Mainstream economists and nearly everyone else promotes growth—economic growth, which means population growth. They specifically want a minimum percentage growth per year, which means exponential, which, contrary to popular conception, means a specific pattern more than just a lot. Exponential growth can’t last forever on a finite planet. Even if you think reaching other planets will help, it won’t help the people on this planet after others leave, and we’ll[…] Keep reading →

The latest crazy talk people have hit me with is describing not flying and avoiding garbage as “unsustainable” and “impossible.” Many say I’m wasting my time. As best I can tell, they’re excusing themselves for living against their values, but it’s let me to see my behavior in new ways. Call me crazy, but I believe polluting less is the future, no matter how impossible it seems for people who[…] Keep reading →

My second conversation with Jared Angaza was recorded almost a year ago, just after launching the podcast. It’s more conversational, less directed than I’ve done more recently. I think I’ve come a long way on focusing more but I’d love to hear listeners’  ÑŽreactions. It’s also my old microphone. So the quality isn’t quite as good. Jared has acted a lot more than most to live by his environmental values.[…] Keep reading →

In my second conversation with Geoffrey West we go from talking about the scientific observation and theory that he came up with and wrote about of the past and we extrapolate into the future. This is something that he wanted to do. His book went in this direction but he kept conservative and you’ll hear him say that he wanted to go in this direction but he didn’t really go[…] Keep reading →

Many who serve in the military become leaders in business, politics, entrepreneurship sports and many other places. Why? What does the military teach so well in leadership? I believe that lack of effective leadership is the greatest impediment to effective environmental action. That’s why I have this podcast Leadership and the Environment. If you want to improve your leadership, this conversation will tell you all you have to do. You’ll[…] Keep reading →

Remember this scene of Cypher’s selling out his crew for his personal pleasure in The Matrix? My letter to an 80-year-old, prompted by an article on the environment 80-year-olds and 20-year-olds will view the environment differently. 80-year-olds might consider global warming, plastic pollution, extinctions, and so on abstractly. If environmental disaster will hit around 2050, that’s someone else’s problem. To 20-year-olds, 2050 is the prime of their lives. They have[…] Keep reading →

One thing about nature. It doesn’t react only to the consequences of your actions that you like. It reacts to all of them, including the ones you don’t like. Take greenhouse gas emissions. You might like doing something that pollutes and emits greenhouse gases. You might wish that your activity didn’t pollute, make the world unclean and impure, undue your intent to steward the environment, or hurt others, but if[…] Keep reading →