To change big things, start small
Author and climate activist Katharine K. Wilkinson on the human infrastructure of social change.
Katharine Wilkinson
Food, energy and collapse: The missing realities in today’s climate discourse
A critique of contemporary food and energy analysis, this essay argues that many proposed solutions to food insecurity and fossil fuel dependence remain trapped within the assumptions of growth and technological complexity. Instead, it calls for a more honest reckoning with ecological limits, inequality and the possibility of a lower-energy, more localized future.
The oil security paradox: Every war becomes an oil crisis in a fossil-fuel economy
The war in Iran has made the paradox inescapable. The pursuit of energy security through fossil fuels produced the very disruption it was meant to prevent. Instead, the transition to renewables offers the genuine insulation that oil never can: from global price shocks, from the geopolitical risks embedded in that dependence, and from the carbon emissions driving the climate crisis.
Who Gets to Adapt? Robert W. Collin on climate inequality and the politics of who is protected – review
Robert W. Collin’s Who Gets to Adapt? is a solid examination of one of the most overlooked dimensions of climate change: not who is at risk, but who has the power to respond.
Democracy was never designed to work — but something better is emerging
From Ireland to Taiwan, experiments in citizens’ assemblies suggest new ways of governing. This essay argues that the limits of electoral politics are structural and that more participatory systems may be essential to meet the challenges ahead.
In conversation: Dave Murphy and Tom Murphy – Can modern civilization ever be sustainable?
Can modern civilization survive for the long term within planetary limits? This dialogue pits optimism about renewable energy and human adaptability against a more fundamental critique: that modernity itself may be incompatible with ecological sustainability.
Transition Towns are key to degrowth, but current movements remain too reformist
The Transition Towns movement has helped popularize local resilience, but current movements stop short of the structural change required. In a world of overlapping crises, it calls for more radical forms of economic relocalization and material simplicity.
Why ‘regenerative’ agriculture is more than a new name for ‘sustainable’ farming
More than a farming method, regenerative agriculture was conceived as an ethic of care for land and life. Focusing on a “one-size-fits-all” standard for regenerative agriculture and marketing it for profits has left the concept a hollowed version of itself.
The ecological crisis begins with how we see ourselves in nature
From ecosystem destruction to climate instability, today’s environmental crises are rooted in a deeper assumption: that humans stand apart from nature. This essay argues that addressing that divide requires a broader cultural and economic shift toward ecological responsibility.
How to Think About the Future – Part 2: Four variables shaping the coming decades
Nate Hagens expands on the case for holding a distribution of possible futures rather than a single preferred one, and walks through a structured scenario-building exercise.
Managing energy descent means using less, not just building more: An interview with Richard Heinberg
In this interview with 15/15\15 magazine, Richard Heinberg argues that current transition strategies ignore a central reality: replacing fossil fuels is not enough without reducing overall energy use.
Brazil’s cooperatives show how local communities can drive the climate transition
From low-carbon farming to community energy and Amazon restoration, Brazil’s cooperative sector is mobilizing millions to act on climate at a local level. The model highlights how existing co-op networks could be scaled to support a more just and resilient transition.
