It’s been awhile. I’ve been washing a lot of dishes and thus been absent. The festival is up and running and we just finished the poster for it today so I figured I’d post it so you could all preview(if I even have any readers left). You can read all about the festival at the website provided on the flyer. Adios for now mis amigos.

….for the record I have no idea why it isn’t showing up. It should be…I’ll try and fix it later.

Well the first annual UNCW Environmental Film Festival is shoring up pretty nicely. The date is now official, the weekend of April 18,19th. It’ll be a Friday night, and all day Saturday event. We’re going to have sponors from local places like Tidal Creek Co-op and the local biodiesel guys. All that’s really left to do is get the films lined up and figure out how we are going to do everything…so basically there’s a ton left to do. But I can officially say that I am the director of the first annual UNCW Environmental Film Festival…and that’s not too shabby for a dishwasher.

Where have I been? I’ve been around, work mostly. What haven’t I been doing? Blogging…thank god. I’ve actually been really busy and when I’m home I don’t watch the news…it’s horribly depressing. Instead I’ve been reading, listening to music, hanging out with friends. Is this to say I don’t care about writing about environmental issues? No, of course not. However my car recently broke down so I’d been riding my bike into work everyday which is like russian roulette with the traffic in this city. I have a new car now, a 2000, Ford Taurus. Not really as good on gas, but a very nice car for the money. Thankfully not driving anywhere for over a week has me in that mode where I don’t feel like driving all over when I’m bored. Instead I drive only when I need to and I’m trying to baby this new car because it has to last me. The film festival is getting underway and I’ve got some of the Environmental Studies department on board now. It’ll probably take place in April because March I’ll be working on a film with Scott Coady to raise 500,000 for The Davis Phinney Foundation. So that’s where I’ve been and continue to be for a little while. I’ll try to get some more posts up, but I haven’t had anything to say, peak oil is still here, global warming and species loss is still happening. It’s time people educated themselves.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071129/ap_on_sc/conservation_birds

well it’s almost midnight and I’m half a bottle into the whiskey…so here it goes. My friend who moved to a town north of Wilmington called me to check the local newspaper of that town. Apparently the huge development they’re planning on putting in there which includes a 200 boat slip marina and two 15 story condo buildings is going to get a big fat no for the Florida located developer. Huge victory. Shiiiiitt….maybe the Bills will go on to make the playoffs and the movie I’m waiting on will be shot afterall. If nothing else, this is one for the good guys…Will Stout(the developer) can go somewhere else, because in the end he doesn’t care about the city, he cares about the profit.

another article from a UNCW professor about the environmental devastation all this “economic growth” is having on our local ecosystem…or lack there of. Here’s a reader’s response to that article, and I might add it’s the typical attitude down here. Notice when the writer says the trees are “unsuitable” and the formerly tree laden landscapes are transformed into something “attractive.” Attractive my ass. That attitude is what bothers me greatly about living in this area. It’s a lost cause. The mere thought of staying here and fighting for a few trees that are slated to be cleared for a new condo/apt building is a hopeless dream. The people here don’t care, and the bureaucrats certainly don’t. It’s all about profit. Using the land for the highest profit, not the highest good. For all the good people can do, it amazes me in this day and age we still have the potential to do so much harm without even wincing. It seems to me that a people that consider themselves so “advanced” socially and technologically would be able to live in harmony with fellow residents of the Earth and the Earth itself. Let’s see where this great idea of capitalism takes us in the next hundred years.

I know I’ve been an asshole for not posting something worthy myself lately. I’ve been shortcutting by linking articles I want you all to read. Oh well, it’s all the same I guess, as long as you are doing my reading assignments you will be somewhat prepared. Here’s another one.

Here’s a link to a presentation about the development that’s going in up in New Bern, NC. My buddy just moved there and got a job with the paper. It’s a great little town, a ton of history- the birthplace of Pepsi. I love it because it’s a small town with a friendly feel and holds true to the architecture of old instead of tearing everything down and putting up plastic cookie cutter developments…that is until this development….here’s the link the video….and here’s the link to the story. It’s obvious in a case like this that a small, historic town will be ruined by the blight of condo’s and yachts on the waterfront. Yes, the land it’s being built on is an old lumber yard…but considering the look and feel of the city it’s just a travesty. New Bern is one of the towns down here I actually like for it’s small town, friendly atmosphere. Just wait until they “increase their tax base” and bring a bunch of high rollers in who don’t give a damn about what the city was or is going to be…it’s all about profit…

One more great read from Orion Magazine, which seems to just churn out these though provoking and insightful essays and articles. This one is one condo building on the waterfront. I live in a condo, near the water…hmmmm…..

