Blogger Interview With Robert Brinkmann

My blog, On the Brink, https://bobbrinkmann.blogspot.com/ focuses on sustainability, the environment, and higher education. I have been a professor of geography, geology, and environmental science for nearly 30 years and my personal mission to to educate people about how we can do a better job in interacting with our planet in order to keep it safe for future generations.

I am passionate about sustainability and have written several books on the topic. I try to focus my writing on the positive things that people are doing in the field. One of the most successful books I’ve worked on was published last year and focused on case studies and practical solutions on sustainability.

On a personal level, I try to live as green of a life as I can. One of the best individual things we can do is to try to cut our carbon footprint. I work hard to try to get to a 0 carbon footprint each year by being careful about how I impact the planet and by purchasing carbon credits from organizations that are working on large carbon sequestration projects. It’s relatively cheap to purchase these credits and get to a 0 carbon impact.

I wrote a series on the Dakota Access Pipeline and included a variety of teaching resources. A link to the series is here. http://bobbrinkmann.blogspot.com/2017/02/dakota-access-pipeline-teaching.html

Holistic. I am a very curious person and it is hard for me to focus on one aspect of a problem, issue, or situation. I like to know everything about whatever I am working on at the moment. For example, if I am writing about a National Monument, I have to know its size, the infrastructure, its history, its geology, its ecology, and everything in between.

I love hiking and going to the gym. I do a great deal of urban hiking in the New York area and am currently working on circumnavigating Long Island in small stretches. At the gym I lift weight and do running interval training on the treadmill.

I’ve gone through a number of different diets, but have settled on the macro approach to eating using My Fitness Pal. I try to stay within my set calorie and macro goals each day. I’ve become rather OCD about it.

Never listen to your critics.

I am a major goal setter. I work on lists of goals at the start of each week and try to achieve them the best I can.

My biggest challenge is the lack of time. There is so much I want to write or do and there is never enough time in the day for everything.

For a healthy diet, I love My Fitness Pal. In terms of writing, I found methods in The Artist’s Way extremely helpful. I also use Pomodoro Timer to help keep me focused on smaller projects.

I am always inspired by great writers or great editors. At the moment I am very jazzed by William Cullen Bryant who lived near where I do on Long Island. He was the editor of an important 19th century pair of books called Picturesque America which are particularly interesting to me.

In terms of writing, I am hoping to kick off a new project to create a major reference work on sustainability. In addition, I have a popular press book I hope to get approved with a publisher that focuses on what we can do to live more simply.

I love getting up early, making my writing goals, and then going to the gym to hit my gym goals.

I am addicted to the New York Times crossword puzzles and love to compete in crossword puzzle contests. Oh and the beach!