Possible Readings for

E. Environment and Sustainability


Climate Change

“Commentary: 12-Step Program to Stop Climate Change,” by Alisa Gravitz, Yes! Magazine, Winter 2007, 2 sp.

12 reasonable and necessary goals for stopping climate change based on the work of scientists at Princeton University’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), but filtered by Co-op America.

“The Pentagon’s Weather Nightmare: The climate could change radically, and fast — that would be the mother of all national security issues,” by David Stipp, Fortune, January 26, 2004, 10 p.

An ice age induced by global warming could lead to a very unstable and dangerous world.

“A New Ice Age?” by Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation, February 12, 2004 (March 1, 2004 issue), 3 p.

Fear of an ice age spawned by global warming may push the World Bank to finance renewable energy.

“Today’s Prophetic Noahs and Paul Reveres Sound Alarms,” by Shepherd Bliss, CommonDreams.org, May 11, 2005, 4 sp.

Description of this article.

“Description of Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World by Richard Heinberg,” Amazon.com, 1 sp.

One-sentence description of this article.

Richard Heinberg interviewed by Jim Puplava (transcript), Financial Sense Newshour (Global Public Media), August 6, 2004, 20 sp.

Richard Heinberg, author of Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, summarizes the main theses of his book — that to avoid disaster, we must reduce our population and resource usage.

“How Global Warming May Cause the Next Ice Age…” by Thom Hartmann, CommonDreams.org, January 30, 2004, 8 p.

Global warming might cause the next ice age and the climate might shift in just a few years.

“Case Closed: The Debate about Global Warming is Over,” by Gregg Easterbrook, The Brookings Institution, May 17, 2006, 27 p.

Summarizes the scientific case for global warming and proposes a market-based system of auctioned or traded greenhouse gas permits, modeled on the acid-rain trading program.

Sustainable Development

“Sustainable development — Is it Sustainable,” by Phillip W. DeVous, Acton Institute Commentary, August 28, 2002, 5 p.

Critique of steady state and zero-growth models; our human creativity can find solutions to scarcity. (It may not belong here, but it’s a good alternative perspective.

“A Race to the Top?” by Elizabeth Grossman, Yes! Magazine, Spring 2004, 2 sp.

Beginning in 2006, all electronic equipment produced and sold in the European Union (EU) will be subject to two sweeping regulations, one designed to keep toxics-laced electronics out of municipal waste, the other to reduce use of toxic substances in the first place.

“High-Tech Goes Green,” by Ted Smith and Chad Raphael, Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, Yes! Magazine, Spring 2003, 4 sp.

New European Union rules banning heavy metals and requiring manufacturers to take back discarded computers could set a new global standard.

“Lethal Model 2: The Limits to Growth Revisited,” by William D. Nordhaus, Yale University, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Volume 2, 1992, 59 pages.

An economist challenges the economic model and assumptions of Limits to Growth and argues for a “best-guess strategy” for balancing growth against the environment.

“Who’s afraid of economic growth? Behind today’s trendy arguments about environmentalism, ethical living and happiness, there lurks a deep disdain for material progress,” by Daniel Ben-Ami, Spiked, May 4, 2006, 15 sp.

Argues against cynicism about the benefits of economic growth.

Sprawl

“The Case Against Sprawl,” by Al Norman, from the book “Slam-Dunking Wal-Mart", 11 sp.

Makes the case against retail sprawl.