Well, I’ve been considering this for awhile, but I think now is a good a time as ever. My eating habits are pretty poor considering I eat only about once a day and usually it’s not very healthy. So I’ve decided to eat locally…sort of. Being inspired by a local blog I’m going to try to eat as much local food as possible. Living at the ocean it should be pretty easy. I’ve got an abundant food source full of fish to the east of me, and to the west and north I’ve got plenty of farms(south is Myrtle Beach). Of course it might be impossible to only eat local food because it’s the end of the growing season and I haven’t canned any food for the winter months around here. Trace from the blog mentioned that he goes “dumpster diving” and finds some really good stuff. So I think between eating fish, dumpster diving for discarded but still good food and buying meat out of the expiring bin at the store I should be able to make a good little change. This is much better than eating beef and chicken slaughtered hundreds or thousands of miles away and shipped to Wilmington to fatten the fat. I’d rather eat things that will be thrown out and wasted or eat something I either kill or grow myself. My pumpkins this year were and utter failure. It seemed every time a little pumpkin would start to grow on the vine something would eat it. I never did catch the culprit but I think it was the birds I attract with the bird feeder. I doubt the cockroaches have enough ambition to take on a fresh pumpkin. So it begins, my quest for independence and the salvation of unwanted food.

Today on the local talk radio show a man called in preaching about our need to be energy independent and the fact that we need to get off mid-east oil. That got me thinking all day about this. The caller made some points about how we could do this easily by just getting more oil from the oil shale in the Rockies, drilling in ANWR and off the coast on the seabed. I’ve been having an internal dialogue with myself all day about what it means to be energy independent and how to get there. First and foremost you have to start at the beginning. Oil - we get most of our imported oil from Canada and then Saudi Arabia. After that it goes Mexico, Nigeria, Venezuela and sharply drops by half with Algeria, Iraq and so on. The “middle eastern oil” we talk about is Saudi oil. The supposedly fund terrorist organizations with the money they make from exports to our countries along with others. So, to the everyday American it would make perfect sense to not buy their oil. That obviously won’t happen, just look what happened in the 70’s with the oil embargo. I don’t think we have to worry about Canada anytime soon and Mexico isn’t exactly a threat nationally. So we’re left with importing oil to feed the insatiable and ridiculous need for growth to prop up our failing system. People like the caller feel that the government owes it to us to keep this oil coming(cheaply) so that we can continue our unintelligent and short-sided living styles. The answer is very simple to me. I know with peak oil and the consumption of resources going so fast we’ll run out in the next hundred or so years that we need to plan ahead. Not by some governmental program, but independently and locally. I have a friend who makes his own bio-diesel, I know others that ride their bike to work, or drive a smaller car. Nothing spectacular, just simple changes, which also happen to be healthy ones. It’s as easy as buying local organic food that didn’t have to travel as far. Start canning local vegetables for the coming winter months and eat seasonally with meat. Hell, even better, grow your own vegetables and animals for food. Most importantly and I stress this part…brew your own beer. I recently grabbed a book on brewing beer and plan to turn my bathroom into a makeshift brewery. These ever so simple changes make an impact when millions of people are doing them. You’ve got to live with the land and not off it. A perfect example is the Southeast where I live. We’re in a drought. Atlanta has 3 months of drinking water left and people don’t seem to be doing much about it. It makes sense that when you crowd and area with too many people, plant alien vegetation that requires more water than the ecosystem is used to, and consume water to keep your housing tract lawns so “evergreen” that you might start running into problems. Without rain 3 months from now the people there will have no recourse except the government to fly in water or have it directed from somewhere else. People don’t plan ahead; they keep living their lives as comfortable as possible with no thought to the consequences that might occur by consuming too much and not paying attention to the natural world around them.

Then we have this whole oil shale debacle. Oil Shale is essential sedimentary rock that contains stuff called kerogen that when heated is released as an oil like substance that can be used similarly. Now what is the problem with this you ask? Essentially, the same as coal mining. Open pit mines and damaging the aquifers are a huge risk. The companies are trying to heat the rock in the ground and basically suck off the good stuff. The only problem with this is keeping it from seeping into other parts of the ground. Solution: ice walls. Yah, baby put an ice wall around a hot area, great idea. All joking aside, they might be able to get somewhere with it if they can every figure out how to do it in a manner that’s economical for the companies. But for ice, you need water, and last I heard the west wasn’t so big on that resource. However, with a good chunk of it on public land in Colorado(Green river formation) I doubt the companies would have to worry about environmental issues. Especially, if oil prices keep going up. People want their “shiny things” and the Earth be damned if it gets in the way. Then you have tar sands, which is similar in the fact that you get oily stuff from the ground mixed in with a bunch of rock and dirt. Canada is really the one with the large-scale production of this stuff and it faces similar environmental hazards, along with the obvious problems of open pit mining.

