Articles by David Roberts

What is it good for?

Whether we're addicted to heroin or hallucinogens, romance or righteousness, our addictions are resolved as we seek, in fellowship with others, to abandon our control-based mentality, and to develop our capacities for personal humility, indiscriminate compassion, and responsible participation in the many layers of community in which we are nested.

I like that quote from this short but suggestive piece in Orion by Roget Lockard. It's about addiction in general and addiction to righteousness specifically.

On righteousness, every progressive and every green would well heed these words:

SCOTUS should split the difference on GHG regs

Somewhat contra Andrew, I think the approaching Supreme Court case will be significant, and not just as a symbolic way to keep global warming in the headlines.

To me, the ideal outcome would be precisely the split decision alluded to by David Savage in the L.A. Times piece Kit mentioned. That is, I hope SCOTUS rules that the EPA can regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act, but that it is not required to.

Population, that is

It's conventional wisdom that economic growth requires a growing population; thus the gnashing of teeth over shrinking numbers in, e.g., Italy. Last week, Fred Hiatt took a look at Japan, where the birthrate is down to 1.25 (2.1 is required to maintain a stable population) and the population shrank by about 21,000 last year.

They’re coming around

Everyone's excited about the Washington Post piece "Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change," but I can't figure out what's new in it.