I talk a lot about the lack of leadership in the area of the environment. Many people talk about change but don't lead it. Many others judge but don't support, which leads people to hold back on trying. Well, the mayors of Orlando and Orange County Florida went out of their way and found me. Most guests I seek out. Instead, they took it on themselves to put themselves out there, risking judgment on an issue they don't have to. Most don't, I believe because it makes them feel exposed and vulnerable. But a top trait of effective leaders is that they like accountability. You don't have to make acting environmentally you main focus, but the start is to act, which they've done. From a…

Why a military general? Isn't the US military one of the greatest polluters on the planet? My goal is to bring effective leadership to the environment and your life because spreading facts, figures, doom, and gloom isn't doing it. Leadership is about people. Technology and innovation have historically increased pollution, as I described in other episodes. Nearly everyone promoting technological solutions is unwittingly continuing the drive toward efficiency that created our environmental situation and continues to augment it. They miss that increasing efficiency doesn't necessarily lower total waste, which is our problem, as a glance at any plastic-covered beach or Beijing sky will attest. Again: efficiency has overall increased total waste. I invited Rip after reading about the Millennium Challenge, where, in preparation for Desert…

The loudest voices these days seem to come from protesters because they design their actions for attention. They aren't necessarily the most effective. Many of us are outraged. Our emotions become intense. Emotional intensity drives us to do what we want most, which doesn't necessarily lead to what's effective. As I see it, people are venting more than leading. I criticize the lack of leadership around the environment because people overwhelmingly spread facts, figures, doom, gloom, and telling people what to do. In no area besides the environment do effective leaders say, "Here's how to lead: spread facts, figures, doom, gloom, and tell people what to do." Effective leadership works when based on the views and motivations of the person you're leading. For many that's…

Here are the notes I read this episode from: I see human population decreasing the Earth's ability to sustain life and human society.I have a goal of increasing that ability.Actually two goals: my other goal is for people to enjoy the process. This isn't about coercion but joy.If our human population is over what the Earth can sustain, then restoring that balance.Many people view CO2, methane, plastic, and the like as the enemy.We use them, we like them, or making them.They have no volition anyway. They react to our behavior.Some identify Exxon, Trump, or other people. But we spend money on Exxon and we do what Trump does.Paris Agreement example, SUVs, take outSome identify inequality. Poverty and outsourcing make it easier to polluteBut we had…

Here are the notes I read from for this episode. I've talked about what I call The Worst Problem in the World for about ten years, so I'm used to it and worked from scarce notes. The problemExample: Germans and JamaicansIn environment: people say others don't careMakes people feel misunderstood, disengage, makes you seem judgmentalRepels people we want to help mostWhat to do instead: respond with curiosityWhen I don't understand someone, I can learn from themMy multi-month conversation with a skeptic taught me more about my understanding than with any supporterMore than improve understanding about environment, helped me improve my ability to lead others

The Difference Between Leadership and Management The notes I wrote and read from for this episode: Leadership means changing beliefs and goals. If you're doing anything else, you're following and perpetuating the system that created the results. Greater efficiency, recycling, reusing, etc are following, just accelerating, unless you change the goals. Are you clearly and overwhelmingly opposing growth and externalizing costs? If not, you're polluting. My most important goal is not efficiency. It will come if I achieve my goal. I talk a lot about how growth and externalizing costs produce pollution. My goal is not to reduce population and take responsibility. They will come if I achieve my goal. My goal is to change the beliefs that cause the behavior that produces the results.…

Here is the text I read from for this post: My environmental role models Why my role models? Because people keep saying what I do is inaccessible. That it's too much or extreme. That they need to balance. Well everyone believes they're balanced. I have to balance too. My difference is that I keep moving toward my values. Instead of letting Americans, the most polluting people in history, be my comparison, I find new role models. It's community. Once you start polluting less, actually putting effort in, not just straws or the latest trendy thing, but based on your passion, you'll find role models and keep doing more to live by your values because you'll like it. Bea Johnson Author of Zero Waste Home, which…

People littering is creepy, like a tick or other parasite. It gets under my skin. I don't like it, but if I want to help people stop their parasitical, tick-like behavior, I feel it helps to understand them. Leadership rests on empathy, which sometimes means understanding the feelings and motivations of people who do things you consider disgusting or creepy, like buying coffee in disposable cups knowing it pollutes but acting ignorant or like it doesn't.

BP explosion Here are the notes I read from to make this episode, sometimes diverging from them. Why I don't call our environmental situation a crisis. People think scientists will solve something or engineers will create a solution and we can go back to before. We will never return to this lifestyle, which, by the way, is a tremendous advance if you value happiness, stewardship, enjoying what you have, and compassion over craving what you don't have and not caring how you affect others. Within your lifetime, planes will never fly you without severely hurting others. Same with having more than one child, eating meat, eating to being overweight especially eating factory farmed or industrial farmed food, and you know the top things. Some rich…

I've been sharing the sentiment of how people today seem to think of our times versus how people from other times would see now. I expect they'd view us with horror, disgust, and disdain. We can change how we act. We can turn this situation around. Today's post reprises that perspective. Here are the note I wrote that I worked from: People say homeless live better than kings before. TVs, fly around the world, any fruit or vegetable any time of the year, music any time you want, meat without meat, etc. They think any one from any time would prefer now to then. That we live in the most wondrous of times. Sure there are some disagreements, might not like this politician or that…