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Let me start by saying what sustainability is not. It is not endless consumerism based on the pharmaceutical industry, plastic bags, traffic jams, war, clear cuts, chemicals, genetically modified food, rising sea levels, sweatshops, shopping malls, the homeless, power, oppression and the decimation of the natural world. Sustainability is also not earth shoes, organic eggs, hybrid cars, carbon credits, hemp clothing, a green Apple Mac Book™, consumer co-ops, E85*, B20** , compact fluorescents, recycling bins or reusable shopping bags. [* 85% denatured ethanol and 15% gasoline fuel blend; ** 20% biofuel and 80% petroleum diesel fuel blend - Ed.] Read on...

It is not enough for us to blame big government and big business for what is in reality our responsibility. It is our pursuit of goods and services that creates the demand for raw materials: coal, oil, timber, iron, etc. It is our consumption that causes forests to be harvested, mines to be dug and holes to be drilled in the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. And the decisions we make in our professional careers determine how forests are harvested, how safely and cleanly coal and iron are mined, and how holes are drilled in the Gulf (carefully or recklessly). Read on...

Back in 1966, a CIA interrogation specialist named Cleve Backster performed an interesting experiment.

Because lie detectors measure skin moisture (sweat) through galvanic response, Backster had hooked up a cane plant to a lie detector to measure rates of water consumption. But when he examined the polygraph, he saw a response pattern very similar to that of humans.

Even stranger, because Backster knew that stress provoked the strongest response in polygraph tests, he started to wonder what would happen to the response if he burned a leaf.

Mind you, he didn’t burn the leaf—he merely thought about burning it. But when he thought about it, the polygraph went wild. Read on…

Here's the problem with wildlife—they prefer things wild. Turns out, undomesticated animals don't like roads or condos or, well, visitors. They thrive in what ecologists call "contiguous wilderness," meaning nature unbroken, uninhabited and, these days, highly unlikely. Take the Florida black bear; with a home range of close to 100 miles, this thing is no couch potato. But come on—100 miles of contiguous wilderness? With all the trees that need logging and the beachfront property that needs developing, isn't that just a tad excessive? Read on...

Most of us have got the message that “we are what we eat.” Francis Moore Lappe’s Diet for a Small Planet and Marion Nestle’s Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism go further. They have successfully made the parallel between healthful eating and good environmental stewardship. In this vein, it becomes necessary to “be where we eat,” as well—that is, to be geographically close to the source of our food’s production—so that we ourselves can monitor the environmental impact of our food choices. Read on…