Just a regular guy...who "woke up"

No one who knows me would describe me as a radical. Liberal, for sure, particularly on social issues. And to be honest I DID grow up in Berkeley—participating fully in the counterculture of the 60’s (and the 70’s too!). But those days are long gone and for years I’ve been pretty happy helping to raise my wonderful son, growing my photography business, poking around in the vegetable garden and trying like hell to be a good husband/partner. As Berkeley boys go I’m a lightweight when it comes to radical politics, conspiracy theories, or having a massive distrust of our government. Of course I did (and still do) vehemently disagree with and question many policies and information being fed to us by our fearless leaders at the national (and to a lesser degree the state) level, but I’ve frankly been “too busy” most of the time to do much else but follow the news, vote my conscience, and swear on occasion at the TV or newspaper. I've pretty much considered myself a regular guy just trying to make a living.

But about a year and a half ago this started to change. After watching Al Gore’s landmark film “An Inconvenient Truth,” I started a process of reading everything I could find on the subject of climate change and environmental degradation to decide if the information was accurate, truthful and really as dire as depicted. I read books, articles, White Papers, technical reports, and Blogs. I watched other documentaries. I attended over 25 large and small-scale symposiums, conferences, seminars, classes and talks. I joined my local Sierra Club Chapter’s Climate and Energy Committee, joined the steering committee of a grassroots effort to promote renewable solar energy use in Sonoma County called Solar Sonoma County, and was asked if I'd be interested in running for a position on the Executive Committee of Sonoma Group of the Sierra Club—which I am doing.

During my research I even became a Vegan (OK, I admit my friends did think this was somewhat radical!) after reading the U.N’s 2006 report on Animal Agriculture and a book called “The China Study,” which provide ample evidence of the massively negative effects that consumption of animals and animal-based products have both on our health and on our environment.

In short, I plugged in and learned. And learned. And am still learning.

So what conclusion have I come to in my research thus far?

While I am no scientist I am relatively intelligent, diligent, and reasoned. My research has convinced me that we are facing the biggest challenge we humans have ever faced, but I also believe we have the power to lessen the worst impacts (at least for most of the world’s population) by implementing and integrating sustainable thinking and strategies into our energy infrastructure, businesses, and personal lives as quickly as possible. Climate change is real, substantially caused by human activities, massively documented across the globe by thousands of scientists, and happening faster than anyone predicted. While little, if anything in climate forecasting is absolutely certain, and there is certainly room for disagreement and dissenting opinions on certain aspects of the global warming debate, it would be absolutely foolish and irresponsible to not act on the scientific consensus we now have, worldwide, on this subject.

We’re in serious trouble, folks, and we need to address it NOW and in a huge way over the next 10 to 20 years or we may lose the ability to effect any change at all.

I would urge you NOT to believe the many industry-paid or connected deniers and naysayers who, in well-documented cases reminiscent of the tactics used by scientists on the payroll of big tobacco to deny the negative health effects of cigarettes, have been shown to be unconscionably fomenting doubt in the public's mind simply to delay the expensive reforms which will be required to fully account for the industry-caused pollution (which has up to now been externalized—paid for by the public— instead of factored into the cost of doing business).

But don’t just take my word for it. Start reading up on it yourself and take the time to go to a meeting on climate change if you see one.

Here are just a few interesting links to get you started:

UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment

National Climate Data Center

California Attorney General’s Office Global Warming Website

In spite of my findings on this somewhat gloomy topic I have at the same time been heartened by what I have learned about the massive response to the building environmental crises that have been rising up across the planet over the last 5 decades. This “movement” is well documented in Paul Hawken’s newest book Blessed Unrest, which I highly recommend.

Environmental Activism's Paradox by Rick Bass

Here is a superb, erudite, thought-provoking article by Rick Bass on the paradox and challenges of environmental activism in our modern society:

Activism’s Paradox Mountain

Thanks to Leslie Sheridan for sending me this link. She’s a poet, activist, and consultant who publishes a free Peace and Justice newsletter which I just subscribed to. To get a free copy of The Carpe Diem Voice, send an email with “P&J” in the subject line along with the name of the state in which you live to CarpeDiemVoice@aol.com.

Awakening The Dreamer

I spent the afternoon today listening to a symposium on sustainability at the Sonoma Community Center, presented by volunteers from the Pachamama Alliance. The presentation was powerful, heartfelt, interactive and extremely alarming. But it was also fact-filled, positive and solution oriented. The problems we face are daunting, but absolutely within our reach to solve—if we can collectively muster the will to make the needed changes.

