tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36540992010-02-24T07:16:41.052-08:00Viridian DesignBruce Sterling's Viridian Notes.Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.comBlogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-33590302522126395032008-11-19T06:42:00.000-08:002008-11-19T06:43:22.234-08:00The Last Viridian Note<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>summaries, farewells, Papal_Imperial sermons, the end of a design movement</dd></P>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>This is the last one.</dd></DL>
<p>Links:<BR>
A new steampunk manifesto. Wow, steampunk is a LOT older than Viridian, and look how
lively steampunk is now. This implies a Viridian revival someday – "Neo-Viridian," "retroviridian"... "greenpunk" even. Lo, it was ever thus.<br>
<A HREF="http://gogbot.nl.vedor.com/thema/">http://gogbot.nl.vedor.com/thema/</A></P>
<hr width=25%>
<P>Recent events have clearly established that the character of the times has changed. The Viridian Design Movement was founded in distant 1999. After the years transpiring – various disasters, wars, financial collapses and a major change in political tone – the world has become a different place.</P>
<P>It remains only to close the Viridian episode gracefully, and to conclude with a few
meditative suggestions.</P>
<P>As I explained in the first Viridian speech, any design movement – social movements of any kind, really – should be designed with an explicit expiration date. The year 2012 would have been the extreme to which Viridian could have persisted. Since the course of history has grown quite jittery, this longer term was spared us.</P>
<P>Some Viridian principles can be lightly re-phrased, buffed-up and likely made of
practical use in days to come. Others are period notions to be gently tossed into the
cultural compost. I could try to describe which are which – but that's a proper job for someone younger.</P>
<P>I'm following current events with keen interest. There's never been a better time for major political and financial interventions in the green space. However, Viridian List is about design interventions, it was not about politics or finance, so a decent reticence is in order at this juncture.</P>
<P>I would like to cordially thank Viridian readers and contributors and advisors for
their patience and their generous help over nine years. I hope you feel you derived some benefit from it. I did my best with the effort, I learned a lot by it, and I'm pleased with how it turned out.</P>
<P>I can't say what Viridian may have done for you; that's up to you to judge. Since this is last Viridian note, however, I'd like to describe what Viridian did for me.</P>
<P>Since the halcyon days of 1999 my life has changed radically.</P>
<P>Rather than "thinking globally and acting locally," as in the old futurist theme, I now live and think glocally. I once had a stable, settled life within a single city, state and nation. Nowadays, I divide my time between three different polities: the United States, the European Union and the Balkans. With various junkets elsewhere.</P>
<P>The 400-year-old Westphalian System doesn't approve of my lifestyle, although it's increasingly common, especially among people half my age. It's stressful to live glocally. Not that I myself feel stressed by this. As long as I've got broadband, I'm perfectly at ease with the fact that my position on the planet's surface is arbitrary. It's the nation-state system that is visibly stressed by these changes – it's freaking out over currency flows, migration through airports, offshoring, and similar phenomena.</P>
<P>I know that, by the cultural standards of the 20th century, my newfangled glocal lifestyle ought to bother me. I ought to feel deracinated, and I should suffer from culture shock, and I should stoically endure the mournful silence and exile of a writer torn from the kindly matrix of his national culture. A traditional story.</P>
<P>However, I've been at this life for years now; I really tried; the traditional regret is just not happening. Clearly the existence of the net has obliterated many former operational difficulties.</P>
<P>Furthermore, my sensibility no longer operates in that 20th-century framework. That's become an archaic way to feel, and I just can't get there from here.</P>
<P>Living on the entire planet at once is no longer a major challenge. It's got its practical drawbacks, but I'm much more perturbed about contemporary indignities such as airport terrorspaces, ATM surchanges and the open banditry of cellphone roaming. This is what's troublesome. The rest of it, I'm rather at ease about. Unless I'm physically restrained by some bureaucracy, I don't think I'm going to stop this glocally nomadic life. I live on the Earth. The Earth is a planet. This fact is okay. I am living in truth.</P>
<P>Another major change came through my consumption habits. It pains me to see certain people still trying to live in hairshirt-green fashion – purportedly mindful, and thrifty and modest. I used to tolerate this eccentricity, but now that panicked bankers and venture capitalists are also trying to cling like leeches to every last shred of their wealth, I can finally see it as actively pernicious.</P>
<P>Hairshirt-green is the simple-minded inverse of 20th-century consumerism. Like the New Age mystic echo of Judaeo-Christianity, hairshirt-green simply changes the polarity of the dominant culture, without truly challenging it in any effective way. It doesn't do or say anything conceptually novel – nor is it practical, or a working path to a better life.</P>
<P>My personal relations to goods and services – especially goods – have been revolutionized since 1999. Let me try your patience by describing this change in some detail, because it really is a different mode of being in the world.</P>
<P>My design book SHAPING THINGS, which is very Viridian without coughing up that fact in a hairball, talks a lot about material objects as frozen social relationships within space and time. This conceptual approach may sound peculiar and alien, but it can be re-phrased in a simpler way.</P>
<P>What is "sustainability?" Sustainable practices navigate successfully through time and space, while others crack up and vanish. So basically, the sustainable is about time – time and space. You need to re-think your relationship to material possessions in terms of things that occupy your time. The things that are physically closest to you. Time and space.</P>
<P>In earlier, less technically advanced eras, this approach would have been far-fetched. Material goods were inherently difficult to produce, find, and ship. They were rare and precious. They were closely associated with social prestige. Without important material signifiers such as wedding china, family silver, portraits, a coach-house, a trousseau and so forth, you were advertising your lack of substance to your neighbors. If you failed to surround yourself with a thick material barrier, you were inviting social abuse and possible police suspicion. So it made pragmatic sense to cling to heirlooms, renew all major purchases promptly, and visibly keep up with the Joneses.</P>
<P>That era is dying. It's not only dying, but the assumptions behind that form of material culture are very dangerous. These objects can no longer protect you from want, from humiliation – in fact they are <STRONG>causes</STRONG> of humiliation, as anyone with a McMansion crammed with Chinese-made goods and an unsellable SUV has now learned at great cost.</P>
<P>Furthermore, many of these objects can damage you personally. The hours you waste stumbling over your piled debris, picking, washing, storing, re-storing, those are hours and spaces that you will never get back in a mortal lifetime. Basically, you have to curate these goods: heat them, cool them, protect them from humidity and vermin. Every moment you devote to them is lost to your children, your friends, your society, yourself.</P>
<P>It's not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.</P>
<P>Do not "economize." Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It's melting the North Pole. So "economization" is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.</P>
<P>The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don't seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones. They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects. It's in your time most, it's in your space most. It is "where it is at," and it is "what is going on."</P>
<P>It takes a while to get this through your head, because it's the opposite of the legendry of shopping. However: the things that you use every day should be the best-designed things you can get. For instance, you cannot possibly spend too much money on a bed – (assuming you have a regular bed, which in point of fact I do not). You're spending a third of your lifetime in a bed. Your bed might be sagging, ugly, groaning and infested with dust mites, because you are used to that situation and cannot see it. That calamity might escape your conscious notice. See it. Replace it.</P>
<P>Sell – even give away– anything you never use. Fancy ball gowns, tuxedos, beautiful shoes wrapped in bubblepak that you never wear, useless Christmas gifts from well-meaning relatives, junk that you inherited. Sell that stuff. Take the money, get a real bed. Get radically improved everyday things.</P>
<P>The same goes for a working chair. Notice it. Take action. Bad chairs can seriously injure you from repetitive stresses. Get a decent ergonomic chair. Someone may accuse you of "indulging yourself" because you possess a chair that functions properly. This guy is a reactionary. He is useless to futurity. Listen carefully to whatever else he says, and do the opposite. You will benefit greatly.</P>
<P>Expensive clothing is generally designed to make you look like an aristocrat who can afford couture. Unless you are a celebrity on professional display, forget this consumer theatricality. You should buy relatively-expensive clothing that is ergonomic, high-performance and sturdy.</P>
<P>Anything placed next to your skin for long periods is of high priority. Shoes are notorious sources of pain and stress and subjected to great mechanical wear. You really need to work on selecting these – yes, on "shopping for shoes." You should spend more time on shoes than you do on cars, unless you're in a car during pretty much every waking moment. In which case, God help you.</P>
<P>I strongly recommend that you carry a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitool">multitool</a>. There are dozens of species of these remarkable devices now, and for good reason. Do not show them off in a beltpack, because this marks you as a poorly-socialized geek. Keep your multitool hidden in the same discreet way that you would any other set of keys.</P>
<P>That's because a multitool IS a set of keys. It's a set of possible creative interventions in your immediate material environment. That is why you want a multitool. They are empowering.</P>
<P>A multitool changes your perceptions of the world. Since you lack your previous untooled learned-helplessness, you will slowly find yourself becoming more capable and more observant. If you have pocket-scissors, you will notice loose threads; if you have a small knife you will notice bad packaging; if you have a file you will notice flashing, metallic burrs, and bad joinery. If you have tweezers you can help injured children, while if you have a pen, you will take notes. Tools in your space, saving your time. A multitool is a design education.</P>
<P>As a further important development, you will become known to your friends and colleagues as someone who is capable, useful and resourceful, rather than someone who is helpless, frustrated and visibly lacking in options. You should aspire to this better condition.</P>
<P>Do not lug around an enormous toolchest or a full set of post-earthquake gear unless you are Stewart Brand. Furthermore, unless you are a professional emergency worker, you can abstain from post-apocalyptic "bug-out bags" and omnicompetent heaps of survivalist rations. Do not stock the fort with tiresome, life-consuming, freeze-dried everything, unless you can clearly sense the visible approach of some massive, non-theoretical civil disorder. The clearest way to know that one of these is coming is that the rich people have left your area. If that's the case, then, sure, go befriend the police and prepare to knuckle down.</P>
<P>Now to confront the possessions you already have. This will require serious design work, and this will be painful. It is a good idea to get a friend or several friends to help you.</P>
<P>You will need to divide your current possessions into four major categories.</P>
<ol><li>Beautiful things.</li>
<li>Emotionally important things.</li>
<li>Tools, devices, and appliances that efficiently perform a useful function.</li>
<li>Everything else.</li></ol>
<P>"Everything else" will be by far the largest category. Anything you have not touched, or seen, or thought about in a year – this very likely belongs in "everything else."</P>
<P>You should document these things. Take their pictures, their identifying makers' marks, barcodes, whatever, so that you can get them off eBay or Amazon if, for some weird reason, you ever need them again. Store those digital pictures somewhere safe – along with all your other increasingly valuable, life-central digital data. Back them up both onsite and offsite.</P>
<P>Then remove them from your time and space. "Everything else" should not be in your immediate environment, sucking up your energy and reducing your opportunities. It should become a fond memory, or become reduced to data.</P>
<P>It may belong <STRONG>to</STRONG> you, but it does not belong <STRONG>with</STRONG> you. You weren't born with it. You won't be buried with it. It needs to be out of the space-time vicinity. You are not its archivist or quartermaster. Stop serving that unpaid role.</P>
<P>Beautiful things are important. If they're truly beautiful, they should be so beautiful that you are showing them to people. They should be on display: you should be sharing their beauty with others. Your pride in these things should enhance your life, your sense of taste and perhaps your social standing.</P>
<P>They're not really <STRONG>that</STRONG> beautiful? Then they're not really beautiful. Take a picture of them, tag them, remove them elsewhere.</P>
<P>Emotionally important things. All of us have sentimental keepsakes that we can't bear to part with. We also have many other objects which simply provoke a panicky sense of potential loss – they don't help us to establish who we are, or to become the person we want to be. They subject us to emotional blackmail.</P>
<P>Is this keepsake so very important that you would want to share its story with your friends, your children, your grandchildren? Or are you just using this clutter as emotional insulation, so as to protect yourself from knowing yourself better?</P>
<P>Think about that. Take a picture. You might want to write the story down. Then – yes – away with it.</P>
<P>You are not "losing things" by these acts of material hygiene. You are gaining time, health, light and space. Also, the basic quality of your daily life will certainly soar. Because the benefits of good design will accrue to you where they matter – in the everyday.</P>
<P>Not in Oz or in some museum vitrine. In the every day. For sustainability, it is every day that matters. Not green Manhattan Projects, green moon shots, green New Years' resolutions, or wild scifi speculations. Those are for dabblers and amateurs. The sustainable is about the every day.</P>
<P>Now for category three, tools and appliances. They're not beautiful and you are not emotionally attached to them. So they should be held to keen technical standards.</P>
<P>Is your home a museum? Do you have curatorial skills? If not, then entropy is attacking everything in there. Stuff breaks, ages, rusts, wears out, decays. Entropy is an inherent property of time and space. Understand this fact. Expect this. The laws of physics are all right, they should not provoke anguished spasms of denial.</P>
<P>You will be told that you should "make do" with broken or semi-broken tools, devices and appliances. Unless you are in prison or genuinely crushed by poverty, do not do this. This advice is wicked.</P>
<P>This material culture of today is not sustainable. Most of the things you own are almost certainly made to 20th century standards, which are very bad. If we stick with the malignant possessions we already have, through some hairshirt notion of thrift, then we are going to be baling seawater. This will not do.</P>
<P>You should be planning, expecting, desiring to live among material surroundings created, manufactured, distributed, through radically different methods from today's. It is your moral duty to aid this transformative process. This means you should encourage the best industrial design.</P>
<P>Get excellent tools and appliances. Not a hundred bad, cheap, easy ones. Get the genuinely good ones. Work at it. Pay some attention here, do not neglect the issue by imagining yourself to be serenely "non-materialistic." There is nothing more "materialistic" than doing the same household job five times because your tools suck. Do not allow yourself to be trapped in time-sucking black holes of mechanical dysfunction. That is not civilized.</P>
<P>Now for a brief homily on tools and appliances of especial Viridian interest: the experimental ones. The world is full of complicated, time-sucking, partially-functional beta-rollout gizmos. Some are fun to mess with; fun in life is important. Others are whimsical; whimsy is okay. Eagerly collecting semifunctional gadgets because they are shiny-shiny, this activity is not the worst thing in the world. However, it can become a vice. If you are going to wrangle with unstable, poorly-defined, avant-garde tech objects, then you really need to wrangle them. Get good at doing it.</P>
<P>Good experiments are well-designed experiments. Real experiments need a theory. They need something to prove or disprove. Experiments need to be slotted into some larger context of research, and their results need to be communicated to other practitioners. That's what makes them true "experiments" instead of private fetishes.</P>
<P>If you're buying weird tech gizmos, you need to know <STRONG>what you are trying to prove by that</STRONG>. You also need to <STRONG>tell other people useful things about it.</STRONG> If you are truly experimenting, then you are doing something praiseworthy. You may be wasting some space and time, but you'll be saving space and time for others less adventurous. Good.</P>
<P>If you're becoming a techie magpie packrat who never leaves your couch – that's not good. Forget the shiny gadget. You need to look in the shiny mirror.</P>
<P>So. This approach seems to be working for me. More or less. I'm not urging you to do any of this right away. Do not jump up from the screen right now and go reform your entire material circumstances. That resolve will not last. Because it's not sustainable.</P>
<P>Instead, I am urging you to think hard about it. Tuck it into the back of your mind. Contemplate it. The day is going to come, it will come, when you suddenly find your comfortable habits disrupted.</P>
<P>That could be a new job, a transfer to a new city, a marriage, the birth or departure of a child. It could be a death in the family: we are mortal, they happen. Moments like these are part of the human condition. Suddenly you will find yourself facing a yawning door and a whole bunch of empty boxes. <STRONG>That</STRONG> is the moment in which you should launch this sudden, much-considered coup. Seize that moment on the barricades, liberate yourself, and establish a new and sustainable constitution.
</P>
<P>But – you may well ask – what if I backslide into the ancien regime? Well, there is a form of hygiene workable here as well. Every time you move some new object into your time and space – buy it, receive it as a gift, inherit it, whatever – remove some equivalent object.</P>
<P>That discipline is not as hard as it sounds. As the design of your immediate surroundings improves, it'll become obvious to you that more and more of these time-sucking barnacles are just not up to your standards. They're ugly, or they're broken, or they're obsolete, or they are visible emblems of nasty, uncivilized material processes.</P>
<P>Their blissful absence from your life makes new time and space for something better for you – and for the changed world you want to live to see.</P>
<P>So: that summarizes it. Forgive the Pope-Emperor this last comprehensive sermon; it is what I learned by doing all this, and you won't be troubled henceforth.</P>
<hr width=25%>
<P>Now. If you've read this far, you're a diehard. So you may be interested in my next, post-Viridian, project. And yes, of course I have one. It's not so direct, confrontational and strident as the Viridian Movement; instead, it suits a guy of my increasingly scholastic and professorial temperament.</P>
<P>Viridian "imaginary products" were always a major theme of ours, and, since I'm both a science fiction writer and a design critic, I want to do some innovative work in this space – yes, the realm of imaginary products. Conceptual designs; imaginary designs; critical designs; fantastic and impossible designs.</P>
<P>This new effort of mine is a scholarly work exploring material culture, use-value, ethics, and the relationship between materiality and the imagination. However, since nobody's easily interested in that huge, grandiose topic, I'm disguising it as a nifty and attractive gadget book. I plan to call it "The User's Guide to Imaginary Gadgets."</P>
<P>My first step in composing this new book is to methodically survey the space of all possible imaginary gadgets. It's rather like the exploratory work of "Dead Media Project."</P>
<P>I'm not yet sure what form this new research effort will take. There will likely be a mailing list. I may be turning my Wired blog into something of a gadget site. There might be a wiki or a social network, depending on who wants to help me, and what they want out of that effort. Still: "design fiction," "critical design," "futurist scenario design," and the personal, individual, pocket-and-purse sized approach to postindustriality: this is something I need to know a lot more about.</P>
<P>If you want to play, send email.</P>
<P>Bruce Sterling<BR>
<A HREF="mailto:bruces@well.com">bruces@well.com</A></P>
<h3 align="center">O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=c=O<BR>
Borgo Medioevale<BR>
Torino, Italia WORLD CAPITAL OF DESIGN<BR>
November 2008<BR>
O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-3359030252212639503?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-53856729063832894042008-07-22T08:57:00.000-07:002008-07-22T08:59:00.898-07:00Viridian Note 00497 Al's Unified National Grid<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>climate crisis, clean energy, Al Gore,
federal policy proposals, Unified National Grid,
wecansolveit.org, American politics, speech</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>It's a long speech
by Al Gore annotated by the Viridian Pope-Emperor.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:<BR>
What I do when not sending Viridian notes:
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/sterling">http://blog.wired.com/sterling</A>
Gore: Make All US Electricity From Renewable Sources<br>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49420/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/<br>newsid/49420/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Or, "American politician schemes to save
civilization." It's curious how Al Gore's thinking
repeatedly circles around nets and grids. This is
one of his better net-and-grid concepts. It's an
ambitious scheme, but certainly no more ambitious
than his father's Eisenhower-era Interstate Highway
System, a scheme so modest and useful that,
by the standards of the early Cold War, it almost
vanished in the noise of other federal activity.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Gore refers repeatedly here to the weakness
and the imperilled state of the American political
system and its national government, and, yes,
despite a huge, unilaterally powerful military
force, the government of the USA is clearly very
weak now, almost weak enough to drown in a
bathtub.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((On the other hand, there is no other prominent
political figure from any other nation-state who is
thinking this creatively. So, Al's got some right
to frame his idea as a great last hope.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Objections to Al's idea cannot be framed as
support of a status quo, because the status
quo doesn't exist. Nor can it be framed as
against a free market, as OPEC is a cartel.
It needs be to be framed as the costs of doing
something as opposed to the population-crushing
costs of doing nothing.)))</span></P>
<P>July 17, 2008<BR>
A Generational Challenge to Repower America<br>
(as prepared)<BR>
D.A.R. Constitution Hall<BR>
Washington, D.C.</P>
<P>by Al Gore</P>
<P>Ladies and gentlemen:</P>
<P>There are times in the history of our nation when our
very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions
and awakening to the challenge of a present danger.
In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly
and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside
old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to
the necessity of big changes.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I would have wished that we
could have eluded this kind of Churchillian
sentiment by successfully making green very Viridian-sexy.
Well, green is indeed sexier than hell now,
that part the consumer society managed to understand.
However, a scheme of Al's size probably can't be sexied-up
into existence; it's too top-down and will
have to be, uhm, voted for. It may also be
direly necessary so, well, that's why he's
Al and not the loveable guys at Treehugger.com.)))</span></P>
<P>Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part
must either be persuaded to join the effort or
asked to step aside. This is such a moment.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I wonder where Al plans to put the people
who have stepped aside. The United States
population didn't get into this much trouble
for arbitrary reasons. If you look at the
areas of the USA that merrily voted for Bush
twice, you see a resurgent Confederate States
of America that believes in states' rights,
military adventures, bossism and fundamentalist
Christianity, a weak and impoverished region
that lacks organizational muscle and technocratic
capacity. Eight years of their policies have
led the former superpower to become as weak and unstable
as the Confederacy. Where are they going to go?
The last time they screwed up this badly, they
were militarily conquered by fellow Americans
and held at bayonet-point by Reconstruction
carpetbaggers. For years.)))</span></P>
<P>The survival of the United States of America as we
know it is at risk. And even more – if more
should be required – the future of human
civilization is at stake. <span class="bluetext">(((It gives me little
pleasure to see history repeatedly bearing Al
out. If he actually were the ozone crank his
enemies insisted he was, I'd sleep so much
easier at night. By this time, though, the
Ozone Man has taken on the vaporous, smoky
proportions of Banquo's Ghost.)))</span></P>
<P>I don't remember a time in our country when so many
things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously.
<span class="bluetext">(((What really bothers me is the gathering mayhem
in modest, humble little peaceable societies that
didn't do much of anything to deserve it.)))</span></P>
<P>Our economy is in terrible shape and getting worse, gasoline prices
are increasing dramatically, and so are electricity
rates. Jobs are being outsourced. Home mortgages
are in trouble. Banks, automobile companies and
other institutions we depend upon are under
growing pressure. Distinguished senior business
leaders are telling us that this is just the
beginning unless we find the courage to make
some major changes quickly.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((This is the point where I customarily make
some kind of reference to the downfall of the
Soviet Union, but just google "Collapsnik."
The author was actually there during those
circumstances and he's got a new book out. If you
think black Russian humor is funny, this guy
is hilarious.)))</span></P>
<P>The climate crisis, in particular, is getting
a lot worse – much more quickly than predicted.
<span class="bluetext">(((The predictions were too conservative. Even
Cassandra couldn't get it. This really needs to
be seen as a failure of the scientific
community. They let Stockholm syndrome from
their political captors keep them from objectively
following the facts. We need a much better
scientific look-out system than the ramshackle,
underpowered, all-volunteer one we've got.)))</span></P>
<P>Scientists with access to data from Navy submarines
traversing underneath the North polar ice cap have
warned that there is now a 75 percent chance that
within five years the entire ice cap will completely
disappear during the summer months. This will
further increase the melting pressure on Greenland.
According to experts, the Jakobshavn glacier, one
of Greenland's largest, is moving at a faster
rate than ever before, losing 20 million tons
of ice every day, equivalent to the amount of
water used every year by the residents of New York City.</P>
<P>Two major studies from military intelligence experts
have warned our leaders about the dangerous national
security implications of the climate crisis, including
the possibility of hundreds of millions of
climate refugees destabilizing nations around the world.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((And even when "nations" no longer exist –
when they're failed states and outside Al's
Westaphalian system entirely – the climate
crisis further destabilizes the already destabilized.
It's not like a state collapses and then
you get some kind of limbo; it's more like,
a state collapses and you get permanent
refugee flows a la the pre-Westphalian
Thirty Years' War. The collapse of the USA
would be <STRONG>start</STRONG> of the big troubles,
not some kind of unimaginable bogey.)))</span></P>
<P>Just two days ago, 27 senior statesmen and retired
military leaders warned of the national security
threat from an "energy tsunami" that would be
triggered by a loss of our access to foreign oil.
Meanwhile, the war in Iraq continues, and now the
war in Afghanistan appears to be getting worse.</P>
<P>And by the way, our weather sure is getting
strange, isn't it? <span class="bluetext">(((Yes, Al, it certainly is.
My house in Austin was hit by hail four times
this spring.)))</span> There seem to be more tornadoes
than in living memory, longer droughts, bigger
downpours and record floods.</P>
<P>Unprecedented fires are burning in California and
elsewhere in the American West. Higher temperatures
lead to drier vegetation that makes kindling for
mega-fires of the kind that have been raging in
Canada, Greece, Russia, China, South America,
Australia and Africa. <span class="bluetext">(((It's great to hear
him say this stuff to the face of the American
political class, though it's rather like hearing
Solzhenitzyn mournfully reciting the names of
gulags.)))</span></P>
<P>Scientists in the Department of Geophysics and
Planetary Science at Tel Aviv University tell us
that for every one degree increase in temperature,
lightning strikes will go up another 10 percent.
<span class="bluetext">(((Had a tree in my back yard destroyed by
lightning recently. Wicked stuff, lighting.)))</span></P>
<P>And it is lightning, after all, that is
principally responsible for igniting the
conflagration in California today.</P>
<P>Like a lot of people, it seems to me that all
these problems are bigger than any of the
solutions that have thus far been proposed for
them, and that's been worrying me. <span class="bluetext">(((Well,
so much for Kyoto. Remember my first Viridian
speech, when I was prophesying that we'd
be winding things up here by, at the very
latest, 2012? Well, I always had it figured
that Kyoto was kind of a weak-sister thing to
do. It's like an unfunded Congressional
mandate when what you really need to do is
re-engineer the society's power base.)))</span></P>
<P>I'm convinced that one reason we've seemed
paralyzed in the face of these crises is our
tendency to offer old solutions to each crisis
separately – without taking the others into
account. And these outdated proposals have not
only been ineffective – they almost always
make the other crises even worse.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((This is as close as a political system
gets to design thinking. But, yeah: the fact
that oil now costs arbitrary amounts of
American dollars changes everything. The
environment is always somebody else's problem –
it belongs to the "globe" – but add financial
crisis and military failure and you've got
the recipe for 1989-style upheaval.)))</span></P>
<P>Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly
intractable challenges at the same time, we can
see the common thread running through them,
deeply ironic in its simplicity: our dangerous
over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core
of all three of these challenges – the economic,
environmental and national security crises.</P>
<P>We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from
the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy
the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.
<span class="bluetext">(((I want to see the Murdoch <em>Wall Street Journal</em>
and the K Street crowd disagreeing with this. "No,
Al, no –- we're <STRONG>pro</STRONG> on mortaging the America's
future to the Communists so as to enrich the Arabs!
It's the all-American way!")))</span></P>
<P>But if we grab hold of that common thread and
pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin
to unravel and we will find that we're holding
the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based
fuels. <span class="bluetext">(((Or, alternately, to freeze naked
in the unravelled ruins of our Chinese-made
sweater while bowing the knee to oil shieks,
which would be the robust "free-market"
solution.)))</span></P>
<P>In my search for genuinely effective answers
to the climate crisis, I have held a series of
"solutions summits" with engineers, scientists,
and CEOs. <span class="bluetext">(((Al actually talks to scientists.
Furthermore, he understands what they say.
Thats why he keeps miraculously re-appearing
in American political life on the factual side
of large arguments.)))</span></P>
<P>In those discussions, one thing has become
abundantly clear: when you connect the dots,
it turns out that the real solutions to the
climate crisis are the very same measures needed
to renew our economy and escape the trap of
ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are
also the very same solutions we need to guarantee
our national security without having to go to war
in the Persian Gulf.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Actually, wars in the Persian Gulf have
been boiling along for millennia with or
without fossil fuels, but I think one can
make the good point that it's not absolutely
necessary to go there and lose them.)))</span></P>
<P>What if we could use fuels that are not expensive,
don't cause pollution and are abundantly available
right here at home? <span class="bluetext">(((Then we'd probably
get whiplashed by Enron gaming the gas pipelines
while they still could. They don't do that now
because Enron is dead. We'll never be safe
while American oil majors are in power.)))</span></P>
<P>We have such fuels. Scientists have confirmed
that enough solar energy falls on the surface of
the earth every 40 minutes to meet 100 percent of
the entire world's energy needs for a full year.
Tapping just a small portion of this solar energy
could provide all of the electricity America uses.
<span class="bluetext">(((If somebody could store it. I love solar,
but man, it sure is starting from a small
base.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((On the other hand, if Chinese Communists
can turn a blasted, overpopulated brain-dead
wasteland into a planetary megamall in a
generation, jeez, anything's possible.)))</span></P>
<P>And enough wind power blows through the Midwest
corridor every day to also meet 100 percent of
U.S. electricity demand. Geothermal energy,
similarly, is capable of providing enormous
supplies of electricity for America.</P>
<P>The quickest, cheapest and best way to start
using all this renewable energy is in the
production of electricity. In fact, we can
start right now using solar power, wind power
and geothermal power to make electricity for
our homes and businesses. <span class="bluetext">(((I've had solar power
on my roof ever since Al's long-vanished
"Million Solar Roofs" initiative. That's
paleolithic solar compared to the stuff that's
around now, but hey, it's been up there piping
fume-free voltage ever since.)))</span></P>
<P>But to make this exciting potential a reality,
and truly solve our nation's problems, we need
a new start.</P>
<P>That's why I'm proposing today a strategic
initiative designed to free us from the crises
that are holding us down and to regain control
of our own destiny. <span class="bluetext">(((I can't believe that
any nation-state is gonna control its destiny
when the global sky overhead is poisoned, but
Al's a nationalist and a patriot, so, what the
heck, at least he's doing more than whining
on his globalized email list.)))</span></P>
<P>It's not the only thing we need to do. But this
strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold
new strategy needed to re-power America.</P>
<P>Today I challenge our nation to commit to
producing 100 percent of our electricity from
renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free
sources within 10 years. <span class="bluetext">(((Technical note
here: Al doesn't say that <STRONG>all</STRONG> American energy is
carbon-free – he says the <STRONG>electrical grid</STRONG>
becomes carbon-free. This is plausible.
France's grid is 80 percent carbon free – because
it's nuclear.)))</span></P>
<P>This goal is achievable, affordable and
transformative. It represents a challenge to all
Americans – in every walk of life: to our
political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators,
engineers, and to every citizen. <span class="bluetext">(((Well,
if Kyoto internationalism won't do it, maybe
American nationalism will do it. Failing that,
it'll be down to states, and also cities, and,
eventually, climate-refugee shanty camps
where they haul their broken solar power
panels along with their corrugated tin roofs.)))</span></P>
<P>A few years ago, it would not have been possible
to issue such a challenge. But here's what's
changed: the sharp cost reductions now beginning
to take place in solar, wind, and geothermal
power – coupled with the recent dramatic price
increases for oil and coal – have radically
changed the economics of energy.</P>
<P>When I first went to Congress 32 years ago,
<span class="bluetext">(((Al is old, and he's even become kind of wise)))</span>
I listened to experts testify that if oil ever got
to $35 a barrel, then renewable sources of energy
would become competitive. Well, today, the price
of oil is over $135 per barrel. <span class="bluetext">(((So, you
can either make a massive change while you're
rich and it's easy, or else you can suffer
dreadfully and make a massive change while you
lose your homes, your currency and your children's
future. Guess what choice Scarlett O'Hara took
in "Gone With the Wind," and you've got an
infallible guide to the strategic thinking of the
Bush Administration.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The interesting part is that Al, who
is after all a Southerner from Tennessee,
has kinda got the Rhett Butler role in that
movie. Too much a gentleman to duel!)))</span></P>
<P>And sure enough, billions of dollars of new
investment are flowing into the development
of concentrated solar thermal, photovoltaics,
windmills, geothermal plants, and a variety of
ingenious new ways to improve our efficiency
and conserve presently wasted energy. <span class="bluetext">(((Too
bad that trillions are hastening toward
Dubai, Caracas and Moscow, but who knows, maybe
even the wretched among us who are damned by
the Curse of Oil will find some way, in time,
to redeem themselves.)))</span></P>
<P>And as the demand for renewable energy grows,
the costs will continue to fall. Let me give you
one revealing example: the price of the specialized
silicon used to make solar cells was recently as
high as $300 per kilogram. But the newest
contracts have prices as low as $50 a kilogram.</P>
<P>You know, the same thing happened with computer
chips – also made out of silicon. The price paid
for the same performance came down by 50 percent
every 18 months – year after year, and that's
what's happened for 40 years in a row.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((If solar had been following Moore's Law
then a megawatt ought to be literally cheaper
than sand right now, but, well, I do kind of find
it touching that Al would even try to explain
Moore's Law to the general voter.)))</span></P>
<P>To those who argue that we do not yet have the
technology to accomplish these results with
renewable energy: I ask them to come with me to
meet the entrepreneurs who will drive this
revolution. I've seen what they are doing
and I have no doubt that we can meet this challenge.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The new American energy moguls. The dot-
greenies. Could they be any worse than oil sheiks,
Nigerians and Russians? As a Viridian, I dare
to hope that they might have better aesthetic
taste than Moscow blingbling and Dubai skyscraper
fever. Maybe this latest crop of Silicon Valley
zillionaires will flaunt their millions with
stuff like Ross Lovegrove "Tech Nouveau"
furniture.)))</span></P>
<P>To those who say the costs are still too high:
I ask them to consider whether the costs of oil
and coal will ever stop increasing if we keep
relying on quickly depleting energy sources to
feed a rapidly growing demand all around the world.
When demand for oil and coal increases, their price
goes up. When demand for solar cells increases,
the price often comes down. <span class="bluetext">(((It's also rather
hard to blow up "solar pipelines.")))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The weird part is that this autarchic
national-security argument would have made
so much more sense in the 1910s, the 1940s
or the 1960s than it does today. For any
government anywhere to seize command-and-control
of its domestic energy grid would have been
a nothing-deal. It really shows how much capacity
to act has been lost through globalization.
The "Golden Straitjacket," as Thomas Friedman
used to put it – but if you fall overboard
in a straitjacket, man, you drown.)))</span></P>
<P>When we send money to foreign countries to buy
nearly 70 percent of the oil we use every day,
they build new skyscrapers and we lose jobs.
When we spend that money building solar arrays
and windmills, we build competitive industries
and gain jobs here at home. <span class="bluetext">(((I wonder
if Al thinks he has a "job." A "job" with
what? With health insurance, with guaranteed
long-term employment? Do workers in China
and India have any "jobs"? No, and that's why
they get hired, I reckon.)))</span></P>
<P>Of course there are those who will tell us this
can't be done. Some of the voices we hear are
the defenders of the status quo – the ones with
a vested interest in perpetuating the current
system, no matter how high a price the rest of
us will have to pay. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, and thanks a lot,
fellas. See you in The Hague.)))</span></P>
<P>But even those who reap the profits of the carbon
age have to recognize the inevitability of its
demise. As one OPEC oil minister observed,
"The Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage
of stones." <span class="bluetext">(((That's a funny thing to say,
but clearly the Oil Age is ending because of
shortages of oil. If somebody somehow found
a Saudi Arabia of oil in the thawing Arctic
we'd clearly be back to square one.)))</span></P>
<P>To those who say 10 years is not enough time,
I respectfully ask them to consider what the
world's scientists are telling us about the
risks we face if we don't act in 10 years. The
leading experts predict that we have less than
10 years to make dramatic changes in our global
warming pollution lest we lose our ability to
ever recover from this environmental crisis.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I find the idea that we could somehow
factually "recover" from the Greenhouse
Effect to be amazing. It's almost as farfetched
as the peaceful downfall of Communism, but,
what the heck; if our insight failed us
and the climate problem is much worse than we
imagined, maybe the solution is similarly easier
than we fear. We pretty much gotta try
something, and, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once
thundered, "God will not have his work made
manifest by cowards." )))</span></P>
<P>When the use of oil and coal goes up, pollution
goes up. When the use of solar, wind and geothermal
increases, pollution comes down.</P>
<P>To those who say the challenge is not politically
viable: I suggest they go before the American
people and try to defend the status quo. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah –
at least the Americans, even the Red Staters,
and finally and truly really good and sick.
It's gonna take a truly degraded American populace
to kneel and lick the cold vomit of the neocons
off the pavement in November.)))</span> Then bear witness
to the people's appetite for change.</P>
<P>I for one do not believe our country can withstand
10 more years of the status quo. Our families cannot
stand 10 more years of gas price increases. Our
workers cannot stand 10 more years of job losses
and outsourcing of factories. Our economy cannot
stand 10 more years of sending $2 billion every 24
hours to foreign countries for oil. And our soldiers
and their families cannot take another 10 years of
repeated troop deployments to dangerous regions that
just happen to have large oil supplies. <span class="bluetext">(((Yep –
the next politician with a plan this ambitious is
gonna have to cook up a Marshall Plan for a defeated
USA. I can dare to hope the USA gets more
coherent help than the collapsed former USSR did.)))</span></P>
<P>What could we do instead for the next 10 years?
What should we do during the next 10 years?
Some of our greatest accomplishments as a nation
have resulted from commitments to reach a goal that
fell well beyond the next election: the Marshall
Plan, Social Security, the interstate highway system.
But a political promise to do something in ten years
is about the maximum time that we as a nation can
hold a steady aim and hit our target. <span class="bluetext">(((That means
that, for any kind of trouble longer than a ten-year
time frame, nation-states are useless. Clearly
we need more capable frameworks for long-term
action on long-term threats. "The Outquisition,"
anyone?)))</span></P>
<P>When President John F. Kennedy challenged our nation
to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely
in 10 years, many people doubted we could accomplish
that goal. But 8 years and 2 months later, Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the surface of
the moon. <span class="bluetext">(((I can hope that defeating a climate
catastrophe is rather more solemn and important than
this particular piece of Nixonian street-theater.
Except for its usefulness in humiliating the Soviets,
the long-term benefits of a manned moon landing
were negligible. Which is why we don't do them
any more. National energy grids, by stark contrast,
are entities one shouldn't merely trifle with.)))</span></P>
<P>To be sure, reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable
and truly clean electricity within 10 years will
require us to overcome many obstacles. <span class="bluetext">(((It'll
come a lot easier if the paralytic USA has to watch
Danes and Germans, or maybe even Chicagoans and
San Franciscans, doing it with serenity. The
Europeans can't afford ten years of paying Arabs
either, by the way. Neither can the Chinese or
Indians, who've both had severe stock-market
setbacks lately.)))</span></P>
<P>At present, for example, we do not have a unified
national grid that is sufficiently advanced to link
the areas where the sun shines and the wind blows
to the cities in the East and the West that need
the electricity.</P>
<P>Our national electric grid is critical infrastructure,
as vital to the health and security of our economy
as our highways <span class="bluetext">(((crumbling)))</span> and telecommunication
networks <span class="bluetext">(((yanked from the inventive hands of Al
Gore and handed to a sinister and exploitative duopoly
who spy on you for the Bush Administration)))</span>.</P>
<P>Today, our grids are antiquated, fragile, and
vulnerable to cascading failure. Power outages and
defects in the current grid system cost U.S. businesses
more than $120 billion dollars a year. It has to be
upgraded anyway.</P>
<P>We could further increase the value and efficiency of
a Unified National Grid by helping our struggling auto
giants switch to the manufacture of plug-in electric
cars. An electric vehicle fleet would sharply reduce
the cost of driving a car, reduce pollution, and
increase the flexibility of our electricity grid.</P>
<P>At the same time, of course, we need to greatly
improve our commitment to efficiency and conservation.
That's the best investment we can make. <span class="bluetext">(((Nobody
is ever gonna "conserve more energy" than a dead guy,
which is why, as a Viridian, I don't believe this
in fact our best investment.)))</span></P>
<P>America's transition to renewable energy sources
must also include adequate provisions to assist
those Americans who would unfairly face hardship.
For example, we must recognize those who have toiled
in dangerous conditions to bring us our present
energy supply. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, thanks, oil-stained
Third Worlders, oppressed by autocrats and blown
apart by terrorists...)))</span></P>
<P>We should guarantee good jobs in the
fresh air and sunshine for any coal miner displaced
by impacts on the coal industry. Every single one of them.
<span class="bluetext">(((Oh wait – Al means American guys
digging up American energy. They're, what,
thirty percent of that effort? Anyone who's ever
heard a Loretta Lynn record oughta know what kind
of deal American coal-miners get from life.)))</span></P>
<P>Of course, we could and should speed up this
transition by insisting that the price of
carbon-based energy include the costs of the
environmental damage it causes. <span class="bluetext">(((Which is
basically infinite. Have you priced a molten
pole lately?)))</span></P>
<P>I have long supported a sharp reduction in payroll
taxes with the difference made up in CO2 taxes.
We should tax what we burn, not what we earn.
<span class="bluetext">(((That oughta be thrilling news for moguls,
especially solar and wind moguls, who would
get to live tax-free.)))</span></P>
<P>This is the single most important policy change we
can make. <span class="bluetext">(((Okay, give me my money back and
I'll cheerily buy the green energy –- because
I've been doing it for years!)))</span></P>
<P>In order to foster international cooperation, it is
also essential that the United States rejoin the
global community <span class="bluetext">(((what's left of it... let's see,
there's Europe, there's some kind of weird Sarkozy
"Mediterranean Basin" thing and there's a bunch of
dusty for a where weary, graying diplomats wait for
the Americans to show up and blow up and shred things,
John Bolton style)))</span> and lead efforts to secure an
international treaty at Copenhagen in December of next
year that includes a cap on CO2 emissions and a global
partnership that recognizes the necessity of addressing
the threats of extreme poverty and disease as part of
the world's agenda for solving the climate crisis.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The treaty might conceivably be of some use,
but who's gonna enforce it? Also, while constructing
a grid is doable, our old pals poverty and disease
are firmly in the saddle in a world where food costs
are rocketing and ecosystems are poisoned. The
idea of the corps diplomatique tackling this is
about as likely as it's being solved by inky,
unread newspaper editorials.)))</span></P>
<P>Of course the greatest obstacle to meeting the
challenge of 100 percent renewable electricity in
10 years may be the deep dysfunction of our politics
and our self-governing system as it exists today.
<span class="bluetext">(((At least he's got the guts to say it – that
must sting after 30+ years of public service.)))</span></P>
<P>In recent years, our politics has tended toward
incremental proposals made up of small policies
designed to avoid offending special interests,
alternating with occasional baby steps in the right
direction. Our democracy has become sclerotic at a
time when these crises require boldness. <span class="bluetext">(((Yes.)))</span></P>
<P>It is only a truly dysfunctional system that
would buy into the perverse logic that the short-term
answer to high gasoline prices is drilling for more
oil ten years from now. <span class="bluetext">(((Yes. Actually, if
there was a national federal crash-drilling program,
run by the able likes of the Homeland Security
Department as a pressing matter of national survival,
that would likely stop the drilling entirely.)))</span></P>
<P>Am I the only one who finds it strange that our
government so often adopts a so-called solution
that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem
it is supposed to address? <span class="bluetext">(((No. "Clean Skies
Program, "War on Terror," I could go on...)))</span></P>
<P>When people rightly complain about higher gasoline
prices, we propose to give more money to the oil
companies and pretend that they're going to bring
gasoline prices down. It will do nothing of the sort,
and everyone knows it. <span class="bluetext">(((Yes they do. The tower of
lies here... how high do they tower? They tower
about 147 dollars high, at the moment.)))</span></P>
<P>If we keep going back to the same policies that have
never ever worked in the past and have served only
to produce the highest gasoline prices in history
alongside the greatest oil company profits in history,
nobody should be surprised if we get the same result
over and over again.</P>
<P>But the Congress may be poised to move in that
direction anyway because some of them are being
stampeded by lobbyists for special interests that
know how to make the system work for them instead
of the American people. <span class="bluetext">(((Bow to the masters of
the pump. Actually, quite a lot of Americans <STRONG>are</STRONG>
in oil companies, and they're doing great by the
distress of the rest of us. Houston hasn't boomed
like this in years. I might forgive 'em this if
Houston hadn't already drowned once in a major
Greenhouse flood.)))</span></P>
<P>If you want to know the truth about gasoline prices,
here it is: the exploding demand for oil, especially
in places like China, is overwhelming the rate of
new discoveries by so much that oil prices are
almost certain to continue upward over time no
matter what the oil companies promise. And
politicians cannot bring gasoline prices down
in the short term.</P>
<P>However, there actually is one extremely effective
way to bring the costs of driving a car way down
within a few short years. The way to bring gas
prices down is to end our dependence on oil and
use the renewable sources that can give us the
equivalent of $1 per gallon gasoline. <span class="bluetext">(((Go for
it, Vinod Khosla. Glad you were able to immigrate
to USA before a million guys with odd names ended
up on no-fly lists.)))</span></P>
<P>Many Americans have begun to wonder whether or not
we've simply lost our appetite for bold policy
solutions. <span class="bluetext">(((It's not a matter of "appetite" –
they privatized the dining table and sold off the
knives and forks. And those napkins? All Chinese.)))</span></P>
<P>And folks who claim to know how our system works
these days have told us we might as well forget
about our political system doing anything bold,
especially if it is contrary to the wishes of
special interests. And I've got to admit, that
sure seems to be the way things have been going.</P>
<P>But I've begun to hear different voices in this
country from people who are not only tired of baby
steps and special interest politics, but are hungry
for a new, different and bold approach. <span class="bluetext">(((Because
they're the new special interests. And not a
day too soon, boys.)))</span></P>
<P>We are on the eve of a presidential election. We are
in the midst of an international climate treaty process
that will conclude its work before the end of the first
year of the new president's term. It is a great error
to say that the United States must wait for others to
join us in this matter. In fact, we must move first,
because that is the key to getting others to follow;
and because moving first is in our own national
interest. <span class="bluetext">(((Plus, scenting American blood in
the water, the currency sharks are circling, and
we're looking at the raw potential for the biggest
shock-economy looting spree since Yeltsin sold
Russia to seven moguls.)))</span></P>
<P>So I ask you to join with me to call on every
candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge –
for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon
electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move
beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now.</P>
<P>This is a generational moment. A moment when we decide
our own path and our collective fate. I'm asking you
– each of you – to join me and build this future.
Please join the WE campaign at wecansolveit.org.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((It kills me that this whole plea is aimed squarely
at a website. It's some kind of Viridian apotheosis,
really. All of this, and he wants us to go click
on a website? Well, you know – maybe that's how
it's done, nowadays.)))</span></P>
<P>We need you. And we need you now. We're committed to
changing not just light bulbs, but laws. And laws will
only change with leadership. <span class="bluetext">(((Or collapse.)))</span></P>
<P>On July 16, 1969, the United States of America was
finally ready to meet President Kennedy's challenge
of landing Americans on the moon. I will never forget
standing beside my father <span class="bluetext">(((the major mover in the
Internet Highway System, and Al has never gotten over
than any more than Bush II can resist trumping his
father's "prudence")))</span> a few miles from the launch
site, waiting for the giant Saturn 5 rocket to lift
Apollo 11 into the sky. I was a young man, 21 years
old, who had graduated from college a month before
and was enlisting in the United States Army three
weeks later.</P>
<P>I will never forget the inspiration of those minutes.
The power and the vibration of the giant rocket's
engines shook my entire body. As I watched the rocket
rise, slowly at first and then with great speed <span class="bluetext">(((and
powered by fossil fuels)))</span>, the sound was deafening.</P>
<P>We craned our necks to follow its path until we
were looking straight up into the air. And then four
days later, I watched along with hundreds of millions
of others around the world as Neil Armstrong took one
small step to the surface of the moon and changed the
history of the human race. <span class="bluetext">(((Sorta.)))</span></P>
<P>We must now lift our nation to reach another goal that
will change history. Our entire civilization depends
upon us now embarking on a new journey of exploration
and discovery. Our success depends on our willingness
as a people to undertake this journey and to complete
it within 10 years. Once again, we have an opportunity
to take a giant leap for humankind.</P>
<P>This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a
project of the Center for American Progress Action
Fund.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I wonder who will be the first European to mimic
this. Green energy isn't a moon race, and, given
their huge head start, Europeans ought to be able to
leave the US in the dust. Of course, the Europeans,
who to their post-governmental dismay don't even
have a Constitution, may be even more politically
sclerotic than the Americans but... come on!
Even the Soviet Union had an honest shot at the
Moon – once. They failed, and they're gone.
"Those who cannot labor on their own behalf shall
be given other masters.")))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=C=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<br>
THIS ISN'T THE VERY LAST VIRIDIAN<br>
NOTE, AS THAT WILL PROBABLY BE<br>
AN INTERNET VIDEO<BR>
O=C=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-5385672906383289404?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-58171592366429831102007-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:002007-10-13T12:07:20.513-07:00Viridian Note 00496: Al Gore Wins Nobel<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/Al_Gore_i_An_Inconv_100607o-721462.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/Al_Gore_i_An_Inconv_100607o-721460.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Al Gore, Cuba, emergencies</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>great news for greenies
all spoilt by glum Viridian futurism.</dd></DL>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I'm now living in Torino, where the locals are
vigorously rebuilding their former fossil-fuel car
capital into an artsy creative-class design
metropolis.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it/portale/en/">http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it/portale/en/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Amazingly, even Fiat, whose decline nearly wrecked
this city, has a design hit in their new small urban
car. What luck! Or was it design skill?)))</span>
<A HREF="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_03/b3967019.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_03/b3967019.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((It's fabulous to be on the ground where Europeans
are visibly re-creating their infrastructure in such
a design-centric, immediate fashion. There's something
exhilarating about it... because it's not a Viridian
Pope-Emperor theoretical design engagement; I mean,
they're literally ripping up the street outside here
and installing light urban rail. I wouldn't call it
Oz; it's just an Italian industrial burg;
but their previous situation was just so grim, glum,
unbearable, palpably doomed and clearly unsustainable
that they pretty much had to swallow the blue pill
and leap for the unknown. So they suffered ==
but changed. Now one sees eerie stuff like THIS ==
a smokestack turned into a steeple dedicated to the
Shroud of Turin.)))</span></P>
<p><div align="center"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1016/1462923913_134a6ede6e.jpg" alt="Smokestack" title="Photo by Bruce Sterling"></div></p>
<P>Link:<BR>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45506355@N00/1462923913/</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I'm trying to figure out what I can do to help.
I hope to learn something useful about real-world,
hands-on, down-and-dirty, urban sociotechnical
transitions. Practically every city in the world has
got Torino's former problems, because they're all
unsustainable. Changing that is the work of the
world. It's happening.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((In the meanwhile, just look at the Viridian issue
coverage over here on "Wired Science." I wouldn't
precisely call that mainstream science-news ==
it's WIRED, and also, uh, a new TV show == but they've
got something like 50 times my audience, and that's
on their bad viewership day. Why would I bother
to cover such things when they do it all the time?)))</span></P>
<P>Links:</P>
<P>Entire Yucatan is a feral Maya garden, not a "wilderness."
