Green Games

Cover of "The Skeptical Environmentalist:...
Cover of “The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World” Cover via Amazon

 

Here is today’s Green Chain column for the Lake County Record-Bee.

“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” – John Maynard Keynes.

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 list non-orthodox greens grows continually and now includes Mark Lynas, the author of The God Species and Stewart Brand, the author of the iconic Whole Earth Catalog.

Perhaps the first to change his mind and leave the Greens was Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace. He felt those in the environmental movement had made their point,

“[W]hen a majority of people decide they agree with you it is probably time to stop hitting them over the head with a stick and sit down and talk to them about finding solutions to our environmental problems,” Patrick Moore says.

Greens have always been fractious, and similar to the Tea Party on the right, they hate compromise. Former Greenpeace director Paul Watson berated Patrick Moore in an email: “you’re a corporate whore, Pat, an eco-Judas, a lowlife bottom-sucking parasite…” And, Bjørn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist took a pie in the face from then true believer, Mark Lynas.

At the heart of the disagreement sits the use of technology. “There is a battle underway for the soul of environmentalism,” writes freelance journalist Keith Kloor, “It is a battle between traditionalists and modernists. Who prevails is likely to be determined by whose vision for the future is chosen by a new generation of environmentalists.”

Traditionalist Greens say, “Stop!” Technology is the Problem. The Worldwatch Institute says we should not simply stop growing our economies, but we must actually contract: “The rapidly warming Earth and the collapse of ecosystem services show that economic ‘degrowth’ in overdeveloped countries is essential and urgent…. Degrowth can be achieved through policies to discourage overconsumption, raising taxes, shortening work hours, and ‘informalizing’ certain sectors of the economy.” The goal, Rik Scarce writes in his book “Eco-Warriors,” is to arrive at “a steady-state relationship with all of nature’s creations, wherein human attitudes and actions dominate no one and no one thing. Their alternative seeks to guarantee life, liberty, evolution, and happiness for humans and non-humans alike.”

Modernist Greens say that technology has a role in making the world greener and more livable for all creatures, including humans. Stewart Brand says “If Greens don’t embrace science and technology” they risk becoming irrelevant.

The modernists are in favor of cities, people, and technology (including genetically engineered food).

Cities, people, and technology are…good? What is happening? Has the world gone crazy?

Perhaps the world is crazy. (Not exactly a news flash now, is it?)

As you know, I have argued on these pages that people, cities, technology, and economic growth have not only improved our lives here in the United States, but have improved the environment. Economic growth using non-renewables has overall been beneficial. The author of “The Rational Optimist,” Matt Ridley notes that technology takes less land and uses materials other species do not want:

“[E]conomic development leads to a switch to using resources that no other species needs or wants…. Contrast Haiti, which relies on biomass (wood) for cooking and industry, with its much (literally) greener neighbour the Dominican Republic, which subsidises propane for cooking to save forest…. [E]conomic growth leads to a more sparing use of the most important of all resources – land.”

Is economic growth and technology a wonder cure? A panacea that works with no side effects? No. But, then everything has its upsides and downsides.

If we humans continue to move from rural to urban (cities are denser), drill and mine for our energy rather than grow it, continue to wring more food and fiber from each acre, and develop incentives for conserving water and our fisheries, we will yet leave a better place for our (and Nature’s) children and grandchildren.

Matt Ridley sums it up well:

“Seven billion people going back to nature would be a disaster for nature.”

Notes/Sources:

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Weekend Postcard: Sailboat on Clear Lake

A few weeks back we saw colorful sailboats on Clear Lake. (Clear Lake is in Lake County in northern California.) According to the Konocti Bay Sailing Club, 45 boats participated the 28th Konocti Cup (their route is here). We might see one or two sailboats in a month, to see so many at one time was marvelous.

To see more photos of the event, click here.

Weekend Postcard: Hop Vines in the Garden

Zeus hops growing in a halved wine barrel.

Hop plants are technically bines and not vines; vines use tendrils to grow and bines do not.

