- Museletter #335: Insurrection, pandemic, and censorship MuseLetter #335 / January 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Insurrection, pandemic, and censorship On January 6, thousands gathered in Washington, DC to hear an inciteful speech from President Trump, then forcefully breached the US Capitol Building in an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of presidential power—an institutional foundation of democracy. Some […]
- Museletter #334: 2020: The Year Consensus Reality Fractured MuseLetter #334 / December 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version 2020: The Year Consensus Reality Fractured Virtually everyone agrees that 2020 was an abomination. An entire industry of opinion writers is busying itself with end-of-year handwringing, scouring every online thesaurus for adjectives to express just how horrible the last twelve months have been. […]
- Museletter #333: Making America ungovernable MuseLetter #333 / November 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Making America ungovernable The US presidential election of 2020 is now behind us—or is it? President Trump has yet to concede his defeat, and many Republican lawmakers have demanded recounts and backed lawsuits. Some commentators fear that the current administration is laying the […]
- Museletter #332: A simple way to understand what’s happening … and what to do MuseLetter #332 / October 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The thread running through this month’s Museletter is energy. The first essay, “A Simple Way to Understand What’s Happening and What to Do,” explains the systemic consequences of fossil fuel depletion and the policy options that make sense in response to it; the […]
- Museletter #331: What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable? MuseLetter #331 / September 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable? The notion that modern industrial civilization is fundamentally unsustainable and is therefore likely to collapse at some point is not a new one. Even before the Limits to Growth report of 1972, many ecologists were concerned that our continual […]
- Museletter #330: Nature Is Intentionally Beautiful MuseLetter #330 / August 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter is my response to Bob Labaree’s essay “Darwin’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful: What’s Musical About Biology and Why Does That Matter?”, which was itself based on previous conversations he and I had about the relationship between music, creativity, and nature. […]
- Museletter #329: Avalanche MuseLetter #329 / July 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear MuseLetter subscriber, This month’s issue consists of two essays. The first, “Avalanche,” is an update on the US response to the coronavirus pandemic; the second, “Doom or Denial: Is There Another Path?” is a comment on a dispute that has broken out […]
- Museletter #328: United States: An Obituary MuseLetter #328 / June 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Greetings readers, It seems that we're all in it for the long haul! Though the last three or four months of lockdown have been trying and nearly everyone longs for a return to "normal," in reality the global pandemic is still in its […]
- Museletter #327: Planet of the Humans review MuseLetter #327 / May 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear Readers, This month I offer two short pieces: my review of Planet of the Humans, a new film produced by Michael Moore; and "Nobody Takes Renewable Energy Transition Seriously," in which I offer suggestions for what we should do if we really […]
- Museletter #326: Pandemic Response Requires Post-Growth Economic Thinking MuseLetter #326 / April 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Spring greetings: This past month, under the extraordinary circumstances of global pandemic, lockdown, and economic crisis, I’ve written more essays and articles than can be sent in one MuseLetter. So I’ve selected three of the most-read to include here (“Pandemic Response Requires Post-Growth […]
- Museletter #325: Coronavirus, economic networks, and social fabric MuseLetter #325 / March 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The coronavirus has turned our world upside down, I and I’ve spent the last month reading and writing about it. This month’s MuseLetter consists of three of my recent articles on the pandemic. There’s more to read daily from other authors at www.resilience.org. Inform yourself […]
- Museletter #324: Our Best Hope for Survival MuseLetter #324 / December 2019 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Thanks for your patience while I continue working on my book-in-progress. For a sneak preview of the ideas taking shape, see ‘Power, the Acceleration of Cultural Evolution, and Our Best Hope for Survival’, below. Also in this Museletter is ‘Calling all Butterflies’, a […]