How many times have you heard people suggest the answer to our environmental problems is more technology? Have you heard of carcinogens or other toxic chemicals coming from places other than our technology? I guess some things like animal venom or naturally occurring heavy metals, but there aren’t too many of them. Volcanoes may emit carbon dioxide, but not enough to raise Earth’s temperature by a degree per decade. For[…] Keep reading →

I live in Greenwich Village. Here’s an old map of the neighborhood: It’s a tall building. From the roof, I can see across the street to a playground for a school between a couple brick buildings: You probably see marked on the ground the two basketball half-courts on the left and the blue track that curves beside them. You’ll also see a colorful block pattern inside the track. Let’s look[…] Keep reading →

I’ve taught a half-dozen people the technique I use in this podcast—the hosts of the other branches of the This Sustainable Life podcast. They started calling it The Spodek Method, so now I do too. It’s enabled me to reach amazing people, many of global renown, who enjoy the experience. It doesn’t alone solve all the world’s problems, but it works. The Spodek Method leads a person to share and[…] Keep reading →

I posted on handling what people call pandemic fatigue to Thrive Global today: Pandemic Fatigue? How to Achieve Pandemic Thriving. Here’s the text of the article: When I learned I would be locked down indefinitely, knowing we were all heading into unknown territory, I looked for role models. Who had handled such a situation successfully? Nelson Mandela had been locked down for twenty-seven years, most of that time on a[…] Keep reading →

I keep reading articles describing food as medicine, describing how vegetables and fruit are especially healthy. Saying so implies vegetables and fruit are abnormal, things you have to go out of your way for, and doof is normal. People can define normal how they want, but to me, fresh fruits and vegetables are normal. From my perspective, food isn’t medicine. It’s normal, as is health. Doof is poison and abnormal,[…] Keep reading →

“Our finest hour” never describes a bright sunny morning with the birds singing, however fine such an hour. I associate the phrase with the movie Apollo 13. The flight director said the astronauts’ perilous state after an explosion in space on the way to the moon “could be the worst disaster NASA’s ever experienced.” His peer responded, “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our[…] Keep reading →

We were born into a world with systems and practices that pollute. I don’t see how we can blame past generations for decisions they couldn’t have expected to result in our world. Who could have believed when coal first boiled water to steam and that steam created mechanical motion that we could choke the sky with fossil fuel smoke and heat the whole damned planet? Who could have imagined when[…] Keep reading →