Dr Doom killing us all (well 90%)

04/08/2006

I was over at Zoliblog, reading round and two articles promted me to comment. Funnily enough, the first was about comment censorship, the second was about Dr Doom. So the second comment was not allowed because my IP has been banned or something, which is sad because I quite like his blog, and my first comment was agreeing with him entirely, and I hate comment censorship - although I suppose my two quickfire comments make me look spammy.

Anyway the second article, which i am not allowed to converse on there is Dr Doom Plans to Save the Earth by Wiping out 90% of Humans. But since, once again, I've gone to the trouble and don't want it to just float away into nowhere, I have to talk here in my own safe space :). The story seems to go that this guy views us as a sort of bacteria, draining the planet till everythings gone. His solution is killing off 90% of us. I'm stoked at all this moral outrage, people who are so appalled that someone could actually think THEY should die! Ha! I love the contradiction. Noone cares that they are slowly jamming the world up with landfills, draining our oil supplies, polluting away the air until it's hard to breathe, chopping down the rainforests and coral reefs that sustain life and turn our C02 emissions into the oxygen we need to survive. Because, at the end of the day, we are humans and that essentially makes us god. And as we all know, God can do no wrong, even if he does do wrong. It doesn't matter that we don't mind discriminately killing other people, someone has just THREATEND TO KILL US! Who does he think he is? Does he not realise that we are WHITE? we are RICH? That the planet is NOTHING without us!  Zoli seems like a nice chap, but he is asking for this guy's resignation, he is hoping for his collapse, for daring to tell us that we are killing the planet and to make it survice, 90% of us must die. I think instead of this moral outrage, people should simply take a good inward look and make a few changes in their lives so that the planet can support 10.0000000001% of us, and so on and so on, until we no longer need to kill 90% of us in order to leave things for the rest of the planet's species to enjoy.

Hopefully, hopefully, this very brave man has done something the rest of us weaklings have failed to do: Make it quite clear that we will all die if we continue as we are, that at this rate, the planet can only sustain 10% of us. The shock is incredible.

12:12 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (10) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

RecycleBank - Get 'Paid' To Recycle

03/17/2006

I HATE those free coupons you get in the mail. We don't even have a letterbox and suffer all the hardships of not getting mail because we hate it so much. (Actually that's not strictly true, we hate it and we're lazy and we have alternative ways of receiving mail...) Anyway if you're in the US and like to recycle, then why not use RecycleBank? Basically, they provide you with a bin complete with barcode, that gets scanned when your recycling is picked up. As you recycle you earn points, and when you earn enough, sign into their website and choose the coupons you want (like $2 off every $20 you spend at the supermarket) Business 'donate' these coupons in return for the advertising they get as a result of their coupons (pretty sweet deal if you ask me). And everyone is happy. 

RecycleBank isn't 100% clear on how they actually run their business side of things, but the basic gist is that they earn money from cities reducing landfill fees, so you get the service for free.

 Interesting idea huh? We are so wasteful, there is money to be made in doing easy stuff to reduce it. Good on them.

16:52 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (6) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Check out This Blog

03/16/2006

Not generally one to promote others (hee hee), I have to make an exception for these guys. I had a conversation the other night about how bloggers will ever be as good as 'real' journalists, and I must say this is why. Inside WWF Philippines can show you a story not many others can. I would be adding them to my 'currently reading' section but Blogspirit has extremely inflexible templates and me moving the 'left column' to the 'bottom column' causes it to break as soon as I touch a module. So you'll just have to wait. Support them though, they fight hard, write well and show you a side to life you probably haven't really witnessed before.

16:36 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

The Anti Environmentalist

03/14/2006

I just stumbled on Ms Jennifer Marohasy's 'insightful' blog about 'politics and the environment'. I read a couple of articles about organics and suchlike, struggling to find one word that wasn't ANTI environmental and eventually, felt this post was worthy of a comment. So I typed it all up, pressed submit and 'Your comment was denied due to questionable content.' Who does that? Anyway, since it's all written down, and I can't see what's questionable about it, I've copied it here to the safe haven of questionable content. Hopefully I deserve a trackback at least for my efforts?

