NASA’s twin-satellite mission known as GRACE has helped scientists estimate how much water is being depleted from the world’s major aquifers, but there is great uncertainty about how much water these aquifers hold. Image courtesy of NASA. Imagine if...
I was in Greece from June 23 through July 5, and, while I had no meetings with government officials that might give me insider information on how events there are likely to unfold, nevertheless the experience was both enlightening...
The Northern Mexican gartnersnake (Thamnophis eques) lives in wetland areas alongside rivers. Over 90 percent of its riverside habitat has disappeared in the last century due to overgrazing, water diversions, wildfires and drought. A proposed diversion of the Gila...
As the metrics of sustainability become ever more robust and sophisticated, it is ever more apparent to many of us who study those metrics that industrial civilization, as currently configured, is unsustainable. Ecological footprint analysis tells us that we...
Economic theories, though social constructions, can reflect reality to varying degrees. In the face of dire environmental challenges, adopting a realistic theory is key to the survival of global civilization. The neoliberal emphasis on limitless growth and monetary flows,...
On Earth Day Eve 2015, Nate Hagens presented Turning 21 in the Anthropocene: An Invitation for Young People to Participate in their Future at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Dr. Hagens’ talk was co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Center for...
Multiple human-caused threats to the biosphere are the overarching challenge of our time. I’ve written before about the fundamentally different approaches of those who believe that solutions can be achieved within our capitalist economic system (for example, by designing products...
Richard’s new book AFTERBURN: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels is released this week. We’re running some of the essays from the book on PCI this week. Use Discount Code PCI2015 for 20% off your purchase of the printed book. ...
Part one of a four-part video series. Released in conjunction with Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels. Is modern society hitting our defining moment, the point of diminishing returns? In this short video, Richard Heinberg explores how — in our economy, the environment, and...
The beginning of the Blue Nile near its outlet from Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia. Photo by Ondrej Zvácek/Creative Commons Earlier this month, the foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia reached agreement on basic principles for managing what...