People and Resources:Earth

Final thoughts

2009-12-11T19:52:00.002-05:00

All in all I have to say that this class has opened my eyes in many ways. It's not that I was ever overtly apathetic or naively optimistic about the environment and resource depletion, but I just never really... I guess I never actually dwelled upon the subject for any extended amount of time until I took a class on it. I think that having a class for an entire semester that forces you to think about these topics is very valuable as far as making it tangible. It's easy to spend a few seconds thinking about it and then simply say to yourself "ah, those scientists and government people will work it out." But when you actually read up on it (the material provided in the class was actually a really good introduction to several aspects of the issues as well as various perspectives) you come to realize how complex the problem is, and how rooted it is to our culture. In reality, we won't be able to completely rely on such authority figures when it comes time to make the changes in lifestyle that are actually going to be necessary when addressing these issues. The climate and resource crisis that we face is going to require much more than any single miracle cure that we all wish would appear already, and I don't think that the majority of the population understands this. The gigantically wasteful lifestyle that preoccupies industrial society must be re-examined by all of us. Inevitably, politicians and lawmakers are going to have to take steps to correct this, but it is very likely that they will not do so until a constituency for the issue has been established. As citizens, we have to be willing, and make it known that we are willing, to tackle these issues head on and make the changes necessary to achieve a way of life that does not contradict what our environment is capable of providing us with. Because some day, our planet will just get tired of supplying our wasteful ways, and we will be forced to adapt. It's a matter of whether or not we will be prepared for it.

Al Gore's speech

2009-12-11T19:03:00.002-05:00

I am glad that Al Gore has dedicated so much of his post-veep efforts toward raising awareness on climate change issues. As former vice president, he obviously has clout, and by staying in the public eye and advocating reform, he is doing a great service for environmental causes. As Richard A. Muller points out in his novel Physics for Future Presidents, the information provided by Gore in his presentations, notably some of the graphs he uses in slide shows, are not always entirely scientifically sound. However, he is never grossly misleading and is an excellent speaker in that he is able to engage his audience and present such information in a manner that is never boring. An Inconvenient Truth was essentially an hour+ speech, but it was laced with enough production value and wit that it was made very accessible to people who may not generally be interested in hearing about these things.

However, he doesn't simply make these issues accessible. He also is able to inspire with rhetoric, which is important in convincing people. During the opening of speech, he asks something to the effect of "how dare we be optimistic?" in the face with a looming disaster that we should be making effort avoid. Later in the speech, he mentions a "culture of distraction" that causes mobilization on these issues to be difficult. He also cites the famous Gandhi quote of "we must become the change we wish to see." One of my favorite quotes of the entire speech is, as he is saying he believes that we can do this if we set our minds to it, when he says if we spent what we spend on the Iraq war every week on environmental efforts, we could make great progress. I think he's right: we may need to rethink our priorities. I'm not saying that we should cut funding in a way that in any way jeopardizes current missions, but I think that our government as a whole could come up with the money to put funding into these important efforts. I also really like when he suggests a carbon tax, an example if a policy that could genuinely motivate efforts to cut emissions.

In his words: "we have work to do." We can't rely on our optimism to save the day, because it simply won't be enough if we as a species continue in our current direction.

What I've learned....

2009-12-11T16:55:00.002-05:00

This class has definitely been one of the most eye-opening classes I have taken at this University. As a senior, and a Journalism major, I have not had the chance to take many science themed courses. The two science classes I had to take were, in my opinion, boring, mostly because I was forced to take them. This class, however, was a choice I made. The title intrigued me enough. With growing talk about global warming and destruction of the planet, I wanted to take a course that would hopefully educate me on issues such as these.

What I learned in this course is that being green is a complex issue. There were several issues that were brought to light in this class, issues that I never thought had anything to do with the environment. Issues like education, consumerism, politics, all affect our views on going green. Up until now, I believe that recycling was good enough to save our planet. After this class, I'm not even sure if saving our planet is even a plausible idea.

One of the things I liked most about this class was that there were always two sides to everything. While we talked about statistics that clearly show that human activity is negatively impacting the planet, then we read an article where the writer states that scientists have been known to cherry pick information to prove their ideas. So who is there to believe? The class always kept me thinking, just when I agreed with one thing, a reading or someone's comment would make me think something else.

More importantly, one of the main things I have learned is that you need to research information for yourself. Do not take other people's information, no matter what official position they are in, at face value. People are filled with prejudices and opinions, it is up to us to seek information, make what we want of it, and make our own informed decisions. Saving the planet is an unfathomable task. After all the time we have manipulating the environment and doing as we please, we are realizing that there are effects to that. Being green is a task that requires constant attention. If you do not think about where that bottle of water is going to go, where those bananas came from, then we will never be able to protect our planet. As I mentioned, these things have become second nature to us, and it is easy to forget how beef is processed, easy to forget that years ago eating meat was not as commonplace as it is today.

As a global community, if we just mentally engage ourselves I believe that we can save ourselves and each other. But in an age where attention span is only as long as a 30-second commercial, that task seems impossibly impossible.

Last Blog Post- Farewell

2009-12-11T16:47:00.002-05:00

To summarize my experience in this class, I would have to start with the phrase "eye-opener", for this phrase sums up better than any other what I have learned here. Before this class, I was totally oblivious to many of the topics we have discussed. I never thought about energy, in my home, dorm, the United States, or the globe. Believe it or not, I never even knew that oil was running out, and especially not that I may witness this phenomenon in my days. I never knew the extent of the Earth's many cycles and the great effect that we have on all of them. I now know the crisis, that I, my family, my country, and my species faces in the near future. I now know how to save myself and I will pass this information on to all of my loved ones, friends, and family. I know what can be done to help in this effort and how essential change is and will be. I look to continue researching what I learned here in this class and I hope that we will all continue to blog and communicate new discoveries to each other because as we have learned, it will be through cooperation and awareness (with a little sense of urgency) that we can tackle these challenges.

On the class itself, I really enjoyed the format, teaching style, and classroom layout. I, rarely sit in the front in any classes, but I was forced to in this class. That uncomfortableness coupled with a genuine interest and shock in the topic presented, lead me to gather and absorb the wealth of information provided. As for changes in the class, I would suggest none of the top of my mind- the open ended nature of the blogs is great and the in-class movies and readings assigned all supported what we learned. Professor Hirsch has been very helpful and inspiring, as have my classmates.Thank you all and have a great winter break.

DesignLine Buses Back Home in NYC

2009-12-11T16:28:00.002-05:00

(Image from nytimes.com)
On a local note, for me, I am glad to see some small steps made by my home city. NYC has created even newer buses to be used throughout the city. These new buses, while expensive (around 560k each), are more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, and add a nice plus of being totally silent. I am yet to ride on one, but I will be sure to travel on one as I visit the tree, in Rockefeller Center, this coming Christmas.

These buses do not come with a performance deficit, which may be a concern for many with "green" machines and vehicles: “I never drove anything that accelerates like this,” Mr. Sollecito, who has driven city buses for 15 years, said approvingly, as the bus glided along the street jerk-free."

"Silence, that rare commodity on the city streets, is achieved by throwing out the most basic element of automobile design: internal combustion. Instead of a noisy, piston-based engine, the DesignLine operates on a spinning turbine that recharges a lithium-ion battery, a green energy source more commonly found inside laptop computers. That means fewer moving parts, and fewer ways to create a racket."

I am shocked that these buses can be using a Lithium-ion battery, I had no idea of the potential power of battery sources, to power a large, heavy bus seems almost absurd to me. The battery recharges every time the driver hits the brakes, and with traffic in the city, this is a great feature.

"Maria Principe, an Upper East Sider, took a seat near the front after boarding just north of 42nd Street, where she had been shopping at Willner Chemists, an upscale pharmacy. “It feels like the air is cleaner, lighter,” she said" - These buses if mass-produced throughout the city and eventually the country can make a significant reduction in our country's carbon emissions.

Carbon Emission from Cars:

"About 33% of U.S carbon dioxide emissions comes from the burning of gasoline in internal-combustion engines of cars and light trucks (minivans, sport utility vehicles, pick-up trucks, and jeeps)" -www.ecobridge.org

These are the kinds of small changes that will add up. Maybe if buses were more quiet, comfortable, cheaper to ride, and energy and environmentally friendly, then more people would use public transportation and ditch the one-person-one-car standard we currently have in this country.

Reference:

1.http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/nyregion/07bus.html?ref=earth

2.http://www.ecobridge.org/

Europe Pledges to Give Billions

2009-12-11T16:12:00.002-05:00

The European Union (EU) pledged to give billions in aid to poor countries in the effort to stop global warming. They will initiate, by giving $3 billion, this coming year to countries in need. In reference to the Hopenhagen Conference, Brown Said "Mr. Brown said there were “few moments in history when nations are summoned to common decisions that will reshape the lives of men and women potentially for generations to come.”

"Yvo de Boer, the head of the United Nations climate office, has called on industrialized nations to give $30 billion fund to the fund in order to help vulnerable countries to begin planning massive engineering projects like building higher sea walls and converting their electricity systems so they rely on low-carbon sources." - it seems that the European Union is taking this very seriously, but I am yet to find a response from the United States.

The worlds nations set a goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius above where they stood in the 1800s. Although this may seem simple, is not an easy task. I hope to see the United States propose some kind of plan for our country, whether it be in the aid of other, less fortunate countries, or at the home-front- drastically changing things here in the United States in regards to energy and resource management. I think that efficiency programs should be the first step and from there a total re-invention of the way we use and distribute energy in our country.

Reference:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/science/earth/12climate.html?ref=earth

Parents Going Organic

2009-12-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve worked in a retail store that specializes in products for babies and expectant mothers for seven years. And it is here that I personally witnessed the growth in popularity organic products have in today’s world. I honestly can’t remember one organic product being sold in the store when I first started working there in 2001. When I left, I would estimate that at least a quarter of our store was organic, including baby mattresses, cribs and other products. The demand for these products was increasing with time. As an employee for seven years, I could personally witness the molding of products into ones in which safety became a number one priority. These organic products not only became a safety precaution but also a trend. Advertisements flourished in magazines that targeted new mothers or mothers to be. And almost every baby shower registry registered with our store contained organic products. But parents need to realize that going organic for your child is not as easy as purchasing organic products.

Former mattresses that had a reputation of excreting harmful chemicals were replaced by organic mattresses made of organic cotton and coconut fibers. While organic mattress contain no harmful material or chemicals, precautions have to be taken in order to prevent the mattress from getting wet. This can prove to be a difficult task when the mattress is supporting an infant who spits up, occasionally has a leaky diaper and drools. If any liquid comes into contact with the mattress it can become a breeding ground for bacteria.

Soon after, companies began constructing organic cribs. These cribs were furnished with beeswax instead of the traditional wood stain and gloss. Although the organic cribs cost about double what a traditional crib would, by purchasing one, you are eliminating the possibility of your child being exposed to harmful chemicals. This usually occurs when a child starts teething. A child finds comfort in biting objects, and when left in the crib for an while, the child has a tendency to bite on the rail of the crib. It is then possible that the child may be ingesting particles of wood finish. Other people argue that a child can be exposed to toxic fumes leeching from the stains on the wood. To solve this problem, companies began construction organic cribs. But unlike traditional cribs, these cribs require the parents to reapply the beeswax coating by hand a few times a year.

I decided to write a blog about this topic because it is one I have a true passion for. Over the last seven years, my job was committed to educating new parents about new products and new ways of raising a healthy child. If going organic wasn’t a expense that some parents just can't support, I would without a doubt do my best to convince every parent to raise not only your child, but your family in a organic way. But the realization that sacrifices will be made, whether its time or money, needs to be understood by the parent. People must realize that going organic is a great opportunity, but requires commitment, knowledge and money to make it a successful process.

Goodbye ABIO 230

2009-12-11T15:49:00.002-05:00

ABIO 230 finally gave me supporting evidence behind my already "hippy" way of thinking that I would preach but never had anything resourceful to say on the matters. I remember last year I was standing outside a corner store on a late Saturday night and a college kid threw his sandwich container right next to him when there was a trash can only two seconds from him. I picked it up and threw it away and he said
"Oh, you are one of THOSE people." This class gives me the opportunity to say yes, I am one of those people, the type of person that actually cares about what is going on in the world and acknowledge all the evidence that is blatantly in our faces. I want to be one of those people that makes a difference, not to save the world on my own but to carry on information that can possibly change some of the ways of thinking in this world. I am a firm believer that to be educated on certain topics you should not dispose of it when the semester is over but to retain that information and share that knowledge. That is how we become teachers to others who have not had an opportunity to be in a class such as ABIO 230 that we actually have some tiny power in this universe.
Everyday after class my boyfriend would pick me up to hang out and I would unload everything I learned that day on to him. We would have discussions that even sometimes would turn in to debate but just having these chats would open his eyes as well as mine. The reason it opens my eyes is that even if you have information you strongly believe in like any debate like the gay rights movement or the females right to abortion you will have opposing forces. After we had our lecture on THE END OF SUBURBIA I was talking to my boyfriend on our desperate need to stop our dependence on fuel and his reply was that there is no possible way, that science and technology will take its course and find a new way; it's out of our hands. This debate went on for a while but in the end we stuck to our sides and I think that basically sums up how the United States is comprised of, two sides of an issue and no one is losing or winning just stuck. Sometimes this makes me sad that I do feel powerless in the way that we can not get anywhere if everyone is not in it together. So I think having classes like ABIO 230 is a small step in the right direction, changing the thinking of stubborn Americans slowly but in our case very surely. I do not think that there is one person in our class that does not believe in the things we have covered, like me they want change.
So in the end I will really miss this class but the knowledge I have acquired will not be lost I will be putting that forth to how I live my everyday life. I hope for the improvement of how Americans live their lives and that one day we will all be in it together. For now I will settle with just myself being a step further than those people and maybe one day they will start to follow.

We need to green up our economy!

2009-12-11T15:23:00.002-05:00

Since the economy has taken a downturn, I've observed that the business news industry has kept very busy. Suddenly, the front pages of our newspapers are littered with news stories on the stock market, financial institutions like Freddie Mac (a home loan mortgage corporation) and Fannie Mae (a stockholder owned enterprise). In recent years we've learned that financial institutions, although they seem so out of our lives, are actually possible of affecting our lives in big ways. This can be seen in the rate of foreclosure, which has been on the rise since the recession began. Realtytrac.com, a site that reports foreclosure rates, reported a 5% increase this month ( http://www.realtytrac.com/foreclosure/foreclosure-rates.html ).

Although the recession has hit hard, there has been a sector of the economy that has been flourishing, the green economy. Speaker Gary Kleppel mentioned to the class during his presentation that in New York City, Harlem was seeing community gardens develop. I think that during this time, small businesses especially could flourish by offering "green" services. Continuing to plant community gardens, selling fair trade products in our stores, constructing "green roofs" (a green roof is a building that has vegetation on top of the roof, its benefits are reducing the cost of heating, reducing storm water, and filtering out pollutants), etc. These are all things we could do to perpetuate a green economy.

Simultaneously, we would be creating jobs. Unemployment rates that have been reported fluctuate, and many claim that the real figure is unknown. Yet what we do know is that unemployment is on the rise.

A green economy will create jobs while saving the planet. Green economies will force us to work within our own communities and reduce transportation costs, one of the major issues we have with oil dependancy. Imagine, if every state increased its support of green economies, the entire United States would be greener in no time. Localizing our communities will also reduce the amount of power that the government has on our lives. Because we trust to the government to protect us and do what is right, we have been screwed over, for lack of a better term.

In California, the California Academy of Science has opened a green museum (http://www.calacademy.org/). This is another benefit, with the creation of green museums we can educate and create excitement for going green. Children could especially benefit from an early education in going green. Since children are the future, it is important to keep them in mind when making decisions about the future.

From the perspective of an unreasonable life

2009-12-11T14:57:00.002-05:00

From reading Ferenc mate's A reasonable life I got the impression that our modern way of living has given us a false sense of progress. This idea is backed by the evidence of environmental damage brought on by or contemporary lifestyle. In the reading mate suggests that a change in thinking from big cities to small towns and the family will lead us to a more wholesome relationship with each-other and the earth itself. I feel that while this is correct, it is much less likely to occur than simply, the perpetuation of the status quo. In order for people to shift from living in big cities to closer knit communities a total paradigm shift is necessary. today peoples lives and the economy are kept going by the perpetuation of the cycle of consumption as put forward in "the story of stuff". This lifestyle and the propaganda that has lead us here has successfully incorporated itself into American culture and therefore is passed down from parent to child. No longer is it possible to expect a change in thinking by simply changing the propaganda. In order to make an effective break from our present course, our entire culture must be altered. For an example, our Christian american culture celebrates a holiday known as Christmas. This holiday was created by the early church to compete with pagan winter solstice festivals an to convert heretics. This is why we bring life into the home as the Christmas tree and other assorted traditions. The present day American tradition of Christmas has been hijacked by our consumer culture to be the day that keeps people buying things they don't want in order to keep businesses in the black (black Friday). The idea of peace on earth or within a family is attained only when all the little brats of this country are satisfied with there parents purchases. Good will is spread by maxing out credit cards in order to get everyone you know something they are unlikely to want and will probably return for another thing they barely want. This perversion of the original altruistic intent of such holidays has contributed to our modern American culture and in order to change our path toward destruction, we must all agree that this behavior is destructive. Now this is where I see it all falling apart, Try and take this away from people and see how they react. They probably understand why there actions are damaging, but it would be un-American to do things any other way.

Copenhagen: A Green City

2009-12-11T13:43:00.003-05:00

Copenhagen is the step in the right direction that every city needs, especially in the U.S. It is immediately apparent when visiting the city, one of the first things one would notice would be the large number of wind turbines. These wind turbines represent 20% of Denmark's electricity, according to a New York Times article. There, an endless wave of bikers will also be seen- as this, along with Public Transportation, is the main form of transportation in this city.

This year at the conference, the christmas tree in the city's square is powered by stationary bikes setup for viewers! This is an amazing idea. The city even imposes fines on shopkeepers who let excessive heat slip from their building through unnecessarily opened doors, windows, etc. These are the little things that we need here in America, back by legislature and laws, and it is only with the drive and push of the people to their elected officials that these demands will be met. Bottled water has been banned from the conference. More organic foods are consumed in Copenhagen than in any other city across the globe.

This seems like the city that we, the students of this class, would build in a new light shed by the knowledge we have obtained. I believe that there can be even greener cities created, without a doubt, and I would hope to see one in the United States sooner than later.

References:

1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/science/earth/11notebook.html?_r=1&ref=earth

2. http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/copenhagen-city-guide.html

Hopenhagen: The United Nations Climate Change Conference

2009-12-11T13:13:00.007-05:00

In the midst of the finale to this semester, and to this class, which I know has been an eye-opener to many of us, there is a conference currently underworks that will seek solutions to many of the issues we have discussed. This conference is the Hopenhagen conference. It is being held in Copenhagen, Denmark - which is one of the "greenest" and energy efficient cities in the world. From the Hopenhagen website, it introduces itself in this matter: "this conference is thought to be the last major chance the world has to decide on a concrete and effective plan for reducing carbon emissions. It’s also an amazing opportunity for humanity and the planet." The conferences will occur from Dec 07. - Dec 18, 2009.

The main goal of this series of conferences is to limit global carbon emissions and minimize the effects of climate change, that is surely to occur if we do not change.

Some background information as to why this conference is being held now, as listed by the website:

"Why Now?"

"In 2012, the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate change runs out. COP15 is the final chance for the world’s leaders to meet before the climate agreement needs to be renewed. What’s more, the protocol needs far more than a refresh. Since the conference in Kyoto, global carbon dioxide emissions have increased to a record 31.5 billion metric tons. That’s 40% above levels in 1990, the basis year for the treaty."

There are 192 countries that are currently involved in the talks. It is good to see a global effort and the cooperation of our species to tackle this obstacle and ensure the perseverance and prosperity of our species. Using the website to gain some introductory information, I will look to the news and blogs/videos to follow-up on the progress being made- I suggest we all do for Hopenhagen will affect all of us. Hopenhagen: Population 6.8 billion, this was the header to one of the websites pages- it provides a strong message for our planet's population: That we all are part of Hopenhagen, and the resulting change our species will witness- all in the hope and preservation of our one planet, our Gaia, our Earth.

REFERENCE:

1. http://www.hopenhagen.org/learn

Adios!

2009-12-11T13:13:00.005-05:00

Hey 230, the semester's gone by so quickly. I can't believe its really over. One exam and I'm out of here!

I guess i just want to say that I've learned so much from you all and from Professor Hirsch. Thank you for sharing your opinions and experiences with me.

Happy Holidays!

Jasmine

The New American Diet

2009-12-11T12:12:00.002-05:00

I typically browse on menshealth.com once a day to check-out any health or exercise related articles. Maybe, now, having taking this class, I can justify and attribute reading online articles to being "green" conscious and not just because I do not have the money to buy magazines. Nonetheless, yesterday I found an interesting article about a book title The New American Diet by Steve Perrine and Heather Hurlock. Menshealth presented this book to represent a code of laws: the laws of "Leanness". As I continued to read, I realized these laws have been the very nutritional knowledge we have discovered this semester in this course.

The Law of Leanness #1: Know When to Go Organic
the focus of this law is the avoidance of harmful substances used in traditional farming and animal raising. Everyday we are ingesting harmful pesticides and metabolites through the foods and liquids we eat and drink. "Some of those chemicals can mimic estrogen during development, which can lead to weight gain later in life" - Sound's like Professor Hirsch wasn't joking around with saying that many of the foods we eat today are "feminizing" us men. Evidence is showing that exposure to these chemicals earlier in life may lead to problems later in life. "At the University of California at Irvine, Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D., recently reported that prenatal exposure to obesogens among mice can predispose them to weight gain later in life. The effect is likely the same in humans. In one study, the adult daughters of women who had the highest levels of DDE (a breakdown product of the pesticide DDT) in their blood during childbearing years were found to be 20 pounds heavier, on average, than daughters of women who had the least." It seems that what we eat now IS important and the sooner we change, the better. These chemicals are called "OBESOGENS" in this article. I could not think of a better term!

On a more positive note the article continues by mentioning some hope: "Environmental Health Perspectives found that children who ate fruits and vegetables free of organophosphorous pesticides for just 5 days reduced their urine concentrations of those pesticides to undetectable levels." Some other ways to limit our pesticide intake is to "Go Organic" on the most pesticide ridden fruits, they are as follows: peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. Another way to limit pesticide intake is to eat more of these fruits and vegetables, which are said to have the least pesticides: onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, mangoes, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwis, cabbages, eggplants, papayas, watermelons, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

The next section in this article is the Law of Leanness #2: Stop Eating Plastic- this was an interesting view and I suggest you read it.

Following this section was the the Law of Leanness #3: Don't Eat the Viking
This section starts by saying:When was the last time you took a dose of weight-promoting hormones?
Okay, when was the last time you ate a burger?
The meat many of us eat is a cocktail of obesogens and hormones."A 1999 European study concluded that people who eat meat from cattle treated with growth hormones are taking in hormones and their metabolites: estrogens in the range of 1 to 84 nanograms per person per day, progesterone (64 to 467 ng), and testosterone (5 to 189 ng)." These hormones are endocrine disrupters and interfere with our normal hormonal balance, leading to obesity along with other problems.

"To bring this all home, imagine you've been in a terrible plane crash in the Andes, like those poor souls depicted in the movie Alive. The only way to survive is to pick one of the dead folks to eat. You're given the choice of an obese, grotesquely muscled, man-boob-toting Minnesota Vikings lineman with shrunken testicles who's been injecting himself with hormones for a dozen years, or someone of normal size and body type and hormonal function. (One of the Kardashian sisters, maybe.) Which would you choose?

Well, every time you eat conventionally raised beef, you're choosing the Viking." - I found this humorous but it gives a visual perspective to the kinds of effects these hormones can have.

Once again hope is put before us. The article goes on to list the benefits of organic and grass fed beef:There's a better way. "Organic beef has none of the weight-promoting steroid hormones of conventional beef, while grass-fed beef has been found to have more omega-3s and more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is a fatty-acid mixture that's been linked to protection against cardiovascular disease and diabetes; it can also help you lose weight, according to a meta-analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition."

The final section, the Law of Leanness #4, goes on to describe some negative effects of soy? I was unaware of this information and also some not-so-new news in the form of HFCS, or High Fructose Corn Syrup.

This information was less shocking after taking this course, but I know that many people are unaware of this phenomenon. Fighting for organic and locally grown foods in our University and school systems across NY should be pursued for the health and prosperity of our populations.

REFERENCE:

1. http://menshealth.com/new-american-diet/lose-weight2.html

Renting Christmas Trees

2009-12-10T21:38:00.000-05:00

Some of us participate in the holiday tradition of going out to a christmas tree farm with the family, finding the perfect tree, and cutting it down to bring it home to decorate. Although this is one of my personal favorite holiday traditions, times are changing and we need to make smarter decisions and learn to preserve our trees. Some companies are jumping in and offering new ways to have a “green” Christmas. A few companies are now offering to 'rent out' Christmas Trees for the holidays. For an affordable one hundred dollars, you can go online and pick out the perfect looking tree for your home. These companies will then deliver a Christmas tree to your home, set it up and then come pick it up after the holidays. This tree is then taken back to the farm and replanted. I heard about this on the radio while I was driving to work and it seemed like a brilliant idea! Although it may seem to late to look into renting a tree this Christmas, I urge people to consider this for Christmas's in the future. Happy Holidays!

http://www.livingchristmastrees.org/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6753079/

The problem with choice

2009-12-09T22:34:00.002-05:00

Taking what I've learned from Golman's "ecological intelligence" and goodguide.com I have learned that in today's marketplace choice is the main obstacle to solving our ecological problems. In Golman's article he states that not only do we have to look at a products carbon footprint, we must also look at the various other ecological impacts of these goods. After reading this I was left with an anxious feeling, because if I know anything about the general public and there shopping habits we are all in a lot of trouble. Then we were introduced to goodguide.com which lays it all out in a concise easy to understand format. I went home and explored the site, curious to see what impact the products I enjoyed had on the environment. To my dismay I found that either they were not on the site, or they were given a horrible score due to there unhealthy quality. I already know that coca cola has a lot of sugar, what I'm more interested in is its ecological or social impact. I don't even buy unhealthy products that often, but when I do I would like to know what to steer clear of. No is what I was told by this site, I must never buy unhealthy products. Okay I won't, but what about the other things I shop for such as fruit, chicken, vegetables, bread, eggs, milk, butter. All these products have varying impacts depending on where they come from and what companies are involved in getting them to the grocery store. Well thanks goodguide.com, you have proven yourself completely useless to me. This doesn't mean the site is completely useless, it just means I'm the wrong person to ask. So I asked a friend of mine to write down a grocery list of everything they would buy, either by standard need, or impulse. I found that apart from the same stuff that I would buy it consisted of a bunch of pre-made packaged food which everyone knows is bad for you. Okay, so back to square one. What do I believe will cause people to chose a more ecologically friendly lifestyle. The first way is to spend a great deal of time and energy educating everyone who goes grocery shopping, or just spell it out for people "EVERYTHING YOU LOVE IS KILLING THE PLANET". I don't think the second way would have much impact.

Ishmael Blog

2009-12-08T22:56:00.002-05:00

I first came across Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" two years ago, when a roommate lent me her copy. She had taken a class with Prof. Hirsch before, I don't know the name of that course. After reading it, my roommate raved about how much she loved it and how interesting it was. I took her advice and read the book to find out for myself. I found that I was just as enthralled as she was with "Ishmael." It is an unexpected story that holds several wisdoms, I have since then recommended the book to all my friends. Three of them have actually read it, and they all loved it as well.

