Let’s offer thanks to the Earth for lending us the wisdom and passion of Ernest Callenbach.
To Buy or Deface Ads, That Is the Question
Should people pool funds to buy ads for social change? Or should they simply co-opt them to get their messages out?
Did the Suburbs Eat My Community?
Has community in the suburbs become shorthand for clusters of houses with people inside them not talking to each other, as philosopher Mark Kingwell wonders? And if so, how do we reclaim community? Musings from John Mulrow about living in the suburban community of Japantown, San Jose.
Bikes, E-Waste, Petlessness! Oh My! Reflections from Portland
I spent the past week in Portland sharing the Transforming Cultures message and saw some great sustainability initiatives and some scary trends as well.
Frequent Rider Cards and Bus Ticket Lotteries
How many more people would take the bus or metro if these services included a “Frequent Rider” reward program, redeemable for cash or goods? How many more people would abandon their car for the bus if every bus ticket was also a lottery ticket, potentially worth thousands of dollars? Citizens of some forward-thinking cities are starting to find out.
A New We, Found in Community
A New We–a recently released documentary on Ecovillages in Europe–will surely inspire you and offer some new ideas on how we can live sustainably, and in community.
It’s Time for Millennium Consumption Goals
I read yesterday that “a Sri Lankan scientist is calling for the drafting of “Millennium Consumption Goals” to [help] rich countries to curb their climate-damaging consumption habits, in the same way the poor have Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to get them out of poverty.” A fantastic idea—but what would these MCGs include?
The Two Towers
Miami, Florida, recently approved construction of two 50-story electronic billboards designed to market the wares of the consumer society. Forget Times Square, these two towers, if built, would become leading symbols of consumerism and bombard people with ever more encouragement to buy, buy, buy. In fact, it feels like something right out of The Lord of the Rings, but instead of the Towers Orthanc and Mordor, we’re building the Towers of Mindblank and Buymore.
The Mallport and the Bibliometro
As I travel around Europe to launch State of the World 2010, I’ve done a lot of schlepping from airport to metro station to bus [...]
Investigating the Consumer Dreams of the Garbage People
Watching the new documentary Garbage Dreams, I found myself struck more by the stark lack of discussion of “where does all this garbage come from?” than all the garbage itself.
