Category: Uncategorized

Does it Adequately Protect Park Resources? by Jeff Aardahl and Mark R. Faull The California Department of Parks and Recreation completed the revised General Plan for Red Rock Canyon State Park and Environmental Impact Report (EIR).1 Both were approved by the California State Park and Recreation Planning Commission at a public meeting on March 3, … Continue reading Revised General Plan for Red Rock Canyon State Park

A Many-Faceted Problem by William E Rees, PhD, FRSC Setting the conceptual stage Let's start with a thought experiment. Suppose you and your close family and friends, perhaps 150 people in all, were confined to an isolated island - let's call it Esperanza - characterized by landscapes and soils that were representative of average arable … Continue reading Overshoot and the Incredible Shrinking Planet

A Telephone Interview with Joel Bakan, March 16, 2023 by Birgitta Jansen Joel Bakan is an author, filmmaker, and a professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, with a special interest in the role that large corporations play in our social and political lives. He is a … Continue reading Corporations and the environment

Reproductive Autonomy Is Fundamental to Conservation by Kirsten Stade Overconsumption has brought us the climate crisis, the Sixth Great Extinction, expanding desertification, and the depletion of the Colorado River and fresh water supplies across the globe. But it is humans, at this point eight billion of us, who are doing that consuming. It should not … Continue reading A Planet Out of Balance

A New Paradigm is Needed by Joshua Farley, Professor, University of Vermont Economists in general want to improve human welfare. Mainstream economists claim welfare improvements are best achieved by maximizing the monetary value of what we consume. This requires allocating raw materials to the production of goods and services with the greatest value, then apportioning … Continue reading Modest Proposals for an Ecological Economy

An Interview with Elizabeth May, leader of the Canadian Green Party by Birgitta Jensen Elizabeth, born and raised in the U.S., and moved to Nova Scotia with her parents in her teenage years. She has deep connections to both the U.S. and Canada and thus possesses considerable insight and knowledge of both cultures. She learned … Continue reading We must do the Impossible

What Are We Being Sold by Natasha Parker Since Veblen's1 observations in the 1890's that the leisure classes consumed conspicuously to impress their peers, consumption has become a culturally dominant means of seeking happiness, success, and the good life. But amid the current backdrop of the climate and ecological crisis, reducing individual consumption is going … Continue reading Wellbeing and the Psychology of Consuming Less

And Where Do We Go from Here? by Birgitta Jansen A few weeks ago, I saw an older man in the supermarket wearing a brown t-shirt with black lettering that said, "We are the meteorite." I understood that this was a reference to how humans are changing the earth. "I like your t-shirt," I said. … Continue reading Why is Change so Difficult?

One Woman's Effort to Protect It by Caroll Simpson Recovering from the loss of my husband, I found myself in the Canadian wilderness trying to develop and run a fishing lodge off the grid. I was a forty-five year old widow from the city, taking on the dream built by two people. I did this … Continue reading My Love Affair with the Wilderness

Finding Ways to Focus on What Really Matters by Lorraine Anderson Humans' accelerating demand for energy and materials from nature is wrecking life on our planet. That's what the scientists are telling us. As someone who pays attention to science, I wrestle every day with making sense of what I see around me. It would … Continue reading A Simple Shift of Attention