A few years ago I attended a carbon tax panel in Manhattan, the goal of which was to brainstorm ideas for reducing the carbon footprint of Americans. After the event was over, I pressed one of the
Author: cketcham
The Shutdown of “Luxury Emissions” Should Be at the Center of Climate Revolt
Members of Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace, and other organizations sit in front of an aircraft at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Nov. 5, 2022. Photo: Remko de Waal/AFP via Getty Images Clima
Why Not Guillotine the Royals? — Some Thoughts on the Queen’s Needed Death
One of my favorite pastimes is to wander from bar to bar not drinking but pretending to do so while listening to fellow alcoholics opine on the issues of the day. Sometimes I bring to bear a TV-B
Let’s Blow up Luxury Carbon
This piece first appeared at Carbon Tax Center in the summer of 2021. It’s not often you hear the New York Times opining on the value of industrial sabotage, yet columnist Ezra Klein in the summe
Solitude as the Antidote to Misanthropy
When I return from a solo backpacking trip, all I want is company. I see another person at the trail’s end, at the road that leads back to the cities, I’m a slavering dog – I hump all legs,
Screenlandia and the Mass Man
Every human in my immediate view is hunched over a screen. It is something out of a horror movie. You who have wandered in the backcountry and for even a few days have been free of the digital ty
Latest Loathsome Antics of the Nature Conservancy, or, Why you can’t trust corporate prostitutes to be environmentalists
More than 150 conservation, environmental, and social justice organizations have accused The Nature Conservancy of “promoting false climate solutions.” A logging truck enters a wood-pel
“Logging-for-wildlife” — the new trick in the timber industry’s playbook
(Originally published at National Geographic under the title, “Is Clearcutting U.S. Forests Good for Wildlife?“) Coming upon a clear-cut in an old forest is a jolting experience. Trees
The Business of Scenery (Harper’s Magazine, April 2021)
Amusement Parks — Harper’s Magazine, April 2021 (pdf)
Cities and Green Orthodoxy: The Future of Sustainable Development
As the world has urbanized rapidly since 1950, per capita carbon footprint has declined, and so has carbon intensity in economic output, defined as the amount of energy used to produce a unit of ec