John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged environment · everything

slate.com

Why Soylent Green Got 2022 So Wrong

A critic of science-and-society storytelling revisits Soylent Green on the 50th anniversary of its titular "future" year and argues the film's heavy-handed, dogmatic dystopianism actually undercuts its own message about overpopulation, corporate greed, and environmental collapse. He contrasts it unfavorably with Harry Harrison's more nuanced source novel Make Room! Make Room!, contending that preachy apocalyptic certainty tends to entrench existing beliefs rather than change minds, and champions ambiguous, conversation-opening sci-fi (Children of Men, Ex Machina) as a better model for grappling with real present-day crises like climate change and AI.

Permalink technologyenvironmentfilm1970s

www.theatlantic.com

A New Reckoning for Nuclear Energy

After decades of stagnation caused by public opposition, economic barriers, and safety concerns, nuclear energy is experiencing unprecedented political and corporate support as a climate solution, with the U.S. government targeting a massive expansion and major tech companies investing heavily in new facilities. However, this represents the country's third major nuclear revival attempt, and the industry faces a critical test: it must successfully demonstrate that it can build large fleets of new reactors on time and within budget, particularly using smaller "advanced" reactor designs that have long promised breakthroughs but never achieved commercial deployment. If expectations outpace actual delivery over the next five to ten years, another failure could undermine nuclear's role in the climate transition at a time when abundant carbon-free electricity is increasingly essential.

Permalink technologyenvironmentamazonunited states

time.com

AC Feels Great, But It’s Terrible for the Planet. Here’s How to Fix That

Traces air conditioning's history from a business tool for factories and stock exchanges to a symbol of American class and racial status, showing how Freon's ozone-destroying properties nearly caused catastrophe before the Montreal Protocol, and how its replacement, HFCs, became a potent greenhouse gas driving the very heatwaves AC is used to combat. Argues that swapping refrigerants alone won't solve the problem since cooling still demands massive energy and individual AC units worsen urban heat for those without access to them. Concludes that the real fix is cultural and infrastructural—shifting from private comfort toward public cooling solutions like shade, green space, and water infrastructure, since equitable communal cooling is both more effective and less destructive than everyone chasing personal comfort.

Permalink environmentenergyurbanenvironmental

Scientific American

The Smart Way to Play God with Earth's Limited Land: Scientific American

Lynas argues that 83 percent of Earth's ice-free land is already human-influenced and that "wilderness" is effectively extinct, making traditional conservation approaches obsolete. Rather than pursuing low-impact rural living or halting land conversion, he contends that humanity should concentrate its impact through intensified agriculture on existing farmland, aggressive urbanization, and electrified transport, while allowing marginal lands to rewild and protecting high-biodiversity areas—a strategy that also slows population growth through demographic transition. He specifically advocates scrapping biofuel subsidies (except potentially for aviation), switching ground vehicles to electricity, and recognizing that cities, despite their apparent sprawl, actually represent the most environmentally efficient way to house the world's growing population.

Permalink environmentsustainabilityscienceagriculture