Radical Homemaker

Live Dangerously: Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Radical Homemaker

When I first released Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, I was advised to make a list of "easy steps for becoming a radical homemaker" as part of my publicity outreach materials. My shoulders slumped at the very thought: Three years of research about the social, economic, and ecological significance of homemaking, and I had to reduce it to 10 easy tips? I didn't see a to-do list as a viable route to a dramatic shift in thinking, beliefs, and behaviors. But since the objective of such a list was smoother discussion and communication of Radical Homemaking ideas with the public, I did it.

I came up with the simplest things I could imagine—like committing to hanging laundry out to dry, dedicating a portion of the lawn to a vegetable garden, making an effort to get to know neighbors to enable greater cooperation and reduce resource consumption. I would perfunctorily refer back to them when radio dialogues flagged, when interviews seemed to be getting off track, or to distract myself when an occasional wave of personal sarcasm (I do have them on occasion) threatened to jeopardize an otherwise polite discourse about the book. After about 40 media interviews, I was pretty good at rattling them off, and I began to see their power and significance beyond helping me to be polite.

Her list:

* Commit to hanging your laundry out to dry.

* Dedicate a portion of your lawn to a vegetable garden.

* Get to know your neighbors. Cooperate to save money and resources.

* Go to your local farmers' market each week before you head to the grocery store.

* Do some spring cleaning to identify everything in your home that you absolutely don't need. Donate to help others save money and resources.

* Make a commitment to start carrying your own reusable bags and use them on all your shopping trips.

* Choose one local food item to learn how to preserve for yourself for the winter. Get your family to spend more evenings at home, preferably with the TV off.

* Cook for your family.

* Focus on enjoying what you have and who are with. Stop fixating on what you think you may need, or how things could be better "if only."

Simple things to do to break that consumer culture rut you're in.

Doomsday?

From Chelsea Green:

In mid-May, Michael Ruppert toured Vermont, speaking to groups about peak oil and the many signs of impending collapse. The tour concluded with a screening of the documentary film Collapse (which, according to Ruppert, has been pirated two million times!). This is a video made by Scott Moody, of his talk on May 13 at the Burlington, Vermont City Hall.

Watch and listen, but don’t worry, his predictions are only right 80% of the time…

Only 80%?

Gardening Lessons

Sowing Traditional Knowledge

Indigenous people and peasants have detailed knowledge of nature. Their religion is a spiritual form of farming - pleading to the gods to bring them a good harvest. Their celebrations, their fiestas, are prayers of enjoyment to their gods for their ancestors, animals, crops, harvest, the dead and the living.

Indigenous people in the Philippines consider the land a gift of the gods.

Land in the savannah grasslands of the Upper East region of Ghana is a sanctuary for the gods.

The Dai people of southwest China protect and preserve sacred groves where they worship their gods - exactly like the ancient Greeks.

The Dayak Pasir Adang people live in East Borneo, Indonesia, and practice sacred farming. If their reading of nature is auspicious, they use fire for clearing the land in order to plan their crops. They don't destroy or burn fruit-bearing trees or ground that has the graves of their ancestors. They sow seeds of spinach, bitter brassica, corn, and cucumber.

The ethno botanical knowledge of several indigenous people is remarkable. The Tzeltals and the Purepechas of Mexico recognize more than 1,200 and 900 plants respectively.

It was from that careful study and understanding of the workings of nature that traditional farming came into being.

Crop mixtures with animals, crops grown with trees near or within a forest, make up a traditional farming system. Mixing plants and animals is good farming because, together, they fertilize the land and keep pests under control. Crop mixtures attract insect predators and parasites that keep hostile insects and weeds in check.

In addition, the traditional seeds of the peasant have a greater resistance to disease. Farm animals (hogs, chicken, cattle) give the peasant milk, meat, and draft power while they eat weeds and crop residues recycling them into protein and manure for the land.

Moreover, traditional family farmers and peasants practice sustainable agriculture; that is, they practice not merely good husbandry, but, just as importantly, they and their agriculture are expressions of agricultural, ecological, and biodiversity principles, social justice, democracy, and very small-scale farming on the land.

In contrast to the unsustainable agricultural practices of industrialized farmers, peasants and small family farmers raise food in ways that enrich the land and create strong rural society; that is, they employ sustainable farming as a way of life.

There is so much to be learned from other cultures. So much to be learned from our forefathers as well. A different way of living, a different way of respecting nature, a different way of eating...

Gardens as Teachers

Cover via Amazon

How Gardening Teaches Patience

The thing about gardening is that you realize you can't rush things. A seed takes a certain amount of time to sprout, no matter what you do. A plant or tree takes a certain amount of time to grow, flower, or bear fruit, no matter what you do. No amount of chemicals or technology can make it go faster. And that's totally OK! Can you imagine? That there is still something in our world today we can't force to go faster? Crazy! Crazy good.

Even weeding is a good teacher of patience. It's always intimidating to look at a giant patch of weeds and realize that it's up to you to take them out. Sure, go ahead and spray some Roundup--poison the planet and your children (born or unborn). But you are missing the best part of weeding! Here is what I do: I take a blanket and a basket, and I get comfortable sitting on the ground. I time it so that it's either early or late in the day, and preferably in the shade, and I start at one end and keep going (moving the blanket along with me) until I am done.

