Comments for A Prosperous Way Down http://prosperouswaydown.com Our civilization can thrive in a future where we live with less Sun, 20 Dec 2015 18:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 Comment on H.T. Odum on energy equality by Mary Odum http://prosperouswaydown.com/bauwens-odum-energy-equality/comment-page-1/#comment-1622 Sun, 20 Dec 2015 18:21:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7882#comment-1622 Thanks, Mr. Fox! I love this Pope–if I could vote for him for president, I would. He gets it!

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Comment on H.T. Odum on energy equality by cognizantfox http://prosperouswaydown.com/bauwens-odum-energy-equality/comment-page-1/#comment-1621 Sun, 20 Dec 2015 17:16:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7882#comment-1621 Thanks for sharing. It seems that perhaps Pope Francis has become familiar with the work of Dr. Odom’s thinking.

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Comment on The 6 Rs: making a sustainable impact by Ethical Issues | Abigail Loader http://prosperouswaydown.com/6rs-making-sustainable-impact/comment-page-1/#comment-1620 Sat, 12 Dec 2015 15:22:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=4934#comment-1620 […] http://prosperouswaydown.com/6rs-making-sustainable-impact/ (2015) […]

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Comment on Living life on a curve by Tom Christoffel http://prosperouswaydown.com/abel-peak-np/comment-page-1/#comment-1619 Wed, 04 Nov 2015 19:54:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7788#comment-1619 Good analysis computing per capita energy. Julian Simion’s “ultimate resource” was the human mind. More population was good. It meant more brainpower to solve problems. Of course, those new brains needed to be educated in an environment where there was freedom for critical thought. In spite of new technologies, we’ve not been able to feed and educate the souls who have shown up to the unfunded mandate of life. The slavery paradigm of SOPF – “Stealing OtherPeople’s Fire” has run its course, so we may be approaching Peak Theft. Debt ratios may go even higher, as economic theory and financialization have enabled more and more theft from the future. We’ve been convinced that government, the tool the people create in community to serve themselves via the “community motive” to perpetuate human civilization really isn’t up to the job. Instead we should continue to steal the life fire in others with advanced debt slavery as well as the more traditional war, physical resource depletion and boom & bust economic games. The future for most is pay more, get less. Slow to a qualitative rather than quantitative life where you can. Considering a spiritual-greater community option will not be top of mind, but that has worked in the past. Think local planet, act regionally.

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Comment on He’s told us not to blow it by Stefeun http://prosperouswaydown.com/martian-blow-it/comment-page-1/#comment-1618 Sun, 01 Nov 2015 15:11:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7756#comment-1618 A good article about that, by Christopher Ketcham:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/30/extinction-the-new-environmentalism-and-the-cancer-in-the-wilderness/

Just a short quote, that summarizes it all: “Consider that the president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy today, Mark Tercek, is a former managing director and partner at Goldman Sachs.”

I found out it’s a deeper and older trend than I thought; see http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.html
“The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment assessed the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, the MA involved the work of more than 1,360 experts worldwide. Their findings provide a state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to conserve and use them sustainably.”

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Comment on He’s told us not to blow it by David MacLeod http://prosperouswaydown.com/martian-blow-it/comment-page-1/#comment-1617 Sun, 25 Oct 2015 20:29:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7756#comment-1617 Thanks, this movie is now on my radar to watch soon. Your description reminds me of the Marian Zimmer Bradley sci fi books in her Darkover series, where a spaceship from earth is forced to land on an unknown planet with limited resources. Half the crew is valiantly trying to harness their scientific know-how and trust in technology to repair and escape, while others explore and attempt to adapt to the reality of conditions they find themselves in, and to maintain resilience and sustainability.

Here’s another pop song:
What goes up
Must come down
Spinnin’ wheel
Got to go ’round.

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Comment on He’s told us not to blow it by Stefeun http://prosperouswaydown.com/martian-blow-it/comment-page-1/#comment-1615 Sat, 24 Oct 2015 13:50:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7756#comment-1615 Maybe something like “withdrawal”..?

The basic idea is that the economy is a (small) part of the Nature, not the other way round. They’re giving money a power that it just can’t have, since Nature cannot be included in any artificial (manmade) construction.

Moreover, it’s not Nature providing us with services, rather it’s us taking for our survival/benefit, from some points in the natural cycles, wether organized structures (raw food: vegs, meat) or waste (oxygen). Just like any other species (albeit not at same degree).

We’re not enjoying gifts that would have been put there for us, instead we’re mining our environment, in a way that can be harmful if too intensive. And that’s actually what we’re doing: destroy our real capital, actively and increasingly.

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Comment on He’s told us not to blow it by Mary Odum http://prosperouswaydown.com/martian-blow-it/comment-page-1/#comment-1614 Sat, 24 Oct 2015 11:19:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7756#comment-1614 Stefeun, you are right, thanks, and I keep using dated terms that have power over us. I’ve been meaning to come up with something else, besides just calling her Mother Nature. Services is descriptive, but laden with symbolism. Words are powerful, yes. Perhaps we can come up with something better?

HT Odum had to keep changing his terms for net energy and emergy as society changed and people either compromised the labels by using the term but watering it down with redefinition, and/or when he refined the science. Fossil fuel work equivalents, coal equivalents, solar equivalents, embodied (and net) energy, transformation ratios, and finally emergy. The term embodied emergy was my favorite, but it got absconded with by some Russian scientists who put a whole different meaning on it, so HT had to move on with the label. I still use the words embodied energy sometimes, because it is so descriptive of what we are talking about. I wish he had stuck with that term.

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Comment on He’s told us not to blow it by Stefeun http://prosperouswaydown.com/martian-blow-it/comment-page-1/#comment-1613 Sat, 24 Oct 2015 08:37:00 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=7756#comment-1613 Thank you Mary,
love Ziggy Stardust ; btw, no mention of any spiders, on Mars..?

just a little remark about your comment above: I don’t like very much the expression “ecological services” (that are provided by the biosphere).
It can too easily be viewed as anthropocentric, and suggests an intentionality that doesn’t exist in real world. Our dear greedy friends could be tempted to value these services, in the purpose to make money out of that. They actually have been trying for some time:

“Earth Index is published in the financial sections of newspapers around the world to put nature on the stock exchange, with price for bees, fish and more”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/08/coral-reefs-worth-four-times-as-much-as-uk-economy-earth-index-finds

See also:
http://www.speciesbanking.com
http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com
etc…

I know this is certainly not what you meant, but unfortunately I haven’t any ready phrase for replacement.

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Comment on The flap about space travel by He’s Told us Not to Blow it | Equities Canada http://prosperouswaydown.com/flap-about-space-travel/comment-page-1/#comment-1611 Fri, 23 Oct 2015 11:48:48 +0000 http://prosperouswaydown.com/?p=6481#comment-1611 […] The main issue is that the energetic basis of getting a big crew to Mars for a long-term mission is not supportable. As Watney says in the book, “Damn you, entropy!” Other issues relate to human health. […]

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