This Sustainable Life

My proposal and rationale for the next amendment for the United States Constitution.

It will sound crazy, impossible, and too hard at first, as it did with me. But the more you consider it, the more the objections will fade. It is the right tool for the right job. Nothing else is.

I'll write more about it later. For now, just the audio.

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When I wrote up my experiment to live with my apartment off the grid in Manhattan for a month, I looked up what I did the morning I started. My library records show I borrowed and listened to Sebastian's book Tribe, then my browser history shows I watched a ton of videos featuring him. Soon after I read Freedom, watched Restrepo and The Last Patrol.

His work makes you question your values, the values of our culture, and what you do about it. In my case, his exploration to why in a culture of material plenty, that according to, say, Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now or The Better Angels of Our Nature, which say life is the best its ever been, in head-to-head competition, people who know civilization choose to live in other places. His books and our conversation clarify and refine the conditions, but the main appeal of not-civilization is feelings of mutual dependence and feeling needed. Our culture isolates. With affluence has come anxiety, depression, and suicide.

His research and writing helped me understand why I enjoy each step of polluting less. People from the outside read me as extreme, but America pollutes extremely much. I've reduced over 90 percent, but I still pollute. I'm finding myself not extreme but traditional.

Sebastian shares the main points of his books on community, mutual support, feeling needed, war, love, and more versus isolation and anxiety. At the end we talk about how to restore what we've lost and the prospect of changing culture to sustainability, which looks promising.

• Sebastian's Home Page
• Lots of videos featuring Sebastian

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In this sixth conversation between an Extinction Rebellion Rebel and a home-grown sustainability leadership (I hope) leader, we explore more of the life of someone who has devoted himself to solving our environmental problems.

We continue comparing and contrasting the approaches, learning from each other, developing friendship, sharing the challenges, and sharing why we do it.

If you, listener, haven't yet decided to make sustainability your priority, I think you'll find everyone needs your help. I hope this conversation helps influence you. Whatever else you're working on, clean air, land, food, and water will help.

I hope Etienne and my conversations help reveal it's a deeply rewarding life.

And hearing from an Olympic gold medalist who sees this work as the most valuable he can do is pretty engaging.

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• Here are the notes I read from:
• 40% of pregnancies are unplanned. Overpopulation is a major problem for environment so it's a topic for this podcast.
• Girlfriend who pressured me into unprotected sex and got pregnant
• Not only women's issue. Men have as much value to add as anyone who hasn't been robbed or murdered to speak on robbery and murder.
• Her power, reversing her word, pressuring, irresponsibility, tear
• Financial abortion. If you support abortion, it's consistent and will help you win your case
• Stories of pro-lifers getting abortions
• Many men who support abortion and many women who oppose it
• What if someone believes unique human life begins at conception
• To me, fertilized cell is not a human being. Like an ant, not an anthill, nor are a dozen ants or even thousands. Yet at some point an anthill forms. Or a cloud. Water vapor everywhere, yet where cloud begins in space or time not clear.
• Somewhere clump of cells becomes human capable of suffering, before nine months.
• If you believe the cells don't become human until late and don't accept that others could consider it murder, have some compassion. It may help to learn that many past cultures, including likely yours into the twentieth century, and many others today consider infanticide after birth within days, weeks, or even longer acceptable. How do they look to you? Would you kill a born baby? Can you see that others might see you that way? What would you do if you saw a parent preparing to kill a baby already born that was viable? What would you say to a society that left twins to die from the elements or hunger?
• Democracies debate life, death, self defense
• Seems to me a conflict to resolve democratically. No scientific proof
• Let's say you're absolutely right and not a unique human life at conception or even until birth. People can vote however they want. Can you at least acknowledge their point of view? To lead, you have to go where they are. You're losing. Maybe reconsider your tactics.
• Likewise, say you can prove unique life begins at conception. Still not well defined. When sperm enters egg? Can't be. When DNA combines? If DNA doesn't finish combining, you'd allow some birth defects to be killed. My point is you still haven't found a hard line
• Or what if we can clone humans from one cell. Then you must do everything possible to keep that machine running and build as many as possible.
• Both sides keep pushing toward greater extremes, listening less, not more, trying to circumvent democracy. Stating more extreme positions.
• I think democratic debate is best solution at high level. Also practically, I think it will win you more support and disarm opponents more.
• I can't help mention a creative solution from The Satanic Temple. It's making abortion a religious ritual protected by law that health care providers apparently have to honor. If all it takes to force by law a doctor to give an abortion is converting to a religion, I suspect TST may see an influx, new religions may start forming, or existing religions will begin their own rituals. I'll link in the text.

