Environmental Talk

How’s that consensus working out for you?

Ed. note: I’m on vacation in Colorado this week … thought I’d leave you a couple of excerpts from “The Sky is Falling: A Global Warming Survival Guide” to keep you going through the week….

With all the talk about a scientific consensus on global warming, we thought we’d take a look at some of the great consensuses consensigroup-thinks and their consequences throughout history: (Numbers 10 through six today; Top 5 tomorrow)

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Golden retrievers try to escape the damage they’ve caused ….”

Ed. note: I’m on vacation in Colorado this week … thought I’d leave you a couple of excerpts from “The Sky is Falling: A Global Warming Survival Guide” to keep you going throughout the week ….

Has the average temperature of the planet risen over the past century? Yes, it has … by a whopping whole half a degree centigrade. Interestingly, nearly three-quarters of that rise took place prior to the 1940s–well before any major man-made emissions of fossil fuel. That fact doesn’t exactly jibe with the industrial-man-as-the-causeof-global-warming theory but, no matter; throw in some news footage of natural disasters and a deep, authoritative voice-over blaming it all on man’s violation of Gaia, and people will forget about actually checking to see if it all makes sense.

Are we saying humans haven’t contributed at all to the global rise in temperatures? Of course not; we probably have. But so have Golden Retrievers – there are more of them than ever and they throw off a lot of heat after a good run in the park. Oh, and by the way, trees, clouds, sun-spots, cyclical ocean currents and a ton of other things we can’t even begin to understand have also contributed. However, it’s just not as sexy as blaming big corporations, greedy politicians and SUV-driving junior executives.

But what about the future? Some folks say it’s too late to stop global warming – others believe we can delay the end of the world as we know it. How much hotter is it going to get over our lifetime?
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Elizabeth Edwards: “Just say ‘No’ … to fruit salad.”

One of the great things about politics is that it gets the whole family involved.

You really don’t get that in any other profession. Nobody interviews a doctor’s wife and asks, “Do you think your husband should be using the imported artificial heart or should he be buying local?”

People don’t even ask Katie Holmes whether Tom Cruise should have made his character more emotional in Vanilla Sky, and they’re in the same profession.

As a result, I have some sympathy when people ask the wives of political candidates questions on hot-button political topics. Then again, Elizabeth Edwards is a lawyer … so, screw her.

Much political hay has been made over Ms. Edwards comments to an environmental group in McClellanville, South Carolina a couple days ago. According to published reports, in response to a question about the importance of buying locally as an environmental strategy, she responded:

“We’ve been moving back to ‘buy local,’” Mrs. Edwards said, outlining a trade policy that “acknowledges the carbon footprint” of transporting fruit.

“I live in North Carolina. I’ll probably never eat a tangerine again,” she said, speaking of a time when the fruit is reaches the price that it “needs” to be.

The controversy surrounding Ms. Edwards’ remarks is illuminating. Most of the barbs thrown her way have focused on the hypocrisy and impracticality surrounding much of the “buy local” approach to living your life. In a nutshell, “buying local” is hard to practice consistently and impossible to practice when carried to any significant extent.

If you’re never going to eat a tangerine again, does that mean you won’t drink any orange juice since tangerines are a part of most commercially produced juice? If the concept is right for food, does it extend to other products? Do you only buy televisions, sneakers and telephones that are made locally? Are you even allowed to make a long-distance phone call and use valuable energy all across the country?

The criticism of Ms. Edwards, to me, is misplaced. If she (or anyone else) wants to go through the time and effort of choosing local products at the supermarket, Gaia bless you.

Personally, I don’t want to have to log on to Mapquest and do all kinds of other research just to make dinner. Plus, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a local company near me that makes Hot Pockets.

I’m a lot more concerned with Ms. Edwards’ comments that the the price of fruit (or anything) isn’t where it “needs” to be.

Somehow, millions of individual consumer choices haven’t gotten tangerines or, by extension, cars, airplane flights, recycled clothes, bottled water or whatever Liz Edwards doesn’t agree with or isn’t produced in North Carolina, where they “need” to be.

