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 ReadingStill on the Road
I’m still away from home at the kick-off meeting of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS). The meeting venue is in the brand new, Leeds-certified quarters of the Ross School of Business at UMich. The pleasure of seeing my former students emerge as leaders in this emergent community is hard to describe. I guess the most important sign of success for a teacher is to see one’s students excel. As I wrote a couple of days ago, the ARCS group is striving to establish sustainability ever more deeply in the curricula and research activities in schools of business.… Read More
Continue ReadingThe American Dream
The NYTimes published the results of a poll it recently ran, asking people how they felt about the “American Dream” in these bad times. The answers were paradoxical. 72 percent of the respondents expressed confidence that it was still possible to wake up to find the American Dream of becoming rich realized, but only 44 percent thought that they were already there. A similar poll taken four years ago found that only 31 percent thought they had made it. But the future outlook was down. > Compared [to an identical] poll taken four years ago, fewer people now say they… Read More
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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