Yesterday was Buy Nothing Day, an anti-holiday to point out the consumerism that we (westerners) indulge in on a daily basis. My ability to observe buy nothing day is often predicated on who I’m hanging out with at the time. At one half of my in-laws, there’s usually enough left overs and we’re far enough […]

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I am an atheist. But I’m also a bit of a polytheist. If there is anything divine, I cannot believe that it is off somewhere, listening to my thoughts & judging my inactions, but that it is in the beauty around us; in my family & friends, in the wonders of a plane take-off, in […]

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Most Western showers (at a length of about 10 minutes) waste 60 gallons of clean, potable water. [I have no idea where that number came from or how accurate it might be.] In contrast, a “Navy shower” can use as little as 3 (I’m sure I use more than that when I do it). Although […]

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I can’t help but think that these are more publicity stunts than anything. I hope it gets people to make real changes in their lives, including maybe some of these people at their McMansions:
Congress - 50% over 10 years, seriously? You have nearly unlimited resources, how ’bout some actual change?
Evan Almighty - I wonder if […]

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It’s one thing to say that a family of thirteen in Bhutan eats for $20 a month and a family of four in North Carolina for over $1300.  It’s another thing altogether to visualize it.
What the World Eats is a photo essay of families with their food for the week arranged about them, from a […]

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maybe just sputtering, but very near death.
Just before an Inconvenient Truth came out, Gore visited my cousin’s university, where she’s currently studying for (actually, about the graduate with) her degree in climatology. She made me swear to go see it when it came out and pointed me to a site similar to this website. It […]

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For Earth Day this year, I want to draw the focus away from “earth” as an entity separate from us and from the many forces that act upon it. Earth is one of the (Western) traditional elements but it’s also a large rock we all live on. So today, let’s look at the three additional […]

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I guess I’m not really sure I knew what this was about, but when it came out, I honestly had no interest in seeing it. I was surfing last night, however, and it was making its “network premier” so I started watching it. My husband came home and I stopped, but after the first 20 […]

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Starbucks has a flash game called Planet Green. It’s part of their Earth Month thing. You drive, walk, or bike around the township of Evergreen (which has a Starbucks, of course) improving various things. It’s not a fun game but it’s a fun way of learning easy ways to improve your footprint: at the local […]

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n. 1 a fertile spot in a desert where water is found figurative a pleasant or peaceful area or period in the midst of a difficult, troubled, or hectic place or situation
Living, as I do, in a populated desert and, perhaps a figurative desert, depending on who you ask, I cherish the few oases I […]

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