The 12-step method for combating addiction is demonstrably inferior to other treatment strategies, according to this article in Atlantic Monthly.
I don’t always like the Economist, but this tirade against sprawl-generating, wealth-concentrating, fossil-fuel-wasting restrictions on urbanism is spot on, from its diagnosis of the causes of the housing affordability crunch to its call for land-value taxation.
It’s never too early to look forward to the 2016 elections (grooooaaaan), but as the media rev up for candidate coverage, NYU journalism prof Jay Rosen offers some thoughtful strategies for writing about climate-denier candidates.
A stunning new project, Humans for Humans, from Canadian homeless advocacy group Raising the Roof, features short videos of people experiencing homelessness reading so-called “mean tweets” about the homeless. They respond to some of them, sharing difficult and extremely varied stories of their respective paths to homelessness.
When you can’t see the top of the Eiffel tour through the thick, gray haze, it counts as a bad smog day in Paris. Bad enough for the City of Lights to experiment to try to reduce driving. This past Monday, only cars with odd numbered license plates, electric and hybrid vehicles, and cars with three passengers or more were allowed to drive. In addition, transit was free, Paris’s bike share fleet was free, and an hour of electric car share use was free. I’ll be looking for follow-up coverage to see how this went.
Ugh. Even in nursing, where women outnumber men 10 to 1, men make more than women.
And here’s another look at how our language and socialization privileges men. In fact, the twisted irony is that listener bias results in most people thinking that women are hogging the floor when men are actually dominating conversations. To combat the pattern, this author gives us 10 words every girl should learn.
Seattle city councilmember Mike O’Brien goes on MSNBC to talk about the Port’s huge mistake in agreeing to host Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet. It’s fun to watch O’Brien on the stump for the Thin Green Line: the place that just says no to climate destruction.
At Rolling Stone, Tim Dickinson has an excellent, must-read, first-rate—it’s that good—piece on what Keystone XLs looming failure means for Canada and the conservative party’s global superpower aspirations that are built on turning the country into a northern petro-state.
I enjoyed the NYT profile of Al Gore earlier this week. While everyone’s been poking fun or straight-up deriding him since “An Inconvenient Truth,” he’s been too busy to notice. Busy with what? Oh, just becoming the ultimate climate nerd, savvy green businessman, and super educator for environmental leaders around the world. That leaves him little time to give to naysayers, whom he dismisses coolly with a simple “Let them have at it.”
This is a big deal: the pristine Chuitna River in Alaska—home to a robust run of all five species of salmon—is under threat from a proposed coal strip mine. For context: if you’ve heard of the now-doomed Pebble Mine, this project is its equal, or worse. Opponents of the coal mine have produced a gorgeous video (here’s the trailer) explaining what’s at stake. Says Al Goozmer, president of the Native Village of Tyonek, “We see this coal mine as the Godzilla of development in West Cook Inlet, and that it will destroy…who we are physically, spiritually, and culturally.” If you’re interested, here’s the Save the Chuitna website.
A woman explains sexual consent with an illustration that is so perfectly simple and clear that for those people—whoever they are—for whom this is still a gray area, this should be required reading.
Futurist Vivek Wadwha has good news: within two decades we will have almost unlimited energy, food, water, and healthcare. The bad news is: there won’t be any jobs, and there is no “jobs bill” that can fix that. What are we to do? He suggests shorter work weeks, which makes sense. But how do you get shorter work weeks for everyone? Walmart won’t pay a living wage to full-time workers, why would they start paying a living wage to people working only 20 hours a week when robots are doing all the dirty work anyway? I agree with futurist Zoltan Istvan that we need a Universal Basic Income so that people can work as much as they want on the things that are important to them without needing an anachronistic make-work job. Or as Vox puts it: have the federal government just give the money to people, instead of giving it to financial institutions in exchange for bonds and hoping that will evenually help people.
Wadwha’s Singularity University buddy, Peter Diamandis, is also thinking about an exponential future, but in a recent Medium article he unfortunately got caught up in some ideology about government slowing progress, so I wrote this response.
This article does a pretty good job of laying out the story about the potential for renewable energy to stop coal trains by removing the demand for coal. And it also illustrates the potentially virtuous circle of people-planet-(and yes)profit, i.e., sustainability.
After Meaghan’s weekend reading pick a couple of weeks ago, I went on another of my zero-waste reading and inspiration kicks—sort of an annual kick in the pants I need to keep on top of low-waste livin’. First stop: Bea Johnson (h/t L.S.), complete with recipes for everyday needs and a video introduction if you prefer.
Why are developers still building sprawl? Atlantic writer Alana Semuels takes a look at why we’re diving right back into the development patterns that contributed to the recession, the builders still trying to tell us we want ever more space, and the yet-to-be-determined influence of Millennial and new urbanist tastes on the market.
Wow: the incredible decline of unions, in one animated map.
And, happy weekend! If you like a good cocktail, Seattle Times just made it worlds easier to mix local.
My top recommendation is this account of what it’s like to testify on a bill in Olympia, which is something I have occasion to do a few times each year. The bill, in this case, one that would support emotional development in school children—a worthy topic—but the lessons that author Chris Langeler draws from his experience with the legislature are much broader— and refreshingly positive.
Eric I’m a week late on this story, but I highly recommend Ashely Ahearn’s look at the oil terminals proposed for Grays Harbor with a focus on the potential impacts to local fisheries and the Quinault Nation. Keiko How many reasons do you have to love Northwest rivers? Well, here are 50! Not only is … Read more
Think living with zero waste is impossible? Check out this 23-year-old New Yorker who has been doing it for the past two years—and is now sharing some of her tips. One takeaway: go stock up on (second-hand) mason jars!
“My life is worth the price of a pie.” That’s how a steelworker describes operations at the same Northwest refineries that aspire to become major players in oil-by-rail. And that’s why he’s on strike.
This video of a train plowing through deep snow is weirdly riveting and beautiful—right up until you realize that it’s an oil train and traveling fast in potentially hazardous conditions.
For all you environmentally conscious high school and undergrad students in Washington, the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences is hosting a climate change video contest! For the contest, students are asked the question: What does climate change mean to you?
Eric Recently-dismissed public official Catherine Mater may be the most interesting person in Oregon right now. After the Governor fired her from her position as chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission, she’s dialed up her criticism of the agency’s use of public money to facilitate coal exports writing, “The real issue surrounding the story is … Read more