Talking Points on the AOC-Markey Green New Deal Resolution
We demand that fossil fuels be kept underground and that the subsidies and tax breaks that keep the fossil fuel industry viable be shifted towards a clear, grassroots-based Just Transition.
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The Green New Deal: Wishers’ Remorse?
The principal catalyst for this sudden turn-around in climate chatter is the Green New Deal (GND) that was proposed by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in her successful Congressional bid.
Before It’s Too Late
I look at the land as being part of a sacred covenant with our children and the coming generations. If we live for ourselves only, our lives are bereft of true legacy. But when we live in the presence of our ancestors, we also live for our descendants. To feel concern for the future is to bring a piece of eternity into the present and let it guide us.
“Which species are we sure we can survive without?” Revisited
We have eliminated the species around us with reckless abandon and without concern for whether we can survive without them. An alarming new study suggests a rapidly accelerating decline in worldwide insect populations. Can we survive without the insects of the world?
The world-changing potential of hot composting
As long as there have been humans, we have taken the parts of plants we don’t eat and thrown them back onto the soil again, knowing it would turn back into soil to create more plants. Until we modern people came along, that is.
Adding Balance to the Meat Debate
While few people yet realise it, we actually need to encourage increased production of grass-fed meat, since the most effective way to restore our degraded arable soils and wild pollinators is to re-introduce grass and grazing animals into cropland rotations.
Social and Environmental Justice
But if climate action is a question of social justice, then those marginalised groups must be part of the movement. They must set the agenda of that movement.
Savor your Small Parcels, and Create More of Them
After now working in the planning and urban design realm for more than a couple of decades, I’ve come to believe that those “substandard” parcels referenced in countless planning and market studies are actually the key to successful cities and neighborhoods. I believe we should savor them, embrace them, and seek to create more wherever we can.
School Climate Strikes: Why Adults no Longer Have the Right to Object to their Children Taking Radical Action
A worldwide wave of school climate strikes, begun by the remarkable Greta Thunberg, has reached the UK. Some critics claim these activist-pupils are simply playing truant, but I disagree. Speaking as both a climate campaigner and an academic philosopher, I believe school walkouts are morally and politically justifiable.
Climate Change Is Scary—Not the Green New Deal
It’s very clear that conservatives have one plan for dealing with the popularity of the Green New Deal: scaring the hell out of people. And it’s very clear that they have one big problem: The hell they’re building through inaction is a lot scarier than “upgrading all existing buildings.”
Q&A with Erin Gautsche of West Philly Tool Library
The West Philly Tool Library was founded in 2007 to help make home repairs and maintenance more accessible and affordable for local residents. The library offers more than 4,000 tools to its more than 2,600 members, who pay for membership on a sliding scale.
Dreams of Sheep at Shepherd’s Dream
A few miles south and across the California border, I had just seen raw, local wool being carded and made into batting at Woolgatherer Carding Mill, then stuffed and hand sewn into mattresses, toppers and pillows to be sold by Shepherd’s Dream.
