From the trenches

Photo taken by GMU Associate Professor Todd La Porte

 

Embracing Jetson-like technology, our class- conferenced with UC Berkley PhD Student Esther Conrad about climate adaptation strategies for watersheds.

Loyal blog readers, I promised a post from the trenches. Grad school is basically one enormous bowl of Pho. You can see that there’s good stuff in it, but it requires so much effort getting through the boiling brothy stuff that when your finally there you say “fuck it, just give me some ice cream.” 

Alright, let’s start this post over, because grad school has nothing to do with Vietnamese soup.

I’ve learned a lot, and it may take a couple of posts, but I want to disperse some pearls of knowledge, for your benefit. 

The first thing is, though the U.S. government sucks fuck at being able stave off any sort of environmental problems, state and local governments are kicking ass and taking names in the environmental arena. “To date more than 700 American local governments and nearly all state governments have engaged in some form of climate change policy making” (U.S. Conference of Mayors). 

And get this, states are working toward the big picture, capping carbon emissions. “Twenty-one states are actively involved in establishing regional zones for capping and trading carbon emissions from electrical utilities” (Rabe 2008b; Pew Center on Global Climate Change 2007).

There are some big ideas at work. Though a backlog of info is required to qualify this next statement, it gets at the general trend of dealing with environmental issues. The federal government is at an impasse when it comes to climate change, any sort of overarching legislation that the government could pass won’t happen (A) because its political suicide to have your name attached to anything containing the phrase “climate change” (I’ve got to thank our Fox “News” viewers for that one) and (B) because at this point anything the government actually did pass could actually hinder the environmental movement. This is because it would probably be too soft. Any bill that actually makes it through Congress comes out on the other side so badly hacked up and altered that it lacks any substance and bears little resemblance its original form. I wouldn’t want a federal “dud” to restrict the eco-fury of the glory states like Oregon or California, which set the agenda for the rest of the degenerate states out there.

  ***Read following paragaph for an example, or skip following paragraph if you have Steve Bert ADHD***

(I’m thinking of what happened under California’s lead, when fourteen states banded together to win a U.S. Supreme Court case designed to force the federal government to allow states the discretion to establish the world’s first carbon dioxide emissions standard for vehicles. Bush originally rejected California’s waver before the successful collective effort put him in his place. If the federal government has any role besides getting overturned it would likely err on the side of being too soft to have any meaningful ecological impact. For those of you environmentalists who think Obama is on our side, please realize he operates under the guidelines of economic primacy and has already showed his hand many times with his eagerness to drill.) 

With state and local governments circumventing our sham Congress and our president who is caught in the web economic primacy, we’ve got the stage set for our current framework for understanding and dealing with environmental issues: climate adaptation. 

This post has been a long one so we’ll get to that goodie soon. 

Ciao and farewell for now, 

Steve

Call me lazy, but why should I work another day in my life?

 I want to live in a world where Rosie Jetson does the chores. (Image provided from google images.)

Is anyone else out there pissed off about the lack of coordination in overall technological advancement? Technology should be leading us to working less, not working more. 

If we had an awesome socialist government like Sweden, we could be directing our businesses to innovate for social benefit.  Robots could handle all the menial crap that we have to do each day and in the meantime we could live life well. 

So I know a lot of people have this ingrained notion that hard work is part of the American spirit. It’s this unspoken right-of-passage; without putting our noses to the grindstone we’re somehow not being patriotic. But why not work smarter? If we spent less time laboring over things that we could essentially write-off through new software and hardware applications, we could develop to our full capacities. 

Back in Shakespeare’s day, people learned and shared knowledge through the application of all sorts of mnemonic devices. They had to memorize large quantities of info to share with others, because books, pamphlets, and shared knowledge through writing was expensive and not readily available. 

Then came the printing press, and not only did people no longer have to sit and copy texts by hand, they didn’t have to devote large volumes of time memorizing mnemonic devices to share stories that could now readily be shared through written word. 

Yesterday we were on the verge of that next printing press. Software could’ve been the text directing machines to carry out the processes unnecessary today, much like memorizing mnemonic devices was replaced by the Gutenberg Press in the past. 

But our system is so locked into personal wealth creation that we miss out on personal fulfillment. I want to live in a country where it is a good thing when automation takes away someone’s job, where teleconferencing takes away the need to go to work, and people can have robots hold up their “Cash for Gold” signs. 

The world is never at a dearth of frontiers to be breached. If we had universal unemployment we could beautify the landscape, make awesome board games like Co-opoly, build treetop villages like those on Endor, clean up our rivers and lakes to the point where we could actually drink from them, or even learn how to play the piano or tuba. 

