Jamaica's "Life and Debt"
If you want to feel pleased with yourself, your country, or your recent tropical vacation, don’t watch “Life and Debt,” Stephanie Black’s 2001 documentary about the relationship between the IMF and Jamaica. The film is antagonistic–it features lots of shots of overweight, drunk and dopey looking Americans–but the interviews with…
How Do I Love My Country? Let Me Count the Dead
“No More Broken Hearts” rally in Manhattan Beach, California Each red heart represents an American soldier killed in Iraq. Just as Manhattan Beach Toyota was advertising its three-day “Heart Stoppin’ Sale” in honor of Valentine’s Day, community members marked the upcoming holiday in a different way. Approximately five hundred people…
Dispatch from Niger
This doesn’t relate directly to eco-topics, but Jennifer Margulis continues to publish excellent accounts of her family’s experiences in Niger. This is her latest from Sunday’s Washington Post. Writing about the choice to raise her kids in a developing country, she says, “I am doing everything in my power to…
Michael Franti's Presidents' Day Contest
For any Michael Franti fans, I just saw that he’s hosting a contest that challenges people to write a letter to the President. The carrot is a pair of tickets to an upcoming show and the opportunity to read your letter on stage before Spearhead’s set. I just finished a…
It's Not Just the Elephants
My friend, Jennifer Margulis, just covered this story about giraffes in Niger for The Christian Science Monitor. Another friend of mine recently returned from Peace Corps service in Cameroon and reported some similar things–people there told her that twenty years ago there were giraffes and elephants roaming through the village,…
Report: Climate Change–Local Solutions to a Global Crisis
Last week, I flew home to New England to spend the holidays with my family. It seems that while I’ve been hemmed in by the Los Angeles freeway system, my parents were overtaking me on the environmental superhighway. “We’re going to a town meeting about global warming on Saturday [Dec.…
Two More Mountaineers Lost?
As I prep a January climb of Mt. Whitney, I’m hoping that 2007 will be a less deadly year in the mountains than 2006. Just a few days after the search for three Mt. Hood climbers was called off, I heard today that the mountaineering community is raising money to…
Give Stuff or Give an Experience
I was in REI today looking at ice axes when I noticed info on Sierra Club’s Building Bridges to the Outdoors which conducts programs that get inner city kids out into nature. There are a few reasons that I believe in these kinds of programs and the people behind them.…
Change of Consciousness or Change of Advertising Strategy?
I saw this ad for organic coffee at a restaurant in Yosemite National Park last weekend. There are some good management initiatives in the park, including free hybrid shuttle buses and a fairly extensive recycling program, but this ad stuck with me, in particular, for negative rather than positive reasons.…
Beyond Milk Crates: Q&A with Deana Bracken
Not too long ago, Starre asked me if I would do a Q&A with Los Angeles-based green interior designer Deana Bracken. Honestly, I felt a little skeptical at first—if only because I consider milk crates furniture. (As long as I can set my book or my beer on it, what…
