Unabashed

Automobiles have never been efficient, but they’ve always been economical. And that’s even more evident today than ever before. I remember when I was younger how common it was to see an older car or truck running on the road. But you don’t see that much any more. It’s too easy to buy a new car, or even a new-used car, just a few years old. When I was a kid it wasn’t unusual to see a car driving down the road that was 20 years old or more. Today, it’s unusual to see a car much more than ten or twelve years old. Most anything so old as twenty years is considered vintage and is considered a collectible.

There was a time when buying a car didn’t mean you were identifying yourself, too. Today, you have to consider what the car says about you, you have to consider what it means to drive a Sebring, or a Hummer, or a BMW. Status has always been a consideration when buying a car, but it’s never been anything like it is now. Now there are tons of cars in the $50-75k price range. You don’t just choose from one or two. You decide which of the ten or twenty you can choose from correctly represents your personality. Everyone knows a similarly-priced Mercedes or a Hummer makes a statement about your level of income, but a Hummer delivers a completely different message than a Mercedes.

Buy my, how times do change, and how quickly they do it. Now, looking at someone driving a Hummer my first thought isn’t the desired “battle-ready” that I’m sure most Hummer owners want to project. I do think of dollar signs, yes, but the specific dollar signs I see are the ones they ring up at the pump. And it’s never been more evident how much pollution cars are spewing from the tailpipe. Now that it’s no longer exactly economical to drive everywhere, I’m hearing a whole new class of folks bemoaning their gasoline bills. The guy who sprays my house for insects mentioned this morning how great it would be if someone would invent a new power source for cars. I told him, “They’re working on it.” And then we had a nice little conversation about MIT’s pledge to deliver a more efficient photovoltaic system, even edging into the territory of all-too believable conspiracy theory, said he: “You know there’d probably already be something if it wasn’t for the oil lobbyists in Washington.” Yes, Big Oil definitely wants to keep us hooked on the pipeline they provide.

So what are the benefits of absurdly high gas prices? Well, for one, it’s entirely possible you might see a revitalization of small-town America. The super stores have all but killed commerce in the little towns, but it’s not too far beyond reason to presume that people will start shopping closer to home, that they might opt to drive ten minutes to a small grocery store than thirty minutes to a Wal-Mart. But the biggest benefit is one I’ve already stated: That more and more people, from previously unlikely places, are wanting to see a change. That the guy who drives the Hummer might just say, “Man, I sure wish I was driving a hybrid.” That people will actually begin to care what kind of efficiency the cars they buy might have. And, even better, that interest alone might be the provocation enough to develop a mass transit system for the country, and an improved drivetrain for cars. Personally, I find it rather appalling that we don’t have better mass transit systems than we do. Previously, if improved transit was needed from Baltimore to New York, they would just widen the interstate, rather than build a better system.

It’s hard to believe there’s no bullet train in America.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: big oil, economics, fuel, gas, lobby, mass transit, oil

I’m a very good sleeper. My wife has observed that I can lie down in bed, squirm a bit while I wriggle into the Optimum Comfort Position, and then I can say, “Watch this,” and fall directly to sleep. And she’s right, for the most part. When I get tired I can go to sleep. It’s a blessing I count, because I’ve known people who can’t sleep or who sleep fitfully, and I value the experience every day. But as a mechanism, a lot of things have to line up for it to work just right. I’ve spent a lot of time developing the process’s fundamentals. All the basics apply: I have to have the right temperature, the right pillow (or combination thereof, because I use two pillows. One my wife jokingly calls “Nurse Nancy,” because I hug up close and tight to it. But it’s really just a way to keep my shoulders from slouching, because I sleep on my side), and I need of course a good blanket over me. After that, things get really serious, but if I succeed at two key functions, then sleep is just a moment or two away.

The first requirement is some level of white noise. A small fan works well enough in this department. The reason I need the noise is pretty simple: I have an active imagination, and when I hear a noise I try to identify it. I try to figure out why that pipe might have rattled, I imagine the water flowing through it, down and down, the clogs along the way: is there a faucet running somewhere? Is it the dishwasher? And the level of noise at nighttime never ceases to amaze me. Minutiae of every sort, encroaching upon my imagination’s wildest forthcomings. What kind of bird was that? What is that growling noise in the closet? Did I just hear that noise the night-vision goggles made in Silence of the Lambs? And it gets worse, of course. But a certain level of white noise efficiently eradicates those mental wanderings, to the point where I am able to concentrate on only those things that increase my chances of drifting off to sleep.

