Museletter #384: The Evolution of Modernity 24 Mar 11:52 AM (22 days ago)
MuseLetter #384 / March 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The Evolution of Modernity The human world of the early 21st century is dominated by science, cities, and high technology. However, both our modern way of life and our way of thinking about the world sprang up only within the past several centuries. Today’s […]
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Museletter #383: Putting Nature at the Center 26 Feb 8:14 AM (last month)
MuseLetter #383 / February 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Putting Nature at the Center Life may be unique to Earth. Even if single-celled organisms can readily evolve in conditions that exist on millions or billions of other planets, we have no actual evidence that complex, multi-cellular life exists anywhere else in the […]
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Museletter #382: Are We Too Smart for Our Own Good? 29 Jan 7:44 AM (2 months ago)
MuseLetter #382 / January 2025 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Are We Too Smart for Our Own Good? Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005)—who, I’m told, was a very smart person—concluded, late in life, that high intelligence may be a lethal mutation. In this article, we’ll explore some reasons for this startling and paradoxical […]
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Museletter #381: Environmental-Political Collapse Accelerates 18 Dec 2024 8:14 AM (3 months ago)
MuseLetter #381 / December 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear reader, Thank you for your interest in, and support for my ongoing explorations of topics related to the survival of nature and humanity. I hope you take time this holiday season to enjoy our amazingly beautiful world, and to connect with people […]
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Museletter #380: Envisioning a Livable Future 25 Nov 2024 9:47 AM (4 months ago)
MuseLetter #380 / November 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Envisioning a Livable Future Sir David King, former chief scientific advisor to the UK government, recently wrote that, “On our present path, civilization as we know it will disappear.” More than a century’s worth of sustainability research has documented how humanity is undermining […]
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Museletter #379: Beyond Growth 31 Oct 2024 11:26 AM (5 months ago)
MuseLetter #379 / October 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Beyond Growth: A Journey through the Landscape of Sustainable Economics Growth is a story of success—until it isn’t. In most people’s minds, “growth” is inevitably associated with biological development: food crops and babies grow. In those instances, growth is understood to be good—though […]
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Museletter #378: Us vs. them – Understanding the roots of political polarization and what you can do about it 24 Sep 2024 7:13 AM (6 months ago)
MuseLetter #378 / September 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Us vs. them: Understanding the roots of political polarization and what you can do about it July 13, 2024, Butler, PA: Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt at an election rally; the gunman and a bystander are killed, with […]
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Museletter #377: What Would a Real Renewable Energy Transition Look Like? 27 Aug 2024 11:19 AM (7 months ago)
MuseLetter #377 / August 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Humanity’s transition from relying overwhelmingly on fossil fuels to instead using alternative low-carbon energy sources is sometimes said to be unstoppable and exponential. A boosterish attitude on the part of many renewable energy advocates is understandable: overcoming people’s climate despair and sowing confidence […]
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Museletter #376: Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution 24 Jul 2024 10:46 AM (8 months ago)
MuseLetter #376 / July 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution Climate change is a huge, complicated problem. Therefore, many people have an understandable tendency to mentally simplify it by focusing on just one cause (carbon emissions) and just one solution (alternative energy). Sustainability scholar Jan Konietzko […]
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Museletter #375: Navigating Climate Catastrophe 28 Jun 2024 6:01 AM (9 months ago)
MuseLetter #375 / June 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This is Part 1 of an exploration of the current state of the climate crisis. Part 1: The Predicament People have widely varying beliefs about climate change. A surprising number still think that it’s a hoax, or that it’s a trivial problem. At […]
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Museletter #374: Invitation to a Journey 28 May 2024 7:00 AM (10 months ago)
MuseLetter #374 / May 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month's Museletter begins with an invitation to join Post Carbon Institute's new programme Resilience+ to explore ways of navigating the polycrisis. That is followed by my first essay for Resilience+ looking at the effect of these crises on mental health. In addition, […]
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From Climate Crisis to Polycrisis 23 May 2024 11:16 AM (10 months ago)
This article was originally published by World Literature Today The Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu wrote that, in warfare, it is essential to know both your enemy and yourself. Today, humanity has “enemies,” including climate change and nuclear weapons, that are capable of destroying civilization and whole planetary ecosystems. So far, we are not defeating these enemies—which we […]
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Museletter #373: How to Build a Climate Bomb 30 Apr 2024 11:30 AM (11 months ago)
MuseLetter #373 / April 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The first piece in this month's Museletter 'How to Build a Climate Bomb' is an essay on the perils of geoengineering. That is followed by a short essay I wrote to mark Earth Day. How to Build a Climate Bomb A major effort […]
