I hear people say that things have to get bad enough before people will act on the environment. They’re fooling themselves; every time we lower Earth’s ability to sustain life, they adjust and say it still has to get worse. For example, I’m sure that most people, if asked in 2019, would say a global pandemic that forced billions of people into house arrest and bitterly divided nations would motivate[…] Keep reading →

Alcoholism is a problem all over the world. There are individual alcoholics and there are systemic issues that lead to alcoholism. If you can’t cure all alcoholism all over the world, should you still get sober yourself? The question sounds too obvious to ask. Of course an alcoholic should do what they can do overcome the addiction, even if they can’t help anyone else. It improves their life. The reason[…] Keep reading →

I’m continuing living clean from my addictions to polluting behaviors. Last year I kept my fridge unplugged for six and a half months. If unplugging the fridge sounds weird or stupid, check out my post on why I would and what I got out of it: 12 Sustainability Leadership Lessons Unplugging My Fridge for 6.5 Months Taught Me. Also consider that much of the world lives without a fridge, many[…] Keep reading →

I’m beginning to think that every meal and snack of nearly every American involves some polluting, disposable packaging. When I see people consuming on the street, they’re nearly always consuming doof. Even if they buy food, it’s nearly always packaged. Not that I’ve been checking, but I can’t remember a time I saw someone eating an apple on the street. Hundreds of times a day I see people carrying disposable[…] Keep reading →

Dan Barber was the chef at Family Meal at New York’s Blue Hill restaurant and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Westchester, where he practiced a kind of close-to-the-land cooking married to agriculture and stewardship of the earth. He stepped down to practice “new model [that] will be a diversity-focused chef-in-residence concept.” As described on Chez Pim: “Stone Barns is only 45 minutes from Manhattan, but it might as well[…] Keep reading →

The situation: More people than ever are living healthy, happy lives yet Pollution and garbage are growing and accelerating Predictions suggest our waste is going to cause nearly everyone on Earth to suffer including many dying and, here’s the big confounding issue We can’t stop ourselves. With rare exception, everyone I know and even know of knows they are polluting, hurting people by it, so potentially contributing to the greatest[…] Keep reading →

On March 22, 2016 my flight from Paris landed in New York. Before embarking on that trip, I had started to second guess how I had weighed my values to conclude flying was overall good. Today marks the first day of my seventh year without flying. I’ve traveled and seen more of the world and its people more in this time than when I flew. I grew up flying. My[…] Keep reading →