What's so great about that? Well, for one thing, you start to see your garden up close. It's amazing all the living things you come across. You notice plants that weren't there before, and you can decide to let some stay just for fun. But most important, you have time to think. Time to let your mind wander while your hands are busy. Suddenly, you have ideas, insights, happy thoughts, resolution to problems. So when the weeding is done, not only do you have a great sense of accomplishment and your garden looks tons better, but your mind has been weeded too. That just can't be rushed.

This article reminded me of "Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World."

Perhaps a more appropriate subtitle would have been Zen and the Art of Horticulture Maintenance, since Johnson infuses every aspect of gardening with the philosophy that has been her guiding light for more than 30 years. A Zen Buddhist master, Johnson has served as head gardener for San Francisco’s Green Gulch Farm Center, a place of exceptional tranquility and vibrancy where her daily devotional meditation practices became as essential to the health and productivity of her gardens as they were to her body and soul.

It is not only the "eating" side of the garden that I enjoy, it is the "spiritual" side that drives me to be in the garden every day - pull weeds, talk to my plants, nurture...

Garlic Scapes

My garlic is taking over one corner of the garden.  This week I harvested the garlic scapes.

What are they?

Garlic scapes are the flower/seed stalk that shoots up from the garlic bulb. I like the way they curl and from what I understand if they not cut off they will eventually straighten out and bloom. The reason they cut them off they is so the bulb can get more energy to grow bigger and better.

The farmers’ markets and the CSA shares in this area are brimming with garlic scapes. Judging by the comments I heard at the market this morning, not everyone knows what they are or what to do with them. Tonight for dinner I’ll annoint them with some olive oil and grill them just like I do asparagus. They can be chopped thick or thin and added to salads and stir-fries.
My favorite thing to do with them is to make garlic scape pesto..

Garlic scape pesto

1 pound garlic scapes
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Olive oil (about 1/2 to 1 cup)
Pine nuts if available

Chop the garlic scapes into 3 inch lengths. Put it int he food processor and process until pureed. Add the parmesan and pine nuts and process until smooth. Slowly add the olive oil as the food processor runs and continue until all the oil is combined into the garlic. Store in an air-tight jar in the refrigerator.

This was my weekend meal. Served over pasta - delicious!

Tony goes yachting

Mark Fiore's Lifestyles of the Rich & Fossil-Fueled.
Another great piece by Fiore.

Where are the bats?

Deadly Bat Disease Set to Go Global

No one likes to have their sleep disturbed but for hibernating bats it can actually be deadly. Geomyces destructans is caused by a white fungus that irritates infected bats' skin, rousing them from their slumber and causing them to expend precious reserves of energy—often leading to starvation.

Since first being discovered in Northern New York, the syndrome has spread west. Now, an outbreak in caves in Oklahoma have experts worried it is poised to spread across the hemisphere.

Have not seen any bats in the sky near my garden. Could this be the cause? Hope not!

Ooops!

New Accident at Leaking BP Well: Oil Gushing Freely Into Gulf Again

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, leader of the Federal response to the BP oil disaster, announced this morning that an accident involving a robotic submarine at the site of the leaking well has dislodged the containment cap which had been capturing a significant portion of oil gushing from the well. As a result, Allen said, the oil is now flowing freely into the Gulf.

Allen said that a remotely operated vehicle had bumped into one of the cap’s vents, closing it. Because excess oil and gas could not escape from the vent, gas began to rise through a pipe carrying warm water to the cap, forcing technicians to remove the cap.

Do you get the feeling that this will never end?

Follow the Money

Obama Will Appeal Judge's Ruling Against Drilling Moratorium

The Obama administration will appeal a ruling from a New Orleans' federal courthouse that its six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling is illegal.

"We will immediately appeal to the 5th circuit the president strongly believes as the Department of Interior and the Department of Justice argued yesterday that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and... potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now," said spokesman Robert Gibbs during Tuesday's briefing.

The comment from Gibbs came just moments after a U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman ordered an end to the temporary halt in drilling, which had been put in place by the Obama administration order to conduct safety checks on other wells in the Gulf.

Why in spite of the biggest environmental disaster threatening Earth? Maybe because...
Judge Who Lifted Moratorium Tied To Offshore Drilling Companies

The federal judge who lifted Obama's six-month drilling moratorium had interests in Transocean and a number of other offshore energy companies, according to financial disclosure forms from 2008.

Martin Feldman, a U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, held energy stocks in Transocean and Halliburton, as well as two of BP's largest U.S. private shareholders -- BlackRock and JP Morgan Chase. The law Feldman overturned would have halted the approval of any new permits and suspended deepwater drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf, four of which are BP rigs.

Guess he never heard of recusing himself.

Be the change

We All Have Oil on Our Hands

At first I resisted commenting on the oil spill in the Gulf. What more could I add to what has already been said. But then I realized that as disturbing as it is, this disaster provides us with an opportunity for something good, perhaps even a turning point that invokes sustainable change in our lives and for the environment.

I know that I will be seen as a radical when I say that this isn't the fault of BP or Transocean. It's not the fault of the government or bi-partisan politics. It is not the fault of oil executives and big corporations.

It is my fault.
It is your fault.
It is our fault.

This is the universe's way of waking us up, of letting us know that it is time that we take personal responsibility for the havoc that our collective greed has had on our planet. It is known that thoughts and actions create energy. Whether or not you believe in Karma you can at least accept what physicists say that consciousness determines reality. If this is our reality what is our consciousness saying?

