Happy Friday!
You made it to the end of another week. Congrats!
I’ve put together a news roundup below, so feel free to skip ahead for some weekend reading.
I thought I’d start off by sharing a little mental health moment and one of my favourite aphorisms:
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
First, a favour: if you’ve been enjoying Crisis Century, please consider sharing the goodies with a friend!
Now, on with the show.
I noted last week that, like many folks, January had left me feeling a bit frazzled, weary, and anxious.
In particular, I was feeling pretty disorganized, like I hadn’t been keeping on top of my emails (which remains true — apologies all around), let alone my broader goals.
I felt unfocused and was defaulting to scrolling on my phone. And I had a few things that I wanted to get done that kept inexplicably rolling over into the next week.
Although I’m a big believer that “it’s okay to not be okay” right now, and that fetishizing productivity can be pretty toxic at the best of times, I still felt frustrated and scattered and wanted to do something to support, where appropriate, my internal locus of control.
As January became February, I decided I needed to get back to basics.
I took a quick inventory and realized I had been neglecting a critical piece of infrastructure that makes my life work.
In particular, I had stopped journaling. On reflection, I think I stopped because I let it become a burden.
You see, it had occurred to me at some point a few months ago that, once we’re on the other side of the pandemic, much of this time will likely become a blurry, foggy, gap-filled haze in my memory.
Memory is notoriously fickle and unreliable. This is a time of tremendous strain and constant uncertainty, the days numbingly running together as the rhythms of our lives have become more constrained.
And the trauma may be something our brains reflexively wish to obscure or forget.
But I didn’t want to lose this time or the memory of what it was. I wanted to be able to answer the question “what was it really like living through 2020-2021” — and have some receipts to back it up.
I still want to be able to do this. I’ve been trying to take more pictures on my phone for the same reason — to capture the passing days and weeks and create memory prompts for future recall.
But I also ended up accidentally creating a trap for myself.
Without quite realizing it, I got to the point that I felt I had to write out pages, capturing the minutia of each day and my mind’s journey through it every day, or I would be “failing” in some sense.
This is your brain on law school, kids.
So as I said, I let journalling became a burden. I got a bit carried away.
I let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Too much of anything tends to get us into trouble — work, carbon dioxide emissions, even dorky old journalling of all things.
Back in the long-ago era known as “Summer”, I told a couple friends, who happen to compete in Iron Man triathlons, that I wanted to step my walks up and start gently running.
After law school and articling, a multi-year period in which I was both chronically stressed and horrifically sedentary, like a long-haul trucker white-knuckling it in an office chair, I wanted to know — how do I start moving my body again without getting hurt?
Their advice was the same. Go slowly. Don’t do too much. Even when you feel like you want to do more. Especially when you feel like you can.
That’s all I was allowed. Just 20-30 minutes at a time, a few times a week, for the first few months.
They warned me that I would want to do more.
Once I got into a habit, once I started enjoying it, once my lungs coughed up the last of the photocopier dust from last year’s desk marathon, I would want to push myself harder.
And that would be a mistake. I’d be more likely to end up injured, set back, and demoralized.
So, as I’ve been running, I’ve kept in mind why I started. Not to become a triathlete. Just to give myself an excuse to get out of the house, boost my energy, and do some basic maintenance on this ‘ol bag of bones.
To show myself I could make my health a real priority in my life. That’s it. That’s enough.
In fact, it’s plenty.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
So I realized that that’s where I got off-track with the journal. I got too carried away by my own momentum and enjoyment.
So this past week or so, I’ve been back on my fundamentals.
Journalling base training, friends. THAT’S RIGHT.
There are three things that I most value about journalling, and none of them have anything to do with cataloguing the minutia of pandemic life.
They’re more about maintaining the foundation for my life. It’s part of my infrastructure to deal with *waves hands* all this.
First, I journal to plan my day, my week, and my month and give myself a sense of agency and control.
For me, this usually looks like priority or to-do lists for different areas of my life. I’ll ask myself “what’s the one thing that I want to get done this day, this week, this month to feel good about it?” Or “is there one thing that I can work on this month that would really improve X area of my life?”
Lest this seem too intimidating, let me be explicit that the level of ambition here is often something like “drink more water”.
Second, and relatedly, journalling is a way to give myself feedback. It creates an objective record of momentum, progress, and accomplishment, however modest and incremental, that helps me to keep perspective, be kind to myself, identify persistent challenges, and get out of slumps.
