Thanks to the efforts of all you readers who responded to yesterday’s open letter to Senator Klein, he, Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives, and I will be meeting to discuss policy options that could help make the streets of New York City more livable, more sustainable and safer for cyclists. This is great proof […]
Activism and Social Change
An open letter to NY State Senator Jeff Klein, who yesterday called me a f—ing assh-le after nearly hitting me with his Mercedes
[Update on 9/19: The Senator has agreed to meet with me so no need to call him. Thanks for everyone’s support! If you call nonetheless, please be kind to the staff you talk to.] You’re never going to believe it folks, but today I had another close call on my bike, but this time the […]
Eliminate 40% of manufacturing-associated greenhouse gas by getting rid of packaging
I used part of my last day of my car-less vacation going to the dump to throw away three 60-gallon bags of trash. I try. I try really hard not to make trash. But when you go to a new place, you have to start figuring out all over again how to do it. And […]
The Tom Sawyer approach to saving the world
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 […]
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 […]
Drill here, drill now, get nothing but an opinion poll point or two
The Democrats are caving on offshore drilling. As reported by the Christian Science Monitor (emphasis added): “… In a shift on Saturday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the House will take up comprehensive energy legislation next month that includes partially lifting the 1981 ban on offshore drilling… “… On Friday, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that […]
Tired of talk, so let’s have a little do
So funny, but if you read yesterday’s post in which I went on and on about doing instead of talking when it comes to saving our planet, you may have noticed the irony of the fact that the post itself was talking instead of doing. Then a lot of people came and read and thought […]
When it comes to saving the world, just try, try, try
There is a story I love, one of those stories that bolsters me up. It’s about the Korean monk who founded the school of Zen where I meditate (the Kwan Um School of Zen). Dae Soen Sa Nim, as his students called him, decided that world peace would come if all the religious leaders of […]