Fragilecologies

Category: All Fragilecologies

  • “Hamlet’s castle: what’s global warming got to do with it?” MORE ABOUT COP in Copenhagen. Mickey Glantz

    December 15, 2009

    While attending COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark I was invited to a side trip to see Hamlet’s castle or more correctly the Kronborg Castle that was used by Shakespeare as the site for his Hamlet.I went there in part as a break from climate discussions, side events, display booths and the COP 15 location, the Bella Center.

    It was an interesting visit only tens of miles to the north of Copenhagen. I took several photos of the castle, as any tourist would have done. Here are some of them.Castle

    I am now home in Colorado and read today on www.Grist.org that CEOs were gathering at the castle to share ideas (I guess) but seems they were there to show their wares and talk. From the article it is not clear if the CEOs were listening to others. Here is an introduction to the article.

    “On Saturday night (12 December 2009) Kronborg was the setting for a modern-day royal court, a collection of CEOs and senior executives for several hundred international companies, gathered in the castle’s dance hall for a summit entitled “To Be, or Not to Be? New Leadership for a Sustainable Economy.”

    Danish media titan Erik Rasmussen organized the event, with the help of Australian writer/explorer/activist Tim Flannery and others. The idea was to get business leaders talking about how they might lead the world to a low-carbon economy. The setting and theme were meant to remind attendees of the existential import of their task—for many of the world’s people, climate change is a life-and-death issue. “img_2280

    Read the full article on Grist to determine if the CEOs in the face of climate change chose to be or not to be part of the solution to global warming or continue their “business as usual” to be part of the problem.

    Sililoquy

  • “KlimaForum09 in ‘Hopenhagen’: The People’s alternative to COP 15.” DAY 5 from Copenhagen. Mickey Glantz

    KlimaForum09 (also named the Peoples’ Climate Summit)

    COP 15 at the Bella Center is the official site of the UN Conference of Parties. To gain access, you must be screened and approved by a UN Secretariat (in this case I think by the UNFCCC Secretariat). It was competitive and restrictive and to gain access you needed authorization for which you waited a long time. You could not attend as an individual (unless invited by the Secretariat privately or you represented a major NGO). To convene a side event to discuss an issue, you had also to apply to compete with other groups who had proposed to hold forums at the Bella Center or other officially anointed sites in the city.

    Obviously, the competition was high among NGOs of all sizes to become accredited to join the COP and, as a result of space and other limitations (of a political nature) many NGOs and individuals interested in covering a wideror deeper range of perspectives could not officially attend like, for example, groups that view COP 15 as a top-down to managing the planet where those in control of managing the climate issue for the UN system were calling all the shots; and other people on the street had no official influence.

    Voila! Therein lays the reason for being of the alterative Conferences that parallel the officially convened COPs.

    Ivan, a grad student from Michigan State University and research assistant to my group at the University of Colorado, and I visited the KlimaForum09 a few times, at first out of curiosity but quickly thereafter out of interest. The topics discussed at the Forum were phrased in challenging and provocative ways, but with the purpose of having participants to the conference really engage in the discussions.

    Being held in a small building, there were a lot more interactions among people to continue discussion in groups after various presentations. There were tables set up in a room with pads and post-its on them with construction paper signs identifying topics by each table. It is truly a people’s conference.

    klimabooth1

    The ambiance was that of a student union on a day before exams, though people there ranged in age from teens to (gasp) me …70. No one was on the defensive (so it seemed) to protect an idea. It was all about information, presentation, discussion and take-home knowledge. Sooo different. Sooo lively.

    There were famous speakers at the KlimaForum as well, such as Vandana Shiva (a should-be Nobel Prize winner) and Wangari Mathaai (an actual Nobel Prize winner) and of course Bishop Tutu, also a nobel laureate. Some visitors from the COP 15 (as we were) leaving the official site to attend sessions at the Forum. You could identify them by the UN name tags they wore around their necks.

