TIPPING AND TURNING

Spring is knocking! You may not be able to tell from this picture, but to be fair, this was almost in Canada. This week, to heat things up we are diving straight into the hot topic.

Hot Topic

INSTABILITY AND OUR INSTITUTIONS

This letter’s topic is instability. Ever since deciding this, I have been noticing how much instability affects our everyday lives, everywhere. First, it creates stress. This is particularly relevant to me and likely the thousands of people who got laid off by the US government this past month as part of the effort to streamline things. Not knowing what is coming next and the uncertainty created for all people close to those layoffs, or any government position makes doing the job you are supposed to do—difficult.

In nature, organisms take on a variety of life strategies. Each strategy takes energy, and because there is a limited amount of energy an organism can exert, it is most efficient to choose a strategy that works and lean in.

Grime proposed that plants focus their energy on three different life strategies: competition, stress tolerance, or disturbance tolerance (ruderals). Competitors grow into a diverse array of complex organisms in the most highly sought after environments (temperate, undisturbed, stable) and compete with other organisms to survive. Stress tolerant organisms grow in places that are less desirable (extreme in temperature or water availability) and utilize unique strategies to make surviving there possible. Ruderals grow in places that are unstable and often disturbed which kills off other organisms, offering the ruderals a space to seize opportunity quickly and grow with little competition. They are short lived and commit their energy to quick reproduction to persist through disruption.

Human societies are competitive—we have been inhabiting the most desirable locations on earth for most of our history. But we are grappling with higher and higher levels of stress as our populations increase and climate shifts. People are living in less desirable places because there is a limited amount of habitable land and more and more people. We can be stress tolerant through innovation, but it takes time and energy. As things seem to change faster and faster, we are forced to spend energy on preparing for uncertainty and disturbance which comes at the expense of refining and evolving our specialties that make us brilliant and unique. Whether it is more cataclysmic weather events, unpredictable governments, or economic uncertainty, preparedness takes up a lot of energy.

We can’t give up on forging stability and resilience in our world. As more space travel companies come to market, let’s remember that even with the possibility of life in space, our planet offers us the most perfect place to live and thrive. Space SUCKS. Who would want to live in a cramped metal box with a handful of billionaires for the rest of their days anyways? Before we give up on earth and commit our imagination to colonizing Mars, take a trip past Cisco, UT and live a couple days outside of Goblin Valley State Park and tell me that you don’t want to consider investing in the preservation of the earth. Plant a tree maybe. Last time I checked, Mars didn’t have any trees, and so each tree planted is one more reason why earth is the better place to be.

Stability and SDG 16: “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” go hand in hand. Our institutions are what create the framework within which we are able to pursue prosperity. If we didn’t have a team, a family, a nation, to unify a code of conduct (laws) and protect us, then we would be forced to live like the ruderal—reproducing like crazy because more people would die from conflicts and disorder, or like stress tolerant organisms—isolating ourselves in harsh environment that reduce the likelihood of conflict.

Strong institutions are big enough to provide much of the peace that allows us to think about other things, learn, love, teach, and share wealth. We should all be striving for stability because stability allows us to compete in what really matters—discovering new things and investing in making the future better than the day before, leaving nothing and no one behind.

Things You Didn’t Notice

SOCIAL CYCLES

In the face of spring, how timely it would be for me to talk about the circle of life—not the life of creatures, but the life of an empire.

The U.S. is not the first country to go through the cycle of success on the world stage leading to wealth, over optimism, overspending, debt, and then conflict at the face of instability, inequality and social unrest. Ray Dalio presents a fascinating and succinct picture of the boom and bust cycle of a global superpower and the core drivers of this cycle. His best prescription to prevent the fall of a society is to “earn more than we spend and treat each other well”. But is that enough or is it just maintaining the status quo that the already wealthy exploit at the cost of the poor?

I recommend giving this a full watch:

If you are in a rush, here is a five minute version, but I do highly recommend subbing in the full episode in lieu of scrolling one day.

A couple primary takeaways:

• The US is not the first country to grapple with what comes along with reaching the highest highs of the world order (a position of power due to innovation, colonialism, hard work, exploitation, wealth, growth, powerful currency, and luck).

• A country is like an organism. It has a life cycle, must adapt to change, and has metrics of health that can serve as indicators to how long it will live.

• Understanding the timeline, trajectory, and the causal relationship between education, innovation and technology development, competitiveness, military strength, trade, output, establishment of financial centers, and reserve currency status, gives us insight to the stage of life a nation is in.

Ultimately, the reason why life is wonderful and exciting is because it ends. We have to make choices, and prioritize what we care about. We always want to have more time, so we do not need to make as many hard choices. But our choices are what makes us who we are, and more time is never guaranteed. As for Dalio’s outlook, there is no telling how long a nation will stay in power, just as we have no idea how long we will live as an individual. Some things have been true for the entirety of every current living person’s life, and therefore it can be taken for granted. Shifts in global diplomacy, such as the U.S.’s distancing from the EU, seem like a dramatic shift away from the norm. But these trends have roots further back in time than the current U.S. presidency, and time has a funny way of making people forget the lessons we learned from painful previous shifts.

