On Saturday a friend and I drove through coastal California, from Santa Barbara to San Francisco. Before we left, she began to fret about water. She wanted it filtered, and we couldn’t find any. Finally I commented that since most of the world’s people have to worry about shit and bugs in their water, I [...]
In the Quebec Eastern townships a friend pointed at the sun and said “See those mountains? The sun used to set right behind them…”. The sun in question, ten years later, is setting two mountains away from the point he remembered as a child. It’s funny how talking about the weather and our “experienced environments” [...]
Perhaps due to being raised in the country I have a propensity for eating random wild plants. Only when I moved into a urban setting did I begin realizing how fortunate I was to grow up in an environment where I wasn’t taught to be afraid of the living things around me. It was also [...]
A friend started talking to me about swine flu the other day- “What? What’s swine flu” “Oh my God, you haven’t heard of swine flu? How out of touch are you?” And so it began. For those that, like me, do not pay attention to mainstream media fear campaigns, the swine flu is the latest [...]
Hydro-Quebec is a hydroelectric energy producer in Quebec, one of the largest in Canada. For some years now they have been planning the damming of the Romaine River, a river which runs from Northern Quebec to the gulf of the St-Lawrence. The plan would put four major dams along the river, completing destroying the rivers [...]
Germany just recently joined a number of other European countries who have banned Monsanto GMO (Genetically Modified) corn from being grown in the country.
Monsanto corn has until now been the only GMO crop grown somewhat widely in Europe, the EU having been wary of GMO crops overall since their introduction to the global food market. [...]
Food Sovereignty is essential to community resilience. It is well known to be the case that people bond and gather around food. The kitchen is the heart of every home. Currently most of us have our access to quality food controlled by gigantic corporations, often with anything but our best interests in mind. Enter the [...]
With so much talk about the need to radically reduce our ecological footprint and the imminent end of oil availability there is a rising tide of panic about inter-continental travel. It seems that the air travel industry may have finally caught on. This month top members of the EU air industry are meeting to discuss [...]
The City of San Francisco is initiating a brilliant new pilot project aimed at integrating Environmental Service Learning(ESLI, or Environmental Service Learning Initiative) into high school curriculums. What could be more important than training the next generation to be stewards of the earth?
Beginning with seven high schools around the city, among them Mission High School [...]
What will you do to save our lives and genes, before we must?
We live in an extraordinary time of dramatic change in the face of scientific and technological advances: rapidly accelerating global climate change and the certainty that we will soon run out of oil, the lifeblood of civilization itself. As engineers, architects, businessmen and [...]
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