I’m feeling disorganized today — am I actually? I’m feeling like I haven’t accomplished anything I can feel good about this week — is that really true? I feel like I’ve been putting too much time & effort into my work at the expense of my health or relationships this month — is that accurate?
If yes, what’s one thing I can do this week to adjust? Gentle.
It’s long been said that “what gets measured gets managed”. Journalling for just a few minutes a day is a key way for me to measure what matters and to iterate as I go.
For me, that means keeping an eye on how I’m feeling about my health & wellness, my career, my home life, my relationships, and the administrative tasks that support everything else.
Finally, at a time when I’m not seeing my friends or family, journalling gives me a place to express my thoughts and feelings, especially those that might otherwise get buried and pushed aside, leading to anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or body pain later.
So, yes, I guess I’m shamelessly proselytizing about journalling. If you’re feeling the weight of the world, the grey slushiness of winter, the interminable frustration of the pandemic — pick up a blank notebook and see what it can do for you.
If you want something a bit extra and more structured, I’ve had people recommend this to me, but I also have a blank one sitting on my shelf, so YMMV.
Now read on below for a roundup of some of the more interesting things on my radar over the last week or two!
CLIMATE & ENERGY
“Putting Climate Risk on the Boardroom Table”, Hansell LLP (2020).
I may have shared this opinion before, but it’s worth reading again, especially in light of this resolution at the CBA’s upcoming AGM on Feb. 17th.
“We have been asked whether directors of Canadian corporations are obliged to address climate change risk. The answer is clearly yes. Canadian courts have accepted climate change and the risks it presents as self-evident and uncontroversial, as has the investment community. It would be nearly impossible for a director to dismiss climate change risk out of hand. The obligation of directors to consider the implications of climate change risk is grounded in the duties each director owes to the corporation he or she serves.”“How the Race for Renewable Energy is Reshaping Global Politics”, Leslie Hook and Henry Sanderson, Financial Times.
“But as the energy system changes, so will energy politics. For most of the past century, geopolitical power was intimately connected to fossil fuels. The fear of an oil embargo or a gas shortage was enough to forge alliances or start wars, and access to oil deposits conferred great wealth. In the world of clean energy, a new set of winners and losers will emerge. Some see it as a clean energy “space race”. Countries or regions that master clean technology, export green energy or import less fossil fuel stand to gain from the new system, while those that rely on exporting fossil fuels — such as the Middle East or Russia — could see their power decline.”“The Terrifying Warning Lurking in the Earth’s Ancient Rock Record”, Peter Brannen, The Atlantic.
This is an extraordinary piece that will make you marvel at the dark majesty of geological time and protective of our fragile, flashing moment in its midst.
(However, it’s important to note that the Atlantic, against the author’s wishes, included a misleading subtitle that falsely suggests “our climate models could be missing something.” In fact, per Michael Mann, the best available science “STRONGLY supports the accuracy of current generation climate models”.)
“Today the last dry land one steps on in Canada before setting out across the ice-choked seas for the North Pole is Ellesmere Island, at the top of the world. But once upon a time there was a rainforest here. We know this because tree stumps still erode out of the barren hillsides, and they’re more than 50 million years old. They’re all that’s left of an ancient polar jungle now whipped by indifferent Arctic winds. But once upon a time, this island was a swampy cathedral of redwoods, whose canopy naves were filled with flying lemurs, giant salamanders, and hippolike beasts that pierced the waters.”
“I’ve Said Goodbye to Normal. You Should Too.” Roy Scranton, NYT.
“The next 20 years will be a period of deep uncertainty and tremendous risk, no matter what. We don’t get to choose what challenges we’ll face, but we do get to decide how we face them. The first thing we need to do is let go of the idea that life will ever be normal again…”
“The Only Carbon Capture Coal Plant in the US Just Closed.” Molly Taft, Gizmodo.
“But creating technology to remove emissions from burning coal didn’t come without a cost: In purporting to solve some fossil fuel problems, the project actually made some new ones. The CCS technology at Petra Nova required so much energy that NRG made an entirely separate natural gas power plant—the emissions of which were not offset by the Petra Nova technology—just to power the scrubber.”
CONFLICT & SECURITY
“Drone Swarms: Coming (Sometime) to a War Near You. Just Not Today.” Maaike Verbruggen, The Bulletin.
