From this video in which Arnold Swarzenegger speaks on our children’s participation on climate change mitigation: “It is the dreamers, the doers, not the doubters, who have shaped history. All progress starts with a dream.”
So beautiful. Good on you. We’re all reminded of Teddy Roosevelt’s “The man in the arena.” (more…)
I hope readers get the same broad smile from this as I did.
Both of my kids, Jake and Valerie, could retire early if I had to pay them each a dollar every time I talked about the autumnal equinox, or the dew point, or whatever, on the way to school in the morning.
I ran into some people visiting from Sweden, wine tasting the other day. Chatting it up, as I am wont to do, I asked about the Swedes’ perception of Trump. One replied, “He may have 5 or 10 percent support. The vast majority of us simply feel sorry for you. We’re in disbelief that this happened in the United States. If it had happened, for instance, in Paraguay, I think we all would have said, ‘OK, whatever.’ But we never, ever thought it could happen in America.”
Now that my kids have entered the workforce, I get to reflect on what they’re doing with their lives and the impact they will ultimately have on human civilization. I’m very glad that neither of them works for Nestle (or Coke, or McDonalds, etc.). I know everyone has to make a living, but I feel sorry for those who need to do so by making the world a dirtier and more disease-prone place to live.
Occasionally one hears that the two major parties in U.S. politics are essentially indistinguishable from one another, and in some areas that actually is true. For example, regardless of who’s elected president in 2020, the country will still have a huge military that is deployed with wanton aggression around the globe. (more…)
The EPA confirmed that the range of the new Tesla Model S is indeed 370 miles. Sounds like the end of range anxiety; I don’t know anyone who wants to drive farther than that in a single day.
Hip outfit! Good things are happening all over the world, firmly rooted in humankind’s commitment to survival. Though Britain has a long way to go before it will have eliminated coal from its grid-mix entirely (target: 2025), they have made enormous strides in that direction. Kudos.
Obviously, none of this matters if our civilization is unable to get a grasp on coal consumption in places like India, China, Australia, and Indonesia, not to mention the U.S.
One doesn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to believe that major sociological phenomena in our culture doesn’t “just happen.” Take the climate change denial movement as an example, how did it come to pass that the judgment of the scientific community is successfully called into question by a significantly large group of people? How did a matter of science become a function of one’s political leanings? (more…)
Per Smithsonian Magazine, abnormally high temperatures have already led to a wide array of ecological breakdowns, with a troubling future in front of us.
While those indifferent to our civilization’s future regard this as no big deal, to the scientific community, and to those who hold science generally in high esteem, consider it a cause for alarm, putting it mildly.
The acquisition of Bermuda Electric Light Company (BELCO) by Algonquin has to be good news, and here’s why. (more…)
