Shows
Adventures in Sustainable Living#149 A Time of GratitudeAfter the last two episodes where I gave you nothing but good news about our world, I have decided to continue on that trend. I have often said that if everyone in the world could come home to a place of peace and quiet and have the ability to just mentally shut down, the world would be a much happier place and people would be a lot less angry. There are a number of things that have been proven to increase our happiness and well being and one of those things is gratitude. Taking a...2023-10-1821 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living128 Ten Ways to Test Drive the Off Grid Life Before You CommitIf you have been following me at all, you already know that I have lived off the grid for many years. In fact, as of August 2023, I will have owned my homestead property for 27 years. I greatly enjoy the lifestyle that I have and would not have it any other way. It is one of the few things that has been a major driving force in shaping my adult life. Often times I wonder why more people do not choose to live the way I do. Perhaps it is fear of the unknown because it is such a...2023-05-2425 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#106 Real World Ecological RecoveryIn my last episode I talked a lot about the progress of humanity and how our own cleverness has placed our planetary life support system in jeopardy. While we were moving along in life congratulating ourselves on our achievements, we forgot to balance the budget.Fortunately there are a lot of very smart people that have long since realized this and have found a way to restore the environment to more of a natural state. This is not something that will happen overnight but is a fantastic step forward.If you want to know more...2022-12-2131 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#105 Moral EcologyProgress, progress, progress. So many things are justified in the name of progress. All too often we hail the forward motion of progress because it improves our lives somehow. Things are easier, services are less expensive, anything we want is at our fingertips any time we want.But I would contend that such progress comes at a rather steep price that we tend to ignore. Besides the environmental consequences what about our moral responsibility? Beyond simple eco-friendly living, are we actually morally responsible for making environmentally friendly choices. If y...2022-12-1424 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living104 Mother Nature is Weaponizing WaterThere are now 8 billion people on planet Earth. Due to our varied interests, cultures, belief systems, and politics, it is obviously necessary to have rules and laws in order to keep the peace and ensure mutual cooperation. But regardless of this there is a very effective weapon that can be used to accomplish the same thing. But no one ever seems to talk about it. For hundreds of years this very same weapon has been used to control people and get the upper hand on the battle field. This same weapon is now poised to be the c...2022-12-0730 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#103 Nature Finds a Way: Life Without HumansOn several occasions I have pointed out that the environment would be just fine without people but people would not be okay without the environment. This begs the question of whether or not humanity is actually beneficial to the planet or are we just another invasive species. But if our existence on this planet is not beneficial then what exactly is our ultimate fate? Is the extinction of humanity inevitable? If it is what would happen if humanity no longer existed? And if that is our ultimate fate, how can we change that? This is a...2022-11-3039 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#102 Building with NatureWhat if I told you that sometimes the sand on the beach is nothing more than piles of fish poop and dead animals. I wonder if that would reduce the statistics on how many people enjoy using the beach. Another thing that most people do not know is that due to several factors, there is actually a global shortage of sand. A third seemingly unrelated fact is that nearly 65% of the people in the United States are paying on a loan for their home while a significant number of people around the world live in a...2022-11-2340 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#101 Mindfulness and SustainabilityIn our modern culture we are at the point to where we cannot focus on any one thing without being distracted. Constant emails, text messages, notifications, phone calls, instagram, Facebook, coworkers, family, and friends. We no longer know how to actually be present in our own lives. We have lost the ability to actually focus. And few people slow down long enough to realize just how much this distracted state of mind affects their quality of life. But if we would only take the time to practice mindfulness, it wo...2022-11-1632 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#100 Sustainability SummitIt is hard for me to believe that this is episode 100. It has taken me almost 2 years to get to this point and I am still going strong. Over the last 99 episodes I have covered a wide variety of topics. In this episode I want to simply review some of the more popular episodes and hopefully continue to instill in everyone not only the desire to start living more sustainably but also prove that there is an enormous need to do so. I also want to show once again that living sustainably is actually more ec...2022-11-0931 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#099 Earth Overshoot Day Years ago I used to work in a small veterinary practice in Conifer, Colorado. At the time this community was a very small and at lunch time I would walk up on the hill side and sit in a groove of old growth forest. It was quiet, very green, and offered a little reprieve from a busy practice. One day at lunch I walked up the hill as usual only to find that someone had cut a huge swath right through the old growth trees and had started excavation to build a home. I counted the rings on...2022-11-0235 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#098 Sustainable Leadership Lessons We Can Learn From AnimalsIf you focus at all on sustainability then you already know that the 3 pillars of sustainability are economic, environmental, and social, less formally referred to as people, planet, and profits. But in order for any of this to be feasible, for any of us to have a stainable future we have to work together. Yet we have forgotten