Let’s say we wake up and find out that Jackalope are going extinct because they are being eaten by Bigfoot. After all, they are a favorite delicacy of Bigfoot. What do we do? We probably start a Save the Jackalope campaign... of course. We have to make people aware [...]
My next personal act of climate responsibility is to limit my driving to no more than 6,000 miles per year. For those without cars this may still seem like a lot. I'd rather not have to use a car. Maybe this will be hard? We’ll see. In December of [...]
Utah Phillips was a musician, a labor organizer, a story teller and a poet. Born in 1935, he spent part of his early life riding the rails. This quote of his is a favorite of mine. I believe it's a commencement address. It still rings true and is even [...]
Natural Gas, Fossil Gas, or Methane… Which Should We Use? Reality and truth should be bedrocks in climate communications, but what we believe often informs reality. Words influence these beliefs and thus our collective reality. Choose words that unconsciously activate the wrong neurons in the brains of our audience [...]
(Photo by Angus Mordant/www.angusmordant.com ) If you are a climate activist, or care about what happens to the earth or environment, then read this carefully. Our democracy is on the endangered species list. It is dying. And when it does, there will be no hope for the climate, ourselves, or [...]
Here’s a contrarian viewpoint. Regardless of who wins this election, climate champions still have a lot of work to do. I don’t mean the nut’s and bolts work of trying to rebuild the Clean Power Plan, re-enter the Paris Accord, our launch the Green New Deal. We have to [...]
The other day I was talking to my daughter on the phone when I noticed a subtle change in her reaction to the pandemic. I believe this also applies to the climate crisis. She said she’d just gotten back from a run to Target with her youngest daughter and [...]
Anytime there is a disruption to society, there is also an opportunity to change the status quo. The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is terrible and deadly. Many of my clients in environmental and climate organizations are now changing focus on how to immediately help our fellow citizens. [...]
I have a friend who grew up in rural Minnesota. His favorite expression is, “You can’t put a duck bill on a beaver and call it a platypus.” This aphorism pretty much sums up urban thinking about rural America. We try to make it something it isn’t, and then [...]
