“Time is water and the Venetians conquered both by building a city on water, and framed time with their canals. Or tamed time. Or fenced it in. Or caged it.” (more…)
Tag: climate change
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We are told that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, and yet unsustainable population growth rarely comes up in the conversation. (more…)
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1,636 words
Part 2 of 3 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)
Then he started to count. Calm and unhurried. But it was like trying to count all the trees in the forest, those arms raised high in the air, waving and shaking together, all outstretched towards the nearby shore. Scraggy branches, brown and black, quickened by a breath of hope. All bare, those fleshless Gandhi-like arms. (more…)
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1,124 words
In 1989, young scientist Bill McKibben published the seminal climate change book, The End of Nature. It made him an instant star in the environmental sciences, and in the literary world as well.
Like it did with so many of my generation, the book had a profound effect on me. Among other things, I never forgot the analogy that if the earth was the size of a basketball, the depth of our atmosphere would be the equivalent of a coat of paint. The air we breath, the sky we see … it is not nearly so infinite as it seems.
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Michael Crichton
State of Fear
New York: HarperCollins, 2004State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller by Michael Crichton, who also authored The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, Prey, Next, and other science fiction and speculative novels. Crichton’s formula was to make heavy use of established science and extrapolate into “What if?” scenarios, constructing fast-paced thriller plots hinging on the scientific fads of the day. (more…)
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2,345 words
Cass R. Sunstein
Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014Do people actually read Cass R. Sunstein? Millions, maybe, are vaguely aware of him as a talking head on cable TV. Others might recall that Sunstein held an obscure but sinister-sounding sinecure in the Obama administration (Administrator, White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, 2009-2012), or that he is frequently touted as some kind of esteemed legal scholar at Harvard Law School. (more…)