by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

In ancient times, warriors could look one another in the eye on the battlefield. War was fought with minimal weaponry, a person-to-person test of bravery and strength. Battlefields were clearly demarcated, extending only as far as an arrow could be shot or a stone could be slung.

But as the centuries advanced, so did the strategies and equipment used in human conflicts. Since then, humans have developed greater firepower, bomber planes, chemical weapons and the A-bomb, each making war at once more destructive and more distant.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

In an age of ever-busier schedules, escalating costs and dwindling funding for public education, the image of the full-time college student, loafing in libraries and flipping through volumes of political theory in campus cafés, is less a plan than a distant dream for many of California’s young people. Lucky young intellectuals can still be spotted in droves on the Berkeley and Stanford campuses, sporting fashionable clothes or long, flowing hair and modern hippie attire, but most of the state’s less privileged will never live those idyllic four years of limbo between adolescence and adult life.

That’s because many young people are thrown into the water before they learn to swim. It might be easier to look the other way, but it’s our responsibility as a state to make sure that they have a chance to make their way to a satisfying life.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

It's not everyday that thousands of like-minded people from diverse fields come together to discuss ecological topics from biomimicry to eco-tourism, but the 2008 Bioneers conference, held October 17-19 in San Rafael, California (just north of San Francisco), provided such an opportunity. In its 19th year, Bioneers allows environmental organizers, journalists, indigenous leaders, and eco-entrepreneurs to meet and share ideas about how to create a more sustainable society.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

The issue of corn-based ethanol is getting more complicated by the day, with increasing concern about rising food prices and questions about environmental impact. But researchers are developing ways of producing cellulosic ethanol, which uses woody plant matter rather than starch or sugar to produce energy, and they say the fuel is almost ready for market.

Cellulose is much harder to break down than ethanol from food crops, and companies are using industrial enzymes followed by fermentation with microbes to arrive at a final product. None of the dozen or so companies in the running has reached commercial scale yet, but the race is certainly on.

by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA -

After hearing the family history of her adventurous great-grandmother, a free African American woman who lived in New Orleans during the Civil War, community activist Pam Dashiell knew she wanted to live in the legendary southern city.

• Community activist Pam Dashiell doesn't flinch in the face of New Orleans' challenges. Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Chase. •

Three generations later, Dashiell brought her family history full circle. Since moving from Massachusetts, she has come to call New Orleans home, and is now a well-known organizer; Dashiell's work in the Holy Cross neighborhood in the city's Lower Ninth Ward took on added urgency after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trying to bring the area back to life, she now helps evacuated families decide whether they can make the move back to their city and rebuild their homes.