Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Climate Change is a "threat multiplier" says Pentagon Report - which ones?

            Just recently the US Pentagon (headquarters of the US Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia) released a report claiming that Climate Change multiplies existing threat factors such as flooding or drought probability or the incidence of terrorist activity. Internal blog link:

http://transparencycanada.blogspot.ca/2014/10/pentagon-preprares-for-climate-change.html?spref=fb

             This week Canada has experienced the type of thing they were talking about: terrorism, the real thing (that is, here, in N. America affecting innocent Canadian citizens and their families).

Background: Canada has recently joined a coalition fighting the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Canada has committed by sending a team of 600 and aircraft.

 http://news.ubc.ca/2014/10/21/canada-joins-the-fight-against-isis/

             IS responded to coalition air strikes by inciting sympathizers in coalition countries to attack members of their own national military forces on home ground. One message suggested using automobiles to run people down. The result?

             October 20, 2014; St Jean sur Richelieu, Québec: Martin Rouleau, a 25 year old failed businessman and father of one, deliberately ran down two soldiers in a parking lot, killing one. Rouleau, once described as a party-boy, took a recent failed business venture very badly. Apparently lacking inner resilience, he turned to religion for solace and converted to Islam. Recently, he became radicalized and praised jihadists in conversations and on social media. How or by whom he was radicalized is not yet known. However, his family, disturbed by his behavior and attitudes, ratted him out to the RCMP (federal police). The RCMP investigated Rouleau and met with him on "many" occasions. Although no indictable activities were uncovered, Rouleau was assigned an elevated risk to join jihadist fighters overseas and his passport was confiscated. In his last meeting with the RCMP only weeks before the attack, Rouleau assured the cops and his family that he was reforming his ways.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/martin-couture-rouleau-hit-and-run-driver-arrested-by-rcmp-in-july-1.2807078

               After running down the two soldiers, Rouleau led the police on a high speed car chase which terminated in armed confrontation. Police claim Rouleau attacked them with a "huge knife" and was shot dead.

               October 22, 2014; Ottawa, Ontario: Breaking news. As I understand things, this morning, an armed man killed a soldier guarding the War Memorial. Action then moved up to the Parliament as the shooter somehow managed to enter the Parliament block (!!) Inside, he began shooting before being killed himself: another suicide mission. But do we bother asking why young men "with their lives ahead of them" do things like this..

               As far as I can establish at the time of writing, two people have been killed: the shooter - a "man of interest" to the police for jihadist leanings and the soldier shot in the chest at the War Memorial. (Other news sources claim the dead shooter has not been identified - the situation, as the police say, is still "fluid".) A third person was injured. The police, this morning at least, seem to believe several shooters might be involved (and they are apparently still not certain if one or several shooters were involved - 10 hours later). The least once say: such situations generate confusion, chaos and fear (which, of course, is the intention of the terrorists).


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/parliament-shooting/article21217602/ 

what people made jittery by terrorism sound like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=channel%3A52396964-0-2299-8b0d-1a11c21216&feature=iv&src_vid=XrGqoISd-do&v=aPmYlfq2qAI 



what made this young man join the jihad:

http://news.yahoo.com/western-jihadist-syria-video-133603550.html

              In general, our society has been described as anxiety generating (existentialism), disempowering (political Left and Right) or lacking in positive human values such as empathy, authenticity, etc. A good summary of these positions was recently posted by an "ecotherapist" on the site Climate Change: It's Personal:

"coming from a counselling / ecopsychology perspective, i would say that we have been collectively, intergenerationally traumatized by our removal from our land. our civilization represents a disconnection from the earth/nature - a broken relationship with the Earth as a living other, which our psyches are unable to cope with - it is not what we evolved to cope with. we respond with avoidance behaviours such as addictive consumption, attempts at controlling others and nature, childish behaviours like magical thinking (god will save us, technology will save us ... ), blaming others, anger, depression, denial, dissociation ... not to mention confusion and/or ignorance due to having been manipulated. the same dysfunctional behaviours you see in people with mental health problems in any other context, just operating collectively in a society-earth context ... the answer at mind/soul level lies in healing our relationship with the earth through reconnection, which of course comes back to all the practical things like restoring local community, conservation work, growing food, experiencing the restorative beauty of the outdoors/nature ... 

