Tolype velleda

Here's a moth I shot just outside the back door the other day - a better/larger photo than my previous email upload. Sweetpiehoneybunch ID'd it - thanks, hon. Here's the link: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Tolype-velleda

We're kinda like Euell Gibbons and Rachel Carson. Or maybe more like Edward Abbey and Phoebe Snetsinger - always finding all kinds of nature to be curious about here on El Rancho.

It's like a Garden of Eden.

10-10-10 October 10, 2010 + 350ppm

Yes, that's 10/10/10, representing today's date, October 10, 2010 and it's all about 350ppm or 350 parts per million.

Huh? Blah blah blahblahblah. Yadda yadda yadda.

I'm just going to give you the bullet points.

350ppm is the scientifically based target sustainable level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

From the 350.org website:

What is 350?

350 is the most important number in the world—it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Three years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million.

Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. Now the trick is getting our leaders to pay attention and craft policies that will put the world on track to get to 350.

What is 10/10/10?

10/10/10, today, is a day of "work parties" around the world - in theory doing something concrete to help in the war on CO2 - in reality, largely symbolic to get the word out about the problem, both to world leaders and the citizenry, and the urgency of working towards solutions.

There will be around 7,500 "work parties" today in 188 countries.

I'm reading a great book on the subject. It's titled "Getting Green Done" by Auden Schendler, the Director of Sustainability for Aspen Skiing Company. It may be the best I've read on the subject.

And lastly, here is the gist:

American represent 5% of the world's population, yet we use 25% of the world's resources. Americans burn more fossil fuel per capita than any nation on earth - nearly 1 million btu's per person per day, equivalent to 100 pounds of coal, 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas, 8 gallons of gasoline, or 1 lightning bolt of energy per person per day.

The fact is, this is not sustainable. Not in the long term, and possibly not even sustainable in the next twenty years.

The fierce urgency of now. On a global scale.

Combined with a huge dose of hope. But here is my definition of hope:

"Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future – and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable." [Rebecca Solnit]

Have a beautiful Sunday!

Flickr Link: http://blog.flickr.net/en/2010/10/10/help-record-101010/

I sometimes feel like an alien creature for which there is no Earthly explanation

Some poignant words/thoughts from Woody Harrelson on the current state of humanity, which happens to be my favorite subject these days...

To paraphrase with a cliché: "If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem."

Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us.

In Austin, we are very lucky to have the alternative press "The Austin Chronicle". Page Two is the regular column by editor and co-founder of the newspaper Louis Black. It's also interesting to note that Black (and publisher Nick Barbaro) co-founded the famous South by Southwest music and film festival. [Two thousand performers in ninety venues over a week or so. Wow.]

But this post is not about music or film or South by Southwest. It's bringing your attention to a couple of recent Page Two columns by Black that caught my attention.

My first thought, with the very recent and ongoing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is that We The People and not BP aka British Petroleum are to blame for this disaster. Accidents happen. Or, more accurately, statistical certainties happen. We The People are our own worst enemy with regard to environmental/ecological degradation. We The People have become our own worst enemy with regard to our own impotent governance.

This oil spill has the potential to become the most destructive ever witnessed by this planet - both in environmental and economic terms. It's so depressing I'm trying to avoid the news about it, and trying not to think about it. Pray for a miracle.

Good morning. But I digress.

Black's two columns are not so much about the environment, although they do touch on the subject, as they are about our current polarized political/ideological climate, and how We The People are responsible for it.

I would like to meet Mr. Black. I enjoy his writing.

Here's the link to the first column. I'll post Part II in a day or so.

Here's an excerpt, from whence the title of this post obviously originated:

Leviticus

"Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he is us."

– Pogo, Walt Kelly's Earth Day 1971 Pogo comic strip

The above comment by Pogo is clearly about the environment, especially the almost nonchalant littering and homestead-derived pollution destroying his beloved home, Okefenokee Swamp. It is also just as clearly metaphoric about all the damage being done to the environment because of people, whether it be because of their thoughtlessness, greed, or very existence. Now, no hysterical worship of Goddess Mother Earth here, but our existence affects the Earth, sometimes in destructive ways, especially when we refuse to acknowledge there is a problem or to mitigate it in any way.

Another step back should be taken, especially during current times, to realize that in so many areas the problem is us. And us only.
Proverbs: Prayer Mantras

These are the days of blame. Vindicating or validating one's own beliefs is most easily and legitimately achieved by attacking someone else. A shocking amount of political discussion is not about solving or even describing the real political, economic, social, educational, health, or justice problems facing this country. Instead, it is spent blaming those in disagreement.

The prayer mantras repeated over and over now are far from the bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, weakhearted "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." The whole notion of walking a mile in someone else's shoes is pathetic acquiescence to those who would kill us. Understanding is viewed as appeasement.

"Two wrongs make a right." If a Democrat or a Republican is criticized, there is neither hand-wringing nor a painful mea culpa from his or her brethren. Instead, examples of similar behaviors by members of the opposite party are cited.

"Stating something as a fact makes it a fact." We are living in times when some are insistent that there are few, if any, "real" problems. Instead, they claim, issues facing us have been deliberately manufactured by people trying to destroy the country and enslave us. Unyielding, self-sanctified certainty may yet save this country, in this view, but reasoned discussion and compromise will certainly end up destroying it.

