My father died last year. I got this scam email from people trying to scam someone grieving a loss. I’m posting it so if people get a similar email and aren’t sure, they know someone is trying to scam them. Is “scum of the earth” is to harsh a term for such behavior? I don’t think so. Dear Joshua Spodek, I trust this message finds you well amidst the challenges[…] Keep reading →

People seem concerned about microplastics. They’re in all our bloodstreams. The endocrine disrupting chemicals they leech out probably contribute to globally rising birth defects and globally falling sperm counts. You’ve probably read about it all. Since plastic doesn’t change to non-plastic when it breaks down, but it all breaks down, all plastic will become microplastic. I guess we might burn some and it becomes other pollution, but nearly all of[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina, by podcast guest Manisha Sinha: A comprehensive and thoroughly researched review of how slaveholders thought from around 1820 to secession. The book prompted my recent post about how we study Lincoln and abolitionists because we want to be like them or at least have them as role models. We would help ourselves to learn about[…] Keep reading →

People freak out when talking about population. Many seem unable to talk about deliberately choosing smaller populations from the litany of hating humanity, thinking humanity is like cancer or a virus, eugenics, Nazism, fascism, racism, or sexism. Did I forget any? Steven Pinker wrote that people who talk about population control “repudiate technology and economic growth, and to revert to a simpler and more natural way of life” and are[…] Keep reading →

What role in the Star Wars universe best describes you, your nation, or your culture? I think most people would like to think of themselves as Luke, Leia, or someone in the rebellion against the empire. Or someone outside that conflict, maybe just living on their own. Let’s see. Context: A culture living unsustainably means it will run out of at least one necessary resource. If it can trade for[…] Keep reading →

Did America’s founders know they’d win in 1774, say, at the time of the Intolerable Acts? Did the other colonists? Did people think independence was possible? Nobody knew. Probably most would bet against their fighting the greatest empire in history. We who work on changing culture to sustainability are like America’s founders in 1774. Obviously I’m not saying exactly. There are many differences, but in that we are taking on[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been reading podcast guest Manisha Sinha’s book The Counterrevolution of Slavery, which recounts how slaveholders spoke and acted to justify and advance their institution of slavery. I know to expect it from having seen it before in podcast guest James Oakes’s The Ruling Race and Jenkins’ Proslavery Thought in the Old South, but I’m still shocked at how relevant their thinking is today. They treat a different institution, but[…] Keep reading →

I see an ever clearer path to humanity achieving sustainability, including governments, corporations, and eight billion individuals. A big part of that vision emerging is seeing that the path isn’t hoping for the best. It will result from people acting in their personal interests as much as they can, helping others. Here’s a first pass at describing that path as I see it now. I call it our entrepreneurial strategy.[…] Keep reading →

A lot of people on the left and right seem to want to solve our environmental problems with the solutions they promote for all problems. People on the left want to fight environmental problems with government regulation, to end systemic racism, and to smash the patriarchy. On the right they want to liberalize markets and decrease regulation. Does it seem odd to anyone else that their solutions to these new[…] Keep reading →