Archive for category: Materials use

These are the CASSE blog articles on materials use.

Maybe We Should Be the Ones Grokking: Thoughts on Elon Musk’s xAI Super-Polluting Supercomputer

September 26, 2024/7 Comments/in Corporate Reform, Democracy, Helene Langlamet, Ideology, Materials use, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Helene Langlamet

by Helene Langlamet

Is it just our filter bubbles? Or is an understanding of the environmental impact of artificial intelligence (AI) slowly making its way into the mainstream? Recently, a spate of news stories have highlighted the hefty environmental footprint of AI. Take for instance this recent article by the Washington Post on the hidden water footprint of using AI chatbots. Or this article by The Guardian on how the greenhouse gas emissions of data centers may be almost eight times higher than large technology companies like Google or Microsoft will acknowledge.

San Jose: An Information Economy Giant with Whopping Footprints

September 19, 2024/9 Comments/in Alix Underwood, GDP, Inequality, Limits to Growth, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology, Trophic Theory of Money, Wealth /by Helene Langlamet

by Alix Underwood

What is your reaction when you hear the tagline “city with the highest GDP per capita in the United States”? Perhaps you would like to live in that city. Perhaps you think it sets a positive example for other cities. If so, you are not alone. Corporate and political leaders have been prioritizing economic growth for decades, and this mindset has trickled down until it has saturated the public.

The problem is that there is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection.

Two Cheers for Circularity

February 8, 2024/9 Comments/in Gary Gardner, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Here’s some bad news for folks who see a circular economy as a way out of the polycrisis: Trends in global materials use, which recently bent modestly in the direction of circular flows, are flattening once again. The Circle Economy Foundation in Amsterdam reported in January that secondary materials amounted to only 7.2 percent of all materials in the global economy in 2023, down from 9.1 percent in 2018.

How to Avoid the Scarcity Scare

January 11, 2024/17 Comments/in Consumption, Gary Gardner, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

In congressional testimony last November, Isabel Munilla, an official from the Department of Energy, gave an alarming assessment of U.S. reliance on foreign minerals. For 31 of 50 critical minerals, she warned,”…the U.S. relies on other countries for more than 50 percent of our requirements…Our reliance on non-allied foreign sources for these materials is neither sustainable nor secure.” Munilla employed what we might call the “scarcity scare”—the panic that supplies of critical minerals may be insufficient for all nations to participate in the transition to clean,

Time to Make a Material Difference

December 14, 2023/4 Comments/in Consumption, Gary Gardner, Governance, Materials use, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Well, COP 28 ended yesterday with (seeming) agreement to (sort of) walk down the fossil fuel ladder toward a (not for a while) sustainable future. Geez! It’s almost 2024, more than half a century since Limits to Growth was published, and the human family is in a pouting mood. Why is it like pulling teeth to do the right thing, sustainability-wise? Why are we sleepwalking toward a cliff?

Which Future?

August 10, 2023/21 Comments/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Gary Gardner, Materials use, Pollution, Postgrowth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability, Technology, Wellbeing /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

One of the more puzzling features of modern life is the starkly contrasting visions of humanity’s near-term future. Watch thirty minutes of commercial-filled TV and you get a cheery sense that all is well in the world. A BMW, an anti-depressant, or a Caribbean vacation—these will ensure ever greater happiness.

At the same time, a 2021 poll in ten countries found that four in ten young people are hesitant to have children because of the climate crisis.

Tons, Hectares, or Dollars? Measuring the Pressure Exerted by the Economy on the Biosphere

June 15, 2023/4 Comments/in Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Greg Mikkelson, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gregory M. Mikkelson

Like a doctor measuring a patient’s vital signs, environmental scientists use various indicators to assess the health of the global ecosystem. These planetary vital signs are reckoned in a variety of units, such as tons of greenhouse gas emitted or hectares of land deforested. Meanwhile, conventional economists try to measure everything in terms of dollars (or other currencies). For example, they assign monetary values to the “ecosystem services”

Bulldozing the Planet

March 16, 2023/5 Comments/in Economic Growth, Environment, Greg Mikkelson, Materials use, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gregory M. Mikkelson

Just as it does for a certain “old man on a green bike,” my commitment to car-free travel often drives me to greater levels of exercise, and more vivid experiences of nature, than one would get behind the wheel of a car. Unfortunately, economic growth has progressively degraded one such experience. Trips to my partner’s lake cottage begin with a commuter train in Montréal and end with an hour-long walk on a dirt road through the countryside.