writeaboutwarming

February 26, 2013 – The 1960s scared conservatives worse than I knew – worse than a lot of us knew, I guess.   Certainly I lived through that period.   Certainly young adults found their voices, and had the nerve to object to being put through the meat grinder called Vietnam.   Black Americans continued to seek justice and equality in their adopted homeland.   Change was inevitable.   It’s understandable that conservatives wanted a say in what those changes would be.   Their fearful reaction was – and is - badly overblown.   Others’ happiness is nothing to fear.     These longed-for changes cost conservatives nothing but their unearned, self-satisfied atrophy.   Young people went on dying, even so. It turns out all of that change scared the socks off market fundamentalists.   Determined to return the country to its previous perceived state of inertia, Lewis Powell wrote a memorandum for the US Chamber of Commerce, urging a sh...

February 18, 2013 - Falling under the heading of "Science Fiction No More," materials scientists now say we are within two years of commercial development of use-anywhere solar panels.  Because the price of solar cells has fallen at a rate of 6% annually since 1998,  money is no longer an object.  The second roadblock to mass production was also financial: the cost of installation.  With the advent of cheap, durable materials being used to manufacture flexible solar cells, that roadblock will soon be dismantled. In fact, scientists at MIT are working on this next generation of solar panels.  They are organic, thin-film cells, made from abundant, "robust" materials that can be produced inexpensively, relative to first-generation silicon cells.  Coupled with ongoing research at Stanford, where engineers are bent on producing a peel-off solar panel, the days of static solar sources of energy appear to be numbered.  The Stanford prototype adheres to ...

February 11, 2013 - It's time to put it in writing: I've had a lifelong love affair with the Scandinavians. Oh, don't be shocked - they don't even know about it. They're completely innocent. What else, though, can a person do? First there are the Danes, the happiest people in the world. They don't go around bragging about it, the way we would. They're too busy having a great time! Next come the Swedes, perfectly content with their amazing social welfare system and its cradle-to-grave healthcare and education benefits, all paid for by their government. Not that I intend to write about either of these nations, however spectacularly pragmatic they may be. No, my heart skips a beat these days because of those rock-solid, straight-ahead Norwegians. Ogle, ogle, sigh, sigh. What did they do when the little South American country of Guyana came knocking on their door, asking them to foot the bill if Guyana agreed to halt deforestation? After thinking about it car...

February 4, 2013 - It's great to be back. There's a lot going on: lots of good science finally coming to fruition ,a president who knows what needs to be done who, now that he's been re-elected; will finally do what needs to be done; most of the continent of Australia either on fire or flooding; much of eastern China - including Beijing - more and more frequently swathed in enough pollution to shorten lives significantly. A mixed bag, that's for sure. It does seem as though there's a distinct possibility the United States may finally begin taking its environmental responsibilities seriously. Too little, too late? Only time will tell. But the nice people at Bloomberg New Energy Finance tell us that CO2 emissions have fallen by 13% in the past five years here in the U.S., putting them at their lowest levels since 1994. This has been accomplished through the application of energy-saving technologies, and a doubling in the use of renewable energy. According to Li...

December 31, 2012 - That's me I'm talking about.  I'm taking some time this January to rekindle the fires; be back in February.  See you then!

December 24, 2012 - During the coming year, please do as many of the following as you can: Plant trees. Grow your own food organically. Make your own organic fertilizer.  I've found that comfrey "tea" is fabulous.  Comfrey is not hard to grow, has pretty blue/purple flowers in spring and early summer, and can be vigorously cut back a few times a year.  Take the cuttings, put them in buckets so that they're 1/2 - 2/3 full, then fill with water.  Let stand three days.  Powerful stuff! Forego new clothing to as great an extent as possible.  When you do buy, look for something "virtuous": Made in America, organic, recycled, repurposed. Recycle and repurpose other possessions, too. Let your house get colder in winter and warmer in summer, i.e., conserve energy. Conserve water. Save more money for hard times. Amplify your pantry so that preserved foods could see you through at least a few weeks, preferably a few months. Set water aside in 2 liter pop ...

December 17, 2012 - I confess, I'm always a bit relieved each time I rediscover that we Americans are not yet untouched by our own barbarianism. Incredibly, last Friday's heartbreaking events seem to have diminished us all; we walk more diffidently, we speak in lowered tones; our hearts ache, we shake our heads both in disbelief and in sorrow.  So maniacal were the actions of the lone gunman, so basically wrong, his victims so utterly defenseless, that we stand stripped of even our capacity to feel.  Gutted and forlorn, the world looks upon us in horrified wonder. Yet another mentally unstable American male has wounded us.  We are not dead, not like the 27 in Newtown. But the hurt is very deep and very wide, if we are brave enough to allow ourselves to feel it.  In our search to discover meaning, questions ring in our minds.  They say his poor, deceased mother was a lovely woman.  How is it that she knew so little of her deeply-troubled, 20-y...