What Music Means (to Me)
A few years ago, I heard someone ask the veteran global trend analyst Lester Brown — who is known for dire warnings about the state of the planet — this question: “How do you maintain your optimism?” “I have a one-word answer for that,” said Lester. “Bourbon.” As someone whose professional life often involves analyzing … Read more
What the ISIS Academy Master Class is like …
In February, ISIS Academy will be coming to the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University for our next Master Class in Change for Sustainability, and our first such course in the United States (click here or click the image to download the brochure). What is that? you may be wondering. What is a … Read more
Report from OECD: What Winning Looks Like
Here’s a letter I sent out to my friends in the Balaton Group from New Delhi, India, where I was recently attending an OECD World Forum and moderating a panel on sustainability. I never thought attending a meeting on national statistics could make me so happy. /Alan Dear friends, I am reporting to you now … Read more
Why I Wrote “Purging Wallace Stevens”
Unfortunately, I was deeply affected by the poetry I loved and/or studied as a university student — Rimbaud, Tagore, Elliot, and so many others. Wallace Stevens was perhaps the most difficult to understand, and I loved his work all the more for that, just as I loved Wittgenstein or Hegel. I really understood very little … Read more
Flummoxed About My Music (plus, a free song)
Update 12 Apr 2013: I wrote this about six months ago, but now, I am no longer feeling so “flummoxed.” The musical path forward is getting much clear. See What Music Means (to Me). I confess: I am flummoxed. (Translation: deeply puzzled about what to do.) Why? Because I don’t know how to reach my … Read more
Announcing Two New Books from Alan AtKisson
Now available for purchase online, or for ordering through your favorite bookstore: two new books by Alan AtKisson Because We Believe in the Future: Collected Essays on Sustainability, 1989-2009 is a greatest-hits selection of Alan’s best articles, speeches, and blog posts over a twenty-year period. Woven together by personal commentary, these essays offer the reader … Read more
Is “Sustainable Development” Dying?
This short article’s title does not refer to the upcoming Rio+20 summit, which even Ban Ki-moon is publicly worried about (see my piece about managing expectations for the summit, link below). But of course, it could. Nor does it refer to the general, spreading sense of malaise felt by many sustainability activists and professionals — … Read more
Stockholm+40: Dreaming about revolution
I thought I would write blog entries throughout the Stockholm+40 conference. Instead, I listened – not so much to the formal presentations and speeches, though there were a few good ones. I listened to my friends and colleagues. “What are you working on?” I wanted to know. “How is it going?” For me, the sustainability … Read more
NEW: Green Economy + National Happiness = ?
Can we create “happiness for all” while preserving the planet? Will humanity manage to create “green economies”, and convert our current economic systems from destructive forces to sustainable and indeed restorative processes, in time? The new report Life Beyond Growth — issued on March 1, 2012, by the Tokyo-based Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy, … Read more
Why Russia Should Invest in Sustainability
Seven Reasons why Russia Should Invest in Sustainability — Three of Them Unconvincing by Alan AtKisson CEO, AtKisson Inc. & Author, The Sustainability Transformation On Wednesday, 10 February, I made the second keynote presentation (after Ashok Khosla’s opening) to a conference in Moscow called “Innovative Russia: Responding to Global Challenges.” The other participants on the … Read more
