Reading Time: 4 minutes As usual, every day since her father left the family, she wakes to the frustrated screams of her mother, who never tires of insulting her and spewing violent threats at her because she is late for school. She opens her eyes slowly. She gets up and drags her limbs, like a religious schoolmaster dragging unveiled […]
Climate Crisis
Posted inPolitics
Young progressives have every right to feel disaffected. They should vote anyway.
Reading Time: 4 minutes The party leaders are ancient. They’ve been in charge of the White House and Congress for almost two years but haven’t delivered. They bring butter knives to political fights with a rival party that wields AR-15s. So it seems from the vantage point of many young progressive citizens, and it’s more than understandable that they’re […]
Posted inEnvironment
Green democracy rising: Latin America and the new environmentalism
Reading Time: 5 minutes On July 26, Colombia’s senate ratified the Escazú Accord, a pan-Latin American and Caribbean agreement that takes a distinctly democratic approach to environmental reform. If the next vote goes as planned, President-elect Gustavo Petro is expected to sign the document after he takes office on August 7. At that point, Colombia will fulfill a commitment […]
Posted inNews
Proposed Saudi megacity is a single building 105 miles long
Reading Time: 2 minutes Saudi Arabia is attempting a massive leap into the future of urban living with The Line, a city contained in a single massive building 105 miles long, a third of a mile high, and 600 feet wide. Situated at the edge of the Red Sea, the unprecedented structure will be enclosed on all sides by […]
Posted inNews
Heatwave surges in Britain, looms in Germany, scorches southern Europe
Reading Time: < 1 minute After a week of raging wildfires across France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain, Britain braces for a day expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) in the Midlands and to the East: a record-breaking event after days of similar across Europe. In a country with infrastructure built around cooler weather, no-travel advisories and school cancellations […]
Posted inClimate Crisis
Climate change: Is it really that bad?
Reading Time: 4 minutes “The environment is so important but when I listen to the news about climate change it all sounds, well, scary. I mean – is it really that bad?” Perhaps you’ve heard this question (or variations on them) at a cookout or cocktail party. Perhaps you were the one asking. As a clean energy consultant who […]
Posted inClimate Crisis
Texas Republicans target investment firms that prioritize climate action
Reading Time: 2 minutes Attempts by Texas Republicans to compel corporations to enforce conservative values have now expanded to include climate initiatives. Earlier this year, Texas state lawmaker Briscoe Cain sent a cease-and-desist letter to corporations that provide funds for their employees to get abortions outside of the state. Now the state wants to target corporations that prioritize climate […]
Posted inClimate Crisis
When there’s nothing left to burn
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wynn Alan Bruce reached the point where he felt he had nothing left to burn. So he set himself on fire. Since learning of this man’s self-immolation on Earth Day, I can’t shake the mental picture of him sitting in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, dying in unimaginable pain, his flesh consumed by […]
Posted inClimate Crisis
What Earth Day means to a climate scientist
Reading Time: 3 minutes On the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, we asked a climate scientist what we need to do to save our world. Here’s what she said.
Posted inEnvironment
What degrowth is, and why it matters
Reading Time: 11 minutes In Livermore, California, there is a light bulb that never goes out. It was installed in 1901 in a fire station that didn’t realize for many decades what a wonder it had on its hands. The bulb was made by the Shelby Electric Company, with a patented-coil carbon filament eight times thicker than the tungsten […]