This disaster is the most recent effect, in a long line of effects -- from Madoff to the War in Iraq -- that stem from putting our heads in the sand and refusing to face the reality that our consciousness, our desires, our thoughts, our actions and even our solutions are based on short term and selfish thinking.

Our dependence on the pollutants of this earth have always, and will continue to have far-reaching consequences to our eco-systems, biosystems, geosystems and our race's natural evolution.

Change is inevitable. Things absolutely cannot stay the same. The type of change we invoke is up to each and every one of us. If we each take responsibility in shifting our own behavior, we can trigger the type of change that is necessary to achieve sustainability for our race or this planet.

We change our planet, our environment, our humanity every day, every year, every decade, and every millennia.

It is critical that we believe that you and me can actually make a difference. If we neglect our power and let things just happen, then we are merely contributing to future oil spills and other impending disasters.

As with every revolution or movement of change, a critical mass must be achieved. A tipping point where one person, one event, one incident galvanizes society into action. This disaster could be it. The power of one is key to our success. The power that you, me, our family, our friends, our spheres of influence, and our full extensions, can invoke positive changes that alters the course of human history. We have reached a critical juncture in our existence on this planet. All of us can do one thing differently towards change. All of us can alter one aspect of our behavior. For each of us, it is a different change in our routine. For some, it might be walking or biking to the market instead of driving. For others, it might be car-pooling or even drinking from re-usable bottles instead of discarding plastic bottles. For others it can be not slamming the car door that will cause a tornado on the other side of the world - Google butterfly effect and read about the power of a single action.

Trends are made up of individuals wishing to make a change. How incredible would it be if you would be the actual person to bring on the tipping point. How awesome would it be if you and me, our friends, our family, our society, were responsible for the changes that can positively impact our environment and our planet. Personal responsibility is not only recognizing the errors of our ways. Personal responsibility lies in our willingness and ability to correct those errors individually and collectively.

It all starts with you and me!

No Kombucha at Whole Foods?

Kombucha Drinks Pulled From Whole Foods' Shelves and On Tap

Whole Foods has removed all raw kombucha products from all of their stores. Although it is well known that kombucha contains trace amounts of alcohol, the products were removed due to concerns with slightly elevated alcohol levels because products containing more than .5% alcohol must be labeled with a warning.

Solution: brew your own. Easy. Great tasting. Good for you.

Two points!

A Mouth Watering Tempeh Reuben

I spent the past weekend at a yoga retreat in Asheville, N.C. It was gorgeous and a perfect escape from the rush of summer. I stayed at a friend's house about 15 minutes outside of Asheville, tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There was even a black bear outside my window at one point. Another reason why I love Asheville is because it's the sort of town where everyone is a vegetarian and therefore, there's tons of great vegetarian cuisine. You can find a number of vegetarian eateries, not just one or two, and everyone is well versed in preparing vegetarian foods.

My friend, for example, made this excellent tempeh reuben that made me melt inside it was so delicious. I would go ahead and make my own thousand island dressing so that you don't end up with all those preservatives and additives that come in prepared salad dressings. I included a recipe below. And also make sure to slice the tempeh thin enough so that you get a good fry out of it. Be generous with the sauerkraut and thousand island dressing when you're putting together the sandwich.

Tempeh Reubens

Serves 2

8 oz tempeh

5 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ cup Vidalia onions, diced

4 slices rye bread

2 tbsp thousand island dressing (recipe to follow)

1/4 cup (or more) sauerkraut

4 slices Swiss cheese

Method

1. Slice the tempeh so that it's about ½ inch thick.

2. Heat the olive oil up to medium and add garlic and onions. Cook until softened and add in tempeh. Fry tempeh for about 4 minutes on each side.

3. Toast the rye bread on each side. Add a slather of thousand island dressing on both pieces of bread. Top with tempeh, onions, sauerkraut, and cheese. Melt under the broiler and serve immediately.

Easy Thousand Island Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup ketchup

1/4 cup pickle relish

Method

1. Combine ingredients and serve.

The two awarded points?   One point for the recipe - love tempeh and this sounds great.  The other?  Asheville - I'll get to see you real soon - I hope.

Be prepared!

American Chernobyl

An uncontrollable industrial catastrophe, a worm-eaten system controlled by a rigid nomenklatura, a dynamic leader who wants to change things: doesn't that remind you of something? Yes, of course: Chernobyl, the Soviet Communist Party, Gorbachev.

Let's recall the 1980s: during that era, people knew that the USSR was doing poorly, but who would have bet a franc or a dollar on its rapid collapse? Still less so, given that the country had found an appealing and modern leader. From the outset, Gorbachev committed to vigorous reforms (glasnost and perestroika) even as he changed the USSR's foreign policy through detente with Ronald Reagan.

And then Chernobyl exploded. The catastrophe revealed the system's fragility. In 1989, the Berlin Wall crumbled; in 1991, the USSR was dissolved. Russia entered a decade of hard economic recession.

People today know that the United States isn't doing well, but who would bet a Euro or a Yuan on that country's rapid collapse? Still less so, given that the country has elected an appealing and modern leader. From the outset, he committed to vigorous reforms (the stimulus and the healthcare law) even as he acknowledged that the United States could no longer run everything in the world.

