Blog

I think saving the world is important, but so far the world — at least as represented by the wealthy and the powerful in the less wealthy countries — seems to show no need to be saved. The wealthy...
POSTED Wednesday, August 27, 2008

How you can save the world, or more precisely, what I can do to save the world, has driven me full time for the past 7 years. As a former astronaut, sometime scientist, and dogged good public policy pusher,...
POSTED Monday, August 25, 2008

“Think globally, act locally” is a well-known approach to enabling change in the deep structure of our society. Perhaps the ultimate local action is what food we choose to place into our bodies. While deciding on a personal diet...
POSTED Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The grand myth of environmentalism is that it’s all about saving the Earth. It’s not. The Earth will be just fine. Environmentalism is all about saving ourselves. That may seem a bit counter-intuitive; after all, the Earth is certainly...
POSTED Monday, August 18, 2008

Consider this scenario. Your doctor feels a small lump in your gut. You ask her what to do next. And this is what she says: “There is a test we can order to determine if this lump is an...
POSTED Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I love transparency, and I wish I believed it could save the world all by itself. Transparency, of course, is the opposite of opacity, secrets, anonymity… all those affordances that can hide bad behavior, foster bribery and corruption, and...
POSTED Monday, August 11, 2008

On May 2, 2008, Cyclone Nargis touched down on Burma’s western coast, and – according to top U.S. diplomats – may have claimed the lives of 100,000 people. As Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science has...
POSTED Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Science has always mattered to those of us old enough to realize how much society has achieved in a relatively short amount of time. The question becomes: are we creating a culture to ensure that the hearts and minds...
POSTED Monday, August 4, 2008