The collapse of complex human societies remains poorly understood and
current theories fail to model important features of historical examples of collapse.
Relationships among resources, capital, waste, and production form the basis for an
ecological model of collapse in which production fails to meet maintenance
requirements for existing capital. Societies facing such crises after having depleted
essential resources risk catabolic collapse, a self-reinforcing cycle of contraction
converting most capital to waste. This model allows key features of historical
examples of collapse to be accounted for, and suggests parallels between successional
processes in nonhuman ecosystems and collapse phenomena in human societies.
The collapse of complex human societies remains poorly understood and
current theories fail to model important features of historical examples of collapse.
Relationships among resources, capital, waste, and production form the basis for an
ecological model of collapse in which production fails to meet maintenance
requirements for existing capital. Societies facing such crises after having depleted
essential resources risk catabolic collapse, a self-reinforcing cycle of contraction
converting most capital to waste. This model allows key features of historical
examples of collapse to be accounted for, and suggests parallels between successional
processes in nonhuman ecosystems and collapse phenomena in human societies.
...once the population replacement rate R dips below 1, corresponding to a per-woman fertility rate of less than about 2.1 in a balanced age structure, then, apart from immigration which is inherently a temporary fix, the economic cost/benefit of having children becomes inexorably worse over time. To the extent that a rich society actually needs citizens with specialized and expensive educations – and perhaps it doesn’t – it is hard to see any path to reversing this unfavorable balance. A dramatic reduction in resource costs might do it, or a miracle of technology, or successful wars of conquest – but none of these seem very probable. / När befolkningsersättningsgraden R sjunker under 1, vilket motsvarar en fertilitetsgrad per kvinna på mindre än cirka 2,1 i en balanserad åldersstruktur, blir den ekonomiska kostnaden/nyttan av att skaffa barn obönhörligt sämre med tiden, bortsett från invandring som till sin natur är en tillfällig lösning. I den mån ett rikt samhälle faktiskt behöver medborgare med specialiserade och dyra utbildningar - och kanske behöver det inte det - är det svårt att se någon väg för att vända denna ogynnsamma balans. En dramatisk minskning av resurskostnaderna skulle kunna göra det, eller ett tekniskt mirakel, eller framgångsrika erövringskrig - men inget av detta verkar särskilt troligt.
No society with fertility below replacement level has yet recovered. / Inget samhälle med en fertilitet under ersättningsnivån har ännu återhämtat sig.
Gåvoekonomi – ekonomins ursprung?
av Aurora Ahlroos-Lilius 21 september, 2023
Hur fungerade handel före penningekonomin? Antropologer har lyft fram gåvornas ömsesidiga utbyte i något som kallats gåvoekonomi. Kan en ekonomi som bygger på sociala relationer snarare än ekonomiskt tänkande verkligen fungera? Burning Man, potlatch, öppen källkod som Linux och Wikipedia, rainbow gathering och blodgivning är alla exempel på former av gåvoekonomi
AI är inte en neutral teknologi. Humanekologen Alf Hornborg förklarar att modern teknik i allmänhet handlar om att några människor gör andra till tjänare.
Julian Aguon's book, No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies, has very little indication in the cover, the blurbs, the prefac, that it opposes militarism or empire, but it does, and people are reading it. #WorldBEYONDWar
Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into English. Intervju i Guardian hösten 2022
Karl Marx has long been criticized for his so-called ecological "Prometheanism"—an extreme commitment to industrialism, irrespective of natural limits. Author: Kohei Saito recently received a PhD in philosophy from Humboldt University, Berlin. In 2015 he was a guest researcher at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, where he helped edit Marx’s notebooks on natural science.
Author of surprise -- Kohei Saito -- hit Capital in the Anthropocene has developed his arguments in a new study of Karl Marx’s ecological thinking. Guardian 28.2.2023
"Crucial to imagining this alternative world is another strand of thinking in Marx’s notebooks: his interest in pre-capitalist, non-western societies. Contra to the ethnocentrism in some of his earlier work, in the end, Marx emphasised “the importance of learning” from these parts of the world “for the western societies”. Informed by this and his ecological studies, Marx’s idea of communism changed significantly, and was no longer growth-driven. “The pre-capitalist society had a unique way of communal regulations of land,” Saito says, “and they also imposed various rules on their production and consumption which realised a more steady-state of sustainable production.”
March 3, 2023
Nuclear Armageddon Games in Ukraine
by Joshua Frank
och inte bara i Ukraina utan också i t ex Taiwan, Saudiarabien osv. Riskerna med Kärnkrkraftverk och kärnavfall i perioder av krig och konflikter. J. Frank är Counterpunch-sajtens redaktör.
Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection
Lili Xia, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Benjamin Leon Bodirsky, Isabelle Weindl, Jonas Jägermeyr, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon & Ryan Heneghan
Own report) – The power struggle escalates between Washington and Berlin for the dominating position in Eastern and Southeastern Europe and is impacting the dispute over Ukraine’s reconstruction. Whereas the EU Commission had initially claimed leadership in that country’s reconstruction, Washington is now arguing that Brussels lacks the necessary “political and financial heft” to do so. The United States must therefore assume the leadership. Meanwhile, in Poland the USA is superseding an initiative being promoted by Berlin to create a European air defense system, at the same time, establishing Poland as a hub for the proliferation of US nuclear technology in Eastern and Southeastern Europe – at the expense of the French nuclear industry. The USA is using the Three Seas Initiative to begin to transform Eastern and Southeastern Europe into another market for US liquified gas. This regional project comprises twelve nations between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas and was launched by Poland and others in 2015 at Washington’s suggestion. This initiative runs counter to German interests in the region.