Since the release of the No Impact Man book and film I have been privileged to be in conversation with many groups. And always, someone asks me with great earnestness, “What can I do?” Many times, in other words, people ask me for how-to-save-the-planet directions. “Just start,” I say. And then I pause while they […]
Society
Trust the spark within and find your own path
Figuring out how to live–Part 2
People often ask me how we are supposed to cope with the tragedy of the cliff of climate change and the fact that humanity seems ready to charge straight off it. How do you live in the face of that? One time, I went to a spiritual workshop at the Esalen Institute. The man in […]
How Obama could permanently strengthen our well being
Thanks to @denadu8pbb for tweeting this old post of mine. When I reread it I thought it bears reposting. One thing about a single-payer health care system. People say that it will cause an unhealthy relationship between people and the government. But my question is this: Doesn’t the fact that we currently depend on major […]
The biggest design question there is
Designer friends tell me that when they design a product or system, it's important to ask the right "design question." Asking the right design question is perhaps most import when it comes to making sure that your product or system does the job. So when it comes to designing cities or cultures or economies or […]
Treating anxiety and depression could save the planet
Something a regular reader of this blog may have been able to guess about me: I suffer, at times, from anxiety and depression. I’m not talking about the worst kind of anxiety and depression. I’m talking about the kind that takes the edge off the gratitude I should be feeling for a good life. Not, […]
Health care and the environment
You’d think that the environment and the debate over universal health care weren’t connected, right? But what I’ve been thinking is that for all of us to begin to choose lifestyles that might be both better for us and better for environment, we have to be able to unplug from the Matrix. We have to […]
The sign of a civilized country
Tonight I was at a fundraiser for my heartthrob organization, Transportation Alternatives, where I heard the former mayor of Bogota, Columbia, Enrique Penalosa speak. According to the Project for Public Spaces: While mayor, Peñalosa was responsible for numerous radical improvements to the city and its citizens. He promoted a city model giving priority to children and public […]