent emails to its customer base making the connection between CO2 and ocean acidification, noting that “solving one will solve the other”, and [...]
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    Posted: July 28, 2009, 5:01am EDT
    by Ken

  • Mayor as playuh: Kauai’s lineman for county sustainability

    Pinch me! For the first time, our island’s political leadership is stepping up to the sustainability challenge, and I’m feeling better about our chances with this big guy up front. Mayor Bernard Carvalho isn’t just mouthing the “S” word…he’s serious about preparing Kauai for the sustainability transition coming down on his [...]
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    Posted: July 26, 2009, 7:09am EDT
    by Ken

  • fulfilled with little: more low-hanging fruit

    ‘Tis hard to sense loss as the financial sector reels…if ya got no portfolio to lose. Hard, too, to stay focused on holding-on to ’stuff’ if ya got nothin’. And, it’s hard to stop givin’ back to community if that’s all ya got. Sure, I’m an economist, yet I’ve let all the [...]
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    Posted: July 26, 2009, 4:28am EDT
    by Ken

  • Hawaii social investment: ulupono initiative for sustainability

    Let’s hope Hawaii’s social entrepreneurs are lining up for this: a significant source of funding for new business models in “indigenous renewable energy, local food production, and waste reduction”, through the Omidyar’s just-launched Ulupono Initiative. Now settled in the islands, Pierre and Pam Omidyar are plunking down heavily to support “Hawaii’s [...]
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    Posted: July 24, 2009, 3:26am EDT
    by Ken

  • learning about sustainability: on creating courses for Kauai

    Can’t recall more fun than conceiving effective methods for communicating the scope of what we’re learning about sustainability…and shaping this into accessible short-courses! That’s been my focus for the the past several months, and I’m delighted to report that the inaugural learning opportunities will launch in 3 weeks at Kauai Community [...]
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    Posted: July 23, 2009, 1:21pm EDT
    by Ken

  • Hawaii climate change funds escape guv veto

    Bravo for state legislators who last week overrode Governor Lingles’ veto of SB266! So, there will be a climate change task force to study the potential impacts of rising sea levels, eroding coast lines, ocean acidification, fiercer storms, and other expected affects of climate change, and to suggest response strategies…all funded [...]
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    Posted: July 20, 2009, 8:09am EDT
    by Ken

  • runup to Copenhagen: agreement on planes and boats?

    Forgive yourself if the rush of high-level pre-Copenhagen gatherings leaves you befuddled about the prospects for an achievable climate change deal to supersede Kyoto. We just hope it all works out, right? Now, Gordon Brown has called for $100B annually from developed nations to help developing world ‘leapfrog’ to cleaner energy [...]
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    Posted: July 20, 2009, 7:18am EDT
    by Ken

  • Maui beach scientist’s swan song: retreat and relocate

    As Zoe Nu`u leaves the UH’s research program on sea level rise, where she has focused on Maui’s beach erosion, Rotarians in Kihei/Wailea got to hear a parting shot about what’s coming. We’re already seeing ocean inundation in low-lying areas, says Nu`u, and it may only be a few decades before [...]
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    Posted: July 18, 2009, 3:19am EDT
    by Ken

  • sustainability is not the absence of un-sustainability

    “Greening” is about making us less un-sustainable. Sustainability is something else”, and “we’ll need both”, says John Ehrenfeld (via sloanrev). Ehrenfeld’s new book defines sustainability as “a positive vision of the possibility that human and other life will flourish on the planet forever…It is an emergent property that only appears when [...]
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    Posted: July 17, 2009, 3:13am EDT
    by Ken

  • unsustainability = not thinking of the whole system

    While being interviewed for a forthcoming Ode article to feature Hawaii’s influence on Obama and his thinkng about sustainability, I mentioned that, in the Hawaiian patheon, the `aina (”nature”) is a sibling. The interviewer chuckled, as if this was a ‘cute’ concept. I’m guessing that the interviewer missed the message: our ‘modern’ [...]
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    Posted: July 15, 2009, 4:33am EDT
    by Ken

