Albert Bates

The Beer Hall at the End of the Universe | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

Kemp’s use of the threat/vulnerability/exposure/response matrix derives from some older principles of military strategy: the “four Ds:” Detection, Deterrence, Defense, and Defeat—as well as resilience (a little “r”). #GoliathsCurse www.patreon.com/posts/beer-h...

The Beer Hall at the End of the Universe Between utopia and beer lie existential decisions

Utopian dreamers have been with us just as long as warlords, but history, being written by the victors, remembers tyrannical empires more than multimillennial peace and prosperity medium.com/@cooldesign/...

The Beer Hall at the End of the Universe Between utopia and beer lie existential decisions

In Goliath's Curse, Luke Kemp gives 4 elements of collapse: threat, vulnerability, exposure and response. The threat could be a hostile neighbor, a viral disease, or extreme floods and droughts—the prepared response can decide whether a society survives cooldesign.substack.com/p/the-beer-h...

Canaries in the Iceberg | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

The Palestinians are our canaries in the coal mine. It is appropriate that Greta should be there protesting. Somewhere, an iceberg melts. www.patreon.com/posts/canari... @citizenbrown1.bsky.social
@jploh.bsky.social
@outrageoptimism.bsky.social
@herbsimmens.bsky.social
@facingfuturetv.bsky.social

Diving the Iceberg We usually only think about what we can see in front of us

I was asked as part of a university sustainability program to develop an Iceberg model of my work. I had to revisit the earliest application of that model in systems theory to fully appreciate how it has evolved and where it is relevant today. substack.com/home/post/p-... @herbsimmens.bsky.social

The Republic of Donald’s Gut Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

PFAS, PFOS,
Plastic on the brain.
Forever are the chemicals
That flow inside your veins

What’s inside the Donald’s brain?

peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
@gtconway.bsky.social
@meidasjordy.bsky.social
@nickbreeze.genn.cc
@boilingfrogbss.bsky.social
@operaatioarktis.bsky.social

The Republic of Donald’s Gut "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves"

Check out my new post! I have already been getting some feedback to the effect that I am letting MAGA off the hook by blaming the global weirding on microbes, but seriously…let’s not take this so seriously. substack.com/home/post/p-... @boilingfrogbss.bsky.social
@operaatioarktis.bsky.social

A new report sounds the alarm on ocean acidification as Earth breaches the seventh of nine "planetary boundaries." The oceans just hit an ominous milestone, according to Potsdam Institute. www.planetaryhealthcheck.org

A Tariff-ic Gas Shortage Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

Gas stations in México have started closing to await resupply. Houston refineries, we have a problem. peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-ta... @nickbreeze.genn.cc
@stephenleahy.bsky.social
@karenmessier.bsky.social
@operaatioarktis.bsky.social
@billmckibben.bsky.social
@phoebebarnard.bsky.social

A Tariff-ic Gas Shortage | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

What do N.N.Taleb, Kate Crawford, Bill McKibben, Leopold Kohr, and Finnish President Stubb all have in common? My post today in Patreon. www.patreon.com/posts/tariff...

A Tariff-ic Gas Shortage What I just saw in México should worry all North Americans

We stopped for gas only to find every pump wrapped in plastic. 2d stop similarly draped. Eventually, an open station. What was going on?

My best guess? Tariffs. @stephenleahy.bsky.social
@karenmessier.bsky.social @phoebebarnard.bsky.social @gtconway.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/cooldesi...

The Darkness at Noon Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

Many have been looking at brightening clouds around Earth to slow the heating, but what if we did the opposite? What if we... peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

The Darkness at Noon A new plan to inject biochar into the stratosphere raises more questions than answers

Check out my new post! Sometimes geoengineering fantasies cross the line into science fiction. When you are out in space, it can be difficult to even find that line open.substack.com/pub/cooldesi... @leonsimons.bsky.social @herbsimmens.bsky.social @billmckibben.bsky.social @nickbreeze.genn.cc

The Gaza Makeover Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

The Gaza crisis is everything the UN was created to prevent. By opting out of the UN process and going so rogue, Israel and its one ally have undone a century of work towards lasting world peace peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...

The Gaza Makeover | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

Even before Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the occupation and blockade of Gaza had compounded existing climate and environmental stresses, worsening living conditions and deepening dependence on humanitarian aid. What comes next is anyone's guess. www.patreon.com/posts/gaza-m...