    Topics posed for presentation and discussion included the following: zero carbon world, grassroots, poverty reduction, sustainable consumption, global leadership from civil society now, popular movement, trade & development, climate change and democracy, mobilizing spiritual communities, tackling capitalism and the climate crisis, from globalization to localization, making marginalized voices heard, young voices on climate change, climate changes in Tibet, Impacts of monoculture on the right to food, the boycott, and demonstration banner making workshop. As you can see, many of these themes focused on basic questions that would not be politically correct in a United Nations COP setting.

    There were no officials at the door checking badges. It was open to all. There were no security guards. The fear of protests inside was minimal. In fact many of the attendees would likely have been COP15-protesters in the absence of the Forum. [On Day 6 there was a major protest march from the center of Copenhagen to the gates at the COP 15 Bella Center. Thousands of marchers participated. 1000 were arrested; more on that is now in the news].

    As a positive comment and to its credit, the KlimaForum was less focused on ornate displays of organizations and their wares than on their ideas and themes. So their presentation booths were by no means glossy or ostentatious. They were done by hand, not by costly full color printing machines. They were clearly low budget-to-no-budget productions; but their messages were sharp, clear and to the point.

    No glitz. No glitter. Just the facts, ma'am.
    No glitz. No glitter. Just the facts, ma'am.

    In the main entrance of the Forum a woman was shouting to participants to sign an electronic petition from the Forum to political leaders yet to attend in week two of COP 15. Young people were sitting in clusters, wherever there happened to be space on the floor. People on one side of the hall were jammed around the information tables, while on the other side was the counter to buy hot and cold food. Lots of noise and I loved it. There was noise at the COP 15 Bella Center, but at the Forum there was a louder level of discussions everywhere.

    Keep in mind that you can always attend or present your ideas at the alternative forums that accompany the COPs. The next one will be in Mexico City at the end of 2010. It is well worthwhile to attend as participant or as observers.

    Got to go to the airport now on DAY 7 at COP 15. I will post pictures of the Klima Forum 09 from the airport to support what I am trying to say in words.

  • “SKEPTICS, SHOW US YOUR EMAILS: ‘turn-about’ is fair play.” Mickey Glantz, DAY 4 at COP 15

    Let’s be honest. We have all said things on email ranging fro m serious to silly to stupid. We have all sent curt responses based on the fact that those receiving it understand the context of the abbreviated message. I am not condoning or excusing the sometimes dumb, sometimes uncaring and sometimes deceptive comments that have appeared in the so called “climategate” so called “scandal”. That situation will be sorted out by others, invesitgative committees most likely. Yes, the emails were illegally hacked. Nevertheless, they are now public. So, the public will read them and they have through the media. E-mailing has its consequences.

    Thank you Bizarro. All scientists, global warming hawks and deniers should have paid attention to your message
    Thank you Bizarro. All scientists, global warming hawks and deniers should have paid attention to your message

     

    There is no question in my mind that the integrity of both the scientists and of email security has been damaged. Others will assess that level of impact. But here i want to call for a level playing field. It’s a good faith challenge to the climate skeptics who are using climategate to discredit the science of climate change, though they cannot discredit impacts of a changing climate on people today and in the future.

    I call upon the climate change skeptics, political, scientific and media to share with the world a block of their unbroken years-long chain of emails about climate change . I am asking them to do this on a voluntary basis in order to show us that they are super human and do not share the  human frailty of ‘loose lips’ that the rest of humankind is subect to.

    Doing so would provide outsiders an even broader context in which we can evaluate the content of the emails that had been hacked and released from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at University of East Anglia [and also at Penn State]. Let society be the judge about the words and motives of all involved in the climate change issue at the political, scientific and media levels, and let society be the judge on the merits of the finding and interpretation of the science of climate change.

    After all, isn’t turn about fair play? or what is good for the goose should be good for the gander as well, no?

  • Mickey Glantz, “Bloggin’ from Copenhagen: Days 2+3 Overview”

    Day 2. December 8:
    My group finally managed to register for COP 15 late in the afternoon, when the line had disappeared. There was still enough time that day (they say the events close down at 6 pm though the conference building stays open till midnight) to check out some of the NGO and other booths, and to chat with those eager to share information about their organization and its activities. Lots of pamphlets, booklets, CDs and many reports. Paper all over the place! People, myself included, were loading up on them to the extent that they had to find shopping bags to carry them. Some NGOs came prepared to hand out the bags with their logos or messages on them.

