The Banality of the Anthropocene

By Heather Anne Swanson, Cultural Anthropology

There are plenty of troubling things about the Anthropocene. But to my mind, one of its most troubling dimensions is the sheer number of people it fails to trouble.

The Walking Dead in Washington

By Paul Gilding, The Cockatoo Chronicles

How can a Trump Presidency be positive? Surely this is a major setback – to action on climate change, to addressing inequality, to human rights and global security.

To Make Hope Possible Rather Than Despair Convincing

By David Bollier, David Bollier blog

We stand at a precipice in history that demands that the human species achieve some fairly unprecedented evolutionary advances.

Apocalypses Everywhere

By Ira Chernus, TomDispatch

Let's lift the lid off the A-word, take a peek inside, and examine how it affects our everyday lives.

Comedian Russell Brand takes on the crisis of civilisation. But what now?

By Nafeez Ahmed, The Guardian blog

During his Wednesday night interview with Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight, comedian and actor Russell Brand said what no politician or pundit would ever dare say...

A Potent Nostalgia

By Patrick Noble, Feasta

It is my premise (and surmise) that “The skills had always run the kingdom but had never held the throne” – until oil power removed tools from the dexterity of the skilled and handed them to the unskilled powers -- leading to the environmental/economic catastrophe which now faces us.