11th hour

This friday went to Georgetown University for a viewing of the documentary narrated - and in part written by Leonardo DiCaprio on the environment titled "The 11th Hour".

Jim Woolsey, former director of the CIA and Stephan McGuire, co-Producer of The 11th Hour and Betsy Taylor, co-founder of 1-Sky were there for a panel discussion, it was really nice to meet Jim Woolsey in person he has not only been doing a great deal of talking about the threat to our environment and the dangers of ignoring it, but has also been investing in many clean energy startups, in fact he has taken the best ideas that are already out there for reducing your carbon foot print and has implemented them in his own life, he drives a prius - which he turned in to a plugin - which he charges with the help of the solar pannels that power his house too.

Some quite interesting facts were brought to light at the event, and again one thing of interest was the fact that no body seems to be in favor of nuclear power, its micro power where ever you go.

The movie was good, it has a lot of interviews from Scientists and other folks currently involved with the green movement, I personally like what David Suzuki had to say, though if you are following some of the thought leaders on the subject of environment then you would realize that the movie itself had nothing new to add to whats already out there. Though it does help raise more awareness for the issue and Leonardo's charm would certainly help in that respect.

You can check out the trailer of the movie here

has it really hit the ceiling?

interesting news today, the latest assessment of scientists on climate changes is out, the looming environmental dooms day threat is still as eminent and present as it was during the Kyoto signing, the only thing different in the report is the time left for us to clean up our act, check out the news coverage here on washingtonpost.

Something related to the same issue was also reported in print here but this time its China, the sleeping giant is doing a pretty sloppy job when it comes to taking care of the air/water quality and noise pollution, the Olympics just around the corner the pressure on Beijing is mounting (no country wants its athletes coming back coughing blood) you can get an idea of what that story is all about here on nytimes.

Here is an excerpt:

"...Beijing has long ranked as one of the world’s most polluted cities. To win the Games, Beijing promised a “Green Olympics” and undertook environmental initiatives now considered models for the rest of the country. But greening Beijing has not meant slowing it down. Officials also have encouraged an astonishing urbanization boom that has made environmental gains seem modest, if not illusory.

Beijing is like an athlete trying to get into shape by walking on a treadmill yet eating double cheeseburgers at the same time. Polluting factories have been moved or closed. But auto emissions are rising as the city adds up to 1,200 new cars and trucks every day. Dirty, coal-burning furnaces have been replaced, lowering the city’s sulfur dioxide emissions. But fine-particle pollution has been exacerbated by a staggering citywide construction binge that shows no signs of letting up..."

more walkable neighborhoods

if you live in the fairfax/loudoun county area you cannot help but notice folks riding there bikes on major routes such as route 7, route 50 and route 28 and that too at night. There is something fundamentally wrong with that picture, how can you end up with vast spreads of neighborhoods without any consideration for people with out cars? ok so you would imagine then there would be an extensive network of public transport right? wrong. I think these are counties that were probably designed with the oil and automobile industry folks leading the charge, the reason why I say that is because most of these areas are hopelessly not walkable, come on you cannot tell me walkable neighborhoods are a new idea, people have been living in bustling cities all around the world since last hundreds of years, you get down from your apartment and shop for everything you need with in a few blocks, but the problem doesn't end just there, most of these folks that you see on the road are not making any effort to be seen by the driver in the car whizzing by, specially at night pair of dark jeans and jacket are not a 'smart' thing to wear as it makes a bad situation worst, folks living in the Northern Virginia region are not even use to looking out for folks on motor bikes let alone on bicycles, this is one of the unsafe places to be on two wheels for that reason alone, sad part of the story is most of the folks on bikes are not casual bikers, they are riding there bikes to work and many of them are riding them late at night of them are our Hispanic brethren who may not be working jobs that provide health insurance which means if they get hurt they cannot afford the hospital bills.


I think we need the following to happen to make things better:
1- make a 2 foot wide dedicated bicycle lanes on all routes (ALL ROUTES)

2- educate bike commuters to wear bold flashing headgear/clothes, this education needs to come from the church, the employer, the Hispanic TV and radio stations, schools shouldn't be the only place for this kind of education because mostly people I see doing this are not teenagers but grown men, who seem to be recent immigrants

3- start a dialog between employer and employee, so that if the employee's only transport is his bike the employer can put him on a day time shift

4- driver-ed should include a comprehensive section that puts an emphasis on looking out for bikers.

