I can tell people consistently misunderstand what I’m doing from the questions they ask: how long does it take to charge the battery or what do I do for toothbrushes. Or they say it’s harder for people with kids. In 1930, Gandhi protested the British monopoly on selling salt. Did he attack them with weapons? No, they were too powerful. He marched to the sea, got some salt from evaporated[…] Keep reading →

People I talk to on the political left who care about the environment see people on the political right as opponents to defeat. When I share that I talk to people from Heritage Foundation, where Nick worked, they sound skeptical at best, more commonly incredulous and fearful. In this episode, you’ll hear heartwarming stories of Nick’s childhood with his father, then Nick today finding a way to manifest what he[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis: I read this book after watching the movie based on my expectations on recent legislation. I expect that top-down sustainability efforts like the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, moving trillions of dollars toward technologies that won’t work, will create market bubbles that will burst. In the process, they won’t help on our[…] Keep reading →

I don’t talk much about history here, but my father was a history professor and I grew up with history being a big part of family life and how we viewed the world. My dad knew a lot of history. It was one of his major lenses through which to view the world. Growing up I didn’t like that view. Everything seemed to warrant lectures, from art museums to tourist[…] Keep reading →

We recorded this conversation just after the election. We talked about it, especially Travis’s and the Cato Institute’s views. One of his main views is that the US puts too much executive authority in the president. I’m also We shared our concerns about the Inflation Reduction Act coming from different standpoints, but agreeing with each other. Our main conversation was about approaching sustainability from a view of freedom, not coercion[…] Keep reading →

Monday’s book reading featured questions from AJ and participants about the writing process, my experience, what to do oneself, and other personal things. AJ is both supportive and leads people to give their all. We reminisced about my taking her workshop, in which I wrote the book’s first draft. Only later did I see that that draft was just the start of writing the book. She asked me to read[…] Keep reading →

My book Sustainability Simplified treats addiction in depth because it’s so connected to our environmental problems. All of those problems result from our behavior. We aren’t stopping behavior putting civilization at risk, harming people globally. Read the book for more detail, but I think you can see our dependence on polluting and depleting qualifies as addiction. If you want to overcome an addiction, whom do you ask for help: people[…] Keep reading →

Following up my post a couple days ago Some early thoughts of a new way to quantify population and overpopulation, we would all benefit from developing ways to speak about population calmly. Currently, people think others with differing views risk destroying humanity and act as if their lives were at stake, willing to say and do what it takes to win. I’ve come up with a view I think may[…] Keep reading →

This morning on the way to charge the sign said 34 degrees (1C). The sun was so low on the horizon the usually sunny places I normally charge were in shadow most of the day. The solstice is three weeks away. It will be darker and colder for another three weeks. Then it will be another three weeks to come back to this long a day, though it will be[…] Keep reading →