Climate Change and Update

We’ve been having really weird weather again. I don’t understand how people can deny the reality of climate change. Do they have no connection whatsoever to nature? Even if they don’t believe it is caused by humans, they should have at least noticed the changing climate.

We had a hard winter here in Northern Alabama. The hardest one I’ve ever seen. It snowed several times, and when it snowed, it really snowed. We had severe cold snaps intermingled with springtime weather. Now it has almost been summer for the last few weeks. The last frost date for this area is technically April 15 –Tax Day, and still several days away. And yet, it hasn’t gotten below 40 at night here for the past month or so. Most of the past few weeks the nighttime temps have been in the 50s and during the day we’ve already had several days approaching 90. The past few days have been cooler -70s in the day, down to 45 or so at night. But still.
Climate Change does NOT mean ‘hotter’ weather. It means more EXTREME weather –of all kinds. People need to understand that. And they also need to understand that spring coming a month early is not a good thing.

I’m still planning to put up a post about soapmaking, but I haven’t had time to get the pictures of my soap. Some of it isn’t wrapped yet. I have a huge show coming up next weekend -5,000 people are expected to attend. I hope I do well. The weekend after that is the wedding and then we’re going out of town for a week as honeymoon, so posting will be light until we get back. After that I hope to get back to regular updates.

We’ve been to look at two buses so far. One of them was sold before we got there and the other was not as advertised –which is a kindness the owner doesn’t deserve; he said we could drive it home and it didn’t even have a carburetor. We’re also looking into other options. We plan to leave around August 15 –four short months from now.

Today is our wedding shower at K’s workplace, so I have to go –we’re busy busy busy!

H.R. 875, Climate Change, and Retail Hell

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Comments and questions on the story are still welcome, however.

First, more info on H.R. 875:
The sponsor's campaign contributions. Guess who's #1. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/pacs.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00000615.

A good summary of the bill. http://cryptogon.com/?p=7362

Now, climate change. Around here it is fairly normal for it to get into the 60s throughout March. Early spring and all that. The 70s are pushing it. The 80s are way too much.

It was 85 when I left work yesterday, and 83 the day before. Climate change, anyone? Yes, it's all ready cooling back down, but still.

My new job is not going well, to say the least. It's a retail job. At the mall. The words 'retail hell' don't do it adequate justice. It can't be a good sign when you'd rather shoot yourself than go back to work. Oh, I'll go back all right. I need the money too bad not to. But it is pretty awful. I feel all of a sudden like I'm part of the problem again instead of part of the solution. But until I get my land I can't farm or write full-time.
To make matters worse, my manager has scheduled me for at least one day and time I specifically told her I could not work due to a prior committment when I got the job. When I mentioned this to her, all she said was "I'll see what I can do." I'm afraid we may end up in a Mexican stand-off: how bad do I want this job? Bad enough to give up everything that matters to me and jump everytime they say jump?
I do not make a very good corporate automaton.

I can't help but think retail hell and climate change may be related. Oh, that's right, it's because they are!

Odds and Ends

The weather here has been absolutely crazy for the past three weeks or so. It generally is crazy to one extent or another these days, but it has been much worse. It will start with a really nice day or two or three –mid 50s, even 60s. Then we have a bad cold spell for about a week. When I say bad, I mean lows in the teens or single digits and highs in the 20s or 30s. Then it will slowly warm up and we will have another day or two of really nice weather. Then the cycle repeats. We are in our third or fourth round of this. The night before last the low was 12 with a windchill of 5 and the high was, oh, around 32 or so. Today and the next few days are going to be in the 50s and 60s. Sunday the temp is going to be 67 –and next week it is projected to cool down again. Does this seem to be completely ridiculous to anyone else?

There is a reason it is called ‘climate change’ and not just ‘global warming’. But I am beginning to wonder if we have shut down the North Atlantic Current and that might be plunging us into a temporary miniature ice age. I hope not, but it a possibility that some researchers have been warning against.

I ran out of frozen blueberries this week. I froze 15 pints last summer. Note to self: stop eating so many blueberries! LOL. I now have a website for my crafts but it is not completely up and running yet. I will post a link in a few days when I have it ready.

On a much more somber note, there have been three high-profile suicides around here in the past week. Two of them jumped off bridges into the river, and the third jumped off an overpass onto the highway. It makes me wonder how many more there have been that did not make the news. The financial crisis is resulting in a very human toll, and one that will only get worse as time goes on.

Here is a scary news report from China:
China Declares Drought Emergency
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7871964.stm
I don’t think I need to point out that this will be a disaster.

Doing what we can

“I can’t save the world. I don’t even want to try. I don’t even care if I save one person. I just want to get my degree and make more money than god.”
“You told them that?” I asked, astonished.
“Yes. Why not?”
“And they admitted you?”
“Yes. They don’t care. They all went into the medicine for the money too. Someday, if I make it all the way to being a cardiac surgeon, I’ll make upwards of a million dollars a year, drive a Porsche, and live in a high-rise luxury condo. How much money are you going to make in whatever rinky-dink little job you have?” (Said as if the difference in our future net worths was all that mattered about us.)

