Pollution and Depletion

Some notes from Climate Week NYC day 1

Hands on Practical Experience / Leadership / Pollution and Depletion

Some notes from Climate Week NYC day 1

My main result came from talking to people. Some were in groups, looking insular, probably preparing to present. Nearly all who were on their own were focused on their phones or computers. The introduction I worked out was, "Everyone is on their phones and computers, but I think we're supposed to network." Everyone I walked up to and said it to smiled and started talking. I started maybe a dozen conversations that way. I listened to each share why they were there and whatever they wanted to share. If they asked, I practiced delivering versions of the message of the book I'm working on and the movement it will start. That is, I did my reps. I practiced the basics. I see leadership as a…

September 21, 2026

If slaves didn’t have a choice in being enslaved, did owners? Then do we to do what we do that harms others?

Choosing/Decision-Making / Pollution and Depletion

If slaves didn’t have a choice in being enslaved, did owners? Then do we to do what we do that harms others?

Recalling the plot from my post The Scale and Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People: Here, now, not future projections (read the post for context) that shows how many more deaths our system today is causing than past atrocities, in particular, the Atlantic Slave Trade: I pose the questions in this post's title: First, if slaves didn't have a choice in being enslaved, did owners? It seems clear to me that slaves didn't have any choice in being enslaved. People used weapons and other means to deprive them of agency and coerce them into being enslaved. What about the owners? They lived within a system that to some degree coerced them too. It told them that slavery wasn't bad. In fact, it delivered many messages…

September 18, 2026

Rich people eating in garbage

Pollution and Depletion

Rich people eating in garbage

Prince Street Pizza is one of New York City's highest rated pizzas. They literally have customers eat off their garbage cans. And yes, literally, not figuratively. Here are its customers eating their pizza off their garbage cans. (More pictures below) My point is not to denigrate one pizza place, though it is responsible for its garbage actions, as are its garbage customers. No one is forcing anyone to serve or eat their pizza amid stinking garbage. My point is to point out how much our global culture has become inured itself to living in garbage. Prince Street is in Soho, one of Manhattan's richest neighborhoods. Manhattan is one of the world's richest places. (I looked up inure to make sure. It looks right: "To habituate…

September 16, 2026

Should we amend the Constitution?

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

Should we amend the Constitution?

Pollution and depletion deprive people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law. The Constitution doesn't define property, but all the founders, including those who wrote and ratified the Constitution, understood it as John Locke wrote, including that you can not allow people to make property---that is, to appropriate---from nature without leaving enough as good in common for others. In other words, bringing fossil fuels and uranium into the biosphere violate constitutional property rights. Those rights are defined not for the fun of it or arbitrarily. They are there to protect liberty, freedom, equality, democracy, and national security from tyranny, civil war, and invasion from disunity, preceded by civic breakdown. You may like the perks you get from activities that violate these protections.…

September 12, 2026

How I have responded to September 11: Service

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion / Volunteering

How I have responded to September 11: Service

Five years ago, I watched the firefighters across the street from my apartment building muster. As I recorded my podcast a few minutes later, I couldn't stop the tears from coming. This year I'm looking forward more, considering my actions that affect others. Response 1/3: Serving as an auxiliary This morning, I went to the Sixth Precinct, a few blocks down Tenth Street, and mustered with police officers as an auxiliary. From formation, when it was my turn, I read the name of one of the officers from the precinct who died 25 years ago today. Relatives of those officers attended, as they do every year. At the refreshments afterward, donated by a local market, the relatives were in good spirits. As solemn as the…

September 11, 2026

Robert Carter III officially began freeing his slaves 235 years ago today. We can extend even more freedom today if we choose.

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

Robert Carter III officially began freeing his slaves 235 years ago today. We can extend even more freedom today if we choose.

I've written plenty about a person who has become one of my great role models, whose actions are poignant today. He freed the most number of slaves of any American before the Civil War. He didn't ask to be born into a culture in which slavery was legal and financially rewarded. Yet he acted. We didn't ask to be born into a culture in which polluting and depleting, which cause death and suffering orders of magnitude greater than US slavery did. Most of us don't act. It's tempting to say we aren't holding whips, a red herring. Few people held whips then. They bought cotton, tobacco, and other slave-produced products and services. They paid for others to whip and enslave, just as we pay people…

September 5, 2026

The Left’s and environmentalists’ folly: “They don’t care”

Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion

The Left’s and environmentalists’ folly: “They don’t care”

In fairness, the following dialogue would happen with people from the Right or those who disagree with claims that humans are seriously degrading the environment's ability to sustain life. In that case, we'd substitute something like "They hate America!" for "They don't care!" though the problem would be less about the environment and more about the loss of liberty, freedom, equality, democracy, and national security, which they're contributing to. Those who purport to protect, conserve, or restore the environment, or fight for "environmental justice," all pollute and deplete more than most people. They seem to shun personal responsibility or acknowledge the effects of their actions to undermine their work. Here's a typical dialogue, or at least the meaning if not the exact words: Me: "We…

September 2, 2026

Fiji Water or Piss?

