The Crucial Years

Articles

Meanwhile, back in the real world

3 weeks ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

It’s possible to become entirely transfixed by the weirdo show every underway in DC. Today’s installments: Donald Trump declares that Joe Biden was killed in 2020 and replaced by a robot clone, Donald Trump won’t read his intelligence briefings so they’re going to be turned into a private tv show with Fox-like anchors, Donald Trump…. We need to pay some attention to the madness, and I hope that everyone is registered to take part in a demonstration on No Kings Day June 14 .
Darn it, that's just not true

1 month ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

Trying to keep up with the perfidy of the Trump administration is a mug’s game, but sometimes I’m a mug. And so, in a small effort to get out ahead of these deceits before they become conventional wisdom, I’m going to write about two statements from the administration, one yesterday and one more than a month old that I missed. I just sent you a long newsletter a couple of days ago, and I don’t want to overburden you with stuff (who needs more outrage anyway?) so I’ll try to be brief.
A Truly Dark Day in DC

1 month ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

Credit where due: I am ever impressed by the feral energy of Trump and his crew, who are able to do an extraordinary amount of damage every single damned day. And somehow their energetic cruelty seems to drain my own reserves: I want to stay in bed. But we fight as best we can, and so here’s my assessment of this dire day, and more importantly what we still might be able to do about it. This is a free newsletter.
Vandalism, with a plan

1 month ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

It would be tempting to dismiss Trump’s many functionaries as idiots, because many of them are. Here, for instance, is a transcript of leaked audio from a recent staff meeting led by acting FEMA director David Richardson, a man with no experience in disaster management (but who did write what the reliable Kate Aronoff described as a bad autobiographical novel with the inspired title War Story).
How They Do It in "Foreign Lands"

1 month ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

Every once in a while our mad king hits on an accidentally poetic turn of phrase in one of his strangely punctuated missives.
The Crucial Years

1 month ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

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And We're Off

2 months ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

That slightly out-of-focus picture shows the gritty, common-sense (and also transcendent) mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, with her 3-month old daughter Mira. A few minutes earlier, from the pulpit of Old North Church in Boston, she’d flipped a switch to light the green lantern you can see glowing in the steeple behind her.
Pope Francis and the Sun

2 months ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

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Pope Francis and the Sun

2 months ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

Let me begin with a little but of business, or perhaps anti-business. I am worried there may be people paying for a subscription to this newsletter who have forgotten that they subscribed in the first place. Thanks to the blunders of our president, I know money is tighter than ever. If you need to cancel your paid subscription, the instructions are here.
A Chill Falls on the Climate Community

2 months ago | billmckibben.substack.com | Bill McKibben

It snowed last night in the Green Mountains, a typically beautiful late-season fluff-fest. Which meant I got to rise at 6 this morning and go for a ski before the spring sun turned it to slush—helpful, because I needed to clear my head a little. That’s because word came last night that, having dispensed with immigrants, law firms, humanitarian workers, and universities, the Trump administration was now turning its crosshairs on climate advocates.