Sublime

The world’s natural resources are rapidly diminishing. Economists estimate that in 2040 the world’s natural capital (land, forests, fisheries, fuels) will be 21 percent less in high-income countries and 17 percent less in poorer countries than today. Meanwhile, carbon emissions will grow by 7 percent in high-income countries and 44 percent in the r

The 193 UN member states are pursuing sustainable development with widely varying degrees of consistency and commitment. Some countries are on track to achieve most or all of the SDGs, including the decarbonization of their energy systems and reduced levels of inequality. Others continue on the path of highly polluting fossil fuels and growing ineq

One basic calculation puts it this way: The human impact is equal to the population times GDP/population times impact/GDP, sometimes summarized as I = P × A × T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence (GDP per capita), and T is technology (impact/GDP).10 What is clear from this equation is that per capita economic growth (a rise in A) o

Augé, Koolhaas, and…

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In the twenty-first century, we will have to turn to zero-carbon energy—wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and ocean—to avoid the great risks of human-induced global warming caused by the fossil fuels, and geographical advantages will shift once again.

book, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, which speculates about just how the seemingly “permanent” infrastructure we’ve created is likely to decay in the absence of our maintenance of it. That book adds a beautiful piece to our puzzle, because once you realize how fucked we are, the next thing you often wonder is whether the biosphere will be ab