Nature

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…

I visited Philadelphia this weekend and took spring pictures of my sledding hill in a light drizzle. I recommend scrolling through the slide show, clicking on the arrow, since it's like an animation. I took a picture, walked a few yards, took the next picture, and so on. Scroll down for the images laid out and the video of my TEDx talk that refers to it. I hope you don't mind the pictures of the dead mice. I could have taken pictures of some of the litter I picked up since I want to remind us of our culture and world, but the dead mice were more poignant. I ran into a guy walking his dogs who moved to this neighborhood, Mount Airy, in the…

I wrote about how polluting and depleting come from imperialism. Polluting means dumping your stuff on other places. You don't want your car exhaust, jet exhaust, and disposable diapers in your home, right? It ends up in someone's. Depleting means taking from others' homes too. You don't get your gasoline from your back yard. Yet every person I know or know of who imposes imperialism and its usual results of colonialism, slavery, and racism pollutes and depletes as much as anyone. No matter what anyone else does, if you pollute and deplete, you personally yourself fund today's version of imperialism, which is imperialism. How can you oppose imperialism and live unsustainably without trying to reduce your impact?

More zero kilowatt hours. The next month will hit one year. With the longer days, I'm also cutting back on plugging in at work, where I only plugged in twice in the past two months.

I've heard a lot of people promote population growth by saying that more people means more people to solve problems so we should keep growing the population. There's no end to that logic. That is, no matter how many people are alive, that logic suggests more people is better. They respond to problems of running out of space, energy, and other things that seem constrained in various ways, but I find that people get lost in their thoughts by the Earth being so large relative to their personal experience. If more people improved the situation on Earth, then shouldn't they improve the situation in parts of Earth? That is, if you believe more people will solve all problems, why not make infinite amounts of money…

Today is a lifting day, which also means mopping the floor, which means getting on my hands and knees and sponging the whole apartment floor. After lifting I went to the roof to charge despite today being overcast. I got to see this beauty, which the camera didn't do justice to. I figure cameras struggle with pictures centered on the Sun. It washed out the colors. Still, I think it conveys the awe it evoked. Despite my post title, it didn't quite make 360 degrees. I felt it did in spirit. Here are a few more pictures of it, trying to capture it. You can tell the pictures don't do it justice.

Podcast guest Christopher Ketcham compiled a bunch of research, including from two other podcast guests, Mark Z. Jacobson (not so positively) and Mark Mills, that overwhelmingly show that making up phrases doesn't make the lies they represent true, such as "green growth," "decoupling," and "electrify everything." I recommend reading his article The Green Growth Delusion. It's sobering, but wouldn't you rather not operate under a delusion when your life and the lives of everyone you know depends on accuracy? While his article is comprehensive and points to more, there are plenty more. I also recommend Alice Friedemann's book Life After Fossil Fuels (I'm emailing with her to bring her to the podcast and have linked to her work before) and podcast guest Tom Murphy's Energy…

April 20th is the cannabis holiday and Washington Square Park attracts people celebrating it. I have no problem with people growing a psychoactive plant and smoking it. I think it's legal anyway. But trashing our shared environment becoming standard for every occasion is tragic. I could cry. Plastic doesn't break down on human time scales. Unlike, say, fruit peels that become plants later, the doof wrappers everyone dumps make their way to our blood streams, killing wildlife along the way. Paying for it funds kicking people (and wildlife) off their land, Cancer Alley, Sacrifice Zones, and more. I saw not one piece of fruit or vegetable. Everything people shoved down their maws caused suffering of poorer people. These pictures show an imperialist culture. How can…