Nature

I think I've accidentally led people astray, sharing how much I enjoy acting in stewardship. I would prefer doing anything I wanted whenever and wherever, on my terms---that is, if I didn't have to consider how my behavior affected others, especially those powerless to stop my effects from hurting them. A worker uses a rope to move through a pile of empty plastic bottles at a recycling workshop in Mumbai June 5, 2014. According to the United Nations Environment Programme website, World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5 to raise global awareness and motivate action for environmental protection. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui (INDIA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY) - RTR3SBL2 Today's episode shares how I'm doing on the personal level what science suggests---no magic, nothing personal,…

Talk about pollution, and people point their fingers in different directions. Many people point to Asia as polluting more. For example, this chart says Asian countries pollute the ocean more. Look at where all the so-called mismanaged plastic waste comes from---that is, plastic that makes it into the ocean. East Asia looks horrible! But look at the plastic waste per capita. The US dominates, with a few countries in Europe and elsewhere contributing, but without our total population. We see similar results for other pollution per capita. The media shows Asian cities like Beijing and New Delhi, but western nations pollute far more per capita, meaning citizens like me and probably you. Focus on who profits from pollution I propose measuring responsibility by who profits…

I feel honored that Kosmos Journal's Summer Quarterly 2020 published my first piece for them, Our Finest Hour, If We Choose. Kosmos Quarterly | a peer-reviewed e-journal of transformational writing, spoken word, video, music and art. Each Kosmos Quarterly is a deep dive into a special theme through the lens of transformation. Kosmos convenes a new Editorial Circle, each season to cross-pollinate ideas and share the fruits of their practice around the emerging theme of the Quarterly. The magazine is beautifully laid out and written, containing equal parts aesthetic beauty and thought-provoking content. Here's the cover: Here are the contents, including my piece: My piece: Our Finest Hour, If We Choose By Joshua Spodek Expert management is saving lives in this crisis. But we lack leadership. Understanding the difference…

Few associate environmental action with the American political right. Many think that community doesn't care about clean air, water, and land. I don't buy it. I think they care as much as anyone. How they act is another story, but I see almost no one on the American political left acting any more. I believe politics has made a wedge issue out of something everyone cares about, leading one side to smugly say they're right while not acting, while the other says, "you're telling us what to do buy you aren't doing it yourselves," so nobody acts and everyone feels self-righteous. Rob Harper and I have been recording conversations regularly on the lockdown, which leads us to talk about politics around the environment. Before then,…

People keep citing Elon Musk as helping the environment. As best I can tell, most things he does harm the environment---that is, they lower the earth's ability to sustain life and human society. He might think he's helping, but I see the pattern going the other way, as I described in my podcast post and episode, Technology won't solve environmental issues and you know it. One electric car compared to an internal combustion engine car saves fuel, but he wants to sell as many as possible. His overall strategy increases overall consumption, just as the Watt steam engine led to more coal use despite being more efficiency, just as Uber increases miles driven and congestion. Speaking of transportation, on public transit he said: I think…

[EDIT (May 4): My third TEDx talk just went up. I recommend watching it.] I gave the following talk for My Green Lab's Sustainability Summit. I recommend watching it to the end. It's based on my third TEDx talk, for TEDxConnecticutCollege, which TED is still editing but should appear soon. We're probably all used to keynotes delivered from people's homes, but on March 24th it was still new. The people I mention in the talk My sledding hill, covered in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "the hill on the northwest side of the house was called Tommy's Hill, considered for generations one of the best sledding hills in the city."The Tamzine, the little ship of Dunkirk whose picture I showed, now at the Imperial War Museum in…