respublica

World climate chief wants everyone on vegetarian diet

Another reason why the Copenhagen world climate conference coming up in December is something to be feared and avoided.

A former British climate chief and leading spokeman for global warming, Lord Stern said the other day:

"Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better."

And, he hope that the upcoming climate change conference in Denmark would lead to "soaring costs for meat" in order to get people to stop eating it.  "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases."

I don't know about anyone else, but I do not want "the world" telling us what we can or cannot eat.

As the world turns

Grocery shoppers in Sweden are finding a new addition to food labels--the amount of carbon emissions used to produce that product.

The powers that be hope that changing the way people eat will help global warming emissions in the same way as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes dryer.

Ok.  People in Sweden are doing away with their clothes dryers?  A country with a long cold snowy winter are hanging their clothes out to dry? 

And, oh no, the Swedes have official food guidelines now, all dedicated to eating without emitting any gas.  haha.  But, again, oh no.  Try not to eat many bananas or tomatoes.  Have a carrot instead.  Skip salad vegetables like lettuce and cucumbers, stick with the root vegetables and beans, lots of legumes. 

This type of thing, labeling food by carbon dioxide emissions is just one more reason I hope the U.S. does not bother with the United Nations Copenhagen climate change conference in December. 

I don't want to live like this, it's too Orwellian.

I do not want the rest of the world deciding what we eat or how we dry our clothes. 

Eat the dog-real sustainable living

This save the planet thing has gone too far.

Two New Zealand professors have written a book, Time to Eat the Dog, in which they claim that the yearly carbon footprint of a dog is more than that of a Toyota Landcruiser.

They think pet owners should swap cats and dogs for creatures they can eat, such as chickens or rabbits, in other words, edible pets.

"Owning rabbits is legal anywhere. Local bodies allow chickens, with some restrictions."

Oh no.  I hope the city of Clayton is not reading this.

Every season is the silly season for the carbon footprint folks.

Zero waste

The anti garbage wave is gaining momentum as more cities, parks, schools, stadiums, businesses and restaurants have begun requiring or encouraging the elimination of age old practice of throwing stuff away.

Recycling of the traditional items is now being joined by the composting of food scraps.  Old clothes aren't tossed, but taken to re-sell-it shops.  Books are being donated given away.

Frankly it seems impossible to believe we will ever live in a time when we have zero trash, but the effort is worth a try.  Landfills are crammed, some cities incinerate (yuck) some are still dumping off shore. 

Even better is the work being done to eliminate styrofoam, one of the most insidiously common items trashed because there is no way to ever use it again.  Stopping the use of the cheaply made styrofoam will occur when affordable alternatives are created and manufactured.  We're close as companies are beginning to offer plant based plastics which will disappear when heated after use.  We already have the option of choosing disposable forks, knives, and spoons made of corn starch which will compost naturally.

Buying items made from recycled material, especially those things we use daily like paper towels, napkins etc. is a good way to encourage new manufacturing and jobs. However, I still can't be convinced it's better to clean kitchen counters with a washable cloth or sponge.  Too much opportunity to spread bacteria by multiple uses so paper towels seem much cleaner.

One thing troublesome about the composting of all home and restaurant scraps is that it flys in the face of the age old rule on composting-don't toss in animal fat, meat bones, dairy.  Those items attract animals you just don't want roaming around your property.  And, they could become bacteria ridden. 

But some cities are doing the composting of all food.  They must have a system.

Texas and California alternative energy leaders

Who would have imagined Texas would be right there with California in production of alternative, renewable, energy?  Texas is now the top producer of wind energy while California leads in solar power.

Texas set a renewable energy policy back in 1999 when George Bush was governor.  California built a couple wind farms in the 1980's but too many state regulations drove that state to solar power which has fewer snags and delays in permissions.

The red state/blue state duo leading the way is fascinating stuff.

 

Shovelnose protection

There's a plan afoot to dig into the possibility of protecting a Mississippi and Missouri river caviar producing fish with the unfortunate name of "Shovelnose" Sturgeon.

Seems the Shovelnose is not endangered, but is a look-alike to the Pallid Sturgeon which is endangered.

Caviar demand from these two fishes boomed after European caviar became depleted.

Still, as special and expensive as caviar is, it's kind of humorous to think of it coming from a Shovelnose.

And, it'll be interesting to see what happens if and when this fish is off limits to fishermen, will an over population of Shovelnose cause more problems in local river waters than before?

When littering becomes composting

It seems more and more of us have developed the discipline of not throwing things into the trash which can be recycled.  This is good. 

However, hand in hand with this has come the idea that since composting vegetable waste is good for the ground, then just tossing banana peels, apple cores, orange rinds etc anywhere on the ground is also good practice.

I don't know how it is where you are, but around here fruit remains are everywhere.  People eat apples while they walk and then just drop the core on the ground.  The same for banana peels and oranges. 

This sort of behavior has increased dramatically the past year and although it's nice to know so many folks don't want add to the trash, just tossing fruit any old place where people walk isn't really the best thing to do. 

It may be time to place small composting containers next to trash receptacles in our parks and school yards.

Weeds. Something else to worry about

A couple of years ago it was the invasive Kudzu vine threatening to take over the American landscape.  Now there's something new, the Cogongrass.  A nearly indestructible weed, the perfect weed, one of the ten worst weeds in the world, is now popping up in Alabama so completely that the southwest part of that state is solid with it.  Left unchecked it could spread all the way to Michigan.

"Come springtime, you can see its white feathery tufts, surrendering seeds to the wind. Come summer, the yellow-green blades can rise six feet high. Then, during winter, the grass turns brown but often remains erect."

It originally got a foothold in Alabama after some cogongrass seeds escaped from a Satsuma orange crate, but was made worse when back in 1921 someone thought introducing the plant from the Philippines into Mississippi for forage was a good idea.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

NYT's headline:

Global Warming Could Forestall Ice Age

Mike, you're scaring me

One of my Facebook friends is a guy I don't really know.  He has a Collinsville connection and must be employed by Green Technology Consulting because every Facebook post he places has some information on energy savings or green tidbits.

But he sometimes scares me.  Like today.  His post says, "Dust mites comprise 50% of the weight of the average pillow."  And, "That is why they say you should never keep a pillow longer than 6 months."