#alex steffen

Millions and millions of us are ready. We want to not only build carbon-zero cities and regions but to live the lives that will make them thrive. We want clean energy, sure; indeed, we demand all energy be clean energy. But generating more clean energy — vital as it is — is only one part of making the world we need. We also need to imagine, design and rapidly build cities where prosperity demands much less energy to begin with and ends up shared with far more of our neighbors: cities of abundant housing in super-insulated green buildings; of walkable neighborhoods, effective transit, shared vehicles and abundant bike lanes; of circular flows of resources and frugal excellence; of breakthrough technologies and worldchanging designs; of lived innovation and community creativity — of more adventure, more fun, and, for fuck’s sake, more beauty. Beauty matters. The sheer ugliness of the old industrial way of life all around us is something we’re taught not to see. We’re taught not too see its aesthetic ugliness, sure, but even more we are taught to ignore its ugliness of soul, it’s ugliness of purpose, its ugliness of effect. Look away, numb yourself, never speak of it again. Millions of us do not want to spend our brief spans on Earth contributing to these systems of catastrophic ugliness. We want to live in systems that are beautiful to be a part of, beautiful in their workings, and beautiful for future generations. We need to demand the freedom build the beautiful. If a new movement today is going to be about anything meaningful, it must be at its very core a fight to build the beautiful, at the scale of the necessary, in the very short time we have left.

Optimism is a political act.

Indeed, here in the U.S. we’ve seen a push to suppress inconvenient science, gut agencies charged with studying future risk, even ban public servants from using the words ‘climate change.’ It’s an ostrich policy, except the head they’re trying to keep in the sand is yours.

The futurist Alex Steffen (remember WorldChanging?) is writing some very insightful newsletters on how best to view the climate crisis. Currently he’s talking about what factors to keep in mind in choosing a place to live that will weather the worsening climate crisis’ effects; having followed his work for some time, I expect he’ll follow up with ways to build community and bolster your defences wherever you are. He’s less optimistic than he used to be, and angrier at the opportunities we’ve squandered, but definitely a thinker to watch.