Today when I woke up and tried to fiend something to write about, I found out that there had been an accident with the rescuing efforts in Utah because of a seismic jolt. That makes me very sad because I know that this is not the last time that events like this happen. This is not the last time that miners will be trapped or that rescuer efforts will be challenged. Nature has absolutely no mercy on us. In the global picture, we’re as important as those ants that we accidentally step on without giving it a second thought.
No, there is no river underground. In the old days people thought that underground water came from a nondepletable underground river. These days we know that that is not true. We also know that our planet holds fabulous water supplies but most of these are not readily available for us to consume. Freshwater, it turns out, is a depletable resource. When thinking about using freshwater, we must think of the different alternatives where it can be used. Does it make more sense to use it to irrigate crops, irrigate lawns, household consumption, etc. Of course, there is no right answer because it all depends on how we value each different alternative use. But how many of us think about those when we consume the water that comes out of the tap? Almost everything we consume in some way or other uses water as an input, so the demand for water is not just a direct demand for water but also a derived demand, that is a demand that is created because we demand products that use water.
I love the song “Dodo” by Dave Matthews because it raises very interesting issues. Here are some of my favorite points:
The idea that our perceptions of things evolve from one idea to the next and every time we are certain that we are right. The Earth evolved from a flat planet to a round planet in our minds but is there something else?
The issue of doubt is also interesting and Matthews raises it beautifuly. I respect science very much because it is based on doubt. And you even try to control for your chance of making an error–you have two types of error in science: one where you reject an assumption that is true; the other one where you fail to reject an assumption and it is false. But science when done properly minimizes our chances of error and allows for improvements on knowledge. It is not dogmatic; on the contrary, it is dynamic, built on what others have done before us. Something like what Newton said: “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Who plays by the rules? He asks the bird “Why did you play by the rules?” as if that was the demise of the dodo bird. Right now it seems as if humans set the rules, but I think that there are some rules that are greater than our will. There are times when catch up time seems to be just around the corner: hurricane Katrina, Asian tsunami, volcano eruptions…
Who was the last dodo bird? During the evolution of life on the planet many species have become extict and many animals were the last of their kind. Will there ever be a time when there will be the last human?
Once a week a meet I group of people at a bakery to practice our French conversation. Most of the people in my group are retired, so the conversation is always rather interesting for me as I am the youngest of the group. A few of the people in the group have nice, established gardens and we often talk about plants; we have even been to visit some of the member’s gardens.
Bamboo is one of the recurring conversation topics in the group. One of the members of my group loves bamboo, so every time he sees a bamboo story on the paper he always shows it to us. He also bought a shirt made of bamboo a while back. And of course, every time one of us sees any interesting information about bamboo, we always report to the group. And so I have accumulated a little bit of information about bamboo and I will share some of it with you.
Recently, I learned that bamboo is a rather difficult plant to propagate and thus the price for a tiny cutting can be quite high-say around $70 for a small plant. However, once bamboo is established it spreads quickly, so if you have it in your garden, you’d better love it or you’d better keep it in a pot. Since bamboo grows very fast, it is by excellence a renewable resource. It is also a rather versatile material. Its fibers are so strong that in Japan bamboo is used to construct high rises; you can also see cutting boards made of it as well as flooring among other things. Actually, if you want to see garden and home bamboo items, you should get the book “Bamboo Style” published by Taschen. However, bamboo also can be rather soft and you can find many clothing and house items for sale. If you’re curious, drop by Target to check out the bamboo sheets. With a 250-thread count sheet, one is sure to have sweet dreams. I bet the Earth rejoices as well!
And of course, if you want to know more, where else would you go but to Wikipedia?
About a month or so ago, I ran into Yahoo! Green. They said that they would send me a free energy star efficient light bulb if I signed up, so I said to myself, eh, what do you have to lose? So I ended up enrolling and last Saturday, I finally received my freebie in the mail. It was a bit of a surprise because I had totally forgotten about it.
