For the last half dozen years this web site has served as my "explorer's notebook".  It documents, in a very personal voice, my journey of discovery through the worlds of energy, ecology, economics and human culture.  It describes my point of view on the largely unrecognized, widely misunderstood and potentially tragic predicament facing humanity as a result of our refusal to accept limits on our activities or aspirations.

I no longer see any point in singling out individual aspects of the human experience for special attention or criticism. Population growth, climate change, global corporatism, chemical pollution, resource depletion, species extinctions, ocean overfishing and acidification, global financial instability, mounting social disparities and injustices are all merely symptoms of a system that has been out of control for centuries (despite our earnest attempts to convince ourselves otherwise.) We have no choice left - or perhaps we never really had any other choice - but to ride the dragon until the human overshoot corrects itself, as overshoots always do.

The silver lining I see is that all the pressures coming from this process of correction can be useful goads toward personal self-development. "In all matters, strive to do the right thing." What does this mean to each of us? What does mindful living in the midst of the whirlwind entail, what does it require of us in terms of personal growth, in the development of wisdom and self-awareness? How might each of us resolve our alienation - from each other, from our societies, from nature, from our own place in the universe?  How may we find the re-connections that are essential if we are to emerge from this tumultuous, careless human adolescence into individual and collective adulthood? These are deep questions for dark times.
Paul Chefurka

The Visionary Art of Kathleen Farago May

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Most Recent Articles:
The Many Faces of Denial (November 14, 2013)
Thermodynamics Reading List (November 9, 2013)
A Thermodynamic Answer to Fermi's Paradox (October 29, 2013)
A Thermodynamic Critique (October 19, 2013)
The Evolutionary Psychology of Fukushima (September 13, 2013)
Paradise Lost (July 25, 2013)
The Dawn of Cybernetic Civilization (July 16, 2013)
Thermodynamic Footprints (Updated March 23, 2013)
No Really, How Sustainable Are We? (May 16, 2013)
The Thermodynamics of Civilization (May 17, 2013)

Articles that outline the core of my views:

The Situation:
A 50,000-Foot View of the Global Crisis (July 8, 2011)
Population: The Elephant in the Room (May 2007)
Is Peak Population Almost Here? (February 22, 2011)
The Neuropsychology of Climate Change (December, 2009)
The Guardian Institutions of Hierarchy (July, 2009)
Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look (May 12, 2012)

My Response:

Climbing the Ladder of Awareness (October 19, 2012)
Enough! (November, 2010)
Bearing Witness to Collapse (April 26, 2011)
Introducing the Cultural Psychopomp (February 14, 2012)
Finding The Gift (September 29, 2012)

Complete list of articles

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1. Dead asleep. At this stage there seem to be no fundamental problems, just some shortcomings in human organization, behaviour and morality that can be fixed with the proper attention to rule-making. People at this stage tend to live their lives happily, with occasional outbursts of annoyance around election times or the quarterly corporate earnings seasons.
   
   
2. Awareness of one fundamental problem. Whether it's Climate Change, overpopulation, Peak Oil, chemical pollution, oceanic over-fishing, biodiversity loss, corporatism, economic instability or sociopolitical injustice, one problem seems to engage the attention completely. People at this stage tend to become ardent activists for their chosen cause. They tend to be very vocal about their personal issue, and blind to any others.
   
   
3. Awareness of many problems. As people let in more evidence from different domains, the awareness of complexity begins to grow.  At this point a person worries about the prioritization of problems in terms of their immediacy and degree of impact. People at this stage may become reluctant to acknowledge new problems - for example, someone who is committed to fighting for social justice and against climate change may not recognize the problem of resource depletion.  They may feel that the problem space is already complex enough, and the addition of any new concerns will only dilute the effort that needs to be focused on solving the "highest priority" problem.
   
   
4. Awareness of the interconnections between the many problems. The realization that a solution in one domain may worsen a problem in another marks the beginning of large-scale system-level thinking. It also marks the transition from thinking of the situation in terms of a set of problems to thinking of it in terms of a predicament. At this point the possibility that there may not be a solution begins to raise its head.
   
   People who arrive at this stage tend to withdraw into tight circles of like-minded individuals in order to trade insights and deepen their understanding of what's going on. These circles are necessarily small, both because personal dialogue is essential for this depth of exploration, and because there just aren't very many people who have arrived at this level of understanding.
   
   
5. Awareness that the predicament encompasses all aspects of life.  This includes everything we do, how we do it, our relationships with each other, as well as our treatment of the rest of the biosphere and the physical planet. With this realization, the floodgates open, and no problem is exempt from consideration or acceptance. The very concept of a "Solution" is seen through, and cast aside as a waste of effort.
   

