Best and Brightest … Genius — Esquire

A once-in-a-lifetime game-changing advance
in our field everyone else will follow
— Marshall Goldsmith

Astrophysicist turned new media whiz — NBC

Passionate … confident … — Forbes

You don't just learn theory from
him, you improve your life.
— Inc.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard University, Standford University, Princeton University, MTV, IBM, US Army

My Mission

My mission is to help change American (and global) culture on sustainability and stewardship from expecting deprivation, sacrifice, burden, and chore to expecting rewarding emotions and lifestyles, as I see happen with everyone I lead to act for their intrinsic motivations.

In my case the emotions have been joy, fun, freedom, connection, meaning, and purpose.



Systemic change begins with personal change.

Some of my values. What are yours?
Months living off the grid in Manhattan: 8 (and counting)
Loads of garbage I filled in 2023 so far: 0
Loads of garbage I filled in 2022: 0
Loads filled in 2021: 0
Loads filled in 2020: 0
Loads filled in 2019: 1
Loads filled in 2018: 1
Loads filled in 2017: 1
Days picking up litter: 2,095 and counting
Years not flying: 7 and counting
Average 2022 electric bill: $0.58
Annual carbon emissions: about 1 ton
Daily burpees: 203,578 and counting

LATEST BLOG POSTS

The environment: everyone always says it’s important, but never enough to act themselves

on March 27, 2023 in Nature

Here’s a typical email with a message I see all the time. This one was to me, but I see it in all contexts: “I’m sorry but I have to cancel our meeting of tomorrow. There’s just too much going on at the moment and I need the time.” The message is always something like: I care about the environment. It’s incredibly important. I plan to act on it. There’s[…] Keep reading →

The Source of Our Polluting Culture

on March 26, 2023 in Freedom, Nature

Consider two cultures, one living sustainably, one unsustainably. Does the following sound familiar? The sustainable one must be living within its means. In fact, it must have some abundance to withstand an occasional flood or drought. Many cultures have survived and thrived for tens to hundreds of thousands of years. The unsustainable one is living beyond its means, decreasing what resources it needs to survive. In most cases, it can[…] Keep reading →

Applying lessons from sports to sustainability

on March 25, 2023 in Stories

On July 21st last year, both the solar panel and power station broke. I don’t know why or how, but cutting-edge technology is prone to fail. As the next day would complete two months, double my goal and twenty times my expectation, I decided I could declare victory, reconnect the circuit, and plug back in the next day. You can hear me say so in my July 22 podcast episode,[…] Keep reading →

679: Alan Ereira, part 2: The world through Kogis’ eyes

on March 24, 2023 in Podcast

I was very curious to learn more about the Kogi and Alan’s interactions with them. Alan is deeply involved with their joint project to learn to restore nature as they have shown they can. “Restoring nature” doesn’t do justice for what they are doing. They are also sharing different ways of seeing and interacting with the world, which, as I understand from Alan, is not how they see the world.[…] Keep reading →

I last flew today in 2016. Starting year 7 free from most people’s greatest way of hurting innocent people.

on March 23, 2023 in Freedom, Habits, Nature

I love traveling, exchanging culture, visiting family, and exploring nature, which is why I will never fly again. It destroys all those things. In flying as with any addiction, people addicted experience the addiction as warm, supportive, loving, like family. You tell me what you fear losing when ending an addiction and I’ll tell you exactly what you’ll gain more of. When you stop flying, you’ll experience more traveling, exchanging[…] Keep reading →

I couldn’t make most people feel shame or guilt about sustainability. They’re already feeling so much, I couldn’t add more.

on March 22, 2023 in Awareness

People don’t like feeling guilt, shame, insecurity, helplessness, hopelessness, and other emotions that they often feel when sustainability and the environment come up. The emotions arise from what I found Abraham Lincoln said best: “Nothing is more damaging to you than to do something you believe is wrong.“ Doing something you believe is wrong will make you feel guilt, shame, and so on. People spend so much of their time[…] Keep reading →

Unsustainable things that we can either face must end or keep lying to ourselves and causing suffering.

on March 21, 2023 in Addiction, Nature

Remember that when you depend on something to the point of addiction You tell me what you fear losing and I’ll tell you what you’ll gain. Suggest stopping gambling to gambling addict and they’ll fear losing winning. But outside rare jolts of winning, they mostly lose. Stopping gambling will bring them more winning and less losing. Social media addict fear losing connection, but social media isolates. Stopping social media will[…] Keep reading →

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