I also admire the young advocates demanding their rights to have life and liberty. They are the last, best hope for turning the tide before it becomes impossible to do so. We old soldiers will give it our all as always, but time is not on our side either.
3 degrees, so heartbreaking to hear it said.
Hands Off the Future - See you in DC Saturday everyone, or any other location where you can make a stand.
A nasty recession would do a lot for the environment, but at great pain to ordinary people. The idea of clean energy is to maintain economic stability or growth and protect the environment. That's what Biden's IRA and BIL did. Plus energy justice.
Thank you, Bill. Great article covering many aspects of our economy. It is not a coming recession I fear, it is the likelihood of stagflation - the combination of inflation accompanied by general recession, especially in the hands of the morons ruining (not running) out government today
Thank you SO MUCH Bill for the good news along with the bad. My daughter, granddaughter (age 12) and I (age 75) will be in Boston Saturday … three busses and counting heading there from here (Noho and Greenfield alone) plus untold others.
Is your year long focus on solar an accompaniment to simplifying and using less or as you mentioned to Matt Matern—a lack of belief that our species will use less?
By the way: The Third Act webinar on solar was off the charts—simply spectacular. I’m already getting quotes through Energy Sage.🌱🌿💚
I think using less is a very good idea (see my book Deep Economy, hopefully at your library!). But I also think we're not going to do it in large enough numbers soon enough to make it a realistic method for reducing the temperature--about 125 million humans enter the 'consumer class' each year, mostly in Asia as it grows richer. So I think that power from the sun and wind are our best shot at dealing with the emergency
I’m working on Part Two of my essay series called “Thoreau, McKibben, the Storm and me”, This is exactly the bridge quote I needed.
I’m building my Bill McKibben (and Sue Halpern!) library. I will get Deep Economy from my local bookstore. I am a big Ayana Elizabeth Johnson fan; her work connects so beautifully to yours. Your ripples are epic. Deep bows🌱🌿💚Katharine
Thank you so much for doing this. You have really inspired me to become involved in climate activism, and I don’t think I’d be writing on Substack if I didn’t read your work. I am a high school student, and I will keep doing everything I can for the climate. I can’t be there on April 5th because I need to set up prom, but I convinced underclassmen at my school to protest. Thank you for you work.
I'm a little more optimistic. I'm in the Bay Area, and we're doing everything we can to change our lives. Solar, batteries, EVs, heat pumps, native plants, food gardening (I'm even thinking of a greenhouse if Trump starts WWIII. But I'm already 75 and don't expect to live much longer.)
Early today, I read a couple most recent Substack pieces by Quico Toro (highly recommend) … and coincidentally … two other unrelated Senate hearing and ‘New Scientist' report, chased by Jim Hansen’s post April Fools monthly email newsletter.
Unfortunately, indications are the deck is stacked against us, and using conventional tools is insufficient to get out of this pickle.
Bill, I agree: “The only good news I can give you is that this is not yet a fait accompli … “
I wish it were true that “we have the tools we need to slow down the rapid heating and give our civilizations a chance.”
Of course, the following are not news, but are the most recent dominoes to fall …
The live hearing on YouTube "Senate Energy Democrats Consider Nominations for Interior Deputy Secretary & Energy Deputy Secretary" (https://www.youtube.com/live/FwMMh3BINkI?si=R6yMWHr7-cqrJwJT) demonstrated the 100% bulwark we face and unrelenting momentum of the opposition. Anybody who thinks U.S. can achieve delusional “zero emissions”—let alone “Net Zero”—needs to talk with the Republican members of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Extraordinary triage intervention is called for, now more than ever.
