Center for a New American Dream helps people and institutions shift and reduce consumption in order to protect the environment, promote social justice, and enhance quality of life.
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- Founded:
- 1997
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Causes
This weekend I saw a very heartening example of community. On Halloween I was in New York City in the company of a two year old fairy princess (a friend’s goddaughter). We went to a party at Stuyvesant Town, a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings on the East Side. ...
Thrift shopping has been a way of life for me for a long time. I’ve grown to value a garment or household item with a few imperfections more highly than I would a new one. Imagining what unknown recipes a wooden spoon was used for prior to arriving in my kitchen adds something to my life. ...
As mentioned in an earlier post, there is a common vocabulary related to food, and it doesn’t always relay qualities that are intrinsic to foodstuffs: think “crazy” fruit flavors and “sinful” chocolate. Another ...
Yesterday I was listening to the radio and two seemingly-unrelated things struck me. The first was the news that the US Consumer Confidence Index has fallen. The second was a song by the great Tom Waits...
Over the next months (and even years) folks will be increasingly hearing about what is becoming known as the “New Economy.” At this point most are probably saying: Oh no, another term to be confused by. But this is an important one to grasp. Th...
Photographer and New Dream friend Chris Jordan has a talent for catching civilization enacting its values. From his photos of post-Katrina New Orleans to his to-scale models of the plastic bottles that end up in the landfill at an alarming rate, he highlights uncomfortable truths...
Mobile phones have freed us up to do other things while connecting with people…but to what extent have we switched from a few feet of cord to an invisible yet omnipresent tether? ...
My wife took me out to dinner the other night and while we were walking back to the Metro in DC, we decided to do some grocery shopping. And then the panic hit us. We did not have our canvas grocery bags. So what should we do...
Apples are everywhere in stores and farmer’s markets this time of year, but bobbing for apples isn’t the only fun thing you can do with this versatile fruit. M...
This past weekend President Obama declared swine flu (H1N1 virus) as a national emergency outbreak...
Reading food labels can be overwhelming: fat, salt, calories…carbon? According to a New York Times article, To Cut Global Warming, Swedes Stud Their Plates, in Sweden, people have one more factor to evaluate when buying food in the grocery store or at some restaurants: carbon impact. ...
My wife and I woke early this AM, anxious about many, many things from the environment to the economy and back again. But we were also excited about today because October 24th will be a day for folks to demonstrate for a positive new beginning...
Slap the word “natural” on a product label and it has an almost magical effect: the item’s ingredients and manufacture seem clothed with a seal of approval from the earth itself, as if it was somehow meant to be. Disc...
One of my recent accidental internet discoveries is the Paleo-Future Blog: A look into the future that never was. My recent post about the 1950s space race and consumption had already gotten me thinking about the ways that we envision the future...
