Category Archives: Blog

Feeling Helpless at NYU and in NYC

on March 8, 2024 in Blog

It hit me the other day while working in an NYU library. About 80 to 90 percent of students bring disposable food, doof, and beverage containers. I’d guess more than half the students are not American, meaning many of them fly home a couple times a year. In other words, they pollute more than nearly anyone who has ever lived. They act as if they don’t notice it or aren’t[…] Keep reading →

Why do people apologize to me about their polluting?

on February 15, 2024 in Blog

I visited with a friend recently. He had just come from working at a cafe. I asked, “If you sat down and drank coffee there, you used a mug, right? . . . not a disposable cup? He replied sheepishly, “No, I used a disposable cup. Sorry.” People keep apologizing to me for polluting. I said, “Don’t apologize to me. It barely affects me. It does, but other people more.”[…] Keep reading →

A month after Christmas and still dumping Christmas Pagan trees. Who needs trees? Why not chop them down and send them to landfills?

on January 25, 2024 in Blog

I don’t go out of my way to take these pictures. I just take them while walking along, doing my regular business. Each picture takes a second or two to take, so maybe a few minutes collectively for all the pictures I’ve taken this season. That’s how much we fill our world with garbage, or rather turn lovely trees into waste. Meanwhile, about 98 percent of old-growth forests are gone.

Systemic change begins with personal change, in race terms

on January 8, 2024 in Blog

A new way I’m communicating that systemic change begins with personal change: To cross the finish line of the marathon of changing a system, you first have to cross the starting line of changing yourself. Otherwise you aren’t in the race. In the case of sustainability, the starting line is to find joy and intrinsic motivation in acting more sustainably, so you look forward to the steps of continual improvement.[…] Keep reading →

What I bought last year (besides food)

on January 1, 2024 in Blog

I’m trying to remember all the material things I bought last year besides food. I paid for many services and non-material things like train rides and web hosting. I also caused pollution that hurt people (and wildlife) in other ways, but I see paying for material things as a useful proxy for polluting. What I remember: I’m sure there was more, but I think that’s most of it. I’ll add[…] Keep reading →

This week’s selected media: December 24, 2023: Dopamine Nation and Zone of Interest

on December 24, 2023 in Blog

This week I finished: Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke, MD: I’ve read a lot of books on addiction and like this one. It describes how widespread addiction has become. Chemicals, cell phones, behaviors like gambling, social media, and pornography for women (called erotica, as if more classy) and men. I listened to the book and translated a lot of what she said about other addictions to flying, air conditioning, and[…] Keep reading →

Why We Step on the Gas, Thinking It’s the Brake, Wanting Congratulations

on December 12, 2023 in Blog

Many people opposed slavery. Even slaveholders acknowledged their feelings of guilt, but nearly everyone within our polluting, depleting, imperialist, addictive culture supports it even as we suffer from its growing damages. We blind ourselves to the downsides of polluting and depleting. Even residents of Cancer Alley fly and drive, funding their own cancer. Japan built a nuclear reactor forty miles from Hiroshima. We cover parks with plastic AstroTurf and still[…] Keep reading →

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