    Day3. December 9:
    I have been thinking about who is at the meeting and to some extent why. I came up with the following “COP 15 triangle” graphic, having drawn it on a napkin at a coffee break. I tried to add color later.

    The apex of the triangle represents the participation of the heads of state: from the US, China, India and scores of other countries. They will mostly come to COP 15 at the end of the second week which is the end of the COP 15. They will say all the right words about wanting to arrest climate change, the need for alternative energies, the need to cooperate, the urgerncy to save the planet, among other plaititudes. How to tell the ideal from the real from the platiudes of leaders is not an easy task.

    the people scene @ COP 15
    the people scene @ COP 15

    The next level down are the negotiators who are wordsmithing the various proposals put forth for a COP 15 agreement. There are lots of protests about the use of various words used in any agreement, once governments settle on a plan to discuss. The Danish government put up a new plan that was soundly rejected by theG-77 + China (developing) and other countries as offerring to little to them and giving to much benefit to the ‘rich’ countries. The Saudi government wants to hold off long enough to revisit the science of the Nobel winning IPCC report(s).

    So, the negotiators have their plates full of contentious issues and are not really providing much to the speeches that are about to be made by their heads of state, the presidents and prime ministers. They are also not likely to be influenced by the side events, as far as i can tell.

    The next layer in the triangle moving in the direction of its base are the side events. These are topically based sessions in which various views and perspectives on a very wide range of climate and water issues, from desciptions to policy presciptions. Most people have to do something in order to get support to attend the COP 15 and the side events provide not only a venue and a chance to share ideas, they expose a lot of information that already exists on the Internet or on paper or in PowerPoint. They are good for networking in one’s specific interest area. These are good forums for the younger students and newer NGOs to hear new and old ideas expressed by their creators.

    The next layer in the triangle represents the booths and displays. To me this is the heart of the public side of the COP 15. This is where visitors can chat on a one to one personal basis to learn about any topic, program, report or scenario.this activity is where networking is at its best. cards are exchanged. notes are take and plans for further contacts are made. This is also where people pick up everything from booklets to flash drives to CDs on lots of topics and publications. I love this part of the COPs.

    denmark1209-057

    The base of the triangle is “civil society”. People are being informed about what is going on inside COP 15. there are exhibits in buildings, on the streets and posters everywhere. there are even posters telling the public that carbon dioxide is not a problem (Be happy. Don’t worry). Civil society refers to the public at large and it in a general way expects experts and policy people to do the right thing, whatever that thing happens to be. Many in civil society feel they do not have to get involved as others are hopefully represneting their views. Nevertheless, civil society is following COP 15 specifically and climate change in general through Danish newspapers, websites and TV. it is being informed passively. Also as part of civil society are groups of concerned people (young mostly) who enthusiastically act out on their views with demonstrations, plays, signs, painted faces, costumes and music. They are the reminders to others about the need for climate justice for their and future generations.

    denmark1209-060

  • Mickey Glantz, “Bloggin’ from Copenhagen: Day 1 at COP15”

    I am attending COP 15 and it is a foggy and cold day, not too windy but the wind chill is still significant. The chill though is way overshadowed by the enthusiasm and commitment of the people trying to get in to the Conference Center where the action is, at least for the non-governmental organizations NGOs). They had come from around the globe to attend this potentially historic event. Many of course were not used to the weather but stood in line for long periods of time anyway. they wanted to be a part of the process. Was COP 15 unprepared to help them? As far as registration procedureswere going, I’d have to say …yes.

    The commitment of the members of NGOs was quite clear outside the conference hall, as they had to stand outside in long lines waiting to register. There were groups along side the line acting out so to speak, trying to draw attention to their specific message; they chanted “stop the warming”, showed a video on climate change is ultimately about people, free coffee in support wind power,and greenpeace supporters mingling with the crowd.

    cop15: a 4 to 5 NGO hour line

    OOOPs. Apparently someone thought it was appropriate to postpone COP15 registrationfor NGOs until noon on the first morning of the first day. Not sure why, but the general feeling was that the organizers did not want any distractions from the opening ceremony for COP 15. I wonder if the hardy, used-to-the-cold-Danish-weather Danish COP 15 organizers gave any thought at all to the thousands of people from around the world who would have to stand outside and in a slow-moving line to register.

