Good vs less bad, and not losing sight of the big picture. If we want to move towards a better world, we have to set a direction.  That's what a goal is for.  Then we have to establish a method to determine our progress on the journey from where we are to our goal.  That's what measurements are for. The goals we set and the measurements we use influence the results we get.  But when we zoom out, we may find that a lot of our metrics for success are not aligned with what we wa

Technological convergence and dematerialization's impact on energy and materials In 1991, the electronics retailer RadioShack ran an ad in the paper for the devices it sold.  Today in 2025, the ad seems like an artifact of a bygone era, as the ubiquitous smartphone has replaced all those electronic gadgets. Technological convergence, or device convergence, is when multiple once-separate tools or devices are replaced by a single device that can perform all the previous functio

Why Earth's largest rainforest is being destroyed The world's rainforests do many vital things, from providing habitat for millions of species to regulating the world's climate and rainfall patterns that we all depend upon.  By far the world's largest rainforest, the Amazon, is under threat of deforestation and degradation from human activities.  If we ignore what's happening there, we risk not only a regional loss but a change in the global climate system. The Amazon rainfor