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June 21, 2010

Clive Hamilton: Requiem for a Species


Clive Hamilton at the RSA back in May 2010.

I've seldom read a book which brings our current predicament so accurately to the point as Clive Hamilton's "Requiem for a Species". The book discusses primarily the human nature, how we deal psychologically with reminders of death and how our divorce from nature has led us on a path where a 4 degree temperature rise is pretty much certain in 2100. He also includes the obsession with economic growth and explains how this has led us to a new kind of religion or raison d'etre.

This book does not set out once more to raise the alarm to encourage us to take radical measures to head off climate chaos. There have been any number of books and reports in recent years explaining just how dire the future looks and how little time we have left to act. This book is about why we have ignored those warnings, and why it may now be too late. It is a book about the frailties of the human species as expressed in both the institutions we built and the psychological dispositions that have led us on the path of self-destruction. It is about our strange obsessions, our hubris, and our penchant for avoiding the facts. It is the story of a battle within us between the forces that should have caused us to protect the Earth - our capacity to reason and our connection to Nature - and those that, in the end, have won out - our greed, materialism and alienation from Nature. And it is about the 21st century consequences of these failures. (from earthscan.co.uk)

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Filed under  //   books   theory  

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November 4, 2009

Stewart Brand: Whole Earth Discipline

Stewart Brand, the publisher of the Whole Earth Catalogue back in the 60's proposes a whole different view on slums. Villages of the earth are drying out and it's in town where poor people find opportunity, action and a cash economy. Slum dwellers are poor but intensely creative and urban. Considering population growth on earth in the next decades, squatters are building the world. Brand's notion is that slums do not undermine prosperity instead they help to create prosperity. Although I don't agree on every point with him, his TED talk is an interesting presentation about a completely different approach on the topics of cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering which will surely provoke broad debate.

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Filed under  //   cities   debate   debate   theory  

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November 1, 2009

Bruce Sterling on shaping things

In his speech at the Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign in Potsdam, Germany in Mai 2007 as well as in his 2005 book "shaping things" Bruce Sterling proposes a whole different perspective on "things". Traceable, searchable things for reduced cognitive load and less opportunity cost. More than two years later, these days when Google launched the all famous Navigator app for Android phones this becomes even more relevant.

I can also warmly suggest his blog beyond the beyond for wired.com

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Filed under  //   future scenarios   technology   theory   things  

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October 31, 2009

Daniel Goleman: Ecological Intelligence

Daniel Goleman is a psychologist and the author of the best-selling book Emotional Intelligence. His newest book, Ecological Intelligence, is a look through the haze of the true cost of what we buy. He places a strong emphasis on industrial life cycle assessment, a discipline that blends industrial engineering and chemistry with environmental science and biology — in order to assess how man-made systems impact natural ones.

In the interview Goleman mentions goodguide.com a website which claims to "help you find better products that represent your values, avoid products that are harmful to your health, the environment, or society – and enable you to take actions to help improve the world."

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Filed under  //   consumption   theory   things  

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October 31, 2009

Rachel Armstrong on metabolic materials for architecture

Rachel Armstrong proposes living metabolic materials for the practise of architecture. It's a good example that we need to broaden our discussions about sustainable architecture and show that there is more to a sustainable and resilient future than just (energy-) efficiency but also natural effectivness of which we may benefit.

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Filed under  //   architecture   metabolisms   theory  

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