It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, September 05, 2022
Toronto Labour Day parade highlights how Gen Z is revitalizing the workers’ movement
Union members and activist take part in the Labour Day Parade in Toronto, on Monday, September 5, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin
TORONTO — Chants, horns, drums, pop music and even bagpipes filled the air in downtown Toronto today for the return of the annual Labour Day parade.
Hundreds of workers and dozens of unions showed up in solidarity with the workers’ movement, which labour leaders say is being revitalized by changing standards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and younger workers.
They say younger employees are entering the workforce in large numbers and taking a different approach to work than older generations.
Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, says she is seeing more young workers organizing in the workplace and signing union cards.
Unifor National President Lana Payne says members of Generation Z, including her 21-year-old daughter, are bringing an important new lens to the labour movement.
She says they’re advocating for dignity and respect in their workplaces, as well as a balanced life outside of it.
Restaurants Canada Survey Finds Customers Tipping More Following Pandemic
Sep 4, 2022 |
The pandemic curtailed many dining out and pub-hopping habits, but it seems it may also have changed the way people tip their servers. A recent survey from Restaurants Canada found that the amount diners tip as a percentage of their bill is going up.
Richard Alexander, Restaurants Canada Vice President, Atlantic Canada, says some restaurants adjust price to incorporate gratuity, a trend that is growing across Canada, but one which does not work for all as many customers prefer to control the amount of the tip.
Their survey shows that people who eat in restaurants in Atlantic Canada are feeling generous given how that sector was decimated during the pandemic.
The majority of tips in Atlantic Canada are between 15-19 per cent but about 6 per cent of tippers give over 25 per cent which is also an increase from pre-pandemic times.
Inflation putting the squeeze on some when it comes to tipping
Is ‘Tipping Fatigue’ a Myth? Americans Tip 10% More Despite Inflation
Ridofranz / iStock.com
In recent months, conversation around “tip fatigue” has been heating up, with some restaurateurs and waitstaff saying that consumers are tipping less than they did during the height of the pandemic. But new research from Toast, a restaurant management software company, has suggested that tip fatigue might not be happening after all.
According to its most recent restaurant Trends Report, the tipping percentage during Q2 2022 was strong in both full-service restaurants (average tip: 19.6%) and in quick-serve establishments (average tip: 16.9%). Considering the impact that inflation is having on our wallets — and the way it’s changing our dining habits, causing many to cut back on the splurge of eating out — it’s somewhat surprising that Americans are still tipping in the ballpark of what etiquette experts recommend (between 18% and 20% for restaurant servers).
Even more surprising is the fact that, according to this data, Americans are tipping 10% more than they were this time last year.
How much a consumer tips varies by state. Below is a breakdown of how much each state tips on average, according to the Toast report. Interestingly, some of the poorest states like West Virginia tip the most. Meanwhile, states with higher earners like California round out the bottom of the list.
Indiana: 21.0%
West Virginia: 20.8%
Ohio: 20.7%
Delaware: 20.7%
Kentucky: 20.7%
Wyoming: 20.5%
New Hampshire: 20.4%
Wisconsin: 20.3%
South Carolina: 20.3%
Pennsylvania: 20.2%
Michigan: 20.2%
New Mexico: 20.1%
Maine: 20.0%
Montana: 19.9%
Iowa: 19.9%
Missouri: 19.8%
Colorado: 19.8%
Kansas: 19.8%
Rhode Island: 19.8%
North Dakota: 19.7%
Idaho: 19.7%
Virginia: 19.7%
Nebraska: 19.6%
Alabama: 19.6%
Maryland: 19.6%
Tennessee: 19.5%
Georgia: 19.5%
North Carolina: 19.5%
Arizona: 19.5%
Oklahoma: 19.4%
South Dakota: 19.4%
Illinois: 19.3%
Oregon: 19.3%
Alaska: 19.3%
Mississippi: 19.3%
Massachusetts: 19.2%
Vermont: 19.2%
Connecticut: 19.1%
Minnesota: 19.0%
Utah: 19.0%
Arkansas: 18.9%
New Jersey: 18.9%
Louisiana: 18.9%
Nevada: 18.8%
Texas: 18.8%
Hawaii: 18.8%
New York: 18.5%
Florida: 18.5%
Washington: 18.3%
California: 17.5%
ABOUT TIME
Canada is buying into the rent-to-own concept. Here's how it works
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B.C. man says it's like free rent for 2 years while he saves
The soaring cost of housing in Canada has widened interest in the concept of renting to own. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
When Christian Fracchia first heard about a rent-to-own opportunity in Port Moody, B.C., four years ago, he saw a way to realize his dream of first-time home ownership, so he put his name in a lottery for 30 units.
