Reprieve

   The summer was not kind to Climate Guy 73. During the past year, I saw monthly increases in site visits, culminating in the all-time high of 12,436 in April. Ever since, the numbers have dropped so fast you would think you were looking at the temperature graph of the stratosphere for the past 40 years. (Look it up. That was my best science joke ever.)  I figured that people were just probably outside more, it being late Spring and then Summer.  Now, the green of Summer is giving way to the brilliant colors of Autumn as we speak. There is so much to do and see and experience in the world, why waste it sitting  inside on a computer? That has got to be the reason my loyal readers stopped coming by. (I'm sure it would have nothing to do with my erratic blogging, week long absences, or precipitous decline in the quality of my writing. Hey, you have a baby while living in a foreign country, all the while taking german classes to learn a new language.)

     The break was cathartic in a lot of ways, in all honesty. In this business, you can have your throat handed to you in the snap-hiss of a lightsaber. I have been read the riot act by many who think I am too radical, too "Left", that say I taint my message with "environmental alarmism" which damages my credibility. After awhile, I'll be honest, it can get to a person. There is a dread deep down, when it comes to the future of the planet, that this all maybe for naught. Am I making a difference? Are people reading? Am I doing enough?

    Then I look at my son: five months of smile and drool. The kid is easy going and sweet, the center of my universe. One smile from that toothless wonder and I realize that "Fuck yes it is all worth it!" People have to understand that we are damaging our rivers and oceans, leveling our forests, and killing millions of species every year. I owe it to my son to raise that red flag so it does NOT go unnoticed before it is too late, if it isn't too late already. I owe it to everyone's kids to do that! Even if I only get one person every few weeks to stop in and say, "Wow, that guy was funny! And I'm going to look into this Climate Reality Project, or the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards, or the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. " That's real all that matters.

     So I amble on. Reading new articles and watching new interviews everyday. Dropping into online communities and sharing what I know and have learned, while trying to learn more. Starting the conversation and reaching out to fill in the gaps for those who want to know more. Of course, this means lots of people rolling their eyes and shaking their heads when they don't like what I have to say. I have been told on more than 734 occasions (not that I'm counting) that I am wrong about the Climate, that Climate Change isn't real. Those people that say this to me ignore the science, the facts, the evidence. I even had a few people tell me that since they KNEW they were right, they didn't HAVE to prove it. It was up to ME to prove them wrong. What?! These are the people that take part in a scientific discussion and ignore the parameters set forth by science to state one's case. Instead, they just dismiss me as a brainwashed liberal who wants to trick people into buying clean renewable energy and plant more trees. They say I am a tree-hugger, a hippie, an Alarmist.

     Look, if you don't believe that Climate Change is real, that it is happening right now and will continue to happen in the future, and that we are the cause...this is not the blog for you. Especially now, with me back from a few weeks break and ready to type! I am trying to open the eyes of people on this planet so they can see how they are affecting the world today with their actions, and how they can affect the future by altering our present course. Some out there call me an Alarmist. I don't agree. Why? Well, it's not Alarmist if it's true, right?

Isaac Asimov

Meme Predicts Study Results

     I posted this meme last year sometime. I think I posted it again some time early this year. Here it is again just to refresh your memory.

     And for those of you that always brush aside memes as silly internet speak with no basis in fact, here's the article that provides documentation that the meme is indeed real. Suck it.

     Its the truth. We can measure this accurately because its only been a few hundred years since we started doing it.

   

The Great John Muir

Sustainable is More Profitable

Musical Interlude

Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
between what's flesh and what's fantasy.

And the poet's down here don't write nothing at all

they just stand back and let it all be.

And in the quick of the night
they reach for their moment 

and try to make an honest stand.

But they wind up wounded

not even dead. 

- Bruce Springsteen

Where Does Your Waste Go?

     One of the main goals for me here is to get people to reduce their ecological footprint. Using less materials that can't be recycled, reducing the amount of single-use items (I'm looking at you plastic bags!) and making compost out of food waste. Without being obnoxious, I try to help my friends think a little bit about their actions and the repercussions that those actions have. Yes, my advice is at times unsolicited, however I do my best not to cram said advice down people's throats. I just try to share what I have learned reducing my amount of waste. Point out that some things are thrown away for no reason. If you're just gonna toss it after using it once, why not skip that step and not even use it to begin with, you know?

     Yesterday, a friend from my German class drove me home. She asked me if it was okay with we stopped at the supermarket so she could pick up a few things. First stop was the produce aisle (supermarkets are pretty much the same in Germany as in America, just smaller). My friend grabbed some bananas off the shelf, pulled off a plastic bag from the roll and threw them in, like so many of us do. How many times to do you that? Grab a bag for something that really doesn't require one?

     I was like, "Whaaaaat? You don't need a plastic bag for bananas. They are already attached together in nature's carrying case. They come pre-wrapped in their own organic wrapper! Do you really need a bag?"
     My friend looked perplexed and said, "But the bags are here for us to use." It seems that she hadn't really considered why she had grabbed one, but just automatically grabbed the plastic bag off the roll because they were there. "It isn't a big deal. So what?" she waved me off and moved on to the spice aisle.
     So I asked her, "Are you going to use that bag again?"
     "Well, no," she answered...and then there it was. The look. The look that many people get when they realize something for the first time. I had interrupted her normal behavior with a question that she could not quite answer.

