Kayakas!

Another thing I truly miss, now that I live in Singapore, is stars. Dark nights, clear skies, and a zillion stars. Seeing all the constellations, watching for shooting stars. Its like looking through the universe.

Here, there is so much light pollution that, even on a moonless night you might only see 2 or 3 stars. It’s sad. Children here might never have seen a truly starry sky. I have described to Pearly what a star filled sky looks like but she cannot relate to it at all. She is used to the Singapore sky. Before I came, I looked it up and told her that she could see Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, in April over Singapore. She never did. Now I know why. Light ruins the stars and voids an otherwise beautiful night.

Ages ago, the day I got out of the army, I drove straight through from Texas to California. I passed through the Arizona desert in the wee morning hours. I had to stop and get out to look at the sky. Being out there with no man-made lights, the sky was nothing less than spectacular. I was in awe. An Arizona highway patrolman stopped by me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was looking at the stars. He looked suspicious. Then he noticed the crumpled army uniform in the backseat. He cautioned me about a burnt out tail light and wished me well. I hope one day the stars will shine down on me again.

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I can’t say it’s a complot, but I don’t think the corn shortage and subsequent jump in tortilla prices earlier this year were unrelated to the push to sell GM corn in Mexico, and to force Mexican farmers to become dependent on foreign agribusiness corporations.

>Mexican farmers have signed an agreement with biotechnology giant Monsanto to buy and plant genetically modified (GM) maize.

>According to the agreement signed earlier this month (18 April) by Mexico’s National Confederation of Corn Growers (CNPAMM) ? affiliated with the umbrella agricultural association National Campesino Confederation ? Monsanto will provide Mexican producers with GM seeds, as well as initiate activities to protect native maize, including setting up a maize germplasm bank.

>Many environmental and indigenous groups oppose the introduction of GM plants, fearing that it may contaminate native varieties of maize in the country.

>Maize originated in Mexico and is home to 3,500 native varieties. It is the main food crop in Mexico, its production employing almost 12 million people.

Mexico has found alternatives for some GM crops until now (like rice) but the interconnections between U.S. corporate interests and a Latin American market are too strong to assume political pressure wasn’t involved. 

Expect further decline in Mexican agriculture, and growth in “alternative economic activities” (i.e. narcotics) as small farmers, who will be unable to keep GM corn out of their fields, or pay the higher prices necessary for cultivation turn to other ways of making a living. 

>

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It took me a while to get through Jacques Leslie’s book Deep Water: The Epic Struggle over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment. Don’t get me wrong: it was a good book. It was just a dense read, especially towards the end of the book. Leslie uses three case studies to support his take home message that human cannot “vanquish nature” but will “themselves (be) vanquished instead.”

You’d expect that his case studies would include the Hoover Dam in the United States and Three Gorges Dam in China. I mean, Three Gorges is so big that it is expected to have an impact on the weather! Instead, Leslie focuses on Sardar Sarovar in India, the Karabi Dam in Zambiaand the Katse Dam in Lesotho (which serves South Africa), and the Hume Dam on the Murray River in Australia. His book feels like it should be shelved with the anthropology books because he talks about cultures and displaced peoples, but it really is a policy piece. He takes on the World Bank (in spots), he talks about three key players (i.e., policy entrepreneurs), and he addresses the environmental aspects — those pesky negative externalities — that make dams dangerous. I found the book to be accessible, which is why I will probably use it as an assigned reading in a topics class on International Environmental Policy.

Disenchanted’s Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5. It was a bit slow in spots and I was hoping that it would include a few more case studies, but otherwise a fairly decent read.

Next Up: I admit that I’m giving Charlaine Harris another try. I also have a new book on the problems with Yucca Mountain and another one entitled Conservatize Me which has a lot of appeal. Plus, I have a book on the Adirondack Mountains which I might start while giving an exam on Thursday. Too many choices!!! Thank goodness the semester is almost over!

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The current market share of CFL bulbs in the United States is about 6 percent, up from less than 1 percent before 2001. But that compares dismally with CFL adoption rates in other wealthy countries such as Japan (80 percent), Germany (50 percent) and the United Kingdom (20 percent). Australia has announced a phaseout of incandescent bulbs by 2009, and the Canadian province of Ontario decided last week to ban them by 2012.

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Ever wake up and realize you work twenty miles away, don’t know your neighbors, and are never active within your community? Perhaps you look around and realize you and your friends travel miles/hours just for a monthly BBQ and that each of you have duplicated every luxury yet only use it a couple times a year.

For millions of suburban and urban dwellers in the United States, this is just the sort of world in which they live.

Enter the cohousing concept, a possible solution to all the waste in so called “city life”.

The concept is in direct opposition to modern urban sprawl.

For those looking to live in friendly human sized communities or maybe a group of already befriended families looking to live near each other, cohousing might be the answer.

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PASTEL: A LIGHT DELICATE SHADE OF COLOR.

Allen County is becoming a landscape of pastel colors - those drab, bland, unexciting colors which are safe for all construction. The blandness is the result of subdivion after subdivision springing up with restrictive guidelines that require colors that, apparently, are intended to blend into the country landscape and not stand out from the surrounding environment. Could it be that the developers think they can hide massive, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” suburbs by coating them in colors that tend to blend into the landscape?

Folks, the donut hole is getting larger. The Division of Planning Services, through its boards and commissions, continues to approve subdivision after subdivision.

The conceptual plan for Allen County shows the buildout of subdivisions to the I-469 interchange and encompassing the western area of Allen County to the Whitley County line. If this buildout happens, the subdivisions will literally take over the western side of Allen County. Along with this buildout, will come additional problems of urban sprawl and destruction of the environment.

In addition, the buildout works against the revitalization of downtown Fort Wayne. As urban sprawl continues, businesses and residents widen the doughnut hole, neglecting the heart of the City. Lutheran Hospital relocated to the Southwest in 1992, and now Parkview is leaving for the Northeast. Parkview plans a 900,000 square foot expansion costing $500,000,000. The remaining hospital, St. Joe, so far is stedfast in its commitment to the downtown, pledging to build a $7,000,000 medical building next to its already existing facility.

Until the boards and commissions stop approving every subdivision that comes along, the downtown will continue to fight for its existence. Harrison Square is a wonderful start to begin the revitalization of the downtown, but along with Harrison Square, incentives need to be provided to encourage prospective home buyers to rehabilitate homes in the older neighborhoods. Ultimately, the planning and zoning boards need to take a stand againt the leapfrogging urban sprawl that is turning the county into a patchwork quilt of beige.

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I hope some day soon we will leave the machine age in the dust for “The Solar Century” and all the spooky oil refineries, tank farms, nuclear plants, and coal powered power plants are cleaned, emptied, and left to the pigeons and strolling park visitors to enjoy as “industrial relics” and unique sculpture of the machine and nuclear eras. I am constantly dismayed at seemingly intelligent people who push nuclear as a solution to global warming. France is busy building plants as fast as it can put them up! Stupid idiots! Where are they storing the waste? Probably in cheap tanks in some poverty stricken country! Have they had a good look at Hanford? Do they realize we are standing on the edge of disaster with leaking casks threatning to steralize the Columbia river? And out into the Pacific! We must get busy with wind, solar, biomass, and every other conceiviable technology that does not degrade the planet. Wonder if the chemical plant at Bhopal India is still standing? Worse yet…is it still producing toxic chemicals?

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Well, I started thinking once again about the bees which have gone missing.

Then I came across an article which states that within about 50 years humans will have no more seafood because everything in the ocean will be dead.. there are some “ocean dead zones” right now and they are spreading.

A recent study in the UK showed that up to 1/2 of vegetables, fruits, meat & grains sold in markets is contaminated by pesticides. That is scary considering a recent medical article just came out stating that even low-level exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of Parkinsons disease by 70%.

There is so much bad news being revealed one must wonder, “is this a sign of the times?”. As a young person when I read my Bible, I would wonder just how the oceans could be turned to “blood” (red bloom algae anyone?) or how 1/4 of the world population could die in a short period of time from disease and then an addition 1/4 by famine. Sitting in my comfortable US home I would think such things were not possible.

But now as an adult, I see quite clearly that not only is it possible, but probable.

God help us all.

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WARNING — WARNING — WARNING

Source: HERE see april 25 post

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