Update 17 Dec 2025: Times have changed, and I have realised that this article needs a short framing intro. Climate science is in trouble. Funding is being cut. Information is disappearing. To draw a little attention to this and other issues, I returned to a format I first introduced in 2003: a darkly humorous "Letter … Continue reading Dear Santa Claus: So Sorry About the North Pole (2025 edition)
Global Warming and Climate Change
A song of melancholy and last-chance hope: Why I wrote “The Last Dice”
In September 2011, I found myself unexpectedly wandering the streets of Istanbul. I say “unexpectedly” because there was revolution in Syria, a growing social uprising that would eventually ignite an all-consuming civil war. Security concerns had made going back to the city of Aleppo, which is where I had expected to be, impossible. Click to … Continue reading A song of melancholy and last-chance hope: Why I wrote “The Last Dice”
I asked ChatGPT to analyse the new US National Security Strategy
After reading the new National Security Strategy of the United States of America, recently released by the White House, I thought, "I used to advise US military bases on their sustainability programs. This new strategy seems to be a major change in direction, and it has enormous implications for sustainability and sustainable development work, globally. … Continue reading I asked ChatGPT to analyse the new US National Security Strategy
The ‘big push’ transforming the world’s energy systems
As I’m sure you have noticed, renewable energy is taking the world by storm, driven by rapidly falling prices. Ever wonder how that happened? In 2009, I authored a concept paper for the United Nations Secretariat, for circulation at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. COP15 became infamous because it was deemed a spectacular failure. Heads of … Continue reading The ‘big push’ transforming the world’s energy systems
Melting Polar Sea Ice: A story we ignore at our peril
I spend a lot of professional time reading about the Arctic (for an upcoming WWF report that my firm is developing). Conclusion: the media is practically ignoring one of the biggest stories on the planet. Consider the first graph, and the red line at the bottom, which combines the data for all of 2016 on … Continue reading Melting Polar Sea Ice: A story we ignore at our peril
Letter to Santa Claus 2002: The 2016 Update
In 2002, before the Age of Social Media, I wrote a regular column called "Find/Replace." The following "Letter to Santa" went sort-of-viral, which means it got copied and sent out on various people's email lists (including science fiction writer Bruce Sterling's list, which was an important list at the time). I thought about that article … Continue reading Letter to Santa Claus 2002: The 2016 Update
Post-Election Statement
As a dual citizen of the USA and Sweden, I am determined to keep working for the vision and reality of sustainable development for all, here in my beloved Sweden and Europe where I live, in my beloved USA where I have both family and business ties, and around the world. That imperative does not … Continue reading Post-Election Statement
The Anthropocene: how “frightened” should we be?
Be afraid. Be very afraid ... of the Anthropocene. This is the message from Clive Hamilton writing in Nature, the preeminent science journal, in his recent editorial (see sources below). Humans are unequivocably a planetary force for change, and a group of scientists with the authority to decide such things now agrees that this new … Continue reading The Anthropocene: how “frightened” should we be?
Democracy + Climate Change Action = True
An opinion article in one of the world's leading science journals, Nature, argues that there is a growing a tendency among some science researchers to question whether democracy is well-suited to achieving sustainable development — and warns that such thinking is very misguided. Sociologist Nico Stehr, who directs the European Center for Sustainability Research, focuses … Continue reading Democracy + Climate Change Action = True
Story of a Song: “Set the World Right Again”
Since this week the UNFCCC is featuring "Set the World Right Again" as its "Climate Song of the Week," here is the story behind the song. This is the second excerpt from my book-in-progress, "50 Songs, 50 Stories." - Alan Some songs start as a vague idea, some as a line of specific words. Some … Continue reading Story of a Song: “Set the World Right Again”
Alan AtKisson 