.. if you view it as an addiction to consumption/technology, then i guess people have been born addicted - analogous to babies born to heroin-addicted mothers. or you can see it as the cycle of abuse - our technological society abuses its citizens and we pass on the abuse to the planet - just as children growing up in abusive families think the abusive behaviour is normal"

          This, of course, reflects a psychological truism: we repeat what we have been taught. If, however, it is our civilization itself that is "pathogenic", then we - somehow! - have to find a new perspective from which we can observe our self-destructive behaviors. Only then we will possess the wisdom and motivation to break the self-replicating cycle of "intergenerational violence to the earth" (and to ourselves, since we are Gaia's children..) 

           But how do we "rise to a higher perspective", obtain a bird's eye view of ourselves and our behaviors on the earth? Or, at least, how will a significant percentage of us rise to a higher perspective, where we finally grasp the damage we are doing to our planet, where we can realistically assess potential long term consequences? Will it take massive destruction of the planet's vital ecosystems with subsequent human die off? Is that what it will take? "Learning through pain" - have we not evolved beyond that? Probably not..

           In the perspective of the drama unfolding in the nation's capitol today, the words of the  Pentagon report, cited earlier, ring like a fire alarm in the night: climate change will be - already is - a "threat multiplier". And this includes the threat of terrorism, both foreign and "home grown" varieties..       

Monday, October 20, 2014

Pentagon preprares for Climate Change chaos, "a threat multiplier"..


  
abbreviations used in this article:

CC - Climate Change

          The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a very interesting article this morning on its radiocast, The Current. The guest was a pentagon spokesperson discussing a report released by the US Pentagon, climate change looming as threat to U.S. national security. Check out the audiofile, first few articles deal with the report.


http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/current_20141020_94342.mp3

            Although I have known for some time that the Pentagon was taking Climate Change (CC) seriously and was drawing up contingency plans, listening to the spokesperson speak of it in such immediate, concrete terms was a bit of a mind-bender. CC is no longer a "future threat" but an "immediate, operational reality". CC is "threat multiplier" which "complicates exponentially" existing geopolitical threats. It is an "urgent threat to our military even as it operates today"..

http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/climate-change-national-security-american-threat-multiplier-20140216

             For example, CC has the potential, at least, to radically ramp up the threat of terrorism. Why? No brainer, really: recurrent floods or drought increases poverty, generalized misery. Crop losses incurred by extreme weather events can act as regional political destabilizers with fanatics and extremists almost certain to profit (footnote 1)



                    the political, social and moral price of climate injustice might be high..
  
                 On a more prosaic, "it's the sea-level rise, stupid!", level: employees at an important military base in Norfolk Hampton Roads, Virginia are having increasing difficulty simply getting to work because of more frequent road flooding caused by rising sea level!       

                     going to work to work at the NHR base on a rainy day (at high tide?)

                Infrastructure (roads, dams, water supply, power supply, medical services, buildings.. the stuff of which our daily lives are built) is conceived with a particular climate regime in mind. Example: the river floods this high once in 50 years, so we allow buildings (with an average life expectancy of 40 years) to be built to this elevation but no lower. But what happens if the floods to that height begin to occur more frequently because of CC, say once in 20 years? You might have trouble getting insurance! The local municipality also risks getting sued by flood victims for allowing construction in flood plains at high risk. Neighborhoods decline and die as people move out. And so on.. 