My favorite coal. Being from the Allegheny Mountains I feel a closer connection with this issues. Although in Northern, PA/Southern NY where I live(It’s right on the border), I don’t have to worry about this. My friends south of me do however. Coal is one of those industries that seem to be synonymous with Americana. I group it right in there with the steel industry and logging…those old time industries that really built America up to what it has become. Now we’ve outgrown the need for that kind of industry because there’s too much demand and we can get it cheaper by importing. Let alone if we were to completely isolate ourselves at the current rate of consumption we’d have nothing left within a couple years. It’d be economic and environmental disaster - the end of America. Coal is going to make a comeback. With peak oil and prices rising, coal will be coming back with a vengeance. And isn’t it good to know that there’s plenty of it out west which just so happens to be where a lot of the production will come from. Isn’t it also nice to know that not only will western states get to deal with oil shale, but also coal mining…what a paradise. Of course back east I’m sure we’ll still rape and pillage the land. Strip mine, and then when we’re done seal in the poison waters into a couple retention ponds and put a public golf course on top of the old mine(you know set it back to the original condition that it was in before mining). It’s going to be a clusterfuck ladies and gentlemen, I swear on my mother’s grave(oops she isn’t dead yet).

Ok I lied, coal isn’t my favorite, ANWR is. Maybe because I’ve visited Alaska and heard both sides, read a few books on it and had a nice conversation with people that study the caribou herds. The simple man’s argument would be something like this, “Man, who cares about middle eastern oil, we got loads up it up in dat der ANWR but the liberals don’t want us to drill there because they’re concerned about some dumb Alaskan deer.” I shit you not that’s what I hear 90% of the time. The smart mans argument would go something like this, “I know there are environmental hazards by drilling for oil in ANWR, but with the current state of world affairs I think it would be the best option as long as environmental hazards are taken into account and prevented.” Now here’s what I think…ANWR. The controversy comes from drilling in the 1002 area, which is the coastal plain of ANWR. This also just so happens to be the calving ground for the 120,000 strong porcupine caribou herd, along with nesting grounds for many birds. This is in fact an environmentally sensitive area because for thousands of years the caribou have been coming here every year to give birth. The biologist we spoke to said that he believed it would have a negative impact on the caribou because they are so wary of loud noises or things they might have reason to be skittish with. This is the main reason that ramps were put in on the pipeline and that it was elevated so that the caribous could cross. However, according to the biologist, many times they don’t. On the flip side he said they’ve been known to use roads to cover greater distances, so it’s a two-sided coin. According to him any good scientist will say they don’t know the long-term effects of drilling on the coastal plain, however that is only because they need verifiable evidence and data to support a claim that it would be harmful. But it seems rather commonsense that it would be. The other issue with drilling is that its pollution rate is really bad. There are spills, leaks and fumes spewed into the ground and air all the time. Just west, ok really far west(It’s Alaska, huge state) you have the National Petroleum Reserve. Up until 1999 it was pretty much off limits until our good friend under Babbit the Secretary of The Interior under Clinton leased a good portion of the northeastern section. The rest was left as environmentally sensitive areas until the Bush years, which all together eliminated that. So the question we have to ask ourselves in the end isn’t whether we want to save caribou, but rather if we’re will to sacrifice everything to gain a little something. If you are at all interested in learning more about ANWR I encourage you to read Jonathan Waterman’s book, “Where The Mountains Are Nameless.” I’ll leave you with a quote from the book which has a tour bus drive talking about Deadhorse, AK near the oil fields…”Twenty-five years ago this was all a wasteland…now look at it. It’s a modern industrial complex.” So it goes…

WARNING: DON’T WATCH IF YOU FEEL AT ALL UNEASY WITH SEEING A COW SLAUGHTERED. WAIT, ON SECOND THOUGHT, WATCH IT. YOU SHOULD FEEL UNEASY WHEN WATCHING AN ANIMAL GET BUTCHERED. We as a society have gotten so far away from the act of killing and harvesting our own food we forget that beef and other meat actually has to come from an animal which is alive. I don’t like watching this, or many other videos I see online. However, I force myself too because I know that if I eat meat I am responsible for this activity. Not to mention one should never get too comfortable and become blind to the world’s problems. I’ve seen videos of executions online among others. They are absolutely horrific. But you know, it is happening. People are dying, and to pretend like it isn’t and stay in a nice little bubble is completely irresponsible. That goes out especially to you war mongers(even moreso to those who support the war and won’t go fight it even though they are able bodied). People die in war and you should have to watch it. Then and only then do you realize the cost. That goes the same for a burger. It’s tasty alright, but when you watch the conditions and suffering and animal is put through to make a big mac, is it worth it? I’m certainly not innocent of this, I eat meat. I also know how it’s done and watch the slaughter. It’s not so much that one should stop eating meat or write off all war, but rather be accountable and knowledgeable about the processes and actions that it takes to get there. Blood is blood, animal or human animal.

Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission–to be of service to them whenever they require it… If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
– Saint Francis of Assisi(See I’m not a total asshole when it comes to religion)

News Article…. Off the fucking cliff we go…

A recent article in the local Wilmington paper made note of a tour of local houses that were utilizing “green” building. One of the houses mentioned was built by a local builder who used pines from new growth forest for wood, built “high performance” windows to make use of the breezes and has his home partially powered by solar. This is great, right? Well ya, until you consider the fact that this home is over 9,000 sq. feet. Apparently, sustainability now comes in the form of homes built within a huge development which are ironically named things like “Brunswick Forest.” Brunswick Forest is almost 5,000 acres of cleared forest to make room for all the new homes. Golly gee wiz! that sounds like an environmentalist dream. If you believe the website(and I sure do!) then you can too enjoy the lovely landscape that’s been “enhanced by nature’s hand.” I’m not even going to make a smart ass remark about that quote, it’s stupidity should be blatant enough. Back to builder Senior and his 9,000sq. foot home. I don’t mean to knock the guy for using some environmentally sound practices, however, if you aim is to be environmentally sound your best bet is to just not build a 9,000 sq. foot on the intracoastal waterway where there’s already been enough damage. It’s like hitting someone over the head so you can take them to the hospital all for the outcome of looking like your taking care of them. There are a few good instances of green building in this article, like Dan Brawley head of the local film festival Cucaloris has done. Recycled materials on the cheap, that’s the way to go. Everyone is obsessed with buying new, when really you can get the same quality with alot more character just by scrounging around for some used material. I guess I am just flabbergasted that abomination built in those developments can be seen as anything close to green. I suppose I’d rather see revitalization of the downtown area than the destruction of an already perfect Pine Savannah or pocosin habitat.

Step one: Destroy the local ecosystem through land clearing.
Step two: Build unsustainable homes and plant foreign vegetation for landscaping sake.
Step three: Throw up two solar panels and buy a prius.
Step four: Declare you’re environmental savior status.

All sarcasm aside, I think it is a good thing that “green building” is a growing trend. But it’s inevitably flawed. Growth itself cancels out any good done by solar power or recycled materials, especially if you live in a future slum like “Marsh Oaks” or “Brunswick Forest.” We need to focus on reducing consumption and reusing old materials, homes, cars. But as long as society covets things like new cars, large homes, Paris Hilton, and shiny things, we are doomed to fail not only as a nation, but also as a species of this planet.

I got this from the paper down here. And to answer the mans question about whether development is good or bad, it’s bad. It’s horrible, in fact I don’t think there’s much I hate more. What do I know though? A booming housing market and population growth is great for an economy that can only survive off unbridled growth. What’s that Ed Abbey? Cancer, you say?

Wilmington native has seen change . . . good and bad

By Amy Hotz
Staff Writer
amy.hotz@starnewsonline.com

I’m 28 years old. Barely a speck on the radar of the human life span. But I’m also a born and bred Wilmingtonian, which means I’ve probably seen a lot more than most people my age in other cities our size.

Until getting married four years ago, I lived my entire life in a cinderblock house my father and his father built in 1954 on a dirt road. That road is now paved with a traffic light at one end. I had a relative who fought at Moore’s Creek during the Revolutionary War and a couple other relatives who were stationed at Fort Fisher during the Civil War.

My family house is less than a mile from Landfall, which I can remember as being nothing but woods and swamp. My dad used to hunt on the same spot lawyers now dig their golf shoes into.

Part of the Mayfaire property was a cow pasture. That changed not long ago. But it changed fast. At 28 I can remember when Wilmington had no Wal-Mart, when there wasn’t an Interstate 40, when half the buildings on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington were not there.

Downtown was still a little seedy and actually had some industry. I don’t recall any artsy-fartsy high-dollar clothing stores there. Rare Cargo was at the Galleria shopping center. And there certainly weren’t any doggy treat bakeries – downtown or anywhere else.

Wrightsville Beach had places you could park for free. And the south end actually had big chunks of what looked like brick chimneys scattered around on the sand. I guess those are all covered up now.

I get out and about. I socialize. But now when someone tells me where they live, I rarely recognize the street names.

When I was younger, if you went to Carolina Beach, you drove quite a ways with nothing but trees to look at. The most interesting things along the route were Tote-Em-In Zoo and some place that had a wooden fence around it cut out like teepees. They had animals like raccoons and possums in cages and a small gift shop that sold leather moccasins and cheap Indian headdresses.

We’d take trips to Fort Fisher nearly every weekend, and it didn’t look anything like it does now. The part that hurts the worst now is driving down River Road or past those pastel-colored houses on stilts. I vividly remember the dense maritime scrub oaks that used to coat those areas. Deer were always roaming there. And, to a child, imagining what was hidden in a place that surely no one had walked in for decades gave the place a magical feel.

I don’t know if I-40 did it or if moving to the beach is just a fad that’s gotten out of hand, but the old timers who used to give my family pecans from their trees each fall and bring over two-liter plastic Pepsi bottles of homemade wine have found that the land they’ve worked and lived on most of their lives is now too expensive to own. Taxes and the cost of living have run them out.

Macy Rollins, an old family friend in her 80s, found her home annexed by the city after her husband died four or five years ago.

Dad always said you couldn’t give him the property because it was adjacent to a mosquito-infested marsh. Someone decided it was worth more than Mrs. Rollins has probably ever seen in her entire life. The taxes were too much for her Social Security checks to bear, so she called the city to find out what she could do.

