Latour: The thing is the thing

Bruno Latour spoke this evening to an overflow crowd on the topic of ‘Ecology and Democracy.’ The main substance of his talk was devoted to a largely sympathetic discussion of Break Through, the recently published book (here’s a Wired review) by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, in which they take up the argument that they [...]

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The World without Us

I’ve just finished reading Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us, and found it to be a wonderfully written book - an immensely enjoyable read, a true page turner (the companion web site to the book is here). As the title of the book suggests, the narrative revolves around a seemingly simple hypothetical question: what would [...]

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Global Warming 4: The Future, in our Hands?

The President of Iran is due to speak later this afternoon at Columbia University, just a few blocks away from where I study and work. I’ll have to keep this in mind and take an alternate route to campus for class tomorrow afternoon, in order to avoid the usual subway delays. On the one hand, [...]

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Global Warming 3a: Wait a minute…

In my last post I discussed briefly John Tierney’s column on global warming which appeared in this morning’s edition of the New York Times. After rereading it the article this afternoon, however, I think I was too easy on it. I just wonder how anyone who’s a serious journalist can write a column like this, [...]

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Global Warming 3: The Private Construction of GW

Two articles to consider, one a month old and one more recent.
(1) An article in Scientific American from about a month ago reports that private insurers have started to label certain regions as being at increased risk due to environmental disturbance and disaster caused by global warming. Thus, homeowners and property owners in Florida and [...]

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