               The US military is increasingly involved in civilian disaster relief as climate regimes shift and infrastructure comes under more pressure. Sometimes new and painful lessons have to learned as society - and the military - learn to adapt to new, inhabitual climate regimes. One lesson learned from New Orleans' hurricane Katrina flooding: if you live in a flood plain, do not put your emergency generators in the basement. Some hospitals did and patients died from lack of power driven equipment..  

notes:

1- scapegoating: people who feel threatened may attempt to meet the threat head on. If they can't, or believe they can't do so, they will often work out their fear (and associated aggressivity) on innocent victims, scapegoats. Thus when crops failed in Europe, mobs would attack Jews or "witches" (usually women) thought to be guilty of causing the famine through black magic. In today's world, fanatics - secular and religious - are mobilizing fear, misery and frustration to fan the flames of hatred and seize power, inflict their mad vision on the world. It has already happened in the 20th century: one need only reflect upon the Nazis, Stalin's USSR, Mao's China..

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

One of those weeks! - off to war with Uncle Sam, Tar Sands and railroad follies redux

           This was an unexpectedly busy week for the Harper government.

           Canada has joined another "coalition of the willing" to fight the Islamic State in Irak and environs. Washington asked us for help. Harper held a not very informative "debate" in parliament. Nobody had much to say: all parties came with scripted presentations. It was all Pro Forma, anyway, for the sake of the media: with their majority, the Conservatives had the vote in the bag!



            One can only surmise why the Islamic State is behaving the way it is. Experts give variable opinions. My suspicion is that they are trying to provoke the West to make a lot of martyrs in the expectation that martyrs will attract warriors from the myriads of disaffected, alienated, frustrated young men in the world today. One recalls the propaganda value of martyrdom for the early Christian churches. The West forgets its own history on this point..

             In a sense, the Harper government, is probably getting off the hook easy. Preparations for war tend to put other pressing issues on the back burner, time during which the public may simply forget about them. War is the Ultimate Hot Button issue hence useful for rulers wishing to pull the wool over the public's eyes. Two thousand years ago, the Romans recognized this utility of war: a good war takes minds off how badly things are going at home. War rallies a divided nation..

            Beneath the preparations for war,Tar Sands "development" continues to scarify the environment of Alberta.



            To kick things off, Alberta's own auditor general found serious faults in a joint provincial - federal - industry tar sands monitoring program. The usual type of thing you see when the Harper government finds itself forced to "regulate" - or appear to regulate - the petrochemical or other extractive industries (mines..) Thus, reports are issued well after appointed deadlines (funny - no one suffers chastisement for these repeated delays. The same does not apply to the individual taxpayer and Revenue Canada on tax deadline day, one notes..) The latest annual report was, despite the delays, badly written, unclear and lacked key pieces of information. In other words, the work of people who don't believe in what they are doing. People payed by the taxpayers but just going through the motions of doing a job for the sake of public relations (and also knowing that the "boys upstairs" don't give a shit about monitoring the oil industry either). So much for industry "self-regulation"..




                     Industry self-regulation puts the fox in charge of the hen house

             Meanwhile, on the federal level, the Environment Commissioner found serious flaws in monitoring tar sands emissions. Drafted regulations have not been given the force of law hence amount to little more than public relations. Effects of volatile hydrocarbon emissions on human health (cancers..) are not being properly monitored despite the fact that some northern communities are at risk from emission level spikes that far exceed international or Canadian norms.

http://environmentaldefence.ca/blog/environment-commissioner%E2%80%99s-report-canada-failing-its-own-objective-undertake-responsible-energy 

             Finally, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) obtained leaked documents indicating that Transport Canada has been reviewing rail safety in the light of several derailments involving crude oil shipments, including the tragic Lac Mégantic, Québec conflagration which killed 47 last summer.



internal blog links: Key Words: Lac Megantic (8 articles)

            The documents received by the CBC indicate that railways are cutting costs by reducing staff to the minimum, one of the factors already indicted in the Lac Mégantic conflagration. The CBC documents reveal that due to erratic work schedules, most freight train drivers are operating in a highly fatigued state for an unacceptable fraction of their work hours. Some drivers are working in a state of fatigue such that their attention span and reflex speed are equivalent to those of a legally drunk man!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/rail-companies-fight-new-rules-to-prevent-crew-fatigue-1.2785581

