I want to take the opportunity, in my inaugural Detroit post, to write about the rust belt.

Now I've been told by no less of an authority than former Governor Jennifer Granholm (see here at 32:00) -- that Michiganders reject the term "Rust Belt." Apparently the broad sweep...

Hey Newtonites. You home for Thanksgiving? Hosting the festivities? Or, for my generation, staying at your parents' house? It's cold today, isn't it?

What would you say if I told you that almost every person you know who owns a home in Newton was about to pay up to $1,500...

"A treaty was signed that was unique in the annals of international diplomacy. Knowledgeable observers had long believed that this particular agreement would be impossible to achieve because the issues were so complex and arcane and the initial positions of the negotiating parties so widely divergent. Those present at the...

Imagine you wake up this morning to find out that a distant relative has died leaving you a trust fund of $1,000,000.

Sad news. But, to be honest, you never liked them much -- so very exciting stuff!

If it were me, I might jump online and take a...

IN SEARCH OF A REVOLUTION

It's hard to see that you are in the middle of a revolution while it's happening.

Here in Boston, the American Revolution saw more than a decade of vast economic, social and political change. When we look back, though, one has to wonder if...

Beginning tomorrow, March 4, 2010, the Environmental Law Society at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law will host the 2010 Annual NAELS Conference -- Staying Afloat: Adapting to Climate Change in the Gulf Coast and Beyond.

The Conference will bring together top attorneys,...

If there are two things I can't live without, they are air conditioning and refrigeration.

This summer, I spent an angelic three months in Ann Arbor with my wife and newborn. One night in July, our side of the street had a blackout and suddenly the hot,...

Here in the US, we may finally get it. We are turning off our lights, doing without plastic bags, driving less, and staying up-to-date on every new breakthrough from solar ribbons to fuel cells to climate neutral campuses. Every newspaper, magazine, company, and blog seems to have a green focus....

Summer of '68
In the summer of 1968, the US was experiencing post-war growing pains that sparked the birth of a social and political movement that would reshape the country and the world.

20 years earlier, in 1948, the Allies and the bomb had dubiously ended WWII, extinguishing a...

Picture a hot, asphalt surface in the middle of Summer. An ant drags a fallen leaf across this hot, black desert. The sun is shining brightly and nearly countless quanta of energy hit the leaf and ant each second, but the ant and leaf stay intact.

But find...

BuyinGREEN
This morning, just like yesterday morning, and the morning before that, an increasing number of people in the United States woke up, washed and styled themselves with Aveda and Body Shop products, prepared their organic breakfasts from Whole Food, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's with Sub Zero...

I was rudely awakened this morning by 5,500 noisy, rowdy, teenagers and twenty-somethings who would not shut up.

Maybe they didn't know that I am not a morning person, and that I hope to have my first hour to sip my coffee, watch sports highlights, and plan...

Mike Lowell - the often-times unsung work-horse for the Red Sox, a throw in for the trade for Josh Beckett, and a man who nearly killed himself diving face-first into the...

The roots of the United States of America, like those of humanity, are equal parts collaboration and confrontation. Collaboration between British and colonial troops helped drive the French out of the Americas. Confrontation between British and colonial forces set the stage for collaboration between the colonies and...

Blame It On Rio

In June of 1972, some 35 years ago, a group of future-thinking leaders met in Sweden for the first United Nations Convention on the Human Environment. By the end of a whirlwind week, they had issued the Stockholm Statement, established what is now known as UNEP,...

The Gore Tour Stops in DC

This coming Sunday, former Vice President, Oscar winner, and Rock N' Roll organizer Al Gore will address a group of more than 400 leading CEO's, COO's, non-profit leaders, politicians, court justices, attorneys general, law school professors and Deans, entrepreneurs, and environmental...

Emerging From the Stone Age

One week ago today, I awoke to a sun-splashed view of the Flatirons from a travel inn just off of Broadway Avenue in Boulder, CO. These sandstone shelves - named in the days of Abe Lincoln by intrepid pioneer women who said they looked...

"Do your 10 percent 100 percent and God will do the other 90 percent."

Laurie David - leading global warming activist and wife of Seinfeld Creator Larry David- credits Arianna Huffington with passing along the 10% quote above. She now uses it as an affirmation when...

CLEAN AIR ACT , Section 101: Congressional findings and declaration of purpose
(c) "A primary goal of this chapter is to encourage or otherwise promote reasonable Federal, State, and local government action, consistent with the provisions of this chapter, for pollution prevention."

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On November 29, the United States...

2000 & 2004: A LEGACY OF LOSSES

My first real political awakening came in 2000 at Harry's New York Bar, a Paris pub bought in 1923 by Harry McElhonewhen. A Straw Poll, begun at Harry's, has accurately predicted the result in all but two US Presidential...