Vision of Earth is proud to announce that we have been selected as a semi-finalist for the New Shape Prize from the Global Challenges Foundation. We’ve made our submission open to the public.
Category: Economics
Regina’s Rooming Houses debate
The City of Regina has recently begun consulting residents about the subject of “Rooming Houses,” which are homes in residential areas in which both the owner and renters are residing. If all renters in a home are relatives, then it is not a Rooming House.1 The City has asked that comments on the subject be […]
Harvest and Hunger: Amy Jo Ehman on local food choices
Hello! This is my first post on Vision of Earth. Glad to be here. On November 9th & 10th, SCIC (Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation) hosted an event in Saskatoon called Harvest and Hunger (introduced in our earlier post: Harvest and Hunger: Brainstorming the future of the world food system). SCIC is an umbrella organization that represents […]
Harvest and Hunger: Brainstorming the future of the world food system
Harvest and Hunger The Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation is hosting an event in Saskatoon on November 10th called Harvest and Hunger. The event sets out to answer three questions: Who controls the world’s food? Who has power in the global food system? Who doesn’t? What are people doing – both in Saskatchewan and around […]
Ethics, Slavery and the Ivory Coast
Ethics and morality are not permanent fixtures of our society. They are constantly evolving and adapting to new social norms and necessities. Today in Canada, slavery is considered to be absolutely immoral. This is, however, a relatively recent development. Two hundred years ago slavery was legal and widely accepted. At present in the Ivory Coast, […]
Morph My City Report – Transforming Regina: Planning for 2040 and beyond
We’re releasing our entire urban design report on the city of Regina. Originally developed for the Morph My City design competition and the National Infrastructure Summit, this report contains our main insights into the future of Regina and other North American Cities.
How much would it cost to end extreme poverty in the world?
Ending extreme poverty in twenty years is very feasible if the developed world delivers on their promises. The United States alone could end world poverty with a fraction of their military budget.
Story Of Afghanistan That Everyone Should Know
The US sent huge sums of money to support freedom fighters in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union during the 1980’s.
Wage reduction through inflation
Inflation means that a dollar is worth less at the end of a year than at the beginning. Real wages go down when raises are not higher than inflation rates.
Voted for Koch on the Corporate Hall of Shame
I voted for Koch Industries in the Corporate Hall of Shame. They push toxic political and economic agendas that hurt the world.
Opportunities and perils of natural gas usage on the road to renewables
Our increasing reliance on natural gas brings with it both opportunities and dangers during the shift towards renewable energy. This issue deals with some major issues regarding natural gas deployment in industry, power generation, food production, and heating.
Applying free market ideas to politics: How fares the US?
We apply the ideals of a free market economy to politics and realize that US politics is an extremely unhealthy market dominated by a pair of monopolistic ‘sellers’ who deliberately bar any third party from effectively challenging them.
Critique of Center for Freedom and Prosperity’s video featuring Dan Mitchell
This piece is a critique of a video featuring Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute created by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. Our conclusion is that this video utterly fails to demonstrate the truth of its claims, and instead relies on psychological manipulation to try to ‘win’ the argument in the minds of viewers
Capitalism’s Labour Transitions – An Argument for Social Welfare
Capitalist labour transitions are a heavy burden on the working class and society in general, but they are also one of the cornerstones of progress. We can solve this problem in an economically practical as well as morally and socially desirable through the creation of a strong social welfare system.
A renewed look at 2010, a sustainable vision for 2011
Here we review major renewable energy topics from 2010 and then turn towards analyzing energy issues for 2011 and beyond.
Time Perspectives, Global Stability, and a Future Worth Living
How do we end the era of suicide bombers? We must give them a future that is worth living for. Currently we are destroying their futures, leaving them with only their hope of taking a shortcut to heaven.
Curtis Dorosh: Green living, building, and volunteering
How to live green? Build green buildings? Put our efforts towards a better future? Curtis Dorosh has spent much of his life trying to answer these questions. Collected here are some of his answers.
Power system performance metrics
Everything has its price. Every form of power production has costs in dollars, time, land, materials, pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, and human deaths. We look at the most important factors for analyzing the feasibility of a proposed power project. Considering only some of these factors will lead to an incomplete picture of power system costs.
Feed-in tariffs: A fitting policy for renewable energy
Here we talk about what a feed in tariff is and how it works. We also conduct an overview of how effective feed in tariffs have been at stimulating the renewable energy industry around the world.
Lifestyle brands: Selling people a constructed dream
Lifestyle brands are designed to create the impression that their product is part of a way of life that is desirable. They do this through connection to people’s employment, ethnicity, religion, class, region, etc. Lifestyle brands are artificially created value design to allow inferior or average products masquerade as superior ones.