Our outlook on climate change was so much more hopeful back in 2015. Obama was still President. Science-denying Trumpism was a distant specter. Pandemic was only hypothetical. And by December of that year the United Nations Climate Change Conference resulted in the Paris Accord — 196 countries agreeing to a…

The Super Bowl is right around the corner and, given my interest in sustainability, I can’t help wondering how much fossil fuel will be burned in order to bring the annual spectacle into existence. How much carbon dioxide will be spewed into the environment for the sake of this one…

Some time ago, I was presented with the challenge of explaining climate change in fewer than 200 words. This is what I came up with: Climate change explained in fewer than 200 words: Plants “breathe in” carbon dioxide and “breathe out” oxygen. The carbon becomes part of the plant’s new…

Perhaps you’ve heard of voluntary simplicity: choosing to live a simpler and more intentional life for the sake of greater personal fulfillment, richer community, and a healthier environment. The voluntary simplicity movement was bolstered immensely by the 1981 publication of Duane Elgin’s groundbreaking book of the same name. Unfortunately, we’re…

We’re awash in stuff, very little of which is actually necessary for the enjoyment of life. Simply consider how the size of the average home has increased over the years, without a corresponding increase in our happiness, and yet we still find the need for off-site storage in which to…

“Can what save the world?” “Wabi-sabi! You know, that Japanese aesthetic sense kind of thing.” Please forgive yourself if you’ve not yet heard of wabi-sabi. It certainly doesn’t come up in conversation every day, or even every year for that matter, so asking whether it can save the world might…