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 […]
global warming
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 […]
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 […]
Why civil disobedience may be necessary on climate change
A couple of days ago, I posted an invitation from environmental activists Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry to participate in the occupation of the Capital Power Plant in March. Some commenters on this blog responded favorably. Some were concerned. Susan Och wrote: Civil disobedience is supposed to be a last resort, after you have exhausted […]
An invitation to illegally occupy a coal power plant from Bill McKibben and Wendell Berry
Bill McKibben sent me this note over the weekend and asked me to share it with you. Thoughts? Plans to attend? Dear Friends, There are moments in a nation’s—and a planet’s—history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, […]
Could global warming wake us up to a better life?
First off, after my recent post about Christmas with no presents, somebody sent me a link to a great site that helps facilitate giving gifts to charity as Christmas presents. You might find it helpful: Redefine Christmas. Onwards… Here is a little bit from the epilogue of my book. Just thought you might enjoy a […]
The true cost of our cars
I’ve said before that if our automobiles really make us happy, then to hell with the planet. The thing is, I don’t think they do. Listen: American adults average 72 minutes a day behind the wheel of a car, according to the WorldWatch Institute. That’s more than twice as much time as the average American […]
Christmas with no presents
Here’s the beginning of an article of mine that’s in this month’s Yes! Magazine: If Christmas is about presents, then in 2007, my little family and I had no Christmas. I mean, we had the caroling and the uncle playing the piano and the cousins running around with my three-year-old, Isabella, and the grandfather coaxing her to sit […]