a clever title could go here

A week ago, we were still watch the last flurries of Richmond's biggest snow fall since 1980. Kids and parents were tearing up the parks with sleds. Someone built a snow stegosaurus and a snow fish on the Monument Avenue median. Schools were shut for three full days. The temperature bottomed out at seven degrees.

Today, we're in the upper seventies for the third day in a row and suddenly trees are budding. Spring fever is as rampant as complaints about losing an hour of sleep to Daylight Savings Time. This morning Banana informed me that she no longer needed the comforter on her bed.

And somewhere a climate-change denier will claim this is all part of a normal cycle.

Madoff, the economy, collateral damage, absurdities, and other odds and ends

I've been remiss about updating things lately, and a little caught up in the juggling act of life. But I've been missing the chance to post, too. Things occur to me, and I make a mental note to conjure up a fully wrought post. Then life gets in the way again—the kid needs to go to school, dishes need to be done, a project crops up at work, sleep happens, the dog needs to go out, dinner needs to get made, and the list goes on.

Regardless, here's a quick addenda to jumpstart my brain at the end of the week:

• Brandeis's decision to close the Rose Art Museum — The news that Brandeis would be closing the Rose arrived in alum's email boxes before it hit the news wires. In the email, President Reinharz explained that it was a difficult but necessary decision for the long-term future of the university, its endowment and its ability to fund student need. More than a few alumni disagreed and a the hue and cry hit newspapers and blogs. I'm still split on the matter. I understand the university's need to secure additional revenue sources, particularly given the damage done to major donors by the Madoff scandal. At the same time, I fear that they will be mortgaging a part of the museum's cultural and intellectual currency for a finite gain.


• Madoff, Thain, and Gordon Gecko — Can we put the Gilded-Age-style greed that came of vogue in the Eighties out of our misery, please? The damage done by hedge funds and Ponzi schemes to our common good (see above) is going to have long-lasting effects on the institutions that keep our culture alive and will do long-term damage to the non-profit organizations that support all ends of our society. The exuberant greed of Thain and countless other CEOs, investment bankers, and their ilk leaves them complaining over smaller bonuses while the rest of us see the value of our investments and employers plummet because they've sucked the money out of the system to line their silk pockets.


• The First Week — Two acts please me more than any other in the Obama administration's first week: their message to Citicorp that taking delivery of a new $50MM corporate jet would not be acceptable, and the message that banks were unethical in doling out billions in bonuses while taking billions in TARP funds.
  
• Waste Management — I've decided to reduce my contribution to the waste stream. This is not to say I am recycling more, because I don't think that would actually be possible. No. I'm taking every opportunity I can to use silverware, plates, bowls and mugs at work. At home, I've begun to use reusable containers in Banana's lunch. A co-worker asked me if I was doing this because I am "Green." (The quotation marks were audible in her voice.) I said yes, but the reality is that I see this as an ethical decision rather than just a green decision. By reducing the amount that must be moved to a landfill or recycled, I've reduced the amount of energy used. By reducing the amount in landfills even by a few items a day, I've contributed a bit to leaving Banana and her children's children a cleaner, nicer earth.


• Global Warming Is Irreversible. — A study was released this week that I can't imagine ever being released during the Bush administration. Basically, it details that global warming can't be reversed once it's begun. What makes this even more frightening is that all evidence collected in recent years points to the fact that warming is happening faster than expected. If all of this is true — and there is no compelling reason to ignore it any longer — our grandchildren's world is going to be a radically different place than the world we live in now. Unless we take stricter actions. Now.


• Mini daffodils make the kitchen a nicer place. — In the midst of last weekend's stomach-flu-addled Trader Joe's run, Banana asked for a pot of mini daffodils. We sorted through until we found one with a couple blooms and several more on the way. It now lives on the breakfast bar, and there is something very calming and pleasant about looking at growing flowers in the morning sunlight.

So there you have it. Stay tuned for a bit of Friday Fun...

*shaking head*

DailyKos has picked up yet another awful example of the government's idea of environmental stewardship. The lede itself is frightening enough:

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there's no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.
EPA reached the conclusion in a draft regulatory document not yet made public but reviewed Monday by The Associated Press.

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

So those are the broader risks, but it's one of the last notes in the article that particularly gives me pause:

Perchlorate is particularly widespread in California and the Southwest, where it's been found in groundwater and in the Colorado River, a drinking-water source for 20 million people. It's also been found in lettuce and other foods.

