Zero Emissions not possible

I am on Facebook and recently saw a group called: "Zero Emissions Day on September 21." I don't get this. Even if we were dead, we would not be zero emission because our decaying body would emit carbon. Carbon is a natural part of the life process. Our bodies are made of carbon. Every creature, tree, organism has carbon. Carbon is the glue that holds life together. (PBS has a great video series on carbon.) Without carbon there would be on life on this planet. So saying that we want zero emission, isn't possible.

If we are talking about not using transportation or any appliances the create CO2, I guess we can do that for one day, one hour. But it's not a sustainable solution. I don't know many people who are willing to go back to living like cave men.

I like what I read in one article. What we are faced with is a design problem. We designed our environment to conflict with nature. Now we have to go and redesign how we make things, use things, and what we do afterwards with the items. I know that this is oversimplification, but I'm getting sleepy and need to go to sleep. I have a big day tomorrow.

So, yes, I'll try to reduce my carbon footprint on the 21st of September, but I will also try to find ways that will help in small ways, every day.

Can the human race change?

Link for picture: Click Here

Not a fun article to read in the Los Angles Times about Jim Hansen's statement last week:

A few weeks ago, NASA's chief climatologist, James Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several coauthors. The abstract attached to it argued -- and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper -- that "if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm."

The article goes on to say that in order for us to succeed, we would have to have perfect governments all pulling together toward a common goal. The questions remains, are we as a species able to do this?

Look at what was reported in the New York Times today. There are thousands of dead bodies floating in the rivers from the deadly cyclone that smashed into Myanmar. People say, it's not their job to deal with the dead. Refugees staying in schools for shelter are thrown out so that the government can hold a referendum that will keep them in power. The government is more worried about them retaining their power than allowing aide from foreign governments attempting to send desperately needed supplies to keep people from dying.

And we think the whole human race is going to suddenly wake up and "do the right thing"?

Fat Chance!

Oh wow, are these amazing pictures or what?

It's hard to pick which one strikes me the most, but these are some amazing pictures of glacers and icebergs. Here is one that was breathtaking called: Striped berg - by Steve Nicol

Technological Breakthrough In Fight To Cut Greenhouse Gases

Newcastle University have pioneered breakthrough technology in the fight to cut greenhouse gases. Let's see where this goes....

If not now, when?

I read about America's reluctance to join in on combating climate change. We are afraid of economic downturn. I read argument after argument on the web and in the news by politicians, scientists, religious leaders, economists, etc,. Like so many others, I keep asking "If not now, when?" What does it take to make Americans open their eyes and realize we have a problem? When are we going to stop arguing about it and decide it is time to act?

NPR's A+ cartoon series that explains CO2 and Global Warming

This is a five part series produced by NPR showing in a non scary way what is causing Global Warming. This by the way, is a carbon atom, the star of the cartoon movie. Outstanding job guys and girls.

Architecture 2030 Face It entries are now avaiable on line

Architecture Ed Mazria and Architecture 2030 Face It Challenge has announced winners. Students competed to produce the best body and face paint job that conveyed a "no coal" message. Emily Bibler of Ohio State won the Face Color Award; Jackie Fabella of Cal Poly Pomona won for best B+W. A student told Metropolis:

“The entries varied in meaning: some depicting strong political messages about health and environmental impacts, while others took a positive approach by displaying a set of alternatives to coal.” ::Metropolis; See all the entries at ::Architecture2030

Elementree's Carbon Calculator

I liked Elementree's intro. The calculator was not useful because we don't use metric very much in the US so converting everything to metric to do the carbon footprint would be a pain. There are US carbon footprint websites that do the same. But I especially liked the intro to for their services. It would be useful to see more things like this over the Internet that could be shared. The main idea is to open people's eyes to the possible.

Global Crop Diversity Trust

Europe is building an ark. A site to store all of the seeds on earth in the event the worse case scenario happens, what ever that happens to be. The US on the other hand is building a facility to store nuclear waste. Seems like there is something wrong with this picture.

Elephants are falling from the sky

The point of this video (Elephants) is that if co2 were elephants, 1.2 billion elephants would drop out of the sky and land somewhere in the US. Clever and concrete.

Where have all the mountains gone?

I have flown into Charleston, West Virginia's airport. It sits on top of a mountain. When you fly over West Virginia, you can see huge areas land where the mountain tops that have been removed. It's not quite as big as the Grand Canyon, but it's bigger than anything you can see from the sky except for that. I stumbled upon this slide show today that talks about what is happening in West Virginia. I wonder why coal miners have such a sway over that state. People are so afraid of the coal companies. West Virginia has a sad history of mining abuses. I can see from this that they have not changed their ways.