LATEST BLOG POSTS

Some problems are like a mosquito. It may bother and annoy you, but usually not enough to keep you from what you’re doing. Say you’re walking and a mosquito bothers you. You may swat at it and try to kill it, but you can generally keep doing what you were doing. Many people see our environmental symptoms as mosquito problems. They see them as bothersome, but not enough to turn[…] Keep reading →

When I deliver food to hungry people, people say I’m nice. When I avoid polluting, they call me extreme. Yet both actions come from the same place in my heart and mind, which I can best characterize with the phrase “love your neighbor as yourself.” Whether you’re Christian or not, that advice has stood the test of time for a reason. Acts of love for neighbors are rewarding. I just[…] Keep reading →

Regular listeners and readers of my podcast and blog know I grew up with parents who helped form a grocery buying group which folded into a food co-op. Different co-ops work differently, but the general idea is that shoppers co-own the business. There’s less motivation to stock doof and more to source local, fresh produce and keep money in the community. While we still shopped at supermarkets, we favored the[…] Keep reading →

From its About page: The New Books Network is a consortium of author-interview podcast channels dedicated to public education. Covering 100+ subjects, disciplines, and genres, we publish 70 to 100 episodes every week. The NBN reaches about half a million people every month; NBN listeners download close to 1 million episodes a month. The NBN does not authorize books or endorse anything said in them. We are strictly viewpoint-neutral, allowing[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies, by Michael Albertus: As a podcast host, I receive many promotions of books, companies, etc from publishers and others. This book came to me in one of them. It comes out next month. In my book I explore how our culture came to be how it is, in particular, how we[…] Keep reading →

I started doing burpees on this day in 2011. I haven’t missed a day since. I’ve done them daily over 22 percent of my life. By my spreadsheet, I’ve done just over 241,000 so should reach a quarter million in 2025. The point isn’t the numbers, though, nor the fitness, though I like my pulse being nearly off the charts low for men my age. The simplest way to put[…] Keep reading →

Today is the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. If you’re powering your electronics through solar power, as I am, you’ve made it through the least sunshine parts of the year, at least by angle. There may be less sun for the next few months from weather if winter means more clouds or more wind that makes panels harder to keep aligned, if you can only use[…] Keep reading →

Many people think sustainability requires fixing everything or else we’ll collapse. The Spodek Method creates a mindset shift followed by continual improvement, not, as they might hope, a mindset shift followed by perfection. Alden has had her electronic bike in Vermont for some time but hasn’t ridden it. She’s used doing the Spodek Method as her excuse to ride it, but it’s taken time. This time she used it and[…] Keep reading →

I thought of how to improve the subtitle, from The definitive guide to understanding and solving all (yes, all) our environmental problems to The definitive guide to understanding and solving all (yes, all) our environmental symptoms The problem is our behavior, which results from our culture. What we see in the environment is just the physical manifestation of our culture. I’ve shared the idea with a few friends and they[…] Keep reading →