     My friend kept the bananas in the bag and after checking out, she drove me home. I did not convince her to not take the bag, nor did I try. But, I did get her to think about it. In a week or so, she may very well show up to class and tell me that she bought bananas at the market again, but this time didn't put them in a plastic bag. Which is a small victory. We have been so conditioned to grab things when we shop that we really don't need: plastic bags, individually wrapped meals, all that crap at the check out counter. Many times, we grab that stuff because everyone else does without thinking about what happens to that plastic bag once you get home, remove the bananas and toss the bag away.

     Quite often, when I point these types of things out to people, they stop and think. If I can get someone to re-evaluate those small actions, then it makes a difference. Because the person I get to reconsider their behavior with something as ingrained into every day life like grocery shopping, they will most likely share with others what they now do if they make a change. That helps shift towards a more closed-loop and sustainable way of life. Less waste because we reduce, reuse and recycle. That's how you change the world.

     Here's a video about food waste. Its short and good. Enjoy!

LOCAL Comes in June!

     I found a new organization called LOCAL on Twitter. LOCAL is a new video and social media channel that launches this June. They are dedicated to sharing stories of people from all over that are changing their communities with projects that involve renewable energy, urban food sources and things like that. LOCAL wants to provide a platform for crowdsourcing for others who want to do the same in their neighborhoods. You can find out more about LOCAL here.

Sea Grass planting at my neighborhood marina, 2013

     Did you help turn an eyesore in your neighborhood into a garden? Or a green space? LOCAL wants to hear your story! Check out the LOCAL website and share!

Myths and the Ease of Change

     Popular Mechanics released a great article about the myths of Climate Change. Some of the things being said are grossly inaccurate, so I was tickled that they shared. Yes, I said I was tickled. So what?
You can read the article here.

     To think, just by not throwing away that leftover meatloaf so the kids can eat pizza, you can reduce waste, reduce methane emissions and safe yourself some money too! I think that is one of the huge misconceptions about being "Green". Being more environmentally conscious isn't more expensive, it can save you money from the get go! Sure, solar panels, beefed up home insulation and LED lightbulbs cost more upfront, but that stuff pays you back pretty fast and then you're in the black! Green is the new Black!

      If you want to be more green, check out these websites and learn how easy it is to reduce your footprint on this lovely planet. Sometimes its as easy as having certain houseplants to clean the air or planting a tree in a strategic place outside. For real. You don't have to be a tree hugger to like trees.

Green Living Ideas
Sustainable Baby Steps
Earth Easy
Real Simple

     If you want to speak out and speak up to encourage our elected officials to take action and stop ignoring the cold hard facts, visit Citizens' Climate Lobby. You can make a difference. You just have to say something.

Maryland's Stormwater Bill

     Over the last few years, I was one of many people to push for the new Stormwater Bill in Maryland to be passed. It addressed the antiquated Stormwater systems that dumped polluted water from our streets into the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. It also will raise money to fix and replace leaky septic systems that were adding to the declining health of our state's most valuable resource. Many stormwater systems were designed and installed over 50 years ago. They are outdated and need to be modernized. To see the new Governor push to repeal the bill is heartbreaking. The health of the Bay affects the health of millions of people, will cost thousands of jobs if left to get worse and lead to the loss of thousands of species of plant and animal life. 

     The what upsets me the most is that the opponents of the bill have labeled it a "rain tax", with people who do not fully understand the language and purpose of the bill believing they have to pay a tax every time it rains. That's absurd! People have just made the jump from the term "Rain Tax" to thinking they are paying more in taxes each time a storm rolls through. I guess snow isn't included in that, huh? Can people be so lazy that they don't even read the language of passed legislation before they start to argue against it? 

     Many against the bill acknowledge the declining health of the Chesapeake and refuse to swim or let their children swim in its waters. Yet they don't even think twice about eating crabs. Oysters and rockfish that are caught in the ever increasing pollution. 

     Like so many in the world, they want to reap the rewards at the cost of the future. Clean water means healthy things to eat, more jobs and water safe to swim in. You are going to prevent that if the Stormwater Legislation is overturned. Think about it. Can you afford an extra $6.25 a month to clean up the waters in the Chesapeake? What if it meant it would be safer to go crabbing or fishing or waterskiing?

Learn the real facts and intent of the Maryland Stormwater Remediation Legislation. 

Partisan Divides and Clean Water

     Take a look at the recent Forbes article that details the "end" of the partisan divide over whether Climate Change is a real thing or not. Despite the recent actions of the US Senate, that voted to determine if anthropogenic climate change indeed exists, apparently the majority of the GOP acknowledges and accepts that we are indeed having an effect on the planets climate. I was pretty shocked to read that, I have to say. But it did give me hope.

     What I don't understand is why the Senate is even wasting our tax dollars on votes to determine something that really can only be fleshed out with science and statistics. Voting on whether Climate Change is real is like voting to decide if most birds can fly or to establish whether we breath O2 or not. I'd rather they vote on steps to take to reduce the effects of AGW instead of grandstanding for a small but vocal faction of the GOP to appease them.

     Sorry this blog can be so political sometimes, but that's part of it these days. The Forbes article points out that that is changing, which is good. But we have a long way to go. So, to balance out todays post and in order to focus on the positive and the humorous for the rest of the month, here is an article with a positive spin. When I worked with the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, clean water was a focus. Scientists now are developing nanoparticles to clean up our water. Because clean water is important. Although, to be sure, maybe we should vote on that.

Did You Ever Think About It Like This...

courtesy: http://www.quotessays.com/gallery/environmental-quotes-5.jpg.html