“Swarms don’t exist yet, despite frequent claims in the media. But militaries are clearly making advances. It’s time for the arms control community to deal with the potential problems that swarms might pose.”“2034: A Novel of the Next World War. An Exclusive Excerpt.” Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, Wired.
This book, amply excerpted in Wired, “imagines how the political and technological conditions of today might erupt into a war between the US and China.”
Why imagine grim futures? “By giving clarity and definition to those nightmare trajectories, the hope is that we can give people the ability to recognize and divert from them. Almost, say, the way a vaccine teaches an immune system what to ward off.”
INEQUALITY
“The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From The Bottom 90% — And That’s Made the US Less Secure”. Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, Time (from September).
“Like many of the virus’s hardest hit victims, the United States went into the COVID-19 pandemic wracked by preexisting conditions. A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment—these and other afflictions are surely contributing to the death toll. But in addressing the causes and consequences of this pandemic—and its cruelly uneven impact—the elephant in the room is extreme income inequality.”
AMERICA
“The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extemists”. Robert A. Pape and Keven Ruby, The Atlantic.
“What’s clear is that the Capitol riot revealed a new force in American politics—not merely a mix of right-wing organizations, but a broader mass political movement that has violence at its core and draws strength even from places where Trump supporters are in the minority.”
“Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny”. Luke Broadwater and Matthew Rosenberg, NYT.
“Fox News After the Fox News Presidency.” Matt Gertz, Media Matters for America.
“The result will be a race to the bottom of the fever swamp, as Fox competes with its rivals for viewers by promoting ever-more-unhinged conspiracy theories and using increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric that encourages more violent insurrections. And that irresponsible behavior will court a backlash from the corporate interests that make the network’s bigotry and lies a profitable endeavor.”
“Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda.” Jason Stanley, Just Security.
“Directly following Giuliani’s speech, the organizers played a video. To a scholar of fascist propaganda, well-versed in the history of the National Socialist’s pioneering use of videos in political propaganda, it was clear, watching it, what dangers it portended. In it, we see themes and tactics that history warns pose a violent threat to liberal democracy. Given the aims of fascist propaganda – to incite and mobilize – the events that followed were predictable.
Before decoding what the video presents, it is important to take a step back and discuss the structure of fascist ideology and how it can mobilize its most strident supporters to take violent actions.”
FOOD SYSTEMS & BIODIVERSITY
“Plant-Based Diets Crucial to Saving Global Wildlife, Says Report”. Damian Carrington, The Guardian.
“The Chatham House report said the world had lost half its natural ecosystems and that the average population size of wild animals had fallen by 68% since 1970. In contrast, farmed animals, mainly cows and pigs, now account for 60% of all mammals by weight, with humans making up 36% and animals just 4%.
In reforming the global food system, “the convergence of global food consumption around predominantly plant-based diets is the most crucial element”, the report said.”
“COVID Crisis is Fuelling Food Price Rises for World’s Poorest”. David Malpast, World Bank Blogs.
“Development gains can be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Our experience with hurricanes or seismic events shows that it is more effective to invest in prevention, before a catastrophe strikes. That’s why countries need adaptive social protection programs – programs that are connected to food security early warning systems and can be scaled up in anticipation of shocks.”
“How Whales Help Cool the Earth.” Sophie Yeo, BBC.
“Whales feed in the deep ocean, then return to the surface to breathe and poo. Their iron-rich faeces creates the perfect growing conditions for phytoplankton. These creatures may be microscopic, but, taken together, phytoplankton have an enormous influence on the planet's atmosphere, capturing an estimated 40% of all CO2 produced – four times the amount captured by the Amazon rainforest.”
ECONOMICS & FINANCE
“Bobby Kennedy Was Right: GDP is a Poor Measure of a Nation’s Health.” Larry Elliot, The Guardian.
“The collapse in GDP is huge, but – unless there are fresh waves of the pandemic – only temporary. Once the restrictions are lifted, activity will pick up. If things go well, all the ground lost in 2020 will be made up by 2022. But how do you measure the impact of the schools being shut on the life chances of a child from a disadvantaged family? What price the toll on mental health of people confined to their homes and unable to see friends and family for months on end? Is it possible to put a monetary value on loneliness and depression?”
