Grist just published a [story](http://www.grist.org/business-technology/2011-12-07-walmart-spends-big-to-help-anti-environment-candidates) about Walmart’s political contributions that raises my skeptical (more like cynical) eyebrows. The same story is commonplace these days. Walmart, which stayed out of political giving during its founder’s years, has become one of the largest corporate political contributors in recent years. Here is the Grist story in a paragraph. > Walmart talks big about sustainability, but doesn’t put its campaign money anywhere near where its mouth is. Whatever the company may say about the importance of legislative action on climate change or other environmental issues, its money is signaling the opposite, telling lawmakers that… Read More
Continue ReadingBulls, Deniers, and Pragmatism
I am just back from this trimester’s last intensive weekend of the Marlboro College Graduate MBA in Managing for Sustainability. I had an opportunity to spend a long, pleasant evening with Ron Nahser, who came to deliver one of the classes. Ron was formerly Provost or some other senior official at the Presidio MBA program, one of the few like ours. We spent much of the time talking about pragmatism, a favorite subject of his, and a new and active interest of mine. I have been thinking about the importance of pragmatism to sustainability. I believe it is central and… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Sky Is Falling!
The Guardian, always a source of well-written news and commentary, carried an [article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/30/end-of-growth) on the looming reality of no-growth economies. This has been a central issue in my course, Exploring Sustainability, at Marlboro College Graduate Center. This trimester we are examining economic models consistent with sustainability, and reading about the new economics that the article refers to. The columnist takes a long view of the likelihood on maintaining continuing economic growth policies far into the future, and argues that it just isn’t going to happen. The author, Richard Heinberg, begins with: The tide of economic growth that has flowed since… Read More
Continue ReadingDon’t Buy This Jacket
This was the headline on a full-page [ad](http://www.marcgunther.com/wp-content/uploads/112811_home-NY-Times-1.jpg) by Patagonia that appeared on Black Friday in the New York Tines (and I imagine other papers). It is not a spoof, but, rather, a reaction to the consumerist frenzy of Black Friday. You can see my earlier thoughts about Black Friday in a [post](http://www.johnehrenfeld.com/2011/11/blue-wednesday.html) of a few days ago. The ad started with this message: > It’s Black Friday, the day in the year retail turns from red to black and starts to make real money. But Black Friday, and the culture of consumption it reflects, puts the economy of natural… Read More
Continue Reading“‘Nature’ Doesn’t Exist,” Says Slavoj Zizek
One of my readers (Thanks, Boudewijn) sent me a comment with reference to the Slovenian philosopher, Slavoj Zizek, who has some intriguing and unusual opinions on nature and humankind. I did some web searching to learn more about him and his work. I watched a few videos also. Zizek is often quite controversial. A loud critic of capitalism and, from the little I have looked at, a critic of about everything. I focused on just a few of his pieces involving the stance we should take toward “nature.” I used quotes here to emphasize his argument that nature is nothing… Read More
Continue ReadingBlue Wednesday
Today is the day before Thanksgiving and I have been inundated with ads and news of Black Friday, the day we release all our pent-up demand for goods. The biggest shopping day of the year. The make or break day for retailers. There is something terribly incongruous about the rush to the stores on the heels of a day where we gather with friends and family and give thanks for the life we have enjoyed. Black Friday is slowly creeping into Thanksgiving Day as stores are opening earlier and earlier. The news tonight showed shots of shoppers camping outside of… Read More
Continue ReadingRequisite Variety
This strange and unfamiliar (to most) term was invented by Ross Ashby (pictured), one of the founders of the field of cybernetics. Cybernetics draws its name from the Greek work for steersman and is concerned with the regulation or governance of systems. It blossomed during WWII where the new knowledge was applied to aiming weaponry and radar antennae, for examples. One of the leading researchers at that time was Norbert Weiner at MIT. I was a student there from 1949 to 1957 and often encountered him wandering the halls. He was a legend said to be so absent minded that… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Real Fear Behind Climate Change Denial
Naomi Klein had a very powerful [piece](http://www.thenation.com/article/164497/capitalism-vs-climate?page=full) recently in *The Nation*, titled “Capitalism vs. the Climate.” She began by telling of her experience at a conference on the subject of climate change, sponsored by The Heartland Institute, one of the rightest of right-wing think tanks. The speakers she mentions paint every attempt at reining in climate change as an attack on capitalism, free markets and basic freedoms. The conferees even celebrated their “victories.” No cap and trade, the fiasco at Copenhagen. To say that this is shortsighted misses the depth of the danger of their misplaced jollity. Klein points out… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Paradox of Change in the US
I watched a news program last night featuring a series of interviews with the occupiers in New York. The reporter asked each something like, “What do you want to see come out of your gatherings?” All the answers were something like, “Doh.” Inarticulate and disconnected. Clearly the many that were gathered had some common notion that underpinned the coordination of their actions to come together. Their complaint about the rampant inequality of the present political economy is a common belief, but it is very hard to discern much beyond this. Some of gatherings at the smaller scenes are experimenting with… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat’s on Your Mind?
* * * I’ve been back from my long trip for about 10 days and am finding that getting back to posting to this blog very difficult. What’s on your mind that you would like to see here? Sustainability remains the main theme. Use the comments function to send me any ideas.
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