And then Deepwater Horizon exploded... The unstoppable gushing of oil provoked is proving to be a historic environmental catastrophe. It simultaneously demonstrates the incompetence of big private companies and (after a first failure during Hurricane Katrina, in 2005) the state's inability to master the situation.

Like Chernobyl, Deepwater Horizon derives its meaning from its context - that of a society dominated by a capitalist oligarchy that rejects any in-depth change in spite of the financial disaster for which it is responsible. Wall Street remains as solidly attached to its privileges, as were Soviet dignitaries.

Moreover, politicians, advertising and media maintain the fiction that the American dream can endure without disruption. But a pillar of American power has been shaken: that of cheap energy. Mr. Obama tries to make his fellow citizens understand: "What we can predict is that the availability of fossil fuel is going to be diminishing; that it's going to get more expensive to recover; that there are going to be environmental costs that our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are going to have to bear," he said in a June 13 Politico.com interview.

The end of cheap oil is the end of the "American way of life." Will the United States stand up to the challenge? One may think they will. Or not.

 Better start learning those basic skills - sewing, cooking, farming...  

Diane Wilson - activist

Diane Wilson from Bioneers on Vimeo.
Here is the woman arrested at the BP hearing.  Why so many police to arrest her?  To quiet the truth?

BP Knew?

BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion

BP was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.

The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.

The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.

As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”

At today's hearing it took a numberr of police to arrest one female protester with an oil-like substance on her hands and face. With this report, maybe those police should be arresting some BP bigwigs.

SNAP

First came ROOT now SNAP:

The formula for SNAP is based on the Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for ‘Lebkuchen’, or ginger snap. SNAP is certified organic and 80 proof. It will debut in PA later this summer!

Anyone going to Philly? Official request - Bottle of ROOT and SNAP - Please!

Food food everywhere

There is a fantastic array of vegetables you can grow in your garden, and not all of them are annuals. In Perennial Vegetables the adventurous gardener will find information, tips, and sound advice on less common edibles that will make any garden a perpetual, low-maintenance source of food.

From Chelsea Green.

Put down that phone

San Francisco Rules for Cell Phone Radiation Warnings at Retailers

According to Techware Daily, "San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a law requiring retailers to display the amount of radiation emitted by cellphones. It's likely to become law after a ten-day comment period."

The new law would require that the Specific Absorbtion Rate, or how much of a cell phone's emitted radiation is pulled into the user's body, be displayed in retail stores. If the information isn't displayed, the store is fined $300. Not a big slap on the wrist, and it will be interesting to see how many stores actually adhere to the law -- and even more interesting to see if this sets a precedent for other cities requiring retailers to provide this information in the stores for consumers. Maine has already looked into requiring cell phone manufacturers to put a warning on packaging about the potential risks of radiation. It could have an impact on which cell phone models are more popular among consumers, especially parents concerned with the exposure their families are getting.

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom points out that "In addition to protecting the consumers' right to know, this legislation will encourage telephone manufacturers to redesign their devices to function at lower radiation levels."

Until it takes effect across this nation , until people start caring - use the speaker or better yet just put it down!

My weekend menu

Lentil Patties

Lentil Patties with Creamy Lime Dressing

1 Tbs olive oil

1 jalapeno, minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, chopped (about 1/4 cup)

1 carrot, peeled and cut into a small dice

1 cup cooked lentils

1 egg + egg white, beaten

2 Tbs cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 Tbs + 1 tsp cumin, divided

2 limes, juiced

4 Tbs reduced fat sour cream

salt to taste

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet or frying pan. Sauté the jalapeno, garlic, onion, and carrot until they are soft, about 3 minutes. Add the cooked vegetable mixture to a large bowl and mix in the lentils, egg, cilantro, breadcrumbs, and 1 Tbs cumin. The mixture should be pretty wet and a little sticky.

2. Drop tablespoon sized portions of the lentil mixture into your frying pan over medium-high heat and press down gently with a spatula. Cook for about 2 minutes or until the bottom has browned and formed a thin crust. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Whisk together the lime juice, sour cream, 1 tsp cumin, and salt to taste. Drizzle dressing over top of the patties, or serve separately.

With a salad direct from my garden - I'm getting hungry!

Yeah Connecticut!

Image via Wikipedia

Connecticut Becomes 24th State to Put e-Waste Recycling Into Law

Thankfully, we've seen a rush of states adding new e-waste regulations and laws to their books, most recently with New York and hot on the heals of that news comes word that Connecticut will be the 24th US state to put enact an electronics recycling law, starting this fall. Gadget manufacturers will have to take note -- Connecticut will require manufacturers to front the cost of transport and recycling of the equipment. As it becomes more expensive for manufacturers to see their devices through to end of life, will this lead to products that have a longer life span or are easier to recycle?

The new law, however, is only for consumer and household gadgets. It doesn't include e-waste from government, business or commercial entities because they're subject to federal and state hazardous waste disposal regulations.

According to the Environmental Leader, "The regulations establish collection points throughout the state, which will help recycle potentially hazardous materials such as mercury and leaded glass. Consumers will be able to recycle old televisions, computers, printers, and monitors among other devices. The state has been considering the program since 2007."

Finally!

Rand Paul on the Crazy Train

He loves coal.  He loves mountaintop mining and won't miss a hill or two.  Do we like him? 
You're right.  We think he has a round trip ticket on the crazy train.

