the greener side

Fossil fuels: forbidden fruit

So says Ray Pierrehumbert (right), professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, speaking before graduate students at the Lutheran School of Theology. I'll loosely quote/paraphrase tonight's talk:

Fossil fuels have forbidden fruit written all over them.

We are basically undoing the cycle which involves the burial of carbon for hundreds of millions of years. We’re liberating that carbon. No organic process can tap into that and oxidize it. We have become more than a force of nature. We humans are nature, a force of geology...

We are literally setting the kind of climate for pretty much rest of the history of the human species. Managing these next few generations is very critical in terms of our stewardship, what kind of environment we bequeath to future generations.

This natural carbon cycle that regulates our climate…ticks along with something like 1/10 of a gigaton of carbon a year. How does human fossil fuel stack up against that?

Last year carbon coming from fossil fuel was 8 gigatons.

CO2 is not like other pollutants where you can take a wait-and-see attitude. Unlike acid rain where it wil stop within weeks of cleaning up power plants, carbon dioxide is only removed slowly.

The Northwest Passage was clear from May to September 2007 for the 1st time in known history.

There are 400 molecules per million of CO2 in atmosphere versus 200 a century ago. Things are happening in sea ice faster than models predict.

No physical theory based on the sun or volcanoes has been able to match this [warming] curve… so we know our theories are right.

A heat wave near 2100 would be 35 degress Fahrenheit warmer than in the year 2000. That would be 135 degress F in Chicago. It would hit the poorest the hardest.

While there have been mass extinctions over hundreds of millions of years, now we’re at the stage where the next big crash will not be externally. It will be internally, if we let it happen.

Who is more defenseless than our descendants 1,000 yrs from now who have no say in what we do?

A person in China puts out 2/10 of a ton of carbon per year. 1/10 is too much to be sustainable but it still buys time. France: 1.6 tons/year. Average U.S. person is 5.5 tons per year.

Even if we don’t manage to get our acts together to prevent the doubling of carbon dioxide, we need to prevent the quadrupling. For the next 400 years there will still be a chance to do something to make life better for subsequent generations. There's no point at which you should despair.

A lot of things we do with energy are material substitutes for human interactions. What uses less carbon than sitting around playing guitar and singing songs?

Every pound you take out of that 5 tons will resound throughout the ages. There’s a long way to go, a lot of opportunity for virtue:

The best thing you can do to stop building of coal-fired power plants is to reduce your demand for electricity.

Like Bill McKibben says: First screw in a new lightbulb. Then screw in a new senator.

Travel could be replaced by electric trains. It’s not a matter of giving up but of doing things more intelligently.

A taxi to the airport (for him) would emit 5 pounds of carbon versus 1 pound to take the bus.

Carbon credits? Schemes that plant trees, I avoid. When trees replace prairies or agricultural land you make the land darker especially in places where it snows...and can offset their beneficial effects.

But if you can buy wind power credits that subsidize the price so that someone can afford wind power, that’s real carbon.

Reducing personal carbon emissions is almost an act of devotion. It’s like putting a brick in a cathedral. We’re working on a spiritual edifice we’re leaving for the future.

It’s not really a matter of guilt; it’s a matter of virtue.

Mac attack

There wasn't as much sustainable stuff at Macworld as there was even last year, except for the Greenpeace protestors outside, and big booths showing off Google Earth/Sketchup software and MacKiev's cool satellite weather application. I did learn that the way to measure the purity of the silicone in your iPod cover is to stretch the plasticky material. If it's clear, as pictured here, good news. If it's milky, clouded with white, then yuck. However, although there aren't any phthalates in silicone, it stays in the ground forever once you toss it.

On another note, Apple's ad campaign for its latest invention is ripping off Christian billboards circa 1999. Can God sue?

Look at my footage below: the oglers at Macworld are venerating the new iPhone as if tears and blood were streaming from its Magic Touch screen, imparting a telepathic message of eternal life and everlasting forgiveness. Instead, the gadget comes with a mortal battery, it demands a contract with a devilish telecom, and nobody's even touched it. Get real, people. It's a phone...oh yeah, and a music player and an "breakthrough Internet communications device." It can't feed or clothe you or detoxify your drinking water. Before I leave this earth, maybe I'll see a crowd like this one oohing and ahhing and elbowing over some new invention that actually helps people and the planet.

Maybe I'm forgetting that Apple's inventions just might usher in world peace! After all, as singer John Mayer said after Steve Jobs' keynote address--in the greatest WTF?! moment of Macworld (apart from the media's frenzied stampede up the escalators): "You know, Steve Jobs and Apple are making life more fun. It's the exact opposite of terrorism." Golly.

We’re (not) all going to die!

Aren’t you sick of all this doom and gloom news about the planet and how it's too late to save ourselves? Face it, we’re riddled with poisons to the core, and the end of the world is inevitable. Go enjoy Vegas, let your kids watch network TV, whatever. Well, maybe not, says the United Nations. Its Millennium Ecosystem Assessment explains how we might just turn things around within the next half-century. But we'd better hurry TF up--and keep the oceans from rising, coral reefs from dying, and Atlantic ** current from shutting down! Maybe that leaves enough time for me to be optimistic by the early elderly years (judging by family DNA, expect a solid nine decades...mercy mercy me).

God and greenness

In this week leading up to Christmas, I wrote with a cheesy title (Earth: smokin') about religion, anti-environmentalism, and the end of the world, as explored in the new book Divine Destruction. A lot of people don't know that many powerful fundamentalist Christians are eager to see the world end to hasten Jesus' second coming; such beliefs help to unravel ecological protections. On the brighter side, many Christian congregations are pushing lately for a greater awareness of tending to the earth. And Christian conservationists are no fringe element; name any cause for social or environmental justice, and you'll find a long history of legions of faithful folk at the core of such work.

