Can we please have some Climate Realism? — FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENT CIVILIZATION Can we please have some Climate Realism? “Immediate complete annihilation of the fossil fuel industry is the only answer” from one climate activist. Here’s my take. “Immediate complete annihilation” of the fossil fuel industry would be the only path to doom faster and more brutal than…

(part of a series from the “Shipwrecked Project”) — (part of a series from the “Shipwrecked Project”) There are many definitions of a hard childhood. By any definition Mario had a hard childhood. A childhood shaped by deprivation and struggle. Mario did not have a complete understanding of the reasons his father abandoned his children and his wife. Though…

2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 — 2016 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 One of our early Houston founding families supported the creation of settlement houses and community centers, because, as he said, “neighbors should live as friends”. I just recently returned from Germany. A country leading the struggle to welcome newcomers, to make a place for…

(We’re sick of this damn virus) — UPHEAVAL: (We’re sick of this damn virus) In the aftermath of disaster there are discernible patterns — stages of thought, behavior and emotions. Fifteen Years ago I began to map them. To document — from the experiences of people who’d faced the unthinkable — those patterns and stages. You can…

Dear Mayor Sylvester Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo: — My appeal to Mayor Sylvester Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo. Dear Mayor Sylvester Turner and Judge Lina Hidalgo: Let me be frank. If you step up and lead — call upon sector leaders to join you in navigating this unthinkable twin disaster — you will win the resources and support…

in the time of the virus — I am thinking of some of my most treasured relationships. People in Louisiana. Friends and family. Many Louisiana friends are “storm friends”. We came to know one another in the aftermath of Katrina. We’ve seen horrible stuff. We’ve hugged in a street surrounded by wreckage, when everything was gray dust…

Some of us are in professions that require the taking of an oath. We ask it of doctors, of soldiers, of public servants. Of those we elect… — The Oath Takers Some of us are in professions that require the taking of an oath. We ask it of doctors, of soldiers, of public servants. Of those we elect to represent us. Of people we entrust with power. Our doctors swear to ”respect the hard-won scientific gains of those…

March 22, 2020 — ENOUGH TODAY March 22, 2020 I slept badly and woke up with a sense of dread. A few moments during which I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know what. And then I remembered. #COVID-19 I am filled with dread because we have been told that it will get…