The nightblooming cereus

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbzi8XydHQc

Poem: A Blade of Grass, Brian Patten

You ask for a poem.


I offer you a blade of grass.


You say it is not good enough.


You ask for a poem.

I say this blade of grass will do.


It has dressed itself in frost,


It is more immediate


Than any image of my making.

You say it is not a poem,


It is a blade of grass and grass


Is not quite good enough.


I offer you a blade of grass.

You are indignant.


You say it is too easy to offer grass.


It is absurd.


Anyone can offer a blade of grass.

You ask for a poem.


And so I write you a tragedy about


How a blade of grass


Becomes more and more difficult to offer,

And about how as you grow older


A blade of grass


Becomes more difficult to accept.

Video: Beautiful mountains

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxhUtQBcri8

A New Hive

Art to save the disappearing honeybee.

http://anewhive.blogspot.com/

Legend: Everett Ruess

Alone, I shoulder the sky,

And hurl my defiance

And shout the song of the conqueror

To the four winds,

Earth, sea, sun, moon, and stars.

I live!

http://everettruess.net/

http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/2009/04/everett-ruess/david-roberts-text

Words: Where the Wild Things Were, William Stolzenburg

http://www.conservationmagazine.org/articles/v7n1/where-the-wild-things-were/

Proenneke's cabin

30 years in the wilderness.

http://www.nps.gov/lacl/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm

Hello fellow enviro classmates: 

 If anyone is interested in a study group this Saturday, Sept 26th, please let Ross or myself know. A location will be announced tomorrow.

Cheers,

Christina

Photos: Re-Wilding, Lucas Foglia

http://lucasfoglia.com/rewilding/index.html

Environment and Photography Converges

PHOTOS: Artist "Runs the Numbers" of Big Ocean Threats

From National Geographic.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/04/photogalleries/chris-jordan-massive-photomosaics/index.html

Summary of talk by Angela Johnson Meszaros

I attended a talk a few days ago given by Angela Johnson Meszaros. A lot of information was related to environmental justice on which she had been working for 15 years.

The current biofuels made by corn is not good. She said that the cellulosic technology will help but it is not ready for industrial use yet.

She said that carbon trading does not work because:

• the caps are too high
• the cost per ton is way too low, about $3 per ton (vs $300,000 per lb for particulate matter)
• industries will buy their way to continue their current business of burning fossil fuels
• they can do the same thing as well by buying carbon offsets
• the acid rain cap and trade program is not a comparison for carbon because it followed regulations (the Clean Air Act), also there were technologies readily available for industries to immediately employ to reduce SO2 emissions. For CO2, there are no regulations or emission limit to follow and no good current technologies to switch to.
• the price per ton does not include external (environmental and social) cost
• the current programs in EU, the one in the East Coast, and the RECLAIM program in SoCal all are not working.

The best way is to have carbon tax. But politicians are always afraid that the proposal of adding tax will be rejected in congress.

One audience asked a question about the EJ community. She said that they are the people who practise the most "sustainability". They are the ones who always find ways to reduce the cost and reuse resources. The infrastructure is not available for extensive use, so people cannot just trade 3 hours of public transit to driving their car to pick up the kids.

She also said that carbon capture/sequestration is not recommended because it is just another way to "encourage" the use of fossil fuels (I think short-term "coverup"). It is just putting CO2 somewhere else, and there is no guarantee that the "storage" will be safe in the long-term.

My sidenotes and thoughts:

There is a new article today saying that ethanol production requires much more water predicted before. So a lot of water is used for corn production and then another lot of water for ethanol production.
http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2009/04/14/1/

Carbon trading won't stop climate change
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227046.200-carbon-trading-wont-stop-climate-change.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=climate-change

Photography and the Environment

In addition to taking the environmental studies class, I am currently studying photography at CCSF. I mainly shoot B&W film, and make my prints in the darkroom. Traditional photography has been utilizing toxic chemicals and uses a lot of water and paper. I would like to make my processes more environmental-friendly. A few months ago, I have switched to a paper developer made by SilverGrain , which is non-toxic and uses ascorbic acid. The results are very satisfactory and the prints do not look different from the ones that I had previously made using a paper developer with toxic ingredients. I am very glad that this works out and hope that there are other products that are non-toxic and/or help reduce the usage of resources.

On the other hand, digital photography has its own disadvantages as well, in terms of paper, ink, and electricity usage, and e-waste. The rapid advancement of new models and the reduction of price has enabled the expansion of the digital camera market to the general public. Linked to the usage of digital cameras, computers and printers are used. With the advancement in technology, the problem of e-waste has to be solved when people dispose of their old cameras, batteries, chargers, computers, monitors, computer accessories, etc. A lot of e-waste has ended up in developing countries (sometimes unknowingly exported from the e-waste companies), leading to toxic problems including cancers for the residents (many residents make their living dismantling the components for resale) and the environment.

How much Co2 in a Coke?

Coca-Cola UK has calculated its impact on the environment. Working with the UK Carbon Trust, Coke says that a 330ml can of ‘Coca-Cola’ sold in Great Britain has a carbon footprint of 170 grams Co2 equivalent.

A 330ml glass bottle of ‘Coca-Cola’ has more than double - 360 grams Co2e.

After checking all aspects of the product's life cycle, Coke says that packaging accounts for the largest single impact, 30 - 70 per cent, depending on the type of container.

http://consumeractivist.independentminds.livejournal.com/872.html

Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests

Using toilet paper made by recycled material saves the forests and water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/science/earth/26charmin.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

Canada’s carbon sink has sprung a leak

This is relevant news for our last lecture.

http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/03/10/canada%E2%80%99s-carbon-sink-has-sprung-a-leak/#left

Until recently, its vast forests vacuumed up carbon dioxide. Now that process has been thrown in reverse.