Comments Wiseacre has made

  • to bob dylan:

    blow your harmonica son

    SJR

    On Density is political destiny? posted 3 years, 6 months ago 15 Responses

  • social scaling

    The social scale of the problem is huge. Small is beautiful yes, but seems a scale of refuge for the few - admittance a function of education and  entitlement that is usually the province of the priveledged.

    What is being proposed and discussed in the works and comments is nothing short of rejiggering the relations of production - can you spell commiepinkoliberalsocialist?

    The US and the world are in the midst of dramatic global monetary reorganisation. The risk of currency collapse is very high right now due to a worldwide 'liquidity bubble'. Standards of living in the US are due for a "correction"(I won't say lowering although the measurement of our qulaity of life will be less dependent on material indices-a change for the best!).

    Enviromentalists should heed the economic signals and fashion a mainstream view that can put the coming changes into a positive context
     - part time work for everyone who wants a job.
     - Full time work for everyone who needs the workout.
     - access to fresh air, water and open space
     - time to spend with freinds and loved ones

    We are humans from earth. We live for adventure, art, music, rythmic dancing, philosophy, passion, fishing hunting and gathering. That hummer looks stupid!! Get a life!!!

    SJR

    On My problem with David Kamp's NYT review of Michael Pollan's new book posted 3 years, 7 months ago 21 Responses

  • climate disaster

    circuspect with regard to the cold earth outcome as well!!

    SJR

    On A bipolar solar disorder posted 3 years, 7 months ago 12 Responses

  • global climate

    dr.x,
    I do not disagree with calling it the global climate disaster or the urgency that should propel such a message into the chambers of the "deciders".

    atretyger,
    Not to belabor the point, but, our credibility suffers when new information such as the particulate anomaly reveals that the warming may not be occurring at the intensity indicated by models and limited monitoring.

    Consider this small thought exercise: If ice ages are possible (we cannot ignore the evidence)by what mechanisms would the earths oceans be evaporated and that moisture be driven to the poles to fall as frozen water in quantities sufficient to drop oceam levels by 100 feet or greater and simultaneously build ice fields 1000 feet deep in geologically breif timeframes. The best answer, maybe the only reasonable answer, would be a sharp, breif but unsustainable rise in temperature. Go to
    http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/transit.html
    to see more.

    My point being, the environmental movement needs to be more circumspect with re to claims of outcomes. Such reserve can only improve the efficency with which the message of climactic disruption will be distributed. Sound the alarm, yes; foster debate,yes; demand action, yes; be effective!

    SJR

    On A bipolar solar disorder posted 3 years, 7 months ago 12 Responses

  • whoops

    that should be anthropogenic CO2

    SJR

    On A bipolar solar disorder posted 3 years, 7 months ago 12 Responses

  • global CO2 rise

    I know this comment may ire, or fail to inspire,  but it really distresses me to see the environmental community putting its rep on the line by presuming to know the outcomes of anthropomorphic global CO2 rise. Granted the disturbance threatens current patterns and distribution of life on earth. Granted a precautionary approach, including Kyoto, is warrented at this time.

    However, the CO2 rise is not necessarily synonymous with sea level rise, global warming and other outcomes. Add to the list of possible outcomes incipient glaciation. The modeling and data for substatiating any outcomes are only at a point where ultimate outcomes are in the realm of wild speculation.

    As an example: ask any of your favorite sea level rise researchers whether any of the models and studies used on, deep ocean currents, sea level change, temperature and precipitation ever factor in intra annual (seasonality)scales of change in distribution of precipitation. Or whether the ice and ocean sediment records can parse out fine distributory effects.

    Consider the massive snow packs that have failed to completely melt in the high seirra the last few years-why? the rain fall has been skewed from recent historical  6 month Bell shape Oct - March to a 7 month or longer snow season with significant late season precip.

    So, while continuing to advocate for caution and conservation, can we start to broaden our view on the possible outcomes of human induced CO2 change. Over the long haul it may add to our credibility.

    SJR

    On A bipolar solar disorder posted 3 years, 7 months ago 12 Responses

  • savage protien

    As Joe Stirling has hinted, part of the problem with sustainability is the biodiversity issue. Biodiversity objectives should inform the notion of sustainability. That said, Tom rightly points out the one challenge of "real organic farming" is in stocking the farm with enough animals to supply nutrients for the vegetable garden. To that challenge must be added that attitudes regarding the raising and slaghter of human dependent (sometimes invasive) species must be consistent with humane practices and 21st century consumer sensibilities.

    The soil replenishment and biodiversity/permaculture ideas converge upon one solution not addressed in this discussion. One of the ways first peoples were very efficient at sustainance from an ecosystem point of view, was that they "harvested" protien from a broad spectrum of soil and nutrient cycling regimes. They depended on native ungulates such as deer for a significant portion of their food. Deer and other game animals are capable of growing on a diet of plant parts that grow naturally on lands which are not suitable for cultivated crops. Of course, I am not suggesting a rush to restore the practice of market hunting. Rather, if you believe that we need to move from an extractive economy to a restoration economy, we should consider the value of restoring large tracts of land to the public domain and managing for biodiversity and regulated harvest of wild animals.

    It is perhaps not widely known that interest in hunting, and the culture of the hunter conservationist, is in a steep decline. Though I may be called out for herasy, I believe we should debate the relative cruelties of raising confined species which supply meat and, argualbly, justify proprietary, enclosed rearing systems that infringe upon habitat, as opposed to open wild meat production and hunting systems. The cultural contexts and manifestations of the emergent hunting function (bow hunting for dollars? quotas for carnivores?) I leave for further discussion.

    An overnight conversion, as suggested by "Debbie Downer", is not what I had in my mind. There are disruptive ideas (good) and disruptive implementation timetables (bad).

    What should also be on our radar screen right now is the possibility of a global currency collapse. This is the subject of numerous blogs I frequent and I think it would be useful to look at the sustainable lifestyle project? from that point of view. We could very well (25% chance?) be trying to build the new world economic order over the next several years as the pump and dump mode of wealth consolidation is extended increasingly fewer Americans. For a few decades more. Capital transfer schemes will be more widely used globally to consolidate wealth generated by the developing economies but the competitive/manipulative model of economic power will peter out when globalism collapes worldwide under the weight of increased transfer costs both in social and energy terms. At that point  the choice will be to develop cooperative economies or attempt to centrally regulate, at increasingly smaller scales, the more aggressive among us who are adept at manufacturing strength from the complicity of the fearfulness and low self-esteem of the dependent.

    Recapturing the commons is very difficult under the strongman/warlord system. And the commons is the key to sustainability. Thats why the US must ultimately be reformed or cease to exist. Not many people understand this. The founding fathers did - that is why the constitution addresses a right to property but is silent on rights in property. If you want precedented concrete rights, be a renter. We all rent from nature....

    SJR

    On A food-politics writer expresses angst at the obscurity of his topic posted 3 years, 8 months ago 24 Responses