Greta Thunberg gets it: our house is on fire. This is the second time in my lifetime that our house has been on fire. I was only 3 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, thus starting WW II. I was too young then to remember that day, but I do remember the cold day in February of 1946 when my father came home from the Philippines. Our family was lucky, others weren’t, as more than 400 thousand didn’t come home. It took more than 16 million Americans (out of a population of only 140 million) serving in the military to put that fire out, plus…
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The Snowpants Rule
My mind reeled me back across the decades to packaging up my son and his brother in hats, boots, mittens, and snow pants to be protected from the harsh, Vermont winter.
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Changing Direction
“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” — Thomas Paine, from the introduction to Common Sense. For more than 200, years we have accepted the burning of fossil fuels as the way to power our rapidly changing modern world. For more than 100 years, we have accepted the gasoline-powered car for personal mobility. For more 70 years, we have accepted crop hybridization, chemical fertilizers and herbicides as the means to feed our exploding population. For more than 60,…
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Resilience Today
Resilience is a frequent topic of conversation these days, especially after a major catastrophe or when planning for some future disaster. The Cascadia subduction zone earthquake comes to mind for the latter. We talk about the need for resilience in our personal lives, in our organizations, in our businesses, and in our city, state, and federal governments. We talk a lot about resilience, which is a good thing, since history has proven the value of human resilience. However, there may be another side to resilience that is not discussed An op-ed piece by Parul Sehgal in the December 1, 2015 issue of the New York Times Magazine, opens with the…
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A Healthy Home
Home is the sailor, home from sea, And the hunter home from the hill. — Robert Louis Stevenson Traditionally, “Home” referred to the roof over your head, be it a shack or a mansion. Regardless of what your home is, the belief that “A man’s home is his castle” is deeply rooted in our American way of life. Across the millennia, our homes have provided refuge from the outside world, a place of safety, warmth, and security. What is becoming more apparent as the years of the 21st century slide into history, is the reality that “home” can no longer provide refuge from the outside world. Centuries of progress, consumerism, population growth,…
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The JUNK FOOD Effect
A new and important strain of research on CO2 and plant nutrition is now coming out of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Homesteading
Today, the western frontier has been settled and most of us live in urban areas, but that doesn’t mean there is no place for the homesteader. Rather than going extinct, the homesteaders of our species have adapted and have re-appeared as the solution to new problems created by urbanization. Thus was born the Urban Homesteader.
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New Year, New Website
Introducing the NEW greenlivingpdx.com! We’re kicking off 2019 with the launch of our newly redesigned website, aimed at creating a simplified and user-friendly browsing experience. Check it out!
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Being the Change
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair….”
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Getting Involved
“The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.”
