Climate change came on my personal radar in 1989 when I was a science/lifestyle writer at a newspaper in Connecticut and I interviewed Bill McKibbon about his book “The End of Nature.” He explained the significance of a NASA scientist’s recent congressional testimony about the buildup of greenhouse gases in Earth’s climate and the need to wean society from fossil fuels within decades to avert catastrophes like super hurricanes, severe droughts and rising sea levels. Scary stuff, but it seemed so far off. Surely things would work out...
Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence” depicts the world of over a hundred years ago, a world long gone. Told within the context of New York Society, circa 1870s, Oppression and Competition are the twin symptoms of the malaise of the times. Oppression rears its head in the form of pervasive social niceties–people are so nice and polite, but it’s all a sham. While people behave conventionally, their false fronts and facades conceal their true feelings that roil beneath the surface in a toxic stew of despair. Despite all of the fashionable frippery...
For a species that literally owes its remarkable evolutionary success over time to its social behavior and its many innovations (we have rightly been called “The Self-Made Man” by the anthropologist Jonathan Kingdon), we have been very slow to recognize, much less respond to what can fairly be called an existential survival crisis. Some 99 percent of all the species that have ever evolved are now extinct. We may soon join them. Unless…
Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is the scariest story of all time. "Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath....
Fifty Years ago, there was a successful populist revolt in Seattle! There is a lesson for progressives to learn from the past successful effort to save the Pike Place Market from being torn down.
For a species that literally owes its remarkable evolutionary success over time to its social behavior and its many innovations (we have rightly been called “The Self-Made Man” by the anthropologist Jonathan Kingdon), we have been very slow to recognize, much less respond to what can fairly be called an existential survival crisis. Some 99 percent of all the species that have ever evolved are now extinct. We may soon join them. Unless…
At PR for People The Connector, we encourage people to act as a stewards to protect this great gift of life that we have been given. And we also promise to make our voices heard whenever possible. In this month’s issue, we present the voices of people who are grappling with the reality of climate change.
Nick Licata’s latest book is a timely, relevant, and compelling narrative that draws us into the glory days of student activism during the 1960s.These are the halcyon days of citizen empowerment when groups like the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) flourished, imbuing many thousands of young people with a collective conscience to make a better world. At the very least, their attempt to make a better world became a laudable, good faith effort.
Each month, we profile a library: Large, small, urban, rural, post-modern, quaint or neo-classic. This month Patricia Vaccarino writes about a small school project that quickly grew into a national literacy initiative.
