Well, it’s not over yet (thankfully), so this should really be in present tense.
What is perhaps most important, to me, is what I didn’t do this year — which is stumble through the long, hectic, progression of travel, last-minute shopping, shipping, sleeping on relatives’ beds or couches, packing, getting on the plane again, etc. Instead we had (are having) what might superficially seem to be a boring holiday season. At home. Just the three of us, mostly, quiet days, eating leftover turkey and cranberry sauce (of course we miss our other loved ones, so it’s a trade-off). Tilling the spring garden plot on an unseasonably warm Christmas Eve.
And reading.
It’s been heavenly. I get so little time to read these days. OK, I am a geek. Not only did I spend much of Christmas Day (and into the night) reading, I was reading about the end of the world. But it’s all good — I’m used to this kind of fare by now. On the Big Day I devoured, in its entirety, Ronald Wright’s “A short history of progress“. Which is not such a feat: only 132 pages of large-format text (not including notes) and a real page-turner. Covers a lot of the same ground as Jared Diamond’s ”
Emmett — Good luck with the Nordhaus and Shellenberger book. Based on things I’ve read about it, I haven’t been able to bring myself to pick it up. :-/ But I’m sure there’s something there of value, if only as an exercise in assessing flawed arguments.
Happy New Year (almost!) John. I’ve started the N&S book and there are some excellent points in it about the various ways in which ignoring development of human society can short-circuit efforts at environmental protection. But, so far, I am left wondering what any of this discussion has to do with environmental protection. Of course we need to help people out of poverty, and of course everything is connected. And of course getting China and India and everyone else up to the standards of living of USA/Europe would make it easier for the world to concentrate on the “luxury” issues like how to preseve the tiny fragments of nature that might still remain. But if getting there results in the wholesale destruction of our natural resources or heritage or whatever one wants to call it, how will we then rebuild it after we’ve achieved a chicken in every pot?
I am hoping (probably in vain) that the latter half of the book contains the answer. More to come . . .
Hi Emmett,
I too have been fortunate to devote some hours to reading (other stuff than BEF articles…), although I had to combine it with some traveling. Of course you have enough on your table as it is, but I would anyway like to recommend a book that I just started:
The Power of the Machine: Global Inequalities of Economy, Technology, and Environment, by Alf Hornborg.
It is interesting, but disturbing, reading about the state of our world and its inequalities. If you ever get the time, it’s a very relevant piece of literature. Makes me wonder what we can actually do to make a difference, and if spending months doing BEF experiments is ever gonna make a difference… I’m struggling with issues like this, now that I have to formulate a five-year research plan for junior professor application to the Swedish research council.
Hope all is well, and a happy new year!
/Lars
Happy New Year Lars. Thanks for the tip — I will have to check out this book. I sympathize with your struggle to come to terms with how relevant our research is, and what is te best way forward. I also think about this a lot. Though it can be stressful, I think wrestling with these questions is healthy both for us as researchers and for society. Good luck!
Yikes! I just discovered that the whole second half of his post has mysteriously disappeared, and I have no idea how it happened. Nor can I get it back. Clearly it was online when the comments above were written. Troubling.
Hi Duffy. Haven’t read this book, but I like books about catastrophes. Have you read book “Spores” by John Sims?