Nature

For those readers who haven't signed up to my mailing list, every Monday I send a newsletter of the past week's posts. For the newsletter's introduction, I write what amounts to another post, usually a summary, reflection, or noting the highlights. I felt last week's introduction merited being a post of its own. Here it is: I almost forgot to post that I started my third year off the grid last week: Year 2, day 365 of my apartment disconnected from the electric grid. I hit challenge after challenge. It's never easy. Still, the most common responses tend to include questions that experience has shown leads to conclude "Oh, that's why it's easy for you but not for me." It's hard to live with internal…

The biggest pushes I see among environmentalists and everyone trying to solve environmental problems are to promote Efficiency "Renewables" "Clean" and "green" energy sources Their hope in these efforts is to lower fossil fuel uses. I support their intent, though not their unintended consequences. Does anyone else see the problems? None of these tactics stop using or extracting fossil fuels. Making anything that uses fossil fuels more efficient doesn't stop using them. It may use them less per use, but doesn't stop them. As long as any part of the economy requires fossil fuels, we'll keep buying them. Moreover, as long as anyone can find new uses for them, we'll use more of them. You know what requires fossil fuels? Creating solar panels, batteries, windmills,…

A reader emailed me: I really enjoy your podcast and greatly appreciate your work. It was very exciting to someone else thinking about personal choices the same way I do and effectively influencing others to do the same. I want to commit to a new personal challenge of only buying food without packaging -- I'm almost there now but I want to publicly commit and go all the way ... I'd love to join the community with my own public commitment. I wrote back: "Emails like yours are one of the things that inspire me. If you keep at it, I predict you'll get an email like it from someone hearing about you and you'll feel inspired too" and offered "if you write something up,…

The Problem Do any of these situations resonate? Have you said or thought anything like them? “Other people don't know or care about our environmental problems. When I try to convince them, they push back to where sometimes we can't talk any more.” “I want to act, but nothing will make enough difference, no matter how much I sacrifice.” “I don't want to alienate myself from society. I don't want to be lonely, acting alone.” “Governments and corporations have to act, not individuals. Why bother trying if institutions aren't acting?” “Humanity depends on innovation and progress, otherwise we'll return to the Stone Age.” “There are so many solutions by people so much smarter than me. Something will work.” Solutions I'm not saying the following are…

I spoke with the CEO of a major polluting, depleting company yesterday, among the biggest in the world. You know the company. It fundamentally depends on burning fossil fuels. It's not a car company, but I'll use cars as a concrete example for clarity. Someone there asked him about sustainability. He acknowledged it as existential---I think implying for his company, his industry, and humanity. He talked about many innovations being developed in the field. His industry is pursuing the equivalents of what in the car industry would be efficient motors, electric engines, more aerodynamic shapes, computers optimizing routes, and so on. He didn't acknowledge that if you make something more efficient but it still pollutes and depletes, then if you use the efficiency gain to…