Richard Heinberg

"Where things go from there is uncertain, but so far there is no credible pathway to compromise and peace."

If we modern humans are, in effect, addicted to power, perhaps we need something like a collective twelve-step program.

We have built up civilization to a scale that can temporarily be supported by finite and polluting energy sources, and we have simply assumed that this scale of activity can continue to be supported by other energy sources that haven't yet been developed or substantially deployed.

A healthy society recognizes that unrestrained growth is suicidal. 

Democracy requires an informed citizenry and reliably informative media. 

Neither party is equipped to reach across the divides that separate Americans, and the political system is set up to make it nearly impossible for a third party to take root.

The real downside of the green-profit narrative has been that it created the assumption in many people's minds that the solution to climate change and other environmental dilemmas is technical, and that policy makers and industrialists will implement it for us, so that the way we live doesn't need to change in any fundamental way. That's never been true.

It is reasonable to ask whether the United States will continue to exist as a unified nation for much longer.