Confessions of a Failed Energy Martyr

"The data show that demand for coal and oil and gas continues its upward trend. Carbon dioxide emissions climb relentlessly. You've seen the graph of atmospheric accumulation. It wiggles with the seasons, but its slope remains implacably upward, despite our blogs and our essays and our blaming of plutocrats."

"In the United States, the centralized cooperation that is required to save the ice cap would be met with armed resistance."

"And so we will not change. Some of us have altered our behavior in superficial ways, but unless everyone changes their behavior, today, in deep, systemic ways, none of our Priuses, compact fluorescent lights, double-paned windows, solar panels, or backyard compost gardens will do much to stave off the inevitable. We need a sudden, collective realization that we must keep the ice cap whole, the faith that a shared sacrifice will do it, and the will to impose it on the recalcitrant."