When myths and stories contradict, the ones that persist aren’t the ones that are right. The ones that people remember and share persist. I’m writing about it after reading this quote from E. O. Wilson: Creation stories gave the members of each tribe an explanation for their existence. It made them feel loved and protected above all other tribes. In return, their gods demanded absolute belief and obedience. And rightly[…] Keep reading →

Michael Jackson’s song, Man in the Mirror, got stuck in my head: I’m starting with the man in the mirrorI’m asking him to change his waysAnd no message could have been any clearerIf you wanna make the world a better placeTake a look at yourself and then make a change It’s clear: If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make[…] Keep reading →

Do you avoid asking for help because you feel like it might present you as not knowing something you should, or lower in status than the person you ask for help? I would. I felt like it made me look ignorant and lesser. But asking someone for help is an act of leadership. It leads them to help you. I’m not saying this is a deep realization, but I think[…] Keep reading →

The chart below on the left shows why America can’t lead anyone on sustainability. People mistakenly believe America can influence others on sustainability. Why do they think so? Maybe because of our large GDP, military, or population, since they enable us to influence in other areas, but they don’t help here. Note our average per capita emissions almost five times the world average, nearly ten times mine, and ten times[…] Keep reading →

New: Systemic change begins with personal change. Old: Systemic change begins with personal transformation. What difference does a word make? I believe the bigger one is that unifying the two changes through repetition highlights the contrast between them. Making one a change and the other a transformation made one big complex concept. This way simplifies and calls attention to the action of personal change on systemic. My goal in this[…] Keep reading →

Following up my podcast episode 516: Geoengineering: Prologue or Epilogue for Humanity?, I rewatched the documentary The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. The movie is fascinating, relevant, and poignant to our geoengineering question, particularly Robert McNamara’s approach to major decisions he played major roles in. The big ones were firebombing Japanese cities in World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and escalating the[…] Keep reading →

Press release: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021: 5 October 2021 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 “for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems” with one half jointly to Syukuro ManabePrinceton University, USA Klaus HasselmannMax Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming” and the[…] Keep reading →