“Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate." ― Edward W. Said

A college sophomore at an Occupy rally could not have generated such a grotesque outsized caricature of US imperialism

"We are living now with the consequences of failure, and will do so ever more so for a very long time to come. We need to protect ourselves from and through this long emergency, and demand protection via the state too." Read more in my piece for @resilience.org. www.resilience.org/stories/2025...

Modern #neuroscience is reframing classic 20th-century philosophical questions about free will, meaning, and the self. These debates now hinge less on abstraction and more on how #brains actually work.

Humans have emitted 2750 gigatons of CO2 since the industrial revolution from burning fossil fuels and land use change. To put this in perspective, this is more than the (dry) mass of all living things on earth and everything humans have ever built combined:

Is global warming accelerating? Over at The Climate Brink I argue that the consilience of evidence from surface temperatures, climate models, forcing changes, ocean heat content, and earth energy imbalance all point toward yes: www.theclimatebrink....

The Earth Restoration Communities model works by empowering local people to lead restoration themselves. Instead of massive, top-down projects, ERC’s approach scales out, not up, connecting communities through shared learning, training, and inspiration.

Incoming NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani: “We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.”

“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” — Marshall McLuhan (1970)

“Once we have surrendered our senses and nervous systems to the private manipulation of those who would try to benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and ears and nerves, we don’t really have any rights left.” Marshall McLuhan (1964)

'From Earth to Sky' painting by Christi Belcourt, Métis visual artist, inspired by Métis and First Nations historical beadwork #WomensArt

“Capitalism induces anxiety in us & then demands that we privately do something about it, as if health is not even slightly socially-determined. This is ‘deliberately induced to block political action’.”

“Climate change is just a symptom of the bigger problem of overshoot. We’re destroying our home for fleeting comforts & fantasies of the ‘progress’ we’re making. Progress would be recognising the problem & dealing with it.” #degrowth - @mattorsagh.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/degrowth...

“Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Pierre Poilievre — none of these men became household names on merit, they simply cried the loudest. The entire conservative movement is composed of insufferable cry babies aided and abetted by spineless corporate media.”

“World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation.” — Marshall McLuhan (1970)

“It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity... It’s as simple as that.” -Tove Jansson

For me, spirituality is not like religion where we can believe it or not. It’s more like a radio station: am I tuned in or am I tuned out?

Keeper of the Flame (1942), starring Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy.

For me, spirituality is not like religion where we can believe it or not. It’s more like a radio station: am I tuned in or am I tuned out?

Below is a feature on 10 of the most positive outcomes for 2025. Despite a year of hardship there has also been some good news. May 2026 be even better for more and more people.

2025 has been a hard year for many of us. So it’s easy to focus on the disasters. But there were also some real victories that moved us closer to a better world. Here are a few highlights from @commondreams.org:

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde

“Most intellectuals and most artists belong to the same type. Only the strongest of them force their way through the atmosphere of the bourgeois earth and attain to the cosmic. The others all resigned themselves or make compromises.” — Hermann Hesse

“While nothing currently imaginable is adequate, history contains furrows that might still surprise us.”

“In this article, we’ll explore a four-part typology of futures from the perspective of physical constraints, which are often overlooked by futurists concerned only with culture, technology, or politics.”

The mountains & fjords of Senja in full epic light mode… #photography #adventure #nature #light #art

a group of egrets fish quietly in the morning mist, with a night heron on the near shore. #serenity #birdoftheday

"The atomized individual experience of the city gives way to a power of collective attention, expressed both through a (tracking) of the enemy as well as a sensitivity to the rhythms, flows, and qualitative relations that populate the places we inhabit."

Photo by @fireflyfox5.bsky.social #photography #flower

“Ten years after Paris: cooperation worked, but not fast enough. We’re now in climate overshoot. The next decade must deliver deeper cuts, real finance, and action at scale, or the window closes. What we do next matters most.” — Dr. David King

More CO2 in the atmosphere is making food more calorific but less nutritious – and also potentially more toxic.

“The world we know depends on ice that is already vanishing. The timeline might be uncertain — the outcome is not.”

Fierce determination rather than optimism: "False optimism is incredibly dangerous...It is high time for a shift in mindset…. Recognising the extent to which we have failed so far, and the extent to which the mitigation/decarbonisation story is stalled, is a necessary prelude to starting anew."

You probably heard the US admin is threatening to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research: but did you know they already froze funding for the 9 regional Climate Science Adaptation Centers? From tracking invasives to helping tribes with drought, here's why the CASCs matter ⬇️

This is a significant breakthrough: “Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals and the Cleveland VA showed restoring brain’s energy balance led to both pathological and functional recovery.”

" the sunbird " ink on paper #drawings #sketches

What the world needs now, as the antidote to despair. 👇 this 👇

“For people who have not passed through this dark night of the soul, a Post-Doom perspective can sound a lot like Doomerism. But for those on this side of despair, it is very different.” — John Halstead

“One obvious role for a radical intellectual is to do precisely that: look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are (already) doing…

"Might the current explosion of extinctions--invariably pointing to a sole cause, and not an asteroid this time--suggest that a certain dominant mammal's turn may be coming to an end?"

Gloomy conclusions coming from research published in the journal Nature Sustainability: “An ecosystem #collapse that we might previously have expected to avoid until late this century could happen as soon as in the next few decades.”

The extended evolutionary synthesis (EES) is a 21st century version of evolutionary theory according to which developmental processes, including memory and learning, play a crucial role in heredity and evolution alongside processes of Darwinian selection.

“A civilization built on extraction will eventually extract itself out of a future.”

Absolutely stunning photo from Dubaï by @armandsarlangue.bsky.social #photography #nature #landscape #art #desert

I don't know about y'all, but today I'm going to watch my favorite version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (the Muppets of course) and here's something I wrote years ago about the science behind Scrooge's change in heart. Merry Christmas, everyone!

"The world faces converging ecological and governance crises. As major biomes near collapse and inequalities grow, powerful nations prioritize short-term economic interests over climate and nature commitments."

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. A process that cannot be understood by stopping it. We must move with the flow of the process. We must join it. We must flow with it." (DUNE, 1969)

Republicans and Democrats hobnobbing together on Epstein’s island, while destroying the lives of working-class people, tells you everything you need to know about the US ruling class. Rotten to the core. The whole edifice needs to be brought down.