David Blittersdorf writes: Our industrial society can handle about a 10% voluntary energy reduction across the board, doing things like walking more and carpooling. To get to the necessary level (which, by some estimations, will be about a 60-80% decrease in energy usage), will be impossible unless we change the way we think about things….
Read More about The Peak Oil dilemmaThe 2016 edition of BP’s authoritative Statistical Review of World Energy offers some startling revelations. According to the report, India’s share in global coal consumption exceeded 10% in 2015, for the first time ever, while its oil consumption too set an all-time record. India also registered the largest increase in carbon emissions from energy use….
Read More about The largest increase in global CO2 emissions from energy use in 2015 came from IndiaThere’s No Tomorrow is a half-hour animated documentary about resource depletion, energy and the impossibility of infinite growth on a finite planet, a theme that rarely finds its way to the mainstream media. Inspired by the pro-capitalist cartoons of the 1940s, the film is an introduction to the critical energy dilemmas facing the world today….
Read More about Video: There Is No Tomorrow: A short film on resource depletion
Gail Tverberg writes: Growth in energy consumption is dependent on the growth of debt. Both energy and debt have characteristics that are close to “magic” when it comes to economic growth, which can only take place when debt (or a close substitute, such as company stock) is available to enable the use of energy products….
Read More about Debt: The key factor connecting energy and the economy
Sea level rise has washed away more than 50% of Ghoramara island, Sunderbans
Daesung Lee
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy writes: Droughts, floods, heat & cold waves will keep threatening India. We can’t expect the Paris agreement to solve the crisis associated with these extreme weather events. The way to minimize their impact is through adaptive measures by understanding the mechanism in which they occur, by quantifying the agro-climate of a region….
Read More about Precautionary measures for natural calamities: A letter to the Prime Minister
Daniel Fagella writes: Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence have led to fears of elimination of jobs or destruction of life as we know it. But are these fears legitimate? To help shed light on this, TechEmergence asked over 30 AI researchers on what they believe is the most likely AI-related risk. Here are their responses….
Read More about Just how scary is Artificial Intelligence? A survey among the expertsForty-four years ago, representatives of 114 countries met in Stockholm. It was the first time the world had come together to think about climate change at the UN Conference on the Human Environment. At the conference, Indira Gandhi, the only head of state in attendance, gave a seminal speech on climate change and poverty alleviation….
Read More about Video: Scenes from the 1972 conference that led to World Environment Day
India has an extreme air pollution problem, which kills up to 400,000 people every year. This pollution, made up of fine particles called aerosols, also has the effect of cooling the local climate by reflecting or absorbing sunlight before it reaches the ground. It is feasible that India’s pollution problem has been “hiding” extreme heat spikes….
Read More about The hidden connection between air pollution and heat spikes: India’s lethal double bind
David Anderson writes: About eight thousand years ago with the beginning of the bronze, iron, agricultural age we decided to pursue a life of separation and alienation from the planet. This dualistic mindset, further strengthened in the seventeenth century during the European Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, is at the root of the present crises….
Read More about The problem with the European Enlightenment and its Industrial Revolution
Today, global action to stop climate change is inconceivable. Yet, in 1938, global action to stop Nazi Germany was also inconceivable. The world was in Hitler denial. Australian cartoonist Stuart McMillen, whose acclaimed long-form comics are inspired by science, ecology, sustainability and economics, takes on the most daunting challenge of our times – climate change….
Read More about Hitler Denial: A comic on global climate action
Mrinal Pande writes: For more than four centuries, Ghagh, literally “the sly one”, has been undoubtedly the most popular of poet philosophers for farming communities in the Indo-Gangetic plains. An astronomer and agricultural guru, Ghagh’s pithy couplets discuss crop cycles, seeds, tips for buying healthy cattle, and reflections on vagaries of both man and nature….
Read More about Ghagh: Why a 16th century farmer-poet is still relevantTwelve years ago, John Perkins published his best-seller, ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’, where he described his career convincing heads of state to adopt economic policies that impoverished their countries and undermined democratic institutions to promote U.S.’ interests. This new book is an updated version, and details how those methods have evolved since then….
Read More about Video & Report: More Confessions of an Economic Hitman
As India reels under a back-to-back drought, with 10 states declared affected and nearly 2,00,000 villages affected, it’s time to ask whether the present situation could’ve been avoided. As many expert voices presented here point out, it’s not the weather alone that creates a drought, but bad planning and an often corrupt and apathetic administration….
Read More about Series: Combating drought – 1: What the experts say
Peter Smetacek writes: The question, naturally, is: What are we hoping to achieve by the process of planting forests? Because we don’t have a clear answer, it is no surprise that there is not a single success story in all the “watershed management” and “afforestation” drives that the public has paid for throughout the country….
Read More about How India’s forests have been lost in translation – in plantations
Sonal Shah writes: Cities have concentrated on bettering vehicle and fuel technologies and building bus rapid transit or metro rail systems. However, they need to focus on managing demand, augmenting their bus transport systems, improving last mile connectivity and enabling compact development. This will shift people towards non-motorised and public transport and avoid motorised trips….
Read More about What other cities can learn from Delhi’s experiments with public transport
Rob O’Grady writes in ‘150-strong’: Aldous Huxley suggested that “Our present economic, social and international arrangements are based, in large measure, upon organized lovelessness,” and, on the evidence, it appears that he was right. Our current system, governed by the reconciling force of profit motive, is dominated by greed and fear – certainly not love! …
Read More about How our economic system is designed to promote greed, fear and selfishness
The common assumption has been that the world will eventually “run out” of oil and other non-renewable resources. Instead, we seem to be running into energy surpluses and low prices. The real situation is that as prices rise, supply tends to rise as well, because new sources of production become available at the higher price….
Read More about Gail Tverberg: Energy limits – what most researchers have missed
It is a peculiar combination of technological, economic and geopolitical factors that has led to the present crash in oil prices, lulling many observers into dismissing peak oil. Through it all, the fact remains that the production of ‘conventional oil’, drawn mostly from established oil wells, has not gone up since its peak in 2008….
Read More about Peak Oil returns to haunt the global economy
Vaidehi Daptardar writes: Though not a structured model, Gandhi’s concept of trusteeship envisioned every member of society as the trustee of wealth generated out of the collective efforts of all. He expected that trusteeship will result in non-violent and non-exploitative socio-economic relations and development models based on production systems centred around the preservation of nature….
Read More about What Gandhi can teach us about sustainabilityThe rise of the film ‘Demain‘ appears unstoppable. Viewed in France now by almost a million people, winner of the Cesar award for Best Documentary, the film has been received with standing ovations, and has inspired many to roll their sleeves up and do things. Rob Hopkins’ of the Transition Network’ interviews director Cyril Dion….
Read More about Video: Demain – The documentary that’s taking over France by storm
