DREGUBLOG CATEGORY ARCHIVE: Magic / Science
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
High Stakes for Our Little Eco-Towns
We know global warming is bad, and we know that human beings' misuse of natural resources has caused it to occur. The explanation of accelerated global warming being due to the Earth's natural climate swings has been discredited. Has tangible global warming not yet taught us that a reactive response to scientific research is quickly ruining our planet? Yet it is our duty to try to figure out how to decrease the intensity of global warming, and fast. I grope for new models that will provide effective information.
Though we are now blazing under unrelenting heat, up until a week and a half ago, it has been chilly while I work in my studio in upstate New York. Global warming involves massive swings in the highs and lows of the Earth's temperatures, and it is still spring in these northern climes until late May. In New York, spring and fall are represented by two-week periods between winter and summer. The rest of the year is dominated by severe weather; I now call our two seasons "Freeze" and "Inferno."
There are many arguments against alternative fuel sources used by the U.S. government and other capitalist-based fossil fuel addicts. Wind energy uses spinning turbines that cause noise pollution. Solar energy isn't powerful enough for a typical household's increasing fuel needs. Combustibles, like wood and coal, pollute the air. Hydroelectric power, because of the use of dams, has ruined ecosystems. Geothermal energy is only available to a small part of the world. But if more funding was given to develop these alternative energy technologies, answers to these arguments will be discovered.
It is interesting to look at recently planned eco-towns and see if these will offer any viable alternatives. Prince Charles has completed the development process for Sherford, a new community in England that has been planned to be mostly sustainable. Solar and wind power will be used in the homes and businesses, which are quaintly designed to evoke the kinder, gentler (for some) Georgian era. I also discovered that Prince Charles already designed one of these communities, Poundbury, in Dorset. Why hasn't this been all over the news? The architect Lord Norman Foster has designed a city in the desert of Abu Dhabi, called Masdar, which will also be almost fully sustainable and self-contained, despite its harsh surrounding terrain.
Average citizens, it is argued, must struggle every day to survive in an unrelenting economic downturn, and do not have time to worry if their coffee is heated with purloined fossil fuel, or a pinwheel. Sherford and Masdar have been criticized as the pet projects of imperialist aristocrats with too much time and money on their hands. If that is the case, then shouldn't we encourage the heirs of wealth and power to shoulder this burden? If they have the time, money, and energy to apply to a global problem, shouldn't we let them? Tracking the success of these communities, and applying the lessons learned as an essential part of urban planning, could alter our global future. We should not reject anything that offers a possibility to clean up this apocalyptic-level mess.
Check out information on these projects:
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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
ZEN KOAN: HOW F*D UP IS A TOM RIDGE FENG-SHUI FOUNTAIN?
I was casually web-surfing in the middle of the night for a small, soothing indoor fountain that might make tranquil watery noises and bring massive wealth into my home. All was consumer serenity until I found a website entirely devoted to indoor zen fountains honoring horrible old ruling-class honky men. These fountains were built in tribute to such worthies as Regis Philbin, President Bush (the "Hope" Fountain, which promises to help "heal the nation's soul" post-9/11) the PA Governor Ed Rendell fountain, and my least favorite:
"THE SEC. of HOME LAND (sic) SECURITY TOM RIDGE FOUNTAIN" : $695
And it's shaped like the state of Pennsylvania, as if Tom Ridge wasn't enough of a selling point. You can also buy a zen fountain with replicas of Native Americans on it, if you really want to free-fall blind and screaming into the ravine of spiritual hypocrisy.
I'm holding out for the fountain honoring Denis Kozlowski, which features a naked replica of the former Tyco CEO urinating vodka.
Some inventions are just too inherently immoral to be put into the hands of mankind. Atomic weaponry, Polonium 210. There should be checkpoints in place disallowing Tom Ridge fountains from crossing metaphysical borders into our unprepared meditative states -- for our own protection.
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
THE 100% VINYL DREGUBABY AND ITS SYMBOLIC MEANINGS
Once I was considering pornography.
I realized: Wow! Airbrushed pictures of artificially enhanced sex characteristics. If I so chose, I could utilize this imagery to enhance my erotic enjoyment of an artificial sex organ ( inorganic "vibrating" movement - optional) and artificial effluviates (with chemical "heat" option), and conceivably have a "sexual experience" that involved no genuine human sex organs whatsoever, either real or imagined (other than my own -- which they said was still genuine last time I took it in to have the tires rotated).
AMERICA'S MOST PRECIOUS REALISTIC AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT
Around this time I started to become fascinated by the fact that the better tabloids always featured an abundance of ads for expensive, "realistic," vinyl, "collector," newborn dolls. I thought: Wow! This impulse to have an inanimate, vinyl newborn is surely related to erotic union with artificial sex parts. After all, if your chosen mate happens to be a "realistic" latex sex organ, it would follow that at some point, your DNA might compel you toward the biological imperative of parenting a "lifelike" vinyl infant.
This is the cyborg we've been waiting for: the vinyl love doll that sates your need for nurture-porn. It's a microwavable Pizza Pouch of quick-n-delicious maternity. Way to get your procreation on the run! No more messy human birth! It's so Humanity 2.0!
For DreguReaders, let the Blue Ribbon Seal of the 100% Vinyl Dregubaby assure you that the blog entry you're reading represents two big American Vinyl Thumbs Way Up Our Uncanny American Can-Un-Do-In-A-Can!
Nature? No-ture!
Please submit names for the 100% Vinyl Dregubaby so we can adopt him into our Alternative Dregublog family.
( Slunky is arguing with itself all day and needs more friends.)
