Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Zeke Hausfather Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement have increased by 1.1% in 2023, hitting a new record high of 36.8bn tonnes of CO2 (GtCO2), according to the 2023 Global Carbon Budget report by the Global Carbon Project.
A major restoration effort by a coalition of Tribes and government agencies could help imperiled fish and other animals on the Trinity River.
I believe that all of us, from those involved in planning an ecological transition to everyday people who will decide whether it moves forward or not, must cultivate our ability to think critically. And not just as a tool we use sometimes, but as a core part of our identity.
Modernity is not time-tested, evolution-approved. It will fail. The question becomes: how do we respond to the failure?
As for ExxonMobil and other oil majors, every day they resist investing their obscene profits in truly innovative green energy technology is a day they come closer to future financial ruin. In the meantime, they are, of course, wreaking historically unprecedented harm on the planet, as was all too apparent with the serial climate disasters of 2023, now believed to be the hottest of the last 125,000 years.
Earlier this year I worked with the UK Agri-foods for Net Zero Network (AFN for short) to help them develop a set of scenarios about the future of food production and consumption. The purpose of the scenarios was to stretch their thinking around the types of research that could help to accelerate the transition of the sector to Net Zero.
In this final Frankly of 2023, Nate outlines some global themes that are worth keeping an eye on in 2024. From climate change to domestic and global politics to an unstable financial system, world events continue to converge.
For over a decade, Ana María and David have led their community to restore Mexico’s desert mangroves with dedication, experimentation, and plenty of heart.
Our entire cultural pattern of making sense of things is rooted in the sense of our being separate from one another, isolated and alone.
I believe we’re going to have to address the very root of the metacrisis where it emerges from the ground of its pseudo-being.
Following another summer of record heat waves, droughts, floods, and wildfires across vast swaths of the planet, the injuries done to the planet by the Industrial Growth Society have never been so conclusive. As I grapple with collapse, I wanted to speak with Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, an Indigenous Pamiri from Tajikistan, who has lived through it and come out the other side.
Short for “fossil fuel obsolescence,” the larger concept / narrative I provided was one in which our civilization continues to design itself around (in accordance with) the premise of cheap fossil fuels (measured both in economic and ecological terms), even though those days are well behind us.
Informed by the knowledge that leather originated in food systems, I aimed to explore how that connection could influence my work as a designer. I decided that in order to find answers to my questions, I’d need to follow it as a product from the field and confront its transformation into food and fibre.
