Long ago, duenos.net introduced Colin Beavan, the “no impact man”:http://duenos.net/article/137/ColinBeavanthenoimpactman. As easily as we can cheer him and others like him on, we can also take action in our own way. It’s OK to complain about the state of global warming and pollution in our environment, but it is even better to act. There are two sides to every argument, fine. But maybe there are certain things that shouldn’t have two sides, the protection of the environment for one. That’s why people like Steve Milloy and his “JunkScience.com”:http://junkscience.com/ really doesn’t make any sense to me. Milloy has set himself up as the defender of truth AGAINST the science of global warming. His site is hard to get through for all the clever wordplay (“Help fight Global Fooling” and the like) and needless Gore-bashing, but once you do it just gets more sinister. Of course, global warming isn’t the only accepted science he argues against, here’s a list of his “top ten”:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189706,00.html junk science instances. Striving to neutralize their carbon impact on the world, author Colin Beavan and his family are going completely no impact for a whole year. That is to say that living in Manhattan, this family is using no paper, no razors, nothing to be thrown away. They’re also not buying anything in packaging, composting their waste (hard to do in a 750 sq ft apartment), and walking everywhere. Check out this amazing experiment at Colin’s “blog”:http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/. In honor of the British government taking on the strictest (but still not nearly strict enough) carbon regimen in Europe, I give you “this game.”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/ In this better-than-average flash game, you the player are the president of the EU and you balance money, electricity, food, water, and carbon emissions against each other, guiding the Union into the future. Some options are very realistic (like tax breaks for domestic solar cells) and some are less so (like mag-lev trains) but overall this is a pretty good waste of time, and not a bad way to look at the decisions facing governments. So it”s no secret, the average person doesn”t really care all that much about global warming. To many, the impending-doom ramifications of an unprecedented increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are overshadowed by the appeal of slightly milder winters and the idea of a deeper tan. Still, that was no hinderance to the intrepid people at CLIF-brand energy bars as they have started to market the global climate crisis to those who actually do give a shit, winter sports enthusiasts. The “S.O.S. (Save Our Snow) tour”:http://www.clifbar.com/sos/ is all about the getting the word out to skiers, snowboarders, and alpine enthusiasts on the devastating effects that global warming could have on their beloved hobbies. What a novel approach. Since watching “An Inconvenient Truth” and talking to my environmental scientist roommate about global warming I have been filled with an impending sense of doom looking at the vast hurdles we as a species would have to overcome if we were to save ourselves from near-certain extinction. For anyone who has seen “An Inconvenient Truth,” you probably remember the moving animation of the cute polar bear struggling to stay dry on a fast-disappearing ice floe. The point of the clip is to show how rapidly the polar ice is melting and how it’s adversely effecting the environment. It turns out that polar bears are not alone in being left stranded out on the floating ice created by global warming. 442 fishermen from the north Pacific Russian island of Sakhalin (the barracuda-shaped land mass north of Japan) were rescued Saturday from sheets of ice, many of whom had spent their time adrift getting quite drunk.
Look on “Stopglobalwarming.org”:http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/sgw_actionitems.asp (the posters below are theirs), “Sierraclub.org”:http://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/tenthings/, and “Climatecrisis.net”:http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/ to find simple and effective ways to clean up our earth. Committing to some of these actions will not only reduce pollution, but your spending and waistline, too. It’s a win-win-win.
Previously featured on Duenos.net:
* “Colin Beavan, the no impact man”:http://duenos.net/article/137/ColinBeavanthenoimpactman, featuring a great interview with Stephen Colbert.
* “Permafrost no longer”:http://duenos.net/article/286/Permafrostnolonger, about the decline in frostiness of Arctic tundra.
* “Betting on global warming”:http://duenos.net/article/159/Bettingonglobalwarming, about a bookie who takes bets on climate change science.
This entry was posted in Original Duenos and tagged global warming, internet on .
Permafrost no longer
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/us/27newtok.html?ex=1337918400&en=7e93b110d8fc61d0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss from today's New York Times highlights one of those towns on the edge, Newtok Alaska. Newtok used to be just another small Arctic outpost but now it's an island, cut off from the mainland by erosion. The residents of Newtok have an important story to tell about what it's like to live on the edge. It's a story we should hear.
Photo courtesy of "Greenpeace":http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change.
Steven Milloy, the evil "scientist"
This move doesn’t make much sense, but for some reason Milloy was behind the very false rumor (you may have heard this one) that compact fluorescent bulbs cost up to $2,000 to clean up if they are broken. The rumor was then perpetuated by his main employers, Fox News and the gang, but he’s the source. For more about that controversy and how full of shit he was, go to “this article”:http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/the_real_dirt_o.php from “TreeHugger”:http://www.treehugger.com.
Sustainable paper products
Apparently the big brands in disposable paper products are not environmentally responsible. While this isn’t much of a surprise to me, it has been to some of the people I’ve told, so up on the site it goes. As usual, Greenpeace has done all the work and put together “Kleercut.net”:http://kleercut.net/en/, a site dedicated to the fight for sustainable paper products. It turns out that Kimberly-Clark, the owner of the Kleenex brand, has a habit of not using recycled paper and instead getting their pulp from ancient-growth forests. Other brands to avoid (unless you for some reason hate the world) are Kleenex, Scott, Scottbrand, Cottonelle, and Viva.
Feeling guilty about going through boxes and boxes of Kleenex this past winter? Buy a “Greenpeace hankie”:http://www.strategicprofitsinc.com/mastercart/Cart/product_details.php?mid=685968961088617609&product_id=454502751098677958.
Betting on global warming
If there’s something out there to bet on, people will. That seems to be the principle behind the latest round of bets being taken at gambling site, “BetUS.com”:http://www.betus.com/. It seems that online gamblers have taken to betting on what the effects of global warming will be. The consensus: Manhattan will be underwater by 2012. Other interesting stats to note: BetUS gives the odds of Capes Henry and Hatteras being part of the ocean floor by 2015 at 200- and 300-to-1 respectively.
Go on and place a bet, global warming might just be good for someone yet. Thanks to “Yahoo! News”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070413/ap_on_fe_st/odds_global_warming_bets for the lead on the story. The picture is from “The Day After Tomorrow”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319262/.
Colin Beavan, the no impact man
Here’s a recent interview of Beavan on the Colbert Report:
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Climate Change Game
This entry was posted in Original Duenos, Uncategorized and tagged games, global warming on .
A new approach to climate change intervention
Rocketboom offers climate-blues solution
Luckily I’m not the only one experiencing “climate dread” and today’s Rocketboom video offers some solutions.
The daily video log at Rocketboom.com has been a part of my daily internet rounds for about 6 months now and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes refreshing points of view, a pretty woman with a cute British accent and/or very strange feature stories.
Drunk Russians latest sign of global warming
If you still haven’t seen the documentary, you can order a free copy online from sharethetruth.us. Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, there is a pretty great Threadless tee inspired by the polar bear from the documentary. I hope some intrepid, overly clever graphic designer submits a follow-up shirt design featuring the stranded drunk Sakhalinian fishermen.
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