Extraenvironmentalist

The debt crisis engulfing American political discourse is just the realization of a financial and economic reality that has been playing out for several years resulting from decades of economic policy. Now that the unsustainable nature of our national economy can no longer be ignored how will ordinary people in the United States handle such […]

The post [ Episode #19 // Crash Course ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

Our economic systems are beginning to expose the first intimations of how drastically they've been failing us. Is this breakdown happening because our economics are reflecting the state of our ecosystems? Generations of economists have adhered with religious fervor to tenets of growth and free market dynamics that have detached from reality so drastically these […]

The post [ Episode #18 // The Wealth of Nature ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

The interplay between energy and money will be the underlying factor behind the biggest stories of the next decade. While easily accessible energy has created a massive financial bubble on the way up Hubbert's curve, the primary agent on the way down will be unraveling financial complexities built up over the last 60 years. Surviving […]

The post [ Episode #17 // Economics of Sustainability ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

Energy drives our civilization: onward towards the limits of human imagination, ever closer to the grave consequences of oil depletion. Technology is often viewed as a mythical force, seemingly bestowing its gifts on an often misguided species in a neutral manner; though what if the best technologies don't always win? Are all the energy solutions […]

The post [ Episode #16 // Powering the Dream ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

In the course of an extraordinary life, one might become the kind of person who, without intending it, is a source of marvelous accidents. Two young men set out from Colorado to the rainforest of South America as they hunt down an elusive chemical with the potential to reveal new dimensions of human nature. During […]

The post [ Episode #15.2 // Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss // Part II ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

In the course of an extraordinary life, one might become the kind of person who, without intending it, is a source of marvelous accidents. Two young men set out from Colorado to the rainforest of South America as they hunt down an elusive chemical with the potential to reveal new dimensions of human nature. During […]

The post [ Episode #15.1 // Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss // Part I ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

Though we call it dirt, the soil beneath is the skin of our planet and the breadbasket of our species. Is there a connection between the lifespan of a civilization and the rate at which its topsoil erodes? The agricultural practices of past societies can serve as a stern warning against highly erosive farming and […]

The post [ Episode #14 // Discovering Dirt ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

Does our currency drive participation in a disciplinary system that conditions a consumer society? Surplus goods created by industrial production require an acceptable set of behaviors, reinforced by a financial establishment of rewards and punishments. Though the people reliant on disciplinary institutions are used to playing by the rules, what happens when the game changes […]

The post [ Episode #13 // Debt-Dollar Discipline ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

As anthropologists, historians and popular writers fit the complex events of the past into stories that relay morals to the modern world, sometimes details can be overlooked to make a point. Does a civilization collapse or does it merely transform? What role does human resilience play in the shifting structures of a society? Has a society […]

The post [ Episode #12 // Questioning Collapse ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.

Our education system creates the models we use to interpret information. A faulty model can lead to significant blind spots, especially in thinking about nonlinear problems. Do the cognitive models that you've developed allow you to understand the severe problems threatening our global civilization? How accurately can you recognize how trends will impact your society […]

The post [ Episode #11 // Temporal Blindness ] appeared first on Extraenvironmentalist.