Category Archives: Limits to Growth

Limitations on economic output due to resource constraints.

“The Food and Farming Transition” report — a quick evaluation

The Food and Farming Transition is a report from the Post-Carbon Institute which was posted in 2009. This report is interesting not just because of its content, but because it demonstrates what food issues are — and are not — … Continue reading

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Human Domination of the Natural World

Just what does human domination of the natural world mean in biological terms? It means that over 90% of the mammals on the planet (by biomass) are humans and their livestock.

Posted in Ecological Economics, Limits to Growth, Vegetarianism / Veganism | 2 Comments

Limits to Growth — A Vegetarian Issue

Peak oil — the maximum point of oil production — is of tremendous importance to the future of vegetarianism. A lot of vegetarians, though, have not even heard of peak oil, and it is hard to explain it to them. … Continue reading

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Can we get Transition to talk about Plant-based Nutrition?

I’ve been trying to get people in the Transition movement  interested in vegetarianism for some time.  (“Transition” is a group originating in the U. K. dedicated to local planning for a post-carbon future.) However, a recent discussion of plant-based nutrition … Continue reading

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Problems with the environmental argument

At a gathering last night, two respected vegan activists pointed out (in their talk) an interesting problem with the environmental argument for vegetarianism or veganism.  It tends to move people from beef to chicken and fish, rather than from meat-eating … Continue reading

Posted in Animals and ethics, Climate change, Ecological Economics, Limits to Growth, Politics, or the lack thereof, Vegetarianism / Veganism | Leave a comment

Vegetarians and the BP Oil Spill

Every time some predictable environmental disaster befalls us, I think to myself: “This is it! Finally, people will understand what ‘limits to growth’ means. And then they’ll think about what they’re eating.” I thought that about Hurricane Katrina (climate change), … Continue reading

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The Crash Course

You can watch Chris Martenson’s free DVD, The Crash Course, online, and I often give away copies of it for free (which Martenson authorizes and encourages). It is the easiest and most painless way for me to explain why I’m … Continue reading

Posted in Climate change, Ecological Economics, Limits to Growth, Literature / Publishing, Peak oil, Politics, or the lack thereof | Leave a comment

A Techno-Future for Book Publishing?

Jason Epstein, in the New York Review of Books, writes this: “The transition within the book publishing industry from physical inventory stored in a warehouse and trucked to retailers to digital files stored in cyberspace and delivered almost anywhere on … Continue reading

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Peak Animals

A lot of the questions people have about the WorldWatch article “Livestock and Climate Change” (Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, in the November / December 2009 WorldWatch) comes down to a simple problem: it’s difficult for many people to wrap … Continue reading

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The Ecological Footprint of Information

Declaring e-books to be the future of publishing may be a bit premature. What are the energy requirements of a paper book? They probably aren’t that much. Medieval monks and Gutenberg churned them out, at a much slower rate, long … Continue reading

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