MuseLetter #386 / May 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version A Dead World, Plastic-Wrapped to Preserve Freshness In the classic 1967 film The Graduate, a family friend of lead character Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman) offers him career advice: “One word. Plastics!”  I was 16 when The Graduate was released, and, […]

MuseLetter #385 / April 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The End of Big Solutions The world has changed dramatically since the start of the second Trump administration. But how best to describe this shift? Many see it as potentially the end of American democracy, or the end of the Atlantic Alliance and […]

MuseLetter #384 / March 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The Evolution of Modernity The human world of the early 21st century is dominated by science, cities, and high technology. However, both our modern way of life and our way of thinking about the world sprang up only within the past several centuries. Today’s […]

MuseLetter #383 / February 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Putting Nature at the Center Life may be unique to Earth. Even if single-celled organisms can readily evolve in conditions that exist on millions or billions of other planets, we have no actual evidence that complex, multi-cellular life exists anywhere else in the […]

MuseLetter #382 / January 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Are We Too Smart for Our Own Good? Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)—who, I’m told, was a very smart person—concluded, late in life, that high intelligence may be a lethal mutation. In this article, we’ll explore some reasons for this startling and paradoxical […]

MuseLetter #381 / December 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear reader, Thank you for your interest in, and support for my ongoing explorations of topics related to the survival of nature and humanity. I hope you take time this holiday season to enjoy our amazingly beautiful world, and to connect with people […]

MuseLetter #380 / November 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Envisioning a Livable Future Sir David King, former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, recently wrote that, “On our present path, civilization as we know it will disappear.” More than a century’s worth of sustainability research has documented how humanity is undermining […]

MuseLetter #379 / October 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Beyond Growth: A Journey through the Landscape of Sustainable Economics Growth is a story of success—until it isn’t. In most people’s minds, “growth” is inevitably associated with biological development: food crops and babies grow. In those instances, growth is understood to be good—though […]

MuseLetter #378 / September 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Us vs. them: Understanding the roots of political polarization and what you can do about it July 13, 2024, Butler, PA: Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt at an election rally; the gunman and a bystander are killed, with […]

MuseLetter #377 / August 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Humanity’s transition from relying overwhelmingly on fossil fuels to instead using alternative low-carbon energy sources is sometimes said to be unstoppable and exponential. A boosterish attitude on the part of many renewable energy advocates is understandable: overcoming people’s climate despair and sowing confidence […]

MuseLetter #376 / July 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution Climate change is a huge, complicated problem. Therefore, many people have an understandable tendency to mentally simplify it by focusing on just one cause (carbon emissions) and just one solution (alternative energy). Sustainability scholar Jan Konietzko […]

MuseLetter #375 / June 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This is Part 1 of an exploration of the current state of the climate crisis. Part 1: The Predicament People have widely varying beliefs about climate change. A surprising number still think that it’s a hoax, or that it’s a trivial problem. At […]