A few weeks ago, I went to the supermarket, and I took a few minutes to play a game: spot the items without plastic. Everywhere I turned, something was wrapped, sealed, or bagged in it. Even produce that already comes with its own natural protection—like oranges or avocados—was sitting in plastic trays or shrink-wrapped sleeves. Here are a few photos […]
One of the small things I take joy from is being privileged enough to be able to live in a first-world country with a strong currency that can do amazing good for a relatively small (to me) amount of money. One of the ways I do that is to used Kiva.org, which I’ve done for years. Kiva is a nonprofit, […]
It’s 6:13am. I’m in my living room laying flat on the floor on my stomach. Chest heaving up and down as I take quick, gasping breaths. My legs and arms feel like they’re burning. My forehead is slightly damp with sweat. I just finished my second set of burpees for the day, and as usual, they kick my butt. Like […]
First, the tadpoles and frogs disappeared; then the bats and the songbirds left. Dr. Elizabeth Hilborn, a honey bee veterinarian and environmental health scientist, soon realized the bees—the vital pollinators of fruits, plants, and vegetables—were dying. Everything was still and silent. In 2017, after a large flood, most of the teeming life on her beloved family farm in North Carolina […]
Humans Lived Sustainably for Most of Human History 300,000 years. That is how long humankind lived sustainably – never taking more resources than the planet could replenish or causing irreparable damage. It was an time when we had a deep connection to nature and a profound understanding of our dependence on it. Activities such as tree cutting were carried out […]
Climate change can be seen as a disaster or an opportunity. Paul Laycock and his company VinZero is a new global company with a goal to cut major emissions from one of the biggest emitting sectors globally: construction. Paul and his staff at VinZero are passionate about facilitating the construction industries digital journey to meet net zero outcomes via digital […]
Throwing away trash…It’s so addictively easy. Can’t figure out what to do with all that plastic packaging? How about all these food scraps? Old ripped clothes or a broken TV? Just toss it all in the trash and you never have to worry about it again. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you DIDN’T have that […]
Capitalism Regardless of whether you think capitalism is a good economic system or not, there are certainly reasons to dislike capitalism. In the most fundamental form, it is a system based on the desire to maximize profit and hence greed, even at the expense of others. It incentivizes pollution, it widens the gap between the rich and the poor, and […]
Today we continued our discussion about Hawaii being a case study for the direction the entire world is going: pollution leading to reducing the capacity for our planet to sustain life. Joshua Spodek is host of This Sustainable Life podcast and author of Leadership Step By Step. He guided me once again through exploring my own feelings while stopping me […]
We’ve become arrogant. We’ve come to a point where we believe we have conquered nature, and nature bends to our will. But we have not. Increasingly strong heatwaves, hurricanes, and wildfires are mother nature’s warnings: we are not above nature. And if we don’t fix the damage we’ve done, mother nature won’t allow us to live on this planet anymore. […]