Ian Hoopingarner

Geoengineering rests on shaky foundations and poor social planning.  I think there’s evidence of the government trying to obfuscate information by changing the names of programs and initiatives, to try to render information exposed to the public in previous reporting facially out of date.   First off, this is reminding me of Naomi Klein’s chapter on geoengineering, which is very skeptical of the whole idea, as we should all be. Some highlights from that chapter: Alan Robock wrote a paper published in 2008 in Geophysical Research that geoengineering would “disrupt the Asian and African Monsoon and Pacific Monsoons, reducing precipitation to the food supply for billions of people.” Computer models show that geoengineering would crash crop productivity in the Sahel, leading to desertification. Further computer models show a 20% reduction in rainfall in the Amazon from geoengineering.   Historical evidence connects volcano eruptions with droughts, meaning we would be risk...

  I hope to name a juncture that occurs every so often in organizing, and from this point advances a narrative that I think we can retrieve from a wayward path and put to use for good purpose.   It is shown by such things as how recently a teachers’ movement in Chicago presented both of these facets of the core issue of our time, a pairing of issues that is often seen, but presents an opportunity that I think slips away in most cases. However, I hope we can seize the moment with this moment.   First, let me say that what I describe is best understood to be covered within the social paradigm of one group’s energy and motivation being matched by another’s out of sympathy, excitement, or solidarity.   So for instance, when the Chicago Teachers Union president called for raising more revenue for schools with a tax on the rich, while at the same time student groups organized around the principle that green schools are a budget solution, that is an example of that type of ...

In the month of July, —  The Honeybee from Religious Symbolism to Enlightenment Why was Deity associated with the honeybee? There’s a sort of speculative fiction book that explores the origin of religion in ancient Mesopotamia through a sort of meta-narrative of science fiction, and on the surface level, I’m drawing from that novel.  ( Fall , Neal Stephenson.) But storyline aside, there’s an interesting take there on the origin of the connection between Deity and the honeybee, showing how practices of worship situated around agricultural rites eventually foregrounded the importance of the honeybee, and that insect and its hive became a symbol of deity, perhaps brought about through the actions of devotees to a specific Canaanite religious sect, but also through a generalized familiarity among the population of the ancient Near East with the honeybee’s pollination abilities and the honey it produced, which could have strengthened its position as a symbol, even among those who...

 Notes on the Man in Black   No matter, though, how good things go, they’ve always got to wait.   —Lewis Capaldi, Old Navy Blue More than ever, I try these days to trace the arc of moral justice without the input of state associations.  The moral decrepitude of the party in charge of most of the government at this point has made that imperative.  Of course, there are many other paths being operationalized and billed as alternatives.  Yes, we have emerged from a problematic and uninspiring 20th century and many who should be by classic logical supposition, able to explain the immediate past to Americans, are simply unable to do so without facts of which they have no knowledge.  Because of this and in fact due to ignorance, they have been unable to break the propaganda curse and reveal the scoundrels’ playbook, which though exemplified by Project 2025 represents a broader anti-patriotic desire to sell off the country to the highest bidder.   This ...