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鈥淲henever we try to change how things are to how we want them to be, we often overlook subtraction. And until we do something about it, we鈥檙e missing ways to make our lives more fulfilling, our institutions more effective, and our planet more livable.鈥�  鈥� Leidy Klotz, 

Alright, I'm only a few chapters into the new book Subtract: The Untapped Science of less by and I am HOOKED

I never even thought about some of the psychology behind our innate tendency to add rather than subtract and my brain is exploding

— Chris Boutt茅 (@TheRewiredSoul)

The shorthand in our house for when you鈥檝e botched something and should move on (sunk-cost alert!) but instead keep trying to salvage it is stuffing soup. So named because I once made a terrible soup and proceeded to empty the contents of our pantry (including stuffing mix! why?) into it, in the hopes of saving it. An atrocious artwork that you work, in vain, to salvage? Stuffing soup. A weak newsletter that you gild with ? Stuffing soup.

Happily, most things in life aren鈥檛 soup. No, you can鈥檛 remove that overzealous tablespoonful of pepper from your bisque. But you can delete lots of discrete things from daily life. As humans, we鈥檙e additive by nature. But what if we could see the beauty and benefit of subtraction? That鈥檚 the premise of one of my favorite academic鈥檚 new book , in which he posits that we overwhelmingly focus on adding things when it鈥檚 taking them away that often provides the solutions we鈥檙e after.

This resonates. I鈥檓 an adder ad extremis. New goals, new projects, new challenges ALL THE LIVELONG DAY. It鈥檚 very chickenheadcutoffy and stress inducing. Yes, I want to solve the climate crisis, but maybe the way to do that isn鈥檛 by starting a new project but rather by nurturing what I鈥檝e already got going on. 

It gels with the lowest layer of my Buyerarchy of Needs, too. Use What You Have. Work with what you鈥檝e got:

To be clear, though the idea of subtraction is about getting to less, this doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean doing less so much as it means being smarter about how to economize your actions. Taking a bit longer to think about the simplest, most efficient action. And making the 鈥渉ow little can I use to get the job done鈥� perspective your default one.

Writes Klotz:

鈥淭he breakthrough came when I figured out what I am interested in is not simplicity, or elegance, or any other form of 鈥渓ess is more.鈥� Subtraction is an action. Less is an end state. Sometimes, less results from subtraction; other times, less results from not doing anything. There is a world of difference from the two types of less, and it is only by subtraction that we can get to the much rare and rewarding type.鈥�

I agree with the rewarding nature of subtraction, but I鈥檓 also a fan of not doing anything. Often, not doing anything solves the problem. I wrote a whole book about not buying stuff and living with less, and I really believe that if you do nothing, the problem often resolves itself, or you get over your consumeristic desires, or realize your elaborate, energy-depleting, or carbon-intensive plans just don鈥檛 need to happen at all.

In climate, the subtractive answers are obvious. We need to subtract carbon from the atmosphere. We need to expel less, or none, of it in the first place. While additive, newfangled CCUS solutions will be necessary to mitigate our overshoots, focusing on the simple, essential subtractions we can do right now is just an absolute duh! (And explains why many consider any solution that does not involve immediate cessation or subtraction nothing more than a delaying tactic).

In the spirit of subtraction, I鈥檒l keep this week short. 

This week:

What鈥檚 your takeaway on subtraction? How can you do less to realize more? Tell me, please!

Last week:

On the Venn overlap of running and enviro action from the lovely U:

I’m an elderly broken down marathon runner and a long time Environmental Queen!  I got involved in the environmental movement  in the 70s and have been @ it ever since.  Lots of people say how much they admire what I do (still), but not too many follow suit.  Right now I have 3 neighbors using my compost pile though.

Stuff:

My friend Jen is launching . Know a high school student who might want to apply?

Are you ? I wrote a guest humor piece for my husband鈥檚 excellent Get Wit Quick newsletter. !

I tend not to go deep on eco-anxiety anymore because there are so many others writing .

Best 惭补肠濒别补苍鈥檚 headline in a while: .

I spoke about carbon pricing at a great event organized by , and I love the visual notes by artist .

People dancing:

's Ten shares video of himself and BLACKPINK鈥檚 Lisa dancing together. 鉂わ笍

— Spin or Bin Music (@spinorbinmusic)

Thanks much for reading. If you鈥檙e new here, I鈥檓 . I work on communicating the importance of good climate policy and carbon pricing by day, and this newsletter and my dance moves by night.

If you like MVP you can support it by telling all your friends and frogs about it. Let me know when the newsletter is on the right track. Or send me a note when it鈥檚 not!

Sarah

P.S. This is my newsletter for the week of May 7, 2021, published in partnership with 猫咪社区! Media. You can sign up to get Minimum Viable Planet newsletter emailed directly to you at .