But Liz, with her advanced degrees, will no doubt be able to tell us exactly where those things should be priced - not only in relation to every other product but also to achieve the social goals that she knows we all should be pursuing but maybe just haven’t become enlightened enough to embrace just yet.

When asked about his wife’s comments, candidate Edwards said, “Would I add to the price of food? I’d have to think about that.”

How could we not elect a couple who possess such massive intelligence to the White House?

Unless I’m just getting massive intelligence confused with unbridled arrogance….

global warming, climate change, John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise, Hot Pockets, presidential primary, White House

There are many strange and wondrous creatures in this country that has no subway system and no NY Post….

Parts One and Two of “Welcome to the Jungle” can be found here and here.

Despite spending much of my life in an urban environment, when it came time to go on a little mini-vacation I raided my own personal Fresh Air Fund to send this Philadelphia/New York/Tokyo city kid and party to a small spot on the west coast of Costa Rica.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip…

What’s that? You forgot you have to go shampoo your cat? Sure, I understand … maybe when you come back later ….

Our pilot Miguel (right) would take us from San Jose to Tambor despite “a few clouds” that I noted before we took off. It was only after we took off that we learned Miguel wasn’t really a licensed pilot … but he had stayed at a Holiday Inn the previous night.

As we neared Tambor, Miguel assured us there was a runway down there … somewhere.

I wasn’t kidding about the road to Florblanca. There’s never a Mafia-run construction crew when you need them…

In the jungle, life is stripped down to the essence. You have to rely on your wits and cunning in order to survive. Unless, of course, you tip the staff to get extra towels…

Site of the 2007 Super Bowl of Lovemaking … or the local comedy club, depending on who you ask…

If you look closely, you can see one of the other villas that was about 25 feet directly in front of our veranda…

The outdoor bathtub and the view looking skyward as you attempt to recover after your first yoga class…

I bet a New York City cockroach could take this Costa Rican spider … but you’d have to give me odds…

I always thought that exotic plants only grew in the lobby of Citibank…

We enjoyed our trip to Costa Rica and came away with a new-found appreciation for the beauty and splendor of this natural setting.

Still, the country is not without its dangers.

You could visit and find out when you come back that you’re engaged ….

global warming, climate change, eco-tourism, environmentalism, Costa Rica, flora, fauna, yoga, engagement

You can’t get there from here….

Part One of Welcome to the Jungle can be found here.

So, if you’re keeping score at home, we drove to the airport in New York, took two U.S. Airways flights to get to San Jose, Costa Rica, hopped a taxi from the Juan Santamaria Airport to the Pavas Airport where we boarded a single-engine plane to get to Tambor, and then clambered aboard an SUV that took us to the place we were staying on the Pacific.

According to the green rules as I understand them, if you’re traveling for a good cause like Live Earth or logging thousands of frequent-flier miles jetting around the country giving a Power Point presentation on global warming, no one can lay any smack on you about your carbon footprint.

Since our ultimate destination was an environmentally-friendly resort in one of the most eco-friendly countries in the world, I didn’t worry too much about offsetting my Sasquatch-like carbon footprint on this trip.

As a matter of fact, I gave the same attention to balancing the greenhouse gas scales on this trip as I do when I regularly travel to New York City.

All I’m saying, people, is I feel uncomfortable when folks refer to me as some kind of eco-hero. I’m just a regular guy trying to live my life and have fun just like the rest of you.

As a city kid who has never been camping, I usually get nervous when I’m more than six blocks from a subway station or an ethnic deli. You can imagine my concern when the last half-hour leg of our trip was at 15 mph over dirt roads that looked like they could be washed away in the first monsoon.

Did I mention that June through August is the rainy season in Costa Rica?

As it turns out, the trip was entirely worth it. Florblanca is about as close to paradise as you’re liable to find here on Earth. As described on their website:

Florblanca has eight very private one bedroom villas and three 2-bedroom units nestled in natural greenery and colorful flora. Each villa peeks out at the Pacific from our winding floral property. King-sized bedrooms are air conditioned while the common areas and baths are open to ocean breezes and the nighttime sky … enchantingly designed for comfort with a Balinese flair, all villas are only steps away from the surf … reading porches, small dining areas and lazy hammocks adorn the common area and every villa seems as if it is the only one around … only our birds, squirrels, monkeys and the occasional iguana, peek in to watch you nap if a rain appears.

