Sunday, November 18, 2007
Deforestation
Book Review: A Good Forest for Dying, The Tragic Death of a Young Man on the Front Lines of the Environmental Wars. Patrick Beach, 2003, Doubleday.
I borrowed this book from the Fortuna Library and found that it was signed by the author! The book is about a tragic incident that happened a dozen miles east of my home. Twenty-four year old activist David "Gypsy" Chain was killed when a Pacific Lumber faller dropped the last of 20 redwood trees of the day. Here's a video with interviews and portions of a video that was taken shortly before before David Chain's death. Good book -- written by a newspaper reporter from Texas who came to Humboldt County to investigate the death of a young man from the Austin, Texas area.
Increasing Home Efficiency
Today's Tip: Choose energy-efficient kitchen appliances. They may cost more initially, but can save you money by reducing your energy use.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Obesity
I was reading an article that said obesity and global warming were connected. Basically, if a person walked, it would reduce vehicle usage. Get out of your car and walk or bike half an hour a day instead of driving. And while you're at it, eat less red meat. That's how Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health, say doctors and climate scientists.
This is a touchy subject for me and I know I'm not alone. As far as I'm concerned, being overweight is a symptom of some serious problem. For me it was undiagnosed thyroid disease -- undiagnosed for 15 years!! During that time, six doctors didn't have the intelligence or training to order a TSH test.
I went from being skinny and able to run six miles, to being 50 pounds overweight and barely able to walk to my mailbox.
According to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, up to 27 million Americans may be affected with thyroid disorders. More than 50 percent are undiagnosed.
But, if you are able to walk, just do it!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Increasing Home Efficiency
Today's Tip: Change furnace filters once a month. I don't have a furnace, but something I can do is vacuum my heater openings and insides, too. Also remember to vacuum your refrigerator's working innards to improve efficiency.
Cleanliness and order are not matters of instinct; they are matters of education, and like most great things, you must cultivate a taste for them. ~Benjamin Disraeli, British politician (1804 - 1881)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Here's everyone's horoscope for the rest of our lives.
If the nations of the world continue to pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from smokestacks and tailpipes, the world will suffer catastrophic droughts and heat waves and rising seas that could kill millions of people, according to the most exhaustive work ever done on planetary climate change.
And this from climatologist Stephen Schneider, co-director of Stanford University's Center for Environmental Sciences and Policy.
"The warming in the last 40 to 50 years is very likely due to human activities, mostly from our smokestacks and tailpipe waste and deforestation activities, which have increased carbon dioxide by 35 percent" since the Industrial Revolution, he said. "Although some risks are already unavoidable, there is still time to reduce the likelihood of really catastrophic impacts like melting ice sheets and massive species extinction."What can you do to save the world today? Become informed. Read the complete article in The San Francisco Chronicle.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Increasing Home Efficiency
Today's Tip: Set thermostat at 65 degrees F in the day, 55 degrees F at night. Wear a sweater, hoodie, or extra layer of your choice.
For a different view of the world, here's a paragraph from Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. This is from the January essay.
"The mouse is a sober citizen who knows that grass grows in order that mice may store it as underground haystacks, and that snow falls in order that mice may build subways from stack to stack: supply, demand, and transport all neatly organized. To the mouse, snow means freedom from want and fear."
Friday, November 23, 2007
Here are some world population figures. In 1650 there were about half a billion people, worldwide. Two hundred years later, in 1850, there were one billion people. It took 80 years, to 1930, to double to two billion people. By 1960, there were 3 billion, and by 1975, 4 billion. Then something remarkable. The period of increases leveled at 12 years. Five billion by 1987 and six billion by 1999.
There are many reasons why the population growth has slowed. Some European countries have had a decrease in population. One theory is that the decline is due to the development of pensions and social welfare that take care of older citizens so multiple children are no longer needed to support their elderly parents.
Instead of needing lots of children, we need high-quality children.
~ Margaret Mead
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Overpopulation
Read a classic on the subject, Garrett Harden's Tragedy of the Commons
"It is fair to say that most people who anguish over the population problem are trying to find a way to avoid the evils of overpopulation without relinquishing any of the privileges they now enjoy. They think that farming the seas or developing new strains of wheat will solve the problem--technologically. I try to show here that the solution they seek cannot be found. The population problem cannot be solved in a technical way, . . . ."
It's a long article, so here is his conclusion,
The most important aspect of necessity that we must now recognize, is the necessity of abandoning the commons in breeding. No technical solution can rescue us from the misery of overpopulation. Freedom to breed will bring ruin to all. At the moment, to avoid hard decisions many of us are tempted to propagandize for conscience and responsible parenthood. The temptation must be resisted, because an appeal to independently acting consciences selects for the disappearance of all conscience in the long run, and an increase in anxiety in the short.
The article was written in 1968. World population has doubled since then.
We all worry about the population explosion, but we don't worry about it at the right time. ~ Arthur Hoppe
