Transformative Adaptation: Excerpt
Transformative Adaptation is transformative because it is the route to system change. It requires willingness to undertake major psychological adjustments away from what has been ‘normal’.
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Farmers Markets Can Be a Form of Climate Action. Here’s How.
A 2008 study found that individuals without access to supermarkets were 25 to 46 percent less likely to maintain a healthy diet. Farmers markets, supported by federal, state, and private food assistance programs, are helping to bridge the gap by offering a direct distribution model.
While plastic dominates human consumption, the global economy will remain hooked on fossil fuels
Plastics, and the wider petrochemical industry, played a crucial part in the transformation of global capitalism from the mid-20th century onwards.
The World According to a Member of the Faceless Hoard: Reflections on Collapse, Resistance, and Art
We don’t do this because we believe we’ll win. We do it because survival is about more than resources—it’s about meaning. And meaning is what we leave behind.
The View from Washington
Trump, as promised, signed dozens of executive orders on Day 1. Included in the batch was the order Unleashing American Energy (EO). By energy is meant coal, oil, and gas. It’s telling that when this administration and too many Republican members of Congress talk about an “all of the above” strategy, they somehow leave out renewables, including efficiency.
Did Southern California Once Have Summer Rains? Ask the Tongva
The work of restoration will continue, as the Tongva return native species to the land while reviving ceremonial and cultural practices. In the midst of ash and loss, a human relationship to land and water over 2,500 years old is resuming. It may be the LA basin’s most hopeful acre.
Artificial Intelligence and the Lost Ark
In this Frankly, Nate explores seven potential macro-risks associated with AI, from the amplification of wealth inequality to the (literal) existential threat of superintelligence. Through the lens of ‘obligatory technology’ and Jevons paradox, he examines how AI could turbocharge the economic superorganism – accelerating its impact on resource extraction, ecosystem degradation, and human meaning – all while fragmenting our shared reality and concentrating power in dangerous ways.
Three-quarters of the world’s land is drying out, ‘redefining life on Earth’
As Earth grows warmer, its ground is becoming drier and saltier, with profound consequences for the planet’s 8 billion inhabitants — nearly a third of whom already live in places where water is increasingly scarce and the ability to raise crops and livestock is increasingly difficult.
Planting Seeds
Despite Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast for six more weeks of winter in 2025, it is time to start thinking about the growing season. For me, it is time to sort the seeds, check the seed potatoes, toss the inevitable pantry rot, and clean up the weeks of neglect down there in my basement.
Future Natures: On Seeing Commons through Popular Genres
Led by anthropologist and research fellow Amber Huff, Future Natures explores “ecologies of crisis, commons, and enclosures,” but its chief output isn’t monographs and books. It’s an exuberant array of creative works in popular genres like comic books, zines, social media, videos, and podcasts.
After DeepSeek, AI developers are wrong that The Jevons Paradox will bail them out
The dramatic drop in the cost of AI demonstrated by Chinese upstart DeepSeek is great for buyers of AI tools, but very bad for the incumbent developers of those tools.
Earth restoration in your back yard: Harnessing the hydrological cycle in dry places
In the intricate tapestry of backyard ecosystems, an often underestimated yet crucial factor is water retention. From arid deserts to lush rainforests, understanding and enhancing water retention can profoundly influence ecosystem restoration efforts, and it need not be complex.