Category Archives: Environment

VOTING BY PHONE IS FAR

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Information is lighter and travels better than people, cars, voting machines, ballot boxes, ballots, judges, ledgers, and the card-counters and computers that now count most of our votes. The phone system that carries information is free for local calls.

Every years millions of trees become ballots to be counted and tossed or recycled. Millions of gallons of gas are burnt to get to the polls.

Phone voting is as efficient as the Internet and World Wide Web, but lets you vote from any phone in the world- in case you don’t have your laptop, modem and local access.

Reap the Whirlwind

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Gulf hurricane season officially ends Dec. 1. But Hurricane Epsilon formed Dec. 2, only the 5th December hurricane in the 151 years of record-keeping. On Dec. 30, Tropical Storm Zeta formed, tied with Alice (1954) for latest ever. The 2005 Atlantic season had by far the most hurricanes (14), the most tropical storms (27) , and the most (3) with Category 5 winds: Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Hurricane Wilma for awhile was the most powerful hurricane ever; Hurricane Katrina caused the most economic damage of any on record.

On March 28, 2004 the only hurricane on record in the South Atlantic, Caterina, hit Brazil. The only tropical storm ever to hit Spain, briefly strong enough to become Hurricane Vince made landfall on October 11th of this year.

Scientists have known since 1984 that hurricanes depend on sea surface temperatures. NASA says 2005 is the hottest on record world wide.

Because of the enormous inertia of the ocean, the world’s largest “heat sink,” even if all fossil fuel burning ceased now, global climate change will continue for centuries. To paraphrase the Bible’s Hosea 8-7, we have sown the ill wind of greenhouse gases, and will reap worsening whirlwinds, among other things.

Here are three things you can do:

  1. Burn less fossil fuel.
  2. Join the great and small in Stop Global Warming‘s Virtual March on Washington.
  3. Read “Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs and Security” by the world’s foremost energy expert, Amory Lovins and company. The book was commissioned by the Defense Department and is available for free download at OilEndGame.com along with all the spreadsheets proving their case, which is that with 2004 technology we can get off foreign oil by 2040, and with coming technology, off all oil by 2050. Most of the oil can be saved by making cars, trucks, planes, etc., much more efficient. This may sound daunting, but Detroit improved car efficiency faster than that during 1977-85! The rest of the oil can be replaced by renewables, especially new biowastes-to-fuel technology. After you’ve read the book, help get politicians to read it and follow his advice.

If the U.S., responsible for 25% of global greenhouse gases, doesn’t change course, then our children may die of starvation and world resource wars, according to the Defense Department’s 2004 study.

James Lovelock, the scientist who proposed the Gaia theory, says it’s too late:

“Climate change will kill billions of people this century as the Earth warms, passing into a `fever’ phase from which it may take 100,000 years to recover.”

The Independent of London’s investigation shows much the same. Note that “degrees” in this article are Celcius. .6 Celcius is 1 Fahrenheit. 2 degrees Celcius is 3.6 Fahrenheit.