guade00’s Recent Comments

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  Outside of a decent piece on NPR and a few curio pieces on CNN, this event got next to no play on the major news media. I like the sentiment--clearly we have a serious problem facing civilization due to anthropogenic global warming. But I am not feeling the global sense of urgency beyond environmental activist circles accreting around this, the newest environmental slogan (or "meme" as Bill McKibben puts it). I hazard to guess that there were more people watching the USC vs. Oregon St. game than were participating in this event. The point, I suppose, is that we don't have time to wait the 20 years or so this slogan will take to really catch on (think Earth Day). We've debated climate change policy since 1992 while emissions (and denial) continue to increase. The time for wholesale migration to renewables was 30 years ago. The time for carbon trading was 20 years ago. The time for a carbon tax was 10 years ago. The time for a bleak realization of the future is now. Urge your local & national leaders to start planning for a warmer future, where water is scarce, food is harder to grow, disease is spreading, forest ecosystems are collapsing, and mass populations are on the move to more hospitable latitudes. Oh, and have a nice day!On Thousands gather worldwide on day of climate protests posted 1 week, 5 days ago 4 Responses

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  Let's just embrace the fact--shall we?--that the Earth is in the throes of yet another mass extinction, in a long series of such events in Earth's history. It's probable that this unlikely planet is poised to re-set into what Gould called the "bacter mode," its normal state. Didn't the Bible exhort that the meek shall inherit the Earth? It couldn't have been more prescient--what is more diminutive than the lowly bacteria? The planet and universe need no particular species for their own existence, and we are in the end a minor and relatively short-lived species, albeit one with a particularly voracious appetite and an unusually effective tool, our complex brains. So, in the words of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, let it be. We had a good go of it. Let the rats, crows, cockroaches, and microbes have a shot.On A scary new climate study will have you saying 'Oh, shit!' posted 2 weeks, 4 days ago 16 Responses

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  I can think of few things less entertaining to watch than NASCAR racing. Golf comes to mind. Lawn bowling. I'd rather watch miniature boats race around our local pond. "Those fellas are fast, proud, fearless go-getters with rebel hearts,” he said, nodding toward the track. “That about sums up the American spirit, don’t it?” Nah. Not here in the Northwest. We're a bunch of passive aggressive weenies lacking self-confidence. But at least we know good entertainment--can't beat kvetching over a hot cup of coffee on a rainy day--and know to oppose any thought of putting a NASCAR track around here. Our Priuses use far too much gas as it is.On NASCAR and the high-octane American dream posted 3 weeks, 6 days ago 11 Responses

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  Buying local is good. Buying less is even better.

  On 'Localwashing' in pictures -- bogus marketing at its finest posted 2 months ago 32 Responses

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  All I'm sayin' is when it's cool for "the Bachelor" to flirt with his date while rowing a canoe on a lonely lake adjacent his solar-powered home, then we'll know Thoreau's message has come through. I can't see it. Until then, Thoreau will just annoy.

  On Thoreau, Walden and civil disobedience in the age of climate change posted 2 months, 1 week ago 10 Responses