I am also a we—social contagion in modern horror -- Fam I have been feeling a little sick the past couple days don't worry it is not COVID I took a test and PASSED. I am soldiering on though as this week's newsletter is an absolute
'A world in which there is room for many worlds' -- Well I asked and you delivered. I didn't really know what to expect when I decided to do a reader participation issue. The response could have been complete crickets and I would have 100% understood. I
I am passing the microphone to you—and giving some of you a little present -- If there are any real number-heads out there, you may have calculated that the next issue of this newsletter will be the 100th. (This one does not count because I say so.) That is
An interview with Sam J. Miller, author of The Blade Between and Blackfish City, on community organizing, how fiction can change the world, and finding joy during apocalypse. -- Sam J. Miller is a writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, all told with crackling prose, unforgettable characters, and a dizzying
Ministry for the Future tells the greatest story of our time, brilliantly, and with no resolution -- For years, there was this common refrain in the news media but also regarding books, movies, etc., that climate change is just not a topic conducive to broadly accessible stories. Chris Hayes notoriously once
Humanity as a for-profit business but instead of getting fired for bad performance you just die -- This has been a big week for climate change news, not in the usual smoke blotting out the sun way, although smoke did blot out the sun in some places. But mainly I&
'Transition is inevitable. Justice is not.' -- In the past five years, the term "just transition" has become, maybe not a household term, but certainly pervasive throughout climate discourse. You see it in environmental justice groups' missions, academic papers, government policy, NGO campaigns, philanthropic strategies, corporate
Pragmatism takes no chances and always protects the status of the pragmatist -- There is this line in the 2017 article in New York Magazine that would become David Wallace-Wells' The Uninhabitable Earth, in which he's listing off the many reasons humanity has been in denial about
Living with the knowledge that things are going to get much worse in your lifetime This one's a little dark so enjoy this nice picture of a rabbit. To be exact, a Young Hare, by Albrecht Dürer, 1502 -- One of the takeaways from the IPCC's sixth
The air conditioning dilemma hammers home the almost-comical limits of individual action to solve this global problem Oceanic birds of South America. v.1. c1936. -- One thing that is getting difficult that I didn't anticipate but probably should have when writing a newsletter about how people live
The desert in the summer is above all an environment of extremes Thistle cholla cactus at Saguaro National Park. Photo by me. -- Spending time in Arizona during the summer is a good reminder that weather can kill you. Jamie and I recently returned from a two-week stay in Phoenix
A list of 15 things you can do about climate change, ranging from easy to illegal Dodo in a Landscape with Animals, c. 1629, Roelant Savery -- In last issue's link extravaganza, one of the more popular articles was a post by Emily Atkin, from her awesome climate newsletter