"In order to really be a patriot, one must not only state that one is a patriot but argue that one is far more so than those who hold differing opinions." And: "True constitutional piety allows for only one true path, one holy and God-blessed way of thinking."

"American exceptionalism forgives all." We are living through a time when communication is demeaned, not valued, and in which political cooperation is regarded as a corrupt and treasonous activity. The idea is not to identify the problem but to identify the "enemy" causing the problem. Given that those in disagreement are quite simply evil and malicious, attempting honest and open communication with them is to play the fool, to be of those slaves who believe every word their masters say.

Statements along the lines of the following are commonly made: "The Constitution has been violated and disregarded; our judicial system is corrupt and our legislative system broken. It is time to return to the Constitution as the basis for our society and our laws. We must take back the government."

With a dull, rhythmic certainty, we hear legislators attacked for not carrying out the will of the people. Frequently, these attacks are offered by other legislators.

On the far left, some believe in destroying the social order entirely, while others believe if we get rid of the upper class, the owning class, things will be fine. Many hate innovative, successful entrepreneurs because they are successful.

Terrible Beauty & Sublime Ugliness

It almost looks like a beautiful abstract painting or photograph. The oil slick is making first contact with the Louisiana coastline (at the mouth of the Mississippi River) as I write this. I won't go into what I am thinking and feeling about this. I'll just leave you with the images, and your imagination, to ponder the impacts in the ensuing days, weeks, months, years, possibly even decades, on the ecosystems there, the fisheries, the rookeries, the people who depend on the delta. This in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike - from which those coastal communities and ecosystems are still recovering.

Devastation is upon this key region of our Mother Earth, those who inhabit it, all the creatures great and small, and all of us, by proxy.

We are all responsible for this.



Image from the NASA Aqua Satellite on April 25:


Link to the "See the spill from space" article [on msnbc's "cosmic log"] where I found these images:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/04/29/2289663.aspx




[Post title credit to La Nuit Blanche]

Earth Day 2010 :: What is your Eco-wish?

[Foto by Alex.Tango.Fuego]


Today is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day! Wow, a time-warp all the way back to 1970.

When I opened up my computer just now, the first thing I really noticed was this Eco-Wish piece from Vanity Fair Magazine. So I'll roll with that. I had planned to lead up to today with various environmental posts - and then have something that I could really be proud of to post today. But I've been busy these days.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/04/earth-day-video2-201004

Here's VF's "Green Archive".


My wish for the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day is the same as actress Marion Cotillard [in the video above], for "Awareness, good sense, and love, because it is the only energy that will change things."

And Deepak Chopra's, that "we renew our relationship with our Mother Earth"...

And Dr. Steven Chu [U.S. Secretary of Energy], that "people around the world, will come together and begin take action with regard to energy and climate change..."

My wish is that people will begin to realize that recycling, ending their use of plastic bottles, increasing their use of compact fluorescent light bulbs, and turning down the thermostat, while these are a good start - that they are only a start, and the true answers to our problems lie in rather dramatic change in the Western way of life. And a huge part of that change is...

My wish is for the pace of this life to slow down, to temper our frantic, frenetic, arrogant and relentless pursuit of the dollar, so that we can appreciate and intimately know our magnificent Mother Earth, return to the deeper extended family relationships of the past, and have more time in our daily lives to come together in order to design and implement and forge a new, sustainable lifestyle based in love and tolerance, and not profit...

My wish is for human kind to acknowledge that we live on a planet with finite resources, and an ever-increasing population will only continue to tax our vital renewable resources such as clean air and water, arable land, nutrient-rich topsoil, forests, marine and fresh water fisheries, and ocean ecosystems to the breaking point - that we will acknowledge this, and begin to address the challenge of over-population...

My wish is that John Adams [The Series]; Food, Inc.; Baraka; The Beautiful Truth; Flow, For Love of Water; Coal Country; (and a few other documentaries) would all be required viewing in high school...

My wish is that we direct our resources - financial and human capital - into the solution of core problems, and less and less on the symptoms of those problems, all while ignoring the core cause of those symptoms...

My wish is that we focus more of our [human] energy and resources into education, and more K-12 education about the Earth and her miraculous systems - the earth and environmental sciences of Ecology, Biology, Botany, Hydrology, Water Resources, Renewable Energy, Climatology, Oceanography, Soils, Agriculture - all with an emphasis on sustainability...

My wish is for more people to turn off their televisions, read more, listen to NPR on a daily basis, and when they do have to turn it on - to watch PBS and the various nature/environment channels more...

My wish is for people to become aware that we are running out of fossil fuels in the next 20-40 years, that even coal and yellow cake (the raw material for uranium for nukes) are finite and will eventually run out...and...

My wish is that "Green" becomes less of a marketing gimmick for the few, and more of a real, substantial, sustainable lifestyle for the many...

My wish is for the people, through the government, will escalate research and development into renewable, sustainable, alternative energy and transportation technologies...

My wish is for the U.S. to embark on a nation-wide mass transit infrastructure development initiative...

