My main purpose for creating this website is to assist in acquiring philanthropic funding.
Sufficient funding would not only allow me to fully immerse myself, time wise, in my endeavor to save the planet, it would also allow me to advertise more extensively and reach a broader audience.
One
When it comes to saving the planet One is the magic number All I need is one Enthusiastic backer To start launching my ideas Into the blogosphere
Just Saying
Shhhhh! I’ll share with you a secret I believe the iconoclasts of society those who really “get it” in terms of what we’re doing to the planet in terms of what needs to change and who have great ideas, brilliant ideas, unique, innovative ground-breaking, trailblazing ideas these outliers are so extremely rare they…
Earth Day
This Earth Day Let me just say If you want to save the planet I do know the way I have the ideas To put us on that path I just need the funding To focus exclusively On that task
Failure of Imagination
How you suffered for your sanity And how you tried to set them free They would not listen, they’re not listening still Perhaps they never will Those are lines from that memorable 1971 song “Vincent” — which Don McLean wrote after reading a book about the life of Vincent van Gogh. Van Gogh…
Roe v. Wade and ‘Calling a Spade a Spade’
I haven’t blogged for quite some time. For one thing, all my life I’ve been plagued with the problem of not having enough time. Lots of ideas. Way too little time. But also, I just don’t see any real interest out there in doing the things we really need to be doing. Don’t get me…
My ‘Archive Alive’ Idea
This might be the most important blog post I’ve ever done. Why? I have always been a big believer in big ideas. In their power and potential to change and transform the world in very big ways. But big ideas can only be meaningful if they are acted upon — or lead to the formation…
Environmentalists in Residence
I’m a very strong believer in the power and potential of big ideas — for transforming and shaping society in big ways. I’m also a big believer in the idea that combining strengths with people who share your passion, can be a mutually enriching experience that can give back in so many ways. Now, imagine…
What’s a Mini-M?
Today I am going to share with you an idea I’ve been wanting to get around to blogging about for years. Hopefully, it will inspire some of the people who read this to act on it. This is not just my first new blog post of the New Year, it is appropriately a great way…
Compartmentalizing, Biodiversity Loss and Dams
I want to mention a couple of articles that appear in today’s New York Times. But let me start by saying that one of the things I find annoying about the way in which climate change is often talked about, is we need to stop compartmentalizing environmental issues. We need to view what we’re doing to…
Guterres Urges World Leaders to Do More to Battle Climate Change
Yesterday, the New York Times reported on page 6 that the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, on Monday, urged world leaders to do more to battle climate change, going so far as to warn that “If we do not change course by 2020, we risk missing the point where we can avoid runaway climate…
The Big Idea
I can’t wait another minute. I just have to share this. This is something I’m so excited about that it’s the first blog post I’ve actually given a title — see note below. Just read below what I tweeted the other day, and you’ll see why I’m so excited: Wow. this is really, really exciting!!!…
An Anthropocenic Oath
One review in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review that caught my attention was Naomi Oreskes’s review of Randi Hutter Epstein’s Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything (“Science or Quackery? / Hormones research and its many missteps and mistakes.”). A byline notes that Oreskes — along with co-author Erik M. Conway…
Drawing Inspiration from My ‘Saved Quotations’ Drawer
In deciding which quotations to use for today’s blog post, I spent several hours going through and organizing the material I’ve accumulated in my ‘saved quotations’ drawer. The last time I did something like this, I believe, was back on August 5, 2014. This time, however, I am aiming to do something a little different.…
No Vision
Like a moth to a flame, here I go again. Sleep beckons … but instead, I’ve got other plans. I want to quick comment on some things I saw in yesterday’s New York Times. I’m hoping I can do this fairly quickly. Every Sunday, for quite some time now, in the main news section of…
Recyclables End Up Where?