About 10 per cent of the 358 units in the development still under construction at 50 Electronic Avenue were sold as rent-to-own, meaning the buyers pay a fixed rent for two years, which is then converted into equity.
Fracchia, a 28-year-old software developer, has an appointment a week from now to tour his new one-bedroom apartment near the SkyTrain and a seaside park. All this for $10,000 down and $1,000 per month rent, which goes toward a down payment on the $470,000 place in two years' time.
"Essentially, it's like free rent for two years. That money [I pay now] I get to keep as long as I go through with the sale," said Fracchia, who will move in with his wife in a few months.
Christian Fracchia and Persephone Lavender will soon move into their rent-to-own apartment in Port Moody, B.C., after a four-year wait. Fracchia won a lottery after more than 500 people bid for a chance on about 30 one- and two-bedroom units a short walk from Rocky Point Park. (Submitted by Christian Fracchia)
Rent-to-own is a unique path to home ownership that delays one of the biggest hurdles for new homebuyers — the hefty down payment.
Advocates say this model of home financing allows people with limited or damaged credit who can't qualify for a traditional mortgage to work toward ownership.
But critics caution that rent-to-own is untested and has some pitfalls and risks — such as maintenance costs or the potential to lose the down payment, in some instances, if a renter fails to meet the terms of the deal.
Canada is funding more projects like this by creating a rent-to-own housing program as part of $2 billion in spending to double home-building in the next 10 years. The funding, earmarked in previous budgets, is aimed at creating 17,000 new homes across the country, including more rapid housing for the homeless or those at risk of becoming homeless, along with affordable and market-rate housing projects.
$200M rent-to-own fund
Of that $2 billion, $200 million is earmarked for a new rent-to-own program. This fund, managed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), will encourage developers and builders to create more opportunities for first-time homebuyers overwhelmed by down payment requirements, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in Kitchener, Ont., on Aug. 30.
"For a lot of renters, saving to buy a home is increasingly difficult. Through this new program, we'll work with housing providers to help families go from renting to owning their home," Trudeau said.
Applications to the five-year Affordable Housing Innovation Fund and its new rent-to-own stream opened Aug. 30 to municipalities, developers, builders, community housing organizations, non-profits and Indigenous organizations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Kitchener, Ont., on Aug. 30 to reveal a plan to add a total of 17,000 new housing units across Canada. (James Chaarani/CBC)
Back in 2018, when the Panatch Group offer rent-to-own units in Port Moody, 500 people applied.
Developer Kush Panatch of Richmond, B.C., said he'd never offered rent-to-own before and was shocked by the fervent interest.
He ended up only inviting Port Moody applicants in a sort of lottery, after reviewing essays — including one from Fracchia, who wanted to stay in the community he loved.
While exciting, Panatch cautions that rent-to-own is not always the perfect path to home ownership.
"We learned a lot by doing it. There were some nasty surprises, unfortunately," he said.
He discovered unforeseen costs — like the fact that his company had to carry the cost of the GST from the moment the renter moved in until they bought the unit. As well, there were complex legalities to navigate. Rising interest rates also made the program more expensive, said Panatch.
"I think some assistance from both the federal and provincial level would really go a long way toward facilitating a program like this," he added.
How does it work?
The terms of a rent-to-own deal vary. In general, it's an agreement between renters and property owners or investors to buy a home at a set price at a future deadline. The agreement is made up of a lease and an option to purchase.
The idea is to hold the property for the would-be buyer until they can save up what's needed to qualify for a conventional mortgage with a lending institution.
Rachel Oliver of Clover Properties north of Toronto runs a private rent-to-own program that she says has helped 600 Ontario families "fast-track their ability to get closer to home ownership."
