Joseph Figliuolo

I am into preserving the planet. There is no plan(et) "B". Hugely thankful we have Tesla and Elon Musk. R.I.P. Carl Sagan. Nutritionist / Science teacher.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

https://t.co/tLMzK0xRou

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@ProfCarlSagan Another excellent reason Carl Sagan is in my bio!
My favourite Science "teacher".

[Prof. Carl Sagan @ProfCarlSagan]

Civilization must learn to think long-term. Not because the future is abstract. Because the future is where the consequences arrive.

A civilization can become brilliant and still remain childish. It can split the atom, alter the atmosphere, build machines that think, send spacecraft beyond the planets and still make decisions as if only tomorrow morning matters.

Science gives us power across time.

A nuclear weapon does not only affect the moment it explodes. Carbon dioxide does not vanish when the political debate moves on. A spacecraft leaving Earth may outlast every nation that built it. A bad idea, repeated long enough, can damage public reason for generations.

This is why skepticism matters.

Not just to win arguments. Not just to debunk nonsense.

But to slow civilization down long enough to ask:

What follows from this?

Who pays the cost?

What evidence do we have?

What are we pretending not to know?

Long-term thinking is humility applied to time.

It means admitting that we are not only citizens of the present. We are ancestors in preparation.

The stars teach scale.

Science teaches consequence.

And a mature civilization must learn both.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@travelingflying We don't want "Pedigree mentality" either. I just finished reading Growing Up Muslim in Australia. In many places there is too much emphasis on outdated dogmatic beliefs. "The higher result of eduction is tolerance..."

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@elonmusk Nobody can be wrong all the time. WSJ meh.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@elonmusk All good!

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@mhdksafa Elon is a notable true exception. Sure, he started with making money, however his two main companies are headed towards a brighter future.

[Race @multiplanet1]

Elon Musk was asked what advice he would give to his younger self. He went completely silent on camera. When he finally spoke his voice was shaking.

It wasn't a dramatic pause for effect. He was processing something. His jaw tightened. His eyes dropped. You could see the weight of whatever memory had surfaced.

The interviewer waited. The audience waited.

When he spoke he didn't give a business lesson. He didn't say "take more risks" or "start earlier" or any of the polished answers billionaires usually prepare for that question.

He talked about the pain. Quietly. About how much harder it all was than he expected. About the weight on his personal life. About the relationships lost. The years that disappeared into work. The loneliness that nobody warns you about at the start.

He said something to the effect that he would tell his younger self that the price is real and that you have to decide if you're willing to pay it before you start because once you're in you can't stop.

It wasn't inspiring. It was honest. The kind of honest that only comes from someone who has built something massive and is sitting inside the cost of it every day.

The audience expected motivation. They got a warning.

Most people look at the result and call it a dream. The man who built it calls it a price. And when given the chance to talk to his past self, the first thing he wanted to talk about wasn't the achievement. It was the damage.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

when you understand that under capitalism a forest has no value until it's cut down, you begin to understand the root of our ecological crises.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@giveashitnature Lawns are an abomination. Monocultures were never a good idea. Biodiversity is essential.

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

The single biggest irrigated crop in America isn't corn, wheat, or soybeans. It's not even avocados or almonds. It's lawn.

We grow more grass than any food crop in the country, around 40 million acres of it, and almost none of it feeds a single living thing.

Think about how strange that is. We took a grass that isn't even from here, planted it coast to coast, and now we pour water, fertilizer, and pesticide into keeping it short, green, and perfectly useless.

To a bee, a butterfly, or a bird hunting caterpillars for its chicks, a manicured lawn is a desert. Nothing to eat, nowhere to nest, mile after mile of it.

But here's the good news, maybe the easiest win on this whole account: you don't have to fix the entire desert. You just have to claw back a corner.

Pick one strip. The hellstrip by the sidewalk, the run along the fence, that awkward patch you hate mowing anyway. Stop mowing it and plant it with native flowers, a few black-eyed Susans, some bee balm, a couple of coneflowers. That's it. No ripping out the whole yard, no fight with anybody. Just convert one piece.

And that piece stops being dead space and starts being habitat: bees, butterflies, and birds showing up to a spot that offered them nothing a year ago.

Now picture your neighbor doing the same, and the one after that. That's how a desert turns back into a meadow, one reclaimed corner at a time.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@XFreeze Who will pay for all the unemployed and what would be their incentive? Do we need more humans or simply are more stable population demographic?

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@GlobalNews_24 “If you don’t blow your own trumpet nobody will do it for you” Professor Michael Gore, 1995.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@OrevaZSN Flying cars are too noisy. Humanity can and will preserve our fragile biosphere and reach for the stars. It’s a win win.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@playmatejaylene @lollytw1959 We applaud his leadership and achievements. The trillionaire part is irrelevant.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

Will it reduce greed?

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@Blacknatwatch @mhdksafa As a teacher I support the protection of minors against adult generated media. We have media ratings for very important reasons.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@mhdksafa According to a survey published by which company for what purpose?

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@elonmusk The future is bright if we keep it in sight.

[Joseph Figliuolo @josephchomsky]

@MichaelEMcNeil @ProfCarlSagan Carl Sagan was totally metaphorical in saying “runaway” but also foreboding.