The irony of the catastrophic crises of our time is that they offer unprecedented opportunity to shape the New Great Transformation of humanity. The alternative is our extinction. … More The Irony of Crisis and Opportunity
Recently, I listened to Cynthia Sharf, the United Nations Secretary-General’s climate expert, summarize the dire situation indicated by the latest scientific findings on a range of measures of global warming and its extant and rapidly growing disastrous effects. Then I saw posted on the AParallelWorld.com website, Senator Keith Ellison’s Survey seeking priorities from Bernie supporters to … More The Democratic Party Needs Only One Platform Priority
The report of the latest “Bloomberg New Energy Finance” (BNEF) annual summit in New York proclaimed on April 14, 2015 that fossil fuels had already lost the race against renewables. “The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil … More Renewables Transition: It’s Happening, But How, and is it Enough?
Climate action: can we do it ourselves? If we recycle everything we can, take shorter showers, and install some solar panels, will that prevent the looming climate chaos? We could buy an electric car and low-emissions consumer products, maybe even go “off the grid.” But would that be enough to avoid climate catastrophe? Sorry. Absolutely … More Individual Climate Ethics and Social Action
We are so used to the idea that we must each have the freedom to choose, well, just about everything in our lives. We imagine that we are independently constructing a “life of our own.” We have, in our minds at least, an inalienable right to choose and to live our own unique “lifestyle.” That … More Climate Imperative, Freedom, and Democracy
The corporate mass media were briefly all agog about the agreement reached in Paris for the world’s nations to reduce green house gas emissions and save the planet.[1] COP21 was widely declared a success, then quickly ignored. But really, what was accomplished? A very slick propaganda pitch by the world’s political elites, that’s what. Yet, … More False Hopes and Disingenuous Agreements: COP21 and Climate Catastrophe
I have been recycling for a long time. At first it was just aluminum cans and glass bottles, especially when there was a deposit to collect. Then plastic grew to dominate the world of packaging. Of course, the process has gotten more sophisticated in the last couple of decades. Remember the 5¢ redemption on glass … More Why Recycle? Sometimes the Necessary is Insufficient
COP21, like the United Nations climate conferences before it, appears to be floundering over international non-binding showcase “commitments” to reduce carbon emissions — and is emitting effusive illusions of progress. Pleas of island nations fall on deaf ears. The negotiators are ignoring the scientific evidence that the reductions they are talking about fall far short … More COP21, Bill Gates, and Climate Catastrophe
Despite the absurd antics of a few fossil-shills in the U.S. Congress, most Americans now recognize the urgency of taking strong actions to mitigate the rapidly growing climate crisis. Mitigation has to mean stopping the flow of CO2 into the atmosphere and oceans so that the damage to ecosystems that is well underway can be … More Trapped by Finance Capital: Business as Usual While Planet Burns. Part I: Control
Economics is perhaps the one social science “profession” that is most entrenched in the political economy of contemporary nations. Little economic thought escapes the halls of academia without the neoliberal stamp of theoretical approval. The trouble with most of the social sciences is that it is very difficult for them to actually be scientific. In … More The Trouble with Economics: William Nordhaus and Pope Francis
Robert MacNeil Christie, Author 