This week I finished: Dopamine Nation, by Anna Lembke, MD: I’ve read a lot of books on addiction and like this one. It describes how widespread addiction has become. Chemicals, cell phones, behaviors like gambling, social media, and pornography for women (called erotica, as if more classy) and men. I listened to the book and translated a lot of what she said about other addictions to flying, air conditioning, and[…] Keep reading →

Many people opposed slavery. Even slaveholders acknowledged their feelings of guilt, but nearly everyone within our polluting, depleting, imperialist, addictive culture supports it even as we suffer from its growing damages. We blind ourselves to the downsides of polluting and depleting. Even residents of Cancer Alley fly and drive, funding their own cancer. Japan built a nuclear reactor forty miles from Hiroshima. We cover parks with plastic AstroTurf and still[…] Keep reading →

I wouldn’t mention the folly of putting growth and efficiency before values if I didn’t have an alternative, which is to put values first—that is, to create a strategy based on values and honestly verifying results, then use efficiency when it helps. I verify results to avoid stepping on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations. Amsterdam’s citizens organizing based on their values over those promoting razing its downtown[…] Keep reading →

It’s tempting to dream that fusion will save us. It’s the most common power source in the universe, including our Sun’s. Many believe it could produce power without radioactivity or greenhouse emissions and could be made safe. Fukushima is a nuclear fission plant, not fusion, but have you ever wondered why it was built where a tsunami could hit it? The word tsunami comes from Japanese, so they knew it[…] Keep reading →

On the roof today charging my solar kit, I saw my first flurries of the season. I’m in month 18 disconnected from the electric grid, as I reported in TIME and Ars Technica. Wow, I just noticed the TIME piece appeared over a year ago. The temperature dropped to the mid-30s F (3 C) and it was windy. I’d prefer to keep indoors, but the battery was low and this[…] Keep reading →

People hear me suggest everyone living sustainably and think it’s impossible. They don’t want to give up their comforts and conveniences any more than slave owners wanted to give up theirs. Max Weber wrote in his essay, The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) “What is possible would not have been achieved, if, in this world, people had not repeatedly reached for the impossible.” Quoting Eric Foner in his book[…] Keep reading →

One of the participants in one of the summer workshops emailed me the following, noting “Josh, you can use this with my name if you wish for announcements or upcoming workshops.” The next workshop begins in January, so if you’re interested in actively leading our culture away from collapse instead of sleepwalking into it, claiming you can’t make a difference, email me and join us in January. I should mention,[…] Keep reading →

If you think anything anyone does has to scale to solve problems globally, you’re lying to yourself. I propose a couple more effective ways to approach what you do. One way: Imagine that no matter what, nothing you do will influence anyone else. Now what should you do? A second way: How does this view make any less sense? “I had a dream I was in 1850 Alabama owning slaves.[…] Keep reading →

Here’s what most environmentalists amount to (I’d love meaningful counterexamples): One heroin user telling another to stop using heroin while not stopping him or herself. One cigarette smoker telling another to stop smoking while not stopping him or herself. One gambler telling another to stop gambling while not stopping him or herself. You get the idea: one addict telling another to stop while not stopping him or herself. It doesn’t[…] Keep reading →