Addiction / Pollution and Depletion

Fiji Water or Piss?

Do you drink bottled water? What do you consider more unhealthy in the picture below: the plastic, the yellow liquid contained in it, or the water that was in it that was shipped around the world. I wish I could convey how disgusting the plastic and shipped water are to me. I don't want to touch urine, but the plastic and shipped water hurt people more. Bottled water is the cause of polluted water, not deliverance from it, just like gambling causes gamblers to lose, amphetamines cause users to have less energy. That is, dependence and addiction lead those who depend on something to live with less than what they get that jolt of, but the rest of the time crave. Over three years ago…

September 1, 2026

Might I Be Wrong About Artificial Intelligence? How Wrong Could I Be?

Addiction / Artificial Intelligence / Pollution and Depletion

Might I Be Wrong About Artificial Intelligence? How Wrong Could I Be?

I've written about AI, mainly problems. In Extreme Thoughts on Artificial Intelligence I explored the idea that AI offers no benefit, only the jolt of the feeling of accomplishment like the jolt of euphoria of opiates and solving problems created by the system and philosophy that created it. Let's say I'm wrong. Let's say AI offers many benefits I'm missing. How wrong might I be? What difference to us would we see if we stopped using AI compared to if we kept using it? Would we miss it? Would we think, "Darn, my life suffers for lack of AI"? If we stopped using eyeglasses or pressure cookers, I'd miss them. They represent technologies that seem to benefit people without harming others. You could argue that…

August 28, 2026

Is peace possible when nations deplete?

Pollution and Depletion

Is peace possible when nations deplete?

I don't think I'm skipping too many steps in this question: Is peace possible when nations are depleting resources? I don't think it's possible in the long term. I've been looking. Please tell me if you see something I'm missing, though the possibility of stopping depleting seems to solve the problem. So far, as nations depleted resources, at least some of them could expand into new territory that had resources they lacked, usually arable land, access to ports, minerals, fresh water, forests, and such. For the past few centuries, fossil fuels and uranium could enable them to produce alternatives and substitutions for many resources, or to recycle some, to provide the service the resources provided. Today, there isn't much land that is arable or could…

August 27, 2026

Is the only way to reduce litter and garbage anywhere to overhaul American culture, maybe global? I guess we’ll have to do it then.

Habits / Pollution and Depletion / SIDCHAs

Is the only way to reduce litter and garbage anywhere to overhaul American culture, maybe global? I guess we’ll have to do it then.

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day, in particular in Washington Square Park, effectively my back yard. It's one of my sidchas. Today I must have arrived in the park just after a cleaning crew's shift because I saw almost no litter. Was I excited that the park might be clean for a day, even if just for when I happened to be there? No. Experience taught me not to be disappointed. I went with my computer to work. I knew if I sat and worked, then by the time I left, even a few minutes later, plenty of litter would arrive. I'm sure if I asked anyone if they littered, they'd all say no, but within a few minutes of sitting, I…

August 24, 2026

Externalities versus violations of the Constitution

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

Externalities versus violations of the Constitution

People call pollution an externality---that is, a cost imposed on someone who wasn't part of the choice. It may be an externality, but that identification misses a bigger point. It also violates the consent of the governed, deprives people of life, liberty, and property, and violates the Declaration and Constitution in other ways. Pollution is not just an economic issue. It's also political and the political ramifications are much greater. Violating the Constitution is important, especially when everyone in the nation does it, the government profits from it, politicians become corrupted by it, and more. If you don't fix the economic problem, money gets distributed not to those who solve problems best but to those who coerce the most. You distort the economy and inhibit…

August 17, 2026

If we want an energy transition we don’t need more so-called “renewable”. We need less fossil fuels, which we aren’t doing.

Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

If we want an energy transition we don’t need more so-called “renewable”. We need less fossil fuels, which we aren’t doing.

