Bitumen is junk energy. A joule, or unit of energy, invested in extracting and processing bitumen returns only four to six joules in the form of crude oil. In contrast, conventional oil production in North America returns about 15 joules.… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“The combined activities of our enormous population are already producing breathtaking effects. Our planet is only 12,700 kilometers in diameter—about three times the distance between New York and Los Angeles—and we can easily travel halfway around it in less than… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
hen the price of carbon reaches $100 a tonne, then it will become an economically viable business proposition to start taking COâ‚‚ out of… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“As ingenuity gaps widen the gulfs of wealth and power among us, we need imagination, metaphor and empathy more than ever, to help us… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
Our marvelous new information technologies boost our power and opportunities for political engagement, but they can also disempower us by contributing to extreme political… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“Conventional economics is the dominant intellectual rationalization of today’s world order. As we’ve overextended the growth phase of our global adaptive cycle, this rationalization… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“As I looked over this curious document, I was particularly struck by a band of text across the bottom. It bore the title “Paperwork… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“We can see how our world is, in many ways, becoming more complex, fast-paced, and unpredictable. As a result, the problems we face are… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“Today’s overwhelming volume and variety of information makes it possible—by selecting and connecting data points carefully—to paint practically any picture of the world and… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“Writing and repairing software generally takes far more time and is far more expensive than initially anticipated. “Every feature that is added and every… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“The result is a dangerous lag between the natural sciences and the social sciences. The natural sciences and the technologies they spawn carry us… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“We might be excused our ignorance in this case, because ocean-atmosphere systems are, after all, almost inconceivably complex. Less easy to excuse is our… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
“To support an adequate standard of living, humankind still needs huge quantities of wood and wood products, from planking and beams and fibreboard to… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
Bitumen is junk energy. A joule, or unit of energy, invested in extracting and processing bitumen returns only four to six joules in the… — Thomas Homer-Dixon Copy Share Image
