Several themes have emerged in my posts so far, and various posts merge ideas from more than one theme. Maybe you're interested in ethics, maybe in social movements. I will try to group my posts into theme buckets to help you navigate what I've (and guest bloggers) written so far. I might put a post into two or more buckets if there is overlap. I am sure I haven't divided these up correctly, because of the significant overlap between themes. Everything is connected.
Problem definition, language, analysis and solutions
- Social interactions without trash
- Finding ways to continue unsustainability
- Guest blog #6: Jason Lai - What does a sustainable future mean to you? (with added commentary from me)
- Language
- Why trash? A personal statement for today's Michigan Daily
- Definitions and redefinitions
- Incinerating as a "solution," creating other problems
- At what point is something a problem?
- Broken cycles
- Why focus on trash and waste?
- Defining ourselves, ourselves
- Some more thoughts on the definition of the problem
- Decisions and "Solutions"
- Addressing complexity with more complexity
- On definitions and development
- On Freedom and Progress
- "Efficiency" and problem definition
- Guest Blog #2: Dr. Forbes and Levels of Analysis
- "Disposable"
- We are not materialistic enough
- On practicality, reality and idealism
- Guest Blog #4: Michelle Price - Closing the gap
- On appreciation
- Guest blog #11 - Dr. Jack Edelstein's thoughts on conservation and entropy
- War and the Environment - Analogies to trash
- On paper and communication
- On goodness (and kindness - replace goodness)
- We have everything we need
- On the fallacy "economic" sustainability
- Short term vs. long term, and "economic" sustainability
- Trash smells? Use deodorant!
- On risk
- On the human scale
- On change
- On rapid responses to technology
- More thoughts on ownership and "development"
- Now
- Reflections on the year: Three kinds of "action"
- On framing: consumption vs. trash
- It is spring. It is St. Patrick's Day. Don't just wear green.
- Further thoughts on risk
- On the importance of problem definition
- One year after the spill, who can we trust?
- I am not extreme
- What if scientists quit?
- Are we fighting the right battles?
- What "development" means for sustainability
- Against the tide
- "Goods"
- FRACK YOU - Innocent until proven guilty
- "If men are forced to do what is right...
- What does it mean to be a "pragmatist"?
- The modification of engineering
- The engineering of modification
- Broad concerns on the bridge in Detroit
- Specific concerns about the bridge in Detroit
- Trying to buy back what we've lost
- Engineering and sustainability ethics
- $2/day - Further thoughts on appreciation
- $2/day - Some thoughts on perception
- My TEDx talk
- On choice, poverty, and sustainability
- How much should I give up?
- Some thoughts on control
- The more we have, the more we waste
- What we take as a given
- False dichotomies
- Government, industry, and proxies
- Mirror
- Intentionality and appreciation
- Leading twenty-first century lives with Stone Age minds
- On a lack of honesty
- When can personal change result in social change?
- Guest blog #20: Jason Lai breaking it down
- Illusions
- On the power of story
- On activism in science
- Further thoughts on activism in science
- We cannot fight it
- Guest blog #22: Julia Petty on expanding the definition of "waste" in food
- The American Dream?
- Contradictions of "progress"
- Experience it for yourself
- Why?
- The loss of nuance
- Money and good work
- A new kind of Pareto optimality
- When is it right to start criticising our ethics?
- How we undervalue
- On compromise and the environment
- On practicality, reality and idealism
- A month in, and a continuing social experiment
- Bubbles, proxies, responsibility and invisibility
- Bubbles (again) and giving up...
- Being away from home
- Private choices
- What we have already
- The options are there. We just have to make the right choices.
- Refuge in change, and questioning authority
- The Self-Repair Manifesto and proxies
- Intentional climate change, procedural justice and the case for individual action
- Breaking points
- Refuge in change, and questioning authority
- Defining ourselves, ourselves
- Compassion, "networking" and activism
- Personal responsibility
- To landfill
- Guest Blog #4: Michelle Price - Closing the gap
- Constant vigilance
- What is my "standard of living"?
- Guest blog #7: Adrianna Bojrab Unplugged
- On appreciation
- On preparedness
- On corporations the corporate culture
- Guest blog #9: Adrianna's back with ideas for parties tonight!
