Imagine yourself back in the 1950s and 60s during the civil rights movement. People traveled across the country to sit at lunch counters with people of different skin colors, walk for a year to avoid segregated buses, and so on. Most people didn’t do anything. They must have talked about it since it made the news, but most people watched from the outside without acting. Not everyone can do anything.[…] Keep reading →

I uttered these words in regular conversation with a friend about living in a polluted world. I didn’t ask to be born into so polluted a world, nor a culture so ignorant about what’s happening and what they can do about it. I’d rather people took more responsibility and acted in stewardship more. But the world is polluted and nearly everyone is polluting it more. Most of my life, I[…] Keep reading →

“But what I do doesn’t matter” “Only governments and corporations can make a difference.” These excuses are the top Addictions Speaking people use to lie to themselves to abdicate responsibility for acting on their environmental values. Well, note this timeline: 1955: Private citizens organize Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956: Court rules segregated buses unconstitutional and bus company changes 1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964 Does anybody think the Civil Rights Act[…] Keep reading →

Working on the book proposal, I finally saw how to illustrate what’s missing from sustainability. It’s simplicity almost embarrasses me that I didn’t think of creating it before, except that I remember that simplicity comes from more work, not less. The Venn diagram below illustrates what we’re missing. We don’t lack facts or bold ideas. We lack leaders experienced in Leadership Science and complex systems Living sustainably, not just talk.[…] Keep reading →

Which came first, the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott or the 1964 Civil Rights Act? No trick question. The boycott was closer to grass roots people-led project and it preceded the Civil Rights Act, as big a step as governments make. We may not have reached the Civil Rights Act had they not boycotted. Government action results from people acting first, which we can do. Corporations react to people too. We[…] Keep reading →

I posted the other day Bill Gates and environmental leadership on how he is undermining his own attempts at leadership in the environment that anyone would see as blatant if he acted similarly around the pandemic. We excuse his pollution and overconsuming because we want what he gets for them, like travel and mansions. A friend quoted a relevant passage from his book. I’ll post my thoughts on reading the[…] Keep reading →

Did you see Bill Gates’s TED talk on pandemics from 2015, years before Covid? He foretold what scientists had predicted for decades and we came to see unfold around us. From the pandemic’s start, he spoke on the news on the importance of wearing a mask. Imagine if after speaking about masks, he held a party for hundreds of people in close quarters, none of them wearing a mask. From[…] Keep reading →