We need a staggering amount of money to finance solutions to climate change. The World Economic Forum has said that we’ll need to collectively invest at least $5.7 trillion per year for things like renewable energy, efficient buildings, transit, sustainable agriculture, and water-saving technologies. Where are we at now? $360 billion per year, or 6% … Continue reading Earth to Asset Managers – Your Retirement Plans are Ruining Our Future
After awakened grassroots energy and major wins in Virginia and Alabama, Democrats’ chances are looking up in 2018. Polling shows a public souring on the Republican party just as Democrats are flooding the field with new candidates - over five times the number of candidates as Republicans in House races alone. This brightens prospects for … Continue reading Dear Democrats: Check Your Blindspot on Climate & Transportation
11 things I learned on a environmental trip to South Florida in March 2017 week with Rachel's Network: 1. Everglades: Unique birds everywhere. Birds eating apple snails and fish. Alligators everywhere. Alligators holding hands. Look at the pretty pictures. What comes next is not pretty: 2. South Florida’s cities, farms, and highways wouldn’t exist without … Continue reading Impressions From a Trip to the Everglades
In 2010, the Michigan Department of Transportation was planning on spending a few billion dollars widening some highways through Metro Detroit, my homeland. MDOT (and the regional council of governments supporting them) faced community pushback, but in the end, plans went ahead. While Michigan's situation is particularly sad given the state's population exodus and Detroit's … Continue reading Where are the Climate Activists on Transportation?
A man in a tour group Jenny Villalobos was leading told her that he expected to see a jaguar on his trip to Costa Rica. She quietly laughed. “Yeah right,” she thought. In over ten years as a nature guide, she’d never even seen one herself. But after a two-hour delay while hurriedly boating across … Continue reading Costa Rica at a Crossroads
The three lake sturgeon in Discovery World’s “touch tank” aren’t given official names, but that hasn’t kept at least one employee in this newish Milwaukee educational center from christening them female superhero names like Tank Girl and She-Ra. As a Michigan native, I’d heard of Sturgeon before, but I wasn’t prepared to fall for them … Continue reading A Future for Milwaukee in Water
People often assume environmental policies are bad for the economy, but this belief was debunked in a big way at the last Citizens Climate Lobby (CCL) Annual Conference in June 2014. I was in the audience when Scott Nystrom of Regional Economic Models, Inc (REMI) gave a great presentation on jobs growth that would result … Continue reading How a Carbon Tax & Dividend Would Benefit the Midwest
This is the second entry in a series examining the relationship between environmentalists and labor unions. It was 1967. United Auto Workers executive board member Olga Madar went to Congress on behalf of her union and asked the federal government to curb air pollution by putting tighter emissions regulations on the auto industry. The testimony … Continue reading What’s Next for Blue-Green Relations?
I first heard about bonobos when Peter Gabriel started making music with them, to mild ridicule from his peers, back in the early aughts. Then they came up again in the book I read last year, Sex at Dawn by Ryan and Jethá. To me, they're by far the most fascinating (non-human) ape, so I'm … Continue reading Book Review: Bonobo Handshake
Today I sat across the glass from Kyle, a 16-year old orangutan at the National Zoo while he sporadically twisted pieces of straw as if pedaling a hand bike, regurgitated his food, scratched his arms and looked sideways at his onlookers. He rapped gently on the glass with his fist and I couldn't help putting … Continue reading Animals Like Us