Oliver says that the renter generally pays a lump-sum down payment — her company usually requires $20,000 — and then a monthly rent that is calculated on what is needed to get them to 10 per cent of the purchase price of the property by the end of their term. The monthly rent is also calculated on the cost of carrying the property at today's interest rate.
"It's basically a forced savings. We sell the property in increments," said Oliver.
Construction wraps up on the second phase of this Port Moody development on Sept. 1. The developer, Panatch Group, sold about 30 of 358 units in this development as rent-to-own. (Yvette Brend/CBC News)
During the period of rental, the tenant is often also responsible for paying for maintenance and upgrades to the home or condo unit.
Why rent to own?
Oliver says that at the outset of a rent-to-own agreement, her clients can lock in the purchase price of a home, for example, at $600,000 with plans to purchase in five years. If that property value rises to $650,000, the renter gets the keep the additional value of the home they contracted to buy.
In the meantime, an investor — or, in other cases, a developer — holds the mortgage. Rental prices for rent-to-own agreements can vary, and but are generally in line with market value rents at this time.
Oliver and her husband work with investors who take on the debt burden until the renter can build up equity and become a first-time owner much faster than they could save.
Clover Properties is expanding into Alberta and Quebec given the increasing need for families to get a home before prices get too high.
Oliver says rent-to-own is best suited for renters struggling to get a mortgage approval due to low income or damaged credit.
She warns, however, that the devil is in the contractual details, which is why she says she works with the buyer and investor to ensure success and avoid investors "being greedy."
Meet the terms, or lose the down payment
Oliver also notes that rent-to-owners need to be committed. During the pandemic, she says some lost down payments because family breakups or other hardships meant clients couldn't honour their contracts and were forced to walk away.
"If they stop paying on time or paying the contract amount, it would be a breach of the contract. We'll do our best to work with individuals in this situation. Once we've exhausted all options… they have to leave the property and forfeit their down payment credits," Oliver said. "That's why we screen so strictly."
Also, unlike regular renters, rent-to-owners are often responsible for maintenance and upgrades.
About 30 of the 358 units in the development still under construction at 50 Electronic Avenue were sold as rent-to-own to Port Moody buyers. Each will pay a fixed rent for two years and that money is then converted into equity for a down payment. (Yvette Brend/CBC News)
While Oliver gives the government credit for exploring an unconventional homebuying tool, she is disappointed the new federal fund focuses on development projects and does not allow rent-to-owners to shop on the open market for resale homes.
"They are basically subsidizing developers. Hopefully, the builders will pass on savings in a legitimate way to the end user," said Oliver, who believes developers should collaborate with experienced rent-to-own providers to manage the complex agreements.
Novel path, not well tested
According to housing advocates, rent-to-own programs have been operating in pockets of the U.K., with some success.
But as is the case in big Canadian cities, properties in the U.K. are so expensive that it's proven difficult to bridge the gap between low wages and home ownership, and there has not been huge uptake.
Paula Higgins, chief executive of the HomeOwners Alliance in London, said building safety codes there are weak, and there were some issues with rent-to-own funding being tied to new developments. Some of these units built for renters were of low quality, as developers cut costs but still collected subsidies, she said.
If Canada wants in on the rent-to-own game, Higgins has some advice: ensure it's the renter who benefits most.
"I would be very wary of creating a system that's developer-led — it helps them and not the renters."
Higgins says it's important that quality, affordable housing gets built, and not just high-end properties that attract investors and in the end are resold for profit and ultimately shut out local families.
Gary Schwartz, president of the Canadian Lenders Association, said scrounging up a down payment on a first home is too high a hurdle for many people given spiking real estate prices and inflation.
"Saving for a 20 per cent down payment is becoming too great a burden for many first-time buyers, locking them into a cycle of renting," said Schwartz.
"It's exciting to see the CMHC develop programs that can accelerate innovation in the rent-to-own space."
Hear Images From NASA's James Webb Telescope Turned Into Haunting Music
There are many ways to observe the universe.
