While we are counting blue and red states, what about the purple?

We’ve heard plenty about the red and blue states. After all, this is an election year.
But what about purple? That is the theme of the most recent YES! Magazine issue. “Purple” represents the populist trend encompassing the issues we agree on in the contemporary US. Yes, I did say agree on–or at least the [...]

“Going on the Side of Life”: Managing Humans to Foster Nature’s Resilience f

Here is the outline of the paper I gave at the recent environmental philosophy conference that a number of you have asked for. Sorry it took me so long to get it up: I was hoping to flesh it out, but since that will take me awhile, I can at least post this:
Given the [...]

Tree Huggers in the City

One day I looked out my window to see a woman with her arms around the old maple tree in front of my house. When I stepped out my door, she explained she has just had breast cancer surgery and, “It feels like healing here.”
Research has shown that those who look out on [...]

Supporting the Heart of Palestine: An Avenue to Peace in the Middle East

“Whenever something makes us happy, something else makes us sad again.”
–Palestinian girl growing up under Israeli Occupation
“If you have been enlightened enough to take the side of the Palestinians - oh bless your hearts - take our sides, because for once you will be on the right side, right? But if taking [...]

What the storm says

I am going to go out on a limb here. I am going to assert my belief that there is something mysterious in the life of the natural world that wants to reach us, to touch us (to heal us). Even though we cannot prove this, we can tell its story as if [...]

Hunger Hell

What is your idea of hell? In 1976 Lower Chehalis elder Henry Cultee (from the Grays Harbor area of Washington State) told me his version of the traditional story in which Bluejay visits the Land of the Dead. There, amidst entire nations of Indian people and animal species, Bluejay found a white man, munching away, [...]