Per Capita Davis: Think Globally, Act Globally
Astronaut William Anders took a photo of Earth in 1968, a blue and white ball floating in black space, describing his experience as, “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” The photo…
Per Capita: Jonathan, Jane and Julia
Whether it’s reading it or writing it, this column can be depressing. The climate crisis is real. Describing or reading about the consequences of not addressing it with sufficient policies, actions, or urgency can paint a dark picture. It’s important to know the scope of…
Per Capita: One step forward, five steps backlash
Remembering isn’t really my strong suit, but I do recall points in the evolution of my thinking about the climate crisis. There was the beginning, when it seemed that if all us individuals changed our light bulbs and rode a bike that would take care…
Per Capita: One step forward, two steps back … or is it the other way around?
The prior column was about pieces of the puzzle, how if we raise our gaze from our own circumstance with heat, drought, flood, whatever and take in the growing ubiquity of these extreme events around the planet, we will see a picture that requires us…
Per Capita Davis: We are all pieces of the puzzle
It’s puzzling to figure out why the climate crisis has not yet reached an all-hands on deck level of urgency that would characterize an effort something like a Marshall Plan, a consensus that would overcome the comparatively penny-ante divisions and competitions between countries. It’s as…
Per Capita Davis: News you may have missed
The climate crisis has so many facets, from global issues to individual purchasing decisions. This column is about some news items you may have missed, most of which are from the low end of the spectrum. The planet is, as we all know, getting warmer,…
Per Capita Davis: Nature and the climate crisis
The world has changed since I was a kid. Well, duh, you might reasonably respond. But bear with me. I’m not talking just about the landscape, about how the Nut Tree was the only thing on the highway between the Bay Area and Sacramento, nor how there…
Per Capita Davis: The world needs to reflect resilience, redundancy and cooperative governance
Eventually, on this planet of increasing population and not inexhaustible resources, the issue of sustainability will take center stage. We talk about it now, but my guess is that not too far in the future the discussion will take on a more serious and urgent…
Per Capita Davis: Here’s some believe-it-or-not climate news
For your light reading, items from various news sources, some of which appear believable and serious, others not so much: Cambridge, Mass., home to Harvard University, has adopted an ordinance to require the placement of stickers warning of the climate emergency on fuel pumps at…
Per Capita Davis: What does it mean to be sustainable?
Reading the morning news, I came across an article about viruses. In 1992, a bunch of scientists were at a meeting convened by NASA to discuss the possibility that life exists on planets other than Earth and how they should go about looking for it….
Per Capita Davis: What a week this was
What a week that was, and I don’t mean about what was happening in Washington, though I guess that also factors in. I’m talking about the avalanche of news reports coming out about car companies and their plans for the future. Friday, Jan. 29, the…
Per Capita Davis: We have arrived at a reckoning
The word “reckoning” can be used in more than one way. It can be defined as “the action or process of calculating or estimating something,” as in “I reckon that boat won’t float.” For my purposes with this column, it can also be defined as,…
Per Capita Davis: A little light on the subject
Light, such a wonderful word, meaning both that which illuminates and as a measure of weight. I’ve been feeling both recently. Jan. 20 feels like a special day, a “light at the end of the tunnel” day, and a description of what feels like a…
Per Capita Davis: Are co-ops a model for going forward?
There was a lot of conversation last year about what we might learn from the pandemic, and specifically how what we learn might inform our approach to dealing with the climate crisis. A lot of this discussion focused on which industries and technologies should be…
Per Capita: Is it ‘here we go’ or is it ‘here we go again’?
I admit to becoming somewhat cynical about news reports of countries pledging to take real, substantive actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but, in the spirit of the season, and also admitting to a slightly dormant but unquenchable hope, I’m letting Lucy line up the…
Per Capita Davis: Nonprofits need our help
The work of building a more resilient and less dangerous world post pandemic will focus on, among other things, the “environment” a singe word that encompasses an enormous number and range of areas of policy and programs. Many hands, one might even say “all hands…
Per Capita Davis: What does ‘urgent’ look like?
Warnings about potential adverse effects of what was heretofore known as “climate change” began long ago, but even if we stick a pin in the year 1990 (see below), there was always the semi-comforting tagline to news reports to the effect of, “if we act…
Per Capita Davis: Fork in the road
Today, as I write this, is Nov. 2. When The Enterprise prints it, and you read it, it will be Nov. 4. Between now and then is Nov. 3, a day of great consequence for the climate crisis. I’m not sure how to characterize the…
Per Capita Davis: Reimagining the railroads
Back in 2016, Bill McKibben wrote the foreword for a book, the principal author of which is Bill Moyers, titled “Solutionary Rail — A people-powered campaign to electrify America’s railroads and open corridors to a clean energy future.” My neighbor across the street, a train…
Per Capita Davis: When innovation goes off the rails
For some time now the columns I’ve been writing were born out of the urgent discussion that started in the spring over how we earthlings will move forward from the pandemic. Would we learn anything from our experience about the value of and need for…
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