Short Update (Short! Short!) - A Biosphere Project Blog
- filipvk
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Short! Short!
New blog series on the way
The passing of Richard Heinberg and Ervin László
No more new audio versions
Walkie-talkies will come back
Dear friends,
I regularly receive feedback on my blog and musings, and it’s usually very positive – something that really encourages me on my journey. It’s very nice to know that the posts I share with the world often mean something to many of you.
One comment I’ve received quite often in the past is that my blog posts and musings are sometimes considered too long. And I know, while writing I do sometimes get carried away in the heat of the moment. I’ve therefore taken these comments to heart and, as I mentioned in my ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ posts at the start of this year, I’m highly motivated to keep bettering my life in that regard. And I wanted to reaffirm that resolution to you all.
So, in the blog, I’ll further strive to keep things short (short!), and I hope this will make it all more accessible. I’ll save the longer pieces for a book (or books) and essays. The frequency of posts may increase slightly, but the posts themselves will be (even) shorter.
It is my intention to send out blog posts on Tuesdays, and Musings, Walkie-Talkies and Essays on Fridays or Saturdays. Also in the weekends you can expect a new series of posts.
Over the past few years, the ‘Musings and Meditations’ have intuitively and organically evolved into a sort of platform for discussing metaphysics and worldviews, and I now want to give this a bit more structure in a new series of posts, which will have its own name and logo. More on that soon.
I’ve even considered dropping the name A Biosphere Project altogether, as the originally planned travel project isn’t going ahead (at least for the time being) and I’ve been writing more about philosophy and worldviews of late. But I’m not going to do that: the whole point is to connect these two domains of ecology and worldview.
It’s fair to say that we’re not doing too well with our materialistic and nihilistic worldview. I feel it will be essential to reconnect ecology much more strongly with a holistic worldview, and to explore new (and ancient) worldviews to enable a new connection with our biosphere. But more news on all this soon.
The ‘Musings’ series will continue, but will return to what was originally intended: short, intuitive reflections on everything – near and far – that relates to the meta-crisis and to being (and remaining) human in the midst of these turbulent and critical times, with an emphasis on new hope and new ideas. They may sometimes consist of a single sentence or an image, or a quote or a poem.
The new series of posts and videos will have its own section on the website, which is actually becoming something of a dual project, the two components of which may gradually become more and more intertwined.
This summer two ‘gentle giants’ and wise men passed away. Richard Heinberg died in July following a short illness, and Ervin László passed away in June at the age of 94.
Richard Heinberg was one of the leading thinkers on the meta-crisis, in particular the energy crisis and the transition to a world without fossil fuels.
He is the author of the book ‘Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival’ (2021) and many other key works on energy and the coming transition. He also wrote hundreds of essays and articles for publications such as Nature, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review and Literary Review.
I have translated one of his essays and published it in the post ‘Why the Climate Crisis Is Not Our Biggest Ecological Problem, and Why Technology Will Not Save Us’. That essay is still (if not even more so) recommended reading now that awareness of the severity of the climate crisis is growing, yet we still do not fully realize how that climate crisis is only part of the problem. And as long as we do not sufficiently recognize this, our ‘solutions’ will continue to miss the mark.
He is also one of the founders and driving forces behind the ‘Post Carbon Institute’,
one of the leading think tanks on the meta-crisis, and ‘Resilience’, a ‘broadcast channel’ and information hub that remains one of the best sources for reliable and ‘wide-lens’ information on the meta-crisis. Highly recommended!
I have already introduced Ervin László in the ‘Musings’ post ‘Dancing with the Planet’
László was a child prodigy on the piano and went on to become a celebrated concert pianist, but became increasingly interested in the philosophy of science, which gradually became his true calling. He is often referred to as one of the fathers of systems philosophy. He held chairs at the most prestigious universities in Europe and the United States, including Yale, Princeton and the Sorbonne.
His work on the future evolution of the world order led to him being asked to contribute to the report by the Club of Rome, of which he also became a member. During the 1970s and 1980s, Ervin László worked for the United Nations in various roles at the Centre for Training and Research.
He is the author or co-author of 106 books published in 25 languages, in addition to literally hundreds of scientific articles for academic journals.
He is also the founder of the László Institute for New Paradigm Research, a research institute where scientists from various disciplines collaborate on a new paradigm – or overarching world view – based on the latest insights from scientific fields such as quantum physics, evolutionary biology, astrophysics, the study of consciousness, and so on. A reflection of the progress of their synthesis can be found, amongst other places, in the books ‘Science and The Akashic Field’ and ‘The Intelligence of the Cosmos’.
Both books are highly recommended for anyone wishing to gain an insight into the remarkable new perspectives emerging from the latest scientific research. And since we’ve already touched upon the need for a new world view: Ervin László is one of the pioneers who has been paving the way for several decades and, together with the team at LINPR, has already taken steps that take us a very long way beyond the ‘The Most Important Echo Chamber of All’.
He will be missed, but the various organizations he founded like LINPR will continue this mission of developing a new world view and spreading a message of hope and agency throughout the world.
And finally: you may have noticed that my last few posts did not feature an audio version.
Now that I want to focus more on video and longer posts are becoming the exception rather than the rule, I won’t be providing new audio versions to accompany blog posts. You can still enjoy my soothing voice until April ’27 – or you may choose to drift off to sleep listening to the audio version of my 18,000-word longest essay – after which the audio versions will be removed from the site.
You can, however, look forward to ‘Walkie-Talkies’ again soon. Due to various circumstances, it’s been difficult to produce new episodes for a while, but that should change over the coming months.
To be continued!
Thank you for reading, and until the next episode,
All the best to you,
Filip
