I haven’t heard anyone in medicine question the effects of pollution from our medical system on people outside the care facility. What about people harmed by plastic, emissions, and other pollution? They may be affected for centuries and all over the world. I don’t know anyone who calls America’s medical system unwasteful. Every time I walk into a doctor’s office I expect to see each care-person use half a dozen[…] Keep reading ..read more

Kevin and I talk about volunteering at the Chelsea Community Fridge, how it formed, how it’s evolved, and our roles. You’ll hear he’s involved with it more. I was curious to learn about parts I don’t know about. It’s outdoors so it operates 24/7, 365 days a year. New York City has no lack of hungry people, nor places with extra food. It’s insane to see how much we waste,[…] Keep reading ..read more

Yesterday I listed sustainability tactics based on extrinsic motivation that fail sustainability and drive unsustainability. Today, I’ll list emotions about nature I often hear doing the Spodek Method that, when acted on, lead to people doing more than they said they would, expressing gratitude, and being happy to share. I just wrote those items in ten or twenty minutes. I’ll add to the list as I come up with more ..read more

Strategies and tactics based in convincing, cajoling, coercing, and seeking compliance that may sound nice, but step on the gas, thinking it’s the brake, wanting congratulations. That is, they exacerbate the problem. Compare this list with tomorrow’s list of emotions that emerge from the Spodek Method about nature that, when acted on, lead to people doing more than they said they would, expressing gratitude, and being happy to share. I[…] Keep reading ..read more

This week I finished: Planet of the Humans, written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs, executive produced by Michael Moore: I watched this movie in 2020 when they released it on YouTube. I remember thinking that solar and wind might not be perfect, but they’re better than fossil fuels. Before saying my reaction this time, I should mention after watching it this week, I read, watched, and listened to about[…] Keep reading ..read more

When I started working on sustainability instead of hoping someone else would fix our problem, I saw my goal as restoring nature, also conserving and protecting it. Learning that our environmental problems result from our behavior, which results from our culture, has taught me that we have to work on ourselves. I see how much our culture promotes addiction, pollution, depletion, and plunder. I see that we are abandoning or[…] Keep reading ..read more

Regular readers know I pick up litter every day. The other day I found this garbage wedged in the scaffolding of a building under construction. (Come to think of it, a topic I should write more about is this bizarre practice of litter being wedged and stuffed into places and why people do it. I’m not sure, but I have some ideas. In any case, all this littering is socializing[…] Keep reading ..read more

Trish and Evelyn took the workshop, and neither seriously acted on sustainability before it, so one thing to listen for in this conversation is what people who look at personally living more sustainably sound like. I think it’s safe to say we have fun. Partly we express exasperation at the depravity of our polluting and depleting culture. We also share the experience of our eyes opening to those things. Trish,[…] Keep reading ..read more

The title says it all, but for clarity, I’ll generalize: if you choose to do something that requires polluting, depleting, or plundering, you don’t get to claim your life requires living unsustainably. You don’t get to then make claims on others’ resources. A life requiring hurting others is not liberty. Its’ the opposite: it’s destroying other people’s liberty. Why don’t I spend all my money and then claim you have[…] Keep reading ..read more

This week I finished: Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World, by Admiral William H. McRaven: I saw the video of McRaven’s commencement speech to the University of Texas years ago. It resonated with me because My sidchas, standard operating procedures, and preferences include waking up, making my bed, and crossing the room to turn off my alarm within sixty seconds. Also, I had[…] Keep reading ..read more