The first result on a search on bp carbon footprint was a Guardian opinion piece Big oil coined ‘carbon footprints’ to blame us for their greed. Keep them on the hook which linked to a piece in Mashsable The carbon footprint sham: A ‘successful, deceptive’ PR campaign. That piece begins: In a dark TV ad aired in 1971, a jerk tosses a bag of trash from a moving car. The[…] Keep reading →

Many TVs use more than 100 watt-hours in an hour or two when turned off. I used that much last year from grid power, from plugging in at NYU, which I allowed myself while I unplugged my apartment. My use at home was zero, of course. Last year, I published an article in Ars Technica, I disconnected from the electric grid for 8 months—in Manhattan. Eight months off the grid[…] Keep reading →

A reader emailed me: I really enjoy your podcast and greatly appreciate your work. It was very exciting to someone else thinking about personal choices the same way I do and effectively influencing others to do the same. I want to commit to a new personal challenge of only buying food without packaging — I’m almost there now but I want to publicly commit and go all the way …[…] Keep reading →

The Problem Do any of these situations resonate? Have you said or thought anything like them? Solutions I’m not saying the following are the only solution to each of these problems, but they work and create freedom, joy, and liberation. Anyone can learn the Spodek Method.

Have you hit rock bottom on the environment? The question isn’t if the problems are grave enough or you know about them. You’ve seen enough problems from litter on your street to a region called Cancer Alley in the most technologically advanced nation in history and front-page news nearly daily. The question of you hitting rock bottom is if you choose no longer to accept your rationalizations and justifications of[…] Keep reading →

Longtime readers may remember my op-ed piece in the Village Sun: It’s Time to Ban Single-Use Packaging: The Village Sun published my op-ed piece. The Sun is one of my local papers and I find it covers local news that matter but the big papers miss. All communities would benefit from local journalism like it. I mentioned in past posts how people approach and ask what I’m up to, which[…] Keep reading →

I spoke with the CEO of a major polluting, depleting company yesterday, among the biggest in the world. You know the company. It fundamentally depends on burning fossil fuels. It’s not a car company, but I’ll use cars as a concrete example for clarity. Someone there asked him about sustainability. He acknowledged it as existential—I think implying for his company, his industry, and humanity. He talked about many innovations being[…] Keep reading →