This Sustainable Life

My perspective on personal action continues to evolve. In conversation with someone at an event this evening, I started realizing the meaning in asking what each of us can do and the meaninglessness of asking hypothetical questions, which make up a lot environmental talk. It this episode I talk about meaningful questions to ask instead of theoretical ones about things you can't do anything about....

I started this podcast with the goal of creating a Mandela of the environment---a role I considered essential but saw no one remotely approaching it. Lately I've seen the opening for an easier but more effective role---a Muhammad Ali of the environment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After resetting during conversation 1.5, Caspar returns with his son and wife---Columbus and Nicola---for a touching proper second episode. The three of them approached the challenge as a family, though you'll hear how Columbus led his parents in many ways. It sounds like he had tried for some time to guide his parents. Now that they committed to act, they heard him more. I see this trend a lot wh...

After recording three episodes ( 248, 250, and 251 ) on Alan Weisman's Countdown , I read his earlier book, The World Without Us , which I found equally tremendous. In it, he considers what would happen to the Earth if humans suddenly disappeared. How isn't the point, but what the difference between a world without us from that world with us tells us about ourselves. The book and author won many a...

Do you want to reach your potential? Do you want to get past seeing your properties as limitations? Larry shares going from being what he is and we all are -- regular people -- to living his dream. An elite dream. My biggest takeaway from the conversation you're about to hear is accessibility and desire to help. That is, Larry Yatch wants us to get that what he did, we can all do. You may not want...

Why bother not flying if you're one person out of billions? Aren't you just missing out and suffering without meaningfully changing anything? These questions flummoxed me for a while. The longer I act, the more I realize the answer. Most people answer that little things add up or that it's like voting. I won't argue with those answers, but I think they're small effects. I've evolved since earlier...

I've recorded a few posts about how what many people call minimalism is really more maximal . From the outside it looks like minimizing stuff.d People who practice it, as I see it, don't focus on stuff. Getting rid of it is a means to an end. The end is more emotion, relationships, and connection---family, community, faith, and other things that bring meaning, which people prefer more of. They max...

Following up episode 253, I address race, sex, sexual preference and other difference people use as excuses to stop listening or understanding over. Here are my notes I worked from: Podcast: Race, sex, sexual preference. I mentioned the race of the people who mugged me and my friends and who punched me in the jaw. Mayhave sounded unnecessary, which I suppose would raise questions as to why I menti...

Here are my notes that I read from for this post: My greatest triumphs, my greatest shames. When I share personal stuff people always write how they like it. I think it's less important than learning the joys of stewardship and recognizing that flying any time you want or having blueberries 12 months a year doesn't improve your life, but it may help people understand where I'm coming from and mayb...

Tia has been active on the environment for a long time, working with government, non profits, as an individual, and since birth deeply connected with federal and state government. And of course Earth Day from the start. We covered topics including planned obsolescence, politics, carbon taxes and accounting, Vince Lombardi, Brent Suter from the Milwaukee Brewers, Oprah Winfrey, and individual actio...

Here are my notes that I read from for this episode. New comment from reading Countdown by Alan Weisman Overpopulation is major issue. Challenges are culture, religion, lack of education, lack of birth control He presented research results of demand for birth control by women -- about 250 million. Figure about a guy for each: 500 million I figure low because many don't know it exists or are swayed...

Readers and listeners have commented on my writing and posting lately about population and birth rates. Why do I talk about them? Isn't America below replacement level? I recently finished reading Countdown by Alan Weisman, which I recommend. I read passages and commented on them in episode 248: Countdown, a book I recommend by Alan Weisman . It looked at population around the world, illustrating...

Since our first episode, I've been talking about these mayors choosing to pick up garbage. I believe that a man never stands so tall as when he bends down to pick up another person's garbage. How many U.S. politicians can you name who bend down to pick up other people's garbage? Yet how many American streets, waterways, and beaches do you see covered with garbage? It wasn't always this way. We are...

I just finished an eye-opening book, Countdown , by Alan Weisman. It covers population. Weisman traveled to and reported on about a dozen places' views and practices on population and family planning. In this episode, I read a few passages that I found shocking. I barely scratch the book's surface, but I believe you'll find the sections equally noteworthy. I recommend reading the rest to understan...

People resist environmental projects to protect jobs, even to keep producing products that pollute. My absurd proposal to balance jobs with junk: put factories next to landfills. Despite it being absurd, the proposal would create a cleaner world. Instead of making junk as a pretense for some counterproductive welfare, let's stop making it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

What emotions do you associate with environmental action? I find people associate shame and guilt with it. I find these emotions lead people to suppress the emotions and hide the behavior leading to it. I propose reacting to pollution and polluting behavior with disgust. If someone hands me a plastic bottle of water, I feel disgust. I propose replacing the terms they've come up in Sweden for fligh...

One of my main goals for this podcast is to bring people who love acting on one's environmental values, seeing stewardship not as an obligation but as being a part of something greater than yourself, than any of us, benefiting everyone, and yourself. As you'll hear, Tia's roots precede the first Earth Day. Her father started it. Despite so many problems remaining -- basically all of them -- she's...

Learning that humans only recently developed the concept of extinction. Much of the West, for example, believed in a Great Chain of Being, spontaneous generation, and a biblical flood. That perspective suggests that many past behaviors we consider unconscionable may have seemed even humane then, like walking up to a rhinoceros and shooting it in the head. If you can't imagine it going extinct beca...

Tired of people saying what you do doesn't matter? Or personal action in general? They're confusing different types of action. In this recording I distinguish three of them so you can feel comfortable acting by your values without the naysayers and navel-gazers distracting you. The three categories are Personal action, like avoiding packaged food Leading others, like hosting a podcast Influence on...

I talk a lot about the lack of leadership in the area of the environment. Many people talk about change but don't lead it. Many others judge but don't support, which leads people to hold back on trying. Well, the mayors of Orlando and Orange County Florida went out of their way and found me. Most guests I seek out. Instead, they took it on themselves to put themselves out there, risking judgment o...

Why a military general? Isn't the US military one of the greatest polluters on the planet? My goal is to bring effective leadership to the environment and your life because spreading facts, figures, doom, and gloom isn't doing it. Leadership is about people. Technology and innovation have historically increased pollution, as I described in other episodes. Nearly everyone promoting technological so...

The loudest voices these days seem to come from protesters because they design their actions for attention. They aren't necessarily the most effective. Many of us are outraged. Our emotions become intense. Emotional intensity drives us to do what we want most, which doesn't necessarily lead to what's effective. As I see it, people are venting more than leading. I criticize the lack of leadership a...

Here are the notes I read this episode from: I see human population decreasing the Earth's ability to sustain life and human society. I have a goal of increasing that ability. Actually two goals: my other goal is for people to enjoy the process. This isn't about coercion but joy. If our human population is over what the Earth can sustain, then restoring that balance. Many people view CO2, methane,...

Here are the notes I read from for this episode. I've talked about what I call The Worst Problem in the World for about ten years, so I'm used to it and worked from scarce notes. The problem Example: Germans and Jamaicans In environment: people say others don't care Makes people feel misunderstood, disengage, makes you seem judgmental Repels people we want to help most What to do instead: respond...

The notes I wrote and read from for this episode: Leadership means changing beliefs and goals. If you're doing anything else, you're following and perpetuating the system that created the results. Greater efficiency, recycling, reusing, etc are following, just accelerating, unless you change the goals. Are you clearly and overwhelmingly opposing growth and externalizing costs? If not, you're pollu...