Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
On the ethical problems of climate change. Should the well-being of future generations take precedence over our own? Are we responsible for the excesses of past generations? All over the world, or just our own compatriots?
"Many people see geoengineering as a false solution to an existential crisis—akin to encouraging a heart-attack patient to avoid exercise and continue to gobble fatty food while simply doubling his dose of Lipitor." Are they right?
It's China. And in particular China's environment. Because that's the basis of China's economy. The carbon-fuelled industrial model that Britain pioneered 200 years ago is reaching its apex here. And perhaps its end
Yale economist rebuts sceptics' arguments, point by point. The earth is getting warmer. Due to carbon dioxide pollution. Humans are responsible. The science is legitimate. It's a bad situation. It's worth taking action
How mass adoption of "clean energy" could bring its own environmental issues. Was Carl Sagan right to say "any intelligent civilisation on any planet will eventually have to use the energy of its parent star, exclusively"?
"It was inevitable that a utilitarian society would generate a utilitarian environmentalism." One no longer driven by an emotional connection to nature; rather by a quest for "sustainability". Fine lament from despairing campaigner
Quality of life is subjective. We've made a mess of the world, but we kind of like the results, and we don't generally want to turn the clock back. Why plan for future generations? Past generations didn't plan for us
"It isn’t easy for a country to descend, in the space of a single decade, from crusader to pariah, as Canada has done on the environment. But our political leaders were up to the task." And voters don't appear to care
Tinkering at margins of energy policy is no use. Fighting global warming demands "radical government intervention" and "collective action". It will deal "a fatal blow to free markets and capitalism". So let's do it
It's a complicated subject. Here it is in brief. And in video. "The fossil-fuel enterprise has done a regulatory capture of the entire planet. I will pass the rest of my lifetime in the shadow of climate change"
Every big scientific moment is also a cultural one. Galileo's universe. The Lisbon earthquake. Darwin's evolution. In our time, the revolution is in climate science. Finest artistic product to date: Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
"Climate change detonates the ideological scaffolding on which contemporary conservatism rests." To resolve the ecological crisis will require radical overhaul of free market capitalism. Outstanding essay explains why
Image by Chandra Marsono on Flickr