Simplifying by need

Fierce Urgency by James Howard Kunstler:

Pretty soon, the oil missing from the Gulf will leave a message at the 7-Eleven stops in Dallas and Chattanooga, and before the year is out the cardboard signs that say "Out Of Gas" may hang on the pumps. A great hue and cry will rise out of the Nascar ovals and righteous lady politicians with decoupaged hair-doos will invoke the New World Order and the Book of Revelation in their rise to power. Reasonable men with moderate views will dither on the sidelines, afraid to offend one faction or another.
Sometime this summer that ebb tide of events is going to reverse and we'll have more to contend with than just the shrieking wildlife suffocating in orange gunk, and the ruined spawning grounds of the shrimp, and the lost livelihoods of the sportfishing charter guides, and the tarball covered beaches and devalued real estate. We decided to de-complexify the hard way, the way that brings about as much pain and disorder as possible until we discover that the long emergency beats a path straight into a world made by hand.

We may kick and scream but we will be facing changes!

Conspiracy Theories Grow

Gulf Coast Evacuation Scenario Summer/Fall 2010

Editor’s note: There is no definitive evidence the government plans mass evacuation at this point. In fact, the government refuses to admit gases in the Gulf exist or pose a health issue. All of this may change as the problem worsens.

SoCal Martial Law Alerts (SCMLA) has been in existence for a year and a half and this is our first MARTIAL LAW ALERT.

We have withheld putting out information on the Gulf oil spill for a variety of reasons, but there is now enough evidence for us to put together a fairly clear picture of what really happened, what may result and to warn people who live in the area.

THE SITUATION:

Due to toxic gases from the fractured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the possible off-gassing of the highly-toxic Corexit 9500 (the chemical dispersant used by BP in the oil spill clean-up), acid rain and various as-yet-unknown forms of environmental damage, we believe that the government will have no choice but to relocate millions of people away from the Gulf Coast. Those living in Florida are presently at the highest risk, but the danger also appears likely to spread to all Gulf Coast states east of Louisiana and possibly even to the entire Eastern half of the United States once hurricane season begins.

Some have also suggested that if a hurricane were to occur over the oil spill area itself, lightning might possibly ignite volatile organic compounds, not to mention the acid rain clouds that could form and be carried inland (i.e. acid rain could pollute the water table, destroy crops, kill wildlife and pose significant health risks to humans in the southern and eastern states.)

Possible? Probable? The way things are going - anything is possible!

Some more "rules"

Don't Eat Food That Doesn't Rot - Michael Pollan's Food Rules

10 Catchy Food Rules
2. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognise as food.
6. Avoid foods that contain more than five ingredients
13. Eat only foods that eventually will rot.
15. Get out of the supermarket whenever you can.
20. It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
21. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language (Think Big Mac).
27. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well.
32. Don't overlook the oily little fishes.
36. Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.
39. Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.

We are all guilty

Matthew Modine:Sucking Big Oil's Tit

Our nation is the biggest consumer of oil on the planet. The oil spill in the Gulf is our collective fault. Period. Every animal that dies, every job that is lost, every beach that becomes tarred with clumps of smelly black crude oil is on our hands. We are all complicit because of our unwillingness to move away from, and curtail our addiction, to oil. So before we look for someone else to blame, before we start the lawsuits, have a good, long look in your rearview mirror, America. What do you see? Look around as you sit in your car, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic -- do you notice that there is one passenger in 80% of the cars? When you raise your bottled water to your lips, do you consider the carbon footprint the water bottle has made from distillery to your hand? Or that the plastic bottle is made from oil? If you're a supporter of motor sports you're extra guilty. Indy 500? NASCAR? Guilty. Motorcycle races? Monster truck races? Tractor pulls? Guilty. Internal combustion engines burn gasoline made from oil and that is why we turned away, turned a blind eye to, and complicity allowed companies like BP to "drill, baby drill" in a mile deep of water. Period.

Read the entire article. This actor is so eloquent in telling us the truth.

We have to act now.

10:10

Noam Chomsky and Bill McKibben Talk Climate Change

Led by Bill McKibben, the gang at 350.org is at work again planning for the next big day of climate change action. (Remember last year's? The global momentum was pretty impressive.)

This year's will take place on October 10. The campaign's slogan for the year is: "Get To Work." The idea is to spark leaders to action by starting to lead and create change ourselves.

From 350.org:

Working with our friends at the 10:10 campaign, we're going to make the tenth day of the tenth month of the millennium's tenth year a real starting point for concrete action. We're calling it the 10/10 Global Work Party, and in every corner of the world we hope communities will put up solar panels, insulate homes, erect windmills, plant trees, paint bikepaths, launch or harvest local gardens.

Mark your calendars!

Landrieu on the Crazy Train

Crank up the offshore drilling rigs

Sen. Mary Landrieu went on ABC's "Good Morning America" today to advocate for lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf, this despite the fact that worst oil spill in American history continues. Landrieu, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the oil and gas industry over her career, said that the oil companies "employ, directly, hundreds of people and indirectly thousands." The BP oil rig disaster killed 11 rig workers.

Crazy is as crazy does!

This is a mall I'd like

Image via Wikipedia

New Uses For Old Malls: Urban Farms

Ever since Architect Eb Zeidler riffed on the Galleria in Milan for his Eaton Centre in Toronto in the '70s, a lot of malls have been covered with glorious glass roofs. Many downtown malls were built as urban renewal and revitalization projects, but few of them thrived; after killing off the main street retail around them, they most have died on their own.

