Starting today, I begin a one-month blogging/tweeting/documentation intensive. I will be writing about my work -- what I actually do, what I'm hearing and seeing and experiencing, and (some of) my reflections about that. Why? Partly, it's motivated by my interactions with students and trainees. I've been teaching an online course this month, some other … Continue reading SERIES: A Month in the Life of a Professional Sustainability Change Agent
Designing a Big Push on Renewables
On May 9, at the invitation of Anders Wijkman, I had the honor of being one of the opening speakers at the World Renewable Energy Congress 2011, which was being held in Linköping, Sweden. Just a few days before, I had gotten the green light from a UN colleague and client to go out publicly … Continue reading Designing a Big Push on Renewables
Watching Egypt 2 – “We r all vry hpy”
The quote in the above headline, "We r all vry hpy", is a real email from a real colleague in Egypt, received not long after the fall of Mubarak. The extreme efficiency (12 letters) was in sharp contrast to another email, from an old college friend, which positively exploded with emotion and language, including the … Continue reading Watching Egypt 2 – “We r all vry hpy”
Watching Egypt 1 – Private Worries, Public Hopes
It was a relief to finally hear my client's voice on the phone. She was a bit breathless, but not sounding in distress. She had been out food shopping by taxi just that afternoon (this was Monday, 31 January), able to find what she needed, "though many people are just buying up whatever they can … Continue reading Watching Egypt 1 – Private Worries, Public Hopes
Letter from Syria / the Tigris-Euphrates Region
Picture the cement superstructure of some future small office building, vaguely futuristic in form, strange angles, sitting on scrubland. No walls yet, just empty space between the beams. Strung between the beams is somebody's laundry. It's hard to imagine who would hang laundry here. The nearest residential housing is at least a kilometer away. More … Continue reading Letter from Syria / the Tigris-Euphrates Region
What it Means to be a Sustainability Change Agent
I was lying on my back in the snow, staring up through the branches of the big old oak tree in front of our house, when it hit me. That's where I'd ended up after going down hill on my buttocks (on purpose, riding tea-saucers with my youngest daughter). It felt lovely just to lie … Continue reading What it Means to be a Sustainability Change Agent
“And the winning song is …”
Aren't you curious to know which of my songs is the most popular? That is, the most purchased in its digital format, on iTunes, Amazon.com, etc.? You won't believe it. I certainly didn't believe it. Let me back up. It would be easy to scribble pages and pages of philosophical rumination on the importance of … Continue reading “And the winning song is …”
Revisiting the Big Push: A Strategy for Scaling Up Renewable Energy
While the Cancún climate talks were under way, I published several different versions of the following short essay, which first appeared as a blog post in "Triple Crisis," then as a comment in Eurovoice newspaper's "Comment:Visions," and finally is slated for publication in the academic journal Solutions. Here is the Comment:Visions version: In late 2009, … Continue reading Revisiting the Big Push: A Strategy for Scaling Up Renewable Energy
Climate and Health: Side Issue, or the Bottom Line?
The fall has been so full of climate change-related seminars that I earlier forgot to write up this one: a day on The Health Impacts of Climate Change at Stockholm's prestigious Karolinska Institute (Oct 11, 2011). (Here I must reveal that my wife works at the Institute, Sweden's leading medical training and research center, as … Continue reading Climate and Health: Side Issue, or the Bottom Line?
Wailing on the Road to Cancún
"It's so bleak, it's very depressing. But we are activists. When things are bleak, we don't give up. We get busy." So said Meena Raman of the Malaysia-based activist group Third World Network at a small seminar on climate change held in Stockholm this week. For me, it was an excellent opportunity to get updated … Continue reading Wailing on the Road to Cancún
Alan AtKisson 