The concentration is paramount in the process. I can’t think about things that are happening, and things that have happened in the past are a death knell for the sandman’s visit. Oddly enough, what I find most settling for my mind is something that I find very exciting, too, and it’s a result of that same imagination that would otherwise keep me from sleep if I didn’t have the white-noise generator. I think about my projects. The stories I’m writing, the ideas I’m nurturing, any and everything that keeps my mind active during the day somehow allows me to unplug when I turn out the light. Maybe it’s just a result of positive thinking, because with my projects I am always positive. Anything negative–bad memories or past failures–spells doom for sleep. I’ve turned over many an idea in my head in those final moments of consciousness and come up with a gripping new twist or a sensational, settling ending. Some of my best thinking happens in those few moments right before I fall asleep, and when I awaken, I find that I can expound and even improve the idea.

Saturday night I decided to sleep outside. I made a pallet on the back porch and let my dog know she was on guard duty, and then I settled in for a night of reconnecting with Mother Earth. She did not disappoint. There’s something satisfying in sleeping under the stars, waking up with a trace of dew across your forehead and pillow, and it’s always a bit startling to experience the world waking up, something I can’t do in my cocoon of comfort and white noise in the bedroom. Sunday morning I awakened with the rest of the world around me, those parts of it that are mostly only seen flitting in the periphery when you live in an industrialized society. The cool gray dawn met me with songbirds by the seeming multitudes, including one particularly throaty mocking bird who I think was about two feet from my head. I lay there soaking it all in for about thirty minutes, and then I staggered into the cocoon and got another hour’s restful sleep.

The experience was worth it. It reminded me of camping trips when I was a kid, when I used to throw down a sleeping bag anywhere and sleep with perfect comfort. I didn’t worry then about ticks or ants or mosquitoes, I just plopped down and didn’t care. But most importantly it reminded me of the life that lives on the periphery, of Earth herself, struggling to be a good home to us all, despite our virulent ways.

And now I’ve got another project in mind: a permanent dwelling, that I want to build somewhere on my six acres, fashioned after the example of the native Americans once of this area, the Creek Indians. A wigwam, if you will. A retreat, yes, but also a hub, a place to recharge and reconnect with primitive, fundamental elements.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: dwelling, Earth, indigenous, Nature, reconnect, rest, sandman, sleep, wigwam

Today when I was driving home from work I was stopped at the red light at the interstate on-ramp, and saw a man in a car next to me roll his window down halfway and throw out a napkin. Then he fired up a cigarette and sat there, pompously tapping his steering wheel to whatever Mariah Carey song happened to be playing. For a second, I thought about getting out of my truck, walking over and throwing that bit of trash right back into his car, right into his face. But the light changed, and I drove on, and so did he.

I’m sure I’m going to reflect on that moment quite a bit, maybe even for the rest of my life. I still remember one time about ten years ago that I witnessed a co-worker throwing trash out of the window of the work truck we were in, and laughing about it. I’m not perfect, I’ve done dumb things in my life, but it seems to me there should come a time when we should make a choice about how we’re going to live, especially when it means bettering the world we live in. Strewn garbage isn’t just bad for the environment, it’s bad for image, too, and I don’t want to live in squalor, especially when it would have cost the guy no time at all to put the napkin in the seat beside him and put it in the trash when he got home. I won’t even get started about landfills and the excess of waste already in this country, but you could at least put the trash into a trash can, right?

Would it have made a difference if I’d confronted him about his littering ways? Probably not. It would have just led to a confrontation between two people with radically different viewpoints. One who gives a damn, and one who doesn’t. It’s hard for me not to wish bad things upon the heads of people like that, especially knowing what we know about what we’re doing to the world.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: litter, litterbug, trash

In the continuing saga of my life, I had an interesting experience I’d like to share, and one that again has awakened something inside me, something creeping and profound. Last summer I was with my mother and two nieces (aged 14 and 15) in my mother’s garden. She plucked a ripe tomato from the vine and smelled it, and then took a big bite out of it. My mouth watered. I’m used to the stock of vegetables we get at the market nowadays and I know how much difference there is between that and vine-fresh. It’s staggering. But my nieces had an entirely different take. One of them said, “Ew, gross!” And at that point there was exclaiming and proclamations on the wrongness of it all. What became clear to me in that moment was this: If something truly awful happened, and society collapsed, the human animal as it has evolved would be in a lot of trouble. Because a vegetable plucked off the vine is considered dirty, gross. That tomato was probably the cleanest, most pristinely perfect tomato those girls had ever seen, but since it wasn’t displayed in a bin at the grocer, because it was so close to soil and sky and life and segregated from any form of disinfectant by a good hundred yards, it was gross. Kids, it’s time to refresh your relationship with the Earth. Stop primping for a moment and watch the sunrise, let the rain fall on your face, stop fretting and just be.

