An Order of Chaos, Please
According to polls and innumerable published interviews and anecdotes, Americans of all political persuasions just can’t wait for the nightmare of the current presidential election to end. It’s too ugly and demeaning. Wake us when it’s over! Unfortunately,...
Eight Ways to Strengthen Our Democracy Beyond Voting
‘Especially after the deeply toxic experience of 2016,’ writes Collins, ‘we all need to step up to protect our real democracy.’ (Photo: bonsaimovie / flickr) Throughout this trying election season, we’ve been told how much is at stake with...
The Case of the Vanishing Oil Reserves
Where are Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade when we need them? A crime is in progress, and only a detective who’s unafraid of stepping on powerful people’s toes is likely to get to the bottom of it. Here’s what...
Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Before the Flood’: A Review
The release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s new film ‘Before the Flood’, near the end of a US election in which climate change has gone all but unmentioned, is to be celebrated. As is the fact that it has been made...
On Standing Rock and the Ballot Box
After 18 months, the U.S. Presidential election is just a week away and, with one notable exception, we at PCI have remained largely silent on it. That’s not because we deem it unimportant or are worried about upsetting readers...
Why the Rich Should Reverse Inequality
An excerpt from the just released, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good, reprinted by The Nation: The extreme levels of inequality in our society are...
Native Americans and Conservationists Collaborate to Return Vital Flow to the Rio Grande
Through a collaborative project of Audubon New Mexico and Pueblos in the Middle Rio Grande, water returns to the river through a drainage outfall to keep it flowing during the dry summer. Photo: Sharon Wirth/Audubon New Mexico The first...
A Strategy to Stop the Funding Behind the Dakota Access Pipeline
Most Americans live far from the path of the Dakota Access pipeline—they won’t be able to visit the encampments on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation where representatives of more than 200 tribes have come together in the most dramatic...
Book Review ‘Born on Third Base’ by Chuck Collins
A review of Born on Third Base: a one percenter makes the case for tackling inequality, bringing wealth home and committing to the common good by Chuck Collins. Chelsea Green Publishing. I am regularly, and rightly, asked about the...
Exploring the Gap Between Business-as-Usual and Utter Doom
Predicting the future is a fool’s errand, but everybody does it. As long as we’ve had language—for tens of thousands of years, at last estimate—we’ve been able to formulate the question, “What will tomorrow bring?” The answers have ranged...