Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In this week’s Frankly, Nate explores how the prices we encounter in our daily lives are influenced by not only how much money is in the system, but also by resource depletion, technology, affordability by ‘the masses,’ and trust within a complex global system.
In British Columbia, stewards from the Heiltsuk First Nation are using computational models and Indigenous knowledge to protect bears’ access to salmon.
In the face of the climate crisis and unprecedented wealth inequality we’re imagining, and working toward lives no longer guided and marked by overconsumption, environmental devastation and dreams blocked by lack of opportunity based on economic class. So, yep, I’m anti-fascism and have a problem with capitalism. Does that make me a terrorist?
Capitalists, at least those at the pinnacles of their industries, may have a distinct aversion to being subject to market rule, as Doctorow writes. But as Battistoni writes, they show no such ambivalence about class rule, which gives them non-democratic control over where and how investments are either made or not made.
An autonomous citizenry would be more likely to seek a nuanced understanding of its society and our collective problems, participate in campaigns to elect champions of public interests, and have the resilience to overcome the challenges involved.
In a Maghreb growing increasingly thirsty, water is no longer just a resource: it has become a diagnostic tool for our shared vulnerabilities, a marker of regional tensions, and perhaps — if we choose it — the foundation of a new era of ecological cooperation.
Viewing mass tourism within this backdrop of degrading environments, cultures, and economic equality helps us all to critically understand that there is no such thing as a cheap flight. Someone, something, somewhere is paying for it. In my view, it is time to reconsider how travel is embarked on, to whom, for how many, and why.
Not every important metal comes from its own mines. Here’s why that’s important.
Carly Wilson’s documentary Rubber Jellyfish exposes the hidden toll of helium balloon releases on marine life.
After centuries of dam building, a nationwide movement to dismantle these aging barriers is showing how free-flowing rivers can restore ecosystems, improve safety, and reconnect people with nature.
I reiterate my assumption that we will end up with a great degree of simplification in a post-collapse world. My assumption is also that there will be enough steel and energy to forge useful tools for agriculture and that the auxiliary energy needed over and above human muscle power will be a mix of animal traction, biomass, electricity from renewables as well as limited use of fossil fuels, at least where they are regionally available.
How long can we live in the strange world of President Donald Trump and his version of what might be thought of as Defeat Gardens before we figure out a better way — how to truly feed and care for ourselves and one another? What are the systems that we need to build to replace the distinctly broken and shattered ones in this world of ours?
