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Category Archives: politics
The Berlin Wall for wildlife
The American people may not yet realize it, but we approved—by way of our former president and Congress—the building of a Berlin Wall in North America. It’s the U.S.-Mexico border wall, rampaging for hundreds of miles through sensitive wildlife habitat. … Continue reading
Good news for creeks
This week the Environmental Protection Agency took a step to slow mountaintop removal coal mining by writing letters to the Army Corp of Engineers expressing serious concerns about two mining operations in the Appalachians. In mountaintop removal, mountains are blasted … Continue reading
Posted in nature, politics
Tagged creeks, EPA, mountaintop removal, natural resources, streams, sustainability, water policy, Wendell Berry
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Another sign of (political) spring
Michelle Obama and schoolchildren broke ground today for an organic garden at the White House: This was one of the suggestions environmental journalist Michael Pollan made last fall before the election in his open letter to the next Farmer-in-Chief on … Continue reading
Posted in nature, politics
Tagged gardening, Michelle Obama
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What the world needs now
“I want people to hear the compassionate voice of religion,” says religion scholar Karen Armstrong. What, you say, religion and compassion in the same sentence?
Posted in education, politics, spirituality
Tagged compassion, Golden Rule, Karen Armstrong, religion
2 Comments
Earth is the new bottom line
Yesterday I wrote about air money, and I explained that one reason companies can look more profitable than they are is because our standard accounting practices don’t require them to mention that, oh, by the way, they just destroyed a … Continue reading
Posted in nature, politics, spirituality
Tagged cooperation, ecological economics, financial crisis, natural resources, recycling, sustainability, Tom Friedmann
2 Comments
Air money—or bringing the financial crisis down to Earth
The present economic crisis has been explained in many ways: a mortgage meltdown, a housing bubble burst, the collapse of fancy financial instruments. But all of these explanations point to a problem that plagues our economic system at its core: … Continue reading
Posted in education, nature, politics
Tagged ecological economics, economics, financial crisis, Herman Daly, Michael Mandel
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