Photo by bucklava.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: gardening, tomato

Two things I find very interesting this morning. First, the Neptune Society, from Matt Staggs:

A Florida company is offering a unique memorial service for your earthly remains. For a fee, the people at the Neptune Society will mix your cremated remains with concrete, which is then molded into a sculpture and placed with others in a giant artificial reef a little over a mile off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida. The reef then provides a new habitat for marine life and a destination for recreational divers and researchers. It’s apparently all ecologically sound, too. At first blush, I really like this idea. I’m certain that I want my remains cremated, and as much as I love the ocean this would be a perfect way to rest for eternity.

Also of interest today, from Curtis Palmer: Birmingham is gaining a new 1100 acre park in the Oxmoor/Ishkooda area. The park is bigger than New York’s Central Park and is going to have tons of amenities–hiking trails, 20 acre lake, softball and soccer fields, etc. I live in Montevallo, but I work in Birmingham, so this new park will be good for day trips. Oak Mountain State Park is closer and I’ve always loved it (it’s a refuge in an urban area, almost 10,000 acres). I go there often, but I love me a new park, yes I do. Especially interesting in this is that this park will make Birmingham the #1 U.S. city in terms of greenspace per capita. Birmingham catches a lot of grief around the country and is regularly noted as one of the worst places to live in America, so it’s nice to see the “Magic City” making inroads to be something better than it is. If only we could somehow craft a governing body that wasn’t corrupt and driving the city to bankruptcy.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Alabama, birmingham, cemetery, florida, greenspace, ishkooda, key biscayne, memorial, neptune, oak mountain, oxmoor, park, red mountain, underwater

I realize that asking this question amounts to: ”Why are people bad?” or “Why is there evil in the world?” But still, along with my perfectly cheerful Iron Man viewing yesterday, I had a couple of bad experiences too that made me dwell on a darker side of life: Why are we so wasteful?

First, I went by Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries on the way home from the movie. I grabbed some eggs and, inspecting the carton, found one broken. I put it back and grabbed another carton, which was full of unbroken eggs. There was a stock guy standing there, and he asked me if the carton I’d put back had a broken egg in it. I told him it did, and he took it and put it on his cart, saying that their policy was to throw away the entire carton if it had a single broken egg in it. I thought about this “policy” for the rest of the day. There was a time when the stock guy would remove the broken eggs, replace them with good ones, and discard only the eggs that were broken. That keeps waste to a minimum. I realize that food in grocery stores goes bad and they throw it out; food goes bad in my own fridge and I throw it out. But this seems like wanton waste to me.

Also, there was a really big Iron Man cardboard display in the theater where I went to see the movie. I asked one girl who worked there if I could have it. She said, “Probably. We just throw them away when the movie’s over, or one of the managers takes them home.” She told me I should ask a manager. So I did, and his reply was, “No, we have to return those to the distributor. We’re not allowed to give them away.” He lied to me with a smile on his face. And what really gripes me about that is that the truth would have been just fine. Even if he’d said, “No, dude, I’ve got claim on that one. Sorry,” I would have been fine with it. The alternative is even worse, that they would rather destroy it than give it to a fan. I just wanted to put it on my office wall.

Waste is one of those things that really plagues me. There are too many daily examples to point out. I wish it was different.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: waste

Models are now suggesting a cooling phase of the Earth’s environment, something I’ve been suggesting was bound to happen for a while now. It’s interesting, though, having heard the warming mantra being chanted for years now, with no talk of even the possibility of cooling, to read quotes of scientists saying:

We’ve always known that the climate varies naturally from year to year and decade to decade.

