Back in December, we published an essay by Kate Aronoff that imagined the world in 2043 not as an apocalyptic hellscape, but as what it could be if humanity decided to come together and rise to the challenge of climate change, meeting it with an energy that matched the scale of crisis. Her hopeful story was widely read, as it clashed with the doom and gloom that is typically associated with coverage of climate change. It confronted one of the greatest challenges of our era: an inability to imagine a better world.
Now an artist and a politician have teamed up to turn that essay into an illustrated short film that is extraordinarily powerful. It’s the first op-ed we’ve published by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and it accompanies illustrations by the great Molly Crabapple.
Watch the video here, published along with an essay by Naomi Klein.
And some quick Julian Assange thoughts: People are overlooking how dangerous it is that the U.S. is attempting to extradite Assange in connection with publishing evidence of U.S. war crimes, and how that global precedent could be used by authoritarian countries to prosecute American journalists (ahem) in foreign courts. There’s a misperception that Assange’s arrest isn’t actually a threat to press freedom because was a “hacker” and not a journalist. That appears not to be true, and people are being snookered. I went on CNN to debate this point, which you can watch here. On the Young Turks, I explained why, even if you think Assange is a complete a--hole, he still must be defended.