This is a response to Graeme Rickard’s post on Apr 27 to the Australian environmental network GreenLeap, discussing why the dimensions of the environmental problem seem increasingly unsolvable. Graeme, When you notice that many of our best traditional solutions are making our energy and environment problems much worse now, it raises the stakes, but also lets … Continue reading What kind of search is finding the new model?
Note: this is a draft concept for the Apr 2011 article on “what to do” aimed at a wider business audience “A decisive moment for investing in sustainability“ For other discussions of “what to do” from an environmental systems science view, see also the 6/10/11 notes for Alex Jakulin’s Foo Camp talk on my work and … Continue reading Nurturing “cash cows” or “crash cows”?
The journal Nature published an insightful research article on Systemic risk in banking ecosystems that added valuable insight into what went wrong in the 2008 financial collapse. Invited comments on a forum page Financial systems: Ecology and economics added other insights on what did or could go wrong. My comment pointed out that trying to fix what … Continue reading Why fixing what failed before always led to the next
a little “Evo-Devo” insight for the study of natural systems, and ourselves, based on thenew physics of development in natural systems. In a phrase: Life begins when internal growth approaches an end, revealing your presence in a new environment… where making relationships rather than consuming your partners is more profitable. From a simple mechanical … Continue reading What grows into Life…?
I’ve been discussing since the 70’d how and why growth creates growing complexity and so growing difficulty of problem solving, as a natural physical limit of growth for systems with physical working parts of any kind. A a discussion of the signs to look) It’s both a real concern as a threat to the health … Continue reading Complexity too great to follow what’s happening… ??
“What to do” is a question I’ve tried to answer before. A Google search for “what to do”turns up 75 places on my web site where I use the phrase. I like my May 29 post in response to “What’s one thing everyone could do to slow climate change?” for example. It hits the nail on the … Continue reading The “What to do… ?” question, still there!
Excerpt from my home page Bio What happened to wreck my life, …it now appears, …is that after completing a really wonderful education combining physics and environmental design I did some independent research while living in Denver, and discovered a rather effective new method of physical science research.
Geo Mobus’ post on his blog “Question Everything”, on “Where is the Economy Going” left little to question but that the choices for the physical economic system we’ve called home for a couple centuries is either down or faster down. It does seem true enough, comparing the beliefs that led us to our present global … Continue reading Immersing ourselves in nature’s intelligence?
Conceptually it would be nice to have ever multiplying money, but the physical systems of the economy are not cooperating. Hybrid models of how money systems are linked to the physical world, show why money is putting dangerously increasing performance demands on the underperforming physical assets. Those demands need to be understood and relieved, by … Continue reading Risk of a further physical system collapse
Most of the popular alternative economy proposals I read about, hold out hope we can return to simple living as the source of security it once was. But how would we actually reduce the complexity of society and return to self-reliance, while somehow keeping our modern culture and character? Can we really go ahead to … Continue reading But, can a whole economy be “Small is Beautiful”?