Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It’s time to accept that we are not going to dislodge the entrenched interests holding back effective action on looming climate chaos by any means tried so far. Believing that 97% of credible scientists is consensus enough is 103% short for effective response.
The Ancient Romans never understood what hit them. Nor did later historians: there exist literally hundreds of theories on what caused the fall of the Roman Empire.
It is only in the telling of a new story that we will find a way of avoiding anomie; derangement caused by an insatiable will and desire without limit that can never be fulfilled.
People grow old and die. Civilizations eventually fail. For centuries amateur philosophers have used the former as a metaphor for the latter, leading to a few useful insights and just as many misleading generalizations. The comparison becomes more immediately interesting as our own civilization stumbles blindly toward collapse.
The author David Wallace-Wells is correct when he writes, “No plausible program of emissions reductions alone can prevent climate disaster.” However, that doesn’t mean that nothing can be done to save our species – and the planet – from approaching cataclysm. In fact, if humanity was to awaken to our current plight and work together, we could transform the Earth in a positive direction that would allow us to thrive here for the long term.
Some people would argue that 2016 was the year that the world economy started to come apart, with the passage of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Whether or not the “coming apart” process started in 2016, in my opinion we are going to see many more steps in this direction in 2017. Let me explain a few of the things I see.
So what if, to the extent we live in a place where we can, we turn disappointment and bitterness into deep, perhaps sad, reflection?
The impact of the Tooth Fairy Syndrome is all the more felt in the main media and among politicians – with the end result that so many lay people (and many experts) end up highly confused about what to think and do about energy matters.
You don’t actually know a time or a culture until you discover the thoughts that its people can’t allow themselves to think.
Imagine a team of archaeologists living three thousand years in the future.
Let me start with a confession. I’m old-fashioned and I have an old-fashioned profession. I’m a geo-paleontologist.
The Romans knew well the dark art that we call "propaganda" today.
