Author: alan

Before we can rush the QB.

Cheat or die

M: There’s also the case made in the book [by the Earth Policy Institute’s Lester Brown] for a large-scale transference of manufacturing in the U.S. from auto to things like wind turbines. How realistic do you think that is?

GD: I think Lester Brown is a saintly person who is not entirely of this world, as saintly people often are not. And while it makes a great rhetorical point, those factories would not just have to be re-opened, they’d have to be hugely re-tooled. So, I quoted Lester Brown and then I immediately argued with him. I like that man, but I don’t really think he’s my guide on these matters.

M: But there is a kernel of truth there.

GD: There’s certainly more than a kernel of truth in it. This is not a hard problem to solve. This is a straightforward problem. You’ve got to get out of fossil fuels. We have the alternatives. Go. If the political will is there, that will happen. I think, therefore, it will happen, sooner or later. The problem is, it’ll probably be later.

M: Do you think it will be too late?

GD: I think it may be, in which case you need some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card, to win yourself a couple of more decades to get your emissions down. So you don’t want to go beyond two degrees Celsius, you’ve got too much carbon dioxide in the air which will take you past two degrees Celsius, and you still haven’t got your emissions down as far as you should. What do you do?

M: Blast sulfur dioxide into the air?

GD: That’s right, that sort of thing. Just to win time. You’re not solving the problem, you shouldn’t imagine you’re solving the problem. You’re winning yourself time to solve the problem, the right way. So when I include that in the picture, there is a way to cheat, then I can feel more optimistic about the future.

The M is the Montreal Mirror and GD is Gwynne Dyer, author of the recently released Climate Wars. From an interview between the two.

was the title of an excellent I-MAX documentary I saw at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum years ago. Now it is also the name of a foundation that got a big shout-out from the NYT editorial page this morning.

There, in a nutshell, is the motivation behind a new campaign to wean Hawaii from fossil fuels in 10 years. The project is Hawaii’s own moon mission, led by the Blue Planet foundation and not by the state’s political establishment, which tends to prefer the slow and tortured way to change (a long battle over a new commuter rail system was bogged down by a ferocious debate over whether it should have steel or rubber wheels).

Blue Planet, a private foundation, is the creation of Henk Rogers, a software entrepreneur who made a fortune in Tetris. Reassessing his life after a heart attack two years ago, he decided to pursue a goal that for decades has been as elusive as it is drop-dead obvious.

If I understood the editorial correctly, though it has abundant clean-energy sources, Hawai’i imports petroleum for ALL of its electricity(!).

More (lauditorials, entreprenuers, foundations) like this, please.

The most well-know of the Chinese green teas is Longjing from the province of Hangzhou, which means dragon well. Fake Longjing is apparently very common, with most tea on the market coming from Sichuan province.

Green tea has many unproven claims, from reducing the negative effects of cholesterol to stopping neurodegenerative diseases to weight loss. With little to no scientific validation to speak of, the boxes tumble off grocery store shelves and into shopping carts like unsecured rubble in a light tremblor. Maybe because it’s just good, especially the caffeinated versions. Some even prefer brands blended with Kombucha, the immortal health elixir from the Qin Dynasty – whose health effects I likely neutralize by adding soy milk. But… delicious.

In the Sexagenary cycle, there are ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. The year 1984 began the present 60-year cycle. This traditional calendrical system is used for numbering days and months across Asia. Calendars are also referred to as time-reckoning systems, and certain of their aspects in different countries ebb and flow with the rise and fall of political power. Tibet, for example

became subject to a new centralised administration under the Mongol Emperor, Qublai Khan (1215-1294CE) which involved numerous reforms in Tibet including that of the road, ranking and postal system.

It also meant the reform of the calendar. Chogyal Phagpa of the Sakya sect held authority at the time over the administrative sections of Tibet’s “three regions” (Tib: chol kha gsum) and its 13 myriarchies (Tib: khri skor bcu gsum).

He oversaw what was the increased centralisation of Tibet, fulfilling the need for a unifying framework but allowing for local difference as part of the political design. Phagpa’s vision was essentially imperial in character and he was also responsible for the design of the reformed Tibetan calendar.

Phagpa’s task vis-à-vis the design of the new Sakya-Yuan calendar was challenging. Buddhism had been declared the state religion of the Mongolian empire which carried with it the Kalachakra calendar. At the same time the Mongol Empire also presided over China which had its own time-reckoning system. Up to this point, the Tibetan calendar had been largely derived of Chinese time-reckoning systems but also operated in the cultural milieu of Indian time-reckoning systems, not including the Kalachakra calendar.

