I don’t think much about the climate debates; the problem seems so multivariate, and each part of it so difficult, I don’t see a solution. Accordingly, I really appreciate the people who do think about and cover it because goddam, it really needs covering. Anyway, when I read about the Paris agreement, I was most struck […]
Month: December 2015
The People of LWON have spoken. As promised, here is our annual list of what to watch over the holidays. For more recommendations, please refer to last year’s list. Erik: It’s hard to make a suspenseful drama around the Revolutionary War. “Ooo! Who will win? The scrappy Americans or the evil redcoats? I just don’t […]
December 13-17, 2015 Michelle’s job as a climate change reporter feels like working a crime beat in a lawless nation. Compared with the natural, abysmal state of international climate negotiations, the Paris agreement is something she celebrates, however briefly. Christie, meanwhile, is not impressed. The Paris agreement doesn’t include shipping or aviation, and it relies […]
The holidays — one of the few times of year when the decision to pick up a book should never be preceded with the question, “But have I finished All The Work?”. Today, the People of LWON pick up a tradition we started last year, providing a handy list of great reading. Erik Vance : […]
We had been driving across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco when I noticed the flags. They were everywhere, on top of the silvery tall buildings, on top of the squat red-brown ones, even on some places that seemed too precarious to fly a flag. They all unfurled themselves halfway down the flagpole, making the […]
On a December day a few years ago, John Horton Conway settled in for an interview at the office of neuroscientist Sandra Witelson. Conway wasn’t there for an appointment proper, but rather to provide fodder for Witelson’s ongoing research on scientifically minded brains. All the same, he’d braced himself for an arsenal of standard neuropsychological […]
In 2011, I wrote about how little that year’s climate conference had accomplished. The latest edition of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change just wrapped up in Paris over the weekend with a historic agreement. Nearly 200 nations acknowledged the importance of keeping global temperatures from rising […]
This past Friday evening, when I heard that the 195 nations represented at the COP21 climate meeting in Paris had reached a draft agreement, I was pleasantly surprised. On Saturday morning, when I saw the stronger-than-forecast draft text, I was shocked. And on Saturday afternoon, when the final agreement was signed—signed!—I was thrilled. The Paris agreement won’t singlehandedly head off the worst […]
