Diamond-Cut Life

My husband Thor and I went to the Illahee lecture last night here in Portland. Juliet Schor spoke, a sociologist and economist from Harvard University. She was excellent, and one of the most salient takeaways for me was on clothes. (It’s only fair to report Thor has sometimes termed me ‘a bit of a clothes horse’.)

Ms. Schor reported that in 1991 we in the U.S. bought an average of 34

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In my ongoing quest for the diamond-cut life of happiness without excess consumption, I notice a couple of things.

Many non-mainstream choices I make, like carpooling, increase my happiness. (This gang of public-interest attorneys I’ve gotten mixed up with is turning out to be a hoot. So-o-o-o much more fun than driving alone.) Other choices my household makes, like heating our house with biodiesel, has a fairly neutral daily impact on

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Last night my friend Jean gave me the first chapter of Lester Brown’s book Plan B to read. Whoa.

I learned that when the International Center For Technology Assessment studied the entire cost of the gas in our cars, including the military costs of protecting access to Mideast oil and the health care costs of treating illnesses created by air pollution, what our country is really paying for gas is not

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Just a brief comment before I head off to meet my carpool: In my view, No Country For Old Men, which just won the Oscar for best movie, is a death-dealing film, however strong its technical merits. Juno, in contrast is a life-giving and excellent film that I think should have won the award.

I can’t help noticing that the violent movies are mostly crafted by men while the life-giving stories

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I’m often drawn to the things that people don’t want to talk about. You know, the elephant in the living room syndrome. Today, that uncomfortable topic is the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Along with other excellent people and organizations, Mercy Corps has been helping do the above. Last week I was at Jimmy Mak’s when Neal Keny-Guyer, the CEO of Mercy Corps, was speaking. So

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On the first day of my new job in Salem, Oregon yesterday, I left my house in Portland before 6 a.m. and got home about 6:4o p.m. I spent three hours and forty minutes total on the commute, including walking to and from the Capitol Mall to my building.

Ye gads. To think that millions of people around the world do this for decades of their lives in

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My blog The Diamond-Cut Life is about chiseling our consumption down to the core of happiness. What do we really need to consume and do in order to have both happiness and integrity in the face of global warming?

In other words, how can each of us give legs to sustainability?

I think that joy for most human beings comes from honest work, friendship, connection to nature, sharing resources and even

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This Thursday evening my husband and I will participate in Focus The Nation, a nonpartisan teach-in and movement to address global warming that has been embraced by Barack Obama, Arnold Schwarznegger and more than 1,600 campuses nationwide.

This makes it the largest teach-in in our nation’s history, which I’d say is a right-sized strategy to deal with the largest problem we’ve ever faced.

Our friends Eban Goodstein, an

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Last night some friends and I had one of our periodic ‘Green Girls’ dinner parties at my friend Colleen’s house. We had a blast sharing news, laughter, viewpoints and encouragement around sustainability. Colleen’s meatless eggplant mousakka was a hit.

We all eat more than 1,000 meals a year, for a big percentage of our carbon footprint. If we want to lighten our carbon footprint, the principle to embrace is

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Today’s post is a brief one as I sit here at Stumptown Coffee in southeast Portland, Oregon. I’m sipping from a real mug instead of a disposable cup. Have you ever noticed how much more sensual the porcelain feels against your lips than a flimsy paper cup? How pleasing its warm weight is in the palm of your chilly hand on a winter morning?

It turns me on, to be honest.

Which

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