…

Also, the Sakya-Yuan calendar’s year-beginnings continued according to the Chinese calendar, as had been the case in the previous Tibetan calendar. The latter’s first lunar month was named drug (dragon) based on the Chinese calendar’s 12 lunar months which were named according to the Chinese calendar’s 12 Earthly Branches commencing from the winter solstice. Drug was the Chinese calendar’s fifth Earthly Branch, chen (dragon) and third lunar month: the latter coincided with the time of Tibetan New Year set by the sidereal zodiac.

And some would say it’s only December 1. Now, time for another cup.

This is a little late but, Thanksgiving was formally established as an observed holiday by Abraham Lincoln. A year and a half into the civil war, on October 3, 1863, he issued this proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

Apparently written by his Secretary of State, William Seward.

This is a little late but, Thanksgiving was formally established as an observed holiday by Abraham Lincoln. A year and a half into the civil war, on October 3, 1863, he issued this proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

Apparently written by his Secretary of State, William Seward.

The new Flagpole column is up, and out, as the staggering menagerie of opportunities to read my work expands to all mediums.

A slew of articles, books, books on tape and probably even a feature film or two (!) about how to make a killing – or at least be one of the first to profit from – the new sustainable economy. Fine.

But now this.

Just as the world seemed poised to combat global warming more aggressively, the economic slump and plunging prices of coal and oil are upending plans to wean businesses and consumers from fossil fuel.

From Italy to China, the threat to jobs, profits and government tax revenues posed by the financial crisis has cast doubt on commitments to cap emissions or phase out polluting factories.

…

Barbara Helfferich, the European Commission spokeswoman on the environment, said, “Investing in reducing emission is more difficult to do in times of economic downturn than when you have money to spend.”

So, why is that and from where does that conventional wisdom arise? Is this case of vapors on the part of investors and governments evidence of a tepid, lukewarm commitment in the first place? If not, why not? Were they just trying to cash in on a trend and so will be the first to bail out (not that kind) on any signs of difficulty? That’s not commitment – that’s a finger-in-the-wind course adjustment whose short-term motivations have a great deal to do with the global eco-doldrums (-nomic and -logical) as anything. I thought this was what we were talking about moving away from? And in this first test, a few months in, we panic and revert. Excellent. Future generations, I salute you (and your particle masks).

Seriously though, among the major movers and shakers – those who farm the most dollars, pollute the most, corrupt the process the most and are generally willing to subvert societal goals for short-term gain on the grandest scale ( you know who you are) – there is always a race to be second when innovations pop up that could be economical if one of them figures out how. They sit back, hope no one will notice at first, castigate champions as fringe movements, seed resistance to the idea, cast aspersions on the motivations for it, campaign against it… all before slowly relenting and still doing nothing until someone with far less to gain figures out the best way forward. Your mileage may vary, but… there’s that.

This equation itself is preposterous, though only a symbol of the extent to which we’ve leveraged our futures, green or otherwise, on the whims of corporate beneficence, such that it is.

The whole thing is still a marketing campaign, though there are breakthroughs everywhere. We’ve staked the fates of future generations to the fire but our pathetic little consciences are still that of a cautious investor who will take his time in order to scuttle risk and get his. It’s a contradiction and our weakness signals the timidity at the top to bet mostly on our nature to cower. We proved ourselves capable and courageous earlier this month. Don’t be surprised that it’s already time to recommit.

And not Tulane.

The manner in which green has been posited thus far has taken on many of the contours of a straw man, to be admired at first then scorned, pitchforked and torn apart as a sort of cathartic as we settle back into the older ways of doing, well, business. Seeing green as a business practice or strategy short of a fundamental change in the way we view productivity and the capitalist system generally is a sure way to turn it into next year’s Dyanetics, if not its Macarena.

These straw dichotomies are reflected in many news stories and talking points that influence the way people perceive business and capitalism, our choices about the future and the prospects for change, not the least of which are policy papers from the big think tanks. They don’t have to take on the role of debunking climate change or reconcile with the utter incoherence of their own views of capitalism; they merely find an unguarded field and construct a zero-sum straw argument that brilliantly evades the point and blurs the real situation in favor of their stated beliefs or political slants as if that was its only goal. For example, the trope that we are faced with a choice between either a complete lockdown of all CO2 emissions or no regulations at all. The only voices perpetuating this facile take are the ones with the most limited, and vulnerable, views on capitalism and how it works. It shouldn’t be a surprise. In the words of Hyman Roth, this is the business we’ve chosen.

But we’re going to need to choose again. We have to extend our concept of capital beyond the mere financial to include human and natural capital and take stock of how we allocate value to resources, where their costs include more than their mere extraction and all resources are valued by what would be required to replace them. This is the road not back to the stone age but a sustainable natural and social environment. It’s all here in this book I just started, Natural Capitalism. Time to make something useful with all of this straw, put it out in a patch to scare away the crows.