Insights from the Learning Sciences

By Jason van Tol|2024-04-15T20:29:32+00:002024-02-15|Education, Science|

Insights from the Learning Sciences

I recently came across an interdisciplinary field called the Learning Sciences. I would have expected to be exposed to the Learning Sciences in my teacher preparation studies, but this was unfortunately not true. And although I haven’t looked into it, I expect this is probably true for most pre-service teacher programs. I had been on the lookout for this slant on research for a long time, which, as the name suggests, examines how people learn.

The Learning Sciences (LS) is plural because it makes use of many different sciences: psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, and […]

What is the Capitalocene?

By Jason van Tol|2024-04-15T20:30:18+00:002024-02-13|Economics, History, Politics, Science|

What is the Capitalocene?

This piece was one I was preparing for The Conversation but was eventually rejected by the editor as not being fit for purpose. While this was disappointing to me, I figured I might as well post it here rather than letting it rot on my hard drive. What follows was the latest edit:

The word “Capitalocene” was coined in 2009 by Swedish professor of human ecology Andreas Malm, and is slowly becoming more widely used.

The word comes from ‘Capital’, as in capitalism, and ‘-ocene’, which refers to a measure of geological time, […]

Social Ecology and Me

By Jason van Tol|2024-01-06T04:18:32+00:002023-10-23|Ecology, Human Well-Being|

Social Ecology and Me

I recently had a paper accepted in The Journal of Environmental Education, that develops an original model of education based on Murray Bookchin’s theory of social ecology. During the peer-review process, I came into contact with the work of Stuart Hill, who was the Foundation Chair of Social Ecology at the University of Western Sydney. Under his leadership, social ecology has four inter-related domains: the personal, social, ecological, and spiritual/unknown, of which, according to Hill, the personal is the most important. My original manuscript only made reference to the social and ecological domains, […]

What is the Anthropocene?

By Jason van Tol|2024-02-13T23:20:22+00:002023-06-05|History, Science|

What is the Anthropocene?

I started out writing a blog called ‘What is the Capitalocene?’, to help disseminate a paper that I wrote, and recently had accepted for publication, called ‘Education and Full Employment in the Capitalocene‘. However, I decided to split off the science-based part of the blog here, so as to keep the length more manageable.

Recently I was discussing the ecological crisis (e.g. biodiversity decline, climate change, etc.) with a senior class, and asked them what they thought was the cause of the problem. A girl in the back called out:

‘Us!’

This answer is precisely the view […]

Human Happiness and Economic Growth: The Easterlin Paradox

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T22:36:50+00:002022-11-10|Economics, Human Well-Being|

Human Happiness and Economic Growth: The Easterlin Paradox

I originally wrote this article in October 2020 – better to publish it here now than have it sit on my hard drive forever!

So Australia has officially entered its first recession in 29 years. Heads are hanging in parliament and a chorus of concern is rising. But the most important question is not being asked: what is the purpose of it all?

Since antiquity some philosophers and religious leaders, in both the East and West, have held that the final purpose of a human life is happiness. Buddha based his teaching on […]

How Big Should the Economy Be?

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T23:07:10+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Economics|

How Big Should The Economy Be?

This article was originally published in January 2020 in the Echo here.

Anyone who has never studied economics would be excused for the common-sense belief that the economy cannot grow forever, but those who have been indoctrinated with an economics education know otherwise. The standard model of economic growth that they learn is independent of resources, so, they believe, there is no limit to an economy’s size. Sound strange? The key point to toppling this dogma is knowing that the economy is a real thing, requiring real resources to increase the […]

Brick Walls or Rubber Bands? On the Nature of Ecological Limits

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T23:03:18+00:002022-11-08|Ecology|

Brick Walls or Rubber Bands? On the Nature of Ecological Limits

This article was originally published in May 2020 in the Echo here.

The concept of a limit can invoke the image of a brick wall; when driving at high speeds, sudden death can occur with one small error in steering. The brick wall metaphor of a limit has characteristics of immediacy and finality. Herman Daly has suggested that a more appropriate model for ecological limits is a rubber band. A stretched rubber band pushes back to a position of equilibrium, and the more it is stretched the harder […]

Students are not Citizens – Australia’s New Educational Policy

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T23:54:33+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Education, Politics|

Students are not Citizens – Australia’s New Educational Policy

This article was originally published in February 2020 with slight editorial modifications in the Echo here.

Last December the Education Council of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) adopted a new educational policy – the Alice Springs Education Declaration – in which reference to climate change and the inclusion of sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority were removed, and students were reconceived, no longer as citizens, but as apolitical ‘members of the community’. To understand the significance of this new policy it’s necessary to describe the history of its […]

A Lithium Coup d’Etat

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T23:54:51+00:002022-11-08|Ecology, Politics|

A Lithium Coup d’Etat

This article was originally published in January 2020 in the Echo with slight editorial modifications here.

You’re all set to buy to the latest iPhone or its Android equivalent, the last thing on your mind is the recent overthrow of Bolivia’s government. Why should it be?

Your phone, like power tools, electric cars, and many other battery-powered technologies, depend on lithium for their energy supply. Being the lightest metal and highly reactive makes lithium a prime candidate for batteries, which are needed to help carry forth the renewable energy revolution now under […]

Perspecticide and Psychological Warfare

By Jason van Tol|2023-12-14T23:55:05+00:002022-10-16|Politics|

Perspecticide and Psychological Warfare

I recently finished reading Mindf*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World, by Christopher Wylie. Wylie was the whistle-blower on Cambridge Analytica’s nefarious behaviour. Like most people I spoke to after reading it, I had a general idea that CA was a shady organisation that committed some crimes by using people’s social media data. What I learned from reading the book, however, was much more detail on what exactly they did, how they did it, and just how unscrupulous and dangerous it was.

CA was backed by billionaire Robert Mercer, who provided about 15 million dollars […]

About Jason van Tol

February 2024