Virescent

I was going to post on this last night, but trying to make sense of it destroyed all my logic circuits. I had to reboot. I watched the Office finale instead, which was pretty awesome.

This morning I switched from the logic processor to the zen processor, so I’m going to try and just go with the flow about it.

Wednesday the polar bear was listed as a threatened species by the US government, entitling it to protection from that-which-threatens-it under the US Endangered Species Act. Not as much protection as an endangered species, more more protection than a hunky-dory species. Cool, good on them, because while there are lots of polar bears out there, their habitats are vanishing with alarming rapidity, and we can’t keep them all in German zoos.

So far, so good. Now, turn off your logic hats- I don’t want any heads to explode.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne presented the decision with these remarks:

“While the legal standards under the Endangered Species Act compel me to list the polar bear as threatened, I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting,” he said at a briefing.

“Any real solution requires action by all major economies for it to be effective,” Kempthorne said. He also noted he was taking administrative and regulatory action to ensure this decision was not “abused to make global warming policies.”

So, the science is strong enough to conclude that global warming is the danger, but we shouldn’t make that an excuse to act on the science showing the danger, because it’s ok that the danger stays. Right. Ok. I’m flowing with that.

I have some theories that attempt to logically explain this, actually: First, Dirk Kempthorne is not a real person, but a character from a thrilling novel (doesn’t he have a great name for it?), perhaps written by Stephen Johnson, who is being bribed by a secret, powerful organization to destroy the word by obfuscating government responses to climate change, causing mass confusion, panic, and fatal delays. Rehearsals for the movie version were accidentally leaked as the actual policy statements.

Second, maybe they just had two different people write the yes-protected and no-not-protected speeches, and pasted them together as one speech instead of just deleting the “no” speech?

Let me know your theories about what happened.

Actually, I bet we could get this all cleared up if the Interior Department were forced to explain their decision to this guy (link found via climateprogress).

In preparation for National Bike to Work Day Friday, a couple of articles on How We Bike. Reuter’s says “Less”, in the last couple of years- but now that gas is getting more expensive, maybe “More”.

According to the National Sporting Goods Association, the number of Americans who bike “frequently” — 110 days a year or more — fell almost 10 percent in 2007 to 3.7 million people.

Similarly, the number of people who ride bikes at least six times a year fell to 35.6 million in 2006, the lowest since the survey began in 1984, from 56.3 million in 1995.

They think this may have to do with parents not allowing kids to bike on “unsafe” streets, and people getting older and being less physically active. A friend pointed out it may have to do with increased availability of public transportation. I think it may also have something to do with growing suburbanization. People are living further and further from work in all the new developments springing up, so it’s impractical to bike to where ever they work.

But I understand the national hesitation. It’s scary riding a bike down a highway, or through a city- our streets are designed for cars, and maybe pedestrians, but not bikes. The article mentions that when bikers are given lanes, the incidence of biking increases.

Tomorrow is the day to test it out. (Or Monday. Or any day! Any day you like!) There are detailed maps of Alexandria’s bike paths at the LocalMotion website- and they also have links to maps of bike paths in DC, Arlington, Fairfax, and a few other places in Virginia linked at the bottom. The Meet-up for Alexandria bikers is at Market Square- on King Street in front of City Hall- tomorrow, and you might also find some experienced bikers to ride with toward your destination there.

Maybe you already bike to work, though. Maybe you are ready to really get into biking rights, to get in those automobile’s faces and claim the roads. Take a cue from these people in LA, who’ve organized large biking groups to take the freeways at rush hour- given the state of transportation in LA, they move faster than the cars do. Sure, it’s technically illegal, but it’s certainly a statement. The bi-renegades are trying to raise awareness of the need for better transportation infrastructure, especially bike-safe roads. They’re catching flak from bikers who’d like to work with the city to change transportation systems, and from angry car drivers who consider them a menace. But they contend that the only way to drive change is to show how broken our systems are, so the illegal rides might continue.

There you have it. Beginner or bone-fide biking beast, have a great time tomorrow!

The event is sponsored by the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA), and rallies have been organized at “pit stops” around the region. They’re printing up 7000 teeshirts, so you’ll be biking in good company- they promise biker convoys.  In Alexandria, the rally features food and raffles and such.  Maybe I should bike over to the rally, then walk to work.  Only the raffle prize is a free bike, and I already have one bike I don’t use enough.

