I remember clearly traveling in Northern California in May of 2000. I was driving through Glenn County and stopped for breakfast in a country restaurant off I-5. The table-cloth was red and white checkered, like Arafat’s headdress, my coffee was hot, and the omelet tasted great. I was reading the morning paper. Then the lights [...]
Archive for the ‘Sustainability’ Category
Power Brown-Outs and Gas Prices
Posted in Energy, Political, Sustainability, tagged brown-out, gas prices, market manipulation on April 17, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Upcycling
Posted in Art, Sustainability on April 7, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Upcycling – What a Cool Idea! Here is a whole blog associated with this concept! Here is an old chair Devin painted and gave us a couple of Christmases ago:
Book Review: The Monkey Wrench Gang – by Edward Abbey
Posted in Books, Nature, Sustainability, tagged monkey wrench gang, wilderness ecosystems on March 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Monkey Wrench Gang is a classic book by Edward Abbey, his most famous novel, published in 1975. Even though I had heard about the book over the years, I had never read it, never actually seriously considered it. It took Devin, who is doing environmental work in Arizona in the Coconino Rural Environment Corps, recommending Abbey [...]
Secretary of Energy on Lower Gas Prices
Posted in Energy, Sustainability on February 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Forget lower gas prices. Our Secretary of Energy does not really want them lower. We’ll all have to put Nutella into our gas tanks soon. And stop taking showers. NakedDC does a nice job outlining our gas future based on Barack Obama and Steven Chu.
Supply of Fossil Fuels
Posted in Energy, Sustainability on January 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The most common fossil fuels we are using are oil, coal and natural gas. We started using them in earnest about 125 years ago, when combustion engines were invented. Of course, it started small and gradually increased, and today we are burning more fossil fuels than ever. Estimates range widely on how much we have [...]
Wall Street Protests
Posted in Commentaries, Crack-Ups, Political, Sustainability on October 9, 2011 | 1 Comment »
While visiting New York City last week, we went down to Wall Street and checked on the ongoing protests. There were, at that time, hundreds of people gathered, braving rain squalls, camping out in the park and on side walks, holding up hand-written signs, chanting, conducting drum circles, giving speeches, all against Wall Street greed [...]
Stephen Mather – Father of the National Parks
Posted in Cool People, Nature, Sustainability on September 26, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There is an excellent article in the Fall 2011 issue of National Parks, the magazine of the National Parks Conservation Association, by Kate Siber, titled The Visionaries. An excerpt: During Mather’s wanderings in the mountains, he encountered the famous naturalist John Muir, who spoke of grave threats to the wilderness. In 1914, two years later, [...]
Outsourcing
Posted in Commentaries, Sustainability on September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Try and buy a T-shirt at Sears that is not made in China. Try and buy ANYTHING at Wal-Mart that is not made in China. Go to REI and check out their clothing. It’s made in China. We don’t make anything anymore in America. Ok, we make airplanes, but Airbus is kicking our butts. We [...]
All My Books
Posted in Books, Sustainability on September 4, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Over a lifetime, I have collected books, stored them, sold many in garage sales, given many away, donated books to libraries. Usually I have not had anywhere near enough room in the house for bookshelves to keep them all. I’d need a small library. I don’t know how many there are left. I’d have to [...]
Re-Inventing the Wheel
Posted in Commentaries, Sustainability on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Re-inventing the wheel must be one of the most overused and trite expressions of the English language. The wheel is what we associate with technology, that incredible power that makes our lives easier and more comfortable. After every hike, when I finally get back to the trailhead and take off my boots, slip into my sandals, [...]
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