Anyhow, thanks loyal blog readers for keeping it real. I can’t wait for the future, when writing  a software program will be as easy  as writing a blog post.

Visions of an Oneironaut: ‘Go forth and be scrappy’

This was borrowed from a dream exploration image search.

Dreams are so telling, yet as circumstantial as the snapshots our minds glom onto when we rouse from them. Earlier this week I dreamt that I had been slipped LSD in a beverage. I got to see my world go Technicolor and I felt like I could pick apart the essence of the world around me. In yesterday’s adventure, I was in coven of business students tucked away in a secret library in a prestigious university’s basement. Before class, I’d studied the background of my professor and found a pattern correlating his pay increases as a professor to jobs switches he’d made after teaching for a bit of time. 

(He’d teach for a while then get a corporate job. Teach somewhere else for higher pay and then work somewhere else for higher pay, and then get an even higher paying teaching job after that.) I realized after I woke up, that he was gaming the market to earn faster pay bumps.

How is this relevant? Hold on…I promise.

In my dream of being in this class, most of the other students in class were asking the professor for his connections to life in the fast-line, but I wasn’t. The instructor asked me why I was there. Another student chimed in, “he’s an environmentalist and wants to…” So I cut her off and said, “That’s right. I am. I want the environmental movement to have the scale and intensity of the best of anything.” He looked at me quizzically, and I clarified jokingly. “I probably shouldn’t have told you that I’m an environmentalist, because now you won’t take me seriously. Just pretend I didn’t tell you. In order to be effective at this it’s best if no one knows.”

So anyhow, what I realized about this dream was that, one, yes it’s entirely true. In order to change the world you have to keep it hidden. No one wants the gravity, the mess, the comparative analysis to how they’re actively living their lives. This is why the professor was actively switching from instructing to working in the corporate world. He’d loved the prestige of teaching, but couldn’t get access to teaching at elite institutions or make the wage he desired without climbing the ladder through corporate “experience.” (He had to work in the corporate world to build the currency to teach in the elite world.)

So, for those of you that buckled your seatbelts and hung on for the ride. Here’s my point and the point of the dream. If you really want to do something – you have to think about all of the avenues to get there. This professor of mine in my dream, could have stayed at his first college, doing what he loved, teaching. But he never would have professed to the student group he’d hope to reach, nor earned the wage he was fit for earning. He had to game the system to get there. The same is true for the environmental movement. Though I love efficiency, wind turbines and solar panels, geothermal installations, bikes, and public transportation, the rate at which these items are creating an infrastructure is not fast enough to counteract our current construct. Population, deadweight loss of our global society (inmates, refugees, etc) and our brand of employment are the real items to adjust. 

Anyhow, I know this is a long post and not necessarily in the style that I take traditionally, but I wanted to treat you loyal blog readers with that message from the dream world. Alas, go forth and dream big, but be scrappy. If you want to invent a new spaceship you may have to grow bamboo and sell furniture. After a decade you may have sold enough furniture to buy the necessary materials for your spaceship.

Drill Obama Drill

Watch Obama's State of the Union Address by clicking on the video above.

I came back from my first day of class at George Mason feeling pretty excited. Our political climate has been more conducive to justice and the everyday Schmendrick has been getting their fair shake. Europe has pledged to stop using Iran as its source of oil and the embargo will begin fully in six months, effectively cutting Iran’s oil sales by 20 percent. (Assuming Latin America and China don’t fill the void).

Anyhow, with the Keystone XL Pipeline permit being denied, catch limits on fish being carved out, and NOAA being put into the Department of Interior as it should have been in the 1970s, I thought that things were looking pretty good for us environmentalists out there. Then I read the State of the Union. (I wanted to watch it, but it turns out if you miss the State of the Union and there’s damn punditry going on afterwards, all the online sources stream to the damn punditry.)

So it turns out that Obama’s energy plan is to open up 75 percent of our potential offshore oil and gas resources. He also wants to keep launching into using natural gas. Apparently the US is endowed with a 100 year supply of natural gas. (By the way we possess two percent of the world’s oil reserves.) Anyhow, I can understand why it makes sense to drill here, and though I am an environmentalist, I get the pinch we’re facing right now for oil and the problems that arise from funding oil despots overseas. However, I think Obama is a coward for not even mentioning the responsibility we face for climate change. Re-election’s got him backed into a corner and whimpering. 

