November 27th, 2012

Among the movies we saw over the holiday was a documentary based on the bestselling book, A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright. The premise of the film, called Surviving Progress, is that we may not. Survive.
Indeed, it’s about how we humans appear to be incredibly effective at devising our own demise, creating so much “progress” that it’s choking off the natural systems that have kept the planet alive and breathing for millions of years. Ever narcissistic, we assume that we’ll continue into infinity. But let’s be brutally honest, as this documentary is, the future of human civilization is looking a little shaky.

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November 29th, 2011

What if your bank notified you it was lowering your mortgage rate to help you build for the future?
Or your health insurance company called to say it is sending a rebate and a free fitness center membership.
You’d be darn suspicious of these maneuvers.
So it will take you a minute to wrap your mind around this: Picture a big name clothing and outdoor gear store that wants you to quit shopping so much.

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August 14th, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Could all of our efforts to become green — our rehabbing of buildings, spurning of plastic bags and buying of new hybrids — turn out to be mere tinkerings in the tool shed as the whole grand project collapses around us?

That seems to be the point up for consideration these days. That this whole Save-the-Earth thing might be bigger than a green fashion trend or an overhaul of the auto industry. It might require more drastic action than turning down our newly installed programmable thermostats.

Recently, the New York Times ran a blog item about a study showing that having babies is one of the non-greenest things you can do, especially if you’re a Westerner and your baby is destined to be a giant among world consumers. This is sort of a “duh”. But the University of Oregon scientists quantified the impact, concluding that an American child would have seven times the impact of a Chinese-born kiddo.

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