 A QUIET
STAND OF ALDERS "The alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth All set neere to him long flourisheth." -- William Browne, c. 1613 |
|
A QUIET
STAND OF ALDERS "The alder, whose fat shadow nourisheth All set neere to him long flourisheth." -- William Browne, c. 1613 |
|
Welcome to A Quiet Stand of Alders, the author
website of Stanley Rice, a science educator
and writer. If you care passionately about the natural world and its
evolutionary history, this website is for you. Here you will find essays about ecology, evolution; and ethical, political, and religious issues connected with them. I intend my approach as constructive, although I do not hold back from criticism when the facts demand it. At the same time, I want to preserve a context of peaceful meditation, such as you will find in a quiet stand of alder trees down by the river. Peace and zeal are the fire and ice of a scientist, an educator, an evolutionist, or a naturalist. About every week, a new essay will be posted. You can find all of the old essays in the archives. I am embedded in the creationist and anti-environmentalist heartland of rural Oklahoma and will report to you from the front lines! I consider myself a missionary for evolution and ecology. Please feel free to contact me at the email below, or by posting comments on my evolution blog. The Evolution of a New Economy? January 7, 2012
The new year 2012 is shaping up to be remarkably like 2011. Continued global warming, continued opposition to the teaching of evolution and global warming, continued economic uncertainty, and another year with a Congress that considers its sole function to be partisan strife. But one of these years, enormous changes will have to come. As economist Kenneth Boulding pointed out decades ago, and as environmental entrepreneur Paul Gilding has pointed out in his 2010 book, The Great Disruption, growth cannot continue forever in a finite world. Gilding says that our current economic system will collapse, since it depends totally on economic growth. It will have to be replaced by an equilibrium economy. Gilding points out that this inevitable transition will not occur smoothly or gradually. At some point, a critical mass of people will realize that, in a finite world in which global warming will disrupt our lives, we have to change. Many of us realize this already; and we are a rapidly growing minority. The change will be disruptive, since entire industries (such as coal and oil) have refused to admit that we are about to collide with natural ecological limits; they will fight to keep people not just using but wasting natural resources. Big corporations will continue to demand government bailouts for their own business mistakes. They preach capitalism but demand socialism. The resulting chaos, in a world with natural disasters and scarce food, will not be pretty. One of these years—it might be 2012—will make 2011 seem like a very uneventful year. Gilding says that we will emerge from the chaos with a new and sustainable economic system. The old economy consists of many patterns of thought, which include: We have to keep growing to avoid collapse; we have to acquire ever more stuff in order to be happy; since the economy will always grow, we can put ourselves deeply into debt; ecological issues are something that we can take care of someday when we are all rich. These are the old, destructive thoughts that have brought our economy to the brink of disaster. But there are other economic patterns of thought: Our economy can be sustainable; happiness does not require lots of stuff; we can live within our means; we need to fit our economy into ecological limits now. There are millions of people (not enough millions) who believe this second set of ideas; and there are hundreds of companies that abide by them. That is, in the world of economic ideas, there is diversity. And then along comes catastrophic natural selection: an economic collapse. If we were all hypnotized by consumerism, then this collapse would mean extinction. However, natural selection will in this case favor the companies and individuals that are ready to pursue sustainability memes. Yes, there will be an enormous collapse; but many individuals and corporations are at least partly ready for it. There are, for example, hundreds of alternative energy companies ready to fill the void that will be left by the downfall of the petroleum industry. This sounds like good news. I wish I could believe it, but I believe that political conservatives will prevent us from making enough changes to survive the coming collapse; they will suppress the solutions. The CEOs of financial corporations, for example, want to keep us in debt rather than to let us live without owing them money. But they cannot wipe them out. At some point, a sustainable world may emerge. January-March 2008 April-June 2008 July-September 2008 October-December 2008 January-March 2009 (includes The Sabbath of the Earth) April-June 2009 (includes The End of Altruism and If Humans Vanished...) July-September 2009 (includes You Are an Ecosystem) October-December 2009 (includes Absurd Creativity and Fiscal Responsibility -- In Plants) January-March 2010 (includes Deep Time and Deep Intestines and The Evolution of Spite) April-June 2010 (includes My Neighbors' Earth and Trying to Interfere with Natural Selection) July-September 2010 (includes Global Warming—It's Happening Now and Green Is the New Green) October-December 2010 (includes Degrees of Freedom and I Humbly Suggest that Scientists Should Rule the World) January-March 2011 Peace Be Unto You Do Republican Leaders Hate God's Creation? A Christian View of Creation Biodiversity, Part One Biodiversity, Part Two Biodiversity, Part Three Biodiversity, Part Four The Capacity for Evil So Where Is Global Warming Now? The Evolved Human Mind Judgment of the Future How Dark Was My Valley April-July 2011 Relief Oath Upon the Earth The Long Emergency The Dangerous Conservative Viewpoint Cottonwood Investments, Part 2 Disruptive Energy Biodiversity and Noah's Ark: The Solution You've Been Waiting For Built to Last How to Reduce Our Impact on the Earth July-September 2011 Where Have All the Scarecrows Gone? Less Hope Now than Ever? You Can’t Do Just One Thing Our Great Big Opportunity What Rick Perry Thinks About Science The Murder of Altruism? How I Spent September 11 A Celebration of Evolutionary Science October-December 2011 Republican States: Socialist Beneficiaries of Big Government Altruism? Dinosaur Prints The Quiet Stand of Alders: Wildfire and Recovery So What Has Changed Since 2008? A Revolutionary Vision Home Sweet Home Beauty and Survival Laboratory Earth Warm Winter Thoughts |
  Honest Aba blog about evolution and related topics Books:  New Brunswick, New York: Facts on File, 2011.  Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2010.  New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2009.  New York: Facts on File, 2007. Upcoming Books: Encyclopedia of Evolution (Revised Edition) Articles Presentations |