The above is from a conversation with a classmate several years ago. I was a freshmen in college, she was a senior who had just returned from her admissions interview at one of the finest medical colleges in the country. They had admitted her on the spot. This girl came from an upper middle class family and had decided to come to our little school to ‘save money for med school’ rather than take a full scholarship to an ivy league school. Or so she said. Really, she came there so that she could lord it over other students who weren’t as bright and/or as well off. (She never liked me because I was even smarter than she was, and as a freshmen was in some of the same classes, so she deliberately tried to aw me and put me down. It was just like high school all over again.) She made no secret of the fact that she was going into medicine, and hopefully cardiac surgery, so that she could become very wealthy. Now, I picked my major over money as well but I had a different goal –enough money to keep a roof over my head, food on the table, and give to charity. Being wealthy was not even on the list.

Years later, that conversation still haunts me. Why? Because of this part. “I can’t save the world.” She said. And even then, I was thinking. “You could at least try.” I was laboring under no assumptions that any one person could actually save the world. Even then, I knew better. I grew up in hell itself, and clawed my way out by the skin on my teeth. That kind of upbringing tends to strip away many of our cherished illusions. And yet, I was less cynical than someone who had been infinitely more sheltered than myself.

No, I can’t save the world. Neither can she. Or you. Or anyone else. None of us, by ourselves, can save the world. But all of us together? Or a large number of us? If everyone in the world, or even the majority of us, joined together, then yes, we could save the world. I will be the first to admit that that is not likely to happen. Not anytime soon, at any rate. But does that mean that there is nothing we can do? That we are doomed to failure, to watching the world crumble and burn before our eyes? Hardly.

I am reminded of an old, old parable. I first heard it when I was a small child. It will periodically be passed around on email lists. It goes something like this: There has been a great storm at sea. Much damage has been done to the sea, and the creatures that live there. On the morning after the storm passes the beach is littered with jetsam and flotsam. Among the storm debris are many thousands of starfish who have been flung from the water. They lay on the sand, futilely trying to return to the water and slowly dying. A man comes walking along the shore. Every time he sees a starfish, he picks it up and flings it back into the waves. Another man comes walking down the beach. He watches the first man in silence for sometime, as more and more starfish are tossed back into the water. Finally, he approaches the man and asks him “Brother, why do you trouble yourself this way? Why do you do this? You can not possibly save them all.” The other man is silent for a moment. Then he says softly. “No, I can not.” He picks up another starfish and flings it back into the water. “But I saved that one.” He walks on, and continues in his lonely job. The other man stares after him, perplexed.

This story is more than a simple parable. It illustrates two different ways of looking at the world. One man sees the world as so flawed nothing can be done to save it. Why bother to do anything? You can’t save them all. The other man also recognizes the problems inherent in the world. He knows he can not save all the starfish. But instead of despairing, he walks down to the beach and beings throwing starfish back into the water. No, he can not save them all. But by his efforts, some of them will be saved and a tragedy will be lessened.

There is a lesson in this for all of us. Who do we wish to be –the man who saves the starfish, or the one who looks on in confusion, humor, or despair? In these times this is far more than an academic question. Dark times are upon us and a Shadow is spreading through the world. What is happening is not easy to bear and what is coming will be even worse. Even when it is all over, in perhaps our grandchildren’s lifetimes, there will still be much work to do. All the ills of industrial civilization will still need to be cleaned up. There will probably be even more devastation before it is over, as the coal ash spill in Tennessee proves. There is an area up there right now that is doing an adequate impression of Mordor. There will be even more such in the times to come.

How do we respond to this? In despair, or hopelessness? Or, like the first man, by picking up the nearest starfish? We can not do everything. Nor can we save everything. But if we try, perhaps more will be saved than would otherwise be the case. Perhaps we can do something. If enough of us band together, perhaps we can even save the world.

The choice is ours.

Preparing for winter

This has been a busy week around here. Winter is coming and fast. Right now it is hard to tell autumn is even here –the nights have a crisp feeling but the days are still climbing into the 80s. Yes, this is the South after all. It wasn’t this bad, once upon a time. I’m in northern Alabama, not down by the coast. But things have changed over the past years as the climate has began warming up. The trees are turning and they are a glorious sight. Reds and gold everywhere this year! Even my 12-inch high crabapple, still in a pot, has beautiful leaves.

I have been busy tucking my garden in for the winter. This primarily means mulching. I’ve got a lot of pruning to do as well but I can’t seem to find my pruning shears. The fall garden is doing well –lettuce, mustard, collards and cabbage. This year I am growing the prettiest lettuce I have ever seen. It is called firecracker and it is the deepest, most intense red I have ever seen on a plant. Just looking at it is a joy.

Pretty soon it will be time to give up the ghost, pack away my summer clothes and bring out my winter ones. No more short-shorts and tank tops until mid-April. But that is perfectly okay; winter is just another part of the cycle. I actually like winter because it gives me a chance to slow down and catch up on my reading. I do wish it would get a mite bit colder here than it does –I would love to see snow! I mean a real good snowfall, not the dusting we get once every couple of years. I’ve never seen more than an inch of snow and that just the once. I have this recurring dream in the winter where I wake up and there is snow up to the windowsills. Ah well, you can’t have everything and I wouldn’t know what to do with that much snow!