The three quotations I chose are-

1. "What exactly does it mean to live like a lion or a wombat?" "It means. . . to live at the mercy of the world. It means to live without having any control over your environment." (p.68)

2. "Funny. . . This is considered almost holy work by farmers and ranchers. Kill off everything you can't eat. Kill off anything that eats what you eat. Kill of anything that doesn't feed what you eat." (p.132)

3. "The story the Takers have been enacting here for the past ten thousand years is not only disastrous for mankind and for the world, it's fundamentally unhealthy and unsatisfying. It's a megalomaniac's fantasy , and enacting it has given the Takers a culture riddled with greed, cruelty, mental illness, crime, and drug addiction." (p.147).

"Ishmael" was an eye-opening book for various reasons. In biological terms, "Ishmael" opened my eyes to the ways we treat the planet due to our selfish belief that this planet is ours to do what we want with. Human have evolved and dominated the planet, manipulation their settings wherever they go to make these places "home." Human have disregarded other species and the environmental havoc they wreak when they chose to settle in an area. Species have gone extinct due to over-hunting, the land becomes dry and non-arable. Gonick and Outwater, in their comic book style book- "The Cartoon Guide to the Environment," discuss the ancient civilization of Sumer. Sumer was the first great civilization, artifacts from the period show us that the Sumerians built homes and complex irrigation systems. The irrigation systems resulted in water picking up salt and being distributed to the soil, making it infertile. In "Ishmael" the Gorilla teaches the Narrator that humans have little to no concern about the biological processes and life on Earth. Humans are willing to sacrifice life in order to establish their dominance and live comfortably.

About the WORLD, I learned that humans are disrespectful creatures. They have a selfish mentality. All the damage we have caused to the Earth is irrelevant because it has allowed us to live as we do now, this is one of the main themes in "Ishmael," I believe. The Takers, as the humans are called, feel entitled to control over the planet. They assure their power by creating food surpluses and continuing to populate the Earth. Medical advances and development of technology has ensure longer life spans and a guaranteed comfortable life for ourselves and our offspring.

"Ishmael" made me realize that it is wrong for the Takers to have such a ridiculous sense of entitlement. As the Gorilla tells the Narrator, the story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden is a story by the Leavers (the other species on the Earth) that was taken by the Takers as their own. It is really a story about the "sinful" act committed by humans that has doomed them to eventually self-destruct. In trying to gain knowledge, the Takers have made their fate worse. Man was not meant to know how to control the Earth, they were meant to simply live in it. I believe this is one lesson the Gorilla sought to teach the Narrator. I have learned to see the ways that humans use to maintain power over everything else on the Earth. I have learned that man is willing to control the Earth by any means necessary, at the expense of the Earth itself. And most importantly, I have learned to appreciate nature and the beautiful patterns and cycles of life that exist there because that is how it was meant to be.

BIO230 is the perfect course to discuss "Ishmael" in. Some of the common themes between the book and the course are- humans degrading the Earth for their own selfish benefit, a lack of regard for the planet and other species, and ignorance on the part of humans toward other living things that has resulted in a culture where human believe they are entitled to materialistic lifestyles.

NY Times piece about a young woman getting e.coli from a hamburger

2009-12-08T12:01:00.007-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html

On October 3, 2009, the New York Times published a story about a young woman named Stephanie Smith who got ill from e.coli poisoning. Smith was a dance instructor, at only 22 years old she is now paralyzed from the waist down because her body reacted so badly to the particularly virulent strand of e.coli. NY Times reporter Michael Moss writes, "Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed."

I came across this story because I had to read it for another class, Public Affairs Journalism. Although in our course we often talk about issues affecting the planet and society, it wasn't until I read this in Public Affairs class that I realized what DANGER we put ourselves in. As a journalism major, I want to write about events to raise public awareness. That is what interests me the most about a journalist's job.

In our biology class I thought about the problems of consumerism, educating our children, degradation of the planet, etc. as problems that just are. I mean to say, problems that have always been there (since I've been alive, anyway) and will continue to be there. Although I want change so that we could all save ourselves, I see it an almost too idealistic goal, not something probable (at least in my lifetime). But after discussing this article in my public affairs class, I have another perspective on the issue, that is, that we cannot be passive about these problems because they are dangerous. People are dying over things like e.coli poisoning, something that could be avoided altogether. If there exists a solution to avoid e.coli poisoning, then it is ridiculous for people to be dying over it.

Life expectancy has increased thanks to medicinal advancements like treatment for cancers, vaccinations, etc. But as we are expected to live longer we face more health problems, largely because of the way we raise and produce our food. In their "Cartoon Guide for the Environment," Alice Outwater and Larry Gonick write, "When fuel is cheap there is little incentive to conserve it, so farming has been almost unbelievably wasteful. Grain-fed cattle, for example, consume around SEVEN TIMES as much energy as they produce beef." (p.162). Michael Pollan writes in his book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," that the rise of superbugs like Staph Infection has been credited to veterinarians giving human antibiotics to cows.

The NY Times article focuses mainly on the meat packing and producing side of the beef industry. Moss, found that the hamburger patties that made Smith sick contained meat from factories in Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota, and Uruguay. He writes, "records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses."

Moss also uncovers that "the meat industry treats much of its practices and the ingredients in ground beef as trade secrets." The meat industry is very guarded in their practices. As guest speak Gary Kleppel told our class, if you ask Cargill for a tour of their plant they will most likely say "no." However, Mr. Kleppel goes to a local slaughterhouse that has no problem with giving customers a tour of their facilities, and the knowledge of where the beef came from.

Last year, Cargill was the biggest private company in the United States, earning $116.6 million. It is evident where the priorities of our government lies, when we see how private companies are allowed to safe guard their practices that are resulting in the public illnesses and in extreme cases, even death. Cargill's only comment in the story was, "Cargill is not in a position to answer your specific questions, other than to state that we are committed to continuous improvement in the area of food safety." Despite this promise, Cargill has still been involved in outbreaks of e.coli.

Moss points out that some companies do require their own testing of meat products. The main problem is that slaughterhouses will not sell their product to retailers if they demand to test it themselves, the slaughterhouses assure them that their own testing is enough. Costco, says Moss, will not get meat from Tyson because they do now allow Costco representatives to test their meat.

From reading this article I belief that the government has a responsibility to develop and enforce laws that allow us to "save ourselves." Saving ourselves will not be effective enough, and it would be hard to rally a community to change their ways. Saving ourselves will mean returning to a more simpler time, which means giving up some of the benefits we have come to believe are standard. If the government steps in, however, people will have no choice. Those who do not obey the government will not be protected by it, or enjoy benefits of democracy. Therefore, it could be a good way to get people to save themselves if the government were to enforce policies that emphasize a return to our grass roots.

Is It worth the Risk to Take Humanity for Granted?

2009-12-08T09:30:00.003-05:00

In Al Gore’s speech “Where do We Go from Here”, featured on TED.com, he makes it clear that being optimistic to the situation of global warming is not enough. Some statistics he shares are that 68% of America’s population does believe that human activity is responsible for global warming, however when provided with a list of issues and things the President along with Congress need to address, global warming is at the bottom of the list. He also provides us with a mental picture when he explains how most of the carbon on Earth has been leached out of the atmosphere into the ground over thousands of years in forms of plant life and fossil fuels. With this being said the Earth’s average temperature is 59°F and Venus, Earth’s neighbor containing an equal amount of carbon, has an average temperature of 855°F. This is because on Venus all of the carbon is in the atmosphere. Isn’t it ironic that in our current situation people are consuming and pumping more CO2 from the ground into the atmosphere than ever?

As important of a matter as this is, something that could affect humanity, how come it has not become a more urgent matter on the list of the government’s agendas? The problem is that people are all talk. Actions speak louder than words, thus apart from just being optimistic; we need to drastically change our behavior as well as the laws that tend to dictate our lives. Gore says, “In order to solve the climate crisis, we need to solve the democracy crisis.”

“We need world-wide mobilization for renewable energy, conservation, efficiency, and global transition to low a low carbon economy” (Gore). Along with the massive amounts of CO2 emissions from America and developed countries, what is scary is that developing countries are quickly catching up. Gore’s suggested a very helpful solution to the problem is put a tax on carbon. This along with more active participation in government, people with unity will have the voice and power they need to make their government do more.

Gore mentions how we are always learning in history about the great men and women who sacrificed so much and are responsible for everything America is today. Maybe it’s our time to step up to the plate and be a ‘hero’ as he calls it. We have had all the warning and information we could possibly need; we are aware of our problem, however rather than avoiding it and dreading facing it perhaps we need to look at it in a different light as Gore suggests. He asks, “How many generations in all of human history had the opportunity to rise to a challenge that is worthy of our best efforts?” We should be happy and honored to have been granted with the opportunity to be remembered and immortalized for paving the way for a better future for humanity. It’s time to take action. We now have a chance to do something great, it would be the biggest mistake of our lives should we let it pass by, literally, all of humanity may be at stake.

In the short yet very moving animation “The Man Who Planted Trees” the farmer was living proof that “Man could be as effective as God in things other than destruction.” A single man was responsible for revitalizing once dead land, creating an entire forest out of nothing. We can no longer afford to for granted the great deal of change one person can have.

Resources

Gore, Al . "Al Gore's new thinking on the climate crisis." TED Conferences, LLC. Monterey, California. Feb. 2008. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/al_gore_s_new_thinking_on_the_climate_crisis.html>.

Animated Movie

“The Man Who Planted Trees”

Picture

Industrial Smog. 2008. Teachengineering.org National Science Digital Library . Web. Web. 8 Dec. 2009. <http://www.teachengineering.org/collection/cub_/lessons/cub_images/cub_air_lesson02_fig4.jpg>.

Flaws with GoodGuide

2009-12-08T02:45:00.003-05:00

In class we have recently learned about an application for the iPhone, GoodGuide. The GoodGuide application allows people who download it to scan the items they want to purchase. Once scanned, GoodGuide gives you a rating on the product and measures how "green" it is. Is the product healthy for you, for your child, for the environment? GoodGuide can answer all these questions for you, it even provides the cost of the product and a list of other products with which to compare. The products range from bottled water, to personal care products, to toys for your children.

The merits of this application are apparent, it has now been made easy for consumers to shop while being environmentally conscious. Using our phones we can take a picture of a bar code and GoodGuide will give us information that will (hopefully) make us think twice about what we purchase.

Despite the benefits of this new found green shopping mentality, there are flaws to GoodGuide. For example, a survey conducted in 2007 by the CTIA- Wireless Association showed that 82% of people living in the United States own a cellphone (http://www.gearlog.com/2007/11/us_cellphone_penetration_tops.php).

Although this is an overwhelming majority, what about the other 18% of the population living in the United States? One of the major themes we have covered in class is the importance of saving others, because this will make it easier to save yourself. A reading from class, "Jevons Paradox" by Jeff Dardozzi, reinforce the idea that saving yourself is probably not the effective solution. Dardozzi writes about the "rebound effect," meaning that while one person is being environmentally conscious and may change their life to become less pollutant, another person is carrying their life in the same way as before. In effect, people who will not change their lifestyles to be more environmentally friendly will "cancel out" the efforts of those who do live that way. Although GoodGuide is a wonderful application for those to access to it, we need to think about those who do NOT have access to it.

In addition, as an owner of an iPod Touch, I do have access to the GoodGuide application. But because my iPod Touch is just an iPod and not a phone, I cannot take a picture of a bar code. I must wait for the application to load (a process that takes a few minutes when you first open it) and manually search different categories to find the product I am looking for. As for the 82% of people in the United States with a cellphone, it would be ridiculous to assume that they all have and iPhone or an iPod Touch. People with phones that are not considered "pocket computers" (i.e. smart phones) are also at a disadvantage. Their access to this application is limited.

It is also important to consider people in developing countries. Poverty tends to be a characteristic that developing countries share, not only are large portions of the population cellphone-less, but because they cannot afford a smart phone they would certainly not have access to an iPhone. We must remember that saving the world is a group effort. Although we must think locally to fix our solutions we are a global community. Thinking locally will only be effective if every part of the world is thinking locally and doing everything they can to eliminate waste and reduce dependency on oil.

How Important is Education?

2009-12-07T23:37:00.002-05:00

How important is education is a question that I know I have asked myself before and I know I am not the only one, made quite clear by our class discussion. I feel that sometimes without reassurance many young students are not sure of themselves and not sure what they want to do in life. Young adults are not prepared to make life altering decisions that they face, and often make rash decisions without certainty, and find themselves lost. The government sets up public schooling to prep kids for standardized tests. Everyone from elementary school on up through high school pretty much takes the same courses and the same tests, although perhaps unaware, are at constant competiton with their peers for a higher ‘number’. This number they compete for will help them achieve a spot in a number one school perhaps, where they will yet again compete with their peers with common goals in order to receive yet another number that will help them earn that job that will generate large numbers of dollars. This has become the standard, the norm of society and kids are under a lot of pressure expected to perform well.

I feel that kids are never given a chance to explore what they are good at and what they might be interested in doing in life, something that makes them truly happy. Instead our heads are clouded with this intense competition mind-set. More often than not, students college bound do not have a plan, and make their decisions of what to pursue based on a job they hope to land that will earn them a lot of money. Money dictates their path, rather than their genuine interests and happiness, thus many find themselves with careers or jobs that they are dissatisfied with. Some examples from our class discussion, were people's parents who found themselves in this position, and students who chose particular majors settling for something other than their true passion because of uncertainty of the amount of money coming from that path to be adequate. I know personally I originally wanted to pursue architecture. In my senior year of high school architecture courses were made available that I signed up for. I loved it, however when it came time to choose colleges and majors, I let my dream of being an architect go. My reasoning was that the only real reason I liked architecture so much is because it was the only unique class I took outside of the basics in high school, perhaps if I took something else I would of fell in love with that too. I made excuses why not to pursue it. Also, in the economy we are in and will most likely remain in when it’s time for me to get a job, I find it hard to believe that people will be building many houses, not to mention the finite amount of resources used to build houses is continuously depleting. I decided to pursue a field in the sciences and medicine, because at least I know there will always be a job available, people will always need medical care, and plus the money is good. Were these the right choices, I don’t know?

Michelle Obama gave a nice inspirational speech at a girl’s school in London England, in her first foreign visit as the First Lady. She told students that she shares very much in common with them everyone though they are living two very different lives at the moment. She noted that she was once in their shoes and that she never would of thought in her life that she would have became the First Lady, standing in front of them now. She was never wealthy growing up in Chicago and never had any resources or connections, but was raised by strong men and women. She said they are the ones that instilled love, respect, values, and hard-work in her. She got to where she is by hard-work, she said, “I liked being smart. I liked getting A’s. I thought being smart was the coolest thing in the world” (Obama). Yes, she is successful, however is she happy? I wonder if she is truly happy with all the responsibility that position holds despite all of the initial thrill and shock from fame. Maybe she is, but perhaps she was also just another victim of the rudimentary education system pressuring kids to do in school or else they will have no future. Perhaps, she was also another victim of the brainwashing system of working hard in school for that A, for money, which apparently defines success.

Michelle Obama also mentions the concept her husband always talked about, “The World as it is” and “The World as it should be.” She says, “We accept the distance between them and settle for “The World as it is,” but it is really important to close the gap and “Students need to build the future into the “World as it should be” (Obama). She believes education through schooling provides the facets for students to make this happen. She also affirms that “Your success comes from within you; you have control of your own destiny” (Obama). I think this is slightly construed being that many students feel that they are pressured by society to take the classes they do and go the route they go. They feel lost and unsure if what they are doing is right. Perhaps no one explained to them that money and A’s are not the only form and path to success. In fact there are also multiple intelligences according to the theory developed in 1983 by Dr. Howard Gardner a professor of education at Harvard University, that are never focused on. Intelligence based on I.Q. testing, he believes is far too limited.

“Dr. Gardner proposes eight different intelligences to account for a broader range of human potential in children and adults. These intelligences are: Linguistic intelligence ("word smart"), Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart"), Spatial intelligence ("picture smart"), Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart"), Musical intelligence ("music smart"), Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart"), Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart"), and Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart"). Dr. Gardner says that our schools and culture focus most of their attention on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the highly articulate or logical people of our culture. However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal attention on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live” (Armstong).

Students who do not excel in the linguistic or logical-mathematical form of intelligences are often labeled as learning disabled, ADD, underachievers. They simply just not given the chance for their other form of intelligence to blossom and show itself, thus are never given the proper guidance they need to be successful in the future, and often these are the individuals who later find themselves lost. According to Armstrong, the theory of multiple intelligences proposes a major transformation in the way our schools and educational systems are run.

According to Don Berg a private nanny and individual who places his concern for children as a top priority, seeking to uncover and guide his students to pursue things that will utilize their potentials. He also understands the importance to recognize ‘multiple intelligences’. He states, “Schooling mostly consists of jumping through the hoops of instructional accounting to get symbolic rewards like test scores, grades, diplomas, degrees, etc. If the goal is only to get a job, then schooling is important. We certainly need to find our work in this world, but we are not on this earth to have a job. We are human beings who are supposed to make a meaningful contribution to the well-being of all that we are a part of. Having a job is less important than being a good person with meaningful work to do” (Berg). It is important that we do not automatically accept the value of schooling as the right path. My math teachers always said that there are many ways to solve a problem; this is the case with education as well. There are many different paths an individual can take to find his or her place in life and be successful. Schools are merely one tool that can be used to acquire an education, but they are certainly not the only, and can sometimes prove to be the incorrect path for some.

“Becoming an educated person means you have access to optimal states of mind regardless of the situation you are in. You are able to perceive accurately, think clearly and act effectively to achieve self-selected goals and aspirations” (Berg). This is why I commend Professor Hirsch for his unique teaching style. It has opened my eyes up and perhaps given me that bit of guidance and reinforcement whether he know it or not, that will help me find myself and perhaps the work I want; something that I enjoy doing, something that makes me genuinely happy. For those who are unsure of themselves and feel lost, I believe it is up to you to make the most of your undergraduate career. Take an array of diverse classes, do not limit yourself, and open your mind up to everything. I believe it will all fall into place, and most importantly, if you do know of something that interests you but are unsure of it due to ‘risks’, I say take the leap because you only live once. Doing what makes you happy is more important and more likely to bring you success than living as a drone.

Resources

Armstrong, Dr. Thomas . "Multiple Intelligences." ThomasArmstrong.com N.p., 2000. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. <http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm>.

Berg, Don. "Is Education Important?!? Yes But School May Not Be." Teach-Kids-Attitude- 1st.com N.p., 2009. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. <http://www.teach-kids-attitude-1st.com/education-important.html>.

Obama, Michelle. "Michelle Obama's plea for education." TED Conferences, LLC, London. Apr. 2009. Web. 7 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/michelle_obama.html>.

Climategate

2009-12-07T20:41:00.002-05:00

On November 20, 2009 hundreds of private e-mails and documents of American and British climate researchers were hacked and publically exposed. What’s the big deal? The messages reveal discussions on whether or not scientific data that did not support their position should be released. They also discussed how to argue their skeptics. The documents and messages show a concerted effort to manipulate scientific information on climate change. This scandal, called ClimateGate, has the power to cause question to the quality of research charging humanity as the culprit of global warming (NYTimes).

December 7-18^th of this year (right now!) government officials are in Copenhagen for COP15. This is a United Nations climate change conference whose intentions are to vote to raise an international commitment to the reduction of emissions (COP15). Leaders from all over the world are coming together to make much needed decisions that will determine the health of our planet. Great, right? As we have studied both in class and out, the evidence for global climate change is overwhelming.

The problem is that a decision to reduce carbon emissions will put pressure on the United States to reduce our hefty share and that is bad for business. As we saw in today’s class, the United States on a whole has no real sense of urgency when it comes to making changes to improve global warming. Some continue to be skeptical that climate change is real. Research released in October revealed that only 57% of Americans believed that there was solid evidence for global warming and only 35% believed it was a serious problem. ClimateGate only adds fuel to the fire. It causes greater skepticism among Americans and gives the un-eco-friendly leverage against a much needed commitment to the planet for the sake of their own pockets. The actions of these climatologists produced exactly what they did not want. In their desire for change, they disengaged morally and no one knows what will happen. This mistake does not negate decades of evidence that point to human involvement in climate change (Time).

I saw United States policy makers on television glorying in the blunder of those climatologists. They have the benefit of the ClimateGate scandal and have made it their new banner under which they claim to be fighting for the people and the economy. Climate science and politics are unfortunately intertwined, but the truth can only be avoided for so long. Hopefully, the interests of the planet and the global community will be considered first in the coming decision making.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/21climate.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1258981217-J7yhMhEJWdwLtqx9U3uQdQ

http://en.cop15.dk/

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1945175,00.html

GoodGuide Outs Mister Squiggles!

2009-12-07T14:37:00.004-05:00

All over the news and Web this past week was GoodGuide’s red flag on Zhu Zhu pets. Zhu Zhu hamsters are a very popular children’s toy in the United States as well as Europe and would be a best seller this holiday season. So, what’s the problem? GoodGuide presented information that the light brown hamster, Mister Squiggles, contained high levels of hazardous substances. One is antimony, which is used in textiles and plastics to prevent them from catching fire. High levels of this substance can lead to respiratory and cardiac problems, as well as ulcers and diarrhea. Dara O’Rourke, co-founder of GoodGuide said, “We found levels of about 93 to 106 parts per million…The new federal standard is about 60 parts per million." GoodGuide also shows that this toy also has high levels of tin which can be harmful to the immune and nervous systems (CNN).

The manufacturers and distributers all claim that the toys are indeed safe and that the levels of antimony are within all safety standards. Still, this is a great example to why GoodGuide and other consumer informative sites should be used. Parents can go on these sites to see how safe products are for their children before any negative impact occurs. I am really encouraged to use this site for my future purchases. Big business is not going to make decisions in the best interest of me and my loved ones. It is my responsibility to make sure that I am an informed consumer. I hope this example empowers you all to be informed consumers too.

For more information see:

http://www.goodguide.com/products/280172-zhu-zhu-pets-hampster-mr-squiggles-light-brown

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/12/06/zhu.zhu.toys/index.html

Cell Phone Radiation-SAR Ratings

2009-12-07T03:54:00.001-05:00

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association labeled SAR ratings, or specific absorption rate, to describe "a way of measuring the quantity of radio frequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." In the United States the highest SAR level allowed is 1.6 watts per kilogram. This cap is the same in Canada and is slightly higher in Europe at 2 watts per kilogram. Research on cell phone radiation and radio waves is limited and inconclusive at this time, but more attention is being paid to its potential effects. There may be a link with long-term use (labeled as 10 years or longer) and cancer. I know that many of my fellow peers have been using cell phones for nearly 10 years already and many of us will continue to use cell phones for many decades to come. I suggest that everyone use the reference site to search for his or her cell phone, be aware of its SAR level, and be attentive to the SAR rating of future cell phone purchases.

Some ways to limit cell phone SAR exposure:

1. Use a Bluetooth or a wired headset and keep the cell phone away from your body while it is active. (At least an inch from your body)
2. Text instead of calling.
3. Use speakerphone when appropriate. (many cars now have this feature built it)
4. Do not sleep with your cell phone under your pillow or near your head.

Sadly, I found out about SAR ratings and levels of exposure after purchasing a new cell phone. It turns out my new LG Chocolate Touch is in the U.S. top 20 SAR level Cell Phones. Luckily, I have 30 days to make a return and select a new phone, and I am seriously considering it due to potential adverse effects on my long-term health.

Reference:

1.) http://reviews.cnet.com/2719-6602_7-291-1.html?tag=page;page

ENERGY STAR

2009-12-07T03:03:00.004-05:00

Many of us have seen energy star stickers on many of the consumer electronics and appliances we buy. I, for one, always knew that this had something to do with lower energy costs, but never did any research on the matter- until now.

To start, Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Dept. Of Energy that provides better use of resources by saving money through improved efficiency of products and practices. This program started in 1992, mainly through computer and computer monitors electronics, but quickly spread to almost all types of consumer electronics. The goal was to promote energy efficient products, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Energy Star website, Energy Star has saved Americans $19 billion on their utility bills.

The site lists all of the Energy Star products from computers and televisions to water-heaters and air-conditioning units. I suggest all of us take a look and take note of our own consumer electronics and interpret if they are Energy Star certified or not. I would imagine that if someone who only uses Energy Star products was compared to someone who does not use any Energy Star products, while controlling all other variables, that the person using Energy Star products would experience much greater energy efficiency and thus, a cheaper electric bill. There are even Energy Star homes for sale, using all Energy Star certified hardware. Imagine if all of the country would use only Energy Star products, and what a change in total energy use and reduction in greenhouse gas emission could possibly result. Although this will not solve our natural gas problems it will delay the inevitable while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving us money . . .not a bad deal.

Reference:

1.) http://www.energystar.gov

The Fall of Bloomberg's Energy Plan: The Beginning of a "Green-Revolution" In Our Cities?

2009-12-07T01:47:00.004-05:00

Coming from New York City, this article caught my attention. I am curious to see the efforts of our Mayor in this new “green” movement. Unfortunately, Mayor Bloomberg dropped a proposed plan to cut building energy use. The objective of the plan was for all buildings of 50,000 square feet or larger to undergo renovations that would make them more “energy efficient”. The Mayor dropped this mandatory proposal, and it is now up to the building owners whether they wish to participate or not.

This plan would have put New York far ahead of other cities in the regards of energy use and consumption i.e. the “green-buildings movement”. If this plan were put in action, some 22,000 buildings already in existence would have been affected, thus greatly changing the energy flow of NYC. There seems to be some legislation in the works that will slowly shape NYC into a more ecological friendly and resource efficient city. It would be great if this plan would be put into affect because 80% of the city’s total carbon emissions come from buildings, but the Mayor plans to reduce the city’s total emissions by 30% by the year 2030.

I am glad to see NYC in the forefront of this movement. I hope that the legislation gets passed in favor of a greener NYC, and that we can lead and set examples for other cities across the U.S. There is plenty of room for change and this is a small, but important, step and I am glad to see that our state and city are taking this seriously and realizing that change is needed, and that our ways are outdated. We can no longer live with the comfort of cheap and abundant energy we have been spoiled with for so many years.

Changes like replacing windows, upgrading boilers and generators, and cutting energy use through business practices and improved machinery and upgraded hardware, can greatly change the total energy output and input of the city if these practices become widespread. The best way to enforce these practices would be through legislation and education and by showing the benefits for not only the environment, but for the companies themselves. As we learned in this class, many times, people only act when something directly affects them. So one way to encourage this movement is to show businesses that they can save money and better their environment with even the smallest changes, and that these types of changes can spread and create a revolution in the way we use energy around the country, and even the globe.

Reference:

New York Times Article: Bloomberg Drops Measure to Cut New York’s Greenhouse Gases
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/05/science/earth/05bloomberg.html?_r=1&ref=earth

Cigarettes are Killing the Earth

2009-12-06T23:56:00.001-05:00

The other day when I was studying on a study room floor in the colonial quad tower, I took a moment to stretch and look out the window outside. It was early in the morning, and when I looked down into the courtyard, I noticed a whole bunch of white specks all over the grass, something I never normally noticed when walking across the courtyard. From my bird’s eye view perspective however I realized that these white specks I saw where hundreds of cigarette butts all over the ground. I became very repulsed as it became clear to me just how dirty and disrespectful people are to Earth, not to mention doing a great job of making our home away from home while we are in school look like #$%*. Seeing the amazing amount of cigarette butts lying in the landscape, it got me thinking just how many other places are trashed with the finished cigarette butts of smokers, and the negative effects cigarettes must have on the environment.