Amanda Kooser Sept. 3, 2022 The Carina Nebula becomes a haunting soundscape through data sonification. NASA
The tracks -- including translations of images of the Carina Nebula and the Southern Ring Nebula -- use sonification to turn imagery and data into audio experiences. "Music taps into our emotional centers," said musician Matt Russo, a physics professor at the University of Toronto who worked on the project. "Our goal is to make Webb's images and data understandable through sound -- helping listeners create their own mental images."
The "Cosmic Cliffs" of the Carina Nebula, a stunning celestial object full of stars, gas and dust, becomes a sparkling, symphonic palate of sound. The gas and dust have drone-like tones. The orange and red lower part of the image is melodic. Points of bright light are higher in tone.
The Southern Ring Nebula takes on an eerie sound, like experimental electronic music made in a tunnel with string players tuning up. This sonification comes in two parts to represent the different infrared observations Webb made of the nebula. The bright stars make distinct noises, like plucked piano strings.
It's not just images the team of scientists and musicians turned into audio. Webb's data on the atmosphere of gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b became a sci-fi-esque soundscape filled with descending tones and an effect like dripping water. Those droplets represent water signatures in the atmosphere.
The sonifications bring a new dimension to Webb's discoveries, and they make the telescope's work more accessible to blind and low-vision space enthusiasts. "When I first heard a sonification, it struck me in a visceral, emotional way that I imagine sighted people experience when they look up at the night sky," said Christine Malec, a member of the blind and low-vision community who worked on the Webb sound project.
The Webb audio experiences are both otherworldly and familiar. They show there are broader ways to explore the cosmos beyond what we can see with our eyes.
First published on Aug. 31, 2022
NASA scientist takes to the skies to search for clues of meteor origin
Weeks after a meteorite tore through our skies --people are still combing for souvenirs, but one of those rock hunters isn't searching for where they ended up.
BC
Work on geothermal energy, hydrogen production continues at Mount Meager
Developers headed out to Pemberton Meadows to meet with community during recent Slow Food Cycle
The Meager Creek Development Corporation plans to have its geothermal plant up and running by 2025. Photo submitted
Almost a year and a half after purchasing the geothermal lease to Mount Meager, the developers working to harness the natural resource and turn it into a clean fuel alternative are making progress.
“It’s been very busy,” said Craig Dunn, managing director of Meager Creek Development Corporation (MCDC) and president of WellDunn Exploration.
So far, the MCDC team has moved forward with permitting under both the province’s Ministry of Forests and the BC Oil and Gas Commission’s geothermal file, with preliminary support from the Lil’wat Nation.
According to the Lil’wat’s website, the Nation is conducting several studies to better understand the impacts and benefits of the project, including a socioeconomic study, a traditional use study, an environmental assessment and archaeological assessments.
A Lil’wat community survey will be sent to members to collect feedback on the project at Qw’elqw’elústen (Mount Meager), which is in Líl’wat territory.
To date, MCDC has already conducted its own extensive environmental monitoring, investigating how its work could impact everything from anthropological sites to bears, goats and fisheries.
MCDC is looking to create geothermal energy using steam from the volcano, located about 65 kilometres northwest of Pemberton. That energy would power an electrolyser that would then split the clean water (or H2O) apart into hydrogen and oxygen. The plan is to bring the resulting green hydrogen to market, where it can be sold and used to fuel—and help decarbonize—the heavy transportation industry.
In addition to advancing the permitting process, the MCDC team has spent a considerable chunk of the last year cleaning up what has historically been one of the most heavily-researched, promising geothermal sites in the country.
That grunt work happened to reap a few rewards, Dunn explained.
“One of the things we did find was over 2,500 metres of core,” he said, located in an old sea can that had been left at the site by previous researchers and developers. “We had a chance to document [the rock], photograph it, image it and retest, do analysis on it.”
The find represents “a big win for the project” that only complements the “30 boxes of data” previous leaseholders handed over to Dunn and his partners when MCDC acquired the site, he added. Those historic datasets have “been a phenomenal windfall for the project, to understand what information was previously gathered [during] those previous drilling projects,” said Dunn.
MCDC representatives previously appeared in front of Pemberton’s mayor and council in December to present their plans for the site. While Dunn acknowledged community feedback on the project has “been fairly quiet” up until this point, he said he’s noticed that “a lot of [people] are interested to see what’s going on with the project and want to know it’s moving forward.”
