- napping on soft grass in the shade of an aspen grove just leafing out at 3000m on summer solstice is very close to heaven. #
- viewing the garden after a long weekend away is always an adventure… #
- Uh, note to potential vertical (urban highrise) farmers: where exactly are you going to get the sunlight from again? http://is.gd/1blxV #
- Show support for democracy in Iran add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with 1-click – http://helpiranelection.com/ #
- People of Earth: talk to the hand. #
- eating pasta with crispedy crunchedy castaño beans from the garden, lightly sauteéd. #
- I'm starting to wonder if anything sensible has ever been effectively legislated anywhere. #
- enjoying finding old ideas in new media. Like running into an old friend, in a new city. #
- Waltz with Bashir was strange and heavy and painful. #
- coal left in the ground is by far the best option for carbon sequestration. #
- RT @AlexSteffen: Some days, it's good to remember that optimism is a political act. #
- Sliding toward dawn… #
- The sound of ice cubes in a quart jar. Summer is finally here. #
- Fourth annual Parkwood shadecloth raising is complete. It's BBQ season! #
- Ate a shady lunch in our makeshift courtyard, all food harvested from the garden, or gleaned from society's waste stream. #
- There's no place like "away": http://is.gd/1gA2j #
Monthly Archive for June, 2009
Most things we buy are trash before we even get to know them well. Paul Hawken estimates (Natural Capitalism, p. 81) that only about 1% of the mass which we mine, harvest, or otherwise extract is still playing a useful role in the economy 6 months later. The other 99% is made up of either inherently consumable, unsustainable goods like coal, consumable but potentially renewable goods like food (depending on what we do with our sewage), or just plain waste, cast aside in the course of manufacturing, or “saved for later” in some landfill. Within the waste category, the overwhelming majority of the mass is stuff we never see, like the 20 tons of mine tailings and associated cyanide leachate that are generated in the making of each gold wedding band. In some cases the right category is unclear. Was the 800 gallons of 25,000 year old Laurentide ice sheet meltwater that got pumped out of the Ogalalla Aquifer to produce the cheeseburger Michelle and I split at Lucky Baldwin’s on Tuesday really waste? It was non-renewably extracted, but then mostly evaporated harmlessly into the atmosphere. Of course there’s also all the stuff we normally think of as garbage, that we wheel out to the curb each week. If you live in Pasadena or Glendale, or many of the other cities at the feet of the San Gabriels, that garbage is now in the Scholl Canyon landfill, in the hills just to the west of the Rose Bowl:
If you lost your virginity at Caltech, this is probably where the condom is today. All the red plastic party cups you ever used at Munth parties are keeping it company, and the styrofoam cup noodle containers and plastic wrappers from your late night Maruchan ramen binges. And the enormous stack of old class notes you didn’t have time to burn or recycle when you left. All the leftover crap from you Ditch Day stack is buried here too. And not just yours, but decades worth of Caltech students. There really is no such place as “away”. If you take a closer look it doesn’t look so bad really:
Scholl Canyon Landfill Closeup
Zooming in, you’ll see only a tiny area of actual garbage, where the trucks were working the day the picture was taken. The rest of the landfill just looks like a construction site, because each night, they’re required to cover the garbage up. In California, about half the time landfills are covered with dirt. The rest of the time, we use what’s euphemistically called “alternative daily cover” or ADC. ADC is anything that you’re allowed to cover a landfill with, that isn’t dirt. In 1989, California passed a law (the California Integrated Waste Management Act, AB 939) creating the California Integrated Waste Management Board, and mandating that all cities in California had to divert 50% of their landfill waste by the year 2000. When you use something as ADC it counts as having been “diverted”, even if you never would have sent it to the landfill before.
