LATEST BLOG POSTS

Our culture increasingly isolates and addicts us: doof, binge-TV, social media, online gambling, and so on. We associate the most serious addiction with hard drugs, but they are just a prominent case of our culture overall. I’m not writing this post about people addicted to hard drugs. I’m writing it about modern culture. I found this fentanyl testing and overdose treatment kit while picking up litter in Washington Square Park.[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished Apocalypse Never, by Michael Shellenberger: He seems sincere in his beliefs, but I kept thinking, “he’s close, but keeps not getting the issue.” For most of the book, I made mental notes of what to write about here that he missed, but I lost track after too many of them. Sorry, I’m not a professional book reviewer, so I’m not going to cover how much this[…] Keep reading →

I attended a reunion of my college ultimate Frisbee team today. Mostly current players attended, as in class of 2026 and 2027. I was class of 1993, over three decades earlier. It’s weird for something once one of the most important parts of my life for nearly twenty years to have ended over twenty years ago (I played after college, into my thirties). I noticed one of the recent jerseys[…] Keep reading →

The first result on a search on bp carbon footprint was a Guardian opinion piece Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook which linked to a piece in Mashsable The carbon footprint sham: A ‘successful, deceptive’ PR campaign. That piece begins: In a dark TV ad aired in 1971, a jerk tosses a bag of trash from a moving car. The[…] Keep reading →

I write in my book about how imperialism arose from people needing more resources than where they lived provided—that is, from living unsustainably—and that others wouldn’t trade for. Scroll down for videos that illustrate the pattern happening in history. There are many more videos like them, but I like these. I’ll give some context from my book first. I quote a book from a professor where I went to business[…] Keep reading →

A blackout struck New York City and a large part of the U.S. northeast in 2003. It happened only two years after 9/11. How could we not first wonder if it was terrorism. I had been at work at the time. After waiting maybe an hour, we all walked down the stairs and went home. Phones worked for a while, so I called the woman I was dating and coordinated[…] Keep reading →

The temperature yesterday approached 80F (26.5C) and was in the low to mid 70s (23-24C) today. That means my neighbors are going to start using their air conditioners. As best I can tell, several of them turn them on in May and turn them off in September or October. The street constantly sound like air conditioners. Sound pollution is pollution. Regular pollution is pollution too, and air conditioning provides plenty[…] Keep reading →