I came across these graphs and had to share them because they reveal how counterproductive the plans of many environmentalists are, at least those who keep saying how percentages of so-called "clean," "green," or "renewable" energy sources are increasing. Wind, solar, and electric vehicles may pollute, deplete, and misappropriate less than fossil fuels, but less than fossil fuels doesn't mean zero. But for the sake of discussion, lets' imagine they were clean, green, and renewable. The plots below show that humans are using as much oil and fossil fuels as ever. Only using less fossil fuels uses less fossil fuels. Using more solar doesn't reduce the pollution, depletion, or misappropriation of oil. When we add back that they do pollute, deplete, and misappropriate, we gain…

August 5, 2026

Syringes on a Sunday afternoon, following doof on a Sunday morning

Addiction / Doof / Pollution and Depletion

Syringes on a Sunday afternoon, following doof on a Sunday morning

I haven't posted about finding syringes and people shooting up in a while. Last fall or winter the city decided to increase the police coverage of Washington Square Park and the neighborhood. Nobody thinks it decreases the use of fentanyl and other drugs of despair, but they moved it away from this particular park. Yesterday afternoon, while picking up litter in the park, I saw a couple syringes, the first I saw in that park in several months. This tree happens to be close to the temporary police office, sort of a mobile home parked by the northwest corner of the park. The park is like my neighborhood's back yard. Who wants discarded used syringes in their back yard? Yesterday morning started with other addiction,…

August 3, 2026

“There is no place that I’d rather be,” I thought, until the ATV and used diaper

Nature / Pollution and Depletion / Stories

“There is no place that I’d rather be,” I thought, until the ATV and used diaper

This post is about inspiration. Parts may look dark, but since I developed a vision for a desirable future with a rewarding, doable path to it, greater challenges just motivate more. I was in Philadelphia over the weekend and got to walk in the park along Wissahickon Creek. Regular readers know that it's one of my favorite places on Earth. Here are a couple maps of it: and a friendlier one. Growing up in Mt Airy and Germantown, I recognize all the neighborhood names around it, which remind me of where friends lived, where I played little league or soccer, rode my bike up incredibly steep hills, worked at my first job, and so on. Also, where I got mugged, my life threatened, mugged again,…

July 27, 2026

People call cities noisy and dirty, but suburbanites create the noise and mess

Doof / Pollution and Depletion

People call cities noisy and dirty, but suburbanites create the noise and mess

I wish you could experience the pollution of Friday and Saturday nights in my neighborhood: sound pollution and litter in particular. If I go out the following morning before the street cleaners do their work, at taxpayer expense, there is garbage all over. Pizza boxes, beer cans, plastic cups, sometimes bar glasses but they've mostly been replaced by plastic, doof wrappers, often pieces of clothing, takeout containers often with food in it, and plenty more. It's on the street, the gutter, the planters outside my building, in the trees, overflowing from garbage cans. At night they honk, rev their engines, yell at each other, sing, and so on. None are from this neighborhood. They are from other places---New Jersey, Long Island, upstate, as well as…

July 25, 2026

America’s largest release of radioactive waste wasn’t Three Mile Island. It was Church Rock, mainly affecting the Navajo Nation

Pollution and Depletion / Stories

America’s largest release of radioactive waste wasn’t Three Mile Island. It was Church Rock, mainly affecting the Navajo Nation

Following up what I learned about The Hanford Nuclear Site a couple months ago, I learned of the Church Rock uranium mill spill. I think the biggest point to remember about the following is that several sources say that it was one of multiple incidents that received minimal coverage. It may be the biggest, but may only be the biggest reported or known. According to Wikipedia [my emphasis]: The Church Rock uranium mill spill occurred in ... New Mexico on July 16, 1979, when United Nuclear Corporation's tailings disposal pond at its uranium mill in Church Rock breached its dam. The spill remains the largest release of radioactive material in U.S. history, having released more radioactivity than the Three Mile Island accident four months earlier. This article…

July 23, 2026

Elon Musk says “Those without children lack a stake in the future” but lives the opposite.

Pollution and Depletion

Elon Musk says “Those without children lack a stake in the future” but lives the opposite.

Elon Musk wrote a few months ago, "Those without children lack a stake in the future." He implies he has a stake in the future for having kids. On the contrary, if you want to know who does not have a stake in the future, people who build doomsday bunkers. They are at best hedging their bets. A quick search showed Mark Zuckerberg built bunkers in Hawaii, Palo Alto and Lake Tahoe Elon Musk in Texas compound Sam Altman Jeff Bezos Peter Thiel Andrew Tate and many others are betting against humanity. There's a whole industry of people betting against you. What do you know, my search turned up a book on this topic by podcast guest Doug Rushkoff, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of…

July 22, 2026

Slippery double standards about harming people

Pollution and Depletion

Slippery double standards about harming people

Yesterday's post How we view the suffering we cause others today versus 200 years ago prompted me to think of a different view on our culture's double standards of whom we consider when we do things that harm others versus when others do such things. When I say I don't use air conditioning, people respond, "But what can I do when it's hot?" About not flying, "But I have to see my relatives" or "But I need to for my job" etc. About not using a fridge "But I don't have time to cook." In other words, regarding perks, they concern themselves about themselves. They might say flying is for their kids' education or other distraction, but it's always how it affects them at the…