I hope everyone’s preparations for winter are going well.

Crisis Update

I write this update just about every month for a newsletter I run, and I thought this month I'd post it here as well.

CRISIS UPDATE
Unless you’ve been living (or hiding –hey, I for one would understand! And if you’ve got any room, would you like a roommate?) under a rock for the past few months you might have noticed that the world has plunged into multiple crises. One each for energy, the food supply, the economy, and the environment. These are separate but intertwined crises which each have multiple effects on the others. I’m not going to call them the Four Crises of Doom as some less optimistic (yes, its possible) commentators have but I will note that they bear an odd resemblance to a certain set of horsemen Americans have tried to forget about over the past century or so. Jokes aside, this is serious stuff, and I’m going to attempt to give an update on each of these crises over the next few paragraphs so we can get a good idea where we stand.

Food –let’s start with the basics. Food is as basic as you get. There is nothing more vital than food. And it’s getting harder to come by. Prices are skyrocketing and supplies are running short. Earlier this year a report came out that said we’d need record crops this year to prevent famine. Guess what folks? That’s not going to happen. Not only is the U.S. hit hard by floods and all manner of whacked out weather but Australia lost 90% of its harvest to drought, and Africa is expected to lose virtually all –that’s right ALL –of its wheat harvest to the stem rust that has now also blown into Iran and Pakistan and is expected to debut in India and China soon, followed by the U.S. in a few more years. One report projected that if the U.S. can’t get some of the flooded fields replanted and some kind of harvest uptick we may run OUT of corn before the harvest in 2009. And we’ve added something like 70 million people to the planet in the past year. Not good. This is a recipe for disaster folks. A lot of people are going to die. Some selected food headlines:
Floods cause food prices to surge: He’s wrong about one thing. The corn growing season isn’t young; most places that are flooded absolutely have to replant by July 4th to have any hope of a harvest –and the fields have to be dry for at least 10 days before they can plant. Let’s do the math: we were on schedule to produce 11.7 billion bushels of corn this year (out of a needed 12.5 billion). Reduce that by 15% and you get roughly 9.95 billion bushels, for a total shortfall of 2.55 BILLION bushels of corn. Of course, that assumes the harvest is only down by 15%. Given the weather so far this year, that’s a bet I wouldn’t want to take. So, what’s going to give? Oh yeah, and Australia’s harvest is down too.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4186944.ece
One Billion Hungry: It bears repeating: one billion hungry. And if they don’t get fed, eventually they’ll die. The death certificate may not read starvation; it rarely does and instead reads pneumonia or some other condition that wouldn’t be fatal if you weren’t starving, but lack of food will be the reason. One billion people. If this doesn’t get straightened out soon, I see a LOT of dead people.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article4064650.ece
Food Supply Must Double by 2030: Oh yeah, that’s going to happen. We’ll never hit the 9 billion population number; we can’t keep feeding what we’ve got now.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article4056801.ece
U.S. Has NO Grain reserves left: Or anything else for that matter.
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Food_Water/080606.no.grain.reserves.html
Hunger in the U.S.: This last line is worth remembering: “It's not dignified, but we are hungry, and hunger is ugly."
http://www.counterpunch.org/colson06182008.html
With Hunger Comes Anger: And this is only the start. Governments are going to fall over this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/americas/18food.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
How far is the U.S. from food shortages and riots? A good article but now outdated: we had our first ‘food riot’ last week over free food vouchers in Minnesota.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/12/18492403.php

