Climate Positive Cities

The US Green Building Council & The Clinton Climate Initiative are working together on the Climate Positive Cities Initiative.

Why are these initiatives never possible when politicians are still in office?

VOD: Koala survives Australian Bush Fire

I’m sure you’ve probably already seen a news piece about Sam the Koala.  She’s been receiving international attention for her rescue by volunteer fire fighter David Tree and her friendship with another burnt koala.

I’ve bottle-fed an orphaned baby kangaroo and can say, on an ordinary day, such a brush with wildlife is unforgettable.  To find animals that survived a horrendous fire and to have a shared moment is extraordinary.

The story gets better from there.

Sam arrived at Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter, run by Colleen Wood, where she made the acquaintance of Bob, another rescued koala.

“They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs. They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It’s been horrific,” said Wood . . .

Tree, a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority Victoria, has visited Sam since her rescue and was delighted to see she had bonded with Bob.

“They’ve really taken a shine to each other as they are both burned and share the same burned smell,” he said. . .

Wood said the koalas would be released back into nature once a suitable habitat is found.

There are a couple of cute pictures if you click through to the article.

It just goes to show you can find beauty even in the wake of utter devestation.

Penises are shrinking and other reproductive consequences of trashing the planet

photo by 9583071@N02

Penises are shrinking.

Over the weekend  ChemTrust, an organization that works to publicize how manufactured chemicals and hormones “undermine humans and wildlife by effecting their health, behaviour, intelligence and ability to reproduce,” released a report reviewing over 250 studies looking at the sexual health ramifications of a variety of species after prolonged exposure to chemicals and synthesized hormones in the wild and lab environments. The conclusion: male gonads and offspring are under fire, threatening the survival of  a large portion of the animal kingdom over time.

In study after study, from birds to amphibians to wild cats to polar bears,  reproduction is threatened by the chemicals humans spray over the terrain.  Animals living in highly polluted and very agrarian regions are especially prone to reproductive effects.  Males increasingly have a wide range of symptoms, including hermaphroditic tissues, shorter penises, smaller testicles, and deformities that effect the ability to impregnate females.

Fertility is on the decline, with lower sperm counts and slowed development in the womb, leading to sickly offspring that nurse on contaminated milk.  As chemicals build up in the body, mating rituals are changing, and in some species, less fit males are more effective at landing a mate that ones less effected by pollution.

Why should you care? You are what you eat.

Famed food writer Michael Pollan has been making rounds discussing the problem of corn.  The American diet is full of corn. It’s in foods you don’t give a second thought to.

Take a typical fast food meal. Corn is the sweetener in the soda. It’s in the corn-fed beef Big Mac patty, and in the high-fructose syrup in the bun, and in the secret sauce. Slim Jims are full of corn syrup, dextrose, cornstarch, and a great many additives. The “four different fuels” in a Lunchables meal, are all essentially corn-based. The chicken nugget—including feed for the chicken, fillers, binders, coating, and dipping sauce—is all corn. The french fries are made from potatoes, but odds are they’re fried in corn oil, the source of 50 percent of their calories. Even the salads at McDonald’s are full of high-fructose corn syrup and thickeners made from corn.

Of the 37 ingredients in chicken nuggets, something like 30 are made, directly or indirectly, from corn.

In a parallel argument, we’re eating animals in the food chain that are beginning the suffer from the damage done by pollution.  Forget that we’re stuffing animals with corn feed.  We’re eating ones whose tissues are riddled the hormones and chemicals that are rendering animals sterile and fertility challenged.  Not only are we exposed to the same toxins every day via the air and our toiletries, hair dyes, pesticides and cleaning solvents, we’re also consuming them via our food supply.

While smaller creatures are reacting noticeably first, it won’t be long before the high concentrations humans consume and absorb take effect.  Already, mothers pass a chemical cocktail onto their babies via breast milk that may grow to pass those same chemicals off to their offspring.   Nor does it help that “trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, including narcotics, birth control, antidepressants and other controlled substances, are in the drinking water and in U.S. rivers, lakes and streams,” in 80% of the water samples recently tested by the EPA.

When you begin to realize how impossible it is to avoid the chemicals and hormones corporations have spray our planet with, combined with the general apathy of much of the developed world,  the notion of a not-too- distant future of a sterile human race a la Children of Men seems less far fetched.

John McCain, Class Act, Part Deux

Politico reports that in lieu of canceling the Republican National Convention while a Category 5 hurricane pounds New Orleans again, the show will go on less festively.  John McCain may deliver his passionate acceptance speech via satellite on Thursday from Gustav’s aftermath.

The self-imposed hits keep coming for McCain. He plans to deliver his acceptance speech from the same geographic region that was drowned in 2005 while Bush & Co. diddled.  Seriously?