- On individual action
- On morality and individual action
- Guest blog #10: Mrs. McMullen-Laird's three-year journey
- Guest blog #11 - Dr. Jack Edelstein's thoughts on conservation and entropy
- On my declining faith in government
- On peace, spirit and the environment
- On goodness (and kindness - replace goodness)
- We have everything we need
- Paragraphs on patience
- On risk
- On the deficiencies of the law
- How much choice should we have in a sustainable world?
- On change
- Now
- Be affected differently
- On our obligation to nature
- On rights, conveniences and obligations
- Reflections on the year: Where I live
- Reflections on the year: Three kinds of "action"
- On framing: consumption vs. trash
- It is spring. It is St. Patrick's Day. Don't just wear green.
- Reflections on the year: The importance of the journey
- On encouragement and reinforcement
- Reflections on the year: Time and the contradictory "now"
- On the building of community
- What motivates us? A call for thoughts
- Further thoughts on risk
- Changing the system, or navigating it with integrity
- We cannot wait
- Guest blog #17: Laura Smith on durable change and rethinking incentives
- Further thoughts on choice
- Reflections on TEDxUofM
- The data don't speak for themselves
- FRACK YOU - Not learning from our mistakes
- I am not extreme
- What if scientists quit?
- Are we fighting the right battles?
- "If men are forced to do what is right...
- What does it mean to be a "pragmatist"?
- On the relationship between adaptability and what we have
- Engineering and sustainability ethics
- $2/day - Further thoughts on appreciation
- $2/day - Some thoughts on perception
- My TEDx talk
- How much should I give up?
- On bridging the macro and micro
- Some thoughts on control
- The more we have, the more we waste
- What we take as a given
- Submitting to "authority"
- Mirror
- Intentionality and appreciation
- Leading twenty-first century lives with Stone Age minds
- On a lack of honesty
- When can personal change result in social change?
- Some more thoughts on responsibility
- On activism in science
- Further thoughts on activism in science
- We cannot fight it
- Every decision is moral
- On debt and indebtedness
- Experience it for yourself
- Why?
- On entitlement
- The loss of nuance
- On legacy and time
- Money and good work
- Choice and political consumption
- More thoughts on political consumption
- Bubbles, proxies, responsibility and invisibility
- Social interactions without trash
- Reductionism and trash
- (close to) no trash fashion
- Realising change in reflection
- Cities
- The environmental impact of cities
- Guest Blog #4: Michelle Price - Closing the gap
- Compassion, "networking" and activism
- The ecologically noble savage
- Doing things just because we can
- The options are there. We just have to make the right choices.
- Experiencing beauty, and the trash borne of it
- To landfill
- Trash in India - "Cleanliness is next to godliness"
- My issues with TerraCycle
- What we have already
- The rich create it, the poor deal with it
- Finding ways to continue unsustainability
- Centralisation and trash
- Packaging, information and trust
- What plastic bags say about how we live
- Social interactions without trash
- Un-self-sufficiency and convenience
- What is my "standard of living"?
- Overdue thoughts
- We are not materialistic enough
- What we lose through "efficiency"
- What we lose through "efficiency" - feedback
- Why not trash Yellowstone?
- On compromise and the environment
- The environmental impact of cities
- On corporations the corporate culture
- Feature: Dandelion Communitea Cafe
- On practicality, reality and idealism
- What we lose through "efficiency" - Jevon's Paradox and complexity
- On paper and communication
- On my declining faith in government
- On peace, spirit and the environment
- On ownership
- More thoughts on ownership and "development"
- Nature vs. necessity
- On risk
- On the law and being retrospective
- On the deficiencies of the law
- What will we use it for if we don't understand what it means?
- On rapid responses to technology
- On the gaps in technology and obsolescence
- Guest blog #13: Jason Lai and The Joy of Waiting
- Now
- Be affected differently
- On our obligation to nature
- On rights, conveniences and obligations
- Put yourself in their shoes
- On framing: consumption vs. trash
- On encouragement and reinforcement
- Reflections on the year: Time and the contradictory "now"
- On the building of community
- A life of its own
- What motivates us? A call for thoughts
- On meaning
- Further thoughts on risk
- Peace and the deficiencies of anthropocentrism
- Further thoughts on choice
- The data don't speak for themselves
- One year after the spill, who can we trust?
