While others analyze, label, plan, discuss, and debate, what sets effective leaders apart is getting the job done. The World Science Festival is hosting Steven Pinker to speak on his latest book, Enlightenment Now, and I’m using the opportunity to examine his work from a leadership perspective. The book’s global coverage and superlative praise by achievers like Bill Gates suggest it warrants review, but nearly every review approaches the book[…] Keep reading →

The Silence of the Bugs, an opinion piece in the New York Times by science professor and author of many books, Curt Stager, started by saying: Fifty-six years after Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” warned of bird die-offs from pesticides, a new biocrisis may be emerging. A study published last fall documented a 76 percent decline in the total seasonal biomass of flying insects netted at 63 locations in Germany over[…] Keep reading →

In this episode you’ll hear Anisa sharing openly a lot of what other people don’t. This exercise brought out her behaviors that went against her values but she doesn’t hide them. In most other people including myself before the food packaging and when I flew but didn’t really want to know how much pollution the flying was causing, it’s denial. It reminds me the show’s Secret Eaters. It’s a British[…] Keep reading →

People widely expect technology to solve our environmental problems. What technology? They don’t know. Something someone will invent in the future. What about the pattern that technology has driven consumption of fossil fuels and plastic, accelerated using up resources, and created pollution such as plastic, carcinogens, and so on? But but but they make things more efficient. They do for a while, but the trend is toward accelerating the system[…] Keep reading →

My series answering the New York Times’ Ethicist column with an active, leadership approach instead of an analytical, philosophical perspective continues with “I’m a 73-Year-Old Cancer Survivor. Can I Accept a Kidney?”. Over the past eight years I underwent two stem-cell transplants, each preceded by intense chemotherapy. My oncologist believes I am probably cured. The chemotherapy damaged my kidneys to the point that I am now on dialysis, and other[…] Keep reading →

The Green Revolution saved over a billion people from starvation, according to many. I don’t think that’s the only way to see it. Before describing other ways, first, what is the Green Revolution? According to Wikipedia, The Green Revolution, or Third Agricultural Revolution, refers to a set of research and the development of technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1930s and the late 1960s (with prequels in the work of[…] Keep reading →

The past few days have seen many articles on the Philadelphia police arresting two black men in Starbucks. Let’s look at the New York Times article, Starbucks Arrests, Outrageous to Some, Are Everyday Life for Others, for example. It begins PHILADELPHIA — The video of the police arresting two black men in a Starbucks, viewed more than 10 million times online, quickly prompted a full-blown crisis: accusations of racism, protests both in[…] Keep reading →