sustainability (general)

The Prejudice to Violence Pipeline

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”
– Dr. Paul Farmer

“I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I’ve written there is a thread of this: man’s…palpable need to dislike someone other than oneself.”
– Rod Serling

“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”
– attributed to Hannah Arendt (unverified)

“Whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
– Voltaire  (a rough translation from the French)

 

Biases that people form against other people can revolve around all kinds of identities, real or perceived, including: nationality, skin color (“race”), ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, political affiliation, class, region, urban/rural location, or other group affiliation.

Rather than allowing ourselves to embrace an Us vs. Them mindset, in which we perceive other people or groups of people as abstract, generalized Others—caricatures that we can readily vilify or scapegoat or cast as “enemies”—we should always try to “put ourselves in other people’s shoes” and notice that there are more similarities between people than differences. We must try to see each person as a multi-faceted individual and not just as one identity; and we must understand that everyone’s life has value and each person has as much of a right to life and liberty as we have.

As soon as a person allows himself or herself to generalize about an entire group of people and to believe that They (the Others) are inherently inferior or lesser than one’s “in group” in some way: e.g., stupid, primitive, dirty, untrustworthy, devious, scary/dangerous/violent/criminal, bad, or evil—or the group one identifies with is inherently better than (i.e., superior to) another group of people, simply because of the place or the identity that they were born into or have chosen—that person has stepped onto a slippery slope that can lead to discrimination, hate speech, dehumanization, exploitation, violence, and potentially to atrocities. Wrong-headed, misguided thoughts often lead to wrong-headed speech or “rhetoric” (which can spread those thoughts to others), which can all too easily lead to wrong-headed actions—at an individual level and at a societal level.

The slippery slope (or pipeline or staircase—choose your metaphor) can gradually take a person from:

  • basic bias, generalization, prejudice and “othering,” to…
  • scapegoating (collective blame), bigotry (e.g., racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, xenophobia, etc.), and using slurs and hate speech, to
  • discrimination, bullying, and harassment of individuals in that group, to
  • dehumanization or objectification, demonization/vilification, and hatred, to
  • humiliation, domination, exploitation, detention/enslavement, indiscriminate prosecution or persecution, cruelty, brutality, sexual violence, or other violence/hate crimes inflicted on individuals in that group, to
  • collective punishment and harm aimed at everyone perceived to be in that group, to
  • comfort with (and then celebration of or potentially even participation in) the murder of people who belong to that group, to
  • comfort with (and then celebration/promotion of or even participation in) mass murder, “ethnic cleansing,” war, and genocide.

Of course, not everyone continues to the end of this pipeline or exhibits all of these behaviors; most people draw a line somewhere along the way, but in the meantime, their othering or hatred could have spread to others who might end up going further.

Sadly, sometimes all it takes to get onto this pipeline is: a lack of self-knowledge of one’s own biases (we all have biases) and an inability to put those biases in check. Biases often stem from feelings of: fear, insecurity, self-pity, resentment, grievance, personal failure, inferiority, social isolation, or a lack of belonging. Then, when you add in exposure to some repeated hate speech or propaganda (scapegoating/misplaced blame, lies, disinformation)—which could come from one’s family members or peers, one’s religious leaders, social media, hate groups, weaponized bots, mass media, or one’s own government—that combination of factors can make some people go beyond their basic prejudice and bigotry, become radicalized, and turn against their fellow humans, deciding that those humans are “the enemy” or that their lives are worth less (or worthless and expendable)—or taking it a step further, that they should be exterminated.

These are some of the steps that were outlined above, laid out in a little more detail:

  1. Not liking or respecting most or all of Them (the Others/Outsiders, who have been deemed a disfavored group).
  2. Looking down on Them (or being scared of Them) and feeling that They, as a whole group, are inferior from one’s own group.
  3. Deciding that they should be second-class citizens, it’s OK to discriminate against them, and that they do not deserve equal protection under the law or all of the rights (civil rights, constitutional rights, voting rights, immigration/refugee rights) granted to the In group.
  4. Feeling or declaring that they are sub-human in some way: e.g., “animals” or “vermin” or “impure” or “poisoning our blood,” or just objects/“bodies” or property, or evil “invaders” (aiming to “replace” the In group) or “the enemy,“ and that therefore they do not deserve basic human rights.
  5. Feeling that they are expendable, that it’s acceptable if some of them suffer, are exploited, are kept in inhumane conditions, are harmed by violence, or die from neglect or abuse or deportation back to an unsafe country, and if they’re sick or injured or wounded or vulnerable, we should let them suffer or die.
  6. Feeling that they deserve to die, and that someone should kill some of Them.
  7. Feeling that the State should kill some of Them, and supporting those killings.
  8. Feeling that the State should kill (exterminate) most or all of Them.
  9. Being willing to kill Them oneself (whether one is acting independently, as part of an organized group, or as part of their country’s military).

It’s never OK to collectively blame (scapegoat) or to collectively target, punish, or harm, let alone kill, people for the actions of their country’s or their group’s so-called leaders, or for the extreme or violent actions of a few individuals within a group, a protest, or a country. Many—and in some cases, most—people strongly disagree with their government’s or their current leaders’ actions. And individuals who commit acts of terrorism or violence rarely represent the wishes or beliefs of the majority of the larger groups they might be identified with. Even if the majority of a group does happen to agree with the offenders, consider that there are always some in the group who don’t, and it should be widely understood they do not deserve be targeted or punished just because they happen to share the same general “look” or identity (which is often an immutable identity or a group/country that someone was born into) as the offending individuals or leaders.

In Nazi Germany, the disfavored groups of inferior Others included many groups, not solely the groups they considered “non-Aryan.” The long list of people who were persecuted by the Nazis (and killed in large numbers during the Holocaust) included: Jews, Romani, as well as many Polish people, Slavs, and Ukrainians; people with physical or mental disabilities, blacks, gay men, political dissidents, pacifists and draft resisters, civilians engaged in non-violent resistance, Germans who had lived abroad for an extended time, Catholics, non-Europeans, and “social deviants,” which was a broad category that included alcoholics, drug addicts, vagrants, prostitutes, and common criminals (e.g., thieves).

The American Far Right has a white supremacist and Christian Nationalist cult-like bent (which is now well-represented within the current Administration, Congress, and government agencies). Among the many groups that have been targeted or scapegoated by the the Right are: trans people (who make up less than 1% of the population), Muslims, Jews, immigrants and refugees (primarily those who are brown- or black-skinned and/or who immigrated from poor countries—while a century ago, the disfavored immigrant groups included Jews, Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants, most of whom were also poor when they arrived), Black people, Latinos and other people of color, women, women of color, gay people, men who are deemed not “masculine” enough, progressive and moderate Catholics (including the last two Popes), homeless people and poor people; anyone who supports or defends diversity, equity, or inclusion; any journalist, media outlet, comedian, elected official, or other person who has criticized or spoken out against Dear Leader (including many members of his own political party); and now apparently all Democrats or anyone who is considered a liberal (all broadly branded as “leftist radicals” or “extremists” or “terrorists” or “enemies of the state”). DT and his Administration have identified and are going after many “enemies.” If you added up all the groups of people they’ve vilified, it would constitute the vast majority of the U.S. population.

Unfortunately, deep strains of supremacy and hyper-nationalism exist in the U.S. Feelings of superiority over other groups of people (though they may often stem from an attempt to quash deeper feelings of insecurity or even inferiority) can be very dangerous, especially when they spread widely or are amplified and acted on by leaders or people in power.

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March 31, 2026
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Excerpts of wisdom from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

The Serviceberry book coverIn Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, The Serviceberry, she uses beautifully simple language to make some profound points and state some deep truths and observations, about: modern-day greed, hoarding, exploitation, and purely transactional interactions vs. reciprocity, giving, sharing, connection, “enoughness,” sufficiency, ecological economics, and gift economies.

Something that I have found, in my own life, is that giving and sharing make me feel really good—and I mean good as in happy and not just as in virtuous. I’ve also found that giving is somewhat addictive, in a good way. The more you do it, the more you want to do it. And giving anonymously often feels the best, even when you don’t know who the recipients of your gifts will be or how the gifts will affect their lives. It just feels satisfying and right.

Throughout the book, there is some repetition of the main themes (where Kimmerer uses different words to convey similar ideas), which I think can be helpful in allowing some of the concepts to really sink in. It’s a fairly short book; but if you don’t read the whole thing, I’ve pulled together a few excerpts that I think are among its many highlights, presenting some of Kimmerer’s best distillations of her primary points.

(Note: The page numbers listed below are from the hardcover version of the book. They might differ in the paperback version.)

“Whatever your currency of reciprocity—be it money, time, energy, political action, art, science, education, planting, community action, restoration, acts of care, large and small—all are needed in these urgent times.”  (p. 109)
[Note: Some specific examples of reciprocity and gift economies are listed at the end of this post.]

“Recognizing ‘enoughness’ [or ‘sufficiency’] is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more. Data tell the story that there are ‘enough’ food calories on the planet for all 6 billion of us to be nourished. And yet people are starving… “ (p. 12)

“Climate catastrophe and biodiversity loss are the consequences of unrestrained taking by humans.” (p.12)

“Why…have we permitted the dominance of economic systems that commoditize everything? That create scarcity instead of abundance, that promote accumulation rather than sharing? We’ve surrendered our values to an economic system that actively harms what we love.” (p. 25)

“In a gift economy, wealth is understood as having enough to share, and the practice for dealing with abundance is to give it away. In fact, status is determined not by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away.” (p. 32)

“Well-known examples of gift economies include the potlatches of Pacific Northwest peoples, in which gifts circulate in the group, solidifying bonds…. This ritualized redistribution of wealth was banned by colonial governments, under the influence of missionaries in the 1800s. Potlatches were seen as contrary to ‘the civilized values of accumulation’ and undermined the notions of individual property and advancement essential assimilation to the colonial agenda.” (p.35-36)

“Rebecca Solnit, in her stunning book A Paradise Built in Hell, describes how gift economies seem to arise spontaneously in times of disaster. When human survival is threatened, compassionate acts overrule market economies.” (p. 43)

“Let’s remember that the ‘System’ is led by individuals, by a relatively small number of people, who have names, with more money than God and certainly less compassion. They sit in boardrooms deciding to exploit fossil fuels for short-term gain while the world burns. They know the science, they know the consequences, but they proceed with ecocidal business as usual and do it anyway. …They’re all thieves, stealing our future…” (p. 71)

“I lament my own immersion in an economy that grinds what is beautiful and unique into dollars, converts gifts to commodities in a currency that enables us to purchase things we don’t really need while destroying what we do. The Serviceberries show us another model…one where wealth and security come from the quality of our relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” (p. 72)

“Thriving is possible only if you have nurtured strong bonds with your community.” (p. 73)

“In ecological economics, the focus is on creating an economy that provides for a just and sustainable future in which both human life and nonhuman life can flourish.” (p. 74)

“…Natural selection favors those who can avoid competition. Oftentimes this avoidance is achieved by shifting one’s needs away from whatever is in short supply, as though evolution were suggesting, ‘If there’s not enough of what you want, then want something else.’ This specialization to avoid scarcity has led to a dazzling array of biodiversity, each species avoiding competition by being different. Diversity in ways of being is an antidote.” (p. 76-77)

“…scientific evidence is mounting that mutualism and cooperation…play a major role in evolution and enhance ecological well-being, especially in changing environments.” (p. 77)

“It is manufactured scarcity that I cannot accept. In order for capitalist market economics to function, there must be scarcity, and the system is designed to create scarcity where it does not actually exist.” (p. 79)

“It was previously unthinkable that one would pay for a drink of water; but as careless economic expansion pollutes fresh water, we now incentivize privatization of springs and aquifers. Sweet water, a free gift of the Earth, is pirated by faceless corporations who encase it in plastic containers to sell. And now many can’t afford what was previously free.” (p. 80)

“The Indigenous philosophy of the gift economy…has no tolerance for creating artificial scarcity through hoarding. In fact, the ‘monster’ in Potawatomi culture is Windigo, who suffers from the illness of taking too much and sharing too little. It is a cannibal, whose hunger is never sated, eating through the world.” (p. 81)

“An economy based on the impossibility of ever expanding growth leads us into nightmare scenarios. …It is an engine of extinction.” (p. 85)

“…the grinding system…leaves most of us bereft of what we really want: a sense of belonging and relationship and purpose and beauty, which can never be commoditized.” (p. 90)

“An investment in community always comes back to you in some way.” (p. 88)

“…the infinitely renewable resource of kindness…multiplies every time it is shared rather than depreciating with use.” (p. 91)

 “This transition from exploitation to reciprocity, from the individual good to the common good has been seen as a parallel to the transition that colonizing human societies must undergo, from hoarding to circulation, from independent to interdependent…if we are to thrive into the future.” (p. 100)

“The…economy of extractive capitalism, of abusing the gifts of Mother Earth, is a crime against Nature. I believe that theft is punishable by law, and we need to elect leaders who believe in the rule of law.” (p. 102)

“I’ve begun to think that berry-picking is the medicine we need to create a legion of land protectors.” (p. 104)

Kimmerer provides some specific examples of gift economies in action:

  • “…I routinely ask students if and how they participate in gifting networks. I learn about active circles of freecycling, repair cafes, donated mugs in the coffee shop replacing disposables, clothing swaps, the Buy Nothing movement, and campus free stores, where dorm room necessities are passed among generations of students…” (p. 45)
  • “They quickly cite access to open-source software and the existence of Wikipedia…where knowledge is freely shared on digital platforms in an information commons.” (p. 46)
  • “…I take a field trip to go foraging for videos on gift economies and find them everywhere. I learn about mutual-aid societies, alternative local currencies, money-free work exchanges, cooperative farms, peer-to-peer lending…” (p. 47)

Elsewhere in the book, she also mentions shared garden produce, front-yard giveaway piles, free food pantries, Little Free Libraries, public libraries, lending libraries, local Master Gardener programs and offerings, and as shown in an excerpt above, indigenous peoples’ potlatches.

A few other examples that sprung to my mind when I was reading this book include: repair cafes, as well as “time banks” or “skill share” programs and other forms of bartering.

I hope this inspires you to think about these and other examples of gift economies in action and forms of reciprocity that you see around you or that you could create around you. We should all encourage and support these types of efforts in our own neighborhoods and communities.

 

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January 29, 2026
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Cascadia: Regional Organizations and Resources in the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest (PNW) region is typically defined to include Oregon and Washington, and British Columbia (Canada) and the northernmost section of California are often included, as well. Some people also include other states that are in the wider northwestern section of the country, such as Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska.

The Pacific Northwest “bioregion” (an area defined by natural boundaries, such as watersheds, topography, geography, climate, or ecosystems, rather than by arbitrary state borders) also can be interpreted in different ways. To some, it includes parts of Northwestern California (from Humboldt County north), Western Oregon and Western Washington, to Western British Columbia—west of the Cascade mountains; this bioregion is characterized by a lot of rain between fall and spring, and it includes some temperate rainforests. But others draw the lines differently and include Idaho and other areas in the bioregion. This region is sometimes called Cascadia. Bioregionalism is a philosophy that encourages people to organize themselves within and live sustainably within their bioregions. (Here’s a recent article from Resilience.org on “Bioregioning.”)

This listing includes some organizations that cover the whole PNW region, as well as organizations that are focused on specific issues within the states of Oregon, Washington, or the province of British Columbia (BC). (Each section below begins with groups that address issues across the PNW region or even across the West, followed by groups in specific states.) For now, the listing has a disproportionate representation of groups in Oregon (as it’s the state I’m currently most familiar with), but over time, I’ll be adding more groups based in Washington and in BC. While there are also countless local organizations in the region, for the most part this listing doesn’t include local or city/town-based initiatives; it does include a few multi-county regional groups.

Note: This is not a comprehensive listing, and I am not personally familiar with all of the groups listed here. If there are additional organizations you’d like to recommend, please mention them in the Comments.

The organizations listed here are organized into the following categories:

  • General Environmental
  • Climate and Energy
  • Land Conservation and Stewardship
  • Animal Protection
  • Societal Wellbeing and Social Justice
  • Media and Information Resources

This post is a work in progress. More organizations will be added to the listing over time.

 

General Environmental

Oregon:

Washington:

British Columbia:

 

Climate and Energy

Oregon:

Washington:

British Columbia:

 

Land Conservation and Stewardship

Oregon:

Washington:

British Columbia:

 

Animal Protection
(wildlife + farmed and domesticated animals)

Oregon:

Washington:

British Columbia:

 

Societal Wellbeing and Social Justice

Oregon:

Washington:

 

Media and Information Resources

Oregon:

Washington:

British Columbia:

 

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October 31, 2025
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Books and Films, 2025

BOOKS

Recently published books that you might want to check out, read, and/or share with others:

The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters, by Christine Webb

How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard, by Douglas Tallamy
(also see his previous books and Homegrown National Park)

Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, by Bill McKibben

Holy Ground: On Activism, Environmental Justice, and Finding Hope, by Catherine Coleman Flowers

Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet, by Chuck Collins

Clamor: How Noise Took Over the World and How We Can Take It Back, by Chris Berdik

Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis, edited by Kelly Hayes

Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful, by David Enrich

Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World, by Anne Applebaum — now available in paperback

Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do About It, by Matthew Facciani

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding, by Osita Nwanevu

There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brian Goldstone

Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism, by Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, by John Fugelsang

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It, by Cory Doctorow

Please buy books from your local independent bookstore, or from Bookshop.org, or Barnes and Noble (and not from Amazon)—for the authors, local bookstores (and local economies), the environment, and democracy.


FILMS

Documentary films that you might want to watch or mention to others:

 

I will add more books and films to this list as the year goes on and I learn about others that seem important and compelling.

Do you have favorite books or authors or films to recommend? Please mention them in the Comments.

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July 30, 2025
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Goldman Prize Winners, 2025

The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest and most prestigious annual award for grassroots environmentalists. Some people refer to it as the “green Nobel.” Goldman Prize winners are models of courage, and their stories are powerful and truly inspiring. “The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives a financial award. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.” Over the 36 years that the Prize has been awarded, there have been 226 recipients of the prize.

This year’s prize recipients (representing each of the six inhabited continental regions of the world) are:

  • Laurene Allen—USA: “When one of the largest environmental crises in New England’s history was exposed in her own community, Laurene Allen stepped up to protect thousands of families affected by contaminated drinking water. Laurene’s campaign pressured the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant—responsible for leaking toxic forever chemicals into community drinking water sources—to announce its closure in August 2023. The plant’s closure in May 2024 marked an end to more than 20 years of rampant air, soil, and water pollution.” (Support/follow: National PFAS Contamination Coalition; Laurene Allen on Bluesky; Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water)
  • Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari—Peru: “In March 2024, Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari and Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana—a Kukama women’s association for which she serves as president—won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect the Marañón River in Peru. For the first time in the country’s history, a river was granted legal personhood—with the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination. After finding the Peruvian government in violation of the river’s inherent rights, the court ordered the government to take immediate action to prevent future oil spills into the river, mandated the creation of a basin-wide protection plan, and recognized the Kukama as stewards of the river.” (Support/follow: Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana on Facebook; International Rivers; Instituo de Defense Legal)
  • Carlos Mallo Molina—Canary Islands: “Carlos Mallo Molina helped lead a sophisticated, global campaign to prevent the construction of Fonsalía Port, a massive recreational boat and ferry terminal that threatened a biodiverse 170,000-acre marine protected area in the Canary Islands. Proposed to be built on the island of Tenerife, the port would have destroyed vital habitat for endangered sea turtles, whales, and sharks. In October 2021, because of the campaign, the Canary Islands government officially canceled the port project. In lieu of the port, Carlos is now realizing his vision for a world-class marine conservation and education center—the first of its kind in the Canary Islands.” (Support/follow: Innoceana; Carlos Mallo Molina on LinkedIn)
  • Semia Gharbi—Tunisia: “Semia Gharbi helped spearhead a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste back to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. More than 40 corrupt government officials and others involved in waste trafficking in both countries were arrested in the scandal. Her efforts spurred policy shifts within the EU, which has now tightened its procedures and regulations for waste shipments abroad.” (Support/follow: Association for Environmental Education for Future Generations; International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN); GAIA)
  • Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika—Albania: “Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika’s campaign to protect the Vjosa River from a hydropower dam development boom resulted in its historic designation as the Vjosa Wild River National Park by the Albanian government in March 2023. This precedent-setting action safeguards not only the entirety of the Vjosa’s 167 miles—which flow freely across Albania—but also its free-flowing tributaries, totaling 250 miles of undisturbed river corridors. The Vjosa ecosystem is a significant bastion of freshwater biodiversity that provides critical habitat for several endangered species. The new national park is both Albania and Europe’s first to protect a wild river.” (Support/follow: EcoAlbania and their YouTube channel)
  • Batmunkh Luvsandash—Mongolia: “Determined to protect his homeland from mining, Batmunkh Luvsandash’s activism resulted in the creation of a 66,000-acre protected area in Dornogovi province in April 2022, abutting tens of thousands of acres already protected by Batmunkh and allies. Home to Argali sheep, 75% of the world’s population of endangered Asiatic wild ass, and a wide variety of endemic plants, the protected area forms an important bulwark against Mongolia’s mining boom.” (Support/follow: The Nature Conservancy’s work in Mongolia)

Click on each recipient’s name to read a longer profile—or watch a brief video—about their remarkable efforts and achievements.

Posts on Goldman Prize winners from previous years:

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April 21, 2025
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Extreme Greed and Wealth Disparity: Facts, Stats, Orgs, and Resources

“Hoard food and it rots. Hoard money and you rot. Hoard power and the nation rots.”
— Chuck Palahniuk

“Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away.”
— Robin Wall Kimmerer

“If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models.”
— Lester B. Pearson

 “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
— Mahatma Gandhi

“He could end world hunger. Instead, he chooses to starve children.”
— A hand-made sign at a recent protest


Shocking Facts and Stats

  • In 2024, total billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion (source), and some billionaires are on track to become trillionaires in coming years.  Over the last decade+, there has been a growing concentration of wealth at the very top, particularly among the top 1% (source).
  • Note: A billion is 1,000 times more than a million (i.e., it takes 1,000 millions to make a billion). And a trillion is 1,000 billions…
  • In 2023, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio for S&P 500 companies was 268-to-1, meaning CEOs earned 268 times more than the average worker, a significant increase from the 1960s when the ratio was around 21-to-1. It would take more than five career lifetimes for workers to earn what CEOs receive in just one year. (source)
  • Billionaires often make the equivalent of many millions of dollars per hour in earnings (including stock investments).
  • While millionaires and billionaires’ wealth has skyrocketed in recent decades, and the cost of living (including housing cost) has gone up, the U.S. federal minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 per hour since 2009; that is now a poverty wage. A full-time minimum wage worker makes only about $15,000 per year, which was the federal poverty line in 2024. If that person has even one other person/child to support, they are living well below the poverty line and cannot meet their basic needs on that wage. (Some states have passed higher minimum wages. In California, the minimum wage is currently $16.50/hour, as of 2025. That is still not an adequate, living wage in California. Per MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, a single California adult with no one else in their household would need an average $18.66 per hour to meet their basic needs.)
  • In 2022, the living wage (the wage needed to meet basic budgetary needs, such as housing, food, childcare, and transportation, plus taxes) for one worker in a family of two full-time working adults and two children ranged between $18.75 and $40.16 per hour, for the lowest and highest cost U.S. counties, respectively. (source)
  • Billionaires contribute a million times more carbon (a greenhouse gas that causes global heating AKA climate change) to the atmosphere than the average person. 125 of the world’s richest billionaires invest so much money in polluting industries that they are responsible for emitting an average of 3 million tons of carbon a year. (source)
  • The use of private jets by ultra-wealthy people (even for very short trips) has increased substantially. And studies show that private jets emit 5-14 times more carbon dioxide per passenger than commercial airplanes. Some private aircraft models emit more carbon per hour than an average person produces in a year. (source)
  • While most ultra-wealthy people feel that their wealth is entirely or mostly “self-made,” in reality about 60 percent of billionaire wealth comes from one of three sources: inheritance, cronyism and corruption, or monopoly power (source). [I would guess that much of the rest of their wealth comes from legal but immoral exploitation of workers— via low, non-living wages and unsafe working conditions—and/or rampant extraction of natural resources, illegal tax evasion and/or insider trading, plus the investments and compounding interest that wealth affords, of course (AKA “it takes money to make money”). And for a smaller set, their wealth could come primarily from their celebrity/fame, good looks, talent, or smarts. But nobody “earns” billions or millions of dollars through only their “hard work” or their intellect.]
  • In 1975, 90% of Americans shared two-thirds of all income. As of 2023, the 90% got just 45% of all income, while the richest 10% hoard the rest. The wealthiest have extracted $79 trillion from working people since 1975. In 2023 alone, workers in the bottom 90% lost $3.9 trillion to the top 10%—that amount would have gone into the paychecks of working people if income disparity was at the more reasonable level it was at after WWII. (source)
  • Since the 1980s, due to regressive economic/financial/taxation/regulatory policies combined with sheer greed on the part of corporations and individuals, there has been a “reverse Robin Hood” upward redistribution of wealth: trillions of dollars taken from the least wealthy (the many) by the most wealthy (the few). This has turned much of the “middle class” into the “working poor” and caused much higher levels of homelessness, while the rich have become richer.
  • Wealth disparity (AKA the wealth gap, economic or income inequality, or the unequal distribution of wealth) in the U.S. is now even worse than it was in 1928, right before the 1929 stock market crash and then bank runs, which triggered the Great Depression. (source)  [Current conditions and federal policies in 2025 are setting us up for another economic crash. We should be preparing for that.]
  • You can find more statistics, graphics, and reports on income and wealth inequality at Inequality.org.

We will also be publishing a companion post in the next few months: Generosity vs Greed: How the Super-Wealthy Could Be Super-Heroes.

 

Organizations 

Economic Policy / Political Groups:

Poverty Alleviation/Aid/Assistance:

Housing and Homelessness:

Labor Rights:

Affordable/Universal Healthcare:

Fair Finance and Consumer Protection:

Responsible Wealth / Shared Prosperity / Genuine Philanthropy:

  • The Giving Pledge
  • Lever for Change
  • Patriotic Millionaires
  • Millionaires for Humanity  [NEW]
  • Resource Generation
  • Bolder Giving
  • Yield Giving
  • Also read about: Trust-based philanthropy, No-Strings philanthropy, Open Call philanthropy, Community (AKA “community-led” or “community-based”) philanthropy, and Direct philanthropy or direct cash/direct giving approaches (a few direct giving orgs are listed in the Poverty Alleviation section, above).
  • We will be publishing a companion post within the next year: Generosity vs Greed: How the Super-Wealthy Could Be Super-Heroes. Also, we offer strategic advising services to individuals, foundations, or philanthropic organizations who would like guidance in identifying important groups and programs to fund.

New Economics & Ecological Economics:

Universal Basic Income (UBI):

 

Related Media/Articles/Resources

Books  

Some people to follow online: Robert Reich, Rev. Dr. William Barber, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Chuck Collins, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Bernie Sanders; Kate Raworth, Gabriel Zucman, Nick Hanauer, Jason Hickel, Wendell Potter, Rutger Bregman, Joseph Stiglitz, Claudia Sahm, Kathryn Ann Edwards, Ai-jen Poo, Mike Elk, Liz Shuler, Katie Porter, Matthias Schmelzer, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Abigail Disney, Melinda French Gates, and Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Related Posts:

Excerpts of wisdom from The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World  [Added January 2026]

Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Ethical Finance Resources

Fossil-Fuel Divestment and Future-Friendly Investments

NOTE: We’ll be publishing a companion post within the next year: Generosity vs Greed: How the Super-Wealthy Could Be Super-Heroes. And we offer strategic advising services to individuals, foundations, or philanthropic organizations who would like guidance in identifying important groups and programs to fund.

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March 21, 2025
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Sustainable Land Use, Land Conservation, and Rewilding: An Index of Posts

Listed below are some of The Green Spotlight posts that include information related to sustainable land use (urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness), e.g., land/habitat conservation and stewardship, sustainable agriculture and permaculture, regenerative and restorative land use and re-wilding, sustainable home/homestead and neighborhood planning and development, and resilience. Links to organizations and resources on these topics are also provided, at the bottom of this post.

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Organizations and Resources:

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February 28, 2025
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Organizations for Human Rights, Peace, and Nonviolence

“True peace is not merely the absence of war; it is the presence of justice.”
— Jane Addams  (and Dr. MLK Jr. said something very similar)

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”
— Sermon on the Mount

This listing of organizations includes groups that focus on: human rights, nonviolence, nonviolent social action, violence prevention (including gun violence), peace and justice, peacebuilding, preventing or stopping war and genocide, restorative justice, conflict resolution, nuclear safety (weapons of mass destruction, disarmament), and peace and human rights in the Middle East/Israel/Palestine. This is not a comprehensive list of organizations; if you know of other groups that you would recommend to others, please mention them in the Comments.

My hope is that more of these organizations will work together and collaborate, to broaden their reach and amplify their impact, nationally and globally.

Human Rights Groups

Nonviolence Groups
(Nonviolent Action and Violence Prevention)

Gun violence prevention:

Peace Groupsflying dove

Nuclear Safety & Anti-Nuclear Groups

Israel/Palestine, Middle East Peace & Human Rights Groups

 

A couple of peacebuilders I recommend following online: Bernice King and Ami Dar.

I’ll add more people and organizations to this list over time. I also plan to provide a list of groups that address extremism and political violence, but that could be a separate post.

Lastly, click the following link for some quotations on peace and power.

True peace requires awareness, restraint, strength, and effort. May we all become peacemakers and peacebuilders, starting in our own lives and relationships and expanding that skill out into our communities and world.

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January 23, 2025
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What Now?—Forging a Path Through the Polycrisis

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
– Edward Everett Hale

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
– The Talmud

We are facing a sociopolitical-environmental-economic-technological polycrisis. As time goes on and it becomes more difficult to ignore, more people will see and understand the tangled ball of troubles and threats that are being aimed at many of us within the U.S, as well as many others across the world, and our shared air, water, lands, ecosystems, and climate. And as the awareness and the alarm grows, more people will try to figure out what they can do to reduce some of the harms.

None of us gets to choose the era we live through or to control a whole lot about the world we live in. But we should strive to rise to the challenge of the situation we are confronted with and meet the moment, by doing what we can to make our communities, our country, and our world as livable (and worth living in) as we can. We can strive to be among the many flickering lights that will guide a way through the darkness.

I offer you my wishes of strength, courage, endurance, solace, serenity, and solidarity. And I humbly offer up some specific, practicable ways to cultivate those skills and conditions, presented below in the following sections:

  • Self-Care
  • Community Care
  • City/County/State Actions
  • Personal Actions
  • Organizations and Resources

Note: I have written this from the United States, with the United States in mind, but much of what I’ve included can be applied to other areas of the world or any community facing crises.

I will update and add more suggestions to this guide over time.

 

Self-Care

We can only help others well when we are feeling fairly strong and stable ourselves. So we need to take care of ourselves—our physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing—and recognize that there are times when we need a break from taking in more terrible news or taking care of others or trying to “fix” the world. Our brains and our hearts are not equipped to take in bad news from all over the country and around the world, all day every day. We cannot process all of that information, and we can’t expect ourselves to carry the weight of the world. We can take turns in our efforts; and we should accept and ask for help or support when we need it. We all have our own ways of coping, self-soothing, and caring for ourselves. But we should strive to make our healthier coping mechanisms into habits, so we don’t succumb to the unhealthy ones very often. Here are a few general tips and reminders:

  1. Set aside periods of time (ideally at least one day a week, or a portion of every day) for a “media fast,” when you will not look at media, social media, or emails or expose yourself to the day’s horrors. Try to stay grounded in the Here and Now (the present) whenever you can, rather than letting yourself become overwhelmed by the There and Everywhere and Everyone and the Future, Forever. Build some time into each day when you and your brain can rest and recover.
  2. Get enough sleep, every night that you can. We can’t function properly, think straight, or stay healthy without enough deep sleep.
  3. Eat nutritious and nourishing foods that will give you energy and help keep your immune system strong.  (And if possible, take a third-party-vetted multivitamin, or at least Vitamin D/K, especially in winter months.)
  4. Get some exercise almost every day, even if it’s just some stretching or a short walk around the block or 5 minutes of yoga (or tending to a garden).
  5. Stay connected with good friends. Regularly reach out and make time for friends and supportive family.
  6. Try deep/slow breathing exercises that are proven to help us relax (like cyclic sighing or “bee breath“ or humming or singing), meditation, or other relaxation or mindfulness techniques. Or listen to music or do something creative.
  7. Try to get out into natural settings (e.g., parks, forests, waterbody areas, vista points) and spend time with animals. Both of those things can help you regain some perspective.
  8. Make time for some humor and comedy, amidst tragedy.
  9. Remind yourself to notice and seek out and appreciate beautiful things (large and small), funny things, good moments, good news, good people (helpers), glimmers of compassion or beauty or joy, to counter the ugliness. Share some of these good things with other people (through conversations, posts, photos).
  10. If you regularly struggle with overwhelm or grief, despite your best efforts to practice healthy habits like those above, you might want to check out the Good Grief Network’s workshops and resources, or Pema Chodron’s books, or look for (or establish) a Support Group, or find a good therapist. (If the climate crisis is one of the primary drivers of your grief or anxiety, you might be interested in checking out the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America’s Climate-Aware Therapists Directory.) A few people/pages to follow online for wisdom and inspiration include: Cole Arthur Riley, Anne Lamott, Brene Brown, Rebecca Solnit, Ami Dar, Hell and Earth, and Humanity & Peace.

