Sustainability – Nullius in Verba

Green Games

I wrote this some time ago. I still like it. It appears we are witnessing the crumbling of the green movement, as we know it. Dr. James Lovelock, who postulated the ‘Gaia hypothesis’ of earth operating as a self-regulating organism, is the latest to stray, if not exactly leave the faith. The listContinue reading “Green Games”

I Want the Freedom to Pour Hot Coffee on My Balls

We know from the last Green Chain post, that Jerry Brown (aka Governor Moonbeam) is a Prophet. Fewer folks know that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth–son of Edmund G. “Pat” Brown–and a stick up his butt. As a prophet (a Jesuit one, at that), he believes that people ought toContinue reading “I Want the Freedom to Pour Hot Coffee on My Balls”

Jerry Brown is a Prophet

California’s legislature recommends that standard be 55 gallons per person per day. Keep in mind an average person uses an average of 90 gallons per day. If you are poor and have older water appliances, you will be hit the hardest by this act. For example, older washers will use 40 gallons per load; one load of clothes in the old washing machine and a three-minute shower and you’ve reached your legal limit for water use for the day. Flushing the toilet will have to wait until tomorrow.

Water is Free, Isn’t It?

“If people can’t trade water, then they just keep doing the same things that they’ve been doing.” – Reed Watson, executive director of the Property Environment Research Center (PERC) I live in California. You may have heard that it is in a major drought. At the end of the winter in 2015, the snowpack whichContinue reading “Water is Free, Isn’t It?”

What Campbell’s Got Right and Wrong in Their GMO Label Announcement

Campbell’s announcement coincided with the new U.S. government’s eating guidelines; “Campbell Announces Support for Mandatory GMO Labeling.” “Genetic engineering,” California’s legislative analyst wrote in 2012, “is the process of changing the genetic material of a living organism to produce some desired change in that organisms characteristics.” In other words, GE is not an ingredient, likeContinue reading “What Campbell’s Got Right and Wrong in Their GMO Label Announcement”

Let’s Get Vertical: Factory Farming

Agriculture has one hell of a footprint, occupying 37.6 percent of earth’s land area, or about 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres) per person to feed our world’s current population. “There is no activity that humankind engages in that has a bigger impact on the planet than agriculture,” Jack Bobo, Chief of Biotechnology and Textile Trade inContinue reading “Let’s Get Vertical: Factory Farming”

At least eat their food

If there is one thing we can all agree on it’s that food is a good thing. Food is what provides our bodies with the vitamins, nutrients, carbohydrates and proteins that fuel our daily lives. James Beard said, “Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” Former cook, food writer and snarkicist, Anthony Bourdain saysContinue reading “At least eat their food”

Can the poor eat now?

More noise from Michael Pollan found here (and I have written on here). He suggests that the poor could get a more varied diet and avoid the effects of a vitamin poor diet (such as vitamin A deficiency) by planting “greens in pots around their houses…” That way, we would not need to employ GoldenContinue reading “Can the poor eat now?”

Golden rice now, everything else is noise.

Please spare me the anti-biotech crowd’s Argumentum ad Monsantum (the “Appeal to Monsanto” argument) over Genetically Engineered (GE) foods. I’m speaking, of course, of the push back in the Lake County Record-Bee to my “Golden rice, golden opportunity” column. Golden Rice is a genetically engineered crop created by borrowing the carotene-making gene from corn andContinue reading “Golden rice now, everything else is noise.”

Energy Independence is a Dumb Idea but not Because We Will Run Out of Oil

Update: One more sentence has been added to Charlie Munger’s quote. Over at the Farnam Street blog, Shane Parrish has a post titled “Energy Independence is a Terribly Stupid Idea.” I agree. But, apparently not for the same reasons that Farnam Shane Parrish or Berkshire Hathaway Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger does. (But, hey more people followContinue reading “Energy Independence is a Dumb Idea but not Because We Will Run Out of Oil”