"Woah! Is this really an environmental blog? Greenpeace claims that they NEVER accept donations from corporations. This is because they know people like you will immediately write stuff like this (even though watching any form of news on TV means you are used to everything having its price). What exactly is your point? That our oceans aren't being raped and endangered species slaughtered? That risking life on a small rubber boat in the middle of the ocean and a bunch of harpoons to RECORD these atrocities is sensationalism?
Why do you people sit back, brainwashed by the media, with your smug little smiles and opinions about anyone who is making a difference? Even if it's true and Greenpeace accepted money for doing a job (like every other journalist channel seven has), how does this make it any less news or any more corrupted? If you don't want to add to the solution, please give all of us who fight every day for a better world a bit of a break, stick to talking about your favourite politicians or something. "

17:03 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (8) | Email this

Marketing The End Of the World

03/04/2006

Interesting post from Seths Blog about some improvements to the marketing of Global Warming. Yes, calling it 'Atmospheric Cancer' would inspire a lot more fear than 'Global warming', I would go so far as to say that anyone who cares should immediately switch names, gather together whatever horrific pictures they have (like the third degree burns we get here in NZ from the sun, the Antartic Penguins who feel it most and now have to travel hundreds of kilometers for food) and start the re-brand.

Or else, to move it away from a purely marketing exercies, we could get honest. "Noone feels Global Warming". I'm no scientist, but I was in Thailand during the Tsunami a few years ago, and I did get pummeled with media attention over Hurrican Katrina and I have heard of massive earthquakes that are killing hundreds of thousands, warped weather patterns and all sorts of scary stuff. But I've never really heard in mainstream media, the acceptance that this is/could be all part of global warming. The main problem with marketing the end of the world, is that no one really want to yet.

08:30 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment, Global Warming, Atmospheric Cancer, Marketing

Whale Song

03/02/2006

Songs of The Deep is one of those artilces that just leaves you stumped at the beauty of the world. The idea that whales communicate from one end of the earth to the other, they sing, they talk, they live for hundeds of years is notheing less than Awsome (an American on our dolphin watching experience said at one point' Now I undertstand why You Kiwi's use the word awsome so much, nothing less could describe this'). How the conversation immediately turned to whale meat is yet another example of how thick the human race has become, that people then felt justified in vocalising their opinion on Whale intelligence is another again. As someone put it:

"I agree. dolphins may be deeply philosophical, but can't even use fire. ants and bees function as a social unit better than chimps or humans could ever hope to. but as far as chimps looking like us, maybe we look like them.
we measure things against ourselves because we see ourselves as the ultimate creation.
but chickens don't test nuclear bombs in their own atmosphere."

Why we, who know nothing of space, the deepest reaches of the ocean and how to live a sustainable life feel we are any more intelligent than a slug is beyond me - our most scientific measurement of intelligence is brain size in comparison to body mass, and this is coming from a species that know so little of themselves we still must believe in god.

While I understand that beauty and magnificence alone is not an iron clad reason for the pessemist not to eat something, the fact that all our eating has led to near extinction should be. Or come to New Zealand and watch as motorways come to a standstill as migrating whales make their way through our ports, or the feeling of an Orca swimming under your boat or listen to the sound of dolphins as they speak to each other and race you through the ocean.

A New Zealand film called whale rider captures the immensity of these creatures.

18:35 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Bottled water a natural resource turned bad.

02/14/2006

Just found this article about bottled water on Digg.com. It makes sense to me that countries like Mexico and India consume a fair amount - I have seen the tap water there. What I do find interesting is that:

"Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 US cars for a year," according to the study. "Worldwide, some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year." 

And a well known fact about Coca Cola, their blatant disregard for anything but profit has lead to some people being forced to buy bottled water - Coke stole all theirs from the ground.

The study warned that the rapid growth in the industry has also ironically led to water shortages in some areas, including India where bottling of Dasani water and other drinks by the Coca-Cola company has caused shortages in more than 50 villages.

I would have thought everyone knew this by now, but the sheer number of people who still think that buying water somehow makes it more... water like? Seems to make this statement still neccessary:

"In fact, roughly 40 percent of bottled water begins as tap water," the study says. "Often the only difference is added minerals that have no marked health benefits. 

One interesting point. Who pays for all these countless 'studies' that all lead to the same results yet fail to actually curb the amount of bottled water we drink or its reputation as the healthy alternative to the good old tap? 

09:39 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

An Undiscovered wilderness

02/07/2006

I heard about this article just before, a rare occurrance in this day and age, to find hundreds of undiscovered species. Imagine what the world would be like without our human footprint, this sounds like everything you could possibly fathom - graceful, wonderul, brilliant creatures from every walk of life, living happily high up in the mountains undisrupted by the terror we spread.

"This is a place with no roads or trails and never, so far as we know, visited by man ... This proves there are still places to be discovered that man has not touched." (I assume woman has also left the place unvisited)

The comment that got me:

"What was amazing was the lack of wariness of all the animals. In the wild, all species tend to be shy of humans, but that is learnt behaviour because they have encountered mankind. In Foja they did not appear to mind our presence at all.