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/yucatan-jungles.html#more">http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/yucatan-jungles.html#more</A></P>
<P>Albedo yachts.<BR>
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/these-ships-cou.html#more">http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/these-ships-cou.html#more</A></P>
<P>Particle spews.<BR>
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/pumping-particl.html#more">http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/10/pumping-particl.html#more</A></P>
<P>Turning ocean inside out.<BR>
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/could-huge-unde.html#more">http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/could-huge-unde.html#more</A></P>
<P>Vatican goes green.<BR>
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/the-vatican-goe.html#more">http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/09/the-vatican-goe.html#more</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Great stuff, eh? I used to do two or three of
those a month! Et cetera et cetera.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">((( And then, of course, Al Gore just won
the Nobel. I could let this event pass without
a missive to longsuffering Viridian readers.</P>
<P>((( This is the ultimate imprimatur of the
intelligentsia chattering-classes. At this point,
the climate crisis pretty much wins the global
culture war. But only, of course, culturally,
and never within the dark terrified den of
the American flat-earth contingent, who hate and
fear Al and all his works on principle, and always
will.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The good news is there's at least one American
statesman left whom the world considers of Nobel
class caliber. Gore's a kind of climate
Solzhenitsyn in the midst of a dark regime.
People from outside the Soviet Union used
to look at Nobelist Solzhenitsyn and think:
"Well, we can't give up on 'em; here's this
heroic guy endlessly scraping up and archiving
true data about gulags and torture and prisons,
even when the regime denies such things exist."
In the continental superpower biz, what goes
around comes around.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I'd like to engage in some brisk triumphalism
here... yeah, like <STRONG>I</STRONG> won the goddamn prize
by sending a lot of emails... but I prefer to take
a lead from Al's own sobering response. Al's not
making any big deal of this. I suspect that's because
Al has sincerely and actually come to realize, on some
bone-deep, post-cynical, wolves-at-the-door
level, that there really is a global climate crisis.
That's not a vehicle for generating Al Gore worship.
It's an emergency. A deep, terrible, lasting
emergency whose permanent scars for society all lie
ahead of us. The Turinese are certainly changing
their local piece of the world == but they got
<STRONG>scourged</STRONG> into changing. The bright spots here
now are an inverse reflection of their sorrow and
mayhem fifteen years ago.)))</span></P>
<P>Links<BR>
Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize == the Bright Green
response.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007407.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/007407.html</A></P>
<P>Washington Post:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101300284.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR2007101300284.html</A></P>
<P>"Gore: Award Puts Focus on Global Warming</P>
<P>"By SETH BORENSTEIN and LISA LEFF
"The Associated Press<BR>
"Saturday, October 13, 2007; 7:48 AM</P>
<P>"PALO ALTO, Calif. == He spent decades trying to get
the world to listen and believe as he did that global
warming would destroy the planet unless people changed
their behavior, and fast. But after former Vice
President Al Gore and a host of climate scientists
were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for
their warnings, Gore took only the briefest of bows
on a live world stage. He avoided the issue of a
U.S. presidential run to 'get back to business' on
'a planetary emergency.'</P>
<P>"'For my part, I will be doing everything I can to
try to understand how to best use the honor and the
recognition from this award as a way of speeding up
the change in awareness and the change in urgency,'
Gore said at the offices of the Alliance For Climate
Protection, a nonprofit he founded last year to
engage citizens in solving the problem.</P>
<P>(...)</P>
<P>"If he felt any sense of triumph over the political
and scientific critics who belittled or ignored
his message, Gore did not betray it during his only
public appearance Friday. He learned of his award
at 2 a.m. while watching the live TV announcement _
hearing his name amid the Norwegian <span class="bluetext">(((aren't
those guys Swedes?)))</span> at his apartment in San
Francisco.</P>
<P>"Nine hours later, his tone was somber and his
remarks brief. With his wife, Tipper, and four
Stanford University climate scientists who were
co-authors of the international climate report at
his side, he referenced a recent report that
concluded the ice caps at the North Pole are
melting faster than previously thought and
could be gone in 23 years without dramatic action.</P>
<P>"Gore said he planned to donate his share of the
$1.5 million prize to the nonprofit alliance he chairs.</P>
<P>"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness
about the challenges that we face now," he said...</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I see Al's not living in San Francisco for nothing.
Global consciousness, rock concerts, yeah, thanks
a lot, sir. You deserve the prize. Congrats.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((In the meantime, I wanted to share this long
and remarkable document, which details a grueling
transition undergone by a society which, unlike
Torino, isn't all glossy, Eurocentric and designery.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Nobody imagines that life changes much in Cuba,
because the same dictator's been running things
for half a century. I just saw a local presentation
by an exiled Cuban author == (periodically, Cuban
agents try to push her under a Parisian bus) == and she
said that the worst thing about being an exiled
Cuban dissident in Europe is that Europeans
somehow imagine that Cuba is a socialist paradise
with free healthcare and cool mambo music. Also,
Che had such a cool haircut and beret.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Just because US Republicans
don't like them doesn't mean they're great, okay?
They're authoritarian Reds on a scrawny island
whose lives are pitifully delimited in all kinds
of bleak, hairshirt-Marxist, soul-crushing ways.
This article is by an American leftie Cuban
sympathizer who's all perky about how the Cubans
transcended their energy emergency. It's all about
emergency living. Except you'd never guess it
by the way it's phrased. It's a long, long article,
but it serves pretty well as an unintentionally
sinister portrait of an oppressed, hapless, stricken
society in a no-kidding, tear-the-walls down
Greenhouse emergency.)))</span></P>
<P><div align="center">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div><br>
This article appeared in the special Peak Oil issue
of Permaculture Activist, Spring 2006,
(<A HREF="http://www.permacultureactivist.net/">www.permacultureactivist.net</A>). The author,
Megan Quinn, is the outreach director for The
Community Solution, (<A HREF="http://www.communitysolution.org/">www.communitysolution.org</A>),
a program of Community Service Inc., a nonprofit
organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio. For information
about its soon-to-be-released documentary, "The Power
of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" visit its
website, e-mail her at <A HREF="mailto:megan@communitysolution.org">megan@communitysolution.org</A>,
or call +1 937-767-2161.</P>
<P>"The power of community: How Cuba survived peak oil</P>
<P>By Megan Quinn, Permaculture Activist</P>
<P>First published on Sunday, February 26, 2006</P>
<P>Havana, Cuba == At the Organipónico de Alamar,
a neighborhood agriculture project, a workers'
collective runs a large urban farm, a produce
market and a restaurant.</P>
<P>"Hand tools and human labor replace oil-driven
machinery. Worm cultivation and composting create
productive soil. Drip irrigation conserves water,
and the diverse, multi-hued produce provides the
community with a rainbow of healthy foods.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I want you to stop here and try to imagine
the stark reality of a Communist restaurant run
by a workers' collective. In former Communist
countries like Russia, there aren't any left. Because
those are not "restaurants." The chef hates you.
There aren't any "waiters." You have no reason
to be there and they do not want to feed you.)))</span></P>
<P>In other Havana neighborhoods, lacking enough land
for such large projects, residents have installed
raised garden beds on parking lots and planted
vegetable gardens on their patios and rooftops.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Did you ever wonder why people <STRONG>stopped</STRONG>
planting "Victory Gardens" after World War II
ended? Because farming parking-lots is hard work.
All farming is hard work. That's why subsistence
farmers flee farms and go to urban slums.)))</span></P>
<P>Since the early 1990s, an urban agriculture movement
has swept through Cuba, putting this capital city
of 2.2 million on a path toward sustainability.
<span class="bluetext">(((Fidel Castro == a prince of sustainability.
Hasta La Sustainability Siempre. "Thank you
Comrade, my vegetable hash from that parking lot
was very sustainable.")))</span></P>
<P>A small group of Australians assisted in this
grass-roots effort, coming to this Caribbean island
nation in 1993 to teach permaculture, a system
based on sustainable agriculture which uses far
less energy. <span class="bluetext">(((I don't have a problem with
Australians going to assist the Revolution == I
think everybody oughta go to Cuba, and Eastern
Europe is even more eye-opening == but is it
"grass roots" when Australian politicals are doing
it? In the old unashamed days, that used to be
"Communist International Solidarity," not
sustainable grass roots.)))</span></P>
<P>This need to bring agriculture into the city began
with the fall of the Soviet Union and the loss of
more than 50 percent of Cuba's oil imports, much of
its food and 85 percent of its trade economy.
<span class="bluetext">(((This is a risk one takes when one gets all
chummy with petrocratic states. They turn the fuel
tap off? Man, you're toast == just like a Californian
in the Enron glory days.)))</span></P>
<P>Transportation halted, people went hungry and
the average Cuban lost 30 pounds. <span class="bluetext">(((I didn't
believe this assertion at first. I mean, try
to imagine the law-and-order problems in an
American suburb where the average American ==
the <STRONG>average!</STRONG> == lost thirty pounds of body weight
from lack of groceries. And average Americans have
got thirty pounds to lose, easy.)))</span></P>
<P>"In reality, when this all began, it was a necessity.
People had to start cultivating vegetables wherever
they could," a tour guide told a documentary crew
filming in Cuba in 2004 to record how Cuba survived
on far less oil than usual. <span class="bluetext">(((These "tour guide"
Potemkin figures are kind of a vanishing breed,
but you run into 'em sometimes... I hate to say
that they make Fox News look accurate. Nobody
can do <STRONG>that.</STRONG>)))</span></P>
<P>The crew included the staff of The Community
Solution, a non-profit organization in Yellow
Springs, Ohio which teaches about peak oil == the
time when oil production world-wide will reach
an all-time high and head into an irreversible
decline. Some oil analysts believe this may
happen within this decade, making Cuba a role
model to follow. <span class="bluetext">(((Activists of every stripe
always imagine that they're "teaching" stuff.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">((("Teaching" peak oil... or, you could just be in an
oil-dependent power that loses an oil war.
Or petrocrats could just charge whatever they
please for the stuff. Oil doesn't have to
actually run out for the lights to go off,
as Californians should remember keenly. Cuba
didn't have a "peak," they just had no fuel.)))</span></P>
<P>"We wanted to see if we could capture what it is
in the Cuban people and the Cuban culture that
allowed them to go through this very difficult time,"
said Pat Murphy, The Community Solution's executive
director. <span class="bluetext">(((Amazing how they gazed raptly at "people"
and "culture" rather than the Cuban secret police,
party apparatus and army.)))</span></P>
<P>"Cuba has a lot to show the world in how to deal
with energy adversity." <span class="bluetext">(((That part, I'm buying.
Cuba shows all kinds of stuff, most of it about
as attractive as watching your grandma drop
thirty pounds from hunger.)))</span></P>
<P>Scarce petroleum supplies have not only transformed
Cuba's agriculture. The nation has also moved toward
small-scale renewable energy and developed an energy-
saving mass transit system, while maintaining its
government-provided health care system whose
preventive, locally-based approach to medicine
conserves scarce resources.<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((Closely study how this paragraph of perky
eco-geek-speak paraphrases the stark reality that
Cuba went broke and the people went desperately
hungry. If an eco-calamity makes you lose thirty
pounds, you'll be hearing a lot of this.)))</span></P>
<P>The era in Cuba following the Soviet collapse is
known to Cubans as the Special Period. <span class="bluetext">(((Oh
brother.)))</span></P>
<P>Cuba lost 80 percent of its export market and
its imports fell by 80 percent. The Gross Domestic
Product dropped by more than one third.</P>
<P>"Try to image an airplane suddenly losing its engines.
It was really a crash," Jorge Mario, a Cuban
economist, told the documentary crew.</P>
<P>A crash that put Cuba into a state of shock.</P>
<P>There were frequent blackouts in its oil-fed
electric power grid, up to 16 hours per day.
The average daily caloric intake in Cuba dropped
by a third.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Now try to imagine yourself being Al Gore
and watching this happen on a planetary scale.
You think Al is gonna clutch his prize certificate
and think, "Wow, I got the Nobel for warning
about this sort of thing?" That's why he's got
that glum look. He's paying attention.)))</span></P>
<P>According to a report on Cuba from Oxfam, an
international development and relief agency:
"In the cities, buses stopped running, generators
stopped producing electricity, factories became
silent as graveyards. Obtaining enough food for
the day became the primary activity for many,
if not most, Cubans." <span class="bluetext">(((Note that Oxfam doesn't
chime in about how Cubans got all sustainable and
carbon-neutral due to imitating graveyards.)))</span></P>
<P>In part due to the continuing US embargo, but
also because of the loss of a foreign market,
Cuba couldn't obtain enough imported food.
Furthermore, without a substitute for fossil-fuel
based large-scale farming, agricultural production
dropped drastically.</P>
<P>So Cubans started to grow local organic produce
out of necessity, developed bio-pesticides and
bio-fertilizers as petrochemical substitutes,
and incorporated more fruits and vegetables into
their diets.</P>
<P>Since they couldn't fuel their aging cars, they
walked, biked, rode buses, and carpooled.</P>
<P>"There are infinite small solutions," said Roberto
Sanchez from the Cuban-based Foundation for
Nature and Humanity. <span class="bluetext">(((You gotta love an
entity with a soft, mushy title like that one.)))</span></P>
<P>"Crises or changes or problems can trigger many
of these things which are basically adaptive.
We are adapting." <span class="bluetext">(((In the climate crisis,
we're gonna hear a lot of this kind of glum
ideological lacquer. "The lawn is on fire!
There's a flood in the basement!" "Stop
whining, for such problems trigger a basically
adaptive behavior." You wouldn't want to rebel
against Nature and Humanity, I hope.)))</span></P>
<P>A New Agricultural Revolution</P>
<P>Cubans are also replacing petroleum-fed machinery
with oxen, <span class="bluetext">(((boy, there's a step forward == ask
any Indian)))</span> and their urban agriculture reduces
food transportation distances. Today an estimated
50 percent of Havana's vegetables come from inside
the city, <span class="bluetext">(((outdoing the siege of Stalingrad)))</span>
while in other Cuban towns and cities urban gardens
produce from 80 percent to more than 100 percent of
what they need. <span class="bluetext">(((You've got too many squash
and green beans in that dirtpile where you used to
own a car. "Wow, I have more than 100 percent of
what I need!")))</span></P>
<P>In turning to gardening, individuals and neighborhood
organizations <span class="bluetext">(((read: party apparatus)))</span> took the
initiative by identifying idle land in the city,
cleaning it up, and planting. <span class="bluetext">(((At least, being
a dictatorship of the proletariat, they don't
have much trouble with NIMBYism and eminent domain
issues.)))</span></P>
<P>When the Australian permaculturists came to Cuba they
set up the first permaculture demonstration project
with a $26,000 grant from the Cuban government.</P>
<P>Out of this grew the Foundation for Nature and
Humanity's urban permaculture demonstration project
and center in Havana.</P>
<P>"With this demonstration, neighbors began to see the
possibilities of what they can do on their rooftops
and their patios," said Carmen López, director of
the urban permaculture center, as she stood on the
center's rooftop amongst grape vines, potted plants,
and compost bins made from tires.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((It's kind of touching to see these "permaculture
activists" interviewing their own cadres to confirm
the glowing success of their "demonstration
projects.")))</span></P>
<P>Since then the movement has been spreading rapidly
across Havana's barrios. So far López' urban
permaculture center has trained more than 400 people
in the neighborhood in permaculture and distributes
a monthly publication, "El Permacultor." <span class="bluetext">(((That
sounds pretty great until you realize we've got
two thousand people in Viridian List and we never
even got a Cuban state grant.)))</span></P>
<P>"Not only has the community learned about
permaculture," according to López, "we have also
learned about the community, helping people wherever
there is need." <span class="bluetext">(((Given that Marxism is all about
that issue, you have to wonder what they've been
learning since Fidel took power in the early 1960s.)))</span></P>
<P>One permaculture student, Nelson Aguila, an
engineer-turned-farmer, <span class="bluetext">(((and this represents
a major civilizational advance, presumably)))</span>
raises food for the neighborhood on his integrated
rooftop farm. On just a few hundred square feet he
has rabbits and hens and many large pots of plants.</P>
<P>Running free on the floor are gerbils, which eat
the waste from the rabbits, and become an important
protein source themselves. <span class="bluetext">((("Mom! Mom, the
former engineer has brought us gerbils!" I hope
they've got this post-slaughter waste-consumption
thing cleared with the spongiform encephalopathy.
What do they feed the gerbil waste to?)))</span></P>
<P>"Things are changing," Sanchez said. "It's a local
economy. In other places people don't know their
neighbors. They don't know their names. People don't
say 'hello' to each other. Not here." <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah ==
because if you don't have a steady source for
fried gerbils, you're gonna lose thirty pounds.)))</span></P>
<P>Since going from petrochemical intensive agricultural
production to organic farming and gardening, Cuba
now uses 21 times less pesticide than before the
Special Period.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That phrase "Before the Special Period" sure has
a chilly tang, doesn't it? "Did you know Al Gore
once won the Nobel?" "Oh, that was Before the Special
Period." "Both my grandparents were alive Before
the Special Period." "Before the Special Period,
these tires were on my car instead of serving
as compost heaps.")))</span></P>
<P>They have accomplished this with their large-scale
production of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers,
exporting some of it to other Latin American countries.
<span class="bluetext">(((Until Chavez started shipping them subsidized
oil, and then, whew! Thank God!)))</span></P>
<P>Though the transition to organic production and animal
traction was necessary, the Cubans are now seeing the
advantages.</P>
<P>"One of the good parts of the crisis was to go back
to the oxen," said Miguel Coyula, a community
development specialist. "Not only do they save fuel,
they do not compact the soil the way the tractor
does, and the legs of the oxen churn the earth."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I hate to think of a place where farmers hide
their tractors from the "community development
specialists." When you think how many bad Socialist
Realist novels were written about the heroic
effort to <STRONG>get</STRONG> tractors... In the peasants
and workers states, Communism and tractors were
practically synonymous. But no, now those dainty
little oxen hooves have become organic plows
somehow... yeah, a political rhetoric is a
multipurpose tool.)))</span></P>
<P>"The Cuban agricultural, conventional, 'Green
Revolution' system never was able to feed the people,"
Sanchez said. "It had high yields, but was oriented
to plantation agriculture. We exported citrus,
tobacco, sugar cane and we imported the basic things.
So the system, even in the good times, never
fulfilled people's basic needs."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, and once the Russians, who bought those
exports, shut off the taps, trade withered and the
island could suddenly aspire to the autonomous status
of glorious North Korea.)))</span></P>
<P>Drawing on his permaculture knowledge, Sanchez said,
"You have to follow the natural cycles, so you hire
nature to work for you, not work against nature. To
work against nature, you have to waste huge amounts
of energy." <span class="bluetext">(((Isn't "hiring" nature just a tad
exploitative? Where's nature's union and free
health system?)))</span></P>
<P>Energy Solutions<BR>
Because most of Cuba's electricity had been
generated from imported oil, the shortages affected
nearly everyone on the island. <span class="bluetext">(((One wonders
who the unaffected were. Security services,
I'd be guessing.)))</span></P>
<P>Scheduled rolling blackouts several days per week
lasted for many years.</P>
<P>Without refrigerators, food would spoil.</P>
<P>Without electric fans, the heat was almost unbearable
in a country that regularly has temperatures in the
80s and 90s. <span class="bluetext">(((Or higher. Most every summer.)))</span></P>
<P>The solutions to Cuba's energy problems were not easy.
<span class="bluetext">(((Though I don't doubt there was some hairshirt
ideologue eager to make all that sound
progressive.)))</span></P>
<P>Without money, it couldn't invest in nuclear power
and new conventional fossil fuel plants or even
large-scale wind and solar energy systems.
Instead, the country focused on reducing energy
consumption and implementing small-scale
renewable energy projects. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, that sounds
all grass-rootsy and romantic till you get to those
years of rolling blackouts and the spoilt food.)))</span></P>
<P><BR>
Ecosol Solar and Cuba Solar are two renewable energy
organizations leading the way. They help develop
markets for renewable energy, sell and install
systems, perform research, publish newsletters,
and do energy efficiency studies for large users.
<span class="bluetext">(((Reading stuff like this can be a useful corrective.
Like: somewhere in this world is the world's most
evil, backward and exploitative solar energy company.
I'm not saying they're in Cuba == maybe they're
a merciless voodoo warlord solar-energy company
somewhere in the war-torn Congo. But they're
somewhere, and they've got solar panels and they're
awful.)))</span></P>
<P>Ecosol Solar has installed 1.2 megawatts of solar
photovoltaic in both small household systems
(200 watt capacity) and large systems (15-50 kilowatt
capacity). In the United States 1.2 megawatts would
provide electricity to about 1000 homes, but can
supply power to significantly more houses in Cuba
where appliances are few, conservation is the
custom, and the homes are much smaller. <span class="bluetext">(((And
the homes smell of solar-fried gerbils.)))</span></P>
<P><BR>
About 60 percent of Ecosol Solar's installations go
to social programs to power homes, schools, medicals
facilities, and community centers in rural Cuba.
<span class="bluetext">(((Look, the entire island is a "social program"
and "community center." It's a Communist society.
If you don't count hard-currency hotels packed
with guys spending euros.)))</span></P>
<P>It recently installed solar photovoltaic panels
to electrify 2,364 primary schools throughout rural
Cuba where it was not cost effective to take the grid.
In addition, it is developing compact model solar
water heaters that can be assembled in the field,
water pumps powered by PV panels, and solar dryers.
<span class="bluetext">(((This is teaching an entire generation of rural
Cuban kids to hate solar power as the very symbol
of their backwardness, but what the heck; there's
no power in their grid anyway, and maybe they'll
at least learn to read.)))</span></P>
<P>A visit to "Los Tumbos," a solar-powered community
in the rural hills southwest of Havana demonstrates
the positive impact that these strategies can have.
Once without electricity, each household now has a
small solar panel that powers a radio and a lamp.</P>
<P>Larger systems provide electricity to the school,
hospital, and community room, where residents gather
to watch the evening news program called the "Round
Table." <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, I bet that program's real newsy.)))</span></P>
<P>Besides keeping the residents informed, the television
room has the added benefit of bringing the community
together. <span class="bluetext">(((Has Jerry Mander been informed of
this?)))</span></P>
<P>"The sun was enough to maintain life on earth for
millions of years," said Bruno Beres, a director of
Cuba Solar. "Only when we [humans] arrived and
changed the way we use energy was the sun not enough.
So the problem is with our society, not with the
world of energy." <span class="bluetext">(((The invention of fire was
also clearly a problem.)))</span></P>
<P>Transportation - A System of Ride Sharing
<span class="bluetext">(((It just trundles right along, bearing its
bundles of red-green ideological joy.)))</span></P>
<P>Cubans also faced the problem of providing
transportation on a reduced energy diet.</P>
<P>Solutions came from ingenious Cubans, who often
quote the phrase, "Necessity is the mother of
invention."</P>
<P>With little money or fuel, Cuba now moves masses
of people during rush hour in Havana. In an
inventive approach, virtually every form of vehicle,
large and small, was used to build this mass
transit system. Commuters ride in hand-made
wheelbarrows, buses, other motorized transport
and animal-powered vehicles. <span class="bluetext">(((Even if Cubans
are "the masses," a heterogenous crawl of
hand-made wheelbarrows is not a "mass transit
system.")))</span></P>
<P>One special Havana transit vehicle, nicknamed a
"camel," is a very large metal semi-trailer,
pulled by a standard semi-truck tractor, which
holds 300 passengers.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The "Transportation of Cuba Pool." Man,
FlickR is awesome.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/groups/transportation_of_cuba/pool/">http://www.flickr.com/groups/transportation_of_cuba/pool/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A "Havana Camel.")))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-harder/317773656/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/r-harder/317773656/</A></P>
<P>Bicycles and motorized two-passenger rickshaws are
also prevalent in Havana, while horse drawn carts
and large old panel trucks are used in the smaller
towns. <span class="bluetext">(((Large old <STRONG>heavily polluting</STRONG> panel
trucks, but let's gloss over that.)))</span></P>
<P>Government officials in yellow garb pull over nearly
empty government vehicles and trucks on Havana's
streets and fill them with people needing a ride.
Chevys from the 1950s cruise along with four people
in front and four more in back.
<span class="bluetext">(((Imagine the joy of being brusquely waved to the
curb by one of these "government officials in
yellow garb.")))</span></P>
<P>A donkey cart with a taxi license nailed to the
frame also travels Cuba's streets. Many trucks were
converted to passenger transport by welding steps to
the back so riders could get on and off with ease.
<span class="bluetext">(((Scientific socialist production buries inefficient
capital, making the exploitation of man by man
a thing of the past.)))</span></P>
<P>Health Care and Education - National Priorities</P>
<P>Even though Cuba is a poor country, with a per
capita Gross Domestic Product of only $3,000 per year
(putting them in the bottom third of all nations),
life expectancy is the same as in the U.S., and
infant mortality is below that in the U.S.</P>
<P>The literacy rate in Cuba is 97 percent, the same
as in the U.S. Cuba's education system, as well as
its medical system is free. <span class="bluetext">(((I'm all for free
health care, but not really nuts about the prospect
of being in the bottom third of all nations. You'd
think that a society with so much savoir faire
and unleashed ingenuity would rank in a little above,
say, fascist-plagued Chile.)))</span></P>
<P>When Cubans suffered through their version of a peak
oil crisis, they maintained their free medical system,
one of the major factors that helped them to survive.
Cubans repeatedly emphasize how proud they are of
their system. <span class="bluetext">(((Cue agitprop.)))</span></P>
<P>Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, there was one
doctor for every 2000 people. Now there is a doctor
for every 167 people. Cuba also has an international
medical school and trains doctors to work in other
poor countries. Each year there are 20,000 Cuban
doctors abroad doing this kind of work. <span class="bluetext">(((With
the obligatory nationalist bragging taken care of,
we can now return to the topic of permaculture.)))</span></P>
<P>With meat scarce and fresh local vegetables in
abundance since 1995, Cubans now eat a healthy,
low-fat, nearly vegetarian, diet. They also have
a healthier outdoor lifestyle and walking and
bicycling have become much more common.</P>
<P>"Before, Cubans didn't eat that many vegetables.
Rice and beans and pork meat was the basic diet,"
Sanchez from the Foundation for Nature and
Humanity said. "At some point necessity taught
them, and now they demand [vegetables]." <span class="bluetext">(((I
wonder what they really demand. I bet they
wouldn't turn up their noses at a 14-ounce
T-bone steak with all the trimmings.)))</span></P>
<P>Doctors and nurses live in the community where they
work and usually above the clinic itself. In remote
rural areas, three-story buildings are constructed
with the doctor's office on the bottom floor and
two apartments on the second and third floors,
one for the doctor and one for the nurse. <span class="bluetext">(((In
other words, the Cuban medical profession is
a rural mom-and-pop shop.)))</span></P>
<P>In the cities, the doctors and nurses always live
in the neighborhoods they serve. They know the
families of their patients and try to treat people
in their homes.</P>
<P>"Medicine is a vocation, not a job," exclaimed a
Havana doctor, demonstrating the motivation for her
work. In Cuba 60 percent of the doctors are women.
<span class="bluetext">(((One wonders why pink-collar jobs are ritually
demeaned and disenfranchised == likely its this
time-honored willingness of women to go out and
labor for social-capital rather than actual pay.)))</span></P>
<P>Education is considered the most important social
activity in Cuba. Before the revolution, there was
one teacher for every 3,000 people. Today the ratio
is one for every 42 people, with a teacher-student
ratio of 1 to 16. Cuba has a higher percentage of
professionals than most developing countries, and
with 2 percent of the population of Latin America,
Cuba has 11 percent of all the scientists.
<span class="bluetext">(((Another state poster glued here... how come
all these teachers and scientists can't boost
the economy out of the bottom ranks? China is
Communist, everybody hates and fears them much
more than they do Cubans, and yet they're rockin'
it.)))</span></P>
<P>In an effort to halt migration from the countryside
to the city during the Special Period, <span class="bluetext">(((try
to imagine the scenes of woe and mayhem there)))</span>
higher education was spread out into the provinces,
expanding learning opportunities and strengthening
rural communities. <span class="bluetext">(((Kind of a "send those weak
intelligentsia to the countryside" Red Guard
innovation. Bet those scientists got a lot of
labwork done in those quiet, scholastic retreats.)))</span></P>
<P>Before the Special Period there were only three
institutions of higher learning in Cuba. Now there
are 50 colleges and universities throughout the
country, seven in Havana. <span class="bluetext">(((Why?)))</span></P>
<P>The Power of Community</P>
<P>Throughout its travels, the documentary crew saw
and experienced the resourcefulness, determination,
and optimism of the Cuban people, often hearing the
phrase "Sí, se puede" or "Yes it can be done."
<span class="bluetext">(((They're also a handsome people who can dance
like angels and their ice cream is really tasty.)))</span></P>
<P>People spoke of the value of "resistir" or
"resistance," showing their determination to overcome
obstacles. And they have lived under a U.S. economic
blockade since the early 1960s, viewed as the
ultimate test of the Cuban ability to resist.
<span class="bluetext">(((The US has lived under a Cuban economic
blockade since the early 1960s, leading American
food producers to put fructose corn syrup into
prepared foods instead of Cuban sugarcane
sucrose sugar, causing hapless Americans to bloat as
drastically as overfed Cuban gerbils. Also,
no decent cigars.)))</span></P>
<P>There is much to learn from Cuba's response to the
loss of cheap and abundant oil. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah. It shows
that a repellent regime deprived of oil fails
to collapse, becoming even more repellent, while
disguising the sufferings of the population with
wads of predigested green rhetoric. And: no matter
how bad things get in the climate crisis, there's
gonna be some moron wandering around claiming
that all the mayhem is great and should be construed
as a civilizational advance. Pray that this guy
doesn't have a gun, a uniform and the power of
arrest.)))</span></P>
<P>The staff of The Community Solution sees these
lessons as especially important for people in
developing countries, who make up 82 percent of
the world's population and live more on life's edge.
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah: "Third World" people, always be leary of
white guys with "appropriate" "solutions" that they
would never dream of imposing on themselves.)))</span></P>
<P>But developed countries are also vulnerable to
shortages in energy. And with the coming onset of
peak oil, all countries will have to adapt to the
reality of a lower energy world.</P>
<P>With this new reality, the Cuban government changed
its 30-year motto from "Socialism or Death" to
"A Better World is Possible." <span class="bluetext">(((Did Cuba really
do that? That's like changing the motto "Of the
People, By the People, For the People" to "How
about some extra fries with that?")))</span></P>
<P><BR>
Government officials allowed private entrepreneurial
farmers <span class="bluetext">((("kulak class enemies")))</span> and neighborhood
organizations <span class="bluetext">((("Marxist party cadres")))</span> to use
public land to grow and sell their produce.</P>
<P>They pushed decision-making down to the grassroots
level and encouraged initiatives in their
neighborhoods. <span class="bluetext">((("You're on your own, sucker.")))</span></P>
<P>They created more provinces. <span class="bluetext">(((Don't blame
Castro, blame the provincial flak-catchers.)))</span></P>
<P>They encouraged migration back to the farms and
rural areas and reorganized their provinces to be
in-line with agricultural needs. <span class="bluetext">(((Forced relocation
out of cities before they implode.)))</span></P>
<P>From The Community Solution's viewpoint, <span class="bluetext">(((I
know I've been going on a bit here, but this is
ALL the "Community Solution's viewpoint" == this
whole thing is a put-up job without a whisper of
dissent)))</span> Cuba did what it could to survive,
despite its ideology of a centralized economy.</P>
<P>In the face of peak oil and declining oil production,
will America do what it takes to survive, in spite
of its ideology of individualism and consumerism?
<span class="bluetext">(((Why not worry about Australia? They've got
the very same problems, plus no rain.)))</span></P>
<P>Will Americans come together in community, as
Cubans did, in the spirit of sacrifice and mutual
support? <span class="bluetext">(((Or will we all end up in the handbasket
to hell of Cuban reality, with spies on every block,
commandeered cars crammed with strangers, wheelbarrow
traffic jams and food grown on the levelled sites
of former strip malls and fried-food shacks? Yes,
yes, I know this sounds very James Howard Kunstler
== there are times when one has to appreciate the
prophet of a long emergency. At least the guy
writes in real English instead of a numbing, tapioca
nomenklatura-ese.)))</span></P>
<P>"There is climate change, the price of oil, the crisis
of energy," Beres from Cuba Solar said, listing off
the challenges humanity faces. "What we must know is
that the world is changing and we must change the
way we see the world."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Or we can face the facts on the ground without
blinding ourselves with political spin, which may
be Al Gore's greatest gift to his fellow politicals.
He knows they're in major trouble even if they can't
force inconvenient truths out of their mouths.)))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
WELL, HE GOT THE NOBEL,<BR>
ANYHOW, AND YEAH, I<BR>
COULDN'T BE HAPPIER<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-5817159236642983110?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-83868608661864080182007-08-06T12:10:00.000-07:002007-08-06T12:13:39.176-07:00Not a Viridian Note<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>SHARE festival 2008, SHARE contest,
digital art prize</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>an announcement
probably pretty typical of the work I will
be up to for the next seven months. It's
about Italian cyberculture and design.</dd></DL>
<P>Competition Announcement: Share Prize 2008
Introduction</P>
<P>SHARE AWARD : DIGITAL ART PRIZE 2008
Competition announcement<BR>
Art. 1<BR>
Subject<BR>
Piemonte Share Festival announces the second edition
of the Share Prize 2008 for digital art.
The competition jury will award a prize of E2,500.00
to the work (published or unpublished) which best
represents experimentation between arts and new
technologies.<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((I am the chairman of this competition jury.
Yes, me! As all entrants to Viridian Design Contests
know, I take such duties with lethal seriousness.
Are you an experimental new-media digital-arts
type with a hankering to stun all Europe? You
are? Then trot that thing over pronto.)))</span></P>
<P>The candidates for the prize (a short list of a
maximum of 6 competitors) will be guests at the 4th
edition of the Share Festival, taking place in Turin
March 2008 at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti,
Turin. In order to be declared winner of the prize,
every artist has to take part in the 4th edition of
Share Festival, by preparing his or her work of art,
to be properly evaluated by jury and public.</P>
<P>The organization is available at offering all the
costs regarding the preparation of the 6 selected
works as well as travel and accommodation expenses
for the artists, and, possibly, the prize itself.
<span class="bluetext">(((That's right, we will FLY YOU TO EUROPE and
likely feed you spaghetti there, given that the Euro
is at an unprecedented $1.38. That'll might
even make up for mysterious Italian withholding
taxes on the Italian prize.)))</span></P>
<P>Nomination of 6 candidates for the prize: by November,
2007. The announcement will be published on the
following website: <A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A>
The winner will be announced in March 2008 during
the award ceremony at Share Festival. <span class="bluetext">(((And
I certainly plan to attend that and to congratulate
the winner personally.)))</span></P>
<P>Art. 2<BR>
Aim<BR>
The prize aims to discover, promote and sustain
digital arts. <span class="bluetext">(((Who can't like THAT?!)))</span></P>
<P>Art.3<BR>
Entry Conditions<BR>
The contest is open to any Italian and foreign artist
using digital technology as a language of creative
expression, in all its shapes and formats and in
combination with analogical technologies and/or any
other material (i.e. computer animation / visual
effects, digital music, interactive art, net art,
software art, live cinema/vj, audiovisual performance,
etc.). Each artist or group can enter up to 3 works.
Artists who are part of a group participating in the
contest may also enter up to 3 individual works.</P>
<P>Participating entries must be registered on the site
<A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A> using the registration form.</P>
<P>Registration and description of the competition entry forms
should be either in English or Italian;
English is preferred.</P>
<P>Art. 4<BR>
Conditions of exclusion</P>
<P>The competition is not open to:</P>
<UL>
<LI>Jury members, organising body, their partners
or relatives up to the sixth degree inclusive
<span class="bluetext">(((That's right, I can't plan to enter myself!
Even though I am a net.art critic of long standing,
and I not only know what I like, I even know why
it's good!)))</span></LI>
<LI>employees or collaborators of Jury members or
announcement committee</LI>
<LI>anyone who drew up the competition or any
associated document</LI>
<LI>any person working as a civil servant in Public
Institutions or Administrations unless it is
specifically permitted by the administration of
affiliation <span class="bluetext">(((This is Europe, they have to
say stuff like that)))</span></LI>
<LI>unfinished projects or work <span class="bluetext">(((This means you,
design students == you actually have to finish
the project and ship it.)))</span></LI>
</UL>
<P>Art. 5<BR>
Deadlines<BR>
a. Entries must be registered on the site
<A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A> by using the registration form only.</P>
<P>b. Registration must take place by 12.00 pm on 30
September 2007. Entries after that date, for
whatever reason, will be excluded from the competition.
<span class="bluetext">(((That's why I'm telling you NOW.)))</span></P>
<P>Art. 6<BR>
Required documents<BR>
Candidates must fill in the on line registration form
available at <A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A><BR>
Applications must contain the following information:</P>
<UL>
<LI>Title of the work</LI>
<LI>C.V. of artist or artists (in case of new groups
of artists, each member's C.V. is necessary)</LI>
<LI>Concise description of the work (max. 150 words).</LI>
<LI>URL documents concerning the work itself, where
further details of the work can be found (see Art.
6bis)</LI>
<LI>No material must be sent (paper, DVD, CD, etc)
in addition to the specific requests of the public notice.
Art. 6bis
Further details on URL document
Every participant must provide further details
from those given in the information on a specific
web site. It must contain:</LI>
<LI>Description of the work (max 500 words)
explaining the main concept and technologies used</LI>
<LI>Images (.jpg) and/or video (.avi) and/or audio
(.mp3) of the work</LI>
<LI>C.V. of artist or artists (in case of new groups
of artists, each member's C.V. is necessary)
NB: competitors are responsible for the design and
costs incurred in producing the Web Site regarding
the work for the contest.</LI>
</UL>
<P>Art. 7<BR>
Selection jury<BR>
The jury, meeting in non-public sessions, will select
6 works among those presented for the contest within
November, 2007. The candidates for the prize (a short
list of a maximum of 6 competitors) will be asked to
take part in the 4th edition of the Share Festival,
taking place in Turin March 2007 at the Accademia
Albertina di Belle Arti, Turin. <span class="bluetext">(((An academy not
far from the romantic banks of the River Po,
an area of slanting sunbeams, cute cobbled plazas,
straw-wrapped Chianti bottles, sunglassed babes
in tailored Milanese suits and stiletto heels,
yes, when they said "Belle Arti" they weren't
kidding about it)))</span></P>
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/notviridian-741613.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/notviridian-741603.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<P><BR>
The announcement will be published on the following
website: <A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A><BR>
The winner will be announced on March 2008 during
the award ceremony at Share Festival.</P>
<P>The jury is composed by:<BR>
Bruce Sterling (writer and journalist, Austin) -
chairman<BR>
Piero Gilardi (artist, Turin)
Anne Nigten (managing director, v2 e DEAF, Rotterdam)
Oscar Abril Ascaso (curator Sonar, Barcelona)
Stefano Mirti (architect, Interaction design Lab,
Milano<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((That's right, your jury's from Austin, Turin,
Rotterdam, Barcelona and Milan == so try not to
suck!)))</span><BR>
Art. 8<BR>
Information<BR>
The Contest Information offices are located at
Association The Sharing premises.
General coordination: Manuela De Caro
tel. +39.011. 588.36.93 faxes: 0039.011.83.91304
<A HREF="mailto:manuela.decaro@toshare.it">manuela.decaro@toshare.it</A><BR>
Art. 9<BR>
Property and rights concerning projects and
selected works<BR>
With the registration to the contest, the authors
of the winning works grant The Sharing Association
the right to publish and reproduce the works,
totally or partly, as part of cultural promotion.</P>
<P>Art.10<BR>
Publishing this notice<BR>
This notice is made up of three pages and will be
published via Internet at the following address:
<A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A>. News will also be available via
all interested parties.<BR>
*two thousands five hundreds gross taxes and
national insurance contributions <span class="bluetext">(((I'll let
you know when I figure out what that means.)))</span></P>
<P>Manuela De Caro<BR>
SHARE FESTIVAL<BR>
experiences in digital cultures</P>
<P><A HREF="mailto:manuela.decaro@toshare.it">manuela.decaro@toshare.it</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.toshare.it/">www.toshare.it</A></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O
LIFE IS A DASHING AND BOLD ADVENTURE,<br>
AS THE FORTUNE COOKIE LIKES TO SAY<br>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-8386860866186408018?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-36411169694834952752007-07-24T18:23:00.001-07:002007-07-24T21:47:47.565-07:00Viridian Note 00495: Serbia and the Flames<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Serbia, climate crisis, Jasmina Tesanovic</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>guest-star Viridian pundit is wife of Bruce
Sterling.</dd></DL>
<P><strong>Links</strong>: Today was the hottest day ever recorded in Belgrade, Serbia. Broke the previous
heat record by two-and-a-half degrees Celsius.
<A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6913152.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6913152.stm</A></P>
<P>Naturally, I was there. Hey, I could have been worse off in Tewksbury.
<A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6914254.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/6914254.stm</A></P>
<P>I'd be betting that when they start counting the elderly ex-Communist dead in this
region, they're going to stack up in surprising, French-heat-wave style numbers. Although
we Viridians have been predicting and describing these calamities for years now,
surprisingly, nobody in power seems used to them yet. Even the victims still act a little
surprised.
<A HREF="http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/24/news/heat.php">http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/24/news/heat.php</A></P>
<P>I try not to yield to the temptation to repeat the obvious to 2,000 people day after
day, though, when mayhem arrives on my doorstep, I still feel that Viridian urge.
Nevertheless, I have to shut this list down soon. It makes no sense to mimic news that's
on the front page of Google News every day.
And it's getting louder. Every year. All those NGOs, corporate-funded professionals,
energy speculators...
let them do the heavy lifting, dammit!<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/">http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/</A></P>
<P>It's not like the climate crisis is news to people in power; they all know it's there,
like AIDS, or a fire in the basement; they just wonder what they can possibly do about
their drowning, baking constituents.
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/dimas/index_en.htm
<A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/brown-links-floods-to-climate-change/2007/07/24/1185043111436.html">http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/brown-links-floods-to-climate-change/2007/07/24/1185043111436.html</A></P>
<P>Besides, I've now come up with a new,<BR>
non-Viridian design-journalism scheme which is going to occupy all my efforts for about
six months!
Rather than being global and theoretical and involving a lot of eco-handwringing, it's
going to involve stuff like heavy industry and lots of cool conventions and glamorous
parties! Furthermore, rather than being parochial, Texan and American, it will have a
decisively Italian flavor! Did you know that Torino, Italy, is the official 'world
capital of design' for 2008? Well, neither does anybody else, and I plan to help change
that.
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it/portale/en/">http://www.torinoworlddesigncapital.it/portale/en/</A></P>
<P>You can help, too. There will be more news in September. In August I'm fleeing the
heat by heading into the hills to finish my novel.
Hey, somebody's gotta write 'em.</P>
<P>In the meantime, here is an article by Viridian guest star Jasmina Tesanovic.</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmina_Tesanovic">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmina_Tesanovic</A>
<A HREF="http://blog.b92.net/blog/59/Jasmina%20Tesanovic/">http://blog.b92.net/blog/59/Jasmina%20Tesanovic/</A></P>
<P>Serbia and the Flames</P>
<P>Today was the hottest day in Serbia ever since the temperature has been measured, 45
C.</P>
<P>If we Serbs were truly interested in our survival as a nation, we'd be scrambling to
get some modern hardware for dealing with ecological catastrophes.
It's been ten years since Milosevic sold off our forest fire-fighting aircraft and
pocketed the money.</P>
<P>We would talk together seriously about last year's massive floods throughout the Danube
basin, about this year's deadly heat wave in Serbia and throughout the Balkans, about the
state of emergency in our neighbor Greece, about the electricity shortages and blackouts
throughout the region, about the woods of our homeland set on fire.</P>
<P>Even tidy Britain is being overwhelmed with their flood catastrophes, while here in
Serbia we lack any organized emergency-response because the Serbian state is, by its
nature, in an emergency situation all the time.</P>
<P>Instead, the Serbian Parliament spent this day discussing Kosovo: angling for Russian
friendship to fend off the US demands, while dodging EU pressure to simply let go of that
long-lost province. They have no air conditioning inside the Serbian Parliament, so
delegates were comically fanning themselves with official papers while the presidents were
sweating in their stuffy official suits.
</P>
<P>The Russians promised us practical help for the smoldering forests of the border, but
they have yet to send a single Russian helicopter. Meanwhile the firemen and local
peasants are saving our burning forest heritage with raw courage and mostly
hand-tools.</P>
<P>When will we overcome our local obsessions and realize we are part of a world in a
general crisis?
The climate crisis isn't for rich countries, it's for every country. Especially us. We had
Floods in 2006, now Fires in 2007 == the cause is in the Air, and we will end up with no
Earth.</P>
<P>Global warming is invisible... it steals up on us like a slow fever, but our daily
lives are being transformed by it. Kids can't get milk at school, eggs might be poisoned
with salmonella, the crops are wilting in the fields.</P>
<P>My friend, a pianist, sews clothes by her air-conditioner instead of playing her
piano.</P>
<P>I am singing after dark instead of writing at noon.</P>
<P>My friend is writing a book about the future but is not sure if it is the same book he
started anymore.</P>
<P>My young friend, the web designer, had her computer collapse. So she went out to walk
her three dogs and collapsed from the heat in two hours.</P>
<P>My friend activist from inner Serbia is sleeping in an office where there is an air
conditioner. Two weeks ago before, she condemned air conditioners because they burn fossil
fuels and make the global warming worse. She also has the very Serbian superstition that
cold drafts of air are not good for your bones. Well, any hot draft of air over 40C does
not cool your body == it heats your body and can kill you from heatstroke.</P>
<P>My pregnant Albanian friend from Pristina sleeps heavily day and night while her
friends in Kosovo demonstrate for some unilateral declaration of independence.</P>
<P>If there is any justice in this injustice, it is that global warming has no borders or
nationality, and yet it has guilty and victims. Guilty: all of us who ignored inconvenient
truths and sacrificed the ecological conscience for other more or less legitimate
priorities. Victims: everyone yet to be born on our damaged planet; when crops wilt and
forests burn down to black stumps, does it matter if that wasteland is called Kosovo or
Serbia?</P>
<P>Year by year, mankind is becoming justly afraid of our vengeful climate. I have an
epiphany: our world in 1999 is becoming all the world. No electrical, no water, no
business-as-usual: fear.
I remember those bombing days of Serbia and Kosovo when everyone in this land, without
exception, was a refugee under a scowling enemy sky.</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
IT'S NOT ABOUT SURVIVING;<BR>
IT'S ABOUT PREVAILING<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-3641116969483495275?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-83094751042273363632007-07-01T07:49:00.001-07:002007-07-01T07:49:57.898-07:00Viridian Note 00494: Climate Change and Nuclear War<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, climate crisis, nuclear war, Russian petrocracy,
Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, Khaki Green, apocalyptophilia</dd>
<dt>
Attention Conservation Notice:
</dt><dd>some Russian worrying a lot about the steady approach of
doomsday.</dd></DL>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((We Viridians have often referred to the climate crisis as "the dirty little sister
of nuclear armageddon," but there is some small possibility that a mere nuclear war is the
cleaner little sister of a climate armageddon.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((So there's something charming about having lived long enough to see a Russian
soberly discussing a Dr. Strangelove Automatic Doomsday Climate Calamity. This guy's not
just a little upset about it == he's petrified.
Given that Russia is today's number-one<BR>
petrocracy and almost as fussy about selling fossil fuels as the USA is about suicidally
buying them, this rant can be construed as good news. Remember how worried people were
about a rapidly accelerating out of control nuclear arms race that nobody could stop?
Well, it stopped. Today we've got an out of control unsustainable fossil-fuel race.
And here's a Russian telling other Russians about it.)))</span></P>
<P><strong>Links:</strong><BR>
The Russians: a handsome, whimsical people.
<br><a href="http://www.faceyourpockets.com/index1.html">http://www.faceyourpockets.com/index1.html</A></P>
<P>The Americans: in a Soviet-style ideological delirium and doomed to a similar collapse.
Says French demographics expert. Okay, fine, but THEN what? It's not like Russia
vaporized and went away just because their economy made no sense.
<br><a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091205H.shtml">http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091205H.shtml</A></P>
<P>The birth of agriculture: a prehistoric global response to climate change.
<br><a href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/06/29/plant-domestication-early-and-often">http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2007/06/29/plant-domestication-early-and-often</A></P>
<P>"We are about to leave the Holocene." Re-entering the Holocene ought to be pretty
bumpy, too.
<br><a href="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006967.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006967.html</A></P>
<P>The Chinese. Far more seriously worried about their own energy consumption than
Americans are.
<br><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/24/content_6285765.htm">http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/24/content_6285765.htm</A></P>
<P>Swiss can no longer sell Swiss snow to global Indians.
"We lost the glacier." So everybody's catching it.
<br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntOjGVRimPc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntOjGVRimPc</A>
http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/video_prod_en.cfm?type=detail&prodid=1025&src=
1</P>
<P>Feel much better about imminent apocalypse through buying a neat-o bamboo PC!
<br><a href="http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/27/asus_ecobook/">http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/27/asus_ecobook/</A></P>
<P>Arnold Schwarzenegger gets standing ovation from a thousand American mayors. "I was so
happy and so delighted when I found out that you've made climate change No. 1 on your
10-point plan to strengthen the nation," he told the crowd in the Hyatt Regency Century
Plaza ballroom.
<br><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayors24jun24">http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayors24jun24</A>,1,5778707.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true</P>
<P>Austinites conspire to seize solar-power market, will talk to anybody, even Germans and
Japanese.
<br><a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:497017">http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:497017</A></P>
<h2>Impact Of Climate Change Equal To Nuclear War</h2><h3> by Viktor Danilov-Danilyan</h3>
<P>Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jun 29, 2007</P>
<P>Global climate change defies forecasting. Unprecedented heat, floods, droughts and
typhoons brought about by climate change cause tremendous damage. The number of such
calamities has doubled over the last 10 years, according to the Russian Emergency
Situations Ministry.</P>
<P>Some experts think there is nothing to worry about == periodic alterations in the
climate are normal. Some believe the general alarm is the result of a mere lack of
knowledge. But then, the danger posed by climate change is no smaller than the danger
posed by nuclear war, and we have to face and evaluate it, however vague it might
appear.</P>
<P>There is no way to hide from global warming. In fact, the repercussions of climate
change might be even worse because the entire climatic system will be thrown out of
balance. The average surface temperature is going up, and so are annual deviations from
it.</P>
<P>Natural calamities go hand in hand with warming.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((So do unnatural calamities; if we have an unbearable climate disaster <STRONG>that
creates</STRONG> a nuclear war, that'll have to rank as an ultimate Wexelblat Disaster.