Among the things which qualify as ADC are sewage sludge, ground up tires, construction and demolition waste, compost, “green material”, and my personal favorite, the residue of shredded automobiles:
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- James Hansen Arrested in Coal Country – And then there are those admirably pursuing the softer side of direct action. I have to imagine that Thoreau would also be getting arrested in this context. It will be interesting to see how the "resistance" evolves over the coming decade. (tagged: coal protest police climate nytimes politics )
- Make Me Greener, Please – Hire someone to come in and tell you how to be more greener. "I just don't see composting working with my lifestyle". Weird combination of moralizing and home consultant. But maybe that's just how the article is painting it. The idea isn't bad though. Problem is most people aren't willing to make significant changes, or the way our laws or society are structured makes those changes difficult. (tagged: green energy propaganda society )
- On Bus Tours, Seeking a Better Way of Living – A recent NY Times article about co-housing, and a tour of several developments in the East Bay. Would love to believe it does constitute a movement… (tagged: nytimes cohousing architecture sustainability design urban green )
- The Month the Censors Stopped Taking Their Medication – In June, 2009, China's state internet censorship took a turn for the more and the aggro. What changed? Where? Why? Interesting. (tagged: china google censorship privacy )
- Census of Marine Life – The Census of Marine Life is one of many ongoing projects to figure out just what the Earth is like, before we change it any more. Incredible images and visualizations. Cool project: historical reconstructions of marine populations, tracking fish size and frequency through time. We've been changing the oceans in measurable ways for tens of thousands of years. (tagged: science sustainability ocean fish life )
Our local NPR station, KPCC 89.3 is doing a story on bicycling, and how it affects home economics in these trying times… These are my responses to their questionnaire.
Tell the story of how your bicycle is changing your financial picture.
Largely because we choose to bike as our primary form of transportation, and do not own a car, my partner and I have disposable income, even as poorly paid graduate students. We can max out our Roth IRAs (and then some) each year, and still have money left over to rent a car once a month or so, to get up into the Sierras or out into the desert, or to visit family in Santa Barbara. We live comfortably, but frugally, and have no consumer debt. The situation would likely be very different if we had even one, let alone two cars.
In what ways has the price of gas changed your relationship with the bicycle?
I’ve always used a bike as my primary vehicle, so the “high” gas prices really don’t have much to do with my bicycle relationship. Except in extraordinary cases (someone with a long commute and lousy fuel efficiency), fuel costs are not the largest portion of the expense of owning a car. Insurance, depreciation, maintenance, financing, registration, parking tickets, etc. are all significant, but they are “fixed” costs, which you will pay largely regardless of how much you drive, and so most people take them as given, because they assume they can’t live without a car. Most of the economic benefits of bicycling only accrue when you get rid of the car completely, and avoid those fixed costs.
- The ones that got away: science through cross-disciplinary eyes – The difference between what we consider "normal", and what was once the norm can be large. In this case, our societal amnesia is revealed in historical (and pre-historical) records of fish: we were already influencing their populations more than 30,000 years ago. (tagged: history sustainability society fish science )
- Supreme Court Says Child’s Rights Violated by Strip Search – OMG, the SCOTUS has ruled that children at school have *rights*. The end of civilization as we know it must be at hand. (tagged: law privacy scotus school authority police )
- Fixing Airport Security – Alas, if only the TSA *had* interviewed Schneier for the top job. On the other hand, maybe the police-state like experience we all have at airports is a great way to de-emphasize flying? Could be good for high speed rail… (tagged: security police transparency law privacy )
- Washington Village Boulder – There are plans to re-develop the Washington Elementary School in (old) N. Boulder (near Cedar and Broadway) as a dense mixed-use co-housing community. It sounds like exactly the kind of place I want to live! Unfortunately, the neighborhood NIMBYs are opposed to almost everything I like about it: the density, the mixed use, the restricted parking supply. They've managed to get the density and mixed use scaled back, and are working on the parking, making all the units more expensive, and precluding any small (less than 1000 sf) market rate (as opposed to artificially "affordable housing") units. Makes me sad. (tagged: urban design cohousing boulder colorado architecture )
