You know the usual schematic diagram of the greenhouse effect. Here are a couple for reference: and What’s missing? Humans creating power for ourselves creates heat. It happens if we create it through burning fossil fuels, using nuclear power, and even fusion. Using solar panels absorbs extra heat. I hope you respond that whatever heat we produce is negligible. Today it is, but since industry and our current lifestyles require[…] Keep reading →

When my new book Sustainability Simplified: The Definitive Guide to Understanding and Solving All (Yes, All) Our Environmental Problems comes out, I’ll start a new web page for sustainability leadership: SpodekMethod.com. It will contain free downloads like the book introduction, the how-to workbook, and videos of people sharing what works. It will grow to contain courses, online community, and more. A team is developing that page. We’ll launch it soon.[…] Keep reading →

People think about how they could use it and think optimistically, but neglect to think that the people they disagree with and oppose will too. Like fire and sharp knives, technology isn’t good or bad. Technology augments the values of the people and culture using it. Technology accelerates the system—that is, it leads to achieving similar outcomes faster. Regarding our political differences, it won’t lead one or another position to[…] Keep reading →

I keep coming back to three images that illustrate our time. I’ll add more if new ones arise. The first is someone sitting on a beautiful beach scrolling on their phone through images of other beautiful beaches, wishing they were there instead. (Only the beaches are covered in litter too). The second is someone riding a Citibike through traffic, one hand on the handlebar, then other holding a disposable cup[…] Keep reading →

I can’t think of a message I received from environmentalists that suggested I would enjoy the experience of trying to live more sustainably. Every message from every source, including the most ardent environmentalists, told me living more sustainably meant giving something up. We had to worsen our lives to possibly help someone far away or in the future. A definite loss here and now for a possible gain sometime somewhere[…] Keep reading →

Litter isn’t a result of too little sanitation. It’s too much production and people still buying it. I’ve meant to post these pictures since I took them in the spring. I took them on a regular day. If you think cities mean more garbage, our per-capita environmental impact is less than Americans who live outside cities. If you think this garbage and treatment of public property is disgusting, as I[…] Keep reading →

I wrote recently in When changing fast is easier than slow about the growth in number of slaves in the United States based on a peer-reviewed paper From ‘20 and odd’ to 10 million: The growth of the slave population in the United States, by J. David Hacker in the journal Slavery & Abolition. That paper also reported the cumulative number of slaves in the United States. Before looking at[…] Keep reading →