Category Archives: Blog

Sustainability is skills you practice a lifetime, not a checklist of “ten little things” like journalists promote.

on May 1, 2023 in Art, Blog, Creativity, Nature

When I teach my core sustainability leadership practice, the Spodek Method, in classes and corporate workshops, I have participants pair up and practice it with each other. When there is an odd number of participants, one usually pairs with me, leading me to new commitments on my environmental values. At first I worried I’d run out of commitments after reading many ten-little-things-you-can-do-for-the-environment articles that promote the same things. Those CCCSC[…] Keep reading →

682: Gautam Mukunda, part 1: Teaching Passion for Leadership at Harvard

on April 21, 2023 in Blog, Podcast

I’ve made it no secret that sustainability lacks leadership and leaders. If you want to help on sustainability, I suggest that the most valuable thing you can do is learn to lead. If you know how to lead, improve it. Nothing can change as much as leading cultural change. Gautam’s passion is to learn how leadership works, how to teach it, learning more about it, writing about it, the military,[…] Keep reading →

Container Ship Considerations: How Much of a Container Ship’s Cargo Will Be in a Landfill Within Six Months?

on March 17, 2023 in Blog

One of the uses of fossil fuels no one has any replacements for is container ships. No batteries or hydrogen cells are on order to power container ships. Then you might read about how to make a pair of jeans, the cotton is transported to one place to be made into thread, another to be made into fabric, another to sew it, another to package it, another to sell it,[…] Keep reading →

Better in every way

on January 22, 2023 in Blog

How often is an option better in every way? Even quitting cigarettes, which seem better in every way to me in saving money, improving health, decreasing litter, and so on, to a smoker mean losing pleasure. How cereal became better in every way As a kid growing up, the cereal aisle of a supermarket seemed as much a part of nature as trees outside. It just existed, as did all[…] Keep reading →

Watch your wallet: examples of heavy polluters saying “we need to bring energy to the world’s poorest” so they can pollute and profit more.

on December 14, 2022 in Blog

Read my post When a heavy polluter says “we need to bring energy to the world’s poorest,” watch your wallet, where I describe that everyone with their misguided way to drive our polluting system faster profiting themselves in the process says some version of “we’re helping the poor,” they’re helping themselves, likely exacerbating poverty, dumping pollution onto the poor. As I find examples in the media, I’ll put them here:[…] Keep reading →

Limits to economic growth: A peer-reviewed paper by podcast guest Tom Murphy

on August 6, 2022 in Blog

I’ve described Tom Murphy’s textbook, Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, the science book of the decade. He just published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Physics, one of the most important parts: how basic physical constraints limit how much our economy can grow. The paper is called Limits to economic growth. Quoting Tom’s blog post linking to the piece inline and in pdf, the “real” article [is] in[…] Keep reading →

596: Sandra Pérez, part 1: Keeping New York’s LGBTQIA+ Pride March clean

on June 19, 2022 in Blog

Sandra took responsibility when she didn’t have to, as the Executive Director of NYC Pride, to respond to my requests to talk to an organizer. Longtime listeners and readers of my blog know that last year, I was disgusted by the garbage covering Washington Square Park the morning after New York City’s 2021 Pride March. I posted pictures and video with the quote from another person in the park I[…] Keep reading →

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