Climate Culture

Two

• percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by cities • percentage of the Earth’s surface covered by rainforests • number of miles of highway laid down in Florida each day • percent by which global energy use is projected to increase annually over the next 15 years • factor by which an average home generates […]

Turning Over a New Reef

Sherry Bosse reviews Consuming Desires by Roger Rosenblatt

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote that "to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely." He warned his readers against an increasingly prevalent consumer culture in the United States -- in 1854. Nearly 150 years later, Americans are, on average, working more hours and accruing more debt than ever before in order to achieve some bloated variation of the American dream. Some things never change.

An American reflects on the problem of poverty

Almost 30 years ago I returned from a long stay in India with my mind, body, and senses full of dust and color, peace and violence, holiness and crassness, all the contradictions of a land so different from my own. I thought I would remember always the faces of the villagers. I was pained by […]

An excerpt from Seven Wonders: Everyday Things for a Healthier Planet by John C. Ryan

When the Dalai Lama of Tibet met with economist John Kenneth Galbraith, he asked the Harvard professor a simple but penetrating question: "What would the world be like if everyone drove a motor car?" The Tibetan leader probably did not intend it, but his question constitutes a koan, a paradoxical riddle of Zen Buddhist tradition. A koan has no logical answer -- "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" -- but the search for a solution may lead to a flash of enlightenment.

Children of the Corn

News about genetically engineered crops breaks so fast that it’s hard to keep up. For those who look upon biotech foods with suspicion, much of the latest news is surprisingly good. The companies who splice strange genes into our corn and potatoes and soybeans are pushing their products so recklessly that they are alarming not […]

Masters of Disguise

Facing the Music

Of all the tragic characters in Greek myths, the one who gives me the most shivers is Cassandra. The god Apollo gave her a wonderful gift — the ability to foretell the future — then followed it up with a terrible curse — no one would ever believe her. I can just imagine Cassandra, standing […]

The Spirit is Willing, but the Flush is Weak

Six

• approximate number of species that go extinct per hour • percent by which electricity demand is rising annually in China and South Asia • percentage of the energy used in U.S. manufacturing that goes toward food processing and packaging • percent reduction in the average household’s water pollution if it converts from buying conventional […]