Christopher X J. Jensen
Professor, Pratt Institute

Brian Czech warns ecologists against drinking the “sustainable growth Koolaid”

Posted 20 Jun 2012 / 0

Steady State The Daly News “Real Dichotomies Are Not Made ‘False’ by Soft Science or Political Pandering” What’s really valuable here is the clarification of what is cultural construction (‘there does not have to be a conflict between economic growth and environmental protection’) and what is scientific reality (‘there is actually an empirically-demonstrable conflict between Read More

A Minor Post, Anthropogenic Change, Conservation Biology, Economics, Ethics, Sustainability, Web

Science Magazine outlines the big scientific issues at Rio+20

Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0

Science “Science for Sustainable Development” The distinction between “Sustainable Development Goals” and the “Millenium Development Goals” is interesting: adding sustainability and thus environmental concerns to these goals necessitates more direct action on the part of developed nations. I am also intrigued by the idea that in order to truly make a go at technologically averting Read More

A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Public Policy, Sustainability

Elinor Ostrom, pioneering social scientist and scholar of cooperation, is dead at 78

Posted 18 Jun 2012 / 0

Wikipedia “Elinor Ostrom” The Huffington Post David Sloan Wilson blog “Farewell, Lin Ostrom” CHANS-Net blog “Elinor Ostrom leaves inspiring legacy“

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Cultural Anthropology, Obituary, Political Science, Social Science

Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses the economically destabilizing impact of rent-seeking

Posted 06 Jun 2012 / 0

WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “Joseph Stiglitz Explains the Price of Inequality” As I have suggested before [1, 2], in order to stabilize our economy, we have to incentivize the generation of income from actual labor — not simply owning resources.

A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts

Economic Whales and their Parasites

Posted 27 May 2012 / 0

Today’s New York Times Business section features an interesting article on the recent JPMorgan multi-billion loss. Entitled “The Hunch, the Pounce and the Kill: How Boaz Weinstein and Hedge Funds Outsmarted JPMorgan“, the article explains how a risk-prone hedge fund manager named Boaz Weinstein was able to exploit errors by JPMorgan and end up on Read More

Articles, Economic sustainability, Economics, Ethics, Parasitism, Public Policy, Social Capital, System Stability

Will invasive truffles become the bane of European epicures?

Posted 23 May 2012 / 0

Smithsonian Magazine “Truffle Trouble in Europe: The Invader Without Flavor“

A Minor Post, Economics, Invasive Species

Larry Arnhart reviews E.O. Wilson’s “The Social Conquest of Earth”

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Darwinian Conservatism “Darwinian Natural Right in E. O. Wilson’s New Book” One of the most interesting issues raised by this post has to do with “evolutionary ethics” and that question of whether there is a natural morality. I would caution against confusing this issue with the “naturalistic fallacy”, which to me has to do with Read More

A Minor Post, Cooperation, Ethics, Social Norms, Web

David Sloan Wilson differentiates “Evolutionary Religious Studies” from “The New Atheism”

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Huffington Post David Sloan Wilson “The New Atheism and Evolutionary Religious Studies: Clarifying Their Relationship” It might surprise you which discipline is more scientific in their approach!

A Minor Post, Cultural Evolution, Evolution, Religion, Social Norms

Can environmentalists and the religious faithful work together to preserve creation?

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Star Tribune “Conservationists can learn a lot from religion“

A Minor Post, Conservation Biology, Religion, Sustainability

Are the most lucrative components of the financial sector parasites on the larger economy?

Posted 21 May 2012 / 0

Marketplace “High-frequency trading: Bad for markets… and the soul?“

A Minor Post, Economic sustainability, Economics, Parasitism, Radio & Podcasts