Add to this magnificent setting a staff that is warm, happy and friendly; an owner who is constantly about and quick to share 25 years worth of charm, stories and advice culled from living in Costa Rica; and an open-air restaurant less than 30 yards from the Pacific Ocean headed by a world-renowned chef and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good extended weekend vacation.

Breakfasts start off with a plate of fresh fruit and a smoothie made from local produce. Among the breakfast entrees you can choose from are banana bread French toast and omelets featuring traditional as well as regional ingredients. As a card carrying urbanite, even I have to admit that seeing hummingbirds flit about bright red tropical flowers a few scant feet from my table was way cooler than reading the NY Post in a crowded Starbucks.

Costa Rica is known for its coffee. The brew on tap is strong, robust and richly flavorful. As is customary in many Latin countries, it is served with a small pitcher of steamed milk.

If you finish breakfast before 9:00 a.m., you can take advantage of an amazing yoga class taught by one of two yoga masters who have a combined experience of over 25 years between them. The day we took class, our teacher was playing what looked like some kind of Hindu accordion as we entered the open-air studio. In the background, the sounds of the inexorable waves of the Pacific surf served to accompany the welcoming song of our teacher.

As someone who had never taken yoga, I was amazed at the physicality and strength exhibited by the other participants. I was also amazed at the patience and level of acceptance shown to this rank beginner who stumbled into the day’s upper level class.

Almost as exciting to me as the food and the raised level of consciousness I experienced (I didn’t even notice the pain from yoga until the following day), was the fact that both the breakfast and yoga class were free if you were a guest at Florblanca. Sweet!

…to be continued

global warming, climate change, environmentalism, eco-friendly, Costa Rica, yoga, hummingbirds, flora, fauna, Florblanca

Costa Rica is filled with danger

Costa Rica is a stable country in Central America. It is home to a diverse collection of animals and vegetation, making it a prime eco-tourist destination.

I don’t really consider myself either “tourist” (I prefer “citizen of the world”) or “eco” (I prefer “capitalist”) but, there I was this past weekend, touching down at the main airport in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Part of the fun of any trip to a foreign country is learning to speak the language. One of the first things I learned upon my arrival was that, in Spanish, “international airport” means “having one runway, a tower and a couple of gates.” This is to distinguish it from the concept of “domestic airport” which means having one runway, a tower and a 10-minute walk to the plane in sub-tropical heat.

After landing in Juan Santamaria International Airport, we hopped in a cab for a 20-minute drive to the Pavas Domestic Airport. The Pavas Airport has a few unique features, as described by the website, A.M Costa Rica:

The airport has been made more secure this year as part of the international push against possible terrorism. A chain link fence encircles much of the sprawling facility … however, a section of wall that separates the field from a residential area has less secure fencing. It is here that mental patients invade the airport as they flee Asilo Chapui, the Hospital Nacional Psyciatrico.

Air traffic controllers in the airport tower are able to see the fleeing patients and make efforts to direct planes around them, airport workers said.

It is this kind of effort to live in harmony without disturbing other wild creatures (or people) that has helped burnish Costa Rica’s status as an “environmentally conscious” destination.

At the Pavas Airport, we were introduced to our pilot, Miguel, who, in addition to appearing quite sane, was scheduled to fly us in a single-engine plane to the Tambor Local Airport.

The term “local airport” refers to the fact that a section of jungle has been cleared and paved. The term “local” also means that there is a guy with binoculars, shorts and a tank top performing air traffic control duties from an old barstool at the end of the runway. This helps to differentiate a landing at a “local airport” from the phrase “crash landing” in which you land in a field where air traffic control duties are performed by a nearby cow.

Costa Rica is located between Nicaragua and Panama

Tambor is located between high tide and the jungle

Upon our arrival in Tambor, and after paying a $1.00 per person airport tax to a guy sitting under a tree, we hopped into a Toyota RAV4 taxi and set off for our final destination, the Florblanca Resort in Santa Theresa.

