There’s a pattern in systems called an arms race, where two or more parties get stuck, each compelled to advance its military. When one does, all the others have to follow or risk being attacked or taken over. The pattern happens in other areas, but arms and the military is the prototypical example. We’re all familiar with how this systemic pattern played out in the cold war, for example contributing[…] Keep reading →

Want to know what living more sustainably feels like? Our culture is so dependent and addicted to things like takeout, cars, and flying that pollution and depletion enable, we forget that using them destroys life, liberty, and property. We don’t notice that our government benefits and grows in money and power from licensing and promoting one of its few core responsibilities nearly everyone agrees on. We don’t notice that they[…] Keep reading →

I wrote this letter to the editor of the New Yorker. It’s been long enough that I doubt they’ll print it, but I wanted to share my thoughts. Using nuclear and, if it ever works, fusion today is like someone in the 1950s throwing a plastic plate into the ocean, figuring, “The ocean is so big and the plate is so small, what difference could it make even if everyone[…] Keep reading →

Would you expect a plantation owner to have any idea how to abolish slavery? They would be the last people to ask to make a strategy for ending the practice providing their livelihoods and wealth. To ask a plantation owner to end slavery is to ask them how to give up everything they feel they own. They’d risk vengeance from the people they freed. They’d have to acknowledge their actions[…] Keep reading →

People sometimes ask me my definition of sustainability. Usually I say something about maintaining earth’s ability to sustain life. Because we humans depend on other life, maintaining earth’s ability to sustain life means its ability to sustain human life too. I like lots of life, but I like human life especially. I’m testing a new definition of sustainability: To be able to live without taking or harming others’ life, liberty,[…] Keep reading →

A brief political history of sustainability [If you’ve watched my Short Course on Sustainability Leadership, you’ll recognize the following from my session on the political opportunities. I’m putting only the main points here. I’ll develop it more in a future post. I wanted to start writing. If you haven’t watched the course, I think you’ll find it one of the most important resources on our culture, the environment, sustainability, and[…] Keep reading →

I was listening to a podcast ostensibly about sustainability and nature. The particular podcast isn’t important because this pattern happens in many places. One of the guests was talking about tourism that seemed no different from any other tourism, but she called it eco-tourism. The only difference I could tell from any other tourism was the name. People were destroying cultures and ecosystems as much as any other tourism. The[…] Keep reading →

I want to clarify some consequences of realizing that polluting means hurting people, as I wrote in my post Replacing “sustainability” with “not hurting people” and “polluting” with “hurting people”. People often say that some people can’t worry about sustainability because they’re working three jobs to take care of three kids and having to worry about the next meal means they don’t have the luxury of worrying about the environment.[…] Keep reading →

This post is about how to think about fixing historical wrongs, like reparations for past injustices. Imagine playing soccer on a tilted field. Amazingly, I found an image of such a thing online, but it shows a field tilted sideways. I mean tilted so one team has to run uphill on offense. Almost surely one team will have an advantage, though my soccer-playing friends can’t tell which. [Edit: I since[…] Keep reading →