Listening to a free-market podcast lately I heard the common pro-fossil fuel line: “how can carbon dioxide be a pollutant if it’s necessary for life?” Some people can’t imagine life without fossil fuels, which seems to me dependence to the point of addiction. I wish I could have replied in person, “I saw a man drowning and instead of helping him, I told him water was necessary for life. What[…] Keep reading →

Conservatives have their ways of stopping themselves from thinking too. I’ll cover them in another post. Actually, everyone stops themselves from thinking and acting. For example, people of all backgrounds parrot some version of I care about the environment and act as much as I can, but I can’t do everything. I have to balance it with other real-life concerns, like safety for my children and how much time I[…] Keep reading →

I posted videos and images the other day After the Pride and Queer Liberation Marches 2022: Washington Square Park wrecked again. I could cry. This morning, I saw the every day wreckage of Washington Square Park and felt I should show it on a regular day. To be fair, I only took pictures of the northwest corner. The rest of the park was covered with poisonous plastic waste, all unnecessary,[…] Keep reading →

I volunteer a lot, so end up talking to organizers of volunteer organizations. Over the weekend I talked to two organizers of food volunteer organizations. One provides meals through a soup kitchen, the other collects food stores would throw away and delivers it to community centers. Both repackage food delivered to them in disposable, single-use plastic containers. I know people were able to deliver food safely before plastic was invented,[…] Keep reading →

Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, I remember people saying about visiting places of natural beauty, from campgrounds to local parks to national parks, beaches, and so on: “Leave it better than you found it.” “Take only pictures, leave only footsteps.” Today, every place possible in America has litter. I saw litter at every stop of the forty-eight hour train ride from Los Angeles to Houston, where we would[…] Keep reading →

Before the pictures of the fate of democratizing technology, for context, let’s remember that humans lived and thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without even the wheel. Despite our erroneous projections of our fears of what life outside society would be like, our best evidence from history, anthropology, and archaeology tell us they lived with comparable of often higher signs of Health Mental health Diet Stability Equality Longevity Resilience[…] Keep reading →

The biggest challenge to sustainability isn’t a lack of solar panels or carbon taxes. They result from our behavior, which results from our beliefs and culture. Among the biggest challenges is changing those beliefs. To change them, we have to identify them. I think we know they aren’t supposed to be true, just satisfy our consciences enough to let us sleep at night, that I can call them lies. We[…] Keep reading →

Someone being addicted rarely hurts themselves first. Addiction usually hurts the people around the addicted person first and most. One of the hardest parts of recognizing addiction all around is seeing it in people you love, hearing them rationalize and justify hurting people for their pleasure, comfort, and convenience. Someone in my family flew to a birthday party of someone who lives a few miles from her. Instead of a[…] Keep reading →

Short answer: because they realize they are complicit and want what plastic provides. Long answer: Picking up litter every day, I find almost not one type of trash comprises things I buy. Nearly all is doof, mostly beverage bottles and can, takeout, chips, coffee cups, wrappers, and such. I buy or consume none of them. There’s plenty of packaging from Amazon, doof purveyors, retail bags, and more things I don’t[…] Keep reading →