Disclaimer
Every effort is made to provide accurate and timely information on this web site. But it is the ultimate responsibility of the reader to verify any information of which she or he makes use. The source of each information piece is listed, and the views expressed are solely the opinion of the source. The BC Institute of Social Ecology shall not be liable for any errors in the content, or for any actions taken when the user has relied on the information on this web site.Disclosure
My university degrees are in biology and ecology, and I have been involved in forest research in British Columbia for the past thirty years. At various times I have belonged to professional biologist and agrologist societies, also in British Columbia. So, the spheres of social ecology, social science, and economics are topics about which I have spent little of my professional thinking. What I didn’t realize was that as a concerned citizen, parent and grandparent, I had been skirting around these topics for a number of years.
My intensive exposure to these spheres of thought has occurred over the past three years. Being a book collector and avid reader, my interest has been fueled by a number of what I consider to be excellent books; these books are included in the Reading List/Library. These books are written very well and are quite readable. And, more importantly, they provoked my grey matter into action and I began to think of how to translate their information into action in my local community. I decided that I needed to put my thoughts to paper and, thus, was born the first essay, “Raison d’Être.”
Often books and papers are written by those who are deeply learned across the full range of their subject. I make no such claim for the discussion papers I have compiled. I am simply searching for answers, and I hope our membership and our readers will join me in this effort. I have drawn on the writings of many people and have hopefully let them speak for themselves.
These books offered solutions to our faltering international economies, and governance. At the same time as I was reading these books, our politicians illustrated their ignorance, to me at least, of what the real problems we have in society are. Thus, arose “Our Economy – Too Many Dollars and Not enough Sense.” The other essays followed from there.
Upon re-reading the manuscripts a number of times, I have discovered that, while many of the thoughts expressed are mine, I have paraphrased and borrowed heavily from the authors listed above. I make no apology for this because I do not claim authorship or intend to reap financial rewards for this work. I have used the sources liberally as I would if I were preparing a seminar or lecture for a public audience. The discussion papers are, for the most part, syntheses of information from a number of different sources for each paper, and are more in line with book reviews than anything else. The information is being made available to enhance the level of understanding of what living sustainably means. The information is intended for research and educational purposes only. I am claiming no intellectual property for this information, and I am not profiting financially from this. I believe that this fits under the concept of 'fair dealing' of any such copyrighted material as indicated in Part III, Section 29 of The Copyright Act of Canada, and 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as indicated in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
The sequence of essays is my choice as I build the logic I see as necessary to understand how we can survive global climate change, peak oil, and economic uncertainty. I have learned a great deal and I hope that I have gleaned the important messages from these books and made them understandable to you.
Daniel Lousier, PhD