“Amsterdam is Embracing a Radical New Economic Theory to Help Save the Environment. Could It Also Replace Capitalism?” Ciara Nugent, Time.
“In fact, the doughnut model doesn’t proscribe all economic growth or development. In her book, Raworth acknowledges that for low- and middle-income countries to climb above the doughnut’s social foundation, “significant GDP growth is very much needed.” But that economic growth needs to be viewed as a means to reach social goals within ecological limits, she says, and not as an indicator of success in itself, or a goal for rich countries. In a doughnut world, the economy would sometimes be growing and sometimes shrinking.”
“S&P Warns Exxon, Chevron, and Other Oil Firms it May Cut Their Credit Ratings Thanks to the Push to Zero Carbon.” Harry Robertson, Markets Insider.
“A downgrade usually causes the cost of borrowing to rise. And it can mean that some investment funds are no longer allowed to hold a company's bonds.
S&P Global Ratings has downgraded its view of the whole oil and gas industry to "moderately high risk". It said this reflects "our evaluation of increased and likely increasing risks for oil and gas producers".”
WATER & INFRASTRUCTURE
“‘Mass Aging’ of Dams a Global Safety and Financial Risk, Report Says.” Brett Walton, Circle of Blue.
“A global dam-building binge that spanned the early- to mid-20th century is now reaching a turning point, according to a report published by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health.
These dams are nearing middle and old age, when their operation and maintenance poses growing financial, environmental, and safety challenges.”
“The Ongoing Collapse of the World’s Aquifers.” Matt Wilson, Wired.
“As the growing human population and more intense droughts brought on by climate change are putting ever more stress on water supplies, land is subsiding all over the world… But scientists haven’t modeled global risks of subsidence—until now… The researchers found that, planet-wide, subsidence could threaten 4.6 million square miles of land in the next two decades. While that’s just 8 percent of Earth’s land, humanity tends to build big cities in coastal areas, which are prone to subsidence. So they estimate that, in the end, 1.6 billion people could be affected. The modeling further found that worldwide, subsidence exposes assets totaling a gross domestic product of $8.19 trillion, or 12 percent of global GDP.”
TECH, INTERNET, and SOCIETY
“These Machines Won’t Kill Fascism: Toward a Militant Progressive Vision for Tech.” Nantina Vgontzas and Meredith Whittaker, The Nation.
“Facing the consequences of punitive technologies of social control, workers and social movements are beginning to reject meek unionism and the conciliatory reforms of the Democratic Party. In the process, they are building a progressive flank in the battle for control of algorithms, data, and the computational systems. These coalitions are also claiming ownership of the imaginative horizon, including the right to dismantle, reject, and rebuild technical infrastructures. And they’re recognizing themselves as political actors, pushing institutions to meet social obligations.”
“I Talked to the Cassandra of the Internet Age.” Charlie Warzel, NYT.
“Michael Goldhaber is the internet prophet you’ve never heard of. Here’s a short list of things he saw coming: the complete dominance of the internet, increased shamelessness in politics, terrorists co-opting social media, the rise of reality television, personal websites, oversharing, personal essay, fandoms and online influencer culture — along with the near destruction of our ability to focus.
Most of this came to him in the mid-1980s…”
EXTREMISM
“The Tragedy of the Commons: How Ecofascism Was Smuggled Into Mainstream Thought.” Cory Doctorow’s Memex.
“After a generation of climate denial, the US and European right is in the midst of a fast pivot to ecofascism, simultaneously acknowledging the seriousness and imminence of the climate crisis, but planning to address it by exerminating non-white people. Hardin’s writings — both “Tragedy” and his more explicitly eugenic, fascist works — are gaining a new prominence as central texts of the ecofascist movement.”
“Why Are Some Organic Farmers Turning to Reactionary Politics?” Luke Carneal, The Farm Worker Bulletin.
“The spiritual-philosophical ideology of the reactionary homesteader or small organic farmer shows itself in a number of recognizable modern anxieties - prepper subculture, government mistrust, a turn to new age medicine, anarcho-primitivism, and other manifestations of the scarcity feelings that find a home in both hippie lifestylism and right wing politics.”
“One Woman’s Journey Out of Q-Anon.” Sabrina Tavernise, NYT.
““Trump just used us and our fear,” she said. “When you are no longer living in fear, you are no longer prone to believe this stuff. I don’t think we are anywhere near that yet.””