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Museletter #372: Why Artificial Intelligence Must Be Stopped Now 26 Mar 2024 9:52 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #372 / March 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The March Museletter is made up of three essays. The first shines a light on the existential risks posed by Artificial Intelligence. Next up is a piece giving my take on the decision by world geologists not to recognise the current geological epoch […]
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We Need a Plan for the Transition to Renewable Energy 26 Mar 2024 8:42 AM (last year)
by Richard Heinberg and David Fridley Radical societal transformation is inevitable; a plan could make a difference between catastrophe and progress. Introduction The transition to renewable energy is inevitable given the current climate crisis and the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource. To make the shift, a detailed plan is required to indicate […]
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Museletter #371: I Hear Voices 26 Feb 2024 11:33 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #371 / February 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version February's Museletter kicks off with "I hear voices", a thought piece that takes the form of a self-therapy session on responses to the existential crises facing the world. The second essay, "Is World Population Peaking Now?", is an interview with scientist and population […]
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Museletter #370: An Ancient Chinese Text and a 2023 Scorecard 26 Jan 2024 6:28 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #370 / January 2024 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version January's Museletter begins with an essay revisiting the ancient Chinese classic, "Tao Te Ching," drawing inspiration for the challenges of today. Some of those challenges are the topic for the second essay (co-authored by J. David Hughes), "Climate Change and Energy Transition: The […]
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Museletter #369: Something Wicked This Way Comes 20 Dec 2023 11:34 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #369 / December 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Holiday greetings to you, valued reader. May your Solstice be a time of stepping back, finding new meaning in your life, and enjoying the beauty of nature. Your support makes my work, and that of my colleagues, possible. If you find my essays […]
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Museletter #368: The Gasoline-Powered Leaf Blower as a Metaphor for Industrial Society 16 Nov 2023 10:41 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #368 / November 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Every Thursday our next-door neighbor hires a worker to use a leaf blower. This infernal machine drives me nuts. Rather than letting a pet peeve render me literally insane, I’ve decided to explore the leaf blower’s deeper significance. A psychologist might call this […]
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Museletter #367: Treacherous Waters 23 Oct 2023 10:03 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #367 / October 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The World’s Top Industrial Countries Are in Treacherous Waters The following essay was written prior to the Hamas attack on Israel, and the commencement of Israeli retaliation. These developments will likely accelerate the overall trend of US imperial decline discussed in the article, […]
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Museletter #366: Why 2% Is the Most Dangerous Number 14 Sep 2023 10:22 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #366 / September 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Why 2% Is the Most Dangerous Number No One Is Talking About We’ve had a summer from hell, with July 2023 temporarily claiming the title of hottest month on record. But while the klaxons of Earth’s climate system have riveted nearly everyone’s attention, […]
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Museletter #365: The Lure of Cult Thinking 30 Aug 2023 9:36 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #365 / August 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version You May Think You’re Immune to Cult Thinking, but We’re All Susceptible Times of societal upheaval or rapid social change tend to generate new religious movements, and what are often called cults. The English Civil War in the 17th century roughly coincided with […]
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Museletter #364: Are These the End Times? 26 Jul 2023 10:26 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #364 / July 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Are these the end times? Peter Turchin’s latest book, End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, is receiving glowing reviews. Its message is highly relevant to our collective understanding of the emerging global polycrisis and what needs to be done […]
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Museletter #363: Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse 27 Jun 2023 9:47 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #363 / June 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter is about crisis and acceleration. The first essay, “Polycrisis, Unraveling, Simplification, or Collapse: Coming Soon to a Planet Near You?,” introduces a new report from Post Carbon Institute on the roots of the polycrisis and why we should be thinking […]
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Museletter #362: Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It? 30 May 2023 12:15 PM (last year)
MuseLetter #362 / May 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Human activity—mostly the burning of fossil fuels—has raised Earth’s atmospheric carbon content by 50 percent, from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 420 ppm. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, we’ve released approximately 950 billion metric tons of carbon into the air. Every year, humans emit more than […]
