When I mention shopping at a food coop—a grocery store where the shoppers are the owners and workers—people kept saying not everyone had access to coops. I wondered why they suggested they were a privilege. I know there aren’t as many food coops as supermarkets and bodegas, but I didn’t understand why they acted like people without access were helpless. At last I realized people saying such things didn’t know[…] Keep reading →

Insouciance, colonialism, and sustainability

Longtime readers who Eugene Bible, who hosts This Sustainable Life: Solve for Nature, a sibling podcast to mine. He lives in Hawaii. A while ago he shared a view that helps me simplify and clarify how we affect nature. He suggested viewing Hawaii as a microcosm of Earth. Do you have a proposal you think would help Earth? Ask if it would work with Hawaii. [EDIT: I had planned to[…] Keep reading →

You probably know the Sackler name, but if you don’t, the Sackler family pushed the opiate Oxycontin on an unsuspecting public, playing the largest role in the opiate crisis that has led to millions of addictions and deaths. They avoid admitting wrongdoing and avoid prosecution through legal wrangling that looks like it’s abusing the legal system in a way rich people can. Meanwhile, doof makers addict people with substances derived[…] Keep reading →

From Peter’s About page: Journalists have bestowed on me the tag of “world’s most influential living philosopher.” They are probably thinking of my work on the ethics of our treatment of animals, often credited with starting the modern animal rights movement, and of the influence that my writing has had on development of effective altruism. I am also known for my controversial critique of the sanctity of life ethics in[…] 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 →

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 →