Unionize the Postdocs
Postdoctoral research work is poorly paid and highly unstable. It’s also socially necessary, crucial to solving big problems like climate change and pandemics. For workers and the public, postdocs must unionize.
Search Result(s) for: “Climate Change”
Bernie and AOC Are Right: Joe Biden Should Declare Climate Change a National Emergency
For decades, presidents have used their power to declare emergencies to sideline badly needed regulations and entrench the national security state. Now a group of Congress members led by AOC is proposing that those powers be used for good: to force action to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Reading Hamilton from the Left
The Left has always favored Thomas Jefferson over Alexander Hamilton. But not only was Hamilton more progressive for his time, he has lessons for our response to climate change.
“Green Capitalism” Is a Lie
Policymakers who have belatedly recognized the peril of climate change now promote incremental, market-based solutions to the crisis. But there’s no way we can prevent ecological disaster without tackling the vested interests at the heart of global capitalism.
Nationalize California’s Pacific Gas & Electric
California’s massive, deadly wildfires aren’t just a consequence of climate change — they’re a result of the profit model in utilities. We need to nationalize PG&E and the entire national power grid.
Nationalize All the Oil Companies
The price of oil and the myriad horrors of climate change that oil exacerbates make it too important for us to leave in the free market’s hands. The oil companies should be nationalized.
Climate Change–Induced Disasters Are Killing Workers
Eleven of Impact Plastics’ workers were at the company’s Tennessee factory when Hurricane Helene hit. Two are confirmed dead, and four are still missing. Workers say the company did not let them leave until it was too late.
Kim Stanley Robinson Imagines a Future Where We Don’t All Die
In The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson dares to imagine humanity actually winning the fight against climate change. It’s a magisterial and complex novel that reminds us politics can still change the future for the better.
Even After Valencia’s Floods, Climate Skeptics Keep Rising
In Valencia, Spain, the right-wing regional president has quit over the mishandling of floods that killed 229 people. While institutional failures forced his resignation, they’ve also fed support for Vox, a far-right party that opposes action on climate change.
Why Greta is Good
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager and climate activist, has grabbed the world’s attention and kept it focused on the threat of climate change. She's an unlikely leader of a world movement — and yet uniquely suited for that role.
We Need a Pro-Worker Transition to Electric Vehicles
The transition to electric vehicles is mandatory to address climate change. But if done haphazardly, it could result in massive job losses. Bold industrial policy and a rejuvenated United Auto Workers union can make electric vehicles a win for workers.
Now Trump and Big Oil Are Trying to Gut an Anti-Corruption Rule
Trump regulators are trying to pull off a last-minute scheme to undermine a rule designed to prevent fossil fuel companies from bribing government officials. It’s a fitting final act for a corrupt administration that’s set back the fight against climate change by decades.
After the Bushfires and Amid the Pandemic, Australia’s Fossil Fuel Industry Is Gaining Steam
The Labor Party in Australia speaks a progressive language on climate change that it rarely enacts in policy. Now, under cover of the health crisis, the Victorian branch is expanding deforestation projects and onshore gas exploration.
Wabtec Train Manufacturing Workers Are on Strike
Workers at the Wabtec locomotive manufacturing plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, have walked off the job. Their demands get to the heart of bigger questions about the nature of work and the role workers can play in fights like climate change.
Illapa Sairitupac Wants to Bring Socialist Representation Back to Lower Manhattan
Illapa Sairitupac is a social worker and socialist running for New York State Assembly. In an interview, Sairitupac talks about his family immigrating from Peru, socialism’s history in Lower Manhattan, Christianity, and his plans to fight climate change.
Colombia’s Receding Coastline
In Colombia, coastal erosion caused by a combination of climate change and environmentally destructive industrial agriculture is displacing the country’s poorest citizens. But the scale of the disaster means that it has no easy solutions.
The Problem With Finance Is the Problem of Capitalism
Finance’s dominance over the economy isn’t a deviant evolution of a “good” industrial capitalism. Finance and industry are interdependent — meaning solving problems like inequality and climate change will require a far-reaching democratization of the economy.
The Arizona Midterm Will Have a Big Impact on Climate Change
The races for Arizona’s energy commission and an anti–dark money ballot initiative will decide whether Arizonans themselves oversee the state’s energy utility or the company can regulate itself according to the dictates of profit-making.
Snowpiercer Asks Us to Imagine the End of the World — And the End of Capitalism
The Snowpiercer franchise turns 40 this year. The struggles and defeats of the climate change era have emboldened and disheartened its creators by turns, but the sleeper hit’s key dilemma — whether to smash the system or seize control — still rings true.
At Davos, Capitalists Are Trying to Solve the Problems They Themselves Create
At the World Economic Forum’s conference in Davos this week, elites will try to address problems from climate change to the threat of worldwide recession. But these elites’ endless thirst for profit created these problems — and will doom their efforts to fail.