I’ve asked people lately to come up with examples they consider major advances in life in their lifetime not requiring extracting more fossil fuels. Or even the last century. People come up with antibiotics, but they started long before; solar energy, but it requires fossil fuels; nuclear energy, but it requires fossil fuels; and then start giving up. I can’t think of much either. The Green Revolution fundamentally burns fossil[…] Keep reading →

Months ago I bought a battery (used off Craigslist) to power my apartment. They call them power stations, partly to sound more impressive, partly since they can receive and deliver electric power in many ways. The process started years ago, when I started reducing my electric power demand to where a battery would suffice, and I dropped my demand to a couple dollars worth per month. The other day I[…] Keep reading →

Joe Biden can lead in a lot more ways than using authority, which is the least effective tool of a leader. The President of the United States is not some guy on the street. He’s at a leverage point of a system, with great influence. Imagine if Biden stood with the protesters of a pipeline. Imagine he simply took an inventory of his personal waste and minimized it and showed[…] Keep reading →

People are proposing wealth taxes People are talking about taxing wealth. Everyone relies on society so if you own more, you use more and benefited more, they say, so should pay more. Besides, they add, the wealthy can structure what anyone would call income so it doesn’t look like income on taxes so avoid paying any taxes. Moreover, they further add, there’s no “natural” law that makes wealth untaxable, so[…] Keep reading →

I feel a euphoria when eating fresh fruits and vegetables, in particular my famous no-packaging vegan stews. It’s subtle enough to miss if I’m talking to someone or listening to a podcast, but wonderful. I’d pick it over the high from things refined from plants like coca, poppy, etc since I can do it every day my whole life with no unwanted side effects. It gives me plenty of wanted[…] Keep reading →

Following up on my post yesterday about Buy Nothing Season, I came up with a gift idea that costs nothing, takes almost no time to prepare, and only uses a sheet of scrap paper. I don’t know about you, but I would love to receive it. I think it would build a relationship. I doubt I came up with it. More likely I heard it a while ago and it[…] Keep reading →

A problem exacerbating all the litter in the world is that stores profit from selling it without paying the costs of the litter. Here’s an idea that I propose working into legislation: Every retail store that sells disposable or packaged products must provide receptacles to accept at least the volume and weight of disposable products and packaging that they sell, available to the public any time they are open. This[…] Keep reading →