When Will Global Warming Galvanize You To Action?

Submitted by Charles Frost on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 10:26.

When Will Global Warming Galvanize You To Action?

We all have our limits. 

Ira Flatow the host of the well known “Science Friday” on NPR gave a talk at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Explorer series a couple of years ago.  Before his talk, he held an informal “hand raising” poll of the audience, wanting to know when they would change their driving habits, (car pool, public transit, hybrid car purchase, etc) based on the gasoline prices at the pump.  He started at about $2.00 (as the current price then was $1.75 or so).  He got a couple of hands raised (of the 400 or so attending).
Ira worked his way up the price list, in increments of 50 cents….  He got a few more hands at each increase in price, but the majority of us raised out hands during the $4.50-$5.00 per gallon range.  His comment was that the current rate that we were paying for gasoline must indeed be “cheap” ($1.75), as the oil companies were telling us. 
He also reminded us who we were, and where we were, pointing out that we were generally conservation minded, nature oriented people, and that this simple poll was a far cry from a “person on the street” poll.
…..So, what might your trigger be???  More killer hurricanes?  Gasoline at $5.00 per gallon?  The extinction of the polar bears?  The Gulf Stream shutting down, and Europe entering an Ice Age?

….all I know is that this drought situation has some people I know very worried:


US Drought Map

            Nevada is adding 80,000 new residents every year; Arizona is the fastest growing state- Tuscon and Phoenix will probably merge in the next ten years. Yet as the map shows, these are also the areas of America going through the worst drought in years. In the southeast it is just as bad. In Florida, Lake Okeechobee has receded so much that parts of it caught fire. Worst of all, the Jack Daniels Distillery in Tennessee has warned it may have to reduce or suspend production, because the spring waters on which it relies are flowing as much as two-thirds below normal.

From: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/the_dehydrated.php

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It feels like a drought here

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 10:50.

Great posting, Bill. It always helps to see the big picture in real time. I make a point to check out the Ozone readings online at NOACA frequently... that is a call to action for me. And while the Jack Black shortage would be sad, I'm more concerned that famers in Mexico are replacing the Agave needed for tequila with corn for biofuels - the cruel cut of the first wave sustainability craze

Disrupt IT

Ozone and Agave Depletion mourned

Submitted by Sudhir Kade on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 14:17.

Astute points.  I mourn both situations, ozone and agave.  So many better biofuel and biomass sources for energy than corn - we've spoken many times about the enhancement of regional economic opportunity for NEO if farmers consider above or below-ground cultivation and collection of jatropha, switchgrass, weeping willows, and even cellulose.  Even more economic opportunity is created if the ethanol and biofuel driven machinery is used as a complementary vehicle to complement said elegant economy.  There will invariably be competing interest from the powerful oil and coal lobbies in power presently so there will inevitable continued dependence on the very foreign oil we should divest ourselves from. Waste to food is the way to go, as outlined among so many other key sustainability strategies.  The time is to not only implement in East Cleveland but NEO as a region and ultimately globally as well.  Let's start locally and Lead by Example.  This would create new jobs for everyone involved, especially when you consider new FOSS jobs and green development jobs to boot.  Regional economic at its finest.  I tried to raise this aggressively at the start of this year and have been called crazy and delusional ever since.

A great meeting with core members of the Playhouse Square foundation really has my juices flowing.  Our Ingenious Ingenuity team is raring to go and soon we'll have a pre-festival forum to discuss and debate many of these with star panelists.   Check out the basics here and more to follow very soon!

Peace.

Gardeners notice

Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 17:38.

As an avid gardener I am more in tune with the climate than most people I know. If things continue the way they are, dry, hot summers with rains few and far between, we will have to change what we grow here. I water every day to keep my vegetable plants alive, but I know it should n't be that way. Nature should be providing their primary waterings.

As I worry about my garden and Ohio agriculture I try to limit my energy usage; air conditioning, driving, eletricity for lights etc. Recycling and composting have become even more important.

Connoisseurs of the earth

Submitted by Charles Frost on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 08:56.

I too do a bit of gardening too.  Flowers and the like, currently no vegetables.  I find that 2-4 inches of mulch gives most of my plants a fighting chance against the drought.  It also provides habitat for all the "little people" of the soil, the worms, pillbugs, millipedes, nematodes, and all those "bad bugs" that we regularly kill with our pestacides and herbacides. To me, they are the ones who make my gardens alive.

....I also tend to the native species isf I can, as they don't have the water demands that some of the others do, and the local birds and butterflies are used to having them in their lives.

I saw this a month ago, and have it posted on my wall.... I think that it is a very good thought...

Connoisseurs of the earth

 

Monday, May 14th, 2007

 

In a recent conversation with urban garden innovator, Maurice Small, he suggests that he gets his energy from the earth. A beautiful realization, that by literally touching and nurturing the earth, we get a kind of energy not available through any other means. It’s an energy that cannot be boxed, bottled, or virtualized. It is only available when we drink it in as we work the land, rest on the grass, or lean against a tree.

 

As we have become a generation striving to reconnect with our earth, we must develop our brain receptors for the earth’s energy the same way we develop receptors for fine wine, art, music, and poetry.

 


From: http://www.jackzen.com/2007/05/page/2/

Warren

Submitted by Susan Miller on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 09:54.

Warren Grossman at warrengrossman.com

visit Warren, study with Warren, read his book, learn this simple affordable way to be healed by the earth... He is one of my most valued frinds and teachers.

Nice notes, thoughtful thoughts

Submitted by Sudhir Kade on Wed, 06/27/2007 - 09:29.

I need to exercise a bit of restraint lest I burst into (guerilla) green gardening mode.  Nothing has helped me more than returning to my grounded roots, literally in terms of lineage and florally, in terms of foliage.  I've written much on gardening but shifting to action has been the latest mantra manifesting.

As for global warming, i've done extensive study of the subject and interviews with Professor Ott of Berlin's branch of the Wuppertal Institute and studying other European sustainability thought leaders like those with Sweden's (Stockholm's) Natural Step has greatly contibuted to my knowledge base.  I am continually seeking new benchmarks to emulate or refine or create so please do contribute and post if you've got thoughts! 

Peace.