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Post any observations, reactions, insights, links to interesting material, or open questions here. This is an informal page, so use it as you wish.

Monday, July 13

Hi all,

Here are a few links to information on Ecological Economics and the work of Herman Daly (founder of the field). These themes came up today in group conversation, and I thought the following articles might be useful as additional background as we all ponder what sustainability might look like.

Can we grow our way to an environmentally sustainable world?

The economic heresy of Herman Daly

Herman Daly Festschrift: Toward a sustainable and desirable future: a 30 year collaboration with Herman Daly

And if you feel like getting political about it, there is always the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE).

Enjoy!

-Jenny

Hi All FYI - there are a number of cool videos on ecological economics at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics site: [1] There is a free online course in ecological economics as well: [2] They also have a listing of PDF's of articles that Gund fellows have contributed to that should be free to download: [3] If you have questions about the Institute, its players or Ecological Economics, see Samir or Anthony - we are both based there. Cheers Anthony

Wednesday, July 15

Here are a couple of papers that I thought people might find interesting reading...

Prosperity Without Growth? This a report by Professor Tim Jackson (my PhD supervisor) proposes twelve steps towards a sustainable economy and argues for a redefinition of "prosperity" in line with evidence about what contributes to people’s wellbeing.

How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course The authors of this paper suggest a direct approach be taken to the decarbonization of the global energy system rather than the indirect approach of creating an international carbon market. Existing & known policy mechanisms should be used rather than setting up a carbon market that has great uncertainty for delivering the environmental goal of stabilising emissions. They argue it would be more effective to expend effort on making incremental progress based on what we know rather than trying to get international agreement on the timetables and targets, which is proving so challenging.

Ciao, Catherine

Thursday, July 16

For example, there is the oft-told story about Larry Shepp, a famous mathematician at Rutgers University. Dr. Shepp, when told that a piece of work he thought was his discovery actually duplicated another mathematician's breakthrough, replied: "Yes, but when I discovered it, it stayed discovered."

From "Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered" NY Times February 5, 2006

James Balog - Arctic photography http://www.extremeicesurvey.org/

jpCatherine and I had an interesting discussion on Tuesday regarding the bubble cycle of capitalism, which can be seen as a negative thing in many cases because it leads to wealth centralization and then disintegration. Still, bubbles do serve a functional purpose in society. Imagine the internet infrastructure without the dot-com bubble or look around at the housing infrastructure left after the most recent boom.

This article is from Rolling Stone, July 13th so it's already ages old for some of you. Still, it's provocative to think that there might be a market "solution" or influence towards accelerating green adoption. The Great American Bubble Machine by Matt Tiabbi

Friday, July 17

The Manchester Report: 20 ideas for solving the climate crisis - The solutions picked by the Guardian and Manchester International Festival's expert panel as the most promising for tackling global warming

It’s Time to Cool the Planet - A well reasoned piece on the need to consider geoengineering.

Saturday, July 18

You might be interested in the interview I had with Andy Revkin for Worldchanging.com that can be found here. Make sure to listen to his song "Liberated Carbon" -- dz

For those looking to increase their media / communications skills, the Leopold Leadership Program at the Woods Institute for the Environment "advances environmental decision-making by providing academic researchers with the skills and connections needed to be effective leaders and communicators". -- dz

After a long day of talks, you might be interested in hearing my colleague Jamais Cascio talk about "What if we really COULD change the future for the better?" from the ReMaking Tomorrow conference -- dz

I found an extended article about the "Food for a Week" photography that was shown during a presentation this morning and I thought it was interesting. - April

Tuesday, July 21

I thought that the "Material World" photos were thought provoking, and I found more here. - April

All, here is a quick summary of the Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Recovery Act activities ($16.8 billion worth of projects moving energy efficiency and renewable energy forward). The current Senate version of the climate bill (came out of committee Friday) includes a doubling of our research and development budget from about $3 billion to over $6 billion by 2013. It might not be fast enough to solve the climate problem, but we are ramping up activities at an unprecedented pace. - Carla

• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Recovery Act

Wednesday, July 22

Realistic Costs of Carbon Capture

Johnson Nkem has asked this be posted for your review:

• Sharing Global CO2 Emission Reductions among One Billion High Emitters

Thursday, July 23

Keep Cool - Gambling with the Climate