My wish is for people to begin to understand that we need to be figuring out ways to use LESS energy, not create MORE energy...

My wish is for corporations not to have the same rights as citizens under the U.S. Constitution, and that they be held accountable for the true, full-life-cycle costs of their activities, especially as it relates to environmental degradation, globally...

A choice is before us today. We can choose to be remembered as the (few) generations who despoiled the planet within 200 years, for profit. Or, we who are alive today, and our children, and their children, can be remembered 100 or 500 or 1,000, or even 5,000 years from now, as the five generations who were able to come to grips with what our current path is doing and will continue to do to the planet, stop and take notice, begin taking the steps towards change, and holding our governments and world leaders accountable in the process, towards a sustainable and beautiful future.

That was one helluva run-on sentence. Five generations. That's what I see it will take - starting from today. Those who are alive today - the great-grandparents (get to sit back and watch), the grandparents, our parents, us (we, The Baby Boomers), our children, their children and their children's children - the next 100 years will tell - but we have to start today.

Go out today and grab a handful of dirt, rub it between your fingers, smell it. Crunch some leaves or grass up and smell that. Or smell a wildflower. Ride a bike. Sit under a tree and watch the branches and leaves sway in the breeze. Go to the nearest ocean and dip your toes into the water. Paddle a canoe on your closest river or lake. Look up at the sky. Experience our Mother Earth. Smell her, listen to her, lay your eyes upon her, and love her - today, and every day. She is our Mother, and she's all we've got.

Five generations. One hundred years. Starting today.

"Awareness, good sense, and love, because that is the only energy that will change things."
[Marion Cotillard, Actress]

Tango in the Dark :: Earth Hour 2010

Okay, not really. But I had to pull in my tango readers to another one of my environmental posts. Plus, Earth Hour 2010 [tonight, March 27, 8:30pm local time wherever you are] is too early in the evening for us to actually dance tango in the dark. Dancing tango in the dark/absence of light would be disastrous.

But this statement makes me wonder if there are not, in fact lots of people dancing tango in the dark, figuratively speaking. But that is a subject for another post.

Earth Hour is largely symbolic - in theory, millions of people coming together across the Planet Earth to turn the lights off. Symbolic of climate change, which for me translates into energy usage, or energy over-usage. It seems no one, especially not any world leader, has the balls to say something like "humanity is currently using levels of energy (from all sources) that are unsustainable over even the next one hundred years". In fact, most world leaders only talk about how we can/must produce MORE energy.

I don't want this to turn into a diatribe, or "troglodytical rant", so I'll leave it at this: One hundred years ago the world at large barely even had electricity - let's call it zero energy - unless you want to count horses and oxen as energy. Today, with the flip of the switch or a tweak of the T-stat, we don't even think about the energy we are using, much less the effects of burning those hydrocarbons on the planet. We can't even comprehend life without limitless energy. We can't even comprehend live with a 25% reduction in our energy use through conservation. People actually used to live without refrigerators and air conditioning in the not too distant past.

I'm not advocating this as a solution. I'm advocating it as a conceptual trigger to get us to start thinking about something between zero energy usage and current energy usage. Sustainability is the key word.

Sustainability. Energy Frugality.

How we get there is the subject of another post.

For now, turn out the lights for an hour tonight at 8:30pm. From then on, be aware of your own energy usage around the house - lights & t-stat mostly. There are other conservation measures we can all take - weatherstripping, caulking, additional insulation, sun shading, bring back the screen doors - again, lots of stuff that is the subject of yet another post.

You might also want to check out my post from last fall - "Brother can you spare 22 terawatts?" - where I tried to get my head around the energy usage/capacity/requirements for the entire planet.

Here's the text from the "About Earth Hour" page: https://www.myearthhour.org/about

Note that you can "join" the movement to show your support.

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people around the world will come together to call for action on climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. The movement symbolizes that by working together, each of us can make a positive impact in this fight, protecting our future and that of future generations. Learn more about how Earth Hour began, what we’ve accomplished, and what is in store for 2010.



Here's another cool image I ran across in my search for the one at the top of the post - a composite image from NASA showing the sunset over Western Europe and Africa, with the night city lights showing. Keep in mind one would never see something like this with the naked/nekkid eye, as it is a composite of many satellite images.

World Water Day :: Part I

[Foto by Alex.Tango.Fuego, I took this a few weeks ago on the day it snowed here, it's a little creek around corner and over the hill, flowing for a change...]


I was aware that yesterday was World Water Day, but couldn't get anything posted, so I'm post dating this one. (I'm writing this on the morning of the 23rd.)

I thought about this one most of the day yesterday, trying to come up with something - an angle if you will. An interesting angle, a meaningful angle. I didn't know (yesterday) the exact nature of World Water Day, but I assumed, correctly, that the emphasis was on clean water sources for the masses. The "event", or more accurately a milestone date to bring attention to this problem, is primarily focused on developing and Third World countries where there are no reliable water supplies.

I'm guessing the date went largely unnoticed in First World countries like the U.S. - especially when most people are unaware that even we have water problems. Yes, we have clean water to drink, use in cooking, brush our teeth with and even bathe in. But is that water really safe will all of the chemicals and prescription drug residues that are left after treatment processes? Safe in the long term? Or are cancers and other diseases (and the resulting deaths), after drinking municipal water for forty or fifty or sixty years viewed as "acceptable" losses?

