Elton John said pop music’s value came precisely because it’s disposable. So, when we live in a culture in which everything is disposable, and we are just recovering from the most consumer intense, disposable heavy, consumption consumed holiday season of the year, maybe an imminently transient earworm is just the thing to remind us of what really satisfies, and what does not.
Oh I try to remember, what I did in December. Oh I try to remember you
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Late edit: a reader reminds me of another “Junk” earworm —
The recent set of videos from congressional hearings are quickly making minor internet stars of climate scientists Richard Alley and Ben Santer. Dr. Alley in particular has won fans for his memorable voice and body language, and vivid explanations of astronomical phenomena, and uninhibited enthusiasm for his subject. In the interest of further humanizing the climate scientists, I present yet more facets of Dr. Alley’s unique body of work. Continue reading “Richard Alley: Birth of a Brainy Internet Icon”
I found this in my mailbox this morning, from a group called Green Sangha, which has launched a Rethinking Plastics campaign. The website has found a creative way to remind us:
Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags per year.
This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe, or 150 bags a year for every person on earth. And the number is rising.
Plastic bags are made from a non-renewable resource: oil!
An estimated 3 million barrels of oil are required to produce the 19 billion plastic bags used annually in California.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Plastic manufacturing’s air pollution contributes greatly to global “weirding” (extreme weather of all sorts) we are experiencing is the result.
Non-biodegradable
Plastic is food for no one. It never completely breaks down.
Litter
We see bags hanging on trees, along the roadside, slipping down the storm drain, and floating in the ocean. Even when we do put them in the garbage, they don’t always make it to the landfill. 47% of landfill blow-away trash is plastic.
Toxicity
Manufacturing plastic releases toxins in the air, as does recycling plastic. The additives used in plastic are often toxic and can leach into our food. The surface of plastic is chemically attractive to some of the worst toxins in our environment (e.g., PCBs and pesticide metabolites).
Harm to Marine Life
More than 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, one million seabirds, and countless fish worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish each year.
Choking the ocean
Beaches on every continent are littered with plastic scraps and particles. In a recent surface trawl of the North Pacific Gyre, 46 pounds of plastic were found for every pound of zooplankton.
We’re eating plastic
Fine particles of plastic are taken in by filter-feeders in the ocean. These plastic-laden small creatures are then eaten by larger animals and plastics work their way up the food chain, all the way to our seafood menu.
And, yes, I still forget, often, to take a re-usable bag to the store. But efforts like this help me to remember that it makes a difference.
I’m not a big meat eater, but I’m not a pure vegetarian. My organic farming son has taught me a lot about sustainable, free range meat and dairy, and the difference between store bought and fresh, local meat and eggs. (it’s vast) Here’s some representatives from my son’s generation of farmers.
California band One Eyed Rhyno continues the best tradition of protest rock, with a new single.
In April, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Five months later, a cement plug has sealed BP’s gushing well, but people will be feeling the effects from the incident for years to come. Inspired by the event, Sacramento rockers One Eyed Rhyno have recorded their song, ‘The Bird,’ which addresses the deadly wildlife conditions.
Watching as precipitation records fall with one 500 year event after another,
the songwriter’s words become something more than metaphor.
I’d been thinking about using a snip of this song in an upcoming video about increasing weather extremes, but till today, I’d never heard Edie Brickell’s version.
