I get emails from people, every so often, asking what I would say and feel if I was wrong about climate change. What would I say if, after dedicating years of my life to bringing attention to the problem, I found out there was no problem. Well, first, of course, I would praise God in […]
Society
About looking for someone to blame
Oh hell, I do it. Probably all of us do. We choose a scapegoat and decide that they’re the ones to blame for the problems. Some of us try to blame the people who work for “the corporations.” Now, personally, I *do* believe that corporate structure, where shareholders are rewarded for a corporation’s profits but […]
A sad observation I had on a mountain
See that picture? That’s where I stayed last week for some quick R & R in the countryside. An incredibly beautiful place. At lunch one day, I briefly met two women, sitting at the next table. While I was eating, I overheard one say to the other, “Do you think there will be enough shops […]
What does success mean to you?
A friend told me of an experiment today. He said that a researcher would leave a four-year-old in a room with a marshmallow and tell the kid that he would be gone a few minutes. The kid was allowed to eat the marshmallow, but if it was still there when the researcher got back, the […]
The problem with corporate structure
One of our culture’s big challenges is the corporate structure, of course. The problem is that the owners of the corporations–the shareholders–stand to benefit from from their actions but, because of the principle of limited liability, cannot be held accountable for their crimes. Shareholders can never be held personally accountable for their corporation’s environmental and […]
We’re In This Together
As you may know, Japan has lower per capita carbon emissions than any Western European country. For that reason, I asked my friend, Sean Saskamoto, who recently moved to Japan and who blogs at I’d Rather Be In Japan, to check in with us every so often. I thought we might be able to learn a little something about […]
Are we just a green bubble that has burst?
Recently, The New Republic published an article by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger of the Breakthrough Institute calling the trend towards lower consumption coupled with the search for meaningful life no more than a public opinion bubble that has burst. They argue that individual lifestyle change–of which I am one of the chief national proponents, […]
Why each person’s personal choices matter
Sometimes people say to me that what they do can’t affect the whole planet’s health so why should they even try? But if all us tried, well, that would make a big difference, right? So the other day, I was standing at the crosswalk with quite a crowd. The sign said don’t walk but there […]