Did you know Alan's got his own Wikipedia entry here? Kinda awesome reading, eh?)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wexelblat_disaster">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wexelblat_disaster</A></P>
<P>Disastrous floods are getting more frequent in Russia and many other countries. They
account for more than half of weather-related dangers.</P>
<P>Floods alternate with droughts in European Russia's south. Heavy rains in spring and
early summer cause floods, after which there is not a single raindrop for three months,
destroying those crops that survive the floods.</P>
<P>The Kuban and Stavropol regions, Russia's breadbasket, permanently face this
danger.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Why did the Soviet Union <STRONG>really</STRONG> collapse?
The Reds took the Ukraine, the breadbasket of Europe, lavishly applied ideological delirium, consistently couldn't feed themselves or anyone else, sold fossil fuels to get bread, then went broke.
So says Yegor Gaidar, anyhow. Basically, this means that Lysenkoism, the political inability to scientifically face a very basic resource problem, eventually doomed the Soviet Union.)))</span> <br><a href="http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25991,filter.all/pub_detail.asp">http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25991,filter.all/pub_detail.asp</A></P>
<P>Economic disasters caused by natural calamities are becoming ever more frequent. The World Bank estimates Russia's weather damages, largely caused by climate change, at an annual 30-60 billion rubles, roughly
$1-$2 billion. <span class="bluetext">(((Kyoto == "too expensive to implement.")))</span></p>
<P>Floods, usually caused by typhoons, are also frequent in the Russian Far East-the
Primorye and Khabarovsk territories, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.</P>
<P>Winter floods are typical of the Arctic Ocean basin.</P>
<P>The spring inundation of the Lena, the largest Eurasian river, washed away the town and
port of Lensk in 2001.
The town was rebuilt on a new site. The evacuation and ensuing housing and infrastructural
reconstruction cost an exorbitant sum.
<span class="bluetext">(((At least they did rebuild it, unlike Holly Beach,
Louisiana.)))</span><BR>
Link:<BR>
<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Beach,_Louisiana">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holly_Beach,_Louisiana</A></P>
<P>Average warming in Russia due to anthropogenic factors is about one degree. In Siberia,
it is four to six degrees == enough to shrink the permafrost area.
Pernicious effects are visible even now, with the borders of the taiga, forest tundra and
tundra itself receding northward == suffice it to compare space photographs from 30 years
ago with the latest ones.</P>
<P>The change endangers oil pipelines <span class="bluetext">(((as you can see, Alan Wexelblat fully BELONGS in
Wikipedia)))</span> and the entire infrastructure of Siberia's west and northwest.</P>
<P>Permafrost thawing has not yet achieved a scale that poses a threat of infrastructural
accidents == but we can never be too careful. <span class="bluetext">((("Wexelblat Permafrost
Disaster.")))</span></P>
<P>Warming also poses a great danger to regional flora and fauna, which have to undergo a
very painful adaptation process. Considerable warming will result in changes to ecosystems,
for example, broadleaved woods ousting the coniferous taiga. Warming makes the climate
unstable, with bitter frosts and sultry summers, which is bad for both forest types ==
conifers suffer in the heat, while broadleaf trees do not survive frosty winters. So the
biota will face many shocks before the climate stabilizes. <span class="bluetext">(((Assuming that the climate
EVER "stabilizes.")))</span>
</P>
<P>Warming is also a major problem for marshes and the permafrost, which will release
accumulated methane and carbon dioxide gas. Gas hydrates from the northern sea shelf will
vaporize. All that will drastically increase atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations,
spurring the warming on in a vicious circle.</P>
<P>The environmental balance has already been upset.
Many plants and animals will suffer. In particular, the polar bear's habitat is doomed to
shrink, and millions of wild geese, eiders, brants and other birds will lose half of their
nesting grounds in a matter of 20-40 years. A three to four degree warming may interrupt
the food chain of the tundra ecosystem, lead to the extinction of many species.</P>
<P>Invasions of ecosystems by alien species are one of the worst manifestations of global
warming. Thus, locusts are moving north, and have become frequent guests in the Samara
Region on the Volga and certain other areas. The mite habitat is rapidly expanding, too.
Pests migrate north far quicker than the border between, for example, the taiga and the
forest tundra shifts.
</P>
<P>Once they find themselves in a foreign ecosystem, pests become gangster species,
crowding out the native biota with dynamic multiplication. <span class="bluetext">((("Gangster species."
One can see that this article was written for domestic Russian consumption.)))</span> Climate
change thus brings epidemics in its wake. Subtropical malarial mosquitoes now feel at home
in the area around Moscow.</P>
<P>Scientists who welcome warming as a boon for Russian agriculture are entirely wrong.
True, the vegetation period is becoming longer == but this benefit is outweighed by the
hazard of spring frosts destroying young crops.</P>
<P>Another argument in favor of warming is the energy that would be saved by a reduced
need for heating.
But then, the United States uses more energy for air conditioning than Russia does for
heating even now.</P>
<P>How can humankind fight climate change? It's no use opposing Nature == but we can
reduce pollution and other adverse environmental effects brought about by humankind. The
problem appeared on the political agenda in the 20th century.</P>
<P>The World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program
established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988, which brought together
several thousand scientists, including Russians.</P>
<P>The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change entered into force in 1994. One hundred
and ninety countries have joined it since then. The document determines the scope of the
international partnership to deal with the issue, whose first achievement was the Kyoto
Protocol of 1997.</P>
<P>Intensive economic activities are surely bad for the climate. That is why the protocol
demands a reduction in air pollution caused by methane, carbon dioxide and other gases.
<span class="bluetext">(((It isn't "economic activity" that wrecks climate, it's "greenhouse emissions" that
wreck climate. They're not the same thing, and they've only been related for about 200
years.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Russia ratified the protocol along with another 166 countries, and has been true to its
pledge. It is introducing new, clean technologies for industry and everyday life. Cleaner
air will help reverse the trend of climate change.</P>
<P>Viktor Danilov-Danilyan is director of the Institute of Water Problems, Russian Academy
of Sciences.</P>
<P>The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily
represent those of RIA Novosti.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Defeated on the facts, fossil-fuel fans like to resort to nationalist arguments.
"But he's Russian! Russians sell oil, don't they?" Of course he's Russian; he also
exhaled carbon dioxide while writing the article, and most of the Internet, with the
exception of Google, Gopod bless them, spewed emissions while transferring his sentiments
to your computer screen. If you were born before 1989, you paid for the Cold War. The
point isn't who paid to prepare for Apocalypse == the point is that we successfully got it
together not to have
one.)))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
YES, WE COULD HAVE<BR>
BLOWN OURSELVES TO<BR>
SHREDS AT A MOMENT'S<BR>
NOTICE. WE DIDN'T<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-8309475104227336363?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-27423325444583433822007-06-28T06:23:00.001-07:002007-06-28T06:23:55.956-07:00Viridian Note 00493: British Military Describes Khaki Green<DL><dt>
Key concepts:
</dt><dd>Khaki Green, British military, Air Marshall Jock Stirrup, military
implications of the climate crisis</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>keenly depressing, yet something of a tribute to Viridian foresight.</dd></DL>
<P><strong>Links:</strong></P>
<P>Climate crisis in former location, central Texas:
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/06/climate-crisis-.html">http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/06/climate-crisis-.html</A></P>
<P>Climate crisis in current location, southeast Europe:
<A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/06/planet-ark-five.html">http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2007/06/planet-ark-five.html</A></P>
<P><strong>Link:</strong><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42799/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42799/story.htm</A></P>
<h2>Armies Must Ready for Global Warming Role – Britain</h2>
<P>UK: June 26, 2007</P>
<P>LONDON – Global warming is such a threat to security that military planners must build
it into their calculations, the head of Britain's armed forces said on Monday.</P>
<P>Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff, said risks that climate change could cause
weakened states to disintegrate and produce major humanitarian disasters or exploitation
by armed groups had to become a feature of military planning.</P>
<P>Link: Air Marshal Sir Graham Eric Stirrup, (1949 - ):
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_Stirrup">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_Stirrup</A></P>
<P>But he said first analyses showed planners would not have to switch their geographical
focus, because the areas most vulnerable to climate change are those where security risks
are already high.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Interesting, isn't it? The places where we've already got hell are gonna have more
hell.)))</span></P>
<P>"Just glance at a map of the areas most likely to be affected and you are struck at
once by the fact that they are exactly those parts of the world where we see fragility,
instability and weak governance today.</P>
<P>"It seems to me rather like pouring petrol onto a burning fire," Stirrup told the
Chatham House think-tank in London. <span class="bluetext">(((Nice fossil-fuel metaphor there.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
Chatham House studies on climate change:
<A HREF="http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/index.php?id=189&pid=403">http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/index.php?id=189&pid=403</A></P>
<P>British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett chaired the first debate on climate change
at the UN Security Council in April this year. She argued that the potential for climate
change to cause wars meant it should be on the council's radar.</P>
<P>Stirrup said the unpredictability of the immediate effects of global warming on
rainfall patterns and storms meant flashpoints could be advanced by years without
warning.</P>
<P>He did not identify the problem areas, but Bert Metz of the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change told the meeting they included Central America, the Amazon Basin,
large parts of north, central and southern Africa and swathes of Asia.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((And New Orleans. And maybe Los Angeles. And
Australia.)))</span></P>
<P>Scientists say average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius
this century due to burning fossil fuels for power and transport, melting ice caps,
bringing floods, droughts and famines, and putting millions of lives at risk.</P>
<P>Stirrup said the security threat was far more immediate than those figures might
suggest.</P>
<P>"If temperatures rise towards the upper end of the forecast range we could already
start to see serious physical consequences by 2040 – and that is if things get no worse."
<span class="bluetext">(((He's not a scientist, folks. He's a general. Well, an Air Marshall.)))</span></P>
<P>"If things do get worse you don't need to come very much forward from 2040 before, in
my terms at least, you are talking about the day after tomorrow,"
Stirrup said.</P>
<P>He said the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington showed the devastation
that attacks fuelled by political, economic and social deprivation could achieve.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((It's a tribute to the political genius of Al Qaeda that, six years later, people
still talk about the damage to two and one-fifth buildings.
Meanwhile, where the real paramilitary trouble is:)))</span></P>
<P>Global narco-guerillas in North America:
<A HREF="http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2007/06/journal_mexicos.html">http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2007/06/journal_mexicos.html</A>
Hollow states:<BR>
<A HREF="http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2007/04/hollow_states.html">http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2007/04/hollow_states.html</A></P>
<P>"Now add in the effects of climate change. Poverty and despair multiply, resentment
surges and people look for someone to blame," he said.</P>
<P>Even if the world agreed quickly on a way of equitably tackling the climate crisis –
which was far from sure – the nature of the problem meant a significant degree of
adverse change was already in the pipeline.</P>
<P>"That rapidity, alongside the size of the global population and the complexity of
today's society, leaves us particularly vulnerable," Stirrup said.
"It is bound to present substantial security challenges of one kind or another."</P>
<P>Asked on the margins of the meeting if that meant military planners should opt for
premptive action where they saw a security crisis emerging, he said:
"Only in the sense of building governance.
Recognising the problem is the first step."</P>
<P>Story by Jeremy Lovell</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((So, what's the story here? Well, as I pointed out earlier, green design is winning.
Practically every state with a trace of civilization has got capitalist-green fever now.
They'll even do it in the teeth of government opposition, as they do right now in the USA.
So design, in the sense of a comprehensive grass-roots effort to change the infrastructure,
is doing great.
It is scarcely necessary to talk about this; it has become mainstreamed.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((However, nation-states couldn't get it together to create a Kyoto-friendly world
order, so we're seeing many failed states and hollow states.
These areas are defeating the armies of nation states through the simple tactic of
becoming and remaining ungovernable. This, as Stirrup is pointing out here, is making
failed states indistinguishable from climatic disaster areas.
They are going to become the same thing.
Khaki Green, as an idea, is far from mainstreamed, but this article is a strong signifier
of it.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, but the rain is going to fall with
particular virulence on places where there is no government.
No army. No civil services. And no functional ability to restore the infrastructure.
Peoples who defeat nation-states through tactics of civil disorder are going to be
particularly vulnerable to climate-crisis starvation and epidemics. After the era os
operations-other-than-war, there will be mass-deaths-other-than-genocide. Mass deaths of
peoples, mass deaths of former nations, but without any institutional entity inflicting
it. That's the Unthinkable, but it is certain to happen, and is already happening in
isolated locales. The question for the next decades
is: how much Unthinkable, how big is it. It's a process that "could be advanced by years
without warning.")))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
THE LESSONS HERE? (A)<BR>
DON'T LET YOUR STATE FAIL;<BR>
(B) DON'T IMAGINE YOU CAN<BR>
PUT OUT FIRES WITH BAYONETS<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-2742332544458343382?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-77101731006572564922007-05-17T11:42:00.000-07:002007-05-17T12:06:08.082-07:00Viridian Note 00492 Austin Green Capitalism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/mattbruce-718038.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://www.viridiandesign.org/uploaded_images/mattbruce-718030.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>
<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Austin Texas, Corporate Green, cleantech,
clean energy, venture capital, Austin Technology
Incubator, start-up companies, Clean Energy Venture
Summit</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>It's about a bunch of
start-up companies asking rich people for money.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:</P>
<P>The first and possibly not-only Clean Energy Venture
Summit, which planned for 300 attendees and got 400,
me included.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.cleanenergyventuresummit.com/">http://www.cleanenergyventuresummit.com/</A></P>
<P>The Austin Clean Energy Incubator, braintrust of
the event.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.cleanenergyincubator.org/">http://www.cleanenergyincubator.org/</A></P>
<P>Austin Technology Incubator.
<A HREF="http://ati.ic2.org/">http://ati.ic2.org/</A></P>
<P>Letter from the Mayor of Austin, who has a degree
in environmental design:</P>
<P>"To the Guests of the Clean Energy Venture Summit:</P>
<P>"I'm pleased to welcome you to Austin for the inaugural
Clean Energy Venture Summit. I believe you will find
Austin a unique place, ideally suited for the
development of the cleantech industry."</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((Where the Mayor of Austin went instead of
attending this local biz event: The Large Cities
Climate Summit.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.nycclimatesummit.com/">http://www.nycclimatesummit.com/</A></P>
<P>"In Austin, we have a long tradition of creativity,
entrepreneurialism and respect for our natural
environment. It's the nexus of these traditions
that has resulted in Austin recently being named
the nation's top city for cleantech development."
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, take that, Green San Francisco, Green LA,
Green Chicago, Green Seattle, and Green New York.)))</span></P>
<P>"What sets Austin apart from many cities striving
to foster cleantech industry is the exceptional
combination of resources we're bringing together
to help us achieve our goals. The Austin team
includes our municipally owned Austin Energy,
unquestionably the most progressive utility in the
nation; the Clean Energy Incubator, the first ever
of its kind; the University of Texas, with its breadth
and depth of knowledge; and the citizens of Austin ==
our most important resource of all.</P>
<P>"The Austin City Council recently adopted some of the
most ambitious clean energy and energy efficiency
targets in the nation. To achieve our goals, we will
need new technologies to help us meet the growing
energy demands of our rapidly growing community.</P>
<P>"Our plan is to build the cleantech industry of the
future == and that means attracting the right talent,
applying the right resources and leveraging a great
team to achieve this. I invite you to play a role
in this important endeavor. Together, we can build
a tomorrow as limitless as our creativity and vision
will allow. Regards, Mayor Will Wynn"</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((If you'd told me ten years ago that the Mayor
of my home town would be indulging in this kind
of rhetoric, I would have been turning cartwheels.
The Clean Energy Venture Summit was an intensely
dull event. There was scarcely a "visionary" to
be seen. On the contrary: suited, duely-diligent
lawyers and bankers were throwing millions of
dollars at engineers. That's the work of
the world, folks. This is our third swing at this
particular baseball: 1970s: eco-consciousness raising;
1990s, global political accords; 2010s, cybergreen
ecotech. They gotta win, they must not fail,
because otherwise, by the 2030s it's gonna be
Khaki Green all the way: a future of All Katrina,
all the time, for everybody.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I conveyed these bracing sentiments to the
attendees. I then went to my Austin home to find
a tree in my yard freshly blasted by a massive
lightning storm. As a Viridian guru, I'm pretty
much getting what I begged for here. But, just like
everybody else under our planet's overheated skies,
I'm gonna pay a price.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45506355@N00/502244707/</P>
<P>The corporate darlings of the event (for you
boisterous tech investors out there):</P>
<P>AgiLight:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.agilight.com/">http://www.agilight.com/</A><BR>
"The AgiLight Team brings a combined 50+ years of
experience in the electronics and solid state
lighting industry and has tremendous experience in
manufacturing, sourcing, material science, and
product integration of LED and other electronics
solutions."</P>
<P>Ausra.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.ausra.com/">http://www.ausra.com/</A><BR>
"Ausra, Inc. is developing large-scale solar electric
power parks. Endless electrical energy at affordable
prices without carbon emissions is now possible due
to our breakthroughs in the design of concentrating
solar power systems."</P>
<P>PCN Technologies.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.pcntechnologies.com">http://www.pcntechnologies.com</A>
"PCN Technology, Inc. (PCN) designs, develops and
markets advanced I/O subsystem components that
leverage existing energy systems of products, devices,
machinery, and installations in order to transmit
triple play data.PCN products interoperate with legacy
and new systems eliminating or decreasing communication
hardwire in order to provide alternative RF wireless
communication, convergence, and networking for
companies & applications having critical needs for
secure, reliable, robust data transmission."</P>
<P>SolBeam.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.ngenpartners.com">http://www.ngenpartners.com</A>
"SolBeam markets and sells concentrating photovoltaic
systems."</P>
<P>AccuWater.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.accuwater.com/">http://www.accuwater.com/</A><BR>
"AccuWater delivers products and Internet-based
services that enable property owners to optimize
landscape irrigation using landscape modelling and
local weather conditions."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((And, as they like to say, "many others.")))</span></P>
<P>Austin Energy's political pitch: a shotgun marriage
of electrical utilities and a (somewhat imaginary)
hybrid fleet of American plug-in cars.</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.pluginpartners.org/">http://www.pluginpartners.org/</A>
"Plug-In Partners is a national grass-roots initiative
to demonstrate to automakers that a market for
flexible-fuel Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)
exists today. Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles can
reduce dependence on foreign oil, decrease greenhouse
gas emissions from vehicles, lower fuel costs,
make American agriculture a fuel source, save and
created American jobs, and increase use of
renewable energy."</P>
<P>Media sponsors: GreenBiz, GreenerBuildings,
ep Overviews Daily Report, Inside GreenTech, and
Red Herring.</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<br>
IT TOOK A WHILE, BUT THEY'RE MOVING AS FAST<br>
AS THEY CAN THROW THE CASH... AND BESIDES,<br>
IT'S SOMETHING OF A PRIVILEGE<br>
TO HAVE LIVED LONG ENOUGH TO SEE THIS!<br>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-7710173100657256492?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-77649683019588577792007-02-27T14:31:00.000-08:002007-02-27T14:34:14.122-08:00Viridian Note 00491: Massive Green Buyout<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Texas utilities, coal orgies, political pressure, leveraged buyouts,
backroom Corporate Green maneuvers, TXU, Green Group</dd></P>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Stuff like this is gonna start happening all the time.
Might as well learn how it works and get used to it.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:<BR>
A cleaned-up waterway in New York City has wild beavers in it. It's been two hundred
years.
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40503/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40503/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Capturing carbon dioxide with bio-engineered microbes.
<A HREF="http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/2/22/2756644.html">http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2007/2/22/2756644.html</A></P>
<P>Here's a spacey European scheme to run an entire life-support system out of
geo-engineered microbes, which ought to prove handy when all higher organisms are killed
off by climate crisis.
<A HREF="http://ecls.esa.int/ecls/?p=melissa">http://ecls.esa.int/ecls/?p=melissa</A></P>
<P>Wow, Joseph Romm has a climate-politics blog.
He's not kidding around with it, either.
<A HREF="http://climateprogress.org/">http://climateprogress.org/</A></P>
<P>Science fiction writer Gregory Benford thinks halting the carbon economy is way too
little, too late, so he's come up with his own version of the stratospheric Sulfur Cure.
Anti-Kyoto wingnuts at the insidious Heartland Institute think Benford's idea is cheap,
dirty and great, so we'll probably be hearing a lot more of it.
It's actually one of the better thought-through geo-engineering notions, because Dr. Greg
Benford really understands physics, God bless him.
<A HREF="http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19484">http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19484</A></P>
<P>War on Terror! No, Climate Crisis! Wait, Climate Crisis Terrorism, worst o' both
worlds!
"Conference Focuses On Terror Potential Of Abrupt Climate Change.
Much of the attention devoted recently to global climate change has focused,
understandably, on its causes and possible prevention. But a group of international
experts gathered on January 24 for a conference, organized by a think tank focused on
security issues, on the potential for extremists to use the effects of climate change to
their own advantage."
<A HREF="http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/1cb42934-d759-46b3-a2e0-724b633e1804.html">http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/1cb42934-d759-46b3-a2e0-724b633e1804.html</A></P>
<P>Arab oil sheiks going solar: Abu Dhabi to build giant 500-megawatt solar-power plant.
No, they're not kidding.
They got nothing but sun and money, so they'll probably be oil-free before anybody else.
 <A HREF="http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8167:abu-dhabi-to-build-350m-solar-power-plant&Itemid=1">http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?<br>option=com_content&view=article&id=8167:abu-dhabi-to-build-350m-solar-<br>power-plant&Itemid=1</A></P>
<P>Al Gore wins the Oscar, plans gigantic planetary rock and roll concert. Can you
imagine George W. Bush doing stuff like this? Some day Bush won't be president – can you
imagine anybody trusting Bush plan, promote, explain, or organize anything? Ever?
<A HREF="http://www.algore.org">http://www.algore.org</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Now for the day's news, which is really kind of awe-inspiring in its suddenness and
grandiosity. First, enviro activists crow in victory, a sound one hasn't heard from their
camp in some years:)))</span></P>
<P>**Breaking News**<BR>
<em>Victory in Texas ... Environmental Agreement Tied to Sale of Electricity Giant Will Block
Construction of Eight Dirty Coal-Fired Power Plants</em></p>
<P>Dear Bruce,</P>
<P>Thanks to the generous support of our online activists and donors, today is a truly
historic day in the fight against global warming.</P>
<P>News just broke that Texas Pacific Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. are
seeking to acquire Texas-based energy giant TXU Corp.</P>
<P>As part of the sale agreement, Environmental Defense helped negotiate an aggressive
environmental platform that will, among other things:</P>
<P>Terminate plans for the construction of 8 of 11 coal-fired power plants TXU had hoped
to build; <span class="bluetext">(((They were planning to nail these coal-plants up in a panic rush and
grandfather 'em in before Bush leaves power.)))</span></P>
<P>Stop TXU's plans to expand coal operations in other states;</P>
<P>Endorse the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) platform, including the call for a
mandatory federal cap on carbon emissions; and</P>
<P>Reduce the company's carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.</P>
<P>Here's a story in The New York Times describing how Environmental Defense helped
negotiate this deal:
<A HREF="http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Vp16sGE1JX7B/">http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Vp16sGE1JX7B/</A></P>
<P>This is a huge victory for the environmental community.
It sends a clear message about the undeniable momentum in our campaign calling for federal
global warming legislation. <span class="bluetext">(((I'm unclear on why these guys still want to waste time in federal legislation when they got their "historic victory" by hanging out with Corporate
Green merger and acquisition financiers. You'd think they'd blow off the Bush government
and spend all their time with bankers, but, I dunno, old habits die hard.)))</span></P>
<P>The story behind today's announcement began last April when TXU announced alarming
plans to build 11 dirty coal-fired power plants in Texas. <span class="bluetext">(((Where else? The whole state stinks!)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Except for the much-beleaguered CAPITAL of Texas, Austin, "the leading city in the nation in the fight against global warming"!)))</span> <A HREF="http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/02/05/daily26.html?surround=lfn">http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2007/02/05/daily26.html?surround=lfn</A></P>
<P>From the start, most business and political experts considered it a done deal. Texas
Governor Rick Perry got personally involved, fast-tracking the permits and declaring
"we're not going to let these bureaucrats jerk us around." <span class="bluetext">(((Like most Governors of
Texas including the current President, this guy is a consummate ignoramus. Let's hope and
pray he never does anything requiring any more effort and skill than being Governor of
Texas.)))</span></P>
<P>Even our own experts in our Texas office considered the odds of stopping the plants as
remote, at best.</P>
<P>But the size of the proposal left us no choice but to aggressively oppose the plants.
The 11 coal-fired plants would spew 78 million tons of global warming pollution per year,
more than twice the expected carbon reductions from the historic California Clean Cars
legislation.</P>
<P>So, Environmental Defense mobilized an all-out grassroots campaign targeting TXU and
Texas Governor Rick Perry. Nearly 50,000 Environmental Defense members and activists took
action, sending emails, attending public hearings across Texas and submitting public
comments against the plants.
More than 50 community and environmental groups signed on to our letter urging TXU to
change its course.</P>
<P>We took out television, billboard and online ads.
We reached out to allies in the Texas state legislature and we worked the legal and
financial angles to keep the pressure on TXU.</P>
<P>Our efforts were designed to achieve three goals:</P>
<OL type="1" start="1">
<LI VALUE="1">
Stop as many of the plants as possible;</LI>
<LI VALUE="2">
Prevent TXU from exporting its coal plant build-out to other states; and</LI>
<LI VALUE="3">
Send a national message to other utility companies that the TXU plan is one they should
reject.
<span class="bluetext">(((Those companies are listening -- not to the activists, of course, but to guys with
enough muscle to buy fossil-fuel companies after the activists wear down the stock price a
little.)))</span></LI>
</OL>
<P>It may have been a long shot when we started this campaign, but this weekend's news
meets each of these goals. <span class="bluetext">(((I like it when a guy is smart enough to declare victory and
actually stop the
war.)))</span></P>
<P>I want to thank everyone who took action on this campaign and supported our work with
generous donations or other actions. We couldn't have claimed this seemingly unattainable
victory without your support.</P>
<P>Thanks for everything you help make possible,</P>
<P>Fred Krupp<BR>
President</P>
<P>
<span class="bluetext">(((Now the New York Times weighs in. Note that Krupp cites their article, so he must more
or less agree with their assessment. At least, Krupp was clearly a source.)))</span></P>
<P><em>A Buyout Deal That Has Many Shades of Green</em></P>
<P>By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN<BR>
Published: February 26, 2007</P>
<P>About two weeks ago, Fred Krupp, the president of a nonprofit advocacy group called
Environmental Defense, received an unusual phone call.</P>
<P>William K. Reilly, the former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency
under President George H. W. Bush, was on the other end. But before Mr. Reilly would
explain the reason for his call, he said he needed an assurance from Mr. Krupp that he
would keep the conversation confidential.</P>
<P>After receiving such a pledge, Mr. Reilly dropped a bombshell: the TXU Corporation, the
Texas energy giant that had become the whipping boy of the nation's largest environmental
groups, was in talks to be sold to a group led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company a
nd Texas Pacific Group, two large private equity firms.</P>
<P>Mr. Reilly, who works for Texas Pacific, said he wanted to negotiate a cease-fire. If
the investors succeeded in taking over TXU, Mr. Reilly said, they would commit themselves
to scale back significantly on TXU's plan to build 11 new coal plants and adhere to a
strict set of environmental rules. <span class="bluetext">(((The guy is, after all, the former head of the
EPA.)))</span></P>
<P>In return, he wanted the support of Mr. Krupp and his peers, who had spent the past
several months waging a bitter and public war against TXU.</P>
<P>Early Monday, after several weeks of marathon negotiations that brought together both
environmentalists and Wall Street bankers, TXU announced that its board of directors had
approved the bid from Kohlberg Kravis and Texas Pacific for about $45 billion, which would
be the largest buyout in history.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((And the evil genius who proposed building all the coal plants REMAINS IN POWER.
That's the genius of it. In fact, since TXU capo C. John Wilder owns a ton of TXU stock,
he's gonna clear millions of dollars. The brilliance of this scheme? You don't actually
have to buy companies. You just have to bribe the CEO elite and they'll sell out the
enterprise, hook, line and sinker!)))</span></P>
<P>The deal was noteworthy not just for its size, but for the confluence of business
decisions and environmental concerns that drove the ultimate transaction. <span class="bluetext">(((Call it
"Corporate Green.")))</span></P>
<P>Because private equity firms are unregulated and historically have valued their privacy,
neither Kohlberg Kravis nor Texas Pacific were eager to become an "enemy combatant" of
the environmental groups, people involved in the talks said. Reducing the coal plant
initiative will also free up billions of dollars in planned spending that the firms will
be able to use for other projects or to help finance the transaction. <span class="bluetext">(((Corporate Green
"values its privacy" because it is basically covertly doing what governments used to do
back when governments actually governed. Why run the EPA when you can just buy coal
plants?)))</span></P>
<P>Within TXU, the controversial plan to build a raft of coal plants had become so
damaging to its stock price that its board had been privately weighing a plan to scrap
part of the project, said people involved in the talks, <span class="bluetext">(((note that Krupp is willing to
talk publicly to the NY Times, while Corporate Green raiders stay off the record)))</span>
bringing the number of new plants to 5 or 6 from 11. Shareholders had sent the stock on a
roller coaster ride from more than $67 a share to as low as about $53 <span class="bluetext">(((that's not much
of a roller-coaster; consider Enron)))</span> over concerns about the risk and vast expenditure;
the stock closed at $60.02 on Friday.
</P>
<P>Indeed, it was the quick drop in TXU's stock price that got the attention of Kohlberg
Kravis and Texas Pacific, which look for undervalued companies and try to turn them
around.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Carbon companies will be henceforth subjected to organized under-valuement. Their
captains of industry will be bought off and then they'll be annihilated. Watch it
happen.)))</span></P>
<P>Together, both firms approached C. John Wilder, TXU's chief executive, in January with
an offer for the company, these people said.</P>
<P>At the time, neither Kohlberg Kravis nor Texas Pacific told TXU about their ambition to
scale back its controversial coal plants. But behind the scenes, both firms had been
developing a new strategy for the company with the help of Goldman Sachs, their lead
adviser.</P>
<P>Goldman Sachs has been a longtime proponent of reducing carbon emissions. Its former
chief executive, Henry M. Paulson, now the secretary of the treasury, was also the
chairman of the Nature Conservancy, an environmental activist group.</P>
<P>Texas Pacific's co-founder, David Bonderman, is member of the board of the World
Wildlife Fund, and Mr. Reilly is chairman emeritus. Mr. Bonderman called Mr. Reilly to
help work on the deal and create what they ultimately called The Green Group, a committee
of advisers that included Mr. Reilly, Roger Ballentine of Green Strategies and Stuart E.
Eizenstat, the former chief domestic policy adviser for President Jimmy Carter. <span class="bluetext">((("The
Green Group." Yikes.)))</span></P>
<P>"We didn't want to be on the wrong side of history,"
said a person involved in the bidding group who was not authorized to talk about the
transaction before its formal announcement. <span class="bluetext">((("We also didn't want to be quoted in
public.")))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Fascinated by weird Texas energy politics? Read your fill!)))</span>
<A HREF="http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?cat=7">http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?cat=7</A></P>
<P>Under the terms of the deal, TXU shareholders will receive $69.25 in cash for each TXU
share. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup will take small stakes
in TXU as well as help finance the debt with J.P. Morgan Chase. In addition, the investor
group will assume more than $12 billion of TXU's debt.</P>
<P>The deal represents a 20 percent premium over TXU's closing price on Thursday before
word of the deal began to leak and was reported Friday on CNBC after the market closed,
TXU said.</P>
<P>It is unclear whether shareholders will agitate for a higher price from the investor
group or push for other suitors to emerge. Several recent "go private"
deals have drawn opposition from shareholders who expressed concern that they were being
shortchanged.
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah? Then how come they pay CEOs so much?
The shareholders are gluttons for punishment.)))</span></P>
<P>Monday's merger agreement allows TXU's board to solicit bids from other potential
buyers through April 16, and TXU said it intends to do so.
<span class="bluetext">(((It'll be interesting to see if any black angel investors show up and INSIST on building
coal plants.)))</span></P>
<P>The investor group has not laid out any specific plans to grow revenues through
alternatives to the coal plants, but TXU is not likely to lose money, at least initially,
as a result of scaling back.
Three of the plants are already in the works and other eight that will be canceled would
not have been built for years.</P>
<P>And the group will be getting more than just a utility. TXU is in the midst of an
experiment to run broadband Internet over its power lines as part of a venture with
Current Communications.
<span class="bluetext">(((Very Enron. They loved Internet pipes.)))</span></P>
<P>Both TXU, which was advised by Credit Suisse and Lazard, and the investor group spent
weeks holed up in three conference rooms at the Gaylord Texan, a hotel just outside of
Dallas. With armies of bankers and lawyers that frequently numbered more than 40, the
group negotiated the buyout deal, including an unusual provision that will allow TXU to
seek higher rival bids over the next 50 days.
This clause could potentially create a bidding war, perhaps bringing other private equity
firms and utilities into an auction.</P>
<P>Related<BR><br>
<em>Deal's Broader Effect on Coal Plants Is Uncertain (February 26, 2007) </em> <span class="bluetext">(((uncertain, but
they've gotta be wondering today)))</span></P>
<P>Mr. Bonderman and Henry R. Kravis, the founder of Kohlberg Kravis, pleaded their case
to the Texas governor, Rick Perry, on Thursday in person at his mansion, mindful that
Oregon had rejected Texas Pacific’s deal to buy Portland General and that Arizona
had rejected Kohlberg Kravis' deal to buy UniSource Energy. The pair has also reached out
to James A. Baker, a Texan and former Reagan cabinet member. <span class="bluetext">(((James A. Baker, "the Bush
Consigliere.")))</span></P>
<P>But perhaps the most difficult talks were with the environmentalists, who often seemed
more like Wall Street negotiators than green activists. <span class="bluetext">(((Given that government is a
non-player, these self-appointed activists barging into the boardroom are the only thing
standing between the citizenry and outright corporate-green feudalism. It's no wonder
they've finally learned to act like businessmen when business is the only game in town.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Mr. Krupp of Environmental Defense used his conversation with Mr. Reilly as an
opportunity to negotiate even harder for further concessions. The men agreed that Mr.
Krupp's lieutenant, James D.
Marston, who was leading the charge against TXU in Texas, would meet with Mr. Reilly and
other representatives of the buying group. And representatives from Natural Resource
Defense Council, another climate-control advocacy group, was brought into the discussion
to help formulate a plan that all sides could agree on.</P>
<P>So last Wednesday, Mr. Marston flew to San Francisco, <span class="bluetext">(((obligatory "oh look, the
enviros are flying in airplanes and spewing carbon" riff inserted here)))</span> where he found
himself face to face with Mr.
Reilly over breakfast at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
There, over scrambled eggs and croissants, Mr.
Reilly laid out a plan that included reducing the coal plants from 11 to 3.</P>
<P>Then the men went to Texas Pacific's conference room overlooking Alcatraz and the San
Francisco Bay for a day-long negotiation that stretched until early the next morning. The
group, which included Mr.
Reilly, Mr. Bonderman and Frederick Goltz of Kohlberg Kravis, worked out a "10-point plan"
that included a commitment by the investors to return the carbon- dioxide emissions by TXU
to 1990 levels by 2020 and support a $400 million energy efficiency program.
<span class="bluetext">(((Okay, this is the actual work of the world being performed here. This is the sound of
icebergs not melting, seas not rising, etc.
Let 'em get after it, don't get in the way.)))</span></P>
<P>When an agreement was finally struck, at 1 a.m.
the next morning, Mr. Reilly grabbed a bottle of pinot noir from his colleague's office to
toast the group. But he couldn't find a corkscrew.
<span class="bluetext">(((Need more tech geeks in the boardroom.
I'm only a damn author and I've got a Swiss Army corkscrew right here.)))</span> So he ran back
to the Mandarin Oriental to borrow one. <span class="bluetext">(((Let's be charitable, maybe their corkscrews
were confiscated by airline security.)))</span></P>
<P>Not all of TXU's historical opponents are popping corks. Some noted that a decision by
one company did not sway the others that are building plants.
In Dallas, Laura Miller, the mayor and leader of a coalition of municipal officials that
has spent $600,000 fighting the TXU plants, said the agreement with the environmental
groups might not get TXU as much help as it wanted.</P>
<P>Ms. Miller pointed out that one of the three surviving projects, a plant near Waco, is
still opposed by local officials and had drawn a negative recommendation from a panel of
Texas judges. She said she hoped that TXU's plans would leave an opening for cleaner
projects, like a proposal to build a power line to West Texas, where power producers
propose to build large wind farms.
</P>
<P><em>Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.</em></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
IT ACTUALLY IS A HISTORIC MOMENT,<BR>
SO IT'S WORTH PUTTING UP WITH IT.<BR>
LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT. IN FACT,<BR>
IF YOU CAN HELP THEM, GO DO IT<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-7764968301958857779?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-84727884584957728542007-02-15T19:12:00.000-08:002007-02-15T19:13:05.607-08:00Viridian Note 00490: Peter Schwartz at Davos<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>World Economic Forum, Peter Schwartz, Monitor Group, futurists, Corporate
Green, climate policy, EDGE.org, various Davos celebrities</dd>
<dt>
Attention Conservation Notice:
</dt> <dd>You're basically at this guy's elbow as he goes to
Davos to network with the Great and the Good. There's a great deal of discussion there
about the climate crisis and what to do about carbon. Davos is the watering hole of the
global plutocracy, so if you're interested in the tides and currents of planetary
development, you're a lot better off reading this stuff than you are wasting your time on
political blogs.</dd></DL>
<P>Links: The Third Culture seethes at Edge.org, a site that's always worth several long
looks.
<A HREF="http://www.edge.org">http://www.edge.org</A></P>
<P>Wow, METROPOLIS is doing podcasts about green building.
That's kinda happening.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a1.mp3">http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a1.mp3</A>
<A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a2.mp3">http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a2.mp3</A>
<A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a3.mp3">http://www.metropolismag.com/AUDIO_files/2487/met_2487_a3.mp3</A></P>
<P>Designboom's contest results for their "Radical Radiators of the Future."
<A HREF="http://www.designboom.com/contest/winner.php?contest_pk=14">http://www.designboom.com/contest/winner.php?contest_pk=14</A></P>
<P>"Scientists to microchip fish to track movements."
I'm getting more interested in developments of this kind. Green is mainstreaming fast,
while this stuff doesn't even have proper nouns and verbs for it yet.
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40309/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40309/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Mary Kaldor was a judge in a Viridian Design Contest once. Mary says some very unusual
things about global security issues and global civil society. Notice how this sound very
much like global Davos rhetoric, only upside down and backward.
<A HREF="http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-americanpower/humpty_dumpty_4345.jsp">http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-americanpower/humpty_dumpty_4345.jsp</A></P>
<P>Wind and solar for African cellphone stations.
<A HREF="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/14/moto_green_gsm_cell/">http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/14/moto_green_gsm_cell/</A></P>
<P><BR>
Sources:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge202.html#schwartz">http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge202.html#schwartz</A>
<A HREF="http://schwartzatdavos07.blogspot.com/">http://schwartzatdavos07.blogspot.com/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Note: Peter Schwarz's Davos blogging has been severely edited for Viridian relevance,
and yet it still rumbles on at awesome length, anyhow.)))</span></P>
<P>"PETER SCHWARTZ is cofounder and chairman of Global Business Network (GBN), now part of
the Monitor Group.
From 1982 to 1986, Schwartz headed scenario planning for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of
Companies in London.
Before joining Royal Dutch/Shell, he directed the Strategic Environment Center at SRI
International.
He is the author of Inevitable Surprises, and The Art of the Long View, and co-author of
The Long Boom, When Good Companies Do Bad Things, and China's Futures."</P>
<P>DAVOS REPORT<BR>
Day 1. Tuesday 1-23-07<BR>
The Set Up</P>
<P>What is Davos and how does it work? Officially the meeting is called the World Economic
Forum. This is their annual meeting, but there are many other meetings during the year
held around the world, but this is their big event they are known for.</P>
<P>It was founded and run by Klaus Schwab in the early eighties as mostly a European event,
but has grown huge and global with about 2000 participants from all over the world.</P>
<P>The participants range from corporate CEOs, heads of state, cabinet ministers,
politicians, intellectuals, journalists, scientists, academics, celebrities and many
hangers on. I have been coming to Davos off and on for a little over 20 years. The Monitor
Group is represented here by Mark Fuller and me.</P>
<P>The meeting is organized around three kinds of sessions. In the main Kongress Hall are
major speeches (e.g. Tony Blair on Saturday) and high level panels (I will be moderating
the one on WEB 2.0 on Saturday with Bill Gates, the head of Nike, and the founder of
YouTube, which directly proceeds Blair's talk, meaning we will have a very large audience
trying to make sure they have seats). <span class="bluetext">(((Yes, it was Web 2.0 year at Davos, which proves
that particular little surge has been smoothly mainstreamed.)))</span></P>
<P>The second kinds of session are panels on a large variety of topics in the smaller
meeting rooms.
Finally there are the breakfasts, lunches and dinners at the local hotels on a great many
subjects.</P>
<P>I will be going to one Wed evening on climate change and national security hosted by
Global Business Network
(GBN) network member John Holdren and another on future IT hosted by another network
member Paul Saffo.</P>
<P>Around all the sessions is non stop talking in the many lounges and sitting areas of
the Kongress Centre.
Not surprisingly these are among the most interesting parts of being here. The day begins
with early meetings and goes very late.</P>
<P>Before and after the dinners are many receptions, cocktail parties sponsored by
companies and governments. The India one always has the best food, but the Accel/Google
party has among the most interesting people. And there is, of course, the NERDS dinners on
Saturday evening.</P>
<P>Today is mostly registration an early dinner and meeting up with a few friends. My
first panel as a participant will be Wed afternoon on the main theme of the conference,
"The Shifting Power Equation:
Technology and Society". <span class="bluetext">(((Guess which side is
winning.)))</span></P>
<P>Day 2. Wednesday 1-24-07<BR>
First Sessions</P>
<P>Began the morning with coffee with Geoffrey Moore, Shai Agassi, Orville Schell and
Baifang Liu, who brought along the former Chinese ambassador to China, and then John
Holdren joined us.</P>
<P>I am currently in a fairly large session on Making Green Pay. It is a televised debate
on CNN on several environmental and energy issues. (It will be broadcast at 6 EST on Jan
28.) The first proposition was in favor of nuclear and clean coal. <span class="bluetext">(((Peter Schwartz is
quite the New Nuclear enthusiast.)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/nuclear.html">http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/nuclear.html</A></P>
<P>The affirmative was presented by Jim Rodgers, CEO of Duke and old friend (we chatted
before the session.) and the negative by Vinod Khosla, a VC. <span class="bluetext">(((The increasingly
ubiquitous Vinod Khosla, representing the cellulosic ethanol contingent.)))</span></P>
<P>At this session we get to vote electronically on the propositions. The audience was
asked to vote and the nukes and coal lost by 3-1, much to my surprise.
Of course my friends Orville Schell and Baifang Liu, sitting next to me voted the wrong
way. <span class="bluetext">(((No, he's not surprised, this is wry Peter Schwartz humor
here.)))</span></P>
<P>Dan Yergin is speaking now in favor of the second proposition on markets vs regulation.
The Chinese ambassador has just weighed in on the government side.
(One of the speakers just cited The Long Tail as an argument in favor of markets.) The
audience voted
3-1 against markets, but Jim Rodgers just weighed in against the either or nature of the
propositions.
<span class="bluetext">(((Daniel Yergin, petro-politics wonk. "The epic quest for oil, money and power." Well, it's not anywhere near so epic as it's gonna get.)))</span> <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Yergin">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Yergin</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">((("The Long Tail," for those who haven't yet heard of it. It's the number-one non-fiction book in China.)))</span> <A HREF="http://www.thelongtail.com/">http://www.thelongtail.com/</A></P>
<P>And the third proposition is on a global carbon tax now being argued against by Jose
Goldemberg because setting the tax rate is very hard and would produce serious inequities
around the world. He is in favor carbon caps and trading and efficiency regulation.
He is not surprisingly, as a Brazilian, for a strategy similar to what they did with
respect to biofuels.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Prime Minister of Brazil to dress-down US President over global warming. That had
to happen.
Brazilians are shipping more biofuel than anybody in the world and if they get cellulosic
they'll ship even more. 'Brazil has the political and moral authority to demand that rich
countries uphold their obligation to reduce world pollution, instead of creating protocols
they don't sign,"
Lula said in his regular address on state radio.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40313/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40313/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Nicholas Stern is now arguing in favor of the carbon tax because of the scale and
urgency of the risk.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Stern Report. At last, economists figure out that it costs business more to ruin a
planet than it does to maintain one. Man, economics is a brilliant science, isn't it?)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm">http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm</A></P>
<P>There appears to be some degree of consensus on the need to set a price for carbon,
John Holdren and Lester Brown ended up on opposite sides.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((John Holdren, enviro-science wonk from Harvard, got the BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC
SCIENTISTS to finally figure out that the climate crisis is scarier than
nukes.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/John_Holdren">http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/John_Holdren</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Lester Brown, indefatigable WORLDWATCH guy, finally shocked American business
senseless by pointing out that China will soon be out-polluting them, which, hey, changes
everything.)))</span>
<A HREF="http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3062">http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=3062</A></P>
<P>"The carbon tax won 2-1. It was a surprisingly good debate, though made a bit
artificial by the extreme nature of the propositions.</P>
<P>The next couple of hours were spent in the large buffet lunch in which one talks buts
eats little in a multilevel hall packed with a couple thousand people all with the same
objectives, talk to the people you want to, avoid the people you want to and maybe get a
bite to eat. <span class="bluetext">(((I know this is getting a tad wordy for Viridian List, but you've gotta
like these little human-interest details.)))</span></P>
<P>A number of interesting conversations in which energy and climate change figured large.
More with Jim Rodgers (one of the ten US CEOs who came out for carbon caps last week) on
how to bring the country around on nuclear power.
<span class="bluetext">(((Jim Rodgers of Duke Energy, not always beloved of the deep-green contingent, but coming
round on carbon anyhow.)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.climatecriminals.blogspot.com/">http://www.climatecriminals.blogspot.com/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((At Davos, CEOs actually do sit around discussing how nations should be "brought
around." Pretty much like Exxon-Mobil did years ago when they "brought around"
the US Senate to rejecting Kyoto. Sure, certain people and interests can "bring countries
around."
Happens every day, folks.)))</span></P>
<P>Coincidentally followed by a conversation with an old friend whom I had not seen in
years, Prof Robert Socolow of Princeton. He is the recent author of a seminal paper on how
to deal with climate change, in which he thoughtfully considered nuclear and how Al Gore
had used his ideas but avoided the nuclear dimension. <span class="bluetext">(((Like Al Gore is gonna carry
Peter Schwartz's nuclear water for him? Sure, maybe someday, when no one else remembers
the term "Three Mile Island.")))</span></P>
<P>Link: Robert Socolow<BR>
<A HREF="http://mae.princeton.edu/people/e9/socolow/profile.html">http://mae.princeton.edu/people/e9/socolow/profile.html</A></P>
<P>Just as I finally made it to the buffet table Richard Quest of CNN the moderator of the
next panel of which I am a member to join him and the others in the preparations. Our
topic was the technological and societal dimensions of the major power shifts now going on,
with the focus on things like virtual communities, the rise of the download generation
and the increasing youthful elderly. <span class="bluetext">(((Good clean fun, especially if you're a youthfully
elderly downloading virtual-community guy.)))</span></P>
<P>The others on the panel included Shai Agassi of SAP, Bill Mitchell the CEO of Arrow
electronics, (visual
note: if anyone wants a visual model of what a fantasy CEO and his wife look like, Bill
Mitchell and his wife are it.) <span class="bluetext">(((I'm not buying this, unless the Mitchell wife looks
incredible.)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.arrow.com/media_center/news/2005_WilliamMitchellBloomberg.wmv">http://www.arrow.com/media_center/news/2005_WilliamMitchellBloomberg.wmv</A></P>
<P>and David Rothkopf of the Harvard negotiation project.</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
David Rothkopf, author of "Running the World: the Inside Story of the National Security
Council and the Architects of American Power."
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rothkopf">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rothkopf</A></P>
<P>There was some whining about people losing authentic contact with each other because of
new media and e-mail, etc., but I was the strongest advocate that far more had been gained
in extending the breadth and depth of our communications and knowledge access.
Not surprisingly I also argued for the growing power of the youthful elderly.</P>
<P>(. . .)</P>
<P>In parallel to our session were several others structured similarly on economics,
geopolitics and business. At the end the rapporteurs came to the big hall to report to all
the delegates on the panels and their audiences' views. We were to vote on the most
important issues and the ones we were least prepared for.</P>
<P>After much discussion, some of it quite good, a member of the audience said "but what
about climate change?"
And then we voted and climate change wiped out everything else, fundamentally undermining
the process the Davos organizers had so carefully put together to create a neat web of
interconnected issues. <span class="bluetext">(((Just like climate change is poised to fundamentally wipe out
everything else.)))</span></P>
<P>But Ged Davis manfully came up at the end and gracefully recovered the conclusions from
the panels that such phenomena as the emergence of China and India and the return of
Russia to the world stage might also be very important, and the huge generational
transformations that are underway also might be consequential. But climate change remains
the topic everyone keeps coming back to. <span class="bluetext">(((Because they have to.
Because it's getting worse fast. Furthermore, Davos will lack snow.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/Switzerland/Davos_snow_report.html">http://www.j2ski.com/snow_forecast/Switzerland/Davos_snow_report.html</A></P>
<P>(. . .) At the Yale reception spoke with Zedillo about the impact of the biofuels
industry in the US on Mexico, pricing corn out of the tortilla market for the poor of
Mexico. They may have to break NAFTA to survive the US move in ethanol. <span class="bluetext">(((That won't do.
Corn ethanol is crazy, unless you're Archer Daniels Midland.)))</span></P>
<P>On to dinner on climate change and national security chaired by John Holdren. The
highlights happened to be two Brits, Sir Nicholas Stern and James Cameron, the young new
head of the Conservative Party.
Sir Nicholas basically summarized his now very influential report arguing strongly that
the cost of doing little was far more costly in the long run than taking strong action
today. But it was Cameron who really surprised me. He wholeheartedly supported Sterns
conclusions, (Stern is Labour) and then went on to argue that we need an international
emissions authority, a kind of global EPA. Not at all Tory like.