If I were him, and I had no reasonable alternative but to open up our offshore oil wells, at least I would make a trade of some sort. I’d also bring home the fact that this measure is dire and only being done as a short term concession for a global crisis and offer up a trade.  He could have used this moment to start the first stages of a cap-and-trade system, where carbon emissions are traded as a commodity and their revenue goes toward funding a renewable energy system. He threw an ace card away. 

In his defense, Obama is pushing to expand clean energy. He aims to double US investment in clean energy (which isn’t much comparatively) and provide enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 3 million homes.

Ahhh, I want to love the guy, but he just lost a lot of momentum that he recently accumulated. It didn’t have to be that way. 

I highly recommend reading the State of the Union Address.

Poltical swagger, environmental victory

  Porpoises rejoice in a celebratory game of "walabanlubber," a marine game with its closest equivalent being the North American game of "bash paw." Porpoises attempt to be the first to strike each others' dorsal fins. If you're interested in something of relevance please read below.

Obama has been on a roll lately outwitting the Republican Congress. It started with the recess appointment of Richard Cordray and culminated yesterday when he denied TransCanada the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline.  Where once, Obama seemed caught in the web of Congressional stagnation, he has really come into his own, not only showing that he is capable of sidelining an ineffective Congress, but also showing that he can take a punch and roll with it. 

The Republicans had high ground only three months ago when the State Department was left in a bind determining whether or not to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. The Pipeline would create somewhere in the ballpark of 6,000 jobs according to the consultant, Cardno Entrix, which performed the cost-benefit analysis and the environmental review for the State Department.  Basically the State Department, with Obama’s final approval, had to determine what was more important 6,000 new jobs or the environmental health of our nation. 

Environmentalists saw the pipeline for what it would be, game over for fight to abate climate change. Tar sands extraction is extremely detrimental to any vegetation at ground level, and the refining process itself is extremely energy and carbon intensive. Carbon emissions from tar sands are 20% more concentrated than traditional petroleum emissions. So not only were environmentalists enraged about the choice of adding another fossil fuel to our nation’s energy portfolio, we were livid as hell about the added concentration of carbon from tar sands. 

Anyhow, three months ago, our nation’s credo was jobs, jobs, jobs at all cost. It still very much is so. But, because of a bonehead political power play by Boehner and his bunch, Obama got let off the hook.  When the Republicans wanted to ex the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, Obama was in trouble. The Republicans stalled and almost killed the extension by first voting against it. But eight days before the tax cut ran out, Boehner called the Republicans back into session and voted for the two-month extension - with a few strings. 

One of the strings attached was that Obama had to make a decision about the Keystone XL pipeline before the upcoming presidential election. Here’s the stroke of genius in it all. Because the Republicans gave an arbitrary deadline on making a pipeline decision, Obama didn’t have sufficient time to make the required environmental review. Though he initially was open for suggestion from those for and against the pipeline, he now had no choice but deny the permit because he couldn’t perform an adequate review. 

If any of you watch the West Wing, what’s unfolding today is a textbook example of one side of the political spectrum getting too cocky and impatient. Instead of strangling the Democrats with grace, the Republicans just shot themselves in the foot with a huge tactical blunder. 

I love it. Finally we have a ballgame for America, not just a stymied Congress and a disenchanted citizenry.

Carbon, carbonara, a dance of destiny

One day, Ileana Vink and I will become off-the-hook Lindy Hoppers like the ones in this video. But until then I will be happy being a swing enthusiast. See how swing relates to this post by reading below.

 

I live my life building for moments too immense to fade, too stark to be blurred by recollection. But even as I do everything in my power to build up to these moments, it’s all too often the extemporaneous ones that pull me in and infuse me with their providence. 

I opened the mail on January 14, to find a card from one of my best friends. Hector, an enigmatic blend of financial pragmatism and glorious romanticism, had given me an Amazon Gift card to purchase “Switch: how to change things when change is hard.” This book takes our “Predictably Irrational” habits and offers constructive outlets to counter their bad influences. (This gem is going to rock my world and right in the heart of resolution season!) But it gets better, along with the Amazon card, Hector wrote the following, “…and you can take solace in your green way because I’m gifting you .89 metric tons of CO₂ emissions. After some shoddy math, I determined .89 was enough for the production of the book and transport to your home.” Hector you’re wonderful, and well studied! The carbon offset certificate came from carbonfund.org. (If you need any financial or economic advice email Hector at 1hector.marquez@gmail.com. He’s going to be wildly rich and perhaps one day he will be the chairman of the Fed.)

