Tag: environment

  • Saruman is not our Leader

    I want to get one thing straight. We’re not secretly evil. (1) It’s not like Canadians are trying to create Orthanc in the Boreal Forest… it’s just kind of… happening. You know, you can basically have the Global Warming/Climate Change/Environmental Pollution conversation with any five-year-old caught in the middle of trashing his room… “Augh! What…

  • Analyze This: On Not Giving Stuff Up

    This post comes with a caveat: It is an exploration of systems, the limits of agency, and the social constructs that  preclude giving up my car… yet. I am not looking for sympathy, nor am I beating myself up over my limitations in the face of the myths of Western civilization. I recognize that I…

  • Greenwashing of the Week

    I am hereby bestowing my illustrious “Greenwashing” award, which will be noted by at least 50 people, to the company Future Shop, for their not-quite-stated Earth Day flyer. It is hard for me to write this, because they have pulled off the most creative and effective form of greenwashing, namely, making a significant financial contribution…

  • Sunk Costs – More About Nuclear Power

    Edit: It occurs to me that I neglected to mention that I used to work in the nuclear field. Just in case that might be relevant to whether you are going to write me off as a crank, or something. Not that I’m not cranky. But I’m an informed crank. *** Also known as, “Throwing…

  • Paying Attention for $$$!

    (I’m going to tell you how much I spend on utilities, in real dollars! Eventually.) This is a part of my daily life that has been growing for years, so I think it deserves a mention. It’s partially frugal, partially environmental, and partially an exercise in testing limits – how little can we use? It…

  • Beauty All the Way Down

    This is a post about structures. It is a post about illusions. It is a post about what lies beneath the apparent beauty of our privileged culture, and what else might be possible. It is a post about beauty as a way out of our current crises. What is in a rose? This flower that…

  • The Economics of the Laundry Line

    If you are a dedicated environmentalist, but you still find yourself buying back your own time by using convenience foods and labour-saving devices, this is an article for you. I find myself making these choices almost every day: I currently have a frozen lasagna in the oven so that I can have back the 2…

  • A Litany for Agnostics

    In the beginning… We start as a DNA blueprint, a set of instructions for how to construct the magic of consciousness from nothing more than the molecules that surround us. The environment is not just a soup that we swim in. It’s what we are made of. We are built entirely from materials that we…

  • What Are You Reading

    This time, I *am* resorting to Plinky because otherwise I won’t get my post done. Also, I only have 23 minutes! Go! Since I recently did a post about what was on my end table (which included my children’s reading and things that have been sitting there for years), I must now own up to…

  • The Price Of Gas!

    Oh! It is time to run in circles and flap our hands! Gas is going up! Food will cost more! Who could ever have predicted this??? Here is one of the places where the division between structural analysis and the personal impact becomes glaring. It has become apparent to me over the last few years…

  • Exotic Spices meet Local Food

    Right this moment, I’m waiting for the motor on my spice grinder to cool down so that I can make another batch of curry powder to take to our local farmer’s market. In a much earlier post, I wrote about the challenges we face balancing our desires for local, organic, sustainably produced, and healthy food…

  • Keeping On Keeping On

    I’m not supposed to be here. Well, I’m supposed to be here, at my desk. But I’m supposed to be over there, in my word processor, working on my proposal for a radio documentary on E.F. Schumacher and appropriate technologies. But man. Demoralized. Here I am, reading a book that was published the year I…