Leadership And The Environment

Who doesn't love knowing about something big before everyone else?EJ Perry is something big, a very talented quarterback being scouted by the NFL, coming from the Ivy League. Rarely do people reach pinnacles in multiple areas of life so young. (I'm posting early so you can know to see him play in the Shrine Bowl next week, February 3 at 8pm eastern on the NFL network.)Regular listeners know I like bringing top athletes to the podcast because they've faced challenges, victories, losses, and adversity and had to return to the game and life. We didn't ask to be born into a polluted world, but we did. I believe we can learn from athletes and other leaders.I indulge in asking EJ about playing in clutch situations. He describes preparation, teamwork, mindset, and the types of things we need to face our environmental problems beyond facts, numbers, and instruction. Then we talk about what the environment means to him. He responds with humility and evolves from a mainstream response of what can I do?? to I know what

My notes that I read from for this episode:Sea wall for Manhattan, like Holland: expensive, huge, likely won't workControversial already. Natural solutions might work better.Let's say they worked.On Staten Island, Fresh KillsAlso everywhere, all coasts unprotectedNow think of Cancer Alley Gulf coast, oil refineries and global toxic dumpsAll that pollution will be dispersed to seas and biosphereI'd guess hundreds of thousands of yearsThink of the sufferingChallenge is more than energy. Also thermodynamics. Everything will disperse.Best solution: stop using fossil fuels now.Yes, we'll face problems, but we'll solve switching problems more easily than global garbage.Not an option: keep going as we are and maybe the problems won't happen. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Five months ago, Gaya's work led to headlines like Yep, it’s bleak, says expert who tested 1970s end-of-the-world prediction. The 1970s predictions weren't exactly predictions, but the headline refers to the book Limits to Growth. If you're not familiar with it, we start by talking about it. We both consider its views and analysis among the most important.The book simulated possible outcomes for humans on Earth. Those outcomes varied from lots of happy people to billions dying. The authors' goals were to show what patterns we might expect.Still, people since have wondered if we and Earth have tracked any of those outcomes. Gaya's work does just that and shows that we have a slim chance of avoiding collapse, but a good chance of hitting it. I am amazed at how well those models track so many measurable outcomes in disparate areas.Our conversation covers her research, what it means, how to understand it, her work with companies, systems, solutions, and how these things affect our personal lives. Limits to G

Hilary describes her commitments as achieving some success and some failure, but learned from both.We start with her personal experiences and memories of ice skating and cross country skiing as a child leading to her sometimes painful lessons today. More than just ice skating again, she took lessons with her child. Listen to her for the lesson and why it was painful, but I'll share that she learned to wear a helmet.She also talked about driving less, which led to what she could do with her community not to accept that not driving has to be hard, but how to improve the situation. She talked about eating less meat, which I heard creating more connection within family.From the personal, we moved to the systemic. As the president of an august institution and connected to peers at peer organizations, she can influence within Allegheny and among university presidents and across academia. It's nice to talk about change and sustainability. It's nice to change institutions. But she points out, everyone sees what you d

In this episode we talk about how to lead people, but I can't help notice on listening afterward how quick and easy it is for him to fly his whole family across the country several times a season, but impossible to pitch a tent in his back yard. Whatever effect I've had on other guests, it's not happening with Chad.What he shares about leadership, I agree with and his life transformation to adjust to circumstances he couldn't have predicted, we can all learn from, so I recommend listening (sorry about the sound quality on my microphone). He lost his sight, which hasn't led to a worse life, as best I can tell. We're losing our ability to eat meat, have as many babies as we want, and fly without these actions causing others to suffer and die. But unlike losing an ability most people would not want to lose, eating more vegetables and living more sustainably benefits everyone, especially people with lungs.No meaningful change has happened with this guest. I haven't connected with what the environment means to him

Prepare to be awed at Rick's stories of adventure, discovery, nature, and humanity. He has summited K2, Everest, and more. He's visited places possibly no other human has. And he's an experienced, brilliant storyteller, so shares his experiences with a vitality that can only come from living it. Hear what it's like for animals that have never seen humans to approach him.His interactions with people show up too, including Sir Edmund Hillary, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, and North Face and Esprit founder Dave Tompkins, and more.He shares what it's like at altitudes where each step requires summoning all the willpower he can just to take the next step.For background, before recording, I checked with him if we could talk about his thoughts on his role as a role model promoting activities that impact the environment, like all that flying. I was glad to hear he was open to it. It just worked out that the stories he shared were so engaging that we didn't get to the topic, or to do the Spodek Method. I hope in a

