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Showing posts with the label Climate Change

How Intractable is Our Lack of Agency?

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  Farm near Douthat State Park, Virginia

The Evolution of My Thinking

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  Douthat State Park Beach, Virginia

Rationalizing, Storytelling, and Narrative-Generating Apes

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  Falling Spring Falls, Falling Spring, Virginia

Why is Excessive Optimism Often Rewarded With a Reset of Reality?

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  Fairy Stone State Park, Stuart, Virginia

Why are "Solutions" Really Just Bargaining?

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Flag Rock Recreation Area, Norton, Virginia

Time for a Reality Check?

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  A turkey vulture flying over Yatesville Lake in Kentucky

The Chief Cause of Problems is Solutions

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  Coxhall Gardens, Carmel, Indiana

IT BEARS REPEATING: BEST OF…VOLUME 1

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  Today, rather than just an article I wrote, I have an entire collection to share! For anyone who is interested in ecological overshoot, this has just been released: IT BEARS REPEATING: BEST OF…VOLUME 1 With a Foreword and Afterword by Michael Dowd, authors include: Max Wilbert; Tim Watkins; Mike Stasse; Dr. Bill Rees; Dr. Tim Morgan; Rob Mielcarski; Dr. Simon Michaux; Erik Michaels; Just Collapse’s Tristan Sykes & Dr. Kate Booth; Kevin Hester; Alice Friedemann; David Casey; and, Steve Bull. Follow the link in the title above to access the downloadable PDF. Enjoy!

The Climate Crisis, Localization, and Collapse

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Louisville, Kentucky skyline as seen from the Big Four Bridge at Waterfront Park

Why Do We Lack Agency and What Makes Humans Happy?

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  Viking Mountain Overlook, Tennessee

Solutions, Outcomes, and Unsustainable Systems

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  Lake Powhatan Swimming Beach, North Carolina

Seriously Thorny Issues

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Kure Beach Pier, North Carolina How often do you develop a theory about something or hear about one and then try to prove that theory wrong? I keep trying to prove my theories wrong but instead keep finding proof that they are actually correct (highly disappointingly, I might add). I'm constantly asking WHY we haven't come to realize and accept the facts and then actually ACT upon those facts collectively. For instance, why aren't we working on reducing technology use? The Degrowth Movement recognizes that energy and resource throughput must be reduced either by design or by disaster, and that as such, this necessarily dictates a reduction of technology use. One cannot keep introducing new technologies which require the infrastructural platforms which already exist and magically expect the energy and resources to build, power, and maintain these devices to appear out of nowhere. Furthermore, the energy to power and maintain the infrastructural platforms we ALREADY have

False Beliefs and Denial, Part Two

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Atlantic Ocean, Kure Beach, North Carolina

Bargaining and Degrowth

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  Gazebo at Fort Macon, North Carolina

Bargaining to Maintain Civilization

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Happy Winter/Summer Solstice!! As anyone reading my articles often already knows, ecological overshoot is the master predicament causing many different symptom predicaments . I constantly see many people blaming emissions or greed or capitalism or governments or oil companies or fossil fuels (and on and on...) for causing climate change (or their favorite symptom predicament). Playing the blame game gets us nowhere though , and unfortunately, it is also far more complicated than that. Reducing emissions is a great idea (NOT a solution as noted below in the new paper from James Hansen), but it cannot be accomplished without reducing ecological overshoot because ecological overshoot is precisely what is CAUSING emissions. Ecological overshoot is caused by technology use , which means that it is being caused by our behavior . In order to reduce emissions, there is no other choice than to reduce technology use. This requires changing our behaviors. Most emissions historically have been p

The Illusion of Debate

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  Hanging Rock, Madison, Indiana

Why is Methane Such a Threat?

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Dale Hollow Dam on the Obey River at Celina, Tennessee Reservoirs behind dams are responsible for large amounts of methane emissions   One might ask a similar question such as "Why is carbon dioxide such a threat?" or "Why is nitrous oxide such a threat?" or even "Why is sulfur hexafluoride such a threat?" While I'm pretty sure that everyone reading this knows that these are greenhouse gases and that they are all ramping upwards as climate change progresses, I figured I might as well disclose those facts first. My next disclosure amounts to providing some sources for info regarding the statement underneath the picture above here , and  here , and  here , and here .  Update 2-29-24: Surprising methane discovery in Yukon glaciers: 'Much more widespread than we thought' I have written extensively about methane in many of my articles (to see which ones, look for the keyword "methane" on the labels for each article) simply because of the e

What is a Derecho?

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  The SkyWest KFWA Terminal at Fort Wayne International Airport after the June 13, 2022 derecho (picture courtesy of Charles Peek of The Weather Channel)

The Illusion of Control

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  Dale Hollow Reservoir, Tennessee

What Qualities Do the Predicaments We Face Possess?

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The view from Sunset Rock near Sparta, Tennessee