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Welcome to the World of Punctuated Equilibrium
by Tim Rumage, Chief Science Officer, This Spaceship Earth and Planetary Ethicist In evolutionary biology, there are two primary pathways for organisms to adapt and evolve: one is gradualism, and the other is punctuated equilibrium. Gradualism is just that – slow incremental changes/variations over long periods of time. Punctuated equilibrium change is pulsed. There […]
The Moral Reckoning with Climate Change
We are now passing through a crucial period in the history of climate change: the fulcrum point where society’s attitudes toward it, and particularly the continued use of fossil fuels, are changing. Much has been written, here on Spaceship Earth as well as many other places, about the “Greta effect,” meaning the sudden increased public […]
National Climate Service
When does the will to collectively face our climate emergency trigger a global mobilization that is up to the task? Americans often refer to the unprecedented ramp up at the beginning of WWII as an example of how quickly we can come together and defeat a common enemy. Can we move fast enough? In […]
Climate Protest Movements Aren’t Going Away
A few weeks ago, on September 27, 2019, Judith Collins, a Member of Parliament from New Zealand, told a news show that she thought youth activists protesting governments’ inaction on climate change would “grow out of it” and that “every generation has its thing.” In the meantime, Extinction Rebellion, the most visible climate protest movement, marched […]