- Guest blog #18: Catherine Baxter living trash-free...it's normal
- Against the tide
- Some thoughts on violence
- FRACK YOU - Innocent until proven guilty
- The results of arrogance - our first days in Detroit
- Broad concerns on the bridge in Detroit
- Specific concerns about the bridge in Detroit
- Trying to buy back what we've lost
- On inequality, poverty, and ecological degradation
- On the relationship between adaptability and what we have
- On the scarcity argument for technology
- Some thoughts on control
- The more we have, the more we waste
- What we take as a given
- False dichotomies
- Submitting to "authority"
- Government, industry, and proxies
- Mirror
- Intentionality and appreciation
- On a lack of honesty
- Secularising the mystical
- Money - An exploration
- Some more thoughts on responsibility
- Money - Scott Russell Sanders on the paradoxical nature of money
- The American Dream?
- Contradictions of "progress"
- Money - Skewing value
- On entitlement
- The loss of nuance
- Money and good work
- Sacrifice and trust
- To sacrifice is to make sacred
- The Gulf Between Us
- Why do we choose not to be surrounded by beauty?
- Feature: Waste Land, Vik Muniz, and consciousness
- "We would use a steam shovel to pick up a dime if we could"
- Limits of the mind, science and society
- Addressing complexity with more complexity
- Decisions and "Solutions"
- Limits, of another kind
- Generating "knowledge," but gaining little wisdom
- On Freedom and Progress
- Trash and the commons
- The legality of trash and waste
- Developing an ethic of trash
- Intentional climate change, procedural justice and the case for individual action
- When is it right to start criticising our ethics?
- The laws governing the world's largest dump - an introduction
- Why not trash Yellowstone?
- On the law and being retrospective
- On the deficiencies of the law
- On peace, spirit and the environment
- War and the Environment - Just War Theory
- Nature vs. necessity
- What came first and the wisdom from the world
Economy, choice, and consumption
- What is my "standard of living"?
- Bubbles (again) and giving up...
- Un-self-sufficiency and convenience
- Trash and the commons
- Centralisation and trash
- Private choices
- Inequality, globalisation, trash and waste
- Trash in India - Let's import trash!
- When we use, we don't conserve
- Doing things just because we can
- The business of trash
- The commodification of trash and a four day sabbatical
- A natural course
- Ethics in research design and the longevity of interest
- A new kind of Pareto optimality
- Choice and political consumption
- More thoughts on political consumption
- How we undervalue
- On corporations the corporate culture
- How much should I give up?
- How much choice should we have in a sustainable world?
- On the fallacy "economic" sustainability
- Short term vs. long term, and "economic" sustainability
Money - an exploration
Objects and materials
- Objects and materials: What compels us to throw away?
- Objects and materials: On availability
- Objects and materials: Shape and design
- Objects and materials: Who worked for it?
- Objects and materials: Shape and design
- Objects and materials: On creativity
- Objects and materials: On cost and value (quasi-guest blogger #14 Marco Ceze)
War, violence, and the environment
- War and the Environment - Just War Theory
- War and the Environment - Non-war time
- War and the Environment - Depleted uranium, a radioactive waste
- War and the Environment - Analogies to trash
Science and technology
- On paper and communication
- What will we use it for if we don't understand what it means?
- On rapid responses to technology
- On the gaps in technology and obsolescence
Food and human health
- Un-self-sufficiency and convenience
- Food from trash
- Food packaging and trash
- A no-trash thanksgiving meal
- Harming nature and creating trash in the name of medicine and health
- Feature: Dandelion Communitea Cafe
- A personal experiment in feminine hygiene
- Frita Batidos - a harrowing experience
- My medical waste
- Guest blog #16: Crystal Thrall and her DivaCup
The nature of trash, analogies, and comparisons
- Overdue thoughts
- Scales of trash
- Amount of trash - a primer
- Being away from home
- Trash and the commons
- What plastic bags say about how we live
- Packaging, information and trust
- Harmony and trash
- Centralisation and trash
- The legality of trash and waste
- My issues with TerraCycle
- Food packaging and trash
- Developing an ethic of trash
- Trash in India
- An American pioneer
- To landfill
- Why focus on trash and waste?