July 21, 2026

How we view the suffering we cause others today versus 200 years ago

Awareness / Models / Pollution and Depletion

How we view the suffering we cause others today versus 200 years ago

This post describes how to face a challenge we all face in a way that leads to deep reward, though it requires introspection that may feel uncomfortable in the short term. When I talk to people about hurting others less by reducing how much they pollute and deplete, they talk about themselves. They might say something about helping people by spreading culture or education or their mother being sick, but they want to fly. They may say something about other people not having access to fresh produce, but they want takeout, and the concern for others is just a smokescreen or diversion from their personal responsibility. Mention personal responsibility to anyone regarding pollution and depletion and they'll launch into huge diversions about BP if they're…

July 20, 2026

Women-Founded Garbage

Doof / Pollution and Depletion

Women-Founded Garbage

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day. The point isn't that my actions will change much. It seems about 8 billion people around the world don't seem to mind buying and disposing of plastic so I'm a tiny minority. One of the biggest values in picking up litter is that it makes it easier for me to avoid spending money on doof and other stuff that ends up filling landfills. Did I say "easy"? That's an understatement. I feel disgust and repugnance for the common stuff I find. I just got home and four Modelo empty beer cans were in my building's garden on the way in. McDonalds, 7-11, Amazon, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Coca-Cola ... All of those brands and their peers…

July 17, 2026

Environmentalists: Are you proud that to get back at BP, you don’t stop buying their products?

Oil refinery

Pollution and Depletion

Environmentalists: Are you proud that to get back at BP, you don’t stop buying their products?

It's been nearly a year since I posted Do you think BP tricked us? Here’s a way to respond. and I'm still as aghast as ever at how counterproductive the environmentalist response to personal responsibility. Everyone knows the story of BP promoting personal footprints to distract from their responsibility. How exactly does their being responsible for what they did remove responsibility for what you do? But my main response to environmentalists: Are you proud that to get back at BP, you don't stop buying their products? You're promoting that people keep buying what BP and their peers as much as ever. Am I missing something that you aren't responding in the most counterproductive way possible?

July 16, 2026

Secret video of Beth picking up litter goes viral in Mexico

Habits / Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion / Volunteering

Secret video of Beth picking up litter goes viral in Mexico

The background: Longtime podcast listeners may remember episode 754: (Aunt) Trish Ellis and (Niece) Evelyn Wallace, part 1: Not Even Cancer Holds Her Back. We mentioned Beth, Evelyn's mom and Trish's sister. All three of them took the workshop. Beth has been picking up litter ever since. She lives in Mérida, Mexico, where she organizes others to pick up litter too. They created a web page: Yo ❤ Mérida limpia. ¿Y tú?, which states their mission and vision: Mission: To promote the care, cleanliness, and respect for Mérida's public spaces through community actions that strengthen environmental awareness, a sense of belonging, and citizen participation. Vision: To build a Mérida where every person takes pride in caring for their surroundings, making cleanliness and respect for nature part…

July 14, 2026

Can the Constitution Save the Planet?: A professor of environmental law’s view, part 1

Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion

Can the Constitution Save the Planet?: A professor of environmental law’s view, part 1

I met a professor at Pace University who told me that its law school ranked number one in environmental law. It turns out it does: My upcoming book approaches problems we face today, including environmental degradation as one of many, as resulting from not understanding how the Constitution applies. More precisely, they result from not enforcing the Constitution. I was interested in talking to lawyers with constitutional backgrounds. I should note that I've learned that constitutional lawyers don't tend to be trained in leadership. When I proposed the APPLE PIE amendment in Sustainability Simplified, I learned that the creation of new amendments doesn't have to come from lawyers. As far as I can tell, they seem to train to look back at existing ones, precedent, and…

July 10, 2026

Last week’s heat wave, air conditioning, and fragile, entitled people

Pollution and Depletion

Last week’s heat wave, air conditioning, and fragile, entitled people

Last week the temperature went above 100 F (38 C) for two days and close to it for a day or two before and after, plus it was humid. Everyone talked about the heat. I didn't try to bring it up, but my not using air conditioning led people to the same questions over and over: how did I make it, did I use a fan, etc. Everything always about me, never about the people hurt by my polluting and depleting. Then most comment on how they couldn't make it. Occasionally an old person will mention how they grew up without air conditioning and don't like it, though they use it when it gets hot enough. I point out that people have lived on this…

July 8, 2026

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