Crew Commentary
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The Right to Repair is Long Past Due
Every person reading this column lives in a consumer economy. A consumer economy is a linear process of extract/produce/distribute/sell/buy/discard. We live in a world where waste has been planned into the equation. There is no waste in nature. Waste is a design flaw unique to humanity. A consumer economy not only promotes consumption, […]
The Insurance Industry Must Evolve to Meet the Growing Risks of Our Climate Crisis
About 40% of the US population lives in an area vulnerable to climate impacts including sea level rise, extreme weather and forest fires. How do we pay for the damages that occur and distribute the risk? This is a huge concern for the insurance industry in particular. Ten insurers have gone belly up in […]
Climate Resilience Planning Could Have Averted Southwest’s Christmas Debacle
Southwest estimates the loss from their scheduling system meltdown to be around $825M. Those are just the direct costs of lost revenue from canceling more than 15,000 of its flights starting on Dec. 22. It doesn’t include the costs for fines, brand erosion and systems upgrades which will increase the loss to well over a […]
Pick-n-Pull Adventures in Sustainability
by Jon Biemer, P.E. I want to see how my eco-actions can scale to be part of larger climate change solutions. Pick-n-Pull and its parent company Schnitzer Steel offer industrial-scale hope in that regard. If you drive down Foster Road in Portland, east of the 205 freeway, you pass several auto and truck […]
Regarding the Fate of Humanity on Planet Earth
by Tim Rumage, Planetary Ethicist I am very optimistic regarding the fate of humanity on Spaceship Earth I have little hope regarding the fate of humanity on Spaceship Earth. I am optimistic because I have been involved in enough projects to know that humanity knows how to regenerate healthy ecosystems, restore biodiversity, generate […]
Rewilding the UK
by Neil Kitching I am donating one third of the profits from my book “Carbon Choices” to rewilding projects. In this blog I explain why I support rewilding. Humans have devastated nature – on land, in the sea, in the soil, in the air. We have converted land to grow crops, introduced vast […]
Beyond Discouragement: Repair One Dishwasher, Repair the World
by Jon Biemer The repairman said the dishwasher’s diverter valve had failed. “That decides whether to shoot jets of water through the lower or upper spray arms.” Our automatic dishwasher typically requires less water, energy, soap and time than hand washing. “However,” the man said, “ASKO no longer makes parts for its out-of-warrantee appliances.” […]
Climate Optimism
by Neil Kitching Why write a blog on ‘Climate Optimism’? Simply, because the solutions to climate change have multiple benefits for people, society and the environment. Action on housing, city and rural land-use, travel, shopping and our diets will all improve the quality of our lives in so many ways. Powering Our […]
Evidence the Tide is Turning: from Amazon, Walmart and Horizon
Written by Jon Biemer I’m heartened by evidence that corporate America really can step up to its responsibility to help sustain Spaceship Earth. Amazon’s packages Amazon has delivered a lot of packages to our home during COVID-19. That’s a lot of corrugated cardboard – and a lot of trees. I was […]
The Story Behind Kufunda – an African Learning Community
What follows is a transcript of an interview by my friend Christine Brauitgam of Maaianne Knuth, the founder of the Kufunda village in Zimbabwe. I edited the interview for length and clarity. You can listen to the entire interview here. – Bob Leonard Hello this is Christine Brautigam. I was a guest, volunteer, and […]
