Welcome to Macrocosm Climate Report!
Climate change touches almost every aspect of our lives, from how we live and work to how we move around and build.
We’ve all seen the eerie orange skies over San Francisco, people walking across the dried-up Loire or Rhine river beds, and the terrible flooding in Pakistan. Every day, more and more of us are becoming concerned. And that’s only with the global average temperature increase of around 1° C we’ve seen so far.
And it seems like every day, we see new major studies, new government agreements or guidelines, and new technologies, and it’s hard to sort out what’s what. It can feel overwhelming trying to keep track of basic questions. How bad are things going to get, and when? Is nuclear power good or bad? What’s the deal with cap and trade? What about carbon capture or carbon sequestration - can we make fossil fuels green? So many questions, it can feel hard to get a handle on the problem.
It’s also easy to feel powerless. It’s such a huge problem, and at times it feels like individual actions can’t make a difference.
But there’s a flip side to this - because it’s such a big problem, there are countless ways to get involved. It’s just a matter of finding a way that you can make a contribution in an area that you care about and where you think you have something to give.
That’s what this newsletter is for me - a way to contribute. I’ve been a technical communicator for more than twenty years, and I’m really, really good at understanding complex information and writing about it for a general audience.
What I want to do now is help a general audience stay informed about all of these topics, and find ways to make a difference.
I have some guidelines for my writing:
Rational: All discussions are based on reason and evidence.
Helpful: Useful information and suggestions to help real people.
Positive: The truth is, we can turn this thing around. Without being complacent or underestimating the scope of the risks, we can have productive conversations about what to do without falling into a paralyzing fear of the future.
Productive: We need to work together, and disagree without excessive criticism or polemic.
Realistic: Climate change is a huge, complex, and there is always a side. I’ll always be up front about that, and about my own limitations.
My name is Barnaby Thieme, and I live in Berlin with my wife and our cat, Django. I’m here to help, and if you have any suggestions or comments, they are always welcome, as long as they’re productive. You can also find me on Twitter at @mesoscope101.
A quick note on the photos on this site - unless otherwise indicated, they’re all taken by me.
