Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Tom Murphy In this installment of an ongoing series, Tom and Dave Murphy explore what “sustainable” truly means and whether any disruption to natural ecosystems or energy flows by humanity is inherently unsustainable.
History offers a grim account of how structural change occurs. But concealed within that bleakness is a window of possibility that opens just when things fall apart.
Extreme heat is already a defining climate and health threat in southern Africa, yet public debate still treats it as ordinary bad weather. A new study shows that, as climate change drives more extreme events, governments and institutions can adopt practical steps to make communities more climate‑resilient.
Computer models that use artificial intelligence (AI) cannot forecast record-breaking weather as well as traditional climate models, according to a new study.
Economic growth does not increase our well-being. It drives environmental damage and will inevitably slow as we hit resource limits. Yet many countries, companies, and individuals remain fiercely attached to growth. This article uses systemic analysis and System Dynamics diagrams to explore why we keep pursuing more, despite what we know.
Small modular reactors (SMRs) are being promoted as cheaper, safer, and faster to build than older nuclear plants, winning support from some environmentalists and a more pro‑nuclear public. Amid an energy crisis and soaring AI‑driven electricity demand, SMRs seem promising, but many critics, rightly, still see them as a dangerous dead end.
Through the Fix Our Forests Act, Senate Democrats are about to hand the Trump administration permanent statutory authority to log America’s national forests at landscape scale.
A multibillion-dollar industry backed by Chile’s new president threatens the Kawésqar people’s right to the sea.
Nordic countries used an education system rooted in human ecology and civic formation to build high‑trust, more equal democracies. Could similar changes in U.S. schools help confront inequality, polarization and the climate crisis?
Electricity prices could be decoupled from gas prices by changing how the market works, but ideas for doing so either have not been tested or have problems of their own. In an age of cheap renewables, cutting fossil fuel use, not scrapping market rules, is key to breaking the link.
Elections and protest movements may shift public attention, but systemic change depends on building resilient economies capable of replacing the structures now driving inequality and social fragmentation. The solidarity economy, an evolving network of post-capitalist worker-driven coalitions, is what we need.
Migration and democratic decline in Central America cannot be understood separately from the intertwined impacts of US intervention, gang violence, economic instability and climate disruption. As droughts, displacement and insecurity deepen, the region faces growing pressure toward both migration and authoritarian rule.
