I’ve been posting my usual posts on Christmas Pagan trees. Here’s a picture of my alternative and the story behind it. In conversation with alumni from my workshops (which I recommend you take), one mentioned all you need to do to grow garlic is stick a clove in the dirt and water it. Could it be that easy? It wasn’t hard to try. I did it the other day and[…] Keep reading →

Folks, I’m not looking for them. People are throwing so many trees before Christmas, what am I supposed to do, act like they aren’t there? Am I supposed to accept that we chop down trees just to put them in our homes for a few days, not even connected to the holiday they aren’t connected to? Doesn’t this one look beautiful, wrapped in disgusting plastic? What a way to honor[…] Keep reading →

I guess people think we have too many trees, or maybe they have too much money. I’m not looking for trees people throw away before Christmas, but I can’t miss them. I figure they’re like roaches: if you see one, there are probably ten others you don’t see. I saw these four last night: Sorry for the blur in the second one below. It was dark and cold.

Today is the shortest day of the year, with the sun at its lowest angle at noon. Using only photovoltaic solar power, today I get the least potential for energy. It’s less cloudy than usual, so I’ll get some power, but a tall building a block south of mine blocks the sun for most of the morning. Actually, low buildings do too. Here’s a schematic illustration: Here’s a more detailed[…] Keep reading →

I can’t believe how little value people place on trees. Each year I ask myself if I want to bother taking all those pictures of trees people throw away. Am I going to change culture this way? I doubt it. Then again, I’m not hurting anyone and I’m going to post daily anyway. Then I see another Christmas Pagan tree being thrown out well before Christmas. This one appears denuded.[…] Keep reading →

Readers who have followed my blog over a year know that for the past few years I’ve taken pictures of the trees people throw out on the street. Since history shows that the tradition that Americans associate with Christmas came from paganism, and I’m concerned people who complain about “wars” on Christmas or Christians, I call them Christmas Pagan trees. That way if someone quotes me about how we can[…] Keep reading →

The building with the clock tower in the picture below is my local public library. The iron fence behind the guy in the white hat encloses a park behind the library. It had two crab apple trees in it. As far as I could tell, nobody else knew it produced crab apples. The branches were higher than you could reach or even see the crab apples since they were the[…] Keep reading →

This photograph shows a guy employed by a local “business improvement district” to pick up litter, the “BID” on the gray trash bag and his coat/uniform show. How do we reach this level of failure? In principle we shouldn’t litter. For that matter, with all the talk about circular economies and reaching “net zero,” shouldn’t we not produce goods that could become litter? Doesn’t New York City have a sanitation[…] Keep reading →

I see these plots a fair amount from people on the right. They come from Bjorn Lomborg. They’re a straw man and a distraction. Global warming is a problem, but it’s one of many. As I’ve written, I recommend Only specify fixing climate and carbon if you want to wreck everything else (forests, biodiversity, rivers, etc) because that happens when you do. There are other places where our behavior mediated[…] Keep reading →