Good Energy

A single individual is a multiplicity of types and relations. I am one thing and many things. How I understand my sameness and difference in regard to other beings in the biosphere has profound moral implications – just as a society’s understanding of its unity and diversity has deep political implications. News: the American medical profession makes another plea for action, saying that our climate crisis is a health emergency. The expansion of tick populations is one serious case in point. Also: how natural lighting makes us healthier and happier, and how energy efficiency helps the political fight for climate action.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Life puts a constant demand on us to make decisions about control. It’s sometimes good to control things and sometimes bad. When it comes to other people, our respect for their autonomy requires “persuasion” rather than coercion, threat, or force. But, persuasion might still be a form of control, if it’s pushing buttons inside people that they themselves don’t even have control over. We also cover hot news from Europe, a coal-surpassing milestone for American renewables, the surprising impact of buildings, and a great climate action website for kids. In our story, Fern & Meredith “partly” learn a lesson about trying to control teenagers.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Moral mistakes can happen when we let an emotion slide from one object to another. How close is our enjoyment of cruelty in fiction to our acceptance of it in reality? Pride too can slip from a love of good things to a desire for superiority. Rick Steves hopes to make his high-impact travel business carbon-neutral. Danville is outshining other Virginia cities, realizing that “green” means a strong economy. Fern & Meredith compete in a storytelling contest. You choose the winner!

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Boaty McBoatface – the unmanned submersible research vessel – makes his first big contribution to climate science, while the Stoics teach us about the emotions. Also, some info on wave energy and the vampire power wasted by your electronics. Our cardinal friends, Fern & Meredith, deal with a mystery and solve it badly.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Socrates once said he loved going to the market – to see all the stuff he did NOT need to buy. Reducing our consumption is one of the greenest things we can do. Of course, the main lesson he taught was that we go wrong and do harm when we presume to understand something we don’t. Also on the show: an “off-color joke” in the EIA’s new power generation tracking tool. Finally, trees and forests don’t get better with age, but some people do.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

People tend to be more moved by magic than by knowledge. Why does non-rational prophecy ever win out over rational prediction? One reason: knowledge is hard, and individuals have only bits and pieces of it. Another reason: success in our actions is not guaranteed by knowledge. Chance and randomness play a role in life. There’s logic, but there’s also luck. We discuss some of Project Drawdown’s highest-impact solutions (examples of rational predictions) and do some math on the fuel cost of gasoline vs. electric vehicles (spoiler alert: go electric if you can). Our word of the week is “reason”.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Saying “Yes” to life gives it meaning and value. Being a naysayer to your own choices and experiences makes it all futile. In our story, Harvey the pigeon dies doing what he loves the most – eating peanuts and crackerjacks at the baseball game. He “seizes the day” up to his last moment. We also discuss the significance of the Anthropocene age, the promise of converting non-generating dams to create more hydropower, and the myth that switching lights off and on regularly uses more energy than leaving them on.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

Big data from Denmark proves that growing up in green spaces makes you mentally healthier the rest of your life. The decimation of the native North American populations in the 15th-16th century contributed to the Little Ice Age in Europe, but at least there’s a green lining to this colonial cloud: reforestation rapidly reverses warming. Clean energy and energy efficiency boost the economy. Virginia’s natural areas are much better than its solar policies. In our story, Fern and Meredith compete in The Great Bird Bake Off. Both Fern and Soren Kierkegaard confront the problem of authenticity.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/

The intergovernmental biodiversity & ecosystems report says what Aldo Leopold said 70 years ago – but phrased in the form of a loud alarm bell: our economics and our idea of the good life are killing us. In our story, Meredith loses her inhibitions at a summer concert, after eating some fermented berries. We discuss how living on “autopilot” disables not only our practical freedom to improve, but also our metaphysical freedom to take joy in existence.

Good Energy is made with Jetpack Podcast. Full show notes and every episode at https://goodenergylife.wordpress.com/