Category: Important Stuff

I remember the evening my father told me about pollution. I don’t remember how old I was, but I know it was sometime after we moved to Florida (I must have been at least eight). I remember being out in the back yard with the telescope, my dad explaining why it wasn’t the best place for stargazing. That night, I remember learning about leaded gasoline, catalytic converters, and smog. I remember scoffing at the idea of light pollution, and silently conceeding the point later, out on the causeway (a few miles away from the city lights). Much later, I remember being awestruck by the view of the night sky my first time camping.

All of this came to me as I took the trash down to the curb last night. I stopped on my way back inside and spent ten minutes straining my eyes to count all the visible stars. I didn’t get past thirty, and it was depressing. I could only see a quarter of the sky from where I was standing (due to the house and the trees), but the number should have been MUCH higher. Even so, it wasn’t different from any other night, so why did it bother me last night? I don’t know about your mind, but mine makes an occasional association that throws me off. Yeah, the sky looked just like it does every night: a blackboard dotted by partially erased chalk; but last night it occurred me that this blackboard wasn’t black, it was the color of an electric stove element just starting to heat up.

Not seeing stars at night is a small problem. If that was the only consequence of man’s presence I might not be writing this post. The sky’s appearance wouldn’t give me pause. I might have found the night sky peaceful and gone about my business, a little more relaxed. Instead my mind made a quirky, throw-away association, and I felt a little worried… a little pessimistic.

Am I making any sense? Should I see my doctor about changing my meds?

Right around the time my dad talked to me about polution, he talked to me about anxiety (another time, a different context). He probably didn’t use the word anxiety. We probably talked about being worried, but anxiety works too. I remember him suggesting that the best way to stop worrying was to do something, anything that might address the problem. If it was a school project I was worrying about, I should start it. If I wasn’t sure where to start, I should pick a spot and jump in – even if it didn’t turn out to be the best place to start later. Sometimes there’s a risk of making the problem worse. But even if it does, sometimes those false starts lead you to a solution… one you might not have thought of if you’d done nothing but sit and contemplate.

That’s why I’m writing right now. You might quit reading long before you get this far. You might be put off, dismiss my concerns, or think I’m being melodramatic. But I feel like doing something, so I am. If you’ve read this far, maybe you would think about a couple questions, or accept a little advice. Are you worried? Can you think of anything to do about it? Even if it’s something small, start. Just don’t let it be the end.

No, this is not a post about nudity (though I’m bound to get a few disappointed googlers after this first sentence).

No, this post touches on my recent efforts to eat and dress better. In addition to trying freshen up our diet with more organically grown veggies, I’ve done a little searching for low impact clothing. A co-worker suggested organic cotton and bamboo.

Bamboo? Are we talking about that same stuff the folks behind us planted in their backyard, and now we can’t get rid of… short of emptying a can of gasoline and striking a match? (I’m guessing the law might have a problem with me setting my lawn on fire.)

Yes we are.

As it turns out, bamboo is treated with some pretty strong stuff to make it suitable for clothing, so I’m not sure it fits my criteria for “low impact.” Still, I was curious.

I gave some nice folks on the internet my credit card number, and in return they sent me three bamboo/cotton mix t-shirts. My wife thinks I’ve gone around the bend on this one, but she’s also the one that said my steamed carrots were too strong.

“Is there too much spice?” (sometimes I add a little allspice.)

“No, the carrot taste is too strong.”

“Wait a minute. You think the carrots are too carroty?”

“Well, when you put it like that it sounds kind of silly.”

You’ll have to forgive my wife, her parents taught her all vegetables came from a can. (You have to give her this though: she lets me post this stuff, so you know she’s a pretty damn good sport.)

Anyway, they finally came in the mail. I’ve discovered that bamboo may not be all it’s cracked up to be as a renewable resource (in some circles anyway), but it makes a wicked comfy t-shirt.

In recent debates concerning a new energy bill in Congress, southeastern legislators argued against provisions requiring a certain percentage of electricity come from renewable resources by a future date.

What was their objection? If I recall, part of their objection was that there are fewer renewable resources in the southeastern U.S., compared to other regions.

Maybe someone should have asked around a bit.

Yahoo! News:

Just 15 miles off Florida’s coast, the world’s most powerful sustained ocean current — the mighty Gulf Stream — rushes by at nearly 8.5 billion gallons per second. And it never stops.

To scientists, it represents a tantalizing possibility: a new, plentiful and uninterrupted source of clean energy.

Florida Atlantic University researchers say the current could someday be used to drive thousands of underwater turbines, produce as much energy as perhaps 10 nuclear plants and supply one-third of Florida’s electricity. A small test turbine is expected to be installed within months.