           Once again we encounter the notion of hidden costs or "externalities". During the last 4 decades, Western governments (and Third World states under International Monetary Fund, World Bank tutelage) have cut regulatory mechanisms. 
They were, of course, inspired by the (now) increasingly discredited neo-conservative, "Free Market" ideology. We are now beginning to realize, I believe, some of the hidden costs of this ideology: the Lac Mégantic tragedy for example. One of the real problem in assessing the hidden costs of neo-con economic ideology is how to apportion an economic cost to human lives, health, individual and collective well being. How much was each of the 47 lives lost in the avoidable Lac Mégantic tragedy worth? Do we merely assess lost income over the expected work life of the individuals? What about women who work in the home, how is their economic worth assessed? More fundamentally, is it even a valid exercise to attempt to assign an economic value to a human life?

            More evidence of Harper's foot-dragging, stalling, "smoke-and-mirrors" approach to greenhouse gas emissions. Keep the masses confused and dumb while the future of the planet is compromised in the name of international corporations' bottom line..

http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/federal-government-wont-meet-climate-change-promises-on-current-path-watchdog-says 



            


Friday, October 3, 2014

Four pillars of Sustainable Economy


The four pillars of sustainable economy




    
background: We believe the world is going to hell in a hand basket: 

- overpopulation,

- peak oil and resource depletion (with the threat of water and resource wars on the near horizon),

-  climate change (and its almost undefinable potential for socio-political chaos), etc.. 

            If we want to do something positive in the few years remaining to us, what positive contribution could we leave behind? Specifically, how could we create "cultural refugia", viable communities (large or small..) capable of embodying the best values of our existing civilization(s) and also capable of weathering the storms of chaotic change that lie ahead. We will witness unprecedented storms of rapid - and global - ecological collapse (including human population die off), war, hunger, the forced (ecologically driven) reduction in humanity's ecological footprint..

            Now, given the cheery prospects lying ahead, what have we learned about creating a new kind of economy, one in which, for example, human occupation of the land either maintained soil fertility, biodiversity and aesthetic quality or even - wonders of wonders! - actually increased fertility, diversity and natural beauty? Could we even dare to dream that people might actually pass on an "improved" world to their descendants? Is this even possible?

           Well, the various proposals for an ecologically balanced, renewable resource based economy I have studied seem to incorporate, implicitly or explicitly, the following four "pillars" or basic principles:



1st pillar of sustainable economy: Any viable economy - sustainable "unto the 7th generation" - must conform to the "laws" of physics, in general, and particularly to those of thermodynamics, the study of the transformations and flow of energy (heat).

            Now, as soon as we begin this exercise, we are struck by the fact our conventional, university taught economics is founded on very shaky ground indeed. The most elemental observation of material systems negates one of the false axioms of (neo-)classical economics: the requirement of (and capability of maintaining) infinite growth on a finite planet (see footnote 1). Neo-classical economic theory requires the physical absurdity of infinite growth since it postulates that investors will only invest if they are assured of a return on their investment (profit). Profits can only exist if the money supply (somewhat linked to the intensity and volume of economic activity) is constantly increasing: there must always be more money in the pot to keep the investors coming back. Alas! Physics and thermodynamics demonstrate the absurdity of such a position. A constantly increasing volume of economic activity on earth would require a constantly increasing use of energy and material resources. This, of course, is impossible on a finite planet whose finite volume can only contain a finite volume of energy resources and raw materials. A modest growth rate of 2% per annum if sustained for a century would result in a 7 fold increase in the money supply, economic activity and energy utilization! Such exponential growth, typical of compounded interest, is observable in nature but only in exceptional cases.