Most smokers are ignorant to the fact that by smoking they are damaging the lives of others too, not just their own health. They are affecting those that are close to them by second-hand smoking, as well as the environment, which ultimately affects everyone. Many are aware of the health risks involved with smoking; however the risks involving the Earth’s health is much less focused upon. “Cigarettes contain over 4000 chemicals which are exhaled and released into the air and the atmosphere, and approximately 30% of North Americans are smokers and the percentage goes much higher in developing countries” (Taylor-Cassan) One can only imagine then how much pollution is being released into the environment’s air every day just by cigarette use. According Giovanni Invernizzi from the Tobacco Control Unit of Italy's National Cancer Institute in Milan who led a small study comparing air pollution cigarettes emit to the exhaust of diesel cars, he found that “The air pollution emitted by cigarettes is 10 times greater than diesel car exhaust” (Vince). In his article, Vince also mentions how chemicals within cigarettes such as, “Aldehydes damage plants and peoples' eyes and respiratory tract, and Nitric oxide, also produced by cigarettes, is the culprit in photochemical smog and drives ozone formation in cities” Thus, with new laws making smoking illegal indoors in public places, negative environmental effects of cigarettes are bound to rise.

However there is more; millions of cigarette butts are thrown away on the ground every day as well, which means all of the harmful chemicals within them are leaching into the ground polluting the soil and plants, and water we drink. “Every year in California the state has a statewide cleanup and cigarette butts account for almost half of the waste that is collected. These are only the ones that are picked up in one state and millions more are never picked up” (Taylor-Cassan). Those that are never cleaned up will take at least 25 years to decompose! Anything that takes 25 years to decompose is clearly very unnatural for our environment, and personally I think you would have to be crazy to inhale them into your lungs!

The manufacturing of cigarettes also has an enormous strain on the environment. Large plots of land are used all over the world to grow tobacco, the cash crops used for cigarettes, where farmers douse the plants with all kinds of dangerous pesticides and chemicals. Wasting mass amounts of water and oil in farming them, also contributes to unnecessary CO2 emissions and the lands soil depletion. According to Taylor-Cassan, producing cigarettes also take an enormous toll on trees, needed to for paper to roll and package them in. She states, “Cigarette manufacturing uses four miles of paper an hour just for rolling and packaging cigarettes. One tree is wasted for every three hundred cigarettes produced” (Taylor-Casasan). Cigarette manufacturers are thus subsequently a major contributor to forest degradation and forcing species out of their homes and into extinction.

If tobacco companies don’t care about your health what makes you think that they would think twice about the environment. Perhaps stressing the negative effects cigarettes have on Earth’s health, perhaps people would think twice about smoking more seriously, realizing that they are killing their only home every time they light up. In order to stop these malicious and greedy tobacco companies from harming the environment is to stop buying their products. People need to quit smoking as hard as it may be. It is for a greater good. Not just about themselves, not just about their own health and money they will save by quitting. Think about what better uses the masses of land used for growing tobacco could be used for. We’ve taken enough from the Earth, it’s time to give back. People need to lose their egocentric attitudes and realize that it’s also about the harm they are doing to the Earth and the harm they are causing unwittingly causing their friends and families. Every time they light up, their kid’s and family’s future become more and more gloomy.

Resources

Taylor-Cassan, Jessica . "How Smoking Affects our Environment." About My Planet Amp Blogs Network, 29 Aug. 2007. Web. 6 Dec. 2009. <http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/smoking-affects/> .

Gaia, Vince. "Cigarettes more polluting than diesel exhaust ." NewScientist Reed Business Information Ltd., 24 Aug. 2004. Web. 6 Dec. 2009. <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6312-cigarettes-more-polluting-than-diesel-exhaust.html> .

Picture

Husk, Corn. "Addiction." Now Public Crowd Powered Media N.p., 11 Feb. 2009. Web. 6 Dec. 2009. <http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media.nowpublic.net/images//67/a/67a07a73404f88cc145e2b1941a23eb7.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nowpublic.com/environment/addiction-photo-02&usg=__i1M_LN_kekg2k8zUkipAGeKBu0E=&h=476&w=635&sz=262&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=qUjuMhH9xFaT0M:&tbnh=103&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcigarettes%2Bon%2Bground%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1>.

Three Day Mutations and Magnetic Leaves

2009-12-06T20:34:00.003-05:00

"Breathing in polluted air may wreak havoc on our DNA, reprogramming our genes in as few as three days and causing increased rates of cancer and other diseases." This quote is from a recent study that tracked the damage done to DNA in a group of steel factory workers who were regularly exposed to particulate matter. While the average person would expect not to be exposed to the same air pollution as steel factory workers the levels, the same damage can occur to people who live in cities breathing the normal air after a few weeks. Particulate matter is small particles of metal, dust and soot that is suspended in the air and when these paricles are breathed in they embed in the lungs and other tissue causing health problems. This information has been known for some time but what was not known was that the embedded particles also slow the methylation, or organization of genes into different chemical groups, in the DNA. Fewer groups of genes expressed means that there are less proteins being formed which are essential for the regular maintenance of the body.

Not all of the recent studies on air pollution have shown bad results however, the vitamin folic acid has been found to speed up this same methylation process and in effect possibly counteract the effects of particulate matter on the DNA. Also a new cheaper and more efficient method has been discovered at measuring the amount of pollutants in the air. The metallic fragments that pollute the air often adhere to plant leaves creating a very slight magnetic field on the leaves. While this magnetic field isnt strong enough to attract magnets it can be detected with other magnetic techniques and effectively accurately showing the levels of pollutants in the air.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091019-leaf-leaves-magnetic-pollution.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090517-pollution-changes-dna.html

Indonesia, Carbon Emissions, and Tree Harvesting: A New York Times Article Assessment

2009-12-06T18:36:00.002-05:00

The Kampar Peninsula in Indonesia stretches for miles with many Trees and Shrubs. It is one of the Earth's largest stores of carbon dioxide, but this carbon is leaking out. Canals, both illegal and legal, along the rivers down the peninsula are drying and draining the land. They are causing a release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is a prime reason why Indonesia is the world's third biggest greenhouse has emitter, following only the U.S. and China. These leaks were apparent to a nearby family of fisherman. The family observed the water by their home getting browner and more acidic. The water was described as coffee-colored. The Kampar Peninsula is of great ecological importance, but the only plan to stop these leaks is coming from a paper and pulp company, that has been responsible for much of the deforestation that has been occurring in the region. Ironic? This company is Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL). The company's goal is to create a ring of industrial tree plantations around the peninsula.

The company hopes to receive "carbon credits" for doing this under the United Nations program to reward nations for conserving forests and reforesting degraded ones. This program, Reducing Emissions From Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is expected to be part of the new climate treaty in the coming month. Deforestation is responsible for 20%! of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Developing nations, like Indonesia, will be paid in these "carbon credits" that they can then sell to industrialized nations looking to reduce their emissions. "We could perhaps reduce the annual Indonesian emissions by 5 percent with this on project", said Jouko Vitra. This one project can make a difference.

I believe that this program and programs like it will be extremely beneficial to the health of the global ecology. The Kampar Peninsula is rich with life and diversity, from Sumatran tigers, bears, monkeys, crocodiles, etc. This Peninsula should be preserved for it may be a small step in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, but it may show that we can change our environment for the better and work together in dong so. I am very curious to see how this issue will be addressed at the coming environmental talks that are currently occurring and how this “carbon credit” system will unfold. More on the issue to follow.

Reference:

1.)http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/science/earth/30climate.html?_r=1&ref=earth

Goodguide.com: Shampoo and Conditioner

2009-12-06T16:03:00.001-05:00

After our class discussion about Goodguide.com, I decided to pursue a self assessment of the products I use in daily life.

I decided to start with my shampoo and conditioner.

Suave For Men 2-in-1 Shampoo and Conditioner: Goodguide Rating- 7.2, Health- 7.0, Environment - 8.9, Society- 5.8

Detailed Ratings: Health: General Health-0 out of 10, Reproductive Health: 10 out of 10, Cancer: 8 out of 10, Long-Term Health: 10 out of 10, Short-Term Health: 10 out of 10

Environment: Energy Management: 8 out of 10, Water Management: 9 out of 10, Toxic Waste: 8 out of 10

Society: Customer Satisfaction: 5 out of 10, Quality and Safety: 2 out of 10, Philanthropy: 6 out of 10, Workplace Diversity: 6 out of 10, Working Conditions and Benefits: 4 out of 10

The Health ratings confused me, but as I read below at the ingredient ratings I found a few orange dots and one red dot, indicating controversial ingredients and an ingredient of concern. The controversial ingredients included Sodium Lauryl Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, both labeled as possibly carcinogenic and skin irritants even in the low concentrations used in products, such as my shampoo. DMDM Hydantoin was another controversial ingredient. DMDM Hydantoin is a preservative that releases trace amounts of formaldehyde, which can also be a skin irritant. Another controversial ingredient was fragrance. As I have been browsing this site and doing some research, I find that almost always the fragrances used in consumer products are causes for concern or controversial. There seems to be a lack of adequate research on this matter. Methylisothiazolinone was the ingredient of concern and the data says that this ingredient was banned in Canada. This is not reassuring . . . After doing some research on this ingredient, I found that this ingredient was found to kill nerve cells in the brain according to a study done by the Neurobiology Dept. of the University of Pittsburgh. Other research has been inconsistent, stating that the research done on animals and the exposure levels used can not be valid in humans.

On the Environmental side of the goodguide's assessment, my shampoo faired well. It had above average scores in resource management but had no data on air pollution or global warming.

The Society ratings were generally low, with only Philanthropy and Workplace Diversity receiving scores over 5.

Overall, my thoughts of my shampoo is that it is generally an O.K. choice, but I would now like to find a replacement due to the potential adverse health effects because of controversial and concerning ingredients. I am confused why, with these potentially dangerous ingredients that the Long-Term Health score was 10 out of 10. . . The site listed no neurotoxins present...they should try to look into the research done by the University of Pittsburgh, but maybe they already have and deemed it inconclusive. I will be assessing more of my personal products and the products of my family and friends, while spreading the word of this site and its potential to change the products we buy.

References:

1. http://www.goodguide.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methylisothiazolinone

Space Hotels!?!?

2009-12-05T23:37:00.002-05:00

On my msn homepage, I caught a glimpse of this article a few weeks ago and was absolutely dumbfounded. At first I thought it was a joke, the title “Spanish venture aims to build space hotel,” but after reading it apparently this business enterprise Galactic Suite located in Barcelona, Spain is very serious about opening a hotel in space in 2012. According to the company’s architects, the hotels guests would have pay $4 million dollars a head for three days, and before their departure, guests would participate get eight intense weeks of space camp training on a tropical island. Once tourists arrive at the hotel by means of private shuttles, as they orbit they will view the sun rise fifteen times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls.

The reasoning for the pod like shape of the rooms is due to the fact that they have to be able to fit into a rocket to make it to space. According to the company’s director Xavier Claramunt, “It’s the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge; how to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy.” Also, guests will participate in scientific experiments during their space voyage. First just an idea and a hobby of the former aerospace engineer, Claramunt stated that it became a reality when a space enthusiast remaining anonymous agreed to provide most of the $3 billion needed to make it happen.

Galactic Suite is not even the only company with plans for space hotels by 2012, other businesses are aiming to put hotels in orbit too. For one 4Frontiers Corp. located in Florida and CTAE in Barcelona have jumped on the bandwagon, and Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace have already launched two inflatable prototypes for a privately built space station, and is planning to send up its first habitable module, as well as California-based Space Island Group who have also been working on a space hotel of their own.

Claramunt also said that his company is negotiating with private investors from Japan, the U.S., and the United Arab Emirates, evident of how lucrative the space business could be. A statistic he pointed out, “We have calculated that there are 40,000 people in the world who could afford to stay at the hotel. Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don’t know.”

I find this to be ridiculous. Four billion dollars spent on just one of these projects, not to mention all of the others that are also springing up in hopes that people will spend the money to avoid whatever pre-conceived notions of what 2012 has in store for us that has not even been proven. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest wastes of money I can think of. Can you imagine how much good all of that money could do for the world if invested in the proper places; invested on more realistic issues actually backed by science, such as our crises of energy shortages, and dangerous CO2 levels in our atmosphere? Geez, I can’t even imagine how many resources these privately funded projects are going to consume just to get these hotels in orbit. With a massive amount of money such as this, so much can be invested into communities, revitalizing them, and kick starting our transformation to truly ‘green’ living, as well as obtaining a successful efficient form of renewable energy. A great deal of things need to be done here on Earth to ensure the safety of our only home before we go out into space, like a bunch of unprepared cowboys. Nothing may happen on 2012, just like Y2K. It is really important that we do not lose our composure. We only have one home and we all share it, I can’t believe selfishness and the crookedness of priorities could ever make it to this extreme.

Resources

"Spanish venture aims to build space hotel But will Galactic Suite go into orbit by2012 as promised?." msnbc.com Technology & Science Space msn, 10 Aug. 2007. Web. 5 Dec. 2009. <http://msnbc.msn.com/id/20216344/>.

Mate is kind of out of touch.

2009-12-05T19:16:00.002-05:00

As I read Mate's A Reasonable Life, I couldn't help but be annoyed by his writing style. Throughout the portion which was made available on eRes, I found myself agreeing with his ideas, whilst abhorring his prose. He could not have written from a more smarmy, curmudgeonly, and annoying perspective. When he dramaticized drying clothes on clothespins in his backyard as if it were the most noble act that today's young'ns could never fathom, I literally had to prevent myself from projectile vomiting. It was like a textual embodiment of listening to stereotypical dull grandparents obnoxiously reminisce about "the good old days." I wanted to personally tell him to shut up several times. Despite his good intentions, his writing could not have been more alienating to today's youth, which is arguably the most important demographic for this type of writing to reach.

Granted, his point was well made. He presented the fact that driers account for
up to 10% of energy usage in the USA according to some estimates, which is a big deal no matter how you look at it, but he could not have been more old-man-ish, holier-than-thou about it. Throughout the entire text that I read, which was a good several chapters, I was increasingly put off by his perspective. "In the good old days we played ball in the alley and had way more fun than anyone in this day and age will ever have blah blah blah my generation was better than yours blah blah." I wanted to say "shut up" out loud several times as I read it.

His way of writing is at best a surefire way to turn off those who aren't already on board with these issues. There are ways to write about these issues that are not annoying, but Mate avoided doing so with fervor. This was the only required/suggested reading so far assigned in this class that I actually disliked, but oh boy, did I struggle to even finish reading it. Present your ideas in a more palatable format if you want to influence anyone, Mate.

Crazy Ideas for A Brighter Future

2009-12-04T23:50:00.002-05:00

Unique ideas by people clearly thinking outside the box may be hold the key to our energy crisis and harmful levels of CO2 emissions. In an article I found on msnbc.com, a slideshow of six very interesting green solution concepts are shown that may be promising for a brighter future. Apart from alternative sources of energy already known such as fields of windmills and solar panels, artificial leaves and trees is one of the idea posed. Just like in trees how leaves convert sunlight into energy through the process of photosynthesis, scientists at the Imperial College of London, are looking to create artificial leaves that will also perform a similar process of photosynthesis but harvest the energy for our own personal needs and uses. A company called Solar Botanic also in London, “is in the R&D stage of building artificial trees fitted with "nanoleaves" that generate electricity from sunlight and heat” (Roach 2). Not to mention by making them look like real trees, they will blend in and be more aesthetically pleasing.

Another project in progress is called ‘Anaconda’ being developed by the University of Southhampton. A long, water-filled rubber tube would be positioned just below sea surface, with one end facing approaching waves. As ‘rollers’ bash the tube, they will squeeze it and generate something called a “bulge wave.” The waves then push this bulge along the tube, making it larger and larger as it goes. At the end of the tube, the bulge wave powers a turbine that will essentially generate electricity which is subsequently harnessed and shipped to shore by a cable of some sort. Researchers say it “would be about 660 feet long, 25 feet in diameter and capable of generating 1 megawatt of electricity – enough to power 2,000 British homes” (Roach 3). Solar power from outer space may also be another idea. The plan entails beaming down electricity from solar panel satellites that orbit the Earth through radio waves, a possibility beginning in mid-2016. These solar satellites would be able to harvest the sun’s energy twenty-four hours a day, unaffected by clouds and night time on Earth.

Some scientists and engineers are even looking to utilize all of the space we have on our ocean’s surface. Being that oceans cover about 75% of Earth’s surface, it would make sense to build islands devoted to generating energy using temperature differences in water. According to the article, in this plan, “warm surface water is evaporated in a vacuum, producing steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity. Cold water pumped up from depth causes the steam to condense as desalinated water and wind turbines, solar cells and wave energy converters would kick in additional juice” (Roach 5). Scientist believes that a few of these islands together would have the ability to power a city.

Another idea posed is the establishment of the cylindrical rods on the ocean or river floor in a certain configuration will capture energy from slow-moving currents. According to engineer Michael Bernitsas the University of Michigan, “As water flows past the rods, it creates what are called vortex-induced vibrations. The eddies, or swirls, form in an alternating pattern, pushing and pulling an object up or down or side to side to create mechanical energy” (Roach 6). The idea they said was inspired by schools of fish and how they efficiently ride in each other’s wake to move at great speed not normally possible alone. If they can create a way to harvest this mechanical energy, they say that “An array about the size of a running track and about two stories high could generate enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes” (Roach 6).

Because to make and use all of these things and continue to use and consume the way we do today will still be producing much CO2, a giant problem, researchers have came up with a structure that will imitate a tree and be able to sequester masses of CO2 from our atmosphere. The structure according to the article “will use a proprietary absorbent material to trap carbon dioxide from the air. The gas is then stored, and the absorbent material is recycled to capture even more carbon dioxide” (Roach 7). Designed in Arizona by Global Research Technologies, the company, it is believed to be able to collect carbon approximately a thousand times faster than trees and is several hundred times more efficient than the current windmill. (Roach 7)

There is something to be said about thinking outside the box. I believe it is extremely important to keep one’s mind open to many different ideas no matter how abstract they may seem. As seen in this article, some of the most abstract in weird ideas may have very profound effects if implemented on our future, and can help to create a safer and healthier Earth for us. In fact, these types of ideas may save us all. I say don’t be afraid to contribute your own ideas because you never know what may inspire somebody who can implement a bit of science and their own creativity to it, kind of like the ‘snowball’ effect.

Resources

Roach, John. "Crazy green-energy ideas that just might work: So far these are mostly concepts, but we may be using them in the future." msnbc.com Technology & Science msn, 29 Aug. 2009. Web. 4 Dec. 2009. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545685/ns/technology_and_science-green_innovation/?pg=1#Science_FringeEnergy_090826>.

Unnatural Gas

2009-12-04T17:06:00.003-05:00

I know it has been a while since we’ve discussed the energy crisis in class but lately I have seen a lot of advertisements for “New Natural Gas.” The very well made advertisements are getting the “facts” out about energy. Calling natural gas, “the cleaner, smarter energy,” the solution to this oil mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.

America’s Natural Gas Alliance is standing on the concept that natural gas is clean, domestic, abundant, and cost effective. Clean because natural gas emits 50% less CO2 than coal, 30% less CO2 than oil, its vehicles reduce (?) carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions. They flaunt that the natural gas industry employs millions of Americans and say 97% of the gas used by the US comes from North America. They say, “natural gas is an affordable and readily available, long term solution to power generation, home heating, and industrial use.” As for abundance, they have more than a one hundred year supply of natural gas.

As for alternative sources of renewable energy, their position is kind of unclear. A commercial for New Natural Gas suggested that wind and solar energy is inefficient, expensive, and unrealistic. The “facts” as presented on their website claim that the use of natural gas will provide a foundation for those renewable energy sources to grow.

In The Party’s Over, Richard Heinberg presents the opposite proposing that natural gas may “compound” the problem. The ANGA is right when they say natural gas burns cleaner, the problem is that this “alternative” still produces CO2 that’s pollutions our planet. While oil wells deplete slowly, gas wells plateau only to crash quickly. It is also assumed that the abundance of natural gas is questionable. To allow our country to continue to be dependent on a finite resource is a big mistake; especially when its availability is uncertain. On this I agree with Heinberg, “Any attempt to shift to natural gas as an intermediate fuel would simply waste time and capital in the enlargement of an infrastructure that will soon be obsolete anyway” (143). There must be another way- sustainable and clean.

Sources:

All ANGA information

http://www.newnaturalgas.org/

The Party’s Over: pages 139-143

Thoughts on Good Guide

2009-12-04T15:26:00.002-05:00

Well, as we saw from the in-class demonstration, GoodGuide has a ways to go before it becomes a cohesive guide for consumer awareness. Frankly, it seemed as though very few of our searches, most of which were for fairly common items, yielded any results at all. However, I understand that this is a new website innovating a whole new concept which will require collecting and compiling massive amounts of information into a palatable html form, which is likely to take years. Wikipedia wasn't built in a day either, and that website requires much less research and fact-checking. Each entry into GoodGuide will require lots of information that I wouldn't imagine is always very easy to find.

But I really think that it's brilliant, in this new age of info-conglomerating websites (Wikipedia, iMDB, All Music Guide, etc.), for someone to compile this sort information in a practical way. It takes the maxim of these websites (to be a one-stop shop for everything in its field) and applies it to something much more important. Consumer awareness is an issue. Sure, foods are required to list ingredients and nutritional facts, but information regarding the environmental and social implications of the product, as well as whether or not those listed ingredients are actually safe and healthy, is elusive to the average consumer. If GoodGuide does indeed evolve to the point that any item in a supermarket can simply be scanned with a phone and rated for these categories, people's buying habits may change drastically for the better. On this issue, I don't think that laziness and apathy necessarily go hand-in-hand. I believe that people would, if it were made easy for them, support products that are better for their health and the environment, even if they are somewhat more expensive.

Internet data-compiling and consumer awareness are really a match made in heaven, and I think it's wonderful that someone pieced that together and is carrying it out. I am optimistic that this website could become something really great, and even go so far as to change consumers' behavior, for the better, on a large scale.

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

2009-12-03T23:05:00.001-05:00

My three favorite quotes from this novel were as follows:

• “If you can’t discover what’s keeping you in, the will to get out soon becomes confused and ineffectual” (Quinn 25).

• “The world is not going to survive for very much longer as humanity’s captive” (Quinn 26).

• “Man was innocent until he discovered the difference between good and evil. When he was no longer innocent of that knowledge, he became a fallen creature” (Quinn 183).

What did I learn about BIOLOGY from reading Ishmael?

After reading this book, my understanding of the biological sciences has been affected. Though it is thought by some that humans are the peak of evolution, we share a closer relationship with other organisms than we think and are often ignorant to the consequences of our actions than animals. Ishmael, a gorilla, perhaps our more advanced predecessor explains how he discovered what was ‘keeping him in’ and thus was able to reach a higher level of consciousness and understanding of the world. Humans have not yet discovered what is ‘keeping them in’ and thus are trapped in the error of their ways. If humans continue to live the way they are, not discovering the error of their ways, they are certainly a doomed species as well as responsible for the world’s destruction.

What did I learn about the WORLD from reading Ishmael?

Upon reading the book, my understanding of the world that I live in has also been enhanced. I now understand that the world consists of “Takers” and “Leavers”. As stated in the book, “’The Leavers were chapter one of human history – a long and uneventful chapter. Their chapter of human history ended about ten thousand years ago with the birth of agriculture in the Near East. This event marked the beginning of chapter two, the chapter of the Takers” (Quinn 42). There are still ‘Takers” that exist but are very rare. The spring of agriculture has also given rise to the continuous growth of technology that unfortunately facilitates in the abuse the Earth, which is currently on the path of destruction. Our world is folding in on itself with major issues such as, pollution and population growth. In order to make a difference, the human race must experience an epiphany and release themselves from the cages they hold themselves captive in blindly.

What did I learn ABOUT MYSELF from reading Ishmael?

As a result of reading Ishmael, I have become much more aware of the environment and its mistreatment. Rather than abusing the world, we need to learn how to coexist and respect the Earth by observing nature and other animals that do this best. As “Takers” we produce and take an unnecessary amount of food and store a lot of it, we exterminate enemies, are constantly at war, strive for unlimited growth, and never give back. If we drew a “line” and settled for a more holistic life style, taking care of our Earth, we would have no worries. I say we need to learn how to be ‘borrowers’ instead, the way animals coexist and live. We need to take a few steps backwards in order to move forward. We are like kids who when spoiled once with candy, will eat it for every meal if they had the choice, because they don’t know better. “Man was innocent until he discovered the difference between good and evil. When he was no longer innocent of that knowledge, he became a fallen creature” (Quinn 183).

How does what I learned from reading Ishmael relate to the material presented in the course?

This book and along with the course has greatly opened up my eyes to the intensity of the issues we face. In my everyday life, I now feel much more concerned about the environment and its well-being. I always recycle, not just empty plastic bottles, but so much that you can recycle that people probably didn’t know they even could. I know personally from living with six guys that the amount of empty drink containers alone that pile up at the end of the week is obscene and how important it is to recycle them. I personally am trying to give up water bottles. I have purchased a couple of metal refillable containers, which I refill with water from water fountains, and sinks. I also feel much more compelled to start avidly using public transportation, car pooling, and my bicycle not just here but back at home as well. I am also constantly telling my friends and family all about the issues we face and all of the interesting facts that I have learned in this class, perhaps this will help to also open the eyes of others and spread the news of our danger. In learning the terrible effects of the industrial food chain for example and factory farming, back at home I know opt for purchasing my food from local farmers at a market that goes a few days a week in my home town. I find that this conventional form of obtaining my food also helps to build closer knit communities and friendly connections with the people of your town, which I believe is key. More love and respect for each other is a major component to make a change, and better our home, the Earth and our way of life.

Who Cares?

2009-12-03T21:01:00.003-05:00

I have a serious question to ask, and I would really appreciate some responses from all of you. I would like to know who cares about any of this? I mean, how many of us are dramatically changing our lifestyles so that we lead sustainable lives? How many of us have given up meat and dairy products? Who will remember what we've learned once this class is over? Who is changing policies?? Toward the beginning of the semester, I distinctly remember an in-class discussion where very few people seemed willing to even consider the suggestion that we can change. Has everyone revised their opinion?

Honestly, I have faith in the human race. I know we can solve all of our problems once we open our minds to new possibilities. But it seemed to me that there were many people in the class who disagreed. What we wrote in our blogs did not seem to represent our true feelings. I am asking you to say what you really think. Do you think we can change? Do you think we will switch to renewables or will we rely solely on coal? Will society be able to transition peacefully and smoothly or will we go to war? What do you really think? Because the only way we can start to solve our problems is to confront all of our fears head on.

Locally Grown or Nothing At All for me Thanks.