    The group I was to register with gave up trying to register today, when a policewoman informed us that the line would likely take us about 4-5 hours and we would likely not get into the Center because registration would close at 6pm. We decided to try again tomorrow.

    We went into the city center and we could see many huge posters supplied by the Danish or other governments, corporations, NGOs andcivil society that covered the sides of large buildings.

    posters to stop climate change in Copenhagen

    This gave us the feeling that many citizens, especially young people, were sincerely engaged in pursuing a voice in climate change policy making. Their collective actions throughout the city drowned out the words a Danish climate change skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg — at least for the next couple of weeks.

  • Climate change adaptation and food security: an ancient technology of clay pots for sub-surface irrigation — GUEST EDITORIAL

    December 3, 2009
    Dr. Tsegay Wolde-Georgis, Consortium for Capacity Building, University of Colorado

    There is a consensus that global climate change will lead to unprecedented impacts around the world. Many specifically fear that the long-term achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be jeopardized by climate change without multifaceted intervention. A major impact of climate change is adverse yet-to-be determined changes in precipitation around the world. The normal (expected) seasonal rainfall and temperature in a specific location is expected to change radically in amount, distribution and timing. Changes in the onset, continuity and end of seasonal rainfall are expected to disrupt food production and other climate sensitive socio-economic activities, especially in developing countries.

    The hundreds of millions of subsistence farmers around the world who are the backbones of the food supply are in danger of losing their livelihoods due to climate change and variability. The rainfall dependent subsistence production sector is already vulnerable to natural seasonal variability due to the lack of farm infrastructure and low inputs. It is high time to take adaptive measures to cope with the impacts of climate change on the amount and distribution of rainfall as well as changes in temperature.

    Recently, there has been growing interest on the use of simple traditional techniques to cope with impacts caused by climate and water hazards. The World Bank recently organized the 2009 Development Market Place (DM2009) in November 10-13 that brought 100 global competing finalists to deal with climate change. The organizers funded 26 of the finalists with up to $200,000 for 2 years. My proposal on the use of unglazed use clay pots for small and local level micro irrigation in the arid zone was one of the 100 finalists. Even though the proposal was not among the 26 funded projects, this ancient — but not widespread — innovation has led several participating organizations to seek collaboration to implement the idea in their home communities in Africa and in Southeast Asia

    Below are some details on the use of this traditional technique of subsurface watering system as an example of the role that simple technologies can play in changing the lives of poor farmers.

    clay_pot1-1

    The use of buried clay pots for irrigation is an ancient technology that was used in China, the Middle East and North Africa. An ancient Chinese agricultural text written 2000 years ago was quoted by David Bainbridge:

    “Make 530 pits per hectare, each pit 70 cm across and 12 cm deep. To each pit add 18 kg of manure. Mix the manure well with an equal amount of earth. Bury an earthen jar of 61 capacities in the center of the pit. Let its mouth be level with the ground. Fill the jar with water. Plant four melon seeds around the jar. Cover the jar with a tile. Always fill the jar to the brink if the water level falls.”

    As stated in this ancient Chinese guide book, unglazed clay pots are buried in the sub-soil and filled with water. The seeds or seedlings are planted around the water-filled buried clay pot. The roots of the plant take advantage of the sub-surface water that seeps through the pores in the pot to wet the soil and water the plants. The amount of water taken by the plant depends on its need. The process is also called auto-irrigation, since the plants seek water from the wet front around the water filled pot. During hot days, for example, the plants lose moisture due to evapo-transpiration and therefore draw more water from the pot.