Energy –This is our second horsem –er, crisis. (I promise, I’ll stop.) Oil has peaked. That’s just the plain out truth, folks. Denial can only go on so much longer. We’re on the bumpy plateau where output is relatively steady while demand keeps climbing. Any day now we’ll tip down on the other side. Prices have gone up so far because demand has out run supply. Demand destruction has been taking place for a couple of years now; I’ve seen pictures of countries that have gone dark because their electricity was generated by oil and they stopped being able to afford the oil a while back. What’s going to happen when output starts noticeably shrinking and no matter how much we drill we can’t get it back up to what it was? Remember peak oil doesn’t mean that we’re out of oil –it means we’re at half a tank and the half that’s left is harder to get at, more expensive, and more ecologically destructive. Thus supply will keep going down and demand will be forced to match. Tar sands won’t save us; not only do they require almost as much energy to extract the oil as you get out of the oil, but they require massive inputs of water and natural gas. The former is hard to come by in the locations of the tar sands and the latter has peaked too. Uh-oh. Drilling off shore won’t save us; no 200,000 b/d field is going to replace mighty Cantarell, which is crashing so hard and fast Mexico might be out of oil to export next year. Not only that, but the U.S. alone uses 21 million barrels a day and the world, 84 million. Divide 200,000 into one of those figure and what do you get? Spare change.
Heating oil. Heating oil comes from oil. It’s about $4.50 a gallon right now. People may freeze to death in the northeast this winter because they can’t afford to heat their houses. Others may turn to electric space heaters which some project could bring down the entire northeast electrical grid. Why? Not only is it all ready at capacity, but its as antiquated as a Ford Model-T. (As are all the grid in the U.S. btw, which is one of the main problems with electric cars.) Hydrogen cars are a joke. Natural gas has peaked, and most of what’s left on the continent is in Canada –how long will they keep sending it to us when they need it to heat their own homes? Next we’ll be invading Canada.
Electricity. Most electricity in this country comes from coal, natural gas, nuclear, or oil. Aside from the problems with nuclear it requires massive amounts of water. They almost had to shut the nuke plants here in the southeast down last summer because the drought had lowered the water tables so much. But at least we have enough coal to last a lot longer –right? Right???? I hate to break it to you, but we don’t have nearly as much in the way of coal reserves as we’ve been led to believe. A report I read not too long ago suggest that coal may peak in as little as 30 years. That ‘peak’ word is going to become a four letter word soon, huh? That’s what happens when you base your society on non-renewable resources. Basically we’re…nah, I won’t say it. You get the idea. Some recent headlines on energy:
The U.S. at $200 a barrel oil: A good look at the impacts of oil at $200 a barrel. (Here’s a hint: it ain’t pretty. It’s also just about inevitable.)
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil28-2008jun28,0,5808547,full.story
OIL: Problems, problems, and more problems Check this out: China imported 25% more oil in May, oil production fell last year, oil stockpiles dropped in the U.S. for the 4th week in a row. Can anyone spell higher prices?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeEdT.gCehSQ&refer=home
$150 a barrel oil, happy 4th of July: Analysts are now saying oil will hit $150 a barrel by July 4th. Others are also predicting $200 a barrel by New Year’s. I see even more dead people.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080606.woilole0606/BNStory/Front
Coal in the U.S.: From Richard Heinberg. http://globalpublicmedia.com/museletter_194_coal_in_the_united_states

Credit and the Economy –ok, the globalized economy is going down the tubes. That’s the way it is and there won’t be any changing it. A lot of this is due to the rising price of oil. The projections I’ve seen suggest the airlines will be dead (at least for ordinary folks) within two years with oil this high, much less higher. Not only do we have the housing collapse, but we have the beginnings of what may be a greater depression than the ‘great’ depression. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs and/or their homes. Some manufacturing is starting to shift back to the U.S. because the shipping costs bite. Paradoxically, other jobs are starting to be off-shored precisely because they don’t have any shipping costs, and these are the jobs that have always been ‘safe’ before: engineering, accounting, management, etc. A lot of people are going to be in a race to see whose finances collapse first: theirs or the banks.

Climate –Climate change is rapidly becoming an out and out crisis. Sea level is rising at an inch a year, the weather’s gone completely crazy in many places, and temp’s are going up, up, up. This one is only going to get worse . Buckle up, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Projections range from a rainy day at the park to Armageddon; the reality will be somewhere in between but probably slightly closer to the latter. Some relevant headlines:
North Pole May Be Ice Free This Summer: So long to the polar bears (and thanks for all the fish).
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/weather/06/27/north.pole.melting/index.html
Oceans warming 50% faster than thought: This partly explains the higher than anticipated sea level rise. Of course, the rest is explained by the faster than anticipated glacial and ice cap melt.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/18/scisea118.xml

Earth Day Sermon

I'm sorry there haven't been more posts this month. April is one of the two busiest months of the year for me, together with August. Between working four part-time jobs, finishing the semester, getting the garden in and being sick I haven't had a lot of time for blogging.

This year the social justice committee at my church did the Earth Day service. The sermon was split between two of us on the committee. My half is posted below. Let me know what people think. I had a lot of people tell me they liked it, and I know I made at least two people angry.

For our topic today we picked reverence for the web of life. When we speak of environmentalism, of preserving nature, this is what we are really speaking of. But what does this mean, exactly? My dictionary defines reverence as a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe, and also the outward manifestation of such a feeling. It is not enough to feel this respect; one must also show it in action. This is a crucial point.

From a Pagan and Native American point of view, we are nature and nature is us. Whatever we do to the web of life we also do to ourselves, because we are part of the web. In these traditions, to revere the web of life is only natural, because to do so is to revere ourselves. Likewise, to rip or rend or disrespect the web of life is to do the same to ourselves.

Somewhere along the way there has been a fundamental disconnect between modern people and the natural world. Collectively, and often individually, we have set ourselves apart from nature and forgotten that we are a part of the web. We have forgotten that everything we do has an impact, and that it will eventually impact us. This disconnect has led us to where we are today, in a world facing multiple ecological and environmental crises: climate change, rising sea levels, dying oceans, overpopulation, declining water tables, food shortages, and the list goes on and on. We live in a world that is seriously ill and getting worse. There is a garbage dump in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of the continental United States. Mothers in many parts of the world can no longer breast feed their babies because their milk has enough PCBs in it to be labeled toxic waste. Some of the ingredients in baby bottles may later render the adult infertile, or even cause cancer. Australia lost ninety percent of its harvest this year to a drought almost certainly induced by climate change. Sea level is rising at the rate of an inch a year. Even if this rate does not increase, by the time my generation retires New Orleans will be underwater. As will large portions of Florida and parts of the eastern seaboard. Every day now two hundred species go extinct. That’s two hundred species gone forever. Every single day.