Pembertonians Dunn has spoken with have been, for the most part, “advocates for renewable energy developments and have asked some good questions while we’ve been in the community,” he said, “But [at the Slow Food Cycle], we got a really good feedback loop.”
The MCDC team set up a station at the old Pemberton Meadows schoolhouse during the Slow Food Cycle on Aug. 21 to meet with community members, field questions about the project and offer some sweet, sweet air conditioning to cyclists battling the sizzling summer temperatures.
“It was amazing,” said Dunn. “We had, we figured, over 1,000 people by noon, but there was probably over 1,500 people that visited.”
Slow Food cyclists from across the corridor came armed with “lots of great questions,” he said, “about everything from environmental concerns to aspects of what kind of heat resource we had, to why hadn’t it been developed. We had an amazing opportunity to talk to people about the project, and the general feedback was quite positive.”
The developers also heard from more than a few Sea to Sky residents inquiring about the mountain itself, Dunn added, regarding everything from the catastrophic landslide that occurred 12 years ago to when access to the Meager Creek hot springs might be restored.
“We’ve had to be very clear with folks that this is a very sensitive area, from some of the environmental impacts and as well as the safety hazards of driving down a logging road,” he said. “Many of the folks are a bit disappointed that the Meager Creek [hot springs] wouldn’t be back open to the public, but there’s a lot of very, very good reasons to minimize the impact back there. At the heyday, 30,000 people driving to the hot springs was not minimizing that impact.”
As talks with the Lil’wat Nation and work on permits continues, MCDC is still on target to have both the power plant and hydrogen production up and running at Meager by 2025, said Dunn. Developers hope to begin drilling within the next 18 months.
BC
Nelson has third worst air quality in Canada
Eight out of the top ten most air-polluted cities in Canada on Sept. 3 are in the Kootenays Kootenay Lake seen from the Nelson bridge on Sept. 3. Photo: Bill Metcalfe
The Kootenays have the worst air quality in the country this weekend.
IQAir, which measures air quality throughout the world, rated Creston on Sept. 3 as the most polluted of Canadian communities with a 198 air quality index score, followed by Kimberley at 197 and Nelson at 170.
Eight out of the top ten most air-polluted cities in Canada on Sept. 3 were in the Kootenays.
The site categorizes Nelson air as “unhealthy” and states that the particulate matter concentration is 18.5 times the World Health Organization annual air quality guideline value.
Wearing a mask outdoors, closing windows, running an air purifier, and avoiding outdoor exercise are recommended.
Environment Canada’s weather station in Castlegar rates the air as “moderate risk” and recommends that people at risk should “consider reducing or rescheduling strenuous activities outdoors if you are experiencing symptoms.”
Scientists have issued an urgent “warning to humanity” about the global impact of tree extinctions.
A new paper predicts severe consequences for people, wildlife and the planet’s ecosystems if the widespread loss of trees continues. “Last year, we published the State of the World’s Trees report, where we showed at least 17,500 tree species, about a third of the world’s 60,000 tree species, are at risk of extinction,” said Malin Rivers, lead author of the paper and head of conservation prioritisation at Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). “Now we want to highlight why it matters that so many tree species are going extinct.
“Without acting now, it will impact humanity, our economies and livelihoods. Ecologically, it will have a catastrophic impact on the planet.”
The joint warning from BGCI and the Global Tree Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s species survival commission (IUCN SSC) is backed by 45 scientists from more than 20 countries, including the UK, the US, India and Haiti, with calls for action signed by more than 30 organisations, including botanic gardens, arboretums and universities.
According to the paper, the world’s forests contribute $1.3tn (£1.1tn) to the global economy. Timber is the most valuable commodity, but non-timber products, such as fruit, nuts, and medicine, create $88bn in global trade. Of the fruit available for global consumption, 53% comes from trees. ‘Generally ignored’ species face twice the extinction threat, warns study
Globally, more than 1.6 billion people live within 5km (3 miles) of a forest and rely on them for jobs and money. In developing countries, forests provide up to 25% of household income.