  • where we’re headed: top minds on past/future perspectives

    The best guy to envisage the near future gave the closing keynote at Reboot’s “Practical Visionaries” conference last month, and now you can watch Bruce Sterling’s fascinating 40 minute presentation. Kewl! And the best guy to remind us about the lessons of the near past gave a marvelous romping speech in [...]
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    Posted: July 13, 2009, 5:09am EDT
    by Ken

  • King Coal has no clothes: don’t bow down on climate change

    What’s up with “Big Coal” marauding through Congress as if it’s a stuck pig? The concessions wrung from the House were enough to gut the “climate change” bill’s effectiveness, and now their Senate lobbying sounds like “life or death” (via wbcd). “The idea that coal lobbyists are out there complaining that [...]
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    Posted: July 13, 2009, 3:05am EDT
    by Ken

  • sustainability thinking is crucial says Prince Charles

    Prepping for teaching short courses on sustainability thinking at KCC, I’m struck by the cacophony of  voices saying we need a new way of thinking…now including Prince Charles. Last Wednesday, Charles concluded the Dimbleby Lecture by advocating “a much more integrated way of thinking and perceiving the world”, noting that new [...]
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    Posted: July 11, 2009, 10:58am EDT
    by Ken

  • think science and markets drive policy? look at climate change

    Bill Rees invented the ecological footprint concept, and in the dozen ensuing years has become one of Canada’s leading public intellectuals. Now, Rees wants to see science and markets drive climate policy, yet he’s bumping up against climate denial and market hypocrisy (via themark). Both Canada and the US are science-based and [...]
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    Posted: July 09, 2009, 2:47am EDT
    by Ken

  • Lihue sustainability: AIA submits planning recommendations

    Recall the AIA confab last Fall that focused on sustainability in Lihue’s Development Plan? Well, the SDAT team has just filed their recommendations, and they’re worth a look (via KPAA). “Focus on long-term sustainability”, “meet uncertainties head-on”, and “consider a pause on development activity until the plan is fully worked out” [...]
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    Posted: July 07, 2009, 7:16am EDT
    by Ken

  • KIUC forecast update: on cooking the numbers

    Number of comments: 1
    You’re anxious to know what’s in KIUC’s updated Equity Management Plan, right? You want to know how rate increases and investment in renewables will impact our coop’s financials in the years ahead, right? Good luck! Although it was approved at the Board’s April meeting, this document is still not available on [...]
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    Posted: July 07, 2009, 5:07am EDT
    by Ken

  • war-time footing: bring back rationing…for carbon

    Number of comments: 1
    My wife was an impressionable 6 years old when WWII ended, and has a clear and favorable recollection of rationing. This week, on returning from her mother’s funeral she showed me a prize find from her stored stuff: a ration book with her name on it. The stamps shown here are for [...]
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    Posted: July 03, 2009, 12:25pm EDT
    by Ken

  • Abercrombie to KIUC: face up to climate change

    Sheesh, it’s only been 18 months since Councilmember Jay Furfaro interrupted my speech to the Filipino Chamber of Commerce on Kauai’s sustainability challenges with his own rant about the uncertainties of climate change and the need to proceed with caution. And it was only last week that The Garden Island published [...]
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    Posted: July 01, 2009, 2:15am EDT
    by Ken

  • ebike love II: on days without cycling

    Back to e-bikin‘ (yeah), after Bionx sent me a replacement wheel under warranty and suddenly the days are fun again. Bob Stehlik at Blue Planet Surf and Bionic Wheels was super at expediting the exchange (mahalo!). Oh, and, Stehlik’s got more ebikes on Oahu or can put one together for ya…if [...]
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    Posted: July 01, 2009, 1:22am EDT
    by Ken

  • faster is better: on energy pathways to economic recovery

    “The faster and farther California can improve energy efficiency, while accelerating deployment of renewable energy, the faster the state economy will grow and create jobs”, says a new report on “Energy Pathways” by Berkeley economist, David Roland-Holst (via next10). If you think this sounds like greener-sooner-cheaper, you’d be right. And if [...]
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    Posted: June 19, 2009, 2:40am EDT
    by Ken