But they still have those glorious glass roofs. PSFK points us to Cleveland, where Gardens Under Glass is trying to put them to work, as an urban farm.

The proponents of the scheme note:

It is the ideal location for a project of this nature due to its structural design that provides a year round controlled environment, perfectly conducive to successful implementation. At the project's root is an urban farm that will use a system called "recirculating greenhouse hydroponics" to grow produce such as tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, herbs, peppers, sprouts, mushrooms and flowers.

But that year round controlled environment is expensive to maintain. Gardens under glass isn't only about the food, but it is also:

an urban agricultural center that will produce, inform and educate the Cleveland community about the importance of growing green. The gardens will in turn cultivate businesses with a similar mindset.

So the farm becomes a magnet for food related retail, such as restaurants, a year round indoor farmers market, a garden supply store and a health food store. That is the real promise of the idea.

This would be a much more exciting place than the current malls featuring Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap, shoe stores, clothing stores, Brookstone... That would be a mall I would be interested in.

Don't be fooled

Gulf Oil Disaster Doesn't Make the Tar Sands Green

It's funny how it's taken the worst ecological disaster in US history to suddenly make other forms of oil extraction and processing look green. Only months ago, the carbon trail from the massive planned expansion of tar sands production made Canada a pariah at the world environmental summit in Copenhagen. But now tar sands producers and others are promoting tar sands oil as an ecologically friendly alternative to the environmental risks of another deep-water oil spill.

How low the bar has fallen.

There's nothing clean about the production of synthetic oil from tar sands. The production of a single barrel of synthetic oil pollutes some 125 gallons of fresh water and emits over 200 pounds of carbon dioxide, principally as a result of the combustion of the natural gas, over 1,000 cubic feet of it, needed to generate the heat to separate the oil from the sand and then process it.

The solution is not finding alternative ways to get oil - it is how to wean ourselves off our oil addiction.

Kunstler's latest wisdom

 Read this today and just had to post the whole thing.  When will the media report on "our pathological dependency on cars?"  They may have to very soon!

Which Horizon?:

Did the nation heave a sigh of relief when BP announced that their latest gambit to "cap" the Deepwater Horizon gusher will result in hosing up fifty percent of the leaking oil? If so, the nation may be sighing too soon since the other half of the oil will still collect in underwater plumes and hover all around the Gulf Coast like those baleful mother ships in the most recent generation of alien invasion movies. I shudder to imagine the tonnage of dead wildlife flotsam that will wash up with the tide for years to come. It will seem like a "necklace of death" for several states, though even that may not be enough to distract them from the more gratifying raptures of Nascar and NFL football.

For the moment we can only speculate on what the still-unresolved incident will mean for America's oil supply. The zeal to prosecute BP for something like criminal negligence has bestirred a Department of Justice comatose during the rape-and-pillage of the US financial system. BP may be driven out of business, but then what? The net effect of the oil spill, one way or another, will be the gradual shut-down of oil drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico. New government supervision will make operations very costly, if not non-viable, and the surviving companies will probably pack up for the west coast of Africa where supervision is almost non-existent. Anyway you cut it, the US will produce less oil and import more -- and have to rely on the political stability of places like Angola and Nigeria, not to mention the simmering Middle East.

So far, also, the US has done nothing in the way of holding a serious national political discussion about the the most important part of the story: our pathological dependency on cars. I don't know if this will ever happen, even right up to the moment when the lines form at the filling stations. For years, anyway, the few public figures such as Boone Pickens who give the appearance of concern about our oil problem, end up down the rabbit hole of denial when they get behind schemes to run the whole US car-and-truck fleet on something besides gasoline.

This unfortunate techno-narcissism shows that almost nobody wants to think about living with fewer cars driving fewer miles. We're going to be dragged there kicking and screaming, but that's our destination, like it or not. All the effort now going into developing alt-fuels and "green" cars is just a form of "bargaining" on the Kubler-Ross transect of grief.

Traveling around the US, it's easy to understand our failure to come to grips with reality. The nation is fully outfitted for extreme car dependency. You go to places like Atlanta and Minneapolis and you understand how deep we're into this. We spent all our collective national treasure -- and quite a bit beyond that in the form of debt -- building the roadway systems and the suburban furnishings for that mode of existence. We incorporated it into our national identity as the American Way of Life. Now, we don't know what else to do except defend it at all costs, especially by waving the talismanic magic wand of techno-innovation.

The obvious remedy for the oil-and-car problem would be to live in walkable towns and neighborhoods served by the kind of public transit that people are not ashamed to ride in. But it may be too late for that. We're going to be a much poorer society from now on. We squandered the financial resources for that transition on too many other things. We're stuck with our investments in houses and their commercial accessories, built where they were built, and no Jolly Green Giant is going to pick them up and move them closer together in an artful way that adds up to real towns. A reorganization of American life will occur, but now it will be on much less deliberate terms, a much messier and more destructive operation, a default to the smaller scale by extreme necessity, with a lot of losses along the way. The Deepwater Horizon incident only hastens the process.