This was just the beginning of the sentiment. I also got Janelle Monáe’s cd from my long-lost Swedish friend Dan. Okay, he’s not really long-lost, nor Swedish, but we took a couple of Swedish classes together, shared a bond of wanderlust, and if all goes well Dan will be in Japan by 2013. Anyhow, he used to live in DC with me and now he’s back in Chicago, hence the long-lost. If you want to learn perfect French, intermediate German and Swedish, or meet my vote for “most likely to create a viral youtube series,” email Dan at dkillack@gmail.com. 

“Where’s the providence?” you ask. I’m getting there.  

On Saturday, January 14, I was sitting at my desk reading “Beijing Jeep,” trying to get a head-start for my Culture, Organization, and Technology class when I get a call from Ileana. “…I’m picking you up at 7:15! Wear clothes that you can move in…but make sure they’re kind of nice.” 

At 8:05 pm I was staring at two concentric rows of people in a large auditorium with wooden floors. A guy in a blue parka was in the middle of the concentric circles sharing jokes with dance instruction.  My  beautiful woman took me out for some swing dancing. In case you don’t know this about me, I find swing to be the nuclear energy of dancing. It’s the end-all, be-all, gateway into glory. From swing comes jitterbug and LINDY HOP. It’s fun as all getup, and one day Ileana and I will be pulling out back flips on the dance floor.

The thing about swing dance and carbon credits, is that they are the absolute resonation of true life. Simply put, they make life better for everyone involved. Ten years ago, in the United States, the environmental movement was on the fringe. The impacts of our everyday decisions were hardly thought about and broad measures of sustainability were hardly viable. Now our environmental consciousness has grown so widespread that carbon credits are up for purchase, new public buildings have to be LEED certified, and food is sought to be local or organic. Everyday people are becoming everyday heroes, and our nation is getting closer to threshold of sustainability. 

On the weekend of January 14 and 15, I celebrated my birthday, but more than that, I got a chance to celebrate true life and happiness. In addition to the dancing, Ileana made me a bacon feast with locally sourced meat. I know I’m being braggy here, but holy shit it was incredible and guilt free. She’s the kind of cook that makes carrots seem exotic and comes up with never-made-before-deserts during rush hour traffic. Hands off gentlemen, she’s mine! Anyhow, I won’t be able to give the bacon feast its proper acclaim. See what she has to say about it. 

In summary, when the people in your life make an effort to make your life wonderful it makes living take a new form – think voracious, bodacious, elations. The people in my life not only held me in their thoughts, they helped aid me on my quest to true life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thank you for those of you who held me in your thoughts on my birthday. May sustainability rush to the fore. 

Also, a quick shout out to my Mom and Dad, who have been with me every step of the way to enrolling in Public Policy at George Mason. Because of them, I have a chance to one day make broad environmental brush strokes in the spirit of a Teddy Roosevelt, James Lovelock, or John Muir.

Beating Scandinavia for once!

Image borrowed from Dave Granlund. Thanks Dave!

 Though this comic pokes fun at NOAA, I poke them with laud, praise, and merry sentiment. Data collected by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration made an unprecedented move to preserve fisheries possible.

Hello America I’ve been dreaming of!!! Did anyone catch the headlines in the Environmental section of the Washington Post Monday??? Okay probably not, since most of you loyal readers hail from Chicago, but here goes:

An unprecedented move to preserve U.S. fisheries

“In an effort to sustain commercial and recreational fishing for the next several decades, the United States this year will become the first country to impose catch limits for every species it manages, from Alaskan pollock to Caribbean queen conch.”

 ...I’m staring at my Swedish flag in a glorious disbelief, because the U.S. is poised to do something more environmentally responsible than the Scandinavian contingent. Could this be the start of a new era? And get this…the policy hails from Dubya’s tenure and was finalized with Obama’s backing. I’m talking at Republicratic glory here. To read more click here (then zoom in).

So with this bit of scrumptious happening in the wake of Obama’s recess appointments and on the same day of Obama’s chief-of-staff announcing his sign-off, I’m starting to get all excited about election season. 

Only last month I would have argued with my every that going to the polls was a waste of time, and worse yet, a waste of your carbon footprint. However, I rescind that belief now. Obama’s declared war on Congress! His cabinet is repositioning to handle the upcoming debate over how to pay for the payroll tax cut. It’s crazy exciting. And by the way, to hell with Congress! I saw enough filibustering from the Red Seats during my first summer here in D.C. to last two lifetimes. I’m stoked that Obama is unleashing a bit of executive command from the oval office. 

Anyhow, go U.S. and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for providing data on catch limits and enacting sound policy. 

Happy Tuesday, World.