This Sustainable Life

Mark is a physicist who went into business around the environment. There aren't many of us, so I think you'll hear a rapport we enjoyed that I think you'll enjoy too. We indulge in physicist talk.I contacted him because I found his reports on what solar and wind---what I don't see how we can call renewable, green, or clean energy sources---require in their manufacture, transportation, installation, decommissioning, and more. Many fans of such technologies gloss over their problems, which seems to me irresponsible. If we are not honest about them we will make mistakes. Partisanship is a problem when there are testable answers to how much a particular solar installation or strategy to lower emissions works.Mark looks at possible futures but also returns to what's happening today, what works now, not just in the future. He looks at what's going on behind the scenes that can be measured. I recommend reading his work I link to below.We talk about the book Limits to Growth, I welcome his views though, for the record, don't find it as wrong as he does. I consider its systemic approach essential and didn't view its simulations as predictions so much as learning what patterns our global environmental and economic system could show.I use solar, but don't consider it a long-term solution. I also don't think things like nuclear and fusion work long-term either, but we didn't get to that topic. We'll continue our conversations, though, which I look forward to.Mark's book: The Cloud Revolution: How the Convergence of New Technologies Will Unleash the Next Economic Boom and A Roaring 2020sSome of my favorite of Mark's posts and videosMines, Minerals, and “Green” Energy: A Reality CheckThe “New Energy Economy”: An Exercise in Magical ThinkingThe Hard Math of Minerals41 Inconvenient Truths on the “New Energy Economy”What’s Wrong with Wind and Solar?How Much Energy Will the World Need?Mark's podcast The Last Optimist Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you keep your screens by your bed? Do you find yourself running in circles like: Twitter to email to latest news to Facebook to Instagram to Twitter and repeating the cycle forever?John shares his results committing to turning off his screens no matter what at 8pm a couple nights a week. Do you imagine it would affects his relationship with his wife, with whom he watched shows and movies? Would he get more anxious or less? Read more or sleep earlier? What do you think you would do?He shared what worked, what challenged things he needed to do for work, feelings of addiction.Toward the end he generalized to patriarchy, hierarchy, race, and leadership. Before recording we planned to keep the conversation short, but kept feeling engaged so kept it going. I think you'll find it engaging too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don regularly reads my blog. We've emailed for years so after inviting to record episodes with other listeners, I invited him.We both find a systems perspective the most effective way to understand and act on our environmental problems. I enjoyed talking to him about systems. Many people see them as technical, to the extent they get the view at all, but you don't have to work with them that long to see they are how to understand the environment and how we can act on it effectively.The alternative is to keep proposing solutions that sound nice but exacerbate our problems, things like trying to reduce carbon emissions alone, carbon offsets, recycling, chasing efficiency, and plans that accelerate the system and its polluting results. What works is changing our values, goals, images, beliefs, and things leaders work on. Changing the system, not being more efficient.If you get and like systems, you'll find our conversation refreshing. If you don't get systems, you'll appreciate learning from our conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I learned of Alan soon after learning of the Kogi (see below). He lived with and made films of them, among many other documentaries and films. He also works to help preserve their culture and spread their message to help us stop wrecking our environment and selves through the Tairona Heritage Trust, which you can support.His films about them---From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brother's Warning (1990) and Aluna - An Ecological Warning by the Kogi People (2012)---tell stories and show a culture I consider tremendously valuable. As I live more sustainably, I learn more about cultures that live without polluting and are happy and healthy, contrary to what our culture predicts. They look at us and see we could use help seeing how much we hurt others, ourselves, and our future.In our conversation, Alan shares his experiences with them, working with them to record their messages, and stories behind the stories that made part of their (and his) message more meaningful.About the Kogi:The Kogi descended from Tairona culture, an advanced civilization that flourished before the Spanish conquest. The Carib invasion around 1000 CE forced them to move into the highlands. They moved farther up when the Spanish entered in the fifteenth century. Missionaries tried to influence their culture, building chapels and churches to convert them. The Kogi have remained in their home in the mountains, avoiding the effects of colonization, living traditionally.The Kogi have no written language yet they practise a philosophy and form of thought that has been pretty effectively destroyed everywhere else by the advance of the modern world. They consider themselves to be the guardians of the Earth and are worried by our attempts to destroy it. They refer to us as Younger brother. Their communities are governed by Mamas, who are always male and their female equivalents, Sagas. They are much more than just leaders. Kogi culture centres on a belief that the material