I could go on, but that is enough to prove the point. This is what happens when we do not revere the web of life. This is what happens when we forget that we are in separately intertwined with the natural world, that what happens to it happens to us as well. But what does it mean to truly revere the web of life? And what can any one person truly do in the face of all this horror?
The natural reaction for many is to throw up their hands and say there is nothing I can do. Anything I do won’t make a difference. The problem is bigger than I am and will take laws and government. And lots and lots of money. Yet this is the wrong reaction. Yes, it will take some laws. But at its heart, as Michael Pollan pointed out recently, this is a crisis of lifestyle and of character. This crisis is the sum total of every one of our choices, and those choices made in our name. Everything we do, every choice we make, makes a difference –good, bad, or neutral. And when we throw up our hands and say nothing I do matters, I can’t make a difference, not only are we not helping to solve the problem, but we are also contributing to it.

So what does it mean to truly revere the web of life? First, we have to respect the natural world. We also must work to really understand that we are part of this web, and permanently intertwined with it. This is harder than it appears. For instance, many of us have no idea where our food comes from or what it takes to grow it. When I first started growing some of my own vegetables I thought I knew what it took to grow food. And intellectually I did. But I had no real idea that it takes a month to grow a radish! This little thing that is gone in two seconds takes a month to grow. You plant the seeds, you water, you weed, and you wait. A month later you pull it and in one bit its gone. That’s the kind of understanding I’m talking about.

What happens to the web of life will happen to us, and to our children. We have to make choices that will not do any more harm and will help to repair the harm that has all ready been done. We have to rethink our lifestyles, to make the changes that will allow us to stop contributing to this problem. Recycling and changing our lightbulbs is not enough. We also have to reduce the amount we consume, and change the sources of the things we use in our daily lives. These changes, these choices, while they may not be the most convenient or the most comfortable for each of us, are also the only way not to shift the price for our comfort and convenience onto our children and grandchildren. For it is they who will pay the highest price for how we treat the earth. As the ancient Native American proverb says, the earth does not belong to us; we merely borrow it from our children. And only when we have learned to walk more lightly on the earth will we truly come to revere the web of life. And ourselves.

Why didn't I take the blue pill?

Why didn’t I take the blue pill?

I don’t know how many times I’ve asked myself that question –or some variation thereof –over the past few years. I expect I will ask it even more often in the years to come as the full implications of our situation begin to show and reality hits hard and heavy. For those who aren’t familiar with the reference, it comes from a scene in the Matrix wherein Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills, and he has to take one. If he takes the blue pill, the adventure is over and he wakes up none the worse for it. If, however, he chooses the red pill, then things will really get interesting. (Obviously, he chooses the red.)

This situation is repeated thousands, if not millions, of times throughout mythology, literature, and history. The details and the participants vary infinitely, but the base of the situation remains the same: that is, someone must make a choice between changing, opening their eyes, or leaving on an adventure, and keeping things the way they are. The one offering the choice might be another person, circumstance, or (especially in myths) something of the Divine. In these stories the protagonist always chooses to go, to take the assignment, to swallow the red pill. Frodo accepts the ring from his uncle; Luke Skywalker goes off with Ben Kenobi; the young high school kid joins the army. Otherwise, things wouldn’t be interesting and you wouldn’t have a story.

These situations happen in real life as well. In fact, they are so common that every person has several of them in their life. We usually refer to these as turning points, or forks in the road. The fate of the world usually doesn’t hang in the balance, but the course of our lives certainly does. Many of these choices radically alter the path we will take. Do you go out with Betty or don’t you? Do you take that archaeology class? What about that summer internship in South America? Joining little league baseball? As common as these things are, a person’s entire life revolves on the outcome. Some have more import than others: what job to take, where to live, who to marry.

One of the defining moments of my life was definitely the decision to look in-depth at our environmental problems, at climate change, and at Peak Oil. I definitely took the red pill on that one. And sometimes, I want to kick myself in the pants for it. Not because I’m sorry I did it, or because I want to take it back. But because it is so damn difficult to know.

I’m sure you’ve felt it. The roiling sensation in your gut when you read that the plastic garbage pit in the Pacific Ocean is now the size of the entire continental U.S. The faint nausea when the full implications of the latest climate change projections kick in. The awful sense of foreboding that comes upon reading that sea levels are now rising at an inch a year. The panic, the denial, the confusion, the horror, that comes from realizing the full weight of what we’ve done to the planet and ourselves –and the fear of the consequences. Your emotions might be slightly different, but I bet you’ve felt something like these.

