The problems of racism, sexism, and environmental degradation existed before we were born. They will persist after we die. I’ve never heard anyone say about racism that they’d like to help but individual action won’t solve it so they might as well keep doing racist things, that only governments and corporations can solve it so they shouldn’t try, or that if we don’t keep pursuing on racist paths we might[…] Keep reading →

I see our environmental problems and lack of effective solutions as a failure of imagination, as regular listeners of this podcast and readers of my blog know. If we can’t imagine a world without pollution, we won’t try. We’ll resist and push back, which we do. Would-be leaders pollute as much as nearly anyone alive, more than nearly anyone who has ever lived, then say government should force them to[…] Keep reading →

As a culture, we struggle to talk about population. Some consider more people better as a moral absolute. To them, more people solve more problems, so there can never be too many. Others consider Earth’s resources finite. To them, more people means less resources per person, which means beyond an optimum number, more people means lower quality of life, ultimately leading to a collapse of population. The first group values[…] Keep reading →

A few weeks from the winter solstice, new challenges arise in using solar compared to summer and fall, some augmented by starting an experiment with what I had, not analyzing and planning to find perfection before starting (starting is the way to find what works best). Days are shorter: I have less time during the day to charge. Days are shorter, part 2: I can’t choose when I charge. Near[…] Keep reading →

I posted the first episode of This Sustainable Life November 30, 2017, then called Leadership and the Environment. The old name doesn’t sound as appealing, I think, but still feels more accurate. A team has formed and evolved of people helping the mission. We’ve tried to find a name perfectly mixing appeal, accuracy, and other virtues, but haven’t found better. I’ve posted 645 episodes, which means 2.5 episodes per week,[…] Keep reading →

I’m no expert on indigenous cultures, but I’m learning more about them all the time. I’ve had guests on the podcast who lived years and in cases decades with the San in Southern Africa, the Hadza in Tanzania, the Tsimane in Bolivia, the Kogi in Colombia, and the Matses in Peru. I’ve also had Native American guests. I’ve attended workshops in New York by Native Americans. Besides learning from others,[…] Keep reading →

Suggest to people in our culture that we consider not growing the GDP nonstop and most react with fear at what they see as the inevitability of recession leading to depression leading to the tax base declining, infrastructure crumbling, hospitals closing, mothers dying in childbirth, thirty become old age, and reverting to the Stone Age. Yet there remain many cultures that don’t buy into our culture at all. Despite our[…] Keep reading →