What I would give to have been an observer, what I fear most is what will happen now. 

 

 

 

 

18:02 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

The end of Gasoline began in 1979

02/04/2006

If your nervous about the imminent end of the world's oil supplies, read this... Turns out in Brazil, they've been running their cars purely on ethanol since 1979... And, unlike with hydrogen, converting our current petrol stations over is extremely simple... How to Beat the high cost of Gasoline... Forever

18:55 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

A herb garden

02/02/2006

We talk a lot about sustainable living these days, especially with the thought of getting our plot of land and building. The funny thing is how houses sell on 'gimmicks', we have friends who just sold their house for quite a hefty price and the real estate guy divulged that the owners fell in love with, not the stunning architecture, or cladding, location or layout, although all those things were nice, what they really loved was the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden? Who would part with over half a million dollars for a vege garden? Don't they know they cost less than $100 to make? Obviously they don't.

We have other friends, one of whom is a builder, the other of whom is bursting with ideas on starting a sustainable building company - still a relitively new concept, although embraced by the kitset home communty. We talk constantly about cool things houses can have, like those water tanks that are long and thin, so fit well in any old back yard, and ideas like having a hydroponic herb garden along one wall of your kitchen. All these things make our eyes sparkle with 'what ifs'... However, in the short term, we are renting, and had to settle with a container on our windowsill of a small selection of fresh herbs. I am still in love with the smell that wafts though our house, of mint and basil and that yummy fresh smell of things growing in dirt.

I reckon the way to move people slowly towards sustainable living is simple things that make a big difference, a vege garden, replacing your chemical cleaners with natural ones, composting. Simple things that get you back to nature a little. I don't consider myself a gardner, but give me a plant to look after and I treat it like my own child, and the joy you feel when watching the things you tend to grow and flourish? Who doesnt feel that? We are a long way from outing the idea of decentralised farming, but how nice is it to lessen our dependency on these things just a little?

18:40 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Germs and pests and vermin

10/20/2005

We had a vacuum salesman round a while ago, he filled up little baggies with dust and gave us a stern look and a good talking to about cleanliness. It appears, the aim these days is to live in a house so sterile, nothing would dare co-occupy. You'd probably be disguisted to know that we enjoyed the company of a large family of wild mice for a while, and that although we were warned of the dangers to our health, we had a good time with them, before trapping them humanely and removing them to a nearby forest. The reason I'm starting to notice things about dirt and bugs is that it's ever so common these days to have a massive spider phobia, or to douse your home in so many chemicals the entire ecosystem of little dust mites and ants and spiders and flies is killed off. We're a world of asthmatics, allergics and phoebics - we're terrified of tiny insects that couldn't harm us if they tried, our bodies can't cope with flower pollen or seed spores, and we think the answer is to remove nature from our lives.

I had a conversation in the weekend, where a spider phobia was put down to a natural reaction to a natural 'enemy'. I'm not sure what to think about that, I am personally extrememly uncomfortable with heights, and I suppose that could also be 'natural', but I think its more to do with some childood falls. I've always loved animals, but a few years ago, when swimming in a deep and isolated area of the ocean, I made the mistake of thinking 'Jaws' before bumping headlong into a jellyfish and scaring myself silly. Its funny then, for me to hear the story of the Australian shark attack 'victim' who ran back to shore, only to grab another surfboard and get back out. To him it's all nature, sometimes you get in the sharks way, and that's cool.

I'm not sure about the way things are going. I definately think all the sprays and poisons we use have more to do with our allergies etc than the bugs we've been living with for millions of years. I don't use flyspray, I don't think it's cool to trap and kill mice and I'm not too sure those horrible poisons are the way to undo the damage we've done by importing the wrong animals into our country. I don't have asthma, excema or allergies of any type so maybe I'm unusual, but I can't help but think that if we're becoming alergic to grass it is something other than the grass that is doing it.

When the vaccuum salesman visited with the asusmption that all dirt is bad, it suddenly seemed a little strange to me that we think that way. It's one of my new found joys, 'question everything', it's interesting when you examine your base assumptions, how many of them are the result of weird psychological events and how much that warps your view on the world. When you make the quiet little assumption that all dirt/bugs/pests are bad, the entire world ends up entirely different from if you believe in their role.

22:50 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Petrol

10/16/2005

What I love about this world, is that just as you feel like its on the brink of insanity and that you really will have to go and live some cut off existence in the back of nowhere, something switches. Oil prices are rising rapidly, and as they rise, our objections rise to meet them, climaxing as we realise we're still standing at that petrol pump. We have no other choice. The age of cheap petrol is over, we're eaching peak oil, the holes that we are drilling into the very core of this battered earth are drying up and so is the fuel we all depend on. Why does that make me suddenly insanely happy?

