My wife Sarah and I are moving to Vermont. I’ve been studying climate change and its interconnected problems for a year, and my research has brought me to the conclusion that a time of tremendous scarcity and uncertainty is upon us. So we've decided that it’s time to get started building a different, more resilient kind of life. When I first began understanding the … [Read more...]
For the sake of the climate, just let go
Ours is a world of increasing control. Control over our environment, our citizens, and the very building blocks of life. Culturally we learn to think of control as a good thing. Yet I put to you it is exactly this pursuit of control that creates most of the world's systemic problems, climate change included. That means at its root, climate change isn't a technological or … [Read more...]
The high price of materialism
A war on climate change is a war on materialism, plain and simple. The carbon pollution spewing out of our power plants and tail pipes is a natural byproduct of the monstrous engine of economic growth we have built, an engine that exists solely to satisfy the demand our materialism creates. Indeed this demand is so great that if everyone in the world lived like Americans, we'd … [Read more...]
The answer to climate change
When I give these climate talks, by the end people are typically agitated and full of questions. “What technology is going to fix this?” “How are we ever get people to agree on a solution?” “I’m just one person, what could I possibly do that would make an impact?” My answers often catch people a little off guard: I try to instill that more important than any technical fix is … [Read more...]
The economy isn’t coming back
Presently Americans wait with bated breath, watching sales numbers and unemployment statistics, grasping for signs that an economic recovery is underway. We search for signals that indicate we’re growing, that there will be a job for everyone who wants one, and that the United States will resume the prosperity and standing in the world it once had. We wait in … [Read more...]