By Stan Cox, www.AlterNet.com

The recent mansion boom produced millions of energy-wasting homes with thousands of square feet that Americans don't need -- not the behavior of a society that's thinking about a sustainable future.

In Los Gatos, Calif., controversy has raged this summer over the city planning commission’s approval of a proposed hillside home that will occupy a whopping 3,600 square feet – and that's just the basement. Atop that walkout basement will be 5,500 more square feet worth of house.

Cold water drawn from Lake Ontario cools buildings and provides big energy savings.
By Fred Langan

Toronto - The Toronto Dominion Centre is the most distinctive set of office towers in the city's financial district. Three of the five black buildings were designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in the late 1960s. So was their air conditioning.

A report from a visitor to Amritapuri, India.
"I had recently spent some time with Amma in her home-base Amritapuri, India. There I attended a question and answer session with Amma. As a response to an environment related question Amma spoke in length on different ways to protect the environment. She stressed again and again on the importance of caring for Mother Earth in all our daily activities. It was a very informative and an eye-opening session for me. I was surprised to find out that I was neglecting so many aspects of my daily routine that can be improved to save the earth. Amma was enumerating the different ways of preserving natural resources. She stressed on the importance of avoiding unwanted garbage. The concept of recycling is now well-known all over the world. A lot of effort is being made by some organizations to save the earth. However, there is still an enormous amount of wastage that pollutes the earth tremendously. If everyone joins hands towards protecting this earth, we can surely bring about a big positive change and

(Or That`s the Way it is)

By Robert H. - Age 11

I think that if we had started recycling a long time ago we would have a better envirment. We also should have use natural based products to reduce harm to the envirment.

There isn`t a magic time machine that would bring us back to the time of the industrial revolution ,so we might have a chance to convince the people to use natural based products and tell what would happen if they don`t. I think that would be swell. But, let’s gets back to reality.

Taken from: The Mainstream Manufacture of Misinformation by Jonathan Treasure

It has been remarked that scientists typically have no more understanding of the philosophy of science than fish do about fluid mechanics.

Whilst some sciences such as quantum physics have a more developed connection with their philosophical ramifications, others, including hybrid disciplines such as medicine are peculiarly deficient in this respect. In any event, philosophy does not seem to be a pressing cause for concern for working physicians who appear to view metaphysics with the disinterest typically reserved for clinical specializations unrelated to their own. A survey of epistemological beliefs of 237 resident physicians found that more than two thirds did not know what epistemology was; less than 25% could give an appropriate definition of science, and none could state the philosophical presumptions of science (Peña, Paco, and Peralta 2002). Here we need to ask two initial questions: how do we properly distinguish between “science” and “nonscience” and how do we distinguish between “good” vs. “bad” science?

By Gabriel Kolko

Contradictions now wrack the world's financial system, and a growing consensus exists between those who endorse it and those who argue the status quo is both crisis-prone as well as immoral. If we are to believe the institutions and personalities who have been in the forefront of the defense of capitalism, we are on the verge of a serious crisis-if not now, then in the near future.