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Having just started month three of living off the electric grid in Manhattan, technical issues led me to stop the experiment. I'm not sure the problem, but connecting the solar panels to the power station, it doesn't charge. I don't know how to diagnose it without another power station or solar panel I know works to find the problem.

Here are the notes I read from:

• Last use of electronics off-grid before cooking lunch with pressure cooker, which will mean reconnecting the apartment's master circuit that I disconnected in May.
• I knew I'd feel dirty because I would cause pollution.
• Up and down stairs, sleeping in heat, knee injured
• The hard part wasn't living traditionally. My food was more fresh. I lived with more meaning and purpose.
• The hard part was living in a different culture, even if just me, than America.
• I lived by Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You and Leave It Better Than You Found It.
• As for America, by its fruit shall ye know a tree. What are America's fruits? Not Do Unto Others or Leave It Better.
• American culture: more men with breasts and fewer sperm than any culture in history.
• But choice made for me: Power station broke, the computer battery, then charger, now either power station or solar panels.
• Yesterday had to postpone two meetings.
• Used power from last time it charged down to six percent on station, about an hour on computer, though longer on phone.
• Will cook stew, declare victory, and keep using little, especially the fridge.
• I expect to make twelve months without the fridge

Earlier episodes on the experiment:

• 586: My Kitty Hawk moment, on the way to a Moon Shot
• 584: Freedom, continual improvement, fun, and curiosity: day three only solar in Manhattan

Plus I spoke to a city government advisory group and talked about leading up to it.

• 593: How I disconnected from the electric grid in Manhattan for 2 weeks (and counting)

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The notes I read from:

Yesterday my mom suggested I move away from the city if it makes me feel so bad. Last week my dad reaffirmed that he wouldn't appear on the podcast without some vague conditions he was using my invitation to cajole me into.

To move away from the problem is exactly the opposite of my mission. Nearly everyone else identifies my work as helping the world, even if they don't see the underlying beauty, harmony, etc I do, but my parents get annoyed.

Why the discrepancy?

They love and support their son, or something pretty close to me. How is it that my sharing my mission with them results in misunderstanding?

Pivotal life moment: manager suggested sharing problems

Growing up we didn't expose problems. If conflict, talking about it was the problem.

People just are that way. Each person is just that way. You just have to work around them. But above all, don't mention any conflict.

When I did, I have memories of my dad bellowing with anger. My mom would more play the martyr and imply the person bringing up the problem hurt her. After all, if no one brought it up, she wouldn't feel bad.

So I learned not to expose conflict. All those years I let it fester. Sad at the relationships I lost.

Then learned how to manage conflict.

Then learned to manage emotions, learning the difference between a given emotion, even one I didn't like--like say anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, guilt, shame, insecurity--and suffering or misery, which to me are like meta-emotions. I can feel shame but not misery, which allows me to face shame and act on it.

I haven't seen that self-awareness in my parents. Once they feel the emotion they don't like, that situation is bad. The way out is to change the subject.

Other huge life interest: nature

Conservation of energy is beautiful

I don't remember my parents showing any interest for science or nature. They supported it, but I don't think it means anything to them. I can't imagine they understand a differential equation let alone see the profound beauty in it.

So as I understand them, they can make no sense in working on sustainability.

To bring up at that time that others are suffering for our decisions makes them feel bad. Why not just talk about relatives and who's doing what?

