Climate Rage

Climate Rage:

One last chance to save the world -
for months, that's how the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen, which starts in early December, was being hyped. Officials from 192 countries were finally going to make a deal to keep global temperatures below catastrophic levels. The summit called for "that old comic-book sensibility of uniting in the face of a common danger threatening the Earth," said Todd Stern, President Obama's chief envoy on climate issues.

"It's not a meteor or a space invader, but the damage to our planet, to our community, to our children and their children will be just as great."

That was back in March. Since then, the endless battle over health care reform has robbed much of the president's momentum on climate change. With Copenhagen now likely to begin before Congress has passed even a weak-ass climate bill co-authored by the coal lobby, U.S. politicians have dropped the superhero metaphors and are scrambling to lower expectations for achieving a serious deal at the climate summit. It's just one meeting, says U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, not "the be-all and end-all."

As faith in government action dwindles, however, climate activists are treating Copenhagen as an opportunity of a different kind. On track to be the largest environmental gathering in history, the summit represents a chance to seize the political terrain back from business-friendly half-measures, such as carbon offsets and emissions trading, and introduce some effective, common-sense proposals - ideas that have less to do with creating complex new markets for pollution and more to do with keeping coal and oil in the ground.

Among the smartest and most promising - not to mention controversial - proposals is "climate debt," the idea that rich countries should pay reparations to poor countries for the climate crisis.

Ring in a new year

Church bells to ring out warning on climate change:

The World Council of Churches on Thursday called on churches around the world to ring their bells 350 times during the Copenhagen climate change summit on December 13 as a call to action on global warming.

The leading council of Christian and Orthodox churches also invited places of worship for other faiths to join a symbolic “chain of chimes and prayers” stretching around the world from the international date line in the South Pacific.

“On that Sunday, midway through the UN summit, the WCC invites churches around the world to use their bells, drums, gongs or whatever their tradition offers to call people to prayer and action in the face of climate change,” the council said in a statement.

A step in the right direction. This, along with the Green Bible, gives me some hope that religion and science can work together.

Get ready...

Whistleblower: World Running Out of Oil Faster Than IEA Says: <

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According to two unnamed sources as reported in the Guardian—one current International Energy Agency (IEA) employee and one former—the IEA has been purposely painting an overly rosy picture of the remaining available world oil supplies to avoid panicking the public. Apparently this obfuscation has been a result of heavy pressure from the United States.

As one whistleblower put it, “Many inside the [IEA] believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources.

Get ready. Things are going to get very interesting.

Ditch the fizz!

Soda Helps Make Americans Unhealthy and Fat -- Will Soda Tax Prevail Despite Pushback by Beverage Industry?:

Soft drink makers, supermarket companies, agriculture and the fast-food business have poured millions into campaigning against taxes on sweetened beverages.



Soft drink makers, supermarket companies, agriculture and the fast-food business have poured millions into campaigning against what they fear could be a burgeoning national movement to raise money for health care reform by taxing sweetened beverages.

Do we really need the sugar?

Solution - drink kombucha and kefir. Or just the old standby - beer!

Seeing the light

Five Hundred Oil-Industry Geologists Vote on Peak Oil:

Guess What the Results Were
The theory of peak oil itself is fairly non-controversial. But saying that we're close to this absolutely peak in oil and gas production is still debated by very knowledgeable people on both sides. A few years ago, it seemed like the balance was tipped in the direction of the 'peak oil is not a problem for the near future' side, but lately, it seems like things might be going the other way. At the Petroleum Geology Conference in London, 500 geologists took a vote on wether "Peak oil is no longer a concern" (something that was argued by some of the speakers). The results were interesting.
Only about 1/3 of the votes supported that claim!

A new art medium?

Manure Sculpture "Nick Smith in the Shit" Sold at Auction:

Image: TradeMe

Bullshit Bust Pokes Kiwi Minister
A manure sculpture of New Zealand agricultural minister Nick Smith has sold on the Kiwi auction site TradeMe. The sculpture by artist Sam Mahon, who traditionally works in bronze, immortalizes Mahon's opinion that Nick Smith has not taken sufficient action to protect New Zealand waters from pollution by agricultural run-off. Read the full story on TreeHugger

Makes a statement and uses a readily available medium. Likey-likey.

Is Liz Hurley the World's Most Glamorous Farmer?

Is Liz Hurley the World's Most Glamorous Farmer?:

Image from Elizabeth Hurley

You've come a long way baby... Liz Hurley, of the Versace safety pin dress (after the fold for that one) and former girlfriend of Hugh Grant, sigh, (after the fold for him too....) has abandoned the London celebrity scene for the countryside. Not life on just any 400 acre farm, but one that is working and organic, complete with sheep and cattle.

But being a farmer doesn't mean that she is letting herself go.

Sure she looks great, but you never saw me in my boots, coveralls and muddy hands!

If it is needed

Civil Unrest Has a Role in Stopping Climate Change, Says Gore:

by Oliver Burkeman in Los Angeles

Al Gore has sought to inject fresh momentum into the Copenhagen build-up, saying he is certain Barack Obama will attend and predicting a rise in civil disobedience against fossil-fuel polluters unless drastic action is taken over global warming.

Pee target practice

Negawatts From the Men's Room:

See the bee? Aim the pee. Photo Sfegette via flickr.
Chasing negawatts, the energy that you don't use, is a popular pursuit these days for cash-strapped states, and California is turning out to be excellent at it. Negawatts (a term Amory Lovins came up with) can offer a lot more bang for the buck, so to speak, then building new power.

Waterless urinals are nothing new, but they are starting to get more attention in the mainstream as a way to save lots of water (20 to 45,000 gallons per year) and in California's case, perhaps indirectly save energy, too. In Los Angeles, waterless urinals have just been approved for all buildings. Naval Base San Diego saved 14 million gallons of water, in part by installing waterless urinals.

