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Fighting Against Skepticism

Challenges Demand Action, Not Defeatism

Hank Kalet Dec 31 ∙ Preview

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Temperature changes to date have been most pronounced in northern latitudes and over land masses. The image uses longer term averages of at least a decade to smooth out climate variability due to factors such as El Niño. The map is improved from the highest quality rendering that NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio generates, with horizontal and vertical lines removed and with a more legible projection of Kavraiskiy VII. Grey areas in the image have insufficient data for rendering. For a version without Fahrenheit, see File:Change in Average Temperature.svg
In many ways, the year is ending as it began. With a sense of dread, despite the brief flashes of hope. We enter 2023 under the threat of climate doom, with floods and extreme weather tormenting much of the world, with droughts and blizzards and wildfires all made worse by our inaction on climate. With our failure to admit that the dire nature of the threats requires bold action.

There will be no bold action, as The Guardian points out. Scientists in September announced we likely have already passed “five “disastrous” tipping points,” meaning we may have little chance to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030  — which is imperative if we are “to have an even chance of keeping to the 1.5C limit” scientists say is the point of no return.

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Notes on the World Cup and the Atomic Bomb

What I’m reading

Hank Kalet Dec 20 ∙ Preview

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I avoided the World Cup, which was not easy given that the tournament seemed to grab hold of even this soccer-averse nation. I won’t pretend I was doing so solely on principle. The Qatari human rights record certainly was a central element, but so was my general ignorance of soccer. In any case, there is a good column in The Guardian by Pete Pattison on the Qatari record, its attempt to recast criticism as racism (taking a page from Israel, and “the real scandal,” which was “not that the criticism of Qatar is racially motivated, but that the men who built this tournament have been subjected to a labour system based largely on racial discrimination.”

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A Few of My Favorite Sounds

The Music that Made My Year

Hank Kalet Dec 19 ∙ Preview

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I listen to a lot of music. I buy a lot, as well. And I don’t think I’m shy about sharing opinions about what’s been in my personal rotation. I’ve been burying myself in the late ‘70s and early 80s of late, particularly music that references the underlying fear of nuclear assault that I remember infecting the culture at the time. I’ll have more to say about this at a later date, as I complete the long chapter on nuclear culture, Kerouac, the Beats, and punk rock that is fast becoming the central aspect of a book I’m working on.

For this newsletter, I want to focus on the new music I engaged with in 2022. The focus here is on my favorites — I have no interested in discussing what I didn’t like — and I’m breaking this up into four types of albums:

1) My top 10, which is not meant to designate the best music of the year, but the music I found indispensable over the course of the year.

2) The best of the rest, which covers good work, music I loved, but that did not hit me in the same way that, say, Nikki Lane’s brilliant record did.

3) Releases by favorites like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young — artists that are difficult for me to fully judge because creating the necessary critical distance has grown impossible for me.

4) A mention of some reissues and compilation albums worth noting.

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This is a free, public post from Hank Kalet’s Channel Surfing. You will continue to receive these email stories and newsletters as long as you remain a an email subscriber. Consider becoming a paid subscriber and get paywall-protected posts, the ability to comment on posts and participate in discussion boards, offers to write guest blog posts, and copies of my books. If you are a $5-a-month Patreon patron, you already are considered a paid subscriber.

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