I’m still at the New Economics Foundation Conference that I mentioned yesterday and having the time of my life. We’ve been talking today a lot about how television and advertising promotes a set of values that–by definition–promote resource consumption and undermine sustainability. After a day of that, I can’t tell you how glad we haven’t […]
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A reason to be optimistic
So the coolest thing in the world is happening to me, this week which is that I get to attend this conference of about 30 international thinkers on the questions of sustainability and consumption and cultural happiness (who let me in?). The title of the conference is “Do good lives have to cost the earth.” […]
LV GRN: Making summer vacation choices
In the two summers before the No Impact experiment, we went to France and Italy for three weeks each. We rented cars and had the time of our lives. This year, though the No Impact year is over, we’re continuing to make what, for me, is the difficult decision of keeping it closer to home. […]
How to solve climate change and end poverty
When I posted yesterday about my disappointment in the public infighting by the climate change policy wonks I turn to for guidance, Greenpa left behind a comment saying, “What you have here, I think, is THE argument in favor of individual action, instead of ‘policy.’” The problem is, of course, that in 2050 there are […]
We can save the world or we can fight
The good news about global warming in the United States, I think, is that the “deniers,” as they’re called, have now been relegated to the fringe. The candidates from both parties have mitigation strategies (which isn’t to say they are equally good–see this chart). The debate about whether or not there is such a thing […]
We’ve changed our lifestyles. What about our politicians?
If you’re not from New York, you may think this post doesn’t apply to you. But please bear with me. You’ll see that it applies to us all. This week, we in New York City saw the death of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan–which would have reduced gridlock in New York by charging certain drivers […]
LV GRN: 42 ways to not make trash
In the last, for a while, of the LV GRN posts about how to bring No Impact measures to your own life, I’ve decided to list 42 ways we adopted to avoid making trash. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll have seen these before. But I thought the newer readers might like to […]
LV GRN: Why recycling is nowhere near enough
People used to to ask me, essentially, why I was making such a big dig about not making trash during the No Impact project. They’d say, “I mean, it’s recyclable, right?” As Annie Leonard says in Story of Stuff, “Recycling reduces the garbage at [the landfill and incinerator] end and it reduces the pressure to […]