We do occasionally hear about municipalities - usually small ones - have real problems with their water supplies. The ones that come to mind are one up in Garfield County, Colorado where the water became undrinkable (and rather toxic I believe) because of hydraulic fracturing operations by oil & gas concerns looking to extract more natural gas from extant wells.

Another is the contamination of ground water at Camp Lejeune (the U.S. Marine Corps Base) with VOC's or volatile organic compounds. Stuff like Tetrachloroethylene aka Perchloroethylene, TCE (Trichloroethylene), DCE (Dichloroethylene), Vinyl Chloride and BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene).

Bad shit.

Then there is the story behind the story of the film "Erin Brockovich" starring Julia Roberts. She plays the real life Erin Brockovich who, without an real legal background, put together a landmark case against Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for polluting the groundwater in Hinkley, California with hexavalent chromium.

More bad shit.

Locally, back in 2000, there was a scare of the gasoline additive MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether aka "bad shit") leaking into the Edwards Aquifer from the Longhorn Pipeline (Longhorn Partners) right through the heart of the Texas Hill Country. As best I can tell, they agreed (or were required) to "not" introduce MTBE into this particular pipeline. Yeah, right. I wonder who is testing /checking this?

We also get occasional alerts that certain municipal pumps around here are testing positive for E. Coli - which in theory, gets into the groundwater from people's septic systems.

It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that all the green slimy aquatic vegetation growing in Barton Springs, Town Lake aka Lady Bird Lake, Barton Creek, and even our little wet weather creek a hundred yards down the hill, isn't a healthy sign. Septic effluent, lawn fertilizers, golf courses, household weed killers, agricultural pesticides, oil changes, spilled toxic stuff on the driveway, paint/stain dumped in the drainage inlet (by idiots). It all contributes, right from the swale behind the neighborhood, to the slough, to the creek, to the river, to the lake. It all runs downhill.

To the groundwater - to the aquifer. (Yes many cities obtain their raw water from surface water sources, too.)

I remember first coming to Barton Springs back in 1970 or so - it was pristine, crystal clear, with minimal "green slimy" stuff growing in it. It was a natural, healthy ecosystem. The pool is routinely closed after heavy rains. The E. Coli levels spike and it's not safe to swim.

Stay tuned for Part II.


[Foto by Alex.Tango.Fuego, just downstream from Barton Springs]

The Year of Pegasus

Photo by manganite on flickr

I have been contemplating a Merry Christmas and now a New Year's post for a few weeks now. I missed Christmas - I made a video of the dog in sleigh bells, but had soundtrack/editing issues. Oh well. Having missed that one, I was determined not to miss the new year/new decade post, but I've been drawing blanks for a topic.

It seems that I have been drawing blanks all year with regard to this blog. I have a wire basket in my office overflowing with scraps of paper and Post-It notes with thoughts and ideas written on them. I have a couple of those brown kraft paper notebooks that Moleskine makes - full of jots and scribbles. I can't even find them - that office is a mess. Found them...

...China master-disciple relationship...Asset underutilized corporate-speak...Manual labor hard work...Tanda music wrong woman timing...Sentient being planet sustainably support 2 billon not 6b surely not 9b...10/22 people who are uncomfortable with close embrace deserve to have tango in their lives too...Dog name Bexar (for a friend...pronounced Bear in these parts...for a tiny shitzoo...then I told her she should name him Genghis Khan, in keeping with his Chinese heritage...). ..Hotel California in Georgia story...Climb On products...Chris Belknap design earth synergy...Parallels between architecture & tango...Going through life going through the motions would rather be bothered not blind after all the true meaning of life is nothing/ness...Book Too Big to Fail nature of capitalism maximize profits hurt the system hurt society hurt the individual...Exploiting other people's weaknesses...NPR feudal system in Pakistan no stigma re: corruption evolution of corruption in Afghanistan....China in 1 year 7000 miles of high speed rail US only 700 Chinese gov't able to form policy and quickly effect it...Hippie deluxe...

So it's not so much that I'm drawing a blank for posts. But blank on what to actually take the time to post. Blank 'cuz I've been busy. Blank 'cuz I have other and higher priorities. Blank 'cuz I'm in love. Feeling overwhelmed. Feelings of missing tango and tango friends. Festivals passing me by. Struggling with that. Trying to get my head around that. I suppose it's a good thing to feel overwhelmed. I was feeling severely underwhelmed that last year in Aspen - the first year of this blog.