    The clay pot irrigation system extremely saves water as the following chart developed from Elias Daka’s data illustrates. As the chart shows, onion and tomato save 70% water using clay pots compared to the conventional can watering used for that experiment. Even though there is high demand for labor initially due to the purchasing, burning and burying of the clay pots, once the system is set, the frequency of filling the pots with water is between one to two weeks -depending on the size of the pot and the water demand of plants and the environment. Sub-surface irrigation also denies indiscriminate moisture to weeds. Unlike surface irrigation, the use of clay pots does not lead to salinity and saline water can be used to water plants. The problem of malaria epidemics related to irrigation is also absent, while using clay pot irrigation systems.

    pot_efficiency1

    The widespread adoption of clay pots for irrigation at household and community levels can help farmers to grow vegetables, herbs, spices and fruit trees around their homesteads and provide their food needs. This will supplement the declining food supply, using the seasonal rainfall that often grows grains. Bainbridge estimates that a well planted 400 square meter of land under clay pot irrigation can support an average family of four’s annual food needs.

    This shows that response to climate change and variability need not be the use of sophisticated and expensive technologies. Simple technologies such as water harvesting and irrigation using clay pots, which is available in every rural household, can be useful and increase the resilience of small farmers to climate related hazards.

    The clay pot system is more efficient and reliable than drip irrigation. In terms of cost and management the clay pot irrigation system is cheaper and easier to install and manage by the small farmer than other irrigation systems. While drip irrigation is used for the ultra-modern farms that use high technology and highly skilled agricultural engineers, the clay pot system can be operated by ordinary farmers. Clay pots have been a household utensil for thousands of years.

    Clay pot sub-surface irrigation system is not widely used, despite its potential to increase food to subsistence farmers. In fact many communities in sub-Saharan Africa are involved in the construction of micro-dams and water harvesting ponds, but they do not know how to use it unless it is suitable for gravity irrigation. The adoption of clay pots irrigation will make the water harvested in these micro-dams more useful and productive. Sometimes a resolution to a problem is close at hand, but it is not being adapted. The new use of the clay pots for micro-irrigation will revitalize the clay pot artisan women and increase their income.

    Governments and development agencies should incorporate this and other effective traditional technologies as part of their rural development strategies and in response to climate change. The adoption of such technologies that are easy to comprehend by traditional farmers and made locally will increase their resilient adaptation to the impacts of climate change.

  • A message to climate scientists: Emails are from Mars. Letters are from Venus

    The following excerpt is from an editorial I wrote in 2002 called “E-mails are from Mars. Letters are from Venus.” I believe it is relevant to the controversy swirling around the hacked files (emails and documents) of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit. Those emails expose a side of science that does not receive much attention, except from an occasional writer whose manuscript might have been rejected for publication. Perhaps some of those disappointed writers, rejected research manuscripts in hand, were right to complain. Their voice collectively is now being heard around the world.

    E-mails are from Mars. Letters are from Venus
    Mickey Glantz

    Emails are impersonal. No matter how hard one tries, transmitting warm and emotional thoughts by way of email is a difficult task. The pressure of time, the need to spell check, the pressure to type in a correct representation of one’s thoughts, the pressure to answer other emails, typing with two or three fingers in front of a 15- or 17-inch monitor – all these factors lead to an impersonal communication. An email also lacks a personal signature.

    emails and Mars
    emails and Mars

    Letters, on the other hand, convey a much higher level of sincerity. There is little room for correction, unless a draft is first written and then a clean copy is made. People writing letters on paper must think through what they want to say, thought by thought, sentence by sentence, before it is written down. The letter-writer must go to the trouble of putting the letter in the mail. For centuries, writing on papyrus, animal skins, or parchment has been the preferred way to communicate. By analogy, writing on stone or clay tablets is, to me, more like writing down one’s thoughts in email.

    letters are from venus
    letters are from venus

    With written letters, there is a tendency to rethink what has been said and therefore there is a delay in sending them – a safety period, so to speak. With emails, the tendency is to fire them off, once they have been written. One may not actually want to take the time to modify (or mitigate) his or her first thoughts. And it is so easy to hit the “send” button. Not only that, but the sender does not have to wait several days before the recipient receive the message, and wait several more days for a reply. With emails, sending and receiving messages can take place in real time, and then often do. What was not clear in the first message can perhaps be cleared up on a second or third email.