2009-12-03T20:45:00.002-05:00

So today when I was looking through Netflix I found a new instant movie called Food Inc. It was a very surprising movie by the fact that it had such an impact on me this time around. We have been going over local farming, factory farming, corn, fast food, and have tied that all together yet for some reason this movie was the last straw for me. The stories and the footage alone changed my perspective in a way I didn’t seriously consider before, that I never want to buy factory grown meat again. This could just be an aftermath of being completely disgusted through the entire movie but I will point out some disturbing parts that I have found interesting.
The first part focused on the production of chickens. The thing that got me going was when they showed the little chicks being pushed down a conveyor belt in to steel tubes where a human punctures their neck to keep track of it. It literally would make you think that these people have no souls, I could never treat a living creature as if it was not living at all, just a product. I understand that we produce these chickens for food but isn’t there anyway to make it more humane? Tyson, being one of the four most powerful meat packing industries, would not even let cameramen inside the chicken houses. That makes you wonder, why can we not see the food that is being produced to feed us? Like Dr. Kleppel had told our class during his presentation, if anyone asked him to see how he did things and to see the condition of his animals he would gladly say yes he has nothing to hide. These chickens that are put on top of each other in a dark confined place are all genetically modified so that they are full grown in 48 days rather than 70 days and also their breasts are now four times the size they used to be because consumers prefer white meat. I prefer white meat but would rather the chicken live a full happy life rather than a life sitting since it is too big to even carry itself around.
The last thing I want to address about this movie and was new information to me was the safety of our food, or really the lack thereof. Even 30 years ago the FDA inspection rate was about 50,000 per year the numbers in today’s world is just over 9,000. Why the sudden decrease in extra insurance that we are eating safe food? What one congressman said was that we have really become to rely on “self-policing” that is to say if someone in the company knows there is a contamination they should report it. But haven’t you realized that most factory workers are immigrants? Why would anyone report a thing if it risked their livelihood and the fact that they could be in this country illegally as well. Also if our government is relying on big shot companies to admit when something is going wrong seems ridiculous in itself. There are a lot of previously high ladder employee from these big companies that now work for the FDA and USDA and we are relying on them to scrutinize the companies they worked for? Some have even took this advantage and helped pass new laws to hide the contents of what is in our food, such as if it was genetically enhanced. Something that really shocked me is that if there is an outbreak of salmonella in the meat the USDA does NOT have the power to shut down that plant. This is the story that hit me hard since they focused on a personal story of a woman who is trying to pass Kevin’s Law which is to give the USDA back its power to shut down plants that are producing contaminated meat. Kevin was a 2 year old boy who died from the E coli O157:H7 strand because of an factory that knew they had a contamination but was not recalled until 3 weeks after the discovery. The woman hired a private investigator to track this information down and the fact that this company was still letting their product go on the shelves was just incredible.
Instead of fearing these large corporations why can we not fight against them? There was one part of the film where it showed a man who was a local farmer who let his cows wonder and feed on grass, his pigs were treated properly, his chickens out in the open air was actually almost shut down because he handled his chickens in the outdoors. Their reasoning was that the air pollutes the meat but when a microbiologist checked his poultry it came up that the chicken had 133 CFUs compared to the 3,000 + found in factory chicken. Obviously locally bred meat is far superior to what we are buying at the supermarket. So the lasting message here was that we clearly do not know what we are eating, it looks good and taste good so it must be good. It is an ignorant way of looking at things and I realize this now and hope to improve my food choices from here on out.
If anyone is interested in learning more they put up a link at the end of the movie: http://www.takepart.com/foodinc

Resource
The Movie - Food Inc.

Take the Limits Off

2009-12-03T10:37:00.003-05:00

We had a great in class discussion on Wednesday. One of the hottest topics discussed was the struggle between doing what you love and doing what makes money.

Ferenc Mate says in his book A Reasonable Life says, “We began working for someone else. We had jobs. We worked interminable hours cramped in inhuman places without sun or air, and although the work was easier on our backs than tilling soil, it left a crushing load upon the soul” (Mate 7).

Despite what Walt Disney says, when I wish upon a star my dreams don’t always come true. Unfortunately, no matter foreign opinions, we do not live in a place where everyone’s got the golden ticket. Not everyone will live there dream, make millions, and have the perfect family.

It is great to be able to do something you love, but that should not determine happiness. I believe that we should not define ourselves and our success by job titles. We need to reeducate ourselves and future generations so that we stop measuring quality of life by our “stuff” and not our happiness. It’s crazy how parents think that if only they could give their kids more they would be better parents. Not realizing that children need their parents and parents need their children.

Amanda Halevan asked in her blog, “How can people be happy if they do not have anything in the future to look forward to?” I say, there should be more to look forward to than making money and having a “fulfilling” career. I say do what you love even if you don’t do it as often as you like or even if you don’t get paid to do it. I say, meaningful relationships fill up places in your life that no job could ever fill; not that people shouldn’t pursue their dreams.

It is important that we teach our children it is OK to break the mold and that it is OK to dream. We should expose them to as much as possible and encourage them to be creative because who knows what solutions they might have for our present mysteries.

Here is a great powerful poem by Peter Nevland. I hope you watch it and in seeing this we will all take the limits off of our lives….

Life

2009-12-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

Today in class we had a long discussion on why people chase money rather than happiness. Students major in things such as biology or accounting to make top dollar even if they can’t stand it and that should be worrisome when it comes to a society. What will become of all of us if we are stuck in numbing jobs that only provide us with expensive material things that none of really need. The only reason we want these shiny gadgets is because it makes us feel we are getting something out of all this bothersome work that it shows that we have succeeded in some way. How has it become this way? A father and mother will work 12 hours a day to give their child everything that they “need” and in the end are too tired to actual devote themselves to being parents. This has ultimately lead to our need for possession of nice things because it is a symbol of a parents love or more so an replacement of their love because they have to go back to work the next day. Coming back to our discussion in class we say that school is just herding us all in the same direction and what are we as a society doing about this, nothing. To tell kids that money is the ultimate goal and then push them in to something such as biology to become a doctor is just abnormal! What if that kid did not care about money that he/she wanted to be a graphic design artist? The argument goes that there are no jobs in this field because in a recession people do not need graphic designers they need doctors. So when did dreams get traded in for “realistic” jobs.
Another thing that I have noticed personally is how much a persons family economic standing influences their goals in life, and by goals I mean what they ultimately have to do to survive in this world. When I was younger my mom married a wealthy man, we had nice cars, a huge house, 100 acres of land, and even a man made pond in the shape of a heart. I knew early on that obviously money and things do not bring happiness that although we had everything there was so much stress in that house it was hardly worth it. Anyways despite of the unhappiness it was clear that whatever my brother and I decided to do with our lives it didn’t matter because we never had to worry about money, I didn’t need to be a doctor I could be an actress if I really felt like it. After the divorce we downsized 10 fold and my goals in life took an ultimate turn, I wanted to take biology because I knew a lot of jobs pay good money to have this knowledge. I do enjoy my major but at times I wish I could have done something different. I feel that both my brother and I are pretty clueless on what we want to do in our lives but yet still go to college every semester hoping we are closer to some sort of end where there is a job lined up.
It is upsetting to think how much money matters in this world, a small piece of paper determines our future and I feel there should be more out of life then this. A guy in class said people are getting more depressed then ever, well I am seeing how that can be possible with all that has been said above. How can people be happy if they do not have anything in the future to look forward to? This is why Americans need to change how we live our lives everyday, why do we risk our happiness in attempts to have that cushy American lifestyle we always dreamed of? Can’t anyone see where we have gone wrong!? We’ve traded in family for a PS3, traded a day playing baseball for a day playing on the laptop, and we traded a life we always dreamed of to a life that pays the bills. When will we decide to strive for happiness and make something out of our lives rather then play in to materialistic hand that has ultimately destroyed our planet. It really makes me angry at people.

Condoms and Population Control

2009-12-02T23:19:00.005-05:00

In response to Maria Cheng’s essay, “Fight Global Warming: Wear a Condom,” although I believe her theory makes sense, I also believe that it is not enough to have a profound effect. I believe only a more extreme form of population control will be suitable for our current situation. “The world's population will likely rise from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050, with most of the growth in less developed regions, according to a 2006 report by the United Nations” (Cheng). This can arguably be due to the fact that those in developing countries are not as well off economically thus, spending money on
condoms is not a priority, thus an increase in perhaps unwanted children and accidental pregnancies is a given. Thus making condoms free and more available to everyone could definitely help. However another interesting question one may ask is “If the most population growth is being witnessed in developing countries, why are we giving them such a hard time when the developed countries are responsible for the most CO2 output. If only they made a condom that prevented unwanted CO2 from coming out of the tailpipes of motor vehicles.

My question is although providing a bunch of free condoms to people may decrease population growth, still how much CO2 is pumped into our environment just to produce them. Maybe the real answer is self-control or possibly more extreme forms of population control, that can be witnessed in other countries. For example, “Indira Gandhi, was the Prime Minister of the Republic of India for three consecutive terms from 1966 to 1977 and for a fourth term from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, a total of fifteen years. She was India's first and, to date, only female Prime Minister” (Indira). “To abolish slavery, which was her campaign slogan, Indira forced sterilization on males of lower socioeconomic status to limit their population growth and subsequently eliminate the poor.” (Heitzman) Alright maybe this is a bit extreme and prejudice against those unfortunate to be placed in that position by means not in their will nor power however perhaps China is a better example.

China one of the only nations taking measures to decrease the number of their population, and doing so successfully under something called the one-child policy. “It officially restricts the number of children married urban couples can have to one” (One-child). “The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1979 to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China, and authorities claim that the policy has prevented more than 250 million births from its implementation to 2000” (One-child). Although these policies are very controversial, perhaps this is what people need, a kick in the butt by their governments. Cuba’s communist government took the initiative to kind of throw its people into the water, when faced with their energy crisis. In order to make, the people of Cuba needed to learn to swim, they needed to adapt and take drastic measures working together to survive the energy crisis. It worked for them.

Yes, these kinds of ideas may be thought of as very extreme however in an extreme situation as this, perhaps we need to take more extreme measures. People will argue that their freedoms are being taking away, but perhaps what gave us these freedoms in the first place is what also dug us this hole we are now trapped in and are flailing to get out, yet still too stubborn to leave behind things we can’t take with us in order to get out.

Perhaps we need to learn from these extremes, we are greedy, and taking what we have for granted not thinking twice about the implications our lifestyles have on the environment. Society’s norms create a vicious cycle placing money and consuming as a priority and raising kids to think the same way. Did you ever here the phrase our children are the future, if this is truly the case, without teaching kids how to live a better life better for our environment, how do we expect our future to get any better? A quote from Ishmael, “The world is not going to survive for very much longer as humanity’s captive” (Quinn 26).

Resources

Heitzman, James, and Robert L. Worden, eds. "Indira Gandhi." India: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1995. Print.

"Indira Gandhi." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 2 Dec 2009, 05:58 UTC. 3 Dec 2009 . <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IndiraGandhi&oldid=329193838>.

"One-child policy." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Nov 2009, 02:32 UTC. 3 Dec 2009 . <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=One-childpolicy&oldid=327042949>.

Picture

http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/files/articles/condom_contraception_carbon_climate.jpg

Banana Boat Sinks!

2009-12-02T19:50:00.001-05:00

Ahhh summer! Hanging out at the beach, playing out in the yard and just enjoying our time out in the sun. Our mothers always said “remember to put sunscreen on before you go out in the sun.” Skin cancer has become a huge health concern in recent years. Our means of protection was sunscreen. By applying sunscreen, we can prevent our skins exposure to harmful UV rays and prevent carcinoma. But new studies now suggest that these products are not as reliable and safe as we think they are.

Take for an example Banana Boat. GoodGuide.com has a complete review on this product. The first major concern I have with the company is that they have one of the lowest rates on labor and human rights. Goodguide.com also states that “compared to other companies, this company is one of the lowest rated on commitment to its local community!” And the bad ratings don't end here. This same company also has the lowest rates on working conditions. Out of a total of ten possible points, Banana Boat scored 0.6 for its working conditions! Knowing these facts, this product would have to be the BEST and SAFEST product on the market in order for me to even consider purchasing products from this company.

I would like to believe that with all the bad ratings that Banana Boat receives, that they would at least have a safe and reliable product. But studies now suggest that what we are putting on our skin to prevent us from getting skin cancer may be giving us just another form of cancer and not protecting us at all. Both Octinoxate and Oxybenzone are ingredients listed on a bottle of Banana Boat lotion. Both of these have been tested and are now considered possible carcinogens. So here we are, putting a possible cancer causing lotion on our bodies to prevent us from getting cancer. Huh!? Does anyone else see a problem with this? We can make smart choices when it comes to finding a safe and reliable sunscreen. Thanks to GoodGuide.com, I now have these resources available to me and I am now committed to finding new and safer products for my family.

A Reasonable Life

2009-12-01T23:48:00.000-05:00

A Reasonable Life by Ferenc Mate is an insight in to a personal point of view of how we should be living comparatively to how we are living now. This concept is greatly similar to my blog on Michelle Obama yet Mate had a different spin on how to achieve this way of life. Michelle Obama put pressure on the education system being able to aid in recovering what has been compromised. Mate puts more emphasis on changing yourself through looking at the times before us.
In the older days humans worked with nature; returning what was taken, respecting nature, ect. Today as Mate puts it is now Human vs. Nature where we tear down our forests which are essentially the air we breath, so he puts it that we would rather have nice things rather than preserve our oxygen. How it came to be where we have all became so materialistic is beyond me, I would actually prefer to have a life similar to the simplest times in history. A comparison that Mate described was when he used to go out and play baseball as an child. It was the best of times to be with friends and laugh in a rugged field that did not have distinct bases. He looks at today’s baseball games and he sees angry frustrated children being pressured from their families and coaches to win. He also sees that the players all have nice uniforms and steal bats which was unheard of in his time. This shows that all though the material things have gotten “better” the values have decreased with it showing that happiness can not be bought as we all seem to think is possible. I have been victim to this as well, I often spend too much money on things that I really don’t need yet feel it will make me happier if I have it. How sick is that?
Also in Mate’s book he goes deeply in the profound expenditure of the place we all home. It becomes an endless cycle of having a strenuous job to afford a big house in a nice neighborhood with an garage and if you really stop and think it just seems so unnecessary. I think there should be more to life then slaving away at a job to pay the bills on a gas guzzling car, a mortgage that will take a lifetime to pay off, all those kitchen gadgets that no one needs, and everything else in our materialistic world. Should there not be a more rewarding part of life rather than just the ability to pay for stuff? Not to mention that most of us have houses that are designed to keep to ourselves, a place to eat a meal alone, a place to watch TV till your brain rots, and a kitchen that has so much gizmos that you don’t need help making dinner. Mate tells of a story that in Italy all these places are combined in to one area called the Casa and even if they irritate the crap out of you, you constantly run in to your family there and your neighbors. It brings everyone together and in a lot of households togetherness is actual an issue.
The last way to return our values back to normal is gardening. By making a home garden you not only are making use out of your days you are actually providing the natural taste of tomatoes and the like. When I was younger my family had a farm and I would help and I always had fun helping out and picking the plants when they were ready. Gardening is a great tool to create joy in your life and it cuts down on your food bill. If everyone made use of their otherwise useless lawns pollution via food transportation and production would be greatly reduced. With all these pros I do not understand why it is so hard for Americans to adapt to such lifestyles. How many times will we ignore the fact that we can no longer live in a materialistic world, we have to take it in to our own hands and return to those values before the industrial revolution.

Resource
A Reasonable Life- Ferenc Mate

Our Food is NOT Safe!

2009-12-01T21:30:00.001-05:00

Eating was impossible and attemping to swallow water would bring me to tears. The pain was unimaginable. Even something as simple as breathing would cause me to be in excruciating pain. I was hospitalized for a night, put on a few medications to kill the pain and ease the swelling in my throat. I remember the doctor coming over to me and asking to describe the pain on a one to ten scale. I lifted up both my hands and held up ten fingers, the swelling prevented me form even speaking. I was one of the thousands of people that have gotten ill due to the foods we purchase and consume. OUR FOOD IS NOT SAFE.

After my experience at the hospital two years ago, I started looking in to organic, natural and locally made food. I was determined to change my way of eating. I made a point to visit the local farm market that came to my hometown and explore new organic products. Now that I am a college student in the Albany area, I had to research new places where I could purchase organic or locally grown food. I wanted to share with you some places I found in the Albany area:

Empire State Plaza Farmers Market

Altamont Farmers Market

Its Only Natural LLC in Stuyvesant Plaza

Paradise Natural Food on Western Ave

Deans Natural Foods

And more and more supermarkets are carrying organic, natural or locally grown products.

Sustainable Shopping?

2009-12-01T20:01:00.007-05:00

My classmate Nicolas Urgante has already mentioned the evils of holiday shopping in his blog “Black Friday… A Prime Example of What America’s Priorities Are” He mentions the poor attitudes, the tragedies, and the unnecessary spending and consuming. While we are in strenuous economic times, this unofficial holiday is giving our economy a much needed boost, support for local businesses, as well as give shoppers the opportunity to benefit from the discounts. I don’t think anyone would really consider frugality the solution for a recession.

To me, buying presents during the holidays is not me selling myself to corporate America. It doesn’t mean I care any less about the planet either. It’s a really great opportunity to give to my loved ones (not that that shouldn’t be done year round). If you choose to participate, shop sustainably! There are some great gifts and prices out there for “green” products. I find that people really like them too.

Here are a few sustainable holiday shopping tips:

Buy and suggest gifts with high ratings on goodguide.com!
Buy local or buy gift certificates to Earth-friendly stores
Buy services like haircuts, spa trips, massages, and meals. Buy tickets to the movies local art shows, plays, or concerts.
If you are buying electronics, buy rechargeable batteries to go with it. There are also green electronics like this $40 MP3 player!
Always buy items with minimal packaging

For these and other sustainable shopping gifts and tips comment me or check out

http://earth911.com/blog/2008/11/11/20-tips-for-a-sustainable-holiday/

http://yalesustainability.wordpress.com/2007/12/14/the-story-of-stuff/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/11/holiday_gifts_f.php

What the hell did happen to sunday!?

2009-11-30T23:17:00.005-05:00

"We, however (just as tradition has taught us), on the day of the Lord's Resurrection ought to guard not only against kneeling, but every posture and office of solicitude, deferring even our businesses lest we give any place to the devil" ("De orat.", xxiii; cf. "Ad nation.", I, xiii; "Apolog.", xvi
-QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS TERTULLIANUS (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14335a.htm)

This is the first mention of the idea of a "Sunday rest", we obviously have fallen to the devil if we adhere to Tertullianus. The idea, in a very simplified manner, was that we gave up working on Sunday for public worship of god and to rest. Sunday was actually consecrated during the first three centuries of the Christian religion.
I agree with the Christian Church's idea here. While their definition of devil and mine may be different they definitely had a good thing going there. Unfortunately we are all sinners and inherently evil and now we (the ambiguous we that is America) force people to do stuff on Sunday.
The book A Reasonable Life starts off with this idea and was the nudge I needed to write this blog. People now a days are over worked because they have to be. Everyone always can use more money and the only way to get it is by working. Our nation is completely dependent on that idea of over working to afford items that may not be necessary.
Ferenc Mate talks about baseball on Sunday and how it has changed since he was a child. He makes the great point of how more money to buy the shiny equipment doesn't equate to more fun in the game. I feel this applies across all aspects of life, more money and newer technology does not directly relate to enjoyment.
If we take this idea as fact then one can then rationalize taking a day off to do nothing but relax because the extra work time and money are not going to create a happier life. Now does it need to be Sunday? well probably not but at least one day a week should be dedicated to personal health. Not only will this increase our pleasure in life, making things more tolerable, but it will also increase productivity in the work place because we are refreshed after a break. It would be nice if the day was unanimous amongst people because that would enhance social relations.
I think its incredibly important to have a time when we can decompress. Without that rest time problems, stress and hostile emotions are allowed to build up and that leads to a very unhealthy and unhappy life. It's important to enjoy the feeling of no obligations, of true relaxation because in the end don't we do all this work and racing around to have a happy life? why not actually enjoy it as well?

Black Friday…A Prime Example of What America’s Priorities Are

2009-11-29T23:55:00.003-05:00

Another Thanksgiving has passed and families all over the U.S. have made their travels to be with family and stuff their faces with obscene amounts of food. Millions of dollars have been spent on food and gasoline. Thanksgiving is a great holiday don’t get me wrong, but it definitely takes a toll on our environment; mass consuming of food from the industrial food chain and subsequent CO2 output. What is even better is Black Friday, literally what has grown into an annual American tradition every morning after Thanksgiving associated with hordes of people scrambling to stores and fighting for the best deals. I feel like people don’t even really need the things they are fighting to get a hold of and purchase, but just because it’s cheap, brainwashed by corporate America. People are trapped in a society where materialistic items are a priority.

What I’ve learned is that people even in a recession will get their kids what they struggle to get their kids what they want to make them happy. People become so crazed and bent on getting what they set out to get that injury and violence even occurs. Last year for example, the door man for the Walmart in Valley Stream, NY, was trampled and killed by the stampede of people that rushed through the doors when he opened them. No one slowed down to help him, just continued to pressure on through like everyone else, leaving him helpless on the ground. This just goes to show you some of the morals and ethics of people are at. And apparently a sale on a toy, TV, or new gaming system is valued more than a human life.

In an interesting article I came across, eBay published an animated graphic displaying "Black Friday" sales on a map of the United States. “1,027,807 U.S. transactions are displayed on the map with two dots per transaction - one for the seller and one for the buyer…based on eBay sales occurring on November 27, 2009” (Steiner).

Spending at retail stores on Black Friday according to ShopperTrak, increased 0.5 percent from that of the previous year in 2008, which was a total of $10.660 billion as compared to $10.606 billion on Black Friday 2008. (Steiner) Regardless of how sleight the increase, I still find this fact quite profound being that we are in a recession and current environmental situation. What this tells me is that people still have not yet taken any of it seriously. A perfect example of waiting until it is too late. People are clearly ignorant to current crises. $10.660 billion dollars spent in one day! Here’s the kicker, according to Yahoo's "12 Weeks of Christmas" consumer survey conducted by Decipher, Inc. in October, “Nearly 90% of Americans polled will be using the Internet for shopping/researching and more than 70% will use it to purchase gifts this year” (Steiner). That tells me that only about 30% of this year’s shoppers have even participated in the Black Friday event, and that there is still a tremendous amount of spending to come before the Holiday Season comes to an end.

To add to the sad but true fact that many Americans have transformed our holidays into days for people to go out and shop ‘while sales last,’ rather than practice the true meaning of the holiday, and recognize its purpose. A great example of this is the release of the new game called “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.” “Activision Blizzard Inc said it sold 4.7 million copies of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", or $310 million of sales, on its first day, setting a new record for the video game industry in North America and the UK alone” (‘Call of Duty’). The game also was released the night before Veteran’s Day on November 10, 2009, subsequently people had lined up for hours outside retail stores like GameStop in advance to get their hands on it. I’m sure all of these people were very concerned about honoring their troops the next day, not. Where have our values gone. From class one of the students mentioned a quote from the movie Fight Club that I really liked that went something like this, “What you own ends up owning you.” Very true unfortunately.

Resources

"'Call of Duty' Brings in More Than $300M." abc News Money abcNEWS.com, Nov. 2009. Web. 28 Nov. 2009. .

Steiner, Ina. "eBay Plots 1 Million Transactions on Black Friday Map." Auction Bytes The Independent Trade Publication for Online Merchants Ed. Ina Steiner. Perl Web Blog, Nov. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .

Obama in London

2009-11-29T19:32:00.000-05:00

Watching the Michelle Obama speech on TED.com again put a realistic spin on how people should improve their morals and beliefs to something bigger. Barack Obama said “We see the world as it is and as how the world should be, the focus should be on closing the gap of these two ideas combining what the world is and what the world should be,” this is an idea if adapted would better our world as a whole. This concept doesn’t seem hard at all but it seems people are set in their ways and unable to budge for a significant change. We have our leaders such as President Obama that tell us these simple plans for improving our lifestyle and for many it is far reaching. We all know what the world should be like, no pollutants, no war, no global warming, no violence, ect. Yet people are genuinely lost about where to start.
The video to me is a starting point that many take for granted: education. Michelle Obama hit on the fact that women have struggled all through the ages and living in a country where women do have equal rights we should take that opportunity by the horns and be the best that we can be. Like she had said she has never skipped a class, she loved getting A’s, and she never handed anything in late because to her being smart was her top priority. I find this story to be an eye-opener since I do realize I take education for granted, I do not get straight A’s as it is possible to do so nor be the best that I can be. It shows that like the rest of the world I am taking everything that feels so easy for granted, people take the health of our environment for granted, the ability to go to school, our cheap goods, and oil was a major resource we took advantage of and look where the United States is now. By ignoring what really is at stake there could be dire consequences from each of the examples above. It comes back down to what President Obama has said we are not stupid we know the troubles we are faced with but it all depends on how we take our aspiration of what the world should be and combine that ideal with our present.
The last bit of the video Michelle Obama explained the significance of the woman’s role in society just as Nancy Folbre has also touched base on. The woman’s significance in the world has now gone beyond caring for the sick, elderly, and children since we can now become career woman as well. To not take this position seriously I realize I am just like all those other ignorant people who are destroying our world, to morph what we know is wrong and put a bright light on it to make our conscience feel less damaged. I SHOULD make school a priority just as people SHOULD take global warming seriously, we should take these shoulds’ and turn them in to our present because there is only so much time where we can put these shoulds on hold until they blow up in our faces.

World-Saving

2009-11-29T19:25:00.003-05:00

It could be so easy-- world-saving, that is. After all, there have been so many attempts, failed and successful, to change society already. For example, during the 1960's, there was an entire generation of people fighting different movements, all with similar goals. Civil rights, women's rights, anti-war, and even anti-government protests were happening everywhere. A brand new culture emerged from this movement and has been put on the back burner for decades. However, the ideals of those indiviuals so dedicated to helping others survived and they will not be quiet any longer. A coalition of people is beginning to emerge once again that wants to save the world. Groups are being created, documentaries taped, books written, lives dedicated to this movement. So what is the common goal? It seems that the common goal is peace with mother nature. We want to be in harmony with our planet and all of those who dwell thereon.
It seems like a simple enough goal to achieve. However, there are many artificial exterior barriers to true and permanent sustainability. I say that these are artificial because I believe that many people are miserable and have absolutely no idea. The true goal of all creatures in existence is nourishment and survival. I think that humans have a deeper sense of what this means-- we want to be happy. In order to feel happy in a world that brainwashes us to participate in unsupervised consumerism, we shop. We accumulate stuff, then we die. And maybe after we die, IF we're lucky, our children will take our stuff and do something cool with it. This does not make any of us truly happy because it is an artificial sort of happiness, and therefore, an artificial barrier. I also say that the barriers to sustainability are exterior because I do not believe that they are true barriers to any of us unless we continue to believe that they are. For example, a low GDP is only bad if you say it's bad. Maybe massive production, trade, and accumulation is not a good thing. And maybe, once we all come to this realization, we will not fall victims to this sort of nonsense. An example of an interior barrier (as I would define it) would be spirituality (not religion because that is usually an organized institution, not an individual's perspective). This would be a true barrier because you cannot change the mind of someone who has different ideals. For example, if one person were to believe that destroying the planet will cause aliens to come take us to their planet which is paradise, there is no changing their behavior toward Earth. Luckily, most people do understand and acknowledge that harming this planet is not so good for any of us who are living here and plan to live here for a while longer.
World-saving could be very easy if we would stop fooling ourselves. What is the point of living an unsustainable life? In another class we learned "that which is not sustainable will end". It's such a simple truth. We all know that oil is a non-renewable resource yet we built our society to depend on it. Each generation is more knowledgable than those preceeding it and we do have the capability to make intelligent decisions. It is a logical step to be sustainable and if we don't, we do not deserve to call ourselves the dominant species on Earth. We are our only enemies. It's as simple as that.

Petroleum addiction and resistance to change

2009-11-26T17:40:00.003-05:00

During my little experiment last week, in which I went without internet for five full days, I came to realize that the experiment had many parallels to industrial society's addiction to petroleum. The internet is a relatively unimportant thing to remove from your life (well, it didn't seem that way when it was for a class assignment, but in the scheme of things, from a survivalist standpoint, it obviously is), yet I was totally resistant to it when it seemed like there was no actual reason for it. Society at large is ignorant of, or at the very least in denial of, the fact that in order to genuinely reduce our depletion of natural resources, as well as our emissions of harmful toxins/greenhouse gases, we must make changes that will inevitably affect our lifestyles in big ways. With this in mind, it makes sense that people are so resistant to make these changes. It's human nature: if someone doesn't have a personal motivation for changing things around them, they simply won't be willing to. The veil of unlimited resources that has been pulled over civilization's eyes removes all motivation from the populace. This veil is created by people's easy, constant, mostly nonfluctuating access to resources that we are in danger of depleting, as well as by the misleading notion that some scientists disagree with the general consensus that humans are affecting global warming and depleting resources at an unsustainable rate (which is only true if by "some" you mean "a very small minority"). The idea that Hubbert's peak exists even on a global scale is frightening, but is foreign to most of society.

