Sometimes I feel like I’m responding to someone who fell on the subway tracks. No one else acts. I jump down onto the tracks to help the person to safety, but the person is morbidly obese and struggles just to lift themselves from the ground. They’ve decided to stop trying. “It’s too hard. It’s not worth it.” They resign themselves to the train hitting them. “As long as I can’t[…] Keep reading →

Last week I posted about Why many litterers are entitled and one way the most entitled justify littering. People, including poor and homeless people, justify littering and try to stop me from cleaning up litter. They say other people are paid to do it, so it’s okay and right to leave plastic cups and food containers on the ground, then walk way. The result: on pleasant days, my neighborhood looks[…] Keep reading →

I start by describing how podcast guest Carl Erik Fisher, author of bestseller The Urge, reviewed my upcoming book Sustainability Simplified as a subject matter expert on addiction. Carl mentioned how my book suffered from what Bruce describes as the demon drug myth. He pointed to Bruce’s work as seminal, so I started reading it. I’d heard of Rat Park and later remembered Johan Hari mentioning Bruce in his TED talk[…] Keep reading →

Most Americans and residents of industrialized countries do many things daily that hurt other people through the environment. They act and talk as if they don’t know their Starbucks cup has anything to do with ocean plastic, but they know it. How do I know they know? Because they get defensive (or offensive) when someone brings it up. If I tell people I like oatmeal for breakfast, no one gets[…] Keep reading →

Since I’ve learned to love fresh vegetables and fruit, I’ve come to learn the restaurants hate them. Caterers do too. An ex-girlfriend once commented that she couldn’t go to restaurants with me because I complained too much that they covered everything in salt, sugar, and fat (more on that complaint below). I attended an event today that was catered. Everything was vegan, which a lot of people interpret to mean[…] Keep reading →

First, let’s imagine solar, wind, hydroelectric, fission, or fusion were “clean,” “green,” or “renewable.” They aren’t, but for the sake of understanding, we’ll imagine they are, so if we transitioned to them from fossil fuels, society could live indefinitely on them. What Doesn’t Work Everyone is acting as if we can ramp up “clean,” “green,” and “renewable” energies until we don’t need fossil fuels, then we can ramp down fossil[…] Keep reading →

I ate lunch at a restaurant with a friend yesterday. Lunch was great because of the company. The salad that came with it was covered in oil. I used to dislike vegetables. I covered them in dressing. I was partial to Italian, but ranch or French would do. I didn’t know any better. The dressings came pre-made in bottles, full of flavor. By contrast, the vegetables tasted bland. I’m talking[…] Keep reading →

People jump to treating our environmental problems as rooted in science, therefore they look for solutions from scientists. I’m seeing the problem more as social than scientific in the following way. First, I want to clarify that understanding the mechanisms by which Earth’s ecosystems are changed depend on science. I’m not challenging that we understand the mechanisms through observation, experiment, debate, and the other tools of science. When I pollute[…] Keep reading →

Our culture increasingly isolates and addicts us: doof, binge-TV, social media, online gambling, and so on. We associate the most serious addiction with hard drugs, but they are just a prominent case of our culture overall. I’m not writing this post about people addicted to hard drugs. I’m writing it about modern culture. I found this fentanyl testing and overdose treatment kit while picking up litter in Washington Square Park.[…] Keep reading →