polar bears and shrinking ice bases
In recent months, when Bush II conceded to the loss of Republican hold in both houses of Congress.. the government finally paid notice to the environment woes. Bush bowed to pressure and started supporting proposals alternative energy sources, especially ethanol. When the Bush administration refused to recognize the Kyoto agreements, many U.S. states began taking it in their hands.. the northeast states agreed to sell off their emission caps to other states or industries (something I don't know too much of. Some European countries let go of them altogether). California with the Governator decided to sue the industries that ruined their air quality.
New York Times did an article about the shrinking Greenland. I think the last 15-20 years, Greenland's been re-mapped practically every year. With the ice shelves retreating and melting, there are new streams and some land to map in. The Democrats did an investigation as promised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the scientific panel supported evidence that we're basically in deep shit with the green house gases trapped in our atmosphere.
It's probably because I'm tuning into them now.. I recently saw Al Gore's documentary "The Inconvenient Truth" and a movie, "Children of Men". It's eerie about timing and materials you choose to look at. Some people were talking about the "truth" saying how good it was and I'm like, "ok that's nice, whatever"... til Meri said, "it scared the shit out of me". I know her input based on some convos we've had about the environment. So, I moved the movie top of my Netflix list, watched it and was actually creeped out. The first half spoke about the hard and raw data supporting natural disasters and using current data made some projections for the near future. I'm not going to say much about it for those who haven't seen it. Joe said it isn't dramatic enough and many say it's neutral but I have to say it's *slightly* biased.
Last Wednesday, a friend and I saw "Children of Men" a movie with Clive Owen, a yummy Brit import with Julianne Moore. The book by PD James was written in the mid 80s about the world in 2030's. The environment sucks, the sky has a tint of yellow and grey, and the ground looks parched. The movie added our current elements; terrorism, immigration, and a police state. The main focus of the movie is, the women have gone infertile evidently as a result of environment pollutants (think DDT and laptops that's sitting right on top of my hips) . The youngest person who is 16 or something has died and people are in mourning about it. The movie was totally bizarre to take in but once you chew on it with your companion it makes sense.
I'm not sure how to conclude this... food shopping at Trader Joe's and Whole Food Market may not send a political and economic message since organic farming does take up more energy and land (The Economist from December I think). Maybe some lessons in growing plants and how to skin a bear might help.
New York Times did an article about the shrinking Greenland. I think the last 15-20 years, Greenland's been re-mapped practically every year. With the ice shelves retreating and melting, there are new streams and some land to map in. The Democrats did an investigation as promised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the scientific panel supported evidence that we're basically in deep shit with the green house gases trapped in our atmosphere.
It's probably because I'm tuning into them now.. I recently saw Al Gore's documentary "The Inconvenient Truth" and a movie, "Children of Men". It's eerie about timing and materials you choose to look at. Some people were talking about the "truth" saying how good it was and I'm like, "ok that's nice, whatever"... til Meri said, "it scared the shit out of me". I know her input based on some convos we've had about the environment. So, I moved the movie top of my Netflix list, watched it and was actually creeped out. The first half spoke about the hard and raw data supporting natural disasters and using current data made some projections for the near future. I'm not going to say much about it for those who haven't seen it. Joe said it isn't dramatic enough and many say it's neutral but I have to say it's *slightly* biased.
Last Wednesday, a friend and I saw "Children of Men" a movie with Clive Owen, a yummy Brit import with Julianne Moore. The book by PD James was written in the mid 80s about the world in 2030's. The environment sucks, the sky has a tint of yellow and grey, and the ground looks parched. The movie added our current elements; terrorism, immigration, and a police state. The main focus of the movie is, the women have gone infertile evidently as a result of environment pollutants (think DDT and laptops that's sitting right on top of my hips) . The youngest person who is 16 or something has died and people are in mourning about it. The movie was totally bizarre to take in but once you chew on it with your companion it makes sense.
I'm not sure how to conclude this... food shopping at Trader Joe's and Whole Food Market may not send a political and economic message since organic farming does take up more energy and land (The Economist from December I think). Maybe some lessons in growing plants and how to skin a bear might help.
posted by Kate O. Breen at 10:27 PM
2 Comments:
I appreciate your objective commentary about environmental issues. I believe that Mankind's effect on the environment is signficiant, but virtually uncontrollable. When compared with a single volcanic eruption, all the greenhouse gases ever emitted by internal combustion engines are dwarfed. Greenland is "shrinking" (actually melting -- the land isn't disappearing) for sure! But we know from history that centuries ago, Greenland was just that: a Green Land. That's why the Vikings populated it. It was a beautiful green place, which later got cold. Now its getting green again. Climate change? Perhaps, but not the fault of burning too much Exxon fuel. The climate changes on Earth.
How to skin a bear would actually be an interesting topic-- I don't think I'll ever need to know that skill for my own survival (the bear will eat me long before I eat a bear!), but an interesting topic nevertheless. Kinda like learning how to sky dive. I enjoy watching the videos but I'll never jump out of a perfectly good aircraft with only a bed sheet on my back!
thanks for your comments!!
about the Vikings and Greenland - actually, the Viking named a green island Iceland and a large ice covered island Greenland to fool rival colonists.
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