I highly recommend that you look up this fine organization and attend their next symposium. While I have attended many environmental presentations in the past year, this one stands out. You can visit their web site and see a short movie which explains their views on the crisis that is here, and how we need to engage everyone to solve it.

Odds and Ends

I LOVE Thomas Friedman.
Check out his October 21st OP-ED piece in the New York Times.

Also, go to Ecospot to vote on your favorite Climate Crisis Ecospot video.

To view some very encouraging videos about Solar Power from the huge San Diego convention in September, go here.

Solar Berkeley

Yesterday's Chronicle carried a story on Berkeley's proposed new solar model which would pay for the upfront costs of installing a solar PV system on homes and letting the homeowner pay the City back through an assessment on property tax bills over twenty years. According to the article, the cost of this assessment would be more than offset by energy savings, meaning that the homeowner could install solar at no cost (especially no upfront cost!).

This clever approach is a variation on the CCA (Community Choice Aggregation) model for increasing renewable, decentralized energy. It would still require a municipality to handle the administrative duties of the program but wouldn't require as much additional bureaucracy or costs for upfront feasibility studies. Plus it could happen a LOT quicker than CCA, which is critical. The program would still rely on bond money, which would mean the financing costs would be as cheap as possible.

I'm still in favor of pursuing a CCA model too, but Berkeley's approach (and I have heard San Jose is doing something similar) could really ramp up the installation of residential and commercial solar and/or small wind in the shortest amount of time, thereby reducing GHG emissions while a CCA group is still being pursued.

More information can be obtained about Berkeley's great sustainability programs and initiatives here:

Sustainable Berkeley

Bioneers

I just returned from the three-day Bioneers Conference and my head is swimming with ideas, emotions and hope for our society and our planet. There was so much positive information, so many success stories from people on the front lines of the new sustainable paradigm, that it was impossible for anyone who witnessed it to come away unchanged, or unmotivated.


Yes, it's easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom scenarios we face because of global climate chaos, but I heard the stories of so many incredible people doing the most amazing things that it truly made my heart sing. From Van Jones' work training the disenfranchised youth of Oakland for green jobs to the incredible inventor Jay Harmon's use of BioMimicry in industrial design; from food expert Jeffrey Smith's lecture on the documented health risks of genetically engineered foods to Paul Anastas' amazing tour of the emerging field of green chemistry; and from Vagina Monologues' author Eve Ensler's inspiring talk on her V-Day project to Native Movement chairman Evon Peter's wise guidance, this conference presented a wealth of information about solutions to climate change challenges as well as social justice, farming, and spiritual topics. I have come away profoundly affected by this eclectic yet interrelated community of doers, creative thinkers, and problem solvers. I don't mind saying I was affected emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. And I came away very heartened at the potential for cooperation in the coming months and years.

I will be writing more on some of these talks in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out some of the links above for some interesting reading.

Raymond

Green Investing

Opportunities abound to profit from the greening of America, and the world.

Here are 3 interesting companies poised to make lots of money helping turn our wasteful, polluting economy in a sustainable one:

Greenfuel Technologies Corp.
GreenShift
Nanosolar

I personally believe the sustainable living/green revolution will serve as one of the greatest economic engines this country has ever seen, and as soon as the business world understands that there's just as much money to be made saving the environment as there was in poisoning it, with much better PR to boot, we'll see an economic "greenrush" of epic proportions.

The True Cost of Food

The Sierra Club has a new campaign to promote sustainable food choices called "The True Cost of Food" and it's worth checking out their web site to see a movie packed with fascinating information about how our food is produced.

The web site is: The True Cost of Food.

Also, check out the Free Range Graphics website for more great films on food production.

The 11th Hour

Last night we went to see this new film on the looming environmental crisis and we found it powerful, effective and very well done. While the film at times presented facts and figures at a breakneck clip, it kept your attention and never became over-preachy. Relying on a series of short interviews with scientists, business leaders and philosophers interspersed with footage of the beauty and degradation of the biosphere, and punctuated with occasional narration by co-producer Leonardo DiCaprio, the film makes a clear, convincing case that we need adapt our economic and social systems to include the Earth as a partner, rather than treating it as an object of profit-motivated exploitation. If we don't, we risk mass starvation, millions of environmental refugees and possibly even extinction.

