by Richard Heinberg This article originally appeared in the Ecologist November 2008 During the past weeks the world media have been transfixed by the convulsions of the US and global financial system. At stake are billions in bailouts and trillions in derivatives. The viability of banks and currencies is threatened, and ultimately the savings and […]

by Richard Heinberg [This article originally appeared in The Ecologist, September 2008.] Ask the major oil companies why oil prices are beyond ludicrous and they’ll tell you there’s plenty of oil out there, there’s just a lack of investment in exploration and production. Funny, the level of investment in the global oil industry hasn’t dropped […]

by Richard Heinberg [Originally written for The Ecologist] Climate Change is the worst environmental crisis ever. It is a problem of fossil fuel dependency, and solving it requires reducing that dependency quickly and dramatically. But from a policy standpoint, Climate Change is hard to address. Because the worst of its impacts may come decades from […]

by Richard Heinberg [Originally written for The Ecologist] As the urgent necessity of our transition away from fossil fuels becomes plain, it’s inevitable that some of us will take that necessity seriously enough to explore the edges of “normal” behavior. On the post-carbon frontier, the hardiest pioneers are those willing not only to apply ingenuity […]

by Richard Heinberg [Originally written for The Ecologist] Take relentless population growth. Add decades of expanding per-capita resource consumption. Simmer slowly over rising global temperatures. What do you get? Traumatic information: that is, information that wounds us through the very act of obtaining it. Everyone knows things are going wrong. But if you understand ecology, […]

“Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” —George W. Bush, Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000 Until a few years ago I never imagined myself pursuing a career as an educator. While my father taught high school for a few years, and several other relatives have also taught in public schools, I disliked both […]