Insight and Hope vs. Climate BS

Caring about the climate puts you on the receiving end of a barrage of nonsense. Do this to make a difference! Buy that to save the earth! Green marketers constantly play on our worry to get our clicks and our dollars. 99% of the time, it’s bullshit.

Climate discourse feels dishonest, because it usually is. Not just because the things we’re told aren’t true, but because the most important things aren’t ever talked about at all. 

1% Brighter is a rebellion against all that. It’s a call to look afresh at truths that have been too long excluded from the conversation. You should read it for a fearless, compassionate look at the climate crisis based on hope, not guilt.

1% Brighter stands for:

Fearlessness

Somebody needs to state, plainly, truths that have been judged impolitic. Fearlessness is about breaking our age’s out of date taboos with a studied indifference to the reaction. 

Compassion

Our climate debate is poisonous because it’s lost sight of compassion. Compassion for people in poor countries who aspire to a better life. Compassion for people in rich countries who didn’t choose the systems we live in. And, especially, compassion for people’s whose futures are threatened by a fast-warming planet.

Hope, not guilt

Climate guilt mires us in cynicism. We stand for hope, real hope, based on real science, not magical system.

We have no time for marketing that weaponizes your ecological grief to get at your wallet.

Who am I?

My name is Quico Toro. I’m a journalist. My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Caracas Chronicles, and many other places. I’m a city columnist for Le Devoir and Contributing Editor for Persuasion.

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