Nuclear Fusion Achieved! The Stars Beckon, But Trouble Awaits

Over the weekend, momentous news broke of a scientific breakthrough that promises to set the world on its ear yet again: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has demonstrated a nuclear fusion reaction that generated more energy than it took to get going. A very short and nontechnical explanation from this nonscientist is in

That Florida Flood: Updating Woody Guthrie’s “Dusty Old Dust”

Sweethearts sat in the dark and sparked
They hugged and kissed in that watery dark
They sighed and cried, hugged and kissed
Too much debt to get married, so we’ll just sing this….

Vindictive Villanelle

So this is how it ends.

While You’re Watching Trump’s Antics, The West Is Dying of Thirst

The MAGA-tized Republican fascists are apparently eager to hasten global burning, as they move from obstructing efforts to reduce greenhouse gases to actually penalizing companies that undertake them.

The Fate of the Earth and Fermi’s Paradox

Everyone knows that we’re in deep trouble, and that if our civilization collapses, we’re likely to take most of the living things on Earth with us. What if this happens everywhere, every time intelligent, self-aware life appears?

Is Humanity Suicidal?

Reason, let alone altruism, is scarcely in fashion.

A Manhattan Project To Avert Climate Collapse

National leaders are just not going to agree to crash their economies, and if they did, their constituents would boil them in Light Sweet Crude.

If America Goes Down, What Becomes of Democracy?

Here’s a prediction for you: In ten years, as the elected neofascist MAGA dictator of America coasts toward his third term, with an expected landslide of 80 percent of the (authorized, manipulated) vote, the flourishing democracy of Ukraine will take its turn at leading the European Union as it sends advisors and observers to help

Civilization Is Dying of an Oil Overdose

Nobody on Earth should live like wealthy Westerners anymore, if we want out children and grandchildren to have a tolerable future. But human nature being what it is, the prospects look bleak.

The Parable of the Paranoid Polar Bear (An American Fable)

In those long-ago days when there was still ice in the Arctic, polar bears used to roam in what was then a cold wilderness, rather than an expanse of toxic mud dotted with oil wells, as it is now. One of these creatures, who went by the name Parker, was unfortunately afflicted with paranoia. It