Readers of Stirring the Pot know that I am deeply concerned about the issues of global climate change and inequality in the United States. Climate change, or the larger issue of global change, is an existential threat to modern human civilization. Inequality strikes at the very heart of the American ideal of “liberty and justice […]
One narrative about the Yellow Vest protests in France is that politicians should not adopt energy taxes to change behaviors that lead to climate change. In this telling, the political costs of wise energy policy are too high. This is an overly simple reading of the French experience and is a convenient excuse for those […]
I first encountered the idea that the future was something one could study in 1971 from historian Roger Howell Jr. In one way or another, thinking about the future informed much that I have written about since, including here in Stirring the Pot. In my way of thinking about the future, I believe there should […]
I am inspired by students from Dalhousie University in Halifax who have been getting tattoos. These are simple tattoos, just three digits, placed somewhere conspicuous. The number is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere in their birth year. Were I inclined to get a tattoo, mine would be 319. Since my birth […]
The new administration in Washington is filled with climate change deniers. They reject the consensus among scientists that human behaviors emitting greenhouse gases contribute significantly to climate change. The reality — climate change is part of a larger problem better known as global change. Over 9 billion humans, many living relatively sumptuous lifestyles like ours […]
