From The Observer Magazine, a special issue on Eco-ethics. An interview with George Monbiot on Heat. Dr. Des Voeux and the invention of smog: A rumination on the origins of a surprisingly longstanding urban affliction. There is a tremendous irony in public lands ranching: An interview with George Wuerthner on dispelling the Cowboy Myth. Communal Cars: If we’re serious about going green, Americans will have to learn to share. Coal Futures: Will this energy standby truly last for centuries—or just decades? The price of virtue: How to get people recycling more—even if they do not particularly want to. Porno for Progressives: An interview with alt-rock activist Perry Farrell on being green.
From Discover, sci-fi author predicts the future: David Brin knew all about the Web, global warming, and more. This is how the world ends: A review of Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us about Our Future by Peter D. Ward. From Cracked, an article on surviving the End of the World and what we've learned from movies. With this template, you won’t even have to pack a slicker the next time you’re sent to cover a natural disaster.
From Asia Times, the faith that dare not speak its name: While cloaking themselves in revealed religion, "presentable" Islamists such as academic Tariq Ramadan are in fact neo-pagans. The End of the Jewish People: Judaism must prepare itself for a world after peoplehood. The publication of just six anti-religious books has managed to provoke outrage from the devout - - this reveals a profound insecurity. From Chronicles, an article on Americanism, Then and Now: Our pet heresy.
From Democracy, thanks to Bush, doubt is back in American politics. But which form of doubt is right for progressives, and good for America? William Galston investigates; and a review of Freedom's Power: The True Force of Liberalism by Paul Starr. Jonathan Alter on the best ideas for fixing America: Listen to Gore and Bradley. The Party of Economic Seriousness: Democrats may be supplanting Republicans as the grown-ups on globalization. Why did the self-confident predictions of the Marxists and equally self-certain predictions of the 1980s-90s globalizers fail so miserably?
Kathryn Jean Lopez on the Right’s love-hate relationship with George W. Bush. Why all the hostility toward Hispanics on National Review? Conservative Linda Chavez wants to know. Divide & Rule: James Pinkerton on the Republican insiders’ guide to ethnic manipulation. The GOP's Fading Populism: Losing its political grip on terrorism, the GOP badly needs a cause that can mobilize its base.
