How many times have I heard about polluting and depleting less, “You can do those things because you’re single.”? I know when people rationalize and justify their inaction, say by saying it’s easier for me or particularly harder for them, they aren’t speaking rationally. They’re protecting their vulnerabilities, suppressing and denying that they are hurting others, acting against their deepest values. Still, it seems worth it to list a few[…] Keep reading →

What is imperialism? Imagine two cultures. One lives within the means of its environment—that is, sustainably. The other lives beyond its means—that is, unsustainably. The sustainable culture will live in abundance. Being sustainable means it isn’t living in scarcity. Everyone must have enough—actually, more than enough, as evidenced through sustaining through periods of drought. Eventually the unsustainable culture will run out of resources. If it keeps to itself, it can[…] Keep reading →

Doof brings you predictable, reliable pleasure. It works every time. You don’t have to think about anyone but yourself. You don’t have to prepare anything. It’s clean. Local fresh produce takes more effort to select. It can be bad sometimes. It’s messier. It takes planning. It’s different every time. You have to think about other people. You may have to put their considerations before yours. Doof disrespects other people. It[…] Keep reading →

My recent podcast guest Whitney Tilson and I joked about how we connected through cursing emails. From his perspective, some recipient of his emails started cursing at him. Usually he deletes them, but mine he kept reading. He saw my email responded to an email of his that cursed in a friendly way at some of his readers. I repeated his technique, which worked for him, since it used his[…] Keep reading →

In a podcast post last week where I shared how history, anthropology, and archaeology contradict many of our views that we are living in the best times. This view leads us to think, “we may have pollution, but at least we live better than any time before,” which leads us to fear reducing our consumption, which leads nearly everyone to focus on increasing solar, wind, and nuclear first, reducing fossil[…] Keep reading →

As you know, I pick up litter daily, including at least three pieces from the northwest corner of Washington Square Park since the pandemic brought such hopelessness to it in the form of syringes, pipes, and the community and police abdicating responsibility to it. I don’t expect to revitalize the area by myself, but I’m not going to do nothing. I’m going to do something. As I walked along yesterday,[…] Keep reading →

The tragedy I want to point out today isn’t on the scale of people losing their futures or their lives, or funding the organizations that supply the cause of the addiction and death, like drug cartels, the Sackler family, McDonald’s, or their peers. (I would bet of the drug cartels, Sackler family, and McDonald’s, McDonald’s and its doof caused the loss of more cumulative years of life than the other[…] Keep reading →