If you want the short hand, the Moody / Nogrady thesis goes something like this:

It’s always been that “the more we consumed, the more we grew.”  But economic growth is gonna have to be decoupled from consumption sooner rather than later.  Wait, what?  And why is that?  Basically, when you have a global market, with a burgeoning population, that faces rising scarcity of resources, it can only go on so long.

The implication is that this is some pretty fertile ground for innovation. Moody and Nogrady’s point, paraphrased by Friedman is that “the only way to grow without consuming more resources is through systemic breakthroughs in efficiency — developing new business models to deliver mobility, heating, cooling and lighting with dramatically fewer resources and pollution” (ie, nix the historic tension between going green and making money; they’re actually one in the same).

And that’s the sixth wave, which is to say that “since the industrial rev, we’ve seen five long waves of innovation — from water power to steam to electrification to mass production and right up to information and communications technologies.”  Number Six – so argued by Moody and Nogrady – is resource efficiency.

But the question hanging has got to be:  Well, how fast can we get there?  For my part, our team at American Efficient is going to have something to say about that.  Stay tuned.

Now why has Massachusetts shown the best metrics?  It’s focused on an aggressive energy efficiency agenda.  Oh, and RGGI only accounts for a fraction of the billions the state is investing in energy efficiency.  This is not to say that RGGI is without its problems (emissions caps need to get continuously and predictably more agressive, among other issues), but it is an early and rather positive data out of cap and trade worth noting.  Full article here.

A Summer Fairytale by Kate Hasler Steilen, Jenna Pel, and Chris Ryan

Also, shout out to Heather O’Reilly of East Brunswick – representing on the world stage!

Abby Wambach

Black Light Dinner Party

Courtesy of Clixie and one Nicole Cadman.  Check it. Small Boxes

National Resources Defense Council

-Ross Chanin

s/o to Stereogum for this find.

Tony Castles

Short, to the point account from the NYRB on the history behind Turkey’s seemingly-odd stance towards access to and press coverage of Syrian refuge camps in in this Turkish border province.  Is the concern justified?  No.  But the tumultuous past of the region gives you an idea of where it comes from.

And here’s Hatay…