One interesting concept in the film is that humans have been able to live and thrive beyond the planet's natural ability to support us because of our use of "ancient sunlight" stored in non-regenerative fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal. According to the film, the earth's natural systems (particularly the dawn-to-dusk cycle of daily sunlight) can only support about a billion people. And since we are at or nearing the time when oil and gas supplies will start dwindling (called Peak Oil) it could become increasingly difficult to support the 6 billion already on the planet, not to mention the additional 3 billion expected in the next 30 to 50 years. Our population has doubled (from 3 billion to 6 billion) since 1960 and is still growing at an alarming rate.

The film also makes the point that if we don't start making major changes soon (on the scale of a World War 2 buildup) then we risk losing control over how our society can affect the weather, if indeed it isn't already too late.

But the film doesn't just lay out a doom and gloom scenario. The last third of the film focuses on what can be done, and is being done, to mitigate climate change. There are existing technologies and many emerging ones that, if adopted widely, could make huge reductions in our pollution rates NOW. But while converting our energy supply to renewable sources over the next 50 years is doable, the political will, vision and leadership needed to do so is sorely lacking on the federal, state and local levels. Worse yet, the current administration in Washington has done more to thwart sound environmental policy, and has so badly mismanaged our natural resources in favor of short term corporate profits, that it will take nothing less than a clean sweep in '08 to start to turn the corner towards a sustainable future. I am very hopeful that we are well on our way to making this a reality.

I urge you to see this film and to spread the word to others about it. This is an important educational source about global warming, and it's a great starting point for discussions with family, friends, neighbors and co-workers about the problems we are all facing and what we might do to help. It's real strength lies in its willingness to address the philosophical as well as scientific issues before us. And it will take all of us, together, through the ballot box, our buying decisions and our attitudes to make the changes we need to make.

Power from Poop

Yes, I thought that would get your attention!

As a wonderful example of what can be done to mitigate damage being done to the environment by animal agriculture, here is a story about anaerobic digesters, a renewable energy technology which coverts the greenhouse gas methane found in manure and other organic waste products into electricity. Technologies like this, which take the "waste" products produced by industry and convert them into additional profit generators while lessening their impact on the environment offer solid proof that going green can also make good business sense. Widespread use of these digesters would make a huge difference both in cutting water pollution caused by overflowing and leaking slurry ponds while also powering pig and dairy operations which use vast amounts of energy now being generated by coal, natural gas or other fossil fuels.

Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL's)

Just a short on one today.

Fox News published another environmental hit piece in April questioning the energy-saving practice of replacing regular light bulbs with Compact Fluorescents (CFL’s). While most of us know Fox News regularly publishes misinformation regarding the environment and is a shill for anti-environmentalist interests, the fact is that CFL’s do contain small amounts of Mercury, a very toxic substance. These bulbs need to be handled properly, recycled properly (not just thrown in the trash) and if broken extra care does need to be taken to prevent contamination.

The Sierra Club recently ran an informative article on the subject of Mercury in CFL's which is very good reading. I urge you to tell all your friends about the proper handling of CFL's (but PLEASE keep using them!)

EnviroVegans / EcoVegans / Ecotarians / EcoVeggies...

Well, I'm sure I'm not coining any new words today, but there sure is a good case to be made for working on the climate protection issue on a personal level—by becoming vegetarian or Vegan. If you've already changed out your light bulbs with compact fluorescent's and maybe even purchased a solar PV system, there is ample evidence that cutting back on your meat consumption (even just one or two days a week) could also make a contribution to further cutting your family's ecological footprint and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Even if you can't identify with more "militant" Vegans who are opposed to eating meat for animal cruelty reasons, there are a number of important environmental reasons to do so. If you love eating meat as much as I once did, you will probably stop reading here because, frankly, you don't want to know anything that might make you feel guilty about enjoying it. You purchase meat in nice, shrink-wrapped packages that just kind of "show up" at the store, you take it home, you cook and you eat it. But if we're really concerned about the environment, about social justice, and about supporting sustainable food production practices, we also need to consider the following:

Animal agriculture is highly wasteful of precious resources (especially water), is highly polluting and damaging to our entire ecosystem, (air, land, fresh water and the sea), is a highly inefficient use of land for producing food, is a principal cause of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest and elsewhere around the world, and is a major contributor to biodiversity loss. Go here for a short review of the many environmental problems associated with raising livestock. If you really want to understand the enormity of the issues, go here.