There was an interesting article in Newsday a couple days ago (Kinberly Yuen, “Waste not: LI pair tosses trash only 3 times a year” July 17) about a local Long Island couple who throw out their trash only about three times a year. That’s quite an extraordinary feat, considering that the average American, according to…
Art & Activisim
Do I have time for a quick blog post? Let’s find out. Here’s a direct quote from an article in this past Sunday’s New York Times (by Olivia Mitchell Ryan and Zoe Mou, “A Health Complaint Delivered In 9,000 Crud-Filled Bottles”): Water pollution is very common, it’s very common around the world, but it never receives…
A $250,000 Mattress, Versus Sleeping on the Street
One of the things I enjoy doing every week is taking a quick peek at Marilyn vos Savant’s Ask Marilyn column, in Parade magazine. It arrives tucked inside my Newsday, in the weekend comics section, along with the advertising circulars. This week’s Dilbert cartoon, on the cover of that comics section, reminded me of something…
Cats Prowl for Endangered Owl … and the Encroaching Insect Armageddon
Here we go again. There are so many things I’m really itching to blog about, that I wish I had a lot more time. But I don’t. So I’ll just mention a few things from this past Sunday’s New York Times that caught my attention. One article worth mentioning is the cover story “Google Doesn’t…
Carcinogens in Our Water … and Florida Underwater
Serendipity is a wonderful thing. While retrieving one of the articles I will soon cite, I also came across another that I thought I was going to have to travel to a distant library to obtain. No, it was right where I thought it was all along, hiding in plain sight. I’ve been wanting to…
While You’re Dizzily Digesting That Profound Thought …
This blog post will seem a bit out of place here on my Home page; and therefore I may delete this blog post at some point. But I have decided to post this here anyway because just as I was about to post this on Facebook, I experienced a major glitch which knocked me off…
Prominent Attorney Self-Immolates in Park
In Sunday’s Times I read a sad story on the obituary page (Jeffrey C. Mays, “Prominent Lawyer Self-Immolates in Brooklyn”). Here’s how the article begins: “A lawyer nationally known for being a champion of gay rights died after setting himself on fire in Prospect Park in Brooklyn early Saturday morning and leaving a note exhorting…
A Favorite Quotation, and a YouTube Video You Won’t Soon Forget
I try not to be too redundant on this website — to simply say the same stuff over and over. I try to mix it up a bit, to make things more interesting — while sticking to the central theme of saving the planet. However, this quotation I am about to share with you, might…
A Better Way to Travel
There was an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times (Anthony Doerr, “We Were Warned”) that I applaud. Doerr jams in lots of facts relating to what we are doing to this planet; and it’s well worth reading for that reason alone. Where I would have to disagree, however, is where Doerr states “everywhere you look, people are…
Gresham’s Law in a Post-Ideas Age
“The Elusive Big Idea,” an opinion piece by Neal Gabler, published in 2011 (Aug. 14), in The New York Times, offers up plenty of food for thought. For example, early in the piece, Gabler states: If our ideas seem smaller nowadays, it’s not because we are dumber than our forebears but because we just don’t care…
Why Not Begin Shaping That Change Right Now
One interesting opinion piece that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times, was Peter Wehner’s “Seeing Through a Glass, Darkly.” He has a political party affiliation, I don’t, and he’s a Republican, I’m not; but the piece itself is about confirmation bias, and about how it “is far more difficult to overcome than most of us…
New Scientist Interview with E.O.Wilson a Must Read
“Similarly, just as we go about our daily lives completely unconcerned about the lives of ants, the biosphere is wholly indifferent to our existence.” Those are my words, but also a fitting way to begin a post concerning an eminent biologist whose road to fame was partially paved by his diligent study of ants. As…
When ‘Saving the Planet’ Is Your Spouse
I have to admit, I’m not as familiar with George Monbiot’s writings — he writes for the British daily newspaper The Guardian — as I would like to be. I’ve read very little of what he’s written. I wish I had more time for that. However, I can say this: probably pretty much everything that…
Free Will Belief May Someday Go Poof
Google is like the Superman of the internet. But still, there are times when I just can’t find what I’m searching for, no matter how hard I try. It’s funny how there seems to be an endless stream of clickbait lists covering every conceivable topic that you could possibly imagine, on the internet today, and…
Imagine a Lawn the Size of Georgia
Can you imagine a lawn the size of Georgia? In a June 17, 2017, New York Times op-ed (“Beyond Blades of Grass”), Paul Bogard wrote that if you combined all the lawns in this country, it would be equivalent in size to the state of Georgia. (I believe he made a mistake when converting 40 million…
The Most Dangerous Stage of Life
Unfortunately, I had to work yesterday. Otherwise, I might have been able to attend the Earth Day rally in New York City yesterday. It would have been nice to meet and talk with people, and spread word about my website and my mission. But instead, I guess I’ll just have to settle for composing a…
How On Earth Did I Miss This?
