LifeItself

Tonight, I switched from al Jazeera International to BBC World Service.  It took about twenty minutes before I quit with disgust and switched back. Here's what I saw.  Somewhere at the World Economic Forum in Davos, there was a stage lined with eight armchairs ready for a live BBC program.  Seated on the stage were Christine Lagarde, the current IMF director, a pretty African woman, likely representing the developing world, and several very important looking white men. I started watching the BBC Davos report when Ms. Lagarde made her points:  IMF is now anything but business as usual.  Three IMF economists did a lot of analytic work and arrived at the following conclusions: (1) Extreme income inequality is bad for economic growth , (2) income redistribution is good for growth , and (3) jobs for the masses keep people engaged and are good for sustainable growth . She told us that these points were met with great disbelief and scorn by her IMF colleagues, ...

Dr. Erle C. Ellis is an associate professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where he teaches environmental science, landscape ecology and biogeochemistry.  He would remain anonymous to most of us, had he not written a New York Times editorial, " Overpopulation is not the problem ."  Later, Dr. Ellis attempted to explain himself in more detail as a guest blogger for Andrew C. Revkin. Upon reading this rare gem of technobabble, I asked the students in my class, E4: Earth, Environment, Energy, and Economics , to read it and express their own thoughts in up to 740-word essays.  I never commented on Ellis' editorial, so as not to influence opinions of my class.  Just like Revkin, I have encouraged some of the students to publish in my blog. The New York Times, September 14, 2013. The image is by Katherine Streeter. What follows is a sample of the students' essays. Not all is lost yet... Brien Allen is from Ker...