Nature

People describe my steps toward sustainability as "extreme." Imagine everyone you knew gave babies Pepsi to drink, as much as they wanted all the time. You might think since it's not healthy, you might not give your baby so much Pepsi. What's the right amount of Pepsi to give babies? Ten percent less than everyone else? Twenty percent? If you give fifty percent less, are you starting to get extreme? Zero Pepsi for babies must be extreme. Would you be extreme in a world where everyone gave their babies Pepsi? Or would you avoid being extreme and keep it to just a bit less than average? I'm not at zero pollution or depletion, so if you'd feed your baby no Pepsi, I'm less extreme than…

Here's the last trashed tree I expect to see this season, which I saw Sunday evening, February 4. It's a wrecked wreath next to a portable toilet, not the only one in this post putting something presumably people considered holy or sacred plopped next to a box of poop. Stay classy, Christians! Here are more:

When I was in college and traveled abroad, I packed my stuff in an internal frame backpack. No big deal. It didn't make me special. I remember most people my age traveling with them. It just held my stuff and by putting most of the weight on my hips, allowed me to carry it far over most terrain. I don't remember the last time I saw someone with an internal frame backpack. I see nearly everyone pulling suitcases with little wheels. On the Beaten Path Why shouldn't they? Everywhere they want to go is paved and flat. NYU students hail from all over the world, though mainly China and the U.S. As a result, I see them constantly coming and going from flights. They get…

The forecast was for some sun today, but more clouds. The less sun, the more stairs I have to climb since I have so little energy stored so have to climb for any sunlight I can get, while still conserving as much as I can by reading and writing. Luckily, there's no shortage of work to catch up on that way. Again, I'm not challenging myself for some abstract "environment" or to challenge myself. I'm doing it because no one else I know of has even tried, so I'm exploring the frontier of living off the grid in a major city to find out what's possible. Once we know what's possible, then we can make it easy and accessible. That's how we develop systems and…

I'm writing this post fast because New York has seen almost no sunny days in a week. I've had to conserve power as much as I can. All my batteries are nearly dead. Amazingly, I feel I live with more abundance in what matters despite having less power than when I plugged into the walls. We come together and help each other in difficult times, like snowstorms and hurricanes. I find caring about each other more valuable than material or energy abundance. Of course, in the long run we don't have to choose one or the other. Living sustainably isn't hard. It's only hard when everyone around me isn't. That's a cultural challenge, not technical. Here's the sky right now, not enough to draw a…

What fraction of oil ultimately becomes pollution? Or of coal or gas? I'm curious if you can extract oil from the Earth without polluting. We may use the the materials for purposes we value, but what of the material itself? It came from plants originally, but I can almost only think of ways it becomes pollution, not benign. If we make it into plastic, eventually it becomes microplastic and harms us. Gas, jet fuel, and other parts used for fuel eventually become greenhouse gas, but how much? All of it? If not, what fraction? Some may be made into fertilizer. How much of what becomes fertilizer eventually becomes plants? That part sounds like maybe not pollution, though I understand much of the fertilizer spread on…