The Nation – Surviving The Climate Crisis

Via email from The Nation:

As we approach Earth Day the good news is that ecological consciousness is at an all-time high. The bad news is that we really need it. As Mark Hertsgaard writes in The Nation‘s just-released special issue on the environment and the emerging climate crisis, “We must accept, unfortunately, that the battle to prevent global warming is over; now, the race to survive it has begun.This race will continue for the rest of our lives, testing human ingenuity, institutions, and values as never before. Losses are inevitable, but the situation is not hopeless.”

The special issue subjects faddish solutions such as ‘clean coal’ and carbon offsets to serious scrutiny, and introduces radical new proposals: James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, outlines a 5-point-plan for transforming our energy infrastructure and Christian Parenti says Green utilities are growing, but they need to grow much faster. Doug Henwood wonders if the ruling classes can save the world from global warming. There’s also a dispatch by Matthew Gilbert, a ember of the Gwich’in tribe of northeastern Alaska, offering a rare perspective on the devastating effects of climate change on his people’s way of life and n essay by Elizabeth Economy, Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, who considers the “nightmarishly bad” implications of China’s development strategy while chronicling the country’s search for a green path to growth.

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