What I’ve Learned Writing About Climate Change on Medium
Civilization is going down, just how far remains to be seen
I’ve written a lot about climate change since arriving here on Medium in 2020. Indeed, it’s fair to say it has become my primary obsession. Among the 75 posts I have written since 2020, eleven have been devoted to climate change, its causes, and its implications for human civilization. In this post, I’m going to review and summarize them all, grouped into two general categories:
- Climate change basics
- How climate is changing the world
1. Climate Change Basics
As with my writing on politics, I began my study of climate change with a series of posts modestly titled “The Future of Humanity”, in which I tried to define the problem. I visualized our dilemma as a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles representing three overlapping crises: an ecological crisis, an economic crisis, and a political crisis. I then looked at the paradox of fossil fuels and the question of whether, how, and by when they might be replaced by alternative energy sources. I concluded that they can be replaced, but only with a decrease in the energy intensity we enjoy from fossil fuels today. There will be an energy descent.