    The writer of an email is also stripped of the trouble that the letter-writer must go through in order to mail a letter: address an envelope, find a stamp (remembering which is the latest stamp with the correct price on it – I don’t know what they currently cost), and then remember to get the letter into a mailbox.

    It is important to be aware of the differences between emails and hard-copy letters. They are not the same. While they do convey information from one person to another, they can be very different in the depth of thought that goes into them. The level of sensitivity varies, with email tending to be less sensitive, often incomplete thoughts that can mislead or provoke the recipient. I have actually witnessed a situation in which email correspondence between people in the same office went on a downward spiral, as one misleading statement led to an equally insensitive response, and so forth, until both parties ended up completely estranged, with no further communication possible between them.

    I suggest that, when writing an email, we take the time to go back and read it through and think about its content, and more importantly, its tone before sending. Try to put ourselves in the place of the recipient. This would lend a little “Venus” to our emails and mitigate their “Mars” aspect.

  • Are we losing the human race? Mickey Glantz

    Are we losing the human race? Mickey Glantz

    Are we losing the human race?
    Mickey Glantz
    Dateline: Moscow (at Starbucks on Stariy Arbat)
    November 11 & 18, 2009

    People need the earth more than the earth needs people.
    Mickey Glantz

    The title of this editorial has a double meaning. It alludes to our race against the adverse changes in the global climate and to whether humanity (the sum total of all civilizations on Earth) can come up with ways to stop, if not reverse, the heating up of the atmosphere as a result of civilizations’ unchecked greenhouse gas emissions. The phrase “human race” also alludes to the concern that if societies do not come to grips soon with capping their total emissions of greenhouse gases, civilizations’ will face disruptions to the extent that they could disappear.

    While the second concern may seem far-fetched to many as an impossibility (e.g., It won’t happen because political leaders are not that stupid to allow it; it won’t happen because physically the Earth’s properties will produce checks and balances against the possibility of a runaway greenhouse effect), signs are already there that we are on a path toward a 6 deg C warming, if political leaders continue to twirl their thumbs as the atmosphere continues to heat up. We have already crossed various proverbial tipping points in terms of amounts of human-induced increases in greenhouses concentrations in the atmosphere and therefore in changes in global climate. What we have not yet crossed are “trigger points” that prompt immediate action.

    A Chinese proverb suggests that if you stay on the path you are on you will get to where you are headed; in the case of unbridled greenhouse gas emissions, doing nothing will likely get us to where we are headed — an intolerably warmer Earth’s atmosphere.

    In my opinion as a 70-year old researcher who has studied climate-society-environment interactions for more than 35 years, I have come to believe that we are losing both human races. By this, I mean that people across the planet are now divided in so many ways that even small and local problems seem to elude compromise and, therefore, resolution. Because of this divisiveness, resolutions to the political, economic, financial, ethnic, religious, racial, geographic, ideological and resource issues confronting humankind, issues which will affect all life on earth from the not so distant and into the deep future, have little chance of being forged – let alone even addressed or agreed to – in a timely and effective way.

    Pundits who analyze the evolution and decline of civilizations have proposed this or that reason for the eventual collapse of civilizations that exist today. But the way I see it the reason lies in human nature; for some reason, humans for the most part are focused on well being in the short term, with whatever may have adverse impacts in the longer term being of little concern or consequence. We are in an “After you, Alphonse” dilemma (catch-22), that is, no political leader wants to make the first major sacrifice in terms of reducing GHG emissions in the absence of any other leader doing it: hence, a stalemate. Either people do not believe the science of global warming, or they believe technology will save us in some yet-to-be-identified way, or they do not understand the consequences of inaction, or — most worrisome — they don’t care about the fate of humanity.

    Actually, it seems that many people are intrigued about the end of life on earth and even the obliteration of our planet, if Hollywood movies are any measure of such intrigue and fascination. Consider, as examples, some box office winners: Terminator, Armageddon, War of the Worlds, Independence Day, When Worlds Collide and, most recently, 2012. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the US’s History TV Channel documentary “10 Ways to Destroy the Earth.”