It is so very, very difficult to know these kind of things. Especially when everyone around you is either clueless or in denial. I look at these people I see everywhere and I shake my head. How different my life would be if I had never looked into these things! I could be just like them –oblivious, happy, blissfully in denial, just going about everyday life without feeling like my head is about to explode. Sometimes I feel like a time traveler from the future and I’m stuck in a city that’s about to be destroyed. I’m torn between trying to warn people –and running for the hills to save my own a**.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m glad I know. I wouldn’t put the genie back in the bottle even if I could. I’m one of those people who would rather know the worst and face things head on than be surprised or deny the truth. But it is a very, very hard burden to bear. Everywhere I turn I am pressure to conform, to get back into line, to deny the truth of what I know to be fact. These pressures come from many sources: society itself, the government, the media, my family and friends, even the longing of my own inner heart. I am as susceptible as anyone else to desires for the things possible in our society –fancy clothes, trips to Europe, nice furnishings, tropical fruit, and on and on. I am sure that everyone who reads this has felt these same pressures.

What is the best way to deal with these pressures? Here’s a list that I think will come in handy.

1.) Turn off the TV, the radio, and other forms of mass media. Limit how much you allow yourself per day or week. These are the biggest sources of misinformation, pressure to conform, and pressure to consume that you will encounter. That’s what advertisements and product placements (not to mention the evening news) are designed to do. Besides, you can’t envy the 10,000 square foot McMansions on the sitcoms if you don’t see them and everyone around you has ordinary houses.

2.) Stay away from the malls, and when you go to the store take a list, stick to it, and get out as fast as you can –avoiding everything you possibly can. The longer you’re in there and the more of the store you see, the more likely you are to get suckered into extra stuff.

3.) Don’t argue with your family and friends. Sure, you want them to agree with you, but arguing may cause a whole lot more harm than good. You might alienate them, and that’s the last thing you want to do. Instead, change your own life slowly, and when they ask, explain to them what you are doing and why. Go slowly. Be gentle. Leave copies of articles on the kitchen table for your wife to read. Coming to terms with the problems in the world is like coming to terms with your own death or that of a loved one –in fact, the process is the same. Look up Elizabeth Kubler Ross for more info. It is a grieving process in a lot of ways –only the death is that of a culture, a worldview, a civilization, even the future you thought you and your family had. That’s why it’s so hard to deal with. For those with children it is even worse, particularly if the children are young. We are hard wired to protect our kids and there is no way to protect them entirely from this. This is why so many parents (in my experience, particularly mothers) are so much more susceptible to remaining in denial.

4.) Take care of yourself. Eat right. Exercise. You’ll be surprised how much this helps.

5.) This is most important –Change your life. For your own health and sanity, do this. You can’t go on as you were after discovering these things. You have to start making changes. The reasoning behind this has to do with a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. Humans have an intrinsic need for all our cognitions –our thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and actions –to match, or be in harmony. When this isn’t the case, we experience stress and a desire to reduce the disparity. This is known as cognitive dissonance. It can be extremely discomforting and stressful. In fact, it is impossible for someone to remain in this state for long. If you believe that flying is really bad for the environment but are flying every week, that will give rise to cognitive dissonance, and you will do one of three things: change your beliefs –from flying is awful to flying isn’t so bad; change your habits, and stop flying so much; or rationalize your behavior, such as ‘I have to fly for my job, and if I don’t do this someone else will.” The human mind can’t handle that kind of stress for long, so one of these three avenues will eventually be taken, and/or the stress will build to harmful levels. So how do you reduce it? As I said before, change your life. Even small changes will help –stop buying paper towels, plant a tomato bush, carpool, buy a smaller car. Your mind is screaming at you that it needs to be done anyway –so do it all ready.

On the whole, my life would be much easier right now if I’d taken the blue pill. I could be working as an engineer making nearly 60k a year and vacationing on a beach somewhere. I could have a lot less stress in my life. But, I’m glad I didn’t it. There’s no turning back once you’ve come this far. So, where’s the door out of the Matrix?

An Inch a Year

Sea level may be rising by as much as an inch a year, according to this article:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/04/climate.islands.ap/index.html

Some relevant quotes:
“But a 2006 study by Australian oceanographers found the rise was much higher, almost one inch every year, in parts of the western Pacific and Indian oceans.” “the invading waves last year forced some villagers to move their houses inland 20 or more yards -- taking along their pigs, chickens and fears of worse to come. It did, on November 25, when the highest waters yet sent them scurrying.”

I'll write a more substantial post later this week; I am swamped with school stuff right now. How long until December?

90% Reduction Plan

All right, I’ve been working on my reduction plan. I know I’m doing this at the last hour, but here goes. This project is going to be hard to do with two people in the house (at least for the summer), one of whom isn’t involved. But I’m going to do my best.

1.) Gasoline. Current Usage: 336 gallons per year. Goal: 50 gallons per year. This will be tough, given that I live in an area without public transit. My primary destinations are: school (5 miles round trip, 3-4x a week, depending on the semester), the artists market (10 miles round trip 1x per week), my grandmothers (20 miles round trip, 1x per week), and church (10 miles round trip, 1x per week). I also occasionally have to run to the store as well. That’s 60 miles, or roughly 2 gallons of gas, a week. Right there that’s a 104 gallons a year, or more than twice the allowed limit. But, I still use another 232 gallons of gas a year, and there I definitely have opportunities to cut. So here’s my plans to cut:
-limit trips to the store and farmer’s market to no more than twice a month, preferably once. (Save in the event of an emergency.)
-limit social outings to twice a month.
-limit trips to the library to twice a month, and only then on the way home from church (it’s on the way).
I’m also going to Canada for ten days in August (a trip that I’ve all ready had planned) so that will burn some gas. But, I am going by bus so that will fall under public transport.

