CLIMATE FUTURISM | RETOPIA SERIES

Utopia never existed.

For those who gaze fondly back to the 1950s, that seeming utopia of new cars and tract homes and well-paying jobs was fueled by a system slowly enslaving the world. In the countries riding the 1950s wave of wealth, it was a wave that created a middle class that excluded others, built on inequities based on race, gender, national origin. It created industries that polluted and exported their worst side effects to the poorest countries. Hollywood portrayed an idyllic time, but it was a thin façade obscuring ugliness and ignoring the consequences.

For those who look before…

TRAVEL + LIFE | FIRST PERSON

We turned off our flashlights, letting our eyes adjust to the moonlight. Profound silence settled, words muted by the sacred beauty of the place. We waited, pausing at the graveyard’s arched bridge.

We were a week into our trip to Japan, leaving Kyoto’s cherry blossoms behind and arriving at Mount Koya by funicular. The town is home to more than a hundred Buddhist monasteries and a thousand years of history. …

NATURE + LIFE | FIRST PERSON

There’s a gift in winning a bird’s trust. A wary offering earned through months of sitting, still, with food near, then nearer, then touching.

I’ve cherished the gift of a bird’s trust, its family’s trust. And in this time when the fear and pain of the world seem so overwhelming, a bird landing on my hand, eyeballing me, accepting food from the altar of my palm brings simple, open joy.

The loss of a family of birds — the shocking, shrieking, terrified battle heard helplessly too far away —seems like it should be nothing compared to the toll that Covid-19…

CLIMATE CHANGE | CURRENT VIEW

Oil and gas companies have, deservedly, been portrayed as the worst of the climate criminals. It’s not only that their industry is the leading source of greenhouse gases but also that they invested decades into muddying the issue of whether climate change was even happening despite knowing exactly what the impact of delaying action would be. Their behavior was indefensible.

Last week, one of the majors broke away from pack, becoming the first to make a bold climate pledge. The CEO of BP PLC, Bernard Looney, announced a significant program to begin transitioning away from its carbon-pollution roots.

BP’s goals…

CLIMATE CHANGE | SOLUTIONS

Flying over the midwest, miles of mono-crops paint green swathes on the land. Uninterrupted acres of a single crop — soy, corn, winter wheat — is the exact opposite of what you’d find in nature. It’s convenient: large automated farm equipment can plant and then harvest massive volumes of grain and the farmers can supply the ever-growing appetite of the world. But what gets lost? The interrelationships that happen in nature are lost: to oversimplify it, large plants sheltering small, roots from long-established grasses reaching deep, organic matter being broken down by critters and insects, whose waste then feeds the…

CLIMATE CHANGE | CURRENT VIEW

The word “change” lacks urgency. Seasons change. Tides change. Climates change. Sounds innocuous. But when The Guardian changed its style guide and said it was ditching “climate change” in favor of “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown,” it was mocked by some for being overly dramatic. Then came January 2020 in Australia. Who would dare mock now? Australia is clearly facing an emergency of unprecedented scale, and the world is paying attention. …

CLIMATE CHANGE | CURRENT VIEW

A clutch of climate commentators were in in full mea culpa mode this year, confessing their carbon transgressions. Others quickly pointed to the hundred corporations that emit 71% of all CO2, accusing them of creating this climate crisis. As the blame-takers argued with the cause-namers, young climate activists found themselves on the global stage. And while we all debated the nuances, the fossil fuel industry continued raping the planet, bleeding our future.

So who are the saints and sinners, the criminals and the innocents?

Are we to blame, with our developed-nation consumption, or are the corporations whose end products go…

CLIMATE CHANGE | HUMAN IMPACT

The impact of climate change becomes more visible daily. Fires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, collapsing glaciers, disappearing species… if you’re paying attention, you know it is bad and getting worse at faster speed than expected. It feels like we’ve gone from hearing about a train that may be coming to being tied on the tracks, unable to escape as it barrels down.

Climate change seems to have gone from academic to cataclysmic in very little time.

Coping with the barrage of news, the images of disasters unfolding around the world, is tough and it seems to be taking a psychological toll…