Got Hurricane? (environmental action myths, and a conversation about what you can do)
If the threat of global warming seems harmless, talk to a victim of Hurricane Katrina, and ask them what they think about the following.
In September 2006 the journal Nature reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had blocked an internal report which concluded that global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions may be contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11336
This is not surprising, since it is coming from a government that has refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol, an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, that assigns mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations.
"The United States (U.S.), although a signatory to the protocol, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the protocol. The signature alone is symbolic, as the protocol is non-binding over the United States unless ratified. The United States is as of 2005 the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.[39]"
Instead, "The United States has signed the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a pact that allows those countries to set their goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions individually, but with no enforcement mechanism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Position_of_the_United_States
Also not surprising, the former chief of staff for President George W. Bush's Council on Environmental Quality and a former energy industry lobbyist Philip Cooney, altered descriptions of climate research that had already been approved by government scientists. The White House denied the charges.
Mr. Cooney has since resigned from his position with the White House, and joined Exxon Mobile Corp, the largest oil company in the world.
If you see a pattern here, and I'm talking about one that's as clear as a 75 degree January day in the northeast, then I suggest that you encourage the current administration to take action and ratify the Kyoto protocol, while taking steps to curb your personal consumption, and even more importantly, that of industry.
To educate myself further, I recently watched Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Overall, I felt that the film was a good wake up call for the general public.
However, I had a few questions, and poked around cyberspace to get some more info on some ideas I had as a result of the film. I found the following article, which deeply disturbed me: http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2006/07/how_does_your_g.html
What was disturbing were the action items on Gore's "action" website, www.climatecrisis.net.
With all the scientific evidence featured in the film, why did the accompanying website seem more designed to offer "feel good" action items, rather than say, petitions to get the U.S. to finally sign the Kyoto Protocol, and other movements to change the standards for some U.S. industries that are major polluters?
WTF Mr. Gore, how you gonna do me like that?
Some of the things that disturbed me included buying compact flourescent lightbulbs, and "offsetting your carbon emissions" by making monetary contributions.
Here's why:
1. Compact flourescent bulbs contain mercury. Mercury poisons the hell out of the water supply, and our fish. It is law that you must dispose of these lightbulbs properly, and not in your household trash. And try not inhale vapors from a broken bulb!
Most people aren't aware of this. So, where do you throw them away? Good luck!
I have found that IKEA will accept used CF bulbs, so tote them to the nearest IKEA, if you have one, and then go buy halogen bulbs.
Currently, the best light bulb technology out there seems to be restricted to the Netherlands. Hopefully it will be for sale abroad soon.
"Pharox is the first 3.4-watt LED bulb that produces light comparable to an ordinary 40-watt bulb. Lemnis Lighting has managed to produce a bulb that emits a warm white light at a constant level of brightness, unlike others’ previous attempts. Moreover, the bulb is better for the environment than most LED equivalents because no mercury, phosphorous, lead or tungsten is used to give them a warmer colour.... The Lemnis technology reduces the bulb’s electricity consumption by 90 percent."
http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4399
*While I'm at it, I'll mention that you can't chuck disposable batteries, either. Try taking them to Staples; they will take them and recycle them at many locations.
Please be aware that none of these- batteries, nor lightbulbs, are renewable resources, and we need to seriously start thinking about this regarding ALL of our waste.
I recently watched a documentary on PBS about female factory workers in Mexico whose job it was to extract the recyclable materials from used car batteries. Sound great, right? WRONG. These factories just dumped the waste right into the villages, polluting the water and killing the people slowly. Remember that our waste always ends up in somebody else's back yard. It's not as easy as trying to get Mexico to pass tougher laws. Their government and our government work hand in hand to bring you cheap goods, and Mexicans jobs. In fact, the owner of one of these types of factories is wanted in Mexico for enforcement on charges brought for this kind of negligence, but can't be prosecuted because he fled to California and our government won't give him up.
2. Giving money to a green energy company that will supposedly replace the energy from a non-green energy company: How is that supposed to happen? Are the "non-green" companies going to actually stop making energy? Are U.S. consumers going to refrain from using double the energy, and actually switch to the green company, putting the "non-green" out of business? Where are the accountability and enforcement measures for this claim? I'd be very wary of programs that take your money and tell you that they are reducing your carbon emisisons to zero through offsetting, unless they can PROVE that all steps in the process will be followed.