The following is good "food" for thought:

"Many of the impacts associated with eating animal products stem from the very basic process of digestion. Each time an animal consumes energy in the form of calories, it assimilates about 10 percent of the total energy available from its food. Roughly 90 percent of the energy is lost as heat and undigested material. This 90 percent loss occurs at each trophic level, so when humans eat animal products, they receive only one percent of the total energy available from the same amount of vegetation originally eaten by the animal (10% of 10% = 1%). Stated another way, if humans eat only vegetable matter, the total plant mass consumed at all trophic levels is 90 percent less than if they eat only animal products. Because omnivores require the consumption of so many more total calories than animals with pure vegetarian diets, they also require more resources to produce their food..." (and many of these resources are currently non-renewable). "It is this relationship between food and non-renewable resources that causes many environmental problems associated with eating animal products."

From "Environmental Implications of Modern Animal Agriculture: Save the Planet with your Fork" by Lacey Gaechter, University of Colorado


And the following adds some good points too:

"The 4.8 pounds of grain fed to cattle to produce one pound of beef for human beings represents a colossal waste of resources in a world still teeming with people who suffer from profound hunger and malnutrition.

According to the British group Vegfam, a 10-acre farm can support 60 people growing soybeans, 24 people growing wheat, 10 people growing corn and only two producing cattle. Britain—with 56 million people—could support a population of 250 million on an all-vegetable diet. Because 90 percent of U.S. and European meat eaters’ grain consumption is indirect (first being fed to animals), westerners each consume 2,000 pounds of grain a year. Most grain in underdeveloped countries is consumed directly.

While it is true that many animals graze on land that would be unsuitable for cultivation, the demand for meat has taken millions of productive acres away from farm inventories. The cost of that is incalculable. As Diet For a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappé writes, imagine sitting down to an eight-ounce steak. “Then imagine the room filled with 45 to 50 people with empty bowls in front of them. For the ‘feed cost’ of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked cereal grains.”

Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer estimates that reducing meat production by just 10 percent in the U.S. would free enough grain to feed 60 million people. Authors Paul and Anne Ehrlich note that a pound of wheat can be grown with 60 pounds of water, whereas a pound of meat requires 2,500 to 6,000 pounds."

From The Case Against Meat by Jim Motavalli


With water predicted to become the new "oil" and even more wars being fought over water rights than access to oil in the century ahead, the massive amounts of water needed for animal agriculture just isn't sustainable.

Perhaps the way to go in the short term is simply to aim for a 10% to 20% reduction in meat consumption in this country. Most people, I think, could go meatless one or two days a week and barely notice it, but it could make a big difference for the environment and towards alleviating world hunger.

And check out Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie on the looming climate crisis:

Renewable Energy Projects

Great news for the CCA (Community Choice Aggregation) movement and those wanting to see real progress in climate protection! First, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently signed off on a local (CCA) power plan that is designed to achieve a 51% renewable energy portfolio for the city within 10 years—at rates that will meet or beat rates charged by PG & E. Using money from a “Solar Bonds” measure that was approved by voters in 2001, as well as funds from the SFPUC, the city will finance construction of a 360 MW solar power network and invest in a large-scale energy conservation effort. Many other communities around California and the nation are considering similar proposals and San Francisco’s leadership in this area will make a huge difference in legitimizing and vetting the concept and process for other municipalities. I urge you to find out more about the innovative CCA movement and to support it in your area. You can find out more about it here and here. Look for the Slide Show on the local.org web site. It has a lot of good information and is easy to understand. There's also a video available here.

In addition, the Kings River Conservation District and the San Joaquin Valley Power Authority (a CCA group) recently announced a multi-year agreement with Cleantech America LLC to build what will ultimately be the largest utility-scale photovoltaic facility in the United States. Located near Fresno, California, the Kings River project will be built in phases over the next 4 years: 10 MW in 2009, 30 MW in 2010 and 40 MW in 2011, for a total of 80 MW. This is yet another important success for the CCA concept and an important step towards energy independence and climate protection. For more information about this and other great things happening in the Solar industry, go here.