Won’t all the networks be pulling up photos from 2005, like the one with Bush and McCain and a festive birthday cake on an Arizona tarmac on the very day Hurricane Katrina devestation occurred.   Probably not the reminder you want while you make your plea for votes  this November.  Republicans bungled Katrina and the city isn’t close to bouncing back. Not the mnemonic device you want affiliated with your Party’s talking points.

I can’t help but compare Eastern Europe, which has been leveled in one war after another, to New Orleans.   New Orleans will increasingly be the bulls eye for heightened hurricane seasons as a result of global warming.

PS.  Sarah Palin isn’t convinced global warming is a “man-made” phenomenon.

Part One

Not mommy material

Now that I’m on the downward slide towards thirty, I find that the topic of babies is starting to creep into conversations at networking functions attended by a preponderance of women.  Carrying on the family gene pool is a pretty black and white issue for most, and while women are more than willing to put off having kids in the name of building a career, most that I meet hope to have one or two of their own  some day.

My best friend got married a few years ago.  Cycling served as the common denominator for the couple; not only did they take long bike excursions on weekends, but both taught spinning at area gyms.  In the span of a year, they moved in together, got married, and she got pregnant.  Once Boy 1 was born, their lives were thrown into complete upheaval. Between day care, work commutes and extended family issues, it took 2 years before either of them set foot in a gym again, despite fitness being an integral part of their lives.  Now with Boy 2 in the picture,  my friend looks forward to federal holidays so that she can go to the gym, knowing her kids are attended to at day care.

While my friend wouldn’t trade her kids for her freedom, I’m not willing to make that sacrifice.  I spent my childhood trying to make other people happy, desperate to connect with another human being at some level with a high personal cost:  my passions got lost in the process.  Now that I’m finally figuring out who I am and what I want, I not willing to sideline those interests for anyone again, especially for someone that’s going to require 21+ years of financial (about a quarter of million dollars before college is factored in) and emotional support.  To some that seems selfish.

But I would argue having kids is also selfish.  The world population is growing to a capacity that the planet will not be able to sustain continued exponential growth, and Americans use a disproportionate amount of the planet’s natural resources.  Also, given that half of marriages end in divorce, I have to wonder how often a baby is used as a temporary band aid to obscure deeper issues v. the baby being the issue, since “parents have significantly lower marital satisfaction than nonparents“

Personally, I knew with certainty, on the most primal level, that there was no way I was having kids  after watching a “miracle of birth” video in middle school health class,   Helen Mirren recently echoed my sentiments.

“I swear it traumatised me to this day. I haven’t had children and now I can’t look at anything to do with childbirth. It absolutely disgusts me.”

Since the US is so fond of medicalizing birth, consider the “condition.” If you were not pregnant, such a condition (considerable amount of weight gain;  requisite enhancement of calorie, nutrient and vitamin consumption to compensate for the condition; and a variety of other side effects like hemmorhoids and back pain, all before searing pain as the growth exited your body) would be diagnosed as a parasite.   Pregnancy is not a symbiotic relationship.

I acknowledge that for many women, they can overlook the 36-40 weeks of a medical condition, followed by the searing pain of childbirth (that will eventually fade from memory), because the outcome is a new life they get to nurture.   Me, I don’t want more responsibility than a puppy.

And I’m likely to be happier for it. Lorraine Ali of Newsweek reports:

In Daniel Gilbert’s 2006 book “Stumbling on Happiness,” the Harvard professor of psychology looks at several studies and concludes that marital satisfaction decreases dramatically after the birth of the first child—and increases only when the last child has left home. He also ascertains that parents are happier grocery shopping and even sleeping than spending time with their kids. Other data cited by 2008’s “Gross National Happiness” author, Arthur C. Brooks, finds that parents are about 7 percentage points less likely to report being happy than the childless.

For an interesting read on modern motherhood, I highly recommend Naomi Wolf’s Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood, which addresses the stereotypes and cultural limitations of contemporary pregnancy and motherhood in America.

I’m also looking forward to seeing the documentary, “The Business of Being Born.”

Inertia limits changes in traditional work week

Last month, David Green wrote about shorter work weeks as a possible key to higher productivity for Fast Company.

Naturally, most businesses blanch at the notion of giving up any competitive edge in a globalized economy. But it’s not as if moving to a four-day (or 32-hour) workweek would simply lop 20% off the economy. Cutting hours may actually raise per-hour productivity. France, home of the 35-hour week, creates more GDP per work hour than the United States ($37 versus $34, as of 2003). Norway spanks us too ($39), and Norwegians work 26% fewer hours a year than Americans. It’s a myth of modern hypercapitalism that an overworked, sleep-deprived, stressed-out workforce is a necessity. Studies have consistently shown that longer workweeks increase productivity only in the very short term. In a recent survey by Salary.com, workers copped to wasting about 20% of the average day Web surfing and gossiping.