Many people and mainstream society seem to view technology as the solution to our environmental problems---and the more and the newer the better. Abdal Hakim and I agree technology isn't the glowing solution many believe. It can play a role, but as part of a mix, including low-tech and non-tech components.This topic led to the new green mosque in Cambridge that he helped make happen, how to mix technologies and harmonize with its location. It won awards and created networks and support from the community.He shared the role of sacred spaces in life, less available now, as well as natural spaces. Nobody dislikes trees, but there are fewer around than ever for many people.He also shares his commitment on reducing meat with a widespread social and Muslim perspective.Cambridge Central MosqueThe World Architecture Community article, The UK’s first green mosque: "The Cambridge Mosque", with lots of pictures See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Erik Bottcher is my elected legislator. New York City's council presides over a budget bigger than most countries'.Yet I met him picking up litter. He organized weekly clean-ups when the city dropped its sanitation budget during the pandemic. He also sees the problem not as too little cleaning up but too much supply of packaging that becomes litter.Let's pause for a moment. How many politicians have you heard of who bend down and pick up litter, week after week? I think the world would benefit from all of them doing it.We talk about changes to the city we'd like to see. He shares about growing up gay not in Manhattan but the Adirondacks, then coming to the city and how that affects his governing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Michael is becoming a regular. Would I have expected an extended conversation with a doctoral candidate at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when I started? I don't think so, and I don't think many environmentalists engage with evangelicals and conservatives. I think you'll hear genuine friendship, mutual respect, and mutual desire to learn from each other. I think you'll hear actual learning.In this episode we took on a topic we expected to disagree on: population. This time I asked more questions, learning his views and the views of scripture he follows, though I shared my views too.What does the Bible have to say about population? Where do we agree or disagree? What common ground is there, if any, and what can we do about it? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Maxine shares her experience with her commitment across the country. She moved partly to enable living by her values. People often suggest it's easier for someone living in New York not to fly since I have access to so much culture here, but access to many cultures only matters if you value it. Not everyone does. I hope you live where you can access things you value. If you don't, no amount of travel will overcome that you live where you don't like.I mention this because Maxine could live by her values better not in New York. She sounds like she's still flying a bunch, she didn't commit to avoiding flying (yet). As we talk about in our conversation, we build up to bigger changes through smaller ones.Note how often she describes the discomfort that changing to acting on her values liberates her from. I believe we all feel that discomfort when we know we're acting against our values. We know when we're polluting. No amount of rationalization that "everyone else is doing it", "the plane was going to fly anyway",

How do you become one of the premier investigative journalists at one of the premier publishers of investigative journalism? In general, how do you excel in an area with no established path? I consider figuring out how essential in leading others.I feel sad when I hear people say, "I'd like to help the environment, but there are no jobs in it." Of course not! When culture is the problem, following others won't solve it. Leading others requires leading yourself first.Jesse and I have known each other since college in the 1980s, so he shares his path from the start. On the surface, you'll hear him describe his failures, yet he kept rising to more responsibilities. Listen between the lines to hear what prompted the rise. I heard integrity, passion, persistence, vision, and intangibles that don't show up on resumes, but lead to success. What do you hear?After his personal story, Jesse shares his take of American values and culture and how it's changed in his professional lifetime. He hints at what he's working on

Michael shares about avoiding using a smart phone, or at least using a minimally functional smart phone. Do you remember what life was like without yours? What does solitude mean to you?How much time do you spend on a smart phone? Would you like to reduce it? What would you do instead? What are we missing? How about emotion, love, freedom, and joy?He talks about the irony spending money to help us handle our addiction to those who cause the addiction. It sounds like doof. We talk about addiction, our purposes, and being distracted from them.The above is the starting point of what life is about when not distracted all the time: freedom, family, community, our values, and understanding those things. You'll also hear scripture quoted joyfully than in most conversations.If you've considered a digital fast, I recommend listening as motivation to do it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Allegheny College was one of the first 10 institutions of higher education in the United States to be declared carbon neutral by an organization called Second Nature. Readers of my blog know my skepticism of claims of "net zero" or "carbon neutral," but I look for people in leadership positions acting genuinely and authentically toward sustainability.So I bring you Allegheny's president, Dr. Hilary Link. She shares the college's experience starting a decade ago, before her arrival, and its institutional long-term action. She also shares her helping her peers do similar work at other schools.Allegheny College took on the challenge without a substantial endowment, a large staff, or a big budget. For the last five years, the College's Environmental Science and Sustainability program has been listed among the top five in the U.S. for its interdisciplinary, experiential approach.Like most guests, she agreed to share her environmental values and commit to live by them personally. See acast.com/privacy for privacy a