Nevertheless, this bine is a Zeus hop (Humulus lupulus var. whotheheckknowsii, part of the CTZ–Columbus, Tomahawk, Zeus–hops triad). I have planted approximately 20 hop rhizomes inside containers around the house. I have hung wire from my decks down to the containers, a drop of ten to twelve feet. The few that have popped up seem to migrate to the wires pretty readily.

For more information about growing your own hops:

Weekend Postcard: cappuccino at Peet’s

Cappuccino at Peet's Coffee in Berkeley

 

 

Beauty lives in simple pleasures. And, at $2.50 for a simple cappuccino made with competence and delight is an affordable luxury. Taking a moment to enjoy the bubble of calm and the wondrous taste of cappuccino with its foamed milk and dark espresso roasted coffee complemented this visual treat.

I was walking toward University of California, Berkeley and stopped at the original Peet’s at Walnut & Vine just one block off of Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley for a small jolt of 1,3,7 trimethylxanthine (caffeine). The barista obviously took pride in his work and poured this lovely tree pattern.

Perfect for a forester.

 

 

Weekend Postcard: Redbud in bloom

The western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) has bloomed throughout Lake County, CA. With its cordate (heart-shaped) leaves and magenta flowers, it dazzles us during spring.

Flowers and nascent leaves of the redbud

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Weekend Postcard: Lilac Flower

Spring has meant an explosion of color around the neighborhood. The flowers and new shoots on the plants feed the soul (okay, I’m not a complete non-romantic).

Since it is spring, we have planted the tomatoes in hopes of getting those delicious fruits for our sandwiches and salads. We have also planted some hop rhizomes in hopes of brewing some beers and flavoring them with hops that we grew. Thanks to trade we do not have to rely on our limited abilities to grow our own food.

Lilac flower in the front yard

This Earth Day, stop thinking as an environmentalist and start thinking as an economist.

The Earth seen from Apollo 17.
The Earth seen from Apollo 17. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“In the beginning the Universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” ~ Douglas Adams

April 22 is Earth Day, and you know what that means. That’s right, the 43rd running of the Eco-catastrophists and Neo-Malthusians! Why, according to the Earth Day Network, “[M]ore than one billion people around the globe will take part in Earth Day 2012 and help Mobilize the Earth™. People of all nationalities and backgrounds will voice their appreciation for the planet and demand its protection.” It gives me chills just thinking about it.

This coming Earth Day, many will be confessing the environmental sins of the green and ungreen alike, sitting in ashes and wearing hair shirts (manufactured from coconut fibers). They will say something such as what was read responsively in churches and synagogues in 1994: “We use more than our share of the Earth’s resources. We are responsible for massive pollution of earth, water and sky…Nobody loves us. Everybody hates us. Guess we’ll go die and feed the worms.” Okay, I made up the last bit about nobody loving us, etc.

It is the Environmentalist’s Creed for The Church of the Fragile Planet: “The water is polluted and the air is worse. We’re washing away topsoil from our farmland; and what we aren’t washing away, we’re paving over. The more industrial products and babies we produce, the less hospitable to Nature our world becomes. Our exploding population and our greedy plundering of resources decreases habitat for every other living thing that we share this tiny and fragile world with. Nature can endure no longer. We have reached the tipping point.”

That’s The Litany: Too many people producing too many babies while chasing too few resources on a fragile planet. It is the truth. . . right?

“It’s manifestly untrue.” says Peter Kareiva, chief scientist of the world’s largest environmental organization, The Nature Conservancy. “In Green rhetoric, everything in nature is described as fragile—rivers, forests, the whole planet.” Yet, most places, and he has data to back his claims, are quite resilient. One example: “Books have been written about the collapse of cod in the Georges Bank, yet recent trawl data show the biomass of cod has recovered to precollapse levels. It’s doubtful that books will be written about this cod recovery since it does not play well to an audience somehow addicted to stories of collapse and environmental apocalypse.”

