Richard Heinberg

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are being promoted as cheaper, safer, and faster to build than older nuclear plants, winning support from some environmentalists and a more pro‑nuclear public. Amid an energy crisis and soaring AI‑driven electricity demand, SMRs seem promising, but many critics, rightly, still see them as a dangerous dead end.

We must develop a realistic plan for energy descent, rather than clinging to naive fantasies of endless consumer abundance powered by alternatives to fossil fuels.

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.