how to do this. We have actually lost a lot of our social skills, and even forgotten how to be effective leaders. But all we really have to do is to look at the animal kingdom in ord...2022-10-2626 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living097 Climate Adaptation: Can We Do It?As talks about climate change become increasingly serious, many of us are either weary of hearing about it, we are anxious about it, or we just do not know what to do. More and more often we hear this term “climate emergency” knowing very well the use of the term“emergency” usually means do something now. Despite our present predicament, are we as humans resilient enough to adapt to what is going on? What is the difference between climate mitigation and climate adaptation? How is all of this going to affect our daily lives? These and many other questions...2022-10-1933 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#096 How to Start a Homestead Part TwoIn my first episode about homesteading I covered a variety of topics to help point you in the right direction. I did not talk much about the specifics of homesteading but I did lay the basic foundation for success. In this episode I want to get down to some specific actionable tips that you can start doing today. After all this is a lifestyle choice. It will take some time and a lot of hard work. When most people starting thinking about this, they don’t even know where to start. But after this episode you will be...2022-10-1226 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#95 How to Start a Homestead Part OneI find it interesting that humanity has grown into a global community that is so interdependent that if one country suffers an environmental disaster, a financial collapse, massive crop failure, a water crises, or even a foreign invasion that it has a dramatic affect on the global economy. Does no one but me see this as a bad thing? While this globalization provides many obvious benefits, it actually creates a lot of insecurity. My answer to all of this is that it is time to commit yourself to a lifestyle of your own making. And one of t...2022-10-0530 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#094 Can the Entire World Thrive on Renewable Energy?As you may well know, talks of climate change are becoming increasingly serious. Updates are in the news almost daily so it is difficult to ignore. Furthermore, there are some new books soon to be published on the topic that paint a pretty grim outlook for our future on this planet. In 2018, 89% of greenhouse gas emissions came from the burning of fossil fuels and from industry. Although the use of coal seems to be fading, the use of other fossil fuels are replacing it. So, why are we not pushing the transition to renewables? Is there a p...2022-09-2826 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#092 The Science of Climate Change: Are We There Yet?As most of you may know by now the discussions and concerns about climate change are becoming increasingly serious. Additionally, recent surveys in the United States and United Kingdom reveal that approximately 75% of us are concerned about it. But there is also rampant disinformation out there concerning climate change. All it takes is a few minutes of research and you can easily find articles that both confirm and deny that this is even happening. Consequently, while there remains to be a level of concern, most people are not sure what to believe. In this episode I...2022-09-1443 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#091 Eco-Anxiety and How to Cope With ItYou have likely heard me say before that we are in fact living in unprecedented times. We now live in a world that is changing so rapidly that even the most sound minded person is likely having trouble feeling some sense of security. If that is how you feel, you can rest assured that you are not alone. If your concern for the state of the planet has you deeply worried then you may be suffering from eco-anxiety. That is the topic of this episode. Eco-Anxiety and how to cope with it. Always remember to li...2022-09-0727 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#090 Carbon Paw Prints: Sustainable Pet Ownership Part TwoWelcome back folks to the second episode on sustainable pet ownership. In part one I tried to get you prepared for the fact that the dogs and cats that we keep as pets do in many ways have a significant environmental impact. Mostly I talked about food and poop, what goes in one end and what comes out the other end. Now in this episode I am going to cover several other topics that will help you to be a more sustainable pet owner. And lastly I am going to talk about a couple of very important su...2022-08-3129 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#089 Carbon Paw Prints: Sustainable Pet Ownership Part OneFor months now I’ve been focusing on the environmental impact of human activity, our lifestyles and our diet. But so far I have failed in one respect. I have failed to include the furry friends that we have and how they impact the environment as well. Of all the things we do as humans that affects the planet, we often forget about the dog and the cat. After all, they have to eat, drink water, and when we walk them they leave poop in the environment just like every other animal. Obviously they have an impact on...2022-08-2435 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#88 Ten Myths and Misconceptions of Sustainable LivingBy far the most common reaction I get when I talk about my off grid lifestyle is “You are crazy. How is it even possible to do that?” When I discuss sustainable living I get similar reactions such as it’s too difficult, it’s too expensive, or I just like beef too much.”That being said, there are many myths and misconceptions about living a sustainable life that keeps people from taking steps in the right direction. And that is the focus of this episode. I want to debunk a few of these myths and misconceptions about livi...2022-08-1736 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#087 From Local to Global: Is Simplicity a Thing of the Past?