New essay 'Ragnarök revisited'
chrissmaje.com/2026/02/ragn...
In which I start blogging my way through my recent book 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age'.
What can Norse myth teach about present predicaments?
New essay 'By the Rivers of Babylon: debating agrarianism with Tom Murphy' chrissmaje.com/2026/01/by-t...
in which I, er, debate agrarianism with Tom Murphy
Agreed, lifelong neoliberalism (albeit that's a strange mix of concentrated & distributed power too) but I meant that distributed forms of power do exist even amid v centralised modern polities & it's good to notice it even while battling their power. E.g. Graeber's 'communism of everyday life'
Yep I get his benign intent but I think 'militarisation + the right people in power' has a critical flaw. Hence if we're discussing best options, for me it'd always be demilitarisation + distributism. I'd argue we did grow up amid distributed power but we need more of it. That's the political task!
Kathryn, top of head is yes expanded militaries could help deal with climate outcomes in a liberal-modernist world. But is that the world we'll get? Thought experiment: expand Trump & Putin's military budgets - good idea? Also border militarisation probs. Not convinced! I prefer distributed power
New essay 'Paul and George, in the Machine'
chrissmaje.com/2026/01/paul...
As I said, look at the numbers in the figure and not the general hype
I'm offline now until January. Happy holidays
The relevant energy calcs are here (coauthored by ex-CEO of SF) see Fig 1 numbers & not the general hype - similar (slightly higher) than my figs derived from another peer-reviewed study & way higher than George's. There really shouldn't be a debate about this anymore
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's a great market garden but not a 'revolutionary' one as George calls it, eg.Regenesis p.95. To debate yields vs mixed farms we get into a much larger discussion - yields of what, relative to what inputs & long-term impacts? It's implausible to argue its model is superior to every mixed farm one
No evidence for those claims about stockfree in the citation - it's more context specific than stockfree v mixed. Bacterial protein uses ~4x the energy George says in Regenesis & can't scale. Also ~1t mineral inputs/12t dry output - no real world decoupling! Investment in sector weak, understandably
I call it mixed or ley farming to emphasise that it involves the traditional approach of rotating crops and leys, even if Tolly uses tractors instead of livestock to graze the leys, and in that sense is not as pioneering or revolutionary as George claims
New essay 'Year's end', wrapping up this year's blogging
chrissmaje.com/2025/12/year...
My essay ‘The challenge of food ecomodernism’ discusses the oddities of @georgemonbiot.bsky.social‘s dip into Bezos-funded verification of soil carbon markets & the difficulties of getting a hearing for agroecology & localism in a ‘green’-tech obsessed media
www.resilience.org/stories/2025...
Thanks, yes very good analysis
Our team curated a stimulating and eclectic collection of memoirs, investigations, scientific works, cookbooks, and much more for this year’s holiday book guide. 📚⬇️
'Pretty ecomodernist in many ways' would be a fair, if mild, take on Regenesis. Whereas @georgemonbiot.bsky.social's latest Guardian article is totally ecomodernist by George's own definition of the term, as I explain in my essay. Money from Bezos to finesse carbon markets - what'll it be next?
Good to see this paper getting Seralinied, though it scarcely compensates for all the disinformation over the years
www.science.org/content/arti...
Gosh, no sceptical takes in the comments! Well, here I try to explain why this project is both less and more than it seems: chrissmaje.com/2025/12/sire...
New essay 'Siren song: digging into the lure of food ecomodernism': chrissmaje.com/2025/12/sire... in which I try to make sense of @georgemonbiot.bsky.social's latest intervention in food system politics (Tom Murphy is up next!)
Those open to wider perspectives on these issues might find the links here of interest: chrissmaje.com/the-saying-n.... I've also just published an essay about George's latest questionable foray into the food sector here: chrissmaje.com/2025/12/sire.... Things aren't necessarily what they seem!
George, I'd love to know why you think bacterial protein powder at well over 65kWh/kg scales to 8 billion whereas growing beans apparently doesn't (Solar Foods is now targeting the US health & performance sector & increasing product price points - the richest consumers?)
A pleasure to talk with Rachel Donald again on Planet Critical about hyper-local futures and my new book 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age'
www.planetcritical.com/hyper-local-...
Podcast with ffinlo Costain on FarmGate about my new book 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age' just out.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...
Listen to @chrissmaje.bsky.social talk about his new book, Finding Lights in a Dark Age, on the Doomer Optimism podcast #BookSky #Nonfiction www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r5U...
New essay coinciding with the US publication of my book 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age' today
chrissmaje.com/2025/11/pira...
#PirateModernism
#RIPDesHarris
Nice review of my book 'Finding Lights in a Dark Age' by Hadden Turner at Front Porch Republic
I showed his energy figures for bacterial food were wrong & the tech wouldn't scale, then laid out the basis for agrarian localism. He ducked the energy issue & wrote a snarky essay likening me to the Nazis. 'Open-hearted, receptive to evidence' - don't think so! See chrissmaje.com/the-saying-n...
Happy Publication Day!
Grow a New Garden by Becky Searle 🇺🇸🇨🇦
Finding Lights in a Dark Age by @chrissmaje.bsky.social 🇬🇧
#Nonfiction
