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Thomas Cole: The Course of Empire: The Savage State 1836

Report: Obama “changed more than 80%” of EPA rules for the worse

By Kurt Heidinger on Nov 29, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, evolution, sustainability, time

If you’ve been following the news, you know that global warming is no longer considered a hoax. Even if you haven’t been following the news, you can’t help but notice that our trees are being splintered by vicious and bizarre weather: the Halloween blizzard, the August hurricane, the June tornadoes, the weeks of rain followed [...]

Walmart Heir “owns” a Transcendental Masterpiece

By Kurt Heidinger on Nov 08, 2011 in beauty, citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, endosymbiosis, sustainability, time

The “ninth richest person in the world,” Walmart heir Alice Walton has tons of $$$ to consume conspicuously; and one of her prize possessions is the painting we are using in our Transcendentalist Club flyers to show how local heroes William Cullen Bryant and Thomas Cole were our nation’s premier tree-huggers. The AP reports: One [...]

Our Place is in today’s Hampshire Daily Gazette!

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 29, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism, time

Thank you, Daily Hampshire Gazette—& campers, & Smith College intern Victoria Dunch (who made it happen!), & Northampton DPW’s David Veleta, who taught us so much about where our waste goes in such a friendly and substantive way. Note: do you know where your garbage goes? Note 2: if garbage is something you throw away, [...]

brownfields tell us that, traditionally, economists are poor at ecology

How neoliberalism destroys our oikos, both of ‘em

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 17, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism

Oikos, the Greek word for home, is the root of our words ecology and economy. ecology (n.) 1873, “branch of science dealing with the relationship of living things to their environments, coined by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) as Okologie, from Gk. oikos “house, dwelling place, habitation” (see villa) + -logia “study of” (see -logy). [...]

oikos—root of both ecology & economy—means home

ecology and economy have “oikos” in common

By Kurt Heidinger on Jul 10, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, economy, evolution, sustainability, technological determinism, time

We have been raised in culture that pits economy against ecology; and, that’s exactly why we are experiencing our rapid decline as a culture. The classic refrain of “jobs vs. the environment” echoes in the halls of government, muddling the thoughts of those charged with ensuring the perpetuation of our “highest standard of living in [...]

Sidehill Farm gnomehouse

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 30, 2011 in consumerism, Director's Notes, economy, sustainability

+ gnomedog, too! When you’re in Ashfield, take a quick trip to the Sidehill Farm farm-store, buy some of their raw milk, raw butter, paneer, & glimpse this beautiful inhabitation:

Mahatma Gandhi, satyaraha & purslane, the wild superfood

By Kurt Heidinger on Jun 15, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, endosymbiosis, sustainability, Uncategorized

In 1935, in the midst of the satyagraha campaign, Gandhi was looking for ways to help his people reject English capitalism. One of the ways was to teach them to eat weeds.* He liked purslane, a superfood loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, that is growing now here in the Nonotuck biome. Strew a handful into [...]

American presidential candidate @ the end of the era of cheap oil

Whatever we do to nature, we do to ourselves

By Kurt Heidinger on May 31, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecocide, ecology, economy, sustainability, technological determinism, time

In today’s NYT’s article about Japan’s welfare-program for nukes, we learn industrial capitalism is a form of heroin: With no substantial reserves of oil or coal, Japan relies on nuclear power for the energy needed to drive its economic machine. But critics contend that the largess has also made communities dependent on central government spending [...]

How to get off the grid in 2011

By Kurt Heidinger on May 17, 2011 in consumerism, Director's Notes, economy, sustainability

One of the most effective ways we can act to improve our lives is to reduce our dependence on nuclear and fossil fuel energies. The ultimate in reducing dependence is getting off the grid (creating one’s own energy @ home & work), but any step towards self-reliance is going to save you $$ and increase [...]

part of Philip Taaffe's Anima Mundi series

anima mundi: prelude

By Kurt Heidinger on Apr 28, 2011 in citizenship, consumerism, Director's Notes, ecology, evolution, Jefferson, religion, sustainability, time

This painting is part of Philip Taaffe’s Anima Mundi series on display at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, March 23 – June 12, 2011. _____ A few days ago I celebrated Earth Day with two bright & excitable 2nd grade classes. My goal was to get them to wonder. I wanted to seed [...]

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