Author archives

The End of Fossil Fuel-Based Growth

The President of the EU Commission has announced that “a growth model based on fossil fuels is obsolete.” Nate Hagens discusses this in his Great Simplification project. https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/31-reflections-on-beyond-growth Von der Leyen was speaking at a European Parliament-hosted event in Brussels entitled “Beyond Growth” whose main theme was how to reconcile economic development with environmental goals. …

The Future of Green Thinking

I have been uneasy for some time about current long-term green thinking.  In Herefordshire and elsewhere A recent article by Megan Selbert and William Rees “Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition” has provided insight into my unease. I have been following Prof Bill Rees for some years.  …

It’s time to change our mindsets

First published on the Radix Think Tank For the past five years, I have been writing on Radix about the future: 60 pieces so far. I have also been putting together Orcop.com –  a blog subtitled “The best place to find out what is being said about the future. Not what the Establishment is saying. What those …

Economic Contraction

Recent comments by Tim Morgan in his blog. The onset of economic contraction, even if it were to happen in a gradual and orderly way, will have profound political and social consequences. “Growth” has become a secular article of faith, and economic crises or hard times have often been the downfall of governments and regimes. …

The Great Simplification – Humanity’s Soul: Life or Growth?

This post from Nate Hagens’ website is a remarkable conversation between Nate and Gaya Herrinmgton Nate’s introduction: The Limits to Growth (LTG) report is one of the most well known assessments of source and sink constraints to human economic aspirations. LTG has been reviewed and updated numerous times over the last 50 years, most recently …

The economy is shrinking.  And everything that depends on it.  Including the population.

Lately, I have been listening to Nate Hagen’s weekly podcast, The Great Simplification.  He explains that his podcast explores the systems science underpinning the human predicament. Conversation topics span human behaviour, monetary/economic systems, energy, ecology, geopolitics and the environment.  The goal of the show is to inform more humans about the path ahead and inspire …

Herefordshire’s Local Plan: Spatial options consultation: Local plan 2021-2041: How to avoid food poverty: Herefordshire must focus on local food economies

Herefordshire Council’s land use planners have published a document that describes five different options for where growth should be in the county.  They ask for views on their ideas. My comments are as follows: The Council’s Local Plan assumes never-ending economic growth. This is wishful thinking. Within a few years, it will be realised that …

Delayering

In a recent discussion on Tim Morgan’s blog, he says: ” … de-layering is going to eliminate huge numbers of white-collar jobs, and lots of intermediate/intermediary businesses, though I doubt if even the biggest corporate players really understand this yet.” Not a subject which is reported much. I understand that thousands of management jobs going …