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 causing a very big and diminishing resource productivity, so that
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 “Indian Nose Sunrise,” I was talking to our group tour
A Thought Experiment Reflecting on Rio+30? Or, Merely the Result of Heat Stroke? Because I roam the desert a lot, the UV Index is something I pay attention to. It is an international standard that measures the strength of ultraviolet radiation
When we think of the economy we normally think of things like labor and capital. Labor is the workforce that enables our social and economic well-being. But there is also the thing economists call capital—in effect, the infrastructure, the machines,
A serious essay on the need to retire our old arguments and economic thinking. It is time that we, all of humanity, stopped using 18th-century economic paradigm(s) to solve vastly different 21st-century challenges. For starters, the global population has grown
In honor of my long-time colleague, mathematical physicist, and economist, but also a likely nominee for the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, Dr. Robert U. (“Bob”) Ayres, I call it the Blue-Green-Red Resource Squeeze on the American economy. It is
Yes… If we invest in a more productive infrastructure and a more energy-efficient economy (and as I’ve said before, if we retire our old arguments and thinking!) If we choose to run a business-as-usual investment and spending pattern over the
Climate scientists are shocked by the intensity and scale of floods in Germany. In the West and Pacific Northwest of the United States, we’ve had record-breaking heatwaves. In fact, June 2021 was the hottest June on record for the United
Hydropower is being left behind. Yet hydropower remains the largest source of U.S. renewable energy, but why is it no longer growing? And why is a resurgence crucial for both society and for our economy? The concept of using water
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