- Broken cycles
- Doing things just because we can
- Reductionism and trash
- The business of trash
- Incinerating as a "solution," creating other problems
- Time capsule
- Trash as water
- The commodification of trash and a four day sabbatical
- Soap is waste
- Definitions and redefinitions
- The history of recycling
- Why trash? A personal statement for today's Michigan Daily
- Why do we choose not to be surrounded by beauty?
- (close to) no trash fashion
- "Disposable"
- Chewing gum is forever
- War and the Environment - Depleted uranium, a radioactive waste
- War and the Environment - Analogies to trash
- Feature: Waste Land, Vik Muniz, and consciousness
- Trash smells? Use deodorant!
- The recycling conundrum
- My medical waste
Trash here and around the world
- Trash and the commons
- What plastic bags say about how we live
- A win for Chicago, a loss for the environment
- Chicago
- A different view
- Trash in India
- Trash in India - "Cleanliness is next to godliness"
- Trash in India - Let's import trash!
- Canadian waste in Michigan, and Michigan's waste infrastructure
- Why Michigan? A portrait of a landfill town and state
- Trash in Japan
- Institutionalising zero-waste at UM
- The laws governing the world's largest dump - an introduction
- Feature: Waste Land, Vik Muniz, and consciousness
FRACK YOU - a series on hydraulic fracturing
Poverty, inequality, and living on $2 per day
- On definitions and development
- The rich create it, the poor deal with it
- Inequality, globalisation, trash and waste
- Trafigura update
- Trash in India - Let's import trash!
- When we use, we don't conserve
- Put yourself in their shoes
Sustainable neighbourhoods in Detroit
Traveling at home
- Reflections on the year: Where I live
- New adventures: Traveling at home
- Traveling at home - Initial thoughts and feedback
Reflections on the year
- Early realisations, thoughts and links
- Four weeks left, yet a lifetime still ahead
- Reflections on the year: Where I live
- Reflections on the year: Who I am surrounded by
- Reflections on the year: Three kinds of "action"
- Reflections on the year: The importance of the journey
- Reflections on the year: Time and the contradictory now
- One year
Boycotts
- Boycott - what is it?
- Boycott - different flavours and kinds
- Boycott - strategies and effectiveness
- The effectiveness of boycotting - point/counter-point
Guest blogs
- Guest blogger Jennifer: BBQ in Florida
- Guest Blog #2: Dr. Forbes and Levels of Analysis
- A different view
- Guest Blog #3: Minimum Waste Wedding - Zachary Brym
- Wedding ring
- Guest Blog #4: Michelle Price - Closing the gap
- Guest Blog #5: Sarah 'GiGi' Herman - My Leap into the World of Local Food
- Guest Blog #6: Jason Lai - What does a sustainable future mean to you?
- Guest blog #7: Adrianna Bojrab Unplugged
- Guest blog #8: Lia Wolock - A tour through my apartment and memories
- Guest blog #9: Adrianna's back with ideas for parties tonight!
- Guest blog #10: Mrs. McMullen-Laird's three-year journey
- Guest blog #11 - Dr. Jack Edelstein's thoughts on conservation and entropy
- Guest Blogger #12: Amazing Alyssa's (Green) Artifacts
- Guest blog #13: Jason Lai and The Joy of Waiting
- Objects and materials: On cost and value (quasi-guest blogger #14 Marco Ceze)
- Guest blog #15: Caroline Canning's thoughts on recycling
- Guest blog #16: Crystal Thrall and her DivaCup
Miscellaneous
- A new me
- Weekly challenge #1
- Back home
- Cameras rolling...Earthfest
- Birding at a dump
- Baking soda made my teeth sensitive (but I still have never had cavities!)
- Frita Batidos - a harrowing experience
- LEAD Magazine
- My underwear have lots of holes
- It is spring. It is St. Patrick's Day. Don't just wear green