  • indigi-new economy: Adamson on sustainability and hard times

    Enclosure: [download]
    “We will find abundance through hard times when we find each other”, says First Nation’s Rebecca Adamson. “Abundance comes not from stuff…An indigenous system is based on prosperity, creation, kinship, and a sense of enough-ness. It is designed for sharing.” Adamson’s wisdom flows through a marvelous interview by Sarah Van Gelder in [...]
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    Posted: June 17, 2009, 5:24am EDT
    by Ken

  • exploring eco-Edmonton: host with the most for sustainability

    Tomorrow will be this city’s turn to shine the light on local initiatives for sustainability. As host of ICLEI’s triennial World Congress, Edmonton has packed the day with 14 “mobile workshops” that will take the local leaders from 57 countries out into the city and region of Edmonton (by foot, bus [...]
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    Posted: June 15, 2009, 4:43am EDT
    by Ken

  • energy performance in the tropics: on ceiling fans and retrofits

    Number of comments: 1
    Our little treehouse is blessed (not) with black asphalt shingles, and enjoys shading only until 1PM, plus there are no ceiling air vents, so we’re big fans of big fans. Venting the hot air which shouldn’t have accumulated in the first place, is a huge energy drain for us…since we use [...]
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    Posted: June 14, 2009, 11:54am EDT
    by Ken

  • living building design for the tropics: Kansas it’s not

    Notice the kewl trend toward “passive” homes and offices, yet also notice the virtually exclusive focus on buildings in the temperate zone. Since 1/3 of humans live in the tropics, it bears noting that “passive” design for this climate is exactly the opposite of design for northern climes. For one thing, “passive” [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2009, 7:19am EDT
    by Ken

  • tiny card speaks volumes: on reinforcing the footprint message

    When I caught this idea at Ogilvy’s “On Recession” site, I went straight into production, and Voila! Using the “clean edge” business card stock from Avery, I designed a bite-sized layout that prints 4 per card. Then, I simply fold and snap out the cards and cut each one into fourths. Hai! Dozo! [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2009, 5:12am EDT
    by Ken

  • on smearing people and mis-stating sustainability science

    “Full-time global warming disinformers, like Swift boat smearer Marc Morano and Anthony Watts, have dedicated their lives to promoting disinformation and delay whose inevitable outcome — if a large fraction of people continue to be suckered by them — is unspeakable misery and/or violence to billions of people.” So says Joe [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2009, 3:58am EDT
    by Ken

  • what’s (wrongly) on second: sustainability and the greater good

    “Selfish maximizers” are headed for lonely coping with “the privations of a post-peak oil world”, says Kurt Cobb, yet only “altruistic sacrificers” engaged in collective action can “forestall ecosystem collapse” (via oildrum). Cobb highlights the fatal flaw in “negative freedom” that drives conservative’s anti-government propaganda. Go ahead and join those “huffing and [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2009, 3:23am EDT
    by Ken

  • what needs more explaining? on ignoring idiots

    The amazing scientists at RealClimate are getting tired of climate deniers and delayers. Wouldn’t you, if you faced “the same nonsense, the same logical fallacies, the same confusions - all of which seem to be endlessly repeated.” Most of us are bystanders as the educated and the idiotic battle it out for [...]
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    Posted: June 11, 2009, 3:00am EDT
    by Ken

  • who’s on first? sustainability holds up in Hawaii blog world

    One never knows how salient the sustainability challenge is to islanders, although I take some comfort in how well SusHI does in Hawaii’s blogosphere. As shown in this table, SusHI and RaisingIslands (good buddy JanT) hold their own amongst the other largely political blogs. Two other Kauai blogs also made this top-10 [...]
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    Posted: June 06, 2009, 1:21pm EDT
    by Ken

  • don’t build carbon storage, enhance it

    Energy firms are pushing billions for building carbon capture and storage (CCS) at power plants, yet there’s a better and cheaper approach for reducing emissions: stopping deforestation, restoring marshes and peatlands, and practicing more sustainable agricultural techniques. So says “The Natural Fix” from UNEP, looking at the role of ecosystems in [...]
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    Posted: June 05, 2009, 6:48am EDT
    by Ken

  • thinking about thinking about Hawaii’s food system

    Some folks are attracted to “system dynamics” because its tools enable us to practice thinking about human support systems in new ways. Lord knows we need new ways of thinking…perhaps more so regarding our food system than elsewhere. Why? Hawaii is stuck at the end of the American ‘food chain’ (heh) and [...]
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    Posted: June 03, 2009, 4:33am EDT
    by Ken

  • keeping track: what happened to sustainable development?