2.) Electricity. I’m screwed as far as getting down to 90kWh per year is concerned, since I have an all electric house. Since my power is renewable –at least the first 300 kWh/month –this is not the highest on my list to reduce below the 300 kWh/month mark. Toward that end I’ll be making some changes though:
-keeping the ac off as much as possible (once the smoke clears, at any rate)
-unplugging the microwave when not in use
-reducing the amount of laundry I generate, and always using the clothesline
-trying to cook only two or three times a week, and trying to bake only one day a week.
I’m not going to be getting rid of my fridge like some are doing. I use it to keep leftovers, and to freeze food for future meals. This is crucial to my being able to eat right during semesters. Once I get out of school this won’t be so much of an issue.

3.) Heating and Cooking Energy –not applicable; included under Electricity usage above.

4.) Garbage and Recycling. Garbage –for my personal trash production I’m almost there. I’m going to work on reducing the amount of packaging coming into the house. I’ve been working on this for some time but obviously have more work to do. But how the devil do I reduce the amount of cat litter and waste? Any ideas?
Recycling –I am a BIG recycler. I try to recycle everything, including a lot of things that would go into other people’s trash. Cardboard boxes, cans, plastic bottles, and glass, all go to the recycler. I’m not sure how much I produce, so I need to measure this, but it’s obvious I need to cut down on the number of canned goods and boxes coming into the house.

5.) Water –I’m going to install rain barrels to use for watering the ornamentals (when it finally rains again). And I’m going to start using more graywater. I also had to talk to my brother about his water usage yesterday. Not because of this project really, but because of the drought and my pocketbook. The boy is a water hog –he can’t stand taking less than a twenty minute shower everyday. (Sometimes twice a day.) He has literally doubled my water usage in the few weeks he’s been here. So I spoke with him and he’s agreed to do better.

6.) Consumer Goods –I’m about there right now, thanks to compacting and a frugal sensibility. I need to find out how food plants fits into this though.

7.) Food. I’m going to get all my fresh fruits and veggies exclusively from my garden and the farmer’s market. I’m going to start eating more fresh foods as opposed to bulk. I’ll start canning and freezing more of my own food instead of buying so much canned foods. I’m going to reduce the amount of dairy and all processed foods still further –crackers, chili, etc. I am also going to extend my garden beds so that I can grow more of my own food, and this fall I hope to try my hand at small scale grain production (in the form of oats).

Giving up coffee and bananas

All right, as part of my effort to reduce my emissions to 7% of the U.S. average, I am “voluntarily” giving up coffee and bananas. I put that in quotation marks because I always thought someone would have to pry my coffee cup from my cold dead hand to make me give it up. ;-) Bananas will be the easy part; they may be my second favorite fruit but I’ve all ready reduced the amount I eat significantly in my effort to reduce my footprint. Mostly, I but them when my brother is hanging out here because he loves them and they’re healthy. Being a college freshman his diet isn’t the best in the world. Pizza and Mickey D’s from what I understand. But he loves those bananas –I’ve seen him eat a whole cluster in a day. (And then wonder a loud why his stomach hurts.) So I’ve had a tendency to keep them on hand when he’s here to help him improve his diet. But I digress. The point is –there won’t be any more bananas in this house, unless I grow them myself or get them locally. Since neither is currently possible, that’s out of the question.
Now for coffee. Ouch. I love coffee. It’s one of my treats. There is nothing I love quite so much as a good cup of coffee. Especially first thing in the morning, and especially on chilly winter mornings. But no more. I’ve giving it up to help the planet. Now, before anyone warns me about going cold turkey, relax. I know better than that. Starting tomorrow I’m going down by half the amount I normally drink. I’ll do that for about two weeks, then reduce that still further to every other day. And then nothing, nada. By the second week in June I intend to be completely done with coffee. I’ll probably be grumpy over the next few weeks as I face withdrawl, but that’s nothing compared with climate change.
I hope. Wish me luck.
And don’t anyone dare tell me I should give up chocolate. Oh the horror! Chocolate is a health food, you know.

I'm back

My apologies for having gone so long without a new post. I got caught up in the last few weeks of school. Between 20 page term papers, finals, and projects, I haven’t had much spare time for anything, much less for blogging. I have been working on my garden (I have too, if I intend to have anything to eat from it!) and here is what I have growing right now:
3 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, onions, carrots, radishes, pole beans, potatoes, oregano, basil, calendulas, nasturtiums, lemon cucumbers, zucchini, two types of lettuce, crookneck squash, okra, two kinds of spinach, swiss chard, melons, and sweet potatoes.
I’ll also be planting corn, winter squash, pumpkins, and watermelons in the next few weeks. That’s just in the vegetable garden of course –I also have lots of flowers. The five Roma tomato plants, which were purchased, all ready have flowers on them –so I should have tomatoes soon! My raspberry bushes are also flowering, something I didn’t expect this year. All the blackberries died, unfortunately, and because of that and some other issues, I won’t be ordering from Gurney’s again. I hope to have a big enough harvest to practice canning.
In other news, NPR has been doing a special on climate change. They’re going to be doing this for the next year, and thus far it has been fascinating. Here’s something I heard today about where people tend to emit the most CO2: 50% tends to come from heating and cooling your home, 25% tends to come from driving, and 25% tends to come from lights, refrigeration, food, etc. What this means in practice is that you can reduce your CO2 the most by turning off the AC and staying home more.
That’s all for now –I’ll write a bigger post tomorrow.