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 your garden that are packed with a tremendous flavor that you never get from store bought products. These are only a few of the advantages of going local because it doesn’t get more local than your own backyard. But our backyard now consists of the entire planet thanks to the affects of globalization. And while this has obvious advantages it...2022-08-1031 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#086 Sustainability Trends for 2022We 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 changes are necessarily bad. You have often heard me say that you’d better choose to live sustainably while it is still choice. Yet in order for us to get on track toward a sustainable future, we need systematic change, bold ideas, and radical rethinking of how we work and how we consume. But how are we going to get the...2022-08-0334 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#085 What Happened to Our Energy Security?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 someone else is in control of your resources, someone else is in control of your life. It really doesn’t make any of us feel secure when someone else decides when we get electricity and when we don’t. Yet that is what happens when there are rolling blackouts. I don’t think any of us would have ever predicted there would be a short...2022-07-2733 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#084 The True Cost of Sustainable LivingFor 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 what the cost, is our convenience really worth compromising our future on this planet? In this episode I want to closely examine several aspects of sustainable living and compare costs. At least if I do that then you will know which lifestyle is more expensive. So stayed tuned for E84 which focuses on the true cost of sust...2022-07-2040 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#82 Walls, Weapons, and WisdomWe 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. Furthermore I sit back and observe this massive machine of civilization that we have created and wonder how it is that we got so far off track. After all focusing on a sustainability does not seem difficult to me. But this possibility of a sustainable future is too often clouded by the mighty powers that still insist on building walls and weapon...2022-07-0641 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#081 Apathy, Optimism Bias, and Fossil of the DayFrom 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 lives. But sometimes we are even informed of those consequences and yet we do nothing. This is exactly how we are addressing climate change and living sustainably. We are simply apathetic for a number of reasons. Despite steady warnings from scientists regarding climate change, we are doing a sum total of nothing. Some believe this is because of optimism bias. If yo...2022-06-2931 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#080 Household Hazardous Waste and How to Avoid ItWhenever 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 commonly have numerous hazardous materials in our homes.Furthermore we actually produce 13 tons of hazardous waste every second? That amounts to over 400 million tons every year. Presently there are over 700 man made chemicals that have been found in the human body that are not supposed to be there. In this episode I want to talk about common household hazardous wastes, how to handle them an...2022-06-2222 min
Criminal Justice EvolutionCriminal Justice Evolution Podcast: Retired LEO’s Keith Knotek and Mario Oliveria and Their Stories and Hope and InspirationHello everyone and welcome back to the Criminal Justice Evolution Podcast. A top ranked show because of YOU, the listener and supporter. Please pass this episode, and the cjevolution.com website to others. Please give us that 5-Star Rating on Apple Podcasts.
A big thank you to YOU, the first responder professional. Remember you are honored, cherished and loved. Keep up the great work.
Even have a questionable ID handed to you? Do you wish there was a way to check that document for its validity? I remember those times as a police officer when I...2022-06-1536 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#079 Recycling Part Three: 6 Common Household Items and How to Recycle ThemRecycling 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. However, there are a number of other things in our homes that can and should be recycled. For example, light bulbs.In this episode I am going to talk about how to recycle 6 common household items that most of us never even think about. It may require a little bit more work but it is something that is doable. If you want to be i...2022-06-1520 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#78 Recycling Part Two: We Need to Ditch Performative EnvironmentalismWith 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, regenerate, reclaim, reabsorb, recreate, and even more.But is this all just a public performance. Are we just showing off instead of showing up. In this episode I want to discuss performative environmentalism. By doing so, I am going to make you feel bad about some of your green choices. Then I am going to tell you how...2022-06-0830 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#077 Recycling Part One: Recycling is Broken. How Do We Fix It?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 about climate change for over 125 years. But yet here we are. Since I travel some for work I have the opportunity to live and work in different communities. I consistently work in places where it is almost impossible to find options for recycling. So why is it that recycling is so difficult. Why is it that the United States lags so...2022-06-0134 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#076 How to Thrive Outside of MainstreamLiving 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 reality is that living sustainably should be considered mainstream. But I have often said that when you find yourself in agreement with 90% of the people around you, pack your bags and run the other way as fast as you can. But, so says the guy that has lived off the grid for 25 years. Obviously I am not afraid to step outside the norm and live...2022-05-2539 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#075 Can We Change Human Instincts?