From their views, I'm talking about something abstract that makes them feel bad. The possibility of seeing beauty or changing culture is, as best I can tell, beyond them.

I've described myself like Meathead, the son-in-law in All in the Family. He believes in equal rights across racial, sexual, and class lines. Most of us would agree with him, but he lives in Archie's house and in that house, roles were prescribed by sex, race, and class, so equality angered him.

Archie was the racist with the heart of gold, but a racist with a heart of gold is still a racist.

So while I'm Meathead, they're polluters with hearts of gold. So, still hurting people.

I'm not going to move away from the problem.

• Washington Square Park drowned in litter
• The system of slavery evolved into today's polluting system
• Nine million people a year die from breathing polluted air

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Mike committed to a year-long task. Few guests go for so long. Since we're in a writing group together, I've seen him in between, but since I want you, the listeners, to hear guests' results first, I didn't ask him if he stayed on track. To be candid, I suspected he didn't because of the year length. Regular listeners know I bring some guests on for episode 1.5s, where I help bring them back on track. Usually it happens because I didn't connect them enough to their intrinsic motivation.

I can't stand about our culture, including environmentalists: everyone uses extrinsic motivation, coercing, cajoling, convincing, and seeking compliance. All these techniques promote resistance. Even if the person complies on the action you bludgeon them into, you reinforce that they don't want to do it.

So some guests, even when I do my best to make sure they're acting for their intrinsic reasons, not something abstract like to save the world or think of the children, choose something extrinsic.

Not Mike! As you'll hear, he went to town on picking up litter while running. He accidentally made up a new term for it and influenced people he knew and even people he didn't.

First we talked about my disconnecting my apartment from the electric grid, a bit over a month when we recorded. He loved my activity. I loved his. A love-fest all around. Plus he felt that story should be out there so much, he put me in touch with another New York Times bestselling author I've since scheduled recording.

• Mike's home page

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Nakisa shared about the intersection of nature and its disappearance growing up, as well as her growing awareness of it, family, community, and a polluting cement factory appearing in her neighborhood. We recorded shortly after the Buffalo shooting of May 2022, and talking about access to fresh produce disappearing from her neighborhood touched on it.

Everything led to her sharing about her plans to garden and the role of gardening in her life growing up. She hasn't made the headway she wanted to, but isn't letting up. We'll have to wait for another episode to hear about more visible results, but she shares plenty about gardening and how we could use more in all neighborhoods.

I think you'll hear her talking about nature, through gardening, bringing inspiration and freedom.

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In Etienne and my continued exploration of each other's work, we look at my leadership work from his perspective.

What are the differences between leadership and protest?

What's the difference between a purity test and living by your values?

How do my goals, strategies, and tactics differ from theirs?

How do our efforts complement each other?

Our time was tighter, so it was a shorter episode. I think it may lead to collaborating some time with Extinction Rebellion.

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We start by my reading the emails where I invited Whitney to this podcast by cursing with a few f-bombs, showing how we started our interactions. Before recording our first episode we met in Washington Square Park and picked up litter together.

Read my emails cursing at Whitney Tilson that brought him to my podcast

Whitney shares how he created and maintains his following, speaking his mind, deliberately sharing provocative opinions. He shares how and why he engaged so much on the pandemic. I see that passion raising the potential for him to engage on sustainability, but we'll see. He became as knowledgeable as anyone I know and led a large number of people on it.

Then we talked about carbon offsets. I shared my Two Carbon Cycle Explanation, though I've since simplified it in The simple explanation why offsets don’t work.

We talked about flying. I since found some peer-reviewed numbers, which I posted in Some flying pollution numbers. In the week before recording, he flew round trip to Seattle, Miami, Bahamas, and in the next week Rwanda.

Then he shared his reasons for not engaging on the environment. You'll recognize them. Remember when he said he was uninformed? On the contrary, I'd say, he learned everything he needed to to justify feeling good about not changing his behavior. Even so, I respect and admire that he engaged in our conversation and started finding ways to act.

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