Just as I was about to put away one of the articles I had cited in yesterday’s blog post (below), something worth noting caught my eye. Appearing just below the “Hero in Heart Attack Hogs the Fame” (Newsday, Oct. 15, 1998) article, I happened to notice this headline: “Hot Dog! Free Eats at Yankee Rally…
The Cost of Meat
It is well-known that a meat-based diet is much worse for the planet than a vegetarian diet. But not all meats are equally damaging. An article that appeared in Newsday, years back, illustrates this point. The article (AP “Study: Beef a more polluting meat” July 22, 2014) reported on a study that was published in…
From the Karsts of Cambodia to the Deepest Regions of the Ocean
I’ll let you in on a little secret. One error I think I made when creating this website was not emphasizing enough on the Underlying Causes page how important and central a factor “lack of a deep sense of eco-consciousness” is, in terms of explaining why the world is in the sad and sorry state…
What Is the Technosphere?
As another measure of the extent to which man is changing the planet, it has been reported that Earth’s “technosphere” now weighs 30 trillion tons. That’s according to a paper published online, in the journal The Anthropocene Review, this past November. All combined, everything man-made (on Earth) — including all our discarded trash — collectively…
High Energy Use & Consumption Habits
Hearing Donald Trump say to a reporter at a press conference, “I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,” reminded me of that memorable definition of chutzpah that goes something like this: it’s like when someone murders their parents, and then asks the courts for leniency because they’re an orphan. Could…
Some Election Day Food for Thought
As Election Day nears, let me squeeze in another post about this very soon-to-conclude election cycle … The fate of the country … does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every…
How Many of Us Possess a High Degree of Eco-consciousness?
Once again, I am caught short of time; but I am nevertheless itching to write this, since it fits so well with the topic of discussion I chose for my previous post. I have asked several scientists and individuals this question: “In short, do you know of any studies at all that attempt to measure…
My 3 Questions
As it now states at the end of the “Harriet Tubman” Wikipedia article, “On April 20, 2016, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced plans to add Tubman to the front of the twenty-dollar bill, moving President Andrew Jackson to the rear of the bill.” But I very much would have preferred seeing another woman chosen instead…
Coral Reefs – The Alarm Has Sounded
On the cover of The New York Times this past Sunday, there was an article (Michelle Innis, “Climate-Related Death of Coral Around World Alarms Scientists” Apr. 10, 2016) that describes how damage to the earth’s coral reefs has gotten considerably worse these past couple of years. According to the article, “scientists say the global bleaching is the…
The Global Solution to Extinction – Book Alert
This past Sunday in The New York Times, there appeared an opinion piece written by the renown biologist Edward O. Wilson, titled “The Global Solution to Extinction” (Mar. 13, 2016, Sunday Review section). He writes about the extinction crisis that is wiping out the web of life that stretches across this planet, and then gives…
Biology, Engineering, and the Nature of Life
Several days ago, while in the kitchen making something to eat, I had the radio on and caught an interesting show. Here is the link: (So-Called) Life – produced by RadioLab; and this is how RadioLab.org describes this particular show: “The uneasy marriage of biology and engineering raises big questions about the nature of life.”…
Mankind is Doing a Remarkable Job of Destroying the Planet
Did you see this in the news recently? According to a recent study, by the year 2050, there will be more plastic in the world’s oceans (pound for pound) than fish. That report was released by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. You can do a Google search and read all about…
Paris Climate Agreement – Hold Your Applause
Just a quick post about the recent climate change conference agreement about which there is so much celebration. Don’t uncork the champagne just yet! Sorry to splash a bucket of cold reality onto all of this, but the truth is there are so many problems with this “great achievement,” not the least of which is…
The Problem with Lawns
