Long-Lasting Civilization May Be a Pipe Dream

Tim Radford / Climate News Network Apr 19, 2018 Astrobiology—the search for alien life—suggests a lesson for us here on earth: Civilization may not be sustainable over geological eras but, rather, self-destroying. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Volcanoes Linked to Fall of Cleopatra’s Empire

Tim Radford / Climate News Network Oct 24, 2017 Research into the impact of climate change on early society reveals a connection between environmental stress and the collapse of civilizations. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Cities, Cars and Other Human-Made Things Weigh 30 Trillion Metric Tons

By Tim Radford / Climate News Network Dec 14, 2016 The first attempt to measure the volume of stuff created by humankind reveals that it is at least 100,000 times heavier than the global human population. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The Story of Egypt

Michael Dirda / Truthdig Oct 8, 2016 A new book on ancient Egypt is full of fascinating material, including a re-examination of Cleopatra's death, a look at the fluidity of sexual identity, and a tale about being carried off by a hippopotamus. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The ‘Long Peace’ Is Not Upon Us

Alexander Reed Kelly / Truthdig Mar 14, 2015 Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker’s 2011 book “The Better Angels of Our Nature” has convinced many people that humanity has steadily become less violent in the recent past. English philosopher John Gray argues that Pinker merely sees what he wants in trends and statistics. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

By Ron Charles Sep 5, 2014 This novel, nominated for the Man Booker Prize, examines a group of Australian POWs during WWII as individuals, and their efforts to cling to the trappings of civilization no matter how slight or futile. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Chris Hedges and Herman Melville Assault the Fruits of ‘Enlightenment’

BLANK Jul 20, 2013 A description of the lives of Polynesian islanders in Melville's book "Typee" shows that the inhumanities of capitalism visible today and constantly attacked by Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges were plainly recognized in American literature of the mid-19th century. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

The Life and Death of Words, People and Even Nature

By Eduardo Galeano, TomDispatch May 1, 2013 After Roman legions invaded Egypt, during one of the battles waged by Julius Caesar against the brother of Cleopatra, fire devoured most of the thousands upon thousands of papyrus scrolls in the Library of Alexandria. A pair of millennia later, during George W. Bush’s crusade against an imaginary enemy in Iraq, most of the books in the Library of Baghdad were reduced to ashes. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Beautiful Foolish Arm

Mr. Fish / Truthdig Jan 21, 2013 Dig deeper

The Myth of Human Progress

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Jan 14, 2013 The mounting distortions of climate change and the rapid depletion of natural resources have done little to blunt the self-destructive notion of ceaseless expansion The road we are on points toward human extinction. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Primordial Brew: Did Alcohol Inspire the Cultivation of Civilization?

Staff / Truthdig Jan 22, 2010 Sure, it behooved our Neolithic ancestors to band together and form proto-civilizations for many reasons, but one main motivation, according to archaeologist Patrick McGovern -- who works, and we kid you not, at the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health -- was the time-honored pursuit of alcoholic intoxication. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )