Words like innovate, change, and adapt can be inspirational or the agent of doom for our well-being, depending on your perspective. In Trees on Mars: Our Obsession with the Future, Hal Niedzviecki takes us on a ride through the technology & ideas which promise that we can "win the future", giving us a penetrating look at the consequences of our mad rush "forward".

Focusing on the African countries of Burundi & Somalia, Alissa Wilson is AFSC's Public Education & Advocacy Coordinator for Africa. She has served in Americorps, was an election observer in Nigeria, and is co-author of Practical Idealists: Changing the World and Getting Paid.

Featured Music:
Sweet Mother - Prince Nico Mbarga

The Energy Fair is the flagship event of the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) and Doug Stingle is their Development Director. Since 1990 the MREA has powerfully & joyfully spread the gospel of living better on the Earth, with flair and persistence.

Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, by Nell Bernstein, takes an unflinching look at the travesty we call juvenile prison. She has an unequivocal solution - get rid of them. With some 20 years of knowing the system and by telling the stories of the victims of it, Nell explores the history, reform, trends, and consequences of the "reformatories" which do the exact opposite of their supposed purpose.

Through the OurHighestWork.com community, George Kao helps folks work toward doing the best work they can, in tune with their ethics and leadings, and effectively. Having made his own transition from a "more, more, more" ethic to a "better, better, better" purpose, he coaches people, especially solopreneurs, in selecting their work and doing it wisely.

In his memoir, Not From Here, sociologist & author Allan G. Johnson takes us on an odyssey of introspection about our unrootedness and the symptoms of that dysfunction in our personal and national identities, things like the native genocide, slavery, but also the holes in our lives because we don't belong.

From a financially-strapped Irish-American upbringing, to Peace Corps Service in Botswana, to the the trade-offs of life, family, and finances, and, now, to deeply engaged activism with Global Warming and environmental responsibility, Renewable: One Woman’s Search for Simplicity, Faithfulness, and Hope is Eileen Flanagan's story of wrestling with the big issues and putting her life in service

Tom Small found a way to take on species extinction on the local level, and he tells about it in his book, Using Native Plants to Restore Community (In Southwest Michigan and Beyond). By converting his grass-lawn into native flora, creating habitat for native fauna, Tom found a way to make a difference, locally.

Don't know about the planned (and underway) Nicaragua Inter-oceanic Canal? Tere Campos, Nicaraguan native, and her husband, Brad Stocker, are working to put out the word about this potentially disastrous plan which would put at risk the 9th largest lake of the Americas, and much more.

While there are many roots to the global environmental crisis we face, some of the most important emerge from our concepts of ownership, especially of land. Howard Vogel is an emeritus professor of law at Hamline University, having taught constitutional law, restorative justice, international human rights, and a seminar in ethics after having done extensive public interest litigation in environmental law.