Mat McDermott
Mat edits the Business and Energy sections of TreeHugger, as well as writing about resource consumption, animal welfare issues, and the response of religious communities to our current environmental problems.
Driving his work are two main convictions: 1) Our current environmental problems—climate change, biodiversity losses, peak fossil fuels, natural resource over consumption—are but symptoms of the greater problem of fetishizing material economic growth; and 2) only by first changing our minds, recognized the literal and metaphorical interconnected nature of all life, will we make the lasting external changes required to create an ecologically sustainable civilization.
In addition to his work with TreeHugger, Mat is an Advisor for The Bhumi Project, "a worldwide Hindu response to the environmental issues facing our planet...faciliated by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies."
Beyond writing, Mat's creative output consists of documentary photography and filmmaking, with photographs appearing in a number of national and international print publications, as well as being exhibited in solo and group shows in the United States, France, and the United Arab Emirates. His last film, for which he was cinematographer, was Above Brooklyn and examined the dwindling but passionate pastime of pigeon fancying in New York City and Long Island.
He holds a Masters degree from New York University's Center for Global Affairs, where he concentrated in environment and energy policy. His Bachelors degree from Burlington College (Vermont) is in Writing & Literature, with research focused on the work of Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali devotional poetry, and the Beat Generation.
Mat currently lives in New York City. ૐ
In addition to Twitter and RSS below, you can also follow Mat on Facebook, and Flickr.
Latest Stories from Mat McDermott - Page 19
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Natural Gas Companies May Have Colluded to Keep Land Prices Low in Michigan
An investigation reveals that Chesapeake and Encana traded emails talking about working together so they weren't outbidding one another. Whether it's enough for criminal antitrust action remains to be seen.
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The Sky Is Pink: There's No Safe Cigarette & There's No Safe Fracking (Video)
Josh Fox's new 18-minute anti-fracking video: If you have no idea what fracking is, watch it; if you think you know about fracking, still watch it.
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Sea Level Rise Along US East Coast Happening 3-4 Faster Than Average
Just like temperature rise, sea level rise isn't happening evenly across the globe. The region from Cape Hatteras to Boston is a sea level rise hotspot.
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Critically Endangered Sumatran Rhino Gives Birth at Indonesian Sanctuary
It's the first time a Sumatran rhino has given birth outside of the wild in Indonesia and only the fifth time worldwide.
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Sea Level Will Continue Rising Past 2300, Even If We Keep Temperature Rise to 2°C
However, if we can check temperature rise at 1.5°C sea level rise can be cut in half.
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Pigeons Can Recognize Individual Human Faces
"Such advanced cognitive processes have rarely been observed in pigeons and suggest that they not only recognize individual humans but also know who they know."
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World Hunger Is About Politics, Power & Rights More Than Crop Yields & Biotech
Next time someone tries telling you that without using such and such genetically engineered biotech crop we won't be able to solve world hunger, just quote them some Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food.
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Tropical Deforestation Emissions May Be Lower Than We Think, Maybe
A new study says greenhouse gas emissions are half what we usually say they are, contradicting other recent work and leaving out important emission sources.
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Is It Really a Coal Auction When Only One Company Bids?
In the Bureau of Land Management's upcoming lease auction for over 700 million tons of coal on public land in Wyoming, there's likely only to be one bidder: Peabody Energy
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Are London Olympics' Medals Tarnished by Utah Air Pollution?
The massive mine where 99% of the metal for this year's summer games originates is accused of being in violation of the Clean Air Act for the past 5 years.
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Senate Votes to Keep Consumers in the Dark About GMO Ingredients
An amendment to the Farm Bill which would have, for the first time, unambiguously granted states the right to require GMO labeling was soundly rejected by the Senate.
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Keep Track of Rio+20's Cloud of Commitments, Now in One Place
NRDC has a launched a new site where you can attempt to make heads and tails of what companies and nations are pledging to do at Rio+20.
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Let's Make the Arctic a Peace Sanctuary, Off-Limits to Oil Drilling, Industrial Fishing
It's high time we head off current and future ennvironmental destruction on the top of the world. Greenpeace has launched a new campaign to do so.
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Interior Secretary Gleefully Hails Resumption of Oil Drilling in Vicinity of BP Spill
Or... Ken Salazar does a good impersonation of Peter Kent.
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Reproductive Rights Scrubbed From Rio+20 Text - Why That's Bad News for the Planet
Opposition from the G77 Nations and the Vatican led to the removal of the words 'reproductive rights' from the Rio+20 text, leaving in 'acceptable modern methods of family planning'.
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Coca-Cola Tells Sodastream 'Stop Using Our Garbage Against Us'
In South Africa, Coca-Cola has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Sodastream, saying that collection of Coke cans and bottles to illustrate how much waste a family generates is unfair competition.
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Why Environmentalists Are More Committed to Business Than Most Businessmen
Greenpeace's Kumi Naidoo lays down some truth: We need to redefine economic growth and start thinking more long-term.
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Farm Bill Amendment Would Allow State Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods
The amendment, introduced by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and California's Barbara Boxer, would allow states to label GMO ingredients without fear of lawsuit from manufacturers.
