Articles by David Roberts

Fritjof Capra: Still around

When I was in college, Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics blew my young gourd. It and a few related books -- for some reason I always think of Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy -- shaped my thinking in ways that persist today. I wouldn't have known then to call it ecological thinking. In those days it was more of a quasi-hippie, psychotropic, see-molecules kind of thing, but the basic principles -- interconnection, self-organizing systems -- are straightforwardly drawn from nature.

It turns out much to my delight that Capra is still around, lively as ever, teaching university, and doing a couple of interviews with Transition Culture on localization, biomimesis, and eco-literacy. It's like Christmas came early!

Here's a sample:

Leaked IPCC draft

Last month, when U.S. officials leaked a copy of the preliminary draft of the fourth IPCC report, rumor had it that it was done to blunt the impact of the final report.

Rick Piltz says otherwise.

A huge source of clean power that’s been neglected

I just got done reading some extremely eye-opening stuff on cogeneration and power recycling. Wait, wait, keep reading! I promise it's more interesting than it sounds.

Most of all, it's another example of a great, low-cost, low-impact way to address the energy/climate crisis that doesn't get nearly the hype it deserves (perhaps because it's not backed by an industry that can afford to buy high-profile supporters).

The paper I read is from an unpublished book chapter, so I won't quote directly. And I won't get into the technical weeds, since I'm likely to botch something. Instead let me just convey some of the high-level take-home points:

Gore and environmentalists

Ah, just as I expected. The Gore interview is kicking up quite a bit of feedback. And much of it is some variant of the following: "If Gore cares so much about global warming, why didn't he do anything about it when he was in the White House for eight years?"

So, let's talk about it. Lots and lots of hardcore enviros I know loathe Gore. They think he talked a good game on the campaign trail and then totally abandoned them when he got to power. There's lots and lots of pent-up anger toward him.

Another line of thought goes like this: Two years after they got to the White House, Clinton/Gore got stuck with a Republican congress that made it a mission to block everything they tried. In this they were aided and abetted by big industries, notably Detroit. On top of that was an endless succession of trumped-up pseudo-scandals. They had to retrench and triangulate to survive. And their consultants and strategists told them that environmental issues opened them up to charges of lefty wackiness, and wouldn't have any strong public support. So they did what they could given the circumstances.

To be honest, I don't have a great grasp of the history. My inclination is to think that progressives in general and enviros in particular often have politically unrealistic expectations -- an insufficient appreciation for the real constraints that politicians work under. This leads them to constantly valorize up-and-comers and then demonize the same folks once they get some power. A little realism would help. But like I said, I don't have the historical details at hand.

So let's throw the floor open.

What do y'all think?