<span class="bluetext">(((Imagine what happens if we actually get one of these master agencies of global enviro
might, and, for excellent reasons, it loathes and seeks to punish the USA.)))</span></P>
<P>A Pakistani general described the horror of his work in relief in a 1971 Tsunami that
killed nearly
2 million people in Bangladesh as the waves washed over them. It was the future he feared
from climate change. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, except this time, they're
Cajuns.)))</span></P>
<P>And Nick Kristoff, the NYT columnist, chimed in with the idea that maybe the WEB 2.0
phenomenon of bottoms up action might become a novel means of environmental enforcement,
creating a kind of global ecological transparency. <span class="bluetext">(((Sure, just imagine WORLDCHANGING
with a billion dollars.)))</span></P>
<P>At my table were two amazing young woman, a member of the
Brazilian Congress and one of a small group fighting hard on environmental issues in
Brazil and a Lebanese educator and mother who is trying to preserve some hope for the
future for her kids and students while trying to teach them something about the
interconnected world of ecosystems in the midst of a dreadful conflict. <span class="bluetext">(((The
"ecosystem" will continue to be there no matter how many people kill each other.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Day 3. Thursday 1-25-07</P>
<P>Thursday Morning<BR>
The morning began at 7 with a breakfast conversation with David Cameron, the Tory leader.
<span class="bluetext">(((One of the things I like best about not being a Type A global overachiever is that I
don't have to get up and dress before 7 AM.)))</span> He joined me because of a comment I had
made at the dinner the evening before.</P>
<P>I must say I continued to be surprised by him.
He intends to really lead on environmental issues in Britain. He said, "After all
shouldn't a conservative be for conservation?" That was followed by an interview with the
Dutch Financial Times on my views of the issues here at Davos. Then ran into Jim Rodgers
again along with Tom Stewart the editor of HBR <span class="bluetext">(((Harvard Business Review)))</span> and Jim and I
agreed to do an article for HBR on how a CEO addresses anticipatory investments in light
of long term issues like climate change.</P>
<P>Then along came Paul Saffo to enrich the conversation.</P>
<P>Link:</P>
<P>Paul Saffo, another Davos futurist blogger.
<A HREF="http://www.saffo.com/journal/entry.php?id=629">http://www.saffo.com/journal/entry.php?id=629</A>
Paul Saffo: "There is no debate about global climate change here because everyone accepts
it as a fact; all the conversation is about how to respond. And there is also a clear
consensus that the nation-state order is on the wane, and thus the discussion is all
about what institutions will fill the void." <span class="bluetext">(((The answer? Corporate
Green.)))</span></P>
<P>(. . .)</P>
<P>Now in a session on local energy solutions with people like Amory Lovins, Tim Wirth,
David Victor, Angela Belcher from MIT, Bunker Roy from India and Bill McDonough.
<span class="bluetext">(((Swarms of green wonks.)))</span> At the session with me are Bill Gross and Marcia Goodstein
from Idea Labs, and sitting next to me is Orville Schell. Amory is now speaking and
reminding everyone on how much is actually already underway all over the world. Angela
Belcher spoke on the major leaps now underway in advanced materials that will enable new
solar technologies.
</P>
<P>A Chinese delegate, CS Kiang argued that China can do a great deal because they are so
inefficient, a lot of "low hanging grapes" as he said. He'll be in Berkeley in a few weeks
and we will meet.</P>
<P>An Ecuadorian Rose grower just spoke about how they are becoming carbon neutral.</P>
<P>The Chief Investment Officer of Citibank and interested in how energy investing can
represent a major new opportunity.</P>
<P>Early afternoon, just had lunch with Laura Tyson, discussing the upcoming Presidential
election. She is hoping for another Clinton White House with her in the cabinet. In any
event she has returned to Berkeley from London and I am hoping she will do a bit with us.
Toward the end we were joined by Sergey Brin and Larry Page and the conversation went
Google.
<span class="bluetext">(((Only at Davos, folks.)))</span></P>
<P>Also spent a bit of time with Kishore Mahbubani the Dean of the Lee Kwan Yew School of
Public Policy in Singapore talking Asian Geopolitics. And with Bob Friedman from Fortune,
who is doing a special Green Issue of Fortune <span class="bluetext">(((that ought to prove memorable, if only
for the screams of green leftists losing their clothes)))</span> and would like me to do an
article on our EPA work.
</P>
<P>Just finished three conversations: First was Richard Cooper of Harvard and former head
of the NIC.
The main subject was Niall Ferguson of whom Richard had a mixed opinion, loved some things,
e.g. arguments around. But thought Ferguson was on weaker ground when he dealt with
economics. While talking with Richard, a hand from behind reached out and it was Tom
Friedman. We went off to discuss his next column which will be about George Bush cleaning
out his desk now that he has been fired last November. And that the Democrats ought to put
strong climate change bill and an Iraq bill on his desk, inviting a veto.
<span class="bluetext">(((They'll get vetoes, but Bush is yesterday's man.
In fact, he's made his country into yesterday's country, which is incredible, given the
fantastic geopolitical advantages that he squandered.)))</span></P>
<P>Then it was Baroness Susan Greenfield, a British biologist with whom I discussed the
future of human biology for my upcoming Nature article. She believes the next great leap
will be a deep understanding of how the brain generates consciousness. <span class="bluetext">(((The brain
clearly does that through breathing oxygen, so let's home there's some left in the
atmosphere.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Then it was off to China. Cheng Siwei Vice Chairman of the People's Congress emphasized
the commonalities that China had with all other nations. <span class="bluetext">(((Like, for instance, a penchant
for exporting its oligarchs to Davos. These people are supposed to be Communists, for
Christ's sake. We're about one good bird-flu sneeze away from a globo-capitalist coup
de'etat here – why do these people even NEED national governments? They just suck up
air-time and get in the way!)))</span></P>
<P>Pei Minxin of the Carnegie Endowment asked whether China knows what it really wants.
Kishore Mahbubani raised whether the competing global visions would shape China. He made
the argument that others echoed that China has become a status quo power with a deep
investment in the current order. <span class="bluetext">(((China doesn't need a nuclear arms race, it can wreck
global civilization with coal-fumes alone.)))</span></P>
<P>Bob Zoelleck enmphasized China's participation in international institutions. Wang
Jianshou the head of China Mobile made a surprising point to emphasize the scale. When he
started the company, there were less than three million phone subscribers in all of China.
Today China mobile has over 300 million customers. (. . .)</P>
<P>Then went to a session on petropolitics moderated by Tom Friedman with Rex Tillerson
the CEO of Exxon, Jeroen VanderVeer, CEO of Shell (and an old friend), Sam Bodman US
Energy Secretary, and a few more.
It was content free. They all avoided Tom's questions and the audiences. . . not a great
performance.</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
What would a green Exxon-Mobil look like?
<A HREF="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/4551968.html">http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/4551968.html</A></P>
<P>(. . .)<BR>
After dinner it was off to another climate change event. This time it was the Young Global
Leaders of Tomorrow (YGLs) who were organizing the event.
This is a group of young future leaders (mostly 20 - 30 year olds) had decided to take on
climate change as an issue last year and this year they were launching a campaign that
they had worked on for the last year.</P>
<P>The project looks hopeful. It is an effort to tie highly valued brands to climate
action. But it was an all star event. At one point a photographer captured Claudia
Schiffer, Hakken the studly young Crown Prince of Norway and I all in conversation.</P>
<P>Shimon Peres also spoke and he is always remarkable and inspiring. And it appears he
will be named President of Israel in the next few days. By the way the Prince and I will
be together most of next week at an energy meeting in Norway.</P>
<P>Day 4. Friday 1-26-07</P>
<P>My lunch event was on extending human lifespan. In the end there was a lot of agreement on
the technology potential but the real issue they focused on was cost and associated
inequities. If we can't all live longer should anyone? <span class="bluetext">(((This question sounds especially
lame and silly in the context of Davos. If it cost 200 million dollars to buy yourself
another 20 years of life, who would spend that kind of money?
Well, just look around Davos. That's who.)))</span></P>
<P>The afternoon session was "The Next Limits of Growth".</P>
<P>Martin Wolf the moderator and said that Malthus was wrong for 200 years because of
innovation and the availability of fossil fuels leading to rising agricultural
productivity. Brabeck-Letmathe CEO of Nestle argued that innovation will continue unabated
and that there really no are limits, if markets work (right price matters.) His big issue
was water because markets don't work in water.</P>
<P>Sam DiPiazza, CEO of PWC also said no limits and reported on their current survey of
1000 CEOS.
They are optimistic about growth (90%) but energy is a concern, along with climate change
and resource scarcity. Isdell, CEO of Coke also said no limits.</P>
<P>The biggest threat is that we lose confidence in the growth oriented system as a result
of income gaps, and job insecurity, Kindle of ABB also said no limits but the necessary
energy substitution would lead to much higher costs. Chukwuma Soludo the head of the
Nigerian Central Bank and also quite impressive said most of Africa's limits were internal
limits. Water kept coming up as perhaps the greatest constraint. <span class="bluetext">(((Even Davos is gonna
suffer for water if there's no snow, guys.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Soludo, when the population issue came up, suggested open the borders and let
population poor countries absorb some of the excess from the population rich countries.
You can imagine how the Europeans reacted to the suggestion of vast numbers of Nigerians
arriving on their shores seeking work.</P>
<P>The politics of water and immigration, not technology are the real constraints to
solutions, they all seemed to agree. Van Jones of Oakland expressed a great deal of
skepticism at the panels relative optimism and spoke for many others in the room.</P>
<P>As I was leaving for dinner, for the first time, ran into Gavin Newsom who promised to
come by our new office to officially "bless" it. The mayor, as always, was in great form.
<span class="bluetext">(((Used to be the greenest mayor in the USA, now has swarms of competition.)))</span></P>
<P>(.. .)</P>
<P>Then it was on to a Davos dinner which for me was a real treat. The main guest, who was
at my table, was Mike Griffin, the Director of NASA. The other guests were the Chief
Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan and an old friend the cosmologist Lord
(Martin) Rees, Master of Trinity College and President of the Royal Society. Griffin was
astonishing, candid, insightful, imaginative, open minded, (a bit arrogant), though
willing to listen, and willing to admit that he got something wrong. And not at all like a
typical bureaucrat.
His vision is one of a space faring civilization and he doesn't mean the US, he means
humankind.
<span class="bluetext">(((He'd better, because everybody's got a space program all of a sudden and the US is hard
put to launch shuttles.)))</span></P>
<P>He loves the idea of space based solar power, Stewart Brand will be pleased to hear. He
has funded some of the best innovative rocket technology like Elon Musk's Space X. So for
me this was a really exciting evening.</P>
<P>As it happens sitting next to me was another space buff, Abdullatif Al-Othman, the CFO
of Saudi Aramco, someone I have worked with before. He was an excited fan too, but he also
had very kind words about the impact we have had on Aramco and invited us back.
Then things got weird . . .</P>
<P>(. . .)</P>
<P>At the end of the session my Arabian friend salvaged his evening when I introduced him
to Joe Stiglitz and he got to ask Joe about the future of oil and he replied:"biofuels!"
And as it happened I had just introduced him to Jay Kiesling, one of the leaders in
synthetic biology whose new start up company will soon be focusing on bacteria to produce
biofuels.
He immediately asked Kiesling if he could invest as this is obviously the future. (. .
.)</P>
<P>Day 5. Saturday 1-27-07<BR>
Saturday, The Final Day</P>
<P>(. . .)</P>
<P>This morning Tom Friedman quoted me in his column on what Bush should be doing on
energy and the environment. As a result as the day went on many of the participants came
up to comment, agree or disagree and it became one of the background notes of the day.</P>
<P>The afternoon for me was dominated by the panel I moderated in the main hall on WEB 2.0,
with Bill Gates, Mark Parker, CEO of Nike , the founders of YouTube and Flickr, Chad
Hurley and Caterina Fake, and Viviane Reding the Information commissioner of the EU, with
a challenge from Dennis Kneale of Forbes.
The panel went well, everyone played by the rules and it really became a conversation
about the empowerment of the individual by the new technology.</P>
<P>I began with the "Benjamin effect." The reason I got onto this early was not brilliance
on my part. It was watching my son Ben uploading light saber fighting movies he had made
for a competition with dozens of other kids and downloading original Lego designs from
other Lego maniacs. Gates really was quite good with a detailed and imaginative vision of
how people were going to use technology, a picture of rich and dense ubiquitous mobile
access.
</P>
<P>The next major event was Tony Blair's valedictory address. It was insightful,
articulate, witty, bold and even controversial. He had a wonderful self deprecating sense
of humor. He had, for example, recently been at a signing of a bilateral climate agreement
with the state of California where he had been standing next to our Gov. Schwarzenegger
and said "it was the first time I had ever experienced body envy of another politician."
He addressed three major challenges, climate change, trade and security. <span class="bluetext">(((Do you know
how incredibly freaky it is that Great Britain is signing bilateral agreements with the
State of California?)))</span></P>
<P>Blair argued that China, India and the United States needed to accept binding CO2
agreements. He went on to say that there was an opportunity for business to find an
alignment between their sense of moral purpose and their business strategy in dealing with
climate change and poverty. His really bold strokes came in arguing for a new framework of
international institutions and instruments of shared action in several areas.
</P>
<P>Blair argued for the reinvention of the Security Council, new peacekeeping tools, new
international means of nation building and a G8+5. The head of the WEF asked me to throw
out the first question which I did. How was Blair going to convince the Greens of
Britain about his new positive position on nuclear power? And he gave a highly informed
and nuanced answer. . . but it was basically that we can't reduce greenhouse gases enough
without nukes.</P>
<P>John McCain was on the closing panel and made one very important point: that Congress
would pass a strong climate change bill and that Bush would sign it. You can imagine that
was well received especially coming from him. (. . .)</P>
<P>Sunday 1-28-07</P>
<P>Mid day, Another Davos Moment, The Airport Lounge (. . .)</P>
<P>Looking back over the week it feels like there was little sense of urgency in the
world. There was a lot of discussion of the big problems: climate change, water, trade,
economic imbalances, the dollar, religious and ethnic conflicts, rising China and India,
extreme poverty and many more.</P>
<P>But in the background was a global economy that felt fairly robust and from a business
perspective times are good and no big threats appear imminent. You might call the mood
complacent. There were no obvious big surprises or unanticipated crises.</P>
<P>The upside of that complacency was a sense that first of all the problems are well
recognized and that we can even imagine how most, if not all can be addressed.
There was, for example, a broad consensus that climate change was an urgent issue but the
only real question was what was the mix of solutions.</P>
<P>I can't help wonder, as a result, if we are not missing something.</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
WELL, THAT'S THE STORY<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-8472788458495772854?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-28024425630899535802007-02-12T13:41:00.001-08:002007-02-07T14:28:22.367-08:00Viridian Note 00489: Contests and Prizes<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>morale-building amusements for a world ankle-deep in climate crisis;
Richard Branson, Digital Earth Grand Challenge</dd>
<dt>
Attention Conservation Notice:
</dt> <dd>you probably won't win these contests or these prizes.
Might be pretty fun to watch, though.</dd></DL>
<P>Khosla's building a cellulosic plant to turn wood into fuel. That'll bear watching.
<A HREF="http://biostock.blogspot.com/2007/02/wood-beats-corn-stover-in-us-cellulosic.html">http://biostock.blogspot.com/2007/02/wood-beats-corn-stover-in-us-cellulosic.html</A></P>
<P>Go Green, get rich: the motto of Corporate Green.
<A HREF="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.9problems/index.html">http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.9problems/index.html</A></P>
<P>Monster rock'n'roll global warming world concert.
Hey dude, sex drugs and global warming; I gotta pirate the MP3 of that and run it on my
anti-DRM Apple iPod.
<A HREF="http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2251358.ece">http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2251358.ece</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((These are boom times in green awareness.
That boom will slow. The longer-term challenge will be keeping up the morale of the human
race once everybody realizes that the heat is on and blow after blow after shocking,
sudden, unexpected blow keeps pounding global society. Alan AtKisson has some wise things
to say here, I think.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006029.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/006029.html</A></P>
<P>"A number of my professional friends are not celebrating this sudden emergence of
climate change onto the world stage and even the big screen. Instead, they express a wide
range of emotions, from puzzlement about what to do next (now that major world leaders and
institutions have gotten in the game, some of the early thought-leaders will effectively
be pushed to the margins), to a kind of sadness that has always been there under the
surface but which, in the press of the fight, rarely could be expressed. The latter is all
too easy to explain: being proven 'right'
about an issue that threatens an impoverished and dangerous future for both our children
and our ecosystems alike is hardly reason for jubilation."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((So, yeah, there's the dent to the ego which comes from being right, but right too
early, in the wrong way, and for suspicious reasons. That's annoying, but adults will get
over that. The worse part is realizing that one is settling right into that state of a
lasting, impoverished danger, not just for a couple of undergraduate semesters but for
decades on end. It's not a matter of putting a shine on your shoes and a melody in your
heart – the secret to survival under such circumstances is, pretty much, keeping busy.
Just failing to learn helplessness.
Open new options. Do things. It keeps despair at bay.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((So, here's the planet's richest hippie, Richard Branson, offering 25 million to suck
carbon and methane out of the sky. I know this sounds facile and ridiculous: like, what's
with the gaudy showboat humbug here, especially from a guy who runs airlines? But you
know what: gestures like this are going to keep some people from opening their wrists with
razors. Besides, a contest can't do much harm and might do some good. The climate crisis
is exceedingly grave, but we don't know every aspect of the problem, and a shiny
fishing-lure like Branson's might pull some unexpected factor out from under a log.)))</span>
</P>
<P>Source:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10423232">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10423232</A>
<span class="bluetext">(((and about a million other sources, because Richard Branson knows how to grab
headlines.)))</span></P>
<h2>"Branson puts up cash for clean air</h2>
<p>Saturday February 10, 2007</P>
<P>"Virgin Airlines boss Sir Richard Branson has announced a multi-million pound prize for
the best way of removing thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.</P>
<P>"The prize – around L10 million ($28.5 million) – will go to the most convincing
invention for actively absorbing and storing the globally warming gas in the atmosphere.
<span class="bluetext">(((At least he's attacking a true problem – it's not enough to "reduce emissions," we've
got to cease emissions entirely and remove the emissions already up there. I know that
sounds impossible, but it isn't. Blandly watching capital cities sink underwater while
major rivers run dry, that's what's impossible.)))</span>
</P>
<P>"Sir Richard has drawn up a distinguished panel of judges to oversee the prize,
including James Lovelock, the inventor of the Gaia theory; James Hansen, the Nasa
researcher who first warned the US Government of climate change; and Tim Flannery, the
acclaimed Australian zoologist and explorer. <span class="bluetext">(((Those are some greenhouse guys who've
been sidelined consistently, now at least they get to eat smoked almonds and sip champagne
in first class while they're flying to Branson contest judging gigs.
Hey, being right about the greenhouse can't be all
bad.)))</span></P>
<P>"Last September, Sir Richard announced at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York
that he would invest all his profits from his five airlines and train companies – which
he estimated to be US$3 billion over 10 years – into ways of developing energy sources
that do not contribute to global warming.
<span class="bluetext">(((Okay, fine, the guy's "Corporate Green," but name somebody else who's done something
that effective.
Exxon-Mobil only dropped a mere 16 million to logjam the Senate, and that minor sum was
spent since Kyoto was invented, years ago.)))</span></P>
<P>"'Our generation has inherited an incredibly beautiful world from our parents and they
from their parents. It is in our hands whether our children and their children inherit the
same world.
We must not be the generation responsible for irreversibly damaging the environment,' Sir
Richard said at the time. <span class="bluetext">(((Boomers. Man, they sure love themselves, don't they? You'd
think the guy had never heard of Ford, Rockefeller, and Edison, not to mention James Watt.
Boomers inherited a world that had just suffered World War II and was crazily fomenting a
breakneck nuclear arms race – you can't blame Boomers for everything. Never mind, carry
on, Sir Richard.)))</span></P>
<P>"Sources close to the new environment prize say Sir Richard is serious about trying to
encourage ideas that bring down concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or at
least slow down the rate of growth expected over the coming century.</P>
<P>"The technology is called 'carbon capture and sequestration' and it involves absorbing
carbon dioxide gas by, for example, chemically combining it with minerals to produce an
inert substance that could then be buried either underground or in deep-sea deposits where
it would remain for 1000 years or more. <span class="bluetext">(((I don't think that cheesy stopgap will impress
Judges Hanson and Lovelock much. Contestants had better think
harder.)))</span></P>
<P>"The idea is already being used to develop ways of capturing carbon dioxide emitted
from power stations but Sir Richard's prize will concentrate on stimulating ways of
capturing carbon dioxide from the general atmosphere, a much harder task because the gas
will be in lower concentrations compared with the emissions from a power station chimney.
<span class="bluetext">(((It's a hard task, but a humble dandelion can do it every day.)))</span></P>
<P>"Sir Richard is known to have compared the idea of his technology prize to the famous
prize established in the 17th century for the first person to devise a method of
estimating longitude accurately to prevent ships getting lost at sea.</P>
<P>"The longitude problem was eventually solved by John Harrison, a self-taught Yorkshire
clockmaker.
– INDEPENDENT"</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Okay, so maybe there's some self-taught algae geek in the woodwork somewhere who can
turn atmospheric methane into artificial diamonds.
Can't hurt to trawl the media to get his attention.
When you think of it, this Branson effort is exactly like a Viridian Design Contest from
eight years ago, only one million times more
expensive.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Now for another odd and intriguing pastime suitable for a Viridian demographic.)))</span>
</P>
<P>"Hi Bruce,</P>
<P>"Please feel free to circulate to Viridians if you feel it's appropriate.</P>
<P>"Thanks!</P>
<P>Mike Liebhold<BR>
Institute for the Future</P>
------------------------------<BR>
<P>INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL EARTH 3D VISUALIZATION GRAND CHALLENGE</P>
<P>"How can we better experience this world of ours at the cross roads of human impacts
and climate change?</P>
<P>"How can we best communicate these experiences, particularly in light of the major
changes Earth now faces, as one world? How can we most compellingly understand and
communicate those experiences and processes? What 3D experiences or 3D tools can you share
that might encourage the opportunity for a better world? <span class="bluetext">(((Pretty good questions, eh?
Especially the geeky, high-tech part that doesn't even require you to leave your
desk!)))</span></P>
<P>"If you think you can do this in a way that demonstrates how people can more easily and
effectively communicate, YOU COULD WIN BIG!</P>
<P>"The International Digital Earth 3D Visualization Challenge gives researchers, creative
programmers, community leaders, activists, and students this unprecedented opportunity for
international visibility of their work. Submit your entry by
1 April 2007 <span class="bluetext">(((No, this is not an April Fools'
Joke, despite the odd timing)))</span> to be one of several International Digital Earth Challenge
Winners!</P>
<P>"Winners will be flown, <span class="bluetext">(((on a carbon-free Branson jetliner, no wait, okay, maybe)))</span>
with all expenses paid, from around the world to San Francisco for the June 5th to June
9th symposium.
<span class="bluetext">(((Oh come on, it's worth it just to go to San Francisco in the summer.)))</span></P>
<P>Six (6) finalists will receive their awards and prize packages at the Gala Awards
Dinner on June 7th on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Contest sponsors,
including Google, ESRI, and NASA <span class="bluetext">(((hey wait,
those are real sponsors with tons of money and credibility, these guys aren't even
kidding)))</span> will be attending the awards ceremonies for the International Symposium for
Digital Earth awards dinner.</P>
<P>Winners will be afforded the unique opportunity to interview with these industry giants
for potential employment opportunities. <span class="bluetext">((("Google... NASA...
NASA... Google... gosh, I can't make up my mind which behemoth should employ my
genius!")))</span></P>
<P>"Runners-up will receive outstanding recognition by the International Society of
Digital Earth, and the major geobrowser leaders; ESRI, GeoFusion, Google, and the NASA
World Wind team. <span class="bluetext">(((I bet they've got some awesome T-shirts.)))</span></P>
<P>"Don't delay. Visit the Challenge Contest Rules today at <A HREF="http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form">http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form</A></P>
<P>or on the conference web site at<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.isde5.org">http://www.isde5.org</A></P>
<P>"Be recognized as a world-class Digital Earth Champion! For the chance of a lifetime,
accept the Digital Earth Challenge!!!</P>
********************************<BR>
<P>DIGITAL EARTH CHALLENGE CONTEST RULES</P>
<OL type="1" start="1">
<LI VALUE="1">
Any citizen or class of citizens on the planet Earth may apply. <span class="bluetext">(((Hey, what about us
Gray Space Brothers?
We've been meticulously mapping your shabby planet for years!)))</span></LI>
</OL>
<P>"2. Entries must be received in English by 1 April 2007.</P>
<OL type="1" start="3">
<LI VALUE="3">
Entries must demonstrate unique or innovative applications, tools, or utilities for 3D
Visualization.</LI>
<LI VALUE="4">
Entry Forms must be submitted electronically at</LI>
</OL>
<P><A HREF="http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form">http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form</A></P>
<OL type="1" start="5">
<LI VALUE="5">
Entries must provide a URL for location of their 3D Visualization entry.</LI>
<LI VALUE="6">
URLs must remain active for the duration of the contest (until 9 June 2007).</LI>
<LI VALUE="7">
Only one entry per individual or group may be submitted.</LI>
<LI VALUE="8">
Copyrights and ownership will remain with the author/creator; however, copyright
permission to publish the entry and announce the winner's name will be retained by the
ISDE5 Secretariat.</LI>
<LI VALUE="9">
If USA Visa restrictions prevent winners from traveling to San Francisco, a cash award
will be wired to the contest winner's bank account.
<span class="bluetext">((((Assuming you're allowed to have a bank after being deprived of a visa. This means
you, 3-D-savvy Libyans, Cubans and North Koreans!)))</span></LI>
</OL>
<P>"CONTEST AWARDS FOR DIGITAL EARTH CHALLENGE</P>
<OL type="1" start="1">
<LI VALUE="1">
All expenses paid travel, accommodations, and conference fees to the 5th International
Symposium on Digital Earth hosted on the campus of the University of California at
Berkeley. <span class="bluetext">(((Aw come on, who can't like that. You don't have to beat everybody in the
world to win this thing: just the other chumps who are likely to sign up.)))</span> 2. Special
recognition of the winning entries by invited presentations.</LI>
</OL>
<OL type="1" start="3">
<LI VALUE="3">
Receipt of Award Plaque and nominal cash prize at the Awards Dinner on 7 June 2007.</LI>
<LI VALUE="4">
Special dinner seating with VIP industry and technology leaders. <span class="bluetext">(((Hey, Larry and
Sergey are industry and technology leaders and they don't even have doctorates.)))</span> 5.
Technology Prize Package, a collection of valuable gifts including thousands of dollars
worth of the leading geobrowser and tessellation software packages. <span class="bluetext">((("Free tessellation
software!?" Wow, hold me back!)))</span>
</LI>
</OL>
<P>JUDGING EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR DIGITAL EARTH CHALLENGE</P>
<P>"A panel of internationally acclaimed judges will evaluate all entries to determine
their relative ranking. Categories will include: (1) Applications and (2) Tools &
Utilities.</P>
<P>Entries will be judged for:</P>
<P>Uniqueness<BR>
Innovation<BR>
Usefulness<BR>
Scalability<BR>
Effective use of 3D perspectives.</P>
<P>Entries will also be judged for Digital Earth characteristics, including:</P>
<P>Open source<BR>
Ability to interoperate<BR>
Transportability</P>
<P>Relationship to the themes of the Digital Earth Vision is important, for example:</P>
<P>Education<BR>
Health<BR>
Environment<BR>
Science<BR>
History<BR>
Art<BR>
Music<BR>
Ease of use<BR>
Web-viewing<BR>
Esthetics<BR>
Sustainable Development<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((Who can't love a list like that?! I want to live in that civilization even if it rains
a storm every other Tuesday!)))</span></P>
<P>"TECHNICAL AND PROCEDURAL QUESTIONS FOR DIGITAL EARTH CHALLENGE</P>
<P>"Challenge contestants may submit their entries electronically to</P>
<P><A HREF="http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form">http://dex.telascience.org/entry-form</A></P>
<P>ENTRY FORM CONTENTS FOR DIGITAL EARTH CHALLENGE</P>
<P>Full Name (Family Name, First Name, Other Names):
Work Place or School; Name and Address:<BR>
Home Address:<BR>
Contact Phone Number:<BR>
Email address:<BR>
Entry Description [500 word limit]:<BR>
Entry URL Location [Please include any access codes; Confidential for Judges Only]</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<br>
UNIQUENESS, INNOVATION, <br>
USEFULNESS, SCALEABILITY PLUS YOU GET A JET TICKET... WOW!<br>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-2802442563089953580?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-58146362160880433242007-02-07T14:23:00.000-08:002007-02-07T14:28:17.915-08:00Viridian Note 00488: Sublime Climate<DL><dt>
Key concepts:
</dt><dd>world awakened to the stark realities of climate change.</dd></P>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>
Just 'cause we're winning, doesn't mean we're dead
quite yet. Come on, a little cheery schadenfreude is in order.
</dd></DL>
<HR NOSHADE ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="456">
<P>If you think us Viridians are enjoying current events, check out these "Planet Ark"
people.
They've been doing the likes of this <STRONG>every single day.</STRONG> And yeah, I've
been reading it.
They're still not happy, but I've never seen 'em so excited.</P>
<BR>
<A NAME="today_s_news_stories_"> </A>
<H2>TODAY'S NEWS STORIES:</H2>
<A NAME="us_"> </A>
<H2>US:</H2>
<P>AEI Think Tank Sought Critique of Climate Report <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40174/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40174/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>US:</H2>
<P>US Urges 'Global Discussion' on UN Warming Report <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40173/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40173/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="uk_"> </A>
<H2>UK:</H2>
<P>Insurers Welcome UN Climate Panel Report <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40182/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40182/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>UK:</H2>
<P>FEATURE - Tankers May Ship Water to Parched Cities of Future <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40167/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40167/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="sri_lanka_"> </A>
<H2>SRI LANKA:</H2>
<P>INTERVIEW - Sea May Swallow Maldives if Global Warming unchecked <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40171/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40171/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="spain_"> </A>
<H2>SPAIN:</H2>
<P>INTERVIEW - Spain Suffering Worst Drought ever - Tagus Water Board <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40177/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40177/story.htm</A></P>
<BR>
<A NAME="norway_"> </A>
<H2>NORWAY:</H2>
<P>ANALYSIS - Defying Mark Twain, World Seeks to Fix Weather <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40181/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40181/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="japan_"> </A>
<H2>JAPAN:</H2>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>Kiribati: Action on Global Warming Good, but Late <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40179/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40179/story.htm</A></P>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<A NAME="international_"> </A>
<H2>INTERNATIONAL:</H2>
<P>FACTBOX - Reactions to UN Climate Panel Report <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40168/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40168/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="indonesia_"> </A>
<H2>INDONESIA:</H2>
<P>Jakarta Floods Kill Nine, nearly 200,000 Homeless <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40172/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40172/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="india_"> </A>
<H2>INDIA:</H2>
<P>Melting Glaciers, Sinking Isles: Warming Hits India <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40178/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40178/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>INDIA:</H2>
<P>Bangladesh Faces Bleak Future from Global Warming <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40157/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40157/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="germany_"> </A>
<H2>GERMANY:</H2>
<P>Global Wind Energy Market Grew 32 Pct in 2006 - VDMA <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40183/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40183/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="france_"> </A>
<H2>FRANCE:</H2>
<P>Chirac Calls for New, Tougher UN Environment Body <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40175/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40175/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>FRANCE:</H2>
<P>Global Warming Report may Trigger Lawsuits - Lawyers <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40165/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40165/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>FRANCE:</H2>
<P>46 Nations Call for Tougher UN Environment Role <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40152/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40152/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="ecuador_"> </A>
<H2>ECUADOR:</H2>
<P>Ecuador Probes Oil Companies over Pollution <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40161/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40161/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="china_"> </A>
<H2>CHINA:</H2>
<P>Chinese Chemical Spill Kills 1, Injures 126 <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40162/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40162/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="chad_"> </A>
<H2>CHAD:</H2>
<P>FEATURE - Climate Change, Human Pressure Shrink Lake Chad <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40156/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40156/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="brazil_"> </A>
<H2>BRAZIL:</H2>
<P>INTERVIEW - Global Warming Demands Global Effort - Brazil <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40169/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40169/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="australia_"> </A>
<H2>AUSTRALIA:</H2>
<P>Climate Change Forces Australian Farmers to Nurture Land <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40180/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40180/story.htm</A></P>
<H2>AUSTRALIA:</H2>
<P>Anti-Whaling Ships say they Have Been Made "Pirates"
<br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40160/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40160/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="australia_"> </A>
<H2>AUSTRALIA:</H2>
<P>Drought Scars Australia's Land and Farmers <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40159/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40159/story.htm</A></P>
<A NAME="australia__2"> </A>
<A NAME="australia_"> </A>
<H2>AUSTRALIA:</H2>
<P>Global Warming Threatens Australia's Barrier Reef <br><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40158/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40158/story.htm</A></P>
<P>etc etc etc etc etc....</P>
<P><a href="http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/the_poem_and_the_apocalypse_part_one_destructive_fantasies/#When:02:51:00Z">http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/<br>the_poem_and_the_apocalypse_part_one_destructive_fantasies/#When:02:51:00Z</A>
Look at these strange, ditzy, etiolated, theorist characters. If there was a major
disaster, how would these hapless people breathe and eat?
Really, they're just so last-century.</P>
<P>
<br><a href="http://www.greenoptions.com/blog/2007/02/05/my_date_with_the_giant_exxonmobil_responds_to_global_warming_report_and_allegations">http://www.greenoptions.com/blog/2007/02/05/<br>my_date_with_the_giant_exxonmobil_responds_to_global_warming_report_and_allegations</A></P>
<P>Exxon in terror. Boy that stuff's sure fun to watch.
It's barely starting. Even the hopelessly benumbed US Congress knows where to look for a
whipping boy.
Exxon-Mobil HQ. Where else and who else is there?</P>
<p>Group Seeks ExxonMobil Records on Global Warming Spin SANTA MONICA, California,
February 2, 2007 (ENS) – The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, FTCR, today
called on Congress to subpoena ExxonMobil's records and probe the oil giant's funding of
organizations involved in disputing the reality of global warming.</p>
<P>FTCR urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch
the investigation after a report in the British newspaper, "The Guardian," that the
Exxon-financed American Enterprise Institute was offering scientists and economists
$10,000 each to write articles undercutting the report from the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. Travel expenses were also being offered.</P>
<P>The American Enterprise Institute has received more than $1.6 million from ExxonMobil
and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration, which
has in the past resisted reports of global warming, although top White House and Energy
Department officials said today that the administration agrees with the findings of the
IPCC report.</P>
<P>Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of
trustees, "The Guardian" reported.</P>
<P>"Exxon Mobil made a profit of $40 billion last year – more than any company ever –
not just on the backs of overcharged motorists, but at the expense of human life on Earth
itself. Now it's using the profits to bury the evidence and distract attention from the
most serious problem the world faces," said John Simpson, FTCR consumer advocate.<BR>
</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Wait till climate victims ask Exxon-Mobil to pay for funerals. No, they won't
"ask" – they'll demand. Even worse, quite a lot of the deceased will be Exxon-Mobil
employees and shareholders. After 25 years of dissociating the media, Exxon's trying to
dissociate themselves from "inaccurate media reports"? Who else is there to blame?
They've methodically made themselves into the planet's ultimate scapegoat.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The Denial Industry. Doesn't take much investigation, it's all just sitting there in the open.)))</span> <br><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1875760,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1875760,00.html</A></P>
<P><a href="http://ga3.org/ct/17AZBO61fzoc/">http://ga3.org/ct/17AZBO61fzoc/</A><BR>
Henry Waxman's Attack on Bush Global Warming Distortions By James Ridgeway "Henry Waxman,
chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, opened oversight
hearings this morning with a sharp attack on Phil Cooney, the former oil lobbyist who
headed the Council of Environmental Quality, for tampering with scientific reports on
global warming in order downplay its importance.
</P>
<P>"Cooney resigned in 2005 after he was publicly criticized for playing politics with
global warming.
One New York Times report discussing government climate change reports written in 2002 and
2003 said, 'In a section on the need for research into how warming might change water
availability and flooding, [Cooney] crossed out a paragraph describing the projected
reduction of mountain glaciers and snowpack. His note in the margins explained that this
was 'straying from research strategy into speculative findings/musings.'" <span class="bluetext">(((Cooney's
headed for jail. Not right away, but watch what happens when those glaciers recede.
Somebody's gotta go. Of course it'll be the likes of Cooney. Who else is gonna go to
jail for climate crisis? A bunch of Chinese coal commissars? Of course it's gonna be him!
Him and any fool who dares to try to help him. He didn't have that figured earlier, but
that's because he's greedy and stupid. He sure knows it now. Watch him fight the
inevitable with his ever-dwindling resources.
Against ever-angrier, ever-growing enemies.
It's gonna be rather horrible, like watching a weevil pop and burn under a magnifying
glass.
I'd spare the wretch if it was up to me, but that's way beyond the reach of us pundits
now. The apparatchik here is blackened toast.)))</span></P>
<P>
<br><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18138/">http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18138/</A>
<br><a href="http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Using_Pond_Scum_To_Fuel_Our_Future_999.html">http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/<br>Using_Pond_Scum_To_Fuel_Our_Future_999.html</A></P>
<P>Pond-scum single-cell biodiesel. "Algae makes oil naturally. Raw algae can be
processed to make biocrude, the renewable equivalent of petroleum, and refined to make
gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and chemical feedstocks for plastics and drugs. Indeed, it can
be processed at existing oil refineries to make just about anything that can be made from
crude oil."
Hey, Big Mike the Viridian Microbe hasn't even hit his stride.</P>
<P><a href="http://www.avaaz.org/en/about.php">http://www.avaaz.org/en/about.php</A><BR>
Yet another angry leftie group with move.on glassroots, but they're deliberately globalizing, which is kinda interesting.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((And now, as a finale, something you might like to see or do.)))</span></P>
<A NAME="_acirc; _sublime_climate_-_a_call_for_artists_and_scientists"> </A>
<!-- Start of auto-detected Mail header -->
<H2>Sublime Climate - a call for artists and scientists</H2>
<EM>alibiali</EM><BR>
<EM>Feb 4, 2007 11:44 AM</EM><BR>
<!-- end of auto-detected mail header -->
<BR>
<P>As this call for submissions goes to press, the National Climatic Data Center in
Asheville, N.C.
(NOAA) announced 2006 was the warmest year on record for the U.S. The Cambridge School of
Weston will open its doors to The Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, a sustainable
science building and art gallery, in the fall of 2007. For the building's first exhibition
season, we are reaching out to artists and scientists alike who explore issues and themes
related to global warming. The exhibition will run from November 2007 through the first
week of February 2008. Further details will be announced. All media will be considered;
however, large work may not be able to be accommodated.</P>
<P>In addition to exhibiting works of contemporary art and science, we also invite
proposals from individuals who would be willing to partake in a symposium on global
warming, or otherwise are willing to work with our students in some capacity.</P>
<P>Submissions should include examples of work via slides or digital media, a resume,
along with any appropriate written proposal or documentation. Please include a S.A.S.E.,
for the eventual return of materials, and contact information. Do not send large files
digitally at this point.</P>
<P>Send all materials to Todd Bartel, The Cambridge School of Weston, 45 Georgian Road,
Weston, MA, 02493.
The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2007.
For questions please contact <br><a href="mailto:tbartel@csw.org">tbartel@csw.org</A>.</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
REMEMBER THE 20TH CENTURY?<BR>
KISS ALL THAT GOODBYE<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-5814636216088043324?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-77297484689510916132007-01-27T10:30:00.000-08:002007-01-31T07:21:17.109-08:00Viridian Note 00487: We Are Winning<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Viridian Design Movement, climate change,
culture change, cybergreen, Bright Green, victory
conditions</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>The Viridian struggle
has met with success. We are winning.</dd></DL>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The boiled frog is jumping. It turns out that a
boiled frog always jumps. To think otherwise was
a mere urban legend. The frog won't jump free from
its dire, life-threatening menace at the first effort,
but next year will be even hotter and scarier,
and the frog will jump harder. From now on, the frog
will jump all the time. Further urging to jump will
not be required from the likes of us Viridians.
The frog has gotten the message. We are winning!)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39985/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39985/story.htm</A></P>
<P>
<span class="bluetext">(((Here is the first Viridian Note. This is number 487.
I doubt we will ever reach 500 of these. That won't
be needed: because we are winning.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/1-25/Note%2000001.txt">http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/1-25/Note%2000001.txt</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The cogent quote from the first Viridian speech,
eight years ago:)))</span></P>
<P>"Now let me explain to you why my 21st century design
movement is going to be a great technical improvement
over all previous art movements. Let me give you
a tour of its many unique and innovative features.</P>
<P>"Number One. Perhaps most importantly, this
movement has a built-in expiration date. The problem
with previous art movements is this unexamined
assumption that they have discovered some eternal
cultural truth, and that they will therefore go on
forever. In point of fact, no matter how much truth
they discover, movements never do last very long.</P>
<P>"So, this is where our movement gets it built-in
expiration date. The date is 2012, a date in the Kyoto
accords, when people are supposed to be engaged in a
serious decline in CO2 emissions."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((We Viridians have beaten that clock. There is no
need to wait for distant 2012 to declare victory in
our war to make green trendy and to create
"irresistible demand for a global atmosphere upgrade."
Green will never get any trendier than it is this year.
The atmosphere upgrade is on the way. That process
won't be pretty, but it's going to happen.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The 2012 deadline for Kyoto is already a dead
letter, because Kyoto was far too weak and too slow.
We are going to see a series of monstrous efforts by
large enterprises: private, local, state and national,
to save whatever can be saved of the previous natural
order. The primary motivator of this effort will
be fear. The climate is changing much more quickly
and more severely than anyone suspected it would.
A rapid, ruthless, headlong clean-tech techno-
revolution – in fact, a series of them – is
the only global option with a ghost of a chance to
save our smoldering planetary bacon. That's coming;
it is under way.)))</span></P>
<P>((When the Davos Economic Forum steals your clothes,
there's no reason left to wear them any more.
We are winning. The Great and the Good agree with
us. They're more scared than we ever were.)))</span> <br>
<A HREF="http://www.weforum.org/en/knowledge/Events/2007/AnnualMeeting/KN_SESS_SUMM_19392?url=/en/knowledge/Events/2007/AnnualMeeting/KN_SESS_SUMM_19392">http://www.weforum.org/en/knowledge/Events/2007/<br>AnnualMeeting/KN_SESS_SUMM_19392?url=/en/knowledge/<br>Events/2007/AnnualMeeting/KN_SESS_SUMM_19392</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://gaia.world-television.com/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2007/default.aspx?sn=19392&lang=en">http://gaia.world-television.com/wef/worldeconomicforum_annualmeeting2007/<br>default.aspx?sn=19392&lang=en</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/3282">http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/3282</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005912.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005912.html</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1582504,00.html">http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1582504,00.html</A></P>
<P>
<span class="bluetext">(((Even traditional green campaigners are getting
smarter. Not a whole lot, but some.)))</span> <br>
<A HREF="http://www.greenmyapple.org/buzz">http://www.greenmyapple.org/buzz</A></P>
<P>
**Breaking News** <span class="bluetext">(((not for us, but for others)))</span><br>
"Ten Major U.S. Companies Join Environmental Defense
and Others to Endorse Mandatory Limits on America's
Global Warming Pollution. Watch press conference live
this morning on CSPAN at 11:30am Eastern." <span class="bluetext">(((These
companies are demanding carbon regulation in order to
punish their competitors. They have a jump in going
clean, and their competitors, who were stubborn and
fatally tardy, will be destroyed. Not in a week, no:
but in five years they'll be deader than Enron. They
have fatally misjudged the flow of events, they threw
a war-for-carbon and lost it, they have no friends
left and a million commercial enemies sharpening
knives... they are doomed.)))</span><br>
<A HREF="http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gp16sGE1hmuq/">http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gp16sGE1hmuq/</A></P>
<P>"The companies involved in today's announcement are
well-known Fortune 500 corporations: Alcoa, BP America,
Caterpillar, Duke Energy, DuPont, Florida Power and
Light, General Electric, Lehman Brothers, Pacific Gas
& Electric, and PNM Resources. They have joined
Environmental Defense, the World Resources
Institute, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, and
Natural Resources Defense Council to form an
unprecedented alliance – the United States Climate
Action Partnership (US-CAP)." <span class="bluetext">(((If you are Exxon,
what is your response when you see this? Your PR
reaction is contempt. Your private response is
anguish. Fear, and a desperate attempt to muddle
and temporize. It's not just that Viridians are
winning. Denialists are losing. Horribly.
We win. They're toast.)))</span><br>
<A HREF="http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gd16sGE1hm7C/">http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gd16sGE1hm7C/</A>
<A HREF="http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gp16sGE1hmuq/">http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/Gp16sGE1hmuq/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Too late, Exxon. Now, at last, you struggle to
move: but you made your bed of Procrustes and you will
be torn to pieces. First, denial: you tried that
for years. Then anger. You'll try that, that will
be brief. Then resignation... and at last you'll beg
for pity, but, although you're the world's largest
and most profitable corporation, you have brought
such fantastic suffering onto such vast hosts of
other people that there will not be a drop of pity
left for you.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39815/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39815/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">((("Corporate Green." Get used to this. It's what's
for breakfast, lunch and supper. You're going to get
Corporate Green whether you like it or not. Green is
is sexy as it's ever going to get, right now, 02007.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((When the brown alternative begins disappearing
wholesale, when that's simply unavailable and we have
to live Corporate Green, then green will not be sexy.
No, Green will just be what there is. Brown could not
be sustained. So Brown died. Green will work better
eventually, but when we first get it, the alpha-
rollout of a sustainable world... man, is that ever
going to suck. I own some eco-chic shoes. I had to
stop wearing them because they were rotting right off
of my feet. It'll be like that, okay? Only more so.
We're not gonna win pretty; we are gonna win kinda
ugly, frankly – but we are winning.)))</span></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2487">http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2487</A><br>
"This year's Greenbuild, the annual conference of the US Green Building Council (USGBC),
was all about two things:</P>
<P>"Green has gone corporate – and that's exactly what
everybody wanted. Past gatherings may have been
intimate affairs, but this year's event, in Denver,
was a full-scale trade show, with 13,000 attendees
walking around with tan totes emblazoned with Honda
on the side, lots of corporate-sponsored parties, and
a sold-out exhibition hall, with 700 exhibitors
hawking their green products. It left little doubt
that green, at least as it's represented by the USGBC,
isn't about the counter-culture anymore." <span class="bluetext">(((Because
it is not the "counterculture," it's the culture.
We are winning.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The leader of the British Tory Party is quoting
GBN futurist scenarios in the Financial Times.
Cameron is framing the climate crisis in terms of
immigration, national security and GNP. Margaret
Thatcher's party agrees with us. We are winning.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/49bca770-ab4f-11db-b5db-0000779e2340.html">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/49bca770-ab4f-11db-b5db-0000779e2340.html</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Same goes for the Canadian conservative party.
Good luck "conserving" that Arctic ice, Mr Prime
Minister.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39997/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39997/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Climate chaos in Europe. This has been happening
year after year after year. It will continue to
intensify no matter how it's spun by anybody. It is
the new reality. It is methodically destroying
the credibility, the options, the business, the
basic future of anybody who ever denied it.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39991/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39991/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Thank you, "Situational Science Man!" You are
doomed. You were a tissue of fraud. You lose.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2007/db070114.gif">http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2007/db070114.gif</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Watch yourself drown. You are looking at people
here who will be seeking vengeance on the fossil
enterprise. There are hundreds of millions of
them who are currently occupying some of the
most expensive real estate in the world, including
the capitals of Britain, USA, and Japan. There is
no resisting the political, economic, social, cultural
effects of this. Everything will change.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://flood.firetree.net/">http://flood.firetree.net/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Geeks green out at the Energy Innovation Conference.
We Viridians always wanted 'em to do that. Well, there
they go, then. We got what we wanted. We win.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.energyinnovation.com/">http://www.energyinnovation.com/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Brazil, the ethanol Saudi Arabia. Hello,
Brasilia Consensus.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40012/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/40012/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The War For Oil becomes the War On Oil.
Except Bush can't wage that war, because he can't win
wars. Somebody will win; just not Bush. Bush has
tainted and destroyed everything he touched, and
since he was the poster-boy for anti-environmentalism,
it will thrive in his absence. People do not yet
understand the awesome extent of the ruin Bush has
brought on himself and his supporters, but that will
continue long, long after his absence from power.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070123/cm_huffpost/039326">http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070123/cm_huffpost/039326</A></P>
<P>The many, many, net-based heirs and successors of the
Viridian Movement (1998-2007):<BR><br>
Worldchanging<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.worldchanging.com">http://www.worldchanging.com</A><BR><br>
Treehugger<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.treehugger.com/">http://www.treehugger.com/</A><BR><br>
EcoGizmo<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.gizmag.com/ecogizmo/">http://www.gizmag.com/ecogizmo/</A><BR>
Hugg: User-Generated Green News. <span class="bluetext">(((What,<BR>
huh? Really? Yeah.)))</span><BR><br>
<A HREF="http://www.hugg.com/">http://www.hugg.com/</A><BR>
Celsias: "It pays to save the world."<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((What? It does? No kidding?)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.celsias.com/">http://www.celsias.com/</A><BR><br>
Vivavi: contemporary sustainable furniture.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.vivavi.com/">http://www.vivavi.com/</A><BR><br>
Inhabitat: good design is green design.<BR>
<A HREF="http://inhabitat.com/">http://inhabitat.com/</A><BR><br>
Sustainable Style: look fabulous, live well, do good<br>
<A HREF="http://www.sustainablestyle.org/">http://www.sustainablestyle.org/</A><BR><br>
Eco Design Lab: fashion + design for the ethical<BR>
consumer<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.ecodesignlab.com/">http://www.ecodesignlab.com/</A><BR><br>
Jetson Green:<BR>
<A HREF="http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/">http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/</A><BR><br>
Ecogeek: "EcoGeek monitors and explores the current explosion in technology designed to
mitigate our impact on the environment."
<A HREF="http://www.ecogeek.org/">http://www.ecogeek.org/</A><br><br>
Terra Rossa: Where conservatives consider a new energy
future. <span class="bluetext">(((Huh? Yes, they do that. Because otherwise
they have no future at all. These are three stages in
successfully changing culture: "That's ridiculous,"
"it's true but trivial," "I always said so." Terra
Rossa are Christian white-green albedo right-wing
greens. Do you understand what this means? The right
cannot go away. The right you always have with you. When the right steals your clothes,
that means you win.