Of course, then I had to figure out where to put it. My final place of choice was the light above the stove, since that is a light that I often use not just for cooking but also for leaving some light on for Alfred the Pug when we leave him alone during dark hours. I think that will be a perfect spot for it. We try not to leave any lights on if we’re not around, but sometimes one needs to leave a light on. Just like Belinda Carlisle…
I tried to see if they were still offering freebies for those who sign up, but I could not find any information. But for the record, and as you can see in the above picture, the lamp did come from Yahoo!
I always enjoy watching the above commercial. I think that it clearly states the idea that being alive is not a neutral activity. Therefore, our goal should be to mostly do well with our resources. This means that when we shop, cook, work, etc. we need to think about the whole picture instead of just that particular moment in time. That means, also think about where the item came from, what you’re going to do with it after you consume it, and what will happen to it after it leaves your hands.
For example, the whole debate between plastic bags and paper bags. Which one is better? Some extremists say neither because plastic bags use up resources and create trash and paper bags kill trees. So what do these people say is the alternative? Reusable cloth bags, of course! And if you can get one of those designer cloth bags, then even better…
Let’s not be so radical. Yes, there are things that you can use a cloth bag for but there are others when that is not really practical. I am not going to wrap a piece of meat around a cloth bag, I’d rather use plastic because it is safer and overall cleaner. But let’s also realize that there are different types of plastic. When I lived in Europe, most grocery stores would carry bags that were biodegradable. That meant that if those bags ended up in a landfill, instead of lasting forever, they would eventually decompose within a few months or years. The trick with some plastic materials is that they come from products derived from oil, but there are some plastics that can be made from vegetable sources like corn, although, as you may know, corn has some environmental issues that we’ll discuss sometime in the future.
For many things, I prefer to use paper. I don’t really mind that trees are used to make those bags because you know what? Trees are a sustainable resource and those bags eventually decompose and produce soil organic matter to help other trees and plants grow.
Then there are cloth bags. They also come from trees if they are made of cotton, linen, bamboo, etc. But they can be washed and reused. But don’t forget that many crops require pesticides and fertilizers in order to be mass produced so that you and I can buy them at low prices. And when you wash the bags you are also using detergents (some of which are high in phosphorus) and water, which end up going down the drain as effluent that is partially processed and eventually reaches a river or the ocean. Many times, some of the effluent is very reach in nutrients, which may cause algae blooms and other problems in water bodies.
After you’ve read all this you may just want to scream and throw your hands up in the air like the monk in the video. But don’t despair. The solution is to find a good middle ground and be responsible about your choices because nothing you get is ever perfect, thus you must compromise. So what do I do?
Plastic bags: I usually try to minimize my use of plastic bags but if I go to a store that uses plastic bags I sometimes either take a bag myself, choose paper bags, take the items in my hand if they’re not that many, or if I end up with the plastic bag, I collect it at home and drop it off at a local grocery store, since many of them have collection bins to recycle plastic bags–of course, you must sort the bags, so that they fit the profile that the store recycles.
Paper bags: For certain items, a paper bag does the trick and I really like them because they are from renewable resources and they readily decompose. If you have a composting heap or bin, paper bags are a great way to add fiber materials to it, which prevent other greener materials from stinking as they decompose.
Cloth bags: Ideally, if you really need a bag, you want to use reusable bags and for that cloth bags are just great. Be on the lookout for craft shops or fairs where you can find bags that are cute and by purchasing them you are helping preserve the art of sowing at home. Some stores also have their own cloth bags that you are encouraged to reuse–think Trader Joe’s or Barnes and Noble. I particularly love my B&N bag: you can hold it on your hand or over your shoulder; it holds tons of stuff; it is rather sturdy; and once folded it occupies very little room in your car or luggage. Whenever I travel, my B&N bag is always with me to carry magazines or extra stuff on my return.
So the whole point that I want to send across to you is that you should think before you shop for anything! And don’t forget that reducing consumption is better than reusing an item and reusing, in turn, is better than recycling. And just about anything is better than trashing and item that is going to stick around till after the next millennium!!!
