In sustainability, most people I talk to see living more sustainable as making their lives worse. That is, when I ask people if they can imagine a world where everyone lives sustainably, they can’t. If I ask them to try, they think of dystopic or Stone Age wastelands. Many only see sustainability as not seeing family or exacerbating inequities (it does the opposite, polluting and depleting cause those things). If[…] Keep reading →

I’m not a historian of social movements, but I tend to believe they mostly involve one group fighting another group. (Please tell me if you know otherwise.) People love banding with an in-group and fighting an out-group. I think humans tend to look for human enemies to oppose. Regarding sustainability, many look at fossil fuel companies, for example. But Exxon and its peers don’t buy their products. We do. The[…] Keep reading →

I bought a couple new non-food material items this week. I think so far this year I bought a thermal shirt used from a thrift shop. Other than that I think the only material things I’ve bought this year have been food. I’ve paid to pollute through my electric bill, phone bill, and so on, so I’ve got a long way to go. I try to keep track of what[…] Keep reading →

Analects are selected miscellaneous written passages, often words to live by. Here are ones on sustainability leadership, many I created. I’ll keep update the following as I develop new ones. You can’t lead others to live by values you live the opposite of Systemic change begins with personal change If you make a polluting system more efficient, you pollute more efficiently, even if you lower it in one area. If[…] Keep reading →

Everyone talks about how hard transitioning to living sustainably is. They haven’t tried it—that is, seriously changing culture, not just trying to avoid straws. Yes, by practicing with easier things like avoiding packaged food, I prepared myself somewhat, but no way could I have predicted I could live for over a year with my apartment disconnected from the grid. Why couldn’t I have predicted it? Because I believed the lies[…] Keep reading →

The electric grid here pollutes and depletes with every form of power it uses: nuclear, wind, solar, coal, gas, hydro, and everything else. Polluting and depleting kills people and causes unnecessary suffering. I don’t want to pay for and otherwise cause killing and unnecessary suffering. Last year, on May 22, I unplugged everything in my apartment that drew power from the grid. My goal was to remain disconnected for one[…] Keep reading →

Have you heard anyone propose as a solution to our environmental problems actually living sustainably? I haven’t. It would work—that is, if everyone lived sustainably, humanity collectively would live sustainably. By contrast, if no one lived sustainably, such as we are now, how can we collectively live sustainably? We can’t. We can’t all live unsustainably, yet somehow magically collectively live sustainably. Why not try it? Why doesn’t anyone try it?[…] Keep reading →