The Great Frost of 2007

The first weekend of April in 2007 will be remembered in these parts as the Great Frost of 2007. An Arctic cold front swept down from Canada mid week and sent temperatures plummeting. Three nights of hard frost were the result. Record lows were recorded all over the region. The last frost date in my area happens to be April 15, but we haven’t had a frost this late in years. Furthermore, this frost was unusual in its length and intensity.
The worst thing about this frost however, was not the frost itself, but rather what happened before it. Spring has been coming earlier here every year. This year, it warmed into the 60s in February. All of March the temps were into the 80s and sometimes breached ninety. All the trees leafed out early. Plants sprouted sooner than usual. Crops and fruit trees bloomed. Then came the frost. If the early warm up hadn’t happened, the damage would have been limited or non-existent. As it was, early reports indicate that 90% of the state’s crops were destroyed. This includes all the fruit, nuts, winter wheat, and the first plantings of corn, alfalfa, and spring wheat. Spring vegetables –broccoli, radishes, etc, also took a hit in many places. Including in my own garden. No one knows what the final tally will be. One thing is sure, however: there won’t be a lot of fresh fruit in Alabama this year, and food prices are going to rise.
Welcome to the age of climate change.

Choose Your Future

There must be some special significance to Al Gore testifying before Congress about climate change on the first full day of spring, in a time when the effects of said climate change are beginning to be felt worldwide. Now, I don’t agree with everything Gore has to say or all of his proposed solutions, but I have to admit that the man is a modern day prophet. He has single-handedly brought more attention to this topic –the greatest crisis in human history –than dozens of activists have in the past thirty years. He is our Cassandra, telling us that Troy will fall if we don’t stop what’s happening. The question is, will we listen? If not, is there any doubt we will follow the same fate as Troy? Not much, at this point.

That global warming is real, and is occurring now, is no longer in dispute by anyone with half a brain. And no financial commitments to the fossil fuels industry. ;-) I can tell the changes just in my own area. In 1990, 17 years ago, when the last USDA map was created, I was in zone 7a. Okay, so I didn’t live here at that time –the town was, at any rate. When the new map was released last month, to my horror I discovered that I am now in zone 8. That’s the climatic equivalent of moving south by a four hour drive –on the interstate, no less. We had our first 80 degree day a month ago. Now they’re a regular occurrence. Try growing peas in this weather! Last summer we were at all time highs for several months. We’re expecting a repeat this year.

And the pattern is repeated, all over the world. It has been going on for years and is merely worsening with time. How much longer will it be before we react? When will we stop this before it’s too late? People speak of saving the polar bears. I’m sorry, but the bears are gone. Every one in the scientific community knows this. So are a good number of other species. And that number will keep rising, inexorably, unless we STOP THIS NIGHTMARE. Nor will people escape unscathed. Water supplies are disappearing, tropical diseases are spreading, and grain yields are going inexorably down (partly due to global warming) in a world with an expanding population. It will not be long before these two facts collide –and do so in a most horrific way. Rising sea levels are going to affect over a billion people by the middle of the century. New Orleans, Boston, part of Manhattan, Shanghai, Bangalore –all will be gone by century’s end, if not before. Chinese officials have started constructing dykes to try to hold back the sea from Shanghai. That’s how fast sea level is all ready rising. And that trend is expecting to accelerate.

This morning Gore told Congress: “The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor.” He added, “If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don’t say ‘I read a science fiction novel that says it’s not a problem.’ You take action.” People are dying. Whole species are dying. The planet IS running a fever. And we delay taking action because of what? Denial? Some misguided perception that the economy is more important than the future of our children? Oh yes, that’s a real bright idea –let’s balance the health of some companies and the richest one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population against that of the ENTIRE PLANET.

Why can’t we take action to stop this? Why can’t we see that are actions are directly harming other people? We will have to pay a portion of the costs of our excess –but only a portion. Our children, and their children, and their children’s children’s children –if they live at all –will have to pay the highest costs.

I am throwing out a challenge, to each and every person who reads this: take action in your own life. If you care about the future of the planet, of your children, and of other people –and yes, even of the polar bears –take action now. Do something –anything –to reduce your contribution to the problem. Lower your emissions. Do it NOW. No more excuses. If you don’t, one day you’ll have to explain to your kids why you didn’t. The blood of all those who die due to this crisis –people, animals, species –will be on your hands. Your responsibility. And part of the legacy of all humanity. Is this what we want for our future?