Green Energy: A Special Issue

Green Energy: A Special Issue

How we can break our addiction to oil. With contributions from Michael T. Klare, Christian Parenti, Mark Hertsgaard and Christine MacDonald.

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The real solution to the BP oil disaster is obvious: the United States needs to break its addiction to oil. This special issue of The Nation describes, in practical terms, how the country can rise to that challenge. The forces of opposition are powerful, but the moment is ripe. Most Americans already believe we will soon leave oil behind, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. President Obama could jump-start a green revolution today without spending more money or awaiting approval from Congress, as Christian Parenti explains. America’s broken energy system threatens our economic, military and environmental security. Here’s how to fix it.

Michael T. Klare, "Clean, Green, Safe and Smart"

Christian Parenti, "The Big Green Buy"

Mark Hertsgaard, "Kicking the Oil Habit"

Christine MacDonald, "The Spill’s Silver Lining?"

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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