So do it!  My commute is so short now as to not justify biking- I’ll be walking.  But if you want to borrow my bike…

Ok, I spent Saturday at the Eco-City Summit for Alexandria. And I came to many conclusions, and had some small experiences, but I’ll stick to the big picture.

First, Alexandria City government seems serious about changing our course to one of sustainable development. The Mayor, Vice Mayor, and a few of the council members were there. The Vice Mayor, Del Pepper, and Rob Krupicka, one of the council members, are the ones spearheading this effort to define “eco-city” and get a plan together, so good on them.

Second, when the attendees of the Summit were polled (using a pretty sweet remote-control thing, all high tech and such) we realized, awkwardly, that of the 130 attendees, over 70% were white, 90% had a college degree (60% had a graduate degree as well), and 60% were active in other city council activities. This is not representative of Alexandria at large at all: if the City coucil is going to put together a sustainability plan, it will require the participation of the entire city. Alexandria needs to do better in including the diverse citizenry in putting together these ideas.

Third, activism is rather daunting. Now I know what the mayor looks like, but I’m still just learning what I need to know to get involved in all this governance mess. Toe in the water, and it’s cold in there…

Over the course of the morning, we got a chance to comment on the broad principles outlined in the Eco-City Chater the Environmental Policy Comission had drawn up, and then later to give ideas for more specific plans the city could use to implement those principles, once the EPC revises them and presents them to the council and they get approved and everything. Discussion moderators from the Virginia Tech Urban Planning program and a few other places wrote what we said down in notepads and on post-its, so we all felt good about being heard. Plus we got to hear Mayor Bob of Waitakare talk about his city’s 15 years of eco-progress. He’s a pretty neat guy, and if I hadn’t had to be in West Virginia that evening, I would totally have followed up on one moderator’s suggestion that Mayor Bob might be at a pub somewhere on King Street later that night. Also, all the plates and forks were compostable, and compost bins were available throughout the school where the event was held (though eco-samurai raises some good questions about composting plastic in the first place). Credible attention to detail.

The next step in the eco-city charter process is May 19th, when the Environmental Policy Comission will be holding their regular meeting to go over our suggestions from the Summit. It’s open to the public, and it will be held at City Hall (Sister Cities Conference Room 1101, 301 King Street) at 7:45. There’s still time to comment on the Charter- the text and a survey are linked here.

Beyond just following the progress of the Charter, I was advised by an active local to join a civic association or something- like the Old Town Civic Association. So I’ll look into that, at least to see who movers and shakers in local agitation are. I want to focus on environmental and sustainability issues, though, and so I don’t want to get bogged down in lots of other local issues. I need to learn more, and enough to pick and choose.

I’m trying to fight my metal image of local politics as dirty fights over “tiny” issues. These probably stem from watching grainy old movies involving local politics. I have visions of Huey-Long-types in smoky back rooms, complaining about the Potomac Yard development plans. I hope familiarity with the inner workings of Alexandria will correct all my groundless prejudices.

At the Alexandria Summit, Mayor Bob Harvey of Waitakere, New Zealand gave a presentation about his own city’s efforts to become an eco-city. He showed us a very pretty video of the eponymous mountains and some beaches, civic events and so forth, but I couldn’t find it to link for you. Instead, I found a video of their “Trash to Fashion” show. It began as school kids in Waitakere making costumes from waste, and has grown into… well, you’ll see. For your viewing pleasure: the trippy part of eco-cities. (Will this happen when Alexandria does her thing? I hope so.)

At least until Nature has her way and drowns everything.  We’ve gotten three or four days of heavy rains here, and my plants are getting soggy and depressed. 

But look!

The basil is doing pretty well.  Album of progress is here, but those pictures are already three days out of date.  In between, I went to the Eco-City Summit and my brother’s college graduation in West Virginia.  I’ll post about the Summit tomorrow- still gathering thoughts on that (and my notes must be somewhere around here).  But the graduation, that was cool.  Nicely done, little brother.  Although I thought you were kidding when you threatened to buy a gigantic SUV after school, to cancel out my little hybrid.  Gah. 

Who knew that the SA on Little River was open until 9pm?  Not me.  But it’s the last time I’ll be over that way for a while, so I took the chance to look through again on my way home from my final exam.

