Comments ebrown53717 has made

  • We need a physicist to kick in here (do you suppose there are any who read Grist?) I'm quite sure from my own high school Physics that because of the "thermal mass" of the food, a full freezer is in fact more efficent than an empty one. ie. the food will keep itself cold through 'thermal momentum' as it were but air has to be continually cooled.On Ask Umbra on canned and frozen foods posted 1 month ago 23 Responses

  • Have to agree with Erik - these 'stache guys have really only taken half the pledge, don'tchathink?

    Ed, http://careofcreation.org http://ourfathersworld.org

     

    On Slideshow: Our favorite green mustaches posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 6 Responses

  • Sometimes livestock are actually good for the land

    I know a farmer friend in Columbus WI (http://www.fountainprairie.com/) who made the decision a number of years ago to put his land (formerly corn and hogs) back into grass.  The question then became, "how can we still make a living off this land?"  The result is one of the finest herds of Scottish Highland cattle in the midwest.  He chose this breed after much research as one best suited to help to improve his land; he discovered later that he was raising some of the best-tasting (sorry, vegetarian friends) beef around.  He now supplies all of the best restaurants in the Madison WI area - and sells the leftovers to the rest of us at the weekly farmer's market.

    So here's a case of my eating his beef helps him keep his land healthy... seems to be a win-win.On Umbra on homegrown meat posted 11 months, 2 weeks ago 33 Responses

  • There's another side to this...

    I would highly recommend Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma".  In fact, when meat is raised in an environmentally friendly manner (grass fed cows, for example) there are benefits all the way around, from better pastures to using land (marginal grasslands) that would not otherwise produce food. It is very hard to maintain an organic farm without animals to provide the nitrogen needed by the plants. Yes, it can be done, but not easily. It may even turn out, as Umbra suggests, that many of the health problems associated with meat diets should correctly be associate with 'grain-fed meat diets'.

    Bottom line - we can't simply say that eating meat is bad for the environment.  Any more than we can argue that eating vegetables is good for it.  It all depends on where our food comes from and how it was produced.On Umbra on vegetarian remorse posted 2 years, 2 months ago 38 Responses

  • Homework eating dogs...

    "One potential downside: Groups of walking kids may be highly susceptible to homework-eating neighborhood dogs..."

    Only in Grist do we find such comprehensive analysis as this.  Who knows - maybe it will turn out that the environmental crisis has been engineered by gangs of kids looking for more homework excuses...!!!

    Good work, guys.On Municipalities try to encourage students to walk to school posted 2 years, 2 months ago 8 Responses

  • Let's connect the dots

    Dave, thanks for the excellent summary.  You may be closer to being a Malcolm Gladwell than your friends want you to know...

    I'm tempted to connect the dots on this story with yesterday's comments about Christians and the environment and the ground swell that may be taking place over in our corner of, um, Creation.  Some of the connectors are connecting in evangelical circles in particular; and as the discussion is reframed for our community as a fundamental faith issue, you may see the swell turn into a tsunami.

    We can only pray... :)

    Ed http://careofcreation.org

    On Mucho interesting posted 3 years, 1 month ago 2 Responses

  • Here's the problem, caniscandida...

    I am in exactly the same position that JackH is in.  I am a Christian - evangelical in fact - and (or maybe but) strongly convinced, with EO Wilson, that the environmental situation demands that we all - all! - join hands.  We are villagers living behind a dike in Holland, and the dike is springing leaks.  In this situation, worldview or theology or gay marriage are irrelevant.  If the dike goes, none of this will matter.

    But you have walked into the trap JackH is talking about with your reference to gay marriage being "extremely desireable."  Some of us do not agree.  Cannot agree.  The reasons are deep and complex, but they are there.  Tying this issue - or any similar one - to the environment is a distraction.

    We Christians who are concerned have major problems on the opposite side of the argument - our conservative brethren (and sisteren!) who similarly insist that they cannot work with those who disagree with them on, say, abortion or gay marriage.  

    Enough already!  Let's set this aside and get out there and plug the dike!  There will be plenty of time to argue these viewpoints (and maybe to learn to appreciate each other) over coffee and hot chocolate at the end of the day.  

    To JackH:  
    Above comments not withstanding, there are enough Christians waking up to this issue - and plenty of middle of the road environmentalists encouraging us - that we can move ahead on our own. And some of us are. It is not, after all, a closed movement or even a defined movement as a political party is. We need no one's "permission" to be environmental or to "care for creation".  Let's just do it!

    Ed http://careofcreation.org

    On Tune in posted 3 years, 1 month ago 12 Responses