Sunday, November 25, 2007

Ecology

"The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else." ~ Barry Commoner

Here's an New York Times article about Barry Commoner. He wrote The Closing Circle (1971), one of the first books to point out the high environmental costs associated with American technological development. Here's a short biography on Commoner. A cellular biologist, nuclear testing moved him to become an activist.

"The environmental crisis arises from a fundamental fault: our systems of production - in industry, agriculture, energy and transportation - essential as they are, make people sick and die." ~ Barry Commoner

---

Monday, November 26, 2007

Pollution

"Nations that have grown rich in part by polluting without facing the costs of doing so must now repay their carbon debt to the developing world," said Andrew Pendleton, author of "Truly Inconvenient - tackling poverty and climate change at once".

I was watching a news clip about credit card debt. A nice, somewhat overweight couple in a nice middle income home was explaining how they couldn't afford to eat out anymore, so they were economizing -- by having a pizza delivered. Many Americans don't know how to cut back. They weren't raised by depression-age parents like I was. My parents taught me lessons in living lean that have come in handy during hard times. I live better than people making twice and three times my income.

When I was a kid in Houston, we were so poor we couldn't afford the last 2 letters, so we called ourselves po'. ~ George Foreman

---

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

What can you do to save the world today?

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.
-- Lao-tzu
(604 BC - 531 BC)

---

Wednesday, November 28, 2007