Earth, environment, green, nature

how many trees?

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According to one study, it’ll take about 1.2-trillion trees to absorb enough carbon to completely neutralize and reverse the carbon-emissions greenhouse effect that is (apparently) going on around the world.  Deforestation in various places should be reversed; the land there isn’t good for much anyway except forest as they’ve been ranched to death.  People plant green grass in their front lawns; how about shrubs, fruit trees, shade trees?  Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Carpeted in trees, the 2.82 million hectare Chiribiquete National Park in Colombia sucks CO2 from the atmosphere. (CNN)

replant, and plough no more

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The Guardian reports that we’re seriously boned unless we change our ways … now.

‘It’s a groundswell’: the farmers fighting to save the Earth’s soil

I planted native southern Alberta wildflowers near the house this spring instead of watering and expecting green grass to grow there.  It’s supposed to be conducive to the lives of birds, bees, butterflies, and or course beauty.

Yes, I bought a larger van, but you have to remember that the embodied energy needed to invest into a new vehicle is quite serious – the fuel equivalent to somewhere around 130,000km of driving.  I didn’t even get that far in seven years in the Kia Soul.

I plugged in my little electric foot scooter today.  It costs – and I don’t care if you don’t believe me – I’ve done the research and calculations – about $1.00 of electricity to go about 1000km on this.  Of course, I can’t carry lumber or a family or suitcases and cannot drive in winter.  But it serves its purpose.

And of course there’s my favourite – my bicycle.  But my physiotherapist is frowning on using it just yet.  The bonehead to T-boned my car made sure of that.

RRRRRR strong proponent

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I’m a strong proponent of this.

One Thing You Can Do: Fix It

I’ve been fixing stuff my entire life.  Why throw something out that is 95% alright when only 5% of it is broken?

My idea of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle continues on with the RRR theme –

  • Refurbish
  • Repair Renovate (so long as you’re not like those home reno people on TV who bash the hell out of perfectly good cabinetry with a sledge hammer and pitch it all into a Smithrite)
  • Redistribute
  • Respect
  • Repurpose

and many, many more.

complete crap

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This is amazing.  People are weird.  I switched from a plastic garbage bag in my home office space to a paper bag.  I don’t dump grease, spit, coffee, or any other liquid in it.  Never have.  But people feel compelled to carry plastic around with them anyway.  Aren’t there enough doo-doo bags out there?  You’d think that people would have wax coated paper by now.  “I don’t wanna cut down trees!”  Okay, then don’t.  Use recycled paper.  “Recycling’s not the answer!  Reducing is the answer!”  Okay, then get a smaller dog.  Besides, waxed paper can degrade, and so can poop.  Don’t like paraffin (fake wax from petrochemicals)?  Then walk quickly home with your poop.

Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage?

The issue is that people don’t want to change their habits.  Back when I was a kid, my mother used a paper grocery bag for garbage with a couple of newspaper sheets at the bottom and stapled an old newspaper to the top of it when full.  Nothing leaked.  All good.

US bond yield curve

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According to CNBC, the US bond yield curve has inverted, a significant indicator of a slowed economy.

Now I’m no professional economic analysis expert by any means – but is it not just as simple as knowing that the industries and, indeed, industrial models you’ve relied upon for “growth” all this time have started to fail because they should?  Did the steam engine not get replaced by the Diesel?  Then the Diesel-electric?  Did stone houses not make way for brick, then wood, then steel & glass?

Is Alberta not suffering now because people have a poor idea of the reputation of oil sands?  Lethbridge, for example, has an enormous amount both of sunlight and wind.  Isn’t the writing on the wall stating that, within 20 years or so, oil will seriously on its way out?  Now I’m not getting on the Liberal bandwagon and saying we should all convert farmland into solar panel land.  …  Then again, you’re building huge advanced greenhouses to grow pot.  Good for you.  (There’s a facetious tone to my remark, by the way, in case you couldn’t hear me.)

Instead of looking at this as a doom-and-gloom thing, this seems to me to be a sure indicator of the need for innovation, changes to the status-quo, advancement of “alternatives” (as though oil is the benchmark and everything else is an alternative).  In short, the stuff you’ve invested in is losing ground.  Stop trying to prop it up with make-shift measures.  Let it die.  Move into something else.

And Trumpy wants to open up more coal mines and “put Americans to work again”, as though going back in time will save us all.  Fool!  And you’re dragging everyone else down with you.