Local Economy: Lost In Translation
Plato: Eco-Hunk When I was an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts, I wiggled into a two-semester Greek class at Smith College. Although I had to deal with occasional condescension from the bona fide Smithies, the hours I spent reading Plato in the original Greek are among the things I…
Sea of People Takes Lower Manhattan
by guest-blogger Olivia Zaleski Yesterday I went to my first global warming rally, which was part of the Step It Up 2007 campaign (check out their page to see fun images from all over the United States). In Battery Park at the lower tip of Manhattan, I joined an estimated…
Augusta and Elliott
My paternal grandmother, Leslie, called the West Indies home from 1948 until she died. We had a house in Antigua, with an open courtyard, that sat right on the beach. When I was little, in the seventies, and Leslie was dying, we spent time down there and I first met…
E.O. Wilson Wins TED Prize
Us Eco Chicks love E.O. Wilson; his books include Biophelia, The Future of Life, and his latest, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, are masterworks of nonfiction writing about the environment and our place in it. Each year, the TED Prize is granted to three individuals with…
Deep Economy: Q&A with Bill McKibben
When Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, it was the first popular press book to address global warming in a meaningful way. Since then, McKibben has not only carved out a career as an environmental journalist; he has become one of the most steadfast and trustworthy voices…
Luminous Fish
This afternoon I managed to catch MR2, the radio show of the Massachusetts Review, broadcast from WMUA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The guest was Dr. Lynn Margulis, there to talk about her latest book, Luminous Fish, just released from Vermont-based independent press Chelsea Green. Margulis is best known for…
The Good in Goodwill
One of the advantages of living in a city where the distribution of wealth is so disproportionate and patently unfair is that lots of rich people throw away lots of nice things. If you are a scavenger or a dumpster diver by principle, then Los Angeles is a good place…
Bush Misses the Boat
By Guest-Blogger Brian Howard In his 2007 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush told Congress and the country that “nothing is more important at this moment in our history than for America to succeed in the Middle East, to succeed in Iraq and to spare the American…
Creative Reuse Centers— An Artist's Dream
As an artist, finding new places to obtain cheap and interesting materials is always a challenge. Fortunately creative reuse centers are a great way to find inspiration while giving old materials new life. The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse on the Oakland/Berkeley border is a nonprofit corporation “devoted to…
Green Building 101
This month’s WIRED and E/The Environmental Magazine both have great features on the many and varied ways of constructing an eco-home. E Magazine’s coverage focuses on the history and current status of green building in the US, including lots of stats, facts and info (like that buildings consume 65% of…
