Michael's blog

It's all one issue

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

If you want the Prager who knows and values the outdoors, you want my brother, Richard: National Outdoor Leadership School, Outward Bound Minnesota, solo Appalachian Trail hiker from Georgia to Maine, scaler of all the 4,000-plus-feet peaks in New Hampshire, New York State School of Forestry graduate degree, all before age 25, and 10 years (maybe it was only 5) as president of the Simsbury (Conn.) Land Trust.

Me, I got nothin', as JS would say.


Energy in the debate

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Taken altogether, I can't imagine too many minds were made up by the debate last night. I wouldn't say it was boring, but it certainly was even, and contained no shockers. I heard one pundit opine that Obama had succeeded in making his case for commander and chief, and McCain had successfully made his case against Obama as president.

I remain unsatisfied with the candidates' energy discussions, and Obama added another burr last night, when Jim Lehrer pressed both candidates on the initiatives they might have to forego or delay as the result of the financial bailout.


Ask nature

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

It's not ready yet, so this is premature, but at least I can say you heard about it here first... Asknature.org is a database being prepared by the Biomimicry Institute of Montana that will allow users to explore the natural world for solutions to problems that people are trying to solve. That's what biomimicry is.


Bachmann, Barton, and bullshit

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

When encountering crap such as this from the other side of the partisan divide, I try to put myself in their shoes, or perhaps to envision a situation in which I'm guilty of the same practice and imagine how they might feel.

This time, I can't, though you are certainly welcome to help me through my myopia, if you see it.


Green buildings open house

The Northeast Sustainable Energy Association's annual open house is coming up on Saturday, Oct. 4.

Hundreds of buildings will be open across 10 states from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A family event will take us out to western Mass. that day, so I'm looking forward to checking out some sites I wouldn't likely have seen otherwise.

Follow this link to a directory of buildings that you can search by zip code, or by green feature (gray-water use, geothermal, grid-tied solar, or whatever).


Influence the debates

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Many readers will remember the "coincidental" circumstances in the primaries that one of the sham fronts of the coal industry sponsored the debates and hardly any questions were asked, among hundreds, about how to solve the environmental issues facing America and the world.

Now, we're going to have only three presidential debates, and I want to do my little bit to ensure that doesn't happen again. I'd like you to, too.


From Tom Friedman

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”


Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Michael's blog