a short bio of Carol McEowen

I am an architect and energy consultant living in Bern, Switzerland. Originally from the US, I have lived and worked in Africa and in Europe for over 25 years. I have both US and Swiss citizenship.

While raising my two children, I taught English and observed how friends and family in the US and in Europe approached globalization and climate change. Upon returning to architecture in 2010, I studied sustainability and community energy policy to better understand current challenges in the building industry, and I continue to follow energy issues around the world. The impetus for this blog is my desire to explore how the local and the global are bound to each other. My goal is to seek out the myriad solutions and new approaches being put in place that foster sufficience, strengthen our communities, and safeguard future generations.

acknowledgment

Heartfelt thanks go to friends, colleagues, family, former students and acquaintances who have supported, inspired and challenged me over the past few years. There are too many names to include here, but a few need to be noted. Many thanks to Chris Ritter, Kali Tal, Aurelia Manzone, Robin Ann-Byrd Platt and Morissa Rubin for their structural, grammatical, technical and philosophical support, without them my idea for a blog would have remained just that. I would like to thank the many authors, journalists, scientists and thinkers who have inspired (or incensed) me. Some of their work is referenced on this website, but I could provide a list of many more. I want to thank my children, Arie and Helen, who refuse to read most of the books I insist they should, but who inform my optimism for the future of our planet. Many thanks to members (past and present) of the AWC Bern Contemporary Issues discussion group for their lively insistence that all ideas are worth arguing about.