There’s a passage in Ross Douthat’s NYT column today that struck me as analogous to the decline of environmentalism. So I made the appropriate word substitutions: Thanks in part to this bunker mentality, American Christianity environmentalism has become what Hunter calls a “weak culture” “” one that mobilizes but doesn’t convert, alienates rather than seduces,…Continue Reading…
One of my favorite new blogs (for me) is Ecological Sociology. Its current post on Stewart Brand’s hypocrisy hits all the right notes. (Monbiot is all over this.) Long story short: In Brand’s book, Whole Earth Discipline, he evidently writes (I haven’t seen the passage myself yet): …In an excess of zeal that [Rachel] Carson…Continue Reading…
In a longish essay in the Wall Street Journal weekend edition, Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, tells a story about why being green is hard. My wife and I recently built what is arguably the greenest home for miles around. OK, stop. This is a good time to define “green.” The greenest home is…Continue Reading…
Is the American environmental movement all but dead as a meaningful force for change? You have to wonder, after reading this Washington Post story from earlier in the week. Or, as the article suggests, are there larger forces arrayed against Greens, such as the deep economic funk much of America is still trying to shake…Continue Reading…
As a parent of two small children, one who gives me grief if I forget to turn out a light in our apartment, I can relate to the eco-guilt heaped on this Economist blogger: The kids bug me when I drive to the neighbourhood store rather than walking, because it “poisons the atmosphere”. They bug…Continue Reading…
There’s an intriguing, somewhat dispiriting profile by David Owen in the current New Yorker ($ubscription) of an idealistic, enviro-minded inventor who wants to do good in the world, but is having a hard time overcoming the “limits of innovation.” The subject of the piece is Saul Griffith, who as recently as 2004 was a Ph.D….Continue Reading…
I’m a little jaded on the annual Earth Day love-in. If children showed appreciation for their parents only on Mother’s Day or Father’s day, the human race would be screwed. Is it a nice thing that we venerate our parents once a year? Sure. But who are we kidding: many of us approach these hallmark…Continue Reading…
I’m not sure how much you can read into one particular comment thread. But there has been a discernible anti-immigration zealotry expressed by Grist readers over the last week, in response to this post. On the thread, Randy Cunningham pleaded with his fellow greens to be more compassionate. He finally gave up, despairing: Most of…Continue Reading…
Goes to this post at Green Inc. And quoting a well-known American environmentalist, there’s this catch-all reasoning, which only die-hard greens will embrace and which will alienate most everyone else: Overpopulation is the driving force behind virtually all environmental problems “” air pollution, water pollution, the extinction crisis, global warming , yet it is rarely…Continue Reading…
I kinda knew that Joe Romm wouldn’t find the Super Bowl Audi commercial funny. He’s humor challenged. But David Roberts at Grist? Jesus, can’t you guys just chill and see past your environmentally correct navels for once? Dudes, it was satire! It worked. Hell, I bet Al Gore laughed. If you’ve ever seen him on…Continue Reading…