Chad shares his experience motivating his family to try to bring them camping with him. You'll hear they didn't make it easy. I couldn't resist asking questions about his experience of nature, people, and sex without sight. I didn't want to ask questions everyone asks, but he graciously answered.His mindset also emerged of how to handle life's challenges, which he shared. If I could give people new technologies for sustainability or his attitude, I would pick his attitude, since it would enable others to solve their problems. If losing your sight would be a greater challenge than living sustainably, well, he sounds pretty happy and successful handling a greater challenge. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"People want to act, but it's hard," my business friend said to me, speaking on the environment. I said it to myself for most of my life before learning that acting on the environment, however hard, was fun. Raising a child is hard too, but people do it.This time we happened to be speaking over video and recording it. I'm posting what I happened to say extemporaneously. I wouldn't describe it as a rant, but sort of close. I talked about slavery, abolition, learning, doing hard things, and more.I said what I wish someone had said to me twenty years ago. I would have acted earlier. It also shares how someone who has acted more sustainably for more than a few years thinks.The video version, so you can see me saying it See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Blake shares his results about acting on his commitments from last time. He couldn't work much with rowing with temperatures barely above freezing, but he could act on his diet. He also dusted off an old habit of shooting, which he shared about.We also got to talking about nuclear and alternative energy sources. He asked me my views, so I shared the long-term results I saw from it based on humanity's past.We also spoke of the Bible, Job, and ponder the meaning of having dominion over nature in the context of causing extinctions globally.Beneath all the content, I think you'll hear a friendship growing. I find the discipline of athletes, artists, leaders, and others in ASEEP fields develops the skills and experience to act thoughtfully and effectively. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I've been following Katharine for years. If you don't know of her, after our conversation, watch her TED talk and read her book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. It comprises decades of science, leadership, and efforts to live sustainably, the overlap I consider essential to influencing people on sustainability.Our conversation is about hope, faith, science, love, and our sledding hills. We know the science, but enough to know not to dwell it it, but to know what we're talking about. Then we apply our values to determine what to do.She's worked at this leading in sustainability to know what to do, and it's not just to focus on the science. The value of our actions is not just the footprint but our shadow: whom we affect. The reason to act is not for an abstract "environment" but for our values, especially shared ones. Connect with people, including ourselves, on what we care about.The goal isn't to lecture people but to help connect the dots between what they care

Here are the notes I read from for this episode:Will hit 70 next week.Dawning on people what has dawned on what we now call the global south, that the projections are more serious than they internalized. That their world is going to be rocked. Maybe they realize, that this will be the coldest Christmas for the next ten thousand years and that billions of people may be displaced. Maybe they realize that you can't move billions of people without many of them dying. The global north, including you, will not let more people into the country than are there now..Many people considering polluting less. A few asking me about not flying, which for years no one would consider.But their life depends on polluting activities. They didn't ask for system. What can they do, never see their family again? Think of all the good they can bring the world.They just took down Thomas Jefferson's statue. Should they have? What excuse for owning slaves?He inherited. Didn't ask for. Owning them allowed him to spend more time with famil

I met Nate on Citizens Climate Lobby panel on conservatives and climate, then read his National Review piece, Toward a Conservative Environmentalism, which we talk about in this conversation.I've looked forward to a conversation like this for a long time: a thoughtful approach to the environment that isn't politicized. Nate doesn't hide his values and approach, but understands and respects alternative views.He shares views on questions likeHow does an approach to conserving the environment look when based on limited government, free market capitalism, and honoring small communities and family?How have political conservatives responded to his views?How do those responses vary in time and by age?What is the future of conservatives on the environment?What are conservatives doing and how is their approach developing and evolving?Most of all: Is there common ground among Americans with different political views on sustainability? If so, how can we find and build it? Toward a Conservative Environmentalism, by Nate

Two great reasons to listen to this episode. First, David is a tremendous science communicator. He's experienced, thoughtful, funny, and communicates simply without dumbing down. He's worked with some of the most important sources, like NOVA, the New York Times, TED, CBS Sunday Morning, and more. He's accurate and fun, a rare combination. I think it comes from his passion for knowledge and people.Second, his book fills an important role. As we start our conversation, neither of us could believe no one had written such an important book. On my side, I focus and changing culture. Most focus on lowering emissions. He agrees on the importance of these things. We also have to respond to the changes we can't stop. We can't change the past. Even if we stop polluting today, we'll feel effects of past behavior for decades, centuries, even millennia.His book tackles what to do just to continue with life. Losing composure or panicking doesn't help your life or society. How readable is it? I read the over-600-page book i