Really. Now I know that the primary chanters are representatives of media outlets who get a fat pat on the back from their bosses any time they successfully effectuate a worldwide panic, but I’ve done a lot of digging and reading about global warming in the past few years and I haven’t even sniffed at an authentic scientific opinion that the warming trend would so much as slow down until the surface of Earth resembles that of Venus and the human race is dead and gone. I’ve seen a lot of speculation about what might be done to fix it, but nothing that would suggest anything other than permanence.

You might say, “But they’re scientists, they take it for granted that the climate will fluctuate.” Sure, but why didn’t they point that out during any one of the kajillion interviews we’ve seen? Why didn’t one of them say: “the warming trend might not be permanent” or “it’s possible that a cooling trend might interrupt global warming briefly” if that’s the case? Or maybe they did, but the media outlet conducting the interview omitted that line in favor of touching off the beloved ratings-inducing panic. That’s not the Gross Scientific Failure I’m referring to in the title of this post, that’s just an irritating habit of the media (gotta love that widespread panic!). But if we read this article carefully, it also might be thought of as a collective effort of the scientific community to convince our policymakers to change their policies:

In the long term, radiative forcing (the Earth’s energy balance) dominates. But it’s important for policymakers to realise the pattern.

Reading the commentary in this article makes me seethe, though when I first saw the headline I thought I was about to read a rather self-affirming article that might clear up some of the questions I’ve been asking. Well, I’ll give them props for their carefully-crafted comments, because it’s very clear that all they’re wanting to do is keep the worlds’ eyes on the global warming ball. Essentially, that’s a good idea though, if global warming does end up being the scourge they predict it will be. But me, I’m still not convinced, even with all the scientists in the world chanting in tune with Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie: “Global WARming, global WARming, global WAR-MING, global war…” As I’ve said before, all this global warming doom and gloom could have been cleared up a long time ago if, rather than a War on Drugs, the U.S. government had instituted a War on Pollution. And even then, folks, we might still be trying to figure out why the climate has been changing (answer: because it does). Which brings me to the Gross Scientific Failure bit:

For the record: I’m not saying global warming won’t have disastrous, long-term effects. I’m only saying that we little folk aren’t seeing the entire picture. The summers have been hotter, the weather more violent, and it’s really easy to accredit all that to global warming. And I can even commend them on one point, they who preach the global warming sermon with the intent of staunching the flow of garbage into our atmosphere (I like to breathe. They tell me that’s harder to do now than it was a few hundred years ago). If only it was more effective. But it seems to me that the scientists aren’t seeing the entire picture, either:

Modelling of climatic events in the oceans is difficult, simply because there is relatively little data on some of the key processes, such as the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) - sometimes erroneously known as the Gulf Stream - which carries heat northwards in the Atlantic.

Only within the last few years have researchers begun systematically deploying mobile floats and tethered buoys that will, in time, tell us how this circulation is changing.

So. There aren’t any deep-water monitoring stations in the Atlantic. To which I ask the question: “Why the hell don’t we have any deep-water monitoring stations in the Atlantic?” We’ve got a rover on Mars for cripe’s sake. We’re collecting close-up data of Venus and Saturn and all the moons we can photograph, but we don’t track the mood of the single largest environmental aggressor on our own home planet? WTF? It seems to me that the oceans impact the global climate in a way that is only exceeded by the sun itself. Billions of tons of freezing water is pouring into the oceans by melting polar ice caps and glaciers, causing ocean temperatures to drop dramatically, but the only method we have to model climate change is based on atmospheric calculations. This may well be the day that it all turned, and the threat of global warming becomes the potentially equally disastrous global cooling (which is sometimes called an ice age).

Whenever I write about something that has magnificent (or at least significant) technological promise, I often end the post with the comment: “The Singularity is near,” referring to the idea that at some point in our future the worldwide culture will fundamentally change in an alarmingly rapid fashion due to technological advancements. But when I read articles like the one linked up in this post, it makes me think that the Singularity is very, very far away, or, worse, that the Singularity won’t be affected by technological advancements, but by the world’s climate, an ecological nightmare.

This is gross scientific failure on a gargantuan scale. Correct me if I’m wrong.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: cooling, global, Ice Age, ocean, temperature, warming

Earth has a low-frequency hum that is inaudible to human ears. Although some residents of Taos, New Mexico have reported hearing a low hum for years. Earth is mum on the cause of the hum. But this story’s brought something else to mind for me:

Following the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004, reports surfaced of a remote island indigenous people who survived the event by leaving their coastal homes and hiking up into the hills and mountains of the area. The entire tribe survived. No one else had any warning of the monster tsunami, but somehow these remote people presaged what was happening and ran for higher ground. According the the AP:

[the Jarawas of South Andaman Island] used their observations of wind movement, the changing sea and the birds flying inland as a prompt for their relocation to the mountains, which saved every member of the tribe according to government officials in India.

