March 27th, 2013 
Noelle Phares 
I, among fellow students in my graduate program, have had the recent pleasure of learning about the ‘ecology of managed ecosytems’ from the most cited ecologist in the world: Dr. David Tilman. What is it about Dr. Tilman’s science that has propelled him to the top of the ecologist’s food chain? According to him, it was [...]
August 26th, 2012 Eric Wilson In a recent post on the Rio +20 Summit, Nick said “Getting so many people together in one room to decide how to continue increasing economic growth without damaging the planet may not be possible.” Indeed there are numerous barriers, both physical and ideological, to getting all sides to the table to discuss a future [...]
Posted in Education, Eric Wilson, Op-Ed, Sustainable Development 
Tags: Economics, Environment, Population Growth, Public Health, United Nations 
No Comments » August 13th, 2012 Eric Wilson In June the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its 2012 Annual Energy Outlook (PDF). According to the press release, the report includes various “assumptions regarding market, policy, and technology drivers affect projections of energy production, consumption, technology, and market trends and the direction they may take in the future.” Among the most pertinent projections for [...]
February 5th, 2012 Eric Wilson In the most recent Five Friday Facts, Justin provided information on the growth in cities outside the developed world. He points out that increasing populations pose challenges for sustainability. How can we support a global population in denser cities? The argument tends to go that cities are more sustainable since they use less land to [...]
Posted in Behavior, Eric Wilson, Featured Posts, Op-Ed, Sustainability Tags: Cars, Collaborative Consumption, Energy, Food, Population Growth, Urban Planning No Comments » November 2nd, 2011 Megan Stilley The world just reached (and flew by) the day when the 7 billion people inhabited the Earth. 7 billion people, that is hard to imagine or comprehend. The crazy thing is, people are not going to stop reproducing anytime soon; current speculation is we will reach 9 billion by 2050. 2050 is not very far [...]
Posted in Agriculture Tags: 7 Billion, Food, Megan Stilley, Michael Pollan, Population Growth No Comments » October 31st, 2011 Eric Wilson Today marks the arrival of the earth’s 7 billionth member. This figure (and its timing) is based on demographers at the United Nations. While it is not possible to know when, who, or where exactly the seven billionth member of our current population will be born (it may or may not be today, this month, [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Sustainability Tags: 7 Billion, Population Growth, United Nations, Video No Comments » October 23rd, 2011 Eric Wilson 
A few of our previous op-ed pieces have touched on keys to sustainability (including resilience and durability) and where sustainability is today. Often sustainability is conflated with the “green” movement. However, rarely does anyone discuss weak vs. strong sustainability. The former is largely where we are today, substituting human capital for natural. One could argue [...]
Posted in Behavior, Eric Wilson, Featured Posts, Op-Ed, Sustainability Tags: 7 Billion, Keys to Sustainability, Population Growth No Comments » October 21st, 2011 Eric Wilson While in between books for school, I picked up a copy of Elizabeth Royte’s Bottlemania. I had previously read (and reviewed) her book Garbage Land. Through two chapters, I have thoroughly enjoyed Royte’s writing and introduction to bottled water. This first set of Five Friday Facts from the book provides an overview of water issues [...]
Posted in China, Eric Wilson, Five Friday Facts Tags: Elizabeth Royte, EPA, Population Growth, Water No Comments » September 30th, 2011 Eric Wilson A friend recently lent me her copy of David Orr’s The Nature of Design. I read and reviewed his 1994 book, Earth in Mind several months back. In the first few chapters there were a number of interesting facts. I culled a few from Earth in Mind for a past Five Friday Facts and noted [...]
Posted in Behavior, Eric Wilson, Five Friday Facts Tags: Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Coal, David Orr, Food, Population Growth, Science, Waste No Comments » January 9th, 2011 Eric Wilson Energy efficiency is not enough. While it is an integral part of an energy management plan and an essential first step to reducing energy consumption and increasing economic savings, a look at the overall consumption of energy, especially from non-renewable sources, indicates that society has failed to make a significant dent in the total energy [...]
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Eric Wilson, Op-Ed Tags: Boulder-Colorado, Energy, Population Growth, Xcel Energy No Comments »
