Editor's note: I have held off releasing this series of essays for some time now, for reasons I'm not quite sure I know how to articulate. Perhaps it was partially due to feeling emotionally and artistically 'blocked' after the election of Donald Trump, or perhaps it has been my ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Oct 20, 2017

(Photo: Coffey Park, Santa Rosa, CA. Elijah Nouvelage, Special To The San Francisco Chronicle) The Banter Long Read: I've had an interesting week. And it all began with something inside my computer called "classpnp.sys."... UPDATE: For the next 24 hours, you can get a month's ...read more

• By Bob Cesca
  Oct 15, 2017

In today's show, we talk to Washington D.C's most notorious gardener, Chris Bradshaw of the non-profit "Dreaming Out Loud". Chris spoke to us about how gardening can heal communities and provide a way of feeding people without relying on giant supermarkets and fast food chains. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Aug 13, 2017

Tucker Carlson's one gift is his mastery of the art of the straw man argument. Day after day, the Fox News host brings in hapless liberals, scientists, feminists and activists and draws them into defending arguments they haven't made. He does this to serve his growing audience ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Aug 9, 2017

EPA director and climate change denier Scott Pruitt told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord because the president's primary concern was "American jobs", not climate change. Citing a provably false list of statistics, Tapper's guests that ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jun 2, 2017

We are experiencing an extreme moment in human history that is greatly destabilizing and emotionally traumatizing for many, many people and it is easy to get incredibly depressed about it all. While Donald Trump may appear to be the biggest impediment to the change we so ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jun 1, 2017

If there’s one thing you can always rely on Senator John McCain for, it’s doing his best to scare the American public. The Arizona Republican’s penchant for supporting aggressive military action against a variety of menacing actors overseas, or at the very least, consistently ...read more

• By Alyona Minkovski
  Nov 9, 2018

by Aisha Ommaya It’s a common scenario. The forgotten hummus tucked behind the milk, those leftovers from last week’s takeout, that apple that looks a little mealy – the items that you throw away, possibly accompanied by a pang of guilt as you close the lid on the trash can. ...read more

• By Guest Contributor
  May 13, 2017

Despite every piece of evidence heavily signaling that the environment is about to be irrevocably fucked by the Trump administration, the president’s daughter and son-in-law continued to show that they are becoming frighteningly adept at normalizing this presidency by nudging ...read more

• By Mike Redmond
  Apr 18, 2017

One of the most difficult things about being in the news industry in the Trump era is the relentlessly bad news -- it comes faster and faster and faster with almost no end in sight. This means there are so many stories to cover, so many scandals with so many angles that it is ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 4, 2017

Part of creating a workable, practical resistance to Donald Trump is correctly diagnosing what we are up against. While the terrible news is often overwhelming, ignoring it will do nothing to change what is happening. Take for example, the Trump administration's announcement ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Mar 15, 2017

Just four days into his presidency, Donald Trump has declared an all out war on our natural environment. In a frenzy of executive orders and directives, the Trump administration has frozen all EPA grants and ordered the agency not to talk about it, pledged to slash environmental ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jan 24, 2017

With three days left before Donald Trump takes office, President Obama used executive powers to bypass congress and continue the United States' commitment to the historic Paris agreement. Reported the Guardian: Barack Obama has heeded calls to help secure the future of the ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

Regardless of the technical legalities of the Dakota Access Pipeline, we are now at a point in human history when defending the biosphere and the health of the earth must take precedence over everything else.  Western culture has failed singularly to address climate change and ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Oct 31, 2016

Human impact on the environment is now so severe that we are set to lose two-thirds of all wild animals by 2020 -- just 3 years away. Reports the Guardian: The number of wild animals living on Earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report, part of a mass ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Oct 28, 2016

In an almost laughably idiotic interview on a Politico podcast, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said the following steaming pile of misleading nonsense:  Donald Trump, I think, will have a lot of trouble moving things through Congress. Hillary Clinton, on the other ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018

While much of the news regarding climate change has been overwhelmingly depressing and frustrating, California Gov. Jerry Brown is extending his state's plan to make huge carbon emission cuts over the next 10 years.  The bills signed by Brown are some of the most progressive ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Sep 9, 2016

Thanks to human activity over the past 65 years, the global ecological crisis is now so severe that geologist have declared we are living in a new geological epoch.  A panel of experts presented evidence to the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, South Africa today, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Aug 29, 2016

There is no doubt for anyone who has followed Barack Obama's presidency that, in years to come, he should be looked upon with great, great regard. He was the first African American president, a phenomenal speaker and one of the most cerebral politicians America has ever ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Aug 29, 2016

Everywhere around us we see distorted expressions of masculinity -- from angry gym bros to Wall St traders, and a political culture that demeans and denigrates women.  But does our culture's distortion of masculinity have wider implications? What role does the feminine play in ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Dec 20, 2018

According to a truly shocking investigative report by the Guardian, Americans "throw away almost as much food as they eat" -- or half of all food produced in the country.  Suzanne Goldberg, the Guardian's US environmental correspondent found that much of this was due to the ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 13, 2016

These past few weeks have not been great for the human race. Deadly police violence in America, political turmoil in Europe, rising xenophobia in Britain, a renewed civil war in Sudan and increased violence in Iraq have created a climate of anxiety and fear over our future. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Jul 11, 2016

The greatest challenge humanity faces is not an environmental one. It is a challenge that goes deeper than the intellectual acknowledgment that the earth is currently in a state of great crisis -- it is a challenge to understand the very meaning of what it means to be a human. ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 31, 2016

Anyone considering not voting for the Democratic nominee for president this November might want to think about whether they'd like their descendants to live beyond the next 50 years.   Lest you think this is being hyperbolic, please consider Donald Trump's proposal for America's ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  May 26, 2016

There is a scene in the movie Crocodile Dundee when Sue, the journalist sent from New York City to report on the outback in Australia asks Mick Dundee who owns the land they are exploring.  "Well, you see, Aborigines don't own the land," replies Mick. "They belong to it. It's ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 22, 2016

Rightwing hate site Breitbart.com is vying to become one of the major sources of anti climate change propaganda with its regurgitation of lies spread by prominent media figures like Sarah Palin and ludicrous documentary films like "Climate Hustle".  Breitbart's latest foray into ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 20, 2016

Although it should go without saying that climate change is the deadliest threat to human civilization, sadly in American in 2016 it is still apparently necessary to dismiss those who deny its existence and danger.  Sarah Palin, for reasons no sane person can truly comprehend, ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 18, 2016

Just when the world needs more anti-global warming nonsense, the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) - an organization funded by an extremely shady far right donor group - has put together a film called Climate Hustle.  The film apparently "exposes" climate change for ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Apr 12, 2016

Dear Greys/Ythrians/Blagulon Kappans/Reptoids etc, etc, I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing in the anticipation that at least one of you is monitoring the online activities of moderately influential political blogs in the United States (or at least their facebook ...read more

• By Ben Cohen
  Nov 9, 2018