The illusion that the resources that power all of modern civilization cannot be depleted is very comfortable. It is also very easy to believe when you have not been presented with the information necessary to reach the conclusion that such is not the case, by any stretch of the imagination. I also think that some people really just don't consider these issues, and don't care at all. They believe that it's a problem that future generations will have to cope with, and they probably think that by then... we'll have some miracle cure or some such. I believe that the luxury afforded to richer nations by their unprecedented abuse of natural resources is what fuels this disdain of change. Using less resources means cutting out some aspects of what makes life so wonderful for these people. And in fact, it will take a massive reconfiguration of resource allocation in order for the changes to be effective. Sustainable local economies must be created, which is a gigantic undertaking considering our huge reliance on goods being shipped from all over the world. It is probable that the only way change will ever actually occur is by extreme measures on the part of governments the world over. Infrastructure must be created, and policies must be enforced that are conducive to reducing our dependence on these resources. But, politicians, as smart as they are in all the wrong ways, know that the constituency of people who will vote for someone promising "intrusive policies to evade a devastating worldwide crisis of global warming and resource depletion" is limited, to say the least. Hopefully someone will reconcile this, and Obama has definitely been a step in the right direction, but my feelings on the subject are admittedly rather grim at the moment. I don't always feel this way, though. There are people all over the world who care about this, and I myself have a long life ahead of me during which this issue will continuously by contemplated. There's no doubt in my mind that humans can avert this crisis. It is a matter of whether or not we will.

More than Meat

2009-11-23T00:07:00.001-05:00

Some people believe that due to all of the growth hormones that industrial farming puts into our cows and subsequently the food that most commonly finds its way to the supermarket shelves us Americans shop at, we unfortunately ingest these hormones along with other drugs and antibiotics that arguably have negative health affects, and are definitely unnatural to our bodies. Humans are not meant to eat genetically enhanced, drug cocktail formula fed cows inhumanely kept on feed lots filling their faces with corn feed, with the drugs mixed in to keep them alive and make them grow faster. Their bodies were never meant for this way of life; that is why the cows are always sick and need to have the antibiotics in the first place to survive. They were never meant to eat corn, but instead their stomachs were designed to eat grass. Just like cows we’re never meant to live under these conditions, living in the way we do eating the food we eat. As you can see, the system we depend on is not working, and is soon to collapse. Everything is over worked and over pumped with drugs to keep them going in the face of negative consequences.

Over-population is a subsequent cause of this unethical system of factory farming, nitrogen based fertilizers, and feed-lots where cows are stuffed with corn filled with drugs to keep them alive in such inadequate conditions. In my Evolutionary Psychology class we discussed how there is evidence of females having their periods at much earlier ages. We also learned that ovulation is coupled with a high caloric intake. Americans are especially good at this. “Women with sufficient stores of fat are not only reproductively viable earlier, but if is maintained will also be reproductively viable longer” (Gallup). Yes, growth hormones in our food may arguably be a factor of this, but regardless, the obscene availability of food we have simply grown accustomed to, is also a part of the over-population problem. Clearly, the more food made available by this system of nitrogen based fertilizers, and corn fed cows, the more people can eat and the more babies can be made, however even this system has its limits as we are finding out. Not to mention, the food that make its way to our super market shelves that we are eating is unhealthy and unnatural. Sure, there is a lot of it, and it is definitely high in calories, however high in ‘empty’ calories. The food we eat fills us up and leaves us weak. Apart from the drugs, cases of E. coli are also much more prevalent from the Industrial food chain. It is not even clean. The other much healthier food chain we can obtain our food from according to Gary Kleppel our guest speaker, is from the conventional food chain. This consists of produce and livestock farmed and produced right in our backyards. Local farming is a far better solution to supplying food to communities than current industrial systems. Local farming is more humane, cleaner, healthier, as well as even closer, a very important factor. Our food cost is based primarily on the distance the food has to travel to get to us. Our food is generally transported over long distances in trucks before it ever gets onto our plate. According to Kleppel, the more time your food sits in a truck, the fewer nutrients it contains. Also, local farming completely eliminates the need for this transportation, which accounts for a lot of the fuel burned and CO2 emitted into our environment. Local farming also promotes closer-knit closer, bonded communities something I am very fond of. With a community all working together on the same bandwagon, the results are phenomenal as we saw was the case in the movie about Cuba, and their encounter with the power shortage.

The industrial food chain is a major pollution producer, as oppose to that of the conventional system which is carbon sequestering. I feel that it is not a hard decision at all to switch over to the conventional system. I have a high respect for the local farmers, growing up around farmers myself when I was younger in New Jersey. My grandparents owned a tree nursery, and their best friends and neighbors, owned a horse farm. It may not be the best smell, but I love the smell and feel of a farm, it is so natural and right; Freedom from the materialistic mainstream society. Hard-work and raw nature something everyone should experience once.

References

1) Speaker Gary Kleppel

2) Evolutionary Psychology Prof. Gordon Gallup

Condoms against Global Warming

2009-11-22T19:45:00.002-05:00

The article presented by Maria Cheng was not that interesting I thought. I think overpopulation in third world countries is quite apparent and there have been ideas of the same sort sprouting from all over. This said, I do not think condoms will make that much of an difference. It is also proven that there is a quite of few of these third world pregnancies come from rape which I doubt they would think to use a condom. Population rise in these countries are due to a ignorant society which is not ultimately their fault since education is not readily available. By not having the education that developed countries such as the US they do not know the dangers of multiple sex partners or multiple pregnancies could do to them. It spreads disease and is doubling their population. They do not think of birth control or condoms because they simply do not care, there is nothing that can be changed in their mind without the education that is so hard for them to get. By not having this education it simply does not make sense to them why they should not have 7 children , to them big families means more hands for work and that makes sense to them.
Also in this article it says that third world countries do not produce much green house emissions which is very true. Even though they do have many people in their country, too much to feed in fact but they do not have one car per family member, the need for material things produced from fossil fuels, bottled water, and other things that are burning fossil fuels in to the air. I am not saying that they do not have a problem, their problem is overpopulation but to say that by giving these countries condoms will cure global warming is just plain dumb. Their overpopulation will hit its peak like all animals, soon there will not be enough food for people and famine and disease will take its part, keeping the population in balance. I do not want to sound cruel but if there is no other way to get to these populations it will eventually become very apparent to them that they should no longer have large families because large families can not all get fed. Trying to give condoms to people who’s main priority is to survive is not a ultimate solution to keep the population from rising, there needs to be more understanding there. It is as if you are voting, you are not going to vote for a candidate just because someone told you to, you are going to want to know what each candidate stands for so you understand what you are doing.
The US has access to free condoms and our population is still rising and we are a main contributor to green house gases in the atmosphere. I think there should be a focus on US more so then these underdeveloped countries because we are lacking education as well, how do we not overly expend our emissions? Even with education we still do not produce as much effort as we should so in all we are worse then third world countries.
I think the UN is on some sort of track to help these countries from being in a very bad predicament in the future but as far as global warming goes that should be more focused on industrialized countries that refuse to change their ways to remain comfortable.

resources
http://news.aol.com/article/un-population-fund-urges-condom-use-to/772145

Assembly Bill 8163

2009-11-22T19:01:00.002-05:00

I sort of feel like I'm making up for lost time with the blogging...well actually I am making up for lost time. However this blog I feel is very important, a bill in our assembly is very close to vote and I wanted as many people to take a look as I can get.
It all started when my mom came home from Albany pretty sad about seeing a tractor trailer full of cows heading to a slaughter house. Her experience lead her to discovering this bill and shortly afterwards she contacted me.
This bill regarding humane living conditions for farm animals. Primarily talking about containment of chickens, swine and sows. Currently these animals are so over stuffed into cages they lack the ability to even turn around. This sort of containment creates ideal conditions for bacteria and viral breeding. With this bill passed it will ensure livestock have the necessary living space to go about their business happily.
If you don't have time to visit the site I hyperlinked above, there are ways to help the passing of this bill...

New Yorkers and others need to speak out. If left in the hands of politicians, AB 8163 may not get out the Assembly Agriculture Committee.

1) Contact your state assembly member (click here to search by zip code). Ask your assembly member to formally co-sponsor the bill and thank them if they already have. Sponsorship is particularly important if your assembly member is on the Agriculture Committee (click here for a list of Agriculture members ).

2) Contact members of the Agriculture Committee (and be sure to tell them if you are a constituent) and urge them to support the bill through sponsorship and a press release. The Committee has 16 Democrats, 6 Republicans and 1 Independent. The split is more likely to be upstate vs. downstate, instead of Democrat vs. Republican. Reach out to others in their constituencies and ask them to contact committee members. This is very important.

3) Ask people and organizations, especially farmers, ranchers, chefs, restaurant owners, non-profit organizations, celebrities, politicians, veterinarians, journalists, authors, environmentalists, business owners and the like to publicly come out and support the bill either by a letter on their company or personal letterhead or via an official communication that can be reproduced showing their support for passage of the bill. The bigger the name, the better.

4) Ask your village or town to pass a resolution supporting Assembly Bill 8163. The resolution would be non-binding, but it would demonstrate a strong show of support for factory farm reform.

5) Write letters to your local media (newspapers, magazines, TV) and ask them to print the letter or to assign a reporter to cover the bill. (A sample "Community View" published in the Journal News on July 15, 2009)

6) Write to us and voice your support along with any thoughts you have on how to promote passage of this bill.

7) Check back on the site often for updates.

Thank you,
Rick Tannenbaum
The Hilltop Initiative -- Building Coalitions
Valley Cottage, NY
(917) 689-1799
rick@ab8163.com

the most important thing to do is contact your assembly man because it comes down to their decision. Thanks for reading and I hope you all decide to help out!

UN Encourages Safe Sex

2009-11-22T13:40:00.005-05:00

Recently there was an article on aol news titled "Fight Global Warming: Wear a Condom". As you can probably guess the article was about the U.N. Population Fund saying that if condoms and family planning advice were made more available to combat our worlds rapidly growing population, it would help us fight global warming. Currently the world's population is about 6.7 billion, and at its current growth rate it is expected to be 9.2 billion by 2050. Overpopulation is already an issue and contribution to global warming, can you imagine how much that contribution would increase if the world's population jumped up so rapidly?

There has been some controversy over this plan, some arguments against it like the fact that the countries where population is increasing the fastest are underdeveloped countries but the more developed countries are the ones contributing the most greenhouse gases. While this may be true, the underdeveloped countries still contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and cutting down the population of more developed countries wouldn't hurt either. Basically while I dont see this plan as being the most effective thing to cut back effects on global warming it would still be effective and it would also help with issues other than global warming like lack of resources to support entire populations.

Belize

2009-11-20T15:27:00.006-05:00

In high school I had the opportunity to go on a humanitarian mission to Belize, Central America. Mission 2 Belize’s main goals were to finish up an elementary school they began to build a few years prior to my trip. Help promote the school schools opening and facilitate a summer program. We delivered provisions (rice, beans, flour, and powdered milk) as a gift to all families in the community. Educated people in sustainable farming techniques and worked toward selling a collective farm to improve the welfare of the people. While we were there we lived as the average Belizean. We did not stay in a hotel and commute to our various projects. We lived on the church/school compound, used public transportation, ate whatever the pastor’s family was having, and used out houses.

I bring this up because of our current assignment. Our test asks us to give up something that we feel we “cannot live without.” We all have fears about what life would be like without our luxuries and are presented with an opportunity to overcome it and learn something about ourselves. I had a magnified version of this test in Belize. I didn't have air conditioning in 100 plus degree weather! I didn't have a cell phone, Internet, hot showers, I-pods, fast food, or bottled water. Very large portions of the population live this way everyday while it was only a few weeks for me. One thing I will make clear is that Belize is not the bush. The urbanization and technology have a place here. Its beauty has made it a tourists dream. About 70% of the population works in the service industry (CIA). Many of the people I met worked in the tourism, side by side with our technological indulgences. Even with an experience with our air conditioners, big televisions, flushing toilets, and whatever, that they cannot come home to- they survive. They are truly happy. By experience I know that without these things I can survive and have joy.

I would encourage anyone to experience life in this way, if only for a while. It has been the most enriching experience of my life Belize has given me enthusiasm to continue to serve my community and communities abroad for the rest of my life. Spend time with family somewhere or go on a humanitarian trip; just experience what life is like somewhere else. As Wendell Berry Autumn said in his interview with Jordan Fischer-Smith, there really is a difference between talking about problems and having problems. The only way to truly understand is to "share the fate of that community-- participate in its losses and grief's and hardships and pleasures and joys and satisfactions, so that [you] don't have this ridiculous immunity that [you] now have in [your] specializations and careers. Then [you'd] begin to learn something. New knowledge would come from that, and it would be better than 'information'" (Wendell).

Comment me if you want info on my trip or other trips :]

Sources:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bh.html

(From Prof Hirsch’s email) http://arts.envirolink.org/interviews_and_conversations/WendellBerry.html

Picture: I took this picture on my trip to Belize. This is the school we worked on during the day and slept

in at night

Save yourself, save the planet

2009-11-19T21:19:00.002-05:00

"There is no degree of separation between the health of the environment and the health of us," said Jamie Rappaport Clark to a reporter from the Associated Press.
I was cruising the news reports on google regarding the Defenders of Wildlife, when I came across that quote and thought it was quite profound. Sure it's something I've heard and hopefully we have all heard thousands of times but the way it was worded here just seems to fit. Perhaps its the witty use of the word degrees when talking about environmental health in the age of global warming. Regardless of what it was that makes me like the quote, it also made me realize that even though people in certain crowds have heard this a lot for some people it's probably a first.
I feel a lot of people see environmentalists as out to save the earth and the animals, which I would hope they are, but what people fail to see is that if we don't, we die. I'm not really sure we should sugar coat it anymore, if our planet becomes uninhabitable we don't have anywhere else to go, resources run out and it's very likely to lead to the extinction of the human race. We talk a lot about going green to save the planet but there isn't really any focus on what happens if we don't unless you go out of your way to find it.
I hate to say it but no one gets scared when you tell them carbon levels are still rising. The idea that polar bears could go extinct doesn't scare people. The video footage of a polar bear swimming in the ocean with no ice in sight almost brings me to tears but I don't a lot of people are moved enough to do something.
But can you scare people with something so serious without making them think they are all doomed?
I think you can. Regardless of what we do today and in the future, earth will be here. If we die off as a species and the planet is rendered uninhabitable, it's only a matter of time before conditions will again be favorable for life.
It's a bit arrogant to think we will destroy our planet, when in reality we will destroy ourselves and earth will recover. The earth is timeless compared to the humans presence on its surface.
I feel this point needs to made as frequently as that of the polar bears because some people do not care about the fate of animal but they will listen if something they care about is in danger.
This is just another way to speak someone elses language. Science is difficult to understand to say the least and a lot of people wont spend the time to understand the many concepts of global warming and non-renewable resources. Just like we need to speak buisiness to corporations we need to speak to the every day person in a language they understand and have a vested interest in.

Cortez

2009-11-18T18:40:00.004-05:00

During class on Monday we discussed grooming and how it can bring creatures closer together. We talked about its importance in ape and monkey society and we touched a little on how we as humans like to be groomed. The discussion in class had me thinking about my own experiences with "grooming" and perhaps the most cantankerous, yet unquestionably loved, member of my family.

Cortez, my Quaker Parakeet.

As you can see he is posted above locked safely away in his cage. Though a lot of the times this is not the case, he is usually out marauding on my screened in porch.
To say he is hard to deal with would be a gross understatement but to say that it wasn't worth it would be even worse. Him and I have had a shaky road together, he squaks at 6 in the morning because hes hungry and wants me to come eat with him, he is incredibly picky with his food and will become aggressive if he doesn't like what your offering, he doesn't like change, did I mention he is loud enough that I can hear him while im out walking? He has drawn blood over simple things. Him and I do not communicate well.
HOWEVER, there is one thing that brings us together. You guest it, grooming. He will let me scratch his head, rub his feathers during a molt and otherwise groom him and he does not hesitate to return the favor. He grooms my goatee which he feels is perpetually disgusting and my hair with his beak. This activity requires tremendous trust on each others part because we both let our guards down to "groom". This is the activity that brings us together and allows us to grow in a human-bird relationship where no other form of communication really works. Sure he can respond to commands (when he feels like it) and he can talk but he truly understands me when I groom him. It's our way to build trust and enjoy an mutually beneficial relationship.
So whether its grooming or gossip I feel it really can bring people together in ways that are otherwise impossible.

The Civic and the Divine

2009-11-16T14:26:00.004-05:00

Many people have a tendency to care with our words and not by our actions. We sit in our warm homes and watch as the world wastes away on our large televisions. We pity the poor souls and whine for somebody, somewhere to do something about it. As the program cuts to commercial, we go back to eating our box meals like nothing ever happened. What will it take for us to change? What will it take for us to take seriously the degradation of our planets, societies, families, and whatever and realize that it is going to take a collective strength to change anything? We seem to be firmly rooted in the desire to attain the OUR “American Dream” not realizing it’s only a shadow.

I really enjoyed F.G. Baileys notion of the “civic” and the “divine.” Again, the “civic” refers to the rights, responsibilities, and obligations that bind both and individual and their group. The “divine” is the thing that becomes greater than an individual and the activities of the group. The idea of a collective coming together for something greater than any one individual within is close to how my family operates. The paternal side of my family is huge. My Dad has eleven brothers and sisters and all except one live extremely close together. You can find seven Bragg households from one street to the next! My Mom comes from a family that has too many members to count (between biological, adopted, and foster children). The roles within my family are a little blurred. Our responsibilities are atypical but there is a common goal that binds us all together, the “divine”. Even as everyone grew up and out (but not too far away), the ideal remained. We take care of one another. We give of our surplus to ensure another does not go without. We come together so solve problems and there is truly strength in numbers.

This is unlike average. Many would prefer to have much and it’s not even a thought to share ones home, food, money, and companionship with someone outside their nuclear family. We want OUR bottled water, OUR organic foods, OUR healthcare, OUR luxury cars, OUR American dream. And our sense of entitlement, our individualism thwarts others. As the Jeff Dardozzi article proposed, it is going to take a collective effort to survive- to turn this ship around to have sustainable living practices. This is much greater than individuals and their desires. Like my family, local communities to global communities will have to come to truly make a difference. It wont be easy... but like I said, there is strength in numbers.

Jevons's Paradox

2009-11-12T20:42:00.003-05:00

The concept of the "rebound effect" originated in economist W. Stanley Jevons's The Coal Question. Although this was published in 1865 and was in reference to steam engines, the idea that technological improvements in efficiency will not necessarily lead to decreased consumption of resources rings truer than ever in today's age. Many people (the vast majority, really) continue to consume energy resources without so much as flinching at the fact that these resources are being depleted. It has been easy for them to do so, given that there has been nothing other than slight fluctuations in prices to make it tangible. The government (in the U.S. as well as in the rest of the world) has avoided addressing the necessity of pervasive, regulated efforts to decrease society's dependence on, and obscene consumption of, depleting resources. Obviously, as with most of our governments' follies, this negligence is largely due to their desire not to upset constituencies with inconvenient truths. A politician that runs on a platform of limiting citizens' petroleum consumption in unlikely to win, plain and simple. However, the ignorance among citizens that has resulted from this sort of culture has led them toward the convenient mentality that a sort of "silver bullet" is inevitably going to save us from our absolute dependence on resources that we are absolutely going to run out of some day.
In the short term, the sort of advances that have been made in improving the efficiency of petroleum consumption have ultimately led consumers to save money. Improvements in housing insulation and car engines, for example, should theoretically conserve petroleum. This, however, is when the rebound effect rears its ugly head. The improvements in heating homes only led to monetary saving for people, and so people in turn built more, larger houses that required more energy to heat, and adopted other behaviors that required more energy overall. Engines as well. As engines improved, people began driving further and more often. They didn't simply save money by using less gas for the same activities: they used the money saved to buy Hummers and be active consumers in an economy that is inherently inefficient as far as the nonrenewable resources. The rebound effect is ubiquitous in our economy. Even something like word processing, which was initially lauded as something that would save trees and create a "paperless office," ultimately led to an increase in paper usage, as it became easier to type and print words.
What this effect ultimately means to us, as inhabitants of this planet, is that we cannot simply hope for technological improvements to better our pattern of consumption of nonrenewable resources (that pattern being "consume without mercy or foresight"). It is up to us to establish a way of living which, in direct contradiction to the past few hundred years of cultural conditioning, doesn't require, or even allow, the massive, non-stop consumption of these resources that has been taking place. It is possible, but will be difficult given humans' general tendency to stick with what's comfortable. And the illusion of unlimited nonrenewable resources is indeed comfortable.

How to Recycle

2009-11-12T13:58:00.002-05:00

I was talking to some of the people who live on my floor and they brought to my attention that they really have no idea how or what to recycle. I did a little searching on the internet and found this website: http://earth911.com/ . I hope this helps all of those who are just as concerned as the people on my floor but want to start a recycling regimen. Good luck!

Jevons' Paradox and The Sea of Selves

2009-11-12T00:26:00.003-05:00

Economist W. Stanley Jevons first used the “rebound effect” or Jevon’s Paradox, in 1865, in his essay The Coal Question. The term was used to describe the use of coal and improvements in efficiency of steam engines at the time. Jevons stated, “It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption.” He went on to explain that in fact, the very opposite is true in reality. During the 1980’s Jevons idea resurfaced in the work of two new economists, Daniel Khazzom and Leonard Brookes. They looked at the improvements in technology and their subsequent affect on the total energy use of a society. Their argument was that new and improved technology leads to an increase in overall energy consumption.

This Paradox can be seen in virtually anything. Costco and Sam’s Club, in which exclusive membership is required and so called “discounted” items can be purchased, displays this paradox. There seems to be a benefit but in reality since these stores generally only offer sales in bulk, that is large quantities, you actually end up spending more and acquiring more than you need. Another obscure example could be seen in alcohol consumption and tolerance. The more and more you drink alcohol the higher your tolerance becomes, thus the more alcohol you require to get “drunk”, which is hazardous to your health and results in greater money (resource) spent on alcohol and intensifies all of the negative effects of alcohol. This is a lose-lose situation.

When thinking about consumer spending I could not help but think of Annie Leonard’s video on “Stuff”. There is so much emphasis on consumer spending because our country’s economy is reliant on this “materials economy”. In our system is you do not buy things you do not matter. The importance of shopping and consuming in this country can easily be seen in times of tragedy like 9/11, when President Bush told us to SHOP. Our forefathers created this emphasis on consumption; President Eisenhower said that the main concern of our country should be to produce more consumer goods. Planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence conform our minds to the ideas of this consumer economy. Many consumer products are planned to break, many even studied to figure out at what time is most appropriate and will lead the consumer to repurchase a product. If products do not break than T.V. commercials and media will encourage social reform and change to the “norms”, so that Jacket with the hood is no longer fashionable and now Jackets with high collars are, forcing consumers to buy new Jackets when their old ones are in perfect condition. If consumers stopped spending so much many companies would lose money and possibly go out of business, which in turn would result in the loss of many jobs and increase unemployment.

Adam Curtis explained his theory of the sea of selves in a BBC documentary named Century of the Self. Curtis meant to detail the progression of human in societies like America to slowly but surely become more and more selfish. We are mostly concerned about ourselves and if not ourselves, our immediate families. We do not feel obligated to feel concern for others, may it be neighbors or fellow countrymen, or even our planet for that matter.

F.G. Bailey, an anthropologist, focused his studies on humans and power and collectivities. He used the terms civic and divine to explain two of the five terms used to describe the human persona. Both social aspects, the Civic refers to morality and what is right, just, and appropriate while the divine alludes to being part of something greater than oneself, a greater picture. Humanity lacks these two aspects of persona more than the rest. Many of us in the sea of selves do not see the greater picture of our existence and only conform to morals and regulations put before us by our leaders, without questioning them.

I liked this article and I think Jeff Dardozzi has unearthed a subject of humanity that is universal and will have to be dealt with universally. People across the globe are slowly learning how efficiency leads to greater losses and this can and will be seen in oil consumption. Once again as always the solution to this Paradox and many other problems that plague our current society is change, but this change must be universal and done by many on the whole. This is why, in my opinion, this assignment was assigned for Veteran’s Day because soldiers are very aware of the “divine” and its benefits and essentiality. They come together as one and work towards common goals and put no man above another. We as the human race can use them as a model for what can be done with a common mind and a sense of being something greater than ourselves. This idea of divinity coupled with true sense of civic, for earth, made by collective minds and not pushed upon us by government, will save us from this paradox.

Reference:

1) The Spector of Jevons' Paradox by Jeff Dardozzi

2) The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard- www.storyofstuff.com

The Rebound Effect

2009-11-11T22:22:00.003-05:00

The Rebound Effect, also known as Jevons' Paradox, says that as we attempt to solve our future problems by increasing efficiencies in technology and using better sources of energy that the problems will only be magnified. An example of this would be world hunger-- as we try to feed starving peoples throughout the world, they become nourished and their chances of procreation increase. As these people have more children (who in turn have more children and so on), food resources are further and further depleted, leaving more people starving than there were initially. Therefore, feeding the starving will only increase world hunger. Another example of Jevon's Paradox is antibiotics. Initially we use antibiotics to fight off a bacterial illness. As we continue to use antibiotics more frequently thereby healing more people, the bacteria evolve so that they are antibiotic-resisitant. If this becomes a serious problem (which is very possible if antibiotic use is not regulated), the resistant strains will make more of us sicker than ever.
As more of these paradoxes present themselves, society has a very interesting response--spend. We spend, spend, spend in order to preserve what we think is in our control. After all, that's what agriculture is all about, right? And since our society's roots stem from those people who first became agriculturalists, we have told each other for thousands of years that we can control everything in nature from bacterial infections to the carbon cycle. For thousands of years we have been patting each other on the backs, congratulating ourselves for yet another triumph over nature. Now that we are starting to realize the serious consequenses of our actions, we are depending on the only thing that we still know how to do after we've wiped out all of our insticts. Now is the time to shop.
What exactly do we shop for? You name it, we buy it-- hand sanitizers, cleaning products, organic produce, bottled water, Ramen noodles, EZ Cheez, magic lotions, carpet cleaners, real estate, solar panels, fall-out shelters, solar lightbulbs, air conditioning, Ford F150's, chewing gum, MP3 players, recycled paper, sailboats, tupperware, protein shakes, trendy boots, Pepto Bismol, and sunscreen, and we all believe that if we are the best shoppers we can be, the world will be saved. Maybe if I buy one less cup of coffee in that darned paper cup--but oh, that's right. They give us recycled cups now, so if we waste a little more it won't really make a difference. The truth is, I have no idea what will happen if we stop spending so much money. I was brought up in the same society as all of the spenders, and so, I am also a spender. I do believe to a certain extent that spending can save me and my family, even though a part of me knows how wrong that may very well be.
Jeff Dardozzi, the author of "The Spector of Jevons' Paradox", referred to something he called the "sea of selves". The "sea of selves" is the group of consumers who believe that spending will save them. In other words, their spending is a self-interested act, not an act of compassion in an attempt to change how we operate or fix the problems that we have created. In class, we also discussed Bailey's notion of the civic and the divine. The civic is a set of rights, obligations, and responsibilities that bind the collective and the individual while the divine is something greater than one's self and that activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world. These two ideas may be the solution that we have all been so frantically searching for from behind our big screen televisions while relaxing in our recliners.
We need to become activists. We need to reinvent our local communities. We need to stop saying that we can't and believe that we can, because the truth is that WE CAN make a difference. The Rebound Effect is a real thing. This can accurately be applied to many situations. Consumer spending can change the products that are created if the majority of the population chooses to make better decisions. However, we truly need to seek methods that involve innovation, reinvention, and traditional practices. After all, is that not what human beings take pride in? We are the race that has defied the odds for centuries--let's do it one more time, but this time, let's do it for a greater purpose than ourselves; let's do it for our neighbors.
It is very appropriate to post this on Veteran's Day. These honorable men and women sacraficed their lives for our well-beings. In my opinion, the least we could do is give something back to them. Let's sacrafice a little for the many, as our troops have done for us over and over again.

