Unreasonable Institute L. Hunter Lovins January, 2015 It’s flattering to be asked to be a poster child for a major international campaign. The language was veiled but the implication clear: Would I help a big company undertake a campaign to end energy poverty? The client? Peabody Coal, the largest private-sector coal company in the world. I told the caller that I wanted nothing to do with his client or his campaign. The logic didn’t work. Yes, energy poverty is real, and no, coal is not an answer to it. I’ve been in the Central Highlands of Afghanistan. When night falls in December,...

The Guardian L. Hunter Lovins 14 April, 2015 Don’t believe in climate change? Okay, let’s pretend it’s a hoax. From a purely financial perspective it doesn’t matter. If it is a hoax, you’ll make a lot of money. If it’s the real and worsening catastrophe climate scientists believe it to be, you’ll still make a lot of money. Now let me present some facts to you on the financial case for getting out of fossil fuels (I am fine if you just view it as some bar talk). There’s a strong and growing business case for climate protection. The 2014 report “Climate Action...

The Guardian L. Hunter Lovins 13 April, 2015 As more US colleges divest from fossil fuel companies, a new question arises: what to do with all that cash? It began in 2012 with Unity College in Maine. Then Stanford joined in, followed by Syracuse. Now, more than 20 US colleges have divested from fossil fuel companies. A month ago, Swarthmore students stepped up pressure for their administration to divest by occupying a campus building, a move mirrored by students at University of Mary Washington, Harvard and Yale. Why? As the divestment advocate Go Fossil Fuel Free puts it: “If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is...

The Guardian by Hunter Lovins 10 October 2014 A shift to the sharing economy, millennials shunning private car and home ownership, a saturation of consumerism – is a new economic narrative emerging? Prosperity. Every segment of society seeks it, but ask what it means or how to get it and the answers are not always clear. Do possessions equal prosperity? The mavens of Madison Avenue tell us: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” So we measure self-worth by what we buy, going deeper in debt to project the perception of plenitude. A New Yorker cartoon portrays a woman in an...