We Viridians have cruised through those three stages
in jig time. We are winning.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.terrarossa.com/">http://www.terrarossa.com/</A><BR><br>
Evangelical Ecologist. I don't know their slogan,
so I'll say "for maximum cognitive dissonance."
Look at that awesome blogroll of lunatics you've
never heard of. I wouldn't trust these clowns
with a burnt-out match, but they're there because
they HAVE to be there.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.evaneco.com/">http://www.evaneco.com/</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Okay: did we do all this ourselves? No, of
course not. But it's a lot easier to get something
done when you don't bother to take credit for
doing it. Do all these people we claim as "successors"
even know we exist? Maybe not. Likely not. And
that's GOOD. That means we win.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((This isn't the first time I've seen this happen.
I remember when there was such a thing as "cyberpunk":
visionaries in the early 1980s writing farfetched,
daring stories that predicted that someday there would
be a world rather like the late 1990s. We didn't
create that world, but it was obvious. Now the prefix
"cyber" has gone away – not because it failed, but
because it is EVERYWHERE. There is nothing left now
that isn't "cyber." The "virtual" is going away, too.
The word "actual" is older than the word "virtual," so
when the one subsumes the other, the virtual vanishes
and becomes the actual.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((We Viridians used to be a rather novel effort,
virtual activists in a cyber space: today there is no
other kind. It's all the same. There is no
such thing as a political, aesthetic, cultural,
literary, military, governmental or nongovernmental
movement without a digital component. Such a thing
is no longer possible, such things no longer exist.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((This means that it is becoming necessary for
us to vanish. Not because we are losing. If we
were losing – like the Arts and Crafts movement
lost, like Modernism lost – then we could complain
for the next dozen decades. Viridian is <STRONG>winning.</STRONG>
We threw a match or two, and less than a decade
later the planet is consumed in prairie fires.
The smart thing to do is to stop.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Then what happens? There are two choices. You
can attempt to seize control, or you can get out
of the way. Oh wait, there's a third choice:
getting cold feet and apologizing for having won.
I didn't mention that option because that one
didn't occur to me.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((We are winning because we were ahead of the curve:
we Viridians were an avant-garde who understood,
almost ten years ago, that something like this was
bound to happen. That does not make us the proper
people to actually carry it out. First, we don't
have the scale, the resources, or the ability.
Second, and let me be very clear to you here:
the primrose path to sustainability, even it is
construed as sexy, trendy and stylish, will be
dark and thorny. Behind Corporate Green is its
darker, bloodstained cousin, Khaki Green, and we'll
be seeing a lot of that. Sustainability will be a
comprehensive revolution in the tenor of daily life.
There will be blood on the hands of the people who
bring it about. Not because they are bloodthirsty.
But because there is so much blood.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Genuine climate mayhem is underway. It is
intensifying fast. People are going to die: of heat,
of disease, freezing, starving, drowning and dying of
thirst. Not in mere tens of thousands as they
did in the Paris heatwave, but in hecatombs. We
have a global climate crisis. A real one, not a futurist
speculation. People are going to make agonizing
sacrifices in increasingly frantic efforts
to ameliorate that and redress that crisis. Then, next
year, they will discover that the situation
is vastly worse than then imagined, and the spillage
of blood and treasure and sacred honor that they
thought would surely help is a fraction of what was necessary.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Two thousand people on an email list
are not the masters of a global situation. We're going
to be sucked into it just like everybody else is.
Nevertheless, we are winning. And that's good news.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The climate crisis is in its Neville Chamberlain
phase right now. People still imagine that a
concern with the climate is trendy, and that a judicious
head-nod here will mean peace in our time. Those
people are not merely mistaken, they are delusionary.
They are nodding in disdain at the basic laws of
physics. The human race has spent two industrious
centuries unearthing the planetary dead and setting
them aflame in the sky. There is hell to pay for
an affront like that, and it's all ahead of us in
this century. We are in in 2007 and we are about
seven percent of the way into very, very deep and
very, very hot water.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Nevertheless, the frog will jump from that hot
water. We are winning.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I wish, very much, that we were not winning
on those awesome and frightening terms, but we
are winning. Our ideas are becoming mainstream ideas.
Our approaches and assumptions will be mainstream
approaches and assumptions. Our ideas are becoming
truisms. They are being absorbed at such a deep and
irrevocable level that they'll become cliches.
The victory condition for successful prophecy is
not prophecy. It's cliche'. Viridian is becoming
cliched. Our sensibility is becoming mainstream
sensibility. And that is good news.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That means it is time to declare victory.
Further rhetorical effort on this line is not required,
and the cleverest activist tactic when you get what
you want is to take it and vanish into the woodwork.
A strutting triumphalism will only annoy people who
are doomed to end up thinking like us anyhow. So, the
sooner we can vanish and let them get on with the
hard, sweaty labor of jumping from a boiling pot,
the better off the world will be.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I am thinking hard about what comes next. Some
different enterprise should build on this achievement.
It'll take me a while to understand that, but it should
be as far ahead of 2007 as Viridian was ahead of events
in 1998. Likely a little farther.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I'm good at thinking ahead: the track record shows
that my speculations, even the daffiest and most
sarcastic ones, do tend to be crowned with some success.
Still, I tend to oversell my own foresight: Viridian shows
that events and developments that I imagine
are twenty years out, are only about eight or nine.
As a futurist, I'm clearly not trying hard enough.
Next time, I'll try to take a bigger bite.)))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
JUMP, BOILING FROG<BR>
JUMP HARD AND FAST<BR>
GOOD LUCK<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-7729748468951091613?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-74577569661160316912007-01-11T11:33:00.000-08:002007-01-13T15:50:23.463-08:00Viridian Note 00486 Energy Policy for Europe<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>unilateral carbon limits, European
Commission, industrial policy, European Union</dd>
<dt>
Attention Conservation Notice:
</dt> <dd>Who cares what a
bunch of Eurocrats say? They don't even have a real
Constitution!</dd></DL>
<P>Links:</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005784.html">http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/005784.html</A><BR>
Okay, never mind this dull note about European
energy politics, just go read this inspiring
John Thackara design essay.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://renu.citizenre.com/">http://renu.citizenre.com/</A><BR>
Too cheap and thumb-fingered to put solar on your
house and pick up all those fat rebates? These
guys will do it for you, and finance it!</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/07/detroit-auto-show-its-here-gms-plug-in-hybrid-is-the-chevy-v/">http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/01/07/<br>detroit-auto-show-its-here-gms-plug-in-hybrid-is-the-chevy-v/</A></p>
<P><A HREF="http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos14/">http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos14/</A></p>
<P><A HREF="http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2007/01/is_gm_reviving_.html">http://makower.typepad.com/joel_makower/2007/01/is_gm_reviving_.html</A><BR>
Hey, nice American car! Too bad it's imaginary.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm">http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm</A><BR>
America's getting warmer, as well as Europe.
How MUCH warmer? Have a look! Even the trees
can feel it.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.2010imperative.org/">http://www.2010imperative.org/</A><BR><BR>
Climate Change Global Emergency Teach-In, featuring
all kinda architects, planners and designers!</P>
<HR>
<P><strong>January 10, 2007 11:37 AM Eastern Time</strong></P>
<P><strong>European Commission Proposes an Integrated Energy and
Climate Change Package to Cut Emissions for the 21st
Century</strong></P>
<P>WASHINGTON – (BUSINESS WIRE) – The European
Commission today proposed a comprehensive new Energy
Policy for Europe to combat climate change and boost
the European Union's energy security and
competitiveness. <span class="bluetext">(((Okay Wikipedia, what the heck
is the "European Commission"?)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission</A><BR>
"The European Commission (formally the Commission of
the European Communities) is the executive body of
the European Union. Alongside the European Parliament
and the Council of the European Union, it is one of
the three main institutions governing the Union."</P>
<P>Setting a series of ambitious targets on greenhouse
gas emissions and renewable energy, the package of
proposals aims to create a true internal market for
energy and strengthen effective regulation. The
Commission believes that when an international
agreement is reached on the post-2012 framework
this should lead to a 30% cut in emissions from
developed countries by 2020.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That's a lot. Nowhere near enough, but a lot.)))</span></P>
<P>To further underline its commitment the Commission
proposes that the European Union commits now to cut
greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020,
in particular through energy measures.</P>
<P>"Today marks a step change for the European Union.
Energy policy was a core area at the start of the
European project," said Commission President José
Manuel Barroso.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That's because the European Union was invented
in 1951 in order to dig up coal! True fact!)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Coal_and_Steel_Community</A></p>
<P>"We must now return it to center stage. The challenges
of climate change, increasing import dependence and
higher energy prices are faced by all EU members.
A common European response is necessary to deliver
sustainable, secure and competitive energy.
The proposals put forward by the Commission today
demonstrate our commitment to leadership and a
long-term vision for a new Energy Policy for Europe
that responds to climate change. We must act now,
to shape tomorrow's world."</P>
<P>"If we take the right decisions now," Commissioner for
Energy Policy, Andris Piebalgs said, <span class="bluetext">(((what names
they have)))</span> "Europe can lead the world to a new
industrial revolution: the development of a low carbon
economy." <span class="bluetext">(((Well, it wouldn't be their first
industrial revolution, that's for sure.)))</span></P>
<P>"Our ambition to create a working internal
market, to promote a clean and efficient energy mix
and to make the right choices in research and
development will determine whether we lead this
new scenario or we follow others."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Actually, if you're European, you don't follow
anybody on the climate issue, but you do get
ruthlessly shaken down by petrocrat Russians.
Which really, really won't do. This is basically
a unilateral, internal European Kyoto. They
don't care what the rest of the world says any
more: they're gonna do it themselves and build
a big legal-economic Schengen moat around it.
If you don't want to play, you can go sit on
your own bayonets.)))</span></P>
<P>Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment said:
"Climate change is one of the gravest threats to our
planet. Acting against climate change is imperative.
Today, we have agreed on a set of ambitious, but
realistic targets which will support our global
efforts to contain climate change and its most dire
consequences."</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((What kind of climate consequences? EUROPEAN
climate consequences, the kind we European
Commissioners really care about!)))</span><br>
<A HREF="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/358a1bd0-9ce9-11db-8ec6-0000779e2340.html">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/358a1bd0-9ce9-11db-8ec6-0000779e2340.html</A></p>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Malaria returns to Italy.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2534982,00.html">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2534982,00.html</A></p>
<P>"I urge the rest of the developed world to follow
our lead, match our reductions and accelerate
progress towards an international agreement on
the global emission reductions." <span class="bluetext">(((Hey, what
about the anti-developed state-failure world?
They don't even have governments, but they're
still selling tons of oil. In fact, the more
oil they sell, the faster they un-develop.)))</span></P>
<P>"Europe faces real challenges. There is a more than a
50% chance that global temperatures will rise during
this century by more than 5 degrees Celsius."</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<span class="bluetext">(((Aw c'mon! How could that possibly be a problem?
Forbes Magazine loves it! Forbes' pet denialists
don't deny the truth any more – their new tactic
for 2007 is not to care! Business in a world without
snow will be great! Stop fretting!)))</span><br>
<A HREF="http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1225/038.html">http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/1225/038.html</A></p>
<P>"On current projections, energy and transport policies
would mean that rather than falling, EU emissions
would increase by around 5% by 2030. With current
trends and policies, the EU's energy import dependence
will jump from 50% of total EU energy consumption
today to 65% in 2030. In addition, the internal
energy market remains incomplete which prevents
EU citizens and the EU economy from receiving the
full benefits of energy liberalization. <span class="bluetext">(((Russian
gas for everybody, even the Irish!)))</span></P>
<P>The package proposed by the Commission today seeks
to provide solutions to these challenges.
For further information and details on each facet
of the package, please visit:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.eurunion.org/">http://www.eurunion.org/</A></p>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
EUROPEAN UNION PACKAGES<BR>
HAVE LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS<BR>
OF DETAILED FACETS!<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-7457756966116031691?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-47153766996594202552007-01-08T06:27:00.001-08:002007-01-08T06:27:48.700-08:00Viridian Note 00485: Metcalfe on Enertech<DL><dt>
Key concepts:</dt><dd>Bob Metcalfe, tech development, venture
capital, Internet companies, competitive practices,
industrial policy, Massachusetts, technology clusters,
Silicon Valley, MIT, neologisms, enertech, White-Green,
Ember, Sicortex, GreenFuel, sulfur cure, Parasol
Effect, FOCACA, private sector solutions to
Greenhouse Effect</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Bob Metcalfe, one of
the gray eminences of the Internet and the inventor
of Ethernet, explains to an audience of Massachusetts
politicos why it will take thirty years to defeat
the Greenhouse Effect and by what means he expects
this to happen.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:<BR>
Some handsome wind-power pics here. Check out the
turbines destroyed by heavy weather.<br>
<A HREF="http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/01/wind-power-in-stormy-waters.html#">http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/01/wind-power-in-stormy-waters.html#</A></P>
<P>Did you know that coal mining causes earthquakes?
Like, the biggest quake ever measured in Australia.
Even the crust of the earth isn't safe from this
pernicious business.<BR>
<A HREF="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070103-mine-quake.html">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070103-mine-quake.html</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.cleanedge.com/views.php?id=4496">http://www.cleanedge.com/views.php?id=4496</A><br>
"From an inconsequential percentage of venture
dollars allocated to this sector in prior years,
clean technology now boasts the third-highest
investment category within the entire venture
asset class. This category, which was not even
on the venture radar screen just a few short years
ago, has now overtaken the semiconductor sector
in terms of dollars being invested."</P>
<P>It's not weird that Bob Metcalfe talks like an
old-school MIT techie, because he is one. The
weird part is when Indians start talking like
Bob Metcalfe, and rather fluently, too.<br>
<A HREF="http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1887150,000900020001.htm">http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1887150,000900020001.htm</A><br>
<A HREF="http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jan/06bspec.htm">http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/jan/06bspec.htm</A></P>
<P>
<span class="bluetext">(((Bob Metcalfe sent me the text of this speech of his,
and, even more usefully, he sent me the <STRONG>notes</STRONG>
about the speech, comments which he was too tactful
to deliver to his distinguished audience. This means
that Bob Metcalfe was actually making sarcastic
parenthentical comments about his own speech!)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I have decided to annotate Bob's speech
with some of Bob's biting remarks, which will be
marked with special-guest-star <<<triple arrows>>>
instead of customary Viridian triple parentheses.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I find this speech of great interest since I have
been urging Internet techies to tackle the greenhouse
effect since 1998. So, lo, here one comes trundling
along, and his first order of business is to get all
the hippies out of the way. Bob doesn't want
to identify as "Green" because there is way too much
leftie-baiting political baggage; he'd preferred to
be called "White." Like being "White" has no
political baggage?)))</span></P>
<P>((Still, it's gratifying to see this happen. You
could take this political map of Green politics and
you could add a large new wedge.)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.gmktg.it/green_maps.pdf">http://www.gmktg.it/green_maps.pdf</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That new part would be "Tech-Money Green" and its
true color would be Shiny High-Albedo White and it
would occupied by the likes of Bob Metcalfe and
Vinod Khosla. This is a long speech to a bunch
of MIT Beaver good-old-tech-boys, but nevertheless,
I would suggest studying this White rhetoric, as you
will be hearing a lot more of it, because they
have a lot of money. Also, instead of merely
holding sit-ins, Tech-Money White Greens can actually
finance and build stuff.)))</span></P>
<P><A HREF="http://vcmike.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/guest-blogger-bob-metcalfe-on-framing-the-first-massachusett-energy-summit/">http://vcmike.wordpress.com/2006/12/15/<br>guest-blogger-bob-metcalfe-on-framing-the-first-massachusett-energy-summit/</A></P>
<BR>
<A NAME="bio"> </A>
<H2>BIO</H2>
<P>Bob Metcalfe is a general partner of Polaris Venture
Partners in Waltham. He serves on the boards of
Polaris-backed Boston-area start-ups Ember, GreenFuel,
Mintera, Narad, Paratek, and SiCortex, all of which,
if pressed, he can relate to enertech. In 1979, Bob
founded 3Com Corporation, the Silicon Valley
networking company that IPOed in 1984, hit $5B
during the Internet Bubble, and is now HQed in
Marlborough. Bob received the National Medal of
Technology in 2005 for leadership in the invention,
standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet,
plumbing for the Internet. Bob is a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and a Life Trustee
of MIT. After 22 years in Silicon Valley, the
Metcalves live in Boston and Maine.</P>
<P>
Guest Blogger Bob Metcalfe on "Framing the First
Massachusett EnergySummit"<BR>
Posted December 15, 2006</P>
<A NAME="framing_the_first_massachusett_energy_summit"> </A>
<H2>FRAMING THE FIRST MASSACHUSETT ENERGY SUMMIT</H2>
<P>For 8am-noon, Wednesday, December 13, 2006,
MIT Faculty Club</P>
<P>Speaking BEFORE me were (1) Paul O’Brien, Special
Assistant to the Massachusetts Secretary of Economic
Development, (2) Paul Parravano, Co-Director, MIT
Office of Government Community Relations, (3) Susan
Hockfield, President of MIT, and (4) Ernest Moniz,
Director of the MIT Energy Initiative.</P>
<P>Speaking AFTER me and panel breakouts were (1) Cary
Bullock, CEO of GreenFuel, (2) Richard Lester,
Director of MIT’s Industrial Performance Center,
and (3) Rick Matilla, Director of Environmental
Affairs, Genzyme. Speaking AFTER them were (1)
Ranch Kimball, Massachusetts Secretary of Economic
Development, and (2) Duval Patrick, Massachusetts
Governor Elect.</P>
<A NAME="start"> </A>
<H2>START</H2>
<P>Good morning, thank you, and now for something
completely different.</P>
<P>Welcome to today's First Massachusetts Energy Summit.</P>
<P>Thanks to Governor Mitt Romney, Secretary Ranch
Kimball, Paul O'Brien, President Susan Hockfield,
and Professor Moniz for inviting me here today,
and I'm sorry if they soon REGRET it.</P>
<P>I am enthusiastic and grateful to be here. I signed
up to make five minutes of framing remarks, but in
preparing my notes, I've written several thousand
words, which I'll happily send, if you ask nicely.</P>
<P>Please excuse any lack of collegiality on my part.
Collegiality is not high on my priority list. After
decades of fighting the status quo, I am wary of
collegiality. Among the pathologies of collegiality
are old boy networks – entrenched, resourceful,
and nasty defenders of the status quo.</P>
<P><<<Energy is an emerging CLUSTER in the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts. Energy is emerging, we hope, like
other world-class clusters in the Massachusetts
economy. These include finance, defense, hospitals,
infotech, biotech, nanotech, Internet, robotics, and
RFID, to name a few, old and new.>>></P>
<P><<<No small factor in the emergence of Massachusetts
clusters is the nourishment provided by our state's
100+ colleges and 10+ world-class research
universities, including especially my alma mater,
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has
taken up ENERGY as a major new university-wide
initiative.>>></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Please note: these MIT-soaked aggregations
are to be called CLUSTERS, not "good old boy
networks," a southern phenomenon apparently
unknown to Massachusetts.)))</span></P>
<P>"I wrote years back in MIT Technology Review Magazine
that while INVENTION is a FLOWER, INNOVATION is a
WEED. We innovators have to be willing to be viewed
as weeds by old boy networks. Innovation, in my
experience, is not done by old boy networks, but
by sometime collaborating and mostly COMPETING, and
annoying, teams of women and men – scientists,
engineers, entrepreneurs, and of course, venture
capitalists – call us "techies." I could stop there.</P>
<P>So, excuse me any lack of collegiality today –
we are INNOVATING here.</P>
<P>The hopeful theory behind risking these five minutes
with me is that I may have some useful advice for
the Massachusetts energy cluster after my decades
of striving and eventual success in Silicon Valley.
The Valley is a cluster of clusters, the envy of
economic developers around the world. In particular,
I am overflowing with advice from experience in
the Internet cluster, whose exact location remains
in doubt, as is its lasting impact since the
Internet Bubble burst.</P>
<P><<<There is controversy about when exactly the
Internet was invented, but I trace it back to a
Federal Communications Commission decision in 1968,
the Carterphone Decision, which began the breaking
of AT&T's stranglehold on telecommunications.
Carterphone established FOCACA <span class="bluetext">((("freedom of
choice among competing alternatives")))</span> among
devices attached to AT&T's telephone network. Then,
only five years later, in 1973, there came three
important inventions: the cellphone, the Internet's
modern protocols (TCP/IP), and the Internet's
plumbing, Ethernet.>>></P>
<P><<<All that FOCACA worked so well that, in 1984,
the AT&T monopoly itself was broken up and, not so
coincidentally, the modern Internet started moving
up its inexorable exponential. We should worry
these days that AT&T is reconsolidating, but that's
another story.>>></P>
<P><<<In 1964, IBM introduced its 360 mainframes to
secure its position as the dominant computer monopoly
– it was IBM and the BUNCH: Burroughs, Univac, NCR,
Control Data, and Honeywell. We would probably still
be stuck with IBM mainframes batch processing punched
cards had it not been for federal government antitrust
oversight through the 1970s. Thanks to the resulting
FOCACA, instead of just IBM and the BUNCH, we got
DEC, Data General, Wang, HP, Intel, Apple, Apollo,
Sun, Thinking Machines, Compaq, Microsoft, Oracle,
Cisco, Dell, and now SiCortex out in Maynard, to name
a few, and all of them connected, NOT through IBM's
System Network Architecture, but through the Internet.
SNA, R.I.P.>>></P>
<P>Rather than make comments about exactly which
innovations are going to solve the world's energy
problems, <<<various forms of taxation, mitigation,
sequestration, gasification, biofuels, nuclear,
photosynthesis, photovoltaics, and hydrogen>>>
in these five minutes I will try to stay
META, and talk about how to help our energy cluster
succeed.</P>
<P>Rather than lead with my own energy SILVER BULLET,
algae, here's my meta silver bullet:</P>
<P>freedom of choice among competing alternatives.</P>
<P>FOCACA for short. If it's progress you want, let
FOCACA reign. Down with monopolies and old boy
networks. Down with early political consensus picks
among people, technologies, or companies. Our energy
cluster will only prosper with FOCACA.</P>
<P>I am from what politicians and professors often call,
a little too dismissively, the "private sector."
I think nobody else but the private sector will meet
the world's energy needs. Yes, the underlying reasons
we are here today are the 100+ colleges and 10+
world-class research universities in Massachusetts.
Every economic cluster that I know about is near a
research university.</P>
<P>And then there are politicians – the public sector.
The big danger in what they call "policy making" is
that large companies have lobbyists and small companies
don't. Using an endless variety of rationales, the old
boy network of large company lobbyists and policy
makers make it difficult for young companies that
might compete with them and thereby drive accelerating
innovation. So, please be careful out there.</P>
<P><<<Two good examples from Internet history are ISDN
plumbing and ISO protocols. Both were infotech
technologies promoted by an old boy network, by the
old Bell System. Bell monopolists sent armies of
lobbyists to visit government officials explaining
how it was in everyone's best interest if their
monopolies were protected, and if not their monopolies
per se, then public safety, and if not safety, then
universal service, and if not that, then the jobs of
telephone workers in their geographies. Even I was
fooled for a while. Had ISDN and ISO been forced on
us by those unsuspecting government officials and me,
the Internet might still be among those perennial
technologies of the future.>>></P>
<P><<<Fortunately, FOCACA prevailed, and we got, not
ISDN and ISO, but after a series of long and fierce
competitions, we got the Internet's Ethernet plumbing
and TCP/IP protocols. I was tempted to say just then
that we "ended up" with the Internet's plumbing and
protocols, but of course FOCACA still prevails, and
the Internet's proliferation and evolution continues.
So should it be with energy in Massachusetts.>>></P>
<P><<<Even policies aimed at large companies can backfire
on small innovation companies. For example, policies
that confiscate profits from "greedy" energy monopolies
are a bad idea. Such profits are typically grossly
exaggerated, but more importantly, investors will shy
away from situations where, if they succeed, their
returns will be confiscated. Profit confiscation
will bite your nose to spite your face, if it's
cheap and clean energy you want.>>></P>
<A NAME="not_energy,_enertech"> </A>
<H2>NOT ENERGY, ENERTECH</H2>
<P>At the risk of not being collegial, again, and maybe
even annoying Governor Romney and President Hockfield,
I'd like to point out THREE problems with the very
name of today’s First Massachusetts Energy Summit.</P>
<P>The FIRST problem with the name is the word FIRST.
This cannot be the first energy summit ever held in
Massachusetts, or even the first at MIT. We have a
long history of trying to meet the world's energy
needs. Let's be mindful that we have been here before.</P>
<P>The SECOND problem with the name of today's SUMMIT is
the word SUMMIT. Governors and Presidents often call
their gatherings summits, but this word has the wrong
connotations for solving problems. Again, the world's
energy needs will not be met top down near the summits
of any old boy networks, but solved – here's my
main message – bottom up, by young women and men,
sometimes collaborating but mostly in COMPETING teams
of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and VCs.
In Silicon Valley, this is called coopetition.</P>
<P>And the THIRD problem with the name of this Energy
Summit is the word ENERGY. The cluster we are here
today discussing is not an "energy" cluster per se,
but an energy TECHNOLOGY cluster. It's not as if we
are planning to mine newly discovered coal deposits
out past Interstate 495. It's not that a spectacular
supply of wind has been found in Nantucket Sound.
It's not that Massachusetts is likely to become a
major energy exporter or even energy independent.
Instead, we are gathered today to discuss the
development of an economic cluster based on energy
TECHNOLOGY.</P>
<P>For example, while Massachusetts will EVENTUALLY
have thousands of windmills in somebody's backyards,
it's more important that our energy technologies are
used around the world for making, for example, windmill
BLADES. Massachusetts technologies will be used
worldwide in energy generation, distribution, storage,
and consumption.</P>
<P>So, rather than energy, I'll be saying energy
technology – ENERTECH for short. I mean to say
enertech as we already say infotech, biotech, and
nanotech. Add "enertech" to the list.</P>
<P><<<The trick, if you want actually to solve Global
Warming, is to keep clear the paths of people I'll
call "techies" – scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs,
and venture capitalists (including me). Techies are
the people who just took 30 years to build the Internet
and who will take about the same time to solve Global
Warming. They will solve Global Warming mostly by
developing technologies that deliver cheap and clean
energy. And they will do it SOONER if we can keep
alarmists and deniers out of their way, and let FOCACA
ring.>>></P>
<P><<<The science we need is best done, not by corporate
monopolies, not by government laboratories, but by
research universities, of which Massachusetts has
plenty.>>></P>
<P><<<In general, in the private sector, only monopolies
can afford basic research. AT&T's telephone monopoly
supported Bell Labs. IBM's computer monopoly supported
Watson Labs. Xerox's copier monopoly supported Parc.
However, all the damage monopolies do, by overcharging
their customers and sitting on innovations, is NOT
worth what little research they do.>>></P>
<P><<<And government laboratories have become mostly
earmarked pork barrel jobs programs steeped in
mediocrity. Sorry, that wasn't very nice.>>></P>
<P><<<Research universities are the best place to do the
Earth and energy science we need because why?
Because they graduate people. People are the most
effective vehicles for technology transfer. It is
no accident that economic clusters tend to form
around excellent research universities.>>></P>
<P>I'll be calling it the MASSACHUSETTS ENERTECH CLUSTER.</P>
<A NAME="not_global_warming,_enertech"> </A>
<H2>NOT GLOBAL WARMING, ENERTECH</H2>
<P>The best way to frame the challenge before our Enertech
Cluster is to say we aim to deploy technologies that
will meet world needs for CHEAP AND CLEAN ENERGY.
Note that meeting the world's energy needs is not
exactly the same as solving GLOBAL WARMING. There
are other reasons, like prosperity and security, to
want cheap and clean energy. And there are other
causes of Global Warming, like plentiful unreflected
sunlight.</P>
<P>Rest assured, Massachusetts enertech will help reduce
Global Warming by cleaning up and eventually replacing
fossil fuels. What the world needs is not just CHEAP
energy, and not just CLEAN energy, but cheap AND clean
energy. The market opportunities and other motivations
are huge. (. . .)</P>
<A NAME="the_internet_can_help_solve_global_warming_and_energy"> </A>
<H2>THE INTERNET CAN HELP SOLVE GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY</H2>
<P>The Internet was invented in the 1960s. Last year,
a quarter billion new ports were shipped of my baby,
Ethernet, plumbing for the Internet. Today the
Internet has something like a billion users.</P>
<P>Here are three (3) ways in which the Internet can
help meet the world's needs for cheap and clean
energy and also solve Global Warming:</P>
<P>First, as it evolves to enhance its email, search,
blogs, social networking, audio, and video
capabilities, the Internet can increasingly be used
to reduce energy consumption by massively substituting
COMMUNICATION for TRANSPORTATION. Just think of all
the automobile and airplane miles and attendant
carbon emissions that will be saved by transmitting
our BITS to meetings instead of lugging our ATOMS.
Let's try hard to attend these Massachusetts Enertech
Cluster meetings in the future without actually going
anywhere. Down with pressing the flesh!</P>
<P>Second, starting with today's base of a billion users
and Google, the Internet is becoming an unprecedented
medium for COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE. More and more
people are getting better and better information
and communication tools that will be applied to the
development of cheap and clean energy and to solve
Global Warming. The Internet is helping accelerate
intellectual progress exponentially, and as Ray
Kurzweil writes, the singularity is near. <span class="bluetext">(((Yeah,
it ought to help Global Warming pronto when
we're all downloaded brains in a box.)))</span></P>
<P>And third, the people, processes, and institutions
that built the Internet will themselves help bring
the world cheap and clean energy. I'm talking here
about the Internet's teams of scientists, engineers,
entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. And I'm
talking about actual Internet techies and FOCACA.
Of course, like the Internet, solving the world's
energy problems will take about 30 years. By
meeting here today, I hope we are aiming to help
techies deliver cheap and clean energy faster than
we delivered the Internet.</P>
<P>By the way, you might think I'd be sorry the Internet
Bubble burst, but I'm not. Al Gore and I may not have
invented the Internet, but we invented the Internet
Bubble. What we need now, and seem to be getting,
is an Enertech Bubble.</P>
<P>Sure technology bubbles eventually burst. So, to mix
metaphors, it's important to have a chair when the
music stops. But, mixing metaphors again, trying too
hard to avoid bubbles causes what control theorists
call over-damping. Over-damping the growth of our
Enertech Cluster would delay the arrival of the cheap
and clean energy that the world so badly needs.
Let our Enertech Bubble inflate!</P>
<A NAME="enertech_needs_a_newspaper,_not_the_boston_globe"> </A>
<H2>ENERTECH NEEDS A NEWSPAPER, NOT THE BOSTON GLOBE</H2>
<P>Silicon Valley has a "hometown newspaper" which plays
many roles in sustaining its various clusters. It's
the San Jose Mercury News. The Massachusetts Enertech
Cluster needs newspapers too. Sadly, the Boston Globe
edition of The New York Times will not do. The problem
is that The Globe is hostile to business and
incompetent to cover it. Instead, for essential help
in nurturing community in our Enertech Cluster, we
need to leverage the new online media, another thing
the Internet can do for energy and Global Warming.</P>
<P>I hasten to add about The Globe that, like almost
all other newspapers, its readership has been
declining for two decades. And, if you read it,
you should worry about all the trees they cut down
and all carbon they emit printing and distributing
that toxic stuff they call news.</P>
<P><<<IF IT'S A COLOR YOU NEED, AVOID GREEN>>></P>
<P><<<When you look at groups who call themselves GREEN,
you find a good many ulterior motives and a veritable
toxic waste dump of bad ideas. As pointed out by NYT
Columnist Tom Friedman at Pop!Tech in October, Greens
tend to be various combinations of environmentalist
(a good thing), but also anti-urban, anti-technology,
anti-nuke, anti-corporate, anti-globalization, and
anti-American. Our Enertech Cluster needs to be
careful about how we align with Greens.>>></P>
<A NAME="ulteriors_not_denied_and_decried_but_discovered"> </A>
<H2>ULTERIORS NOT DENIED AND DECRIED BUT DISCOVERED AND ALIGNED</H2>
<P>There are a good many of us involved in enertech who
have what might be called ulterior motives. I, for
example, am investing to get venture capital returns
for our limited partners. So it was with the Internet.
The trick is not to spend a lot of time denying and
decrying ulterior motives. The trick is to get
ulterior motives disclosed and aligned. We need to
harness everybody's motivations, not pretend they
don't exist or wish them away.</P>
<P><<<MY ENERTECH START-UPS: EMBER, SICORTEX, AND
GREENFUEL>>></P>
<P><<<Venture capitalists often brag about their
portfolio companies, and I'm no different, but I'll
try to keep it relevant to enertech, and short.>>></P>
<P><<<Calling Ember in South Boston an enertech start-up
is a REACH, but well worth it. Ember is a networking
company that delivers tiny radio semiconductors and
protocol software. Ember's aim is to network all the
world's embedded micro-controllers, of which,
according to IDC (another Massachusetts company)
there will be 10 billion new ones shipped next year.
Ember's go-to-market focus is home and building
control. And what do you think the principal benefits
of home and building control are? By wirelessly
controlling lights, heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning, many of Ember's early customers are
conserving energy. By wirelessly reading meters,
many of Ember's early customers better measure the
energy they are saving.>>></P>
<P><<<Calling SiCortex in Maynard an enertech start-up
is also a REACH, but worth it. SiCortex is a computer
systems company, so why is it an example of
Massachusetts enertech? First, SiCortex has just
launched open-source software Linux superclusters
that improve by factors of 10 delivered computational
performance per dollar, per foot, and, yes, per watt.
Because they each consume two factors of 10 fewer
watts than the PC microprocessors on our desks,
SiCortex fits six 64-bit microprocessors on a chip
and therefore 5,832 in a single cabinet, cooled by
air, saving energy on running the computers and even
more on cooling them. That's enertech. And second,
SiCortex is enertech because its superclusters are
designed for high-performance computing applications,
prominent among which are seismic data analysis for
oil exploration, climate modeling, fluid dynamics,
reactor simulations, quantum chromo dynamics –
enertech. No wonder the lead in SiCortex's recent
$21M venture financing was Chevron.>>></P>
<P><<<Calling GreenFuel in Cambridge an enertech start-up
is NOT a reach. GreenFuel is now working with huge
electric power plants in the Arizona desert to scale
up its enertech. GreenFuel pipes CO2-laden flue
gases through algae slurries circulating in solar
bioreactors. GreenFuel algae use photosynthesis in
enertech greenhouses to remove greenhouse gases
(CO2 and NOx) from the flue gases before release
into the atmosphere.>>></P>
<P><<< And then, get this, the rapidly thickening algal
slurry is harvested several times per day to produce
lipids, starches, and proteins for extraction into
substantial quantities of, respectively, biodiesel,
ethanol, and feed. GreenFuel algae-solar bioreactors
do require acreage, water, and electricity, but junk
land, dirty water, and single-digit percentages of
parasitic power. GreenFuel treats CO2 as a valuable
plant food and, rather than try to sequester it
expensively, GreenFuel recycles CO2, cleaning the
atmosphere while producing cheap and clean energy.
That's enertech.>>></P>
<P>It's hard sometimes, but it's important to keep
in mind that clustering is not a zero-sum game.
I am not enthusiastic about promoting the Massachusetts
Enertech Cluster so as to beat California – I lived
in California for 22 years and still sometimes think
of it as home. Nor would I want Maine, where I have
also lived and still summer, to think I have switched
allegiance to Massachusetts. Nor would I want MIT to
suspect that I am working to give Waltham or Boston a
leg up on Cambridge. Or that I favor 02139 over 02138.</P>
<P>Again, clustering is not a zero-sum game. The world
is waiting for us to provide cheap and clean energy.
Let's cluster!</P>
<A NAME="the_panels_to_follow"> </A>
<H2>THE PANELS TO FOLLOW</H2>
<P>Shortly, we will attend panels on energy conservation,
on alternative technologies, and on growing our energy
(or enertech) cluster. The panelists are first rate,
and I look forward to hearing from them. Fostering
communication like this is key to growing our
enertech cluster.</P>
<P><<< Let's not make our energy cluster be about
government policies that anoint people, technologies,
companies, or regions of the country, but about
sustaining environments in which competition can
run free.>>></P>
<A NAME="hard_not_to_call_these_enertech_gatherings__metcalfe_"> </A>
<H2>HARD NOT TO CALL THESE ENERTECH GATHERINGS "METCALFE"</H2>
<P>The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council
(MTLC) sustains our software cluster. We have a
telecommunications council. We have a biotech council.
We have a nanotech council. We have a New England
Venture Capital Association. We have a Massachusetts
Information Technology Exchange.</P>
<P>The Massachusetts energy technology cluster needs
councils too. And near the top of its priorities,
this council should serve as a liaison for
entrepreneurs.</P>
<P>Today could be the inaugural meeting of one of our
new enertech cluster councils, which we have to call
something like the "Massachusetts Energy Technology
Council And Liaison For Entrepreneurs," or for short,
METCALFE. Just kidding.</P>
<P>OK, may we should call it the "Boston Energy Advanced
Technology Council And Liaison," for short, BEATCAL.
Just kidding.</P>
<P>Or broadening the geographical focus a bit, there
is the New England Energy Innovation Collaborative
– NEEIC (pronounced "neek") — which Polaris is
planning to join. See <A HREF="http://www.neeic.org/">www.neeic.org</A>.</P>
<P>Thank you.</P>
<A NAME="end_of_actual_speech"> </A>
<H2>END OF ACTUAL SPEECH</H2>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Further choice impolitic remarks by Bob Metcalfe.)))</span></P>
<P><<<WE ARE RICH BECAUSE WE HAVE ENERGY, NOT VICE
VERSA>>></P>
<P><<<There are amazing satellite images floating
around various conferences that show Earth at night.
What's funny is how these images are used for such
different purposes.>>></P>
<P><<<Sometimes the speaker showing an Earth-at-night
image will complain about how much energy we waste
lighting the night sky. During a speech last month
in Washington, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
showed North and South Korea from space at night,
noting how the Communist ideology of the North has
left them starving in the dark. And there was the
image at Pop!Tech (<A HREF="http://www.poptech.org/">www.poptech.org</A>) in October
showing Africa, the Dark Continent, with hardly any
lights at all. The Pop!Tech speaker was not bragging
about how "green" Africans are, but about how poor
and dying they are.>>></P>
<P><<<Energy is a factor of production. It's NOT so much
that the USA wastes energy because it can afford to.
Fact is, it's easier to grow economies and proliferate
prosperity when you have abundant energy. You often
hear how America's energy use per capita is high.
You hear less often is that America's energy
consumption is about proportional to our economic
output. It is a dead-end to ask nations to give up
their prosperity, or hopes of prosperity, in order
to use less energy to solve Global Warming.</P>
<P><<<Al Gore says that George Bush is thwarting adoption
of the Kyoto Treaty. Gore does not mention that when
the Kyoto Treaty was brought to the Senate of the USA,
where treaties are supposed to be ratified, Kyoto was
voted down, and not just by Republicans. It was voted
down 95-0. That was 1997, during the Clinton-Gore
administration, when Gore was himself President of
the Senate.>>></P>
<P><<<The Global Warming problem is not that the
prosperous United States wastes too much energy.
The problem is that the developing world wants to be
prosperous too. That's why developing nations have
to be exempted from Kyoto, as if their ramping
carbon dioxide emissions won't count. Telling them
to conserve energy won't work either. Cheap and clean
energy is needed to grow the world's economies (and
solve Global Warming).>>></P>
<P><<<GREENS SHOULD RECONSIDER>>></P>
<P><<<Beliefs that Greens really ought reconsider are
anti-nuke, anti-urban, and anti-technology.>>></P>
<P><<<Nuclear power plants, about 100 of which are
already providing 20% of our electricity, do so
cheaply and cleanly. However, because of anti-nuke
Greens, there has not been a new nuclear plant built
in the USA in 25 years. If you want to make policies
to promote cheap and clean energy, get rid of Green
policies that keep nuclear permitting an uncertain
and expensive process lasting decades.>>></P>
<P><<<Greens also have for decades promoted their belief
in rural living. Now it's emerging that your
"environmental footprint" is actually lower when you
live in a city. Fortunately, humans, despite all
those Greens getting back to the Earth, are now
moving to cities by the hundreds of millions.>>></P>
<P><<<Greens also promote small-scale organic farming,
which they contrast with high-tech farming by
corporations. It's turning out that low-productivity
farming takes more cleared land and is bad for our
environment.>>></P>
<P><<<If our Enertech Cluster needs a color, I suggest
not green but white, or albedo, as climate scientists
sometimes call it, from the Latin for white. Cheap and
clean energy will not alone solve Global Warming.
The problem is that light from the Sun carries a lot
of energy to Earth, and there is evidence that too
little of it is being reflected back out into space.
Earth's albedo is the ratio of reflected to incident
light. Green has a low albedo; white the highest.>>></P>
<P><<<ENHANCING THE PARASOL EFFECT>>></P>
<P><<<One of my private investigations is finding ways
to enhance the so-called Parasol Effect. The odd
thing is that sulfur pollution in the upper atmosphere,
which we are carefully working to reduce, now
enhances the Parasol Effect to offset about a third
of the Greenhouse Effect. Large volcanoes cause
Earth's temperature to plunge when they enhance the
Parasol Effect by belching reflective particles into
the atmosphere. We should be looking harder at how
to send benign reflecting particles into the
stratosphere in order to enhance the Parasol Effect
on purpose, to keep the temperature of Earth wherever
we want it, which seems to be the same as it is now
(or maybe a little bit cooler).>>></P>
<P><<<What I have noticed is that we are no longer
content to endure the weather. We have learned enough
about Earth that we are beginning to be able to
predict the weather. Now that we are noticing that
we are able to change the weather, albeit
inadvertently, we will soon demand to CONTROL the
weather. We will need Parasol Effect nanomaterial
and its antidote to control the weather – to keep
the weather exactly where we want it even against
climate changes caused by non-human activities,
like the orbit of Earth, volcanoes, Sun spots, etc.>>></P>
<P><<<When we know enough about Earth to control the
temperature, then we will have a new political
problem. We will need to ask somebody, perhaps the
United Nations, if we want Earth to be warmer,
cooler, or just the same. That will be interesting.>>></P>
<P><<<After that, from a future generation of techies,
we will expect to control temperatures differently
at different places and times across Earth's surface.
And why not? We already have zoned thermostats in
many buildings.>>></P>
<P><<<Thank you.>>></P>
<A NAME="end"> </A>
<H2>END</H2>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
MONEY TALKS<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-4715376699659420255?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-87331653345078118492007-01-04T08:26:00.001-08:002007-01-04T08:47:43.623-08:00Viridian Note 00484: Climate Optimism<DL><dt>
Key concepts:
</dt> <dd>William Calvin, Edge.org, climate crisis</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Thinking seriously
about the sober prospects described here can inspire
Lovecraftian cosmic fear.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/289/Bruce-Sterling-State-of-the-Worl-page01.html">http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/289/<br>Bruce-Sterling-State-of-the-Worl-page01.html</A><br>
The Viridian Pope-Emperor is nattering away on the
Well, as I commonly do when the year starts. Drop on
by, if you like.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=34384">http://www.greenbiz.com/<br>news/reviews_third.cfm?NewsID=34384</A><br>
Top ten green industry stories of 2006. In 2006
there was a no-kidding green industry that had
some actual no-kidding business stories.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct--thinice0101jan01">http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/<br>connecticut/ny-bc-ct--thinice0101jan01,0,2792964.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut</A><br>
Elderly New England poet plummets through thinning ice,
freezes from global warming. I wonder if a last poem
went through his mind. "Well, I'm dying with my
skis on." Maybe he was optimistic!</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39625/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39625/story.htm</A><br>
<A HREF="http://www.stellaraxis.com/">http://www.stellaraxis.com/</A><BR>
Weird Antarctic landscape art, from where the ice isn't
quite so thin yet.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A whole bunch of jolliness from the latest
rollout of the Doors of Perception newsletter.
Viridian List might be almost this good if we were
smarter, better-organized, more capable, worked
a whole lot harder.... and had a budget, a fixed
address and some management skills.)))</span></P>
<P>"WHY FOOD AND ENERGY AS AN ISSUE?<br>
"Global food systems are not sustainable.
Industrialised food consumes ten times more energy
in production and distribution than enters our bodies
as nutrition. In 'developed' countries, the food
consumption of a single family generates eight tonnes
of CO2 emissions a year. This madness is enabled by
non renewable fossil fuel. But what to do? Doors 9
breaks the food systems issue into bite-sized design
chunks."<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/food/">http://www.doorsofperception.com/archives/food/</A></P>
<P>
"WHAT IS DOTT FOR?<BR>
"Two hundred and fifty regions in Europe (and many
more worldwide) are in search of a shared vision to
inspire economic and cultural renewal. In Dott 07,
the abstract idea of sustainability becomes a concrete
question: 'how do we want to live?' By the end of 2007,
some Dott 07 projects may evolve into enterprises;
people in the region will have learned, by doing it,
new approaches to social innovation; a further legacy will be platforms for ongoing social innovation –
such as places, hubs, and support schemes.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.dott07.com/go/the-region/a-new-approach-to-design/a-new-approach-to-design">http://www.dott07.com/go/the-region/a-new-approach-to-design/<br>a-new-approach-to-design</A></P>
<P>
ECO-DESIGN CHALLENGE<BR>
Year eight students in 80 schools across the North
East of England have been invited to map their school's
'carbon footprint'. Having identified which aspects of
their school's systems and activities are wasteful,
they will soon propose the re-design of their school's
key systems to reduce its impact on the environment.
The 50 best schools will further develop their plans
with the help of professional designers. The best
designs will be eligible for awards at the Dott
Festival in October. If you would like to be considered
as one of those designers working with the schools
(as a volunteer) please contact project leader Nick
Devitt:<BR>
<<A HREF="mailto:nick.devitt@dott07.com">nick.devitt@dott07.com</A>><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.dott07.com/go/eco-design-challenge">http://www.dott07.com/go/eco-design-challenge</A></P>
<P>STUFF-O-METER<BR>
How many materials are wasted during the manufacture
of a hairdryer? Or a car? Dott and Design and Art
Direction (D&AD) have issued a challenge to
communication design students: Develop a Stuff-O-Meter'
to help us all understand more about the "hidden
rucksack" of everyday products. Competitors will
design a visual representation of the lifetime use of
material resources, from cradle to grave, of a
household durable product. The best designs will
be presented at the Dott Festival in October.
<span class="bluetext">(((Sounds like some kind of "spime dashboard,"
doesn't it? Hope that project thrivesl!)))</span>
<A HREF="http://www.dott07.com/go/energy/dandad">http://www.dott07.com/go/energy/dandad</A></P>
***********************************************<BR>
<P>Source:<BR>
<A HREF="http://edge.org/q2007/q07_index.html">http://edge.org/q2007/q07_index.html</A><br><br>
"GOT OPTIMISM? THE WORLD'S LEADING THINKERS SEE GOOD
NEWS AHEAD. <br><br>While conventional wisdom tells us that
things are bad and getting worse, scientists and the
science-minded among us see good news in the coming
years." <span class="bluetext">(((That's because all 160 of them are looking
really, really hard for anything to be cheerful about.
Quite a few of them discuss the climate. A lot of them
seem to be just waking up to that issue. Not William
Calvin, though.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Okay, so who's Dr. Calvin, and, given that he's
a neurologist, how come he knows so much about
climate?)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/calvin.html">http://edge.org/3rd_culture/bios/calvin.html</A><br>
<A HREF="http://faculty.washington.edu/wcalvin/">http://faculty.washington.edu/wcalvin/</A></P>
<P>
WILLIAM CALVIN<BR>
"The Climate Optimist"<BR>
by William Calvin<BR>
Professor, The University of Washington School of
Medicine; Author, <em>A Brain For All Seasons</em></P>
<P>Mention global warming at a seasonal social gathering
and see what happens, now that skepticism has turned
into concern and sorrow. They will assume that you're
a pessimist about our prospects. "Not really," I
protest. That earns me a quizzical look.</P>
<P>"Wait a minute," she says. "If you're an optimist,
why do you look so worried?"</P>
<P>"So you think it's easy, being an optimist?"</P>
<P>Many scientists look worried these days. We've had a
steady diet of bad news coming from climate scientists
and biologists. To become even a guarded optimist,
you have to think hard.</P>
<P>First, I reflected, the history of science and medicine
shows that, once you mechanistically understand what's
what, you can approach all sorts of seemingly
unsolvable problems. I'm optimistic that we will
learn how to stabilize climate.</P>
<P>Unfortunately the window of opportunity is closing.
Fifty years have now passed since the first unequivocal
scientific warnings of an insulating blanket of CO2
forming around the planet. Politicians apparently
decided to wait until something big went wrong.
<span class="bluetext">(((Politicians probably figured that politically managing
the weather and commanding the tides like Canute
was not within a politician's realm of expertise.
Of course, now that the climate's actually screwed
and the seas are literally rising, somebody's kinda
gotta. At least the politicians managed Kyoto, which
is more than industrialists, or the military, or
the intelligentsia ever managed to date.)))</span></P>
<P>It has. We have already entered the period of
consequences. Climate scientists have long been worried
about their children's future. Now they are also
worried about their own. <span class="bluetext">(((This is some cause
for satisfaction, actually: we held our own feet
to the fire, and we won't simply export a doom that we
created to some hapless generation who had nothing
to do with it.)))</span></P>
<P>Our Faustian bargain over fossil fuels has come due. Dr. Faustus had 24 years of party-now, pay-later – and
indeed, it's exactly 24 years since Ronald Reagan
axed the U.S. budget for exploring alternative fuels.
This led to doubling our use of cheap coal, the worst
of the fossil fuels. They're planning, under business as usual, to re-double coal burning by 2030 – even
though we can now see the high cost of low price.
<span class="bluetext">(((I like it when these science writers wax all
literary and start quoting guys like Goethe.)))</span></P>
<P>The devil's helpers may not have come to take us away,
but killer heat waves have started, along with some
major complications from global warming. We're already
seeing droughts that just won't quit. Deserts keep
expanding. Oceans keep acidifying. Greenland keeps
melting. Dwindling resources keep triggering genocidal
wars with neighbors (think Darfur). Extreme weather
keeps trashing the place.<BR>
All of them will get worse before they get better.
