All Green Marketing is Greenwashing
Merriam-Webster’s definition may not be legally binding, but it nonetheless unintentionally implicates the entire ecosystem of so-called sustainable enterprises. After all, the dictionary now defines greenwashing as any action that makes something “appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is.”
Is Humanity a Virus?
The world, as it is, is sick. … Many thus conclude that humanity itself is the sickness. They then point to deforestation, pollution of land and water, and extinction of various species as additional evidence. Their case rested, they comfortably call humanity either a virus or a cancer doomed from the moment we evolved to infect our heavenly host and bring about its demise.
What the Climate Movement Can Learn from the Civil Rights Movements
The climate movement is the move important cause of our generation. Yet it’s clear that those leading the fight haven’t understood what made past efforts so impactful. … Civil rights organizations show why we need to provide a clear vision, spread hope not fear or shame, criticize the system, meet people where they’re at, and empower local communities.
The Art of the Essay
If modern social movements wish to accomplish their goals, which requires motivating the emotions of our moment, we’ll need to make literary art forms essential elements of their movement molecules. To do that, we’ll need to free the essay from its prison, reinvigorate it, and unleash it on the world.
The Decade We Define Our Destiny
Here is where I tell the story of the work being done daily in the quest to create carbon free communities.
Here is where I share the visions of the future forming as the transition becomes tangible.
Here is where I unearth the emotions evoked as we watch the old world wither and witness the emergence of something new.
Art is Activism: Why Social Movements Need Art and Artists
When we imagine activists, we often picture protestors marching down streets to shout at police … We tend to overlook artists even though these artists can be as much an activist as anyone engaged in a street protest.
Through work that gives vision for new worlds, by embodying new cultures in the act of creation, Artists are essential activists in any movement …
Why Are Black People Hotter than White People?
I didn’t make the rules. I see the facts. I report the facts. That’s all. And the fact is Black people are hotter than White people. It’s in the data and indisputable.
Before you burst into a white-hot rage, before you rush to call me a “reverse racist” or whatever other lackluster insult leaps first to your mind, before you barrage me with your list of bombshells exemplifying Eurocentric beauty standards, let me just say this: Idris Elba. Lupita Nyongo’o. Michael B. Jordan. Beyonce. Me.
Talking Trash With Seattle’s Zero Waste Hero, Moji Igun
Usually when trash talk starts, someone’s going to end up with their ass kicked. But when I met up with Moji Igun at the Retreat Coffeehouse in Greenwood and we started talking trash, there wasn’t any animosity, only enthusiasm. Moji has a way of taking a subject that most people find either boring or disgusting, garbage, and making it so interesting that you can’t wait to hear more.
The Illusion of Prosperity
We work a tremendous amount, a deadly amount. For what?
For selfish freedom that plunge the world into chaos and catastrophe? To fulfill our petty, materialistic desires? So we can shine for a second in the spotlight even if it means we leave behind a devastated stage for all the acts yet to come, acts written by poets and playwrights not yet known?
The Climate Movement Must Lead with Hope Over Fear
The world is quickly being turned on its head as we hurtle towards and past a series of climate tipping points, each triggering an onslaught of unnatural disasters which are far beyond our ability to control or even predict.
Yet, the message I am here to send is not one of fear and despair. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
Black Lives Can’t Matter Without Climate Justice
Black communities are surrounded by toxic waste sites. Black communities are breathing the asthma-inducing emissions of industry. Black communities are sliced through by highways.
And when heat waves, droughts, floods, extreme storms, and the other effects of climate change descend on cities, Black communities bear the brunt of it.
Is it a Waste to go to Space?
As I’ve gotten older, and even spent some time away from the industry, I’ve come, in a weird way, to appreciate the question and critique, “why go out there?”
But I’ve also come to understand how technology orbiting hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of miles above the Earth can have a direct impact on our daily lives.
You Can’t Change the World Until You Change Yourself
The only people who hold the power to change America are the People themselves.
But before the People can change America, or the world, the People must change themselves: I must change myself, and you must change yourself, as must the rest of us.
What Black and Palestinian People Teach Us About Strength, Struggle, and Solidarity
The oppressions of Black and Palestinian people are so aligned and solidarity so important that Angela Davis, in her book, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, said, “those of us who identify with the struggles of Black people for freedom in the United States of America should clearly identify with our Palestinian sisters and brothers today.”
Beyond the Green New Deal to a Just Transition
I’ve never sat front row to the political process before.
It’s exhilarating.
The night the Green New Deal Oversight Board (GNDOB) passed our recommendations for the 2022 and 2023 Seattle City Budgets, I was so wired I could hardly sleep – even after an hour of going hard at the bouldering gym.
What’s a just transition? And why should your community fight for one?
A just transition is how we reorient our economy in the face of mounting crises.
It’s our only hope of taking comprehensive climate action while simultaneously striving for a more just and equitable society.
An Evening at the Aquarium - Just Progress Newsletter #1
Last Friday, May 27th, I had the opportunity to attend a reception with the Prime Minister, a delegation of New Zealand business leaders, and a smattering of powerful personages from around the Greater Seattle area. How I ended up at such an exclusive event is beyond me.
…“You had to be someone to be here,” Mayor Harrell said on stage…
How a Terrorist Attack Gave Birth to a (New) Newsletter
When a White supremacist attacked a Black grocery store, everyone was affected. Some more than others. When the time-traveling grief of the shooting caught up with me, it left me alternating between shouting at the sky and crying into the dirt.