Updates

Let’s Accelerate the Global Energy Transition Are we losing momentum in the race to address the climate challenge? Let’s look at the evidence: Headlines are grim (see here, here, and here), targets are slipping, and with so many major issues competing for our attention, the world’s focus may be drifting away from the environmental emergency we’re in. But […]

Let’s stop kidding ourselves and do something If you’re in the US this weekend, I bet I know how you’re feeling right now. Hot. Right? Maybe worried too? As I’m writing this (on Friday), forecasters are predicting triple-digit temperatures for what will be the hottest stretch in over a decade from New York City to

Time Travel Improves Thinking Summer is here, and our readers are asking for book recommendations. Not surprisingly, Instigators have a particular interest in CliFi, i.e., novels that help us envision the reality of a climate-stressed world, or—even better—inspire action to address the challenge. I just finished a great novel that fits the bill: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane

Can Trade Negotiations Benefit the Environment? Trade deals are back on the table. And while the commentary seems mostly focused on whether or not the deals will close, or how ambitious they will be, or what can be done with China, let’s consider another angle. Could these deals include provisions that address environmental challenges like

Fungal ecosystem investments promise big returns—maybe even bipartisan cooperation! More than a decade ago, I wrote a book called Nature’s Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature. Its central thesis was that investing in nature not only protects the environment for us, other species, and future generations, but it also produces enormously useful outcomes

There are Heroes Among Us In this week’s fusillade of crazy headlines, here’s one we shouldn’t forget: Layoffs of 10,000 Government Health Workers Begin. This is . . . not good. What’s worse is how these civil servants are finding out their years of service have come to an end—-with deactivated badges when they try

Let’s keep our focus on the right target. Our heads are spinning. Each day brings a barrage of bad news about the new administration’s haphazard and harmful decisions. As we’ve written, that’s their strategy. You know what else is part of the strategy? Getting us to turn on one another, arguing about direction, while they plow

Save our Scientists (and their work) Another week has passed and there’s no letting up in the new administration’s torrent of executive actions. Long running strategic initiatives are being stymied, agencies shuttered, funding eliminated, website content stricken, and organizations of all stripes bullied. (I mean, the Kennedy Center, really?!) As we wrote last week, it’s

A defense of DEI and other issues It’s been a tumultuous few weeks, fueled in large part by inflammatory rhetoric and baseless accusations. Such matters have been a feature of the American political scene for a while now. You’ll recall Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, calling climate change a hoax in a Republican debate (and no

Help NGOs Now! (Part 4) Editor’s Note: My son remarked to me that we seem to be publishing the Instigator more frequently than usual these days. I assured him this was a temporary but intentional move. We knew with the new administration and congress taking office, it would likely be a tougher but more important