world is the physical trace of a thought-world sustained in "Aluna". Aluna is not just a spirit world but the thinking and acting life force. The role of the Mamas is to mediate between the physical world and "Aluna" to ensure that dangerous and destructive forces are held in check. Maintaining their culture and way of life is essential if life on Earth is to continue for all of us. The Kogi are trying to preserve a world of ideas that was once shared by all humanity but which is now all but lost.Alan's first documentary on the Kogi (1990): From the Heart of the World - The Elder Brother's WarningHis second (2012): Aluna - An Ecological Warning by the Kogi PeopleAlan's home pageThe Tairona Heritage Trust, where you can learn about and donate to help the Kogi help us Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mitzi just returned from the Ukraine War, invited by General Andriy Nebytov from the Kyiv Regional Police. He invited her after reading her piece Human Trafficking on Ukraine’s Border to see this trafficking in person. She saw abductions happening, powerless to act, as traffickers controlled the region.She describes what she saw. This episode isn't graphic, but sober. We'd prefer to live in a world without what she described, but I believe if it exists, better to know about it than not.She also shares what we can do to help and how, in particular helping the charity she created.Mitzi's home pageMitzi's Ukraine charity, ULET Group Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Continuing a long trend of guests sharing partially doing their commitments but not stopping, Stephen comes back for an episode 1.5, not yet his episode 2.Stephen committed to sharing his childhood family experiences hiking on a path near a family cabin (my description doesn't do justice to his description, so listen to his first episode, 622, to hear his description drawing on his life experiences). As happens sometimes when a commitment depends on other people, their being unavailable meant he couldn't complete the whole things.He did his part, as he describes in this episode, and he could have declared he consider it enough. Instead, he shares what happened this time, and that he doesn't consider his commitment finished.He shares what worked, what didn't, the experience of walking solo (and biking there instead of driving).Genuine, authentic leaders know one's measure of personal success depends not on things outside of your control. You succeed if you perform to your potential. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The notes I read for this episode were long, so instead of including them in the podcast notes, I posted them as a separate blog post: The text from episode 630: Simplifying Meditation Words and Meaning.My book: Leadership Step by StepThe Science article I mentioned: Limits to economic growthThe article showing humans lived to a modal age of 72: Longevity Among Hunter- Gatherers: A Cross-Cultural ExaminationViktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning Wikipedia pageThe Calvin and Hobbes page showing defenestrationThe Not Just Bikes video channelLow Tech Magazine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We started talking about Michelle's commitment to avoid scrolling on vacation. She did. It sounds like it was both no big deal and something worth building on.We had intended to keep the recording to under thirty minutes for scheduling reasons, but the conversation kept staying too interesting to stop. We talked about addiction, how big a difference small differences can make, the difference between Portland and Vancouver in culture, how to change culture, living off the grid, and what stays with you when transitioning back.Coincidentally, a story of hers appeared in this week's New Yorker: When Summer Becomes the Season of Danger and DreadMichelle's book: Beloved Beasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I think Jay's commitment may be the first where I participated and we had a blast!You may remember he committed to kayaking on the Hudson. He invited me to join. As you can see from the picture, I did, and we kayaked together. We shared about the experience.Note the change in our conversation and relationship from last conversation to this one. By last conversation we had spoken several times to set up the call, then you could hear our recorded conversation. Then hear how things changed just spending time in nature, in a way suggested by his values. That the Hudson by Manhattan isn't wild like, say, the mouth of the Amazon doesn't change that acting on our environmental values opens us up and connects us. Mainstream culture has isolated us so much and cut us off from nature, we don't know what we're missing.We're talking about applying this experience to the Queer Liberation March team to help make keeping the event clean fun and enjoyable, not an obligation but an opportunity. Stay tuned! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nadeem contacted me as a listener to suggest Abdal Hakim Murad as a guest, as I hadn't hosted any Muslims on the podcast by then. I learned a lot and enjoyed meeting Abdal, plus Nadeem and I stayed in touch. When Janet Allaker's first episode with a listener went well, I invited Nadeem to be a guest. He loved the opportunity. I think we both enjoyed the conversation. If you're a regular listener, you'll get to hear another voice from your position.You'll get to hear another listener's views on sustainability and this podcast. Nadeem cares enough to act, though not as much as me. He listens to This Sustainable to ground him and inspire more sustainability work. We talk about what motivates him, religion, family, Norway, and of course do the Spodek Method.I think you'll find some similarities and differences in his approach and stick with the podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.