 

We may not be able to stop most or even many of the awful things that are happening or that will happen (and there’s only so much we can do all by ourselves, as individuals). But we can focus on harm reduction strategies, and we can find ways of building our power by working together. While we can try to influence (or delay) what happens at the federal level, for the time being—in the United States, in particular—more victories and successes will probably be achieved at the local/community/city/county and state levels (and we can also press for positive policies at the international level, and in other countries), so focus most of your energy on those efforts. Even if we cannot make the world or our immediate future good, we can do our best to make it less bad, and limit unnecessary suffering as much as possible. Small steps and successes are important and should be celebrated. Even if each of us can only help a few beings and make their lives easier—or save even one being (or wild place)—those efforts will be worthwhile.

Working with other people is rarely easy, but it’s necessary and can be rewarding and effective. We’ll have to summon up as much patience and kindness as we can, and resist falling into permanent despair or fatalism—or the urge to shut down, become cold and unfeeling, or to isolate ourselves from others—as those may feel like the easier paths. We’ll never agree with or relate to everyone else or their tactics or their way of dealing with things. But we have to continuously try to accept our forgivable differences, to not let our egos or pride get in the way of our efforts, and to not turn on (or away from) each other.

We should strive to be of service, and to give what we can. I try to regularly remind myself of this statement by Robin Wall Kimmerer (from her book, Braiding Sweetgrass): “Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away.” In addition to monetary and material wealth, we should also consider our levels of energy, hope, strength, and resilience as other types of wealth that we should strive to have enough of that we can offer them—”give them away”—to others.

There are many ways—big and small—to make a tangible difference. If you’re looking for suggestions, I offer these:

Community Care

  1. Get to know your neighbors, and check in on them or offer to help out if they need anything (especially any neighbors who are disabled, elderly, alone, or vulnerable). Consider inviting a few neighbors over to your house for a gathering. Also periodically reach out to friends, and find out how they’re doing and what they might need.
  2. Find and support local groups that help the most vulnerable (e.g., immigrants/refugees, unhoused people, the disabled or elderly, low-income or unemployed people, abused or neglected or foster children, domestic violence survivors, trans and gay people, prisoners and detainees, people with severe mental illness, and animals). For example, you could support local shelters, housing groups, food banks/pantries, and Community Action Agencies. Also search for (or consider starting) a local Mutual Aid group or Rapid Response Network or CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group. Choose at least one local group to get involved with, through volunteering or donations. (Or choose different groups to support each month or year.)
  3. Support (and use) your library, as well as local arts organizations or venues, and community gardens.
  4. Patronize/support small, local businesses, worker-owned businesses/cooperatives (coops), local farms/farmers and farmer’s markets.
  5. Volunteer at or support the local, state, and national parks in your region.
  6. Find (or start) a local climate action group, even if it’s just with a few friends, neighbors, or co-workers.
  7. Donate needed/requested items to a local group for the unhoused or the poor. Items that are often needed include clothing (e.g., coats, underwear, warm and durable socks, gloves, hats, scarves, rain/snow pants, other layers, shoes/boots); tents, sleeping bags, blankets and emergency blankets, tarps, roller bags and rolling carts, and hygiene items. You could also give money, food, or other items directly to unhoused people.
  8. Put some food items in a Little Free Library box (if there’s room). Or build a Free Food Pantry box in your front yard, or suggest that local churches or grocery stores do this.
  9. Propose that your local Democratic Party office (or a specific candidate’s campaign office) be used regularly as a space for local community organizing and mutual aid initiatives that help meet people’s needs (e.g., food donations and distribution, housing assistance, etc.).

City/County/State Actions

  1. Tell your state representatives to pass stronger affordable housing regulations, and tell your city and/or county leaders (mayor, city council, county commissioners, officials, developers, and land owners) to build more affordable housing for low-income people, as well as tiny home communities or apartments and/or RV parking areas (with support services) for unhoused people, and more shelters (that are also set up to accept people who have pets).
  2. Tell your city, county, and state officials that you do not support the mass deportation or detention of immigrants (particularly those who have no record of violent crime), and you want them to protect and support immigrants in your community in any ways that they can, and require that any “law enforcement” officers wear name badges and do not wear identity-concealing full-face masks.
  3. Support groups that focus on state and local races/elections (e.g., DLCC, The States Project, Sister District, Oath, and your state and local Democratic Party). There are important state and local elections (including “special elections” to fill vacant seats) every year. State Supreme Court/judicial races, as well as State Attorney General, Secretary of State, and local school board races are especially important, but they are often neglected by funders and voters.
  4. Tell your state representatives and Governor to immediately develop and pass Healthcare for All/Universal Healthcare legislation for your state (so far, Oregon’s Healthcare for All plan is the furthest along in the process), and to develop state-based programs that could help shore up residents’ Medicaid and Social Security (retirement and disability) benefits if federal benefits are cut back. Also demand that they pass anti-poverty laws and initiatives, including a much higher minimum wage (a Living Wage), paid sick days, and paid medical/parental/caregiver leave requirements for everyone employed in your state.
  5. Tell your state and local representatives to bolster and fund state and local disaster response and relief initiatives, to make up for the shortfall of support from the federal government.
  6. Tell your state representatives to protect and conserve your state-owned public lands, and not to allow them to be used/exploited or leased for resource extraction and private profit (logging, mining, grazing, or development). Tell them to designate more land and river/waterbody areas for wilderness/wildlife conservation and state parks.
  7. Tell your state representatives to pass legislation that will protect doctors, midwives, nurses, patients, and anyone who assists or communicates with people who are seeking reproductive health care, miscarriage care, medication or surgical abrtion, or contraception (including emergency contraception) from federal or out-of-state prosecution. Life-saving medical interventions for pregnant women must always be protected and allowed and never delayed by legal or governmental obstacles.
  8. Ask your city, county, or state leaders and policymakers to start a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program. These programs have proven very successful.

