Among what I read and watched this week: The Life You Can Save, by Peter Singer: I confess I hadn’t read the book before recording our podcast episode (not yet edited, but will update when posted), but I wrote about his drowning child analogy recently. This book blew me away. I expected dry philosophy I would argue against, but found it compelling. I will donate more to charity with enthusiasm.[…] Keep reading →

The book Limits to Growth doesn’t answer everything about the environment and sustainability, but I find it gives the best high-level, systemic understanding of the patterns of humanity’s overall interaction with nature. The authors created a model and ran simulations. It could have happened that none corresponded with observation, but after 50 years, there is remarkable correspondence, as researched by podcast guest Gaya Herrington. I recommend reading her results after[…] Keep reading →

It’s tempting to think because we feel we’re acting, or that someone else is, that we’re acting effectively. I’ll share a post I responded to, then my response to it on a discussion board of people supporting degrowth. The other person’s post I’ve been a nut case environmentalist before the first Earth Day and sported a ZPG sticker on my Supervan at the time. A couple months ago I would[…] Keep reading →

The spiciest parts of this conversation come at the end. It’s possible listeners may think we were annoying each other, but I think I can speak for both of us that we enjoyed the repartee. Anyone who has talked to me about my work since I started watching and listening to Daniel’s What Is Politics? videocast knows it’s shaped how I view politics, meaning how groups make decisions. If we[…] Keep reading →

There’s no mystery what causes more forest fires than ever: our polluting, depleting behavior causing global warming. If your behavior causes fires like humanity has never seen before, you are extreme for causing extreme results, not me for behaving traditionally. Not flying is normal. Jesus didn’t fly. George Washington didn’t fly. Abraham Lincoln didn’t fly. Power grids are not normal. The Buddha never plugged into an electric grid, nor did[…] Keep reading →

I’m not a historian of social movements, but I tend to believe they mostly involve one group fighting another group. (Please tell me if you know otherwise.) People love banding with an in-group and fighting an out-group. I think humans tend to look for human enemies to oppose. Regarding sustainability, many look at fossil fuel companies, for example. But Exxon and its peers don’t buy their products. We do. The[…] Keep reading →

Analects are selected miscellaneous written passages, often words to live by. Here are ones on sustainability leadership, many I created. I’ll keep update the following as I develop new ones. You can’t lead others to live by values you live the opposite of Systemic change begins with personal change To cross the finish line of the marathon of changing a system, you first have to cross the starting line of[…] Keep reading →