Welcome to our Environment issue. “Oh dear, the environment! That’s so big; I feel so confused and powerless.” Get over it. Sure, climate change is still controversial. There are lots of theories and even more conflicting statistics. Some people can’t see it and some say it’s staring us in the face. Okay, instead, let’s consider that there is really no doubt about the manmade nature of things like radioactive contamination from nuclear reactors, the threat of fracking the earth beneath our feet for natural gas or the relentless pursuit of oil at any cost. We don’t need theories to figure them out. We just need to stop.

Actress and environmentalist Daryl Hannah has been using solar power for 20 years and is currently on the stump to block the Keystone XL pipeline. She says, “Diesel motors, of course, were invented by Rudolf Diesel to run on vegetable oil so that farmers could grow their own fuel for their farm equipment— and guess what? Although they took his engine and modified it to run on diesel fuel (a more toxic byproduct of petroleum) they still can run on veggie oil (thinned to the right viscosity), even already used veggie oil, which is what I use in my 1983 El Camino! Most people don’t know this, and the wealthiest industry in the history of humankind (big oil) has every intention (and deep financial interests) that it remains that way.”

If each of us took time to learn something about the environmental issues we choose to address and maybe even the views of candidates for elected office in our state, county and town, that would be a start. I’m not even talking about actually doing anything (yet), just reading. Pretend it’s homework for the school of life. You are holding a textbook in your hands.

For more information about the big picture, read our main feature, “Easing Earth’s Rising Fever,” by Christine McDonald, and you’ll be up to speed on the latest climate change developments. With the holidays coming up, there are lots of ways that that we all can make adjustments in our traditions to make them a little more sustainable. Found out how in McDonald’s companion piece, “Shop with the Planet in Mind.”

Many people have found the Atkins Diet to be very beneficial for losing weight, and a new wrinkle called the Paleo Diet (for eating what our distant forebears supposedly ate) has recently burst onto the scene. Authors Sayer Ji and Tania Melkonian weigh in with their own slimmed down version with “Ancestral Diets: A Lighter Shade of Paleo.”

In this issue, you will also find in-depth reporting on the rising status of energy medicine and the implications for the whole field of medicine. Life is all about choices, so the more the merrier, right?  

Holly Baker, Publisher