Provocations

Simple depiction of where our planet is in the global warming cycle

Are you and/or people you know overwhelmed by the apparent enormity and complexity of global warming?  Here's a simple presentation of the situation we now face on our planet.  Watch it and then consider showing it to open-minded/concerned friends and especially decision-makers in your immediate and larger community.

More about this video

Canadian elections and climate change

With all the he-said she-said stuff, it's important to keep the basics in mind:

See also: Sierra Club Canadian Voters' Guide ranks parties

Hospital drips over-used

Even in Canada - known for its functioning public health system - quality and availability of service is falling. It's always been important to play an active role in ones own healing process and doctors are gradually getting used to us more activist-type patients.  However - with doctors and support staff increasingly pressured to produce more results - treatment and even surgeries, can feel more like assembly lines. The process can tend to become so standardized and "efficient" that any adjustment for specific patient needs is kept to a minimum. Take, for example, that almost standard procedure of inserting the "drip" (or cannula) as soon as you get that gown on.  Surprise! It turns out that about a third of us do not need this little device which can also add to the risk of infection and blood clots. This according to a BBC report on a study in the UK, so I guess results would vary somewhat in other "developed" countries. From the BBC report:

Of the patients studied - who were all treated in the acute medical assessment unit of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - 91% of patients had a cannula inserted. But 28% of the tubes were never used. The researchers also found that in 71% of patient records there was no documentation of a cannula being inserted, while in 57% there was no documentation of it being removed. Four patients had developed blood poisoning, which infection control specialists said was likely to be linked to the cannula.

It may be time to begin asking: "Do I really need that?"

Sierra Club Canadian Voters' Guide ranks parties

From the above, it's pretty clear that Canada is lagging seriously in taking action on its greenhouse gases. With an election about to be called in Canada, The Sierra Club of Canada has come out with a Sierra Club Voters' Guide on what they call The Climate Crisis Election, which includes the above image and a ranking of the contesting parties on the effectiveness of their policies to reduce greenhouse gases. 

From the CBC report:

The Green party's A- mark reflects a plan that "is very ambitious," national campaigns director Jean Langlois said at an Ottawa news conference.

The Liberals, who have made their environmental plan, dubbed the Green Shift, the centrepiece of their platform, received a B+. Their aim is to balance a carbon tax with income-tax cuts.

The Bloc Québécois  received a B. "The Bloc have a target that reflects what needs to be done based on science. However, their plan is not very detailed," said Langlois. For instance, the party doesn't specify a price for carbon emissions.

The NDP received a B.  . . . lost marks for relying only on cap and trade for reducing emissions and forgoing a carbon tax.

The Conservative party received an F+ because the Sierra Club said it has chosen a "completely inadequate" target for reducing greenhouse gases and because it is relying on intensity targets to meet its goals.

See also: Canadian elections and climate change

US Politicans and FDA accept continued use of bisphenol-A

Image © Michael Jastremski under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 License

If you follow this kind of thing, you probably heard that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has declared the plastic-modifying chemical, bisphenol-A, to be safe.  From here in Canada, where our ideologically-conservative government recently banned its use in baby bottles, this came as a bit of a surprise.  My skeptical stance did get me wondering what role lobbying might have played in rescuing the peddlers of BPA but, to be fair to me, I did withhold judgement. This article, by the generally-conservative Economist, quickly tipped me back into a more familiar, corporate-wary view.  It does a good job in clearing cobwebs and uncertainly on the issue. My conclusion: avoid the stuff. A few quotes:

A bill in the California assembly, which passed the state senate in May, would have banned the use of bisphenol-A (BPA) in products used by children under the age of three. An avalanche of shameless lobbying killed it: the vote was 31 to 27 against, with 22 weaselly abstentions.

The brouhaha over BPA echoes the battle over smoking and cancer a generation ago. Sooner or later, health authorities in most developed countries will heed the scientific evidence and follow Canada’s lead in banning BPA - at least in baby bottles, if not in all household products.
...............................................................................................
. . . over 100 scientific studies have linked low doses of BPA to prostate and breast cancer, reproductive abnormalities, accelerated puberty in females, low sperm count in males, neurological effects similar to ADHD, diabetes and even obesity.