Our driver estimated the ride would take between forty-five minutes to an hour. We stopped seeing road signs about three minutes into the drive and, at about the seven minute mark, stopped seeing anything resembling pavement.

I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about the condition of the road. It was abysmal. At last count I was missing six fillings and about 35 cents in change.

…to be continued

global warming, climate change, eco-tourism, Costa Rica, Tambor, San Jose, mental patients in airports

There are some days when it doesn’t feel all that great to be a professional smart-ass … stuff like this is going on and I’m writing about what Al Gore had for dinner.

The above photo of a bare-footed child is from a remarkable collection taken by photographer Julian Li.

This image, along with the others photos in the series, pretty much trumped anything else I thought about putting up here today.

If the world is to survive, it will be through education and a philosophy that espouses the sanctity of individual rights.

Sorry for the buzz-kill.

I’ll be back tomorrow. I just need a little time off….

Cambodia, children, individual rights

Fish story…

Too bad fish and game rules don’t apply to Al Gore.

Gore was caught, but we suspect won’t be released by pundits, in the latest instance of the former next President’s “do as I say, not as I do” lifestyle.

As described in the Daily Telegraph,

Only one week after Live Earth, Al Gore’s green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter’s wedding in Beverly Hills. Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species.

About the only way this could be more embarrassing was if the appetizer had been penguin.

It would be very easy to criticize Gore for hypocrisy except for one small fact … Chilean sea bass is freakin’ delicious. Cooked right, as I’m sure it was at Sarah Gore’s reception, it is tender, flaky and melts in your mouth.

Lightly saute it in a macadamia crust and you’ve got yourself a dining experience second to none.

There will probably be the usual standard denials that this particular sea bass was farm-raised or that the Gores only knew that the choice was “fish” and not Chilean sea bass.

Al and Tipper reportedly are very good clients of the Beverly Hills Crustacean restaurant, so the usual practice would be to have the restaurant’s chef and management take the fall on this. Stay tuned for the flurry of PR releases to follow.

On the other hand, this would be a great opportunity for Gore to embrace his inner capitalist and just come out and admit that living a “green” life should be an individual option and not a government-imposed duty.

Al could continue to preach to the choir about the end of the world, and the rest of us could live our lives as we see fit and not have to worry about laws, bureaucrats and Sheryl Crow encroaching on our personal decisions.

Or maybe Gore’s next book will be an endangered species cookbook. There’s only a limited number of Chilean sea bass left. It would be a shame to waste them by overcooking them or using too much cajun seasoning.

global warming, climate change, Al Gore, Chilean sea bass, Sheryl Crow, Crustacean restaurant, Sarah Gore,

All we are is dust in the wind…

It’s hot in Arizona this time of year … but it’s a dry heat.

Combined with high winds, that’s not a real good situation if you’re in some little backwater town like, oh…say, Phoenix.

Basically, it looks like the world’s coming to an end in this AP video:

global warming, climate change, Phoenix, WTF, dust,

Ready for a quick trip to the movies….

With all the hype, hysteria and angry rhetoric surrounding the global warming debate, it’s about time we all take a deep breath, hold it for a good ten seconds and just mellow out.

Thanks to a new research project at Ford Motor Company, we may be in a position to do that sooner than we think since Ford is experimenting with making a car that runs on and has parts made from hemp.

Bold moves, dude.

The “cannabis car,” as it’s already been doobied dubbed, would use “new materials based on fibres from hemp and other plants such as flax and willow, to replace metals and oil-based plastics.”

Your car could still overheat, but chances are you’d be much more laid back about it.

The car would be socially responsible in a number of ways. In addition to being made from sustainable plant material, anyone trying to commit suicide by leaving the car running in a garage would only get seriously buzzed.

I’m not going to say this would solve all your problems, but suicide is a little harder to contemplate when you’re laughing uncontrollably at the socks you’re wearing.

There’s a good chance that the murder rate would decline in most major cities as the contact high during rush hour should calm everyone’s nerves for a good couple of hours.

This is not to say there wouldn’t be some downside to the cannabis concept car. You’d have to at least quadruple the glove compartment size to hold enough Twinkies and Doritos for your morning drive into work.