SICKO

I saw Michael Moore's new documentary "Sicko" last night and I would highly encourage you (and all of your family and friends) to see it as well. While I have always found Moore's movies entertaining, this one left such a powerful sense of injustice and made such a strong statement about the pathetic morals and application of our present health care system that I believe it will give rise to a long-needed groundswell of righteous indignation about who and what we are as a nation. At least that is my hope. I personally have Kaiser (Santa Rosa, CA) and my doctors and their assistants have always been professional and attentive. The problem does not lie with the caregivers, but rather with a system that puts money and profits above care and compassion. This system denied coverage and care to my otherwise healthy 21 year old son because of a minor pre-existing condition, and denied insurance payments to my mother-in--law for assisted living, even though she fell three times (injuring herself badly the last time), because she wasn't quite frail enough to meet their standards. I would wager that most, if not all, of you reading this know of someone who was similarly denied. Our system is sick and unjust, alright, yet we just sit back and take it.

In much the same way that Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" focused attention and mobilized action on the many climate change issues we now face, SICKO has the potential to do the same for the way we view and run health care in this country. In a highly entertaining and even amusing way at times—if you can laugh through your tears—Moore travels to Canada, England, France and even Cuba to compare their health care systems with ours, and the result not only pokes holes in almost everything we've been told about these other "socialized" health care systems—that they're too slow, poorly run by second and third rate doctors, and that most people are unhappy with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the film has an agenda, to be sure, and is laced throughout with Moore's acerbic wit, it becomes clear that it's the United States that is serving up an unfair, unjust and poorly executed health care system. And many other western countries are light years ahead of us in their view of health care as a basic right belonging to everyone, not a privilege belonging only to those who can afford it, and/or to those who don't need health services very often.

I would of course agree that we have some of the best doctors, best hospitals, and best medical technology in the world. So why is our life expectancy lower than most European countries?

I implore you....go to see Sicko and, if you feel like I did after seeing the film, let's rise up together and get things changed. Visit Michael Moore's web site to find out more about what you can do.

Eclectic Links

This page will hold an eclectic and ever expanding series of links to things I find interesting. I'll do my best to delete links that no longer work, but if you happen to find one just email me and let me know.

ITunes U
Available using Apple's ITunes software, ITunes U features lectures about many diverse topics from universities around the country, including Stanford, Duke, MIT and UC Berkeley. And the best thing is they're FREE! Go to the ITunes Store and look for ITunes U. Very cool!

Worldwatch Institute
This site has tons of research (for free and for sale) for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society. I learned today that even the Vatican is going Solar! Well, part of it is, anyway...

Bioneers
This great group, which I just joined, is sponsoring a conference in Marin County, California October 19-21, 2007.

Wiser Earth
This is a fast-growing database of companies and organizations from around the world working on environmental and social justice issues. Started by Paul Hawken (see below) and with the site architecture created by many (friends, colleagues, and volunteers) it just went live in May, so it has a long way to go to list all of the potential groups—though there are 105,943 listed as of today. As a Wiki it is self-generated and self regulated and it will evolve by consensus over time. Paul estimates there are between 1 and 2 million groups (from single-person dot-coms to billion dollar non-profits) working in these areas and that combined they create the "largest movement in history." There are two more parts to the WISER (short for World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility) concept, WiserBusiness and WiserGovernment, that will be launched in the future.

Going Local: The Movement for Community Choice Energy
A great, fast-moving 18-minute briefing on Community Choice Energy (CCE). CCE will allow people like you and me to choose how the electricity we use is generated, either from renewable sources like wind and solar or from traditional sources like natural gas or Nuclear. PG&E, for all of its press and PR about "going green," is not moving fast enough towards renewable power generation and is instead trying to build many more fossil fuel (and even Nuclear) powered plants. I urge you to take the time to watch the video and make up your own mind which direction we should take.

Extraordinary People Plus...

I have come across some remarkable people, groups and activities in my research and I'll share a few with you from time to time, along with links to more information about them. For now, here are three:

PAUL HAWKEN: I consider Paul one of the great philosopher/macro thinkers of our time. Paul is an environmentalist, entrepreneur (Smith and Hawken), author (including The Next Economy (Ballantine 1983), Growing a Business (Simon and Schuster 1987), The Ecology of Commerce (HarperCollins 1993), Natural Capitalism with Hunter and Amory Lovins (Little Brown and Co., 1999), and his current Blessed Unrest (Viking Press, 2007), lecturer, teacher and idea- incubator extraordinaire. Here are just a few links to more information about his activities:

