Tomorrow I fly from New York City to Salt Lake City, Utah, leaving in my wake a big long contrail and a lot of carbon dioxide–both of which contribute to global warming. It’ll be the second flight I’ve taken in more than two years. What’s popular, when it comes to flying, is buying carbon offsets. […]
climate crisis
Just because we have Obama doesn’t mean we don’t need to take action on climate change
Back in December, when it became clear that President-elect Obama would name the physicist Steven Chu as his energy secretary, Climate Progress blogger Joseph Romm, a former energy official in the Clinton administration, applauded the move. Joe wrote that Chu was a great pick, most especially because Chu “isn’t fooled by clean coal claptrap. Earlier […]
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 […]
The cultural barriers to environmental change
Here’s an alternative title for this post: nasty neighbors and mean people you meet in the street. But that would just be bile and silliness and bitterness and not addressing myself to the real obstacles to social and environmental change which are at play, which are important to understand. Because what’s happened is that a […]
Al Gore’s good news on climate change
In case you missed Al Gore’s OpEd in yesterday’s New York Times: … Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis. Economists across the spectrum — including Martin […]
The big question
I was in conversation with a product designer today. He works hard on sustainability issues. He starts, with a new client, by designing exactly what the client wants exactly the way the client wants it. Once he’s worked with a client for a while, and has gained the client’s trust, he can begin to suggest […]