I used to wonder: What does it matter if I choose to use planetary resources more carefully? Can I really make a difference? I might also have asked: What does it matter if I choose to show up at a rally to advocate for clean energy and end to coal burning? I will be one […]
activism
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 […]
When citizens roar
This is a photo, courtesy of the New York Times, of 100,000 South Koreans demonstrating in the streets of Seoul on Tuesday. What is so important to them that they turn out in such vast numbers? Impending war? No. Massive unemployment? No. Rising energy prices? Not even. They demonstrated over the safety of their hamburgers. […]
Apropos, first, of nothing and, then, of something
Apropos of nothing: The other night I was lying in bed, being held hostage by my daughter Isabella who insisted she would only go to sleep if I stayed there with her. She was mad that I had made her go to bed at all. She said, “I don’t like you anymore, Daddy.” So we’re […]
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. […]