I’m writing this on Nov. 1, four days before what will easily be the most consequential election in my lifetime. Many people have gauged this to be a referendum on democracy: Will we continue to have one or not?
I add to this that it will be a referendum on whether we will continue to have a livable planet or not. This may sound hyperbolic. I judge it to just be a straightforward extrapolation of facts. The data is everywhere, and much too much to put into a 900-word column. Every day there is news from somewhere to support my contention. I’m going to use two columns in the Friday edition of the New York Times as examples.