If men, with their inflated sense of optimism, are leading us into an uncertain age, then we should regard their sense of confidence and control with a measure of concern. If they are reluctant to ask for directions when they are obviously lost, this is a worrisome sign. If men
Continue readingAuthor: Ray Grigg
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Kaleidoscope 2011
The kaleidoscope turns, the patterns change, but the colours remain mostly dark and sombre. This year, last year, and the years before are sobering because the dramatic changes in awareness, policy and mechanisms we need to address our major environmental challenges do not match the urgency they require. Everyone who
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Globalized Bigness…and Why Santa Claus is No Longer Believable
When Santa Claus was delivering a few token Christmas gifts to a few houses in a few little villages in northern Europe, he seemed believable because his task was possible. But a globalized Santa, required to travel at searing speeds to distribute billions of gifts to billions of households, simply
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Agnotology – The Propagation of Doubt
“Agnotology” is a new and useful word coined in 1992 by Dr. Robert Proctor of Stanford University to designate the study of ignorance. We give a huge amount of attention to knowing, to “gnosis”, he contended, but little attention to its opposite, “agnosis” (Guardian Weekly, July 1/11). At first glance,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Breaking Contracts
Our environmental problems and our current economic problems both stem from breaking contracts. In the case of the environment, the contract is with nature; in the case of economics, the contract is with society. This similarity is worth exploring because the tumult of the 20th century provides insights into who
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: The Keystone XL Protests and the Occupy Movement
The protest against the 2,763 km Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands to America’s Gulf States’ oil refineries are driven by a deeper concern than risk to Nebraska’s Sand Hills region and its underlying Ogallala aquifer. The same applies to The worldwide Occupy movement, too, is motivated by a
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