This week’s selected media: September 24, 2023: Cobalt Red

on September 24, 2023 in Freedom

I read this week: Cobalt Red, by Siddhart Kara: Of all the books I’ve recommended lately, I recommend Cobalt Red the top. If you believe imperialism, colonialism, and slavery are things of the past, you’re in for more than a rude awakening. You are funding it, especially if you like electric vehicles. I often clarify that solar and wind are not clean, green, or renewable since they require fossil fuels[…] Keep reading →

Watch my first livecast on sustainability leadership with Evelyn Wallace

on September 23, 2023 in Leadership, Nature

Evelyn took my Spodek Method workshop in the spring, then was the TA for the two summer sessions and will lead the fall workshop. Everything else you need to know about her background is in the video below. She’s transforming herself and diving into sustainability, loving the challenges and changes. We approach it similarly but differently. Most of all, we enjoy each other’s company and riffing off each other. We[…] Keep reading →

What Are Your Carbon Cash Footprint and Pollution Cash Footprint?

on September 22, 2023 in Nature

People measure their carbon footprints in tons of CO2 equivalents and their ecological footprints in similar ways. Those measures make sense because the suffering and early deaths we will cause other humans (and wildlife) occurs in proportion to the amount of greenhouse gases we emit. But I see another important measure. How much money do we contribute to extracting, polluting, and emitting. When we fill our gas tanks, pay for[…] Keep reading →

There Are No Adults in the Room. You Can Be the Adult. Your Skills Are Needed.

on September 21, 2023 in Leadership, Nature

The main places we learn about our environmental problems: scientists, educators, journalists, politicians, and activists. As a result, we look to them for solutions, along with engineers and entrepreneurs. I may be missing a field or two, but hope I got all. All play important roles, but none of those fields develop skills and experience to change behavior and culture. Culture is key because if we could magically transform all[…] Keep reading →

Do you think like a nineteenth century anthropologist?

on September 20, 2023 in Education, Models, Nature

Sorry, today is a half-finished post. I’m not sure if anyone will read it all, but my main pursuit in it is the persistent myth people knee-jerk fall back on that if we don’t pursue technological progress and market growth then we risk reverting to the Stone Age. After reading Atlas Shrugged and trying to learn what her fans like about her philosophy so much, I found an essay she[…] Keep reading →

More syringes in our shared world and addicted culture: Philadelphia, August 2023

on September 19, 2023 in Addiction, Doof

Please tell me there’s another way to see it: The way we as a culture consume doof and chase comfort and convenience over meaning and purpose, people using heroin, fentanyl, and other serious drugs aren’t an aberration from our culture, they’re it’s future. They aren’t behaving qualitatively different than, say, someone who buys from McDonald’s, Trader Joe’s, or other doof place. They differ only quantitatively. I don’t blame any of[…] Keep reading →

My Sledding Hill, August 2023

on September 18, 2023 in Nature

Since my TEDx talk in which I begin by talking about growing up near the best sledding hill in the world, each time I visit Philadelphia, I make a point of visiting it and taking pictures of it during different seasons. Maybe it just looks like any other park to everyone else, but it’s incredibly beautiful to me. Near my mom’s house in the “ghetto,” as a neighbor described it,[…] Keep reading →

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