Below are posts associated with the “climate change” tag.
📚 bookblog: Mormon: A Brief Theological Introduction (❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)
Wow, wow, wow. I was intrigued by what I knew about this book when I first bought it but am only now getting to it, five years later. It’s a beautiful book and quietly radical, using the story of Mormon to develop a theology of the world ending around us. Miller explicitly invokes the climate crisis at the end of the book and calls for disciples to be willing to sacrifice all things instead of simply waiting to lose all things. Even outside of that context, Miller’s quasi-mystical reading of Mormon has so much to offer—and is pleasantly aligned with some of the theologies I’ve heard in Community of Christ. This is a good one.
🔗 linkblog: UK government suggests deleting files to save water
I genuinely think it’s useful to remember that non-AI datacenters are also contributing to the climate crisis, but that doesn’t let AI off the hook. It’s like saying “sure, we’re spending far beyond our means, but have you considered that we’re already in debt?
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Glass Houses, by Madeline Ashby
I put this book on hold at the library after Cory Doctorow recommended it on his blog. It became available at the same time as two other Doctorow-recommended books that I’m now trying to rush through before other holds take them away from me.
This is a book about the great excesses of tech bros and the many tiny excesses of the people using their tech in slightly off ways. It’s about misogyny, both subtle and severe, and (in the background) how scary climate change, American politics, and the Internet of Things are. It is good! It is also dark and weird!
🔗 linkblog: Microsoft’s AI obsession is jeopardizing its climate ambitions'
Such a depressing article.
🔗 linkblog: AI already uses as much energy as a small country. It’s only the beginning.'
There are some important and interesting pieces of information in here.
🔗 linkblog: Future data centres may have built-in nuclear reactors'
You know, instead of assuming that we must grow AI data centers and asking how we should power them, we could look at the costs in terms of power and ask whether we should grow AI data centers.
text for recent Beyond the Walls sermon
Last Sunday, I gave a sermon on the Temptation of Jesus for a Beyond the Walls service by the Toronto Congregation of Community of Christ. The whole service was great, and I was happy to make my small contribution to it. It’s been recorded and archived here:
As I did the last time that I gave a sermon, though, I wanted to share the text I preached from:
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Lost Cause, by Cory Doctorow
I’ve read a LOT of Doctorow in 2023—including Walkaway twice, Red Team Blues twice, and relistening to Little Brother—so I can’t help but place this hopeful solarpunk novel in the context of these others.
Even though The Lost Cause touches on some of the same themes as Walkaway, I like the latter book a lot better, though perhaps because it feels less “real” than a book about paramilitary Maga Clubs and impending climate catastrophe. Yet Red Team Blues is also more grounded than Walkaway, but I enjoyed it more than The Lost Cause, so it’s hard to say why this book didn’t click with me as some of Doctorow’s other writing.
🔗 linkblog: Paris Turns ‘Little Belt’ of Train Tracks Into Green Spaces - The New York Times'
Faudra que je visite la petite ceinture un jour !
🔗 linkblog: West Virginia, Kentucky officials repeatedly ignored plans to prepare for catastrophic floods. Residents are paying the price. – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
This is a tragic detail in an even more tragic story. Government can absolutely be good, and our allergic reaction to spending, laws, and policy only makes these situations worse.
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | Worrying About Your Carbon Footprint Is Exactly What Big Oil Wants You to Do - The New York Times'
Compelling reminder that climate change needs systemic—not individual—responses.