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 →

We’ve been human for maybe 300,000 years. For most of that time our ancestors hunted and gathered in small groups. You might think that means they didn’t practice politics since they didn’t have governments with three branches and giant domed buildings on hills with highly-paid lobbyists trying to influence them. If you understand politics to mean group decision-making in general, they were likely more political in that in hunter-gatherers today,[…] Keep reading →