EARTH DAY, 2005

Mega approach avoidance happening here - denial of the stacks of papers, quizzes and tests on the dining room table. But, tomorrow is Earth Day, and I was planning to write a wrist-slitting post here about how little that really matters. I'm currently reading Thom Hartmann's The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, which was first published in 1998. This is a revised and updated edition published last year. I think there will be some light at the end of the tunnel, but a third of the way through this book I'm more than depressed at what my species has done to this planet. I very much identify with Joseph Chilton Pearce's words in the Foreword to the book:

"I have long puzzled how it is that the heartbreaking and near-terrifying nature of our ecological crisis is treated casually by and large, when not completely neglected or ignored by a generally sleepwalking populace. A planetary crisis embraces everything from the personal and social to worldwide, but in spite of an occasional flurry of lip service and 'let's pretends' concerning the avalance of disasters we are perpetrating, most of our gestures (a bit of recycling, a bit less driving, turning down the heat or AC, sending a check to the Sierra Club) seem to serve only to relieve our guilty conscience or mask our growing feeling of impotence. Nothing much is happening, at any rate, to halt our downward plunge."

Yes, yes and yes. "Growing feeling of impotence" is exactly it. The current issue (May/June) of Mother Jones focuses on climate change, that monster lurking under the bed that this country refuses to believe in. Interestingly (though hardly surprisingly) enough, Exxon Mobil is contributing largely to our refusal to believe. Here is a link to a chart showing the think tanks and policy groups that Exxon has recently funded. These are among the loudest voices proclaiming all the science of climate change and global warming to be hokum. This chart is further explained in the article "Some Like it Hot" in the "As the World Burns" collection of pieces on the subject. If you don't have time to read the articles, or UNTIL you have time to read the articles, here is an interactive map showing the global hot spots - fun for the whole family!

But wait - I said I "was about to" write a wrist-slitting post - ""what is this," you may ask, "if NOT one?" It is a journey through my evening's online reading - but it has a somewhat more upbeat ending. Kelpie Wilson writes for Truthout.org, one of the best liberal online journals of news and opinion, on environmental issues. This is her Earth Day article, and I have to admit that - although it has a whiff of the guilt-relieving gestures Pearce mentions in his Foreword to Hartmann's book - it considerably cheered me up. Anyone who reads this journal of mine probably already practices some of the suggestions at the end of Wilson's piece. Take on a few more, and most importantly (on this day when the House passed the atrocious Energy package) keep up the pressure on your elected representatives to stand up and fight the administration's corporate-funded anti-environmental policies.

The Green Dream Is Alive
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 21 April 2005

Maybe it's just the springtime, but I'm here to tell you that this Earth Day the Green Dream is alive. How can you not feel that way after you've just spent the day setting thrifty little lettuce and broccoli starts out in a well-manured field?

We've got to keep reminding ourselves of the Green Dream because, let's face it: these are hard times for green-leaning folks as we see so many of our worst Cassandra-like predictions coming true. Even those of us who have shouted about global warming for years are surprised to see how quickly the climate is changing right now. Thejust-released Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, which brought togethernearly 1,400 experts from 95 countries, told us that we have degraded nearly 60% of the planet's capacity to support life with clean air, water and food. Then there is Peak Oil. Like most environmentalists, I knew it was coming - it's basic physics - yeah, we're going to run out of oil. But I believed those bastards when they said it wouldn't happen for another 20 years. Let the grandkids worry about it.

The entire energy industry needs to be prosecuted for concealing the true state of their oil and gas reserves. The SEC has already fined Shell Oil $120 million for inflating their oil holdings in order to keep their stock price high. This is just the beginning of the unveiling of an accounting rip-off that will make Enron and WorldCom look like peanuts, if it ever gets going. Someone also needs to take the US Energy Information Agency to court for broadcasting falsely that the world-wide peak of oil production would not hit us until sometime between 2020 and 2030. Right now we don't know if the real peak is happening today or if it will happen two or three years from now, but it's clearly breathing down our necks. How on God's green earth has such incompetence been tolerated?

Well, here we are. The House Republicans want us to give another 10 billion or so in tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry to somehow motivate them to get off their duffs and find more oil. What if they gave that $10 billion back to us as rebates so we could all invest in a little personal energy independence?

