Sunday, March 2, 2008
Wilderness
"In the end, wilderness is not defined by the absence of certain activities but rather by the presence of certain unique and invaluable characteristics. The answer to the often-asked question, "why do you want this area to be wilderness?" is, these areas already are wilderness, we simply want to preserve them as they are and as they have been for generations."
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
"A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."
The Wilderness Act
Wilderness is generally defined as a natural environment on Earth that has not been modified by human activity. Wilderness areas are considered important for ecological study, conservation, solitude, and recreation. Wilderness is deeply valued for cultural, spiritual, moral and aesthetic reasons as well, some nature writers believe wilderness is vital for the human spirit and creativity.
The word, "wilderness", derives from the notion of "wildness"; in other words that which is not controllable by humans. The word's etymology is from the Old English wildeornes, which in turn derives from wildeor meaning wild beast (wild + deor = beast, deer) (The Collins English Dictionary, 2000). From this point of view, it is the wildness of a place that makes it a wilderness. The mere presence or activity of people does not disqualify an area from being "wilderness." Many ecosystems that are, or have been, inhabited or influenced by activities of people may still be considered "wild." This way of looking at wilderness includes areas within which natural processes operate without human interference.
Wikipedia: Wilderness
Monday, March 3, 2008
Zero-Pollution Car Coming to U.S.
The Zero-Pollution MDI Air Car, invented in France and licensed by Tata Motors in India, is coming to American shores. Zero Pollution Motors have announced they will begin taking reservations for the first U.S. deliveries in the next couple of months, but it will be 2010 before Americans get their first taste of the ingenious compressed-air motor, which runs to 35 mph entirely on air, or uses a trickle of petrol to heat and compress more air to reach higher speeds up to 90 mph. It'll cost next to nothing to run (how do 30,000 km service intervals sound?), have a range of up to 1000 miles, and retail for well under $20,000. Read more about it here.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Disaster
The Guardian newspaper asked climate scientist James Lovelock—who formulated the Gaia hypothesis while working for NASA— what could be done about climate change. Lovelock's answer: Not much.
"There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that's just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we'll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That's the source of my optimism."What would Lovelock do now, I ask, if he were me? He smiles and says: "Enjoy life while you can. Because if you're lucky it's going to be 20 years before it hits the fan."
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest
I have a plan to reduce the size of my backyard. Whoever fenced this place four or five decades ago included about a third of an acre along the back that is beyond the property line. That kind of thing is actually quite common in rural areas. In this case, a timber company owns the quarter section behind me and it is mostly gravel bars and creek and river beds. Whoever built the fence followed the topography and fenced a space for pasture that usually doesn't flood.
If I just let it revert to wildness on it's own, the grass will be taken over by native willows and non-native himalaya berries (shown at right). They both make an impenetrable thicket. The berries grow thorns from hell and great berries. But the willows next to the river tend to get top heavy and slowly lean over during wet weather. The branches that touch the ground take root and send up new trees.
I plan to plant a few native trees and shrubs to help with the return to nature. Here's a really nice website from the Water and Land Resources Division of King County, Washington, about plants native to their county. There is also the North Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. There is at least one very good native plant nursery nereby and both our local two-year college and Humboldt State University have plant sales. Here is CCAT's handout page.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Compare Yourself to the Rest of the World
Out of sight, out of mind. It's hard for most Americans to understand real poverty. Anyone who lives in the U.S. contributes more than twice as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as the global average, an MIT class has estimated.
Here's a video entitled You are richer than 75% of the worlds population.
Friday, March 7, 2008
The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth. See
this site for more information.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Global Energy Crisis
The History of Global Energy
In a physics class, you learn that “energy” is the ability to do work. If we simply apply this definition, we find that energy has been a big, if not the biggest, deciding factor in the wealth and overall standard of living in a country. Whether in the form of electricity, labor, propulsion, heat or whatnot, the more energy obtainable the better. So certainly the more energy per cost the better. Read more of this article.
"If California can't solve the energy crisis, it will spread to the rest of the nation, and the economy will collapse, and we will become a primitive society where we all run around naked with spears and refuse to attend meetings. Wouldn't that be GREAT?"
--Dave Barry