Paul Beckwith and I have coined similar visuals, his is a 3-legged bar stool, mine is simply a 3-legged stool ... but perhaps Paul's is more apropos ... He seems to have gone over the edge having delved into Ian Fleming's biography ... now introducing himself as Beckwith ... Paul Beckwith 😚
Bill, I always love reading your perspective. I’m an AmeriCorps fellow in California, a chapter called CivicSpark, which specifically addresses community and climate resilience. It’s been my stepping stone into the world of climate work from my previous career in education. Right now, I’m working on a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for a small rural county in the Sierra foothills. I’m grateful for my work, and all the more so now that it feels as if the rug might be pulled out at any minute, but this newsletter really leaves me wondering — what more can we do?? I value the Hands Off rallies, but is that our only recourse as citizens? I feel that we’ve reached a tipping point, if you will, where it is becoming untenable to watch the US accept a 3 degree fate. Please, share some of your endless wisdom — what is the next step?
"Growing weed now takes more energy than mining bitcoin," BM writes. It seems these two pastimes go together. Yes, do the growing outside, and drop the bitcoin speculation and invest in green ventures.
I also admire the young advocates demanding their rights to have life and liberty. They are the last, best hope for turning the tide before it becomes impossible to do so. We old soldiers will give it our all as always, but time is not on our side either.
3 degrees, so heartbreaking to hear it said.
Hands Off the Future - See you in DC Saturday everyone, or any other location where you can make a stand.
A nasty recession would do a lot for the environment, but at great pain to ordinary people. The idea of clean energy is to maintain economic stability or growth and protect the environment. That's what Biden's IRA and BIL did. Plus energy justice.
To paraphrase a geophysicist and volcanologist at Mt. Pinatubo, "better carry jam in your pockets because we're about to be toast."
What we do to the planet, we ultimately do to ourselves.
And “them” (choose your own “them,” I’m thinking of coastal and island dwellers now excluded from an increasing number of inland countries)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fgallery%2Fif-they-re-going-after-penguins-who-have-never-done-anything-to-anyone-imagine-what-s-going-to-happen-you-us-3xbcbam&psig=AOvVaw0oFuf06Oj7Ce8cpW5NoReI&ust=1744053196345000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBUQjRxqFwoTCKCUmtuOxIwDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAZ
yes, also "subhuman" species from penguins to algae.
The circle of life
Thank you, Bill. Great article covering many aspects of our economy. It is not a coming recession I fear, it is the likelihood of stagflation - the combination of inflation accompanied by general recession, especially in the hands of the morons ruining (not running) out government today
Thank you SO MUCH Bill for the good news along with the bad. My daughter, granddaughter (age 12) and I (age 75) will be in Boston Saturday … three busses and counting heading there from here (Noho and Greenfield alone) plus untold others.
good for you!!
Bill, thanks always.
Is your year long focus on solar an accompaniment to simplifying and using less or as you mentioned to Matt Matern—a lack of belief that our species will use less?
By the way: The Third Act webinar on solar was off the charts—simply spectacular. I’m already getting quotes through Energy Sage.🌱🌿💚
I think using less is a very good idea (see my book Deep Economy, hopefully at your library!). But I also think we're not going to do it in large enough numbers soon enough to make it a realistic method for reducing the temperature--about 125 million humans enter the 'consumer class' each year, mostly in Asia as it grows richer. So I think that power from the sun and wind are our best shot at dealing with the emergency
or reduce consumerism to buy time to allow wind and solar penetration into the grid grow.
Thank you for your time, Bill.
I’m working on Part Two of my essay series called “Thoreau, McKibben, the Storm and me”, This is exactly the bridge quote I needed.
I’m building my Bill McKibben (and Sue Halpern!) library. I will get Deep Economy from my local bookstore. I am a big Ayana Elizabeth Johnson fan; her work connects so beautifully to yours. Your ripples are epic. Deep bows🌱🌿💚Katharine
Mr. Bill,
Thank you so much for doing this. You have really inspired me to become involved in climate activism, and I don’t think I’d be writing on Substack if I didn’t read your work. I am a high school student, and I will keep doing everything I can for the climate. I can’t be there on April 5th because I need to set up prom, but I convinced underclassmen at my school to protest. Thank you for you work.