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 huge evolutionary experiment. Not only that, but this experiment is running amuck and that is what is getting us in trouble. The challenge for humanity is that we retain many instincts from our early years on this planet when we were still living in caves. These early instincts served us well and in many ways guaranteed our very survival. But our pres...2022-05-1841 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#074 Growing the Next World WonderUnless 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 ages. This corresponds to anything from 1 billion years to millions. But due to our lifespan we only relate to a human time scale, which is centuries, decades or less. In fact civilization as we know it is thought to have been around for only 6,000 years. Yet the changes that we have made to the planet during that time is the very reason we nee...2022-05-1135 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#073 Tips and Tricks for Living SmallI 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 just that is the focus of this three part series on the art of living small. There are unique challenges to living in a small space. I know this from personal experience. But, there are also numerous ways to make the most of the space that you have and that is the focus of this episode. So, stay tuned for Tips a...2022-05-0424 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#072 What No One Tells You About Living SmallIn 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 to be debt free. While all of that may sound attractive, you also have to realize that living small is a lifestyle choice that comes with a unique set of challenges. In this episode, I am going to discuss all the things about living small that no one tells you. This episode is going to be packed with u...2022-04-2723 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#071 The Pros and Cons of Living SmallPart 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 are numerous ways to reduce our individual ecological foot print. I have spoken of this before in previous episodes on reducing your carbon footprint and life without plastic. I now want to continue that trend by giving you further options on how to live more sustainably in ways that more or less go against our cultural trend.2022-04-2028 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#070 Life Without Plastic Part Two/ Homemade ProductsDespite 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 problem forever. But we have to remind ourselves to do the best we can and to make slow steady progress. In episode one of Life Without Plastic, I covered some valuable tips on what I call the no brainers. This gives you an easy place to start going plastic free. In this episode I want to cover some some additional things you c...2022-04-1327 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#069 Life Without Plastic Part One/The No BrainersWe 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 the time we are not given easily accessible, affordable options in order to live more responsibly. By far one of the largest challenges we have these days is that of plastic pollution. Plastic is literally everywhere. It fills our oceans, landfills, food, water, and micro plastics have even been found on top of Mount Everest. This is why I want to devote a c...2022-04-0634 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#068 It All Starts At Home: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Part IIIOne 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 going to focus on what we eat. Our agriculture systems have truly put us in a predicament. It has long been known that this is the source of our greatest ecological impact. Yet we must continue to produce food to feed a growing world population. But, believe it or not, it is actually our agricultural systems that a...2022-03-3029 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#67 It All Starts at Home: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Part IIOne of the most common questions I hear regarding sustainability is “How can I reduce my carbon footprint?” The answer to that question is not the same for everyone. For example, a sherpa in Nepal that spends his time taking people up Mount Everest has a completely different carbon footprint compared to your average urbanite in the United States.That said, there are three different areas of our Iives where we produce our greatest ecological impact: how we travel, how we live, and what we eat. E66 I covered the topic of how we travel. In this epis...2022-03-2325 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#066 It All Starts At Home: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Part IAs the result of my association with several groups and forums focused on sustainability I have begun to see trends in the types of questions that people ask. One of the most common questions that comes up is “How do I reduce my carbon footprint?” Maybe I’ve spent way too much time over the last 3 years examining and dissecting my own life because I’ve gotten to the point to where I think the answer to that question is obvious. But perhaps that is not the case after all. As individ...2022-03-1633 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#065 Blue Foods May Be the Green FutureThere is no doubt that our daily diet plays a major role in our environmental impact. Our choices of the food that we consume on a daily basis does make a difference. But the good news is that even small changes can add up to significant environmental benefits.It has long be known that our agricultural activities are the greatest drivers of environmental changes. But there is a vital resource that we have that is often overlooked and that is the ocean. If done properly, farming the oceans could be a primary means of providing the world...2022-03-0926 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#064 What's Cookin' With Synthetic MeatWe already know that agricultural activities produce some of our greatest environmental impact. Yet some sort of agriculture is needed in order to produce food because we are beyond the point of hunting and gathering. World population is expected to reached 9.8 billion by the year 2050. It is projected that agricultural production will have to increase by 60% to 70 % above current levels in order to feed that population. That places us in a conundrum. If we expand our current agricultural activities we continue to destroy the environment that is vital to our survival. Yet if we do not find a...2022-03-0237 min
Adventures in Sustainable Living#63 One Simple Thing Can Change the WorldThere are several things that I can look back on and definitively say that those things changed the course of my life. For example decisions and choices I made, unexpected events, simply being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes just plain bad luck. And I am sure that many of you can say the same thing.But you know, this is really not all that unusual. I can easily point out several different things, small things, that have been a defining point and have changed the course of history. In fact, I believe...2022-02-2327 min