    Sheesh! Was it 17 years ago, already, that our eyes turned to Rio and the Earth Summit? Don’t know about you, but I haven’t been closely tracking the progress of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) that emerged from the Rio deliberations to ensure effective follow-up. Too bad, too! Howzat? It seems [...]
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    Posted: June 01, 2009, 6:12am EDT
    by Ken

  • Kauai not alone in plan for unneeded generating capacity

    Number of comments: 1
    Actually, says Gayle the Actuary, “at this time, it is not entirely clear that we need any new electrical production capacity” (via oildrum). Gayle reports that, “since mid 2008, the use of electricity in the US has been decreasing, but electric utilities made plans for new capacity, as if demand would [...]
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    Posted: May 31, 2009, 11:24am EDT
    by Ken

  • keywords for sustainability: essential, inevitable, and feasible

    Hopefully, folks ‘get’ that “going green” ain’t enough…that there’s no such thing as “sorta sustainable”. At the same time, this or that “green” initiative may be seen as a “choice”, yet there is no choice but to quickly transition to sustainability. Period. As the “Transition Town” gang puts it, “climate change makes [...]
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    Posted: May 31, 2009, 3:47am EDT
    by Ken

  • six steps from illusion: countdown to copenhagen

    Forget the long-term targets for emissions reduction by 2050, and focus on dramatic cuts by 2020, or else none of this matters, says Per Meilstrup (via copenhagenclimatecouncil). “A (2050) vision without a (2020) plan is a (2009) illusion”, and the US plan for reductions to 1990 levels by 2020 is “simply [...]
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    Posted: May 31, 2009, 3:17am EDT
    by Ken

  • KIUC’s unbelievable load forecast (Part III): on sustainability

    Number of comments: 1
    From a sustainability perspective, each KIUC decision must meet three tests. First, is it SMART: Does it account for peak oil? Second, is it SAFE: Does it achieve the required emissions reductions to avoid catastrophic climate change? Third, is it FAIR: Does it promote equitable access to resources? A quick assessment of KIUC’s “GenX” [...]
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    Posted: May 27, 2009, 6:06am EDT
    by Ken

  • KIUC’s unbelievable load forecast (Part II): on false choices

    Number of comments: 1
    KIUC is sitting on a consultant’s forecast that says our morning peak load will need new generating capacity by 2013. Accordingly, KIUC is now on a fast track to purchase a $75 million 35MW fossil fuel generator, called GenX, to be sited in Kapaia. …Which is why KIUC lobbied against the legislative [...]
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    Posted: May 26, 2009, 7:11am EDT
    by Ken

  • KIUC’s unbelievable load forecast (Part I): on unthinkable acts

    Number of comments: 1
    Still haven’t seen KIUC’s Energy Management Plan (EMP), just adopted despite opposition by Ben Sullivan in his first KIUC Director’s meeting. (Yeah! Ahh!). Sadly, the BAU boyz (business-as-usual) ‘freight train’ had a full head of steam before Sullivan came aboard. Worse, KIUC’s plans could lock us into energy choices that move us [...]
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    Posted: May 25, 2009, 1:24pm EDT
    by Ken

  • peak oil come quickly! on reserves and hot air

    Don’t even think about “stopping climate breakdown” unless you’re “prepared to impose a limit on the use of the oil reserves already discovered, and a permanent moratorium on prospecting for new reserves”, says George Monbiot (via commondreams). Why? Because recent ground-breaking science suggests we can’t afford to spew more than 500 [...]
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    Posted: May 19, 2009, 1:56am EDT
    by Ken

  • can we fix sustainability if “sacrifice” is unacceptable?

    We will not “take preemptive action to mitigate the consequences” of our unsustainable industrialization, nor will we “choose to modify voluntarily our distorted, cornucopian worldview and our dysfunctional, detritovoric resource utilization behavior”…so we’re headed for “societal collapse”, says Chris Clugston (via oildrum). Yet, don’t worry: “We will be able to defer [...]
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    Posted: May 19, 2009, 1:50am EDT
    by Ken
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