It is our challenge to remember. The post WWII world has been kind to the U.S. But we must appreciate, protect, and engage with our democratic ideals in order for our little experiment of a nation to persist. That, and treat each other well.

Refresh

• Household: We are all on the apps, so how can we use them to forge a more sustainable lifestyle? Check out this list for ideas.

• Transportation: China is beating the US in EV and renewable electric development. To avoid a future where the US is caught up in the same smog polluted cities of the 20th century while other countries pave the way for cleaner air, renewable energy, and healthier communities, we must continue to jump on investments in that area… like China.

• Mentality: Listen to anything with this soundtrack in the background and you will feel like you are in a movie. Life is magical and you can do whatever you set your mind to.

• Community: Population density goes hand in hand with access to various types of infrastructure and way of life. Here is a guide to what each density level looks like. See if you can identify where you live. Is it enough to support the public transportation systems we dream of?

• Health: Keep our beavers in mind! Lately, I have seen an influx of stories about how beavers save millions of dollars from infrastructure projects, reduce sediment in the water, create structures seen from space, recharge groundwater, reduce flooding damage, and are good looking in the process.

Rivers and Roads

It has been a strange month, and to cope with loss after loss in the science and sustainability world (give this newsletter a read), I find myself thinking about the things that ground me.

First of all, it is the people that matter. And let’s not let the news make us forget…people are wonderful. Though this phase of life has involved much less movement and seeing people face to face in different places, it has been the long chats with friends and family, impromptu reflective morning conversations, and lighthearted dinner-time storytelling that have been such a joy the last few weeks. The pace of life is a little slower and I enjoy the sense of routine.

I have lately been working to replace the habit of scrolling social media, with time constrained phone activities such as the NYT games, or reading a book. The book thing has led to a noticeable difference in how I use my phone. If I feel the urge to scroll, I’ll open up a book on my phone (shout out to the Libby app), and read a little bit until I am ready to move on to a different task. It is typically easier to put my phone down (depending on the book). If not—if the book is really good—I am productively reading, rather than just scrolling away time.

One day, a few weeks ago, I brought a hardcover book with me while I got an oil change. I sat in the waiting room where two others were waiting. One of them, an older man, asked me what I was reading. At first, my instinct was to shut down the conversation immediately. After all, was he just targeting me because my book-reading-self was more readily available to talk to a stranger than the other man who was scrolling attentively on his phone? Stranger danger! But after a moment of thought, I also was struck with the fact that I hadn’t seen many people outside the household in a while. What fun a conversation with a stranger could be.

I decided to see where the conversation goes and lean into the spontaneity. The man, Jim, lived in the countryside of upstate New York, and was in the shop to get his SUV inspected. We chatted about how we both ended up in NY and the area’s wonderful local food scene. I told him I was from Cincinnati and his face lit up. He exclaimed that he loved Joe Burrow (the Cincinnati Bengals QB) and though they had a rough season, he still thinks Joe is the best, most attractive quarterback in the NFL. Jim went on to tell me how he was originally from Iowa and he is a huge Caitlyn Clark fan. He never really was a Kansas City Chiefs fan but he could support them if Taylor Swift AND Caitlyn Clark were on board. I lamented his allegiance to Kansas City, but could agreeably support Travis Kelce, since he played for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats back in the day. Abruptly, the mechanic called me over to attend to my car, and I said goodbye to Jim, whom I likely will never see again. Just like that, the interaction was done—but the feeling of connection was resoundingly strong…all because of a spontaneous conversation (and a book?).

Mouthwatering

SHROOMIES

This rich dish has been on repeat for me lately. I encourage you to explore the wonderful world of fungi because it is amazing how different the dish can taste with different pairings of mushrooms. There is a whole kingdom of delectable treats to be explored.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound wide egg noodles

• 3 tablespoons butter, divided

• 1 small white onion, thinly sliced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 pound baby bella mushrooms*

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 1.5 cups vegetable stock

• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

• 3 1/2 tablespoons flour

• 3 small sprigs of fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme)

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or light sour cream

• Kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper

• optional toppings: freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, chopped fresh parsley, extra black pepper

Game Time

For the last few months I have been working on creating a game app that makes it fun to reflect on your own sustainability awareness and behaviors.

It is called ERF. Think about it as a call to take care of a little digital pet (inspired by a tamagotchi). Its whole existence is in your hands. To take care of it, you answer a couple trivia questions (to learn more about how we impact the earth) and then a couple reflection questions (to see how you put this knowledge into action). The more you do and the more you learn, the better off your ERF will be.

Lately, I have been kinda stuck. I want the game to be fun enough for people to check in every day, but not something that sucks you in (inspired by the NYT mini).

My question to you would be, what would you like out of a sustainability app? Would you like tracking and metrics? Would you prefer it to be game oriented with scores and rewards? Or do you think it is hypocritical to encourage people to be on their phone, when there are real things to be doing in the real world?

Reply to this email with your thoughts! I’d love to hear from you.