The Paradox Box

2009-11-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

Jevons Paradox, also known as the rebound effect, is the suggestion that increased efficiency of resources alongside technological advances will lead to greater energy consumption. The effect is that conservation and efficiency first decreases the demand and that reduces the price of an energy resource. Then, with a decline in cost, there is an increased the demand, therefore increasing overall resource use. This effect occurs because the resource is now available to more people and can be expended extensively. A great example Jeff Dardozzi gives of Jevons effect with the Tata. While many all over the world are trying to reduce emissions and the use of fossil fuels, the Tata Nano is introduced. This will be the introduction to the worlds cheapest and most fuel efficient car (The Oil Drum). Its affordability will introduce a consumer population of roughly two billion people which will certainly not at all decreasing oil consumption (Dardozzi). Another clear example given is the wonder of word processing. Before the explosion of personal computers, typewriting was not an enjoyable process. They were expensive and extremely time consuming. Many believed that we’d eventually go “paper-less” but they were very wrong because the cost to print dropped and paper use increased dramatically. The rebound effect in action!

There is so much emphasis on spending because it’s the hand that keeps our capitalist pot stirring. The power of the consumer who buys the resource efficient product causes the reduction of price. That then increases the buying power of other consumers allowing them to spend and use more resources. Even if money is saved it will eventually be spent somewhere in the economic system that requires energy. The ability for individuals to spend is the force that supports global economies so if consumers were to stop spending economies would virtually collapse. One thing, everyone heard in the news during our nations recent recession was to spend because to not do so would halt all economic movement.

In the Century of the Self documentary, Adam Curtis describes the transformation of our society by corporate America as a “sea of selves.” I believe that he meant that we have become a culture of individuals. We “look out for number one” and make life decisions based on personal desires and have lost a true sense of community.

F.G. Bailey’s notion of the “civic” refers to the rights, responsibilities, and obligations that bind both and individual and their group. The “divine” is the thing that becomes greater than an individual and the activities of the group. The workings of the “civic” and the “divine” are paramount in order for society to transform from a “sea of selves” into a collective society, a true community. Only with relationships and interdependence will we be able to break free from the paradox box and truly make a change.

I really enjoyed Jeff Dardozzi’s essay. It made me think more about the outcomes of the decisions our society makes. It reminds me that every action truly does have a reaction and not always the one desired. It is important for people to realize that it is going to take a collective effort to problem solve effectively. People will have to once again learn the art of putting others before themselves. That is why this assignment is due on Veteran’s Day. There are a few who understand both the “civic” and the “divine” and they have devoted their lives, if only for a while, for the collective- which of course includes people they will never meet. I hope it is in their example that we will follow.

May God bless them all

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3561

Veterans Day...Time to Return the Favor

2009-11-11T18:02:00.000-05:00

The rebound effect also known as the Jevon’s Paradox is the term given to the phenomenon that greater energy efficiency and new renewable energy technological advancements will produce energy savings, however when looking past this simple assumption we find that things do not always work out so conveniently and that in the long-run, may result in higher energy consumption. Completely undoing any work done to improve the situation. Resource efficiencies as well as renewable energy technology provides the opportunity of population growth and sustainability, and because there is a direct correlation between population size and energy consumption, its valid to say that increase in energy usage is a product of the world being more efficient than ever before. A truly vicious cycle. Think about it, when you save money you usually tend to spend it on some other consumer goods, hence increasing energy consumption. For example, investing in a hybrid car which save s you ‘X’ dollars a year, and that energy efficient refrigerator, or central air conditioning system, which saves you more. How about solar panels? Sure these investments most definitely save you money and pay for themselves in the long-run; however what do you do with all that money saved. People generally turn around and use because, whether it be burning a hole in their pocket, or now they can spend more frivolously on non-necessities. Transportation is a big one, with the invention of more efficient means of travel, such as the automobile and the plane; people consume more fossil fuels and energy than they ever had. So here’s the point, the solution to these gas guzzlers particularly the SUV, are small hybrid cars, they can save you all kinds of money on gas. However, with this extra money saved people go out and spend it on more consumer goods, which require oil for factories to make. Hence the more purchasing of consumer goods, the faster we fuel the fire.

Perhaps, with the extra money saved a child’s Christmas tree on Christmas morning will be surrounded by double the amount of presents (consumer goods) than it would normally. Is this necessary? There many examples that can be made. When things are cheaper, people rush out and buy it, why do you think coupons and sales even exist. It is all psychology, to stimulate spending. Our country has even made a Holiday for crazed spending; it’s called Black Friday, the morning after Thanksgiving. Sales are announced days in advance letting the masses know what cheap deals they can get and people will rush out and fight to the death literally for these products, such as cheap computers, printers, DVDs, games, the list goes on, regardless of whether or not they really need it. It’s a shame that holidays have been turned into key dates for mega sales, probably due to the fact that people are off, so they can make it to the sale. Electronics in my opinion have to be one of the worse; it seems as if every time you go out and purchase a new computer, TV, camera, whatever it may be, it is always outdated in no time, replaced by something newer and shinier. So what do we do when a new more efficient model of TV comes out, we go out and purchase it. In fact we like them so much, that we purchase one for every bedroom of the house. Oh and don’t forget, Blue Rays look so much nicer on these TVs. In order to get your money’s worth better go out and a few Blue Ray players to, not to mention install a nice HD cable package too, so you can see every drip of sweat and dirt on your favorite baseball players face.

Humans are essentially hard-wired to go out and spend. Society puts so much emphasis for consumers to buy these goods to keep the economy strong and healthy. As long consumers stop consuming, the US economy will not grow. If people stopped buying, due to the lack of demand products will stop being produced. The flow of money will be haltered, having effects on taxes and prices of resources. I like to think of money as a ‘mess’ we are stuck in. It’s sort of a domino effect both ways, as the cost of energy decreases, people spend more buying the latest and greatest, this is economic growth. However this growth is proving to be detrimental to our Earth’s health. As the cost of energy increases, people won’t have the extra money to spend anymore; and if struggling to afford the necessities due to producers dwindling because their own financial losses, the economy will quickly shrink and fall apart weakening our country.

“Sea of selves" is Adam Curtis’ description of people’s mindset in today’s society. In his documentary “Century of the Self”, he explains how people are very egocentric and only think in terms of what would benefit themselves rather than others. He stresses how important it is that we relinquish ourselves from this imaginary freedom based on endless consuming, to have any chance ‘collective’ survival, of the massive hurdles that lie ahead of us. It’s going to take the joint effort of all of us for a chance to make things better and perhaps cushion the Earth’s retaliation toward years of punishment our destructive society.

In Tactical Uses of Passion written by political anthropologist F.G. Bailey, he mentions the ‘civic’ and the ‘divine’, the social aspects of personality. “The civic alludes to the set of rights, obligations and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa. The divine alludes to the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world” (Dardozzi 5). Thus, by paying more attention to the rights of others and recognize we are all collectively part of something greater than our individual, we can then relinquish ourselves from the materialistic fallacy of freedom we live in. We will then be able to experience what true freedom really is working side by side for the greater good.

I really enjoyed Jeff Dardozzi’s essay, “The Spector of Jevon's Paradox”. He opens the eyes of readers to how ignorant we are to the fact that through the purchase more efficient goods, and our struggle to become a more efficient society, we are in fact digging ourselves into a deeper whole, and consuming even more energy due to the left over cash saved. It is obvious that people need to sacrifice their egocentric attitudes and work together in order to experience true freedom and better take care of Earth our home, however why doesn’t anyone budge? This is the problem. I think more people are actually more aware of our problems than some may think, however don’t care enough to do anything to help. The refusal to look any deeper into the consequences, for example how our way of life may affect our kids, and the ultimately the implications unto the future of the human race.

Veteran's Day is a national holiday meant to commemorate and honor military veterans, people who risked everything they had to ensure the well being of their country and those Americans who live in it. They ensured that Americans could enjoy everything we have today. This extremely selfish act, an example of Bailey’s explanation of the divine social aspect, they fought for a greater cause. Thus I believe Veteran’s Day is an appropriate day for this blog, Americans now need to do to return the favor, not selfishly and ignorantly turn the day commemorating the selfless acts of soldiers into another mega sale. We as citizens now need to make the sacrifice, to pave the way for the future.

Resources

Dardozzi, Jeff. The Spector of Jevons’ Paradox. Google. < a="v" q="cache:MlS7zSutpAIJ:humanitieslab.stanford.edu/MAHB/admin/download.html%3F" hl="en&gl="us&pid="bl&srcid" sig="AFQjCNEPiLPzlvEf4vE5v57hZH4rCgmdnw">.

Jevons' Paradox

2009-11-11T15:01:00.002-05:00

Jevons' paradox describes the effect of increasing efficiency by technological advances and how this effects resource use. It states that as technology increases the efficiency of resource use the price of that resource will go down. This causes an increase in demand which causes an increase in consumption. In the American economy this is a good thing. This is because people who are spending less on each item or resource the consume the more money they have to spend on other consumables which helps the economy to expand. From the environmentalists perspective the fact that resources are being used up at an accelerating rate is disturbing as it means that the idea of increased efficiency and conservation are flawed and that another mechanism for slowing resource loss must be sought. The idea behind conservation that has environmentalists shouting from there rooftops is the fact that if we all used less than we do now, we will have more to use later on. This means a decrease in spending on the part of the American people. This is bad for economists who would wish for people to spend all they have the second it comes in the door. This is because, in order for our economy to continuously expand people need to be making more money and spending that money with increasing efficiency and speed. This idea has been promoted for decades causing the American population to see themselves as consumers first and human beings second. The American dream states that if you work hard and make lots of money you to can have a pile of stuff and a big house to put it in. This individualistic country encourages people to do whatever it takes to get to the top irregardless of whether it is good for the whole of society. This has created a "sea of selves" a population all looking out for #1. Due to the free market ideals that have been driven into us since birth this sounds like a great place where one can get on top by there own means and take care of themselves and there family without having to worry about what the rest of the country is doing, but I believe that this behavior is destructive to our nation. In order to survive a democracy requires civic participation of all its people and a collective identity which cements society together. This leads to F.G. Bailey's aspects of the human personality that allows us to work together. One part is called the civic and the other is called the divine. The civic refers to the set of rights and responsibilities that bring people together. The divine refers to the idea that something exists which is greater than ones self and that to act together to work on behalf what is greater is the job of individuals. I believe that this notion exists in society today in people looking out for the greater good of all. The only problem is that you need to have these people empowered by those around them to act collectively to work towards a common goal. The "sea of selves" is a hypnotic trance which is not easily broken. With the promise of riches and a better life for themselves and there family the masses march toward the demise of the country that has allowed them to act this way for so long. This is why I feel that the idea of Jevons' paradox with be the demise of any population which oversteps its bounds and reaches the end of their once plentiful resources. The power in America is with those who have all the money and they are interested in themselves. This means that they will promote the spending spree economy as long as they possibly can and at the end they will get out in time to watch it all crash upon the ones they used to prop it up.
I feel that this assignment was due on Veterans day because this day symbolizes civic duty on its grandest scale. There is no greater sacrifice of self that to give ones life for the greater good of all. The men and women who have joined the armed forces as a call to duty represent the attitude we should all take toward our country. To serve our community and our country with honor and the strictest of discipline, to do what is right in the face of danger and to serve for the betterment of all independent of what they themselves want. This day Celebrates there sacrifice and inspires us all to follow the same path.

The Paradox

2009-11-11T13:50:00.003-05:00

Jevron's Paradox is the idea that increased efficiency creates more demands and therefore immediately negates the original efficiency. Its a very simple paradox to see in everyday life, as we make something easier to do more people do it. The best example in the essay, in my opinion at least, is about typewriters. Dardozzi states that when typewriters were slow and expensive but with the creation of computers and the "paperless office" the price per word to print decreased and paper consumption skyrocketed.

Dardozzi also uses highway improvement as an example. Stating that improvements in the highway increase carrying capacity which in turn leads to increased traffic congestion. Then more maintenance is required due to the fact that the highway is being used by more cars.

Dardozzi argues that we are already in the Paradox and that no current approach to climate change and peak oil will get us out. Our current attempts will have a worse effect in the long run.

There is an emphasis on consumer spending because in a way, spending fuels the paradox. When prices go down due to increased efficiency, more people purchase the product who couldn't afford it before. The decrease in price opens up a whole new level of consumers to the product. How ever increased spending stimulates the economy and keeps things moving. Also like to purchase things, it's a social symbol for wealth. We are basically told everyday to purchase goods, we get personal satisfaction out of it and it helps to boost our economy but it also keeps us in Jevron's Paradox. If consumers immediately stopped purchasing things the economy would crash and our country would go into another economic crisis. How ever according to Dardozzi making people see the flaw of buying a lot would help to bring us out of the Paradox.

When Adam Curtis mentions the "sea of selves" in his documentary Century of the Self, he is referencing how corporate America has created a sea of individuals who need to consume for them selves. This demolishes any idea of a collective survival according to Dardozzi.

Bailey's idea of the civil and divine aspects of human cultures are two ideas of what Dardozzi thinks we as people have lost. The "civic" alludes to a setr of rights and obligations that bring an individual into a large collective. The "divine" is the idea of something greater than the individual and that your groups actions are significant on a world scale.

While I do believe some of this essay, I think a lot of it may just be banter. I strongly agree we need a larger sense of the civic and the divine but not so much so that we become individually mindless. Yes increased efficiency does sometimes cause increased use but a lot of the time the relationship is indirect. Even if energy is renewable it will still be limited to some extent and it wont be harmful to the environment so increased use wont be much of a problem. Also to agree with this essay you'd need to accept that techno logic inventions are putting us down the wrong path. I would say that to be true if we played by the "rules" of this paradox but when in the history of mankind have we decided to simply play by the rules? It's perhaps one of our greatest assets, it is our ability to constantly overcome challenges by consistently "cheating" or working outside the laws of nature and now we are closer then ever to doing so without harming nature in the process.

This is appropriate for Veterans day because the mentality shared by soldiers must be a model of Bailey's civic and divine. To put their lives on the line, to go through horrors untold, these men and women must believe in their unit and in something more then themselves. This is the very thing that Dardozzi argues we all need in order to escape catastrophe.

Veteran's Day Blog

2009-11-11T13:16:00.007-05:00

"Jevon's Paradox" is a term that was originated by economist W. Stanley Jevons in The Coal Question. Jevon's wrote "It is a confusion of ideas to suppose that economical use of fuel is equivalent to diminished consumption." While Jevons lived in the late 1800's and was writing about coal consumption and efficiency, Jevon's Paradox still exists and can be easily applied to our society today. Jevon's Paradox, or as it commonly referred to- the Rebound Effect, seeks to explain that energy efficiency will lead to more investment in capital which could negate the conservation we are trying to achieve. Increasing efficiency will lead to more energy consumption for several reasons. One cause for higher energy consumption is that by being energy efficient people will have more money to put back into the economy, which they will because we live in a society where spending is the best thing an upstanding citizen can do. Yet another reason why efficiency is negated because while one person can be worried about their energy consumption, the same can't be said about everyone. Therefore, while some people will change their habits to consume less energy there will always be those who will not change their habits and negate the efforts of the aforementioned. One example of the rebound effect can be found in the way we eat. With the growing realization of the high cost of meat, some people might turn to vegetarianism or become pescatarians. While this would save us in terms of decreasing energy to raise and kill beef, transportation costs, and enviromental costs, it would increase the amount of seafood we consume. The oceans are already being exploited and "over-fished." Increasing the amount of shrimps, salmon, and other popular seafoods could likely result in near-extinction rates in those species. Another example of the rebound effect can be the rise of hybrid and/or electric cars. While these cars will certainly help lessen our carbon emissions, they will only result in more consumer spending. Hybrid cars are still much more expensive than traditional gas guzzling cars. An increase in their production might lessen the cost, yet the parts will remain expensive. Therefore, when the time comes for a new battery owners will find that it will be much more expensive than they thought. As Blake Alcott noted, "one person's doing without enables another to do."

Consumer spending is so emphasized in our culture mainly because it keeps the systems of power in control. As Dardozzi write, "the West has developed the technical prowness to repeatedly extend civilization's capacity to overstep the biophysical constraints of the environment, which has been the driving cause of the ecological crisis." Since the creation of the universe, organisms evolve to be better than their ancestors. The point being to live longer and reproduce, this point has been completely embraced by the human race. Humans want to live, everything they do is meant to better their lives and expand it. Reproducing is how humans keep their race alive. Thanks to the industrial and agricultural revolutions, humans have also emphasized another point- a class based social system. There are those who work for a living and those to have people working under them, making them richer. Those in control now seek only to stay in control. Dardozzi writes, "It is not without coincidence that the path out of Jevon's Paradox is also the same path out of the social and ecological crisis."

The BBC documentary "Century of the Self," is about how corporate America, run by those who seek to stay in control, has shaped our society today. Adam Curtis chronicles how our lifestyles have changed to be completely dependent on corporate America, we are worth as much as we can spend. The term "sea of selves" refers to our complete surrender to corporate America. Dardozzi writes, "our steadfast refusal to surrender illusions of freedom for the sake of the collective survival and well-being are conditioning us to fail." We have been conditioned to shop, shop, shop. Even in the face of a national tragedy, September 11th, our president encouraged us to shop. Unless we can learn to stray away from this corporate mentality, we will remain slaves to corporate America and continue to degrade our planet and actively engage in our demise.

Bailey writes that there are several aspects to the human persona. He writes that in order to have a successful dynamic in a community, organizational, and collective human setting we must have civic and divine elements at the core. These are social aspects of our personalities that allow us to successfully participate in society. The civic element refers to our "set of rights, obligations, and responsibilities that bind the collective to the individual and vice versa." Knowing that we all are subject to the same rules and punishment bond us, by having us all behave the same way, and connect us to the higher systems of control because we are collectively kept in check. The divine elements of the human persona refer to "the notion of something greater than one's self and that the activities of the collective are significant in relation to the world." This means that we have a sense of a greater power in place, in this case we can say that the greater power is the government, we are connected to it because we can elect our officials and trust that they will upkeep the rules we are subject to. Even though we are individuals, together we create a collective society and in order to maintain the harmony we must all adhere to the same rules or suffer the consequences.

I believe that Jeff Dardozzi's essay has hit the nail on the head. In terms of being ecologically efficient, this is a complicated term. He has illustrated how efficiency will only lead to increase spending in other sectors, or by others who are in effect "picking up the slack." Efficiency is a difficult thing to achieve because no matter how much we think we can diminish our ecological footprint, everything we do has a consequence. The rebound effect is scary to think about because it states that efficiency is not the answer, leaving us all wonder what it will actually take to save this planet.

I have one main reason for rationalizing why this blog was due on Veteran's Day. That reason is that after reading this article, after painting a gloomy picture for our fate, we are left to wonder what are our soldiers fighting for? Out there in the world, there are men and women who are offering their lives to defending this country. What are their ideals? What part of America are they defending? Are they defending the interests of those in control, are the defending the right of those in power to keep the masses under control? To keep the people shopping? To give them false hope with efficiency, knowing that in the end it is not a solution so much as a whole new problem? Or, are the fighting for the right of the masses to break free from the collective and away from the organisms in control? Are the fighting for the right of one person to stand up and push away from the mainstream solutions offered to us? We have to wonder what these dedicated men and women are overseas for. It would be a depressing thought to say they are risking their lives in vain.

Jevon's Paradox

2009-11-10T20:17:00.002-05:00

Jevon's Paradox, sometimes referred to as rebound effect, is a concept used to explain that increased resource efficiency and renewable energy technology would actually cause an increase in the use of resources instead of saving it. This is due to the fact that energy saving technology increases demand for the used energy source, essentially increasing the overall energy usage. For example, in highway improvements, as roads are improved the carrying capacity of the highways increases and therefore traffic congestion increases, eventually leading to the roads needing to be repaired more often. Before personal computers were available everywhere, typewriting a document took a long time and was costly, but with the efficiency provided by computers cost to type and print a document dropped and greatly increased the amount of paper used.

Today, our society is completely dependent on consumer spending. Excessive spending and economic growth is encouraged in our economy, even if it means sacrificing natural resources and our environment, because it keeps our economy running. We have become so reliant on on excessive consumerism that if we stopped spending so much it would almost certainly lead to economic issues, if not a full economic collapse.

Filmmaker Adam Curtis describes our society as a "sea of selves". In other words people buy anything that they believe would be beneficial to themselves, without consideration of how it affects others. Our "sea of selves" is dominant and the selfish, materialistic aspect of our society is perpetuated. This idea is related to Bailey's notion of "civic" and "divine" aspects of society. "Civic" includes the individual aspects of society like rights, obligations and responsibilities, while "Divine" includes the idea that there is something more important than oneself and what the collective population does affects the world.

I think Jevon's Paradox is a very accurate description of our world today. Jeff Dardozzi's essay, "The Spector of Jevon's Paradox", does a good job of putting the paradox idea into a perspective of our modern society and gives good reasoning, excessive spending and self focused culture, for why our society has succumb to Jevon's Paradox. Veterans day is an appropriate time to observe Jevon's Paradox, since it is ironic how we celebrate the people in our military who gave their time, energy and sometimes their lives for the collective good, with our selfish, expensive way of life.

Veteran's Day

2009-11-10T18:48:00.004-05:00

The rebound effect describes the increased consumption by individuals as a result of various steps taken to make something more efficient and consumer costs decrease. When the consumer cost decreases the individual spends what the amount its saving elsewhere. It goes along with the idea of "I'm saving money here so I can use what I saved to buy _____(insert something you’ve been saving for here!)." Jevon's paradox is a belief that with increased resource efficiency and developed energy technologies we will be able to rescue the earth from its current crisis. The problem with Jevon's paradox is that this will lead to more consumption or the rebound effect. For example, if an individual was to buy an eco-friendly car whether it is a hybrid or just a smaller more fuel-efficient car they will save gas money. If their new car is 45% more fuel-efficient they will be saving 45% of the money they used to spend on gas. So the individual is very excited that he or she is helping the environment and saving all this money and decided that with the extra cash they're going to buy that new cell phone they've always wanted. Similarly, down the road a family is redoing their kitchen and bathroom in their older home. They decided to update the windows and appliances to more energy efficient ones. They realize that they are saving X number of dollars each month due to the energy efficient appliances and windows so they decide to use the money to upgrade to the premium cable package with all of the movie channels. Again we see that the individuals use the money they save and buy something else. We have what is referred to as a desire-based economy; we buy the things we want to buy. This dates back to the 1920’s when the Model-T cars and the radios were starting to become affordable. In American Political and Social History I learned that this is where our present ideology of desiring the latest model comes from. The radio was used to fuel advertising and even back then they urged people to consume the newest things. This is where the idea of “I need” originally changed from necessities to disguised desires. The only way we can keep our economy going is by continuing to consume because that is how we made it and how it has been since the 1920’s. This is why when we are discussing the rebound effect and Jevon's paradox there is so much emphasis on consumer spending. One way out of Jevon’s paradox was looked at in Tactical Uses of Passion where Bailey analyzes the ideas of the civic and divine. The civic having to do with the individual self and the divine suggesting that there is something bigger than us. He feels that we need both the elements of the civic and divine at the center of our social life therefore there is something more than just yourself and your immediate family. Similarly, in class we watched an Adam Curtis film and heard him described us as a "sea of selves". Which basically means that we all think and act for ourselves. We buy things that we want without thinking about the consequences to ourselves, to others in society, or to the environment. This ties into Bailey’s notion of the civic and the divine. If we are only looking out for ourselves how are we ever going to worry about our planet? Many people don’t think on a global scale some don’t even think on a society scale and that it why the global crisis we are facing is not even a thought let alone a crisis for some people. Dardozzi looks at Jevon’s paradox and questions whether or not it’s justified. Dardozzi’s essay discusses why he feels that conserving energy will not be enough. One reason he feels this way is because of The Rebound Effect. He states that “every measurable increase in efficiency will serve to perpetuate this desire-based economy” As I mentioned earlier the only way to keep our economy going is to continue to consume. Consuming is a big part of why we are in our current situation in the first place. Dardozzi feels that the only way we can get out of this is if we find a way to keep the savings gained by the efficiency improvements out of the economy so that the cycle doesn’t continue. I agree with Dardozzi. There has to be a way that we can stop the money that is saved by efficiency improvements from cycling back into the economy. I think a way this can be achieved is through Bailey’s idea of the civic and the divine. If we can get people to stop thinking on the individual level they would be much more likely to try and put an end to The Rebound Effect. The reason this blog is due on Veteran’s day is because this is the day we recognize the Veteran’s of this country who sacrificed their lives for us. Their selfless acts are recognized and honored today and yet were discussing how selfish our society is. It is very disheartening to think that the majority of people in our society are not like the people were honoring today. So many people take for granted the safety of our nation and don’t think twice about what sacrifices veterans’ and their families have made. It is nothing short of ironic, how we are discussing our wish for people to think about others and help save the planet we live on while were honoring the people who do just that, they think about everyone else and do their best to protect the country we live in.

American Political & Social History -Laura Wittern-Keller

No more bottled water!

2009-11-08T23:28:00.000-05:00

In class we discussed the limited resource that is water. I took a public health class in my freshman year and this was one of our topics in which we had a guest speaker for. This woman studied African life most of her life and one of her horror stories from studying the culture up close and personal was the lack of water and its effects on the public. She said the typical woman had to go back and fourth from a spring 3-5 times a day, the spring would be far from the village and typically the woman would have a baby with her as well. So on top of holding a baby she would carry a huge bucket of water that would be very heavy. Sometimes the spring would not be full and the woman would have to wait until water would rise to the top. Not only is this strenuous work that pregnant women and women with children should not have to do on top of that the water is not safe to drink because there are no filters the government tried to fix this by dispensing straws that had a filter built in but this proved to be inefficient and a scarce product. Another way the government intervened was by making boreholes, a total of 3,000 in all of Africa but this also was inefficient since these boreholes would stop working, 90% do not function properly, and nobody knows how to fix them, leaving the villagers in the same state they were in. The problem isn’t that there is no water in Africa, these communities just simply can’t afford it, they can not even get electrical pumps to get water out of the earth they live on because their government wants to charge them money that they do not have.
On the other side of this water extreme is America and our water consumption, and it isn’t the water coming out of the tap that is essentially free, it is our growing bottled water industry. It is estimated that a consumer spends around 1400 dollars in bottled water a year, that is just stupid, when we can get the same thing from our kitchen faucet. In a article I read Pepsi’s Aquafina is TAP WATER in a bottle so we are wasting materials and oil to put water that is available to the majority of Americans in a plastic bottle. In fact it costs the US 1.5 million barrels of oil to produce these plastic bottles not including the oil in transportation. Since oil is also a depleting resource people should be aware of what they are buying and stop purchasing bottled water. There is nothing wrong with tap water since it is closely regulated and tested, in comparison with Africa we are extremely lucky to have this tap water so why waste money and oil.

sources:
http://www.off-grid.net/2007/08/15/why-no-bottled-water-from-africa/

Homegrown Food

2009-11-05T20:48:00.002-05:00

After listening to our guest speaker, Gary Kleppel, on monday, talk about "saving ourselves before saving the world" I realized that much of my family already does some of the things that people should do to make themselves self sustainable. While we wouldn't be able to survive on just the food we grow by ourselves, my family does grow some of our own food in our gardens. We grow quite a variety of vegetables in our garden and are fortunate enough to have apples, blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries all naturally growing on our land. We usually take most of the food we grow to my grandparents house where we have a large dinner on certain occasions with people from the rest of my family. For this reason I cant wait for the upcoming Thanksgiving break.

