If media attention is any measure of popular thinking- then we have indeed finally arrived in the Anthropocene.   Thanks to the leadership (and hard work) of Jan Zalasiewicz, who initiated and convened the Anthropocene Working Group of the International  in London two weeks ago, there... [More]

"Global warming is essentially forever." states David Archer in a nice blog post at fast company about the long-term effects of our current carbon emissions to the atmosphere.  Yet more evidence that the Anthropocene is here to stay.  Reminds me of one of my first blog posts - Is managing ... [More]

What kind of biosphere do you want?  Great question!  And great to see it connected with beautiful prize-winning graphics at visualizing.org.  But on thinking further, it seems clearer than ever that the inspiration behind this- the Planetary Boundaries concept, is going completely in... [More]

“We cannot expect nature to remain in a constant condition and thus provide us with a simple solution to the questions of what is “natural” and what is desirable.”  (Botkin 1990, p 181) .  Just one of many great thoughts in Daniel Botkin’s 1990 classic: Discor... [More]

What happens when humans finally win the war with nature and end up in charge of ecology?  A question for the future?  Think again.  In “Peak Wood: Nature Does Impose Limits”, John Perlin describes what happens when human societies, starting in prehistory, have completely ... [More]

Now that we’re busy hacking the planet, we need all the help we can get.  We humans are pretty good at solving complex problems like choosing the next move in chess- better than most machines.  But as Gary Kasparov notes in Clive Thompson’s Wired piece on the Cyborg Advantage, ... [More]

With carbon, climate and COP 15 in the news, Google and Microsoft are now battling over carbon mindshare, introducing the latest web-based “Carbonware” designed to help combat carbon emissions and global warming.  These add to a growing list that includes the many “carbon foot... [More]

Our planet is heating up in a hurry!  Call in the Earth doctors!  Let’s fix the planet!   Now that we’ve pushed Earth systems out of the comfort zone, Earth and environmental scientists are increasingly being called on to address the big questions that affect all of us, ... [More]