The connection between the two words in the title is a bit tenuous, but it is real. I’ve just finished a great story in the New Yorker about connections between delayed gratification and performance in school and similar milieus. The marshmallow serves as the object used to measure children’s degree of self-control in a psychological test. Children are shown a marshmallow and given the following instructions to choose among: 1. Eat the marshmallow right away. 2. Wait 15 minutes until the examiner returns, at which time they will be given an additional marshmallow. 3. If they can’t wait that long,… Read More
Continue ReadingOn the Road Again
I’ll be back on Friday. I am in the middle of moving my base up to Maine as I do every summer. Nothing I need is where I can find it.
Continue ReadingMelting the World’s Highest Ski Run
I don’t normally publish articles about the impacts of climate change. There is already plenty of information around already. But, being a skier, I couldn’t pass this one by. The photo shows the current extent of the snow field at Bolivia’s Chacaltaya Glacier. > [The] Glacier, once known as the world’s highest ski run at 17,388 feet, has completely melted away, serving as a vivid example of the effects of climate change on the glaciers around the globe. > Click on the link to see the changes over the years.
Continue ReadingMBAs and Sustainability
I’m about to leave tomorrow for a conference of business school faculty members who do research on the subject of business and sustainability. It will be a trip of much joy as the organizers include several former students who studied with me at MIT before I retired. It’s with mixed feelings that I accept my role as a greybeard in this group. When I began doing research in what was then business and the environment (sustainability was just coming on the scene), faculties at almost all the leading business schools had to keep their interest in environment under wraps. Only… Read More
Continue ReadingMaking Happiness Happen
I have just discovered a blog that is inching up on sustainability as flourishing. One of [Slate’s](http://slate.com/) blogs, [The Happiness Project](http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/happinessproject/), by Gretchen Rubin focuses on happiness. While not synonymous with flourishing, the way she talks about her topic follows my line pretty closely, with occasional lapses into reducing happiness to the outcome of following rules. Here are a few excerpts that imply that happiness and authenticity are closely related, and that happiness comes from relationships. I would say that these articles are helping to recognize that **being**, not **having** is at the roots of flourishing. > [What’s Essential to… Read More
Continue ReadingSustainability and Faith
Following a book talk I gave last week in New York, an audience member exclaimed to me that I was presenting a religious argument for sustainability. This was the third time someone had made a similar comment. Each time I struggled with a response. But after three times, I have been thinking more seriously about this. I found this Wikipedia definition helpful in reflecting: “A religion is a set of tenets and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, or religious law.” Then the law… Read More
Continue ReadingMessages from the IHDP
One of the key events in the sustainability world is the [Open Meeting](http://www.openmeeting2009.org/) of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP), just completed in Bonn, Germany. One of the thematic statements from the meeting website sets the context that, although more knowledge is always welcome, the importance of action on what we already know is growing. > The increased understanding of the challenges we are currently facing has shifted the focus in yet another way, from understanding the dynamics of global environmental change to using that understanding to devise ways to meet the challenges that we see… Read More
Continue ReadingGetting the Message Right or Getting the Right Message?
I came across this article, appearing way down in the on-line edition of the NYTimes. The article, “Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus,” refers to a study of the impact of the language used in getting the attention and commitment of the public on environmental issues. Framing is important as it shapes the images for and meaning to those who hear the messages. This article focused on global warming, but the same is true about any issue. > The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” > > The term turns people off, fostering images… Read More
Continue ReadingSwine Flu–From the Mouths of Babes
I know it’s not on my list of topics, but this is too good to pass by.
Continue ReadingStanding in Line for a Nike Air Yeezy
On Thursdays I go into Cambridge to attend class at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. Today as I was walking from the T stop, I passed a small crowd gathered in front of storefronts along the way. They had arrayed camp chairs and sleeping bags at the edge of the sidewalk. I thought at first that they were picketing a leather goods store and stopped to ask one of the crowd what was going on. They were waiting in line for the chance to buy a pair of [Nike Air Yeezy](http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/sportswear/en_US/view_post?country=US&lang_locale=en_US&blog=en_US&post=en_US/2009/04/02/nike-air-yeezy) sneakers. They has been there since Wednesday… Read More
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