The lived world, as experienced by direct observation and scientific analysis of data.
Image Credit: “Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, based on analysis in Richardson et al 2023” I hear a lot about the assertion of sovereignty these days. And I see even more evidence of the confusion and destruction surrounding it as a fact and a value. Each nation values its own sovereignty above all else. However, … More Accepting Earth System Sovereignty
We are on the road again, this time heading north, back to the high desert of Northern New Mexico, again. We do consider Mexico home too. After all, I have lived here for months at a time, off and on ever since those college days in the 1960s. Yes, parts of Mexico can be dangerous, … More On the Road Again, Again
As you may have noticed from prior posts here and/or from the Hopeful Realist Newsletter, I consider myself a ‘hopeful realist.’ The reason is twofold. First, neither optimism nor pessimism make any sense to me. I guide my thinking by what I know and do not know about the world. Since both optimism and pessimism … More Realism: The Only Hope
Well, that title sounds a bit ominous I guess. Nevertheless, we have seen various events, some quite catastrophic, which indicate that our ability to ‘hold it together’ is, well, fragile. We have also seen evidence of remarkable human resilience in confronting catastrophe, which I observed directly a couple of weeks ago. The Pandemic as Prolog … More Our Tenuous Hold on Reality
Such simple words, Freedom and Necessity. What do they mean? Their meanings seem obvious, right? Well, not quite. Freedom to what? Freedom from what? What is necessary, really? Are there conditions or limitations? Read the fine print, there are always conditions. Freedom We could go back to the various origins of the idea of freedom, … More On Freedom and Necessity: A Reality Check
Many years ago, I read an article by Irwin Deutscher titled, “Words and Deeds: Social Science and Social Policy.” It was his 1965 presidential address to the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), published in 1966 in the journal, Social Problems. Deutscher was alluding to the fact that most of the data collected … More Words and Deeds: Entanglements of Hope and Doom
I just read an article in an online journal countercurrents.org called, “How bad can it get?” In it, Robert Hunziker describes a book by Bill McGuire, Emeritus Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London. McGuire, a highly respected scientist, does not mince words in describing what he calls Hothouse Earth (Icon Books, … More How Bad can It Get? Reality Transformed
I just read Steve Schmidt’s “The Warning,” a quick and powerful lessen in American history, directly applicable to our current crisis of political culture. It explains so much, that I will only offer you the SubStack URL where it appears, so you can read it yourselves, because Steve’s eloquent expression of what it really means … More The Warning: History Informs Us Again
More and more people are moving closer to an “climate action now” mode today. They realize that the climate crisis really is an emergency. That, after all, is what emergencies are all about—action that people must take now or all is lost. Recognition is the important first step, but it is only the beginning. Many … More What does “Climate Action Now” require of us? Much more than you think.
It is about time we reflect on the distorted industrial-consumer culture and the “…isms” that propagandists use to confuse reality. The idea of individualism is certainly an American cultural icon as much as socialism has been a cultural red flag. If you like something, tag it as an instance of good old American individualism. If … More Individualism, Socialism, and Sanity: Can We Choose to Live as Humans?
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 