To change people’s values, so the shrinks say, you change their behavior. You don’t barrage them with ideas and cause information overload. You don’t tell them their existing values are wrong and get their backs up. What you do is you get them to change their behavior and, once you’ve done that, you let their […]
Does high resource use make a great life?
This photo (sorry for the poor quality) shows one half of an empty basketball court that I’ve ridden past many times during my car-less vacation in Greenport. It’s in someone’s back yard. Never once have I ever seen anyone playing basketball on it. And I thought: some dad or mom might have worked so hard […]
Celebrate a great organization and hear me speak
This coming Saturday, September 6, New York City’s Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC) is having its annual fund-raising bash, and I have the honor of giving a talk (I’ll be brief, promise). This excellent party with a local-food dinner, music and activities for kids and adults will be at the East River Park amphitheater […]
If you’d like to ditch the car but worry about emergencies
Suppose you’d like to commit to leaving your car in the driveway or getting rid of it altogether and instead making your commute by foot, bike, carpool or public transit. You want to save the money, skip the traffic jams, get the exercise, cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and have less stress. It’s just that […]
Going on bikes where a car driver can’t
So you know, when you’re on a carless vacation, one thing you find out is that you’re allowed on bikes lots of places where cars aren’t. First off, on the ferry to and from Shelter Island, out here on the tip of Long Island, you can get straight on with a bike while cars wind […]
A moment that reinforces my belief that we humans have the potential to see the light on global warming and so much else
What I mean is, if we can come from MLK’s time to an African-American taking center stage at the DNC as potential first lady, maybe we can change the way we treat the habitat and each other. What an amazing–and way too long in coming–moment in history. Personally, I wept when she spoke (and I’m […]
40 steps on the personal path to green
A few weeks ago, I asked readers, “If a friend decided they wanted to do something about the environment, how would you tell him or her to start?” So just in case you or a friend wants to start, here are 39 of the answers, in no particular order and boiled down to their essence. Don’t […]
Redefining the good life while saving the planet
I’ve said this before: it wouldn’t be so bad if, while wrecking the planet, we could at least say we were having one hell of a party. But I’m not sure we are. So many of us are working way more than we should, spending less time with those that we love than we want […]