Advocacy

What we can do, politically

Few sweeping statements can be applied broadly, but here's one I'm willing to stand by: The first action any problem eater should consider is to take responsbility for what he or she eats, and look for support and help to change.That's what I did, albeit haltingly and irascibly, and I'm maintaining a 150-pound-plus weight loss for almost 20 years. Read more »

At Boston vigil, little sign of warming

Some of the 100-plus climate-action partisans who came out in support of a strong treaty in Copenhagen.More than a hundred hardy people huddled together for warmth and solidarity in a frigid downtown Boston Friday night to declare their support for a strong and binding climate agreement, whose prospects are being discussed these days in Copenhagen. Read more »

Design and ecotourism

When I think of ecotourism, I think of jungles and rain forests. Get in, get out, leave as little trace as possible. Read more »

View from the Old North Bridge: the Concord climate rally

With 5,600 events spread over 180 countries, there has been no end to the reports on what transpired at the climate-change rallies instigated by 350.org on Saturday . I've seen a half dozen just in my in-box, and many more filled my Facebook windows before my account crapped out (710 friends gone, just like that!). Read more »

Opportunity for the junk food industry

Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, has been around a very long time — he was my AG for awhile, and I moved out of the state 16 years ago. He's got a very good record of monitoring corporations and bringing them before the bar, perhaps most prominently when he helped bring suit against the tobacco industry for its deceptive advertising to children. Read more »

"Employee activation"

I don't at all like the term in the headline, but I do like the concept, which describes companies' engage employees to adopt "PSPs," personal sustainability practices, that can benefit not only the planet and the individual, but foster common purpose in a workforce.  Read more »

NRDC president at MIT on Wednesday

Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, speaks at an MIT Energy Initiative event on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 4:15. 

The topic will be Copenhagen, but she'll also talk about the prospect for climate-change legislation in Congress. For many of us, the question has become, is the bill good enough. Or rather, is "any" bill worth supporting, at the potential expense of getting nothing at all. I have read on the topic, but yet have a satisfying answer, and hope she'll be able to help on that question. Read more »

What you see, when you just look

In writing a new first chapter for my book, I've flirted with the idea that we are under some form of mass hypnosis. I don't want to assert that in any clinical way, 'cause I wouldn't know enough to make a good argument, and so far, I haven't found a way to express it credibily enough for inclusion. Read more »

Looking out for "Coal Country"

The premiere is Saturday in Charleston, W.Va. Can't wait till it comes to where I am.

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Inspiring, provocative

I've recently come in contact with Mats Lederhausen, a former McDonald's leader who has some very interesting, inspiring, and provocative positions on the future, specifically about business but, to me, applicable to our world beyond. I didn't intend to share anything about him today, and don't expect to come back to him in the future.

But this comment, found here, is just plain worth sharing... Read more »

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