Climate change isn’t your fault, and you won’t solve it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Particularly in America, there’s a curious cultural veneration of the individual as the main agent of influence and change rather than the community. This is of course rooted in our history, or at least the whitewashed history we’re taught in school and then subconsciously carry in our conceptions of the world.

We defeated a tyrannical monarchy as a big underdog. Then, we fulfilled our Manifest Destiny and conquered the West, bulldozing our way across the mountains and prairies toward the ocean.

I’m simplifying here, but the point is, centuries of deeply embedded cultural norms reflect themselves in how we talk about the biggest problems we face, including climate change. …

You should care more about consuming consciously than not having kids or scorning others who do.

Does the name ‘Malthus’ ring a bell?

In 1798, Thomas Malthus warned of an impending ecological trap driven by overpopulation. As he saw it, exponential population growth would override arithmetic growth in agricultural yields. He foresaw too many mouths to feed and not enough food to feed them. This became known as the Malthusian trap, and the Malthus philosophy has been the subject of vigorous debate ever since.

Six years after Malthus introduced his theory, the world population reached one billion. And 216 years after that milestone, we’re now hurtling toward a population of eight billion.

The overpopulation Malthus expected has indeed come to bear. …

Travel and USA

Make the most of your visits to America’s wild highlights.

The national park system is America’s best idea. Ken Burns agrees, so it’s a fact! America protects 423 different national park sites; of those, 62 are full national parks. I’ve been to most of them, especially those west of the Mississippi River (which separates the beautiful parts of the United States from the less attractive parts).

Of America’s western parks in the Lower 48, I’ve visited all but five — Channel Islands, Pinnacles, Mt. Baker, Petrified Forest, and Big Bend.

Without further ado, here are my top five:

Honorable Mention: Redwoods

“The redwoods, once seen, leave a mark or create a vision that stays with you always.” …

“Life is a reality to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.”

Once upon a time, a traveler asked a shepherd “what kind of weather are we going to have today?” The traveler wanted to know what to expect; who wants foul weather to derail their travels, right?

The shepherd muttered: “the kind of weather I like.” Confused, the traveler responded: “How do you know it will be the weather you like?” Here, the shepherd taught the traveler an unexpected lesson. “Having found out, sir, I cannot always get what I like, I have learned always to like what I get. …

It’s more realistic than you think.

2020 sucked.

It’s still hard to believe the year we just had. But we made it!

2020 was terrible for almost every human being alive. Nonetheless, it brought some good tidings for planet Earth. Greenhouse gas emissions dropped thanks to the COVID-19 economic slowdown. Renewable energy prices continued to fall, and as we discussed in The Current Climate, 2020 was the year Big Renewables defeated Big Oil.

And best of all? Some of the world’s biggest emitters, from China to South Korea to Japan to the European Union, made real pledges to reduce emissions to net zero by mid-century.

Nonetheless, the progress made in 2020 to keep the climate stable and keep the planet healthy for humans and nonhumans alike was not enough. Despite the emissions decline, 2020 will likely go down as the hottest year on record. …

A self-indulgent message of gratitude as a new year dawns.

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.” — Eckhart Tolle

I started writing on Medium in May. I didn’t expect much when I joined the Partner Program and began to put fingers to keyboard. I’d heard of Medium but hadn’t read much on the platform.

I’ve been pleasantly delighted. And that’s because of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And to those of you who also write on this wonderful platform, thank you! Medium is an informative and inspiring platform because of the content you create. Your words continually lift my spirits and feed my insatiable thirst for knowledge. …

Welcome to my Medium page!

Hi! I’m Danny, a full-time writer, editor, and explorer. I use that last term loosely — I love exploring the world (traveling!) and the ideas and developments that make life interesting.

Below you can read about what motivates my writing. But first, since it’s my sworn obligation (I took an oath to the content overlords) as a #contentcreator to self-promote…

Connect with me here:

My website — if you want to work with me

LinkedIn — if you want to contact me or connect professionally

Instagram — if you want to see cool photos (and less cool captions) of this wonderful world

Twitter — if you care for my sporadic random…

The Earth is worth fighting for. Let’s start acting like it.

Apollo 11: the most famous of the numerous Apollo missions. “The Eagle has landed”: a plain remark that represented a momentous achievement. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins: the biggest legends of the Space Race.

My dad was eight years old when the U.S. reached the Moon. Like many kids his age, the Space Race captivated him. He remembers July 20th, 1969, like it was yesterday.

I wish I, like my dad, could have watched Neil Armstrong take one giant step for man and one giant leap for mankind in real time. …