There are limits to the use of resources. And there are limits to the safe operating space within the global environment. A new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests, however, that the world’s economy may be approaching those limits. It reports that scientists have warned that those safe limits may have already been crossed in some cases.1 What may not be as easily understood is that the inefficient use of energy and other resources may also be weakening the robustness of both the U.S. and the global economies.
In the case of energy, for example, the world economies may waste on average over 80 percent of all high-quality energy consumed in the production of goods and services. That magnitude of waste creates an array of costs that weakens the economy.2 How to turn waste into opportunity? That is the primary focus of the team at Economic and Human Dimensions Research Associates. How to explore new ways and new business models that increase the energy and non-energy benefits of greater resource productivities. In effect, we are assessing and promoting ways that increase local jobs and economic prosperity through the smarter use of resource and energy efficiencies.
Pascal’s Wager was initially designed to influence one into believing in God by showing the consequences of believing in God versus not believing in God. We can repurpose this grid to influence one into supporting climate change mitigation measures by showing the consequences of supporting such measures versus not supporting them.
Behind every innovation within any given society there are at least two constants. The first is the network of skilled minds which enabled development of the next idea. The second
Based on data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), and as shown in the two graphs that follow, the global climate is clearly warming. In fact, February 2023 will very likely be designated as the 458th consecutive month in which temperatures, at least nominally, were above the 20th-century average. That means anyone under the age of 38 has—not even once—experienced normal or below-normal monthly temperatures.
It is so much more than climate For the first time in 2020, our anthropogenic mass finally equaled all the biomass on Earth. We are, indeed, into the Anthropocene. And it is
Understanding Guatemala’s Treasured Lake in a Cultural Ethnographic Lens Some time back, as I gazed upon the panoramic view of the volcanic, mountainous terrain around Lake Atitlán after hiking the
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A two-day virtual workshop to explore critical insights from the work of mathematical physicist and economist, Dr. Robert U. Ayres, a likely nominee for the 2022 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. The Workshop will open with a talk by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), a scientist, clean energy entrepreneur and CEO prior to his election to Congress. Dr. Ayres will also give an overview of his research which underscores the idea of “Energy as Work,” rather than energy as a mere commodity sold in the market at some price. Other invited participants include representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, the International Energy Agency, Economic and Human Dimensions Research Associates, Black & Veatch, an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company, and others.
In his Earth Day virtual talk for Fiske Planetarium, University of Colorado Boulder, Laitner argues that sometimes we actually do need to reinvent the wheel to move forward. In today’s economy and climate, we may have to think about reinventing the way we produce energy. Rather than drilling for it down deep beneath the surface, can we harvest from the abundant energy forms found in the environment around us?
Feel free to download the slides from this presentation HERE.
There is neither a law of physics nor economics that prevents us from quadrupling the productive use of energy and other resources. Rather, it is much more an issue of imagination and our political will to get it done.
– John A. “Skip” Laitner