Ecology, environment, and consciousness are closely related. This page makes them central in our thinking about community, politics, and economics
Abortion, the Supremes, and “the Leak”
Addresses the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion and declares that the leak has a tiny effect on confidence in the supreme court compared to the enormous effect that striking down Roe vs. Wade would have.
How Many People?
75 new cities of a million people each. That's what the world's annual population growth adds up to. (Meanwhile rising seas, extreme temperatures, and a surge in natural disasters are reducing the amount of livable land all around the world.) "No problem," some people think. "If we eliminate the big gap begtween rich and poor there will be enough to take care of everyone." Nice talk. With no evidence, no data, no knowledge of...
Barbara Boxer vs. the Land Skinners
Senator Barbara Boxer (r) with singer-songwriter Carole King Not long ago I picked up retired Senator Barbara Boxer’s book The Art of Tough. I like Barbara. She was my district’s Congresswoman and then my Senator. And one of the most resolute fighters for environmental causes in Congress. I read through part of her book, then was distracted by other matters. A few days ago I opened it again. I’d like to quote her at as much length as “fair use” allows: ‘In all my years in public...
Ostrich Syndrome – Self-Deception or Duplicity?
The Ostrich Syndrome refers to obvious facts or events that anyone who is not actively keeping them out of their awareness can see or hear. Examples here are Donald Trumps Mexican Wall, denial of the California Drought, and excessive military spending.
Inquirers and Denyers -Two Attitudes of Mind
Mental flexibility and rigidity is a crucial matter. Either one is usually both an attitude and a habit. Yesterday as I was reading posts about the polar vortex's possible contributions to the January 2014 extreme colds and storms in the Eastern U.S., (and much less publicized, climate scientists' opinions that it may also be causing the blocking high pressure area off northern California that has given the usually rainy and foggy winters of the redwood country less rain in the last year than...
Fracking: “Trade Secrets” vs. Health — Fixing a Law that’s Upside Down
Some laws that regulate extractive mineral operations are just plain upside down. Take fracking. Companies that use the process don't have to tell ANYONE what's in the cocktails of chemicals they use because it's a "trade secret" that the laws exempt from disclosure. Even when some of the substances in those cocktails are known carcinogens, or known to be otherwise poisonous or harmful to the health of humans and animals, and even though some of that fluid often ends up in the water supply for...
What the U.S. Should Not Be Doing: Using Depleted Uranium Weapons
I see in the news that Obama says Assad has "crossed the red line" in Iran by using nerve gas against the revolutionaries, and that in response, the U.S. will begin sending weapons to the insurgents. This may be a good thing. Assad is certifiably evil (with evil defined as doing intentional and avoidable great harm to others to serve one's own selfish interests). How wise is it for the U.S. to get involved? I can't say, because all I know is what the mainstream media prints, and that's usually...
Mists of mystification: The confusing words “conservative” and “liberal” often mean the opposite of what they seem to.
"The enemy isn’t conservatism. The enemy isn’t liberalism. The enemy is bullshit." Lars-Erik Nelson There is a major political divide between those who commonly label themselves “conservatives” and “liberals.” Barry Goldwater had a fairly clear vision of conservatism that has been largely lost. He defined it as “economic, social, and political practices based on the successes of the past.” He wrote that the conscience of a conservative was “pricked by anyone who would debase the dignity of the...
The next stage of civilization
We have already entered the Great Transition from the world we have known into the next stage of human history. Actually it is even more than that. We are moving into nothing less than the next era in human history, biohistory, and geohistory all rolled into one. The central feature of this great next step is obvious to anyone who has the eyes and ears to see what is happening all around the world today. We have to place caring for our local ecospheres and the world's ecosphere at the very...