Driving the Ford Cheeba (just a suggestion on the name) could also lead to an addiction to more hard-core cars like the Chevy Flake and the Black Tar Hummer.

If you think your crack habit is expensive, wait until you see how many laptops you have to steal and pawn to support a four-car-a-day habit.

Early plans are for the new Ford to only come in one color - Acapulco Gold. Other colors will be added when factory workers get motivated enough to do it … in about seven years.

The new Ford Cheeba. Designed in America, built in Jamaica. Cool.

global warming, climate change, sustainable living, hemp, pot, grass, BC Budd, herb, Ford, Chevy, Hummer, Twinkies, Doritos, smoke

“Oh, piss boy….”

I like to think I’m as environmentally conscious as the next guy … as long as the next guy is Michael Crichton or James Imhofe.

I have nothing against sustainable living, but I’m unwilling to turn a 15-minute shopping trip into a three-hour ordeal by reading labels on boxes of Cap’n Crunch and Hot Pockets to make sure they are made of over 85% recycled paper.

I don’t compost my leftovers. I don’t buy magazines based on whether they use vegetable-based ink. I don’t air dry my coffee filters and re-sew them into clothing so I can “give green” on birthdays and holidays.

I don’t take cold showers in rainwater I’ve collected in a barrel made out of recycled car tires.

I drive a non-hybrid car because I like the way it looks and handles but I also own a bike that I use when the opportunity arises.

I recently switched to using CFL bulbs. I recycle cans and bottles and will probably buy a rotary blade, non-gasoline lawn mower next month when I move into a new house next month.

I don’t do any of these things because of “impending shortages” or because of some fictional environmental “tipping point” we’re supposed to be closing in on. I do it because it either makes sense to me or because I’ve been nagged extorted persuaded to do it by my girlfriend.

Although, I’m on the record as saying I don’t think that a sex moratorium is fighting fair.

Despite all my best efforts, it seems like every day someone is coming up with another shortage that we’re facing “if not in our lifetime, at least in our children’s lifetime.”

The most recent “impending shortage” we’re facing, according to Associate Professor Cynthia Mitchell, is a phosphorus shortage. Cynthia, who works for the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), says the world’s deposits of phosphorus are due to run out in about 50 years.

Phosphorous is used to make the head of strike-anywhere matches and for some military uses like smoke-bombs and tracer ammunition. As far as I can figure out, that means a phosphorus shortage would cut down on arson and war. I think that might be a good thing.

Still, Cynthia works for the Institute of Sustainable Futures, so it’s her job to figure out a way to keep phosphorus around. And she’s done just that.

Cynthia says that “recycling the 500 litres of urine each person produces a year is the solution.”

I’m willing to recycle a lot of things but this is where I put my foot down…but carefully, so I don’t step in anything.

I’ll install energy-efficient appliances, water-saving shower heads and unplug appliances. I’ll recycle glass, paper, aluminum, printer cartridges and string. But I will not pee into chamber pot that I have to lug down to the curb once a week.

Just the price of dry cleaning my neckties would be enough for me to be against this idea.

The whole point of progress is supposed to be that we have more time to enjoy life. Life is way too short for me to be carting around my own urine except during my annual physical and the occasional random drug test.

If we’re so concerned about shortages that we resort to recycling our own pee, at that point, we’re officially back to the Middle Ages and we might as well bring back bubonic plague and a 23-year average life expectancy.

If that means we run out of phosphorous … too bad.

global warming, climate change, Mel Brooks, Michael Crichton, James Imhofe, Middle Ages, piss boy, History of the World, recycle, phosphorous

“Oh, noooooooo….”

There’s an old Russian joke…

The Russian Premier and his KGB director are watching the May Day parade in the Soviet Union. First, the tanks rolled by; next, the troops marched past; behind them the planes and the missiles were towed past the viewing stand. And, finally, there came ten people dressed in black.

“Are they spies?” asked the Russian Premier.

“They’re economists,” replied the KGB director. “Imagine the havoc they’ll wreak when we set them loose on America.”

Bharrat Jagdeo is a Russian-trained economist, the President of Guyana and the world’s hardest Wheel of Fortune answer… ever.