Anyway, the collapse of suburbia is running neck and neck (and hand-by-hand) with the collapse of capital. Angela Merkel, flicked US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner off like a flea over the weekend at the G-20 meeting in Sitges, Spain. Germany doesn't want to hear about bailouts and stimuli anymore. Germany is looking to reinstate something like a "normal" economy based on producing things of value and paying for things when you have the capital to do it. Germany is pulling the plug on the debt-o-rama banking rackets -- at least insofar as these rackets leave Germany holding the bag for a growing list of deadbeat nations. I don't see how the Euro survives. the remarkable appearance of prosperity in places like Greece and Spain turned out to be a combination of borrowed money and all-time-high tourist flows. Both of these "resources" are heading way down. There's a dwindling supply of middle-class candidates for tourism, especially in the US and the UK, and the Europeans have woken up painfully to the recognition that existing debt is unserviceable. National dominos are wobbling left and right, from Hungary to Latvia to Portugal....

Even the severe steps initiated by Germany may not be enough to keep the lights burning in Europe since the continent has little oil and nat-gas of its own. Europe's experiments with wind power have been valiant (and France's nuclear venture has been daring), but neither of these things will offset the problems associated with peak oil, especially if trouble starts in the Middle East. It was chastening for me to bike around Berlin a week ago and realize that even nations with sturdy cities and good railroads can fall into political chaos. Berlin was a charming place when Hitler arrived on the scene and twelve years later it was a smoldering heap of shattered brick and glass.

The American Way of Life is not so charming, but its very sprawling character may prevent a political maniac from controlling enough of a base to hold all the states and regions together in a thrall of fascism -- and there are all those firearms to think about. I maintain that the trend is down for centralized power here, in the direction of impotency and decreasing competence at anything. I don't subscribe to the paranoid themes of Big Brother government domination, the surveillance state and related fantasies. It'll be more Home Alone meets Risky Business -- a dangerous place with no adult supervision.

The New York Times ran a front-page story on Sunday suggesting that maybe there was something to this nutty idea of Americans preparing for trouble in the months and years ahead, paying down debts, putting some food aside, thinking about where to ride out a socio-economic storm. Their attitude was patronizing of course, and where the actual issues of our oil predicament were concerned, the editors went straight to their 'go-to-guy' Daniel Yergin and his public relations shop, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, the official PR whore of the oil industry. The Times obviously finds it amusing that some Americans see a collapse on the horizon. The Times is so deep into its own collapse that it doesn't even remember how to cover a story.

Living after the end of oil

You know something is going on when the NY Times starts reporting on Peak Oil.  Getting us ready...


Imagining Life Without Oil, and Being Ready

As oil continued to pour into the Gulf of Mexico on a recent Saturday, Jennifer Wilkerson spent three hours on the phone talking about life after petroleum.

For Mrs. Wilkerson, 33, a moderate Democrat from Oakton, Va., who designs computer interfaces, the spill reinforced what she had been obsessing over for more than a year — that oil use was outstripping the world’s supply. She worried about what would come after: maybe food shortages, a collapse of the economy, a breakdown of civil order. Her call was part of a telephone course about how to live through it all.

In bleak times, there is a boom in doom.

Americans have long been fascinated by disaster scenarios, from the population explosion to the cold war to global warming. These days the doomers, as Mrs. Wilkerson jokingly calls herself and likeminded others, have a new focus: peak oil. They argue that oil supplies peaked as early as 2008 and will decline rapidly, taking the economy with them.

Located somewhere between the environmental movement and the bunkered survivalists, the peak oil crowd is small but growing, reaching from health food stores to Congress, where a Democrat and a Republican formed a Congressional Peak Oil Caucus.

Andre Angelantoni is not taking that chance. In his home in San Rafael, Calif., he has stocked food reserves in case an oil squeeze prevents food from reaching market and has converted his investments into gold and silver.

The effects of peak oil, including high energy prices, will not be gentle, said Mr. Angelantoni, a Web designer whose company, Post Peak Living, offers the telephone class and a handful of online courses for life after a collapse.

“There’s lot of apocalyptic people in environmental circles,” she said. “A lot of those people were outraged that we presented an optimistic view of the future. There’s a dark vision driving us, but we’re about moving toward a positive picture of what can be done.”

For Mrs. Wilkerson, who is now growing vegetables in her kitchen, the course, which cost $175, gave her encouragement to move in that direction.

“Whether or not collapse happens, being able to teach other people to grow food so they can weather any adversity is a good investment of my time,” she said.

Lost and nature

The Religion of LOST

We get several conflicting messages about what exactly is the religion of LOST. First, the primal principle seems to be to protect the Light in the tunnel. Everything that happens on the island ultimately revolves around this one crucial point. Its the smoke monster's mission to destroy the light so he can get off the island and its Jacob's mission to protect the light so that...what? So that evil won't take over the earth? Or that the underworld won't take over the earth? Its not fully clear.

So what to make of it? Tuning into nature, spending time listening and acting on that inner voice, protecting the light thats inside of you so the smoke monster can't extinguish it, listening to the subtle nudges that the Universe gives you and acting upon those nudges. All of these can turn you from a simple viewer of a drama to potentially something much greater. A candidate.

Ant control

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Your Home

* Baby powder, dusted on both the ants when you see them, and at their entry point into your house.
* Spray white vinegar mixed with water to get rid of the ants' scent trails - if they can't smell their scent trails, they'll stop coming around.
* Even more ant-fighting power: vinegar and water, with about ten drops of tea tree oil mixed in. This is an excellent cleaner, disinfectant, and deodorizer.
* Place bay leaves or cloves at their point of entry. Ants hate the scent of these, and will avoid them.
* You can also try sprinkling cayenne pepper at their point of entry.
* You can make your own Borax ant traps to help get rid of your ant problem for good.