1. PaulHawken.com


2. Natural Capital Institute


3. Wiser Earth

AMORY LOVINS: Amory is another renaissance man, described as a "consultant experimental physicist" who is also an environmentalist, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute , author (Winning the Oil Endgame, Factor Four with Hunter Lovins and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, and Natural Capitalism with Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken, consultant and researcher. He has enormous common sense, a folksy and approachable personal style, a seemingly boundless grasp of complex environmental issues, and a clear roadmap out of the energy morass in which we find ourselves. He's not new to the debate, having been preaching (and walking) the low-energy footprint talk for over 20 years at his home and offices in Colorado. And his ideas have garnered the respect and acceptance of many liberal and conservative stakeholders alike. In addition, he's a leading proponent of the "soft energy path", described thusly in Wikipedia: The "soft energy path" assumes that energy is but a means to social ends, and is not an end in itself. Soft energy paths involve efficient use of energy, diversity of energy production methods (matched in scale and quality to end uses), and special reliance on co-generation and "soft technologies" (i.e., alternative technology) such as solar energy, wind energy, biofuels, geothermal energy, etc.

I urge anyone who is remotely interested in energy issues to find out more about Amory. He's truly remarkable.

PAUL FENN and COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION: I saw Paul recently at an event sponsored by the Mainstreet Moms group in Mill Valley presenting the concept of Community Choice Aggregation, a somewhat complicated sounding but decidedly elegant and empowering way for local communities to control energy costs and hasten the growth of renewable energy industries such as solar and wind at the same time. You will be hearing a lot more about this in the months and years ahead, but you can find out more about it here. I would also encourage you to watch the short film about it called "Going Local: The Movement for Community Choice Energy" available on the MMOB website.

Among other things Paul is Founder & Director of Local Power and Publisher of AMERICAN LOCAL POWER NEWS, based in Oakland, California.

Fenn authored California's 2002 Community Choice law, Assembly Bill 117, allowing municipalities to choose alternative electricity providers for their communities. Sponsored by state Assemblywoman Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), the Community Choice law also removed the state's $300 million/year energy efficiency fund from monopoly utility control and made these funds available to cities to pay for their communities' local energy efficiency programs.

Fenn also wrote San Francisco's 2001 "solar bond" or H Bond authority Proposition H and the 50 MW San Francisco Solar Power Facility proposal for which the revenue bond authority was written. Sponsored by San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, the project calls for construction of the world's largest urban solar utility on San Francisco rooftops.

Digital Earth

On Friday June 8th I had the pleasure of attending the International Symposium on Digital Earth, held this year for the first time in the U.S. on the UC Berkeley campus.

A new wave of technological innovation (using GIS tools like Google Earth, Microsoft's Virtual Earth, ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer and GeoFusion) means that we can now view the complexity of our planet at any specific location on the Earth's surface. Launched during a speech in 1998 by former United States Vice President Al Gore (yes, THAT Al Gore!), Digital Earth is a "global initiative aimed at harnessing the world's data and information resources to develop a virtual 3-D model of Earth in order to monitor, measure, and forecast natural and human activity on the planet."

Pioneered within NASA in the late 1990's and formalized by the Beijing Declaration, the Digital Earth movement is increasingly being seen as the major scientific integration project of the 21st century. Built upon and integrated with World Wide Web technologies and protocols, the development of the Digital Earth project is "involving the grassroots efforts of many individuals, companies, university researchers and government organizations. In creating the Digital Commons, the Digital Earth initiative will provide for a vast digital marketplace where citizens can access both free and commercial information and services."

When you see the acronym GIS, short for Geographical Information Systems, these are the combined technologies used to monitor and measure the data coming from satellites as well as a host of other geographic and atmospheric measuring devices in, on and above the Earth. GPS (Geographic Positioning Systems), like those used in some cars to help you find your way around, also use GIS data. A planet-wide system of sharing GIS data, and even the computational power of thousands of computers (including some super computers) needed to process it, is already partially built and in the process of being connected.

One of the truly remarkable things about the Digital Earth movement is that most of the architecture used to serve up the information, along with the data itself, is open source, meaning that most of the GIS information being obtained and cataloged worldwide will be available to anyone. Some of this information is necessarily protected for national security reasons, but most will be available to anyone, worldwide, wishing to study and use it. And this will allow and foster endless opportunities for research and education on the university, high school and even elementary level, as well as allowing NGO's (non governmental organizations), governments and even individuals to view, repackage and market the data in exciting new ways (such as is being done with Google Earth).

