Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
With its brilliant blend of epic scope, dark comedy, goofiness, sharp irony and a multilayered, eerily prescient narrative, Greener Than You Think remains a wildly successful and thoroughly entertaining work of satire.
Societies around the globe face multiple crises. In this context, is marshaling hope and dreaming up beautiful futures—imagining a world that could be—a useful response, or is it escapism?
Capitol Hill Republicans and the Trump administration are under great pressure to produce significant, observable progress on the incoming president’s America First agenda. Although Trump will be free to issue executive orders, much of the agenda depends upon congressional action.
Somebody needs to buy U.S. trade policymakers a periodic table of elements. China last week banned export of the key high-tech metals antimony, gallium and germanium to the United States. In this case, China has the upper hand.
Reverend Billy, the leader of the Church of Stop Shopping, is hellbent on spreading the gospel of the anti-consumerist life and the non-materialistic approach to finding meaning and joy. Environmental journalist Rachel Donald interviews the good reverend.
No matter where the effort began, the transformation in each of the stories is about relocating functions to the local citizen sphere from the managerial sphere. All of these stories are about democracy in action to and within the capacity of citizens to solve problems and implement new creations.
Today, Nate is joined by Political Economy Professor Helen Thompson to explore the evolving understanding of energy’s role in international relations, particularly in the context of recent conflicts in the Middle East.
To protect the Earth’s ecosystems, we must protect and respect the human cultures that have grown alongside them. The future of Loliondo, and indeed our planet, depends on our ability to embrace this inclusive vision of conservation that honors both nature and humanity.
Our ancestors, future generations, and millions of other species are both counting on us and rooting us on. Even if the forces of destruction ultimately overwhelm our efforts, at least we will have lived a life of great integrity and adventure, and can finally rest easy knowing we’ve tried our best.
We have an increasingly useful 7-million-year-old global data set to better understand ourselves and how to survive and improve our well-being. With time, it will be increasingly recognized that using this information as a reference and planning tool is advantageous for practically every endeavor.
As Roger Pielke, Jr. has noted, “there’s no such thing as a climate voter.” So without the support of enough Republicans, Earth’s environment will continue to be the victim of the culture wars.
Whatever model replaces the current one in providing comfortable, well-nourished, safe and stable societies will clearly need a lot of work to define and drive, but should clearly aim to achieve these things without the need for lots of shiny but unsustainable toys. Time is short, but there’s no time like the present to get started.
