tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post8850510573644999885..comments2024-03-24T11:01:27.668-04:00Comments on Resource Insights: The narrowing window for a transition to a sustainable industrial societyKurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-61514146753686857712012-03-12T12:37:06.066-04:002012-03-12T12:37:06.066-04:00Here's another example from this morning's...Here's another example from this morning's "Ask Amy" column in the paper. If we compromise on reality, we learn to believe that faith is stronger than reality. Earlier societies did not have that luxury; it is the fossil fuels that have allowed us to escape reason.<br /><br /><i>Dear Amy: I have a granddaughter who is 5, and one day while we were on vacation, she and I were sitting together, and she started to ask me if I am going to get old.<br /><br />I told her that we all get old, and that is why we have birthdays. She broke down crying, saying that she didn't want me to die and that I had to promise her that I would not have any more birthdays.<br /><br />It took us more than an hour to get her calmed down. She is dead set against anyone having any more birthdays. She also said she didn't want to have any more birthdays after she turns 6. Because of this I did not let them write "Happy Birthday" on the cake when my birthday rolled around.<br /><br />Is there some other approach we can take so she doesn't get upset?<br /><br />— Ontario, Canada<br /><br />Dear Ontario: Death is a profound issue and definitely something to get upset about, especially when you're 5. You cannot and should not avoid this.<br /><br />You should examine your and other family members' reactions. You should have reassured your granddaughter calmly without resorting to a childlike promise that you won't celebrate your own birthday, for goodness' sake.<br /><br />This merely reinforces her fears that birthdays are somehow dangerous and to be avoided.<br /><br />If this comes up again, assume the role of the wise granny. Hold the girl close and say, "There, there — everything is fine. I'm not going anywhere any time soon."</i>Mary Loganhttp://prosperouswaydown.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-52969787306115626262012-03-11T17:20:46.383-04:002012-03-11T17:20:46.383-04:00I keep a fogger at hand. When our worldview consis...I keep a fogger at hand. When our worldview consists of markets, demand, and money, we have a market hammer, and everything's a nail.<br /><br />There's room for multiple approaches, some are ready to hear more than others. The internet can be a great educational rabbit-hole for unfolding understanding. Science, however, needs to be held to a different standard?<br /><br />I was thinking of the field of ecological economics in my first response, and the nature of the slippery slope of science theory. Here's what happens when we start to compromise ideals regarding the relationship between man and nature, and absorb the language and measures of economists, in illustrative quotes below from an article at EOE. If our hammer is global markets, with Nature as one more resource to be brought into our free-standing market system, then capitalism and genetic engineering are our nails? <br /><br />http://www.eoearth.org/article/An_Introduction_to_Ecological_Economics:_Chapter_3<br /><br />"The future vision of a sustainable planet with a high quality of life for all its citizens (both humans and other species) within the material constraints imposed by [a closed system.]<br /><br />Ecological economics deals with all these, and accepts much of neoclassical theory regarding allocation.<br /><br />The policy instrument that brings about an efficient allocation is relative prices determined by supply and demand in competitive markets.<br /><br />Subject to these social decisions, individualistic trading in the market is then able to allocate the scarce rights efficiently.<br /><br />This involves extending the existing market to <b>internalize the many environmental goods and services that are currently outside the market.</b><br />Natural capital productivity is increased by: (1) increasing the flow (net growth) of natural resources per unit of natural stock (limited by biological growth rates); (2) increasing product output per unit of resource input (limited by mass balance); and especially by (3) increasing the end-use efficiency with which the resulting product yields services to the final user (limited by technology).<br /><br />Certainly investments are made in increasing biological growth rates, and the advent of genetic engineering may add greatly to this thrust. <br /><br />The term “environmental externality” is now very much a part of the vocabulary of international discourse, though the international institutions designed to deal with externalities are far too weak.Mary Loganhttp://prosperouswaydown.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-58352560054320229112012-03-11T14:49:37.359-04:002012-03-11T14:49:37.359-04:00Mary,
Just so you know, I keep my flea collar han...Mary,<br /><br />Just so you know, I keep my flea collar handy. The dangers you point to in my proposed strategy are real. But if you approach people in a way that makes them mistrust you, how will you ever gain their trust? Another Catch-22.<br /><br />The tactic I'm suggesting will more likely build trust upon which a deeper conversation leading to a more thoroughgoing awareness can take place.<br /><br />I agree that we haven't much time. And yet the human heart and mind move at their own pace. Getting some people on board is better than getting no people on board.Kurt Cobbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-1458476942288920022012-03-11T14:22:07.302-04:002012-03-11T14:22:07.302-04:00"...return to an agrarian and craft society. ..."...return to an agrarian and craft society. There are two problems with this kind of thinking that have nothing to do with whether it is correct or not. First, almost no one will be able to accept such a message upon the first hearing and perhaps not ever. If you argue something which your audience will likely never accept, you will miss the chance to move them incrementally toward your view."<br /><br />I agree that the transition between industrial and lower energy society will be a continuum. But your statement above is a bit of a catch 22. If we subvert the message and make it "palatable," then we have compromised the theoretical basis and values that support the argument, thus ending up with the bargaining and "green BAU" that you are complaining about in the first place? Thinking that we have time and wiggle room to make changes has brought us to the point that we are now at? <br /><br />Once you start the compromise process, your theories about how the world works start to change. If you lie down with dogs, you'll get fleas.Mary Loganhttp://prosperouswaydown.com/?page_id=223noreply@blogger.com