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Aaron Brough and James E.B. Wilkie led a study that examines why men are less likely than women to engage in so-called green behaviors. Brough, Wilkie hypothesize that men are more likely to avoid green behavior "in order to safeguard their gender identity." They designed seven experiments to gauge whether male behaviors can be changed. Women's greater concerns about the environment — an effect that has been documented across age groups and countries — may be because women have been associated with more concern with the future and health. more »

I know I complain about the squirrels eating everything we plant, the reason we constructed a screened-in vegetable garden, but in truth, I like them. They are inventive and extremely smart. They help me remember that 'different' is only an adjective, it does not mean inferior. And different is how we all are, from other life forms and from each other. If only we can learn to appreciate the value of differences within all of life, perhaps we would not be so quick to do harmful things to each other. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: I can scarcely believe what I recall as the prices of things — like stamps for a first-class letter at three cents. I sometimes wish I were a statistician with the ability to research and do the sums that would tell me whether the prices were the same proportion of ordinary wages as today's prices are to today's ordinary wages. What is 'ordinary?' Something over the equivalent of today's minimum wage? more »

Julia Sneden wrote: There are a number of small ceremonies we perform as we see summer out. We put away hot weather clothing and dig out sweaters. We fold up the light blankets for storage, and hang the quilts out to air. My own favorite activity to mark summer's end is one that I discovered during my years as a classroom teacher: finding the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies, bringing them indoors to observe their metamorphoses, and seeing them off on their annual trip south to Mexico for the winter. more »