Before the Deluge is a blog about environmental issues with a dual focus. It offers an analysis of the political, social, and cultural obstacles that keep us from taking the steps we urgently need to take to limit climate change and stave off its worst effects. It also presents radical ideas for combating climate change. Many of these ideas may be viewed as far-fetched or impractical, but forty years of heeding establishment calls to “be practical” have only brought us closer to the brink of ecological suicide. Public discourse and political proposals have suffered from a lack of imagination, so imagination has been allowed to run wild on this site without seeking the vetting of those responsible for our political quagmire. For validation, we refer only to the following credo:
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity.”
–Christopher Morley
As we are centered in New Jersey, certain articles will deal with or make references to New Jersey’s environmental and political situation. This is not meant to exclude readers outside of the state. While, living here, we find New Jersey’s environmental issues of great importance, we also view what is happening in New Jersey as a case study of what is happening in other areas at the state and local level. Under the Trump administration, we have seen incredible setbacks in environmental policy at the national level, and one of our hopes for the near future is that citizens will be able to fight effectively at more local levels while still working vigorously to turn the tide at the national level.