So they followed the animals, but how did the animals know to leave? It’s been speculated on broadly. Some say they have a sixth sense, providing them with barometric sensitivity. But maybe it’s more easily explained than that: suppose the Earth’s hum changes in the event of environmental distress? We already know animals have sharper senses than us, that their hearing is more acute. Suppose that Earth hum is something they can tune to, or hear constantly. If that hum intensifies or changes fundamentally then it would be simple to assume the animals who detect it might instinctively know how to react.

But what about storms, wildfires? Animals are also amazingly adept at evading both, but those are surface or atmospheric events, could they affect the Earth hum like an earthquake or tsunami? Possibly, since scientists have speculated that the hum could be an effect caused by atmospheric waves (gravity waves?). But they’ve also speculated that the hum could be caused by the oceans, atmospheric pressure, or even the sun. Perhaps it’s caused in part by all of these, and perhaps it responds in varying degrees according to which phenomena is impacting it. If so, an animal could react in accordance to the nature of the hum, heading to higher ground in a flood, lower ground in a storm, etc.

It also occurs to me that Jupiter makes a sound as well. Science explains that it is caused by the gas giant’s massive magnetic field. But I haven’t read anywhere that Earth’s magnetic field might be causing its own hum. Maybe that’s an oversight, or maybe the magnetic field is just one more contributor to the hum, which would just increase its potential for predicting events. Perhaps the hum can somehow respond to any event on Earth. That would explain a lot.

For further information on infrasound.

And more, on Earth’s hum and how animals might respond to it.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: animals, atmosphere, Earth, gravity wave, hum, infrasound, Jupiter, magnetic, sixth sense, subsonic, tsunami

This is brilliant, really. Freightliners on transoceanic voyages guzzle gas like nobody’s business. A company called Skysails, based in Hamburg, Germany, has unveiled a product that can reduce fuel consumption of those vessels by up to 35%.

The best apparatuses and advancements in the world, to me, are those which utilize traditional concepts and methods while at the same time capitalize on modern technology. They’re nostalgic–in a good way–but at the same time they’re modern and technological. This may seem like an oxymoron–past/future; historical technology?–but they combine the quaint with the futuristic in a way that’s very appealing. To me at least. I love reading about the Age of Sail, the era of tall ships, and I’ve pined for the romanticism of sailing ships exploring the world. (My love of old things-made-new manifests itself, obliquely, in my reading: I love equally to read Charlie Stross and Patrick O’Brian, Joe Haldeman and Shelby Foote.) The Skysail concept doesn’t go so far as to suggest a regression, but augments modern apparatuses with forward-thinking modifications to historical concepts, improving historical technologies.

I like new stuff, too. Like microwaves. Love microwaves :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: , age of sail, freightliner, futuristic, historical, nostalgia, sail, sailing, ship, ships, skysails, tall ship, transoceanic

In response to my earlier post about Global Warming, commenter JohnnyB pointed out the obvious:

Gotta consider that the ocean is very big and very deep. The temp near the bottom of the ocean is near freezing without the help of melting ice, so there would be no net change.

In fact, Johnny, I have considered that fact, but we’re only talking about a couple of degrees of water temp which can have a tremendous impact on the world climate. And this is exactly why I asked the question in that previous post: What if climate change–Global Warming–is in fact cooling the world’s oceans by dumping massive amounts of glacial melt water into the mix? So I did a little more digging, via Google, and came up with an NPR article in which a NASA scientist who monitors ocean temperatures worldwide is confused by the fact that the oceans’ temperatures have dropped over the last five years.

“There has been a very slight cooling, but not anything really significant,” Willis says.

What really astounds me is that, while the article briefly speculates as to where the heat is going (out into space is one theory) nobody even considers the really obvious possibility (to me, at least): that the oceans are rising due to an influx of glacial melt water and are cooling as a result. How can that be missed, or, if it hasn’t been missed, why doesn’t any one speculate about it or even offer to debunk the theory? Are we so focused on the warming aspect of climate change that we’re totally missing the possibility that Global Warming could actually eventually result in Global Cooling?