5- enforce a universal health care system at the county level. There are too many rich folks paying too much tax, Universal health care shouldn't be a problem here.

An atmosphere that encourages less cars on the road is
1- good for the environment
2- good for the general health of people and
3- its a good way to tackle the traffic problem,

how many council members does it take to figure that out.

by the way those of you who would like to attend a conference related to environment here are a few happening in/around Washington DC in the near future:

www.eesi.org free day seminars
www.energyconversation.org DOD sponsored, free
www.greendrinks.org - International Group with DC monthly bar meeting
http://www.2020vision.org/ July 12 program in DC full day $100

The 'not so' Open Line to the West Coast

Just finished listening to a radio show that a friend who recently moved to California recommended, its a talk show called 'The Open Line to the West Coast' on KGO and the host is Dr. Bill, he is a scientist (according to Wikipedia, the radio website and his own resume) and from what I googled, my friend isn't the only one listening to him, he seems to be spearheading a slightly different (more rooted in the conservative approach) ideology regarding the environment, though whats interesting is that he is mostly at odds with the established proponents of the present day main stream environmental movement (which we can say for most part of the US revolves around sierra club, Al gore and the broader Democrat caucus) he seems to talk on many different topics, though I don't think all of his assertions regarding those topics can be followed blindly, though his credentials and his convictions makes you want to do just that. In the show that I listened to, he was constantly challenging the Sierra Club and the US forest service for a face off, though according to him they never respond, the colorful labels he gives them are though quite amusing in there own rite, here are some of the things he called them that I can recall from the hour long show on the ongoing lake Tahoe fire:

1- vulgar pyromaniac criminals
2- vulgar criminal hypocrisy
3- so called eco saviors
4- so called environmental saviors
5- eco-freaks
6- eco-frauds
7- bunch of do nothing nuts
8- bunch of dummies
9- eco-nerds

He is as condescending as they come, specially towards those who call in to share equally valid but different opinions, about those who think nuclear energy is not part of the solution but actually the problem, he says 'its only a problem in the eyes of the ignorant and the idiots who tell the ignorant that its a problem'

my favorite line from the show: 'talking to you is like wiping your nose on a grind stone'

things I agree on with Dr Bill:

1- right now Nuclear plants are the most viable solution to the impending energy crisis
2- the long term fix for forest fires is forest thinning
3- natural gas power plants aren't that great they also produce green house gas emissions just as coal burning plants
4- spent fuel rods from nuclear plants can and should be processed to reduce nuclear waste
5- bottled water is a fraud

What I don't agree with him on:

1- California is already doing energy conservation to the fullest and there is no more room to conserve.
My response to that: thats really load of baloney (in Dr. Bills own words) if thats so true then how come we still see SUVs occupied by single occupants hogging CA freeways, why don't we see more neighborhoods transformed in to walkable ones, why don't we see billions of dollars pouring in to mass transit projects and I can go on and on and on...

2- nuclear energy plants are problem free.
my response to that: chernobyl

3- his total irreverence to people with a different point of view.
my response to that: diversity of thought is one of the things that make this country great, your age old beliefs and opinions shouldn't be a hindrance to your ability to listen to new ideas and castigate those who present them, thats not very productive, scientists should know better.

I started off thinking I will blog on the lake Tahoe fire, but ended up rewriting the whole piece on Dr. Bill I guess thats the thing about polarizing personalities, they take your focus away from the issue, but then there is already a lot being written on it, my adding to it would just be adding noise to the coverage.

Earth day

April 22nd is Earth Day, this day has been celebrated in certain circles since the 70's, this year is special as the live green message has never been this strong probably since the last ice age, I would say the most obvious reasons for this change in our attitude towards global warming is thanks to citizen journalism, people from all around the world and from all walks of life are discounting the idea that environment is not an issue they care about by showing that they care, there has been a steady rise of blogs from all corner of the Earth addressing Environmental deterioration, main stream media follows the story and so the story has arrived. As they say Earth is fragile and we all share the burden of caring for it.