She said the lady she spoke with told her if she deeded the property to the city, she could live there tax-free until she died. Mrs. Rollins wanted to leave the house to her family, though, and asked if there was anything else she could do. The lady said no.

Ten or so townhouses are now squeezed onto that little pecan tree field.

Where in the heck are these people who are building and buying all these high-dollar homes getting their money? Where do they work? Do they, in the truest sense, contribute to this city?

I know I’m pretty lucky I found a decent paying job in my hometown. Most of my high school classmates have moved away. People often tell me how amazed they are to have found a real, live Wilmingtonian. Then they step back and look at me closer, pensively.

But I try not to complain much about all the changes. Some things are actually for the better. The Riverwalk is nice. And it’s good to have so many choices in ice cream shops.

But once in a while I drive through the old neighborhood or get stuck in traffic at the New Centre Drive-Market Street intersection and I wonder if all this growth is mostly good or mostly bad.

I still haven’t answered myself on that one.

But maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if I knew the people making all the big decisions and changes, whether they just flew in from Kalamazoo or have lived here all their lives, truly respect what’s already here – the very things that make Wilmington special.

I feel mighty old for 28.

9-5 day in and day out. Washing dishes, making food, all for the fattened customers strolling in from their gated communities. They are “well off,” according to their own versions of terrestrial wealth. I watch them scamper in and out all day like a party of ants scouring the sand for their next meal. This is no way to spend your days. If I was to die tomorrow would I want to know that my last day on earth, our home, was spent making food and washing the dishes of this arrogant, ignorant colony of people that moved here for “the good life.” I needed to get out. Away from the constant buzz of the highway and beeping horns of angry commuters trying to get to their destination faster than the next driver. It’s a race down the highways and roads. Who’s got the faster car, the bigger car, the more expensive car. I’d had it with the city. I threw my camera in my backpack and drove off. Not to some distant wilderness location, teeming with the sounds and silence of birds, crickets and water - no, rather to the quiet back roads. A place where the wind can blow without trying to overpower the constant hum of civilization and there is a stillness in the air contrary to the breeze. Out here on this backcountry road, I quiet my mind. I notice the egrets standing in the shallow brackish water, lilies floating on the wind blown surface, which ripples and bobs like a sheet hanging to dry in the summer breeze. Six feet away from me in the shallow, murky water is a large 8 foot alligator. I’m not afraid, but curious, of this beast which I’ve never been so close to. It has no fear of me, although it keeps a very watchful eye. The alligator must think I’m strange to sit there and stare at him trying to warm his body in the sun. And I think of how easily this animal, millions of years old, perfected by time, could take me to my grave in the time it would take my heart to jump in fear of it’s closing jaws. But no, this is not that scene. Instead, it’s just me and the alligator - staring, listening, learning. I’m no farther than a 20 minute drive from the place I see destroyed everyday. Plastic houses, stamped out in the most economical fashion. Nails pounded, rivets punched, screw drivers working as fast as the hands of the illegal immigrant can make it go. This, all in the name of progress. As I sit there I think that “progress” should mean the moving forward of something, the gradual improvement. Though, everyday I see the opposite, I see the plundering of resources for material wealth, with no thought put towards future generations, or the trees and animals displaced to provide a “home” for someone looking to retire or start a new life in the coast. This alligator, as simple as it may be, reminds me of our own imperfections and frailty. If it wanted it could make me its delicious dinner. I am no challenge to this animal, and maybe he senses that. There is something to be said for simplicity. This animal doesn’t want excess or to destroy the environment it lives in. As simple as it is, driven by million year old instincts, it understands that it’s home, it’s life is dependant on a healthy ecosystem. No clean water = no fish. No fish = no food. No food = death. As humans I wonder why we can’t understand that philosophy better. Because something is expensive or large does not make it better, especially if it comes at the cost of the ecosystem. Driving back “home” I am passed by at least 7 drivers. Apparently, 55mph just isn’t fast enough on a two lane road. No matter though, my mind was as still as the alligator, saving his energy to catch his next meal.

A great article from Orion Magazine about being accountable for your own actions when it comes to the environment, and not just talking about them. Shows that we all have a long way to go and can only get there by raising the bar for ourselves and hoping others follow the lead. Click for LINK

Here are some more INCREDIBLE Orion articles…
The Universe
Fundamentalism and The Ecosystem…Please read this one, I beg you.
Global Dumbing
Oren Lyons Interview

Just in case you don’t read the interview I’d like to post an excerpt from it which I find to be the most important message he gives.

“And so it goes on, this idea of private property, this idea of accruement of wealth. And now we have corporate states, corporations that have the status of states—independent and sovereign, and fealty to no one, no moral law at all. President Bush has said, “Let the market dictate our direction.” Now if that isn’t about as stupid as you can get. What he said was, let the greed of the people dictate the direction of the Earth. If that’s the basis of a country, then it’s really lost what you would call a primary direction for survival.

