Archive for the Environment Category

From e-con-omics to eco-nomics? (August 1, 2011)

Posted in Bankruptcy, China, Economics, Economics Nobel, Education, Energy, Environment, Pensions, Schooling on August 1, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

(           “The Keynesians are using a screwdriver to hammer a nail.  The monetarists are using a hammer to drive a screw.  The wrong tool is selected because the challenge is not understood.”

)           “So we are screwed and hammered?”

(           “E-con-omists do not even recall the central tenet of economics.  Resources are scarce.  Not enough resources are available today to provide the growth needed to provide everyone with a first-world life style.”

)           “You know that observation is politically unacceptable.”

(           “The department of e-con-omics today should be merged with the department of religion.  The e-con-omists are marketing voodoo.”

)           “What about the department of psychology?  Or the department of environmental sciences.”

(           “What about creating a department of 3Es – energy, economics, and the environment?  What about adding a class in Mega-eco-nomics to the traditional classes in Microeconomics and Macroeconomics?”

. . .

(           “Economics is laden with rich irony.  The use of the word ‘gross’ in ‘gross domestic product.’  The products and services often are gross.”

)           “Look at the felicitous term ‘trickle down’ in ‘trickle down economic policies.’  The theory posits that all the money should be given to the wealthy and very little will trickle down to the populace.  Should anyone be surprised that very little trickles down to the populace.”

(           “And the Laffer Curve was worth a laugh but not much more.”

)           “We need more eco-nomists who recognize and accommodate limits to growth even though the realization is anathema in today’s political climate.”

(           “Very few are going to go quietly.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

You are stronger than the tool; the tool is smarter than you are.

Central Falls falls

The Senate confirmed Gary Locke as Ambassador to China by unanimous consent on July 27, 2011

On Trading Off (May 9, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Energy, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Housing, On [Traits/Characteristics] on May 9, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “I gave a neighbor a few dollars a few years ago not to cut a tree on his property that provided ample shade for my house and a sylvan view for me.”

Y          “You paid for what they call ‘borrowed landscape.’  You receive a pleasing view that someone else funds and maintains.”

X          “He pays the taxes and I rake the leaves within the drip zone.”

Y          “Anything in writing?”

X          “Just a handshake deal that has worked so far.  The tree shades the house from the sun and lowers the electric bill.  Now I need the energy from the sun to hit the house and lower the electric bill.  The solar panels are wired in series and when even small areas of a few panels are shaded they produce less electrical output.  I plan to approach him and see if he will let me cut the tree.  He installed a back up wood stove last year and may now allow me to cut it if I give him the wood in sixteen inch lengths.  That would work for me.”

. . .

Z          “We debated the proposed microhydro project last week.  It is hard to be in favor of microhydro at the public forum on alternatives and then against microhydro at the fly fishing club meeting.”

Y          “Hard to have hydro without hydro.”

. . .

Z          “It looks like I am saving the planet until you look at all the costs.  ‘Emergy’ is all the embedded energy in an item.  The measure incorporates all the energy to produce and consume it not just my cost of acquisition and consumption.  Weighing everything, the decision is not as clear.”

. . .

X          “The community council seeks to impose height restrictions on buildings and also require more substantial setbacks from the street.  A building must go up or go out.”

Y          “They may be against buildings.  A building can’t go up if it can’t go up or go out.”

. . .

Z          “Do you support a local farmer who occasionally indulges some pesticides or a distant organic farmer?”

. . .

Y          “Providing fewer parking spaces won’t reduce the number of cars.  Providing more sidewalks may increase the number of pedestrians.  However, aren’t you simply substituting concrete for tarmac?”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Medium Is Beautiful

Eat Mangoes Naked

Sawgrass Is Popeye’s Spinach On Crack

America Recycles Day, November 15 (November 15, 2010)

Posted in Energy, Environment, Gas/Fossil Fuel, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Society on November 15, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C         “The day is not yet as famous as Groundhog Day.”

E         “And it is not a national or a state holiday.  America Recycles Day.  Celebrated in many communities.  For over a dozen years now, they say.”

C         “November 15 is nationally recognized but is not nationally known.  The day may become the equivalent of Earth Day observed in the Fall when the bounty has been harvested.  One day to encourage us to reduce, reuse and recycle.  America Reduces, Reuses and Recycles Day is a bit much.”

E         “And there were no America Recycles Day sales inserts in the paper to recycle.  One day to inform and involve and not spend.”

C         “Once again, however, we may be chanting to the choir.”

E         “The day and effort should be targeted to kids.  They can carry the message home and convey it to the adults.  Yet it is the kids who were told at home to deposit their gum wrappers in the trash who don’t toss their butts out the window.  Reaching those who toss their butts out the window is the challenge.”

C         “What types of vehicles are those butts flying out of?  I suspect that they are the two-gallons-per-mile rigs.  Gasoline is a resource, a resource is finite, gasoline is finite.  We need to get real.  And really reduce not just reuse and recycle.”

E          “Yet, I understand those who don’t worry about global warming because they are worrying about paying their heating bill.”

C          “The warm inner glow you feel when doing right does not warm the house.”

. . .

www.americarecyclesday.org

www.lamprecycle.org

www.lnt.org/programs/peak:  The PEAK (Promoting Environmental Awareness in Kids) program

Bumper stickers of the week:

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Don’t light up and turn out the lights

Take the Lead:  Install LED lights and turn them off

Be enlightened:  Lights out or there will be lights out

Build it tight, ventilate it right

Insulation is your friend

The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use

Get your food from and close to the farm and field; don’t consume gas to feed your consumption

Take only pictures; Leave only footprints

Playa Plastica / Plastic Beach (September 13, 2010)

Posted in Boycott Series, Environment, Plastic, Water on September 13, 2010 by e-commentary.org

. . .

H     “The plastic water bottles may circulate forever in gyres in the ocean, fall to the bottom of the sea or roll up on beaches.  I always thought that the sun caused the plastic to deteriorate and mitigated the problem.  But no.  The small pieces and particles of plastic remain on the beach and in the bayou.”

O     “Out of sight, but not out of mind.”

H     “And yet still in the sight of shore birds, although the birds do not realize they are scooping up plastic mixed in the sand and the mud.”

O     “The marketers are making money selling something that is free for a higher price than auto gas or filet mignon.  The next stage for the marketers is to bottle plastic air.”

H     “Every plastic water bottle is a plastic explosive.  You can’t repeat often enough how important it is to boycott bottled water.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” dated March 23, 2009 titled “Boycott Water” and tap the movie “Tapped the Movie” and imbibe Bottled & Sold  The Story Behind Our Obsession With Bottled Water by Peter H. Gleick.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

Boycott bottled water

And then do it again

“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.”  Attributed to Mark Twain

Wars Over Water:  Coming To A Continent Near You