The same goes for the planting of trees.
Research indicates that trees only really work to cool the planet if they are planted in the tropics.
"What we have found is in the so-called mid-latitude region where the United States is located and majority of European countries are located, the climate benefits of planting will be nearly zero," said ecologist Govindasamy Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...[In] the seasonally snow-covered regions [at even higher latitudes], planting new trees could be actually counter-productive," he told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6184577.stm
So, if your program can tell you that your trees will be planted in the tropics, then go for it.
If your "green energy company" can tell you HOW it is exactly going to put a "non-green energy company" out of business, then go for it.
Otherwise, I urge you to consider more drastic personal measures.
I have recently read that organic gardens can do a lot to offset carbon emissions, because they sequester a large quantity of carbon in their soil.
http://www.sage.wisc.edu/newsarchive/meadows2.html
I can't find the article to quote the offset numbers, but if we switched our corn and soybean industry to solely organic means, we'd make a serious dent for the U.S.'s emissions, not to mention have healthier food and feed.
As I come across more things that you can do to impact the larger picture, I pledge to post them here.
I am going to experiment this year with the following smaller action items in my home. Maybe you will find them interesting, and maybe you will share your own previous adventures in them with me!
Growing as much organic greenery as I possibly can on my own second-floor entrance deck. It will include vegetables, flowers to attract bees and other beneficial critters (who we incidentally NEED to protect for pollination of our plants! Feral honeybees are almost extinct!), medicianl and edible herbs, and as much grass as possible.
I will continue to collect rainwater, using the Japanese method of catchment with a rain-chain that directs roof water into a discarded 3-gal Deer Park spring water jug (the kind with a faucet).
I also want to experiment with composting. That should be an interesting undertaking in a second-story rental. I'm looking into red worms.
Solar cooking and canning, with a DIY solar cooker.
Resource: http://solarcooking.org/plans/
Comment me and share what you're doing!
In September 2006 the journal Nature reported that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had blocked an internal report which concluded that global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions may be contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11336
This is not surprising, since it is coming from a government that has refused to ratify the Kyoto protocol, an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, that assigns mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations.
"The United States (U.S.), although a signatory to the protocol, has neither ratified nor withdrawn from the protocol. The signature alone is symbolic, as the protocol is non-binding over the United States unless ratified. The United States is as of 2005 the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.[39]"
Instead, "The United States has signed the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, a pact that allows those countries to set their goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions individually, but with no enforcement mechanism."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Position_of_the_United_States
Also not surprising, the former chief of staff for President George W. Bush's Council on Environmental Quality and a former energy industry lobbyist Philip Cooney, altered descriptions of climate research that had already been approved by government scientists. The White House denied the charges.
Mr. Cooney has since resigned from his position with the White House, and joined Exxon Mobile Corp, the largest oil company in the world.
If you see a pattern here, and I'm talking about one that's as clear as a 75 degree January day in the northeast, then I suggest that you encourage the current administration to take action and ratify the Kyoto protocol, while taking steps to curb your personal consumption, and even more importantly, that of industry.
To educate myself further, I recently watched Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth". Overall, I felt that the film was a good wake up call for the general public.
However, I had a few questions, and poked around cyberspace to get some more info on some ideas I had as a result of the film. I found the following article, which deeply disturbed me: http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2006/07/how_does_your_g.html
What was disturbing were the action items on Gore's "action" website, www.climatecrisis.net.
With all the scientific evidence featured in the film, why did the accompanying website seem more designed to offer "feel good" action items, rather than say, petitions to get the U.S. to finally sign the Kyoto Protocol, and other movements to change the standards for some U.S. industries that are major polluters?
WTF Mr. Gore, how you gonna do me like that?
Some of the things that disturbed me included buying compact flourescent lightbulbs, and "offsetting your carbon emissions" by making monetary contributions.
Here's why:
1. Compact flourescent bulbs contain mercury. Mercury poisons the hell out of the water supply, and our fish. It is law that you must dispose of these lightbulbs properly, and not in your household trash. And try not inhale vapors from a broken bulb!
