Pollution and Depletion

A tragic comment the dean said about artificial intelligence at my 20 year business school reunion

Education / Leadership / Pollution and Depletion

A tragic comment the dean said about artificial intelligence at my 20 year business school reunion

Yesterday I wrote personal reflections about my business school reunion. Today I have to share a tragic comment from the Dean of the school. There was a town-hall type gathering where he spoke about the state of the school. One of the main topics was that the school was embracing artificial intelligence with enthusiasm. He spoke of how professors were being trained in it, students were encouraged to use it, and so on. At the end he acknowledged that using AI polluted and depleted. I think he acknowledged even that the scale was already huge, accelerating, and without any ways to curb it. His response to this acknowledgment: "We have to be cognizant of that." Be cognizant? What kind of cop-out is "be cognizant of that"?…

June 23, 2026

First we pave more land nearby and it’s no big deal…

Nature / Pollution and Depletion

First we pave more land nearby and it’s no big deal…

First we pave more land nearby and it's no big deal. In fact, the road or housing development boosts the economy. More people can reach places faster. Then we expand that paved area, again no big deal. The we have to travel to get away from it all. There is no local nature, no chance for solitude in nature. Then we pave over yet more to access more remote places, maybe build an airport, to facilitate getting away from it all. Then we acknowledge that we've wrecked or done away with nature nearby so we feel we have to get away and feel entitled to what we need to get away and to the remote nature we get away to. Then we build adorable little…

June 20, 2026

When did you last prepare a meal from scratch?

Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion

When did you last prepare a meal from scratch?

Nearly everyone I tell that I don't use a fridge responds, "You must shop every day," or asks how often I shop, implying that they think it must be frequently. I've been answering by pointing out that apples and eggplants don't need refrigeration, nor do most whole fruits and vegetables. Most of the produce in this picture will stay edible for weeks without refrigeration. Several will keep months or longer if fermented. Meanwhile, look at the second picture below. Nearly all the produce in the picture below will start decomposing as soon as they aren't refrigerated. They're worse in nearly every way: less fresh, more polluting, more fragile, more depleting, etc. Notice that you can't directly see or touch produce or anything living. In the…

June 19, 2026

What do we do about past choices that ended up violating our values? Do we just give up? Wouldn’t you rather win?

Choosing/Decision-Making / Pollution and Depletion

What do we do about past choices that ended up violating our values? Do we just give up? Wouldn’t you rather win?

The number one resistance I hear to flying is that people have family flying-distance away. For most people who fly a lot, the following is checkmate: "What do you expect, never to see their mother again?" Implication: the environment is important but family is more important, so for whatever its problems, flying is net worth it. Similar with plastic, big cars, etc. Context Before getting to the heart of this view, first let's note that it is specious, deceptive, and self-serving. Flying made them flying-distance away in the first place. They don't hesitate to fly away from their family. People who fly spend less time with family, not more. Then they start talking about how they need to live where they do for work, or…

June 17, 2026

The 5 greatest flaws I see in environmentalism

Education / Hands on Practical Experience / Leadership / Pollution and Depletion

The 5 greatest flaws I see in environmentalism

I see environmentalism increasingly causing environmental degradation because the core of its practice is misguided. I started this post to write about the two greatest flaws I see in environmentalism, but three more came to me while writing. My goal is not to be comprehensive or authoritative but to provoke thought and behavior change. [EDIT: I came up with more since posting, so now more than 5. I may keep updating.] To believe that suing more solar, wind, or any energy source, including nuclear or, should it ever work, fusion, will lower use of fossil fuels or uranium, or their resulting pollution and depletion. Corollary: To believe that calling solar, wind, or any energy source as implemented today "clean," "green," or "renewable" means that it…

June 13, 2026

“Are we running out of land for landfills?”: A Richard Feynman view from the 1986 Space Shuttle disaster

Nature / Pollution and Depletion

“Are we running out of land for landfills?”: A Richard Feynman view from the 1986 Space Shuttle disaster

Richard Feynman is the Nobel laureate physicist who studied what caused the Space Shuttle Explosion of 1986. He learned that the o-rings likely leaked because past measurements showed cracks in them at low temperatures, like those just before the launch. Anyone my age or older remembers the image. He saw that people who saw the earlier cracks saw that because the cracks only went about a third of the way through, "there was 'a safety factor of three.'" I put the full quote below, which I recommend reading, but the gist is that since the o-rings were designed not to crack at all, there was no safety factor. Any cracking at all meant they failed. The Relevance to Landfills I ran into an old friend. Our…

June 10, 2026

“Could Switzerland Become the First Country to Cap Its Population?” asks the New Yorker, and I comment.

