⚫Retrograde Planet
Climate, seen in reverse.
Retrograde Planet steps back from immediacy. This pillar looks at climate, environment, and energy through time: how past decisions shape present constraints, how old ideas resurface under new names, and how yesterday’s solutions become today’s problems.
While other pillars track momentum, Retrograde Planet is about inertia.
What lives under this pillar
Articles here focus on historical trajectories and long arcs, often resisting the urge to declare novelty. Typical subjects include:
- Earlier environmental debates that mirror today’s conversations
- Technologies revived as “new” solutions decades later
- Long-lived infrastructure and the commitments it creates
- Past policy choices whose consequences are only now visible
- Climate lessons learned, forgotten, and relearned
The common thread: none of this started recently.
The recurring questions
Retrograde Planet pieces tend to return to a slower set of questions:
- What assumptions were reasonable at the time?
- Which paths were closed off, and which were locked in?
- How often do we mistake repetition for progress?
- What does historical context change about today’s debates?
If something feels unprecedented, it’s usually worth checking the archives.
Latest Posts from Retrograde Planet
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How this pillar fits the rest of the site
Retrograde Planet complements the other pillars by stretching the timeline:
- 🟡Policy Popcorn watches policy being made; Retrograde Planet shows what policy leaves behind
- 🟤Trash Talk follows material flows; Retrograde Planet tracks their accumulation over decades
- 🔵Eco-Mythbusters questions claims; Retrograde Planet shows how those claims age
If the rest of the site is carbonated, this pillar lets the bubbles settle.
Why this pillar exists
Climate debates often suffer from collective amnesia. Ideas are introduced as breakthroughs without acknowledging their lineage, limitations, or previous failures.
Retrograde Planet exists to restore memory. Not to assign blame retroactively, but to make present choices more legible by showing where similar ones have led before.
If you’re interested in climate writing that moves at geological speed rather than breaking-news pace, this is the place.
Stay informed
New articles appear here less frequently, but with longer shelf life. If you’d like to be notified when a new piece is published, you can subscribe below.
Retrograde Planet is one of six editorial pillars on Carbonated Opinions. To see how the others connect, visit the Explore page.