Climate Change
Refugees from Planet Earth
Where are all the displaced people going to go? You can be sure that refugees are coming to your neighborhood, if you remain lucky enough to still have one. And the refugees will not just be human. We will be seeing refugees of every species in search of hospitable places on earth, looking for food, looking for water, looking for shelter.
Clean Coal’s Dirty Little Secret
The mining process generates liquid waste called slurry, a mix of carcinogenic compounds and heavy metals. The slurry is stored in open lagoons that, of course, sometimes break and flood. This is even more likely during periods of heavy rainfall and flooding (such as during global warming).
Beyond Climate Change 101
As with all meaningful change, there is no simple fix for our climate change crisis. There is no pill, band aid, 12-step formula, or “expert’s” advice to heal Earth or its life forms. There is no “clean” nuclear power that will preserve our current luxuries without risking even more environmental disaster, no green product that will redeem generations of overconsumption, no fluorescent light bulb that will reverse the excess of our industrialized systems, no recycling process that can restore forests, no zoo or seed bank that can preserve our world’s biodiversity, no replacement planet we can relocate to. For worse and for better we are stuck here with our mess and our weakness, our solutions and our strength.
Planet Earth Hung Out to Dry
Blue Planet Run, a U.S-based foundation that supports clean water access projects worldwide, estimates that these water collectors spend 6 or more hours and walk an average of 6 kilometers a day to get water for their families and communities. Their water-collecting journeys often put them at risk of attack from predatory men and animals and make it difficult or impossible for them to go to school or earn money, perpetuating cycles of illiteracy and poverty.
Mystery Unclogged Part II
Peer down into the depths of one of your drains. You are looking at your future. Whatever goes down that drain is going to come back at you sooner or later in some way.
Mystery Unclogged Part I
Spoiler alert: If you have maintained any illusions that your drains are magical tubes that “disappear” inconveniences, I’m about to ruin them for you. Look away! Flush and run!
Climate of Fear, Climate of Hope
By worrying, you can tell yourself you care without actually having to do anything. Worrying is a replacement for taking responsibility and action, a passive substitute for doing the brave, hard things in life.
1. Walk
If you didn’t ace this test, gently put down your Wii console and head outside. If you’re lucky enough to have a place to walk once you get out there, then start walking. If you don’t have a sidewalk or a quiet road or a path, then carefully dodge the Hummers, Minivans, and Hemis whizzing down the six lane roads that surround you all the way to City Hall and demand something better.
Moving into Green
what I mean is that I’m not interested in talking about taking your cloth tote to the supermarket or using the other side of the piece of paper. That stuff is good, but it’s like blowing into a fan. What I’m talking about is complete rehabilitation. From flat on our face to remotion. I’m talking about saving ourselves–not our lifestyles but our lives.
Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks
If rigidity isn’t the reason for climate change apathy among the old, what is? Apparently there is something about climate change that is making it harder for older people to respond to—or, more to the point, easier to ignore.
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