Granted: poisoning our food and water supplies is nothing new. At what point, however, does news like this become widespread public knowledge and reason for larger changes?

business knows best

Our Prezdent continues to leave his environmental legacy:

The draft rules also would bar federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.

energy crisis surprises

Or not... It was pretty much guaranteed that this was coming:

"With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, tomorrow he will explicitly call on Congress to also pass legislation lifting the congressional ban on safe, environmentally friendly offshore oil drilling," Perino said.

Because everyone knows that an uncertain fix that's not likely to pay off (if it does) in the short term will fix the supply-and-demand problems. My favorite phrase in the piece? "Sensible standards of environmental protection."

Gore - new thoughts

First, I still wish Al Gore had chosen to run as our re-elected president. Second, if you have a few minutes, go and watch his latest presentation. It is dynamic, frightening, and important. Be sure to watch all the way through to the Q-and-A. Please.

plastic bags

Here's a Catch-22 of environmentalism and urban living:

Richmond, like most cities, requires owners to pick up after their dogs. Generally speaking, this requires the use of plastic bags, which I have been running out of lately. This means I either get rid of Reilly (not going to happen) or bring some of my groceries home in cloth bags and some of them home in plastic bags.

I mentioned this to the checkout guy at Kroger today, and he said, "There's a place in this world for plastic bags."

Indeed.

Environmental "Standards" or not...

So, a week ago, the administration--er, excuse me, the EPA told told 17 states that they couldn't set their own air quality standards. Or at least, they told the states that they couldn't set requirements that were more stringent than federal standards. I mean, god forbid states look out for their interests when they don't feel the federal government is doing a good enough job. And it's not like states' rights and republicanism were ever the foundation of the Republican party or anything like that. Nope. At least not when such alternative regulations might conflict with bizness interests.

Anyway, that's what makes it extra-fascinating to find out that the EPA might have been tainted by contacts from Cheney's office. And that they might have to fess up to what really is behind their efforts to stop states and citizens from actually taking the initiative on making a change in our approach to the environment.

Stay tuned for the report that significant portions of the documentation has been redacted for "National Security Purposes" or that some low-level official "inadvertently" deleted the records.

global warming as a benefit?

So according to this diary on Daily Kos, Fox News has begun to spin global warming as a positive. Their argument is that the race for the arctic is a race for resources, not a race to retard the apparent acceleration of global warming.

What continues to amaze me is the ability of the conservative noise machine, shaped by Fox News, to perpetuate skeptical fictions about climate change. I worry that 20 years from now our kids will look back as they come of age and wonder what the hell was going on--as they deal with all the collateral problems that are likely to come from the changing climate.

For example, it is a warm, muggy night in New York. It was 80+ degrees on the coast of Maine this weekend. Blueberries come in earlier than ever. Growing seasons are changing all over. Droughts are getting more intense in regions all over the country. Parts of Maine haven't experienced a killing freeze in two years. I could go on and on, and the only thing that could convince me that this is cyclical is a record. But there are no records showing this sort of shift.

Read the Kos story, and tell me how many canaries (or walruses and polar bears) it will take for the naysayers to wake up.

Embassy Suites as an environmental debacle

On the grand football-roadtrip-adventure this weekend, we stayed a couple nights at an Embassy Suites outside of Detroit. It's become my father's default option as a hotel for these trips. He likes the breakfast, and the accommodations are comfortable. Certainly it's nice to have a fresh omelette, waffles, various baked goods, weak coffee, and all the eggs, sausage, and bacon you could crave at your beck and call. Certainly Banana loved the pool. But it is also an example of all that is not sustainable in our society. Like the low-end Hummer of hotels.

All of the food we ate was delivered by massive food service semis. Though it was early September and prime time for peaches and nectarines, there wasn't a sliver of local produce to be found. There was one entree on the dinner menu that claimed to be a local specialty--or at least a Great Lakes specialty: the pan-fried lake perch. The waffle mix was kept in small plastic cups, and in front of every set of actual glasses was a larger supply of disposable cups.

Add to this the amount of energy chewed up by the wide open atrium spaces that are lit and climate-controlled at all hours, and you have one example (emblematic of thousands) of the ways we are squandering our resources.

starfish

For generations, kids have pulled starfish and other things like urchins, crabs, sea dollars, sea cucumbers, and moon snails from the tumbled down granite blocks on the point below Edgewater Cabins.

This jumble of granite blocks was a steamer dock in the early part of the century when Sullivan was a prosperous little burg on the coast. Much of the granite used to build Washington DC among other places came out of local quarries and passed down this landing onto steamer ships. Sullivan also had a thriving silver mine industry. When things went into decline after the twenties, the dock went into disrepair and eventually became an unrecognizable pile of heavy granite blocks.

