My Page: Lance Olsen
Real estate development/sales in a new climateHomebuyers are already doing their due diligence on climate when deciding where to live, and one US appraisal service is already offering help. Once these buyers become climate- wise, many may avoid buying land or homes in a West looking set out to dry by a new climate. [more]
Cattle futuresLike once-diverse wealth of money being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, a once-diverse wealth of cattle, sheep and pigs is being concentrated into fewer and fewer breeds. There is, of course, some foolishness involved. And an evocative idea for a time of climate change that affects the world's wild and domestic nomads. [more]
Climate can be a quick-change artistFor a very long time, scientists assumed that changes of climate could take place over millenia, or at least over centuries. [more]
After the firesFollowing this year's fires, more in the years and decades just ahead. And, following many of these fires, floods. The media are generally so excited by today's drama that they don't pause to report more fires to come. Nor do many reporters yet see the link from recent building boom to tomorrow's climate-driven nightmares. And the talk of bailout is already surfacing on more dimensions than one [more]
When Forests Fall on Banks : Part TwoThe headlines of today focus on troubles in the finance industry, and its tight links to the real estate industry. But all or almost all these stories fail to connect the other relevant dots. These dots show their clear relations in a disastrous case history of FRELnomics that shares much with the trends of the moment. [more]
The Pillars of the Next Real RevolutionThe world has seen a Tool Making Revolution, followed by an Agricultural Revolution, followed by an Industrial Revolution. These were the world’s real revolutions, making petty political revolutions like the Reagan and Khomeini revolutions pale to relative insignificance.
The next real revolution will be built on at least 8 basic pillars. Each pillar makes an interesting story in its own right, and volumes have been devoted to them as separate trends, but their real revolutionary power lies the fact that they are all unfolding at once.
The West -- new and old alike -- can not escape major trends affecting the planet and civilization as a whole.
[more]
When Forests Fall on BanksAs recent stories of troubles in the finance industry show up with stories of housing sprawl threatened by forest fire, many continue to see forest and finance as separate stories. But they are as intrically interwoven as any fabric in the history of human endeavor, and each is a cautionary tale with clear implications for the other. [more]
A new biome for the northern U.S. Rockies?How will the Northern Rockies look if Mexico moves to Montana? [more]
American Infrastructure: The Misallocation of PorkPork barrel spending hit somewhat of a pinnacle just a few years ago, with passage of the national highway transportation bill. But perhaps the problem was not just that the bill was riddled with pork. The collapse of a major transportation bridge in Minnesota's Twin Cities exposes it as a death-dealing misallocation of resources, whether pork or otherwise. And one need look no further than Montana to realize that the problem with misallocated pork extends beyond bridges to include, as a glaring example, dangerous dams. [more]