It seems like it’s been about half a year since my last post; so I’m pleasantly surprised to see it’s only been about two and a half months. Since there’s been so much I’ve been wanting to post about, and it’s all been piling up, maybe that’s why it seems like it’s been so much…
The Annihilation of Nature – Book Alert
You could be the first! During my lunch break at work, a few days ago, I had the chance to look through my August 22, 2015 issue of Science News. In it, on the page devoted to new books that have just been published, one book, in particular, grabbed my attention — two of its…
Chemicals & Our Disposable Consumer Behavior
This Earth Day, let’s remember exactly what’s at stake: everything. As Peter Singer and Collin O’Rourke wrote in an op-ed, published in the Daily News over four years ago (“Decade of distraction” / “Over the past 10 years, as the news has gotten bleaker, Americans have only twiddled their thumbs harder” Dec. 5, 2010, p. 28-29):…
We are spending the principal called Earth
Every year around this time, the following sentiment — eloquently expressed by Irish author Dervla Murphy — comes to mind: “The multiple threats to the Earth are so complex that in most cases they seem beyond the reach of an average citizen’s influence. Yet we can all launch a personal campaign to reduce consumption —…
Extinction on the Horizon
About a week and a half ago, the World Wildlife Fund released its Living Planet Index 2014 report, and according to their calculations, for the period between 1970 and 2010, human activity has been responsible for the loss of 52 percent of the planet’s non-human vertebrate animal population. Human activity-related causes include habitat loss, pollution…
2014 Climate Change March
On Sunday, September 21st, I attended the Climate Change March in New York City. I found it very heartwarming and uplifting. While I don’t think it will lead to any substantive change, I did get the chance to see and meet some really wonderful people. And that easily made it all worthwhile. I had only…
Some Quotations for You to Enjoy
For quite some time now I’ve been wanting to add some things to enhance the website (most particularly concerning the Quotations and Links pages); but I just haven’t had the time. That, coupled also with the fact that I haven’t posted any new messages here in several weeks, got me to thinking “Hey, why not share…
Humans Must Change Their Behavior
Several years ago, I read an interesting review of Julianne Lutz Newton’s Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey, a book about Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac. The review was written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, and published in The New York Times Book Review (“Land Man” / “A guide to the life of Aldo Leopold, author of ‘A…
We must change the Consumerism Paradigm
The Science section of yesterday’s New York Times included a letter to the editor, written by an Irene Muschel, of New York, who wrote in response to an article (Justin Gillis, “Looks Like Rain Again. And Again.” May 13) that was part of the New York Times’s “By Degrees” series dealing with the issue of global warming.…
I am not a fan of Earth Day
Today is Earth Day. I am not a big fan of Earth Day. Why? Because while there are 8,760 hours every year that the earth keeps us alive and makes all life on this planet possible, Earth Day comes just once a year and lasts just twenty-four hours. As I say on the About Me…
5 Encounters with Giant Beasts – videographer Sam Mallery
This is something I just can’t resist sharing. I fortuitously stumbled upon this about six months ago. This video is only about a minute and a half long, but it will stay with you for a very long time.
Conditions Inhospitable for Humans
I’ve been going through a huge stack of old articles and notes and came across an op-ed written by Al Gore and published in The New York Times (“Moving Beyond Kyoto,” Jul. 1, 2007). It focuses on the issue of global warming and states that mankind is dumping “70 million tons of CO2 every 24…
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The same day as my last posting, The New York Times Book Review ran a review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. This review was written by Al Gore (“Without a Trace,” Feb. 16, 2014), and it is well worth reading. In it, Gore states that up to half (“20-50 percent”) of all species…
It’s time to shift our worldview
Just to illustrate how serious the ecological crisis we are in, actually is, let me paraphrase something I wrote, which you can find near the beginning of the bullet list, on the Solutions page: It is imperative that our worldview shift from one that is highly anthropocentric, to one that is highly ecocentric. Two simple…