The top ten posts of the year

A look back before I take a short seasonal break

What a year it has been! I travelled more than I ever had before, spewing out 11.11 tonnes of CO2; not exactly a 1.5 degree lifestyle. I had my second book, The Story of Upfront Carbon, published, to mixed reviews. I cranked out 120 posts of varying quality. Today, the big dining room table will be set for our Erev Christmas dinner, and I am going to take a break until after New Years and think about the year ahead.

The dining room table image topped my second most popular post of the year, Don't say goodbye to the kitchen (or dining) table where I moan about the kitchen island that has become a continent or an archipelego.

1. How Donald Trump's giant faucet of Canadian water will get turned on

The most popular post of the year was a reconstruction of old Treehugger posts about how Canada has lots of water, much of it draining away to the north. “ Nobody knows whether the Americans will come and take it or the Canadians will sell it, but something is going to happen, whether we like it or not.” Perhaps putting that name in the title drove traffic. More

Coming in third was my first anniversary post, Happy anniversary to my new life working for me. I will have the second anniversary post in a few weeks.

4. The coming crises caused by aging baby boomers like me

Another remix of old MNN posts came in fourth. After a visit to the hospital in Bracebridge, Ontario, I wrote about the housing, transportation, health care, climate and urban design crises we will face as the baby boomers go from being young old to old old.

“It’s fundamentally an design problem: How do we build communities and homes where people can get around without driving, can lead enriching and active lives in health and safety, without burning all the furniture and leaving nothing for the generations that follow. We have about ten years to figure it out and make it happen.” More

5. Why houses should be built on stilts

It eliminates the need for concrete and foam, treads lightly on the ground, and doesn’t fill up with water in a flood. More

6.Social housing project embraces radical and elegant simplicity

We need to think like Dieter Rams: “Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better—because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.” More

7. Riding the Northern Explorer: This is how to run a railroad

There is not much left of New Zealand’s rail system, but I enjoyed this ride. More

8. Let's talk toxicants

In the introduction to the post, I promised one excerpt per week from my next book; I did exactly one. I may pick this up again. More

9 and 10 In Praise of Stairs

Two posts about stairs, six months apart, came in at 9 and 10 New study confirms: take the stairs and live longer covered a study that concluded “Physical activity in the form of stair climbing is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.” In Praise of Stairs covered a few studies, making the case that stairs can help keep you fit and healthy.

Writers: Stop it with the AI images already. You're next.

Here is a favourite of mine from early February, when I complain about smart writers using terrible AI generated images, a problem that is just gettting worse. Most of them are AI slop and demean their work. Meanwhile, writers and journalists are being replaced with AI and Amazon is being flooded with AI-generated books. Don’t all these authors realize that they are next? I will end with a quote from Brian Merchant, Author of Blood in the Machine:

“The time is again ripe for targeting the “machinery hurtful to commonality”—the gig app platforms, the fulfillment-center surveillance, the delivery robots, the AI services, the list goes on—duly singled out by those whose livelihoods are being migrated, against their will, by this generation’s tech titans, onto unforgiving technologized platforms, or degraded and whittled away by automated systems.” More

Have a safe and happy holiday and see you next year! I may put up a few archive posts in the meantime.