“Some people live in the forest and use it for subsistence, for food, shelter and medicine,” Rivers said. “Many more people use forests for their income, to sell things they collect or make from the forest. All those people will be directly impacted by tree losses. A lot of trees also have special spiritual or cultural meaning. When those tree species are lost, that cultural heritage is also lost, like the dragon’s blood trees in Yemen, or baobabs in Madagascar.”
The large-scale extinction of tree species would lead to major biodiversity losses. Half of the world’s animal and plant species rely on trees as their habitat, with forests containing about 75% of bird species, 68% of mammal species and as many as 10 million species of invertebrates. Forest-dependent species have already declined by about 53% since 1970. “When we look at extinction risks for mammals or birds, underlying that is habitat loss, and habitat loss is often tree loss,” said Rivers. “If we don’t look after trees, there’s no way we can look after all the other life there.” Advertisement
The extinction of a single tree species can significantly alter an ecosystem, causing a domino effect in its ability to function. When eucalyptus and dipterocarp trees are destroyed, for example, forests are more at risk from fire, pests and disease.
Patterns formed in the canopy of dipterocarp trees at the Forest Research
Institute of Malaysia near Kuala Lumpur.
Photograph: Anders Blomqvist/Alamy
Forests provide 50% of the world’s carbon storage, so further tree extinctions would reduce our ability to fight climate breakdown. “The new thing in this paper is that it’s the diversity of trees that is so important,” said Rivers. “We’re showing that diverse forests store more carbon than monocultures. That’s true for many of the ecological functions, not just carbon capture, but providing habitat to animals, soil stabilisation, resilience to pests and diseases, resilience to storms and adverse weather. By losing tree diversity, we’ll also lose diversity in all organisms: birds, animals, fungi, micro-organisims, insects.”
More than 100 tree species are already extinct in the wild, but despite their importance, billions of trees are still being lost each year to pests, disease, invasive species, drought, climate breakdown and industrial-scale deforestation for wood, cattle-farming, palm oil and other agriculture, from tropical islands to species-rich areas, such as the Amazon and Borneo.
Ahead of the UN’s Cop15 biodiversity conference in Montreal this December, the scientists behind the paper are calling for more protection for the world’s trees, including strengthening the role of trees in environmental and climate policy at state level.
“We want to see action,” said Rivers. “We can all take responsibility for the beef we’re eating and where it’s coming from, and making sure tree products are sustainably sourced. But we also want to see governments take responsibility, so there’s joined up thinking on biodiversity, climate change and other issues.”
Written in the glare of the United States' war on Indochina, and first published as a separate book in that war's dire aftermath, The Word for World is Forest ...
The Word for World Is Forest was originally published in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions in 1972. It was published as a standalone book in 1976 by ...
Books ‘We’re going to pay in a big way’: a shocking new book on the climate crisis
In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, authors Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen write that society needs to be better prepared for an inevitable collapse
‘We don’t have a solution. But the fact that there aren’t easy and obvious solutions doesn’t mean that you can ignore the issue’ … An Inconvenient Apocalypse. Photograph: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy
In An Inconvenient Apocalypse, authors Wes Jackson and Robert Jensen style themselves as heralds of some very bad news: societal collapse on a global scale is inevitable, and those who manage to survive the mass death and crumbling of the world as we know it will have to live in drastically transformed circumstances. According to Jackson and Jensen, there’s no averting this collapse – electric cars aren’t going to save us, and neither are global climate accords. The current way of things is doomed, and it’s up to us to prepare as best we can to ensure as soft a landing as possible when the inevitable apocalypse arrives.
“The book tries to be blunt and honest about the depth of the crisis,” said Jensen, “and to be blunt and honest about the current solutions, which do nothing to deal with the depth of the crisis.” Jackson added: “Now humanity is on a whole different journey than a gathering-hunting society. I saw that we were going to pay for this some day, and we’re going to pay in a big way.” Earthly Order: ‘mercurial professor’ with urgent ideas on climate change
Jackson and Jensen make for an interesting pairing. The former is an agronomist, having spent his career studying the problem of soil erosion and developing The Land Institute, which seeks to develop grains that can be used for sustainable agriculture. For his efforts he has garnered a MacArthur “genius” grant and a Right Livelihood Award, among other honors. Jensen is a longtime journalist who has written books on ecology, masculinity and radical feminism. He has received backlash for propounding exclusionary and harmful views against transgender people, specifically targeting transgender women, and in response to the criticism he has doubled down on these viewpoints, continuing to promulgate them.