    Of course, there are also religious and ideological fanatics who don’t care at all about the future, as they believe there will be none. They live as if tomorrow is the planet’s last day. Some even see such cataclysm as nirvana and actively work towards it.

    Many people do care about life in the relatively short term, that is, the life that there children will have to endure, maybe even they go so far as to think about the future of their yet-to-be conceived grandchildren. But they think no further. Some people have said about the future generations “I don’t owe anything to the future. It has done nothing for me.”
    Under such conditions, I believe that we are seriously at risk of losing the human race. We are using resources at rates unsustainable over the long term. We are losing species as a result of human activities at accelerated rates. And we are changing the chemistry of the atmosphere is many ways we really do not yet understand. Many bad things are most likely to happen to the planet well before we heat up our atmosphere by 6 deg C about the pre-1900 level. Like the parable about the frog in the boiling water, we seem to be sitting and waiting. But, unlike the frog, people can think rationally about the future, if they choose to do so.

    Dr. Roger Revelle, renowned American Oceanographer, suggested in 1955 that humankind was performing an experiment in the atmosphere by emitting increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning, the outcome of which [at that time in history] remained unknown.

    Fifty-five years have since passed and we are still actively engaged in performing that experiment, even though we now know, through scientific research, a foreseeable (though not assured), overwhelmingly adverse outcome of our experiment. Before, say, the 1950s, we did not consider the potential adverse global consequences of higher levels of GHGs in the atmosphere, but we were then and we continue inadvertently on a path of destruction, so to speak, of our global climate regime.

    Now, we are advertently warming the atmosphere. Because of what we have learned about greenhouse gases and climate change over the past 55 years, what we are doing to the atmosphere is no really longer an experiment. It is now anthropogenic pollution as a result of the known emissions to the atmosphere of cumulative amounts of greenhouse gases worldwide, but societies are collectively paralyzed over what to do about it.

    cartoon_spaceguy1

    (Cartoon borrowed from Colorado Daily newspaper. November 18, 2009)

    Governments are reluctant to reduce their emissions for a variety of reasons: not wanting to give any other government, even those in developing countries, an economic advantage; not wanting to hold back on their energy-dependent economic development prospects; not believing that climate change is the threat that the scientific community says that it is; believing that an increase in global cloud coverage can wipe out the warming of the atmosphere; a blind faith that engineering can resolve the crisis; the absence of a credible and reliable “dread factor”, and so forth. Because of this reluctance, for whatever reason, many of the measures that have been proposed by scientists and governments alike are analogous to applying band-aids to a major life-threatening wound. Most of the proposals are feel-good measures, but are likely to be ineffective because greenhouse gas emissions will continue to increase.

    My personal fear is that political adversaries at the individual, group, national and international levels will block a coordinated response by the international community to cope effectively in a timely manner. After 15 Conferences of Parties (COPs) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, political stalemates have become the rule rather than the exception. Because of this continued inaction, as of 2010, humanity and the international community of states have increased the odds of losing the human race. Helloooo? Anybody home? Do political leaders care?

  • Water, water on the moon, nor any drop to drink … in Africa! Mickey Glantz

    Water, water on the moon, nor any drop to drink … in Africa!

    Mickey Glantz

    November 16, 2009

    Recently, a headline appeared in the New York Times that captured my attention. At first it was of interest but the after-thoughts were of concerns. The interesting part was really a curiosity raised by the idea that after years and years of searching for water on the moon, scientists seemed to have discovered it in dark recesses on the lunar surface untouched by the sun’s rays. The years of searching and research paid off. “Eureka, they found it”. Chalk one up for the sciences and the discoverers.

    water-on-the-moon

    Nothing I say from here on detracts from their success. Like true scientists with a hunch, they stuck to their guns so to speak in their search. The more they were questioned about the possibility or lack thereof about water on the moon, the more resolved (some might say pig-headed) they became. It is the nature of a true scientist as well as of a true engineer. “Seek and ye shall find”, so the saying goes. So what is there to be concerned about with regard to this particular discovery? It did not take place on Planet Earth.

