Andrée Collier Zaleska plays guitar and mandolin, speaks Czech, loves camping, hiking, snowshoeing and swimming, and is mom to Kuba and Simon. Andree is the "practical philosopher" for the project; who muses on the bigger questions without losing track of what has to get done this week. more

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Browsing Archive: April, 2009

The Sierra Club candidate I wish I could support

Posted by Kenneth Ward on Tuesday, April 28, 2009,

Checking out the statements of candidates for the Sierra Club national board, I was disappointed to find no champions for vigorous climate action, so in an idle moment I drafted answers to the Candidate Questionnaire from the sort of candidate for whom I’d like to cast my vote.

Q. What leadership positions have you held in the Sierra Club, and what have you accomplished in those positions?

A. None. I stand for the vast majority of members who have a deep and abiding affection for the Club...

Lessons from cognitive dissonance theory

Posted by Kenneth Ward on Tuesday, April 28, 2009,

If we accept the worst, or precautionary assessment, then U.S. environmentalists have perhaps a year to avert cataclysm, and nothing we are doing now will work. We are dealing with this terrible situation in a very ordinary and human way: by denying it.

Our denial comes in a variety of forms: we believe that President Obama can and will solve the problem; we ignore Jim Hansen’s assessment and timeline; we concentrate on our jobs and organization agendas and pass over the big picture; we fo...

U.S. groups desert precautionary principle

Posted by Kenneth Ward on Tuesday, April 28, 2009,

After ducking the matter for a decade, U.S. environmental organizations finally pulled together a climate policy, but the National Call to Action on Global Warming issued by 53 organizations on March 5 is a mistake and should be reconsidered.

The National Call contains key elements that have been startlingly absent from our efforts to date—an assessment of climate risk, bright-line definition of solution, and a platform—but in attempting to thread a path between fundamentally irreconcila...

Markey/Waxman = Roadmap for Coal

Posted by Ken Ward on Tuesday, April 28, 2009,

As an upstart state rep from Malden, Mass, Ed Markey had the temerity to support rules reform, which got him kicked him out of his office by Speaker Tom McGee. Markey set up desk, chair and phone in the statehouse hallway and burnished an image of integrity which vaulted him to the top of a crowded Congressional primary field – running under the slogan, “They can tell Ed Markey where to sit, but no one tells him where to stand” – to capture the Congressional seat he still holds.