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… read about the undeniability of the climate crisis.

The summer of 2023, not yet over, is already record-breaking. Four heat domes settled over the northern hemisphere, cities broke temperature record after temperature record, with new streaks of hot days carved into the memory of this time, and heat stroke carved into the obituary pages of still-extant local papers. It is so much to live through, and live with, that even the poets are finding metaphor inadequate to the task. “Whereas menopause — in which a body moves beyond a central need for estrogen — is natural, inevitable, volatile symptoms like extreme hot flashes actually are not. Similarly, while change is inevitable for this planet and all life, the heat we are now experiencing is not. It is the result of toxic systems that are putting stress on every one of Earth’s ecosystems at the same time,” writes Alexis Pauline Gumbs at Harper’s Bazaar [[link removed]]. Pauline Gumbs points to the beaching of nearly 100 long-finned pilot whales in western Australia as an act of protest, a sign too unsubtle to treat as anything else. The warming climate means harm and hazard and death for many species across the globe, and maybe if humans treat those die-outs as a response to human-caused climate change, the urgency of the moment will finally reach those in power.

International Left

To say that the legacy of the United States in Latin America is a mixed bag is to downplay a litany of harms going back over a century. Among the more notable tragedies authored by the United States was the 1973 overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected Salvador Allende, allowing the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. While the past cannot be changed, future relations need not repeat this pattern of US sponsored violence in Central and South America. New York Representative Alexandira Ocasion Cortez led a congressional delegation to Chile, Brazil, and Colombia, focused on building a global progressive movement to resist fascism.

“The message was clear: From the dusty streets of a Brazilian favela, to FaceTiming with presidents and other top dignitaries, the group was there to listen, and chart a new course for relations between the United States and Latin America. They met with labor organizers, a new generation of Indigenous and Black women leaders, environmental activists, human rights defenders, community care workers, and a long list of government officials,” writes Natalie Alcoba for The Nation [[link removed]].

While the delegation only represents a faction of the Democratic party, it’s a welcome change that any part of the US legislature is open and interested in working with the people of South America, instead of facilitating their exploitation.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] Beastly Geography

It is easy to fault the International Olympic Committee for so much, from outdated views to corruption scandals to the way most every Olympic Games leaves a wake of hollow development and debt left behind for host countries. But at least with the actual Olympics, and their international broadcast audience, it can be reasonably assumed countries will fly their own flags, be respected as sovereign entities, and not use the games as pretext for any border disputes. When unavoidable YouTube entity MrBeast created a competition where “every country on earth fights for $250,000,” he engaged in at best some sloppy research, and at worst some geopolitical malpractice. Much of these errors come from a map shown in the video.

“The map affirms [[link removed]] the Sahrawi Republic’s claim over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, but also draws Morocco up to the de facto border, which conflicts with both countries’ claim over the land,” reports Morgan Sung at TechCrunch [[link removed]].

It is unlikely MrBeast, the persona-slash-business of a young North Carolina man named Jimmy Donaldson [[link removed]], set out to make a geopolitical statement more complex than running a competition. But thanks to his global reach and outsized profile, it matters that he did not count Taiwan as a country, if only because there’s a chance his endless legions of fans pick up on that choice, too.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] DEEP DIVE Drilling Down: Part II

Early handguns were a craft commodity. Important at the level of wars, they needed to be produced affordably enough that cities and early states could arm their own militias, and the weapons needed to be durable and familiar enough that repairs could be done locally. This meant that the proliferation of firearms for war meant also an abundance and dispersal of firearms that people would own, for self-defense or other purposes, all plugged into the same economy of manufacture and gunpowder.

In “ Firearms and the State in Sixteenth-Century Italy: Gun Proliferation and Gun Control [[link removed]],” Catherin Fletcher used primary source material, including rulers’ decrees, inventories, letters, export licenses, arms licenses, military surveys, and others, to put together a portrait of gun proliferation in Italy during the Renaissance.

These early modern city states were tasked primarily with overseeing military matters, as well as policing, provisioning justice, and raising taxes, all of which dealt with firearms, “and therefore their study brings together aspects of state formation that are often dealt with separately in the literature: the development of the military state with its concern for defence on the one hand, and of the disciplining state with its concern for social order on the other,” writes Fletcher.

These early firearms were largely arquebuses, which consisted of a lock, stock and barrel. Skilled metalworkers were needed to make the barrels, while the wooden stocks required less specialized knowledge. A switch from matchlock to wheel-lock guns, which fired immediately and did not require a lit flame, made the weapons potent for ambush, whether in war or against nobles on city streets.

