I last plugged anything into an outlet, even at NYU, April 29, as I wrote in Plug in again or work less?. That day was my second time plugging in since March 13, as I wrote in One month without even my “cheat” of plugging in at work. Then both batteries died. Today, one battery is dead, at the manufacturer to be fixed. I want to keep my streak of[…] Keep reading →

Three recent headlines on flying, all tragic: You don’t need to read the articles. The headlines tell you all you need to know, especially when you know that when a headline asks a question, the answer is no. In this case, the third article recounts research clarifying that flying will never be carbon neutral. My comments, responding to that question: Not only is there no sign it will be carbon[…] Keep reading →

You’ve read things like “Rich Countries Must Help Global South Transition to Post-Fossil-Fuel Future” with claims that “they see how we live, they know we got here by polluting, they have every right to want to live like us, and we have no right to deny them.” People commonly frame the problem as needing to help them create energy systems that are clean, leapfrogging us like a country that never[…] Keep reading →

A colleague wrote about how she used to act more but now feels like giving up. I responded What you wrote reminds me of how I feel nearly every day. I can’t say I feel the same as you, but I know the numbers and projections. I see the overwhelming majority of humans not acting — an even greater majority of Americans. Many revel in not trying. Many of those[…] Keep reading →

It’s tempting to think because we feel we’re acting, or that someone else is, that we’re acting effectively. I’ll share a post I responded to, then my response to it on a discussion board of people supporting degrowth. The other person’s post I’ve been a nut case environmentalist before the first Earth Day and sported a ZPG sticker on my Supervan at the time. A couple months ago I would[…] Keep reading →

I constantly hear people saying teaching the next generation will solve our environmental problems. They’re sloughing their problems onto others, abdicating responsibility. Nobody taught older generations today to wreck the environment. I learned to protect it so presume most others were taught so too. Most people continue wrecking the environment. It didn’t work for us. Why should we think it will work for them? I learned “leave it better than[…] Keep reading →

In sustainability, most people I talk to see living more sustainable as making their lives worse. That is, when I ask people if they can imagine a world where everyone lives sustainably, they can’t. If I ask them to try, they think of dystopic or Stone Age wastelands. Many only see sustainability as not seeing family or exacerbating inequities (it does the opposite, polluting and depleting cause those things). If[…] Keep reading →