Jagdeo recently spoke to an agro-energy forum and pointed out what might be considered as… oh,… just a teeny bit of a glitch in the whole Kyoto Protocol carbon offset scheme.

The President noted that, for countries such as his which are home to some of the most lush and pristine rain forests on the planet, “…if you cut down trees and you plant them back you get money, if you preserve them, you don’t get anything.”

Oops.

That sound you hear is a U.N. bureaucrat banging his head against the wall as he mutters, “We should have seen that coming….”

Just one more reason for sneaking off in the opposite direction when everyone else is hell-bent on drinking the Kool-Aid.

global warming, climate change, carbon offsets, Guyana, Wheel of Fortune, Jim Jones, Bharrat Jagdeo, U.N., United Nations, bureaucrats, Kool-Aid, oh yeah

At last, someone has done a scientific study proving that global warming is real….

It’s clearly time to bring together two of the most popular and powerful environmental groups of the past 50 years:

Global warming and …

…Save the Whale-Tails.

global warming, climate change, proof, save the whales, whale tail

Sustainable flower power…

There’s been a lot of publicity lately about the practicality of using biofuels as a source of energy.

One of the drawbacks to corn and soy-based biofuels is that using these crops for fuel cuts into food supplies. Land that is currently used to grow crops for food is already being diverted to grow crops for use in producing fuel.

Commodity markets have filtered in the resulting cut-backs in food supplies and food prices have been rising at double-digit rates over the past year or so. It’s part of the efficient market mechanism of capitalism that, while everyone is focused on oil prices which aren’t going anywhere fast, food prices are going through the solar-paneled roof.

Not only is there no such thing as a free lunch, your lunch is getting more expensive faster than anything else.

I’m not real sure where we stand on the whole viability of biofuels as a source of energy, but recent discoveries about the Seashore Mallow (pictured above) sound like good news to me.

Not sustainable flower power…

It turns out the Seashore Mallow (or as it was known before it signed on with a PR firm, the Sweat Weed) has some of the advantages of other biofuels but also some unique characteristics that make it a better source of energy than soybeans or corn.

As this article puts it:

The flower has two advantages over other potential biofuel crops. It is, first of all, a perennial and so unlike soy will not require replanting every year. Secondly and crucially, it is a halophyte, highly resistant to salt. It is therefore possible to cultivate the Seashore Mallow in saltwater marshland and other areas in which most crops cannot be grown.

Unlike corn, no one is using Sweat Weed to make quesadillas, so production of biofuel from this flower won’t be cutting into available food supplies.

And, since the Seashore Mallow can grow in saltwater marshes, the area required for crop and fuel production is actually expanded.

It’s the proverbial win/win situation for everyone … except commodity speculators with long corn positions.

Mortimer! Get back in there and sell!

global warming, climate change, Seashore Mallow, Sweat Weed, biofuel, ethanol, corn, soybeans, food prices, gas prices, movie ticket prices, Trading Places, Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd

Geri Halliwell and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - One tries to excite impressionable teens, the other’s a former Spice Girl…

As a dedicated professional blogger I am paid a pretty penny (or an attractive nickel in really good months) to make sure I get firsthand news of events that have do with global warming.

So, I had about two dollars and thirty-four cents more incentive than the average guy to watch the entire Live Earth concert.

I didn’t make it past the London segment.

The final profit figures aren’t in, but I’m going to suggest the entire seven continent take didn’t amount to enough money to make it worth my while to listen to one of the Spice Girls lecture me about climate change.

My early departure from the event meant that I missed one of the most rousing passionate bat-shit crazy speeches of the day given by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

According to Newsday the scene at the Meadowlands went down something like this:

“Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. … who grew hoarse from shouting. “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors.”

I think we can all agree that this type of rhetoric is out of place at a concert that is being seen by millions on the Internet. Unless you’re discussing the characters in a Jane Eyre novel, you’ve got no business calling someone a “toadie.”

Just for the record … I have a problem with the whole thinly-veiled environmental fatwa, also.

Especially when the guy issuing the call for punishment is actively opposing development of the country’s largest renewable energy project.

Then again, that appears to have been the dress code for the entire concert: consistency optional.

global warming, climate change, Live Earth, Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cape Wind project, toadie, Jane Eyre,