   (1)- In emergency situations. A rapid transition from one level of biological activity to an other: the cardiac rate of an animal chased by a predator. It must quickly ramp up its cardiac rate from a "resting" state in order to get away.Typically, the initial acceleration is exponential (increasing rapidly). It then falls off, followed by an exponential deceleration (see note 2).

           logistic curve: transitory exponential growth resulting in a rapid transition 
           from one level of activity (cardiac rate) to another

   (2)- uncontrolled growth ("infinite growth"!) is a prelude to system breakdown (cancer is a biological example of deregulated growth).


         This graph, "population versus time", shows how a bacteria colony, resulting from a single bacterial cell, grows over time (given sufficient food). The hick: with exponential growth, food is never sufficient! Eventually, the colony will reach its "Limits to Growth", it will exhaust its food supply and crash. Ecologists refer to this type of "boom / bust" pattern as ecological overshoot / undershoot. Overshoot: when there are too many individuals for the resource base of the environment. Overshoot, or overpopulation, is generally followed by ecological undershoot: the population typically crashes to a small value, often much smaller than the environment could maintain if it had been harvested sustainably. Interestingly, humans - who are supposed to be smarter than bacteria - have been following the same pattern of catastrophic overgrowth for several centuries..



          Finally, thermodynamics rather convincingly demonstrates that perpetual motion machines are not possible. In reality, even a useless machine that only turned a wheel without doing work could not turn forever: friction in its bearing and gears or against the air in which it turned would eventually dissipate the initial impulse as heat. It would eventually slow down and stop, no matter how well greased the mechanism was.

 2nd pillar of sustainable economy: Conformity of economic activity to the "laws of ecology". This means respecting nature's self-regenerative "life-support system" upon which our biological existence depends. At present, by disturbing the equilibria of natural nutrient cycles, we are, in effect, cutting off the branch we are standing on. Consider the carbon cycle. Human released greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) - which oxidizes to CO2 over time - add (relatively) "small" amounts of these gases to the atmosphere (compared to the amounts naturally cycling through the ecosystems of the world). However, two centuries of continuous high-level excess CO2 production, since the industrial revolution, are now acidifying the oceans to potentially dangerous "tipping points" with numerous potential knock on effects (some of which are unpredictable and represent unknown hazards to which we expose our children and grandchildren). Among these is the reduction in phytoplankton (microscopic ocean plants, the base of the food chain). If left unchecked, our CO2 emissions could, theoretically, provoke a collapse of the oceanic ecosystems with a concomitant reduction in fish stocks (needed to meet the protein needs of an already overpopulated planet). 

         Another important "design principle" found in nature which we stupidly ignore: don't put all your eggs in one basket! Why? Well, if you drop it you risk losing all your eggs. In four baskets, there is some assurance. You can lose at most 25% of your eggs if you drop a basket. In practice, this means, for example, not allowing one type of fuel to monopolize your energy system. Our modern economies are powered by rapidly depleting fossil fuel energy: oil, natural gas, coal. A more resilient approach would emphasize renewable energies: wind, solar (passive thermal, focused thermal, photovoltaic..), geothermal, hydro-electric, wave and tide power, biomass.. It should be remembered that nature's design principles have been honed by 3.5 billion years of Darwinian evolution. We ignore Mother Nature's wisdom to our detriment! (note 4)

           Another global ecological problem created by our failure to live within the bounds set by the laws of ecology: industrial "farming" (agro-business or agro-industry) kills soil organisms which leads to a reduction of essential organic soil content. We are actually losing soil to unsustainable industrial "agriculture" while population continues to rocket up exponentially. Are we mad..






healthy soils contain a lot of organic matter (vegetable residues) and moisture


3rd pillar of sustainable economy: economic behavior should be based upon and regulated by the application of scientific knowledge of human decision making behaviors, specifically economically motivated behaviors.