Blank because of my perceived negativity in my posts? She says I sometimes come across as preaching and/or pontificating. I have recognized for some time that I bitch and moan and rant a lot. This was actually by design to some degree. I wanted to always "speak my mind" in this blog. Stuff bothers me. Stuff pisses me off. But I also see the beauty in it all every day. I tear up when the sandhill cranes honk and wheel in flight overhead. I think we are pretty much fucking things up. But I am hopeful. I think we are pretty much oblivious to our impacts and effects on the world around us, to ourselves, the society of man and to our children and their children. But I remain hopeful. I am trying to be more active and do something about it. But I have yet to make it to my first county commissioner's meeting. I have written to my reps in Congress. They reply. I am working on doing some sustainable, low-key, low-impact development. We shall see. I feel pretty certain that this is a "great correction", lasting two or three more decades, and not "recovering" in two or three years. But I am hopeful. Because I believe that a sustainable, cash based world economy is good for humankind. Hopeful ranting. Joyful preaching. Happy pontificating. I do often rant with a smile on my face.

Resolutions. I thought about that as a topic, but it's so trite and hackneyed. Part of the overwhelm-ed-ness is being more disorganized than I ever have. That comes from having my house of cards blown into the wind back in Aspen. The cards are now all settled here. I just need to pull them all together and tuck them away in their box. Need to lose a few pounds. Eat better. Cure the addiction to sugar. More exercise. More photography. More writing. More tango. Hackneyed. The year behind. The year ahead. Goals and aspirations. Overdone.

It struck me this morning that this one is also the end of the first decade of the new millennium. It seems like only yesterday that it was Y2k, the year 2000. An entire decade flashes before your eyes. Wow. What a ride. SweetiePieHoneyBunch and I were sitting in bed this morning, watching the sunrise, drinking coffee (Bailey's for her, mocha for me), talking about what I could write about. She's my muse, as women are in men's lives. She doesn't realize it. I don't think I realized it until I just now wrote it.

I'll tell a little story. It was our second date. I was living at my brother's place having just moved back from Georgia - he was off in Florida on business. Bacon wrapped shrimp were sizzling and smelling delicious on the grill, and I was running around trying to get dinner cooked for her - for us. She had just come from a gig and had her guitar in the car. She asked if I would like to hear a song. Of course.
As she tells the story now, she expected that I would just keep on cooking in the kitchen while she sang a song in the living room. I turned down the burners, topped off our pinot noir, and moved a comfy chair in front of the fireplace for me to sit in. I pulled up a chair with no arms for her to sit in - right in front of me.

Apparently the "no arms" made a big impression with her. It was without thought on my part - obviously guitar players sit in chairs with no arms. We sat directly facing each other - I was intently attentive. This was a first for me. A beautiful woman with a beautiful voice playing beautiful music on a beautiful guitar on a beautiful night in front of a beautiful fire. I was compelled to listen, compelled to a heightened level of attention. Every note, every word, every nuance, every little grace about her.

I cried. Hey, it was a beautiful song. I think I won her heart right there. She was touched by my tears. Tears of joy you might say. I do cry at beauty fairly often. Then I started chuckling, then laughing, growing into a full blown guffaw. She was taken aback, thinking I was laughing at her or about her, or something. She didn't know me - remember, it was only our second date. She asked what I was laughing at. I said "I'm just so happy that you're good, and I don't have to fake it." Faking it would have been "oh yeah honey, that was real good, now put that guitar away and let's eat..."

We savored those moments after the song, savoring the wine, savoring each other. I finished cooking, we ate, and ended up falling asleep lying in each other's arms in front of the fire. Not a bad second date.

But I digress.

So, we were sitting in bed this morning talking, as we do every morning. The image of Pegasus had come into my mind earlier. I asked her about Pegasus - she has a song called "Child of the Big Sky" with a strong Pegasus reference, so I figger'd she had done some research. I cry every time she sings that one, too. We google'd it, then wiki'd it, allowing the laptop into the bed for a moment. Somehow Pegasus and his birth of Poseidon and Medusa, somehow this winged horse whose hoofs strike the Earth and make springs well up, somehow this bearer of lightning bolts, somehow this glorious beast/myth/image represents this time for me. This day. This moment. This spot on the earth. The coming year. The coming decade. The coming years of my life. The coming years for all of our lives on this Earth. Hope. Beauty. Struggle. Love. Enlightenment.

Somehow this Pegasus represents what I want to write about. Not Pegasus himself, but the imagery, the mythology, the feeling. Something. Can this Pegasus save us from ourselves? Does he hold the lightning bolt in his quiver that will strike the Earth and wake us up from our materialistic oblivion? Hmm. I dunno.

We got to talking about security or perceived security. The want of people who avoid risk in favor of "security". Security in the form of a 30 year fixed mortgage, a 401k, diversified investments, a white picket fence, a gold watch. Security in the form of the conformism. The Conforming American Dream. Events of the past two years, of the past decade, have made anyone with any sense wonder about wisdom of the Conforming American Dream. The CAD evolved over the past hundred years or so into something unsustainable, unhealthy I believe - environmentally, socially, culturally, emotionally. I won't go there. You get my drift.

We talked about the metaphors of this life - like driving through a National Park and never getting out of the car. I don't know where I'm going with this. I like that about writing extemporaneously - something will be born of the words, of the flow. Something. Hopefully.

We were thinking of a close friend, retiring this year, doing all the right things. Conforming. Good job. Secure financially. Secure in a long marriage. Nice house in a nice suburb. Kids grown and gone and doing well. But at what cost? The cost of lost life experiences? The cost of a love affair on a beach for two weeks in the Cayman Islands? Lost writing or painting or making music? Lost love? Lost self? The cost of other dreams set aside? Not too late for a course correction. Not too late to recoup any losses - perceived or otherwise.

