A climate love story
Let’s explore the disconnect between the dream scenario of all the energy we need from renewables vs. what happens to the ecosystem if we keep the party at full bore.
Tom Murphy
Why Manchin’s side deal or “permitting reform” must be blocked
The mainstream narrative is that the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) is a big step toward addressing the climate crisis while the side deal is a step backwards, but we may not be able to stop it. I disagree. The giveaways to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries in the IRA make it most likely a net negative for the environment.
Europe’s real-time experiment in energy contraction
Europe is finding out the hard way that there are no easy substitutes for oil and natural gas.
Life expectancy: The US and Cuba in the time of Covid
For the first time, life expectancy in Cuba exceeds that in the US by almost three years. The reasons include responses to Covid, health care systems, racism, poverty, misinformation campaigns, the embargo, international solidarity efforts, and resilience to climate change.
Death by hockey sticks
You may be familiar with the term “hockey stick curve,” used describe a trend that has been flat/stable for a very long time, but shoots up at the end of the series in dramatic fashion, resembling the shape of a hockey stick.
Why we worship waste
Most of us are taught from childhood that waste is bad. But society actually worships waste as a sign of wealth and power.
Failed states: Coming to a country near you
War, civil strife and resource limits in energy, water and food are increasingly undermining the ability of governments to control the territory and populations over which they claim authority.
Europe’s disappearing rivers illustrate multiple converging catastrophes
We no longer have the luxury of facing one catastrophe at a time. And the underlying cause is our slavish devotion to perpetual growth.
The purpose of free speech
The unpopular, the unpatriotic, the annoying – these are the voices we need, because sometimes they’re right.
Rain, rain go away? Climate change and Death Valley’s deluge
Climate change is more about increasing extremes than one-way changes. Drought and deluge can go together as seen in Death Valley last week.
Coming home for the first time
We should not wait for an emergency to throw us together, though – we are better off easing into the new grocery lists, new sleeping arrangements and schedules, and new boundaries of modesty and conversation.
The nitrogen fertilizer monkey trap
Nitrogen fertilizers are like so many other things our modern industrial civilization requires, absolutely necessary to maintain our current trajectory of continuous growth and increasingly threatening to a sustainable future.