This is really the danger today—this empty, senseless lack of leadership. But it doesn’t mean that responsibility isn’t in the hands of the people. To come down to the nut of the whole thing, it’s the people’s responsibility to do something about it. Leadership was never meant to take care of anybody. Leadership was meant to guide people; they take care of themselves. People should be storming the offices of all these pharmaceutical companies that are stealing money from them. They should be dragging these leaders, these CEOs, out into the streets and they should be challenging them. They’re not doing that. They’re just worried about how they’re going to pay more.

It’s the abdication of responsibility by the people. What was it that they said? By the people and for the people? That was the Peace Maker’s instruction: Of, by, and for the people. You choose your own leaders. You put ‘em up, and you take ‘em down. But you, the people, are responsible. You’re responsible for your life; you’re responsible for everything.

People haven’t been here all that long as a species on the Earth. We haven’t been here all that long and our tenure is in question right now. The question arises, Do we have the wisdom, do we have the discipline, do we have the moral rule, the moral law, are we mature enough to care for what is our responsibility? That question can only be answered by the people.”

My buddy is moving to a town just about an hour north of Wilmington. It’s old, classy, and pretty goddamn nice. However some asshole developers want to change all that by “revitalizing” the city. Here’s a link to my friend’s blog post about it. Let’s get this out of the way too. Everyone says “Sean your blogs are so negative.” No shit, if you lived down here and had half a fucking heart yours would be too. They’re destroying this place city by city, parcel by parcel. So go back to your small towns and cities and wonder why its so “negative.” Oh, and remember the American motto, “Build build build, buy buy buy.” Amen, peace the fuck out.

I just saw a commercial on tv by Bill Saffo the current mayor of Wilmington. The election is Oct. 9th, and I won’t be voting for him. Not only is he a real estate guy, here’s a link to his company, all his buddies and donors are real estate guys and developers. Bill wants to make Wilmington great he says, after all, according to him it is the best place to live. We’ve got to fix our ailing sewers system, acquire more empty space and have some jobs for people in town rather than just having Wilmington be a large retirement home. Oh, he wants to improve our quality of living too. Are you kidding me? I assume by what I’ve seen of your work so far Bill, that “quality of life” means having a 500K home in a development and driving a Chevy Suburban. No sir, that is not the quality of life we need. We do need more open spaces and less development. We need bike lanes and good developmental planning so you can access stores and restaurants by bike or on foot. Instead you’ve created a clusterfuck where you’re likely to get hit on your bike or on foot. Nothing is easily accessible with your, build now, plan later scheme. You’ve done an awful job for this city and I haven’t even mentioned the sewers spills which were and are absolutely ridiculous. When a pipe can only hold the volume of 30K people, you should try putting 50K people’s turds floating down it. It’s basic math and science. So why don’t you take all that donor money you’ve received and go buy a house somewhere far far away, because if you really cared for the city you wouldn’t run for re-election.

Today at work I tried telling my boss about peak oil. I was confronted with an arrogant amount of ignorance and stubbornness. I told her about peak oil and that down the road it’s going to be major trouble. To that she replied that these so called “experts” can’t be trusted. Look at Greenland, it’s called “green”land because it used to be a very fertile and livable place. So obviously these global warming “experts” must not have a clue. She also said it was “arrogant” to think that we as people can have that much effect on the world. Excuse me? It’s arrogant to believe we can change the environment? She then told me that we’ll just drill somewhere else. It was very obvious at this point that I was not getting my point through. The conversation progressed from the science to the economic difficulties we’ll encounter. To that she replied that we need to worry about China. Ok, fine, China is becoming a powerhouse, but who is helping them? I told her that if she didn’t like the idea of China becoming powerful, then we only have ourselves to blame. She of course disagreed that we had that much of an effect on their economy. All you need to do is go to the U.S. Census Bureau’s website on foreign trade statistics and you can see that trade with China has gone up every year for the last 7 years. But after all it you can’t rely on these experts. I mean why trust someone who has devoted their entire life to the study of a particular field, obviously a lady who drives an Lincoln Navigator and runs a restaurant must know more. On the pollution front she said that we don’t have do try and curb out pollution because compared to China we can’t do anything. That is one of the most arrogant and retarded arguments I’ve heard in a long time. If someone else is stealing, it doesn’t make it right to keep doing it because they are. So, I tried explaining it to her in terms of population growth. It’s simple if you have a shrinking supply of resources and a growing demand there will be tension and the resource will become more valuable, thus causing it to be more expensive. I said we need to conserve and think ahead. All I got out of her was that “The U.S. will only keep getting bigger and better.” I was dumbfounded, mad, frustrated and disappointed all at the same time. How can we as a people go on with such ignorance. Oh, and I think she threw in a comment about the Democrats too somewhere in there. I can understand if you look at the information objectively and come up with your own ideas and opinions, but to discount something as significant as this because you can’t trust “experts” is just asinine and dangerous. Sirbikes might be right, we’re heading over the cliff and no one’s willing to check and see if the brakes work.

