Diamond-Cut Life

I think many perceive green wonky people to be grim, austere Puritan types. But my experience is quite different from that. Here’s what my dining room sounded like (loosely translated) last night when my Green Girls social circle came over for dinner. I was proposing a CRAG to them as I had planned.

Micki: “So what’s this CRAG thing? A guy I can date?”

Me: “No, honey, it’s a Carbon

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On March 2 I wrote about my household’s deliberations over which hybrid should be the replacement for our single car, a battered 15 year old Nissan. People have been asking me, “So what have you decided?” It’s almost like they’re wondering if a new baby will be a boy or a girl.

The answer: we don’t want this new baby (new car) until late summer. At the earliest, if then

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I am happy to learn this morning that Pierce County in Washington is protecting its rich farmland in the Puyallup Valley from developers.

Why? I’ll get really basic. The land has already been developed. It was logged many years ago and converted into farmland. Farmland is its highest, most brilliant and diamond-cut use. The Pacific Northwest soils are so fertile they support more biomass than any other soil

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My idea of today’s best read is not anything by me, but rather, John Tierney’s excellent article on carbon footprint and behavior change in the New York Times.

I entered his contest to invent the best name for a little device that will give people a steady feedback loop on their home’s energy consumption. Research shows that these visual cues nudge people into consuming more carefully and using less

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This past Saturday night we went to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s (BTA’s) annual awards dinner and auction, attended by about 800 people. It’s called Alice B. Toeclips and it was invented about a decade ago by my awesome friend and mentor Karen Frost, the founding director of the BTA.

I had good conversations with great people at Toeclips, and just one reservation I’ll get to in a minute

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Hybrid: a result of cross-breeding. Easter: a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Christ — celebrated the Sunday following the first full moon of the vernal equinox.

Wait a minute. Easter is famously Christian, but its timing is completely earth-centered, ruled by nature, which is to say it is pagan. Easter is a hybrid holiday. Christianity has been shown by scholars to have deep roots in the earlier earth-centered religions

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Don’t get me wrong; I think Craigslist is cool. But I’ve recently learned from the Business of Green blog about CRAGs, which I think are even cooler.

CRAGs are Carbon Rationing Action Groups, active mostly in the United Kingdom, so far. People join to become mutually supportive and accountable about lightening their carbon footprint.

Why do I find this so relevant? All my experience tells me that it’s only when

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Every household has its own little culture. Within Thor’s and mine, I did the unthinkable last night: I drove (did not walk) the 3/10 mile from our house over to choir practice.

This was not even in the Prius or other hybrid we have yet to purchase, but in our 1993 Nissan Sentra. As I was stepping out the door to walk to the church, I realized there

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I wrote on Monday about what a blast Thor and I just had on a Portland Parks and Recreation trip to Crater Lake, Oregon. Who’d have thought that skiing in a snowstorm could be so fun?

Since my vision of the diamond-cut life involves true sustainability, how sustainable was this group venture? Well, our crew of 22 created far fewer emissions with our snowshoes and cross-country

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When I was on Amtrak’s Empire Builder train heading east to Glacier last fall, I met a friendly mortgage broker in the lounge car as we clackety-clacked through the Gorge. We chatted (a longtime habit of mine).

“My industry made loans to people who were in no way ready to buy a house,” she said. “It’s not ethical. You should form a relationship with people who can’t yet

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