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Museletter #361: Post Carbon Institute: Looking Back, Looking Forward 28 Apr 2023 5:54 AM (last year)
MuseLetter #361 / April 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Post Carbon Institute: Looking Back, Looking Forward This year Post Carbon Institute turns 20, so it’s a good time to take stock. What have we done, what’s left to do? Our strong suit has been research and communication. And, given that focus, there […]
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Museletter #360: Why We Can’t Just Do It 31 Mar 2023 6:24 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #360 / March 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Why We Can’t Just Do It This month’s Museletter kicks off with a short response to the latest IPCC report and why we’re failing to curb carbon emissions despite the dire warnings. The second article looks at recent data from China on declining […]
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Museletter #359: Converging Debt Crises 27 Feb 2023 8:44 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #359 / February 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter leads with an article looking at various debt timebombs threatening us all. It also includes the concluding part of my trilogy written for Independent Media Institute on the renewable energy transition (parts 1 and 2 were included in Museletter #356, […]
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Museletter #358: Why Understanding Limits Is the Key to Humanity’s Future 30 Jan 2023 10:48 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #358 / January 2023 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Recent news articles about a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research heralded the potential for “limitless” energy. Whenever I read that word limitless I wince, because I’ve learned to view it as a subtle instruction to readers to “please stop thinking now.” After decades of false promises […]
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Museletter #357: Can Civilization Survive? These Studies Might Tell Us 28 Dec 2022 5:27 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #357 / December 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear MuseLetter reader, 2022 was the 30th year for this publication, and it's been heartening to see these essays being distributed through an increasing number of online and print publishing outlets. There's more to come! May your solstice be a time for reflection, […]
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Museletter #356: The Final Doubling 28 Nov 2022 8:45 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #356 / November 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter begins with a tribute to Herman Daly, the father of ecological economics. Also included are the first two parts of a trilogy written for Independent Media Institute on the renewable energy transition. The Final Doubling This essay is dedicated to […]
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Museletter #355: Oil, war and the fate of industrial societies 28 Oct 2022 7:04 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #355 / October 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter consists of two essays. The first, “Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies,” looks at parallels between today’s energy/economy crisis and my 2003 book The Party’s Over. The second, “Blues for America,” was inspired by a concert I attended […]
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Museletter #354: What you need to know about the energy crisis 28 Sep 2022 10:34 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #354 / September 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version In May I wrote about the emerging energy and food crisis gripping the world due largely to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The crisis continues to unfold. However, most people are aware of it only via high prices—for gasoline, electricity, natural gas, and food—and through […]
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Museletter #353: Deadly Optimism, Useful Pessimism 27 Jul 2022 11:24 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #353 / July 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month's Museletter begins with "Deadly Optimism, Useful Pessimism," which warns against the former and shows how the latter could help us find a path towards realistic alternatives. The second article, "Will civilization collapse because it’s running out of oil?," summarizes an important […]
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Museletter #352: The 1970s Again? 24 Jun 2022 7:18 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #352 / June 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The 1970s Again? For the United States and much of the rest of the world, the 1970s were a time of high oil prices, surging inflation, stock market swoons, political upheaval, and geopolitical tension. Add pandemic and climate change to the list, and […]
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Museletter #351: The Energy/Food Crisis 27 May 2022 5:51 AM (2 years ago)
MuseLetter #351 / May 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear reader, This month’s MuseLetter consists of two essays. The first, “Can We Abandon Pollutive Fossil Fuels and Avoid an Energy Crisis,” maps the constraints of climate/energy policy that will shape the remainder of our lives. The second, “The Energy and Food Crisis […]
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Museletter #350: The Failure of Global Elites 29 Apr 2022 6:01 AM (2 years ago)
In the 1970s, global political and corporate elites had all the information they needed to put the world on a path toward long-term stability. Systems science was sufficiently advanced that a team of its practitioners organized a scenario study to see how trends in industrial production, population, food, pollution, and resource usage might interact over the next few decades; the study showed that continued growth in population and industrial production would prove unsustainable.