I'm delighted that Don of the Evangelical Ecologist blog has taken an interest in my post, inviting his readers to check it out. Don shares these wise comments--read to the end for tips on how people of varied beliefs can work together:

A lot has changed in Christian circles since the dominion movement (early 90's). There was a big  backlash against DM as your Wiki link notes, "mainline Christian  denominations (and most Christian evangelicals and fundamentalists) reject Dominion Theology." Frankly, I'm 41 and my body will give out someday, but I'd be an idiot not exercise and eat well. They're probably out there, but have yet to run into anybody who thinks polluting will hasten Christ's return. On the contrary - the Bible (as most Christians interpret it) says when He comes back He should find us doing good stuff. DM is an interesting discussion, but in the interest of space I'd like to stick with where Christian ecology is today, and how we can work  together.

Earth: smokin'

For the love of God, some powerful zealots are trying to speed up the end of the world. Sadly, many folks who take the Bible literally believe that Jesus won’t escort faithful souls to heaven until the whole globe fries like Hiroshima on Aug. 7, 1945. Some people in high places of earthly power can't wait to see this in our lifetimes. Apocalypse-happy star preachers pitch prophecy Bibles that take literally the English translations of ancient Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic scripture. Pop novelist Tim LaHaye gets rich selling 60 million Left Behind millennial fantasies. Cheshire-grinning in agreement, the religious right enjoys broad support in Washington. Journalist Stephenie Hendricks, who I met a couple of weeks ago at a reading in S.F., details this picture in her elegant book Divine Destruction.

Mix together the end-of-the-world obsession with dominion theology, the concept that man rules the planet and animals. What do you get?  We get to do WhateverTF we want, say big-motor bullies who tear up national forests with off-road vehicles in their leisure time. Who needs public parks when God handed Adam a wild carte blanche? Such is the ungreen, oxymoronic doctrine of "wise use" espoused by ORV evangelist Ron Arnold and his ilk: a sloppy excuse for abusing our offspring's right to natural resources.

Having doomsday cheerleaders in high corporate and political places is devastating decades of  environmental protections. For example, dominion theologists include exalted execs at Coca-Cola, Coors, and Ford--who enjoy cozy relationships in D.C. Some fundamentalists link environmentalism with paganism, pantheism, and of course, terrorism.  Likewise, some environmentalists link religion with intolerance, ignorance, and corruption. Luckily, many Christians beg to differ (check out the Evangelical Ecologist blog that uses solar-powered Web hosting). Some of the most famous ecologists have been evangelicals, such as John Muir, but they're suffering a bad rap these days. Hendricks sees environmental debates as the biggest divide among politically-engaged Christians.

But because the "e" word can be taboo for some evangelicals, Hendricks explains that many bona fide Christian environmentalists use the politically correct term "creation care" instead. Google that and you'll find Christian eco-heroes such as the (unfortunately-named) Fred Krueger, who takes fundamentalist right-wingers on walks through the woods to make born-again conservationists out of them. You'll also stumble across the Evangelical Environmental Network (of WWJDrive fame), which sells Creation Care Magazine and publications like "Eco Church: An Action Manual." The Christian Environmental Association sends volunteers on Peace Corps-type projects  aimed at "Serving the Earth, Serving the Poor." That's just the tip; such voices are getting louder.

Digitize your doomsday

The Bible is the greatest bestseller of all time, but why waste any more trees on a printed one? This pocket electronic version is endorsed by a televangelist with his finger on the doomsday trigger--er, pulse. You'll add another $100 to the $10 million budget of Michigan's Jack Van Impe Ministries by buying this special apocalypse-focused, calculator-size package of the Old and New Testaments. The end of the world is nigh, so check up on the forecast with this:

•  Comprehensive A-to-Z Prophecy Index
•  Verse-by-verse commentary on the book of Revelation

Jack Van Impe warns us all about the Rapture on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Doesn't all this fear and brimstone just prevent people from improving things on our big rock? Come on, our planet's getting left behind by so much silliness .

What's left of the U.S., post-prophecies

More cataclysmic Earth changes are in store for us, and soon. At least that’s what so many cocktail conversations center around these days—all of those spine-tingling “what ifs” over how scorned Mother Nature will lash out.  Blame Gulf Coast calamities, gas gouging, and even those housing bubble murmurs for preoccupying Americans with the catastrophic possibilities of nature. West Coasters shake over “not if but when” quakes, such as the San Andreas upset that's due, oh, every century or so--which would be, um, next year.

What will the planet think of next? Here’s your answer, already drawn out in these future maps. Photoshop helped me crudely overlap the predictions of Nostradamus, Gordon Michael Scallion, Chet Snow, Doris and Aron Abrahamsen, Ashton Pitre, and George Shaffer.

For example, California was supposed to splinter into islands, and Colorado would have enjoyed oceanfront property by now, if Scallion were right. Nonsense, says Pitre; the Mississippi will merge the Great Lakes for a 50-mile-wide gush down to the Gulf. Oh, stop arguing you guys. What if we just say that you're all correct? Then every colored-in zone (left) will be under water within this century.

Admit it, don't you want to be a prophet too--the one who sensed it all well in advance (but only pinpointed it ever-so-clearly in hindsight)? Here's my wisdom: buy land in Appalachia, or sprint to Canada now. Only the gray areas in the map below remain unscathed by prophecy.