MILLIONS

When a piece on Alternet references "The Day the Earth Stood Still," we should all be FREAKING OUT.

And we're not.

Just sayin'.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Interesting piece over at the Tork Better Business Center.

I was raised by parents who lived by the rule "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."  My Da actually made a big deal of how many squares of toilet paper to use!  Most likely this was to do with money - a hangover from being raised during the Great Depression - but as the 70s dawned and my Mama got the "Earth Day" religion, the emphasis was placed more and more on "saving the Earth," as we said back then.

So I am a scrimper and a saver.  I wash my plastic bags, and re-use twist ties, and store leftovers in old pasta sauce jars, and in general drive my husband crazy with old yogurt cartons falling out of the cupboards and paper towels left carefully to dry on the edge of the sink.  (Not the ones that have wiped up chicken juices.  I am frugal, not disgusting!)


Lately, I have been thinking that sweeping, people-driven, government-led/legislated action is the only realistic and viable way to tackle climate change.  But the small stuff has to happen, too.  Tiny changes, summed over large numbers, can produce big results.  I've known that all along, but have lost sight of it.  Have you?

Bassett, Iowa

Draft National Climate Assessment!

Here it is!  This is the draft report that, over at Mother Jones, Chris Mooney seems to think will kick the average American's butt into High Scared Gear about climate change.

Me?  I am not so sanguine.  I hate to sound like Jeremy Clarkson (who, when asked if he'd ever met an American named Jeremy, retorted, "No, it's too complicated - there's three syllables) but I think it needs to come with pictures and simple examples.  I doubt one in fifty Americans will even hear about the report, much less navigate to it, click the proper links and read - really READ - what's contained therein.

And frankly, we mostly don't know enough science to really grok what the report lays out.  Ask the average American what a 10 degree annual temperature rise will do to the climate, and they're likely to answer that it will just make things nice and summery, and ooh! they do wish they were in Florida right now.

I know I sound crabby.  I am crabby.  I am the person you are referring to when you say "Oh ye of little faith."

Folks - if we don't do something now, ONE OF THESE IS YOUR CAR:

Marc Morano

I don't know anything about truthout, where I found this, but if it seems like a reliable source, then this is very interesting, and Marc Morano is someone to watch out for.

But these darned interwebs, kids!  (They're a series of tubes, you know.)  How do you know what's real, and what's not?  Who is telling the truth?  Who can you believe?  Who's a shill for Big Corporate Interests, and who is a tin foil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist?

In this case, even without knowing anything about truthout, I am inclined to believe the piece, as they note Morano is heavily involved with the Heartland Institute and the climate change denial website ClimateDepot.com.  The folks at Climate Depot seem delighted to have received the "Warmist" award, and with the fact that Morano was named 'Climate Change Misinformer of the Year' by Media Matters.  Well, yay for them.

A CleanTech Future?

That's what Planet Earth Herald is asking about today.

I officially logged in with facebook (just like all the young kids today!) and counted myself as skeptical.  ACTION needed, people.  Hair on fire!

Have you seen any "CleanTech" in your world recently?  Any nano-particles clean up after you lately?  Go anywhere via "green mobility?"  Did you even use less wrapping paper this winter solstice holiday season?

Yeah, I thought not.

This is us.

AlterNet.org is reporting something particularly awful.

According to this report, "the world's most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent."

Ye gods.  Really - that's the kind of language that is appropriate here.  Ye gods!  Particularly in light of recent reports of how much more quickly the arctic ice is melting than "previously predicted."  By who?  Maybe these "previous predictions" were by the IPCC?

Huffington Post's Climate Change News of 2012

This piece, Huffington Post's top climate change stories for all of 2012, was front and center yesterday.  Today, I had to click "green" in the little breadcrumbs on the nav bar, and scroll more than halfway down the page to find it again!

Seems like a big story like this wouldn't fall off the front page that fast - but perhaps I am naive.