Confessions of a disillusioned scientist
After a rocket ride through science, I am hanging up the gloves, feeling a little ashamed and embarrassed to have devoted so much of my life to what I now see as a misguided cause that has done more harm than good in this world.
December 6, 2023
Why we need to grow an ecosocialist party in America (part 2)
When America is ready for ideas that work, we’ll need political leaders who are ready with ideas that work.
December 5, 2023
Why we need to grow an ecosocialist party in America (part 1)
America has no idea how to live after the end of fossil fuels. When the country is ready to listen, ecosocialism can provide the answers it needs.
December 5, 2023
Holding the Fire: Episode 10. Dismantling Destructive Narratives with Yuria Celidwen
How do we find true belonging, and true community in the most literal sense of that word? To answer this question, Dr. Yuria Celidwen, from Chiapas, Mexico, combines Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative science in her research.
December 5, 2023
Avoiding the same old crops
We will never approach resilience unless we wade into the vast pool of little-known and rarely used plants. This time of year, as many of you are buying seeds for the spring, consider devoting a piece of your land for experimenting with new crops and new varieties. Not all your experiments will work, but some might prove easier, healthier, more pest-resistant, tastier, or more suited to your particular patch of the landscape that what you are planting no
December 4, 2023
Duck! Walt Disney and Salvador Allende are still fighting for our souls
The critique of Disney that Armand and I laid out so long ago still has a certain potency. The values symbolized in those now-ancient comic books continue to underwrite the social order (or do I mean disorder?) that’s moving us towards ultimate self-destruction globally.
December 3, 2023
Watch what people do, not what they say about renewable energy
The vast majority of Americans say they support the rapid introduction of renewable energy production. But when it comes to actually deploying it in one of the best places to do so, they don’t like it.
December 3, 2023
The curse of competence
While I was eventually able to get off the treadmill without too much of a stumble, I think human society is facing a similar dynamic, and I don’t know how graceful our collective dismount will be. More than anything, I want my friends, family, and neighbors to understand the consequences of our collective trajectory. The technical name for the ratcheting-up, “curse of competence” dynamic is the Jevons Paradox.
December 2, 2023
What can we expect from COP28?
COP28 is the first COP to raise discussion about the public health impacts of climate change. Organisations representing 46 million health professionals have written to Sultan Al Jaber, calling for a total phase-out of fossil fuels. The World Health Organisation has exhorted ministers of health to make “health” a force for propelling climate action, via climate-friendly healthcare systems…
December 2, 2023
Visit to a future sustainable neighborhood
As I took my first breath in this future neighborhood, the air had a fragrant quality that I didn’t recognize. I could hear a person shout something, maybe a block away. It’s much quieter than the world I left. There’s certainly a smell of home cooking in the air. And there’s a lot more plants of all sizes and description wherever I look. That’s it! The air carries a mixture of fruit scents.
December 1, 2023
Review: “The Book of Rain” by Thomas Wharton
The story takes place in a near-future version of western Canada and centers on a fictional town called River Meadows, which once served as an epicenter for the extraction and production of a fossil fuel-like substance called ghost ore. This ore is vastly more energy-dense than any previously known energy source, and its environmental impacts are equally unprecedented. When emitted into the environment, it unleashes disruptive temporal anomalies known as “decoherences,” which severely warp people’s perception of reality.
December 1, 2023
Putting science in its place
Think of science as a powerful tool, like maybe a power saw. It can really take things apart. But it’s not always the right tool. Maybe it seldom is, in fact. We also don’t want to put it in the hands of children, or use it without first thinking carefully about the consequences and if there might in fact be more productive paths.
December 1, 2023