There are alternatives, and while we as consumers prove ourselves once again to be slow to catch on, the change is substantial. Yes the days of cheap petrol are over, but the days of petrol full stop will finish at some point soon after. The thing that gets me, is that cars were never made to run on petrol, the first diesal engine was designed to be self sustainable by crop farmers. People run their cars off left over vegetable oil, people run entire public transport systems off cow dung. Its not rocket science, its not even that tricky. And while I have no faith at all in our combined ability to realise our mistake in allowing ourselves to become reliant on some of the most disguisting practises and companies in the world, in this case, we may be saved.

The thing is, petrol companies are pricing themselves out of the market. Suddenly, it is cost effective to ban cars from cities and install bike tracks, it is wise to look at alternative fuels (not even just for cars, but for all energy needs - case in point, in NZ, solar panels are now installed almost by default in new houses). Maybe that science that has been around for ever so long now, for hybrid cars and hydrogen cars will become mainstream.

And while our great great great grandchildren will amuse themselves for hours by questioning how on earth we managed to get ourselves entirely dependent on one fuel source that  destroyed the environment, left gaping holes under our earths crust (yes you may have noticed an increase in massive earthquakes), and would eventually run out, at least they will be laughing in a world that is on the long, slow path to recovery.

In the meantime though, to those idiots who have decided to import their massive petrol guzzling American cars into NZ,  we don't think thats cool here.

11:13 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

How wonderful...

09/28/2005

The other day a minke whale beached itself just down the road. I never saw it, but from what I hear, the entire community managed to get it floating back out to sea after a few hours with no hitches. We have dolphins round here too and seals, and you should see the seagulls gliding over the oceans calling out with the sheer joy of being lifted hundreds of feet into the air, the shags dive bombing into the water from a massive distance, and leaving again with fish in mouth. Some places around New Zealand, you wouldn't be too mistaken if you thought you'd left this world, we do, after all, call it godzone. Once, when I was young, I was out in our family boat with my parents and sat for ages while the most incredibly beautiful Blue Shark swam lazily around and around, far from the images of 'jaws' we all grew up with, I just wanted to dive in and swim with it. Sometimes, dolphins race you in the water, and another time an Orcha swam right beneath us. I was out collecting pipis once (small shellfish that you dig for by doing the twist in the sand) when my sister spotted two massive fins in the three feet of water we were standing in. It appears a giant manterey had the same ideas as we did. My friends and I used to lie on a jetty in the Malbourough sounds counting the stingrays as they glided beneath us, then dive in at midnight and splash in the phospheresence that lit us up like christmas trees.

Sometimes you look around in awe at the sheer force of life bursting out around us, the fact that even though we seem hell bent of destroying these animals, almost every month, in summer time the newspapers report another story of dolphins rounding up swimmers and protecting them against the 6 foot white pointer that has wandered into the area. My dad tells me stories of his flight instructor days when he used to watch out the plane window down onto a bay in Christchurch full of basking sharks. 

And that is why I feel sick every time I look out at the silent war ranging in the ocean, just on the horizon where boats and their nets are ripping the ocean floor to pieces, drowing everything in their path and then discarding all the broken and lifeless bodies that don't fit within their fishing quota. We only have 100 Maui dolphins left in the world, and they are all in NZ waters. When I hear stories from my parents about the old days where fishing off a beach would land you an entire family meal in a few minutes, I wonder what I will tell my hildren some day. When I was young, we had dolphins, and whales and seals and sharks...

09:20 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment

Hows the weather where you are?

09/21/2005

So it's coming into spring here, after a non existant winter (ie. the wooly jumpers never left their moth balled drawers). We welcomed in the first day of spring, sunbathing on the deck. For those of you not too aquainted with NZ, you may be under the illusion that we all live in little grass huts in the tropics... Most tourists arrive in singlets and spend the next two weeks freezing their way around the country. But not this year. They say NZ has every season in one day, and of course, because we sit very cosily under the ozone hole created by our friends over in the northern hemisphere, tanning is not a hard thing to do here - buit not in winter. Until now. While the other side of the world is getting hurricanes, we are at the height of summer on the first day of spring... only to drop back to the snowy winter months a day later. This weather is crazy. It's too crazy to relax in, you feel that hole expanding with every rise in the barometer, you taste the pollution in every breath of fresh spring air and you feel the clock ticking every time you start your car on fossil fuels.

21:40 Posted in environment | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment