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All eyes have been on Greece this week, but the real action is on the other side of Asia.

Athens at the dawn of the 6th Century B.C. was an unremarkable city. The arts, science, and philosophy that would make it great were still centuries away.
The only notable thing about Athens of the time was its relatively large size, which was also the source of its problems. Athens was too large to feed itself and this was becoming a crisis.

(My apologies to Thomas Jefferson)

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the citizen long guaranteed by our Constitution, a decent respect to the opinions of humankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to that separation.

photo credit TERRAPIN Bright Green
I'm thinking of a series of green articles like this that show not so much what is wrong with our environment but rather what to do about it now in the new world of climate change. This is a start:

I began this piece in January 2015, shortly after the election of Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras. I had not really been following the Greek elections, but just days after it occurred, I saw in a European newspaper Alexis Tsipras' "Open Letter to Germany: That Which You Were Never Told About Greece".

I read it, and I was hooked.

It was a letter of the times we live in. A letter about people who feel crushed by the increasingly powerful financiers of the West. It struck me as frank and oddly personal. I had not read anything quite so stark and pure coming from a current national leader.

It was a very logical, irreversible declaration of independence.

Today, on this day of the Greek default, I wanted to share that moment of history I found so moving and significant. The original message has since been lost in the noise and propaganda — but I do believe this is what a "tipping point" in history looks like, at the very moment it is happening.

All eyes are on Greece this weekend.

This article comes from the most polluted city in the world where small children have already damaged lungs. Most of the pollution comes from fossii fuelled transportation and open burning. The recognition of the dangers of pollution has come too late for them. Why do we wait until we reach this level before the realization sets in that we cannot continue our way of life.

Do you know how many countries we are bombing? Go ahead. Try to guess how many.

You probably can't, and that is an incredibly awful thing about our country.
We've bombed brown-skinned people in seven different countries in the past few months and most Americans couldn't care less.

When grassroots activists and union leaders threatened to withhold campaign donations from Democratic Congressmen who voted for Fast Track, it should have been a wake up call for all Democrats. If party members have been reduced to threatening representatives just to ensure voter interests are protected, then you know the party has lost its way.

In two days about a quarter of a million people will be made stateless. They will have no homes, no passports, and no civil rights. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is racism.