Nature / Pollution and Depletion

“Could Switzerland Become the First Country to Cap Its Population?” asks the New Yorker, and I comment.

The New Yorker reported this week: Could Switzerland Become the First Country to Cap Its Population?: The Swiss will soon go to the polls for a novel initiative that could upend the nation’s economy and rupture ties with the European Union. An early paragraph describes the article's main issue. I'll share it plus a couple other paragraphs, then my comments after. On June 14th, Switzerland will vote on whether to become the only country in the world to officially cap its population, with a limit of ten million people until 2050. (The current population is 9.1 million.) The initiative, which was put forward by the Swiss People’s Party (S.V.P.) and in recent polls has been supported by as many as fifty-two per cent of respondents,…

June 8, 2026

NYU’s president breaks NYU’s rules, to pollute and deplete of course

Doof / Education / Leadership / Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion

NYU’s president breaks NYU’s rules, to pollute and deplete of course

I wrote in 2023 about NYU consistently violating its own rules in NYU in 2019: We will stop buying bottled water. NYU in 2023: Here’s some bottled water from us. It's tempting to read something I'm not writing. I'm talking about leadership, which requires credibility and integrity, which require hands-on practical experience, not mere talk. I'm not writing in judgment. During a bus boycott, Martin Luther King would undermine everything if he occasionally took the bus, or even once, even if it took him places faster than any other way and he could do more with that extra time than anyone else. I attended a wonderful event hosted by NYU this week. The prominent author Walter Isaacson spoke about his book on the Declaration of Independence…

June 6, 2026

The Timeline for Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

The Timeline for Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People

This post follows The Scale and Pollution and Depletion's Effects on People: Here, now, not future projections. I suggest reading it first. The timeline is important. Before the atrocities above, things could seem like they might work out, then explode. I could treat any of them, but will pick US slavery since its timeline is long, so easiest to discern. Here is the increase in number of slaves in the US from 1610 (zero) to 1860 (4 million): US slavery in the years approaching 1860 involved a national culture of trade, torture, and killing. While any instance of slavery is cruel, that national culture didn't exist in 1619. Oxford-educated Trinidadian historian Eric Williams wrote, “A racial twist has thereby been given to what is basically…

June 2, 2026

The Scale and Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People: Here, now, not future projections

Awareness / Freedom / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

The Scale and Pollution and Depletion’s Effects on People: Here, now, not future projections

I talk about the USSR gulag system, abolitionism, slavery, the Holocaust, and similar atrocities in the context of pollution and depletion. Most Americans know the horrors of slavery and the Holocaust. We know viscerally the images of slaves' welts and concentration camp survivors looking like skeletons. By comparison, images of pollution and depletion look like piles of garbage and graphs of CO2 concentration. Similarly, few images of the gulag exist because few were taken and few Americans register how many more suffered and died, nor how gruesome the conditions. Am I stupid, ignorant, or crazy to talk about these atrocities in the context of pollution and depletion? Context and Frame of Mind Before reading this post, it helps to clarify how you feel about some…

June 1, 2026

The Hanford Nuclear Site

Pollution and Depletion

The Hanford Nuclear Site

Hosting a top-ranked podcast with the word "sustainable" in the title means being sent pre-releases of books, documentaries, and other media. Most don't match with my focus, but some do. Often a book or author looks interesting and I research them. Lately I was sent a pre-release of Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who Are Selling Off Our Future, by Joshua Frank. I didn't know the author so I looked him up and found his book Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, about the Hanford nuclear site in Washington State. Have you heard of Hanford? I hadn't, so I looked it up. I'll quote what seems a source without a strong bias on…

May 30, 2026

About the comments to yesterday’s NY Post article about not using air conditioning

Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion / Stories

About the comments to yesterday’s NY Post article about not using air conditioning

The article I posted about yesterday in Read about me in today’s NY Post: “No AC? No sweat! Meet the New Yorkers sweltering through summer — by choice” has been up less than 24 hours, but it's trending enough to get a big picture on the front page, though featuring the other two people profiled. I guess I wasn't as photogenic. I included the scroll bar in the image below to show that while it earned a big picture, it wasn't near the top. Still it got plenty of comments, which showed trends typical of comments, though the Post tends to conservative politically and aggressive, which I enjoy. Let's start with the unsupportive comments Here are two common responses that liberal and progressive environmentalists have…

May 28, 2026

Read about me in today’s NY Post: “No AC? No sweat! Meet the New Yorkers sweltering through summer — by choice”

Pollution and Depletion / Stories

Read about me in today’s NY Post: “No AC? No sweat! Meet the New Yorkers sweltering through summer — by choice”

