TED Fellow and Chicago Tribune reporter Will Potter has made a study of  the political, legal, and public relations strategies that threaten even acts of nonviolent civil disobedience with the label of “eco-terrorism.” This post on the TED blog is simultaneously scary and outrageous. I encourage you to read and share it.

The thought that I could find myself classified as a “person of interest” because I publicly support sustainable approaches to growing food, producing energy and sheltering ourselves is frightening. The fact that companies seeking to preserve profits at all costs could play such an outsize role in creating and selling this concept of “eco-terrorists” is disturbing. I really believe we need to begin to try to take a longer view of things. The time is fast approaching when we will all have harder lives because of the short-term thinking that has driven so many important decisions for so long. Our planet is not a magical horn of plenty, it’s a (mostly) closed system that can be thrown out of balance.