Environmental organizations are also now using GIS data to track deforestation in the Amazon Rain Forest, show the amount of mountaintop removal being done by Coal companies in Tennessee, or track the loss of ice at the North and South poles. GIS is an exploding field and thousands of jobs are now going begging due to a shortage of trained GIS researchers. If you know of someone looking for a field with great, exciting opportunities that would also enable them to make a real contribution to building a more sustainable human ecosystem, tell them about GIS and the Digital Earth movement.

A Meat Lover Becomes Vegan—And Thrives!

As a lifelong, confirmed meat-head I never, ever thought I'd become strictly vegetarian, much less a Vegan (no animal products whatsoever). But a less-than-stellar health report from my doctor, along with the gift from a friend of a book entitled The China Study by Dr. T Colin Campbell and his son Thomas M. Campbell II, have changed my mind, and my quality of life, forever.

If you can get past the initial rejection response most people have to the idea of living life meatless—that veganism is somehow unnatural and that choosing this lifestyle necessarily means eating the same boring vegetables over and over again—and if you're willing to become educated and listen to the facts, this book just might extend your life, and the lives of those near and dear to you, significantly. Please understand that I'm not opposed to eating animal-based products on strictly moral grounds, as long as the animals were raised in an ethical and humane way (unfortunately, though, many are not). Rather I discovered through this massive, clinically-controlled 20 year study (and others done by highly-respected, traditionally trained scientists and doctors that are cited in the book) that there is clear evidence that the western lifestyle placing a heavy emphasis on consumption of animals and animal-based foods contributes significantly to many of our "diseases of affluence."

In fact, many of the symptoms and effects of these diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity, can be minimized, controlled and even reversed without drugs—simply by changing to a whole foods, plant-based diet and increasing exercise. While this sounds shockingly simple, I can assure you there is ample evidence that it's true. We've all heard over and over that we should eat more vegetables, exercise more, and eat less crap. What isn't made clear, however, is the degree to which our animal-eating lifestyle is literally killing us and how relatively easy it is to mitigate and reverse the damage being done.

Lest you think this is yet another quack diet book by some fringe nutritional "guru" out to make a quick buck, or some militant vegan with an agenda, believe me it is far from it. Dr. Campbell grew up on a dairy in the Midwest and did his Ph.D. dissertation on methods of increasing dairy production, so he was decidedly pro-animal agriculture from a very young age and continued to be so until the evidence of the negative effects of our animal-based diet became overwhelming. And what is so surprising, and so powerful, about Dr. Campbell's views is that he has been a well-respected member of the medical research establishment for years, and he knows the system from the inside out.

Extensively annotated from his own research and from that of many others, it quickly becomes clear in The China Study that Dr. Campbell is uniquely positioned to serve up these facts because of his extensive 30-year career and experience in the fields of nutrition and health research. But Dr. Campbell doesn't stop there. He examines the politics of health, the dire lack of nutritional training of our health professionals, the gamed and manipulated health care system created by the cozy relationships between doctors and the pharmaceutical industries, and the huge amounts of PAC money donated to politicians by stakeholders in the animal agriculture juggernaut. His views are therefore incredibly threatening to the health care industry and he has been vilified by many whose livelihoods are based on preserving the status quo. But believe me....if the information in this book could convince a lifelong meat eater like me to so radically change my diet, there's a good chance it will influence you as well, even if you don't decide to do anything but include more fruits and vegetables in your diet. For more information about being, or becoming vegan, go here.

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In addition, if you're concerned about the problems being caused by Global Warming, another eyeopener regarding how animal agriculture affects our planet as a whole is detailed in a study published last year by the United Nations entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, available here: Livestock's Long Shadow.

I had no idea that the animal agriculture industry worldwide was responsible for 18% of the greenhouse gasses released into the environment, and how much valuable space and how many precious recources we devote to it.

And for more great information about diet as it relates to the environment, click here and here.

I really can't encourage you enough to get your hands on The China Study. It very likely could change your life, as it has mine.

City Planet: Stewart Brand's Views on Urbanization

Last night I attended a talk given by Stewart Brand at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco exploring the concept of “City Planet,” or the urbanization of the earth's populations that is and has been occurring at an unprecedented rate. Stewart has always seemed to be at the forefront of thought provoking ideas and concepts that have interested me, starting with his stint as the publisher of the Whole Earth Catalogue (from 1968 to 1972), one of the defining publications of the environmental/back to the land movement and continuing as the founder in 1974 of the CoEvolution Quarterly, another particularly relevant and environmentally savvy magazine covering diverse topics, many with a decidedly sustainable/whole systems flavor—-WAY before sustainability was cool! So Stewart has been providing platforms for the exploration of alternative thought for years, and judging by this discussion he hasn't slowed down a bit.

