What does genuine economic progress look like? The orthodox answer is that a bigger economy is always better, but this idea is increasingly strained by the knowledge that, on a finite planet, the economy can’t grow for ever.But what is a steady-state economy? Why it is it desirable or necessary? And what would it be like to live in? The global predicament We used to live on a planet that was relatively empty of humans; today it is full to overflowing, with more people consuming more … [Read more...]
From Local Pants to Local Energy: The Case for Localizing Our Economies
(This article originally appeared on Truthout.org.)During a panel discussion this May on Community Choice Energy, a rapidly growing initiative in California and six other states that enables communities to seize control of local electricity services, I argued for the economic benefits of building out local, decentralized renewable energy assets such as rooftop and community solar arrays. I was followed by a panelist who chided my “misguided” belief in the virtue of locally-generated, clean … [Read more...]
Changing Everything
Among climate change activists, solutions usually center on a transition to renewable energy. There may be differences over whether this would be best accomplished by a carbon tax, bigger subsidies for wind and solar power, divestment from fossil fuel companies, massive demonstrations, legislative fiat or some other strategy, but the goal is generally the same: replace dirty fossil fuels with clean renewable energy. Such a transition is often given a significance that goes well beyond its … [Read more...]
Ice Cream, Shamans, and Climate Change
In the summer of 1969, I was 18 years old with a job driving an ice cream truck in a small New England town. One July afternoon the weather was hot and humid – ideal for ice cream – but business was dismal, the streets almost deserted. Eventually someone ran out and flagged me down, but he wasn’t interested in ice cream: “Come in the house!” he yelled, “it’s happening now!” I knew immediately what he meant: the first lunar landing was under way, and Neal Armstrong was about to step onto the … [Read more...]