Supporting locally grown food was a major topic of discussion and I believe it's a good idea, especially helping the local farmers. My great uncle, who still gets up every morning to work on his dairy farm at the age of 72, is one of my main reasons for supporting this. I also worked on a fruit farm close to my hometown during high school. the fruit farm I worked on then took all of the fruit that I would help pick to the farmers market down the road, and in my hometown this market was pretty successful. People would crowd it on the weekends when it was open and try to carry as much fruit as they could back to their cars.

I admit, I really don't like gardening, and at times it seemed pointless to spend time playing in the dirt when you could easily go to the store and buy food, but I think the feeling of accomplishment that is accompanied with the food itself makes it worth the effort, and it also seems to have an effect on bringing family and community closer together.

Restoring a Tradition

2009-11-04T16:37:00.002-05:00

My family has a really strong tradition of farming and gardening. Growing up, there were plenty of things that would come from our land to our table. We had greens, strawberries, figs, tomatoes, cucumbers, lemons, clementines, peaches, and more! It was something we did together and for each other. It even stretched into our community; I would go to the neighbors and deliver eggs in exchange for plums or whatever else. We made ice creams, pasta, bread and other things. We invested time in knowing where our food came from and how it was made.

This tradition was held until recently when my immediate family moved across the country. Although we do buy local grown foods and make a lot of our own “from scratch,” after hearing Prof Kleppel speak I feel really empowered to restore that tradition. Our land can and should be used for more than eye candy to “keep up with the Jones’.” I don’t want my children or the children of my siblings to grow up eating box meals! I want them to have the privilege of planting something, caring for it, and watching it grow. I don’t want to have to rely on someone who throws poison on food just they can have something on their plate.

I got the OK from Mom! So as for me and my family, we will continue to support the community by buying locally, and begin again to support ourselves.

Saving ourselves, who saves them?

2009-11-04T13:22:00.004-05:00

After listening to Gary Kleppel talk in class on Monday, I was very enthusiastic about working to make my life and as many others as I can more sustainable. While I agree with him that we need to save ourselves and in doing so we will save more and more of the world, I worry about how long that would take. It seems to me the largest problem with large scale change is getting people to "go first." While I might "save myself" no one is going to want to join me because I didn't focus enough on telling them why I am doing it.

This is especially important when lives are on the line, I am mainly referring to creatures who can't save themselves. We need to save ourselves, that is not really arguable, however we need to try and help those who cant.

Think of how many animals would be in-humanely treated over the years that we spend all our energy on saving ourselves. Over 100-million pigs are raised and slaughtered each year (http://www.da4a.org/pigs.htm) , that's a lot of animals that are denied, essentially any sort of life. If each person in our school had their own farm, that's about 20,000 farms. Now if they raised pigs for food, perhaps 10-15 in their herd, that' still only 300,000 pigs, significantly less than the millions killed each year. This is does not include other farm animals like chickens, cows and sheep.

According to the World Farm Animals Day organization, about 50 billion animals are in-humanely treated and then killed each year. Due to the fact that the numbers are so high, people need to reach out and save animals as we save ourselves. Those 50 billion don't a chance to plead their case before a jury, they don't even know their going to die so how could they possibly know to save themselves?

I feel we as human beings have a moral obligation to defend them. Most of us enjoy a juicy steak or bacon with their eggs but few ever consider the horrors that food faced before it was on your plate. However because so many of us love to eat meat, there are a lot of people who can make a change. There is no need for the inhumane treatment of animals other then convenience, the facts are out and now it's up to the consumer to make a choice.

TV, Climate Change, and our Demise

2009-11-01T17:10:00.001-05:00

Isn't our generation something? Many call it the 'TV Generation' and believe me it is getting worse. It really is interesting to observe how effective it really is on our lives. The source of conversation is revolved around the latest quote from the next nonsense yet entertaining movie. Fashion trends and ways of acting have really become quite crazy as well.
I want to become a doctor just like house, or grey's anatomy, or have awesome co-workers as in Scrubs. I want to design fashion because I love project runway, I want to be rail thin because those girls from America's Next Top Model are hot. I want a Luis Vuitton bag because the girl from the O.C. loves hers. I want to play guitar like that dude from that band I saw on MTV.
It makes people self-conscious of themselves, Why don't I have all those things I see others have, why don't I have tight knit friends like Friends. I feel that we as a society are losing touch of reality. There is a fine line between Us and TV but it gives us the illusion that it is easy to cross. It makes people look away from what is in front of our eyes; pollution, climate change, oil depletion.
We take so much for granted in this world as we sit and absorb all our knowledge from a aesthetic source. Look at our environment, it is dissolving right in front of our eyes and yet nothing, to a large extent, is helping fix what he have destroyed. It is alarming how bad we are off, water has become a limited resource, our carbon footprint is continually increasing, and as one of the main countries that produce so much we haven't signed the Kyoto Protocol to limit our output in to the atmosphere.
Instead of buying the latest SUV since that commercial was so exciting and would look great driving that car, why do we not seek the right choice, the more practical choice? The general opinion is that hey its not happening in our lifetime to the huge extent it will be in the future so who cares I like to live comfortable and do not want to sacrifice anything. Was the drying of the Amazon just a coincidence? No, it was sign. Was the heat wave in Europe just a spontaneous happening in our world. No it was a sign. Think about all the people these 'little' things effect, the Amazon drying up had major detrimental effects on the local villagers who do not even pollute our earth, how ironic is that.
The greatest annoyance to people these days are high gas prices but o no wait they are going down, does this mean that we are fine again? No, gas is not a unlimited resource it will run out and it will run out sooner then we would like to think. It would have been better for us to have just leave fossil fuels alone, it was there for a reason, and I don't think that reason was to burn it back in to the atmosphere. Burning fossil fuels was our greatest demise in the first place , we have now become so dependent on it that to think that we could ever run out is preposterous but it will happen.
I guess it just doesn't make sense to me, the amount of time we put in to trends, television, just surviving our comfortable lifestyles that we can't do our part. People made this mess so why can‘t we do our part, we are so readily to destroy our environment to live happily in our material world but what happens when the effects of these actions catch up to us, what then? In class we all talked about the changes in the climate we have noticed, these slight changes are just the start soon the world we live in now will not be the world we bring our children in.
Continuing in this path, I believe that at some point there will be a point of no return, just like the dinosaurs , whom roamed the earth longer then humans, we will become extinct we are just mammals, extremely destructive mammals.

Home Sweet Smog

2009-10-30T15:36:00.003-04:00

After moving to New York, I would go spend the summers with my extended family. It was great! I looked forward to perfect weather, my grandmothers plush gardens that had all my favorite fruits, and going to the beach just a bike ride away. My home state of California is a beautiful place; it has a wonderful variety of this to do and see. There is one not-so pleasant sight, and that is the smog. I never noticed the severe pollution until I got older. I saw it coming out of smoke stacks in the same view of Redondo Beach. I noticed it looking out the window of the airplane seeing thick, ugly smog covering Los Angeles.

Smog is a kind of air pollution that usually comes from burning fossil fuels, used in industries but mostly car emissions. The sulfur dioxide produced from the fuels and smoke combine to make classic smog (green-planet). This nasty stuff has a horrible effect on building surfaces, crops, human heart and lung, and more (msnbc). Over the past decade, California has had at least half of its counties fail clean air tests (msnbc). Some levels have even violated the Federal Clean Air Act but there doing something about it. They’ve initiated the Smog Check program. This requires biennial inspections for all vehicles (except diesel powered, electric, natural gas powered vehicles over 14 tons, hybrids, motorcycles, trailers, or classic cars) to ensure that car emissions do not increase beyond a certain standard so as to not have exceptional polluters en masse; all failed vehicles must be repaired (Calepa). People mock the Smog Checks because it’s inconvenient and there’s a fee but I like it. When you really look at their plan, California officials are trying to promote a shift to clean transportation, even if subtly. They recognize that car emissions are a problem and had to make an unpopular decision to hopefully clean up California.

I’m not saying that smog checks are going to reverse everything and make it all better. I’m just really proud that something practical is being done about it. We have climate change this and ozone that, an oil crisis and sustainability issues. They’re all complex, with no answer to make it right but something must be done. I don’t want the heirs of this mess, generations from now to say of mine that we were too scared, to selfish, and too stupid to try.

http://www.calepa.ca.gov/Publications/Reports/repgov.pdf

http://www.green-planet-solar-energy.com/smog-air-pollution.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4862359/

Climate Change Is Real

2009-10-29T14:20:00.003-04:00

A survey conducted from September 30th to October 4th shows that currently 65 percent of the US public believe that climate change is a serious problem. This is apparently a drop in the percentage from 2007 when 77 percent of the US public considered climate change a problem. Whether this is a result of people being ignorant to important issues or is just a matter of statistics I dont know, but what I do know is that from personal experience I think climate change is a serious issue.

When I was younger I can remember waking up on christmas morning and there would be snow on the ground, but these past few years christmas hasn't been white but instead rainy and muddy. I've also noticed that in the past few years there has been many more rainy days. A few years ago we had so much rain one week that all of the streams and rivers in my hometown were flooded. One of the bridges near my house was washed away, some people who lived by the river had major damage done to their homes and in some places on the roads, the ground underneath had so much water that when you stepped on it, the water would gush up through cracks in the pavement. Every summer since this happened, three years ago, we've had a problem with flooding, the last two years weren't as severe but it's still enough to convince me how much of a threat climate change really is.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6300

Is Cuba really all that great?

2009-10-26T11:26:00.005-04:00

After watching the video about Cuba in class I was slightly skeptical. Any time I've heard of Cuba, while in other classes or just over the news, it really hasn't been with the glowing enthusiasm that this movie portrayed.

While I am not saying it is impossible for the country to be as good as the movie proclaims it to be, I am saying that it felt like I was watching a Cuban propaganda video. Even if Cuba is a sustainable society, that doesn't mean its a good place to be. The country did these things because they had to, because their government demanded them to. Rationing of food by a government, especially when the people have no say can be an incredibly dangerous thing and I feel like the movie portrayed it as a benefit. The government it's self has stated the rationing has nothing to do with sustainability but everything to do with assuring everyone has the minimum intake of food. I simply would not stand for Obama deciding to only give me the "minimal intake" of food every month. Of course the rations can be subsidized with market purchased food a large portion of Cuba cannot afford the price.

The government in Cuba has strict policies regarding owning a computer and accessing the internet. Only a selected few may even access the internet and those few are closely monitored regarding online usage. Leaving the country is almost out of the question seeing as the government regulates out-of-country travel and rarely lets people leave. Dictatorship is in full effect in Cuba and regardless of it's sustainability I do not believe it would be a good place to live.

HOWEVER, American government is much different than Cuban, hopefully this is a obvious fact but I can understand your confusion if you where thinking of the last Presidential Administration. I believe that with people free of oppression we can not only model but surpass Cuba in so many ways. The hardest part is going to be getting the average American to realize the urgency of the situation, once this is done America will do what it always has in the past, rise to the challenge.

With large corporations spreading half-truths and lies it's very difficult to sort out the truth from the fairytale. If you watch the commercials during Monday night football, you'd be reassured that every company is going green but if you did a little research online you'd think the world was going to end tomorrow. The truth lies in between the extremes, but seeing it is very difficult. It's like trying to hear someone tell you their idea, with two other people screaming at you from left and right. Regardless American's can do it.

Yes we are much larger than Cuba and our government can't literally force us but we have something that Cuba didn't. In America we have access to more resources and more people willing to use them. When you force someone to do something, it get's done half-ass, when you make someone understand the importance of getting something done, they do it right (usually!). So to basically answer the question posed in class, Do you think America can do what Cuba did for the energy crisis? My answer is yes, and we can do it better.

Sources:
In class Movie and other Ualbany classes.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/10/2009102624829972232.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba
http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_CUB.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107443.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_Cuba

Cuba Living A Better Life?

2009-10-25T23:44:00.002-04:00

During the late 1980’s early 1990’s Cuba’s economy was hit with a sledge hammer when the Soviet Union collapsed. What was once their primary source of outside goods and revenue their over dependence on imports failed them. The effects of peak oil crisis hit Cuba before anyone else, isolated, their entire way of life changed for survival. According to the in class film “How Cuba Survived the Oil Crisis,” Cuba’s imports and exports dropped tremendously by eighty percent. They encountered an energy famine virtually overnight, no oil, lack of electricity and food. Starvation quickly settled in and the people of Cuba needed to act quickly and adapt in order to survive. Agriculture skyrocketed. With no more food coming in, people needed to make their own. Those who lived in rural areas actually had the advantage of land, and farmers became much more respected wealthy. In fact some took from the city to rural settings. The government purchased with what money it had left thousands of bikes for its people with the knowledge that transportation would be an issue. Cars and other motor vehicles for the most part became useless blocks of metal that took up space. There was no oil to power them. The Cuban government also began rationing, so people could only get a certain amount of food a month necessary. However this was not enough. Farming and gardening began to spring up everywhere including the city called urban gardening. According to the movie, October of 1993 with the help of $26,000 American dollars began the popular rooftop gardens in cities. This urban gardening movement eliminated the need for transportation of food over long distances and of course all of this created new jobs and eventually revitalized the Cuban economy. This was not an easy process however; organic farming as they realized, takes a drastic transition. After such abuse of the land’s soil using artificial fertilizers and pesticides, the soil takes time to rebuild. Housing became much simpler due to the increase in difficulty to create cement and now many rely on the use of solar panels for electricity and to heat things such as water, when before the crisis hit, 95% of Cuba was connected to the grid. Air conditioning is hard to come by which is especially annoying a climate such as theirs, also most elevators are no longer in use. So many things we take for granted have been swept from them, but this did not hinder their ability to thrive. They found other ways to do things. Now twenty-one times less pesticides are used, finding adequate organic substitutes to solve problems, people even fabricated green house type housings for their gardens and farms constructed of fabric mesh that not only reduces the amount of pestering insects, but also increases their growing season. Another movie fact according to the urban planner who spoke, transportation is still terrible but what used to only have three major universities, Cuba now has fifty small universities spread all over the country; a perfect example of how the country has adapted to its problems on so many levels. In their struggle, a transition which took about six years Cubans have built much closer communities and strong cultural ties, with each other’s help for example among city dwellers who don’t have much land to garden, they now help each other. With cooperation and reciprocation, together they have the potential to gain much more and live more comfortably. In six years, one can argue that Cubans were eating almost as well as they did before 1989. In fact it is true that they are eating much healthier diets as a result of their organic transition, and how ironic is it that their infant death rate is less than that of the U.S., a developed country!

Cuba’s energy famine in 1989 was and still is a great example of what and a similar oil crisis may hold in store for us. In fact after famous geologist Hubbert accurately predicted the U.S. peak oil in 1970, which resulted in record high interest rates, gas prices, energy shortage, and of course the resultant plunge of the economy. Perhaps if we had took this more seriously along with the example of Cuba, and began seriously implementing steps for an organic transition sooner, maybe we would not be facing the much larger problem of the imminent Global Oil Crisis now. Alright well as I say, better late than never. Our way of life has to undergo drastic changes. Yes, I know way easier said than done, but what are we to do when it is too late? What kind of life will our kids have, and our kid’s kids? We can start by large scale urban agricultural and local growing more than ever. Making the transition to organic foods is one of the most important steps to take. A fact from the in class film, “the typical American a year consumes 10 barrels of oil for food, 9 for cars, and 7 for houses.” That just goes to show you how much we depend on oil for food. Is this an inclination for future starvation? Probably not for the U.S., as we discussed in class, due to the climate and diversity of land in the U.S. we will probably be okay. However that is a very egocentric way of looking at things being that as humans, shouldn’t it be our duty to collectively work together to save our planet globally? What is six years in the scope of things? This is about how long it took Cuba to get on its feet after its energy famine, why not strive for this before we stare our issue in the face, and smell it nasty breathe. Cuba did have an arguable advantage to undergo this transition indeed, because they a dictatorship nation, the government sort of put its foot down and made the initial decisions that forced people to keep the ball rolling. You could say they were thrown into the water, and had to learn how to swim, and that they did.
Home for the weekend, this morning I actually went on a short bike ride with my family to a new walkway bridge that opened up over the Hudson. On the way there passing through the city of Poughkeepsie I noticed plastic wind turbines sort of things, sort of like giant ‘whirligigs’ that harness any wind and convert it to electricity via wiring system of some sort. Surprised I actually stopped to take a picture which is below in a comment as soon as I find my camera cable. My town also has a local farming system built and farmed by locals, where one is able to purchase their all organic produce. I see how this sort of thing builds closer knit communities, and I enjoy it. It really makes me want to get more involved. Slowly I see changes, but this needs to be far more invasive in everyone’s lives to make any difference. My favorite quote by a speaker from the in class movie was, “If you don’t take care of the earth, the earth will take care of us,…get rid of us!” Human’s can and have always adapted, however it is up to us whether we would like to take a slightly easier path, than the hardest. By no means will anything be easy but much better than doing nothing.

References

- In Class Movie

“The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived the Oil Crisis”

"Think Globally, Act Locally"

2009-10-25T18:04:00.001-04:00

As we saw in Wednesday’s movie, the end of oil was not the end of Cuba. They were able to survive the collapse of their most powerful ally Russian and being shut out of international trade. Rather than ruin, Cubans reinvented the way they lived life. Their forced end of oil allowed the nation to move forward in ways it would have never been able to. It increased the welfare of the state and the people; Cubans gained good heath, a better sense of community, and energy and trade independence. Their response to the embargo allowed them to become a sustainable society. Cuba implemented solar energy, bikes, urban gardens, organic fertilizers, and animal power; simple things that benefit the people and the planet.

What if this consciousness infected with world? What if it didn't require a missile to draw the world’s attention to the importance of sustainability, community, and self-sufficiency? The world needs to take a lesson from Cuba and begin to “think globally, act locally”* so that we too can prosper not in terms of dollars signs but in the health of our people, country, and environment. One of our problems is that we look down on counties like Cuba. We look at their government (not that I agree), industry, and economic status and call them “poor” when we happily pay a ransom for the rape our planet for her resources, and then pollute it. We are impoverished in health and penniless in relationship. I truly hope that we can freely choose to make a change rather than be forced go down kicking in screaming.

*Some guy said it in the Cuba movie :]

Ladybug Infestation or Good Luck?

2009-10-25T14:33:00.002-04:00

This past week, I was getting ready to go to class as one of my suitemates came back to our suite. He said, “Watch out for the ladybugs outside, keep your mouth closed”, “ladybugs?” I said. Sure enough, walking outside I walked into what seemed to be a swarm of ladybugs. I looked behind me, at the tower, and it was covered in ladybugs as far as I could see. After returning from class I noticed ladybugs inside the tower, in my suite, and even in my room. I assume many others have also witnessed this phenomenon, so I thought I would shed some light on the subject matter.

It seems these ladybugs, or Asian lady beetles, are in search for warmth during this early period of cold weather. The bugs seem to be attracted to tall buildings, pale in color, that are facing southwest. This is a normal occurrence, but why in this magnitude? Some scientists credit it to an overabundance of their food, Aphids (i.e. plant lice). Some scientists say it is because of our sporadic weather patterns; mixtures of hot and cold weeks. So, these bugs might appear in the highest concentrations on days of warm weather following a short, cold period. The ladybug releases a pheromone when it thinks it has found a “good” spot (warm and pale in color). I heard that this pheromone could reach other ladybugs up to a mile away, so maybe this can explain for the large numbers.

While they aren’t harmful, they may be annoying to some. Close your windows, patch up any holes in your window screens, and keep your door closed, especially if you live in a tower. Do not kill the ladybugs, for a few reasons- 1) they could stain your clothes: As a defense mechanism, when they feel threatened they release a “bad” odor substance that is yellow (will stain). 2) They are good for the environment: they are used to naturally control many plant “pests”, like aphids. So, ladybugs can be seen as a natural alternative to various harmful and un-natural pesticides and insecticides. They are one small way we can work with our natural environment, to rid ourselves of dependence on the many “unnatural”, or environmentally harmful substances we currently overuse. Also, ladybugs are seen as a sign of good fortune in some cultures- so maybe good luck is on the way.

Reference:

http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2009/10/23/news/6315256.txt

The Large Effect of One Small Change

2009-10-24T19:35:00.005-04:00

In discussion of the things that we can do, and the small steps in the right direction of change, I have been thinking about what is being done. One thing that I realized, that I think is a step in the right direction, is the installation and use of the new Dyson Airblade hand dryers we now have in our restrooms at the University. At first glance, I was surprised to see these new and futuristic looking dryers. I almost had a confused feeling of how to approach it, but it was very easy to use. I slipped my hand inside, and almost instantly, powerful jets completely dried my hands. The directions said, “Insert hands and slowly remove”. The machine was loud but did its job very efficiently.

So what is so special and unique about these hand dryers past their futuristic design? Well, they are environmentally friendly. They use less energy, save trees, and promote clean hands through “airblade” technology. According to their specifications listed on the Dyson website, they use up to 80% less energy compared to traditional hand dryers, use a clean air HEPA filter that removes 99.9 % of the bacteria in the air used to dry our hands, and can dry 22 pairs of hands for the same cost of one paper-towel. This is a great improvement in efficiency, which is a crucial step to the environmental changes we as people need to implement on our plan for change. Twenty-two pairs of hands dried for the same cost of one paper-towel. Just think how many paper towels we each used to use to dry our hands just one time. This is a great step in efficiency, most certainly, in respect to the number of trees that will be “saved” from being cut down to be “manufactured” into paper-towels. These dryers save time (which is critical to our faced paced lives today), trees (valuable resources), and energy, which we know is a very limited resource.

One thing I do not know is who made the push for these new dryers; this small but valuable step. Was this the work of students? Or some sort of administrative decision to save the University that other valuable (yet imaginarily valuable) resource: Money. Either way this shows us that something seemingly small can affect our global environment and although on a small scale currently, what if everyone adopted these new dryer’s throughout the world? …. Think about it.

References:

http://www.dysonairblade.com/technology/environment.asp

"350"

2009-10-24T18:36:00.004-04:00

Last year I took a class to fulfill a general education requirement in information literacy, UUNL206x, which was taught by Irina Holden. This class was aimed at research in the physical and natural sciences. Entering the class, I did not have many expectations besides completing my requirement in information literacy, but the class proved to be very valuable to the rest of my college career thus far. One of the things that stuck with me after completing the course, besides some of the very valuable research techniques, is that I continue to read the New York Times via the Internet. This was required for the class but the habit remained after the course because of the valuable information, particularly in the science and health sections.

One article in the science section caught my eye in its relatedness to this class. The article is titled “Campaign to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Picks a Number” by Andrew C. Revkin and was published on October 24, 2009. The article focuses on the number “350”, its significance, and why environmentalist campaign’s are choosing to display awareness of this number. The number 350 is in reference to the number of carbon dioxide parts per million (ppm) present in our atmosphere, that if surpassed can cause drastic effects on the atmosphere and climate. Currently, the number stands at 387 ppm according to the article, a significant increase over the recommended maximum. Some scientists say that 350 is an impossible goal at the present time or in the near future and almost seems absurd. Regardless of the actual number, the goal should be to decrease the current level not slow the rise or halter the increase. www.350.org has some valuable information on the subject matter and is run by environmentalist Bill McKibben. Sociologists question this older tactic in the fight against global warming and deleterious environmental effects, and say that a fight with legislation and litigation would be more effective. I agree, but this is a start and awareness is always the first step in progress.

So how can we decrease this number? Well one way is to decrease and limit emissions of various harmful substances that we have become so accustomed to. (i.e. fossil fuels and coals) We must plant trees; not destroy them. Overall this is a problem that we (the human race) will have to deal with and the main focus as we have so eloquently discussed in this class is “change”. Renovation of our current lifestyle and overhaul of the things we depend on and use for energy.

References:

http://www.350.org/understanding-350#6

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/science/earth/25threefifty.html?_r=1&ref=science

Back to the Old Days

2009-10-22T18:43:00.002-04:00

From what we have learned in this class the future of ours and other nations is one of forced restrictions of energy and consumer goods. With the coming events nearly inevitable due to peak oil as well as global warming it is necessary for us to rethink the way we conduct our lives. In my opinion, the biggest obstacle to this is peoples expectations of what their lives should be. Many people who belong to the upper and middle classes have been blinded by consumption and now are unable to see the illogical nature of their behavior. The evidence for this is the fact that while the evidence of our future crises is clear many seem oblivious to reality. People continue to consume energy at an accelerated rate irrespective of the present need to conserve. I personally know a handful of people who would be unable to cope with a situation similar to that of Cuba as we saw in the movie. I believe that this is because many people have lost touch with our primitive roots and are now unable to deal with a life closer to the earth. I would hope that even though we may not react before a crisis occurs, we may be able to react fast enough once it has happened to overt disaster. The fear I have is that the people who are disconnected now may be thrown into denial when the crisis occurs and may damage our chances of having an effective reaction. After this stage of denial I believe that these people will panic and once again damage our ability to react effectively.

Monitoring Earth

2009-10-21T21:55:00.004-04:00

While on the internet earlier this week I came across a couple of articles that I found interesting and that both correlated with each other. The main idea of the first article was about various space agencies teaming up with google to monitor the rates of deforestation of tropical rainforests using satellite imagery. This monitoring of the forests from space is providing even more accurate and credible data on deforestation rates and carbon content of the forests than we have had before. A similar project has been started monitoring the ice sheets in Antarctica and the rate of these ice sheets melting. New more accurate results show that the ice sheets are melting at a slightly slower right than was being estimated.

I think these new methods of gathering more accurate data are great ideas but I also can't help but wonder if it will have any different effect on producing a solution. While this data may be more accurate it doesn't seem to me like it tells us anything we didn't already know. The forests are still being cut down and the ice sheets are still melting because of global warming. In my opinion our energy would be better spent working on solutions to the problem instead of trying to polish the knowledge we already have.

http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/40613

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/40604

Less Needs to be More

2009-10-21T18:09:00.003-04:00

In today's video we saw how Cuba had to react to an overnight change in the availability of oil. They were forced to make changes so they would be able to survive. According to the video, Cuba uses one-eighth of the energy that the United States uses. That is a significant difference in energy. One would expect or at least i expected that their life expectancy would be lower than ours roughly based on the energy consumption. Well boy was i wrong, Cuba and the United States have equivalent life expectancies. I feel that this speaks worlds about the excess energy the United States uses. There is no excuse for the excess energy. We can't argue that that it is necessary for human life to continue or for longer life expectancy when we can see that Cuba is doing just fine. I believe some of the speakers hit the nail right on the head, Americans need to change the way they think. One example a man used was about asking everyone to turn off lights to save energy. The Cubans turned off the lights because they knew it would hep. He said that if you ask americans the same question they're going to ask why? and say that they pay for it. I agree with his answer on this. As Americans we grow up learning that if we do well in school we'll go to good colleges and if we go to good colleges we'll get good jobs and good jobs have high salaries and benefits. We know that if we work hard we deserve the credit and should have something to show for it. We pride ourselves in the fact that we "have come so far" technologically. We currently crave biggER, fastER, newER, bettER things. The "ER" implying that its improved upon the old. We update cell phones, ipods, and TVs like its a necessity when most of the times it usually cosmetic. I feel like this notion is apart of why it's be so difficult for people to accept living differently and using less energy. Our way of life consists of working hard to improver or better ourselves and with that comes more possession and better possessions. The luxuries of not having to wash dishes but have a dish washer, or having a maid, or a driver. Just the other day i was saying that i hope i am wealthy enough to never wash my own clothes or my own dishes. It's the society that we live in. I can not imagine living a different life style and i am sure there are plenty of other people that feel the same way. Matter of fact at the begining of the semester when i was reading the cartoon guide for this class my friend asked what class the book was for and i told him and we started talking and he said "oh stop it Katie, you know we not gonna have to worry about a shortage of oil during our life time" and he's not the only on i know who feels this way. People do not think its as real of a threat as it is. They don't feel that they are the one who should be responsible for fixing the problem either. So i can't imagine the US handing the change very well. I believe if it was a necessity we'd be able to but if it was a voluntary attempt was made to be less reluctant on energy it would not go over well. I hope that we can learn from the Cuba video. I would love to see Americans working with one another to change the fate of the planet but were gonna need a lot more education on the topic. The video also pointed out just how many books and articles that have been written and they've helped but still its not enough. It makes me wonder what type of catalyst would be needed to really get the ball rolling. Especially among government officials.