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Museletter #349: After the Ukraine Invasion 25 Mar 2022 7:44 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #349 / March 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear subscriber, This month has seen the start of a historic and tragic invasion. In this month’s Museletter I’ve examined some of the Ukraine war’s likely implications for energy, economy, and geopolitics. Meanwhile, in a second piece Museletter maintains its gaze on an […]
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Museletter #348: The Limits to Growth at 50 28 Feb 2022 11:39 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #348 / February 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The Limits to Growth at 50: From Scenarios to Unfolding Reality A half-century ago, the worlds of science, public policy, and economics were rocked by a prominent book, The Limits to Growth, authored by four systems scientists (Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, […]
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Dennis Meadows on the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Limits to Growth 26 Feb 2022 6:53 AM (3 years ago)
Only rarely does a book truly change the world. In the nineteenth century, such a book was Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. For the twentieth century, it was The Limits to Growth. Not only did this best-selling 1972 publication help spur the environmental movement, but it showed that the underlying dynamics of the […]
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Museletter #347: Social Cohesion Is Vital, and We’re Losing It 26 Jan 2022 8:26 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #347 / January 2022 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter kicks off with an essay on the important role of social cohesion in holding societies together and addressing crises. That is followed by one summarising the current status of global action to combat climate change. Social Cohesion Is Vital, and […]
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Museletter #346: The End of Growth: Ten Years After 20 Dec 2021 8:40 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #346 / December 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear Reader, This Month’s edition consists of two essays—“The End of Growth: Ten Years After” and “Energy Reality for the USA.” As we approach the solstice, and the beginning of a new year, I wish you more opportunities to enjoy the beauty of […]
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Museletter #345: How Much of the Worsening Energy Crisis is Due to Depletion? 16 Nov 2021 9:34 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #345 / November 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version How Much of the Worsening Energy Crisis is Due to Depletion? Coal and natural gas spot prices have recently soared to record levels internationally, while oil is trading at over $80 a barrel—the highest price in seven years. Newspaper columnists are asking whether […]
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Museletter #344: Evolution and Climate Change Through the Lens of Power 25 Oct 2021 10:31 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #344 / October 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Evolution and Climate Change Through the Lens of Power This essay is based on, and partly extracted from, the book POWER: LIMITS AND PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL. During the last century, evolutionary biologists developed the idea that power (defined as the rate of […]
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Museletter #343: The Only Long-Range Solution to Climate Change 17 Sep 2021 9:30 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #343 / September 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This essay is adapted from my new book POWER: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival (New Society Publishers, September 2021). The Only Long-Range Solution to Climate Change Climate change is often incorrectly described as an isolated pollution issue. In this flawed framing, humanity […]
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Museletter #342: Questions to Richard Heinberg from a 15-Year-Old Student 30 Aug 2021 4:53 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #342 / August 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Callum Alexander from Scotland recently contacted me with a few queries about renewable energy. I thought they were interesting questions that might occur to others, so I asked his permission to publish our dialog. Callum: If you replace a coal- or gas-fired power […]
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Museletter #341: America’s (Likely) Violent Future 28 Jul 2021 9:14 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #341 / July 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version A little over a year ago I wrote an essay titled The United States: An Obituary. It was the tail end of the Trump regime and the early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic; dread was in the air, and I thought it […]
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Museletter #340: Too Much Power 28 Jun 2021 9:30 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #340 / June 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Too Much Power This article, the third in a series, is based on the Richard's forthcoming book, POWER: LIMITS AND PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL. You can read the first article in the series here, and the second here. For information about the book and how […]
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Museletter #339: The Most Colossal Planning Failure in Human History 21 May 2021 7:35 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #339 / May 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The Most Colossal Planning Failure in Human History A couple of days ago I happened to pick up an old book gathering dust on one of my office shelves—Palmer Putnam’s Energy in the Future, published in 1953. Here was a time capsule of […]
