Earlier this week I posted Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN. In the speech she is visibly angry. I believe this anger is justified. We have been collectively ignoring the ever bigger warning signs coming from science that go back many decades. Why should children not be angry at us? We deserve this until we start acting to a degree that is commensurate with the existential crisis we are facing. Having grown up in Germany, I have read lots of books and had some intense discussions with adults...

Earlier this week I posted Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN. In the speech she is visibly angry. I believe this anger is justified. We have been collectively ignoring the ever bigger warning signs coming from science that go back many decades. Why should children not be angry at us? We deserve this until we start acting to a degree that is commensurate with the existential crisis we are facing. Having grown up in Germany, I have read lots of books and had some intense discussions with adults...

On Monday I wrote a post about the relationship between activism and innovation. Later that day Greta Thunberg addressed the UN. If you have not seen it, it is worth watching in its entirety: Instead of providing my thoughts on it now, I would love to hear reactions from Continuations readers. I will write a longer post on Friday.

On Monday I wrote a post about the relationship between activism and innovation. Later that day Greta Thunberg addressed the UN. If you have not seen it, it is worth watching in its entirety: Instead of providing my thoughts on it now, I would love to hear reactions from Continuations readers. I will write a longer post on Friday.

Back to writing about the climate crisis. Today is the beginning of a week of action by Extinction Rebellion – they are pushing for carbon neutrality by 2025. As promised before I will start looking at solutions. Following my post on greenhouse gases, it is pretty clear that there are fundamentally only two types of solutions: emit fewer greenhouse gases and recapture existing one from the air. I will write more about both of these, but today want to introduce a basic idea of reversing the ca...

Back to writing about the climate crisis. Today is the beginning of a week of action by Extinction Rebellion – they are pushing for carbon neutrality by 2025. As promised before I will start looking at solutions. Following my post on greenhouse gases, it is pretty clear that there are fundamentally only two types of solutions: emit fewer greenhouse gases and recapture existing one from the air. I will write more about both of these, but today want to introduce a basic idea of reversing the ca...

In Aristotle’s theory of the mean, every virtue lies between two vices on either extreme. For example, courage lies between cowardice (a lack of courage) and rashness (an excess of courage). The general idea that there are failure modes in either direction is a useful one to consider, including when discussing inequality. This was brought to mind when I saw Josh Wolfe’s tweet, making fun of Bernie Sanders for being an 0.1%-er on Twitter with over 9 million followers. This was in the context o...

In Aristotle’s theory of the mean, every virtue lies between two vices on either extreme. For example, courage lies between cowardice (a lack of courage) and rashness (an excess of courage). The general idea that there are failure modes in either direction is a useful one to consider, including when discussing inequality. This was brought to mind when I saw Josh Wolfe’s tweet, making fun of Bernie Sanders for being an 0.1%-er on Twitter with over 9 million followers. This was in the context o...

So I had promised that I would start writing about potential solutions to the climate crisis. As I started down that path, I realized that to discuss their relative importance or effectiveness requires a better understanding of the scale of the crisis. The alien invasion analogy sums it up as a single number: the excess energy above the pre-industrial baseline that we are adding to the atmospheric system amounts to 1 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb every second (all day, 365 days a year). But wh...

So I had promised that I would start writing about potential solutions to the climate crisis. As I started down that path, I realized that to discuss their relative importance or effectiveness requires a better understanding of the scale of the crisis. The alien invasion analogy sums it up as a single number: the excess energy above the pre-industrial baseline that we are adding to the atmospheric system amounts to 1 Hiroshima-sized nuclear bomb every second (all day, 365 days a year). But wh...

If you have been following my posts on the climate crisis, you know that I have been supporting various forms of activism. I was pleased to see the massive turnout at the climate strike all around the globe and especially here in New York, where Greta Thunberg will be addressing the UN today. Some people have been pushing back along the lines of “this activism is distracting from the real need which is for innovation;” or “all they want is renewables but we really need nuclear;” or even more ...

If you have been following my posts on the climate crisis, you know that I have been supporting various forms of activism. I was pleased to see the massive turnout at the climate strike all around the globe and especially here in New York, where Greta Thunberg will be addressing the UN today. Some people have been pushing back along the lines of “this activism is distracting from the real need which is for innovation;” or “all they want is renewables but we really need nuclear;” or even more ...

I will resume writing about the climate crisis next week, but today it feels appropriate to return to the topic of Trump. My last post was about the need to resist Trump’s return to cruelty as a means of politics. I am happy that this resistance has been building and most importantly that the Democrats appear to finally have found the courage to impeach the president. The longrunning prior calculation about how impeachment might affect the election was misguided, as I previously argued in a p...

I will resume writing about the climate crisis next week, but today it feels appropriate to return to the topic of Trump. My last post was about the need to resist Trump’s return to cruelty as a means of politics. I am happy that this resistance has been building and most importantly that the Democrats appear to finally have found the courage to impeach the president. The longrunning prior calculation about how impeachment might affect the election was misguided, as I previously argued in a p...

I have been writing a ton of posts about the climate crisis, including one about the global climate strike on September 20th, one week from today. Now is the time to stop the excuses and help promote this strike and also participate in it digitally. So: stop whatever you are doing this morning, head on over to the Digital Climate Strike website and add the banner to your own site. It is literally as simple as dropping one script into your page.Oh and of course if you are in New York City, ple...

I have been writing a ton of posts about the climate crisis, including one about the global climate strike on September 20th, one week from today. Now is the time to stop the excuses and help promote this strike and also participate in it digitally. So: stop whatever you are doing this morning, head on over to the Digital Climate Strike website and add the banner to your own site. It is literally as simple as dropping one script into your page.Oh and of course if you are in New York City, ple...

Between the climate crisis and the US government crisis it’s difficult to remain upbeat. So today instead of writing about either of those I want to celebrate an example of what I call the Knowledge Loop in my book World After Capital. About a year ago or so I stumbled on a wonderful Youtube channel called Numberphile that has over 3 million subscribers. On Numberphile, Brady Haran gets mathematicians to explain interesting and sometimes simply just quirky bits of math. The videos tend to be ...

Between the climate crisis and the US government crisis it’s difficult to remain upbeat. So today instead of writing about either of those I want to celebrate an example of what I call the Knowledge Loop in my book World After Capital. About a year ago or so I stumbled on a wonderful Youtube channel called Numberphile that has over 3 million subscribers. On Numberphile, Brady Haran gets mathematicians to explain interesting and sometimes simply just quirky bits of math. The videos tend to be ...

The beginning of global climate strike is now only 2 days away. In New York City it starts noon on Friday at Foley Square with a 1pm march to Battery Park. Even if you cannot stay for the rally at Battery Park, everyone who has a lunch break should just use that to join the march! So: grab a sandwich and join. Details on the march here. Let’s make this bigger than anyone expects. PS If you are wondering why, read my climate crisis posts. If you have time for just one, make it the Alien Invasi...

The beginning of global climate strike is now only 2 days away. In New York City it starts noon on Friday at Foley Square with a 1pm march to Battery Park. Even if you cannot stay for the rally at Battery Park, everyone who has a lunch break should just use that to join the march! So: grab a sandwich and join. Details on the march here. Let’s make this bigger than anyone expects. PS If you are wondering why, read my climate crisis posts. If you have time for just one, make it the Alien Invasi...