Kittens

2009-10-19T09:58:00.002-04:00

I was home sick last week with what the University recognized as a "flu-like illness". When I returned to my home to Springfield, my parents surprised me with two new kittens! It is amazing how much you can learn from such tiny creatures. For example, they have never been outside before. I opened the door to let them sniff the air, and they were petrified! It reminds me of those who are afraid of the necessary changes in our energy production--too frightened to step into new territory, despite all of the incredible opportunities it may hold.

NItrogen Fertilizer Decrease, Healthy Americans Increase

2009-10-18T19:47:00.002-04:00

Enriching the Earth chapter 8 we see that it touches base again on the U.S. and what we would face when nitrogen based fertilizer is no longer available. Smil hits on the fact that the US currently supplies 3600 kcal/capita, our need is about 2000 kcal/capita. This is quite a difference and shows that if we did lose our nitrogen fertilizers it wouldn’t effect us negatively. In fact we would still have leftover food after our specific need.
So it brings up another point, America needs to slim down and when we are faced with a tightening of food supply I think it could be in one sense or another good for the people. You always hear people talking about obesity trends in the US but there hasn’t been any huge change to reverse this trend. The first day in my nutrition class this semester Dr.Wulff put up several slides to show the change. Over a period of 18 years some states have increased from 10% obesity rate to 30% obesity, that is a huge difference. How can it be that some countries are starving while the US gets almost double what it needs which results in a large amount of obese people. In chapter 8 Smil says that soon we will have to adopt a Mediterranean type diet, which is not a bad idea at all. A Mediterranean diet includes healthy fats (olive oil, canola oil) , lots of fruits and vegetables, healthy grains such as pasta and rice, and emphasis on the small amount of red meat you are allowed to consume. If America was put on this type of diet we would see the obesity rates falling because a large part of our diets consist of red meat which is high in saturated fat which ultimately contains high calorie content.
So once agriculture has to tighten their belts they will no longer be able to sustain the meat industry since so much of its cereal and legume production, around 70%, goes directly to feed for animals. When it is no longer plausible to expend so much of a harvest to feeding the animals cut backs will have to happen so animal meat will not be so readily available. The new goal will to make sure the people are fed and it will have to be that in order to do that we have to make some changes. I think the changes will not be so bad on the people. Even though Americans are so dependant in their lifestyles to food always being there and in abundance that once food production decreases we have the opportunity to grasp a new healthier lifestyle.

Sources
Enriching the Earth- Smil
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4644

If She Were My Mother

2009-10-16T16:22:00.003-04:00

Historians note that the Industrial Revolution as one of the most important events in the twentieth century, and it was. It completely changed the way we live life. An abundance of cheap energy had found its purpose. New and improved technologies like the steam engine, the sowing machine, the automobile, and the airplane. It also was the cause of mass urbanization in everyplace that chose to participate.

While these great things were born from such an exciting time, there was also a serious negative consequence both to the planet and those who live on it. Industrialization, with its mechanized, large scale manufacturing produced fly ash, and massive air and water pollution. We still continue to strip the earth for her resources, fill her waters with poison, and infect her land with our junk.

Sometimes I feel as if we treat the earth like we have somewhere else to go. It’s not like when we trash this place we’ll just get a new one. A bigger, better version of what we had. Right now, humankind has this relationship with the earth where all we do is take, take, and take. For a century we’ve refused to think of the long-term consequences of our lifestyles. All I know is if Earth was my mother, she’d be pissed.

I hope that in the light of all this green talk that nations and all the individuals within them will make steps toward more sustainable lifestyles. I hope that we begin to live like the world is ours and she’s all we have.

(Industrial Revolution information came from my His158 class with David Bassano)

Bottled Water

2009-10-15T21:26:00.003-04:00

In high school I was a part of a group called the Watershed Project. In this group we would run tests on water from different streams and rivers and determine the water quality. After the tests were run we would try to come up with ways that would make the water less polluted and better quality. Since then I have had a personal boycott of bottled water. I think its just stupid to spend my money on something that you can get for free. From taking bio 230 I also know that plastic water bottles are made from oil and they can only be recycled a certain number of times before they cant be reused. After looking on the internet I have found yet another reason to avoid plastic water bottles, the health risks.

Plastic water bottles contain a chemical called bisphenol A and a recent study at Harvard University and by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that drinking water from plastic bottles increases the levels of this chemical in the body by 70%. This chemical, a necessary ingredient in plastic that makes it hard and transparent, also disrupts hormonal systems in the human body. This can lead to increased chances of reproductive defects, brain damage, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes. This has an increased effect on infants and small children, which is even more of an issue when you consider that many food containers and bottles are made with a plastic that contains the same chemical, bisphenol A.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027236_BPA_health_disease.html

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/greenberg/archives/2008/02/bottled_water.html

Wolves

2009-10-14T12:38:00.005-04:00

Recently Professor Hirsch asked us to sort of post up something regarding our background and how we got to how we think today. I'm going to be honest when I say I don't really understand he wants us to go about that, so this post is sort of a shot in the dark.
My concern for the environment and a sustainable way of life was a direct consequence of my parents. I can't remember a summer we didn't spend in the Adirondacks camping and hiking, I loved to be out there. As I got older the trips got more intense and I loved it more and more. It was more then just enjoying the outdoors though, thanks much in part to my mom I grew a respect and connection to the woods. As time went on and tales of forest destruction, global warming and extinction started to actually started to mean something to me, I became very concerned. I quickly realized how closely everything was related, even as close to home as the Adirondacks. Global warming could lead to a change in the environment, could kill animals and could ruin much of my beloved northern forests. There where many global threats with very local affects and I made sure to educate myself as best I could. Perhaps my quest is selfish in that It began because I didn't want to lose what was close to me but it continues on today in a desire to protect the earth.
I guess my focus is on wildlife. I've always really enjoyed the company of animals regardless if they where pets or wild. I also feel they face the most immediate threat. Global warming, renewable energy, population and pollution will affect humans directly and these topics are starting to receive positive attention. However preservation of wildlife is not so lucky. While wildlife are affected by all those problems I listed above they too face other threats.
Perhaps the largest threat they face is us. Whether its clubbing of seals in Canada or the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, wildlife faces real time threats every moment.
While clubbing of seals is tragic, I feel aerial hunting of wolves is the problem which can be attacked more directly, mainly because it occurs in our own country. Simply stated there is no reason for such a form of hunting. Arguments about subsistence hunters and competition just don't make any scientific sense.
Let me first disprove any notion that it is subsistence and local hunters who use helicopters to hunt wolves. “Twice in the past 12 years, Alaska voters have approved state ballot initiatives to limit the use of aircraft to kill wildlife—and twice the state legislature, encouraged and abetted by the [appointed] board of game, has overridden the citizen-passed laws to restore use of aircraft,” states Rodger Schlickeisen of the non-profit Defenders of Wildlife.
Of course, the people killing the wolves are doing to to control predator population and allow subsistence hunters a chance at bagging some Caribu to survive. However many traditional hunters believe this hunting violates the ethics of hunting and fair chase.
Of course the Alaskan Board of game says their decision to allow aerial hunting of wolves is backed in science. However a lot scientists disagree.
It is problems like these that seem to avoid the public eye because it does not affect most people. Who cares about wolves in Alaska that we never see or hear? Even for people who care it is difficult to maintain awareness about such problems when you have your own life and your own concerns. This is why I fear for wildlife, they have no voice and rely solely on people to represent them, which is not an easy task to say the least.

Is Plastic Better Than Glass?

2009-10-12T00:00:00.001-04:00

The other weekend on a visit home I went out to a restaurant with my family for dinner. I have a bad habit of drinking soda for dinner when I go to restaurants, so my brother and I usually order our favorite soda root beer. This time they came in the glass bottles they were originally sealed in (IBC root beer to be exact). I was not surprised, because this is not the first restaurant I have been to that serves glass bottled root beer. However I have noticed that root beer is probably the only soda that is ever served in a glass bottle at restaurants. Let’s face it; most beverages have made the transition from glass to plastic. Coke no longer uses its classic glass bottles as seen advertised in those cute polar bear commercials we all know and love. There is no more milk man who delivers your milk in glass bottles at your door step, and takes the old ones to be used again. Now we have to go to our local Stewart’s gas station or supermarket to pick up a couple of giant plastic gallons of milk to last for the week to fill up those bowls of inviting unhealthy cereals made of corn before school. Yes, beer is still sold in bottles, but far more in cans, and even in most major stadiums, parks, and venues have beer companies made the change to plastic. In the distant past, the glass deposit soda bottle was the only kind of soda bottle available. Plastic bottles are an environmental travesty doing a great job polluting our environment as well as causing health risks. Glass milk bottles were delivered, taken back by the milk men when empty to be washed and sterilized, then used once again. Plastic cannot be sterilized, but sure they can be recycled, at least the ones that actually end up in recycling bins. This is supposed to be the eco-friendly thing to do however they can only be turned into another bottle once. ‘Eco-friendly companies have made efforts however to expand other uses for recycled plastic bottles including transforming them into things such as: plastic lumber, garden supplies, pallets, crates, plastic pipe, kayaks, school lunch trays, park benches, railroad ties, carpet, and fiberfill for clothing, pillows and sleeping bags,’ according to Earth911.com. I came across a very comical and simplified, yet vivid excerpt written by Jules May of the cycle of a plastic bottle. Here it is…

““I’ve got to load them into the back of my car and drive (carbon … carbon) to the dump, where they’re put into a skip. Then a lorry comes along, picks up the skip, and drives (carbon, carbon) to the docks where the bottles are poured into containers and loaded onto a ship which steams halfway around the world (CARBON! CARBON!) to China, where they all get “recycled”.
You know what happens in China? There’s actually not much of any use that you can make out of waste plastic – it’s no good for food, so you can’t make new bottles out of it – so half of it gets burned right away on huge, stinking bonfires – so there goes our clean air. The other half gets shredded, drawn, and eventually rendered down into clothes (fleeces, blankets, and so on), loaded back on a ship, and sent (CARBON! CARBON!) back here, so we can wear our garbage.
And when our garbage clothes eventually wear out? What then? We throw them away (because not even the Chinese can think of anything to do with old woollies). It goes into landfill (because, remember, you can’t burn it). And says there for – you have been listening, haven’t you? – 24,000 years! Did you know that 75% of non-biodegradable landfill is clothes? So it ends up as landfill anyway, in spite of all that transportation and processing.”

This never really hit home to me until I came to college and became a member of the Medical Fraternity. Every semester as a group we go door to door in downtown Albany asking for clothing and non-perishable items that we will donate for them. Surprisingly on such short notice people out of the goodness of their hearts manage to gather up a good amount of items. This past Saturday morning, after about three hours only, out of curiosity we counted up how many articles of clothing we collected which came out to 913!!! Walking door to door we only made it to a couple of neighborhoods. It is amazing how wasteful humans are, and especially in this case how much clothes we must go through and dispose of globally. Plastic bottles are definitely a convenience. They are lighter cheaper to deliver and truck, and not breakable; But even to create plastic, petroleum, our precious and quickly depleting natural resource, is being used not to mention the toxic chemicals that come from them when being disposed. If you ask me plastic bottles need to go. How much are we willing to lose for convenience, apparently money still has a chokehold on the well being of our planet and ultimately our lives.

References

• Article 1

http://earth911.com/plastic/plastic-bottles/what-happens-next-to-plastic-bottles/

• Article 2

http://julesmay.wordpress.com/2007/10/02/why-recycling-is-bad-for-the-environment/

Commercial Hunting

2009-10-08T22:03:00.002-04:00

After reading this weeks readings in the Cartoon Guide to the Environment I realized what I wanted to blog about since it is something that has irked me for quite some time. I am talking about commercial hunting, the very source of rainforest diversity depletion, food chains getting disrupted, illegal whaling in Japan, and much other environmental factors gone awry.

Before the world was industrialized that is to say before we started a mass market that could be traded anywhere in the world, people would hunt, fish, and farm for their own family or their own community. Now it is at the point that we can get generally anything we want from anywhere we want so long as there is a demand. Even if the demand is for something that does not provide reasonable food, clothes, and shelter, if the money is there it will be provided. In the process of wanting something exotic and extravagant they are just depleting a resource that is too fragile to continue hunting without the animal going extinct or greatly effecting its habitat. This leads to regulations and even with regulations the demand is just as high which continues the hunting but for a higher price.

An example of an ecosystem being greatly disrupted by commercial hunting in the rain forests in south Asia, Africa, and in the Amazonian. Since the diversity of species is quite numerous in these regions they are targeted for the rarity that appeals to the general public. Regulations in these area are far lower then they should be such as in the Amazonian rainforest only 1.6 percent is protected. So the rest is free reign for commercial hunters and loggers to take advantage of. This is reinforced by the communities surrounding these areas since in every market they need workers to help get the products out of these forests so then roads are created and vehicles are mobilized to supply the world with what it wants, regardless of the repercussions it could have on the environment.

On top of products such as Ivory from Elephants or feathers from exotic birds a ever threatening product would come from our sea creatures such as whales and seals. Seals have been hunted for many years but the demand for their warm stylish coats made places such as Canada slaughter houses that was extremely barbaric in action (79% of hunters would skin the seal without the seal even being dead.) It has finally come to its end(not entirely though) but to the extent where countries stopped getting the imports at the rates it used to be. Another product is whale which you can see right on the discovery channel “Whale Wars” which is about the illegal poaching of Whales in Japan. Although they say they are hunting the whales for scientific research you can buy a whale burger anywhere in Japan. The Japanese deny that they are illegally killing whales yet they have propaganda all over Japan urging people to eat whale since they were needed to be killed off to preserve the fish environment that Japan is so dependent on. There is no evidence that the whale community has this effect at all.

In the end you just realize how ridiculous people are about getting what they want even if there are dire effects that come from it. Who are we to effect Earth's ecosystems in the way that we do only to benefit ourselves and could easily do without? When will we learn???

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0430-hunting.html
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/08/23/japan-whaling-scientific-research-or-commercial-hunting/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_hunting
-Chapter 9 in Cartoon Guide to the Environment

Populatio too large

2009-10-08T17:47:00.002-04:00

I can't say that I have a hugely profound statement to say, but it seems that a lot of this courses material all points to the same conclusion. In order for the human race to continue after oil the population of the earth has to drop back to its carrying capacity. This is something I have heard before, but not from scholarly origins. About a year ago I began to follow the conspiracy movement going on in America. I was frustrated by what I saw going on in the government and I wanted some answers that satisfied my intellect. What I found was that the large portion of groups all pointed to a shady organization with the soul purpose of world domination. The organizations plan was to seize control by varying mechanisms and to eventually reduce the earth’s population drastically so that they could be more easily managed. This is interesting that this supposed organizations plan aligns itself with that of the earth itself.

It makes me wonder, if we are to resume our previous ways of living before oil, to return to the earth, how many people have to die for that to really work. It's obvious that the earth’s carrying capacity has been exceeded, but who decides who gets cut loose for the betterment of the rest. If we are to increase the carrying capacity of the earth using renewable resources and efficient technology, how far will we have to stretch to make up the difference? The facts are already here, we are about to reach peak oil without any real plan for the other side of the hill, so it seems obvious who will decide who lives and who dies. The answer is that we have already made the decision for ourselves. If you live in suburbia and oil becomes too expensive to afford, not just for you, but for everyone you know, then how will you get to the grocery store. For that matter how will the trucking companies afford to get the food to the grocery store? How will the farmers afford their petroleum based fertilizers to even grow the crops? The answer is, they won’t. The people who won’t survive are those who don't know how to survive without oil.

A Man Ahead of His Time

2009-10-07T18:40:00.003-04:00

Earlier this week, while I was studying for an anthropology exam, I noticed an interesting connection between an idea by a man Charles Darwin used as a source in his theory of evolution and everything we have have been talking about in our biology class so far. This mans name was Thomas Malthus, a british economist who wrote "Essay on the Principle of Population" in 1798. Darwin was focused on Malthus' observation that animals in the wild often reproduce to have more offspring than can survive, but after reading more about him, I found his ideas about human society to be interesting as well.

Malthus stated that like animals in the wild, man too is capable of overproducing, that it would inevitably happen if left unchecked and it would eventually become a problem with resources as well. I was intrigued when I saw this, that someone way back in the end of the eighteenth century had predicted the events that are happening in the world today. Of course when Malthus wrote these things he was not worried about fossil fuels and alternative energy sources but the food supply and that once rapid population growth began famine would become a global epidemic, and it is unfortunate to say that he was right.

He stated that the decline of living conditions would result from three things: people having too many children, the inability of resources to keep up with the population, and the irresponsibility of the "lower class". Malthus concluded that to keep this problem under control poor people needed to have smaller families. While his view about "classes" may be wrong if everyone began having smaller families it may lessen the burden of the problem we are currently facing, afterall Malthus has been right so far whos to say his solution isnt right as well.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html

Spread the Word

2009-10-02T23:36:00.001-04:00

This week in class we discussed a very important and urgent dilemma concerning the extraction and discovery of oil resources throughout the world. I may be the only individual in the class that could say this, but I honestly had no previous background information or education on such a matter. Therefore as one could imagine, the discussion on the Oil Peak Theory was a shocking topic and was a huge wake up call. I can admit that although I believe the reading the newspaper and/or watching the news is a valuable tool for staying updated on current events, I have not yet formed a daily habit of doing so. This I believe is one reasons for my lack of knowledge on this topic. I would like to believe that I am not the only person who can say this.

I gradually became more curious as to the rest of the publics extent of knowledge on the Oil Peak Theory, so i decided to find out for myself. I currently reside in University apartments. Being in an apartment setting, I decided to confront a few fellow students and question their knowledge/feelings on this particular topic (these were students from a wide range of majors). I was surprised at what I discovered. Out of ten students, ONE was able to tell me a very brief description of what an oil peak is and the effects it may have on our future. The remaining students had, like me, no or very little knowledge of the subject. If this is such an important, life altering problem, why is there such a lack of education on this topic?

This isn't a problem a hand full of people can fix themselves, this is going to take the determination of the whole country..even the whole world! If it wasn't for this class, when would have I discovered this huge problem sitting right in front of me? When will my fellow college students discover this catastrophe waiting to happen? We, the current college students, will soon be joining the working force and will be assisting in running this country. It would serve a great value if WE had the proper education on this matter so that we can change or adapt our ways of living NOW to be sure that we will not corner ourself into a devastating situation LATER.

The End of Cheap Oil, The Beginning of Change and The Future

2009-09-28T19:36:00.001-04:00

In our last class discussion we talked about the global peak oil issue and it’s many subsidiary problems. The first issue we addressed was, is this “peak oil” hypothesis true or false, and does it matter? We all clearly concluded that this hypothesis is indeed true, but I believe that the second question had a less definite answer in the minds of many in the class; at least it did for me. While not does it matter, but WHEN will it matter?

“Peak Oil” is referring to the amount of oil that is in the ground around the globe. Basically when extracting oil from the Earth, a classical bell shape curve can be used to demonstrate the amount of oil extracted. Starting out little oil is extracted then it rises quickly until it “peaks”, then after the peak it gradually falls and tapers off on the other end. So this peak we are referring to signifies the point in time that the entire Earth’s oil has reached its maximum limit of extraction, and from there on in, no matter what methods used, that amount of oil will never be obtained again. Yes, this is clearly happening and many scientists are backing this statement. Some even predicted it many years ago (M. King Hubbert).

Now what does this mean for us? The first thing that came to my mind was that if indeed the world’s oil can be displayed on a bell-curve, and indeed this oil will peak, in lets say approximately 2010; then the amount of oil that could be extracted from the Earth in 2030 would be the same amount that we have extracted in 1990. Did we have an oil crisis in 1990? Well no, but the question is not that simple. While according to this bell curve the same amount of oil can be extracted and that may very well be true, but what about the difficulty of getting this oil. We are talking about “tough-to-get oil” now, the kind of oil that needs to be forced out of the Earth because it lays much deeper in the wells. This oil takes a lot more ENERGY to get to and more to extract it. More energy, more money, more possible conflicts, and more political and war turmoil. What happens in the future on the other end of this curve if we have not found another primary source of energy? I would predict war, already our country’s main military policy seems to revolve around oil rich areas in the middle east (coincidence?), so what about when there is a limited amount of oil for all of the Earth’s nations? Then what? I personally don’t want to know and hopefully no one will have to, if we make the CHANGE now.

So the United States, an empire built of the success of two world wars, creates a suburban lifestyle for all. A lifestyle where “one person, one car” is rule of thumb and people drive everywhere, to get food at the grocery store, to go to work, to school, to go to the movies, etc. We DRIVE, this uses gas, when the gas is gone, or very pricey (likely to come first), what happens? Do we continue to drive everywhere? What can we do?

There are a few promising options for a new primary energy source mentioned on this blog so please read up, but I would like to talk about the lifestyle change that is in-store for us. In the future things will most likely become much more local. This goes for all aspects of life; things such as driving to the store by highway will then be replaced by walking down to one’s town’s center. In this center or square would be everything you will need. There will be “local” businesses like deli’s, grocery stores, hardware stores, electronic stores, and entertainment, everything you can think of. People like you and I in the community will run these stores. People will have to learn to support each other within their community. We will depend on each other and not oil. This more primitive lifestyle may seem difficult or dull to some. What about those who want to travel? Well new means of “public” transportation will be used, and guess where it will be located? In the Town Square or center. Buses running on some new energy source will take people where they need to go. I personally think that this lifestyle will bring people closer together and people could be happier because each person will have an important job to service their community and everyone will be valuable. On the contrary, I do not want to get rid of my car and the freedom it brings me, or the freedom I THINK it brings me.

New Urbanism is the name of a community based, local lifestyle housing project currently in the works. Go to this link for some general information:

http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism/principles.html

Stupidity versus Brilliance

2009-09-28T00:24:00.002-04:00

Last class discussion was very productive and we talked about the different issues linked with diminishing oil and possible solutions to allow society to continue to thrive. However with these possible solutions also means change and large scale cooperation, and will pose questions such as “Risk vs. Safety,” will it mean the downgrade of society (classes merging), and what are the trade-offs. Many students in the class suggested some possible solutions that may help our future situation. I figured I might add to these ideas and make people aware of some of the other possible solutions that exist I have came across through surfing the internet and reading science articles on reliable websites. I came across two very interesting articles on the National Geographic website both discussing promising ideas for renewable energy sources and proving future hope.

Because I am interested in the newly developing field of nanotechnology myself I will discuss this article first, “Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough," written by Stefan Lovgren. According to the article, “Scientists have invented a plastic solar cell that can turn the sun's power into electrical energy.” This is not unheard of in fact solar panels today use this technology (plastic solar cells) in collecting energy from the sunlight. However this is not the only energy the sun emits. While half of the sun's power lies in the visible spectrum which is sunlight, the other half lies in the infrared spectrum (which is non-visible radiant heat energy). Thus with these new plastic solar cells, using nanotechnology can also collect solar energy on a cloudy day; the first of their kind. This will increase the efficiency of pre-existing solar energy collecting technology from 6 percent to a staggering 30 percent according to Peter Peumans, an electrical engineering professor at Stanford University. "The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume," said Ted Sargent, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto, who was also one of the inventors stated in the article. He also states, "If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with [very efficient] large-area solar cells, we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable." What can we do with these plastic solar cells? They can be sprayed onto virtually anything. Some ideas of their use suggested in the article include, sweaters coated with the material that could in turn power cell phones or other wireless devices. Also, a hydrogen-powered car painted with the cells could potentially convert enough energy into electricity to continually recharge the car's battery. They could possibly be incorporated into paints where entire building can be sprayed and in turn power themselves with the solar energy they absorb. Residential houses could be painted with the same paint, or windows could be coated with a film of the cells. The possibilities are quite broad, and obviously a breakthrough. In the article, it states that “researchers envision that one day "solar farms" consisting of the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the entire planet's power needs.”

The second article titled, “Can Earth Be Powered by Energy Beamed From Moon?,” written by Bijal P Trivedi, discusses something called a Lunar Solar Power System (LSP). “David Criswell, a physicist and Space Age veteran began looking into lunar-based power systems over 20 years ago during a decade-long stint at the Lunar Science Institute, which is now the Lunar and Planetary Institute, established in 1967 by Lyndon Johnson to maintain interest in the moon.” According to the article, “While he was there he participated in the administration of peer-reviewed proposals on lunar and planetary science, thus he had a constant exposure to lunar-related research and development.” In other words, he is a moo expert and the man for the job if there is somebody. Stated was that, “Between a half a billion and a billion dollars was spent to analyze moon rocks during the 1970s and 1980s, collected during the six Apollo moon landings. It was revealed that rocks contained an abundance of silicon, magnesium, aluminum, and titanium—the basic material required for building solar cells.” How convenient. With that being said Criswell is confident with the cooperation of the nation and the world, we would be able to utilize resources on the moon in order to successfully set up LSP. The article explains that “His idea is to use lunar materials to build bases on the moon that will collect solar energy and convert it to microwaves, which would then be beamed to a several thousand receivers around Earth. The microwaves subsequently are converted into electricity sent to local power grids.” More specifically, the system would require between 20 to 40 power bases located on the eastern and western edges of the moon, from Earth’s perspective and Criswell estimates that in 2050, a population of about 10 billion would require about 20 terawatts of power. Because the moon receives more than 13,000 terawatts of solar power, by just harnessing one percent of this plentiful energy source, we could easily satisfy Earth's power needs, states Criswell in the article. The problem however is of course cost.

I believe the combination of these ideas, as well as various others also suggested in class can result in a major turnaround for the future of our planet. In fact by just making people aware of these different perspectives and suggested solutions that they may never have heard of opens their eyes to hope and perhaps will drive them to work towards one or their own. How do you think I became interested in physics and nanotechnology? Simply by reading articles and watching channels that discuss scientific breakthroughs. What could be more important or interesting than contributing in some way to determine the outcome of our future planet I ask myself? Doing something is 100 times better than doing absolutely nothing but shooting down ideas. Physics and science was frowned upon by the church for the longest time, if those great physicists and scientific thinkers simply quit, where we would be today. As much as many viewed their opinions as lunacy or heresy, past scientific discoveries set the foundation for what we build upon today. Yes it may cost a major change in our way of living, and require much cooperation as a nation and world to make all of these ideas successful, to implement renewable energy resources on a large scale, but is it not worth taking that leap? Rather than stay our course of certain demise we are on now?

References