environmental movement
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A new American environmentalism and the new economy
Editor’s note: The following is the 10th Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture, delivered at the National Council for Science and the Environment in Washington, DC, on January 21, 2010. —— I’m both pleased and honored to have been asked by NCSE to give this 10th Annual John H. Chafee Memorial Lecture. I knew John […]
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On talking to our kids about the future
Now that the first month of the new year in the new decade has come to an end, a first month that has brought much to mourn and not much to celebrate, I’ve been thinking again about hope. What some were calling “Hopenhagen,” did not, as we all know, and perhaps should have known from […]
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How personal actions can kick-start a sustainability revolution
Step it up! Small is the new big.The environmental movement is divided over the importance of small steps — are they a critical starting point or a distraction from needed policy and institutional changes? A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but will small changes add up to the kind of […]
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Cities vs. suburbs: The next big green battle?
Alex Steffen—futurist, Worldchanging editor, tall person—makes the provocative argument that there’s really no way to make outer-ring suburbs sustainable. He thinks cities vs. suburbs is the political conflict that will define the next decade, a fact that climate-focused groups have been slow to acknowledge. The real potential, he suggests, lies with urban dwellers who don’t […]
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Climate groups grapple for a path forward from Copenhagen
Activists gather in Copenhagen on the final night of last month’s climate talks.Photo courtesy 350.orgOn the final night of the Copenhagen climate talks, several hundred activists assembled across town for a torchlight vigil, protesting against world leaders for settling on an insufficient climate accord and protesting against the U.N. for locking them out in the […]
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New Sierra Club chief brings confrontational style to the job
Michael BrunePhoto courtesy Sierra ClubThe Sierra Club’s new leader will come to the job with a record of “environmental agitation” against big industrial polluters. The group announced on Wednesday that Michael Brune, 38, currently head of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), will replace Carl Pope as executive director as of March 15. Brune honed RAN’s strategy […]
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Breathtaking last minute philanthropy ideas
Most of us should be giving away more money. (Yes, you should be. If you have any doubt, please stop reading this blog and pick up Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save.) And many of us WANT to give but can’t pull the trigger for a host of reasons: basic cheapness (guilty!), a […]
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Which green groups should get your last $100?
If you’re like me, your inbox has recently been inundated with cheery, post-Copenhagen greetings from green groups of all kinds. Bless their hearts, they’ve all suddenly developed an interest in wishing me well. And let me confess: I love ’em all. Classics like NRDC and WRI, innovators like Clean Air-Cool Planet and 1Sky, hybrids like […]
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Top green stories of the ’00s
POP ‘TIL YOU DROPCelebs and movies and magazines and TV go green Everyone who’s anyone made a show of going green during the ‘00s — sometimes literally. Cameron Diaz had her Trippin’ series on MTV, kicking off a trend later embraced by stars like Brad Pitt and Adrian Grenier. Leonardo DiCaprio whipped up both a […]