“The average gun user in sixteenth-century Italy had ample access to positive messages about the new weapon,” writes Fletcher, noting the way cities promoted gun ownership and marksmanship through regular drills and contests. This, in turn, served to give the state a reserve of somewhat trained and armed fighters it could call upon in a conflict.

The 1500s in Italy saw decades of armed conflict, as Northern Italy especially became a proxy battleground between the monarchs of France and Spain, as well as sometimes in the east, raided by Ottomans.

“It ought not to come as a surprise that in the aftermath of the Italian Wars of 1494-1559, the conflict in which handguns first came to prominence as a significant military technology, aspects of their proliferation into wider society were perceived as a risk to social order, even while an armed citizenry continued to be valued for its contribution to civic defence,” writes Fletcher.

Apart from a brief attempt by the Papal States to ban the manufacture of guns, which could claim the moral authority of the Pope, gun restrictions were aimed at gun users.

“It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the firearm restrictions of the 1530s and 1540s targeted gun users and not manufacturers or merchants: the geopolitical situation favoured the maintenance of an industry that could readily provide the Italian states with further weapons at a rapid pace should they be required,” writes Fletcher.

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Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein witnessed [[link removed]] the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions, which drew religious and spiritual leaders from across the globe for an interfaith gathering. The Parliament has convened since 1893, and in its 130th year it is echoing sentiments expressed back when it was founded. Vijaylakshmi Nadar, a journalist from the Indian Times who participated in a panel on religious extremism, said that Hinduism inherently promotes inclusivity, a message similar to that given by Swami Vivekananda in 1893, but one that India’s Hindu-centric government ignores. A theme across the conference was the fight against religious nationalism, across faiths and nations.

Jon Letman connected [[link removed]] the wildfires of Maui, no doubt exacerbated by climate change, with the durable and abrupt nature of nuclear risk. The wildfire that burned much of Lahaina and claimed over 99 lives fell on Aug. 9, the anniversary of the last nuclear weapon used in war, when the US used an atomic bomb to kill either 40,000 or 70,000 people [[link removed]]. Wrote Letman, “For decades, scientists have been warning us of the threats posed by a rapidly warming climate. Belatedly, most people now recognize and accept these threats. At the same time, scientists, doctors, and others have been warning that climate change fuels instability and increases the risk of nuclear war [[link removed]].”

Michael Fox captured [[link removed]] a portrait of Costa Rica enduring climate change, with fears of irreplaceable loss. The majestic Monteverde Cloud Forest, for generations watered by constant mists, has seen the weather abate. "Plants and animals in the cloud forest are adapted for this constant input of mist and cloud; like all these little orchids that grow on branch tips have evolved to be bathed in this moisture most of the time and so they can be really affected by these kinds of events," Monteverde resident scientist Alan Pounds [[link removed]]told Fox. Costa Rica takes the fight against climate change seriously, but until other nations do as well, the fight is a losing battle.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] Xed Out

A quick programming note on the well-played section. X, the site owned by Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter, is increasingly managed in a way that is unsafe for users. Most recently, this came to light when Musk personally intervened [[link removed]] to restore an account that had posted upsetting and illegal imagery. Safeguards against the upload of such imagery [[link removed]] appear to be missing from the site. This is normally the part of the newsletter where I tell jokes, riffing on the news of the week as seen on Twitter, which is one of the joys of producing and sharing Critical State. However, given the refusal of the company to maintain basic and vital safeguards, I feel uncomfortable directing anyone to the site once and probably still known as Twitter.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND [[link removed]] WELL-PLAYED

Smokey Bearcelona [[link removed]] encourages whatever works for fire safety education.

Ever wanted to walk down the street looking like $77.9 million [[link removed]]?

I am the very model of a modern Penguin General [[link removed]].

“Oppenheimer” would be a 90-minute movie if J. Robert had ever heard of “ Shut The Fuck Up Fridays [[link removed]].”

Who called it enforcing archaic maritime protectionism against wind turbine installers and not Scold Ironsides [[link removed]].

Negotiation untenable, breakthrough infeasible, stuck in the quagmire until conditions chang [[link removed]]e.

Tell me, what stage of the climate crisis is it where insurance companies are paying for the restoration of salt marshes [[link removed]] to mitigate loss payouts.

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Critical State is written by Kelsey D. Atherton with Inkstick Media.

The World is a weekday public radio show and podcast on global issues, news and insights from PRX and GBH.

With an online magazine and podcast featuring a diversity of expert voices, Inkstick Media is “foreign policy for the rest of us.”

Critical State is made possible in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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