Sunday, October 21, 2007
Lights Out San Francisco!
Read all about it in the
San Francisco Chronicle.
See some pictures at lightsoutsf.org.
The energy-saving light comes in an amazing assortment of shapes now. Did you know that you can get compact fluorescent light bulb that are dimmable, three-way, will fit in a recessed can, outdoor, or can be enclosed? This site has more information. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article, of course.
I remember that the first one I saw cost about $15, now I can find them on sale for 75 cents. But don't forget, the most savings comes from turning lights off when not in use. When I toured the CCAT house at Humboldt State University, which is all about appropriate technology and saving energy, they said their rule was that a light could only be on if someone was under it -- hopefully having a bright idea.
Monday, October 22, 2007
This issue is about you. Be good to yourself. Treat yourself well. By this I mean treat yourself in a healthful manner. A healthy lifestyle is likely to promote a healthy world. A peaceful attitude will encourage peaceful relationships. Think about your actions, are they positive for yourself, for others? Here's a YouTube video, Be Good To Yourself by Journey.
The reason that it is vital that each of us be aware of our actions and our effect on the world is because there are so many of us. The population of the United States was 303,185,389 as of 9:00 a.m. this morning. The world -- 6,626,268,522 -- that's 6.6 billion. Watch how fast the number increase on the U.S. Census population clocks.
That's why light bulbs matter; or a gallon of gas. Just think, if the half of us that are over-weight in the U.S. loses a pound this week, we will tread a little lighter on the earth's surface to the tune of over 150 million pounds.
If you are on the young side and don't know about the egg-sized hero, Mighty Mouse, here's his beginnings. The cartoon character was originally created as a parody of Superman. He first appeared in 1940 in an animated short entitled The Mouse of Tomorrow. His original name was Super Mouse, but it was changed to Mighty Mouse because there was another character with the same name in comic books. "Here I come to save the day," was the first line in the theme song for the tiny hero.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
California's on fire -- again.
An Australian site states what is true for all continents. "Fire has been a part of the Australian continent for millions of years. Many of our plants and animals have evolved to survive fire events and most Australian ecosystems have developed very specialized relationships with fire."
Nature uses lightning strikes and lava flows. Throughout
their history, humans have used fire to clear relatively small areas. What is not natural is fire suppression,
large combustible items called buildings, hot and long burning plastic-laden, petroleum containing
items called vehicles, and similar man-made hazards.
So, what can you do to save your little patch of the world? First, think about what might happen
and be realistic about it. People are generally poor at assessing risk. (Try
this risk quiz from Harvard.)
Then think about what you could do in each emergency situation. Are you prepared? Of course not, but
don't get overwhelmed, just do the best you can.
If I lived in the city in a rough neighborhood, my list of emergencies would very different from my list living out in the countryside. Heading into the winter, I know I will have power outages and internet outages. There will be road closures from falling trees, traffic accidents, flooding, and land slides. The main airport will be closed due to fog, there have been forest fires and we may have more. We have earthquakes. I live in a flood zone along a river. During rainy winters, the river floods up into my back pasture. Don't forget domestic disturbances and neighborhood arguments. And, there's always the ill-equipped. This morning as I checked my email, I heard scrapping along the road and looked up to see a trailer part from the van that was pulling it. I went out to see if the trailer had hit my fence. Nope, it missed.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Going to Extremes
Here's a guy, Jamais Cascio, who attempted to figure out the carbon emissions of the American Cheeseburger. His unit of measurement is a Hummer SUV.
The first time around, he concluded that the American consumption of cheeseburgers in a year equals the carbon emissions of 100,000 SUV's. When he went through his calculations again, he came up with 13 million SUV's.
Is he serious? Yes and No. Here's his concluding paragraph,
"The Cheeseburger Footprint is about much more than raw numbers. It's about how we live our lives, and the recognition that every action we take, even the most prosaic, can have unexpectedly profound consequences. The article was meant to poke us in our collective ribs, waking us up to the effects of our choices."
Oh, loneliness and cheeseburgers are a dangerous mix.
- Matt Groening, The Simpsons
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Reuseable Bags Revisited
On October 3, I talked about reuseable shopping bags. Well, now I've had a chance to buy and use them. Much better than the plastic film that causes so much trouble. Stronger and easier to carry.
It seemed like when I actively looked for them in the stores, I couldn't find them. When I stopped, I happened on them in several places. They usually cost about 98 cents. I also bought them on eBay -- search for reuseable bags.
So I'm giving myself an "Atta Girl" award for taking one small step to Save The World.
I did three other things today that worked out well. Instead of driving thirty miles to big name stores, mainly Sears and JoAnne Fabrics, I bought from local businesses. I needed to replace my old kitchen stove which has been making unhealthy popping noises. Arcing, my son calls it. Well, I had spotted a bottom-of-the-line model on sale at Sears that would do for someone who doesn't cook alot. Ended up with a much nicer stove for less money and saved myself 40 miles of driving by checking out a local appliance store.
The fabric store was a treat. Smaller selection but many pretty all cotton fabrics - the owner caters to quilters. The fabric I bought came from Kona Bay Fabrics. I like the feel of cotton better than synthetics, and, it's greener. I haven't sewn for years -- wish me luck.
The third thing I did was listen to a lady who was having a bad day and really needed to talk. I'm glad I can take the time.
Friday, October 26, 2007
You are the Solution to Pointless Pollution
Clean Ocean Action of New Jersey uses the above motto on some of it's literature. The organization offers several free download kits for things like public meeting presentations and storm drain stenciling.
Save Our Seas Foundation of Switzerland offers a video podcast on their activities.
Know a kid interested in oceanography? There are better known marine biology education centers, but the program at our local Humboldt State University has advantages because it is a small University. A good introduction is the short video at the HSU site. Click on videos and then the Oceans and Rain link.
Pick your water motto:
We All Live Downstream.
More Crop Per Drop.
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.
Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink
It All Runs Downhill.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has a site they call the Road to Sustainability. Here's an article about the grand announcement from two years ago. So, how is Wal-Mart doing? According to Wal-Mart Watch, the net result over the past two years is that they are stalled on the road to sustainability. Treehugger has a series of articles on Wal-Mart's effort. But now they have moved the dynamic head of their environmental program in a lateral job change to "head of private label strategy".
Each week, approximately 100 million customers, or one-third of the US population, visits Wal-Mart's US stores. America's largest retailer could have a huge positive effect in all the areas that they talk about at their website.
For more on Wal-Mart, see the Wikipedia article.
Wal-mart... do they like make walls there? ~ Paris Hilton