MuseLetter

Museletter #371: I Hear Voices

MuseLetter #371 / February 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version February's Museletter kicks off with "I hear voices", a thought piece that takes the form of a self-therapy session on responses to the existential crises facing the world. The second essay, "Is World Population Peaking Now?", is an interview with scientist and population […]

Museletter #370: An Ancient Chinese Text and a 2023 Scorecard

MuseLetter #370 / January 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version January's Museletter begins with an essay revisiting the ancient Chinese classic, "Tao Te Ching," drawing inspiration for the challenges of today. Some of those challenges are the topic for the second essay (co-authored by J. David Hughes), "Climate Change and Energy Transition: The […]

Museletter #369: Something Wicked This Way Comes

MuseLetter #369 / December 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Holiday greetings to you, valued reader. May your Solstice be a time of stepping back, finding new meaning in your life, and enjoying the beauty of nature. Your support makes my work, and that of my colleagues, possible. If you find my essays […]

Museletter #368: The Gasoline-Powered Leaf Blower as a Metaphor for Industrial Society

MuseLetter #368 / November 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Every Thursday our next-door neighbor hires a worker to use a leaf blower. This infernal machine drives me nuts. Rather than letting a pet peeve render me literally insane, I’ve decided to explore the leaf blower’s deeper significance. A psychologist might call this […]

Museletter #367: Treacherous Waters

MuseLetter #367 / October 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The World’s Top Industrial Countries Are in Treacherous Waters The following essay was written prior to the Hamas attack on Israel, and the commencement of Israeli retaliation. These developments will likely accelerate the overall trend of US imperial decline discussed in the article, […]

Museletter #366: Why 2% Is the Most Dangerous Number

MuseLetter #366 / September 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Why 2% Is the Most Dangerous Number No One Is Talking About We’ve had a summer from hell, with July 2023 temporarily claiming the title of hottest month on record. But while the klaxons of Earth’s climate system have riveted nearly everyone’s attention, […]

Museletter #365: The Lure of Cult Thinking

MuseLetter #365 / August 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version You May Think You’re Immune to Cult Thinking, but We’re All Susceptible Times of societal upheaval or rapid social change tend to generate new religious movements, and what are often called cults. The English Civil War in the 17th century roughly coincided with […]

Museletter #364: Are These the End Times?

MuseLetter #364 / July 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Are these the end times? Peter Turchin’s latest book, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, is receiving glowing reviews. Its message is highly relevant to our collective understanding of the emerging global polycrisis and what needs to be done […]

Museletter #363: Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse

MuseLetter #363 / June 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter is about crisis and acceleration. The first essay, “Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You?,” introduces a new report from Post Carbon Institute on the roots of the polycrisis and why we should be thinking […]

Museletter #362: Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It?

MuseLetter #362 / May 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Human activity—mostly the burning of fossil fuels—has raised Earth’s atmospheric carbon content by 50 percent, from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 420 ppm. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, we’ve released approximately 950 billion metric tons of carbon into the air. Every year, humans emit more than […]

Museletter #360: Why We Can't Just Do It

MuseLetter #360 / March 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Why We Can’t Just Do It This month’s Museletter kicks off with a short response to the latest IPCC report and why we’re failing to curb carbon emissions despite the dire warnings. The second article looks at recent data from China on declining […]

Museletter #359: Converging Debt Crises

MuseLetter #359 / February 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter leads with an article looking at various debt timebombs threatening us all. It also includes the concluding part of my trilogy written for Independent Media Institute on the renewable energy transition (parts 1 and 2 were included in Museletter #356, […]

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