By Don Fitz and Stan Cox Like a third-rate zombie movie on Netflix, delusions of nuclear fusion repeatedly rise from the dead. The cover story in the June 2023 issue of Scientific American by Philip Ball, “Star Power: Does Fusion Have a Future After All?” recycles the corporate line which was broadcast on December 13, 2022. The US Department of … [Read more...] about Nuclear Fusion: Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation
Focus on Pages
The "Focus On" section provides in-depth information and opinion on many facets of sustainability. (Although these topics may appear quite distinct and separate, it’s important to remember that they are interconnected and interdependent in multiple ways — in general, the 4 basic principles of ecology apply to all complex systems.)
When you select a Focus On… topic, the system will select all the articles and posts in that category with the most recent pages at the top, just under a brief introduction to the topic. (Many articles appear in multiple categories.)
Background & detail information is organized into the main categories listed in the left sidebar.
Climate & Energy
The categories of Climate & Energy are linked because it’s almost impossible to consider energy issues without considering their impact on the Climate.
Also see: Environment & Ecosystems, Food, Transportation
Who Are We?
By Robert Jensen Editors’ Note: This is the Introduction to the book An Inconvenient Apocalypse, by Robert Jensen and Wes Jackson. In the many phone conversations between the authors when this book was under construction, one of us would say that a particular point was so important that we need to get it right up front. After a few of these comments, we joked that there … [Read more...] about Who Are We?
Climate Collateral
How military spending accelerates climate breakdown By Mark Akkerman, Deborah Burton, Nick Buxton, Ho-Chih Lin, Muhammed Al-Kashef, Wendela de Vries As the world’s climate negotiators gather for their annual summit (COP27) in Egypt, military spending is unlikely to be on the official agenda. Yet, as this report shows, military spending and arms sales have a deep and … [Read more...] about Climate Collateral
‘Three Birds’ & ‘Falling’
Cecelia Tabor … [Read more...] about ‘Three Birds’ & ‘Falling’
We Can Reverse Climate Change
Bruce Wilson I’ve been what we now call a ‘Green Builder’ since the 1980s. In 1987, I was a manager for a builder that could almost be qualified for Passive House certification, now becoming the standard for new buildings.In 2003, I attended my first Greenbuild®, the trade show of the US Green Building Council (USGBC). While there, I realized that I already knew more about … [Read more...] about We Can Reverse Climate Change
We Need to Stop Plastic Consumption
Gabriela Sampaio Every day we are bombed with disruptive and sad news about what is going on in the world. War, robbery, injustice, and crisis are some of the words in the headlines of the news. But how often do we see the environment as the main character of these headlines? Everyone knows that Earth is in great danger, but why don’t we focus on what is being done to … [Read more...] about We Need to Stop Plastic Consumption
Climate Action — A Winning Strategy for Higher Ed.
Lindsay Meiman If I learned one thing from my undergraduate years at Lehigh University, it’s that any lasting progress for a just world happens through wielding our collective power, coming together across our differences, and challenging institutional and systemic status quo. I didn’t necessarily learn this sitting in lecture halls, but rather organizing both on-campus and … [Read more...] about Climate Action — A Winning Strategy for Higher Ed.
SLV 2023 Notes from the Editors
Notes from the Editors As we publish our 25th issue of this booklet, we’d like to pause and note a few changes along the way. In 2004, we started out with the first directory of organizations in the Lehigh Valley that promote sustainable communities. That first issue included a handful of opinion pieces, and we soon realized that a platform for others’ voices was an … [Read more...] about SLV 2023 Notes from the Editors
We need to focus on climate resilience!
What is climate resilience? In general, resilience is seen as the ability to “bounce back” fromadverse events. It doesn’t develop spontaneously — we have to take action to reduce climate disruption and adapt to the changes it is bringing to the world as we have known it. We can mitigate the threats by doing everything possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … [Read more...] about We need to focus on climate resilience!