I just got out of a film put on by the school as part of their “sustainability” series. it was called The End of Suburbia. I gotta say this was a really cool film. It brought up many good points which include, peak oil, unsustainable housing, over consumption and the downfall of the American dream. Essentially the jist was this. Peak oil is the idea that oil production will peak somewhere around NOW or the near future. With production from then on decreasing and the demand only increasing we will be in serious trouble. Natural gas has the same problem. The Northeast almost ran out of it last winter. Some would say “why don’t we just convert everything over to electric so we won’t have to rely on oil.” Well, how do you get electric? Coal and Natural gas along with some other ways such as Hydro.

The film covered the history of the suburbs from when it was for the affluent who wanted to get out of the city, to when it because a way for more middle class to live away from their jobs and the grime of the city. Back then they had rail cars much like buses that would stop and pick the workers up. Company’s like Standard Oil and GM bought those railways and tore them up to pave roads for their automobiles. Thus started the American dream. Living far from your job and taking a highway to get their in your new car which you were encouraged to by along with other cheap shiny stuff for your new house which eventually have become the McMansions. There was a wide array of speakers in the movie, one even included a former Cheney energy adviser, Matthew Simmons and he adamantly said that peak oil is real and we aren’t doing anything about it except running full speed ahead off the cliff. However, 20-50 years from now oil will become so expensive it won’t be economical to buy it. What do you do when you can’t afford to buy gas to drive your car to work? Or how about heating your home, or even transporting food from southern California to New York so you can have your salads in December. It will all go out the window. Such little things that we all take for granted because of cheap oil. Suburbs will become the new slums because there won’t be a way to support that type of living. Instead multiple use housing will have to start. However, if we don’t start that now it might be too late to begin it when everyone wakes up and realizes this is a problem. What energy will we use to build these homes so it’s affordable. It just won’t be possible to go on living like we live now. Everything as we know it from air condition to driving over to grandma’s house will either have to change or become non-existent. Yet we insist on oil as a cure all. Dare I say we might even be trying to secure all of the untapped oil in Iraq? There are a lot more oil wells in Texas than there are in Iraq…strange. Of course all this doom and gloom doesn’t have to happen. We can start conserving. The UNCW teacher panel tonight insisted that even by little things like turning off lights or turning the ac down or washing with colder water, all are small steps. If we all did that we could make a sizeable impact. They did quite a good job at not only educating but entertaining. We will need to start making an impact or this doom and gloom will come true. We can’t just wait around for some technology to be handed down by Jesus to free us of oil. It’s going to be a hard road full of sacrifices made by everyone. In the end it’s everyone who will suffer so we have a responsibility to start living smarter. Here’s a link to the film’s website. I encourage people to check it out if at all possible. It really gets you thinking.

The earth has roughly 140 million species. Nearly 380 of them disappear each day. And of 140 million, nearly half live in tropical rainforests, the same one’s that are being destroyed day after day, hour after hour. The Amazon rain forest contributes nearly 20% of all our oxygen. Commonly referred to as the “lungs of the planet,” the Amazon rainforest along with its brethren are disappearing at nearly 2 acres a second. Clear cutting for agricultural use is often illegal but goes unchecked. This same clearing for agricultural use is only expedited by logging and mining roads. Much of this logging goes to feed American consumption for wood. We need it for building houses, repair of wooden structures and things like pencils, chopstix and baseball bats. We are the number one importer of tropical woods like mahogany. Brazil alone has 1/3 of the world’s remaining rain forests. It’s also one of the most prevalent destroyers. Much of the forest has been razed for farming, road building, hydroelectric projects and large scale cattle farms. In the past 40 years alone we have destroyed 20% of the worlds rain forests.

Where do we lay blame? Could it be the population and need for more natural resources? In 1950 the world’s population was 2.5 billion. Today it’s 6 billion and by 2010 it will be almost 7 billion with it peaking at 9 billion around 2040. This trend continues until we as a species face a decline in population due to lack of food, much like in the wild. If you look at the world’s consumption needs like water, food, housing. You can infer by the present state of things that we will not be able to keep up with the demand for natural resources. Things like the demand for oil increases while production doesn’t or even declines, to things as basic as water.

Water alone may be one of the biggest problems in 20 years. With much of the worlds freshwater supply melting due to global warming, we might have one of the greatest crisis man has ever faced. Today if you live in a city like Las Vegas they just dam the Colorado River and divert it. But if you live in a poor nation like Bolivia where you get most of your fresh water from glacial melt, you are in serious trouble. Poorer countries like Bolivia who depend on that seasonal meltoff from fresh water won’t have any once the glacier stops it’s ebb and flow cycle and completely melts. Then Bolivia must either buy water, or fight for it. China for example will have the same problem. Just to the north of their border lies some of the largest depositories of fresh water in the world, like Lake Baikal in Russia. Will they just succumb to the fact that they can’t grow? Or will their militaristic instinct take over and attack Russia for their precious water. These are serious issues that everyday folk need to start thinking about. It will be us that impacts this future, not your children or their children. It’s do or die because the world will be a vastly different place in 50 years. Edward Abbey said, “growth for the sake of growth, is the ideology of a cancer cell,” and he was right. I know this all seems a bit far fetched right now, but in 20 years I promise you it won’t. We already have mass extinction on our planet. If we don’t curb either population or the need for resources we will be a part of it.

