Richard Heinberg

Ted Nordhaus Is Wrong: We Are Exceeding Earth’s Carrying Capacity

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In his article, “The Earth’s Carrying Capacity for Human Life is Not Fixed,” Ted Nordhaus, co-founder of the Breakthrough Institute, a California-based energy and environment think tank, seeks to enlist readers in his optimistic vision of the future. It’s a future in which there are many more people on the planet and each enjoys a high standard of living, while environmental impacts are reduced. It’s a cheery vision. If only it were plausible.

Juliana v US: Getting Ready to Rumble

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Three strikes and the Trump administration is now out—or more accurately “in.” Trump and company have now been told by the US Supreme Court in a very brief 5-4 decision that they must stand in open court and defend themselves against the charge they are denying the 21 youthful clients in the court their constitutional right to a habitable environment.

Rooted in Community: The Chico Flax Project

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In choosing the name of a place, The Chico Flax Project is pointing to more than the location of their farm — they’re highlighting the numerous community members interwoven with the vision to make a Chico-based cloth.

The Green Party’s New Conversation: A Report from the US National Green Gathering

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Electoral engagement and social movements are the twin pillars of Green activism worldwide, and individual activists tend toward one or the other, but in their hearts most Greens I know see the combination of grassroots activism and the uphill struggle to defend democracy at the ballot box, especially in the United States, as complementary identities that lend each other synergy. 

An Engineer, an Economist, and an Ecomodernist Walk Into a Bar and Order a Free Lunch . . .

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With the political-economic road to an ecological civilization seemingly blocked for now, too many of our allies are following detour signs toward dubious industrial and post-industrial fixes. The mother of invention is the quest for new markets, and, as Thorstein Veblen once quipped, it’s invention that’s the mother of necessity.

Media Reaction: The 2018 Summer Heatwaves and Climate Change

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From heatwave deaths in Japan, Algeria and Canada, to wildfires in Sweden, Greece and California, the extended spells of hot, dry weather have become frontpage news around the world. Carbon Brief looks back at how the media has reported the extreme weather and how the coverage has – or has not – referenced climate change.