As we continue through this new millennia, we must remember that our actions are not simply our own, but taken in the context of increasing development and population, represent a currently unsustainable path. Given the impacts we have already had on our environment when just around 1 billion people lived a "developed" quality of life, how do we imagine those impacts when that number increases by seven-to-nine times?
Thinking of food on world population day
"The world population is currently around 7.1 billion and growing. A few years ago, the UN projected that the world would reach 9.1 billion by 2050, with a 70% increase in demand for agricultural output, though they have since updated their population projections to 9.6 billion people by 2050 – which would logically imply that food output would have to increase even more than 70% by mid-century, based on their previous estimates. But regardless of how accurate this new projection turns out to be, certainly the world population will continue to grow and global food systems will be pushed increasingly hard to produce more food."
It is at once heartening to hear sensible arguments on both side of the political spectrum, and at the same time troubling that a person of reasonable voice has to hide their true identity in order to be sensible. Most "liberals" I know do not want a government-controlled solution to climate change, they simply want two things: the government to stop subsidizing bad environmental practices, and our laws to reflect the importance of our environment. If our local, state, and federal officials simply created laws that protect our environment, then enforced them, the market would supply quality of life at the most reasonable cost. Allowing polluting and damaging industries to survive is not good governance.
How the GOP could win the climate debate
"In the past year, a movement of conservatives outside of Congress has pushed a market-based solution to climate change. This conservative alternative envisions a phase-out of subsidies for all sources of energy coupled with a revenue-neutral carbon tax swap. This is exactly the kind of proposal that gives Republicans the chance to win both in a messaging battle and on policy merits."
There is a scene in the movie version of HG Wells' The Time Machine, where the main character stumbles upon a world in which the moon has been shattered because we as a people sought to mine it for our own good. This sets off cataclysmic events that result in the end of civilization as we know it. I often wonder what it will take for us to realize that just because we can think of something, that does not mean we should do it. What will it take for us to understand that we are a part of nature and cannot ever hope to control it? Nor should we hope to control it.
Wastewater wells, geothermal power triggering earthquakes
"Nicholas van der Elst, a geophysicist with Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, says there are lots of small faults all over the country. The injection of fluids migrates in and around the fault itself, 'and kind of pushes outward on the fault walls and makes it easier for the fault to slip,' he says.
The wastewater 'loads up' these faults with tension until, at some point, they slip and the earth moves."
Will it take the sinking of our naval academy? How about a whole city? Will that be enough?
5 landmarks that could soon be swallowed by rising seas
"Even though the the Trust fields regular requests for planning assistance from coastal cities across country, the group says no comprehensive models yet exist to address sea level rise and its threat to historic landmarks. That's bad, says Anthony Veerkamp, a program director with the Trust, because without first taking stock of what we might lose, 'inevitably there will be adaptation strategies that do lesser or greater harm to historic resources.'"
I love seeing innovative ideas that accomplish a task without the need to harvest, manufacture, consume, and dump. The explosion of electronic communication has made "permanent" the temporary, and tapping into that can allow so much to happen.
Medium as message
"A striking example of Curb's work was the billboard created to promote the Warner Bros. film Contagion. Made from live bacteria and fungi, it prompted more than 100,000 Twitter and Facebook mentions and at least 560,000 YouTube views. 'All we did,' Ganjou says, 'was deliver the title of the movie in the coolest way we could imagine.'"
Happy Friday!
No comments:
Post a Comment