For the past few years I’ve assigned students to write a blog post as part of the theme course “Energy, Climate and Sustainability” at Amsterdam University College (AUC). Check out the blog at auclimate.wordpress.com/. The blogposts cover a wide range of topics, from the environmental impacts of tourism in Thailand, to biomimicry, to eco-housing, to absurdism. And this engaging blogpost on the 1.5 degree target, written by Leo: You have likely heard of the 1.5°C limit for global warming. Perhaps you are even familiar with the saying: “1.5 to stay alive.” But do you know where this saying cam ..read more

Jeff Gibbs’ new documentary, Planet of the Humans, is raising a lot of hackles. Strangely enough, the documentary appeals to pseudo-skeptics as well as anti-capitalists and neo-Malthusians, but of course for very different reasons. Pseudo-skeptics love the film’s indictment of renewable energy and the environmental movement, especially since a left-wing icon like Michael Moore is associated with the film as its executive producer. Some fervent environmentalists, on the other hand, applaud the film’s underlying message – that overpopulation and capitalism are the source of all evil – and appare ..read more