The midterm paper made me think critically about something that I have spent a lot of time doing in the last two years. I was surprised how difficult it was to grasp the overall goal and summarize the goals of the organization I created. For my final paper, I am…

The World We Made does a reasonably good job of covering most topics necessary for a world view. However, I do not think Jonathon Porritt spent enough effort explaining the effects of AI and automation on society. The authors of “The Second Machine Age” compare the present to the industrial…

If this question is being asked, it means that current legislation is not strong or effective enough. I would agree, for the following reasons: Too often environmental laws such as CWA, ESA, NEPA and MMPA are viewed as the antithesis of the everyday interests of Americans; they suppress economic development,…

A large part of Green Earth presented a reality where the National Science Foundation (NSF) is more public-facing and political the current status quo. There are benefits to both the current model and the one presented in Green Earth.   In defense of the current system at NSF:   The…

Q: Should permaculture be a part of designing nature’s future A: I think it should be, but it will face an uphill battle to be a significant part of nature’s future. People are comfortable with the familiar – change requires effort and investment in uncertainty.  Mainstream change only occurs if…

San Francisco, August 28, 2030 Hi! It has been a while since I wrote last – but big news!… The US has announced plans to annex Ecotopia citing reports of “humanitarian crises and inhumane practices” (I presume it’s the war games), but I know that’s bullshit. I want to detail the…

I firmly believe there is always hope – simply because hope is simply a figment of the imagination. One can be hopeful no matter the circumstances. However, as Maria Popova said, “Critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naïvete.” This is a long way of…

Kim Stanley Robinson presented a fascinating depiction of a 2065 world of environmental and social utopia. Unlike most futuristic fiction, it was neither dystopian or focused on the effects of a technological advancement (Gattaca, Truman Show, Wall-E, Feed, Minority Report). I enjoyed this change – it felt more genuine, more…

Fiction (or simply a space to dream crazy worlds) is critical in the development of disruptive change – it allows the development of revolutionary processes rather than the evolutionary processes that currently dominate environmental science. While some fiction allows us to imagine worlds where dragons spit fire, dead people walk…

I consider myself an environmentalist. However, after all my experiences my relationship with the environment is very confused. In some ways I subscribe to Muir’s Preservationist mindset – seeing beautiful places from my childhood slowly degrade by poor care and overuse. In other ways I subscribe to Pinchot’s Conservationist mindset…