Reading Saabira’s New York Times piece Throwaway Plastic Has Corrupted Us told me she saw more about plastic and its effect on our culture than most. A quote from it: “The social costs of our addiction to disposable plastics are more subtle but significant. Cooking skills have declined. Sit-down family meals are less common. Fast fashion, enabled by synthetic plastic fibers, is encouraging compulsive consumption and waste.” Her tenure at the[…] Keep reading →

I tried to remember what I bought this year besides food. My doormen remark when a package arrives for me since I get a few per year. I ask if anyone else gets less. They say not even close. They tell me that some people receive more packages in some weeks than I do in a year, and many such weeks. As for food, I probably spend about $200/month, though[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution, by Gordon Wood: I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to Akhil Reed Amar’s work. He praises Gordon Wood so I borrowed this book from the library and watched a bunch of videos of his talks. This book covers the history around the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. It covers the events prompting the colonists developing new views on[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers and listeners to my podcast know Evelyn from her being a guest and my mentioning her. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned Hayden, but both of them took my workshop in sustainability leadership (I recommend you do too). They started a podcast together called Bulk Beans & Bicycles. They posted the first episode a few days ago. Here’s the link to the podcast’s home page and to a[…] Keep reading →

One day charging with solar in Washington Square Park, I saw a bunch of birds flapping around on the panels. I’m not sure if you can see them playing around in this picture. The video below partly captures their playfulness, but not as much as seeing them. They’d flap up onto the panel, then flap around up and down, solo, in pairs, and in groups. It was a warm day,[…] Keep reading →

The first time I unplugged my fridge was December 2019. A few months later Covid hit and I lived outside the city a couple months. My fridge remained unplugged, but I don’t count that time since I wasn’t home. The next time I unplugged earlier in the year: November 2020, and made it six months or so before spring warm weather made keeping things fresh harder. The next year I[…] Keep reading →

In my newsletter I wrote about heirloom tomatoes that taste delicious that I eat after other volunteers, homeless people, and poor people reject them. Here’s what I wrote, followed by a picture of the tomatoes and a picture of the gazpacho, as if it tasted different if the tomatoes weren’t bruised. What’s wrong with us that we act as if other people waste food? Or all the other garbage we[…] Keep reading →

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a friend invited himself into a social group of mine. He was a good friend, as were the people in the other group, but at the time I wanted to keep them separate. As it turned out, my initial impulse to keep them separate was baseless. He fit in the group and everyone got along. Except for one thing. At some of the[…] Keep reading →

First and foremost: any preventable death is tragic. The goal of this post is to prevent deaths while making people’s lives more safe, secure, and healthy. Any reading to the contrary misunderstands me. You’ve seen tragic headlines of people not surviving difficult environmental conditions. A couple recent ones from Phoenix include ‘This should be a necessity’: Hundreds in Phoenix area die at home without air conditioning and Lack of air[…] Keep reading →