Elizabeth Kolbert presents a practical adult perspective on the environment. This is what’s happening without fanfare, without sensationalism, something that adults can act on. I highly recommend her book The Sixth Extinction for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and I highly recommend reading her many articles in The New Yorker in which she treats these environmental issues, often adding a human element, a historical perspective, but not telling you[…] Keep reading →

I just watched what I consider one of the most important videos I’ve seen. It’s not exciting, but it covers what I consider the most important issue of our time—how to understand global warming and what we can do about it. Not just the usual questions about science, numbers, and politics. The video is of Donella Meadows speaking at the University of Michigan. She approaches the topic through systems thinking,[…] Keep reading →

I’ve been answering questions on the social media site Quora for about a month. My responses are getting more views and upvotes, so I thought I’d put some here, since the posts there are like posts here for readers who don’t feel like going there. I’m thinking about making a standard Saturday practice of collecting my responses here from there for the week. Since I have a month to catch[…] Keep reading →

I have my first flight coming up since my experiment with not buying food that requires throwing packaging away, as told in Avoiding food packaging Buying no food with packaging, eighteen days and counting Bought first food with packaging after 2.5 weeks Restaurants make “entertainment for your mouth,” designed for profit, not health. Same with packaged food. Eating at restaurants seems weirder the more healthily I eat. Same with pre-prepared[…] Keep reading →

Wired Magazine recently published a piece by Bill Gates called “Here’s My Plan to Improve Our World — And How You Can Help.” He wrote 40 percent of Earth’s population is alive today because, in 1909, a German chemist named Fritz Haber figured out how to make synthetic ammonia. Another example: Polio cases are down more than 99 percent in the past 25 years, not because the disease is going[…] Keep reading →

EDIT (2019): While I value all the resources below, this page is long due for an update. Other resources have emerged as more important. I’ll do my best to update it soon. If you can’t wait, contact me and I’ll raise its priority. The best place to find more, besides contacting me, is one of my seminars or classes. If I haven’t posted about an upcoming one recently, check with[…] Keep reading →

If we could use leadership in any place most, I can think of few places more important than in understanding what is happening with our environment, energy, and how it will affect us, meaning the economy. Some conclude that since before Revelations through Malthus and beyond people have been predicting the end of the world, yet the world hasn’t ended, we have solved all problems before and we’ll solve whatever[…] Keep reading →