Most people aren't aware of this. So, where do you throw them away? Good luck!
I have found that IKEA will accept used CF bulbs, so tote them to the nearest IKEA, if you have one, and then go buy halogen bulbs.
Currently, the best light bulb technology out there seems to be restricted to the Netherlands. Hopefully it will be for sale abroad soon.
"Pharox is the first 3.4-watt LED bulb that produces light comparable to an ordinary 40-watt bulb. Lemnis Lighting has managed to produce a bulb that emits a warm white light at a constant level of brightness, unlike others’ previous attempts. Moreover, the bulb is better for the environment than most LED equivalents because no mercury, phosphorous, lead or tungsten is used to give them a warmer colour.... The Lemnis technology reduces the bulb’s electricity consumption by 90 percent."
http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4399
*While I'm at it, I'll mention that you can't chuck disposable batteries, either. Try taking them to Staples; they will take them and recycle them at many locations.
Please be aware that none of these- batteries, nor lightbulbs, are renewable resources, and we need to seriously start thinking about this regarding ALL of our waste.
I recently watched a documentary on PBS about female factory workers in Mexico whose job it was to extract the recyclable materials from used car batteries. Sound great, right? WRONG. These factories just dumped the waste right into the villages, polluting the water and killing the people slowly. Remember that our waste always ends up in somebody else's back yard. It's not as easy as trying to get Mexico to pass tougher laws. Their government and our government work hand in hand to bring you cheap goods, and Mexicans jobs. In fact, the owner of one of these types of factories is wanted in Mexico for enforcement on charges brought for this kind of negligence, but can't be prosecuted because he fled to California and our government won't give him up.
2. Giving money to a green energy company that will supposedly replace the energy from a non-green energy company: How is that supposed to happen? Are the "non-green" companies going to actually stop making energy? Are U.S. consumers going to refrain from using double the energy, and actually switch to the green company, putting the "non-green" out of business? Where are the accountability and enforcement measures for this claim? I'd be very wary of programs that take your money and tell you that they are reducing your carbon emisisons to zero through offsetting, unless they can PROVE that all steps in the process will be followed.
The same goes for the planting of trees.
Research indicates that trees only really work to cool the planet if they are planted in the tropics.
"What we have found is in the so-called mid-latitude region where the United States is located and majority of European countries are located, the climate benefits of planting will be nearly zero," said ecologist Govindasamy Bala of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...[In] the seasonally snow-covered regions [at even higher latitudes], planting new trees could be actually counter-productive," he told BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6184577.stm
So, if your program can tell you that your trees will be planted in the tropics, then go for it.
If your "green energy company" can tell you HOW it is exactly going to put a "non-green energy company" out of business, then go for it.
Otherwise, I urge you to consider more drastic personal measures.
I have recently read that organic gardens can do a lot to offset carbon emissions, because they sequester a large quantity of carbon in their soil.
http://www.sage.wisc.edu/newsarchive/meadows2.html
I can't find the article to quote the offset numbers, but if we switched our corn and soybean industry to solely organic means, we'd make a serious dent for the U.S.'s emissions, not to mention have healthier food and feed.
As I come across more things that you can do to impact the larger picture, I pledge to post them here.
I am going to experiment this year with the following smaller action items in my home. Maybe you will find them interesting, and maybe you will share your own previous adventures in them with me!
Growing as much organic greenery as I possibly can on my own second-floor entrance deck. It will include vegetables, flowers to attract bees and other beneficial critters (who we incidentally NEED to protect for pollination of our plants! Feral honeybees are almost extinct!), medicianl and edible herbs, and as much grass as possible.
I will continue to collect rainwater, using the Japanese method of catchment with a rain-chain that directs roof water into a discarded 3-gal Deer Park spring water jug (the kind with a faucet).
I also want to experiment with composting. That should be an interesting undertaking in a second-story rental. I'm looking into red worms.
Solar cooking and canning, with a DIY solar cooker.
Resource: http://solarcooking.org/plans/
Comment me and share what you're doing!
Labels: global warming
posted by Dead Mouse Girl at 2:47 PM
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