after we impeach him, what then?
Hi folks,
So, the Impeach Bush blogstorm is back on top in Technorati today. It dipped briefly to #2 but has been #1 since then as far as I know...on that subject here is a Newsweek article called How Bush Blew It. I saw a newscast this morning that says there are 1600 children separated from their parents or orphaned by the Katrina disaster...unbelievable...
in art news De Stenen Poort sent me some info on the stone sculpture symposium that will take place in the Netherlands from May 25 to June 2006. The deadline for application is November 1, 2005.
in the global warming department...there are a few articles in the loop about carbon loss in soils as a result of elevated temperature. I know this maybe sounds a little boring, I mean, who cares about dirt? but this is actually pretty huge. carbon loss from soil can be really significant, especially when soil is warmer. its a catch-22...the faster soils heat up, the faster they lose carbon...
I asked a scientist friend about this and learned that conservation tillage can keep soils at a lower temperature, thus reducing carbon loss. Microbial activity is greater in tilled soils, and that makes heat. Also no-till fields are generally lighter in color, which keeps the temperature lower.
Speaking of soil disturbance something that has always blown my mind is that we estimate our economic health as a nation on the construction of new homes. Preparing land for new home construction is just devastating to the soil. I can't even look at a new home site without getting a little queasy, now that I know what it costs us in soil.
I remember seeing a lecture by Dr. Norman Meyer in which he addressed the issue of productivity and the measurement of economic health. I came away from it thinking, The Gross National Product is wack. It is supposed to measure our productivity but all it really seems to measure is how hyperactive we are as a nation.
GO GO GO GO GO!!!!
here is an example of the crazy stuff that goes into calculating the GNP: when a drunk driver hits another car and two cars full of people go to the hospital by ambulance or helicopter, the money that all that costs is a positive for the gross national product.
WTF?
Smoking is another crazy example: Cigarettes cost money. They make people sick. The sick people need doctors. All this helps to keep the GNP puffed up.
Yep! WE are prosperous. We are so prosperous it's killing us.
Everyone who is helping to keep the Impeach Bush meme up and running should make sure we aren't so busy calling for his head on a pike that we forget to do the work that needs to be done to keep our Earth--and our civilization--in one piece.
Politics are a dirty, slimy mess and they always have been. We shouldn't get all shocked and self-congratulating when we find out that a politician has been robbing us blind, commiting despicable acts in our name, and generally making an ass of himself. Maybe I'm jaded, but isn't that what politicians do?
I can't get very excited about the Impeach Bush meme because I can't see how impeaching Bush would make this world any better. If we impeach Bush now, someone will have to take his place and that someone will undoubtedly be a politician. Possibly a much worse one.
Or maybe the new someone will be a little better for a while but five or ten years later the pendulum will have swung the other way and someone else will be getting vilified and maybe impeached and people who are otherwise perfectly intelligent will waste precious time bickering and being angry at each other.
Meanwhile crop fields will keep sliding into the sea, kids will keep dying of starvation, the ice caps will keep melting and our insane lemming's march of productivity will never cease for a moment.
Divide and conquer. That is the politician's game. Get the masses to argue, then exploit any weakness you see in the ranks and use it to fatten your resume and extend your powers.
If the human race is too foolish to have figured this out by now, perhaps we really do deserve to get treated like sheep.
tags: ecology, global warming, impeach Bush, soil conservation, soil science, conservation tillage, Gross National Product, rat race, energy, oil, war, Newsweek, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, stone sculpture symposium, Netherlands, carbon sequestration, politics
So, the Impeach Bush blogstorm is back on top in Technorati today. It dipped briefly to #2 but has been #1 since then as far as I know...on that subject here is a Newsweek article called How Bush Blew It. I saw a newscast this morning that says there are 1600 children separated from their parents or orphaned by the Katrina disaster...unbelievable...
in art news De Stenen Poort sent me some info on the stone sculpture symposium that will take place in the Netherlands from May 25 to June 2006. The deadline for application is November 1, 2005.
in the global warming department...there are a few articles in the loop about carbon loss in soils as a result of elevated temperature. I know this maybe sounds a little boring, I mean, who cares about dirt? but this is actually pretty huge. carbon loss from soil can be really significant, especially when soil is warmer. its a catch-22...the faster soils heat up, the faster they lose carbon...
I asked a scientist friend about this and learned that conservation tillage can keep soils at a lower temperature, thus reducing carbon loss. Microbial activity is greater in tilled soils, and that makes heat. Also no-till fields are generally lighter in color, which keeps the temperature lower.
Speaking of soil disturbance something that has always blown my mind is that we estimate our economic health as a nation on the construction of new homes. Preparing land for new home construction is just devastating to the soil. I can't even look at a new home site without getting a little queasy, now that I know what it costs us in soil.
I remember seeing a lecture by Dr. Norman Meyer in which he addressed the issue of productivity and the measurement of economic health. I came away from it thinking, The Gross National Product is wack. It is supposed to measure our productivity but all it really seems to measure is how hyperactive we are as a nation.
GO GO GO GO GO!!!!
here is an example of the crazy stuff that goes into calculating the GNP: when a drunk driver hits another car and two cars full of people go to the hospital by ambulance or helicopter, the money that all that costs is a positive for the gross national product.
WTF?
Smoking is another crazy example: Cigarettes cost money. They make people sick. The sick people need doctors. All this helps to keep the GNP puffed up.
Yep! WE are prosperous. We are so prosperous it's killing us.
Everyone who is helping to keep the Impeach Bush meme up and running should make sure we aren't so busy calling for his head on a pike that we forget to do the work that needs to be done to keep our Earth--and our civilization--in one piece.
Politics are a dirty, slimy mess and they always have been. We shouldn't get all shocked and self-congratulating when we find out that a politician has been robbing us blind, commiting despicable acts in our name, and generally making an ass of himself. Maybe I'm jaded, but isn't that what politicians do?
I can't get very excited about the Impeach Bush meme because I can't see how impeaching Bush would make this world any better. If we impeach Bush now, someone will have to take his place and that someone will undoubtedly be a politician. Possibly a much worse one.
Or maybe the new someone will be a little better for a while but five or ten years later the pendulum will have swung the other way and someone else will be getting vilified and maybe impeached and people who are otherwise perfectly intelligent will waste precious time bickering and being angry at each other.
Meanwhile crop fields will keep sliding into the sea, kids will keep dying of starvation, the ice caps will keep melting and our insane lemming's march of productivity will never cease for a moment.
Divide and conquer. That is the politician's game. Get the masses to argue, then exploit any weakness you see in the ranks and use it to fatten your resume and extend your powers.
If the human race is too foolish to have figured this out by now, perhaps we really do deserve to get treated like sheep.
tags: ecology, global warming, impeach Bush, soil conservation, soil science, conservation tillage, Gross National Product, rat race, energy, oil, war, Newsweek, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, stone sculpture symposium, Netherlands, carbon sequestration, politics
posted by AKA Nantoka at Monday, September 12, 2005
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