“…Nature, as opposed to the physical and chemical workings of natural systems, has always been a human construction, shaped and designed for human ends. The notion that nature without people is more valuable than nature with people and the portrayal of nature as fragile or feminine reflect not timeless truths, but mental schema that change to fit the time.”

That schema, or model. that Nature is ‘fragile’ leads to “fortress conservation.” All the ‘sacred places’ need fences and taboos to keep the masses from defiling them. This leads to non-negotiable demands. Says Kareiva, “When things are fragile…it puts you in a position where you do not negotiate. Because, if you just give a little–because it’s fragile–it’ll be broken.”

What is to be the way forward, the vision for the future?

It is not as humorist P. J. O’Rourke indelicately states it, “Going around the poor parts of the world shoving birth-control pills down people’s throats, hustling them into abortion clinics, and giving them cheap prizes for getting sterilized.”

No, the way forward is going to be something that will be tough for many of us to swallow: First, recognize that most places are resilient and can repair themselves. Second, “economic development for all.” With the possibility of work in urban areas, subsistence farmers will abandon their hardscrabble life and allow forests to reclaim the land. A 2010 report concluded that “40 to 70 percent of the species of the original forests” returned when this happened.

I plan to Celebrate Earth Day by reviewing the Copenhagen Consensus list (copenhagenconsensus.com) developed by some of the world’s smartest economists. The sooner the rest of the world catches up to the rich nations, the better for the earth.

Sources:
“Earth Day 2012 – Mobilize the Earth” http://www.earthday.org/2012 (accessed April 10, 2012)
“Green Hearts Project” http://www.earthday.org/green-hearts-project (accessed April 11, 2012)
“CONSERVATION IN THE ANTHROPOCENE,” PETER KAREIVA, ROBERT LALASZ, AND MICHELLE MARVIER (http://breakthroughjournal.org/content/authors/peter-kareiva-robert-lalasz-an-1/conservation-in-the-anthropoce.shtml)
“All the Trouble in the World: The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty” by P. J. O’Rourke, 1994
“Conservation on a ‘Spoiled’ Earth” http://breakthroughjournal.org/content/blog/conservation-on-a-spoiled-eart.shtml (accessed April 12, 2012)
“Conservation: Myth-busting scientist pushes greens past reliance on ‘horror stories’ — 04/03/2012) http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2012/04/03/1?page_type=print (accessed April 10, 2012)
“The Breakthrough Institute: So, You Want To Be a Conservationist?” http://thebreakthrough.org/blog/2012/04/peter_kareivas_breakthrough.shtml (accessed April 10, 2012)

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Weekend Postcard: vineyard in the Alexander Valley

This is another picture of a vineyard in the Alexander Valley, just east of Healdsburg, in Sonoma County of California.

Agriculture is amazing. Long ago, we humans domesticated (formerly) wild plants and animals for our purposes, and changing what they do radically in the process.

This scene looks peaceful, bucolic, and natural. Well, two out of three is not too bad.

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Pink Slime gone. 1.5 Million more cattle needed to meet US demand.

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(Photo credit: pennstatelive)

Travis Arp is Ph.D. student at Colorado State University studying Meat Science and “grew up on a farm.” He says in the comments section of his post that 1,500,000 additional cattle will need to be raised to meet the shortfall due to the closure of three of four of Beef Product Inc,’s plants. That should drive up the cost of ground beef and move some marginal lands into cattle production and feed production.

 

Reblogged from The Meat of the Issues:

So it has come to this.  Three weeks of reporting on the LFTB controversy and ABC has achieved their goals…some intentional and some maybe not-so-intentional.  Regardless, they have thoroughly and effectively scared the slime out of the U.S. consumer.

For anyone involved in the meat industry, our world has revolved around this topic for the better part of the last month; debunking myths, trying to spread factual information, fielding unending numbers of questions from consumers, and fighting an onslaught of negative press that has snow balled so large it crashed into three of the four BPI plants that produce finely textured lean beef and made them shut their doors.

Read more… 761 more words of Travis Arp’s post.

 

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