          Some recent research on collective decision making and collective responsibility is interesting. People, despite the opinion of pessimists, appear to be capable of passing on a self-regenerating resource - like soil quality - to future generations but only if a consensus is reached on how to exploit that resource for current participants (the generation living today). The resource must be protected from overexploitation by a minority of Evil Greedies and, to this end, an efficient centralized "peacekeeper" or rule enforcer should be designated by the collectivity.

"Cooperation is often seen in experimental economic games because actions can be reciprocated. But this trait is of no help in one of the most important types of cooperation: cooperation with future generations who cannot reciprocate if we refrain from overexploiting their resources. To test the conditions under which cooperation with the future can occur, Oliver Hauser et al. developed a laboratory model of cooperation — the Intergenerational Goods Game (IGG) — that differs from previous games in which selfishness creates social efficiency losses for group members. Instead, selfishness negatively impacts subsequent groups. Experiments involving more than 2,000 subjects demonstrate that when decisions on resource extraction are made individually, the resource is rapidly depleted by defectors. But when participants are forced to vote on how the resource should be exploited, it is exploited sustainably across generations. Voting works for two reasons. It allows a majority of cooperators to constrain a minority of defectors, and as all players receive the same amount after a vote, cooperators need not worry about losing out relative to others." (Emphasis added)


from Nature : 10 July, 2014, page 165 

         Such research suggests that the Free Market Ideology is faulty: it tends to lead to a free-for-all in which everyone, especially future generations, loses. 

         This, of course, get us into some interesting "chicken or egg" reflections on the nature of democracy. Democracy means, of course, "rule by the people". Now, all societies need rules to regulate the behaviors of their members and to canalize instinctive behaviors and strong emotions into creative, non-destructive pathways. A code of warrior honor may regulate the ways in which retributive justice or vengeance may be enacted. Religions bind tribes into collective behavior patterns as surely as genes regulate the behavior patterns of insect collectivities (ants, termites, bees..) In human societies, particularly democratic ones, we are left with the quandary: if behavioral regulation (habits, customs, taboos, laws..) is necessary and the people are the rulers, then the people must control the Social Controllers who, in turn, control them! It is a classic "recursive self-organizing" circuit or loop: which came first the chicken or the egg?

            I believe social psychology should study the efficiencies to be gained from decision making and economic activity in small scale, self-regulated, participatory socio-economic units. Over millions of years, our ancestors, both human and protohuman, became experts in small scaled, decentralized, participatory decision making and economic activity: the ancient hunter gatherer community counted no more than a few dozen to several hundred individuals.. (note 3)

            Research should also study the rampant diseconomies of scale arising from "Free Market" ideologies with a view to eliminating them (while maintaining any existing economies of scale where possible). For example, some technologies - computers - appear to be highly "concentrative", requiring agglomerations of highly specialized knowledge and materials, capital; centralized planning and management. How do we integrate such centralized economic structures into decentralized, participatory, democratic societies - without destroying the participatory and democratic values..

4th pillar of sustainable economy: the moral, religious, transcendental or spiritual dimension. The third pillar - Social Psychology - gives us some tools to regulate our collective economic and decision making behaviors. But regulate to what end? To what Ultimate Goal are we committed?

             Like Socrates and Aristotle we must ask "what is the good life?" for our age. What values should we be willing to die - or live! - for? Does life have a meaning? Such questions are, of course, notoriously "open ended". Unlike "closed problems" which have a fixed, universal and unchanging answer, open ended questions have no final answer even if - Oh, perverse Divinity! - they are most important questions of all. Each generation, even if inspired by a strong Tradition, must ask these important, universal open ended questions anew. These questions, or rather their provisional answers, provide a standard (humanism) by which economic activity is be evaluated. These provisional answers also provide goals toward which economic behavior should be directed, for example, toward some ideal of the Common Good.


             Sustainable economics cannot be a three-legged stool! In some ways, the 4th pillar, the most subtle and imprecise, is also the most important. It is the most difficult for our "materialistic", profit driven culture with its emphasis on immediate, short term gain and its ostentatious social ranking founded on the amount of stuff we consume (or waste).. 