Wouldn't it be great to have $10,000 to put some solar panels on your roof? Ten billion dollars could put those solar panels on 100,000 roofs. If we'd been doing that for the last ten years, we'd have a million solar roofs by now.

It's a time to plant, to invest, to give back to the Earth.

With gas prices up, President Bush now wants to talk to us about energy conservation and energy independence. Will he do it? Will he actually tell us to put on a sweater when we're cold instead of turning up the thermostat? What about car mileage standards? What will he do about the big lots full of SUVs and monster trucks that Detroit all of a sudden can't sell? How did we get here? How can we find our way back to some sanity?

The fertilizer the Green Dream needs is exactly what it is getting right now: the simple truth of our situation. The American Dream as articulated since the 1950s - the suburban, two cars in every garage, ultra-convenient, mall world dream - is history.

Once there was another version of the American Dream. Thomas Jefferson's yeoman farmers would live free and independent, producing according to their own needs and living a simple, virtuous life that would make them model citizens. This kind of self-sufficient farmer is an endangered species today. But perhaps it is a dream worth reviving. Once we find something to do with all the SUVs, we will be tearing up the suburban asphalt and planting gardens.

Do you remember the rabbit lady in Michael Moore's film "Roger and Me?" Go get that film if you haven't seen it. The rabbit lady, struggling to survive in the trashed economy of Flint, Michigan, raised and sold rabbits, her sign on the road advertising Rabbits - Pets or Meat. To me the rabbit lady is a beautiful example of American resourcefulness. We all have that kind of strength and pride, if only we would be called upon to use it.

So many of us are yearning to pitch in now, to do something, to plant a seed. Here are the usual "what you can do to save the planet" Earth Day suggestions, but instead of thinking of them as chores to add to an already endless list, think of them as investments in a better future.

1. Get your body in shape. We'll all be walking and biking a lot more in the future, so we might as well start now. And it's so good for you. Getting in shape does not mean getting skinny. Fat is good for you too. Just keep it moving.
2. Eat good food. Try to eat whole, unprocessed food like rice and vegetables, organically grown and locally grown if possible. Food processing and transport use a lot of energy. At the same time, over-processed food zaps your personal energy.
3. Buy some power strips. Check every single appliance you have plugged into a wall outlet and see if it draws current even when the switch is turned off. If it is warm to the touch it's drawing current. Lots of devices suck these "vampire loads" so we won't have to wait for them to warm up when we turn them on. Plug them into the power strip and turn them all the way off. Turn them back on when you need them - and wait.
4. Buy a bunch of super-efficient light bulbs (either compact fluorescents or the new high efficiency LED lights) and replace every incandescent bulb in your house with one.
5. Plant a garden. Even if it's just a window box with some lettuces or a tomato plant in a pot on the deck. Join with friends and plant a community garden and make it fun! Raise rabbits.
6. Invest in solar electricity, solar heating and energy efficient appliances. The payback time in power bill savings may be a little long right now, but when energy prices shoot through the roof, you'll be glad you did.

Below I've added a few Internet links for further exploration. Happy Earth Day!

Fat is not so bad.
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/042005HC.shtml

Good fat is good (the new food pyramid).
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050420/sfw099.html?.v=6

How to kill vampire loads and a host of energy conservation tips.
http://www.energyconservationinfo.org/almanac.htm

My favorite energy education site.
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/

LED lights may soon replace bulbs.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20950~2818906,00.html

Kids can sell energy saving light bulbs to raise money for school projects.
http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/wcee/keep/studentinvolvement/

A source of LED lights, solar modulesand energy saving appliances.
http://www.realgoods.com

Urban vs. Rural Sustainability
http://www.energybulletin.net/3757.html

End of Suburbia
http://www.friendsofthetrees.net/2005article_endofsuburbia.htm

Peak Oil and Permaculture in the Suburbs
http://www.postcarbon.org/

Homepower Magazine
http://www.homepower.org

This site has a database of solar installers.
http://www.seia.org/

Database of state incentives for renewable energy.
http://www.dsireusa.org/

Solar Today - Magazine of the American Solar Energy Society
http://www.solartoday.org/

The National Renewable Energy Lab
http://www.nrel.gov