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Sunday, April 29, 2007
Make A Difference and Smell Better
Sheryl Crow has been thoroughly mocked this week by our writers and commentistas and rightfully so. She's a celebrity and whatever dignity and respect she deserves has been forfeited by releasing "Soak Up The Sun". Seriously, bless her for trying. Her heart really is in the right place and the toilet paper kerfluffle shows how easy it is to poke fun at environmentalism. I went to High School with a sweet little hippie girl who really cared about people and their health, and to that end, talked non-stop about colonics. Sheryl means well and so did Jen, but creepy? A little.
I'm going to give some examples of conservation that won't have you suffering from swamp ass.
1) Buy paper products that contain "post consumer content" like Seventh Generation.
2) Conserve water. When you shower, don't run the water constantly. Get wet, turn off the tap, then soap up or shampoo. Rinse, repeat. Use your dishwasher if you have one. Washing and rinsing dishes in the sink uses vast quantities of water.
3) Use your grey water. Keep a plastic bucket in the shower to catch waste water. Use it to flush the toilet or water your plants. If you live in a house, consider rerouting your bath, sink, and washer drains out to the yard for your landscaping.
4) If you work in a City, live there. The City is the most efficient use of resources. Suburban sprawl eats up valuable agricultural land and commuters waste resources sitting in traffic. City dwellers, use taxis and public transport.
5) Support a farmer. Find a CSA Farmer in your area. Visit your local Farmer's Market.
6) Suburbanites, tear out half of your lawn and replace it with a vegetable garden, hardscaping or drought resistant native plants. The amount of water and chemicals it takes to keep a lawn perfect is a crime. While you're at it, reroute your gutters into rain barrels.
7) Compact Fluorescent light bulbs are your friend. Unplug appliances like your TV and computers when you're not using them.
8) Recycle! It doesn't take much time and it really works. Metals and some plastics can be used over and over.
9) Finally, if you really want to save a tree, read your newspaper online, buy some canvas grocery bags and recycle your junk mail. Even better, contact the Direct Marketing Association and have yourself removed from their lists. You should see a 75% reduction in unwanted mail over time.
I don't think there's anything radical or onerous on my list. I'm not asking people to not bathe or live in bands of yurt dwelling Hunter/Gatherers, just to take a few minutes and reduce their waste. Now mock me all you want.
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Thursday, April 19, 2007
Voltaire and The Bees
With Earth Day coming up this weekend, it falls on me to pen a few words about our beloved planet which Jesus says we can use like a never-emptied catbox.
My college career was short and bitter. My vague notions of being an artist fizzled and I took to hanging around in San Francisco's North Beach more than I attended classes. The one thing I took away from school was a love for Voltaire which endures. I take the closing line of Candide, "it is necessary to cultivate our garden" quite literally, of all the things I do nothing brings me closer to true happiness than mucking about in dirt. As environmentalists go, I barely register, but I try to make a difference. I have my own canvas grocery bags, I buy organic when it's available, recycle and I purchase from local farmers. I try to keep Green, but I fail when I fire up the lawn tractor to mow the acre of grass, which takes three carbon-spewing hours, then I guiltily make sure I compost every leaf, weed and blade of grass like I'm doing penance.
The lawn has been morphing into a pleasant suburban farm over the past four years. The previous owner of the house kept the yard like a golf course, mowing two or three times a week and dumping enough chemicals onto the grass to launch a space shuttle. Not long after I stopped the chemical applications, the true nature of things became apparent, the perfect green carpet has given way to wild violets, vast scabs of crab grass and all manner of critters. It's nowhere near as pretty as it was, but a chemically green lawn is a wasteland. As my vegetable garden gobbles up more of the lawn I feel better about my place in the scheme of things. I have a basement full of gorgeous home-canned tomatoes grown from Italian seed, I haven't bought potatoes in years and I have perfect salad greens six months out of the year. I am truly cultivating my garden and it's grand, but there are dark tidings.
Reports of massive bee colony failures called "Colony Collapse Disorder" are pouring in from all over the United States. Beekeepers have reported losses of up to 60% of their hives and the reason has yet to be discovered. Speculation points to an unknown disease, stress from varroa bee mites , and a pseudo-scientific theory that cell phone use is involved. The implications are chilling, since bees pollinate most of our food crops. There are many species of animals and insects that are pollinators, but the human species cannot survive without bees.
I'm a firm believer in evolution, everything on this planet is linked and what we do to the environment, we ultimately do to ourselves. I anxiously await the return of the bees to my garden.
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Interesting article on Harvard anthropologist Daniel Lieberman's theories on why humans evolved to become "the animal world’s best distance runners." He thinks humans voluntarily engage in long-distance running because primitive Homo erectus had to use a technique called "persistence hunting," by which our ancestors would "[chase] a game animal during the heat of the day, making it run faster than it could maintain, tracking and flushing it if it tried to rest, and repeating the process until the animal literally overheated and collapsed."
I kind of think that this is what happened to Don Imus.
Of Lieberman's theory, a former professor of mine wrote, "I don't think many people take stock in his 'bipedality evolved for marathon-running' hypothesis; but he's at Harvard, and people listen to him." Ultimately, it seems that the hypothesis amounts to an evolutionary parallel of the old axiom that slow and steady wins the race.
What brings to mind images of slow and steady better than the tortoise? Nothing! “Humans are terrible athletes in terms of power and speed, but we’re phenomenal at slow and steady. We’re the tortoises of the animal kingdom, " Lieberman explained.
And....I'm not sure, but...I think I've found the big hole in his theory, for I'm no anthropologist, but I would posit that tortoises are, in fact, the tortoises of the animal kingdom.
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COMMENTS
I like this entry. I learned things. Thanks, Mo.
Posted by: Cintra "Concerned Citizen" Wilson Cintra "Concerned Citizen" Wilson at June 19, 2008 11:04 AM
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