Measuring What Matters.

I recently read "This Place on Earth: Measuring What Matters" which was prompted by the work of (and officially authored by) Northwest Environment Watch. It is a short book and talks about a small number of really important indicators of the health of the American northwest (including both US and Canadian states/provinces in the region).

It is a simple book with a very low emotional temperature, and quite willing to embrace the conundrums and contradictions in trying to measure the health of the overall environment both for humans, for the regional ecology and for the planet as a whole (eg relating to carbon output).

As a reward for those of you who read this far, a humorous note to end. I sent my friend Phil Warburg, President of the Conservation Law Foundation, a note about this book using the same subject-line I used for this blog post: Measuring What Matters. He told me that he almost ignored the message, thinking it was an unwanted ad for Viagra or Cialis!