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Category: Environment, Sustainability, and Global Climate Change

No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. - Margaret Sanger
Liberty and Personal Freedom on Rana Station

Liberty and Personal Freedom on Rana Station

By Jan S. Gephardt Recent events have gotten me thinking about liberty and personal freedom. Here in the United States, we recently seem to have had an unusual amount of trouble defining just exactly what those are. To whom should they be extended, and in what measure? There seem to be different standards, depending on who you’re talking to, and about whom they’re talking. Yes, I know. We Americans are kinda famous around the world for having staked a claim,…

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On a background of plastic straws, a photo of The Ocean Cleanup’s haul of waste plastics after a day’s run, and a mountain of baled plastic waste in Boise, Idaho.
Eco-Dreams

Eco-Dreams

By Jan S. Gephardt Which eco-dreams will fuel the solutions of tomorrow? The climate change challenge has put fire in many bellies. It’s inspired the imagination of people all over the world. And well it should! Our future depends on those clever ideas and ambitious visions. But not all eco-dreams work out the way we expect. A Brilliant Idea Back around 2009-2010, a Japanese scientist-inventor named Akinori Ito developed what he hoped could be a solution to two problems: the…

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“The Future is not something we enter. The Future is something we create.” – Unattributed.
Looking for Hope

Looking for Hope

By Jan S. Gephardt Sometimes it seems that looking for hope in an era of climate change can seem like a fool’s errand. Climate change is already upon us. This is not news to anyone who’s been paying attention. Remember those horrifying outcomes the climate scientists warned us about in the 1990s? They’re here. Happening now. The mega-storms, the super-wildfires, the changing weather patterns. Rising sea levels? Mass extinctions? Melting polar ice caps? Yup. All happening now. Congratulations, climate-deniers! You,…

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"Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity." - Robert Alan Aurthur
See Diversity as a Strength

See Diversity as a Strength

“The Future We Want” Series – Part 1 By Jan S. Gephardt I want a future in which we see diversity as a strength. Yeah, right, you might well scoff. Jan, have you noticed the hate crime statistics, lately? That’s not where we’re headed! But what if it could be? A few weeks ago, I posted an article about using science fiction as a way to envision a more positive future. Today, in the first of three planned posts, I’d…

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An illustration depicts white, spiky coronaviruses as snowflakes in a wintry landscape with evergreen trees.
It’s Okay to Feel What We Feel

It’s Okay to Feel What We Feel

By Jan S. Gephardt Around my neck of the woods, it’s the season of “holiday cheer.” But frankly, I’m not seeing a whole bunch of bright, sparkly people out and about, having a real good time. That may partly be because (when I go out at all) I tend to hang out with people smart enough to wear masks. I can’t see their smiles, if they are smiling. If they are, that’s nice. But if they aren’t, that’s all right,…

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This is how the strong survive, a montage of happy roses.
Only the Strong Survive

Only the Strong Survive

By G. S. Norwood I have blogged about my flower garden before. Heaven knows my Facebook friends are tired of the new iris and rose photos I post every spring. But this year it felt a little different, stepping out into my garden after the Great Texas Deep Freeze of this past February. When our temperatures dipped into single digits, I was afraid everything in my garden would die. With temperatures like that, only the strong survive. Total Loss Let’s…

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Photos of five featured buildings, “Bosco Verticale,” Parkroyal on Pickering, Namba Parks, Ivry-sur-Seine, and the Chicland Hotel.
Literally Green Buildings

Literally Green Buildings

Happy 51st Earth Day! Followers of Artdog Adventures may remember earlier posts about environmentally-friendly architecture. I tend to post them around Earth Day. People sometimes talk about “green buildings.” But there’s “green” as in eco-friendly, and then there’s “green” as in literally green buildings. And some are both. What do I mean by “literally green buildings”? When I say “literally green buildings,” I mean green with plants. Lately, more and more architects think about plants from the very start of…

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The Bryant family of Garland, TX huddled in front of the fireplace with their kids and their dog.
Surviving a Not-So-Natural Disaster

Surviving a Not-So-Natural Disaster

By G. S. Norwood I grew up in Missouri, so I know about snow. I’ve been caught in a blizzard, snowed in over Christmas, and endured a January with fresh snow storms every three days. I know how to deal with natural disasters like those. So did the public utility companies of my native state. But I live in Texas now, and last week I only barely managed to survive a not-so-natural disaster. I credit my Missouri smarts, but I…

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This Muhammad Ali quote says, "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
What are our priorities?

What are our priorities?

I think we all understand that life will change after the pandemic, but what are our priorities? What guiding principles will light our way and inform those changes? In the face of glaring inequities revealed by the crisis, I worry about this. Perhaps I should explain where I stand. I believe that the proper role of government is to defend and work for its citizens. All of them, not just the rich and powerful. This idealistic view parallels passages in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,…

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The illustrated title says "Happy Earth Day Celebrating 50 Years."
Earth Day, fifty years on

Earth Day, fifty years on

Earth Day, fifty years on, looks a lot different from the early Earth Days I remember.  Followers of this blog may recall my claim to be “older than dirt” (as a gardener who composts, I can confidently make that claim). I also am older than Earth Day. As with many things in the 1970s, however, I came to Earth Day a bit late. Many schools in the US let out classes or didn’t count absences, if students left campus to participate in peaceful demonstrations…

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