Waterless urinals have evolved beyond early complaints that they were smelly. They won't win over some men who seem to be fond both of aiming their pee stream into water and hearing the satisfying flush at the end. Waterless Inc., one of the biggest waterless urinal companies, now includes a fly decal above the drain holes, perhaps giving the guys something to aim at -- and thus helping to avoid errant drips and drops. The flies (or bees) can purportedly help keep public restrooms a lot cleaner.

Always thought that each home should also have a urinal. Very convenient. And with the fly decal - fun too!

Shame

US Pulls the Plug On Copenhagen:

Todd Stern and Hillary Clinton (Photo: EPA)

The head US climate negotiator, Todd Stern, and Sen. John Kerry have announced that they are giving up hope of reaching a deal for a new climate change pact at next month's meeting in Copenhagen. The move comes as world leaders are meeting in Barcelona to finalize negotiating text in advance of the December meeting in Copenhagen. Without the US's participation, there is no hope for a treaty that will result in capping emissions any time soon.

Blue Man and Frogs

Roll out the Garden Polka

Gardening for Gumbies - the Roll-Out Veg Mat :

Photos: Chris Chapman website

Chris Chapman is an early twenties British designer, who baulked at the idea of studying design to make 'pretty things for wealthy, privileged consumers.' So he changed tack and learnt design-for-sustainability instead. He now has a quiver of cool green projects ready to fling at prospective clients or employers.

The one that most captured our attention was his Roll-Out Veg Mat. Each season householders buy a new roll of corrugated cardboard impregnated with vegetable seeds. Simply roll out the cardboard and cover with soil. Presto! Near instant veggie garden. It's simplicity could even push the No-Dig Garden for uncomplicated elegance.

But wait. Half the fun of a garden is to dig, weed, plant, thin...I'm sticking to Johnny's.

Surviving the changes

Anthropoclastic climate change

Sometimes a good way to clarify a point of confusion is to introduce a new term. Allow me to add a word to your vocabulary: "anthropoclastic," consisting of "anthropo-" (from Gr. anthropos, man) and "-clastic (from Gr. klastos, broken into pieces). It's a very proper-sounding yet virtually unused term. "Anthropoclastic climate change" is reminiscent of "anthropogenic climate change," which is a theory that climate change is being triggered by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), agriculture (through deforestation, bovine flatus and so on), cement manufacturing, leaking or flaring gas into the atmosphere, chemical manufacturing... the list is very long. Anthropogenic climate change is the theory that these human activities are highly disruptive of the climate. Anthropoclastic climate change is the theory that a highly disrupted climate, which is what we already have, is highly disruptive of human activities, and, in consequence, highly destructive of human life. The anthropogenic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at man, while the anthropoclastic theory is a case of man pointing the accusatory finger at nature. I will leave it up to you to decide which of the two gestures is the the most futile, but, futile gestures aside, I believe that there are steps to be taken to let us survive climate change, and that these steps should be given due consideration before too long.

I don't have to look too far to find examples: in New England, where I live, farmers are receiving federal disaster aid, because they lost over half of their crop. According to the Massachusetts congressional delegation, which petitioned for federal relief, "rain was 148 percent above normal in June, which was also the sixth coolest June on record in both Boston and Worcester, and likely the second cloudiest June on record since 1885. In July, rainfall was 200 percent above normal, with corresponding lower temperatures." "Corn growers in Norfolk County saw 83 percent of the value of their crop destroyed. In Essex County, strawberry growers could not bring more than 35 percent of their crop to market" reported the Boston Globe.

New England is by no means a unique case; everywhere you look, agriculture is under assault from the shifting climate. The barrage of strange weather makes it increasingly difficult for farmers to decide what to plant and when and where to plant it.


Anthropoclastic climate change does not have to be a catastrophe, but it can be made catastrophic by clinging on to a failing agricultural model of food production. If we insist that farmers produce monoculture cash crops on the industrial model, we shall surely all starve. But if instead people make a concerted effort to reclaim the entire landscape, both rural and urban, for informal food production, growing edible plant species on former golf courses, parking lots, cemeteries, town greens, suburban back yards, urban rooftops and balconies, and front lawns of stately homes, then it seems quite likely that, no matter which way the climate lurches in a given year, something somewhere will be bearing fruit, enough to make it to the next season.

Wild foods can make a difference as well. Last summer, the forests of New England were full of berries that went unpicked. We did not pick any berries this year, but we did get a chance to pick some wild mushrooms, which had a fine year. As I write this, garlands of wild mushrooms are drying in our hallway. Man doth not live by mushrooms alone, but it's a start. And start we should, the sooner the better, but certainly before the shelves in the shops are bare, and so are the ones in your pantry. Mitigating anthropoclastic climate change will not be up to the politicians or the scientists or the industrialists, it will be up to me and to you.

Vegetable gardens, preserving, foraging... Eating not only the turnip but the turnip greens. Knowing how to cook. Knowledge that we all better have.

No honey for my tea?

2009 Has the Worst Honey Crop on Record

So, honey in the U.S. is scarce. And scarce seems to cause prices to rise ... the old supply and demand thing. But then there’s the exchange rate -- the U.S. dollar is weak. U. S. honey packers might actually have a better market overseas than at home, so that just might limit further any available product ... demand stays the same, supply becomes even shorter. Prices ... ?

So ... in the short run, the price of honey this winter is probably going to go up some. Maybe a lot. And you may not be able to find local honey later this winter.

My advice ... buy lots now. It might not be there later, and it will cost more later. And now you know why.

Mites, weather, CCD...drinking unsweetened tea.