Strategies and tactics based in convincing, cajoling, coercing, and seeking compliance that may sound nice, but step on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations. That is, they exacerbate the problem. Compare this list with tomorrow’s list of emotions that emerge from the Spodek Method about nature that, when acted on, lead to people doing more than they said they would, expressing gratitude, and being happy to share. I[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Planet of the Humans, written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs, executive produced by Michael Moore: I watched this movie in 2020 when they released it on YouTube. I remember thinking that solar and wind might not be perfect, but they’re better than fossil fuels. Before saying my reaction this time, I should mention after watching it this week, I read, watched, and listened to about[…] Keep reading →

When I started working on sustainability instead of hoping someone else would fix our problem, I saw my goal as restoring nature, also conserving and protecting it. Learning that our environmental problems result from our behavior, which results from our culture, has taught me that we have to work on ourselves. I see how much our culture promotes addiction, pollution, depletion, and plunder. I see that we are abandoning or[…] Keep reading →

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day. The other day I found this garbage wedged in the scaffolding of a building under construction. (Come to think of it, a topic I should write more about is this bizarre practice of litter being wedged and stuffed into places and why people do it. I’m not sure, but I have some ideas. In any case, all this littering is socializing[…] Keep reading →

I wrote last year about how We can’t turn off our emotional systems and we all share the same emotions, regarding NYU’s likely well-intentioned but misguided posters decrying saying “hate has no place at NYU.” I wrote then: To say “Hate has no place at NYU” seems like saying “Thumbs have no place at NYU” or “Spleens have no place at NYU.” We all have the wiring to hate. To[…] Keep reading →

Trish and Evelyn took the workshop, and neither seriously acted on sustainability before it, so one thing to listen for in this conversation is what people who look at personally living more sustainably sound like. I think it’s safe to say we have fun. Partly we express exasperation at the depravity of our polluting and depleting culture. We also share the experience of our eyes opening to those things. Trish,[…] Keep reading →

The title says it all, but for clarity, I’ll generalize: if you choose to do something that requires polluting, depleting, or plundering, you don’t get to claim your life requires living unsustainably. You don’t get to then make claims on others’ resources. A life requiring hurting others is not liberty. Its’ the opposite: it’s destroying other people’s liberty. Why don’t I spend all my money and then claim you have[…] Keep reading →