<span class="bluetext">(((But wait! It gets even more optimistic!)))</span></P>
<P>Worse, tipping points can lead to irreversible
demolition derbies. Should another big El Nino occur
and last twice as long as in 1983 or 1998, the profound
drought could burn down the rain forests in Southeast Asia and the Amazon – and half of all species could
go extinct, just within a year or two. <span class="bluetext">(((Do we
even have <STRONG>words</STRONG> for a cataclysm like that? Yeah,
thanks to Jamais Cascio, we do now!)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.openthefuture.com/2006/12/an_eschatological_taxonomy.html">http://www.openthefuture.com/2006/12/<br>an_eschatological_taxonomy.html</A><br />
Jamais Cascio's Eschatological Taxonomy</P>
<P>"Time has become so short that we must turn around
the CO2 situation within a decade to avoid saddling
our children with the irreversible consequences of a
runaway warming. That means not waiting for a better
deal on some post-Kyoto treaty. It means immediately
scaling up technologies that we know will work, not
waiting for something better that could take decades
to debug.</P>
<P>This isn't optional. It is something that we simply
have to do. The time for talk is past.</P>
<P>"I see why you're worried," she says. "But what's
your optimistic scenario for dealing with this fossil
fuel fiasco?"</P>
<P>For starters, I think it likely that the leaders of
the major religious groups will soon come to see
climate change as a serious failure of stewardship.
And once they see our present fossil fuel use as a
deeply immoral imposition on other people and unborn
generations, their arguments will trump the talk- endlessly-to-buy-time business objections – just as
such moral arguments did when ending slavery in the
19th century. <span class="bluetext">(((Okay – so we get a giant swarm of fundies to
help out? I thought they'd been running the show since
Reagan. What do they have to show in the way of
positive eco-accomplishments? If religion
is supposed to be an answer, why don't they go
rebuild Jerusalem first? Everybody agrees it's holy,
right? A green, steward-centric, eco-ethical
Jerusalem. Yeah, sure. Okay, next optimistic
suggestion.)))</span></P>
<P>Second, the developed nations are fully capable of
kick-starting our response to global warming with present technology – enough to achieve, within ten
years, a substantial reduction in their own fossil
fuel uses. How?</P>
<P>Wind farmers will prosper as pastures grow modern
windmills to keep the cows company. <span class="bluetext">(((Okay.)))</span></P>
<P>Giant parking lots, already denuded of trees, are
perfect places for acres of solar paneling. Drivers
will love the shaded parking spaces they create.
<span class="bluetext">(((I'm buyin' it. Sure.)))</span></P>
<P>The Carbon Tax will replace most of those deducted
from paychecks and create a big wave of retrofitting
homes and businesses. <span class="bluetext">(((I don't think this ought
to be called a "tax." I think it ought to be called
something like "reparations for crimes against
humanity.")))</span></P>
<P>Big brightly lit grocery stores with giant parking
lots will compete poorly with warehouses that deliver
web and phone orders within the hour, like pizza.
<span class="bluetext">(((Hey, that's Wal_Mart you're dissing, Dr. Calvin.
They're already a lot greener than wood-oven
pizza joints.)))</span></P>
<P>Smaller neighborhood grocery stores will once again
do a big walk-in business and they will compete with
the warehouses by offering "green bicycle" delivery.
<span class="bluetext">(((Here in Serbia we've got a lot of these. They're
called "kiosks." They spring up and squat on
sidewalks right after abject economic collapse.
They're starting to go away now, mostly because
Belgrade has painfully advanced to the point of
creating real stores.)))</span></P>
<P>High-speed toll gates will become the norm on commuter
highways. (Yes, I know, but remember that the paycheck
was just enriched by eliminating withholding for income
tax.) <span class="bluetext">(((All right, as long as green cars are
subsidized and don't have to pay.)))</span></P>
<P>Speed limits will be lowered to 50 mph (80 kmh) for
fuel efficiency and, as in 1973, drivers will marvel
at how smoothly the traffic flows. Double taxes will
apply to vehicles with worse-than-average fossil fuel
consumption, reducing the number of oversized vehicles
with poor streamlining. Hybrids and all-electric cars
will begin to dominate new car sales. <span class="bluetext">(((Smoother
traffic flow would probably help more than the
55 mph limit, which everyone will ignore.)))</span></P>
<P>A firm, fast schedule will be established for retiring
or retrofitting existing coal plants. My bet is that adding nuclear power plants – France gets 78% of its
electricity that way, New Jersey 52%– will prove
safer, cheaper, and faster than fixing coal.
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, until the seas rise or rivers get spotty,
in which case nukes themselves succumb to climate
change because they lose their water coolant.)))</span></P>
<P>On the quarter-century time scale, let us assume that
the new rapid transit systems will reduce car commuting
by half. <span class="bluetext">(((Or, you could just have 50 percent
unemployment, which would cut emissions just as
dramatically.)))</span> The transition to electric and
hydrogen vehicles will shift transportation's energy
demands to greener sources, including biofuels,
geothermal, tidal, and wave generation.</P>
<P>The highly efficient binding energy extractors (BEEs,
the fourth-generation nuclear power plants) will be
running on the spent fuel of the earlier generations.
<span class="bluetext">(((Maybe.)))</span></P>
<P>The low-loss DC transmission lines will allow, via
cables under the Bering Strait, solar-generated
electricity to flow from the bright side to the dark
side of the earth. <span class="bluetext">(((That would kinda rock, wouldn't
it? Hope the Bering Strait behaves itself as the
ice melts.)))</span></P>
<P>And in this 25-year time frame, we ought to see some
important new technology making a difference, not
just improvements in what we already use. For example,
we might encourage rapid adaptation of the whale's
favorite food, the tiny phytoplankton which provide
half of the oxygen we breathe as they separate the
C from the CO2. <span class="bluetext">(((Remediation. Yeah, it's what's
for breakfast. It's too late just to do less damage.
We've got to undo the damage already done.)))</span></P>
<P>Since the shell-forming plankton sink to the ocean
bottom when they die, their carbon is taken out of
circulation for millions of years. Forests can burn
down, releasing their stored carbon in a week, but
limestone is forever. <span class="bluetext">(((Makes a nice t-shirt.)))</span></P>
<P>If shell-forming plankton could thrive in warmer
waters with some selective breeding or a genetic
tweak, their numbers might double and start taking
our excess CO2 out of circulation. <span class="bluetext">(((How do we
<STRONG>stop</STRONG> them?)))</span> But even if we invent‚ – and debug – such things tomorrow,
it can take several decades before an invention makes
a dent in our urgent problem. And all this assumes
no bad surprises, such as the next supersized El
Nino killing off the Amazon and, once we lack all
those trees, increasing the rate of warming by half.</P>
<P>By mid-century, let us suppose that we have begun
extracting more CO2 from the atmosphere than we add.</P>
<P>This will only happen if the technology of the
developed world has become good enough to compensate
for what's still going on in the overstressed
nations that are too disorganized to get their
energy act together. <span class="bluetext">(((Optimistically speaking,
maybe they're too disorganized to let their oil
companies buy their government, like the highly
organized Russians and Americans both did.)))</span></P>
<P>When CO2 levels fall enough to counter the delayed
warming from past excesses, we will begin to see a reversal of droughts and violent weather –
though the rise in sea level will likely continue,
a reminder to future generations of our 20th-century
Faustian bargain. <span class="bluetext">(((That would really be interesting,
though I find it hard to believe that a mid-21C sky with
carbon sucked out of it would fully return to the status
quo ante. Likely it would be a world with rather different weather patterns – especially
if those seas keep rising anyhow.)))</span></P>
<P>As Samuel Johnson said in 1777, "when a man knows
he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates
his mind wonderfully." <span class="bluetext">(((I wonder if this made
Saddam Hussein an optimist. It's also rather small
comfort that the vast majority of condemned prisoners
hang no matter how hard they think.)))</span> We need to turn on a dime – by which I mean, close
to what we saw in the United States after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor. <span class="bluetext">((("Khaki Green."
Yeah, several years of unrestrained mass slaughter
oughta concentrate minds pretty wonderfully.)))</span></P>
<P>From a standing start in late 1941, the automakers converted – in a matter of months, not years –
more than 1,000 automobile plants across thirty-one
states... In one year, General Motors developed,
tooled, and completely built from scratch 1,000
Avenger and 1,000 Wildcat aircraft... GM also produced the amphibious 'duck' – a watertight steel
hull enclosing a GM six-wheel, 2.5 ton truck that
was adaptable to land or water. GM's duck `was
designed, tested, built, and off the line in ninety
days'... Ford turned out one B-24 [a bomber] every
63 minutes. . . . – Jack Doyle, Taken for a Ride, 2000</P>
<P>Now there's a source of optimism: we did it before.
Indeed, GM currently needs a new purpose in life
(and I'd suggest repurposing the manned space program
as well). All of that talent is badly needed.</P>
<P>With great challenges come great opportunities and
I'm an optimist about our ability to respond with
innovation. Countries that innovate early will have
an economic edge over the laggards.</P>
<P>Our present civilization is like a magnificent
cathedral, back before flying buttresses were
retrofitted to stabilize the walls. Civilization
now needs a retrofit for stabilizing its foundations.
It will be a large undertaking, not unlike those
that once went into building pyramids and cathedrals.</P>
<P>I'm optimistic that the younger generation can create a better civilization during the major makeover –
provided that those currently in the leadership
can stop this runaway coal train, real fast.
Climate change is a challenge to the scientists but
I suspect that the political leadership has the
harder task, given how difficult it is to make
people aware of what must be done and get them
moving in time.</P>
<P>It's going to be like herding stray cats, and the
political leaders who can do it will be remembered
as the same kind of geniuses who pulled off the
American Revolution.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I don't know which prospect is weirder: a world
of climate calamity where a swift holocaust devours
the Amazon and swamps London, or an amazingly
with-it and politically-together Global Green
Renaissance that saves our collective bacon in
ten years flat. I don't think anybody fully believes
in either of these prospects, not yet. But they're
coming. And they're coming fast.)))</span></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
WELL, IF I CAN SIT HERE WATCHING<BR>
THESE SERBIAN TURBOFOLK VIDEOS<BR>
AND RECOGNIZING EVERYBODY IN THEM,<BR>
I GUESS ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</H3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-8733165334507811849?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-66525368568208182302006-12-25T18:29:00.000-08:002006-12-25T18:30:09.814-08:00Viridian Note 00483: Green Plutocracy<dl><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Michael Bloomberg, New York City,
urban policy, New York sustainability, futurist
planning, political rhetoric, infrastructure,
technocratic initiatives by the extremely wealthy</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Imagine yourself
spending Christmas websurfing for eco-doom, and
sitting through a long speech by Michael R. Bloomberg,
the Republican media tycoon who bought himself the
mayorship of New York.</dd></dl>
<p>Links:</p>
<p><a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/architectural-sci-fi.html">http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/architectural-sci-fi.html</a><br />
A primal dose of BLDGLBLOG's ultra way out-there
architecture-fiction. Man, that guy kills me.</p>
<p>Creepy little nanobacteria. Are they already seething
in the interiors of Earth and Mars?<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/300949.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/300949.stm</a></p>
<p>They're ancient, super-tiny and they eat iron. Yike.<br />
<a href="http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.rss.html?pid=21532">http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.rss.html?pid=21532</a></p>
<p>Might be time for a fresh look at those Martian
meteor lumps that were such a nine-days wonder in 1999.<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/277674.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/277674.stm</a></p>
<p>Algae versus straw in the biofuels sweepstakes.<br />
<a href="http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/459">http://www.insidegreentech.com/node/459</a></p>
<p>Newfangled "liquid chimneys" slurp CO2 out of
fossil-fuel smokestacks. Okay, sure, show me.<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.seventhgeneration.com/making_difference/newsletter_article.php?article=518&issue=79">http://www.seventhgeneration.com/making_difference/newsletter_article.php?article=518&issue=79</a></p>
<p>You're gonna sell me a "clean" liquid coal CAR?
Try harder, man. How do you "sequester" a tailpipe?
<br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16299632/site/newsweek/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16299632/site/newsweek/</a></p>
<p>I never realized that James Howard Kunstler, prophet
of suburban oil-peak doom, is a painter. The guy is
a pretty darn good painter, actually.
<br /><a href="http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_11.html?page=30#870">http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_11.html?page=30#870</a></p>
<p>Might be a big renaissance in paintings of dramatic
sunsets, now that Australia is so lavishly on fire.
<br /><a href="http://www.news.com.au/story//0,23599,20964239-2,00.html">http://www.news.com.au/story//0,23599,20964239-2,00.html</a></p>
<p>The severe Australian drought is already five years
old. I don't wanna wax all Mad Max Scenario here, but
there doesn't seem to be any particular reason for
that drought to stop in our lifetime. Look: people
are always moaning about how the poor and the meek
and the backward are gonna especially catch it from
climate change. Well, Australia is a continent
featuring rich, advanced, highly educated white guys.
And man, are they ever in for it.
<br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6204141.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6204141.stm</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/927">http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/927</a></p>
<p>Makes you wonder: who's gonna deny climate change
in Australia, and mine coal in Australia, when
there isn't any Australia? Will they move to
some other coal-rich area, say Appalachia,
and deny the climate change there? Who will pay them?
<br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6212608.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6212608.stm</a>
<br /><a href="http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/">http://www.warwickhughes.com/blog/</a></p>
<p>Australia's first green lifestyle magazine.
Well, better really, really late than never.
<br /><a href="http://www.gmagazine.com.au/about">http://www.gmagazine.com.au/about</a></p>
<p>"I'm a dark kind of guy," opines Viridian Pope-Emperor
on a cheery video from Worldchanging HQ in Seattle.
<br /><a href="http://www.goodmagazine.com/fieldwork/brucesterlingonclimatechange">http://www.goodmagazine.com/fieldwork/brucesterlingonclimatechange</a></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg</a><br />
So: who's Bloomberg? He's a technocrat, a meritocrat,
a former Eagle Scout and Phi Beta Kappa scholar,
one of the five hundred richest people in the world,
a former Democrat, and current Republican (who cares?
They're both for sale).<br /><br />
Bloomberg's self-set salary as mayor of New York
is one dollar. He's hugely popular. "Hey, rich people:
you bought the world, you fix it." Bloomberg is
the kind of guy who would take a wisecrack
like that quite seriously. Yeah, we're in an epoch
of All Katrina All the Time, and we've also
entered a Gilded Age where the ultra-wealthy can
buy power over world capitals the way they used to
buy a stable full of racehorses.</p>
<p>But, you know, what if this apolitical market mogul
was greener than grass and actually did a great job?
Not that that's necessarily so. I'm just asking.</p>
<h2>Long Term Planning in New York City – Challenges and Goals</p></h2>
<p>by Michael Bloomberg</p>
<p>Gotham Gazette, December 12, 2006</p>
<p>Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined the major challenges
facing New York City as it tries to develop a
25-year sustainability plan, and its goals in
forming such a plan, in a speech at the Queens
Museum of Art on December 12, 2006.
<span class="bluetext">(((I have to like it that he chose to do this in
a Museum of Art. Very Medici-like.)))</span></p>
<p>The speech was followed by a video presentation
and panel discussion about these challenges.
The text of the speech is below; you can also
watch a video of the entire event by clicking here:</p>
<p>Link:<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/2006b/media/pc121206-2030_300k.asx">http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/2006b/media/pc121206-2030_300k.asx</a></p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((Can't beat it for net-centric politics.)))</span></p>
<p>
"New York City 2030: Accepting the Challenge"</p>
<p>Thank you to the League of Conservation Voters
for hosting us today as we look ahead to the year
2030, and to the immense challenges facing our city.</p>
<p>Some might think that whatever happens by then won't
be our problem. But, speaking for myself, I'm going
to be 88 years old, and the kind of city we
have will certainly matter to me. (What's more,
my mother will be 121, and she might come for a
visit some time.) <span class="bluetext">(((Hey look! The zillionaire's
got a mom, just like an everyday guy!)))</span></p>
<p>And that's why we've come together today at the
Queens Museum, which plays such a vital role in
the cultural and civic life of Queens, and which
I also want to thank for their hospitality.</p>
<p>Because it's here in Flushing Meadows, in the heart
of Helen Marshall's borough, <span class="bluetext">(((it's kind of awesome,
the way city politicians learn to name-check minor
players the rest of us have never heard of)))</span> that
more than once, New Yorkers have looked beyond the
present, to see the promise of the future.</p>
<p>Whether it was at the 1939 World's Fair, when
men and women still feeling the effects of the
Great Depression dared to imagine a dazzling "World
of Tomorrow," <span class="bluetext">(((actually, that was mostly designers
like Loewy and Bel Geddes imagining a world-tomorrow,
whilst the American public gaped at New York in vague
incomprehension)))</span> or at the 1964 World's Fair, whose
glorious panorama you just walked through, and which
featured the futuristic wonders of what people were
starting to call 'the global village.' <span class="bluetext">(((Kinda liking
the nostalgic sci-fi pitch here, Mr. Mayor!)))</span></p>
<p>LONG TERM PLANNING: WHAT'S BEEN DONE IN THE LAST
FIVE YEARS</p>
<p>Only five years ago, looking 25 years into the
future might have seemed unimaginable. After 9/11,
we weren't sure what even the next day would hold.
Instead of looking ahead, many people were looking
back, fearful of seeing a return to the days when
New York's dangerous streets, graffitied subways,
and abandoned housing were national symbols of urban
decay. <span class="bluetext">(((I used to visit New York in those days,
and yeah, New York was much, much scarier than it is
during the "War on Terror.")))</span></p>
<p>We recalled seeing our city's population plummet by
nearly one million people in just ten year's time.
Many of us remember that era all too well.</p>
<p>And many of us have worked hard over the years to bring New York – and new New Yorkers – back – and then some. <span class="bluetext">(((I hope you've got room for millions
of Australians yearning to breathe free of airborne
soot.)))</span></p>
<p>The past five years have truly rewarded our efforts.
Building on the successes of our predecessors, we've
driven crime down to levels last seen when the '64
World's Fair opened. Our welfare rolls are lower than
they were in 1964, as well. Today, our streets are
cleaner than they've been in 30 years. We've increased
high school graduation rates to a 20-year high. Our
bond rating is the best ever. Unemployment is at an
all-time record low. New Yorkers are living longer
than the average American for the first time since
World War II.<br /><br />
<span class="bluetext">(((That's a lot of mayoral bragging, but it must
be pleasant to have so much to brag about. Record
low unemployment and expanding lifespans? Sounds
like Sweden.)))</span></p>
<p>And the most visible symbol – and source – of New York City's comeback is that we're growing again – our population is at an all-time high.
<span class="bluetext">(((Hey yeah, and even the darkside bird-flu estimates
are forecasting a mere 68 million dead! That's
barely one human being in a hundred! Bring on the
population bomb, the mayor's with us all the way!)))</span>
Link:<br />
<br /><a href="http://www.itv.com/news/world_71fc1ed238921413b3190c2d06661f0b.html">http://www.itv.com/news/world_71fc1ed238921413b3190c2d06661f0b.html</a></p>
<p>A generation of dedicated New Yorkers – including
many in this room <span class="bluetext">(((can't name-check the audience,
you're too humble for that, but you know who you
are)))</span> have all played a role in making this happen.
I want to especially acknowledge the strong
leadership provided by my predecessors: Mayors Koch,
Dinkins, and Giuliani. <span class="bluetext">(((Kind of a nice politically
ecumenical class act there. He didn't <strong>have</strong> to say
nice things about the former mayors.)))</span> As a city, we stand on their shoulders – and because we do, we are standing taller and stronger than ever.
We should be proud of what we've achieved together, not just over the past five years – but over the past twenty-five.</p>
<p>It would be easy to sit back now and enjoy what we've
done. To let our successors worry about the future.
But we must not become complacent. That's not how
New York became great. And it's not how I plan to
spend the last 1,115 days of my term as mayor!</p>
<p>Over the first eighteen hundred days, we've already
begun making the investments that will ensure the
city's long-term future: A $4 billion commitment to finishing the Third Water Tunnel – double what's
been spent by the last five administrations combined</p>
<span class="bluetext">(((unlike Australia, New York has water handy)))</span>;
$1.6 billion to build the vital Croton water
filtration plant <span class="bluetext">(((and we'll recycle water if we
run out for some weird climatic reason)))</span>; and
$13 billion for the largest school capital plan
in the city's history. <span class="bluetext">(((Even if the kids can't use
cellphones in class. And no, in New York, they
can't. I don't know why we require children
to pay coherent attention to something for so many
hours a day when adults sure can't.)))</span></p>
<p>We're turning Fresh Kills, once the world's largest
landfill, into the biggest new city park in more
than a century. <span class="bluetext">(((Presumably it's still a large
landfill, but with a nice park layered on top of it.
Come on, hey, that's progressive! They could
rename it "Stale Kills" and mine it for methane.)))</span></p>
<p>And a few days ago, we sold bonds for the Number 7
line, the first major extension of the subway system
in decades, and the first in modern memory paid for
by the city. <span class="bluetext">(((It's public transit! Come on! What
greenie can't love the Republican here?)))</span>
But we also know that much more work needs to be done.</p>
<p>THE NEXT 25 YEARS: LOOKING FORWARD<br />
<span class="bluetext">(((It's getting good here.)))</span></p>
<p>Last January, I asked Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff to
develop a long-term land use plan for the city. At
the time, we both thought it was a project that
would take just a few months. But as we worked, we discovered the sheer scale of what was ahead – the intricacy, urgency, and interdependency of the
challenges we face. <span class="bluetext">(((Sounds very Rocky Mountain
Institute.)))</span></p>
<p>We realized that unless we considered the full range
of challenges to our city's physical environment,
the progress we'd worked so long and so hard for
might be at risk. And it became clear that to secure
a stronger, cleaner, and healthier city for our
children and grandchildren, we had to start acting now. In short, we realized that New York needed –
not a long-term plan for land use, but a long-term
plan for sustainability.</p>
<p>'Sustainability' is a word that's used a lot these
days. <span class="bluetext">(((Yo!)))</span> But at its heart, it simply means
striving to make our city greater, not just for
ourselves, but for those generations to come. Today,
we have a rare opportunity to achieve that goal.
Because with the city's immediate prospects as
healthy as they are, and with our Administration
not beholden to special interests <span class="bluetext">(((except me,
and what the heck, I'm already richer than Croesus)))</span>,
or big campaign contributors, <span class="bluetext">(((Who needs 'em?
I'm my own financier!)))</span> we now have the freedom
to take on the obstacles looming in the city's
future, and to begin clearing them away before they
become rooted in place.</p>
<p>To help us meet that challenge, we created a new
Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.
<span class="bluetext">(((And I bet it's got a great budget! Green
pundits, start lining up now!)))</span>
They're supported by a team from more than 15
City agencies. Joining them have been some of the
best and the brightest: independent scientists,
<span class="bluetext">(((Not those bought-and-paid-for Exxon-Mobil
frauds, <strong>actual</strong> scientists)))</span> think tank
scholars, <span class="bluetext">(((not the "Project for a New American
Century" because my 'thinktank' isn't like that)))</span>
respected academics and city planners, and
innovative green builders.</p>
<p>Link:
<br /><a href="http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/24/2006&Cat=2&Num=019">http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=12/24/2006&Cat=2&Num=019</a>
"'The Project for the New American Century' has
been reduced to a voice-mail box and a ghostly
website. A single employee has been left to wrap
things up." Yeah, it's a mournful tale
of Gothic neocon nemesis worthy of Faulkner.
Even the "Tehran Times" is kicking the brainiacs
to the curb.</p>
<p>
And because our focus has been on
community-based strategic planning, not central
planning, our team has also included neighborhood
activists, public interest advocates, labor leaders,
and others from the private and non-profit sectors.
<span class="bluetext">((("Labor leaders"? Wow.)))</span></p>
<p>Some of our partners serve on our Sustainability
Advisory Board, while others have played a more
informal role. With help from all of them, we've
studied every part of the city.</p>
<p>We've looked at every playground – all 1,310 of them,
and identified which neighborhoods will need more
of them going forward. We've rated the age and
efficiency of all 25 of the power plants serving the city – through 2030. <span class="bluetext">(((Boy, I bet that study
wasn't pretty.)))</span></p>
<p>We've estimated which of our nearly 250 miles of
subway routes will be congested on an average day
in 2030. <span class="bluetext">(((Wow.)))</span> We have, in short, tried to
anticipate every physical barrier our communities will experience to maintaining – and building on –
the quality of life we enjoy today. And the process
has given us a new, deeper, and sobering appreciation
of the magnitude of the challenges New Yorkers face.
<span class="bluetext">(((You know what I like best about this technocratic
dream-pitch, so far? He hasn't said anything
"faith-based." Kinda refreshing, isn't it?)))</span></p>
<p>THREE MAJOR CHALLENGES</p>
<p>Through our work, we've identified three major
challenges our city will face over the next 25 years:
First, we will be getting bigger. By 2030, projections
show that our city will add nearly one million more
people, along with millions of additional tourists
and three-quarters of a million new jobs.</p>
<p>Second, our infrastructure will be getting older –
more than a century old in many places. And it will
be under increasing pressure.</p>
<p>And third, as our population grows and our infrastructure ages, our environment – our air,
water, and land – will be pushed to new and
possibly precarious limits. <span class="bluetext">(((Nothing about the
soaring New York temperatures and rising seas yet.
But just you wait and see.)))</span></p>
<p>Today, we'll share what we've learned over the past
11 months. We'll also present 10 aggressive but achievable goals that we've developed – with the
help of our extraordinary team of policymakers and
advisors. They're our goals for making New York a
sustainable city by 2030.</p>
<p>We'll also launch the next stage of this process:
Developing, with extensive public input, a detailed
action plan to create a sustainable future for our
city. A process that we are calling 'Plan-Y-C.'
<span class="bluetext">(((It's a pun. Okay?)))</span></p>
<p>Informed by that process, three months from now we'll
present New Yorkers with specific proposals for
reaching each of our goals, explaining in full the
regulation, legislation, financing mechanisms, or
other measures they will require. And then we'll
reach out to our partners in every branch and at
every level of government to begin turning those
goals into realities.</p>
<ol type="1" start="1"><li value="1">A rising population</li></ol>
The engine driving New York's future is growth –
growth that's evident all around us. It seems
wherever you walk in our city these days, whether
it's Kingsbridge Heights or Lower Manhattan, Queens
West or <span class="bluetext">(((etc etc)))</span>, there's new housing being
built. Over the last two years, more permits for
housing construction have been issued than at
any time since the early 1970s, and we will need all
of those new units, and more.</p>
<p>Because the Department of City Planning projects that
by 2010, New York will grow by another 200,000 people.
And by 2030, our population will reach more than 9 million – the equivalent of adding the populations of
Boston and Miami to the five boroughs. <span class="bluetext">(((I can
easily imagine the population of Miami showing up,
damp suitcases in tow.)))</span></p>
<p>The result is a surge that is taking our population
to new heights, and our city into uncharted waters.
<span class="bluetext">(((Surging, uncharted waters are kinda the new
shoreline-city gameplan.)))</span></p>
<p>This growth could bring incredible benefits: Billions
of dollars in new economic activity will be generated
by new jobs, residents, and visitors.</p>
<p>But growth also presents challenges: It can undermine
neighborhood quality of life, which is why over the
past five years we've rezoned more than 4,000
city blocks in dozens of neighborhoods, to allow for
growth where there's capacity, and preserve community
character when appropriate. Growth can also
bid up housing prices. And with more than a third of
New York City renters already paying more than half
their income on rent, we can't let that pressure on
family budgets grow any worse. <span class="bluetext">((('Mr. Housing Bubble,'
not affiliated with 'Mr. Internet Bubble.')))</span></p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((Did you ever see that fine New York film, "Soylent
Green?" "The film depicts a dystopia, a Malthusian
catastrophe that takes place because humanity has
failed to pursue sustainable development and has not
halted population growth. New York City's population
is 40,000,000, with over half unemployed. Global
warming, air pollution and water pollution have
produced a year-round heatwave and a thin yellow
smog in the daytime. Food and fuel resources are
scarce because of animal and plant decimation,
housing is dilapidated and overcrowded,
and widespread government-sponsored euthanasia is
encouraged as a means of reducing overpopulation.")))</span>
<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green</a></p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((So far, so non-dystopian, eh? Despite sci-fi
prognostications, the urban sophisticates of
New York are not yet squatting in abandoned cars and
devouring each other! Happy New Year Big Green
Apple! Big Times Square round of cheers!)))</span></p>
<p>
In response, we've undertaken the largest affordable
housing plan of any city in the nation, one that will
create and preserve affordable housing for 500,000</p>
New Yorkers by 2013 – that's more people than live
in Atlanta, Georgia. But we know even it won't
be enough.</p>
<p>Population growth also increases the need for more
of the parks and playgrounds that families depend on,
even as the competition for land becomes more intense.
We have added 300 acres of parkland over the past five
years, yet more than 100 neighborhoods still do not
have enough playgrounds for the children who live
there.</p>
<p>Our growing population also presents transportation
challenges. Strong leadership and major investments
over the past 25 years have made our subways cleaner
and safer today than they've been in decades. But, as a result, ridership has soared – making some
commutes more of an 'up close and personal' experience
than we'd like.</p>
<p>In short, growth is a challenge that can produce great
benefits, but only if we prepare for it and guide it – so that our city stays as open and welcoming as
ever. Our population is expected to reach undreamed-of
levels. This poses enormous new challenges, and to
meet them, we've set these three goals:</p>
<p>Creating enough housing for almost a million more
people, and finding even more creative ways to make
housing more affordable for more New Yorkers.</p>
<p>Ensuring that even as land becomes more scarce, every
New Yorker lives within a 10-minute walk of a park,
so that every child has the chance to play and be
active. And – so congestion doesn't bring our economy
grinding to a halt, adding to the capacity of our
regional mass transit system, so that travel times stay the same – or get better.
<ol type="1" start="2"><li value="2">Aging Infrastructure</li></ol>
<p>Our growing New York will always be the most diverse
city on earth. <span class="bluetext">((((Uh, maybe.)))</span> It will
remain a magnet for artists, entrepreneurs, and
ambitious immigrants from every corner of the globe.
But despite our dramatically varying backgrounds
and ambitions, we'll share so many common experiences
as New Yorkers. For starters, we will all go about
our days confident in and, in most cases, taking for
granted, the systems that underpin this exceptional
city.</p>
<p>For example, think about what you did to get here
this morning. Maybe your alarm went off; you turned
on the lamp; you ran some water to brush your
teeth; picked up the paper, which had been delivered
by truck; for breakfast you made some toast; took a
phone call (from a Deputy Mayor, telling you not
to mess up a big speech you were going to give in
Queens) <span class="bluetext">(((har har, good one)))</span>; made yourself
some hot coffee; then hopped on the subway to get here.</p>
<p>In other words, you relied on the City's infrastructure – without ever giving it a single thought. <span class="bluetext">(((No,
not even when the snow failed to fall and trees
were blooming in December.)))</span> Its millions of
components must work seamlessly, every second, day
after day, year after year, for all of us to survive.
And, for the most part, they do.</p>
<p>That's a testament to the genius of visionaries like
Thomas Edison <span class="bluetext">((("Grandfather of the Greenhouse")))</span>,
to the skill and muscle of sandhogs who blasted
subway and water tunnels through 400 million-year-old
bedrock, and to all those who engineered and built our
brilliant city. But even their amazing achievements
can't outlast the ravages of time.</p>
<p>We're a city that runs on electricity, yet some of our
power grid dates from the 1920s, and our power plants
rely heavily on outmoded, heavily-polluting technology.
<span class="bluetext">(((Yep! Preach it, Your Honor!)))</span></p>
<p>Our subway system and highway networks are extensive,
and heavily-used, yet nearly 3,000 miles of our roads,
bridges, and tunnels, and the majority of our subway
stations are in need of repair. And even though we
have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to
improve our sewer infrastructure over the past 15
years, at the current pace a full upgrade will take
another 500 years. (And hopeful as I am for a long
and happy life, even I don't expect to see that day!)</p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((Imagine if some tech-mogul dropped by at the Queens
Art Museum and said, "Thanks to my private investments
in telomeres, I confidently expect to live another
500 years, so it's time for you proles to get
cracking and build me the city I deserve." Would
it really <strong>surprise</strong> you if that happens in another 25
years? Me neither.)))</span></p>
<p>By 2030, virtually every major infrastructure system
in our city will be more than a century old, and
pushed to its limits. It doesn't have to come
to that if we act. Once, infrastructure solutions
were pioneered in New York. Now, it's time for us
to rise to the challenge again, with a new
commitment to upgrading and maintaining New York's
infrastructure.</p>
<p>Achieving sustainability for our growing city means protecting its foundation – our infrastructure. And
to do that, we've set these three goals <span class="bluetext">(((the guy
always speaks in threes; this is the third time
he's said that)))</span>:</p>
<p>Developing critical back-up systems for our water
network, so every New Yorker is assured of a
dependable source of water even into the next
century.</p>
<p>Reaching a full state of good repair for New York
City's roads, subways, and rails for the first time
in history.</p>
<p>And providing cleaner, more reliable power for every
New Yorker by upgrading our energy infrastructure.
<span class="bluetext">(((Imagine if he actually achieved that. Lord knows
nobody else ever has. Why would we even have
political parties? Wouldn't we just sell the
planet to the private sector?)))</span></p>
<ol type="1" start="3"><li value="3"> Strain on the Environment</li></ol>
<p>In addition to a surging population and a
straining infrastructure, we also face the challenge
of preserving and 'greening' an increasingly embattled
urban environment. The good news is:</p>
<p>We've already taken major steps in the right direction. Exhibit A is our Solid Waste Management Plan, which –
thanks to the active support of the League of</p>
<p>Conservation Voters – Speaker Quinn and the City
Council passed earlier this year. It was the most
dramatic environmental victory New Yorkers have
achieved in decades, one that will increase
recycling, and also completely end our Sanitation
Department's use of heavily polluting, diesel-burning
long-haul trucks. <span class="bluetext">(((I like it that he actually
<strong>starts with the trash.</strong> You know, you kinda have
to. New York, like all great cities, is a giant engine
for creating and spreading trash. Okay, so turn
it into something different.)))</span></p>
<p>Nor is that an isolated achievement. In the past five
years, City agencies have cut their greenhouse gas
emissions by more than 350,000 tons a year.
<span class="bluetext">(((Starting in 2007, it's time to stop emphasizing
"cuts" and "reductions" in greenhouse gases and
bending deadly-serious effort to removing the
gases that are already up there. We're not going
to manage at all well in a world whose weather
is as dangerously chaotic as today's weather.
No more Australia? That's too high a price to pay!)))</span></p>
<p>We've made far-sighted investments that will protect
the purity of the water we drink. And not far from
here, we're turning the site of the old Elmhurst gas tanks into a beautiful new park – just one
example of how we're reclaiming former industrial
sites for open space and housing. <span class="bluetext">((("The ruins
of the unsustainable are the new frontier.")))</span></p>
<p>"But the demands of our growing population require
us to do far more to protect our environment.
Despite the gains we have made over the past two
decades our aging sewer network still discharges
two billion gallons of sewage into our waterways
every year. Even though we have cleaned hundreds
of acres of brownfields across the city, there is
still much more contaminated land waiting to be
reclaimed for new jobs, housing, and parks. <span class="bluetext">(((Boy,
I know I sure want a Brownfield Brownstone in Dioxin
Memorial Park.)))</span></p>
<p>Our air is cleaner now than it was for much of the
20th Century, yet we have one of the highest asthma
hospitalization rates in the country, and its
effects are most severe for young children in
neighborhoods with high poverty rates. Meanwhile,
we've all noticed that the weather seems to be
getting more unpredictable, and summers seem to be
getting hotter. <span class="bluetext">(((YAY! <strong>Stormy applause</strong>)))</span></p>
<p>And longer. Well, that's not just a perception;
it's a reality.</p>
<p>It's called global warming but the impact can be local.
We're a coastal city, and the increase of greenhouse
gases in our air is not only lifting temperatures,
it may also be contributing to our rising sea level.
<span class="bluetext">(((Best Christmas present I've had in ages.)))</span></p>
<p>That means that when major storms hit in the future,
the resulting flooding could be worse than anything
we've seen. <span class="bluetext">(((A Republican who isn't stupid! It's
kind of amazing!)))</span></p>
<p>We know the cost of failing to prepare. It can
devastate a great city in just hours, which is why
we have created a comprehensive Coastal Storm Plan.
<span class="bluetext">(((I hope that plan doesn't rely much on the
federal government.)))</span></p>
<p>But to reduce the threat of dangerous storms, it's
also essential that we do our part to dramatically
cut greenhouse gases. To ensure the health of
future generations, and to establish New York as a
leader in meeting some of the greatest challenges
of our time, we must do more to green our city.
<span class="bluetext">(((Yes, yes, he's going on and on, but it's music
to my ears.)))</span></p>
<p>If anyone can innovate when it comes to the environment
(or anything else), New York can. And in that spirit,
we've set these four environmental goals <span class="bluetext">(((wow,</p>
four instead of three – slumbering heads are snapping
up in the back of the room)))</span>:</p>
<p>Reducing our city's global warming emissions by more
than 30% by 2030, a target we know is achievable
even just using technology that exists today.</p>
<p>Achieving the cleanest air quality of any big city
in America.</p>
<p>Cleaning up all of our contaminated land.</p>
<p>And, finally, opening 90% of our rivers, harbors,
and bays for recreation by reducing water pollution
and preserving our natural areas. <span class="bluetext">(((I hope
the Mayor of San Francisco isn't too upset that this
East Coast guy just walked off with all his clothes.)))</span></p>
<p>A CALL FOR IDEAS</p>
<p>Clearly, we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.
I'm not going to pretend that fulfilling these goals
will be easy. We know that some of the solutions
will be difficult, and some will cost money.</p>
<p>But in a very real sense, the predicament of our
future is also our hope. <span class="bluetext">(((Heck yeah, Mr Mayor.
You pull that stunt off, I'll move over there
myself.)))</span></p>
<p>The very same population growth that intensifies
the challenges we face also offers us the resources
for meeting them, and the means needed to help
achieve sustainability.</p>
Doing nothing has its costs, too – economic and
environmental costs that will only escalate with
the passing years. Refusing to saddle our children
with those high costs is what fiscal responsibility
is all about. It's why the discipline we've shown
and the investments we've made for the past five
years have given us a strong foundation to face our
future.<br />
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, in a day with no more cheap power,</p>
you pretty much go broke either way – but if you
manage to knock it off with the oil and coal, the
sky might remain the same color. Plus, you get to
have an Australia!)))</span></p>
<p>To address the challenges before us, we'll seek
the cooperation of policymakers at every
level of government including the Governor-elect
<span class="bluetext">(((that would be Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer, the
white-knight scourge of corruption and a real
hell-on-wheels operator who makes Texan governors
look like some caste of primitive amphibian beings:)))</span>
Link:<br />
<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Spitzer</a> and our regional partners.</p>
<p>And the really creative solutions to our problems
are especially likely to come from the private sector,
<span class="bluetext">((((heaven knows I did)))</span> or from non-profit
organizations, or from community leaders who are
determined to make a difference. We want to hear
all of those voices. And we need to.</p>
<p>That's why we are going to conduct a major public
outreach effort over the next few months, to solicit
ideas, get feedback, and build toward consensus.
Today, we are launching that citywide conversation.
<span class="bluetext">(((I wonder if he'll print his own version of
WORLDCHANGING when he piles all those creative
ideas into a heap.)))</span></p>
<p>In fact, the first discussion will take place right
here on this stage. We have assembled an
impressive panel of experts representing a broad
spectrum of disciplines and opinions. And now it's
my pleasure to introduce the moderator for this
discussion, a long-time resident of our City who
loves it as much as his native South Dakota and
who believes in its power to innovate and inspire.</p>
<p>Please welcome a great New Yorker – and a good
friend – Tom Brokaw.</p>
<p><span class="bluetext">((((Big wind-up pitch, obligatory inspirational
Kennedy quote, etc., and, as a glowing finale)))</span>:</p>
<p>Go to our website:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/home/home.shtml">http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc/html/home/home.shtml</a></p>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O<br />
"BEFORE I DRAW NEARER TO THAT STONE TO WHICH<br />
YOU POINT," SAID SCROOGE, "ANSWER ME ONE QUESTION.<br />
ARE THESE THE SHADOWS OF THE THINGS THAT <strong>WILL</strong><br />
BE, OR ARE THEY SHADOWS OF THINGS THAT <strong>MAY</strong> BE,<br />
ONLY? ASSURE ME THAT I YET MAY CHANGE THESE<br />
SHADOWS YOU HAVE SHOWN ME, BY AN ALTERED LIFE. . ."<br />
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O O=C=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-6652536856820818230?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1166056056445081872006-12-13T16:26:00.000-08:002006-12-13T16:27:36.486-08:00Viridian Note 00482: Big Changes Ahead<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>2012, futurism, John L. Peterson,
Arlington Institute, prognostications</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Happy new years...
these meditations by Washington-based pundit
John Peterson seem to reflect the current mood of the
times in the Beltway, which are about as dazed and
miserablist-apocalyptophile as one can imagine.
Looks like the world will be hit on the head
with a series of hammers until morale improves.
I'm having a lot of black-humored fun at this
guy's expense here, but I think he's dealing
with the season as best he can.
His newsletter FUTUREDITION is consistently amazing.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:<BR>
Global warming affects the very fringes of the
atmosphere, so much so that spacecraft can feel
it.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39427/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39427/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Daisies are blooming in a Moscow December.
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39439/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39439/story.htm</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39455/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39455/story.htm</A>
"Regional Nuclear War Could Spark Climate Change." It's our
dear old friend, "nuclear winter," now
creatable by most anybody. Imagine global warming
AND a nuclear winter. "We are at a perilous
crossroads," said Owen Toon of the University of
Colorado at Boulder's Department of Atmospheric and
Oceanic Sciences. "The current combination of nuclear
proliferation, political instability and urban
demographics form perhaps the greatest danger to
the stability of society since the dawn of humanity."
Hey, Merry Christmas, Doc! How 'bout and oil peak
and some bird flu to go with that mistletoe?</P>
<P>
<A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm</A>
Two percent of the planet's richest people now own
fifty percent of the world. Hey, rich folks, you
bought it, you fix it! If anything remotely practical
gets done by the year 2012, it's obviously gonna
get done by rich people. They own the works.
Any "solution" that they can't buy and
install is kinda silly.</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=34308&pic=2">http://www.greenbiz.com/news/columns_third.cfm?NewsID=34308&pic=2</A>
Look, (says irate Aggie engineer), knock it off
with the bullshit leftist social-engineering! Just suck
the damn CO2 out of the sky! Simple! End of problem!
"Air-capture" it!... Okay, fine, great; if you can do
that, you can scold Greenpeace as much as you want.
I won't mind a bit! Honest!</P>
<P><A HREF="http://wpweb2k.gsia.cmu.edu/ceic/phd.htm">http://wpweb2k.gsia.cmu.edu/ceic/phd.htm</A>
I mean, so far you don't seem to have much more than
a PhD dissertation versus all those melting icebergs.
Where are the giant miracle-solution sodium hydroxide
racks and sulfur-cure atmosphere sprays? Get after it,
dude! Let Exxon pay!</P>
<P>From: <A HREF="mailto:thefuture@arlingtoninstitute.org">thefuture@arlingtoninstitute.org</A>
FUTUREdition Special Holiday Punctuations Issue,
Volume 9, Number 18<BR>
Date: December 11, 2006 4:51:08 PM PST
To: <A HREF="mailto:bruces@well.com">bruces@well.com</A></P>
<P>John Peterson writes:<BR>
"This time of the year always generates an unusual
amount of deep thinking. People try to stop for a
moment and consider what has happened over the last
year and attempt to get a handle on the more profound
implications of what this thing called life is all
about and where we are all going.
"And then, here's one from me. It's a chapter for
a book which will be published next year."</P>
<P>Getting to 2012: Big Changes Ahead
John L. Petersen</P>
<P>Consider this recent BBC headline:
"Current global consumption levels could result in
a large-scale ecosystem collapse by the middle of
the century, environmental group WWF has warned."
One that followed was: "Climate change threatens
supplies of water for millions of people in poorer
countries, warns a new report from the Christian
development agency Tearfund" <span class="bluetext">(((Great name for
a Christian development agency.)))</span></P>
<P>About the same time the Washington Post said:
"Birds, bees, bats and other species that pollinate
North American plant life are losing population,
according to a study released yesterday by the
National Research Council."</P>
<P>Reuters added: "Failing to fight global warming now
will cost trillions of dollars by the end of the
century even without counting biodiversity loss
or unpredictable events like the Gulf Stream
shutting down."</P>
<P>Author James Howard Kunstler chimed in: "The Long
Emergency is going to be a tremendous trauma for
the human race. We will not believe that this is
happening to us, that 200 years of modernity can
be brought to its knees by a world-wide power shortage.
The survivors will have to cultivate a religion of
hope -- that is, a deep and comprehensive belief
that humanity is worth carrying on.” <span class="bluetext">(((You gotta
love J. Kunstler. A situation that dire creates "a
religion of hope?" The top religious activists in
the world already cultivate a religion of holy suicide
and blow up their own mosques! Imagine the jolly,
affirmative, carry-on mood those jihadis would be
in during a Regional Nuclear Winter.)))</span></P>
<P>"Then, in a landmark report compiled by Sir Nicholas
Stern for the UK government, comes the admonition:
The world has to act now on climate change or face
devastating economic consequences. Sir Nicholas
estimated that at most humanity has ten years before
the shift is unrecoverable. <span class="bluetext">(((What if it's already
ten years too late? Or twenty years? Shouldn't we
be giving this prospect a lot more serious thought?
We're not averting anything much; there are daisies
blooming in Moscow.)))</span></P>
<P>What's going on here? What does this all mean?
<span class="bluetext">(((Settle in, folks; he's about to let fly.)))</span></P>
<P>These are extraordinary statements about massive
earth changes. Are they just random trends that
happen to be coincidentally showing up at the same
time, or perhaps they reflect some big, historic,
underlying dynamic == maybe the world is about to
experience a shift unlike anything ever seen before.
<span class="bluetext">(((You know what's worse than a futurist who over-
promises? A futurist who over-delivers.)))</span>
There are reasons to believe the latter could be
the case. Many sources, both conventional and
unconventional, suggest that we are living in a
special time == that between now and 2012 the world
will undergo an epochal shift to a new era.</P>
<P>This rapid evolution will produce a world that
operates in fundamentally different ways than it
has in the past.<span class="bluetext">(((For instance, it might well
operate the way a 500-pound gorilla operates when
it (a) has Ebola (b) is on fire and (c ) has
recently converted to Islam.)))</span></P>
<P>The indicators are there. Take a closer look at
what is already happening.</P>
<P>Demographics:</P>
<P>Nearly a half of all people on the planet are under
the age of 25[i]. That's the largest youth generation
in history. The overwhelming majority of these young
people live in the developing world and almost a
quarter are surviving on less than $1 a day[ii]
Most of them know about the quality of life in the
West. Many have seen and used a computer or a
mobile phone. <span class="bluetext">(((Bring it on, kids! Got all the
pirate MP3s and YouTube you can eat!)))</span></P>
<P>Peaking of the Global Oil Supply:</P>
<P>Regardless of the increased awareness that our oil
resources are finite, demand for oil is growing.
In the last years it grew from 79.8 (2003) to 84.3
(2005) million bpd[iii]. Even if the Chinese economy
were to slow down, the growth is still likely to
continue with a pressure from India.</P>
<P>Supply, on the other hand, appears to have peaked.
We now have nine and a half months of "rearview
mirror" action to look back and see that world oil
production has retreated from its all-time high of
just over 85 million barrels a day (m/b/d) achieved
in December 2005 (just as geologist Kenneth Deffeyes
of Princeton had predicted). For 2006, production
has remained in the 84 m/b/d range every month
reported so far, while demand has exceeded that.[iv]</P>
<P>Oil curse is a term coined to reflect the desperate
situation of many oil rich but otherwise
underdeveloped countries. The Chinese are now
involved in a comprehensive international outreach
to African countries, buying up resources (not just
oil) in Nigeria, Angola, Congo, Sudan. So far oil
importers used mostly economic and political means
to compete for oil but will inevitably resort to
military strategies as soon as they realize that
they have probably passed peak oil threshold.
<span class="bluetext">((("Inevitably?" It's a done deal; the Iraq War's
been going on for years now and producing LESS oil,
not more.)))</span></P>
<P>The report "Peaking of World Oil Production:
Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management” prepared
by SAIC for the Department of Energy concludes that
humanity is facing asymmetric risks associated with
the peaking of oil. Although mitigation actions
initiated prematurely may result in a poor use of
resources, late initiation of mitigation may result
in severe consequences. Early mitigation measures
are necessary to install production capacities for
alternative energy in time for the peaking of oil.
<span class="bluetext">(((Why do weird spook-boffin outfits like SAIC use such
bland and anonymous bureaucrat-speak?)))</span></P>
<P>Species Extinction</P>
<P>Despite an avowed reverence for life, human beings
continue to destroy other species at an alarming rate,
rivaling the great extinctions of the geologic past.
In the process, we are foreclosing the possibility
of discovering the secrets they contain for the
development of new life-saving medicines and of
invaluable models for medical research, and we are
beginning to disrupt the vital functioning of
ecosystems on which all life depends. We may also
be losing some species so uniquely sensitive to
environmental degradation that they may serve as
our "canaries," warning us of future threats to
human health.[v] <span class="bluetext">(((Not to mention that they
make all the oxygen.)))</span></P>
<P>The speed of species extinction has forced
scientists to refer to the current era as the
sixth extinction event comparable to only five
other events in the known history of biosphere
(that's a few billion of years!)
<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, and imagine how the scientists will direly
refer to these things when the scientists themselves
are extinct.)))</span></P>
<P>A good example is a new study that shows that the
oceans' fish are being depleted so fast that
eating seafood might be just a memory in 40 years.
The researchers say more is at stake than our diet,
for they find the dwindling of fish stocks hurts
the world economically and the ocean environmentally.
Researchers say it is not too late to reverse the
trend.[vi] <span class="bluetext">(((What if it WAS too late? "Welp,
the ocean's turned to carbonic seltzer-water and
all the fish just died." I wonder who would be
hired to spin that.)))</span></P>
<P>According to Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,
the challenge of reversing the degradation of
ecosystems while meeting increasing demands for
their services could be partially met under some
scenarios that they have considered but these
involve significant changes in policies,
institutions and practices, that are not
currently under way. <span class="bluetext">(((Unless you count
nuclear proliferation, which could create some
big flaming changes in institutions and practices
as quick as you can say "Jack Robinson.")))</span></P>
<P>Climate Change: <span class="bluetext">(((Let's settle on down and throw
another shrimp on the barbie... wait, the
shrimp all died and Australia's consumed
with brushfires.)))</span>)</P>
<P>Earth is already as warm as at any time in the
last 10,000 years, and is within 1°C of being
its hottest for a million years. Another decade
of business-as-usual carbon emissions will probably
make it too late to prevent the ecosystems of the
north from triggering runaway climate change[vii].
