“When we hear the phrase ‘clean energy’ it normally calls to mind happy, innocent images of warm sunshine and fresh wind. But while sunshine and wind are obviously clean, the infrastructure we need to capture it is not. Far from it. The transition to renewables is going to require a dramatic increase in the extraction of metals and rare-earth minerals, with real ecological and social costs.” EnergyEnvironmentEconomicsGreenEcologySolar Book:Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World Source: Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
“Ecosystems are complex networks. They can be remarkably resilient under stress, but when certain key nodes begin to fail, knock-on effects reverberate through the web of life. This is how mass extinction events unfolded in the past. It’s not the external shock that does it – the meteor or the volcano: it’s the cascade of internal failures that follows. It can be difficult to predict how this kind of thing plays out. Things like tipping points and feedback loops make everything much riskier than it otherwise might be. This is what makes climate breakdown so concerning.” EnvironmentCrisisClimateClimate ChangeEcologyEcosystemsNetworksFeedback Loops Book:Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World Source: Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World