Personal Actions

  1. Try to set aside more savings for your retirement and emergency/medical expenses, as ACA health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and possibly even Social Security benefits could be cut back by the new regime (to pay for their massive tax cuts for the wealthy).
  2. If you know someone who has student loans they are struggling to pay down or pay off and you are financially comfortable, you could offer to help them with their payments. Or you could send money to debt relief groups such as the Debt Collective, Undue Medical Debt, and Dollar For.
  3. If you have a bank account with one of the large, national banks (especially Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, or Bank of America), one of the best things you can do is to move your money to a local credit union (or a green bank, or a customer-recommended community bank that doesn’t gouge its own members). And if you have any stock-based investment accounts (401Ks, mutual funds, etc.), make sure they aren’t funding evil companies and switch them to socially/environmentally responsible investment accounts.
  4. To stop feeding the beast, opt out of buying things from (i.e., giving your money to) predatory, greedy, exploitative corporations (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Uline, and most other large, multinational companies) whenever possible. Instead, try to support small, local businesses, and B Corps-certified or benefit corporations or worker-owned businesses/coops that are socially and environmentally responsible and good to their employees.
  5. Start growing some of your own food (note: using “cold frames” can help you extend your growing season), and if you grow more than your family can eat, share the bounty. Also buy food from local (preferably organic) farm stands, farmer’s markets, and CSA (community supported agriculture) programs.
  6. Support and help fund community solar projects, and tell your state and local representatives and your utilities to build more solar/wind projects and renewable microgrids with fire-safe battery storage for energy security. If your utility offers a renewable energy program, sign up for it.
  7. Subscribe to and share information from media outlets that consistently produce solid, independent, fact-based journalism (e.g., ProPublica, Courier Newsroom, States Newsroom, The Guardian, Mongabay, Mother Jones, The Tennessee Holler, Press Forward, Scientific American, local newspapers and public radio stations, NPR, PBS, and for a longer list of suggestions, click here.)
  8. In addition to local and state and national groups, identify at least one international organization (or an organization based in another country) to donate to. The next section (Organizations and Resources) lists a number of groups to check out. (To see lists of some non-profit organizations, by topic, click here.) Also consider doing more direct giving to people in need, in person or through sites like GiveDirectly, Kiva, and GoFundMe. And consider supporting a disaster relief organization, such as Direct Relief, CORE, Global Giving, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, your regional Red Cross, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, Team Rubicon, IFAW, or The Climate Mobilization.
  9. If you are financially secure, consider using some of your money to donate to Land Trusts (local/regionalor international) or re-wilding organizations, or purchase a forest or wildland property (or other undeveloped, non-urban land parcel)—to protect it from development, logging, mining, industrial/Big Ag, or other destructive uses; or purchase disturbed land to remediate it and either re-wild it or create affordable housing on it; or purchase industrial farmland and convert it to organic farming. You can work with a regional Land Trust or conservation group to make sure the land will be permanently protected beyond your lifetime.
  10. If you don’t want to have kids, or you don’t want to have more kids than you currently have, you (if you’re a woman) could get a tubal ligation (or men can get a vasectomy, which is reversible)—or a birth control implant or an IUD (which work for many years)—so you won’t be at risk of getting pregnant or at risk of dying due to life-threatening pregnancy complications or a partial miscarriage that might not receive prompt or proper medical treatment. You could also donate to clinics that provide vasectomies and tubal ligation and contraceptives, so they can provide these services to people who cannot afford them. And you could buy contraception (e.g., the over-the-counter O-pill, condoms, or packages of emergency contraception) for anyone who might need them now or in the future. Some states have signaled that they are likely to try to curtail or ban contraception.
  11. Implement online/digital privacy and security recommendations, including these and others published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) or by WIRED. Use the Signal app for private/secure texting (and you can set your messages to disappear after a specified amount of time). Also check out services (e.g. DeleteMe) that get data broker websites to remove your personal information that they’ve posted online, and consider getting identity theft insurance and other security/privacy protections from a service (e.g., Aura). It’s a pain to try to stay on top of online security protocols, but there are so many scammers and hackers out there (as well as surveillance), and our federal government is destroying its consumer protection and cybersecurity apparatus (e.g. the CFPB and CISA), so we’re largely on our own in trying to protect ourselves from spying, scams, fraud, and hacks.

Feel free to add your own suggestions of specific and effective ways that we can face the challenges of our time, reduce harms, and help turn things around.

 

Organizations and Resources

Also see: Non-Profit Organizations to Know (organized by topic)

 

Other Relevant Posts:

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December 10, 2024
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