Almost ten years ago in this blog I wrote about an experience of art expressing something I didn’t know could be expressed. Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander captured an emotion I felt with my father and no one else. That emotion hit me hard. It was powerful. It influenced big decisions in my life, especially to learn and teach the social and emotional skills of leadership. I just experienced a[…] Keep reading →

Following up my post a couple days ago Some early thoughts of a new way to quantify population and overpopulation, we would all benefit from developing ways to speak about population calmly. Currently, people think others with differing views risk destroying humanity and act as if their lives were at stake, willing to say and do what it takes to win. I’ve come up with a view I think may[…] Keep reading →

“What about ambulances, fire trucks, and hospitals?”, some people ask. “Don’t they help us and require polluting?” “Checkmate,” I can almost hear them thinking. “We can’t get rid of them, so we have to keep culture going as is.” Meanwhile Hawaiians lived sustainably over centuries, long past when Malthusian collapse, if inevitable, would have happened. Hawaiians lived on their own for centuries, longer than the time since the Enlightenment to[…] Keep reading →

You’ve heard me on the America Out Loud network’s podcast After Dark with Rob and Andrew before. They hosted me again (just Rob these times) to ask about my becoming an auxiliary police officer. Here’s the first of two episodes, “How sustainability led to protecting and serving the community”: Rob was very interested in my motivations and my concerns: why didn’t I tell people about it until I finished? What[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and you can learn more about him from my podcast conversation with Martin Doblmeier, who directed a documentary about him, which I learned a lot from. I included Bonhoeffer in my upcoming book as a historic role model. He could have passed through WWII unscathed. Instead he chose to engage. In particular, he participated in an attempt to assassinate Hitler. On the face of it,[…] Keep reading →

Would you drive a car that sent its exhaust into where you sit? Would you fly in a plane that sent its exhaust into the cabin? Would you dispose of all your garbage by digging a hole in your yard and keeping it there forever? If you send the exhaust and garbage into the rest of the world, it doesn’t go away. You’ve made your problem your neighbors’ problem. If[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday I shared how the only food among what I normally eat my doctor says I can eat for a week before my colonoscopy is tofu. Normally my coop sells tofu unpackaged that I can take home in containers I bring. It turns out they were out of stock, with the next shipment expected next Thursday. Chinatown wasn’t far, so I walked there. Plenty of tofu for sale, but none[…] Keep reading →

I was thinking about some things I don’t know. I’m confident humanity is better off with less plastic in the ocean, litter on the ground, and PFAS in our blood, but I don’t know: When a human sperm and egg become an independent human life the law should protect The optimal number of and amount of access to guns for self-defense, to protect against government overreach, to defend a community,[…] Keep reading →

I was talking to a friend who considers herself more sustainable than most, someone who feels she cares. She said something many people say: “I want to be more sustainable, but I’m not ready to start yet.” This statement illustrates the problem with nearly every approach to sustainability: they’re based in book theory, not practical experience. Without practical experience, they don’t know that acting more sustainably brings liberation, joy, and[…] Keep reading →