Adventures in Sustainable Living

Truly there are few things simpler and more satisfying than walking out to your garden to pick the fresh produce that will be a part of your dinner. What is even better is picking fresh herbs from yo…

We now live in a world that is changing so rapidly that even the most sound minded person is certainly having trouble feeling some sense of security. And while that may be true, not all of the change…

As you have likely heard me say before, sustainability is your best security blanket. But part of being sustainable is managing as many of your personal resources as possible. After all, as long as s…

For years I’ve heard complaints about how expensive it is to live off the grid. Now I hear all about how expensive it is to live sustainably. But is this really true? And even if it is, no matter wha…

I often marvel at the complexity and enormity of the natural world. Consider for a moment the Mississippi River. This river discharges almost 4.5 million gallons of water per second. 

But it doesn’t s…

We pay our federal income taxes every year as a “price of civilization” and then we sit back and watch our government spend our tax dollars like an irresponsible teenager with a credit card. 

Furtherm…

From time to time we have all been apathetic about something. meaning we are simply indifferent to what is going on around us. If left unaddressed, apathy can lead to significant consequences in our …

Whenever someone mentions hazardous waste, you most likely think of big industry, or perhaps even radioactive material that is stored in some unknown place out of harms way. But unfortunately we comm…

Recycling is all about reducing the amount of waste that goes to the landfill. If you talk about recycling, most people instantly think about paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and vegetable cans. Howe…

With all the talk about going green, I look at some of the things we do and question if we are doing more harm than good. Now more than ever we use every “R” word in the book: reuse, recycle, regener…

In today’s world you would think that recycling would be one of those no brainers. But then again you would think that climate action would be a no brainer as well especially since we have known abou…

Living sustainably is really truly nothing new. Yet because our modern culture has warped our way of thinking and sense of values, most people think of it as an “alternative lifestyle”. When the real…

My niece, who by the way is wickedly intelligent and artistic, recently pointed something out to me that I’d never thought of before. Her observation of humanity is that we are nothing more than a hu…

Unless you are particularly interested in Earth’s history, most people do not think in terms of a geological time scale. This is because geological time is measured in eons, eras, periods, epochs and…

I mentioned in E67 that our homes account for approximately 30% of our ecological impact. I have also mentioned before that most of us can live on much less than what we do. Helping you to accomplish…

In my last episode I spoke about the pros and cons of living small. I talked about how it is more affordable, how you can live without a mortgage, how you can simplify your life, how it is possible t…

Part of the focus of sustainable living is being mindful of the impact you have on the world around you. As you have no doubt heard me say, every single thing we do has some sort of impact. But there…

Despite our best efforts to rid our lives of plastic and reduce plastic pollution, there is the possibility that we may loose, meaning plastics may actually win out and we have to deal with this prob…

We are often told to reduce our waste production, conserve water, recycle, eat less meat, drive less, convert to renewable energy, and thus be more sustainable. The challenge is that a great deal of …

One of the most common questions I hear is "How to I reduce my carbon footprint?" In the first two episodes of this three part series I covered how we travel and how we live. In this episode I am goi…