[Graeme]

Rescuing a Planet Under Stress

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ortunately, there is a consensus emerging among scientists on the broad outlines of the changes needed. If economic progress is to be sustained, we need to replace the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model. Instead of being based on fossil fuels, the new economy will be powered by abundant sources of renewable energy: wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and biofuels.

The throwaway economy will be replaced by a comprehensive reuse/recycle economy. Consumer products from cars to computers will be designed so that they can be disassembled into their component parts and completelyrecycled. Throwaway products such as single-use beverage containers will be phased out.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]Rescuing a Planet Under Stress

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')ortunately, there is a consensus emerging among scientists on the broad outlines of the changes needed. If economic progress is to be sustained, we need to replace the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model. Instead of being based on fossil fuels, the new economy will be powered by abundant sources of renewable energy: wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and biofuels.

The throwaway economy will be replaced by a comprehensive reuse/recycle economy. Consumer products from cars to computers will be designed so that they can be disassembled into their component parts and completelyrecycled. Throwaway products such as single-use beverage containers will be phased out.

[gego]

Seems to me that it is a little out of proportion to wait till the 11th hour and then consider changing our spendthrift habits. I think most changes at this point are just too little, too late.

[Liamj]

No matter how grim your fears, there is no hard landing that wouldn't be tempered by any and all wise preparations at scales larger than just you.

[MrBill]

When TSHTF our salvation will be life by a thousand cuts large & small. Maybe we'll even find it at the back of a dairy cow?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n a sense, it is the ultimate renewable source of fuel. Weather anomalies can kill off corn crops, calm the winds, obscure the sun — but through rain or shine, gusts or stillness, cows and hogs and turkeys spew forth a steady stream of manure, one of nature's richest sources of methane, a principal component of natural gas.

[Heineken]

"If economic progress is to be sustained" is an eye-opening phrase, since to an economist, economic progress can mean only one thing: economic growth. To me this reveals where the disappointing Lester Brown is really coming from.

Overall, just more saccharine, goofy enviro-econo-optimism.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')Overall, just more saccharine, goofy enviro-econo-optimism.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheTurtle', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')Overall, just more saccharine, goofy enviro-econo-optimism.

[Concerned]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TheTurtle', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')Overall, just more saccharine, goofy enviro-econo-optimism.

[Doly]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')"Sustainable growth" is another nonsensical term bandied about by some.

[Madpaddy]

Doly wrote,
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')heoretically, at least, the economy could grow only in the service sector. So "sustainable economic growth" is possible in theory. A different question is if it is possible in practice. And another one if anybody is going to want to have an economy that is anything like the current one after this one crashes.

[TheTurtle]

I feel your pain, Madpaddy.

[Madpaddy]

Thanks Turtle,

This is one guy who can see some of the upsides of peak oil.

[gnm]

Backslaps and beers all around... I've had a front row seat to the cancer of growth in the SW States, I watched Phoenix quadruple and absorb the small towns and orange groves into one endless sea of suburban cracker boxes, I watched Denver swell and absorb the wheat fields and creeks where I once played, and I am watching as the tide of suburbia splashes right up to the very mountains here in NM..

-G