My interest in renewable energy (specifically Solar) and organic gardening is traceable to the WEC and I remember rushing to the nearest bookstore to pick up a copy when a new one came out and spending hours (and days) leafing through the oversized “well” of ideas and information on new tools and technologies.

Not surprisingly, Stewart also co-founded The Well in 1985, one of the first online communities and a kind of online extension of the WEC, as well as the Global Business Network in 1987. He founded The Long Now Foundation in 1996 to “provide a counterpoint to what it views as today's "faster/cheaper" mindset and to instead promote "slower/better" thinking, and has been involved in numerous other projects and causes over the years too numerous to mention here.



I have photographed Stewart several times over the years, first for an article in The Pacific Sun newspaper in Marin County (the subject of which escapes me), then at a reunion (I think it was for the Whole Earth Catalogue folks, but I’m not sure) that took place in the Marin Headlands sometime in the 80’s. He’s lived and worked in and around the Sausalito houseboat community for years.



I pretty much lost track of Stewart over the last 20 years, though I was aware of his participation in The Well, so I was interested in discovering what this Renaissance man has been up to. Stewart views cities as profoundly trans formative both to individuals (particularly women) and to societies in general. Outlining civilization’s drive to urbanize, he ran through a slide program heavy on facts and figures showing clearly that statistically there is no longer a back-to-the-land movement (that he catered to with the WEC), rather people are fleeing the countryside in droves and, combined with births and transplants from other areas, some 1.3 million folks are being added to urban communities worldwide each week, or almost 70 million a year. This is having, and will continue to have, profound impacts for all of us well into this century in terms of urban planning, creation of wealth, increased globalization, poverty services, education, and even creativity and innovation.

This movement represents a significant shift from the past. In 1800 just 3% of the world population lived in cities. Currently about 50% do, and projections show some 61% will be city dwellers by 2030. A huge percentage of this urban growth is going on in the east, and the southern hemisphere—both in South America and Africa. And most people moving into cities worldwide are joining the burgeoning squatter communities such as those in Kibera, Nairobi or Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro. According to Brand, 1 billion people currently live in such slums, with an estimate 2 billion more expected by 2070. Those are huge numbers which have the potential to redefine the cities themselves, strain city services and utilities, and which will no doubt add to the frictions inherent in large populations of "have-not's" bumping up to a much smaller group of "haves." According to Brand, rather than being hotbeds of crime, however, many of these squatter neighborhoods are teaming with people trying to better themselves and work their way up and out, fostering enormous “informal economies” that are not tracked by traditional economic measures but which make up about 60% of the employment in developing countries. Again according to Brand there is a surprising amount of money already circulating in these communities, and since cities give women and families better access to increased economic opportunities there is reason to believe that many will eventually be able to pull themselves up and out and into the traditional economy.

One last interesting point Brand made is that urban young people tend to delay child rearing and also have fewer children when they do have them. There is already zero population growth in many developed countries, and this will also be true of the developing countries as the trend towards urbanization continues. This will lead to a point later this century when the worldwide population will peak at 8 or 9 billion, then actually start to recede—very good news from a planetary perspective.

Stewart recommended several good books for further information:

SHADOW CITIES: A BILLION SQUATTERS, AN URBAN NEW WORLD by Robert Neuwirth
THE FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID: ERADICATING POVERTY THROUGH PROFITS by CK Pralahad
THE EMPTY CRADLE: FALLING BIRTHRATES THREATEN WORLD PROSPERITY AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT by Phillip Longman
SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts and Alejando Palomas

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In early May I attended EcoLive, an event in San Francisco that featured Robert Kennedy Jr. as the keynote speaker. I have been aware over the years of his work as an environmental attorney, but I had no idea how intelligent, erudite and charismatic he is. His book, Crimes against Nature, is a MUST read for anyone who wonders what the hell happened with the election process in 2000 and 2004, and who wants to understand just how detrimental the Bush administration has been towards the environment. I HIGHLY recommend it. He would make an excellent Secretary of the Interior or Head of the EPA. I hope when the Democrats finally get the White House again in '08 they'll consider him for one of these posts! The difference Kennedy could make in reversing the damage the current administration has done to the environment, and in helping to form a sustainable mind-set at the highest levels of government, would be incalculable.