For the generations since, it has been a boon. Kids whose families owned houses on the road mingled with kids whose families rented cabins or houses by the week as we scrambled over these blocks. We scraped our knees on rough edges, cut the soles of our feet on barnacles, and risked what must have seemed like life and limb in pursuit of the perfect starfish. Why? Because there are few places I've ever been where you can so easily reach into the water and find this:

In recent years, they've put in the new dock and float off the point, and shored up parts of the pile. To those of us who've been here for years, the changes are obvious but understated enough to be "acceptable." Regardless, the starfish have survived well, though there seem to be fewer big ones now. Other changes in the ecosystem are evident, though. Sanddollars seem to be entirely gone; sea cucumbers are rare, though a few anemones still survive; urchins and crabs are around, but there is no sign of moon snails.

Still, the starfish remain. Banana and future generations can still pluck starfish from the rocks and leave them out to dry. I hear it's possible, though I never managed to get anything but a stinking mess out of my efforts to dry one. But being a kid is--and should be--all about optimism.

trashing the coast

This is Sullivan Harbor at nearly low tide. The harbor was not recognized as a working harbor until less than twenty years ago. Unitl then, the water was only broken by a few private moorings and lobster pots. Then old zoning regulations were uncovered and the town fathers decided to make it a working harbor. Since then, we've seen an interesting run of boats anchor here. This increase in activity has coincided with a general increase in fishing and dragging in Frenchman's Bay.

Generally, coastal laws prohibit dragging, trapping or fishing in working harbors. These laws are also fairly specific about how and where fishing can be done. Unfortunately, Mainers have a stubbornly libertarian streak and there is very little direct enforcement of some regulations in rural areas. To that end, boats work to fulfill demand for scallops, mussels, crabs, and lobsters and various kinds of fish without much regard for the law.

To wit, the picture. Below what we have always referred to as the Big Rock is a tidal mussel flat. This means that it is covered by eleven feet of water at high tide and bare at low tide. Twenty years ago and beyond, it was a pure run of mussels. Now it is gutted and pockmarked by illegal dragging.

This is an object lesson in my frustration with contemporary Green vogue. Global warming gets a lot of attention, but the whole question of sustainability and other damage to our natural resources seems to get lost in the noise about organic products. The real discussion of how to deal with our environment ends up obscured in an absurd debate between corporate interests, societal interests, and the view that "real" environmentalism is somehow a freakish, patchouli-soaked abomination.

Stupid Packaging 1

Every so often, I come across an prime example of wasteful, stupid packaging. This one really hits a sore spot for me... Let's create the ultimate, kid-friendly bottle of water--small and manageable, with a sport nozzle for a top, easily packaged in large quantities, and safe. How is it safe? By using a non-removable cap. This is of course for the most altruistic reasons--god forbid a child choke on a bottle top.

Why is this stupid? Why?

Because it creates a completely disposable product. Rather than being able to refill your water bottle as do many of us who practice the reduce-reuse-recycle mantra, this item must be thrown away. (If you dig into Deer Park's good neighbor statement, their corporate copywriters tell you they care about waste and sustainability. Bullshit!) It is a prime example of pure marketing and consumption. The companies have already created the need--bottled water is safer--and now they meet the ultimate, lazy parental demands for convenience.

Stupid.

Fish? Where?

With all the notice climate change is finally getting, I wonder whether the collateral effect will be more notice for other environmental problems. I was impressed, for instance, on our visit to the New York Aquarium that the conservation message was wrapped so much into a slice of trained-animal-entertaiment like the sea lion show. The announcer talked about the kinds of fish that were environmentally-safe to eat while the sea lions clapped or shook their hands at the right moments. Great, right? but I do have to wonder how much it ever sinks in.

And then there are articles like this one from Sunday's Times. (Basic access is free.) The central point is this:

The eradication of our seafood bounty through overfishing is one of those Lorax-like stories that inspire sad books like “The End of the Line” and “The Empty Ocean.” Many biologists believe that the populations of large, commercially sought-after fish worldwide have been reduced by as much as 90 percent of their historical size.

As dire as this sounds, Greenberg goes on to make the point that most scientists believe that fisheries could heal themselves--if given the chance. For me, it's the last part that raises the real questions, the same questions as the other food supply problems I've touched on in other posts: Are we as a species capable of slowing our voracious appetite long enough to avoid killing ourselves and the Earth?