The New York Post interviewed and photographed me for a story on New Yorkers who don't use air conditioning: No AC? No sweat! Meet the New Yorkers sweltering through summer — by choice, written by Lauren Elkies Schram, photographed by Stefano Giovannini. [EDIT, after reading the article, read About the comments to yesterday’s NY Post article about not using air conditioning] The story begins: New York City has a cool class of rebels — those who elect to brave the crushing summer heat without air conditioning at home. It is a small, but mighty group that opts to use fans, take cold showers and work in cool alternate locations during the hot months. Now, following a dreary holiday weekend, temperatures are back on the rise…

May 27, 2026

Year 5, Day 1 with my apartment disconnected from the electric grid

Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion

Year 5, Day 1 with my apartment disconnected from the electric grid

I only wish I’d disconnected sooner. Not needing something means more freedom, especially not needing something that Violates the Declaration of Independence (for a government to be just requires the consent of the governed, which pollution and depletion violate) Violates the Constitution (pollution and depletion deprive people of life, liberty, and property without due process of law) Violates property rights as understood by the framers, ratifiers, and public (pollution and depletion do not leave enough as good in common for others) Good luck maintaining democracy without enforcing the minimum requirements for it. Good luck leaving at peace with yourself violating your values. I take for granted you value living in a democracy, not descending into civic disorder leading to tyranny, civil war (remember last time…

May 22, 2026

Should I fear posting concerns about artificial intelligence?

Freedom / Models / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

Should I fear posting concerns about artificial intelligence?

I'm posting more about artificial intelligence, maybe enough to make a category for it. I posted that I hesitated to post my last one with this explanation: "I held back on posting it because of the question in the last paragraph. I’m finishing the third volume of The Gulag Archipelago and studying the effects of dominance hierarchy, which artificial intelligence is forming. People who criticized Stalin didn’t fare well. Should we worry about criticizing the people and machines who may be at the top of a steepening dominance hierarchy?" I doubt I have to worry, but reflecting on something thoughtfully and calmly isn't worrying. Besides AI, I also post a lot about dominance hierarchies. They form when there is a necessary resource that can be…

May 19, 2026

Do you want to deprive others of free speech?

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

Do you want to deprive others of free speech?

Do you want to live in a society where you can deprive others of free speech or freedom of the press? I wouldn't. I presume you value that your government protects your freedom of speech and the freedom of the press for that media you agree with. Can you imagine living under a government that didn't? I'm in the middle of The Gulag Archipelago. It gives some of the picture and it doesn't like desirable. It's tempting, is it not, to think sometimes, "As much as I value my freedom of speech, sometimes people say things I dislike so much that I'd like to be able to restrict theirs. Not always, of course, but sometimes." Or you learn what the other side's media tells them:…

May 16, 2026

If you can’t walk away, you aren’t free. Freedom requires not depleting nonrenewable resources.

Addiction / Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

If you can’t walk away, you aren’t free. Freedom requires not depleting nonrenewable resources.

If someone orders you to do something but you can walk away without risk or loss and they can't coerce or force you to do what they order, you're free and their orders are just words. Freedom means you can walk away. What if your life depends on resources others control, so that the only way you can access them is if they let you? Then you can't walk away. Are you then free? It doesn't look like it to me. What if a nation depends on resources others control, so that the only way it can access them is if those other let it? Then it can't walk away. Is it then free? It doesn't look like it to me. A post What We…

May 15, 2026

Why the government not enforcing the Constitution and Declaration makes avoiding polluting and depleting hard

Freedom / Pollution and Depletion

Why the government not enforcing the Constitution and Declaration makes avoiding polluting and depleting hard

Regular readers know how I bring my portable solar equipment to my building's roof or to the nearby park to charge. Since my sole apartment window faces nearly due south, I can charge through my window most of the year, however limited and blocked the view, but near the summer solstice the sun goes too high. Even though the hemisphere sees more direct sunlight for more hours each day, my apartment sees less. If I could just stick a small panel out my window facing up, I'd get all the power I need without the work of carrying my equipment up the stairs or out to the park. Countless apartments in the city and around the world already have air conditioners sticking out their windows.…

May 14, 2026

Parents just don’t understand

Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion / Relationships

Parents just don’t understand

George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Jesus Christ didn't have kids, but JD Vance said about "people without children," that "How does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?" I guess Vance isn't a fan of Washington or Christ, though he was referring at the time to Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and AOC as leaders of the Democrat party. If he disagrees with their politics, that's his prerogative, but why the venom against people without children? Why the claim that people without children are less connected to humanity's future? [EDIT: I had the idea to write this post months, maybe years ago. I kept not writing it because I wasn't sure it…

