Adventures in Sustainable Living

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 199 Regenerative Living: A Step Beyond Sustainability After so many years of living at the cabin, installing solar, building the greenhouse, raising chickens and turkeys, and being 100% off the grid, I came to believe that sustainability was the end all be all. Turns out I was wrong. I was missing one very important concept, one vital part of the pu...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast E198 Fourteen Things You Can Do to Help Protect Our Biodiversity Considering all that is going on in our world it is not surprising that the average person feels as if what they do makes no difference. Yet it is the cumulative affect of our individual choices that has produced dramatic changes on our planet. And it is the cumulative affect of our choices th...

Most of us are no stranger to talks about climate change. It is in the news almost daily. We sit and watch in awe as we see one devastating event after another.  Most of us likely are asking “Why doesn’t someone do something?”  But you must understand the choices we make does have an impact on the environment around us. Take those choices times 7 billion people and it affects the entire planet.  O...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 196 Is Going Organic Better for Your Health? Colorado is one of those places that has plenty of grocery outlets for the purchase of organic food. Despite this easily available opportunity, for years I refused to buy organic produce because of the cost. I always questioned whether or not it was actually beneficial.  Furthermore, I questioned whether...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 195 How to Live Healthy in a Chemical World Working as a practicing veterinarian I commonly have to deal with infectious diseases. For the most part it is something benign. Occasionally I have to deal with things that are potentially of great concern for human health.  One such disease is the Bubonic Plague. It is endemic in the prairie dog populati...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 194 A Sustainable Life May Make You Live Longer Did you know that globally we spend about $170 billion dollars a year on dietary supplements. The cosmetic surgery market is now worth $63 billion annually. We spend nearly $3,000 per year on entertainment. On average we spend 2 to 2 1/2 hours per day on social media.  We also eat a diet that is high i...

Most people think our technology driven world is so much better than how things were in the past. If you have been around long enough to see substantial changes in our society and culture, it truly seems that even 40 years ago we were living in the dark ages.  And honestly,  many of the things I do these days would not be possible if it were not for modern technology. But the challenge is that tec...

Scientists and other experts with ExxonMobile knew about the long-term detrimental affects of burning fossil fuels back in the 1970s. Their predictions of climate change were astonishingly accuracy. Yet we were led to believe there was nothing to worry about.  As we continue to see on-going changes in our world directly related to human behavior, we are now told that we should be more conscious ab...

Despite the fact that we live in the age of information the average person is still confused about how to start living sustainably. This is somewhat understandable because there is so much information available. Furthermore, it is not helpful that much of the time we are given conflicting views on what to do and the potential value of any action at all.   There is of course a long list of ways to...

Someone once said to me that the only problem with going plastic free is going plastic free. But the same could be said for having a sustainable lifestyle. It is a process, a choice, a journey instead of an end all be all.  But I also think it is the same with going zero waste. We constantly hear talk about a sustainable circular economy but is it all just a dream?  Is going zero waste even achiev...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 188 Not in My Backyard: A Critical Review of Environmental Racism Surveys of community needs from around the world show that almost everyone wants the same thing. We all want a safe place to live and even raise a family. We want a healthy, natural environment, access to education, healthy food, housing, clean water, and fair use of land and local re...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 187 How to Eat Healthy on a Budget Inflation is taking a toll on just about everyone. But one of the most common areas where we feel the pinch is in the price of food. Food prices have consistently risen over the last 5 years and are expected to go up by several percentage points in 2024.  Not only that, if you want to eat healthy and organic, you a...

How would you feel if your neighbor came to your mailbox everyday and opened your mail? How would you feel if someone was always looking over your shoulder to monitor everything you did on the internet? I think most people would say "NO!" And they would say no because such things are an invasion of our privacy.  We now live in a very connected world. More and more we depend on the intern...

More and more frequently these days people are looking to live off the grid. Possibly this is because people are growing weary of the perpetual rat race and just want some peace and quiet. Hopefully people are looking to be off grid because they seek sustainability or simplicity or to otherwise have something that lacks any sort of complexity.  If off-grid is what you want there are several realis...

Kate Raworth, an English economist with Oxford University, wrote that “Reversing consumerism’s financial and cultural dominance in public and private life is set to be one of the twenty-first century’s most gripping psychological dramas.”  What is obvious is that economic growth is directly tied to resource consumption. Both are hand in hand with environmental degradation and climate change. Despi...

Whether you like it or not there is a lot of psychological research that goes into the marketing of products. The majority of this research is used to manipulate consumers and get you spend more money. Additionally, convincing consumers to purchase an ever-increasing variety of products, only to discard them after a short period of time, is a fantastic way to stimulate commerce.   From disposable...

There are so many warning signs about the fate of our planet yet the average person is happy to live in comfortable ignorance. Have you ever stopped to ask why people are so complacent about something that truly affects our future? Furthermore, because of this complacency we are loosing some very important life skills.  But are we really to blame? Or is this the end result of our modern culture? A...

When I get up in the morning I typically sit quietly by the wood stove for about an hour and start my day with some good coffee. I don’t worry about a lot of things during my quiet time but I do put some thought into planning my day. If I think of something I need at the homestead, if I have time I may browse the internet for the best product and the best price. After all online shopping is a mode...

Top of the list for most consumers is price and convenience. However, in our pursuit of such convenience we often sacrifice our money, our physical health, our mental health, the environment as well as the rights of all the workers upstream from where our purchase actually occurs.  One of the challenges is that due to our current market place, there is an over abundance of choices. Consequently, m...

In case you haven’t noticed, life has no standardized rules. How we are prepared to meet the world as adults depends mostly on how we are raised as kids and our family background.  But at least we have certain basic skills such as how to drive, where to get food and how to find and pay for the various services needed to meet our daily needs. But what we are taught changes over time because societa...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 179 After Sustainable Habits, What’s Next? My veterinary career has truly been quite varied. Upon entering veterinary school I only had experience in one hospital. Upon graduation, I was determine to broaden my focus. After years in practice I am happy that I’ve had the opportunity to live in work in multiple different countries.  The result has bee...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 178 Sustainable Habits for a Sustainable Habitat Episode Link; Sustainable Habits for a Sustainable Habitat 29.5 minutes Website adventuresinsustainableliving.com In the last few episodes I’ve talked a lot about the overcoming the barriers to living more sustainably. And while there is a long list of barriers to overcome, a big part of the challenge...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 177 A Green Foot Forward: Overcoming the Roadblocks to Sustainable Living Part III Episode link: https://www.offgridlivingnews.com/podcasts/adventures-in-sustainable-living/episodes/2148574613 33 minutes Website: adventuresinsustainableliving.com Studies and surveys show that the vast majority of people do care about the environment and what happens...

During the time that humans have existed on this planet, we have gone through multiple transitions. Each of those transitions have changed the course of humanity and ultimately improved our standard of living. It has also made our lives just a little bit easier.  In our modern culture, we no longer have to provide for ourselves. You can have anything you want with one click. In fact, ease and conv...

Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast Episode 175 A Green Foot Forward: Overcoming the Roadblocks to Sustainable Living If you happen to have in-depth training or knowledge in a particular area it is easy to forget that many others do not have that same expertise. For example, the knowledge I have about the care of animals is second nature to me. Sometimes I forget there are many people who jus...