Nature

In February I took pictures of a Fiji water bottle littered after a few sips drunk, despite water fountains within a few steps. Someone paid to extract oil, refine it into plastic, use it to ship water---WATER!---around the world, so they could drink a few sips and pollute our world with the plastic. That post was Disgusting and totally unnecessary. Pure pollution, no benefit. Check it out if you want to vomit. The other day, I found a new record. Another Fiji bottle, this time with not even a few sips taken. the bottle was smaller, but the amount drunk less. To clarify, in case you can't tell from the picture, the lid has been open and some water consumed. No one can drink the…

I mostly post about lost nature, but here's a post on its resilience: a blue jay that visits my rooftop. I'm not a bird watcher, but who doesn't love colorful birds? Growing up in Philadelphia, I saw blue jays all the time. Blue birds were less common and disappeared over the course of my childhood. In Manhattan, pigeons and house sparrows comprise nearly all bird species. Sometimes I'll see a starling, hawk, or gull. As human population and consumption keeps overshooting what Earth can sustain, other species suffer. This blue jay doesn't wait around for me to take its picture so I only have a few quick shots. I'll post more if they come. As much as I wrote this post to celebrate a part…

Sometimes I wonder if I should stop posting my zero kilowatt-hour electric bills, but if I had had a role model I would have done it earlier. Someday some people will join. It's hardly extreme to do what every human being who ever lived did until a century ago and may still do. It's extreme to think, "well we live healthier than they did" and other myths and not care about hurting others. We need more role models, not more excuses, rationalizations, and justifications.

I've heard parents say about the environment "I want to be able to look my child in the eye and say 'I did my best.'" I think it means something darker than they mean, and that they know it, but won't acknowledge it consciously. I will. When do you say such a thing? Not when things are fine. If the problem is solved, you don't have to say something like this. So you say it when things are bad, but not just bad, as bad as they can get. If you think things will improve or aren't that bad, you don't have to say it. You say it when you, they, or both are at risk of dying. You say it when the aquifer or…

You can do it too. Have you tried?

Friend and podcast guest Chase pointed out a couple headlines that may not spell doom, but don't portend well for sustainability. Both are from a site that compiles interesting science news, Science Direct. I'll post only the headlines, but you can click to read the whole articles. Do you see the problem in the following? Most people feel 'psychologically close' to climate change and The majority consider themselves more environmentally friendly than others People caring and feeling close to climate change sounds great, but if they feel they're doing more than others, they'll be less likely to act. People are great at finding reasons not to change from their polluting, depleting behaviors. Maybe anecdotal, but over and over, people measure their environmental behavior to me…

Do you know anyone living sustainably? I don't. A few hundred thousand, maybe a few million, in indigenous cultures may still be living sustainably, as nearly everyone did before a couple centuries ago or so. They're a rounding error, sadly. You can say individual action doesn't matter, but 1) it does and 2) all of us have to start living sustainably. Why do people think everyone can live unsustainably and magically collectively they'll be sustainable? If we can't live sustainably, how do people not realize it will lead to population collapsing to below Earth's carrying capacity, which is 2 or 3 billion? You can't combine 8 billion people living unsustainably into collective sustainability. All of us have to live sustainably, not you fly around and…