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  • Matt Petersen, CEO of Global Green USA, answers questions

    Matt Petersen. What’s your job title? President and CEO of Global Green USA, the U.S. affiliate of Green Cross International. What does your organization do? What, in a perfect world, would constitute “mission accomplished”? When founding Green Cross International, Mikhail Gorbachev presented a challenge: We must foster a value shift that reconnects humankind to the […]

  • An interview with geo-green James Woolsey, former head of CIA

    James Woolsey. Former Pentagon heavies are not known for their breezy candor, so it’s a rare treat to come across one who voluntarily describes himself as a tree-hugger, do-gooder, sodbuster, and cheap hawk, all rolled into one. There you have R. James “call me Jim” Woolsey, in a nutshell. Sort of. Over the course of […]

  • Eric Britton, sustainable-development booster, answers questions

    Eric Britton. What work do you do? I earn my living and pay the rent as an international adviser, consultant, and team builder for public- and private-sector organizations that have accepted that they need new thinking in the face of this uncomfortable concept that some call “sustainable development.” That takes about half my time. For […]

  • Niaz Dorry, oceans campaigner, answers questions

    Niaz Dorry. What work do you do? I’m the cofounder of Clean Catch, a new project aimed at promoting diverse, healthy oceans by supporting the people who have historically shown themselves to be responsible stewards of the ocean — small-scale fishing communities. What does your organization do? Clean Catch works with and supports small-scale fishing […]

  • An interview with doomsaying author James Howard Kunstler

    James Howard Kunstler.“Check all of your assumptions at the door,” James Howard Kunstler advises reporters before he commences an interview. “Don’t assume that anything you think about the way we live today is going to be the same 10, five, even three years from now.” The author of the new book The Long Emergency: Surviving […]

  • David Cash, Massachusetts air-policy director, answers questions

    David Cash. What work do you do? How does it relate to the environment? I’m the director of air policy for the state of Massachusetts in the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs. EOEA is an umbrella agency that oversees and coordinates the activities of numerous other environment-related agencies such as the Department of Environmental Protection […]

  • Neva Goodwin, ecological economist, answers questions

    Neva Goodwin. What work do you do? I’m an economist, and codirector of the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. How does it relate to the environment? My overall goal is to affect what people are taught when they take economics courses, and to change the kind of economics that’s subsequently in people’s […]

  • John Francis, a ‘planetwalker’ who lived car-free and silent for 17 years, chats with Grist

    How long could you survive without your car? For the many Americans who think nothing of driving 10 blocks to buy a gallon of milk, the answer is obvious. But before any of you dedicated pedestrians and die-hard cyclists start feeling smug, try this question: How long could you survive without talking? John Francis. Photo: […]

  • Kenn Kaufman, birding guru, answers questions

    Kenn Kaufman. What work do you do? I’m associated with National Audubon Society (currently as field editor for Audubon magazine), and I cooperate with other groups, but 90 percent of my work is freelance. All of my focus is on getting more people interested in nature: not just nature as an abstract idea, not just […]