I have some strange eating preferences. When I was younger, I hated avocados. Absolutely loathed them. I hated the texture and thought they were bland, slimy, mushy green things. But I loved guacamole. I figured someone hated the avocado as much as me and had figured how to make the darn things edible. Go figure. I think I was in my late teens when I realized that … [Read more...]
Japan crisis
After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, now the shaken nation is facing nuclear emergency. Read all of our coverage on the situation in Japan with analysis of the lessons that this tragedy may hold for a world desperately in need of clean, safe energy in the face of climate change and peak oil.
We get the power but future generations get the waste
Fukushima now enters the lexicon of nuclear catastrophes alongside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. No amount of official downplaying of the current levels of radiation leaking from Fukushima can gloss over the fact that the hinterland of Fukushima will be contaminated for many years to come. A new wasteland in which human habitation and agricultural production becomes … [Read more...]
How to protect cities from tsunamis and peak oil
Could better real-estate development have helped save lives in Japan? And could the same type of compact, landscape-friendly urban planning also help us prep for peak oil? Visionary urban designer Richard Register says yes and yes. For nearly four decades, he's been preaching the gospel of building in harmony with nature to make our towns and cities more liveable rather … [Read more...]
Nuclear power’s last ditch effort
A strange thing has happened in the response to the nuclear crisis triggered by the tragedy of the Japanese earthquake. The nuclear industry, long used to trying to marginalize its critics by claiming the rational high ground and trying to frame opponents as emotional, has ended up making a case which is more … [Read more...]
Emergency preparedness and letting go
There is one central tenet within the Buddhist tradition that does not require an adherence to Buddhist philosophy in order to agree with it. That principle is impermanence, that everything, even the mountain that has stood there majestically through our lifetime, is in a constant state of change. One reason for impermanence being so central a concept within Buddhism is in … [Read more...]