- Brooklyn Cohousing – A single-building co-housing development in Brooklyn NY, to be built to the European Passive House standard. Yet another reason to visit NYC. (tagged: green design nyc housing cohousing architecture )
- Passive House USA – Who knew, there's a Passive House institute affiliate in the US. (tagged: sustainability green design efficiency architecture energy solar passivhaus )
- Is it actually possible to get an overnight wilderness permit to backpack into the Cottonwood Basin in the White Mountains? #
- A surreality TV idea: Bright Green. Like Wa$ted, except ppl go fully sustainable, eventually requiring transformation of entire city/state! #
- not sure which is worse: the thought that the Iranian elections were rigged, or the though that they weren't. It all seems so… Y2K. #
- And now a recount! I think Iran is making fun of us. Why *didn't* Florida look like this in 2000: http://is.gd/13GYj #
- I'm drinkin' tea out of a big ol' jar. Ah, Hugh. #
- This guerilla art project was probably worth getting arrested for: http://is.gd/14DsX #
- This is the kind of housing I want to build in Boulder: http://is.gd/14Ejt #
- Frustrated by code. Again. Sometimes I wonder why I even try. #
- has an audience with Peter Goldreich. Gulp. #
- Okay, brute force it is then. Where's my hacksaw? #
- yeehaw, my data is demonstrably not just noise. Signal this strong randomly has chances of something like 1 in 50,000. Whew! #
- going to pretend I'm backpacking in some post-apocalyptic Caucasian republic… olives, sheep's cheese, dried fruit, lavash bread. #
- Okay computer, it's up to you to do the science while I'm gone. And don't run out of memory again. Or download any kiddie porn. Mmmkay? #
- Is There a Better Word for Doom? – Six disparate views on the value and ethics of actively re-framing the public discussion surrounding climate change. (tagged: politics policy environment communication propaganda climate change science )
- Clay Shirky: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history – A talk given by Clay Shirky to the State Dept. a month or so ago, on the global, social, ubiquitous and cheap media landscape of the 21st century. Especially relevant in light of Iran's elections and protests at the moment. (tagged: web2.0 media propaganda technology social twitter politics transparency )
- Iran's Disputed Election | A Revolution in Pictures – Images are streaming out of Iran. Hundreds of thousands of people marching. Guns, fires, roads blocked by burning busses, riots and blood in the streets. The para-military storming the University. Protesters improbably evacuating an injured riot cop. Tear-gas ping pong. All revolutions look the same on the ground. They are not in practice ideological affairs. (tagged: iran politics election 2009 photos protest police )
- Gadget Teardowns – How to completely and utterly disassemble… just about anything, from a banana to your brand new Macbook Pro. Unclear whether you can put it all back together again! (tagged: technology design maker )
- The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online – An essay by Wired editor and Long Now pundit Kevin Kelly, making analogies between the "socialism" of the 20th century, and the open collaborative systems which have taken hold of the Internet. Larry Lessig hates the fact that he used the S-word, since it's got such a black name in the US, but I'm not so sure it was a bad idea. Actually I think that more than anywhere else, "socialist" ideas can probably work in the world of pure information. We're certainly nowhere near the limits of sharing online yet. (tagged: technology economics politics internet web2.0 socialism lessig longnow )
- Being “Used To” Our Lifestyle Makes Change Seem Difficult – The range of lifestyles which people have been able to become accustomed to and enjoy throughout history and spread out over the globe, is immense. Some of them are sustainable; ours is not. The willingness to experiment and accept change, to be flexible at a societal level, is of paramount importance today, and has in the past meant the difference between survival and obliteration for countless other civilizations, as detailed in Jarod Diamond's book "Collapse". But change is hard, whether you drive an SUV and have managed to shave your lifestyle requirements down to 8 earths from 10, or whether you're the child of a prostitute in Calcutta. We are creatures of habit, quite literally. (tagged: sustainability film energy green stuff money )
- The Need for Geoengineering – A WSJ op-ed advocating near term geoengineering, of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol variety. It would be fast acting, relatively easy to reverse, and of the options on the table today, is the least mysterious, since it's not so different from the effects of a large (historically speaking) volcanic eruption like Mt. Pinatubo. The author cautions that even at best, all this would do is give us time: we still need to get the atmosphere back to ~350ppm. What a fascinating modern age it is we live in! (tagged: climate technology geoengineering )
