Search Results

In the movie, the first rule of Fight Club was “you do not talk about Fight Club.” (That was also the second rule in case anyone overlooked rule #1.) There’s long been a similar but unspoken rule for journalists and scientists when it comes to making a connection between extreme weather and climate change. Don’t talk about it. But that’s changing.

You’d think that humans would be smart enough to stop poisoning ourselves—or at least our babies. But, no. Turns out that all the BPA-free products—the ones I’ve sought out to protect my dear little girl’s reproductive system and to ward off cancer and neurological problems—may have given me a false sense of security. The power of concerned parents to get manufacturers—and sometimes governments (Maine just approved a ban on BPA...

From Alan: Feebates in France have performed exceptionally well, according to Market Watch. It’s more than a decade since any Cascadian jurisdication (British Columbia) considered a similar proposal. Is it time? The blog Plurale Tantum unveiled a fascinating examination of why people of color and bicycle advocacy don’t seem to go together. Lots to think about—and do—to build a sustainability movement that matches Cascadia’s shifting demographic profile. WaPo’s Ezra Klein...

One of the privileges of working at a sustainability think tank is being able to read about (and share!) ideas and research tidbits that I find genuinely interesting.  For me, the most valuable ideas are those that run to counter common sense, or that buck the conventional wisdom:  solid research that challenges my gut instincts is what’s most likely to open my mind to new ways of thinking about the...

We face sustainability choices every day: paper or plastic? Drive or take the bus? Fresh or frozen fish? It seems like one week a new study comes out claiming X is better than Y, and a week later Y is better than X. How are we to know what to believe? And more importantly, which choices are the ones that really matter? For years, Sightline has sought to clear the...

Wouldn’t it be nice to be enclosed in an impenetrable bubble eight feet in every direction? Nothing could get in the bubble without your express permission—and anyone who violated the bubble would be in trouble with the law. Sound far fetched? Not really. Just check out the growing debate in Northwest cities like Seattle, Spokane, and Portland about panhandling and you’ll see that some local elected officials and newspapers want...

Kari Marie Norgaard, a Whitman College sociologist who’s studied public attitudes towards climate science, says we’re in climate denial. In a Wired Magazine interview, Norgaard puts it this way: “Our response to disturbing information is very complex. We negotiate it. We don’t just take it in and respond in a rational way.” And that means all of us, not just the classic case, card-carrying climate denier. So as the scientific...

I’m starting to think that French President Sarkozy is a Sightline fan. Last week it was a killer carbon tax proposal; now it’s something else near and dear to our hearts: a national measure of happiness as a counterpoint to GDP. Springboarding from a new report prepared by giants of the economics world, Sarkozy is calling for a more comprehensive view of economic well-being, one that puts human well-being in...

The gist: Thom Hartmann — talk radio host and communications expert — likens communication to other familiar tools. Like scalpels or screwdrivers, our words are tools that help us to be effective in our work. This Flashcard pulls together three lessons from Hartmann’s recent book, Cracking the Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America’s Original Vision (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). Trigger the Senses Effective communicators connect to a range...

Apparently, a good mood is contagious:  the New York Timesreported yesterday that a long-term study has found that having a friend, neighbor, or even a distant acquaintance who’s happy can make you happier.  The authors believe the contagious effect of happiness can be both powerful and far-reaching: “if your friend’s friend’s friend becomes happy, that has a bigger impact on you being happy than putting an extra $5,000 in your...