You can see why our congressmen didn’t think of this one. I mean, who ever heard of the Gulf Stream?

It may not be a good time to move to the southwest.

Lake Mead Could Be Within a Few Years of Going Dry, Study Finds – New York Times:

Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography….

Other recent research has shown that the watershed feeding the Colorado River has historically had a tendency to be far drier than it has been in the past century. The new study projects that changes foreseen in a warming world could well help tip the region back into its dry norm.

It’s too friggin hot! For crying out loud, it’s February. We should have had at least one good freeze, even on the coast. I think we had one night where they were worried they might have to ice down the strawberries in Plant City, but I don’t think it happened.

Why am I griping now? I just looked up the weather for the week, and discovered that tonight is supposed to be our coldest this week… a bone chilling 55F. Even in Florida it’s supposed to cool off a little more than this (mid to high 70’s during the day). If it’s this warm in February, what is it going to be like this summer?

I know that just because it seems a little warmer this winter, it’s not necessarily a sign of global warming (just like if we have a cold March, it’s not a sign that we’re off the hook). However, Cheryl and I were talking about the city pool and how they don’t put up the bubble anymore. When we were kids, they used to have a big inflatable dome they’d blow up over the pool to keep things warmer. As we got older they put it up less and less, and now that we think about it… I’m not sure it’s been up in ten years (not that I’ve seen anyway).

There could be a good reason for it that has nothing to do with warmer temperatures (like money for one). But after a sweaty, February afternoon on the water, it makes me wonder a little.

*My cousin’s just getting back to Wisconsin after a trip to the Caribbean, so I’d imagine he’d have no problem exporting a little cold… if he could.

Those wily Brits are up to something again…

Bags of Change: Carrot Better Than Stick – TreeHugger:

Bags of Change encourages responsible shopping bag use by dangling a tasty carrot. In short you get a discount at any participating store into which you to take their funky organic hemp-cotton or Amazonian latex bags. So far over 50 stores are involved.

I kid because I care. Actually, I think it’s a pretty cool idea. My problem is my terrible memory. At least half the time I remember my cloth bags when I’ve got a cart full of groceries (and the bags are safe and sound at home). My memory might be a little better if I had a financial stake in the matter. That or I’d just have more reason to hate myself when I forgot.

This is not a good post. I’m mostly venting a little frustration from this evening (and not all of it from the subject of this entry).

I couldn’t avoid references to an article in the CS Monitor today. I must have come across half a dozen of them.

AS ARCTIC ICE MELTS, SOUTH POLE ICE GROWS

Over the past 20 years, southern sea ice has expanded, in contrast to the Arctic’s decline, and researchers want to understand why. Many climate-model experiments show the Arctic responding more rapidly than Antarctica as global warming kicks in. But after looking at the latest projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Arctic sea ice is well ahead of the models, and Antarctic sea ice is well behind what the models project,” says Stephen Ackley, a polar scientist at the University of Texas, San Antonio.

Two things immediately jump out for global warming skeptics (as I’ve seen already): the expansion of sea ice in the southern hemisphere, and observations that don’t precisely fit climate model predictions. These tid-bits are juicy for obvious reasons, even if I think they’re misleading. The article actually addresses findings that are worrisome, but they’re harder to grasp or explain than “south pole ice grows.”

Two things from the article jumped out at me: they were talking about SEA ice, and they seemed to be referencing the amount of AREA covered by ice.

Maybe I’m way off base here – that or I’ve completely misunderstood the article, but if they’re just talking about sea ice, that’s just one piece of the puzzle – and the least worrisome. As I’ve referenced before, NASA has surveyed Antarctic ice as a WHOLE (ice accumulated on land as well as at sea), and determined that as a whole it’s diminishing (not growing, as the title of the Monitor article perhaps misleadingly suggests). Don’t get me wrong, the amount of sea ice in the south is interesting, but it’s half of the story (or less).

Sea ice is generally at sea. If it’s just an accumulation of frozen precipitation from water evaporating from oceans – or more directly, frozen sea water – there’s not as much change in ocean levels. You’re just changing it’s state from liquid to solid. (I think this may actually increase it’s volume a little, but not a lot. I think ice is less dense than water – which is why it floats – and why it expands when it freezes.) The much bigger problem is the land ice, which we very much want to stay on land – and not decrease in mass – given where the shedded mass likely goes.

So if the Antarctic ice is covering more area, how can their be less of it? As it happens, matter often can be measured in three dimensions: length, width, and height (or thickness). Area is a two dimensional measurement, but ice can be measured in three. Antarctic ice could simultaneously be spreading out – and therefore take up more area, but thin out sufficiently to take up less volume, and have less mass.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s much chatter about this online, and see where the discussions go.