At my last job, it became obvious that while cubicles may promote interactivity between staff members, it also leads to a lot of time being wasted because it’s hard to block out surrounding conversations, so you wind up doing more socializing that you intend to. Fortunately, I wound up assigned to a cubicle at the far end of the floor with little foot traffic. I don’t think management understood why I kept turning down cubicles in the fray (which was thought to be the good real estate) when they freed up; I spent too many hours at the office to begin with, being a social butterfly was not going to make my days shorter.

While there appears to be a compelling argument for a 4 day work week (improving work place efficiency, some life balance, and being aware of one’s environmental impact v. the badge of honor/shame if you log insane hours), inertia persists. But it seems our not-officially-in-a-recession economy may allow Americans to shorten the work week, if not eventually start taking back their time.

When Ohio’s Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices.”We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it,” said university spokesman Scott Rainone.

The reason is simple: rising gas prices and a desire to retain good workers. . .

“In our office, we have people who travel anywhere from five or six miles to a couple who are on the road 45 to 50 minutes,” Rainone said. “As the price of gas rises, the level of grumbling rises.”

The cost of commuting is making the shift to telecommuting and compressed work weeks more palatable to employers who typically want bodies in the building. Employers are also looking to cut back on overhead expenses, which shared office space can do. Yes, the sharp increase in expenses makes getting your job done more expediently beneficial to both workers and management.

As always, feel good changes that benefit the environment, not as important as feel good changes that benefit the bottom line.

Al Gore’s new Power Point presentation

Gore can’t be POTUS; he’s got a higher calling.

Hypocrisy: An Example

I preface this labeling of hypocrisy by saying Bon Jovi is my favorite band, and I count Jon Bon Jovi as one of of my heroes when it comes to the philanthropic pursuits he (and his wife) support.

From PRnewswire on March 25th:

Bon Jovi has again selected NativeEnergy, a leading provider of high quality carbon offsets and climate crisis solutions, as the official carbon offset provider for its international Lost Highway Tour. Working directly with NativeEnergy, Bon Jovi has calculated and offset the carbon impact its 2008 world tour will have on the climate; offsetting more than 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the six-month tour…

“Through NativeEnergy we are making an investment in renewable energy projects that we hope will result in efficient alternatives to power our tours in the future,” says Jon Bon Jovi. “Until then, we want to help those who are seeking solutions to a problem we can’t afford to ignore.”

The press release and Jon’s frequent use of the word “we” implies that he speaks for the Bon Jovi collective, not just himself. Global warming BAD; we’re doing what we can.

That night, Richie Sambora gets picked up for a DUI, while driving a HUMMER. How is that remotely an environment-friendly choice of a vehicle? They spend more time NOT on tour than on tour.   Sigh.

Noah’s Ark of plantlife

It’s like something out of an episode of the Bionic Woman (the classic and good version with Lindsey Sommers). Norway is host to a doomsday seed vault (near the North Pole) with a capacity of 4.5 million seed samples, in order to have a way of rekindling a species, or many, in the event of a global disaster.

Years from now when scientists realize genetically modified crops are causing undesirable modifications in people we’ll have acres of crops grown with in greenhouses free from the taint of wild seeds, much like farm-raised fish. . . .does anyone else think Soylent Green may have been prescient?

“Healthy” Choice? Not so much for the planet

Healthy Choice (owned by ConAgra) sells a line of frozen entrees called Cafe Steamers.

The sauce for Cafe Steamers is in a special compartment, which acts as a steaming agent for the meal.

The technology cuts cooking time from four minutes to three, says Chuck Baddley, R&D chief. The sauce container on the bottom has lots of tiny holes to let the steam rise through the meal in the perforated top tray.

“To consumers it will look and taste fresher,” says Don Rhodes, marketing director. (USA Today)

Having tried the Cajun style Chicken and Shrimp, I can agree that the quality is better — the food does seem fresher and isn’t overcooked. However, despite following the instructions on the package, it took twice as long to cook my meal. At 5 minutes my entree was still quite cold.

My opinion of the food doesn’t really matter though. What perplexes me is that in an era in which companies are finding ways to cut back on packaging to save money and be Earth-friendly, Cafe Steamers are more costly to make and create more waste.

It’s a plastic bowl in a plastic bowl. We’re not talking flimsy trays like you get with most meals. These are pretty darned sturdy. Yes, they’re recyclable. With the growing concern for the limited raw resources on earth, creating more packaging that will likely wind up tossed in a landfill, seems irresponsible.