Ants can be a real annoyance (besides just being kind of gross -- who wants to see ants crawling around on the kitchen counter?) but these tips should help you get control of the problem without resorting to harmful chemicals.

Timing was perfect on this article as an army of small black ants found their way into the kitchen. Okay, I caused it spilling sugar while I was making my next batch of Kombucha. I have used the borax, vinegar, bay (and mint) - have to try the baby powder. Of course the best solution - no sugar spills.

Lessons to be learned

A Buddhist Monk's Vegetarian Diet to Minimize Chemical Exposure

Weekday vegetarians ready to ramp up their meatless-ness may find inspiration in this recently released study in Environmental Health News. For five days, 25 study participants dwelled in a Buddhist temple and adopted a monk's lifestyle--including their oftentimes veggie-based diet.

Prior to their temple stay participants were asked to reveal what they had eaten during the previous 48 hours (consumables included beef, pork and dairy) and give urine samples. The results...

Though none of the participants had taken any antibiotics or pharmaceutical drugs in the previous month, levels of both antibiotics and phthalates were detected in their urine.

Unsurprisingly, after the five-day retreat, they found dramatic antibiotic and phthalate reductions in their post-urinalysis.

Some good news from the Gulf?

Phew! US Has No Plans to Use Nuclear Weapons to Stop the Gulf Gusher

You've probably heard the lunatic proposition floating around the web that the last resort option in stopping the oil gushing out of the the sunken Deepwater Horizon is to deploy some variety of nuclear weapon to blast the leak out of existence. Thankfully, according to a New York Times report, the US government has no plans to act on what one senior official described as a "crazy" plan:

Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said that neither Energy Secretary Steven Chu nor anyone else was thinking about a nuclear blast under the gulf. The nuclear option was not -- and never had been -- on the table, federal officials said.

There were others thinking it! Let's hope it is the last time we hear of the nuke option.

Crazy Sarah

On her Twitter page:

Yeah. So the oil leaks over the land and soaks into the ground and into rivers...that's better - isn't it?

Food or Fuel?

Is that really a choice? Not to someone who is sane.
Cars and People Compete for Grain

At a time when excessive pressures on the earth's land and water resources are of growing concern, there is a massive new demand emerging for cropland to produce fuel for cars--one that threatens world food security. Although this situation had been developing for a few decades, it was not until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when oil prices jumped above $60 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices climbed to $3 a gallon, that the situation came into focus. Suddenly investments in U.S. corn-based ethanol distilleries became hugely profitable, unleashing an investment frenzy that will convert one fourth of the 2009 U.S. grain harvest into fuel for cars.

The United States quickly came to dominate the crop-based production of fuel for cars. In 2005, it eclipsed Brazil, formerly the world's leading ethanol producer. In Europe, where the emphasis is on producing biodiesel, mostly from rapeseed, some 2.4 billion gallons were produced in 2009. To meet its biodiesel goal, the European Union, under cropland constraints, is increasingly turning to palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia, a trend that depends on clearing rainforests for oil palm plantations.

The price of grain is now tied to the price of oil. Historically the food and energy economies were separate, but now with the massive U.S. capacity to convert grain into ethanol, that is changing. In this new situation, when the price of oil climbs, the world price of grain moves up toward its oil-equivalent value. If the fuel value of grain exceeds its food value, the market will simply move the commodity into the energy economy. If the price of oil jumps to $100 a barrel, the price of grain will follow it upward. If oil goes to $200, grain will follow.

As the leading grain exporter and ethanol producer, the United States is in the driver's seat. It needs to make sure that efforts to reduce its heavy dependence on imported oil do not create a far more serious problem: chaos in the world food economy. The choice is between a future of rising world food prices, spreading hunger, and growing political instability and one of more stable food prices, sharply reduced dependence on oil, and much lower carbon emissions.

Wisdom from Engels

Peak Wood: Nature Does Impose Limits
Modern history has shown us the ebb and flow of our wood supplies - from building supplies to firewood - PEAK WOOD!
Lessons for us facing peak oil?

Frederick Engels, the social scientist and communist theorist, saw residual issues beyond immediate gain when it came to deforestation.
“What did the Spanish planters in Cuba, who burned down the forests on the slopes of the mountains and obtained sufficient fertilizer from the ashes for one generation of highly profitable coffee trees, care that the heavy tropical rains later washed away the now unprotected upper stratum of the soil and left only bare rock behind?” he asked in his Dialectics of Nature.
Engels then added his critique: “In relation to nature, the present mode of production is predominantly concerned only about the first, the most tangible result. Why should one be surprised, then, that the more remote effects of actions directed to this end turn out to be of quite a different character?”
Current events have proven Engels a seer. No one considered that by removing the trees and turning to fossil fuels would now threaten the planet by accelerating climate change. Nor did many stop to think that oil would peak, just as wood has done so many times before.
We should therefore take Engels quite seriously when he admonished his generation and those who came before and those to come, “Let us not flatter ourselves on account of our human victories over nature. For each such victory nature takes its revenge on us. Each victory, it is true, in the first place brings about the results we expected, but in the second and third places it has quite different, unforeseen effects which only too often cancel the first.”

As that old TV commercial said - "Don't mess with Mother Nature" - she WILL win.