The effects have their biggest impact during early stages of development. Hence the special concern about protecting infants and young children from exposure to even the smallest doses of BPA. Altogether, more than 300 research papers have now been published on the health hazards associated with BPA.

The Perseid Meteor Shower is back

The annual Perseid meteor shower is already showing in northern hemisphere skies. It will peak on the 12th. NASA says "it should be a good show . . There should be plenty of meteors - perhaps one or two every minute", and recommends watching "during the dark hours before dawn on Tuesday, August 12th."

Grow up? Highrise farming, is it viable?

Dwindling land, expanding population . . . where will we grow our food? The back- or even front yard vegetable garden is gaining in popularity. Yet even "yards" are a dwindling phenomenon. So, where do we go?

"Up", some say - and inner city gardens are beginning to catch on. At a recent Sustainable Buildings Canada gathering in Toronto, reported by the Toronto Sun, there were advocates urging us to go higher:

Graff, a master's student in architecture at the University of Waterloo, is urging us to see acreage in stacks, not spreads: his prototype for vertical agriculture – aptly dubbed "Skyfarm"– climbs 59 storeys, with intensive hydroponics packed onto every level.

By his calculations, Skyfarm could grow enough food for 50,000 people a year – nowhere near enough for a substantial portion of the city. But install several Skyfarms in neighbourhoods throughout any major metropolis, and the prospect is tantalizing.

For inspiration and assistance:

• The Rooftop Garden Project
• Prepare for an urban disaster with an urban garden
• The urban vegetable garden brings health and community

Solar power cities showing the way

As the days begin to lengthen in the south and shorten in the north, give a thought to the sun which daily brings us energy we can't destroy or deplete. Aside from its indisputable power, solar power, it may be the one resource that could take humankind beyond the foreseeable future which presently does not look good. So, here's a little energy lift, courtesy of Post Carbon Cities:

Promoting solar with policies and projects

Sure, it helps to be in a sunny climate like Cloncurry, Australia, which aims to go 100% sun-powered in two years. But today's solar technology can capture a lot of energy even in relatively cloudy climates. Just look at cities like Freiburg and Ulm in famously gloomy Germany, which has long been a global leader in solar energy. Here are some other cities --sunny and otherwise-- that are paving the way for solar:

• This September, Berkeley, California will be rolling out a small pilot of a program in which they will finance residential solar panels, allowing the owners to repay the cost of the course of 20 years.
• Portland, Oregon is adjusting its building codes to streamline and simplify the permitting processes for solar installations.
• Kyoto, Japan has started a green power certification system to promote "local production for local consumption" of solar-produced electricity. The certificates help fund new photovoltaic power plants.
• Barcelona, Spain has a policy requiring new and refurbished buildings to save energy by using solar thermal hot water. Solar hot water heaters are also being promoted by cities in India.
• Australia's $75 million AUD ($67 million USD) Solar Cities program shows what just a little national-level effort can do. It's helping 13 Central Victoria towns establish two solar parks and install over 300 photovoltaic systems and 700 solar hot water systems on residences.

Older brain has more information to choose from

With increasing age, I've found my ability to remember data like names and phone numbers has definitely decreased. However, I continue to acquire new information without much trouble: learning web design, including the HTML code; learning the names and appearance of the 60+ birds that visit our home and many of the plants too. I've often though and sometimes said that it's just that I have more information to sort through than a twenty year-old. And (fanfare) here's a report of recent research that says just that - and a lot more:

OLDER BRAIN REALLY MAY BE A WISER BRAIN
By Sara Reistad-Long
New York Times May 20, 2008

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Read on

Energy Options

Politics and profit motivations have so invaded the critical area of energy alternatives that it's getting hard to find a relatively objective perspective. This is the best, short version, I've some across recently. (If you want detail, check out Richard Heinberg's web site)