Possible Scenarios for the Future: Helena Norberg-Hodge
Jerry Mander edited a book called The Case Against the Global Economy and For a Turn Toward the Local. To my surprise, most of the essays within this 1996 book are every bit as current and relevant today as they…
Possible Scenarios for the Future: James Gustave Speth
James Gustave Speth is the U.S. author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. His book is a wide-ranging academic survey of post-capitalism ideas (including, but not limited to,…
Possible Scenarios for the Future: Tim Jackson
Tim Jackson’s Prosperity Without Growth is a book that interested Hopkins. In critiquing all these resources, I was looking for writers who acknowledged the full reality that developed countries will have to do some significant adjusting downward — both in…
Possible Scenarios for the Future: Stoneleigh
Stoneleigh (aka Nicole Foss) is – in my opinion — right on target with her understanding of the big picture, and the show isn’t over yet. Stoneleigh explains that much of what might look like solid substance in our economy…
Part II: Possible scenarios for the future
Fundamental change – indeed, radical system change – is as common as grass in world history.– Gar Alperovitz, America beyond Capitalism Part I took a hard look at the realities ahead. In this segment we’ll look at some of the…
Why is acknowledgement of economic contraction vitally important?
… for climate change, environmental, and social justice activists, and for Transition initiatives … Economic contraction will hit us first. Of the triple crisis issues, the timeline for economic contraction is the shortest; it will hit before we feel the…
Coping with your “End of Suburbia Moment”
How might one best manage the feelings of overwhelm, devastation, and defeat that can accompany your “End of Suburbia moment” —the point when you really “get” [economic contraction] and its implications? The first point is to realize that feeling like…
The Beginning of Contraction
“Understandably, everyone wants it to get “back to normal.” But here’s a disturbing thought: What if that is not possible? What if the goalposts have been moved, the rules rewritten, the game changed?” –Richard Heinberg Biocapacity and the limits to…
Five-Planets-Worth-of-Consumption
There are three ways in which North Americans have managed to live at five-planets-worth-of-consumption. I am indebted to Sophy Banks and Naresh Giangrande for an explanation in the Transition Training here in Los Angeles in 2008, which really broadened my…
A Basic Explanation: Economics
We have an economic system that is based entirely upon the presumption that growth will be ongoing, unceasing, and unlimited. This in turn requires ever more extraction from the earth. At this most basic level, our tour of economics must…