In recent years, heat has actually been flowing out of the ocean and into the air. This is a feature of the weather phenomenon known as El Nino. So it is indeed possible the air has warmed but the ocean has not. But it’s also possible that something more mysterious is going on.

Something mysterious indeed. He even points out that the half-inch ocean level increase can be accredited to melt water:

Willis says some of this water is apparently coming from a recent increase in the melting rate of glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica.

Basically, the entire article lends credence to my theory without ever speculating about it. Billions of gallons of glacial melt water floods into the ocean and–mysteriously–the ocean mean temperature cools. Stay tuned.  

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: climate, climate change, global cooling, global warming, Ice Age

Just out of curiosity, and because I’ve got RSS feeds for any headlines concerning global warming and ice age: I see plenty of science-industry panic over global warming, but nobody seems to consider the idea that the warming trend could actually result in an ice age. It might seem counter intuitive (and it may well be, since I’m the only one thinking it), but I can visualize a scenario where it’s not only possible, but probable.

Consider this: the global climate is determined by the temperature of the oceans. Global warming is triggering a worldwide thaw of glacial ice, as well as the ice shelf of Antarctica. With all that melt water blending in with seawater, and bearing in mind that melt water is very, very cold, isn’t it conceivable that the temperature of the oceans will drop? And if the oceans’ temperatures drop, the temperature of the air will drop, too. And on the topic of rising sea levels, well, that seems to set up the scenario for an impending ice age as well, because there will be a lot of water freed up to freeze into new glaciers.

This is not some doomsday prophesy, and I’m not suggesting that there’s any conspiracy, I’m just asking a simple question because I’m no scientist but this idea seems really plausible to me.

written by Matt Mitchell

Has anyone seen this? Evidently, we are all living under an ocean of air.

Alone, alone, all, all alone
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony.
~Rime of the Ancient Mariner

written by Matt Mitchell

On the Global Warming carousel, today we have this bit:

Speaking at the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change on Monday, (Weather Channel founder John) Coleman sharply chastised those who further global warming alarmism. Coleman believes that the station he founded has been captured by alarmists, such as the Weather Channel’s Heidi Cullen, who has advocated revoking the license of meteorologists that believe global warming can be explained by cyclical weather patterns and not human activity.

Actually, I’m kind of okay with this either way, for two reasons:

1. It’s a known fact that we’re on the tail end of a mini ice age. Warming would be the trend right now even if humanity had jumped ship a hundred years ago. (That’s not to say I don’t think we’re affecting the climate negatively, I’m just saying that’s the trend according to information I’ve come across).
2. I think it’s in our best interests, regardless of Global Warming, to stop burning fossil fuels. I know the almighty dollar feeds off the price of oil, but damn, smog sucks, whether it’s warming the climate or not. 

And on this topic the one big problem I have is kind of the same problem I have with religion and politics.  People have no tolerance for other people whose opinion, viewpoint or belief differs from their own. Case in point, as pointed out in the article linked to above, Heidi Cullen is advocating revoking the licenses of meteorologists who believe global warming can be explained by cyclical weather patters and not human activity. So…not only do you believe you are right, but you think those who believe otherwise should be punished.

I’ll tell you this, global warming is a fact, and whether we’re causing it or not I could care less. It’s happening, weather patterns are disrupted and it’s just going to keep getting worse (at least until it gets better). I think it’s in our best interests to curb our burning of fossil fuels because it’s pollution, and pollution is bad for us and for the planet, climate change or no. If we stop burning fossil fuels we would be healthier, and the planet would be, too. Of course it would–even if you don’t believe burning fossil fuels contributes to global warming, surely you can see that rainbow streak of oil in the water when you go to the river or lake (where you can fish, but you’d better not eat the fish). Or oil spills–Exxon Valdez… gasoline @ four bucks a gallon and Exxon turning the highest profit margin of any corporation ever. There are plenty of reasons to hate pollution, and global warming is just the latest, controversial topic du jour. So you’ve got to pick your fights, right, I know that, but amidst all this madness and indisputable proofs of the negative effects of pollution, Heidi wants to revoke licenses because people don’t believe the theory she insists on is evident. She wants people punished because they disagree with her opinion. She might as well be in Belfast during the ’80s, at war with the other religion because of their beliefs.  

