Pincushion America revisited: The legacy of fracking on our drinking water
The toxic legacy of fracking is now making itself visible in our drinking water. Expect many more stories of contamination in the coming years.
Kurt Cobb
Climate change and the hidden water cost of the Panama Canal
The critical importance of water transportation is coming into focus as lack of water cripples river and canal navigation.
How to poison the world (and get away with it)
The world’s regulators are running way behind in trying to evaluate and regulate the toxic chemicals in our environment. That’s a feature, not a bug in our regulatory systems
George Monbiot on factory farming: a Simpler Way critique
George has a long and heroic record of fighting for the environment. His latest campaign is to reduce the huge burden that farming inflicts on global ecosystems, by shifting much food production to high-tech “factory farming”. But he fails to see The Simpler Way solution.
‘White’ hydrogen: The hydrogen economy zombie rises again
The fantasy that the world economy is going to switch seamlessly to hydrogen energy keeps recurring. The latest iteration is ‘white hydrogen.’
Thinking about a world of scarcity
As scarcity increasingly becomes an issue for many key resources, the call for government intervention is rising. That’s because the marketplace is failing in the face of scarcity brought on by geological limits and climate change.
Why I assume “fixes” meant to prevent collapse won’t work
The airwaves and internet are filled with “solutions” each day to the myriad interlocking environmental and resource limits humanity faces. A very tiny number call for extraordinary reductions in consumption. The rest aren’t solutions at all.
Interdependence and the fracturing world: China, Russia, Europe and the United States
In the post-Cold War era the public and policymakers believed that with every day the world’s economies would become more and more integrated. Now the opposite is happening.
Climate change and the uninsurable future
Insurance is a cornerstone of modern industrial life. Without it much of the daily activity of society would come to a halt. Climate change is threatening the viability of insurance arrangements as it brings on ever more destructive weather.
Climate change: Our infrastructure is built for another Earth
A temperature higher on average across the globe than any previously recorded since instrument readings began in the 1850s was measured on July 3. That record was broken again on July 4, and then again on July 5. We designed our infrastructure and agricultural practices for a pre-climate change Earth. We are unprepared for what is coming.
Autonomous chaos: Self-driving vehicles block emergency services
Autonomous vehicles are touted as safer than vehicles driven by humans. Turns out there are some dangerous glitches.
Flash droughts: Are they the new normal?
Drought conditions are sneaking up on us much more quickly, more often than in the past.
