Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Richard Heinberg Is it too late to save biodiversity and the living Earth? In this article I’ll argue that only a collective effort to put wild nature at the center of our priorities will prevent its devastation and the possible disappearance of our own species, among countless others.
Transformative Adaptation is transformative because it is the route to system change. It requires willingness to undertake major psychological adjustments away from what has been ‘normal’.
A 2008 study found that individuals without access to supermarkets were 25 to 46 percent less likely to maintain a healthy diet. Farmers markets, supported by federal, state, and private food assistance programs, are helping to bridge the gap by offering a direct distribution model.
Plastics, and the wider petrochemical industry, played a crucial part in the transformation of global capitalism from the mid-20th century onwards.
We don’t do this because we believe we’ll win. We do it because survival is about more than resources—it’s about meaning. And meaning is what we leave behind.
Trump, as promised, signed dozens of executive orders on Day 1. Included in the batch was the order Unleashing American Energy (EO). By energy is meant coal, oil, and gas. It’s telling that when this administration and too many Republican members of Congress talk about an “all of the above” strategy, they somehow leave out renewables, including efficiency.
The work of restoration will continue, as the Tongva return native species to the land while reviving ceremonial and cultural practices. In the midst of ash and loss, a human relationship to land and water over 2,500 years old is resuming. It may be the LA basin’s most hopeful acre.
In this Frankly, Nate explores seven potential macro-risks associated with AI, from the amplification of wealth inequality to the (literal) existential threat of superintelligence. Through the lens of ‘obligatory technology’ and Jevons paradox, he examines how AI could turbocharge the economic superorganism – accelerating its impact on resource extraction, ecosystem degradation, and human meaning – all while fragmenting our shared reality and concentrating power in dangerous ways.
As Earth grows warmer, its ground is becoming drier and saltier, with profound consequences for the planet’s 8 billion inhabitants — nearly a third of whom already live in places where water is increasingly scarce and the ability to raise crops and livestock is increasingly difficult.
Despite Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast for six more weeks of winter in 2025, it is time to start thinking about the growing season. For me, it is time to sort the seeds, check the seed potatoes, toss the inevitable pantry rot, and clean up the weeks of neglect down there in my basement.
Led by anthropologist and research fellow Amber Huff, Future Natures explores “ecologies of crisis, commons, and enclosures,” but its chief output isn’t monographs and books. It’s an exuberant array of creative works in popular genres like comic books, zines, social media, videos, and podcasts.
Peter Kalmus, climate scientist and returning friend of Crazy Town, used to live in Altadena, California, where one of the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires struck on January 7th. Get Peter’s take on this historic wildfire, what nature is trying to teach us, and how to think about unnatural disasters now and in the future.
