Castle ruins and economic tea leaves

My instagram is full of images from Scottish castles, some in ruins, some held together. It is a bittersweet routine for me, having visited Scotland twice where I developed a deep and abiding love for the air, land, water and people of Alba. I deeply respect the craftsmanship of these massive structures, built over long […]

The exploitative economy

We live in a world where, for the last 400 years or so, economic models were based on exploitation. Exploitation of natural resources, exploitation of people, exploitation of markets. Somewhere along the way, this exploitation was normalized and the mechanisms for exploitation are heralded, lauded, and revered. The inhumane impacts of these economic models have […]

Survey Results

Here are the survey results. What are we going to do? I can do a better survey with a little less bias and more flexibility in the way the questions are designed for answers. What should we do with this information? There were only 155 responses, which isn’t a bad showing, but we need a […]

one job

I have one job this winter…well, beside my 9-5 and non-profit work. I need to write at least a lit review for a thesis about economic models. No more messing around.

A centrist democrat walks into a bar called Hooverville…

I wish I could follow that up with something clever. Sorry to disappoint you but I swear I’m not playing click-bait games. I honestly wish there was a humorous or clever follow up in the spirit of Will Rogers. Maybe it will come to me later. In case it doesn’t, I’ll beg your forgiveness right […]

Some air quality captures

A few screen grabs from the last couple of days air quality.

A culture of many….

I have developed an informal and anonymous poll for my community. Informal in that the questions and poll design are somewhat imperfect. I readily admit that I have bias in putting this poll out there, and I also readily admit that I’m happy to change those biases, if I find the counter-narrative based in fact […]

Why wait? Stop fossil fuel expansion at Port of Tacoma

Tomorrow night, there is a meeting at City Council Chambers to discuss the interim regulations for fossil fuel expansion at the Port of Tacoma. I may not be able to attend, so I wanted to get some thoughts down for others to consider. I will likely send this, or something like it, in email to […]

Don’t lose the lesson

Stories like this are super-encouraging. But let’s not lose the lesson. As we move towards more sustainable ways of transportation, if we don’t do something about crass capitalism, we won’t have gained much ground. Electric vehicles and energy production still require responsible extraction, production, and recycling of every component and by-product. Tesla is working toward […]

Have care

I started watching “Poldark” recently and am enamored with the way the script is written and acted. So, I have decided to use it as much as possible. I’m a weirdo like that. So, when I say “have care” I intend for you to be very careful about how your attention is used and applied […]

Single issue voter

I have never wanted to be a single issue voter, but I’ve come to realize that if we don’t have environmental justice and equity, if we don’t make environmental health our number one priority, if we don’t have respect for the natural world and all her inhabitants, we can’t have justice, health, or a respectful […]

Let the people speak

We are caught in an endless, vicious, unproductive cycle where we think we elect people to positions of power to represent us – but then they are swallowed up into the machine and courted, swayed, and bullied by industry representatives. Every two years or so, the election cycle begins – politicals step up, make promises, […]