In Real Time

As climate chaos accelerates, governments avert their eyes. The onrush of other crises is no excuse for ignoring climate change. This episode is available in writing with links to sources at TomDispatch: https://tomdispatch.com/as-climate-chaos-accelerates-governments-avert-their-eyes/ https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

At the 18 month point of the In Real Time series, is it time to ask whether a country like the US can achieve bold climate action, let alone socioeconomic justice, when it has only one major political party that's committed to democracy and the rule of law? https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/ Democracy in a Hotter Time. Edited by David Orr. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262048590/democracy-in-a-hotter-time/

Scientists Pursue Climate Activism Despite Violent Threats. Stan discusses the escalation of online climate denial, which increasingly includes threats against scientists who publicly advocate climate action. He notes, however, that scientists have responded with increased participation in nonviolent protests and civil disobedience. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

This month's installment of In Real Time was originally published by TomDispatch on September 14, 2023. It's the story of how a new generation, ranging in age from seven years to late teens, is taking federal and state governments to court, holding their feet to the fire, so to speak, to push them into taking strong climate action. https://tomdispatch.com/a-future-generation-shows-up-ahead-of-schedule/ https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

They Can't Escape the Heat That's Coming ... Tech millionaires and billionaires are hiding from climate change by buying luxury homes in cooler regions. But they can't run, drive, fly, climb, float, sail, dig, code, invest, invent, grow, or buy their way out of physical and ecological realities. You'll find current seasteading projects here: https://www.seasteading.org/active-projects/ Follow this link to survival luxury condos allegedly capable of surviving a nuclear attack: https://survivalcondo.com/ https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

Education and Climate in MAGAland. MAGA state legislatures and governors are undercutting local governments' ability to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and undermining schools' and colleges' ability to prepare students to confront global warming. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

To start the second year, Stan Cox looks ahead to our long-term prospects for a livable future. For “In Real Time” the bottom line is twofold: that a rapid, nationally mandated phaseout of oil, gas, and coal is necessary to drive down US greenhouse-gas emissions at the required rate, and that the resulting decrease in the supply of energy and other resources will require equitable allocation of physical and economic resources to meet basic needs. Given the nature of our institutions and power structure, it’s becoming increasingly difficult even to imagine a scenario in which that sort of just, humane phaseout can be achieved. But it remains essential to push harder than ever for such policies, despite the long political odds they face. https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-accumulation-of-human-made-mass-on-earth/ https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

At the one-year mark for In Real Time, Stan Cox has a look at the struggle to save Atlanta’s largest urban forest from the proposed construction of “Cop City”: an 85-acre tactical training center for the city’s police force. The marginalized communities who live around the forest are pushing back hard. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

With the next five year agriculture bill under debate in Congress, one side of the aisle is aiming to jettison the bill's climate and conservation programs, while the other side wants to strengthen them. But to be truly sustainable, US agriculture must go farther and become perennial. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

The Great Gas Stove Freakout of 2023 was mostly a cynical political ploy, but it illustrates larger truths about the MAGA romance with fossil fuels and how we can overcome it. The written edition always contains several other "hot links" you can follow for a deeper look into Stan's research for each episode. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

This month, Stan looks into some odd events that were largely eclipsed by the onrush of blockbuster political headlines that closed out 2022. The fall was punctuated by a puzzling series of attacks on electrical substations. The Department of Homeland Security warns of more to come. Motives for the attacks remain unknown, but they may have both political and ecological implications. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

This month, voters stood up and rejected a host of anti-democratic candidates all across America. Although the GOP appears, as expected, to have won control of the House of Representatives, dimming prospects for further progress on climate and other issues for at least a couple of years, the nation managed to avoid a much worse fate. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

With the midterm elections and the COP27 climate summit coming up, we meet two activists in this episode who are working to effect local change, however these national and global events turn out. Here is the link to the conversation between Stan and Alexia Leclercq at TLI's Prairie Festival in September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tDawzHa2LA https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

On today’s episode Stan highlights an unlikely alliance of Native tribes, farmers, and environmental groups who have joined forces to oppose construction of 3,000 miles of carbon-dioxide pipelines that would endanger the lands, waters, and people of Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

Last month, Stan discussed how election official, racial-justice and climate activists, and others are becoming targets of right-wing political violence—and responding with nonviolence. In this episode, he speaks with some climate writers and activists who urge that movements respond to the multiple existential threats that society now faces by uniting across issues to confront all of them, including climate, together—no matter how long the odds against us. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

Four months into the “In Real Time” project, I see our nation’s condition taking a dramatic turn for the worse. Rising threats of election-year corruption and violence, devastating Supreme Court decisions on climate, guns, and abortion have many of us reeling. Movements for human rights, democracy, and the environment are pressing on nonetheless. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

The climate-science community is urging the world’s governments to take dramatic, unprecedented action to prevent catastrophic heating of the Earth. Meanwhile, the precarious state of democracy in the U.S. raises a disturbing question: In the months and years ahead, how much sociopolitical space will remain open to push for the bold climate action we must achieve within the coming decade? In the coming months, 'In Real Time' will be following the struggles of grassroots movements that are pushing for climate mitigation and social justice during this precarious time when democracy itself is under attack. Stan kicks that off in this third dispatch by discussing two such movements. One of them, the Indigenous struggle against oil and gas pipelines, spans the North American continent, while the other, the Los Angeles Bus Riders' Union, is hyper-local. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

The climate-science community is urging the world’s governments to take dramatic, unprecedented action to prevent catastrophic heating of the Earth. Meanwhile, the precarious state of democracy in the U.S. raises a disturbing question: In the months and years ahead, how much sociopolitical space will remain open to push for the bold climate action we must achieve within the coming decade? Stan Cox examines the crisis of representative government in the U.S., and considers a question some are asking: Does the drift toward autocracy even matter? He then lays out the intimate connections between the political and ecological perils that loom in the near future. https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/ Follow this link to view the artwork accompanying this series, by Priti Gulati Cox: https://pritigcox.wordpress.com/

“In Real Time” is a month-by-month account of what could be the most fateful span of time for our country since the 1860s. The series will follow the climate, voting rights, and justice movements as they work to help clear a livable path for all, no matter whose hands are on the levers of power in Washington and our state capitals. In this initial episode, we explore a stark choice that all Americans now face: Will we turn toward a deeper, more inclusive democracy and a livable future for all or toward a life under far-right, autocratic rule in an ecologically impoverished world? https://citylights.com/blog/ https://landinstitute.org/

In Real Time is a new podcast in which Stan Cox sets down a month by month account of what could be the most fateful span of time for our country since the 1860s. Tune in for riveting and insightful commentary on the challenges that lie ahead for Democracy and the planet. This podcast is the audio version of a series hosted by City Lights Books. For more information see https://citylights.com/blog/