At the end of my first marriage, when I decided to walk away from conformity forever, I felt like I had lost my "self", my soul. Twenty years of doing what I thought was expected of me, doing what I thought was mandatory of me, doing the corporate thing - raises, promotions, increasing responsibilities, bigger house, better car, more and better "stuff". Twenty years of that, when my heart wasn't in it, was too much for a man to bear. I hid my depression by crying in the shower each night, after coming home late from work. It stripped me to my core. Perhaps I had to lose my "self" in order to find myself.

And here it comes, finally it gels. Sweet. This decade for me has been one of "self". I had to find my self. By myself. Find him and know him. Knowing versus knowledge. Knowing him, and loving him. I had to figure out how to love myself before I could find love. Writing this, I can't see through the tears right now, damn them. I had to love myself and find love before I could love this life. A good life. A life with just enough of everything. Enough love, laughter, beauty, kindness, cash, food, water, wood to build a workshop or a warm fire in the woods, whatever. Enough. Not more. Not better. Not increasing responsibility. Not a better title. Not more recognition. Enough. Just enough.

My Facebook profile says something about "I've been pondering self-actualization these days...", from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Food/Water/Shelter/Self Esteem/Love/Self-Actualization or something along those lines. I am thankful that I am coming into these years of self-actualization, with the other "needs" largely met. For my second half-century on this planet. For the coming decades. Content. Happy. Hopeful. Full of love. Another year older. Another year wiser. My daughter called last night for advice on selecting a wine to go with seafood gumbo. That's a new one for me. I'm a dad, he realizes, 21 years after the fact.

In this coming year and decade, thrive my friends. Flourish. Bring yourself to your fullest potential as a human being, dad, citizen, spouse, friend, lover, son, brother, tango dancer. That's my plan.

Happy New Year.

Urgent Press Release :: Oppose the House Climate Bill

Our House of Representatives is in the process of screwing the pooch on energy and climate. Friends of the Earth is asking that we all contact our Representatives - they make it easy for you with a zip code lookup - just a few buttons to press and you're done.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people. The 4th of July is upon us. Remember that famous document our forefathers wrote? It's called The Declaration of Independence. I feel you all must get tired of my preaching, but really, we all must become more active in our own governance. Most don't realize it yet, but it's a different world out there. There is no "back to normal". Okay, I'm preaching again.

Pick your cause. Pick a few causes. Become active in them. Join. Send them a little bit of money. Volunteer locally to help them. I know, believe me, I know it's a pain in the ass and none of us has time for this. But we all have to make the time. The alternatives are a much, much bigger pain in the ass. Real pain.

Thanks in advance. Here is the press release:

* Global Warming
* Energy

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748
Erich Pica, 202-222-0739

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Friends of the Earth launched an advertising campaign today against the energy and climate change bill that is expected to come to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives later this week.

The progressive environmental group's ads will run on a variety of progressive and environmental blogs and websites. The ads call attention to the fact that the bill is based on a blueprint written in part by polluting corporations like Shell Oil and Duke Energy, which has undermined the ability of the bill to solve the problems it is intended to address.

Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder had the following statement:

“Corporate polluters including Shell and Duke Energy helped write this bill, and the result is that we’re left with legislation that fails to come anywhere close to solving the climate crisis. Worse, the bill eliminates preexisting EPA authority to address global warming—that means it's actually a step backward.

“Last November, the American people voted for change. Unfortunately, while the party in power may have changed, the process through which this bill was negotiated makes it clear that the overwhelming influence of corporate special interests has not. This exercise in politics as usual is a wholly unacceptable response to one of the greatest challenges of our time, and it endangers the welfare of current and future generations. Speaker Pelosi and congressional Democrats simply must do better. We are calling on them to vote against this bill unless it is substantially strengthened. If the ‘political reality’ at present cannot accommodate stronger legislation, their first task must be to expand what is politically possible—not to pass a counterproductive bill. This is the message carried by the ad campaign we are launching today.”

The initial ads that are running in the campaign can be viewed at: http://www.foe.org/new-ads-opposition-house-climate-bill.

Friends of the Earth is urging citizens to send messages about the bill to Congress, and has set up a web page where they can take action at http://action.foe.org/t/8815/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1117.

###

Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) is the U.S. voice of the world’s largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 77 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has been at the forefront of high-profile efforts to create a more healthy, just world.

The Momentum of Apathy

Courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope, shuttle mission launched today to make some repairs for another five years of service from the telescope...

From the Hubble site::

This is a unique NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight.

Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo.

Some faint, wispy trails of dust can be seen meandering away from the disk of the galaxy out into the bulge and inner halo of the galaxy. The outer halo is dotted with numerous gravitationally bound clusters of nearly a million stars each, known as globular clusters. Background galaxies that are millions to billions of light-years farther away than NGC 5866 are also seen through the halo.

