You know, every so often I do a Google search for jokes about environmentalists, hoping to find one to post here on the blog. One thing I think people like me sorely miss is poking fun at ourselves. We should joke around more. I often say to Isabella, my three-year-old “Why were we born?” She […]
No Impact Man
How to cut out home heating oil–Japanese style
This is a guest post by my friend Sean Sakamoto, who blogs at www.idratherbe.tv/injapan. “It’s so weird that you heat your whole house,” my wife said one winter. She’s Japanese, and when we first got married, here in the United States, we got a lot of mileage out of the “I can’t believe you people […]
Another way not to use a throwaway coffee cup
As you may know, I generally carry an ultra-cool reusable cup–otherwise known as a glass jar–for use when I get coffee. For the longest time, if I forgot my jar, rather than use a paper or plastic cup, I would just forgo the coffee (even though I don’t keep to the No Impact rules so […]
What makes a life good for a) The planet and b) Ourselves
So I’m having breakfast with a friend of mine who is having kind of a midlife crisis and he tells me that when he was young, he had the choice between going into finance and one of the arts and he chose finance. He felt, in a lot ways, like this was contrary to the […]
No Impact Man interviewed on Democracy Now!
You can watch the interview on video here (it starts at the 49:10 time mark), listen to it as an mp3 here, or read the transcript below: AMY GOODMAN: Finally, on this Christmas Eve, I’m joined by a man who makes a compelling environmental case for a non consumptive Christmas. We’re joined by Colin Beavan, also known […]
Beyond the rational?
We’ve had discussions about the the causal relationship between individual action and societal change here on the blog. Recently, we’ve had quite the debate about whether even collective action–in the form of protest–can cause changes in our society. But it occurs to me that the ripples of trying–whether it is in the individual sphere or […]
Open Discussion: So what do we think of Christmas
I’m taking some down time this week, but just in case you’re not, and you want some diversion, let’s talk holidays. Some huge percent of our country’s resource consumption is happening right under our feet. We’re part of it–if not out of inclination then, often, out of obligation. What’s it feel like? Could it be […]
Individual action vs collective action
Lest you all think, that with my recent calls for collective action, that I have abandoned individual action, please read my post at WorldChanging about how the two are in separable. Leave your comments there but leave them here too! A continuing debate erupts within the environmental movement about the relative merits of individual versus collective […]