Stories like this made me wish I didn’t read the news.

…Well it’s September 11th, 2007. Six years ago I was in high school and remember the day well. I don’t want to dwell on what happened though. It was horrible and one hopes nothing like that ever happens, especially in their own country. After 9/11 I remember this huge outpouring of national pride and the attitude that we would overcome and move on. Move on we have. From 9/11 came the Iraq war and from the Iraq war came the divisive nature of the present politics. We are no more unified today than we were before or immediately after 9/11. Instead I drive around and see little magnetic stickers on cars that say “support our troops” or “God Bless America.” Why not God Bless the world? Take some of your Jesus loving crap and love thy enemy. Or at least try to understand where they come from. It isn’t until we understand the root of radical Islam that we can come to understand how to defeat it. When it only takes one man to blow up fifty, you know you’re in trouble. No army can stop a movement. We could put a million troops in Iraq, and yes we would control it for awhile. But we’re not fighting a country, we’re fighting a movement, and that is something completely different. Even if we defeat it militarily in Iraq, it will pop up somewhere else. This isn’t going to be a military fight in the end, it’s going to be a cultural movement. The only way to defeat it is to change the hearts of the people. To make them love America and the freedom that one can have if they let go of superstitious bullcrap from a thousand years ago. I don’t want to get onto the religion tangent but I’ll let it be known that I think it causes a lot of harm and ignorance. I live in the bible belt so I feel I am at liberty to make that judgment, and I’m sure my minor in religion doesn’t hurt either. The only educated belief is to be agnostic. Anyway, like I was saying I still see these huge SUV’s flying around on the roads and the ignorance that seems to come standard with most southern kids people I’ve met around here. That in no way is a blanket statement, because I’ve met a lot of good people here, but the bad seem to outweigh the good in my book. Even today I wonder how many people took a moment of silence or just thought about what happened in the few minutes of downtime they’ve had. Does America not care anymore? It seems to me that the only reason people care is if someone takes their house away or their cheap, shiny stuff. But, liberty, freedom, the American way? It’s no more. We’ve outsourced it so we can buy our stuff cheap at the cost of future generations. A 90 year old man called into the local radio show this morning. He talked about the racism he used to encounter when he was a young man growing up in Wilmington. However, through all the adversity he persevered and got a job at the port alongside his father. He grew up and all of his 7 kids went to college. All of this background was in relation to the fact that the NAACP is coming here because of a race riot we had over a hundred years ago. This old man rememberd hearing about it from his parents and grandparents. His point was one I thoroughly respected though. Instead of jumping on the NAACP bandwagon he said in effect that people need to stop causing trouble over what happened a long time ago and put that energy into improving the current state of things. The example he gave was that one of his grandchildren said he admired a man in prison because “he was hard.” The older man said he was a hooligan and there was nothing hard about that. Hard was growing up in the south when it was much more racist that today. That was hard. He noted that today’s youth doesn’t need any more opportunity either, there’s plenty of it. They just don’t take the initiative to go out and get it. Today’s generation knows nothing about overcoming adversity like that. I may not know if it first hand but at least I’m aware. The whole tangent about this old man is to prove that long ago people pushed on and made the best out of a bad situation. They didn’t sit around and complain and feel bad for themselves. They made the best out of a bad situation. Instead today, I think most Americans are too complacent, and I honestly believe most won’t do anything to help their fellow countrymen or the world unless it affects them personally. It’s sad, just like today. 9/11 isn’t about Iraq, it’s about America forgetting what makes this country great. I look around campus and see kids in BMW’s and Mercedes, I can only shake my head. It seems anymore we judge a person by their material possessions rather than what they’ve accomplished or learned. It’s a plastic society we’re slowly converting over to. I wish a thought like that was far back in my head on a day like today but I can’t help but think they are somehow interconnected. God(whichever one you think is real) Bless…America…and everyone else. I guess it would be kind of hard to fit that all onto a sticker.

…and another link.

Quick post - Yesterday I rode my first century with my buddy Justin for an MS fundraiser. I’m not burnt to a full crisp anywhere outside of where my bike shorts or shirt was covering. Somehow I managed not to be sore, probably used up all the lactic acid in my legs just riding. I’m glad I did it, at least I feel some sort of sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t that it was ever really hard at one point, it’s that you sit on the bike all day and after awhile boredom and just plain being uncomfortable sets in, as you realize that you have 40 more miles to go. Anyway it’s done, over - good. I’d like to link a post by sirbikesalot here because I’m too tired/lazy to post. He makes a lot of good points, about the waning oil supply, alternative transportation, and the attitude it’s going to take if people want to change anything so here it is, give it a read and see how you can apply it to your own life. CLICK FOR LINK