Those kids running the European Union have decided to embrace the “nouvelle vague” and off they went and started EUTube. Yeah, the European Union has met YouTube!!! Although some of their videos are rather funny, sexy, artistic, or what have you, there are a few videos that are meant to educate people about the environment and about other topics important to building the political European Union. I must warn you, though, that it is clear from their video posts that they do believe in Global Warming. Imagine that…
I highly recommend that you take a look at a couple of these:
Everyone Can Save the Planet
This one is kind of funny. It’s basically a cartoon commercial.
You Control Climate Change
This one has a lot of good information about mass transportation and why one should choose it. Of course, that is rather redundant for most of the U.S. since the mass transportation structure is almost non-existent outside of big cities. But take a look because it has tons of other useful tips on how to do small things that can make a difference:
Yesterday evening, I thought the catch of the day would be the abandoned computer but it turns out that there are always other fish in the sea. For example a not-so-shabby-looking grill… People, people you can do better than just leaving stuff on the curb. For starters, you can give a call to your local Salvation Army and they’ll gladly haul some of your items.Oh yah, and if you get a receiptfrom them, you can reduce your tax liability. Or you can also post your item on your local Freecycle list. Go to http://www.freecycle.org to find out how to join your local Yahoo! group. One of your local neighbors will quickly take the items off your hands and you both win!
Tuesday is trash day around here, which means that by Monday evening our neighborhood is packed with bags of trash and piles of stuff that is not as trashy. OK, maybe the whole lot is just rather trashy but there are certain things that don’t really belong on the curb… Take this week’s catch, which has been sitting there, in its best behavior, for a few days now through rain and sunshine. Yes, today’s catch is a computer. Granted that it’s an old one, but it’s still a computer. Oh, and no, this isn’t the first one I have seen around here
It puzzles me that people just decide to trash a computer without first considering giving it away. Yes, I know, maybe it’s broken or too slow to work but still, is this an adequate item for the trash? In my opinion, it is not. First of all, and let me just state the obvious!, it contains someone’s personal data. And if their dumb enough to leave the computer on the curb, I bet they’re dumb enough to not have deleted the data. Oh, you know, reformat the hard-drive. Of course that would still not totally erase all the data, but it would be better than nothing, but I digress…
Then there’s the issue of biodegradability. A computer is not exactly biodegradable. So it is likely that it is going to stick around for a few thousand years. Imagine those future archaeologists, how happy they will be when they find this device that contains several documents that you wrote. Important things, such as your paper for English class, your math assignments and your bank statements. Clearly, you did future generations a great deal of good by sending it to the landfill.
Or did you? If the elements do not treat it kindly, that little computer may just start to “rot.” I wonder if there is anything in there that could leach through the landfill into some underground water. Luckily, if the water is underground, it’s not navigable and thus the Clean Water Act does not apply. Hence, we may live happily ever after because nothing bad can ever come out of it…
Good Morning!
The dizzying pace of growth comes with a compromise. Teaming millions in the race for their pot of gold have to accept that the gold will take more time than expected and that the waiting period has to be made as comfortable as possible. Progress makes vertical residences an accepted choice today. The refugees in a strange land have one thing in common. Knowingly or unknowingly they create replicas of the sprawling green homesteads they have left behind. Living in tower blocks of heat is made bearable with touches of green and a pause to smell the flowers. Tentative green thumbs graduate from window sill gardening to more ambitious projects. A Hong Kong surgeon Arthur van Langenberg is leading the way in showing that urban living need not be void of greenery. His manual on Urban Gardening helps in reconnecting our instinct to get back to nature by simplifying the challenges faced in a high rise environment.The sky is the limit for the Arthur’s in us.
Good Morning!
Those who have been scared by Hitchcock’s ‘Birds’ might also be glad to know that the birds are returning or at least one bird for sure. After a 40 year absence, a nearly forgotten recurve- billed bush bird has been spotted in Columbia. The National Geographic has proof of not just the rare bird but ‘the smiling rare bird’ posing for the camera! The ‘Mona Lisa’ smile and the wise glint in the eye seem to see something we have missed. Maybe its time to come to the negotiation table?Returning their green habitat, is a small price to pay ,to have more feathered friends co-existing peacefully with us.One has to admit, that a closer look at the photograph, definitely highlights an inscrutable smile.Alfred Hitcock’s thriller, was only fiction… but what harm would it do for more bird-feeders and bird baths and bird watching clubs being added to the agenda?