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Museletter #338: The Evolution of Social Power 28 Apr 2021 9:02 AM (3 years ago)
MuseLetter #338 / April 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The Evolution of Social Power This article is the second in a series based on Richard's forthcoming book, POWER: LIMITS AND PROSPECTS FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL. For information about the book and how to join a pre-release reading and discussion group please see postcarbon.org/power. […]
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Museletter #337: Understanding Power 26 Mar 2021 6:32 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #337 / March 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Dear readers, This Month's MuseLetter includes two essays. The first is a glimpse at my new book, POWER, which will be out in September (and will be available soon for a pre-release sign-up guided reading group). The second asks what fountain pens (of all things!) […]
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Can Big Tech Save the World? A Review of Gates and Kolbert 24 Mar 2021 9:51 AM (4 years ago)
Originally published at Literary Review How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need By Bill Gates (Knopf / Allen Lane 272pp) Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future By Elizabeth Kolbert (Crown / The Bodley Head 256pp) Some readers may question the value of a […]
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Museletter #336: Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital) 26 Feb 2021 11:25 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #336 / February 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital) David Fleming, the late British economist, contributed many blazing insights; one that’s captivated my attention recently has to do with capital. Fleming counted six kinds of capital (natural, human, social, scientific/cultural, material, and […]
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Will Technology Solve Climate Change? 26 Feb 2021 8:03 AM (4 years ago)
The following is Richard Heinberg’s contribution to a two-way discussion with Adam Dorr, an environmental social scientist at the nonprofit think tank Rethinkx. The exchange was hosted by Pairagraph, a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals. For the entire exchange, click here. When humanity started using fossil fuels, it gained access to tens of millions of years’ worth […]
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Museletter #335: Insurrection, pandemic, and censorship 19 Jan 2021 7:30 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #335 / January 2021 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Insurrection, pandemic, and censorship On January 6, thousands gathered in Washington, DC to hear an inciteful speech from President Trump, then forcefully breached the US Capitol Building in an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of presidential power—an institutional foundation of democracy. Some […]
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Museletter #334: 2020: The Year Consensus Reality Fractured 21 Dec 2020 10:08 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #334 / December 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version 2020: The Year Consensus Reality Fractured Virtually everyone agrees that 2020 was an abomination. An entire industry of opinion writers is busying itself with end-of-year handwringing, scouring every online thesaurus for adjectives to express just how horrible the last twelve months have been. […]
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Museletter #333: Making America ungovernable 25 Nov 2020 9:37 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #333 / November 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version Making America ungovernable The US presidential election of 2020 is now behind us—or is it? President Trump has yet to concede his defeat, and many Republican lawmakers have demanded recounts and backed lawsuits. Some commentators fear that the current administration is laying the […]
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Museletter #332: A simple way to understand what’s happening … and what to do 30 Oct 2020 7:48 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #332 / October 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version The thread running through this month’s Museletter is energy. The first essay, “A Simple Way to Understand What’s Happening and What to Do,” explains the systemic consequences of fossil fuel depletion and the policy options that make sense in response to it; the […]
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Museletter #331: What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable? 30 Sep 2020 8:20 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #331 / September 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version What If Preventing Collapse Isn’t Profitable? The notion that modern industrial civilization is fundamentally unsustainable and is therefore likely to collapse at some point is not a new one. Even before the Limits to Growth report of 1972, many ecologists were concerned that our continual […]
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Museletter #330: Nature Is Intentionally Beautiful 25 Aug 2020 8:31 AM (4 years ago)
MuseLetter #330 / August 2020 by Richard Heinberg Download printable PDF version This month’s Museletter is my response to Bob Labaree’s essay “Darwin’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful: What’s Musical About Biology and Why Does That Matter?”, which was itself based on previous conversations he and I had about the relationship between music, creativity, and nature. […]
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