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• The Many Faces of Denial (November 14, 2013)
• Thermodynamics Reading List (November 9, 2013)
• A Thermodynamic Answer to Fermi's Paradox (October 29, 2013)
• A Thermodynamic Critique (October 19, 2013)
  
• The Evolutionary Psychology of Fukushima (September 13, 2013)
• Paradise Lost (July 25, 2013)
  
• The Dawn of Cybernetic Civilization (July 16, 2013)
• Looking at the Limit (May 27, 2013)
• No Really, How Sustainable Are We? (May 16, 2013)
• Thermodynamic Footprints (Updated March 23, 2013)
  
• Climbing the Ladder of Awareness (October 19, 2012)
• Carrying Capacity and Overshoot: Another Look (May 12, 2012)
• A Taxonomy and Epistemology of the Human Predicament (May 24, 2011)
  
• Responding to Peak Food, Oil and Population (February 24, 2011)
  
• Is Peak Population Almost Here? (February 22, 2011)
  
• The Oil-Fired, Grain-Fed Global Food Crisis (February 17, 2011)
  
• How tight is the link between oil, food and population? (February 15, 2011)
  
• Connecting the Dots: Food, Fossil Fuel and Population (January 31, 2011)
• Our Interactive Ecological Predicament (January, 2011)
• Population Redux (January, 2011)
• Food Prices and Oil Prices (November, 2010)
  
• Decarbonizing Civilization (November, 2010)
  
• The Footprints of Consumption (December, 2009)
• Population, Consumption and our Ecological Footprint (December, 2009)
• The 2012 Meme (November, 2009)
  
• From the Head to the Heart (PDF of presentation, Oct. 2009)
  
• The Guardian Institutions of Hierarchy (July, 2009)
  
• The Limits to (Population) Growth (July, 2009)
  
• How the heck did it come to this? (March, 2009)
  
• Homo Economicus, Homo Ecologicus (December, 2008) 
• Approaching the Limits To Growth (PDF of presentation slides, Oct. 2008)
• The Ecology of Overpopulation (September, 2008)
• None of the Above (September, 2008)
• Political Will, Political Won't (September, 2008)
• Who Am I? (Jan. 2008)
• Energy Use and Population Growth (August 2008)
  
• The View From the Peak (Mar. 2007)
  
• A Peak Oil Story on CBC TV (Mar. 2007)
  
• The Converging Crisis (radio interview - Jan. 2008)
• The Converging Crisis (PDF of presentation slides - Feb. 2008)
• A List of Countries with Energy Supply Problems (Feb. 2008)
  
• Why I am Against Biofuels (May 2007)
  
• Mexico: Peak Oil in Action (Sep. 2007)
  
• The Saudi Peak - a Hypothesis about the Iraq War (May 2007)
• Oil Prices in 2012 (May 2008)

• Finding The Gift (September 29, 2012)
• A Postcard From the Path (June 6, 2012)
  
• Introducing the Cultural Psychopomp (February 14, 2012)
  
• The Destiny of Species by Means of Natural Progression (October 15, 2011)
  Creating a new "Natural Order" (May 18, 2011)
• Reality and Illusion, Awareness and Love (April 23, 2011)
  
• Slaying the Hydra (March 14, 2011)
• Enough! (November, 2010)
• Finding Peace of Mind (February, 2010)
  
• Reflections on a Non-Theistic Spirituality (January, 2010)
• Transfiguration (Oct. 2009)
• Attachments, Connections and Love (Oct. 2009)
  
• The Story of my Vision Quest (Aug. 2009)
  
• Reflections on the Vision Quest (Aug. 2009)
• What is Enlightenment? (July, 2009)
  
• The Importance of Enlightenment (June, 2009)
  
• The Message of Overconsumption (June, 2009)
  
• A Way of Seeing (June, 2009)
  
• Hide or Seek? (May, 2009)
  
• The Awakening (May, 2009)
  
• The Global Movement that Barack Obama Isn't Leading (May, 2009)
  
• Meat Computers with Cultural Programs (April, 2009)
  
• Sacred Demise (March, 2009)
  
• The Parable of the Marriage (November, 2008)
• Gathering Momentum (November, 2008)
• From Despair to Hope (November, 2008)
  
• Separation, Awakening and Revolution (November, 2008)
• Changing the Dream (October, 2008)
  
• The Twelve Suggestions (October, 2008)
• The Spiritual Effects of Comprehending the Crisis (Aug, 2008)
  
• (July, 2008)
  
• Solutions or Responses? (July, 2008)
• The Potential for Conflict (July, 2008)
  
• Cultural Change at the Limits to Growth (May 2008)
  
• Fighting Despair (Feb. 2008)
• Population Decline - Red Herrings and Hope (July 2007)
• What Can I Do? A Personal Action Plan (June 2007)
• An Acronym for the Times: I HELP (Apr. 2007)

• Recommended: The Awakening the Dreamer Initiative
• Recommended: The Ascent of Humanity (online book)
  

• A 50,000-Foot View of the Global Crisis (July 8, 2011)
  
• Bearing Witness to Collapse (April 26, 2011)
  
• Urbanitemares (January, 2010)
• The Neuropsychology of Climate Change (December, 2009)
• The New Normal (December, 2008)
  
• Is Fusion the Answer? (August, 2008)
• Time Horizons, Overshoot, Genetics and Resilience (Jan. 2007)
  
• Why We Don't See Risks: The Hyperbolic Discount Function (Mar. 2007)
  
• Demographic Transition Through Increased Energy? (Aug. 2007)
• Why Tinkering Won't Fix It (Jan. 2008)
  

• Population: The Elephant in the Room (May 2007)
  
• World Energy and Population: Trends to 2100 (Oct. 2007)
  

• Part 1: World Energy to 2050: Forty Years of Decline (Oct. 2007)
  
• Part 2: Energy Intensity and GDP: To Have or Have Not (Dec. 2007)
  
• Part 3: Can Wind Power Plug the Energy Gap? (Feb. 2008)
  
• Part 4: Africa in 2040 (HTML) (PDF) (Feb. 2008)