Good Morning!
Leaving cities that never sleep and heading for tree filled dales is not everyone’s idea of green living. This idyllic setting has been known to trigger isolated cases of panic attacks. Diehard city breds have hot-footed it back claiming that they feel claustrophobic in the maze of trees. Twilight strolls have had them looking over their shoulder and breaking into a cold sweat, each time a wispy branch brushed against them. The eerie stillness of trees and more trees around them, have made them make tall claims of being watched. After settling back into the monotony of unimaginative drudgery, there have been a few sightings of tentative eco-warriors trying for environmental jobs. Today, with the increasing focus on global warming, environmental jobs are also hotting up. Reformed eco- citizens who could learn to love all things green, but who still shudder at the thought of trudging through the great outdoors, have some consolation. There are openings that allow one to do one’s bit for the planet by sitting indoors. The soothing green from the office window is said to provide a constant reminder, that there are miles to go in planning and implementing safe guards, for a job that will always be there. Here is a call to all professionals, wherever they may be, to use their chosen professions for environmental care. Sitting in your office your efforts can make a difference. Environmental Jobs,Globetrotters,Sustainability
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There’s still time before an ark has to be built and definitely no reason to check if the sky will rain fire. A little worry, about the ice caps melting and raising the ocean levels and submerging everything in sight; could be excused as a reasonable worry for the brave-hearted near churning tidal coastlines. Caught up in fearful predictions of everything in nature hunting us down, we sometimes forget that the same natural forces may be hinting at a solution. The people living in San Francisco the City by the Bay, are on their way to testing the waters. They plan to embark on a long term goal of using the tides to generate power. This idea of using tidal energy to supplement the present shortage of power has sparked a wave of interest in the untapped energy of the ocean floor. When tidal power becomes an unpolluted energy resource, the nearly 400 billion gallons of water rushing through the mouth of San Francisco bay may be the next clean source of electricity. If environmental hurdles are cleared and interest doesn’t wane ,San Francisco may be even more on the global map for many more things besides the engineering marvel of 40 million odd cars whizzing by,on the Golden Gate Bridge. sustainable energy,san francisco,tidal power
Good Morning!
A picnic in a silent grove of trees free of all traces of the one’s who came, saw and littered, is a treasured find. Even when they are in communion with nature voracious readers are known to read anything that falls into their hands. Running out of reading material, they have been known to even read the graffiti carved into the brown canvass of tree trunks. Confessed tree huggers have expressed bewilderment at these bottled emotions and artistic aspirations left behind for posterity to read .They are convinced that trees are averse to any such public display of emotion. But sometimes a little graffiti can save verdant spots from the ravages of time and the urban sprawl. In a rapidly growing suburb of Bangalore, locals marvel at the foresight of an unknown man who was determined that his tree would survive. A scrutiny of the words etched in the stone rim around the tree shows the shrewdness of a time gone by. The warning cautioned one from harming the tree as it would then be akin to harming one’s mother. The sixty –four year old ficus tree swaying in the wind today, is proof that scrawled words can sometimes do strange things like standing in as a tree guard.
Good Morning!
Apples and oranges are not just good for our bodies but for fuel health too. Chemists in the United States say that a low carbon fuel option, packing in 40% more energy than ethanol may come to fruition soon. Fructose powered vehicles running on the converted sugar of apples and oranges is a green alternative to traffic fumes of oil and gas. If this technology is commercialised, powered liquid transportation fuel, with fewer of the drawbacks of ethanol will be yet another option from the biofuel stable. Renewable and environment friendly fuel from biomass sources rich in plant energy could start off a healthy competition among biofuel engineers. This might begin the race to wean industrialized economies from the flaws of costly oil, to a more positive offering from the earth that has an energy density comparable to petrol too. fruits,global warming,biofuel cars
Explore eco-friendly ways we can be kinder to the environment globally. Protecting our ecosystems on a global scale is becoming more important as many of our natural resources are becoming damaged or disappearing. By living more simply, we can conserve energy and decrease our carbon footprints on the world. Join us in learning how we can help contribute to saving the earth.
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