Friday 19 December, 2008
In Tibet, sacred glaciers are melting and alpine medicinal plant populations are disappearing. In the Borneo rainforest, Dayak tribes report unusual alterations in wildlife seasonal patterns: native birds aren't showing up in their usual places, or at the usual times. In Central Africa, changing rainfall patterns have altered stream flows, making it harder for the Mbaka (pygmy) women to catch fish.
In Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia, milder winters are decreasing lichen populations, a key food source for both wild and semi-domesticated reindeer. For the first time in history, Sámi peoples have to search for fodder to feed their reindeer herds.
In the Arctic Circle, the permafrost isn't "permanent frost" anymore. It is melting. And as it melts, the tundra dries, reducing the vegetation available for caribou herds. With less food available, caribou are more prone to disease and food-borne illnesses. — more
Friday 12 December, 2008
Last week I proposed that instead of using his stimulus package (as much as an additional $700 billion) to bail out and reinvest in a faulty system, Obama use that money to stimulate a new green energy economy. I spoke in general terms, from the environmental perspective; this week I will be more specific and will speak from the business perspective.
What we know already: there is a critical clarion call from the Earth for a sea change in the way we humans live our daily lives—especially with respect to our use of fossil fuels. Despite what we frequently read in the popular media, practical solutions that could help us achieve this goal within 10 years do exist.
The simple truth is that going green would mean record internal development, economic growth and massive job creation. Compare that to a fossil fuel economy that sends billions overseas rather than — more
Friday 5 December, 2008
There is a lot of talk about how president-elect Obama is going to sign into law a new economic stimulus plan in the first days of his administration. Some predict it will be in the range of $700 billion (and NO, this is not the already-squared-away $700 billion the Bush administration earmarked for bank bailouts and the like, but a brand NEW $700 billion). The idea is that with a wildly tail-spinning economy something dramatic must be done to stop the spiral towards an economic depression.
No one knows exactly what the final sum will be or exactly how it will be spent, but there are some guesses crossing the airwaves. Potential areas for support include the usual suspects: infrastructure, aid to states, money for health care and transportation, and perhaps some middle class tax relief or tax-incentives for job creation. All well intended and politically safe, but certainly — more
Tuesday 25 November, 2008
Letting people know more often what we’re jazzed about means giving them a clearer sense of what we’re actually fighting for, and leaves us less vulnerable to being mischaracterized as extremists out of touch with mainstream needs and interests.
Had we done a better job, for example, trumpeting the successful efforts to address the destruction of the ozone layer by CFCs in the 1980s and 1990s, we might have gotten more of the general public invested in the fight against global warming more quickly. Instead, to many people, it seemed as if we went from “The Sky is Falling!!” to “We’re Melting, We’re Melting!!” with nary a beat in between.
It’s important to celebrate success; doing so creates favorable conditions for more of the same. So, in the spirit of honoring what’s going right with the world so that we can make more good things happen, here are just a few developments, big and “small,” that some of us at Earthwatch are grateful for this year: — more
Friday 14 November, 2008
I’m going to risk bad taste and begin this blog—about record-breaking yachtsmen Brian Thompson’s bid to win the Vendée Globe round-the-world solo ocean race and promote research at the same time—by invoking Melville’s Ishmael.
Ishmael (and, you can call him that, just don’t call him later for dinner…) explains in the opening paragraphs of Moby Dick that he goes to sea when thoughts of mortality become too-constant companions. He says, “Whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet…I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball… I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.”
Well, probably not most men these days, dude. (And, given the way your little Find-the-Essential-Meaning-of-Life-Cruise worked out, you’d have been better off building a log cabin near a pond in Concord and fishing for smaller critters.) Nevertheless, Thompson no doubt gets where Melville (and his narrator) were coming from. And, like them, he’s embarked on a massive project that may have a major impact — more
Thursday 6 November, 2008
Like many aspects of the modern US environmental movement, eating sustainably can mean an initial outlay of time and money that creates what economists call a "price point" that's a bit too high—at least at first glance—for many people in many places to consider.
And that type of barrier—where participation in, or even knowledge of, a healthy environment becomes a luxury item—runs through far too much of our culture.
As many of you know, wealthier communities have more public green space and denser forest canopies. Poorer communities get disproportionately burdened with industrial sites and waste facilities. Rich people vacation in large national parks and "pristine" tropical beaches; middle-class people drive to regional campsites and "scenic resorts"; poor people try to get to the neighborhood park as often as they can and hope the upkeep hasn't gotten too bad.
Let's face it: For many Americans, Nature remains someplace "far away" precisely because our culture has priced it to be that way. — more
Friday 24 October, 2008
We all have choices. As we fill our lives with things or creatures or experiences, we have an astonishing array of options. Bling or plain? Doberman or Chihuahua? Whale watching or poolside tanning? Paper or plastic or bring your own gosh-darn bag?
We consumers are demi-gods of the Universal Supermarket of Life, setting off a cascade of repercussions with our choices, all the way up and back down the production-consumption-disposal chain. Do we recognize our extraordinary collective power?
Picture each dollar (or euro) you spend as a vote. Each time we hand over a piece of currency, we’re deciding — more
Friday 17 October, 2008
“Honey, can we afford the environment this month?”
Okay, that’s not exactly how I phrased it. But when my wife and I sat down for one of those bill-paying/family budget review sessions that I’m sure you love as much as we do, that was the gist of my question: how much could we afford to spend on organic food and/or restocking some green cleaning supplies before the next payday?
The answer was that we couldn’t afford those particular aspects of our environmentalism—or at least not as much of them—this time around.
— more
Friday 17 October, 2008
“Honey, can we afford the environment this month?”
Okay, that’s not exactly how I phrased it. But when my wife and I sat down for one of those bill-paying/family budget review sessions that I’m sure you love as much as we do, that was the gist of my question: how much could we afford to spend on organic food and/or restocking some green cleaning supplies before the next payday?
The answer was that we couldn’t afford those particular aspects of our environmentalism—or at least not as much of them—this time around.
— more
Friday 17 October, 2008
“Honey, can we afford the environment this month?”
Okay, that’s not exactly how I phrased it. But when my wife and I sat down for one of those bill-paying/family budget review sessions that I’m sure you love as much as we do, that was the gist of my question: how much could we afford to spend on organic food and/or restocking some green cleaning supplies before the next payday?
The answer was that we couldn’t afford those particular aspects of our environmentalism—or at least not as much of them—this time around. — more
Friday 10 October, 2008
So I found this cool internet music service. For a small monthly fee I can play just about any song I want—a very useful feature when trying to work at the office. No matter what my mood, or whatever my task, I can find a song through which I can focus.
For example, as I sat down to write this blog entry I could not quite put into words what I was thinking until I pulled up the Dave Matthews Band version of the Bob Dylan song, “All Along the Watchtower.” Fortunately for me (as is usually happens while listening to music) my ideas became unstuck. — more
Friday 3 October, 2008
Earlier this week I joined a number of Earthwatch colleagues and other interested filmgoers at a screening of the documentary Flow, an emotionally powerful (but narratively flawed) examination and indictment of the privatization of fresh water supplies throughout the world. When the lights came up, I was struck by two main ideas: 1) Never, ever drink two mugs of tea before going into a movie about water; 2) water privatization and the collapse of worldwide freshwater supplies are parallel, heretofore invisible crises that have already happened, not things that will or might happen if left unchecked. – more