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An enviro-moralism, substantiated by the current sense of ecological responsibility, has permeated modern discourse. Al Gore said, “this is not a political issue… it is a moral one.” One is judged by their use of plastic bags, their vehicle, their light bulbs - their consumption. The idealism has become dogmatized, which in turn allows for [...]

I’m not the only one who’s noticed that men are taking over the environmental discussion. An eco-event in Bryant Park in New York City tomorrow is just one example that recently crossed my desk. There will be five speakers and not one woman! If there was a panel of five women, and no men, would [...]

The particular question that I’m proposing to all of you seems to be so simple, but is loaded with consequences, philosophies and ideas. People have examined the data around global warming and have concluded that we’re in a tight spot for the very near future. How do these people continue to rationalize getting into a [...]

I’m loving Mark Morford’s column from about two weeks ago in SFGate, celebrating the original Hippies. After much bad-mouthing of the counterculture folks in the last 15 years (even as fashion designers continually emulate their style, adding elements like flower-power prints and navel-grazing beads to their collections on an almost seasonal basis), the Hippies [...]

Ever wonder why the candidate who is most hated (and most thought about) wins the race? Ever wonder how the most wealthy and powerful people of the world became that way? Ever wonder how the most effective way to bring about change (environmental, political, social) might be? If so, the Secret, the newest online craze [...]

Original illustration for Eco Chick by Gregory Grigoriou of I See Dots
The Problem 
This month, one of E/ The Environmental Magazine’s feature stories is about the the myth of the population dearth, the idea that we’re not replacing ourselves at quite the rate we have during the heights of human population growth, which occurred in the 1960’s. The doom and gloom [...]

Ever embarked on a home project, but didn’t have the tools needed or the money/space to buy and store them? Like most renters, buying a huge stash of tools isn’t feasible for me anytime soon. That’s why there are resources like the Berkeley tool library. One of the first libraries to lend hardware to local [...]

When we talk of using animals for biomedical research there are two ground cases as to why it is morally unacceptable; first, it wrongly violates the rights of animals and second because it wrongly imposes on sentient creatures avoidable suffering. In the following I will explain when neither of these arguments is sound based on [...]

While reading through my environmental ethics text book today (that will be used for a class called Philosophy and the Environment…woot!) I came across a section called “Patriarchy of Pork or Feminist Fuss” in a chapter called “Ethics and Animals”.
The section is only about a page long (a bit less, actually) but it goes on [...]

Many of us awoke the morning after the 2004 presidential election feeling disillusioned and despondent. The victory that George Bush was enjoying left millions around the world asking; “How could this happen?”
Last week, my friend Michael Shea, was on Sam Seder’s radio show, The Majority Report, on Air America discussing his documentary film Red [...]