May 13, 2026

Wounded warriors, by Clint Eastwood, and us

Addiction / Art / Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion

Wounded warriors, by Clint Eastwood, and us

Yesterday I posted a passage from Steven Pressfield's new book The Arcadian about how being induced to act against our values---being corrupted from our values---affects us, in Wounded Warriors, by Steven Pressfield, and Ourselves. Yesterday I quoted a scene from Steven's book where three warriors share the effects on their minds of their heroism. It began with what happened to their bodies, which seems the visible counterpart of what happens to their minds, not counting those who were killed and aren’t there to be seen or heard. The passage built up to the last paragraph, which described pissing, pickling, and kicking corpses to try to diminish what they'd done. The actions show what people do when we are corrupted from our values. Steven describes warriors…

May 12, 2026

Wounded Warriors, by Steven Pressfield, and Ourselves

Art / Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion

Wounded Warriors, by Steven Pressfield, and Ourselves

I finished The Arcadian by podcast guest Steven Pressfield yesterday. I found the whole book gripping, but one passage stood out as relevant to my work and upcoming book. A big part of my upcoming book is what happens to us when we are induced to act against our values---that is, when we are corrupted from our values. We didn't ask to be born into a culture that makes it impossible to get past eating breakfast without hurting people---for example through plastic packaging and transporting food across continents when our ancestors just walked to it---and causing more of it---for example, by funding future extraction and lobbying for more---but we were. The result: we tell ourselves multiple times per day every day for decades whatever it…

May 11, 2026

So corrupt, integrity looks extreme

Pollution and Depletion

So corrupt, integrity looks extreme

People call my attempt to pollute and deplete less "extreme." Let's consider the view behind this defense that to me feels like an attack. It comes from people living in a culture that induces us to act against our values. Most of us can't eat breakfast without hurting others, for example by funding production that funds fossil fuel extraction for the plastic and transport if you eat packaged food. I feel it too, though less for having acted I felt the personal responsibility that first week over a decade ago when I avoided packaged food and saw the shelf where I normally started shopping at the local market. I couldn't see actual food, only boxes, bags, jars, and cans. For all my advanced degrees and…

May 4, 2026

May Day / No Kings Garbage.

Nonjudgment / Pollution and Depletion / Visualization

May Day / No Kings Garbage.

The other day I posted pictures of the needless garbage Democratic candidates send to my mailbox. They talk sustainability, but look at their action. You can see the pictures in Democrat Garbage: When Democrats Say They Value Sustainability, They Mean When It's Convenient For Themselves (Republicans Probably No Different). Am I unfairly judging them? On the contrary, the conflict is between their values and their actions. I didn't ask for them to send me garbage. I work to stop junk mail being sent to me. I hardly receive any now, but Democrats do it. Holding people accountable to their values helps them. It doesn't hurt them. Their garbage continued to arrive after the election. I put an image of more recent garbage of theirs at…

May 2, 2026

Clarifying what people get when they pollute and deplete less

A6FY1C Brent Delta North Sea

Addiction / Awareness / Doof / Freedom / Hands on Practical Experience / Pollution and Depletion

Clarifying what people get when they pollute and deplete less

What people get from polluting and depleting less: I used to tell people that they'd save money and time because they will. Nobody believes me. Nobody. They see buying coffee at Starbucks to go and ordering takeout as saving time, missing that those who do those things have the least time. Knowing your values so you can prioritize them and dismiss less valuable things (like takeout coffee and takeout) restores time and money. I first thought stopping things that cause pollution and depletion---particularly those that fund extraction of fossil fuels, uranium, and other nonrenewable resources---would bring deprivation and sacrifice. Now I see that many things I once thought necessary or unavoidable are unnecessary. In time and with hands-on practical experience they become repugnant and disgusting,…

April 27, 2026

Environmentalists rarely try to solve the problem

Addiction / Doof / Leadership / Nature / Pollution and Depletion

Environmentalists rarely try to solve the problem

Fixing the results of a problem is not the same as stopping it from recurring and you rarely can undo all the problems, especially if you do it persistently. For example, exercising doesn't make up for an addiction to doof. Even if you burn off the calories, it doesn't fix the health problems or make back the wasted money. More importantly, since you keep consuming doof, you'll likely miss exercising sometimes. Relevant to polluting and depleting: plant all the trees you want. If our culture values affordable houses and food, when they want to chop your trees back down, they'll find a way to. I distinguish mopping up the mess from not causing it because I'm getting flooded with requests for people promoting stuff for…

April 21, 2026

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