In Jackson and Jensen’s view, the dawn of agriculture represents something like original sin. This is what got humanity on to the course of increasing energy use and material wealth that has brought us to the current ecological crisis. Via this reading of human history, the authors seem to be arguing that our trajectory as a technological species capable of high energy use and large-scale agriculture is a mistake that has taken us to a place we never should have been, and has doomed us. In conversation Jackson endorsed this viewpoint, telling me that our way of life has us “caught in a big Ponzi scheme that we’ve probably had for 10,000 years. We know how Ponzi schemes tend to end. They’re not nice things to have to deal with.”
Photograph: University of Notre Dame Press
The answer to this Ponzi scheme involves shrinking humanity from the current 7.7 billion people to a more sustainable 2 or 3 billion. An Inconvenient Apocalypse doesn’t describe how exactly this decline in population will occur, nor reckon with the enormous trauma that the elimination of the majority of humanity will inflict on humans and our societies. Although the book is nominally oriented toward social justice, the authors make no effort to address the fact that such a population decline would probably be an absolute disaster for marginalized ethnicities and sexualities, those who are disabled or mentally unwell, and basically anyone not deemed fit for survival in the new world. In conversation, Jensen offered this explanation:
“A lot of past talk of population control has been based in white supremacy, but that doesn’t mean we can ignore the question of what’s a sustainable population. That’s the kind of thing that people have bristled against. We don’t have a solution. But the fact that there aren’t easy and obvious solutions doesn’t mean that you can ignore the issue.”
According to Jackson and Jensen, once the collapse occurs and the Earth’s population declines, it is up to humans to figure out how to live in a “low-energy” future – that is, one where fossil fuels are no longer used and we essentially are back to relying on our own muscles and those of beasts of burden. In terms of what that low energy world might look like, An Inconvenient Apocalypse articulates an ethos that might be summed up as the paleo diet, but for society. Because 10,000 years of so-called progress has left us in “dire straits”, the answer involves looking back to the prehistoric millennia before humans developed agriculture, began writing down their history, and built societal hierarchies. Insofar as An Inconvenient Apocalypse describes how this future could look, it involves tradespeople and agricultural workers elevated to the high-status ranks of society, the affluent getting taken down some notches, a wholesale elimination of the cosmopolitan, consumerist world, and religion playing a prominent role. One is tempted to sum it up as “make the Earth great again”.
The world of An Inconvenient Apocalypse is a very bleak one, and also one with no middle ground. The authors write that “the future of continued endless expansion that we have long imagined is over and a new future defined by contraction is coming”. Any attempt to find some kind of middle way through these two poles is simple “denying, minimizing and ignoring” a problem that we must all face. The emphasis on this book is on being blunt and stating truths that the authors believe to be self-evident – there is little effort by Jackson and Jensen to argue their case or to convince others. To be fair, Jackson and Jensen seem to be aware that their style will put off many, stating their expectation that many readers will simply abandon their book. Jensen said: “We set out to write a book that, in some sense, everybody will have a reason to dislike.”
For a book predicting the mass death of most of humanity and the end of life as we know it, An Inconvenient Apocalypse is chillingly cerebral. There is virtually no room for acknowledging – much less processing – the emotional toll that such a message will take on both the authors and their readers. That can make the book feel cold and condescending. In conversation, Jensen showed more vulnerability, offering some of the feelings that his vision for humanity raised within himself. In this reader’s opinion, letting this vulnerability through more often in An Inconvenient Apocalypse would have made for a more relatable and ultimately more compelling read.
“I’ve wrestled with what this means in everyday life,” and Jensen, “and these are distressing questions. It’s about wrestling with that sense of grief, rather than trying to avoid it. And when you wrestle with that, it means you don’t wake up every day on the sunny side of the street. It’s weighing on a lot of us. My goal is just try to open up space for people to say what’s on their mind.”