- Early Reviews of NYC’s New High Line Park – A round up of several reviews of the High Line Park, which has just opened in NYC. (tagged: architecture urban design landscape garden parks nyc )
- The High Line – An abandoned elevated freight rail line in Manhattan is reborn as a long linear park three stories above the streetscape. I love how the design incorporates the rails and the overgrown feeling that the old line had developed on its own. This and the closure of Broadway at Times Square makes me want to visit New York. Inspiring to see that this kind of change is possible. (tagged: urban design architecture green garden parks nyc )
- Pedalpalooza 2009 – Wow, a two week long bicycle festival in Portland, spanning the summer solstice? Sounds like a wonderful way to start a bike tour! Hopefully it will still be going on next summer. (tagged: bicycle transportation oregon portland festival activism )
- Yann Arthus-Bertrand's HOME is gorgeous, but all such films need a more concrete vision of their preferred future: http://is.gd/TMtI #
- O Brave New World, Where Are You? http://is.gd/TXGN #
- EarthDesk is *almost* awesome. Needs (much) higher resolution images: http://is.gd/VINA #
- momentarily confused by cross dressing co-worker at the urinals. I love Caltech. #
- Last year's Terry Lecture at Yale looks interesting: The Scientific Buddha http://is.gd/WiTO #
- Headache. Must dissolve myself into the quiet darkness. Ugh. #
- still unclear whether two mugs of black tea is enough to stave off a no-coffee headache… #
- In Pasadena, about 20 people are killed each year in car "accidents". Seems strange it doesn't make more news. #
- I'm not shaving until I'm done with grad school. #
- LA Metro finally getting on board with Google Transit: http://is.gd/Z5un #
- Anyone else out there search for both "naked gardening" and "k-dimensional search tree" today? I didn't think so. #
- kd-tree seems to be functional. Now if only I could have done this in my sleep. #
- Congrats to all the new Caltech PhDs! I wIsh commencement weren't so early. Good luck getting tenure… #
- I love the June gloom. Hope the tomatoes and cucumbers don't freak out and wilt when the sun finally appears. #
- Okay, maybe 1L of black tea is sufficient to get me through the day. #
- watch out for TV riots this evening, when the masses realize their analog idiot boxes have stopped working. #
- Well dang it, this doesn't make it any faster either. Maybe I should have known that? #
- still sooo sleeeepy… #
- biking from Pasadena to Griffith Park, on what appears to be a gorgeous summer day, but one that came from Seattle or Portland, not LA. #
- Rode 35 miles across northeast LA, through Griffith Park and back. Friends, picnic, bocci, and a temple to the sky. Near to heaven #
- Your Backyard Farmer – A couple of women in Portland who will do your organic vegetable gardening for you! They visit dozens of personal gardens all over Portland every day to tend their micro-fields, and can help teach you how to grow too. If we're willing to pay people to come do landscaping (and certainly "we" seem to be willing to do that in Pasadena), why not vegetables too? I've thought about this business model in the past too. Seemed like it would probably be a lot of work, and not a whole lot of pay, but it does have the advantage of starting up with virtually no capital. Just hand tools, seeds, and smiles
(tagged: gardening food green urban sustainability business ) - Are we ready for honesty? | Jerusalem Post – A right-wing Israeli talks about what an honest discussion about the Israel-Palestine conflict would look like. Should they annex the West Bank formally, and set up a greater Israel in which the Arabs cannot vote? Should they expel the Arab Israelis in exchange for removing all the settlers? It might sound like crazy talk… but at some level, the questions he brings up are the real questions Israel has to deal with, no matter how ugly they might be. (tagged: israel palestine obama war policy westbank gaza terrorism )
- China Begins Its Transition to a Clean-Energy Economy – Lots of great plans from the Chinese leadership, but are they actually enforceable, implementable, or verifiable, even by China's own government? And even if they are, the terrifying fact is that they don't end up reducing emissions, they just end up slowing the rate of increase, what what we really need is a virtual cessation of CO2 emissions worldwide. The universe is not required to be accordance with human ambition. (tagged: energy china climate policy politics )
- Wordnik – A site for anyone who loves words and language. More than a dictionary, different from the Wiktionary, fun and social. Give words a life of their own! (tagged: education language dictionary technology web2.0 )
- Conservative Cyclists Transcend Cultural Stereotypes – As with sustainability more generally, we're only likely to make progress on cycling when it can stop being a partisan issue. Thankfully I'm not the only one who likes it because it's cheap! (tagged: bicycle transportation politics )