I’m imagining trump talking to each country playing dictator. He’s going to love the ‘negotiations’.
mob boss stuff. oi, what have we done to ourselves?
Male Ego based on comic book culture that never emerged in an adult form.
Missing ?
The feminine perspective…of actually having a future.
I'm a little more optimistic. I'm in the Bay Area, and we're doing everything we can to change our lives. Solar, batteries, EVs, heat pumps, native plants, food gardening (I'm even thinking of a greenhouse if Trump starts WWIII. But I'm already 75 and don't expect to live much longer.)
Such bad news. It makes my throat go dry.
Still, we need to keep pushing back, one step at a time. What else can we do?
Early today, I read a couple most recent Substack pieces by Quico Toro (highly recommend) … and coincidentally … two other unrelated Senate hearing and ‘New Scientist' report, chased by Jim Hansen’s post April Fools monthly email newsletter.
Unfortunately, indications are the deck is stacked against us, and using conventional tools is insufficient to get out of this pickle.
Bill, I agree: “The only good news I can give you is that this is not yet a fait accompli … “
I wish it were true that “we have the tools we need to slow down the rapid heating and give our civilizations a chance.”
Of course, the following are not news, but are the most recent dominoes to fall …
‘New Scientist’ - Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2474067-dramatic-cuts-in-chinas-air-pollution-drove-surge-in-global-warming) leads with "The rate at which the planet is warming has sped up since 2010, and now researchers say that China's efforts to clean up air pollution are inadvertently responsible for the majority of this extra warming."
The live hearing on YouTube "Senate Energy Democrats Consider Nominations for Interior Deputy Secretary & Energy Deputy Secretary" (https://www.youtube.com/live/FwMMh3BINkI?si=R6yMWHr7-cqrJwJT) demonstrated the 100% bulwark we face and unrelenting momentum of the opposition. Anybody who thinks U.S. can achieve delusional “zero emissions”—let alone “Net Zero”—needs to talk with the Republican members of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
And the frosting on the cake came with Jim Hansen's 'Global Warming Acceleration: Impact on Sea Ice' (https://mailchi.mp/caa/global-warming-acceleration-impact-on-sea-ice?e=%5BUNIQID%5D) with the deepening loss of polar ice at both the top and bottom of the Eaarth.
Extraordinary triage intervention is called for, now more than ever.
Paul Beckwith and I have coined similar visuals, his is a 3-legged bar stool, mine is simply a 3-legged stool ... but perhaps Paul's is more apropos ... He seems to have gone over the edge having delved into Ian Fleming's biography ... now introducing himself as Beckwith ... Paul Beckwith 😚
BULL 🐂 ETIN !! Financial guidance from advisory firm Dewey Cheatem and Howe 💋 KISS your assets 👋😘 goodbye
Bill, I always love reading your perspective. I’m an AmeriCorps fellow in California, a chapter called CivicSpark, which specifically addresses community and climate resilience. It’s been my stepping stone into the world of climate work from my previous career in education. Right now, I’m working on a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for a small rural county in the Sierra foothills. I’m grateful for my work, and all the more so now that it feels as if the rug might be pulled out at any minute, but this newsletter really leaves me wondering — what more can we do?? I value the Hands Off rallies, but is that our only recourse as citizens? I feel that we’ve reached a tipping point, if you will, where it is becoming untenable to watch the US accept a 3 degree fate. Please, share some of your endless wisdom — what is the next step?
Oh, I forgot to mention I’m a fellow Vermonter — grew up Nordic racing in Norwich/Hanover. Anyway — I really hope you can share some guidance.
"Growing weed now takes more energy than mining bitcoin," BM writes. It seems these two pastimes go together. Yes, do the growing outside, and drop the bitcoin speculation and invest in green ventures.
A LOVE LETTER FROM A VIRUS
https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/a-love-letter-from-a-deadly-virus?r=4d7sow&utm_medium=ios