Category Archives: Economy and the Environment

What if we really tried to save our civilization? An introduction to Plan B

Our society and, indeed, our way of life is facing an existential threat. The situation is grim, but not hopeless. These words could have been used to describe the threat faced by the world’s democracies in 1939, and they could … Continue reading

Posted in Economy and the Environment, Energy, History of technology, Politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Book review: McAfee (2019), More from Less

This is an interesting book which could be a good book if its key message – that technology and capitalism will decouple economic growth from resource use in time to prevent serious ecological disruption – were supported by research. This, … Continue reading

Posted in Ecomodernism, Economy and the Environment, Scarcities and constraints | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Technology in a Post-Growth World: Lessons from the 1970s AT Movement

Hello again! This post about lessons we could learn from the 1970s Appropriate/Alternative Technology movement is derived from a presentation I gave at Helsinki Sustainability Science Days 2019, 9.5.2019. The entire presentation can be found here. The above presentation and … Continue reading

Posted in Economy and the Environment, History of technology, My publications, Notes in process, Politics, post-scarcity | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

What climate strikers ought to know about our economic system

Dear participants of the climate strike and all the other friends of a livable future! First of all, I’d like to thank every single one of you for your work defending a future for all of us. In my eyes, … Continue reading

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The possible anatomy of coming climate change trials

As I write these lines, we have an ever clearer understanding that 1) humanity is hurtling towards a disaster of unimaginable proportions, and 2) the responsibility for this entirely foreseeable disaster rests to a very large extent on a very … Continue reading

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Post-scarcity: a research review (in progress!)

I’ve been slowly going through research literature on post-scarcity and so-called scarcity, abundance and sufficiency (SAS) school of thought. TL;DR version: post-scarcity economy, where the economic problem of production has for all intents and purposes been solved and all the basic … Continue reading

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Critique of econometric models in Thinking in Systems: a Primer

Donella Meadows’s book Thinking in Systems: A Primer (pp. 89-90) contains a rather interesting critique of econometric models and their limitations in explaining and predicting what happens in the world. While Meadows acknowledges that econometric models are more useful than … Continue reading

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100% renewables and 100% nuclear are both practically impossible

I’ve been following with interest how some nuclear power advocates are suggesting that building anything else than nuclear power is sidetracking us from the climate goals. These advocates claim that variable, non-dispatchable renewables will not be ultimately capable of delivering … Continue reading

Posted in Ecomodernism, Economy and the Environment, Energy, Innovation, Nuclear energy & weapons, Scarcities and constraints | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

There is now a far-right environmental movement, and I welcome it

I predicted a year ago that we’re going to see more diversity in the global environmental movement, because there are people who actually care about the environment but cannot buy into traditional, heavily Leftist and Western-centric environmentalism – or are … Continue reading

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The bubble of traditional environmentalism has burst; long live pragmatic environmentalism

In case any more confirmation was needed, 11/9 (or 9.11. for us Euros) was the final nail to the coffin of traditional environmentalism – at least when it comes to stopping the existential threat of climate change. For years now, established … Continue reading

Posted in Ecomodernism, Economy and the Environment, Energy | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments