Apocalypse, Technofix or Back-to-Nature?
A Reflection on the Future of Technology in Environmental & Energy Policy
by Jelte Harnmeijer, April 2012
Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare (1599)
“There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
CO2 leads Temperature during Pleistocene deglaciation
J. D. Shakun et al., 2012. ‘Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation’, Nature, 484: p. 49-54.
The Law’s Majestic Equality
“Abstract
Optimism about the use of laws, constitutions, and rights to achieve social change has never been higher among practitioners. But the academic literature is skeptical that courts can direct resources toward the poor. This paper develops a nuanced account in which not all courts are the same. Countries and policy areas characterized by judicial decisions with broader applicability tend to avoid the potential anti-poor bias of courts, whereas areas dominated by individual litigation and individualized effects are less likely to have pro-poor outcomes. Using data on social and economic rights cases in five countries, the authors estimate the potential distributive impact of litigation by examining whether the poor are over or under-represented among the beneficiaries of litigation, relative to their share of the population. They find that the impact of courts varies considerably across the cases, but is positive and pro-poor in two of the five countries (India and South Africa), distribution-neutral in two others (Indonesia and Brazil), and sharply anti-poor in Nigeria. Overall, the results of litigation are much more positive for the poor than conventional wisdom would suggest.”
See also: http://www.economist.com/node/21551459
The first twilight of Spring
“It is in this unearthly first hour of spring twilight that earth’s almost agonized livingness is most felt. This hour is so dreadful to some people that they hurry indoors and turn on the light.” – E. Bowen
猶大
The Chinese name ‘猶大’ has so-just been bestowed upon me.
Anecdote: a unique feature of my ‘Western’ name (‘Jelte’): there is no correct way to pronounce it.
(This assumes that one gets to set at least some of the conditions applying to the usage of ones’ name)
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
(±170-180CE) Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, translated by George Long (1862)
“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present—I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bedclothes and keep myself warm?—But this is more pleasant.—Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human being, and dost thou not make haste to do that which is according to thy nature?—But it is necessary to take rest also.—It is necessary: however nature has fixed bounds to this too: she has fixed bounds both to eating and drinking, and yet thou goest beyond these bounds, beyond what is sufficient; yet in thy acts it is not so, but thou stoppest short of what thou canst do. So thou lovest not thyself, for if thou didst, thou wouldst love thy nature and her will. But those who love their several arts exhaust themselves in working at them unwashed and without food; but thou valuest thy own nature less than the turner values the turning art, or the dancer the dancing art, or the lover of money values his money, or the vainglorious man his little glory. And such men, when they have a violent affection to a thing, choose neither to eat nor to sleep rather than to perfect the things which they care for. But are the acts which concern society more vile in thy eyes and less worthy of thy labour?”
Text: http://www.bartleby.com/2/3/
Audio: http://www.archive.org/download/meditations_0708_librivox/meditations_0708_librivox_64kb_mp3.zip