The Gaza Makeover What could possibly go wrong?

What to do with more than two million Gazans? The current Israeli plan — liquidation by starvation and bombing — is less kind than the Kushner vision. cooldesign.medium.com/the-gaza-mak...

Humanitarians see Gaza as crisis. TechBros see opportunity. cooldesign.substack.com/p/the-gaza-m... @nickbreeze.genn.cc
@boilingfrogbss.bsky.social
@phoebebarnard.bsky.social
@stephenleahy.bsky.social
@karenmessier.bsky.social
@operaatioarktis.bsky.social @gtconway.bsky.social @jploh.bsky.social

The Gaza Makeover What could possibly go wrong?

Regular followers of the posts that appear on The Great Change will be well aware that we have an unfortunate tendency to get information to readers six months to sixty years in advance. cooldesign.substack.com/p/the-gaza-m...

Roots Reprised Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

Biking ancient trails, I saw the beginning and ending of the Anthropocene peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/09/root...

Roots Reprised A trip back to the past provides a few clues to our future

This week I have journeyed back up my DNA a few centuries for the chance to glimpse the path ahead. open.substack.com/pub/cooldesi...

Nuking the Windmills | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

If you got your electricity from TVA or IL, PA, SC, or NY between 1993 to 2013, you were helping world peace by burning up dismantled Russian warheads. Robt Kennedy torched the health plans of the atomic workers who made that happen, leaving them to sickening fates www.patreon.com/posts/nuking...

Nuking the Windmills Anti-Datacenter opposition is blocking billions of dollars for new server farms

Industry analysts have long foreseen power as the Achilles heel of A.I., cloud computing, decarbonization, and indeed, automation in general. Blocking new server farms and nuclear power? That's a good thing.

open.substack.com/pub/cooldesi...

At what point can you stand in front of a tractor tire rolling downhill and not only stop it (tip it over), but also push it back up? You’d have to be pretty close to the top of the hill. The metaphor applies to both authoritarianism and climate change

peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/08/loca...

Well @mmflint.bsky.social and and anyone else joking about the electoral college in the past, now that it protects state electors, mail-in voters and machine voting from @realdonaldrumpf.bsky.social Executive Orders, what do you think?

YouTube video by Nick Breeze ClimateGenn From Despair to Collective Action: John D Liu on Community, Survival, and the Path Forward

My interview with ecologist & founder of the Ecosystem Restoration Communities, John D. Liu: "And when you see an extinction event, the top of the food chain is the most at risk. Well, that's us. So, calm down."
youtu.be/8g6y7sMip_k #climatechange #ecology #ecosystems

Local Man Paints Everything White | Albert Bates Get more from Albert Bates on Patreon

I was born when CO2 was 310 ppm. The reading at Mauna Loa Aug 20 was 425.94, 4 ppm higher than 8/20/24 & 0.5 ppm higher than the day before. In 1896, the thinking was that fossil burning would reach this point in 3000 years. We were only off by 2871 years www.patreon.com/posts/local-...

Local Man Paints Everything White Claims he can reverse climate change

Rather than shorting the emergency, we should go long on “stellar” climate solutions cooldesign.medium.com/ce5f4c71cb1a...

@billmckibben.bsky.social
@phoebebarnard.bsky.social
@stephenleahy.bsky.social
@jploh.bsky.social
@outrageoptimism.bsky.social @nickbreeze.genn.cc
@leonsimons.bsky.social

Very little has been grasped of biochar’s many non-agricultural applications. The doubling time in China is twice as fast as Europe. open.substack.com/pub/cooldesi...

Sydney Sweeney’s jeans: an American crime story Award winning author and futurist Albert Bates writes about ecovillages, permaculture, negative emission technology, drawdown, and climate solutions.

In my experience from frequent trips to Russia and the Baltics, a large subset of ethnic Russians consider ethnic Ukrainians stupid and lazy. I imagine that is how Putin imagines Trump--a useful idiot. peaksurfer.blogspot.com/2025/08/sydn...

Amazon Reef

My take on the Belém COP ... and the effect it will have on the Great Amazon Reef:

substack.com/@cooldesign/...

@glengreenwald.bsky.social @billmckibben.bsky.social
@stephenleahy.bsky.social
@karenmessier.bsky.social
@nickbreeze.genn.cc
@georgemonbiot.bsky.social
@alanfeuer.bsky.social