As you see:  A gigantic, broken blouse, $4.  Perhaps it will become a skirt.  A top with lotuses on it, $4.  Very, very plaid dress, $5.  It has pockets!  Green silk classy thing, probably a bit too large, $7.  In case I have to do anything classy this summer.

Fare well, Little River SA, until next semester.

I’m up, I’m up.  On my way to the Summit too.  I’ve read a bit about Eco-City Charters and the documents that Alexandria has already prepared.  It looks very general at this stage- we’ll agree to think about sustainability now in the Charter, then in the Environmental Action Plan based on the Charter, actual sustainable programs and policies will get underway.  As much as I like specifics, and dislike mornings, I’m thinking the Summit today is a good place to get to know the local officials involved.  Maybe meet some local activists, and review the playing field.  Also, I’m hoping they have doughnuts.

Found a couple interesting articles on the environmental impacts of eating meat today. First, from Wired, an argument that eating meat is an ethical issue because of its impacts on the global food supply. Livestock require lots of food to eat and big areas to hang out in, so that prompts deforestation, decreases farmland, and drives up grain prices. There are plenty of other things driving up food prices (corn-based ethanol, argh), but the rising demand for meat is certainly one of them. After describing food riots in a dozen countries:

Even before this crisis, food experts said the world could not feed itself in coming decades if growing populations in developing countries insisted on a meat-rich western diet. That time may already have arrived — and largely without climate-change induced agricultural disruption. Add droughts and years of failing harvests, and things get seriously scary.

So maybe it’s time for taste to take a back seat to conscience. I know that sacrificing meat for veggies won’t solve the problem on its own, but it’s certainly just as meaningful as using compact fluorescent bulbs or cloth shopping bags, and I do that without hesitation.

I dig. Fauxsage for dinner it is.

Ok, so cut back on the meat, check. And when we do get meat, organic free range meat is neat! Right? No. The BBC makes a case that organically raised beef and poultry might produce more greenhouse gases, consume more food, and produce more waste that’s harder to clean up than livestock sequestered indoors.

Housing animals gives humans control. The diet can be precisely manipulated to maximise growth and minimise polluting gases.

Animals do not waste food energy on running about and keeping warm. Their manure can be collected and burned as a fuel, avoiding damaging evaporation and seepage into rivers.

In the future, it is hoped that sealed barns would have exhaust vents where the harmful gases could be captured before they entered the atmosphere.

This combination of precision husbandry and species advantage is what puts commercial indoor poultry sheds at the top of the climate chart.

Peter Bradnock of the British Poultry Council says: “Organic poultry meat has about 45% more global warming potential than indoor-reared poultry meat.

My first reaction: Well, *expletive*.

We have to keep the animals indoors and still for us to reduce emissions? But that makes them sick, and unhappy, and unhealthy, and and and. The way they raise non-organic pre-meats today, they inject them full of hormones and feed them weird stuff to fatten them up. Plus, do poultry farms really feed their birds to maximise growth AND minimize emissions already? Or are they just focused on maximizing growth? Most farms don’t have biomass heaters or other waste collection/conservation systems in place to actually get rid of the emissions: the article points out that they might, later. So for now, they’re just pumping the animals full of chemicals, and keeping them immobile in a barn so the greenhouse gases probably aren’t reduced, but they are all emitted from the same general area.

Do any of these environmentally friendly barns exist? And are the animals in them treated humanely?

With none of those questions really answered for now, I’ll have to pick my poison: emit more gases (maybe?), or eat healthier food. I’m sure the meat-makers, if they are interested in their carbon impact, will find a way to raise healthier meat in a less greenhouse-gas intensive way. Maybe that will be indoors. Maybe it will be humane. I’m not holding my fork.

Conclusion: I’ll keep buying hormone-free chicken, and free-range if I can find it. Same with beef. Until I find one animals from one of these wonderful indoor gas collection barns.

If you live in Alexandria, whether or not you’re headed to the Summit this Saturday (can we be summit friends, if you are?), read the draft of the Eco-City Charter that’s been put together already.  It’s a 12-page .pdf file, with some non-specific but pro-environment goals lined up (”we will reduce water pollution”/”we will encourage mass transit”).  A few interesting points- we’re going to encourage the preservation of open spaces?  There’s construction going on everywhere.  And we’re going to make the rivers fishable?  Hunh. 

Anyway, give it a look-through, then take the survey they’ve put up to collect lots of public comments.