The prophets take a side. In The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann explains how the ancient Hebrew prophets diverged from the imperial courts of Pharaoh and the royal courts of the later Israelite kings. As well as imagining new ways for society to take shape, he says, the prophets took sides. They were partisan because their […]
Not magic but science
Mechanical engineer Bill Nye, also known as The Science Guy, has a new popular science program on Netflix called Bill Nye Saves the World. During the first episode, Nye dons a light blue lab coat and demonstrates the mechanics of climate change and the greenhouse effect. “As I hold the bulb of this thermometer,” Nye says, “the liquid […]
For the beauty of the Earth
I haven’t lived anywhere I’m more conscious of “the fragility of each breath” than New York City. The density of traffic fumes and tobacco clouds, and occasionally the pungent odor of marijuana, too—all of these pollutants make it easy to notice my breath and the quality of air I’ve taken for granted until now. When […]
Some pay in blood: The silence of the coal
Silencio Blanco is a touring company of seven puppeteers from Santiago, Chile. Their latest work, Chiflón, El Silencio del Carbón, (The Silence of the Coal), is a haunting, tightly choreographed performance that invites audiences into the lives of generations of coal miners—parents, spouses, and children—and the worlds that literally cave in on them. Baldomero Lillo […]
A timely example: denial at work
The merchants of doubt are back in business. Just as I wrote about denial in public controversies this weekend, London’s Daily Mail charged yet another climate science data conspiracy. The Daily Mail isn’t new to the game of “If you can’t lie, obfuscate,” but the public’s comprehension of and trust in climate science isn’t a […]
Changing under duress
Most of us will finally change under two exaggerated conditions: either we cannot stand or tolerate the situation, issue, or circumstance any longer, so we will change; or we want to experience something that has such a passion for us that we will go for it, no matter what it takes. Both of these are […]