<span class="bluetext">(((Well, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen;
an outright futurist prophecy of doom.)))</span></P>
<P>Feedback loops (the self-reinforcing relationships
between the change in CO2, global warming and
other factors) are driving the dynamics of climate
change. In fact, they are the source of exponential
rates of growth. We may be entering a phase in
which global warming becomes a runaway train.
<span class="bluetext">(((Good thing the train ran out of oil, then.)))</span></P>
<P>Glaciers in the Himalayas are receding faster than
in any other part of the world and if the present
rate of retreat continues, they may be gone by 2035.
More than 2 billion people == a third of the world's
population, rely on the Himalayas for their water[viii]
<span class="bluetext">(((Definitely dents our prospects for Szechuan
chow and Bollywood movies.)))</span></P>
<P>An increase in global temperatures can interfere
with the workings of the ocean conveyor belt and
bring another ice age to Europe. The earth's
ocean system is characterized by thermal inertia.
This means that it adapts slowly to global cooling
and warming but once it starts to warm up or cool
down, the process will extend for a long period of
time. For us, it means that even if all human
emissions were to stop now, thermal inertia of
the ocean could sustain an increase in global
temperatures.</P>
<P>According to conclusions of Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change of the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) <span class="bluetext">(((These IPCC guys need a much
snappier name == I suggest "Giant Planetary Flaming
Doom Patrol")))</span> and the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), there is new and stronger evidence
that most of the warming observed over the last 50
years is attributable to human activities.</P>
<P>Major Economic Disruption <span class="bluetext">(((Show me the money!)))</span></P>
<P>During 2003-4, in a concern about possible "deflation",
the Federal Reserve ran the interest rates that they
charged banks down so low (1%), that mortgage lenders
began offering below-prime mortgages with little or
no money down. Refinancing of existing mortgages
was at an all-time high. Huge increases in mortgages
resulted (more than five times the amount between
2002 and 2006 than in the preceding five-year period).</P>
<P>Many if not most of those loans (whose real interest
rate was higher than "prime" mortgages secured in
historical ways) had extra-low payments in the
loan's early years with a substantial increase in
payments after the "balloon" period. People were
buying homes whose income would never have allowed
them to own a home previous to that time . . . and
those least able to pay their loans began using
credit card credit to make up for the shortfall in
income.</P>
<P>In 2005 for the first time since 1933, the savings
rate in America became negative.<span class="bluetext">(((Could this possibly
make any difference at all if the Chinese and the
Indians have no water to drink and America's
pollination species have died off? This is like
a banker in a collapsing World Trade Center tower
trying to re-schedule lunch with his broker.)))</span></P>
<P>This happened about the same time that personal
credit card debt reached its highest level ever
(number of U.S. credit cards grew 75% from 1990
to 2003 while the amount that was charged increased
350%). Consumer credit as a percentage of personal
income has never been so high (30 % increase since
2000 alone) and household debt as a percentage of
house assets is at a record. <span class="bluetext">(((So what? They're
supposed to scrimp and save so their kids can
enjoy the Sixth Great Extinction? Obviously
the only course for a rational economic actor
under these conditions is to eat drink & be
merry. Max out the plastic! Hey, it works
for the government.)))</span></P>
<P>Independent analysis shows that credit card
defaults begin about 24 months after a borrower
has fundamentally overextended him or herself and
therefore history suggests that we should see a
dramatic increase in mortgage defaults starting
in 2006. In fact, the percentage of U.S. subprime
loans that were made in 2006 and delinquent in
payments by 60 or more days by August of the year
rose 100% over similar loans made in 2005.[ix]
<span class="bluetext">(((Okay, I'm getting a little confused here...
we get a Great Depression <STRONG>first,</STRONG> then the
oil peak, the oil warand the self-reinforcing
climate juggernaut that freezes Europe and also
parches the Himalayas? Can we have one from
Column A and two from Column B?)))</span></P>
<P>All banks have a great percentage of their
assets tied up in mortgage-based securities.
If the default rate on mortgages increases
significantly it could well translate into a
major threat to the solvency of many banks.
<span class="bluetext">(((Why would we even NEED banks? I don't
remember many ATMs on the set of "Mad Max
Beyond Thunderdome.)))</span></P>
<P>The debt situation will be exacerbated by the
retirement of the baby boomers <span class="bluetext">(((The "flood of
gray hippies threat," oh Lordy)))</span> and implementation
of the new banking regulations under the auspices
of the Basel II Accords that demand the revamping
of the global banking system, for which no banks
are likely to be ready. <span class="bluetext">(((If nobody's bothering
with Kyoto or the Geneva Convention, why would
they care about the "Basel II Accords"?)))</span></P>
<P>According to Warren Buffet, the current financial
system is highly unstable. Highly complex financial
instruments == derivatives == are time bombs and
"financial weapons of mass destruction". "Derivatives
generate reported earnings that are often wildly
overstated and based on estimates whose inaccuracy
may not be exposed for many years". <span class="bluetext">(((Or, in
fact, ever. You think we'd be worried about Enron's
books if Katrina had wiped out Houston?)))</span></P>
<P>"Large amounts of risk have become concentrated
in the hands of relatively few derivatives dealers
. . . which can trigger serious systemic problems"
Derivatives can push companies onto a "spiral that
can lead to a corporate meltdown". <span class="bluetext">(((Given that
2 percent of the planet owns fifty percent of
everything, why don't they just buy themselves some
fresh governments and re-invent all the paper?)))</span></P>
<P>Investor George Soros pronounced the same criticisms
regarding the global financial system. He believes
that unless fundamental reforms are implemented,
the current system will continue on a spiral of
crises[x].</P>
<P>Watershed Time?</P>
<P>Is the nexus of these forces a unique watershed time
that will usher in a new era on this planet? Will
the structures and institutions that we are all
familiar with and depend upon struggle and even
fail in the near future under the stress produced
by breakdowns in multiple sectors? <span class="bluetext">(((Those words
sound so amazingly dull compared to what that
would "breakdowns in multiple sectors" would
actually feel like. Oh well, at least, unlike
most Oil Peakists, he's not rubbing his hands
in glee about it.)))</span></P>
<P>Add to the litany above <span class="bluetext">(((oh goody)))</span> increasingly
sophisticated terrorism, serious global shortages
of drinking water, growing population pressures,
and the possibility of other shocks like a global
pandemic <span class="bluetext">(((bird flu, you return at last, we
scarcely knew ye)))</span> and you've got the line up for
the potential for a major directional shift.
The convergence of climate, oil and financial trends
alone could produce a "perfect storm" that reorders
the future of humanity on this planet.
<span class="bluetext">(((Really, pretty much any one of those factors would
pop the World As We Know It like a boot on a
Christmas ornament... "re-ordering?" Is that
quite the proper word?)))</span></P>
<P>A New Paradigm</P>
<P>If failure of the present system is what we're
looking at, it would certainly be followed by a new
paradigm. If the old system came down, a new one
would evolve that attempted to bypass the systemic
frailties of the previous world. <span class="bluetext">(((Kind of like
Soviet Communism being replaced by a sunny new realm of
Mafia Petrocracy.)))</span> It would necessarily be a
fundamentally different way of understanding reality,
attended by new perspectives of science, ecology,
economy, cosmology, governing, agriculture, and
education, among the other basic intellectual
structures which support human activity.
<span class="bluetext">(((You know, that sounds pretty radical, but I'm
so fed up by this time that I think I might be
willing to go for that. Sure, man, junk the works!
The rotten Roman Empire has gotta go! Just as long
as I don't get vandalized, become feudal slave
labor or undergo a religious conversion.)))</span></P>
<P>The new world, as in all paradigm shifts, would
not make much sense from our present
perspective. Never having seen group larger than
a clan, a hunter-gatherer contemplating the
future would have been hard-pressed to envision
a world that included people living in towns and
villages. Similarly, the future that may arrive
with 2012 would necessarily seem strange in the
context of most of our upbringing.<span class="bluetext">(((That's five
years away, folks. I hope they're still reading
sci-fi novels in Wonderland.)))</span></P>
<P>But as we get closer to the time of this epic shift
the early outlines of a new future appear to be
emerging. First of all, the new world is a highly
interdependent and connected one. The complexity
of our present communications systems link individual
humans in ways that would have seemed impossible just
two decades ago (the World Wide Web had not yet been
invented only fifteen years ago!) As the ability
to interact in increasingly more sophisticated ways
develops, a point will be passed when humanity begins
to act like an organism, rather than unrelated
individuals and small groups. <span class="bluetext">(((What KIND of
"organism"? Hope it has a backbone.)))</span></P>
<P>Ideas will transit the world like rumors in a small
town. Concepts and perspectives will infect the
global brain and produce behavior never before seen.
We will see our future tied to others many thousands
of miles away from us in ways that would have made
no sense five years ago. We will rapidly become
planetary citizens. <span class="bluetext">(((Hey, it's working for me
here in Serbia.)))</span></P>
<P>Similarly, ecological interconnectedness is also
rapidly becoming obvious. For many of us, we now
know that we are all related to the larger
environmental system in which we live in ways that
we never previously understood. The death of a
third of the coral reefs in the world and ten-thousand
other species a year will surely affect the
system that supports human life . . . and certainly
not beneficially.<span class="bluetext">(((Yeah, and while you can
always start a new bank, good luck re-inventing
the coral reef.)))</span></P>
<P>All of this new knowledge will of necessity change
our behavior in the future. We will see ourselves
as an integral part of the whole system in which we
live. We will know that we are all in the same
life boat and each of our futures is a function of
the future of all of us. Self-interest and security,
whether characterized in personal or national terms,
will very quickly encompass far more space and
people than it has in the past.</P>
<P>In the face of rapid climate change, for example,
national security would approach becoming synonymous
with global security. <span class="bluetext">((("Khaki Green." I'd be
happier about this prospect if I'd seen any national
army win a war lately.)))</span></P>
<P>We'll also see ourselves connected in spiritual terms.
Perhaps this is where the real paradigm shift will
take place.<span class="bluetext">(((No it isn't. At least, I sure
hope not.)))</span></P>
<P>More and more individuals are beginning to experience
and internalize the fact that we are connected to
each other and with animals, plants and even the
earth in ways that even though inexplicable are
nevertheless demonstrable. Serious new scientifically
based books are now being written about how human
behavior is connected to the larger cosmos and how
that throughout history it has predictably reflected
in how we behave. Agricultural systems are in place
that claim to tap into elemental spiritual forces in
order to grow crops better. Many studies now show
that the intentionality of prayer significantly
affects single-cellular life as well as humans . . .
and it doesn't make any difference whether either
party knows the other one (or that they're praying)
or not.<span class="bluetext">(((It's kind of pitiful to see the guy
reduced to this kind of knee-wobbling guff.
It's like the last reel of Dickens' A CHRISTMAS
CAROL, the one with my personal favorite, the
utterly terrifying Ghost of Christmas Future.
He must be really, seriously scared to offer
prayer to bacteria as the sign of way forward.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Here are some interesting bacteria that
probably aren't much affected by prayer because
they apparently CAME FROM MARS. "What, you're
kidding, right?" Uh... maybe.)))</span>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22750">http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=22750</A></P>
<P>"There is evidence now that somehow humans anticipate
big disruptions to the system (like 9/11 and the
Indonesian tsunami) and begin to have extraordinary
precognitive dreams before these major events.
<span class="bluetext">(((If that's somehow so, I really, really hope
that I'm spared those. Imagine DREAMING about
total ecological collapse before it happened.
It'd be like something out of Stephen King.)))</span></P>
<P>This spiritual awareness seems on a trajectory
that will expand to include the ability to tap into
the global collective unconscious and may even become
somewhat predictive == marrying advanced knowledge
technology with dreaming and other intuitive
processes.<span class="bluetext">(((If you can't think of a way out
of this mess, maybe you'd better sleep on it.)))</span></P>
<P>Growing numbers of thoughtful people are coming to
the conclusion that intentionality directly shapes
reality. How our thoughts translate into the
reconfiguration of matter and different behavior
in others is not clear, but for many, life-long
experiences tell them that that is how it works.</P>
<P>In all of this there appears to be an alternative
dimension(s) for communication that facilitates
this interconnectivity. Who knows, perhaps human
telepathy may be emergent as we see ourselves more
tightly committed to each other in the future.
<span class="bluetext">(((I'd be tempted to read the mind of a climate
skeptic and see if there's anything actually in
there.)))</span></P>
<P>In any case, there are a great number of indicators,
both historical and contemporary, that suggest that
we are approaching a time of extraordinary change.
Although no one now alive has ever lived through a
similar shift, the history of the planet, as we
know it, suggests that these kinds of major upheavals
have happened many times in the past == in fact,
they are the fundamental evolutionary mechanism for
the planet. Biological life moved abruptly from
single-cellular life to multiple-cellular life after
a very long period of equilibrium. Then multiple-
cellular life was punctuated by a radical
transformation that yielded vertebrates . . .
which were followed by rapid shifts to mammals,
early humans, and then homo sapiens.<span class="bluetext">(((Which then
briskly killed themselves off and left the world
to its next possessors, the telepathic Martian
microbes. Hey, it could happen!)))</span></P>
<P>Social evolutionary punctuations continued moving
hunter-gathers into villages and towns, finally
resulting in the printing press which enabled the
industrial age. Perhaps the Internet represents
the new communications infrastructure upon which
the radically new paradigm will be built.<span class="bluetext">(((Or,
if there's no fuel whatsoever and complete economic
collapse, a printing press in a village would
be lookin' pretty good.)))</span></P>
<P>Perhaps we are about to experience another
punctuation in the equilibrium of human evolution.
Patterns from the past suggest that the time is
right for another one. The question is, are we ready?
<span class="bluetext">(((For THAT!? By 2012? Gimme a break!)))</span></P>
<P>If the change that seems to be forming on the
horizon is anything like it appears it might be,
then all humans will need to move into a new mode
of living and thinking in order to survive the
transition.<span class="bluetext">(((Aw come on, we can't ALL survive...
is it too much to ask that the living won't
envy the dead in five years? I like to think that
my demands on futurity are pretty modest, but,
well. . . .)))</span></P>
<P>There will need to be a constant orientation of
openness == having a wide aperture for sensing subtle
indicators that point toward coming change and
being receptive to newly emerging approaches to
dealing with the rapidly changing environment.
If one is not open to the suggestions and ideas
of others, they will necessarily falter, as no
one individual will have the capability to deal
with this change by themselves. New ideas and
explanations about how reality works will begin
to bubble-up in many places; they must be openly
considered and honestly evaluated. <span class="bluetext">(((And,
if the ideas turn out to be moronic, the guys
who hold them need to be kicked out of power.)))</span></P>
<P>There must also be an openness to adapt == to
rapidly change when it is required.
The survivors of this epochal shift will necessarily
live closer to the earth. They will know that
their food does not come from the supermarket . . .
in fact, they may well know the farmer who grows it.
They will be sensitive to the earth in ways that
they perhaps previously reserved only for humans.
The current movement toward "relocalization" ==
shifting one's life and relationships closer to
a sustaining support system == will probably be
rather mature.<span class="bluetext">(((Well, none of that is sending
my morale soaring, just yet... You know what would
be really great right now? A twelve-year-old
single-malt Scotch and a big chocolate ice-cream
sundae.)))</span></P>
<P>Effectively transitioning to this new world will
require envisioning it into reality. We will all
need to develop a basic, but coherent idea of what
the new world might look like == the principles,
values, structures, behavior, etc. == and begin
to carry that common picture in our minds.
<span class="bluetext">(((Kinda like the concepts of cyberpunk in the
early 1980s == "Hey wow, someday there will be
a world rather like the late 1990s.")))</span></P>
<P>We need to "get together" at regular times with
as many others as possible to project the new
images into the space from which everything comes.
<span class="bluetext">(((I hope there's catering.)))</span></P>
<P>We should do it as though our life depends on it,
as it probably does. <span class="bluetext">(((Well, that's a nicer
sentiment than packing up some survivalist ammo
and heading for the hills.)))</span></P>
<P>We are all blessed to live at this time of
extraordinary transformation. Each in his or her
own way has a special role to play in contributing
to the ultimate shape and function of this new
world. That's probably why we are here at this time.
We should not hesitate to vigorously play our part.
Time is short.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Well, it may be that we're damned to live in
this time of sinister and extraordinary collapse.
But even if so, he's right: we need to vigorously
play. Just look tomorrow right in the eye and go for
it. The silliest suggestion in here is a thousand
times better than sticking your fingers in your
ears. We're gonna catch-it big time, so we
might as well put our hands out.)))</span></P>
<P>John L. Petersen is the president and founder of
The Arlington Institute (<A HREF="http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/">www.arlingtoninstitute.org</A>).
He can be contacted at <A HREF="mailto:johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org">johnp@arlingtoninstitute.org</A></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
WELL, HAPPY HOLIDAYS<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116605605644508187?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1165603842442884872006-12-08T10:50:00.000-08:002006-12-08T11:05:07.700-08:00Viridian Note 00481: The Counterpurge<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Lysenkoism, political purges of
scientists, New Scientist, lustration, truth and
reconciliation, future public show trials for
crimes against climate stability, Exxon-Mobil,
allies</dd>
<dt>
Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>It's a notion
that may seem a little improbable at first glance,
but it's much less improbable than tornadoes in
London and a lost war for oil.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:</P>
<P>The eco-chic Yves Behar "Leaf Light." Wow, that
would make an ideal desk lamp for vengeful lawyers
dismantling Exxon-Mobil and their fellow
conspirators.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=10859&CMP=EMC-WR0179981131">http://www.dwr.com/productdetail.cfm?id=10859&CMP=EMC-WR0179981131</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The Purge at work:)))</span></P>
<P>
<A HREF="http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19225765.000-climate-change-special-state-of-denial.html">http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19225765.000-climate-change-special-state-of-denial.html</A></P>
<h2>
Climate change special: State of denial</h2>
<h3>04 November 2006<BR>
NewScientist.com news service<BR>
Fred Pearce</h3>
<P>KEVIN TRENBERTH reckons he is a marked man. He has
argued that last year's devastating Atlantic
hurricane season, which spawned hurricane Katrina,
was linked to global warming.</P>
<P>For the many politicians and minority of scientists
who insist there is no evidence for any such link,
Trenberth's views are unacceptable and some have
called for him step down from an international
panel studying climate change.</P>
<P>"The attacks on me are clearly designed to get me
fired or to resign," says Trenberth.</P>
<P>The attacks fit a familiar pattern. Sceptics have
also set their sights on scientists who have spoken
out about the accelerating meltdown of the ice sheets
in Greenland and Antarctica and the thawing of the
planet's permafrost. These concerns will be
addressed in the next report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the global
organisation created by the UN in 1988 to assess
the risks of human-induced climate change.</P>
<P>Every time one of these assessments is released,
about once every five years, some of the American
scientists who have played a part in producing it
become the targets of concerted attacks apparently
designed to bring down their reputations and careers.</P>
<P>At stake is the credibility of scientists who fear
our planet is hurtling towards disaster and want
to warn the public in the US and beyond. <span class="bluetext">(((Not
to mention that the planet itself is at stake, but
the science press is always far more interested
in scientists than they are in the low-IQ hoi-polloi
with which scientists share the planet.)))</span></P>
<P>So when the next IPCC report is released in February
2007, who will be the targets and why? <span class="bluetext">(((Sounds
like a great premise for an Internet betting-site.)))</span></P>
<P>When New Scientist spoke to researchers on both sides
of the climate divide it became clear that they are
ready for a showdown. (...)</P>
<P>One of those who knows only too well what it is like
to come under attack from climate change sceptics
is Ben Santer of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
in California. The lead author of a chapter in the
1995 IPCC report that talked for the first time
about the "discernible human influence on global
climate", he was savaged by sceptics and accused
of introducing this wording without consulting
colleagues who had helped write the chapter.</P>
<P>One sceptic called it the "most disturbing corruption
of the peer-review process in 60 years". Another
accused him of "scientific cleansing" – at a time
when the phrase "ethnic cleansing" was synonymous
with genocide in Bosnia.</P>
<P>Another scientist to suffer the ire of the sceptics
was Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University
in University Park. He was attacked after the IPCC
assessment in 2001 (...) The sceptics accused Mann
of cherry-picking his data and criticised him
for refusing to disclose his statistical methods (...).</P>
<P>Last year, Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton,
chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,
ordered Mann to provide the committee with voluminous
details of his working procedures, computer programs
and past funding. Barton's demands were widely
condemned by fellow scientists and on Capitol Hill.</P>
<P>"There are people who believe that if they bring
down Mike Mann, they can bring down the IPCC,"
said Santer at the time. Mann's findings, which
will be endorsed in the new IPCC report, have
since been replicated by other studies.</P>
<P>Santer says, however, that he expects attacks
to continue on other fronts.</P>
<P>"There is a strategy to single out individuals,
tarnish them and try to bring the whole of the
science into disrepute," he says. "And Kevin
[Trenberth] is a likely target." Mann agrees that
the scientists behind the upcoming IPCC report
are in for a rough ride.</P>
<P>"There is already an orchestrated campaign against
the IPCC by climate change contrarians," he says.</P>
<P>The "contrarians" include scientists and politicians
who are sceptical of the scientific evidence for
climate change. Some of those who spoke to New
Scientist insist that they are not planning
character assassinations (...) <span class="bluetext">(((They're not
"skeptics", either. They're Lysenkoist political
operatives in the pay of polluters.)))</span></P>
<P>Many of the IPCC's authors, some of whom asked not
to be named, say this is a smokescreen. They
claim there is an extensive network of lobby groups
and scientists involved in making the case against
the IPCC and its reports.</P>
<P>Automobile, coal and oil companies have coordinated
and funded past attacks on them, the scientists say.
Sometimes this has been done through Washington
lobby groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute
(CEI), whose officers include Myron Ebell,
a former climate negotiator for George W. Bush's
administration. Recently, the CEI made television
advertisements arguing against climate change, one
of which ended with the words: "Carbon dioxide,
they call it pollution, we call it life." (...)</P>
<P>The money trail</P>
<P>Some sceptical scientists are funded directly
by industry. In July, The Washington Post published
a leaked letter from the Intermountain Rural
Electric Association (IREA), an energy company
based in Colorado, that exhorted power companies
to support the work of the prominent sceptic Pat
Michaels of the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville.</P>
<P>(…)<BR>
So what is this money buying? For one, an ability
to coordinate responses to the IPCC reports. (...)</P>
<P>(…)</P>
<P>In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, and with a
US administration that has a record of hostility
to concerns about climate change, Trenberth's
statements are political dynamite. (...)</P>
<P>Trenberth himself fears the worst. "I would not
be surprised if the hurricane aspect of the report
is targeted, along with my own role," he says.
"But I am proud of what we have achieved."</P>
<P>(...) Another sensitive area is the concern that
existing models of ice sheets on Greenland and
Antarctica massively underestimate future melting
and consequent sea-level rise. "Our understanding
of the dynamics of ice-sheet destruction has
completely changed in the last five years,"
says Richard Alley of Penn State University, a
lead author of the chapter on ice sheets who expects
to find himself in the firing line over this issue.</P>
<P>"We used to think it would take 10,000 years for
melting to penetrate to the bottom of the ice sheet.
But now we know it can take just 10 seconds," he says.</P>
<P>Michaels dismisses the idea of more rapid loss as
"hysteria"(...)</P>
<P>Some insiders suggest that the IPCC may be more
cautious in its upcoming report than it has been in
the past, but this is unlikely to placate climate-
change sceptics. (...) Here too Trenberth may find
himself caught in the headlights. The US Senate's
Environment and Public Works Committee under its
chairman James Inhofe has begun investigating NCAR,
Trenberth's employer.</P>
<P>Inhofe has repeatedly written to NCAR and other
agencies demanding details about financial and
contractual arrangements with their employees and
with federal funding agencies such as the National
Science Foundation (NSF).</P>
<P>Inhofe has a record of hostility to the idea of
climate change, having asked on the Senate floor
in July 2003: "Could it be that man-made global
warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on
the American people? It sure sounds like it."</P>
<P>NCAR is not commenting on Inhofe's investigation,
but many climate scientists contacted by New
Scientist regard it as a tactic designed to intimidate
those working on the IPCC report. (...)</P>
<P>Out of 168 scientists listed as lead authors or
reviewers involved in assessing the science of
climate change, 38 are from the US – more than
twice as many as the second-largest national
grouping, the British.</P>
<P>IPCC scientists who spoke to New Scientist insist
they are not trying to turn science into politics
or to shut down genuine debate. They do, however,
worry that their conclusions might be drowned out
by some politically motivated and industry-funded
sceptics.</P>
<P>"I'd hate to see hundreds of people putting years
of their lives into producing a report that is then
trashed by these people for political ends," says
Santer. "That is what happened in my case, and I
felt very bad about it."</P>
<P>(Looks pretty bad, eh? Yeah. But not for the
purgees. They may have been cherry-picked for
neocon assault by denialists, but at least they
didn't risk jail.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Consider the fate of Viridian contestee, Enron.
Most everybody at Enron was cheerily drinking their own
champagne bathwater and making merry on the carcass
of the public interest. Jeff Skilling was not the
worst of them, but Jeff was the one who didn’t ritually
repent and come clean. They dropped an anvil on this
guy. Jeff ought to be an object lesson to energy
executives. Him, and Ken, who's dead.)))</span><br />
<A HREF="http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/12/06/6skilling.html">http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/other/12/06/6skilling.html</A></P>
<P>Lee Raymond took his Exxon pile and split, but the
top guys at Exxon still dearly love those smoke-and-
mirrors. Look at 'em shimmy and backpedal and
sidestep here.</P>
<P>"While our scientific understanding of climate change
continues to improve, <span class="bluetext">(((No thanks to us)))</span> it
nonetheless remains today an extraordinarily complex
area of scientific study. <span class="bluetext">(((No it doesn't.)))</span>
Having said that, the potential risks to society
could prove to be significant, <span class="bluetext">(((the potential
risks to us; "society", as St Margaret said, doesn't
exist)))</span> so despite the areas of uncertainties that
do exist, ((no they don't)))</span> it is prudent to develop
and implement strategies that address the potential
risks. <span class="bluetext">((("Develop strategies," don’t carry them out.
Waffle and equivocate. Name a single thing Exxon's
done in the past 20 years that is "prudent."
Nothing. They bet the Texan farm, just like Bush II,
just like Enron. They didn't really do that much:
purge scientists, sabotage IPCC, logjam the US
Senate – but the consequences are calamitous,
and they have no one to blame but themselves.)))</span></P>
<P>"In my view, this means we should continue to fund
ongoing scientific research without conditions or
preconceived outcomes <span class="bluetext">(((we mean fund denialists
more than any actual scientists)))</span> to increase our
understanding of all of the forcings which are part
of this very elegant, but very complex climate
systems in which we live <span class="bluetext">(((Nature is pretty, but
only oil folks are fit to deal with it)))</span> –
includingongoing study of not only the possible
forcing effects resulting from mankind’s socioeconomic
activity, <span class="bluetext">(((nice "socio" there, Mr Free Market)))</span>
but equally if not more important understanding of
the natural forcing elements that are and have
been apart of the climate system since the dawn of
time.<BR><br>
<span class="bluetext">(((The takeaway? "Blame anybody or anything for the
climate mayhem we've been creating and obscuring for
years, but don't blame us. At least, not now.
Blame nature. Blame lesbians. Blame the Chinese,
blame anybody, but not us, not during our lifetime.
We never thought, we never dreamed that the bill
would come due this fast. That was never supposed to
happen in a time-frame where we could be held to
account." They haven't learned a damned thing.
They're too stupid to live. Exxon threw a
climate-war for oil, and not only are they
losing the oil, they're going to lose the climate.)))</span>
<A HREF="http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Newsroom/SpchsIntvws/Corp_NR_SpchIntrvw_RWT_301106.asp">http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Newsroom/SpchsIntvws/Corp_NR_SpchIntrvw_RWT_301106.asp</A></P>
<P>Exxon's actual, years-long, entirely consistent
policy of funding logjammers, reputation assassins
and Beltway bandits. Basically this composes a
list of likely future indictees for crimes against
humanity. Everybody in the world is going to want
a piece of these people. Except for a few blinkered
Australians, whose stricken nation is in
spectacular flames as we speak, these American
malefactors are the biggest global-climate
patsies around. Everyone's responsible for climate
change, but the one thing every player can surely
agree on without demur is that these guys are
the worst and must culpable. Everyone else can
pretend to be all caught unawares and shocked,
shocked by a climate crisis: these people are
without any question its deliberate aiders and
abettors.</P>
<P>There aren't, in fact, many of them. Their
budgets have always been quite small. Their chances
of defending themselves from a worldwide outcry
are slim. If Jeff and Ken couldn't save themselves
after buying a President, these guys are in ten
times deeper.</P>
<P>I don't doubt that Exxon-Mobil's hasty new clean-air
PR campaign, meant to ingratiate themselves with
the new Democratic Congress, costs five times
as much as they've ever spent on these minor
organizations. But: they did fund them,
and in some cases simply invented them. And when
their empty pretense that the climate is fine and
dandy is proved as utterly hollow as the bold
pretense that Enron makes money and Iraq loves
freedom, someone is going to have to take the
fall. And it's a huge, huge fall. And it's all
theirs. Who else is there? They're finished.
Wait and see.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/listorganizations.php">http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/listorganizations.php</A></P>
<P>Who would actually go and get them? Rich people.
ANGRY, PANICKY, VENGEFUL, RUTHLESS rich people.
"Alpine communities have coped with warm winter
weather before, but this year there is a sense that
it could be the beginning of the end of the European
skiing experience." That must be a lot of fun for
well-to-do Esso investors.<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482390,00.html">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482390,00.html</A></P>
<P>ASEAN summit politicians flee an Asian typhoon. Makes
you wonder what the Davos Forum will look like when
there's no Swiss snow. Hey, 'world leaders,' you
will be brought to the climate or the climate will
be brought to you. You can run, but you can't hide.
Who do you plan to blame for this -- for the way
climate change makes you flee like rabbits?
How do you sleep with that kind of humiliation?
It's going to happen time and time again.
<A HREF="http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/08/asean.summit.ap/">http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/12/08/asean.summit.ap/</A></P>
<P>Tornado in London. Not actually in 10 Downing Street,
but, well, not too far. Wait till next time.
<A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1966688,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1">http://www.guardian.co.uk/weather/Story/0,,1966688,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1</A></P>
<P>"Exxon: facing the toughest energy challenges."
The toughest of all? Avoiding the melancholy
southern-Gothic fates of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling.</P>
<P>I know my premise here seems a tad farfetched,
but here on Viridian List, we're getting used to things
we discussed ten years ago emerging into broad
daylight like a horde of Morlocks. So Exxon, let
me level with you a little. You're always bragging
about how many "thousands of scientists" you employ,
and how you have a cast-iron Texan hammerlock on
geopolitical realism – but did you ever imagine it
would get this bad, this fast? Do you know what
melancholy Texan figure you Houstonians most resemble
at this point? No, not Skilling. Not even Bush.
Not Tom DeLay, either. You look like General Santa
Anna.</P>
<P>You know: slaughter a few stubborn scientists in
the Alamo, then march on to inevitable victory.
You've still got the flags up and the trumpet
sound of the deguello in your ears, but that strategy
stank. You are reaping the whirlwind. You could blow
off the occasional corrupt meeting with Cheney, but
the climate problem? That can only get worse and
worse. And worse. And fast. For years. And who,
in the world, is there, in the world, available
to blame for that? At a bottom line, politically,
realistically, who else but you? You bet your all,
everything, on keeping the oil flowing and sustaining
the Texo-American Dream – but when rich people,
not poor ignorant people but rich ones, see their
prospects and their fortunes wrecked because of
your malfeasance, you will collapse. You will
have brought utter shame and discredit on everything
you ever held dear. Where will you hide from the
sky? Where's your safe haven?</P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16091653.htm">http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16091653.htm</A>
"The vast U.S. energy industry might be the ripest
target for a corruption investigation. When Vice
President Dick Cheney's energy task force was meeting
in early 2001 – meetings whose secrecy Cheney has
managed to protect against legal challenge – the
goal of U.S. energy independence was barely an
afterthought. Now, with the United States mired in
the affairs of petro-dictatorships in the Middle East,
even the president has emphasized the need to cure
our addiction to oil.<BR><br>
"Studied inaction on this front stems from the
coziness between the administration and big oil.
Investigations into that relationship are a sure
win for the Democrats. Just lining up oil company
executives under the hot lights – much like the
seven tobacco company chief executives were lined up
in 1994, looking like gray-suited deer – creates
the image, if not necessarily the fact, of activist
government. (Suggested witnesses: Lee Raymond, chief
executive of Exxon Mobil until this year; Spencer
Abraham, former energy secretary; Cheney; and David
Addington, Cheney's deputy on many energy matters.)"</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Of course you can duck that one, buy yourself a
new Senate, but your problems are BIGGER than that.
Your troubles are just starting. What's the true
extent of your bad judgment?)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Well, just for fun, let's frankly confront
the absolute worst-case scenario. That would be
climate crisis as the Queen of Spades, the Big
Sister of Nuclear Armageddon, instead of its dirty
little sister... Suppose that plankton, as these
scientists now publicly speculate, really
does die off because the oceans got too suddenly
warm and too acidic.</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((What gives, in that case? You would die. You, your
bankers, your lawyers, your pet Senators, everybody
on the Board of Directors, all the employees,
the public-relations firms... The entire Bush Clan...
the scientists who made the grim assessment....
every jackrabbit on the plains of Texas... Actually,
if the plankton dies, pretty much every living thing
above the level of a slime mold would die. Die like
poisoned rats in a cellar.</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Not that anybody worldwide would seek to blame you
much for this... Why bother? Instead of merely wrecking
civilization in your febrile quest for subterranean
goo, you'd have accomplished something unbelievable
and grand, unleashing an awesome smoke-genie
Fossil Gotterdammerung that exterminated all
known intelligent life in the Universe. Quite a feat
for an oil company and a handful of hired right-wing
cranks. There'd be a sense-of-wonder sci-fi grandeur
to that, if there were any sci-fi writers left
to type that up.)))</span><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39356/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39356/story.htm</A></P>
<P>So that's the worst-case scenario. I don't expect it.
I think a likelier one is Hague-style show-trials.
I mean, not THE Hague, not the "International Court
of Justice" – that one had a Bush regime spoke
thrust through its wheels early on. That was a
street-smart, deeply cynical move, but at the scale of
the mayhem you're wreaking, the Hague Court wasn't
near big enough for you anyway. The Hague didn't
matter. Nobody who counts really cares all that
much about "war crimes." As long as crimes occur in
Sudan, or Afghanistan, Congo, "Non-Integrating Gap"
locales that fail to affect the flow of commerce,
these misdeeds don't compel attention. Yours do.
Civil-rights NGOs are basically hobbyists;
they're persistent but they're feeble. Whereas YOU,
the mayhem YOU have publicly chained to your own
wrists and ankles, the scale of the misdeeds YOU have
cheerily brought to pass while lining your pockets
at the cost of every power-player, the extent of
the public penance that YOU require...</P>
<P>Wow. It boggles the mind! Think that over! It'll have
to be some kind of long, ritualized, endless
counterpurge, something like the Germans coming
clean for 60 long years, with lots of ritual
apology and self-abasement... Something like the
Czech lustration process and the South African
Truth and Reconciliation hearings, only bigger.
Bigger, and in the full and horrible light
of a smoggy planetary dawn. And with no end.
Because the seas keep rising and the storms
keep getting darker. For decades. There's no
exit strategy for a firm that's the bride of
climate change.</P>
<P>Imagine yourselves 'fessing up in the dock.
"Fast Andy" Fastow had to do it; you, too, eh?
"Yeah, we did dark, and secret, and terrible
things to science and politics, and those
seemed like a sensible, hardheaded, businesslike
things to do at the time... if I'd known that it
meant that I had to spend the next 20 years of
my life looking into the hollow, drowned, dead eyes
of little Jimmy there and his family of nine..."</P>
<P>I mean, there's that prospect, the de-Stalinization
process; the "Transition" – I've seen that done.
It's doable. People get over it. It's just, you
know, the faster you move and the quicker you
point the finger at the past's 'regrettable excesses'
-- well, the less that hurts, and the more chance you
have of oozing back into power later, but with
a different lapel button and an utterly transformed
infrastructure. You know, the BP way. The Shell
way. You didn't do that. Because you were
aggressive, cocksure morons. Just like Bush and Enron.</P>
<P>Then there's the Skilling option, which is to
deny the existence of the giant black tornado even
after it demolishes the employee retirement funds.
I know you're aching to do this. It's very Alamo.
You'll be going to jail if you choose that option,
and given that climate change harms everybody on
the planet including lunatics packing suicide bombs
and weird KGB-ites with polonium in test tubes,
you'll be lucky if you even manage to reach the
safety of jail, rather than perishing in some
particularly gruesome and exemplary fashion.</P>
<P>I know, this all sounds a little far out. So what's
a sensible first step? Something you might do
tomorrow. Something that wouldn't cost much.</P>
<P>Well, the first and most sensible step for you would
be the public rehabilitation of the many purge
victims you've already piled up. Kind of a
Krushchev Thaw gambit. If you want to
get anything like a fair legal shake from the hurt
you've piled up for yourself, you'd better look
to the fate of these scientists. See how you pestered
the, sidelined them, made them non-persons?
That effort cost you maybe 15 million and, also,
your good-will, credibility and brand-name.</P>
<P>For a lot less than 15 million dollars, you could
probably re-fund them, re-hire them, and put
them all back in the schools and labs. And instead
of carrying out a guerilla war against the IPCC,
you could underwrite big, fancy, Houston penthouse
parties for the IPCC. Shell and BP would do that.
In a second.</P>
<P>You chose a Lysenkoist campaign, based in your
Houston HQ but carried on on a global scale.
That was basically a minor act of petrocratic tyranny.
Not too entirely divorced from the mainstream
of the Texan political tradition. But:
the scale's gotten much bigger now, you were utterly
and totally wrong in your assessment of what
was happening and how that would enrich you, and,
frankly, you are much bigger than your victims
ever were. So your end will be much messier.
Your fate will be theirs, only big-time. The
victims of a counterpurge commonly catch just
what the original purgees did, only louder and
in technicolor.</P>
<P>Instead of a little geek-fight in the science
world, you're going to see these sinister tactics
adapted worldwide and brought against your own
org. Your "politics of personal destruction"
don't have all that much traction in the world
of science -- geeks lose some funding and prestige,
they get fired, they get shut up -- but in the
corporate world? The political world? Where
there's actual harm done -- real money? Oh my
gosh.</P>
<P>So have a look at what you wrote on the wall.
Does it take a prophet to interpret what's
waiting there for you and yours? No, I didn’t
think so, either.</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
NICE HOT SUNNY<BR>
WINTER DAY TODAY<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116560384244288487?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1165159082191548782006-12-03T07:10:00.000-08:002006-12-03T07:18:02.586-08:00Viridian Note 00480: The Algae Hummer<dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Los Angeles Auto Show, weird
green concept cars, anti-carbon economy</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt><dd>There are tropical ibises nesting in New York. Not fifty years from now. Now.</dd>
<p><a href="http://nymag.com/news/features/24364/index.html">http://nymag.com/news/features/24364/index.html</a><br>
<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061201-super-typhoon.html">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061201-super-typhoon.html</a><br>
Monster typhoon clobbers the Phillipines.</p>
<p><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061201-india-monsoon.html">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061201-india-monsoon.html</a><br>
<a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39260/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39260/story.htm</a><br>
The Indian monsoon is acting up. Imagine a 21st
century nuclear India with a 19th century massive
Indian famine.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39256/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39256/story.htm</a><br>
Australia is having its worst drought in a thousand years. It's a continent much given to climate change.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39262/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39262/story.htm</a><br>
Green Revolution veterans struggling to create new
crops for a global climate-crisis.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482390,00.html">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482390,00.html</a><br>
No snow in the Alps for ski season. A few years
of this, and these airy enclaves of the rich will
go broke. They'll be as deserted as the Ninth Ward
of New Orleans.</p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((Reducing today's carbon emissions isn't going to
work. We've clearly got too much carbon in the sky
already. The climate is destabilizing year by year
at today's levels of pollutant. Sooner rather than
later, we'll have to bend our attention to removing
the carbon that's already up there. That's not a
"non-carbon economy" or "post-carbon economy" but a
carbon-removal economy, an anti-carbon economy)))</span>.</p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((Likely methods for accomplishing this would be
found in the same industries that put the carbon up
there in the first place == lighting, heating and
transport tech that fixes CO2 rather than emitting it.
Instead of seeking a lighter "environmental
footprint," these industries would have a
deliberate environmental "handprint.")))</span></p>
<p><span class="bluetext">(((That's not impossible. Cellulosic ethanol would
do that == it would pull some CO2 out of the sky
and fix it as topsoil in the biofuel fields.
That sounds counter-intuitive, but even
GM finds it thinkable. They just proposed a Hummer
that improves the environment. A car that is
better when bigger. Imagine a world where you
couldn’t call yourself a serious environmentalist
without a huge car. You'd drive a Hummer and hope
for snow.)))</span></p>
<p>Link:<br>
<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2482390,00.html">http://www.laautoshow.com/show/tabid/83/Default.aspx</a></p>
<br>
<a href="http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=motoringNews&storyID=">http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=motoringNews&storyID=</a>
<br>
<a href="2006-12-01T110633Z_01_NOA139876_RTRUKOC_0_GM-HUMMER.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsLandin">2006-12-01T110633Z_01_NOA139876_RTRUKOC_0_GM-HUMMER.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsLanding-C10-Motoring-3</a></p>
<h2>GM contemplates the living, breathing Hummer</h2>
<p>Fri Dec 1, 2006 11:05 AM GMT</p>
<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) == In the corporate imagination
of General Motors, Hummer could be transformed from
the SUV that environmentalists love to hate to an
algae-infused, oxygen-exuding buggy that would open
up like a flower.</p>
<p>GM's sketch for the "Hummer O2" was named the winner
on Thursday of a design contest at the Los Angeles
Auto Show that challenged major automakers to design
a vehicle with a five-year life span that could
be fully recycled.</p>
<p>The GM vision for the futuristic Hummer concept
includes an algae-filled body shell, designed to
shed oxygen, that also opens up like leaves on a
stem to catch sunlight when parked.</p>
<p>The concept sketch, which was produced by GM's
West Coast Advanced Design Studio, shows the
Hummer riding on an aluminum shell and powered
by a hydrogen tank and fuel cells.</p>
<p>"This design team said, 'We've done hybrids. We're
doing fuel cells. What's the next step that
actually improves the environment?'" said Frank
Saucedo, director of GM's California design lab.
Saucedo said the GM team had deliberately chosen
the polarizing Hummer brand for its imagined
environmental remake.</p>
<p>"People think of it as a military vehicle, as a
suburban SUV, but really these types of vehicles ==
the SUVs and the early Jeeps == were for people
who worked in the outdoors, environmentalists,
naturalists and outdoorsmen," he said. "This is
just us coming full circle."</p>
<p>GM said this week that its entire Hummer lineup
would offer biofuel engines, capable of running
on renewable fuels such as biodiesel, over the
next three years.</p>
<p>The GM entry in the Los Angeles Auto Show Design
Challenge won out over a number of equally
ambitious vehicle sketches from other automakers.
None of the sketches are even close to the full-blown
concept cars that automakers roll out at the
industry's major trade shows to generate buzz for
their brands.</p>
<p>Toyota suggested an electric-powered, tandem-style
vehicle with wicker seats that the occupants could
opt to pedal through stop-and-go Los Angeles
rush-hour traffic.</p>
<p>DaimlerChrysler's luxury Mercedes-Benz unit suggested
a diesel-burning convertible with wood panels that
could be easily replaced and recycled.</p>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O<br>
VROOM VROOM<br>
O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116515908219154878?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1164562357920821992006-11-26T09:31:00.000-08:002006-11-26T09:32:37.950-08:00Viridian Note 00479: The Sulfur Cure<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>climate change, Global Haze
Proposal, Paul Crutzen, geoengineering,
terraforming, sulfur in the stratosphere,
volcanoes</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>This proposition is
straight outta of Mark Twain's novel "The American
Claimant" from 1892, except, uh, it just came out
in WIRED.</dd></DL>
<P>Links:</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Keeping up with the furrow-browed efforts of
the global political class. They've been beavering
away on Kyoto 2.0. Realistically, are these
crumbling, oil-hungry nation-states and their
violently disordered remnants gonna get on the
same page? Even if the UN makes all the right noises?)))</span>
<br /><a href="http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_world/cop12/summary.cfm">http://www.pewclimate.org/what_s_being_done/in_the_world/cop12/summary.cfm</A>
<br /><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39037/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39037/story.htm</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A grimly detailed ten-point climate-change plan
that's considerably less nutty than this one,
only it'll likely get zero traction because it's
from an unrepentant British socialist.)))</span>
<br /><a href="http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/george_monbiot/2006/10/stern.html">http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/george_monbiot/2006/10/stern.html</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Yet another design contest for rousing public
awareness of global warming. We Viridians were
very into this kinda effort == about ten years ago.
Nowadays we Viridians get rather more interested
when large numbers of the public get killed by storms.
Everybody now knows climate crisis is happening.
They just figure maybe it won't bite them personally.
Give it another ten years, and something like the
"Greenhouse Mass Grave Design Contest"
might be in order.)))</span><BR />
<a href="http://design21sdn.com/designit/designit_enter_competition.php?usrid=&sid=">http://design21sdn.com/designit/designit_enter_competition.php?usrid=&sid=</A></P>
<P>"God is still up there," says evil crank denialist
James Imhofe. Precisely the sentiment I don't want
written on my Greenhouse mass grave tombstone.
That sentiment sure works for suicide bombers.
<br /><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/inhofe-hoax/">http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/inhofe-hoax/</A></P>
<P>Metropolis is running a design contest for green
energy, because Metropolis is hip. Plus, they've
got good taste and ten grand! Wow!<BR />
<a href="http://www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/">http://www.metropolismag.com/nextgen/</A></P>
<P>Is anybody still worried about "Peak Oil"? You
know what's happening this season? "Peak Solar."
Everybody wants the silicon, and there just isn't
enough to go round. So I guess we'll be eating
dogfood out of cans soon. The suburbs are clearly
doomed. Oh wait, did that make any sense? "Peak Solar"
economics is so counterintuitive that I got all
confused.
<br /><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e50784ea-78cb-11db-8743-0000779e2340.html">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e50784ea-78cb-11db-8743-0000779e2340.html</A></P>
<P>The real solution to our intractable difficulties:
not artificial sulfur shot into the stratosphere,
but bacteria that can eat junk. Okay, I'm
kidding about that. Not.
<br /><a href="http://www.citris-uc.org/CRE-Nov8-2006">http://www.citris-uc.org/CRE-Nov8-2006</A></P>
<P>Now for the good news. There's less methane in the
sky. Nobody has a clue why. But hey, there's less,
and that's good. It's great. Probably.
<br /><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/21/methane.html">http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/21/methane.html</A></P>
<P>We didn't get blown to pieces by hurricanes
in 2005. Hurricanes were remarkably few.
Nobody has a clue why. But what the heck,
we weren't Katrina'd straight to hell, and that
was good. It was great. Merry Xmas.
<br /><a href="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39119/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39119/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Source: David Wolman, <em>WIRED</em> magazine</P>
<br /><a href="http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/start.html?pg=3">http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/start.html?pg=3</A></P>
<P>"Repeat after me: We humans have screwed up our planet. Feels better, doesn't it?</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">((("We humans have screwed up our planet, we humans
have screwed up our planet, we humans have screwed
up our planet." Hey wait! Facing the awful truth
DOES feel better.)))</span></P>
<P>"Now that we've accepted this reality, at least we
don't have to argue about it anymore. Atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels are at the highest they've
been in at least 800,000 years. Greenland's ice
sheet is melting fast. Some == probably a lot == of
the current warming trend is because of us, and so
are the consequent threats to ecosystems, food
supplies, coastal cities, and all that other stuff
from <STRONG>An Inconvenient Truth.</STRONG></P>
<P>"Of course, that means we're responsible for repairing
the damage, but stopgaps like carbon sequestration
just aren't going to cut it.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Actually, it means that we human beings from
the last two full centuries of fossil-fuel use are
"responsible for repairing the damage," and most of
us are dead. I'd say the clearest implication here
is that WIRED readers would also be dead long before
"humans" fully repair this situation, but what the
heck, read on.)))</span></P>
<P>"Luckily, a growing number of scientists are thinking
more aggressively, developing incredibly ambitious
technical fixes to cool the planet. <span class="bluetext">(((Uh-oh.
Ever hear the useful expression, "Be careful what
you wish for, you might get what you want?"
That would be the Viridian moment o' truth there,
when the ecosystem design boffins just roll the
gizmo right off the launching pad and turn the
blue sky bright green.)))</span></P>
<P>"These efforts to remedy the accidental experiment
of climate change with intentional, megascale
experimentation are called geoengineering.
<span class="bluetext">(((Or, as Stewart Brand points out, "we're already
terraforming so we might as well get good at it.")))</span></P>
<P>"Thus far, ideas include reflecting sunlight with
gazillions of orbiting featherweight mirrors or by
saturating the stratosphere with sulfur, or
increasing the volume of microbes that eat CO2 by
fertilizing the oceans with iron.</P>
<P>"Harebrained? Well, maybe. But somebody has to save
the world.</P>
<P>"Typically, sober environmentalists have looked
askance at geoengineering. In fact, they mostly
think it's nuts. All the ideas on the table reek
of foolhardiness. We have only one Earth, and it
is a system of unparalleled complexity (in other
words, no one knows exactly how it works).</P>
<P>"What if we muck it up? 'If you go down the path
of geoengineering, it leads to taking ever-increasing
environmental risk, and, eventually, you'll be
unlucky,' says Ken Caldeira, a climatologist at
Stanford University. <span class="bluetext">(((Maybe we’re ALREADY unlucky.
There are guys who argue that we altered the weather
as soon as we invented agriculture.)))</span></P>
<P>"What's more, many greens worry that just talking
about geoengineering could deflect funding and
focus from the task of cutting greenhouse gas
emissions. They'd rather we legislate higher
fuel-efficiency standards and design better
photovoltaics. <span class="bluetext">((("Funding and focus"?
These guys don't know what a victory condition
looks like. In the 2060s, damage from climate change
is supposed to outpace the planet's entire GNP.
That means ALL the funding and ALL the focus
get used up by one issue: climate crisis.)))</span></P>
<P>"Enviros are right about the urgency of kicking
the fossil fuel habit == that's a no-brainer.
