Author: Lance Garrison

With its 1.2 million LED lights shining brightly against the Las Vegas night, the Sphere may well be the ultimate symbol of 2020s excess. But that gigantic entertainment venue — which doubles as the world’s biggest screen — is also something else: a symbol of the coming collision between our climate goals and our seemingly insatiable appetite for stuff.In the 1990s, when multicolor LED lights were invented by Japanese scientists after decades of research, the hope was that they would help to avert climate catastrophe by greatly reducing the amount of electricity we use. It seemed perfectly intuitive. After all,…

“We will die. All of us. Hopefully soon enough to stop the suffering that we are living through every single second.” Those words were sent in a text last week by a physician working for Doctors Without Borders in the southern Gaza Strip. And it is far from an uncommon feeling shared by those struggling to survive and care for one another in Gaza these days.What would we call this feeling from the perspective of Western medicine? Suicidal ideation? Depression? Post-traumatic stress disorder? Whatever it is, we are taught that such thoughts are abnormal and require medical intervention.When the bombing…

After Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, most sensible Democrats realized they had a problem. The party was hemorrhaging support from the white working class. More than 60 percent of Americans over 25 do not have a four-year college degree; it’s very hard to win national elections without them.So in 2020 the Democrats did something sensible. For the first time in 36 years, they nominated a presidential candidate who did not have a degree from the Ivy League. Joe Biden won the White House and immediately pursued an ambitious agenda to support the working class.The economic results have been fantastic. During…

More than any other event, Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 has contributed to this sentiment. Ukrainian nationalism today, transcending region and language, reflects a deep determination to forge an identity defined by separation from, even antipathy toward, Russia. Indeed, Mr. Putin may go down in history as of one its main, if unwitting, catalysts. Given his conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are really one people, such a result is especially ironic.His war has backfired not only in Ukraine but also in Europe. The European Union, jolted into action by the invasion, summoned a common spirit in its support for Ukraine.…

If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention.The drumbeat of incidents moving us ever closer to the seemingly inescapable future is so steady and frequent that we’ve developed outrage fatigue — we’ve grown numb.For instance, on Tuesday, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children, and that destruction of those embryos, even by accident, is subject to the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. In his concurring opinion, the chief justice of the court, Tom Parker, wrote, “Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives…

I got a lot of responses to my Friday newsletter on restricting the supply of fossil fuels, one of which said “oof no” in the subject line. It was from an economist named Benjamin Ho, who wrote that he usually likes my newsletter, “But, oh boy, was today’s off track.”I wrote that while a ban on production of fossil fuels would bring the economy to a halt if enforced right away, “a ban or severe restriction isn’t entirely crazy, either, if it’s phased in as part of a long-term plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to zero.”I’ll get to…

If you have a relapsing form of MS, the most important thing is early treatment with an effective disease-modifying therapy (DMT).

By Darbi Haynes-Lawrence, PhD, as told to Evan StarkmanIt’s been 13 years since my neurologist diagnosed me with relapsing-remitting MS, and I still forget that I’m disabled a lot. I’m 47, but in my brain I’m still a college track athlete who ran marathons on the weekends.I’ve always been a big goal-oriented person. I got my doctorate by the time I was 30, and my dream has always been to be a dean of students. I can’t now. I have to be realistic, and that’s meant modifying my life goals. It can be frustrating. Darbi Haynes-Lawrence, PhD Sometimes I feel…

Feb. 21, 2024 – Eyeglasses are ubiquitous. More people wear them than don’t, with some 62% of Americans wearing corrective eyewear in any number of shapes and styles. And that doesn’t even account for the 45 million of us who wear contact lenses.But the same is not true of hearing aids. Only 1 in 6 people with hearing loss wear them, and most of the people who notice hearing loss will wait nearly a decade to seek help for it. Experts say that resistance to treatment is deeply rooted in stigma. We’re more likely to ignore hearing loss because of its…

To the Editor:Re “To Save Museums, Treat Them Like Highways,” by Laura Raicovich and Laura Hanna (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 11):The writers have a clever idea to camouflage cultural funding by equating it with highway building and maintenance. I applaud their ingenuity: Fixing a leaky roof is less controversial than supporting the art on the walls or the movie screens below.Executive directors of every arts organization waste vast amounts of time, energy, talent (and money!) raising money. During the pandemic, government funding through various programs awarded generous amounts based on the budget of the nonprofit, saving many of us from…