NGC 5866 is a disk galaxy of type "S0" (pronounced s-zero). Viewed face on, it would look like a smooth, flat disk with little spiral structure. It remains in the spiral category because of the flatness of the main disk of stars as opposed to the more spherically rotund (or ellipsoidal) class of galaxies called "ellipticals." Such S0 galaxies, with disks like spirals and large bulges like ellipticals, are called 'lenticular' galaxies.

The dust lane is slightly warped compared to the disk of starlight. This warp indicates that NGC 5866 may have undergone a gravitational tidal disturbance in the distant past, by a close encounter with another galaxy. This is plausible because it is the largest member of a small cluster known as the NGC 5866 group of galaxies. The starlight disk in NGC 5866 extends well beyond the dust disk. This means that dust and gas still in the galaxy and potentially available to form stars does not stretch nearly as far out in the disk as it did when most of these stars in the disk were formed.

The Hubble image shows that NGC 5866 shares another property with the more gas-rich spiral galaxies. Numerous filaments that reach out perpendicular to the disk punctuate the edges of the dust lane. These are short-lived on an astronomical scale, since clouds of dust and gas will lose energy to collisions among themselves and collapse to a thin, flat disk.

For spiral galaxies, the incidence of these fingers of dust correlates well with indicators of how many stars have been formed recently, as the input of energy from young massive stars moves gas and dust around to create these structures. The thinness of dust lanes in S0s has been discussed in ground-based galaxy atlases, but it took the resolution of Hubble to show that they can have their own smaller fingers and chimneys of dust.

NGC 5866 lies in the Northern constellation Draco, at a distance of 44 million light-years (13.5 Megaparsecs). It has a diameter of roughly 60,000 light-years (18,400 parsecs) only two-thirds the diameter of the Milky Way, although its mass is similar to our galaxy. This Hubble image of NGC 5866 is a combination of blue, green and red observations taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys in November 2005.

One light year is the distance light travels in one year which is equal to 5.88 trillion miles. So this galaxy, NGC 5866 is 44 million light years away from Earth. Doing the math, I get 2.5872 x 10 to the 20th power miles away. 1 sextillion is 1.00 x 10 to the 21st power. Arg! I shoulda paid better attention in algebra, calculus and physics.

258,720,000,000,000,000,000 miles from Earth, equal to 13.5 megaparsecs, which at least makes it a little easier to say, if comprehension escapes us. My brain literally feels like there are ants crawling around inside it right now. Is it comprehension to cognitate that something is incomprehensible? No. Not even close.

I'm struck with this: We can build a space vehicle to launch this telescope that is capable of taking high resolution photographs of a beautiful galaxy 13.5 megaparsecs away, but we can't figure out how to all get along, and live our lives sustainably, in a manner that respects mother earth and all of the other creatures we share it with.

Can we overcome the momentum of apathy?

Happy Earth Day

All photos Copyright Alex.Tango.Fuego.

Make every day Earth Day.

http://www.earthday.net/

On Design :: What is our intention as a species?

Here's a TED talk from Architect William McDonough on infinite, or cradle-to-cradle design. In it, he says the "design strategy" for humanity should be this:

"Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power - economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed."

Sounds good to me.



I had heard something about China burning up ALL their coal and using ALL their topsoil, simply to produce (clay) bricks build shelter to house their growing population.

I guess this is where it came from. It looks like McDonough and his team have developed and implemented a viable workaround - and moved the farm land to the roofs of the city.

It appears some of us are moving in the right direction, we just need to pick up the pace.

The Unforeseen :: Revisited

Well, that was a first. It was the first time I have ever cried watching an environmental documentary. Perhaps it hit home for me because it was all so close to home for me. Austin, Barton Springs, Barton Creek, The Edwards Aquifer, The Texas Hill Country. My roots there pre-date the Alamo. My roots go back in Texas before there was a Texas, before there was The Republic of Texas. Deep, deep roots. Deeper feelings, or rather, emotions, about it all.

So, I just finished watching the documentary "The Unforeseen" (on the Sundance Channel), mostly about development, urban sprawl, growth and water in one particular area of Austin, Texas. It carries a much bigger message though, a broad and deep message about all that is facing us these days. It goes not to our standard of living, but to our quality of life. Not quality as in "how good is it?", but quality as in what is the depth, breadth, character, texture, taste, and feeling of our day-to-day lives as individuals, families, social circles, as communities, cultures, societies and nations.

Following are some things, key points, key words that stuck out for me. At the end of the post are some links for you to find out how to purchase or rent the DVD. Or, just be on the lookout for it and watch it when you can.

::
Developers defined as the "classic American character", reshaping the future and getting rich in the process...

::
On golf courses: "I find them repulsive, so uniform and so green, the earth whipped into submission for these men..."

::
Developers, they know the cost of everything, but they know the value of nothing...

::
A conservative lobbyist, speaking, apparently, on "liberals" who enjoy swimming and leisure time along Barton Creek..."these self-indulgences will catch up to you eventually..."

::
"If the people will lead, the leaders will follow..."

::
Robert Redford: "...quick return on short term investment, with long term damage...a scar is all that is left..."

::
A private citizen on private property rights: "...don't want a bunch of sumbitches telling us what to do with it (our land)...."

::
A private citizen shouting and waving a placard: "People are number one! Bugs and birds are at the bottom of the list...Save people first!..."

