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My Neighborhood’s Native American Past
I’ve moved out of the Boston metro area and am now living in a part of New England which is peppered with historic markers like the one pictured first in this post. The text on these rocks is not entirely true; Native American settlers lived here...
Saving Sea Turtles from a Plastic Dinner in Massachusetts
Leatherback sea turtles are tough, but waterborne plastic can kill them. See Turtles, a nonprofit organization, says “hundreds of thousands of sea turtles… die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris.” Many of...
Can Environmentalism Alleviate Poverty?
Does environmental protection reduce the well-being of low-income people? A new discussion paper from Oxfam says it’s possible to improve the health and income of people living in poverty worldwide while still making environmentally sustainable...
Building Homes for the Not-So-Nuclear Family
When I first moved to Boston, I became convinced the way we design houses needs to change. A persuasive editorial in the New York Times this week agrees with me. Building cookie-cutter houses for nuclear families has left us with houses that can’t...
Why Ruin Photography Won’t Revive Cities
Grist republished a feature article claiming that “ruin porn,” a genre of photography which focuses on decaying cities, can help reignite our appreciation for the Rust Belt and aid in urban revitalization. Here are a few of the problems I see with...
The Lost Joy of Cooking
The art of cooking can be learned – and lost – in a generation. When I talked with a public health advocate earlier this year, she told me that some immigrants from the Caribbean can lose the ability to cook from scratch within a generation. In the...
How Majora Carter Changes the Image of Cities
Urban visionary Majora Carter described her ability to reimagine cities and neighborhoods at the Boston Museum of Science on Nov. 2. She told the story of her work to “green the ghetto” by connecting young people with environmental jobs, her efforts...
Communicating about Local Chemical Hazards
Every time I drive down Route 107 toward Boston, I pass a site where General Electric manufactures aircraft engines. A Google street view of Route 107 in Lynn This factory has been open since before World War II. A local business directory ...
The Smart Grid’s Grassroots Appeal
The phrase “smart grid” might intimidate some audiences. Do we want an intelligent power grid? For some people, the idea might be reminiscent of The Matrix or even 1984. Utility customers may say that futuristic plus costly does not equal appealing...
How Environmentalists Can Respond to Americans’ Need for Personal Space
While reading about social science and environmental communication, I’ve noticed a gap between how environmentalists in the United States view personal space and how their audiences perceive it. If environmentalists tell audiences not to "say ‘eww’...
Save Burger King! How Rising Sea Levels Threaten Urban Infrastructure
Should we fight global warming to save our urban infrastructure? Alexis Madrigal suggested this approach in an article for The Atlantic. In this article, I’m bringing that idea down to the ground level. Communities that deal with racial...
Why We Don't See Our Ecosystems
The road to forgetfulness is paved with good intentions.If we know something is good for us, that is no guarantee we will take action. In the context of environmental and social issues, I’m interested in actions and results. Good intentions don’t...
