The current state of the climate is in a "code red for humanity."
So stated the August 2021 report of the United Nation's authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). As the U.N.'s secretary-general, António Guterres, noted, "The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable."
The only way we can avoid going beyond the internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees C of global heating - which we are "perilously close" to exceeding - is by "stepping up our efforts, and pursuing the most ambitious path."
We are failing to engage in such a regimen.
I have always found Bill McKibben to be an inspiring and committed climate activist, as well as just one of those special people in the world, a truly decent human being. What I have especially appreciated about him, however, is his ability to present a credible balance between realistic...
Tuesday, Nov. 8 will be a most significant day in the history of our nation. Though a midterm election, it nevertheless could determine which party controls Congress and, therefore, determine whether we continue as a democracy - or whether we succumb to the undisguised attempts on the part of...
As the daily evidence of scientific reports and graphic images of fires, floods, droughts, and people on the move vividly testify to, we are either in or rapidly approaching what scientists call “hothouse Earth,” a condition where climate feedbacks could lead to runaway heating. The series of increasingly catastrophic climate-related events that have occurred this summer clearly suggest we are rapidly approaching the point beyond which human mitigation efforts are not possible. As Bill McKibben wrote a few years ago,
Dear Nancy Braus: Having been there myself, I appreciate the frustration and rage you expressed with the Democratic Party in your Viewpoint and the party's continuing unwillingness to fight for the values and policies you and I stand for. However, I have to admit that, given your years as a progressive activist, I was also puzzled that you were seemingly surprised by this long-established fact about the Democrats. Perhaps you expected something different from the liberal wing of the ruling...
According to the United Nations, current national policies put the planet on track to heat up by 4.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. “That level of warming,” The Washington Post noted, “would be catastrophic for people and the ecosystems on which they depend, triggering inexorable ice sheet melt and catastrophic sea level rise. Deadly weather disasters, chronic food and water shortages and intolerable heat would become fixtures of life for much of the world.” In a surprising...
Ironically, what is potentially most promising about our situation today is that the same circumstances that confront us with social collapse and possible extinction also conspire to present us with an unprecedented opportunity to finally get it right, to live the values-informed existence we have been searching for all along, and that we now require more than ever, as a condition of our very survival. As the Chinese ideograms for the word suggest, crisis is a time not only of...
Sandy Golden takes me to task for not practicing what I preach. While appreciating Ms. Golden's reminder of the importance of walking the talk, a reminder I can always use, I would also argue that my essay is not a good example of my failure to do so. In contrast to my insistence that a “functioning democracy is all about valuing life, valuing each other,” Ms. Golden maintains that I contradict myself when I write that the Republican Party, and...