Taking a Hike
I've long accepted the words of Hunter S. Thompson in The Proud Highway: "We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and -- in spite of True Romance magazines -- we shall all someday look back on our lives and…
When in Ecuador, do as the pre-industrial do: a brief getaway from the industrial-economic monster
This guest post is authored by Emmanuela Mujica, a recent graduate of the University of Arizona’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program. Emmanuela is working toward a Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in sustainability at University of…
Leadership in the post-carbon era
I’m getting cranky, judging from several comments on this blog and on Facebook (where my latest entries have been posted and then re-posted by contacts there). Not to pick nits, but I’m getting crankier. But, like all rationalizing animals, I…
Balance is for Buddhists
Balance is a central tenet of Buddhism, foundational to the four noble truths and the eight-fold way. Balance is a superb notion and I strongly support, for individuals at least, balance, moderation, and many other principles of Buddhism. Indeed, had Buddhism found roots in this country a couple hundred years ago, we probably would have avoided, or at least delayed, the series of catastrophes we now face. But with fewer than one percent of the American population dedicated to Buddhism, it’s a little late for balance and moderation to work their magic at the scale of this country, much less planet Earth (as if even one percent of Americans give a damn about planet Earth).