Pollution is an old problem that’s gotten way, way out of hand. We’ve known it for decades. Whether you believe we’ve impacted global warming or not doesn’t matter to me, because I believe everyone can see the negative effects of pollution. Curb the pollution and you’ve done your duty, and both sides and pat one another on the back and gear up for the coming Ice Age :-)

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: climate, climate change, global warming, Ice Age, meteorologist, meteorologists, pollution

So what’s happened to all the water? Where’s the rain? It is true that I am environmentally conscious and this drought has me worried. It’s bad when you have as many trees in your yard as I do and the leaves have all turned brown and are shedding in July, and the grass is crunchy and brown underfoot. Some towns have already gone dry, and Atlanta is forecasted to go dry very soon. What will happen to all those people? Do 4.5 million people just pack up and leave the city? In the midst of this drought, I have a trio of observations to make about just where the water went.

1. Bottled Water. Millions upon millions of gallons of water is sitting on shelves in stores around the world. Not to mention all the other soft drinks which are made with water, but I’m concentrating only on the bottled water, which up until about ten years ago was something you used a canteen or a thermos for. You certainly didn’t go to a store to spend almost two bucks on a bottle of Dasani like we do now. The key is that this isn’t something that was there before. Now there’s a market for it, and Coke and Pepsi, along with a ton of other producers, are doing their best to fill it to the brim. Where does all that water come from? Straight out of the tap. Yep, just the same water you could have poured yourself when you left home, you’ve now spent two bucks for because… well, I don’t know why. It can’t be convenience, because what could be more convenient than filling up a jug of ice water before you leave home for the day? Regardless, there it is, and what’s even worse: how many of those bottle get thrown in the trash half full, with the top twisted on, effectively locking the water inside a container that won’t rupture or leak for some ten thousand years? All of that water in all those bottles,�the ones on the shelves and the ones in the dump, represent millions of gallons of water that has been removed from the environment.
2. Manufactured Ponds. Have you ever seen a piece of property where someone built a house or planted a trailer and then a few months or years later they dig a pond in their front yard? In Alabama this is something that happens A LOT. All it takes is one guy who walks out on his front porch one morning and says, “Durn, that’d be a good place for a lake,” and then he gets his buddy who owns a backhoe to come dig one. It fills up with water, and all those thousands of gallons are suddenly removed from the environment. If it was just a pond here and there it wouldn’t be a big deal, but there are thousands of these small ponds in Alabama alone. Yes–I said thousands. How many billions of gallons of water is that? Water which was once a part of an ecosystem designed to rain down on the South?
3. (And lastly, though this is a very serious situation which could displace millions of people, a lighthearted consideration.) Poopy Diapers. Every time a baby dirties a diaper, those marvelous feats of sponging ingenuity, what happens to the diaper? The parent puts it in a Wal-Mart plastic bag and ties the bag into a knot, then puts that bag into another plastic bag, cinches it up tight and throws it away. What happens to all that refuse? Refuse which once went into the ground, where it was filtered for a few hundred years and then pushed back out into the environmental supply? What about all that other moisture that’s disappearing into plastic bags, feats of ingenuity themselves, which don’t break down for thousands of years?

We’re removing the water from the ecosystem. Is it possible that a combination of these things is causing this drought, or is this drought just something that’s happening in due course, something which will rectify itself as it always has in the past? Is the fertile south about to become a desert?

written by Matt Mitchell

More gems from Mr. Edelman:

On things our government should be talking about but aren’t (and for the record, I agree with this point 100%; and maybe we all do):

We need an alternative energy Manhattan Project.The New York Times‘ Thomas Friedman has been yelling about this for a couple of years now, and he’s absolutely right. We need to pour money into research for alternative energy, and we need to do it soon. I don’t care how much squishy, flammable dinosaur you think is still left in the ground; someday we’re going to run out. But before we run out, there’s going to be a long period of chaos where prices hit the moon and the OPEC countries will really have us over a barrel. How mighty will our military be when we can’t afford to fuel the tanks and troop transports? How fabulous will our economy be when you’re paying $10 a gallon? But forget about the nightmare scenarios for a moment. Let’s think about this from the carrot side instead of the stick side: this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically lessen the influence of Middle Eastern and South American despots. The neocons wants to bring democracy to the world? This is the way you’re going to do it.

Oooh. David, you had me at Manhattan Project.

written by Matt Mitchell