I experiment on how more effectively to describe changing culture from mainstream American to more sustainably. I’m not talking about some abstract “environment.” I’m talking about restoring living by doing unto others as I would have them do unto me and of loving my neighbor as myself, the opposite of polluting. I found a better way of describing the shift than just saying I’ve changed culture, I’ve passed a cusp,[…] Keep reading →

People who agree with me that to achieve sustainability, we have to change our culture, still struggle to see why making things more efficient not only doesn’t change our culture, it accelerates it. That is, it will lead us to create more of the results we get now. Imagine going back to 1942. We are fighting the Nazis and imperialist Japanese. We know every German isn’t a Nazi nor does[…] Keep reading →

The opposite of pollution is loving your neighbor as yourself. After all, do you keep your garbage in your house forever? No, you get rid of it. That means you have your neighbors deal with it, as you would not deal with it yourself. Does it matter that those neighbors aren’t your next door neighbors but are poor and distant? How can you love your neighbor as yourself except not[…] Keep reading →

In this post I’m going to show how many accusations of environmentalists being anti-human would tar the accusers more. I’ll build up to the point by describing the accusers first. Let me start by saying I love reading Steven Pinker’s books and wrote about him and them in my upcoming book, especially Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), which Bill Gates described as “the most inspiring book I’ve ever read,”[…] Keep reading →

I recovered from a week of events known as Climate Week 2024. It felt like 1776 Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation home. Before reading why, I should tell you that I shared the views below with several attendees of several events and they all agreed. Climate Week brought bold pronouncements from CEOs, government representatives of cities, states, and nations, and cultural leaders. They said we could solve our environmental problems if[…] Keep reading →

Sustainability doesn’t promise you’ll live forever or that it will end all suffering. I don’t want to shock you or hurt your feelings, but we will all die. People we love will die. We will conflict with neighbors forever. No matter what advances we make in medicine, at some point a doctor will be unable to prevent you from dying. Worse, for all the advances made in extending life, other[…] Keep reading →

On September 30, 2021, I unplugged my fridge, aiming for 8 months. I had unplugged it based on an article on one of my favorite sites, Low Tech Magazine: Vietnam’s Low-tech Food System Takes Advantage of Decay. I learned much of the world uses less refrigeration than Americans. We think of fridges as keeping food fresh, but other places have The first time I unplugged, I made it 3.5 months.[…] Keep reading →

Several responders my Ars Technica article from January 2023, I disconnected from the electric grid for 8 months—in Manhattan, commented things like “You mostly shifted a fair portion of your energy needs onto the surrounding city. Not all, but your electrical bill or lack thereof doesn’t reflect your true energy usage. The city could not function at all if half the people did what you did.” That is, they said[…] Keep reading →

Germany and Japan seem wonderful cultures today. Not so much in 1944, when they were committing among the most grievous atrocities ever. Everyone else wanted to stop them. Nobody considered stopping them by making them more efficient, advancing their technologies, or promoting legislation within them passed by their people. No allied general or politician promoted changing them by offering new technologies or helping them innovate. Making them more efficient would[…] Keep reading →