The problem is inertia; the changes we have wrought
in the atmosphere will play out over decades
(or longer) whether we junk all the SUVs tomorrow
or not. <span class="bluetext">(((Right.)))</span></P>
<P>"That's why it makes sense to start thinking seriously
about radical countermeasures. <span class="bluetext">(((Well, no.
Logically, it ought to mean that it's time to start
WORKING seriously on radical long-term countermeasures
that take decades to carry out. But I quibble:
come on, this is WIRED. These are rock-solid
San Francisco values getting an airing here.
On with the summer of geoengineered love.)))</span></P>
<P>"One of the biggest boosts to the idea of climate
manipulation came last summer from Paul Crutzen, an
emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
Writing in the journal Climate Change, Crutzen, who
shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for work
examining ozone depletion, described a plan to shoot
massive quantities of sulfur into the stratosphere.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Paul Crutzen. Nobel-Prize winning scientist.
Not a lunatic. Sane European guy. Lives in world run
by lunatics; cannot be helped. Note that Crutzen,
as a boy, almost starved to death in Holland in
the "Hunger Winter" of 1945 until the Swedes
dropped food out of the sky. I think his proposal
possesses some moral gravity.)))</span><BR />
<br /><a href="http://www.mpch-mainz.mpg.de/~air/crutzen/">http://www.mpch-mainz.mpg.de/~air/crutzen/</A>
<br /><a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/crutzen-autobio.html">http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/crutzen-autobio.html</A></P>
<P>"In theory, the sulfur would reflect sunlight == just
as particles blown into the air by the eruption of
Mount Pinatubo did in 1991 == cooling Earth and buying
enough time for civilization to shift into green gear.
<span class="bluetext">(((I shudder at the thought at what this
experiment would do to the weather, but at least we
do have the on-the-ground historical examples of
Pinatubo and Krakatoa to show that it doesn't destroy
the planet instantly.)))</span></P>
<P>"Crutzen's not crazy, and he's no renegade terraformer.
'Until a few years ago, I would also have been against
the idea,' he recently told an Australian newspaper.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((He's also stated elsewhere that he considers his
proposal to be a kind of interventionist publicity
stunt. "It was meant to startle the policy makers,"
said Paul J. Crutzen, of Germany's Max Planck Institute
for Chemistry. "If they don't take action much more
strongly than they have in the past, then in the end
we have to do experiments like this." But Dr Paul's
an old man; it may well be that planetary policy-makers
thirty years from now consider geo-engineering to be
the only serious and practical option.)))</span></P>
<P>"His journal article == and his clout == gave
geoengineering an almost instant credibility boost.
Soon other heavies, like Ralph Cicerone, president of
the National Academy of Sciences, were also writing in
favor of the concept.</P>
<P>"Their message: Geoengineering isn't, and shouldn't be,
fringe science. 'Given that the climate-change problem
might be more serious than we previously thought,' says
Tom Wigley, a mathematical physicist at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research, 'we should consider
these radical solutions more seriously.'</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((He's got a point, so, here you go: geoengineering
is here in your email, consider it.)))</span></P>
<P>" Stanford's Caldeira is keeping an open mind == he's even helping to organize an
international
geoengineering meeting at NASA Ames Research Center.</P>
<P>The shortsighted mistake here would be getting mired
in the details of these wild plans. (Crutzen's scheme
would mean we'd have to start loving smog == but
imagine the psychedelic sunsets!) Yes, these ideas
sound crazy. But we're in the earliest stages of
what is potentially the single most crucial new
science in history.</P>
<P>"Let's give the researchers a minute or two to get
their PowerPoint slides in order and, more important,
grab a slice of the admittedly modest budget for
climate-change research. Just remember: Advocating
the study of geoengineering does not mean campaigning
for the deployment of every ludicrous notion that
comes along.</P>
<P>"Smart people finally convinced us that we need to
stop burning fossil fuels. Let's do that. But because
what has already been set in motion tends to stay in
motion, we need a well-researched, measured plan to
get us (or, more realistically, our grandchildren)
out of this mess. The real worst-case scenario is
some kind of Bruce Willis-movie scheme deployed at
the eleventh hour, after the climate shift has
already hit the fan. == David Wolman</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((What's the pitch in the sulfur cure, or as it's
described with a tad more dignity, the "Global Haze
Proposal?" Giant balloons and giant guns.)))</span></P>
<P><br /><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_sc/saved_by_haze">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_sc/saved_by_haze</A></P>
<P>"The Dutch climatologist, awarded a 1995 Nobel in
chemistry for his work uncovering the threat to
Earth's atmospheric ozone layer, suggested that
balloons bearing heavy guns be used to carry
sulfates high aloft and fire them into the
stratosphere.</P>
<P>"While carbon dioxide keeps heat from escaping
Earth, substances such as sulfur dioxide, a common
air pollutant, reflect solar radiation, helping
cool the planet.</P>
<P>"Tom Wigley, a senior U.S. government climatologist,
followed Crutzen's article with a paper of his own
on Oct. 20 in the leading U.S. journal Science.
Like Crutzen, Wigley cited the precedent of the
huge volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the
Philippines in 1991.</P>
<P>"Pinatubo shot so much sulfurous debris into
the stratosphere that it is believed it cooled
the Earth by .9 degrees for about a year.
<span class="bluetext">(((Note that this cooling is not nine degrees, but
point-nine degrees. Less than a degree.)))</span></P>
<P>"Wigley ran scenarios of stratospheric sulfate
injection == on the scale of Pinatubo's estimated
10 million tons of sulfur == through supercomputer
models of the climate, and reported that Crutzen's i
dea would, indeed, seem to work. Even half that
amount per year would help, he wrote.</P>
<P>"A massive dissemination of pollutants would be
needed every year or two, as the sulfates
precipitate from the atmosphere in acid rain."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((What do I like about the design of this Global
Haze scheme?)))</span></P>
<OL type="A" start="1">
<LI VALUE="1">
It's been done before. By volcanoes.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="2">
If "Global Dimming" theory is right, we may
already be doing "Global Haze" right now as we
speak, except in a filthier and stupider way.
Link:
<br /><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/dimm-nf.html">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/dimm-nf.html</A>
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="3">
It's got a volume dial. You can spew a little
sulfur dust, judge the pragmatic results and spew
more or less.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="4">
It goes away by itself if you stop.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="5">
It's cheap. Bill Gates could do it out of the petty cash.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="6">
It's fast.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="7">
Balloons and guns are time-honored proven hardware.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="8">
It isn't digital, so at least it doesn't
run under Windows.
<BR /><BR /></LI>
<LI VALUE="9">
It might distract the attention of governments
from the much simpler and more elegant 'Global Haze"
scheme, which would be to use ICBM rockets to spew
chemical and biological dust over areas where
people fail to share one's family values, thereby
drastically reducing carbon emissions by the simple Stalinist tactic of eliminating us
all. "No people,
no problem," as Kolya the Dread used to say.</LI>
</OL>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR />
OKAY, IT BEATS DROWNING, MAYBE<BR />
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116456235792082199?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1162086283916140722006-10-28T18:44:00.000-07:002006-10-28T18:44:43.930-07:00Viridian Note 00478 Mark Twain, Climate Visionary<DL><dt>
Key concepts:
</dt> <dd>Samuel Clemens, fiction, climate change</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Mark Twain's
novel "The American Claimant" was published in
1892. It involves a daffy American inventor trying
to sell climate change. Hey, it's an old book,
but that was news to me.</dd></DL>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9011">http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9011</A></P>
<P><BR>
((Hey look! A feat of Modernist archaeology
has unearthed a long-lost pre-fab house designed
by Henry Dreyfuss, the "Vultee." It's made
of "Lumicomb!")))</span><BR>
Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2351">http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2351</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I am sending this Note live from within
the Seattle Central Library, just to
prove that I can do such things. By the way,
this is a Rem Koolhaas building designed to
Silver LEED standards.)))</span></P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The speaker quoted here in the last words
of Twain's novel is Colonel Mulberry Sellers,
a deluded American genius.)))</span></P>
<P>"This grand new idea of mine == the sublimest I have
ever conceived, will save me whole, I am sure. I am
leaving for San Francisco this moment, to test
it, by the help of the great Lick telescope.</P>
<P>"Like all of my more notable discoveries and
inventions, it is based upon hard, practical scientific
laws; all other bases are unsound and hence
untrustworthy.</P>
<P>"In brief, then, I have conceived the stupendous idea
of reorganizing the climates of the earth according
to the desire of the populations interested.</P>
<P>"That is to say, I will furnish climates to order,
for cash or negotiable paper, taking the old climates
in part payment, of course, at a fair discount, where
they are in condition to be repaired at small cost and
let out for hire to poor and remote communities not
able to afford a good climate and not caring for an
expensive one for mere display.</P>
<P>"My studies have convinced me that the regulation of
climates and the breeding of new varieties at will
from the old stock is a feasible thing. Indeed I am
convinced that it has been done before; done in
prehistoric times by now forgotten and unrecorded
civilizations.</P>
<P>"Everywhere I find hoary evidences of artificial
manipulation of climates in bygone times. Take
the glacial period. Was that produced by accident?
Not at all; it was done for money. I have a thousand
proofs of it, and will some day reveal them.</P>
<P>"I will confide to you an outline of my idea. It is
to utilize the spots on the sun == get control of
them, you understand, and apply the stupendous
energies which they wield to beneficent purposes
in the reorganizing of our climates. At present
they merely make trouble and do harm in the
evoking of cyclones and other kinds of electric
storms; but once under humane and intelligent control
this will cease and they will become a boon to man.</P>
<P>"I have my plan all mapped out, whereby I hope and
expect to acquire complete and perfect control of
the sun-spots, also details of the method whereby
I shall employ the same commercially; but I will
not venture to go into particulars before the patents
shall have been issued. I shall hope and expect to
sell shop-rights to the minor countries at a
reasonable figure and supply a good business article
of climate to the great empires at special rates,
together with fancy brands for coronations, battles
and other great and particular occasions. There are
billions of money in this enterprise, no expensive
plant is required, and I shall begin to realize in
a few days == in a few weeks at furthest.</P>
<P>"I shall stand ready to pay cash for Siberia the
moment it is delivered, and thus save my honor and
my credit. I am confident of this.</P>
<P>"I would like you to provide a proper outfit and
start north as soon as I telegraph you, be it night
or be it day. I wish you to take up all the
country stretching away from the north pole on all
sides for many degrees south, and buy Greenland and
Iceland at the best figure you can get now while
they are cheap. It is my intention to move one of
the tropics up there and transfer the frigid zone
to the equator. I will have the entire Arctic
Circle in the market as a summer resort next year,
and will use the surplusage of the old climate,
over and above what can be utilized on the equator,
to reduce the temperature of opposition resorts.</P>
<P>"But I have said enough to give you an idea of
the prodigious nature of my scheme and the feasible
and enormously profitable character of it.</P>
<P>"I shall join all you happy people in England as
soon as I shall have sold out some of my principal
climates and arranged with the Czar about Siberia.</P>
<P>"Meantime, watch for a sign from me. Eight days
from now, we shall be wide asunder; for I shall be
on the border of the Pacific, and you far out on
the Atlantic, approaching England. That day, if
I am alive and my sublime discovery is proved and
established, I will send you greeting, and my
messenger shall deliver it where you are, in the
solitudes of the sea; for I will waft a vast
sun-spot across the disk like drifting smoke,
and you will know it for my love-sign, and will
say 'Mulberry Sellers throws us a kiss across
the universe.'"</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
THIS IS A PRETTY<BR>
GOOD LIBRARY<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116208628391614072?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1161286320151277392006-10-19T12:31:00.000-07:002006-10-19T12:32:00.180-07:00Viridian Note 00477: Worldchanging, the Book<img src="http://www.worldchanging.com/images/2006/05/wcpromo.jpg" alt="WorldChanging Guide to the 21st Century" border="0" align="right"><DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>Worldchanging.com, print media,
culture hacking, bestseller status, Alan AtKisson,
Shoshana Berger, David Bornstein, Nicole-Anne Boyer,
David Brin, Jamais Cascio, Dawn Danby, Regine
Debatty, Cory Doctorow, Jeremy Faludi, Jill
Fehrenbacher, Gil Friend, Emily Gertz, Vinay Gupta,
Zaid Hassan, Kevin Kelly, Micki Krimmel, Anna
Lappe, Jon Lebkowsky, Rebecca MacKinnon,
Joel Makower, Hassan Masum, Dina Mehta,
Mike Milliken, Robert Neuwirth, Ory Okolloh,
Sarah Rich, Ben Saunders, Cameron Sinclair,
Phillip Torrone, Leif Utne, Andrew Zolli,
Ethan Zuckerman</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>Pay attention.
This is important.</dd></DL>
************************************************<BR>
<P><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810930951/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&tag2=worldchangi0b-20">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810930951/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&tag2=worldchangi0b-20</A></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.hnabooks.com/product/extended/3421?imprint">http://www.hnabooks.com/product/extended/3421?imprint</A></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((If you read Viridian List, you want this new book.
The proper time for you to buy it is now. Why?
Because the modern publishing system, such as it
is, has become as deranged and sclerotic as the
movie business, so a big early roll-out counts
for a lot in their ridiculous biz calculations.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((There are two thousand of you out there, and
what we Viridians lack in raw numbers we make up
for in culture-hacking perspicacity. So I want you
to buy three of them. Buy one for yourself,
buy two more as propaganda, I mean "gifts," and
give them to someone older than yourself and
younger than yourself, so as to induce a nice
demographic spread across the reader-buyer
user-base.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((If this tome becomes as big a hit as its
spiritual ancestor the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG,
we can accelerate the change to a high-tech
green 21C by years. Furthermore, even though
it's reasonably priced, it comes in a gorgeously
designed Stefan Sagmeister slipcase that looks
really classy, so your gift recipients will not
feel politically and culturally manipulated but
will be all impressed by your good taste.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((They're going to read this thing, and they're
going to have stretch-marks all over their heads,
because in their morose sorrow during years of
domination by fundie creeps, they've forgotten what
new ideas look like and this book is full of them.
You won't have to lift a finger to affect this
change within them -- for these are the heavy guns
of the movement here, assembled in battalion.
I've been showing my copy to scientists, engineering
professors, government workers -- serious, seasoned
people, reality-based-community people. They are
awestruck. And justly so.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((As it so happens, I wrote an introduction to
this book. Then Al Gore muscled in and wrote
a second introduction. That's how good this
book is. It's heavy-duty. It's so heavy that guys
who should have been President of the United
States are all concerned. If you are into cybergreen
issues you can't call yourself informed without
WORLDCHANGING. Furthermore, the people
involved in this effort are the absolute salt of the earth.
They're bright, fluent, capable and they genuinely
get it. They don't merely "get it," they are
inventing that which it is necessary to get.
These are people you need to know a lot more about.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((After buying some books, for the system requires
financial stimulation, go talk about it. Talk
it up, talk about it incessantly. Word-of-mouth
the living daylights out of it. Normally this is
annoying behavior, in the case of this book we can
make a moral exception. This book demands discussion
because it's full of amazing and completely
apt material which can't be found anywhere else.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Further note that there is an associated book tour.
If your town is being graced with WORLDCHANGING
authors you should get up, leave the screen, go there,
press the flesh, vow some Bright Green fealty and buy
more of the book, so that the tour is extended. Yes,
I am completely in earnest about you doing this.
That's practical, it's doable and it can make a
serious difference. But, you know, not five months
from now. The iron is red-hot right now.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((You may have been reading Viridian Notes for
eight years. Lord knows I have. Imagine those hours
of labor and, uh, occasional amusement. Well, the
release of this book is a crux event. If this book is
a hit, the world will actually change. And in a
direction of which we strongly approve. If that
happens, you're going to see sprightly, forward-
marching Viridian Notes full of cheery news about
cool Bright Green developments hitting mainstream
acceptance, like, for instance, the Googletorium
bedizened with a zillion solar panels. Who can't
like that?)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Otherwise, you'll be locked in the souring
terror-bunker watching black water pour in over
the sill as a society poisoned by Lysenkoist denial
drowns in its own spew. Okay, frankly, you're just
bound to get some black darkside spew from Viridian
List, no matter how grand things are going, but let's
face it: this is a unique opportunity for you to take
a direct and personal action that briskly heaves
that slider-bar into the direction of light and reason.
So do it.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((If you are one of our non-Anglophone readers,
go pester somebody to translate it.)))</span></P>
<P><A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/Worldchanging-Users-Guide-21st-Century/dp/0810930951/sr=8-1/qid=1161183441/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3240086-5604913?ie=UTF8">http://www.amazon.com/Worldchanging-Users-Guide-21st-Century/dp/0810930951/sr=8-1/qid=1161183441/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3240086-5604913?ie=UTF8</A></P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour_launch__seattle,_wa"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR LAUNCH: SEATTLE, WA</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>"In just over a week we'll be officially launching
our book, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st
Century, from WC's hometown of Seattle on October 28.
Our first event kicks off a 6-week tour, and it
should be a spectacular evening.</P>
<P>"Worldchanging Executive Editor, Alex Steffen will
take the stage in conversation with super-ally (and
author of the book's introduction), Bruce Sterling,
to talk about imagining, designing and building a
bright green future.</P>
<P>"Please join us if you are nearby. We love to meet
our readers and supporters, and we're looking forward
to having a chance to spend some time with you and
create an opportunity for the local community to
connect and build networks.</P>
<P>The big event: Saturday, October 28
Town Hall Seattle<BR>
1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca Street)
Event begins at 7:30pm<BR>
There will be an after party to follow, so get ready
to celebrate!<BR>
Posted at 04:28 PM on October 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<BR>
<A NAME="worlchanging_tour__vancouver"> </A>
<H2>WORLCHANGING TOUR: VANCOUVER</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>"We often show our love for Vancouver in posts on
Worldchanging, but now we can show it in person.
Please join us for an evening of big ideas and fun
people on November 5 at Workspace.</P>
<P>Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Vancouver"
Posted at 06:55 PM on October 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<BR>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__portland,_or"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: PORTLAND, OR</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>"We've always had a lot of great friends and allies
in Portland. That's part of the reason we chose to
make it our first stop after our Seattle launch event.
If you're in town October 29th and 30th, come on out!</P>
<P>Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Portland, OR"
Posted at 05:08 PM on October 17, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__new_york"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: NEW YORK</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>"New York is such a big town, we can't get it done
in just one stop. We'll be in New York City three
times, hosting four events. So although we're not
covering too many cities on the east coast (D.C. and
Toronto are the only others), you have ample
opportunity to plan ahead for a trip into NY to
celebrate with us. Please come! Details after the
jump...</P>
<P>Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: New York"
Posted at 06:49 PM on October 17, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<P><BR></P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__denver"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: DENVER</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>We're ending the tour with a Rocky Mountain high in
Colorado. We'll be holding a reading and reception
at the legendary independent bookstore, Tattered Cover,
on December 14 at their Lower Downtown location.
In addition to that, we'll be spending a couple of
extra days around Denver (hometown of our Managing
Editor, Sarah Rich) and Boulder. Please do come to
the main event, and we may organize an informal
gathering at a bar during one of our other evenings.
Stay tuned.<BR>
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Denver"
Posted at 12:31 PM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__san_francisco"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: SAN FRANCISCO</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>We have a lot of friends, allies and colleagues in
the Bay Area, so we're incredibly excited to be able
to offer up several big events there. As a hub of
all things green, we hope to get great a turnout
at 111 Minna on December 5 and the Commonwealth Club
on December 7. Spread the word!<BR>
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: San Francisco"
Posted at 11:40 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__los_angeles"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: LOS ANGELES</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>From Austin, we're heading west to LA for several
SoCal readings and parties. We'll be there from
November 30 - December 4 when we swing up to SF.
These events are still in the works, so please check
back here for more details.<BR>
Meanwhile, because part of our goal in each city we
visit is to shine a spotlight on local people and
groups doing worldchanging work (promoting
sustainability and social change, delivering
innovation and future-forward solutions), we're
looking for your recommendations, too.
Who is worldchanging in LA? Let us know!
Posted at 11:30 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__austin"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: AUSTIN</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>Austin's been an important star in the Worldchanging
constellation from the start. Right after Thanksgiving,
we're zipping down to Austin, TX, to join with some
core WC teammates and a number of great groups,
including Solar Austin, to have a reading at Book
People.<BR>
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Austin"
Posted at 10:22 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__washington,_dc"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: WASHINGTON, DC</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>In DC, it's a tour of the worlds, with Worldchanging
teaming up with our friends at Worldwatch, the World
Resources Institute and elsewhere to create several
terrific events. Come on out and celebrate with the
extended worldchanging network!<BR>
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Washington, DC"
Posted at 08:20 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__toronto"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: TORONTO</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>Our Toronto stop is shaping up to be one of the
biggest of the entire tour. It's been really amazing
to see the way all our Canadian colleagues have come
together to create what looks to be an absolutely
phenomenal evening of big ideas, worldchanging
innovation, and community celebration.
Ed Burtynsky, the noted photographer (and WC board
member) and Ron Dembo (of Zerofootprint) will be
joining Alex on stage to present an evening of
Worldchanging ideas on November 14. Folks from the
Art Gallery of Ontario will be creating an
installation. Various DJs will lay down some
sounds while we meet and mingle and party until late.
This promises to be one of the most exciting events
of the year. We hope you'll plan to attend.
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Toronto"
Posted at 03:29 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__chicago"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: CHICAGO</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>In the Windy City WC is going aquatic with a big
event at the Shedd Aquarium on November 12. We can't
wait for this fantastic evening, with opportunities
to hear about some breakthrough innovations
(including appearances by a couple amazing special
guests), meet and mingle with other folks out there
trying to make the world a better place, and generally
celebrate the whole worldchanging community.
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Chicago"
Posted at 03:18 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<A NAME="worldchanging_tour__minneapolis"> </A>
<H2>WORLDCHANGING TOUR: MINNEAPOLIS</H2>
<P>Worldchanging, the Book<BR>
WorldChanging Team</P>
<P>Minneapolis is a hub for activity in arts and
sustainability. We're eagerly anticipating a lively
meetup with readers and allies at Kingman Studios
on November 8.<BR>
Continue reading "Worldchanging Tour: Minneapolis"
Posted at 02:17 AM on October 18, 2006 | Permalink |
Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
TIME FOR ACTION<BR>
DO IT NOW<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116128632015127739?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1160694508744808912006-10-12T16:07:00.000-07:002006-10-12T16:08:28.766-07:00Viridian Note 00476: Green Austin<DL><dt>
Key concepts:
</dt> <dd>City of Austin, Texas; green
companies, groups and policies</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> I<dd>'m in Austin
a few days, and can't help but look around a little.</dd></DL>
<HR>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Are you in Austin? How'd you like to come over
to my house this Saturday night, Oct 14, and hang
out with some science fiction writers? It's a
meeting of the time-honored Turkey City Writer's
Workshop. Nothing too strenuous; some literary
gossip and beer. Send me email and I'll tell you
how to get here.)))</span>
</P>
<hr>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A few choice highlights from the 02006 "Austin
Environmental Directory." Austin isn't that
big a city, but it sure packs enviros all out of
proportion to its populace. Look at this swarm
of builders, gardeners, solar installers, et al,
all of them in a modest place which, years ago,
was already declaring itself the Clean Energy
Capital of the World. Wouldn't YOUR
city like to be a clean energy capital?
Well, get in line! And if all goes well,
then someday, your Dirty Energy burg will
also be crawling with colorful, symptomatic
green-biz entities, more or less like these.)))</span></P>
<P>
The Austin Environmental Directory on the web:
<BR><a href="http://www.environmentaldirectory.info">http://www.environmentaldirectory.info</A></P>
<P>Various interestingly-named weatherization contractors:</P>
<P>A-Plus Energy<BR>
<BR><a href="http://aplusac.com">http://aplusac.com</A><BR>
Airtech<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.airtechaustin.com">http://www.airtechaustin.com</A>
Blue Air<BR>
<BR><a href="http://blueair-ac.com">http://blueair-ac.com</A><BR>
Climate Mechanical<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.climatemechanical.com">http://www.climatemechanical.com</A>
Integrity Energy Coatings<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.iesradiantbarrier.com">http://www.iesradiantbarrier.com</A>
Totally Cool Heating and Air
<BR><a href="http://www.cityconservation.com">http://www.cityconservation.com</A></P>
<P>Geothermal heat pumps:</P>
<P>Climate Master<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.climatemaster.com">http://www.climatemaster.com</A>
Water Furnace<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.waterfurnace.com">http://www.waterfurnace.com</A></P>
<P>Fixers:</P>
<P>Good Company Associates<BR>
"Promoting Emerging Energy and Environmental
Technologies through business development
consulting and advocacy in Texas."
<BR><a href="http://www.GoodCompanyAssociates.com">http://www.GoodCompanyAssociates.com</A></P>
<P>Green architecture</P>
<P>Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems
<BR><a href="http://www.cmbps.org">http://www.cmbps.org</A></P>
<P>Earth-sheltered Living<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.earthshelteredhome.com">http://www.earthshelteredhome.com</A></P>
<P>Barley and Pfeiffer, Comprehensive Sustainable Architecture
<BR><a href="http://www.barleypfeiffer.com">http://www.barleypfeiffer.com</A></P>
<P>Thangmaker Strawbale and Earthfloors
<BR><a href="http://www.thangmaker.com">http://www.thangmaker.com</A></P>
<P>Eco-Wise Environmental Remodeling
<BR><a href="http://www.ecowise.com">http://www.ecowise.com</A></P>
<P>Sustainable Building Coalition
<BR><a href="http://www.greenbuilder.com">http://www.greenbuilder.com</A></P>
<P>Materials</P>
<P>Eco-Creto pervious concrete
<BR><a href="http://www.eco-creto.com">http://www.eco-creto.com</A></P>
<P>Cell-U-Insel Soy-Based Foam Spray Insulation
<BR><a href="http://www.biobased.net">http://www.biobased.net</A></P>
<P>Crazy Paver Stone Mosaic recycled quarry waste:
<BR><a href="http://www.mGlassTile.com">http://www.mGlassTile.com</A></P>
<P>Terra Green Ceramics<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.terragreenceramics.com">http://www.terragreenceramics.com</A></P>
<P>Exterminators</P>
<P>Environment Sensitive Pest Control Treatments
<BR><a href="http://www.environmentsensitive.com">http://www.environmentsensitive.com</A></P>
<P>Solar installers</P>
<P>Armadillo Solar<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.armadillosolar.net">http://www.armadillosolar.net</A></P>
<P>Meridian Energy Systems<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.meridiansolar.com">http://www.meridiansolar.com</A></P>
<P>Solar Community<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.solarcommunity.net">http://www.solarcommunity.net</A></P>
<P>Texas Solar Power<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.txspc.com">http://www.txspc.com</A></P>
<P>Custom Solar Electric<BR>
<BR><a href="http://texascustomsolar.com">http://texascustomsolar.com</A></P>
<P>"Need a little extra cash? If you have an
old refrigerator or freezer you need to get rid of,
Austin Energy has a proposal for you. We'll
pick up your old appliance, make sure it gets
recycled properly, and PAY YOU $35! It's that
simple. No fuss. No delivery charges.
No trips to the landfill. We'll take care
of everything."</P>
<P><BR><a href="http://www.austinenergy.com/go/refrig">http://www.austinenergy.com/go/refrig</A></P>
<P>Ecology Action of Texas<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.ecology-action.com">http://www.ecology-action.com</A></P>
<P>City of Austin Household Hazardous Waste Programs
<BR><a href="http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/hhw.htm">http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sws/hhw.htm</A>
<BR><a href="http://www.austinrecycles.com">http://www.austinrecycles.com</A></P>
<P>NGOs</P>
<P>CLEAN Air Force of Central Texas
<BR><a href="http://www.cleanairforce.org">http://www.cleanairforce.org</A></P>
<P>Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition
<BR><a href="http://www.seedcoalition.org">http://www.seedcoalition.org</A></P>
<P>Texas Solar Energy Society<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.txses.org">http://www.txses.org</A></P>
<P>Environment Texas<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.environmenttexas.org">http://www.environmenttexas.org</A></P>
<P>Texas Campaign for the Environment
<BR><a href="http://www.texasenvironment.org">http://www.texasenvironment.org</A></P>
<P>Recycling Alliance of Texas
<BR><a href="http://www.recycletex.com">http://www.recycletex.com</A></P>
<P>Liveable City<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.liveablecity.org">http://www.liveablecity.org</A></P>
<P>Austin Eco Network<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.AustinEcoNetwork.org">http://www.AustinEcoNetwork.org</A></P>
<P>Native Plant Society of Texas Austin Chapter
<BR><a href="http://www.npsot.org/austin">http://www.npsot.org/austin</A></P>
<P>Native Prairies Association of Texas
<BR><a href="http://www.texasprairie.org">http://www.texasprairie.org</A></P>
<P>TreeFolks<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.treefolks.org">http://www.treefolks.org</A></P>
<P>Useful Wild Plants of Texas
<BR><a href="http://www.usefulwildplants.org">http://www.usefulwildplants.org</A></P>
<P>Wildflower Center<BR>
<BR><a href="http://www.wildflower.org">http://www.wildflower.org</A></P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<br>
AMAZINGLY, THAT'S ALL DONE BY<br>
THE SAME TWELVE AUSTINITES!<br>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-116069450874480891?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3654099.post-1159668844774873542006-09-30T19:13:00.000-07:002006-09-30T19:14:09.510-07:00Viridian Note 00475: Getting Real<DL><dt>Key concepts:</dt> <dd>climate change, prevention, adaptation, political realism</dd>
<dt>Attention Conservation Notice:</dt> <dd>A glum and comprehensive fit of handwringing as it dawns on everybody that matters that climate change is not just "an issue" but destined to become "the" issue.</dd></DL>
**********************************************<BR>
<P>Fun links before the depressing mayhem:</P>
<P>In Iceland, they turn out all the city lights to watch the stars! The descendants of
seafaring Vikings have to be told what constellations are, since they've never seen any.
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38300/story.htm">http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38300/story.htm</A></P>
<P>Rich hippies will save the world – while flying designer passenger rockets into outer
space!
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34049">http://www.greenbiz.com/news/news_third.cfm?NewsID=34049</A>
<BR /><A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5388482.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5388482.stm</A></P>
<P>Rubber sidewalks! That's bouncy news!<BR>
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-19-sidewalks_x.htm">http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-19-sidewalks_x.htm</A></P>
<P>Who can't like a METROPOLIS design competition?
And it's about energy!<BR>
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/nextgen.php">http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/nextgen.php</A></P>
<P>London City Hall is green! Rule Britannia!
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=2&newsID=10477">http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNews.php?navID=2&newsID=10477</A></P>
<P>This wild scheme actually turns CO2 back into fuel!
What? Huh? What happened to the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19125696.300-solar-alchemy-turns-fumes-back-into-fuels.html">http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19125696.300-solar-alchemy-turns-fumes-back-into-fuels.html</A></P>
<P><BR>
Source:<BR>
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/climate_change_3939.jsp">http://www.opendemocracy.net/globalization-climate_change_debate/climate_change_3939.jsp</A></P>
<h2>Climate change: time to get real</h2>
<p>by Tom Burke<BR>
September 26, 2006</P>
<P>"The science is clear, the technology is available.
To meet the challenge of 'the most serious threat to humanity since the invention of
nuclear weapons,'
climate-change campaigners now need to win the political argument, says Tom Burke of
E3G.</P>
<P>Link:<BR>
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.e3g.org/index.php/about/Founders/">http://www.e3g.org/index.php/about/Founders/</A>
<span class="bluetext">(((Tom Burke is a career British green political who must be perfectly aware that the time
to "get real" about weather violence was about thirty years ago. What the heck, carry
on!)))</span></P>
<P>"The public argument on climate change has been transformed by a series of recent
interventions by scientists. First, James E Hansen, the global doyen of climate scientists,
announced that the world has only ten years in which to take decisive action on the
climate.</P>
<P>"'I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no
longer than a decade, at the most,' he told the Climate Change Research Conference in
Sacramento, California. </P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Hansen may be right... or it may be time to figure out who to abduct and torture
after the 'window of opportunity' stays nailed shut. But wait, that would be the glorious
job of the US Congress!)))</span></P>
<P>"Second, John P Holdren, the incoming president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, said in his inaugural address that the world is already
experiencing dangerous climate change.</P>
<P>"Third, Britain's national academy of science, the Royal Society, sent a letter to the
oil company ExxonMobil asking it to stop supporting organisations that were deliberately
distorting the science of climate change.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A stern letter from the Royal Society! I reckon they're trembling in their
snakeskin boots over at Exxon's Texan HQ.)))</span>
<BR /><A HREF="http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1876538,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1">http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1876538,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1</A>
<span class="bluetext">(((Kind of an interesting letter, though.)))</span></P>
<P>"We are much more accustomed to scientists entering the public debate about risk to say
that our fears are exaggerated. There is no precedent for the kind of interventions we are
now witnessing.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((An entire scientific intelligentsia being wiped out by Lysenkoism springs to mind,
but that may not be a "precedent" that our author is eager to contemplate.)))</span></P>
<P>"They are a mark of the growing panic within the scientific community at the deepening
abyss between what they know about the climate and what governments are doing.</P>
<P>"Two things are now becoming clear. The climate is changing faster, and the impacts of
this change are going to be nastier, than we first thought."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((A few change-impacts, like, for instance, these, thoughtfully assembled last month
by Arlington Institute. It's a nothing deal to assemble reports like this now. The
change is coming much faster than anybody is managing to "get real.")))</span></P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/futuredition/fe_archive/futuredition_archives_05.asp">http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/futuredition/fe_archive/futuredition_archives_05.asp</A></P>
<P>ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES</P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2274439&page=1">http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2274439&page=1</A></P>
<P>"Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder have now
figured out how to project the results of global futures scenarios, based on sophisticated
computer predictions – formerly just rows of numbers – as changing colors on a 5-foot
sphere with the continents outlined on it.
A number of these spheres are now being installed in museums around the United States and
the world, so the world can see what it's in for.</P>
<P>Forecast Puts Earth's Future under a Cloud -- (Guardian -- August 15, 2006)</P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1844789,00.html">http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1844789,00.html</A></P>
<P>"More than half of the world's major forests will be lost if global temperatures rise
by an average of 3C or more by the end of the century. This prediction comes from the most
comprehensive analysis yet of the potential effects of human-made global warming.
Extreme floods, forest fires and droughts will also become more common over the next 200
years as global temperatures rise owing to climate change."</P>
<P>Greenland Melt 'Speeding Up' -- (BBC -- August 11, 2006)</P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4783199.stm?ls">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4783199.stm?ls</A></P>
<P>"The meltdown of Greenland's ice sheet is speeding up, satellite measurements show.
Data from a NASA satellite show that the melting rate has accelerated since 2004.
If the ice cap were to completely disappear, global sea levels would rise by 6.5m (21
feet)."</P>
<P>Aspen Trees in West Dying -- (ABC -- August 11, 2006)</P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2303937&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312">http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2303937&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312</A></P>
<P>"A conservative estimate is that about 10 percent of the aspen in Colorado may have
died or become afflicted with something in the past 5 to 10 years.
Possible causes include a fungus, hungry caterpillars, drought, man's interference with
the natural cycle of forest fires, and even resurgent herds of hungry elk nibbling
saplings to death.</P>
<P>More Frequent Heat Waves Linked to Global Warming -- (Washington Post -- August 04,
2006)</P>
<P><BR /><A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301489.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301489.html</A></P>
<P>"Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the United States in recent weeks
are becoming more frequent because of global warming, say scientists who have studied
decades of weather records and computer models of past, present and future climate."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((See? Nowadays, any and every futurist can sound just like Viridian List! Meanwhile,
back to the political activist.)))</span></P>
<P><BR>
"The hole we're in</P>
<P>"But other, more hopeful, things are also becoming
clearer. We may no longer be able to avoid dangerous
climate change, but we can avoid catastrophic climate
change.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Or, if we trundle right along into 'catastrophic'
due to continued political incapacity, maybe we
can draw a firm line at 'apocalyptic.')))</span></P>
<P>"We already have the technologies we need to keep
the eventual temperature rise to around two degrees
Centigrade. But we need to deploy them with great
urgency.</P>
<P>"We also know that we can afford to do so. Economic
analyses of the cost of tackling climate change
suggest that it will require the equivalent of around
1% of GDP. This is well within the margin of error of
these figures and would simply delay the arrival of
the same level of wealth by a few months. <span class="bluetext">(((Unless
you're Exxon Mobil, in which case you're left in the
toilet because, in your infinite market wisdom, you
never did a thing about green energy.)))</span></P>
<P>"Estimates of the economic damage resulting from a
rapidly changing climate are often five times as much.
It will not cost the earth to prevent catastrophic
climate change, but it will cost the earth not to do
so. <span class="bluetext">(((The Earth doesn't pay the bills for denial
lobbyists.)))</span></P>
<P>"The problem is neither the economics nor the
technology: it's the politics.</P>
<P>"Preventing catastrophic climate change requires
nothing less than the complete transformation of
the global energy system in the next forty years.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Actually, we're gonna get that change either way:
we either rebuild the global energy system, or else
it catches fire, blows over and drowns.)))</span></P>
<P>"We must both reduce our dependence on fossil fuels
and stop the carbon from the fossil fuels we do use
from entering the atmosphere. <span class="bluetext">(((You'd think that
Members of Parliament had built all those smokestacks
personally. Are smokestacks in the Magna Carta?)))</span></P>
<P>"We currently add about seven billion tonnes of
carbon to the atmosphere each year. If we continue
to fuel our expanding economy as we do today this
will become fourteen billion tonnes a year by 2050.
<span class="bluetext">(((I'm trying to think of a witty remark to make
about fourteen billion annual tons of carbon.
Let me know if you have one.)))</span></P>
<P>"Agriculture adds another two-and-a-half billion
tonnes that cannot easily be removed. The oceans and
plants annually absorb some five billion tonnes of
that carbon. By 2050, therefore, we must remove
eleven-and-a-half billion tonnes of carbon a year
from our economy, emitting close to zero from our
energy use. Then we have to keep it there, effectively
for ever.</P>
<P>"This is certainly a daunting prospect. But the
consequences of failure are terrifying. <span class="bluetext">(((The
future is a kind of slider-bar between 'daunting'
and 'terrifying.')))</span></P>
<P>"In the face of such difficulty there is much glib
talk about adaptation. Some suggest that instead of
trying to meet such a difficult challenge, we should
concentrate our efforts on learning to live with a
changing climate. This is a shallow and deceitful
proposal.</P>
<P>"It is a fantasy to expect already fragile governments
in the poorest parts of Africa and Asia to peacefully
manage and adapt to the disruption (including
migration) caused by climate change. The politics of
insecurity in countries affected there will erupt into
factionalism and conflict; Darfur is already one stark
example of this reality.</P>
<P>"Californians may be able to adapt to the loss of melt
waters from the Sierra Nevada by building hugely
expensive, and energy-intensive, desalination plants.
But that option will not be available to the hundreds
of millions of Indians and Pakistanis who depend on
Himalayan melt waters.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Okay, the Pakistanis are a basket-case, but I'm
inclined to think that the Bangalore contingent might
be much BETTER at this than the Silicon Valley crowd.
I mean, just look at Vinod Khosla.)))</span></P>
<P>"Some adaptation will be inevitable, as the climate
is already changing. We who live in the rich world
must be willing to help the poorest among us to deal
with the consequences of climate change; this is an
additional and obligatory, not a discretionary,
responsibility for the industrialised nations that
have benefited most from the profligate use of fossil fuels.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Kind of in the same brilliant, noblesse-oblige
fashion that advanced industrial Britain is
already aiding and helping backward Iraq.)))</span></P>
<P>"Since adaptation is not an option, we must address
head on the difficult politics of prevention. The
first step is to recognise that climate change is
not just another environmental problem. It is a
fundamental threat to prosperity and security.</P>
<P>"An unstable climate threatens the social and
political stability on which all prosperity depends.
Equity will suffer as the poorest are hit first and
worst. Opportunity will contract rather than expand
as the stresses of a rapidly changing climate
divide rather than unite nations and communities.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The collapse of civilization isn't really an
equity issue. That probably plays well with the Labour
Party, though.)))</span></P>
<P>"Politics is often referred to as the art of the
possible. Meeting the climate challenge means
expanding the realm of the possible dramatically.
David King, chief scientific advisor to Britain's
prime minister, is right to say that climate change
is a bigger problem than global terrorism.</P>
<P>"In fact, it is the most serious threat to humanity
since the invention of nuclear weapons. In developing
and responding to that threat the world has invested
many trillions of pounds over the past sixty years.
To respond to climate change, we have yet to invest
more than a few billion.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((The key distinction is that we’re not actually
in a real-life, ongoing, steadily mounting nuclear
exchange. Though I certainly wouldn't write one
off if there's no snow in the mountains of
India, California and everywhere else.)))</span></P>
<P><BR>
"The way out</P>
<P>"It is time for those engaged in the battle for a
stable climate to get real. Political battles are
essentially battles for resources. <span class="bluetext">(((And if
you watch those pipelines exploding, you can
see that the same truism goes for actual battles.)))</span></P>
<P>"We face a shared dilemma. To ensure wellbeing for
a growing population with unfulfilled needs and
rising expectations we must grow our economies.
Should we fail, conflict and insecurity will be
the result.</P>
<P>"To grow our economies we must continue<BR>
to use more energy. Much of that energy will be in
the form of fossil fuels. If we use more fossil
fuels we will accelerate climate change. If the
climate changes rapidly we will destroy the very
prosperity and security we are trying to build.</P>
<P>"There is a way out from this narrow ground between
rock and hard place. It involves the very rapid
expansion of energy efficiency, of biofuels and
other renewables and of carbon capture and storage.</P>
<P>"Left to itself, the $17 trillion that will be
invested in energy technologies by 2050 will add
the other seven billion tonnes of carbon a year to
the atmosphere. To keep our climate stable we are
going to have spend enough public money to make
those technologies carbon-neutral.</P>
<P>"This will be easier than many think. A relatively
small carbon tax will yield vast amounts of revenue.
That revenue can be dedicated to paying the
difference between carbon-intensive technologies
and those which are carbon-neutral. As the switch
is made, the need for the revenue will decline and
the tax can be reduced.</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((Alternately, you can simply INVADE countries
emitting carbon, which seems like a likelier
scenario once things start hitting the fan.)))</span></P>
<P>"Europe currently spends 46% of its annual budget
on a problem it has already solved: food security.
It spends practically nothing on a problem that
threatens the livelihoods and wellbeing of every
single citizen in the union: climate security.</P>
<P>"It is time to look to the future rather than
remain trapped in the past. That means a radical
reallocation of European funds from the common
agricultural policy into a climate security fund.</P>
<P>"Some of this can, of course, be spent to enhance
the role farmers can play in preventing climate
change. <span class="bluetext">(((Fewer butter mountains and wine lakes,
more cellulosic European ethanol. Plus ca change,
plus ce la meme chose.)))</span></P>
<P>"Successful campaigning requires the relentless
hammering away at a deliverable goal that can easily
be understood. The present cacophony of ideas coming
from climate campaigners simply confuses the public
and lets governments off the hook. <span class="bluetext">(((Hmmmm.)))</span></P>
<P>"Good campaigning builds public awareness and then
leverages it to compel specific actions. There is
no shortage of public awareness about the threat to
the climate. But this has not yet been leveraged
by the campaigners.</P>
<P>"It is now time they focused that awareness on three
simple questions: how much governments need to spend,
on what, and by when."</P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((I like it that he ends this by blaming scatter-
brained enviros. Still, there's little in this
urging to "get real" that is new to Viridian readers.
It's a grim warning, but there's not a lot of skin
in it.)))</span></P>
<P><span class="bluetext">(((That's why I append this NEXT opinion piece,
by a Katrina survivor. This guy is an American
business manager and he probably votes Republican.
He doesn't breathe a word in his speech about climate
change; he's just suffering it. He represents the
true avant-garde of weather violence: people catching
it right in the neck with a glum inability to grasp the
cause of their decline. He is the kind of guy who
needs comprehensive convincing if anything "real" is
to happen in reducing future sufferings. If he
"gets real," the rest will follow.)))</span></P>
<P>Source:<BR>
<BR /><A HREF="http://www.manufacturing.net/ind/article/CA6339883.html">http://www.manufacturing.net/ind/article/CA6339883.html</A></P>
<P>Speech to the ISA Convention<BR>
by Lee Eagan</P>
<P>INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION magazine, June 1, 02006</P>
<P>(. . . )</P>
<P>"The city that I love and that many of you love is
a shell of its former self.</P>
<P>"Eighty percent (not 8) of the city flooded, with
as much as 20 feet of water.</P>
<P>"Two hundred fifty thousand homes, not houses, were
damaged, most beyond repair.</P>
<P>"Five hundred thousand automobiles were flooded,
many still remain on the streets.</P>
<P>"I live 5 blocks from Tulane University and half
a block from the St. Charles Ave streetcar line.</P>
<P>"a. The water stopped 2 blocks from my house.</P>
<P>"b. 8 miles from my house, north to the lake – very
few houses you can live in.</P>
<P>"c. 23 miles to the East (towards Mississippi) very
few, if any, houses you can live in.</P>
<P>"d. My family has long had a presence in Bay St. Louis.
These houses on the water had survived all major
hurricanes, including Camille. They are gone. You
need a GPS to determine where a house was. Complete
devastation.</P>
<P>"e. The wonderful, beautiful antebellum homes on the
Gulf in Mississippi, were not 'damaged,' they were
eliminated. Miles and miles of nothing.</P>
<P>"But many of you know this, what you do not know,
is where are we now. <span class="bluetext">(((June 02006.)))</span></P>
<P>"Complete neighborhoods are still void of life. No
attempt to rebuild.</P>
<P>"There is a critical housing shortage. People have
nowhere to live. Many FEMA trailers are installed,
but many people do not have keys, and if they do,
they must evacuate when the winds rise above 40 MPH.</P>
<P>"Water service in some areas of the city is dangerously
low and cannot support additional usage. Eighty
percent of the water system is compromised.</P>
<P>"Public schools in Orleans Parish are basically
non-existent. Many damaged beyond repair.</P>
<P>"Louisiana's labor force has shrunk every month since
November. The unemployment rate of those that remain
displaced is 35%. The well being of the hundreds of
thousands of people still displaced by Katrina
continues to be in doubt.</P>
<P>"Medical care is unacceptably primitive. Only two
hospitals in Orleans Parish are open, and these
are smaller hospitals. The large private and
public hospitals were destroyed, not to be re-opened.</P>
<P>"Doctors are unable to make a living and are
leaving the City.</P>
<P>"Last week our controller had to be rushed by
ambulance to one of the hospitals open. The hospital
re-directed the ambulance to a hospital 40 miles
away, because they could not take him, as the wait
in the emergency room was 10-12 hours.</P>
<P>"With significantly less population, there were 25%
more death notices in the paper in Jan 2006 than
in Jan 2005. Medical professionals (and I quote)
have said 'stress, exacerbating underlying health
issues, is blamed for many of these deaths.'</P>
<P>"Post traumatic stress disorder and suicide are
urgent public health issues.</P>
<P>"Many businesses are still trying to recover
from 8-10 weeks of no cash receipts.</P>
<P>"Mail is very unreliable. I have not received a
Wall Street Journal since Pre K.</P>
<P>"Both medical schools in New Orleans are in danger
of losing their accreditation because of lack of
patients, hospitals and people.</P>
<P>"Employees are very difficult to find. The days
of $8-10 hour people are history.</P>
<P>"Places to eat lunch are scarce. Many restaurants
are open only a few days a week, with limited hours,
some close by 8PM. Commander's, Mr. B's and Emeril's
Delmonico have been and remain closed.</P>
<P>"Grocery stores have limited hours and have no one
to stock the shelves.</P>
<P>"Fifty percent of the stoplights are still dark.</P>
<P>"Blue Roofs are still the most prevalent color in
the region.</P>
<P>"People have exceeded their frustration levels in
fighting with insurance companies. Most people and
companies have not, nine months later, reached a
settlement.</P>
<P>"Insurance companies are not writing new business
and are raising rates to unheard of levels, with
significantly lower limits, in order to flee the area.</P>
<P>"In addition, the fine print now excludes wind and
hail.</P>
<P>"The cost of construction and construction related
materials have increased over 100% since Katrina.</P>
<P>"Our utility provider has gone bankrupt and with
the loss of 50- 60% of its customer base is raising
rates as much as 2.6 times in order to spread the
cost over fewer customers.</P>
<P>"City services are a joke. Grass is not cut;
garbage is once a week if you are lucky.</P>
<P>"Our Governor is an embarrassment. She does not have
a clue. It takes her 4 hours to watch '60 MINUTES.'</P>
<P>"Our mayor, by his actions, has basically asked 42%
of the population and 80% of the small businesses to
leave. Taxes are still being assessed, with no plan
for change, on destroyed property. Assuming that he
does not get re-elected today, he probably should
apply for a job working on the Hershey Chocolate
candy line.</P>
<P>"Our political issues are our own fault, but there
are significant issues that belong to FEMA and the
Corps of Engineers.</P>
<P>"The Corps of Engineers is responsible for levee
protection. Although we had patronizing levee boards,
in the end it is the Corps, by law, it is their
responsibility to protect us from flooding. <span class="bluetext">(((Even
if Greenland melts? Well, yeah! Legal is legal.)))</span></P>
<P>"The Corps must take responsibility for their
failure to properly supervise the construction of
both the levees and the retaining walls.</P>
<P>"A hurricane can be hell. But the good people of New
Orleans – we were not devastated by the storm,
rather it was the failure of the Corps to properly
design and build and supervise the construction of
the levee system and retaining walls that decimated us.
<span class="bluetext">(((He's gotta blame somebody for the decimation.
But suppose the Army Corps of Engineers gets abolished.
Where's New Orleans then?)))</span></P>
<P>"Be not mistaken, Katrina was a bitch. In 12 hours
fifty percent of the barrier island system and wetlands
that protect Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas was
eliminated. Each 2.7 miles of wetlands reduce the
storm surge by 1 foot. Half of it is gone, not to
return in my lifetime. This means that a 2006 Cat 2
storm could create as much devastation and a 2005
Cat 3 storm. <span class="bluetext">(((He's tantalizingly close to catching
on!)))</span></P>
<P>"Hurricane season is 10 days away. The levees are
not ready and neither are we."</P>
<h3 align="center">O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O<BR>
NOBODY'S READY –<BR>
BUT THE CLOCK<BR>
IS STILL TICKING<BR>
O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O</h3><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3654099-115966884477487354?l=www.viridiandesign.org' alt='' /></div>Jon Lebkowskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16248713335392018033noreply@blogger.com0