Summary:

The Four Principles of Sustainable Economy: conformity to laws of

- physics (particularly thermodynamics)
- ecology (particularly protection of vital ecosystem services)
- social psychology (collective decision making)
- the ethical, spiritual dimension: what is the good life? what values to die / live for?


footnotes:

1- axiom, axiomatic system: An axiomatic system consists of some undefined, primitive terms and a list of statements, called axioms, concerning the undefined terms. One obtains a mathematical theory by proving new statements, called theorems, using only the axioms, logic, and previous theorems.

Adapted from http://web.mnstate.edu/peil/geometry/C1AxiomSystem/AxiomaticSystems.htm

             Geometry was traditionally organized as an axiomatic system. Of course, GIGO: Garbage In - Garbage Out! If you program the computer badly or feed it bad (or badly organized) data it will barf back garbage for results. An axiomatic system is only good - "useful" - if the "primitive terms" and the axioms relating them to one another correspond to reality. Since neo-classical economics postulates infinite growth on a finite world, some of its axioms are faulty and obviously need correction in the light of realism..

            Another false axiom of neo-classical theory: resources (raw materials) are infinitely interchangeable. This is patently false but incomprehensibly taught and accepted as truth in universities - houses of "learning"!! Gold, for example, is a better electrical conductor than copper. But gold is not a substitute for copper wiring: too rare, expensive, soft and heavy. Copper, while not a good a conductor as gold, has the just the right mix of electrical, chemical and physical properties that make it an ideal conductor for practical use.  

2- exponential growth: examples. Population growth of bacteria. You start with 1, then it splits into 2 cells and so on for each "daughter" cell in subsequent generations: 1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 - 64 - 128 - 256 - 512 - 1024. It only takes ten divisions (generations) to go from 1 to a 1,000 cells (assuming none die)

           Another example of exponential growth: interest rate compounded regularly. Say you have $100 at 10% per annum. After one year you have 100 X .1 = 10 dollars interest. Add this to the capital gives $110 for the second year: 110 X .1 = 11 dollars interest which gives $110 + 11 = $121 principal for the third year. Then 121 x .1 = 12.10 dollars interest in the 4th year.. Note that the interest is always greater than the previous years. This, of course, indicates a long term unsustainable growth situation.

3- social economy the economic sector composed of entities (enterprises, cooperatives, associations, funds, foundations..) attempting to achieve social goods (services, products..) through economic activities. The economic entities of this sector typically are democratically governed (1 person = 1 vote) and participatory. They are either non-profit or profits are re-invested or re-distributed within the organisation.

Example: producer / consumer coop. A group of city dwellers contracts several local farmers to provide an "annual foodbasket" of produce to each participant in exchange for a fixed sum of money.

4- Peak Oil: consider a tree full of fruit in autumn. We start by picking the fruit on the lower branches because they are easy to reach. Then, we have to reach higher to get at the remaining fruit. We have to expend more energy and take greater risks: to get the highest fruit we may have to mount a high ladder. The same principle applies to petroleum or any other non-renewable resources. It is possible - with difficulty! - to calculate the amount of energy obtained from a barrel of oil to the amount of energy expended to find and extract it, refine it into finished products (gasoline, diesel oil, plastics..) and transport the finished products to their destination. As easy to exploit oil fields deplete, we are forced to go after the "high hanging fruit". Accordingly, the Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI) ratio will diminish over time. Some  typical EROEI figures cited for the petroleum industry:

1930 - 100:1,   1970 - 30:1,   2010 - 8:1
   
         Thus in1930, one obtained 100 times as much energy from a barrel of oil as one expended to extract the oil, refine and ship its products. In a mere 8 decades the ratio has fallen to a paltry 8 to 1 ratio! What more proof of non-renewable resource exhaustion could one hope to find?

http://www.roperld.com/science/minerals/EROEIFossilFuels.htm