::
Economists have set up this meter of economic activity...that all growth is good...that ANY economic activity that involves money changing hands is good for the economy...and does not take into account any down side or long term unforeseen costs...

::
There should be honest accounting...the true cost...the long term cost...

::
People are making choices that damage other people...that damage everyone...that damage nature and the environment...that damage the world...and humanity...

::
We should be living in harmony with nature, not in opposition to it...

::
Add quality to the housing stock, without actually expanding housing...housing for everyone...affordable housing...use what's already there...it's not all about size and quantity and gargantuan scale...improve the landscape until we run out of opportunities to improve it...

::
Something about "the pursuit of the almighty dollar"...

::
If you don't act on the gift (of the natural world), then you are part of destroying it...

::
Growth itself is not the enemy...it is the nature of that growth...the quality and character within it...

::
"...where all the land has not been consumed by intention..."

::
We should have a stronger, more mature regard for the future, unwilling to leave a mess behind us...

I was struck by the title "the unforeseen" - that today, we are actually living and reaping the unforeseen consequences of multitudes of actions and directions - paths and choices - individually and collectively - both societal and economic. Are we evolving or devolving?

We are reaping the unforeseen.

The Unforeseen Film Site

The Unforeseen on IMDB.

The Unforeseen on Treehugger.com

The Unforeseen on PBS

Pre-Purchase the DVD :: Release Date September 16, 2008

The Unforeseen on NetFlix

Here's my original post :: On the universe, life and water :: The Unforeseen

Sustainable Energy :: Without the hot air :: a book by David J.C. Mackay

My prior post referenced a link that MsHedgehog (thanks mshedge!) sent me with regard to someone running the hard numbers on energy/sustainability. The guy who wrote it is David J.D. Mackay, who is also publishing a book titled "Sustainable Energy :: Without the Hot Air". Mr. Mackay is a professor in the Department of Physics at Cambridge University.

The book is actually available free, in rough draft, in the form of PDF files (color and printable black and white versions) that you can download. There is also a four page Executive Summary.

7MB Color Version :: PDF Download

Executive Summary :: 4 pages :: PDF Download

Main Website :: www.withouthotair.com

And, he's got a blog.

Magical Thinking :: Tending Towards Zero

Thanks to LimerickTango for this link...

Some actual hard numbers on saving energy to digest...short and sweet...

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/06/magical_thinking.html


And here is another that Ms.Hedgehog sent me several days ago...more in depth...

Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap



My thought is that we all really need to be thinking in terms of "tending towards zero" in terms of our energy usage.

Here's why. I have a friend who has an earth sheltered passive solar house at about 8,700 feet in elevation in Colorado. They have a couple of wood stoves, some thermal mass for heat storage/release, and propane for the cooking range and as a backup heat source. It's a nice house in the Sante Fe southwest territorial style, with saltillo tile floors and stucco walls. Nice and warm and bright and cozy and homey. Probably about 1,500 square feet.

Their electricity bill in the winter? About $25.00. 100 years ago, hell, less than that - most folks were living happy, healthy, productive lives with ZERO energy. ZERO carbon footprint.

So, I know it can be done. There are lots of people today who are living completely off the grid. We've been brainwashed into thinking it's the American Dream/capitalist way to use energy - lots of it - more more more, better better better. More appliances (although more energy efficient), a wine cooler, a mondo SubZero, a snowmelting system for your driveway and your roof, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda. I've built some houses where the appliance budget - ONLY the appliance budget mind you - has been $50,000. We've been brainwashed and advertised into an economic system designed to separate us from our money. The middle and lower classes have found that it's been taking 110% percent of your income just to make ends meet. Hence the credit crunch/crisis/crash.

That's why people using little/no energy, living off the grid, have been branded as "strange", "hippies", "unAmerican", "pinko commie fags". I think it's actually the most American and patriotic thing you can do to try to conserve the Earth's resources. Walk the walk and talk the talk. I was watching "The Matrix" last night, for the 93rd time, and caught something Morpheus said. (paraphrasing) "There's a difference between 'knowing' the path and 'walking' the path..."

Think ZERO and you will be taking BIG steps in the RIGHT direction. We just need to get about 1 billion folks to start thinking ZERO.

Walk the path. Be a ZERO HERO. Hell, I might even try to sell some t-shirts.

Which also goes to this - one of my favorite sayings - by Ghandi - "BE the change you wish to see in the world..."

Photographer Chris Jordan :: Picturing Excess :: TED :: Ideas worth sharing

"I have this fear that we aren't feeling enough in our culture today . There is this kind of anaesthesia in America at the moment. We've lost our sense of outrage, our anger, and our grief about what is going on in our culture right now, what is going on in our country, the atrocities that are going on in our names around the world....they've gone missing, these feelings have gone missing..."

Here's a little something tending toward the profound on this fine Saturday afternoon...

Massive horny meat-eaters discovered in Utah

I just love a good paleontological innuendo. Especially in mainstream media.

An even better one (innuendo) is what they named the horny beast - Kryptops palaios, or "old hidden face". But you will have to "dig deeper" to get that one. OMG. An innuendo within a pun within an innuendo.

Here's the link.