Richard Heinberg

For the past couple of decades, we at Post Carbon Institute have been pointing out that a transition to alternative energy sources will necessarily be slow and incomplete. Given that oil is a depleting, polluting, non-renewable resource, industrial society is due for a reckoning. We are all in an extended Wile E. Coyote moment.

Why do people cling to falsehoods, even in the face of evidence? Both truth and lies serve social purposes, but holding onto reason becomes essential as we face climate change and rising Trumpism.

Several commentators have remarked that the United States’ war on Iran carries echoes of 2008. A potential financial crash this year could actually be much worse.

While The Population Bomb is the book with which Ehrlich is most closely identified, he wrote dozens of others, including important and fascinating works on birds, human ecology, and conservation biology. He was as insightful as he was prolific, and his work deserves continued attention.

The 24-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, through which roughly 20 percent of world oil shipments pass, is an obvious pinch point for a vital industrial resource. But it also serves as an apt metaphor for the brittle global supply chains upon which the entire economy depends.

Human communities have benefitted immensely from trees, but tree communities (i.e., forests) haven’t always fared so well in the bargain. What can we do differently to ensure a forested future?