Recently a friend of mine, who writes a popular blog of an environmental bent, told me he had decided to close his blog down. The reason is that he is actually a journalist and author and he found that the blog was taking a fair amount of his work day but contributed nothing to his […]
Activism and Social Change
An end to e-toxins just a phone call away (please make it)
First off, let me ask you please to forward this post to every New Yorker you know, and ask them to make the calls… Some say that e-waste–trashed computers, cell phones, printers and other gadgets–is becoming one of the biggest toxicity problems facing our culture. In the US, municipal incineration of e-waste is the largest source […]
Don’t save the planet
The title is unabashedly stolen from a post by George Marshall on Climate Change Denial. His point is that begging the world’s population to “save the planet” is a downer and not a message that will ever translate into real social change. He’s right, and that’s one of the reasons why I hold forth on […]
Why I won’t sleep tonight
I’m not one for delivering bad news here on the blog. I think it’s counterproductive. But I’m also not one for pretending to be happy when I’m not. And tonight, I’m not. It’s American behavior at the UN conference on climate change that’s getting me down. It looks like fairly certain that the governments around […]
Stop the climate wrecking at Bali
You probably know that the world’s governments have gathered in Bali for a UN conference to begin negotiating a global greenhouse gas emissions treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. You may also know that the United States, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, failed to sign the Kyoto Protocol. […]
Update from the land of the gray
Readers have been clamoring for updates on how we’re living in the No Impact household now that the official year is over. We’re in the stage, as I’ve said, where we’re no longer accountable to the rules but only to our consciences. First of all, let me say that the philosophy I hope to adhere […]
Triggering an environmental avalanche
Doing the right thing in a world that doesn’t can feel like shouting into an empty canyon. Some people feel helpless to change because they feel like all that effort spent swimming against the current will never change the current. Eliminating my annual 20 puny tons of carbon dioxide emissions won’t cause the ocean levels to rise one inch less. […]
On caring without despairing
This a guest post by Beth Terry, who blogs about not using plastic at Fake Plastic Fish. If, by the way, you’re an international reader, don’t think the absence of new posts on November 22 and 23 means I’m dead. It’s a holiday here in the USA. Happy Thanksgiving! My dad asked me the other day […]