Reining in Social Media
Christmas came and went, and my youngest child did not get the one gift he most wanted. Despite his disappointment about not yet owning a smartphone, I don’t feel bad – not after reading...
Category: Technology
Slowing Vampire Energy Loss
Halloween is approaching, bringing a night of ghosts and ghouls – or at least bored teenagers bearing shaving-cream. The phantoms on your doorstep may not be real, but indoors you are likely to encounter...
A “Shocking” Regression: Sen. George Mitchell Reflects on the Environment and Politics
A “low point for the American environment,” a “dark and difficult time,” a period when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was in “chaos and despair.” Those could be contemporary descriptors, but they portray the...
Succumbing to Screens: Two-dimensional Living
“When our attention is perpetually narrowed onto a small screen, our world shrinks to meet it.” — Nancy Colier, The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World How...
Getting brighter about LED bulbs
“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” biologist Barry Commoner wrote in 1971, proposing that as one of four “laws of ecology.” We’ve had decades to absorb that lesson but it still...
Casting Ballots for the Planet
It’s been a long campaign season, and many of us are ready for a respite from barbed political banter. So let’s take a high-altitude look at what this looming election might mean–for our planet....
Solar a Sound Investment Compared to Fossil Fuels
It was not a morning for sunny-day optimism. Intermittent snow showers pelted down and a raw wind buffeted us as we stood in a long-abandoned pasture. Yet strangely, we felt warmed by a sense...
Living amid Wireless Devices
When the topic of cellphone safety arises, common responses harken back to grade school – stopping just short of the fingers-over-ears intonation “I can’t HEAR you!” Our addiction to these captivating devices is not...