Well, it’ll be interesting to me anyway. If nothing else, I may find out how much crap I’m full of.

As I mentioned yesterday, until recently I haven’t worried very much about global warming. It’s been in the back of my mind, like any good liberal, but I haven’t done much about it. Like many folks, I was shaken a bit by the Al Gore movie; but a certain blog gave me an extra push.

I’ll admit that I hadn’t read much on the topic for more than ten years, back when I’d read (among other things) Al’s book, “Earth in the Balance,” during my more idealistic college years. Al was elected VP, and it seemed my concern for the environment shadowed Al’s. Hey, if my boy wasn’t talking it up, who was I to say something? Then there were the deniers.

It seems funny to me that global warming skeptics claim they’re frozen out of serious discussion on the subject, because all I seemed to see during the 90s and early 2000s was the skeptic’s view. I don’t recall where I saw them all, but I remember reading several claims regarding Antarctic ice getting thicker.

(Hey, we’re talking about 10 years of my life. I’m not going to do that much research for no stinking blog. If I’d enjoyed research even a little bit, I’d have continued my education. I don’t mean to brag, but my wife will vouch for me: I had the grades, and I aced my senior research project. Remember “The Activation of Episodic and Semantic Long-Term Memory” Cheryl? All right, maybe I do mean to brag… but just a little bit ;-))

There were other articles, discussing solar and cosmic radiation, water vapor, and (supposed) lags between temperature increases and CO2 increases through history; but the Antarctic ice stories stuck with me.

Like I said before, that blog and that movie kinda gave my complacency a kick in the pants. I started to read more. I read about the nature of water-vapor in the atmosphere. I read about stored carbon and methane. I read some of the rebuttals to the skeptics I’d seen before. My wife says I bore her with longer entries, so I won’t try to summarize everything I’ve read, but I’d like to give you one example. It has to do with that Antarctic ice.

As it turns out, there were quite a few readings taken through the years which showed a local accumulation of ice. If the globe was warming, you might expect to find a general decline in the amount of ice rather than an accumulation. As you may know, Antarctica is a REALLY big place, so it wasn’t easy to see what the ice was doing overall. Until recently.

NASA Mission Detects Significant Antarctic Ice Mass Loss

Scientists were able to conduct the first-ever gravity survey of the entire Antarctic ice sheet using data from the joint NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE). This comprehensive study found the ice sheet’s mass has decreased significantly from 2002 to 2005…

Measuring variations in Antarctica’s ice sheet mass is difficult because of its size and complexity. GRACE is able to overcome these issues, surveying the entire ice sheet, and tracking the balance between mass changes in the interior and coastal areas.

Previous estimates have used various techniques, each with limitations and uncertainties and an inherent inability to monitor the entire ice sheet mass as a whole. Even studies that synthesized results from several techniques, such as the assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, suffered from a lack of data in critical regions.

This is just one example of recent science, of measurements that weren’t possible before, which make compelling arguments that man-made global warming isn’t just a reality, it may be accelerating faster than models previously predicted.

You remember those global models… the ones that critics have said for years were too unreliable… with snarky (and misleading) comments like, “my weatherman can’t predict the weather two days from now, how can they predict the weather in 50 years?” Well guess what? The critics may have been right, those old models may have been unreliable. They may have been way too optimistic.

Listen, I don’t expect that you’ve been persuaded by this entry. There’s lots of stuff out there for you to read that will explain it much better than I could, so I won’t try. You know I don’t write for a living, and I’ve admitted that I’m hardly an expert on this subject. What I do hope you’ll do is read a little more. I don’t expect you to become a climate expert, just check out a couple of these links. Check out some of the “being green” entries on this blog. He’s a much better writer, and he’s much more convincing. Check out this book. Take a look at grist.org.

I think you’ll find there’s reason to be concerned.

How often have I asked you to do something for me? I think I asked you once to think about drinking more water from the tap, but that’s the only thing that comes to mind.

What I’d like you to do now is a little more important, but it requires a lot less effort. Consider signing an online petition. It’s about the ongoing climate negotiations in Bali, and the role the US has taken to thwart progress. The hope is the petition will urge the US, Canada, et al to consider cooperating, rather than stifling progress towards a meaningful successor to Kyoto.

I really wish I had more time to tell you why I think you should, but it’s getting really late. I will say that I was probably more like you a few months back, but I’ve come to feel that things are a little more urgent. Maybe tomorrow. In the mean time, at least give it a look, and consider taking a small step towards a better world.