Dennis Dimick Part Deux

Another interesting perspective Mr. Dimmick highlighted was the United State's unfair insistence that China reduce its CO2 emissions. He showed a fantastic map demonstrating how China's emissions are merely outsourced from America in order to meet our rabidly consumptive habits. In other words, much China's emissions are our emissions. The map does not have a key, but the message is clear.

Dennis Dimick

Last Thursday, Dennis Dimick, National Geographic's Executive Editor for the environment, delievered a lecture at Oregon State University about the intersection of human energy needs and global climate change. It was the usual, powerful story, but coupled with drawdropping photos from National Geographic it was awesome. That story aside--we're scrwed if we don't stop the growth in CO2 emissions=-it reminded me of a conversation with my brother a couple weeks ago.

It started on the topic of tipping--why we tip, if we are obligated, how much, etc--and morphed into how people take actions all the time without owning up to the consequences. Do you blog or aimlessly surf the internet? Okay, but that means using electricty made from coal, thus contributing to further mountaintop removal, water and soil contamination, and CO2 emissions. Do you drive to work/the store/friend's house? Okay, I suppose that's fine, but you should at least own up to the fact that that choice is sending oil dollars to extremists in the Middle East and contributing to global warming. Instead, people refuse to own up to the fact that their day-to-day actions have cummulative and dramatic effects.

You can lessen your impact by riding a bike, turning down the heat, using electronics less, etc. We do not have to return to the Dark Ages in order to reduce CO2 levels to around 300ppm, but as we alter our lifestyles, we should at least own up to the fact that so many of our everyday actions have terrible consequences.

Iceland Volcano Goes Boom

I heard an interesting report today on NPR about some of the effects of the volcano that is spewing ash in Iceland. A highly publicized byproduct is that air traffic has dramatically been slowed due to safety concerns. As a result, fresh food isn't making it to Britain and they don't have enough local production to keep up with demand. Add this to the list of "Reasons Why Local Food Production Is Good."

Interestingly this reminded me of a conversation I had few years ago about how our food supply chain relies heavily on an uninterrupted transportation network. If things go belly up--ie earthquake, major storm, etc--all of the fresh food in a typical supermarket will be gone in a few days. No more broccoli and asparagus from Chile. The whole conversation came up not in terms of missing out on delicious culinary delights, rather on how dangerous and unstable that can be for a society. How courteous and community-minded would you be if there wasn't food to put on the table?

Books!

One of my favorite 30 second clips that I remember my elementary librarian showing us. It's still stuck in my head 15 years later!

Here's another great oldie.

A Coming Shortage?

This kind of thing is fascinating to me: An impending shortage of a material largely-unknown to the general population used for making magnets is causing a stir of research to find a replacement. Magnets, which play an important role in the operation of electronics, are made up a various metal combinations, neodymium being the most efficient known. Currently the United States relies on China for their supply, a precarious position to be in if the spigot is closed off.

This is interesting because in our current political environment we drone on endlessly about silly things: death panels, haggling over tiny pockets of oil drilling rights, accusations of socialism/fascism, etc. All the while, smaller, much less flashy but no less important problems, go unnoticed. Sigh.

Can't Get Enough

Hat tip to Geezy over at Rock and Bacon. I can't get enough of this rad piece, Excuses, by The Morning Benders. Enjoy:

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

Weight Gain (and loss)

This probably doesn't come as a surprise, but reading this post was fascinating nonetheless and goes contrary to a common held belief that adding the 25 calorie Hershey Kiss will ultimately lead to tens of extra pounds added to your frame. Well, turns out that's not true. Instead, increasing your caloric intake simply bumps up the weight you stay at fairly naturally. So, instead of adding a Hershey's Kiss every day and ballooning to 500+ pounds, you'll instead go up a few pounds and stay there. Interesting.

No Post on HCR

That's right Keough, not even one... but I'm excited about it nonetheless!!!! :)