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Further to last week’s post . . . Ed Diener, of the University of Illinois and the Gallup Organization, and Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania have assembled a stunningly complete review of the disparities between economic indicators, on the one hand, and trends in how happy and satisfied in life people are, on the other. An uncorrected proof of their article, which is slated for publication later this...

One of our greatest disappointments in developing the Cascadia Scorecard was our inability to include a measurement of northwesterners’ own sense of satisfaction with their lives and communities. The cost of gathering such data, and the technical challenges of reliable measurement, proved prohibitive. Someday! But in recent years, academic research on happiness has exploded, bringing the day closer when it’ll be possible to track Cascadia’s happiness quotient. The implications of...

Protect tenants. Upzone for reparations. And 3 more steps for communities to build abundant housing, invest in affordability, and avoid displacement.

Eric Public subsidies for professional sports probably aren’t one of society’s top challenges, but good grief they are annoying. In the latest installment, King County may spend $190 million over 20 years for upgrades to Safeco Field (home of the Mariners), much of which will be justified as providing public benefits. The Cut has a wonderful look at the science of happiness as taught by a professor at Yale. A...

Kristin What makes a good life? This 12-minute TED talk from a 75-year study (which originally only included men, but in the past decade they finally started studying those men’s wives, too), explains it. Patriotism and national pride can lead to ugliness, but they can also lead to good stuff! National identities can encourage solidarity with fellow citizens and lead individuals to sacrifice personal gain for the common good. Patriotic...

Margaret This week one of my favorite reads was this New York Times op-ed. It so well encapsulates the astonishing blend of worldviews rubbing together via the folks in my own life. Douthat writes about the communities where he has found people to be “the most personally empirical, least inclined to meekly submit to authority, and most determined to reason independently.” And they aren’t the communities you’d expect: the ones...

Kristin I just read Naomi Klein’s No is Not Enough, which references the “Leap Manifesto” she and other leaders in Canada put together. It calls for 100% clean energy, a universal basic income to help pay for the important work of caretaking that is currently often unpaid or underpaid, paid for by a carbon tax, financial transaction tax, and cuts to military spending. Good stuff. Do men look for a...

Aven Lots of good clean energy news this week: The fastest selling used cars in the US are now electric vehicles, according to automotive research company iSeeCars.com. Meanwhile over in the UK, the National Grid set a new record for renewables, which made up over 50 percent of the power supplied to customers over this past summer, compared to just 35 percent in 2013. The carbon intensity of the grid—measured...

When you take the trouble to vote, you want it to matter that you did. You want your vote to make a difference in who gets elected. You want your vote to elect someone you like, so that for the next few years you can know that person is in office, shaping policy on issues that are important to you. But single-winner districts and the gerrymander sap voters’ power by...

Kristin What explains the gender wage gap? This Vox video shows that women spend more time taking care of kids, and some jobs require workers to be present during certain fixed hours. When kids get sick or otherwise require care, women might not be able to put in their face time at work. But when women don’t have kids the pay gap shrinks. And when jobs offer flexibility on when...