    Climate change is not the only major life-threatening environmental crisis facing inhabitants around the globe in developed, graduated developing and developing countries. Water is being touted as the sleeping crisis of the 21st century. In any given year there appear in the media news items about water shortages just about everywhere. And, in many places where water is available its quality has been compromised to an extent that human health has been degraded. People see photos of others in developing areas, for example, drawing water from a well. Great. They have water, even if they have to dig for it several meters down. What the photos usually fail to show is the murky quality of the water or the pesticides and other contaminants, natural and manmade that made their way into the groundwater as well as surface water.

    Back to my original concern, as I read the article about discovering water on the moon: how much did our society (the US Government, national research foundations, others) have to pay over the years to find out if water existed on our moon: millions, hundreds of millions a few billion dollars? I have no idea but I am sure that discovery did not come cheap. My follow-up thought was then “what if that amount of money had been spent to find new water on Planet Earth and also to clean existing water supplies, making what does exist not only available but healthier for human consumption”.

    ethiopia2

    Maybe this is too ambitious to have hoped for or to think about, so let’s narrow it down. What would it have cost to bring clean water to the poorest people on the planet? At the very least, it would have greatly improved their health condition, enhancing their ability to function in daily life as well as the personal strength to improve their family’s well being.

    Hey, I got to thinking, why don’t oil companies invest in space exploration in general and the search for oil reserves on the moon? The answer I came up with is that it makes no difference to life and well being on Planet Earth, if oil is found on the moon. Besides, they are busy looking for oil in deep and dark geological nooks and crannies on land and, increasingly, under the sea.

    My bottom line point is that Earth is our only home though we, as humans have not yet accepted that fact, the successes of scientific space exploration notwithstanding. We had better start putting funds toward creating a better more equitable life on Planet Earth, starting with a serious moral and financial commitment to aid at first the poorest of the poor and then the poor. We can worry about the moon and its potential resources once we put our planet’s house in order. The funds to do so exist. It is the will to do so that is missing.

    Mickey Glantz

    p.s. I also saw an article about the world’s worst crook, the one who bilked people out of $85 billion dollars, Bernie Madoff. One of his score of Rolex watches was auctioned off at $86,000! So, don’t tell me there is not enough money around to save many lives on our Planet.

  • Does a rising tide really float all boats? Mickey Glantz

    The phrase “a rising tide floats all boats” is one of the nice sounding statements that people are expected to believe and to live by. This particular one has been used to make a point: a booming economy will benefit all in society. It’s like saying that the US Government’s stimulus packages are not only a benefit to those that receive stimulus funds but to others in society as businesses begin to do well and trickle down benefits such as new jobs are created, taxes are collected and new funds become available for new investments, and so on. Arizona State University Professor Timothy Tyrrell stated it this way: “The phrase ‘a rising tide floats all boats’ is the unquestioned basis for many economic development strategies. It is assumed that each of the social and environmental goals of a community will be achieved if there is sufficient overall economic growth”.

    risingtide

    A closer look at the adage though raises questions about the reliability of adages in general and about this one in particular. To complete the statement as a reflection of reality, it really should read as follows: A rising tide floats all boats … that are sea-worthy”. This version, which I think is a better reflection of reality, means that the rising tide will float the boats of those who had the where-with-all to maintain their vessels in proper sailing condition. Tyrrell then noted that “Unfortunately, not all boats are floated by growth”. He suggested that a better development strategy would be to focus on the individual boats rather than on the tide! In any event, the poorer members of a society are most likely less able to maintain their proverbial boats (e.g., a way to improve their well being).

    So, to what extent is the adage about tides and boats really not folk wisdom developed at the grass roots level but is a notion fostered by the elite to maintain control of a society or an economy by providing hope to others whose likelihood for faring better in good times remains as slim as during bad times. In other words this adage is a “feel good” statement perpetuated by those who have resources to provide false hope to those who lack the necessary resources to improve their situation.

    Adages are useful as thought-provoking generalizations but in any given situation they can prove to be encouraging but ambiguous at best and misleading at worst. How for example, does one reconcile the messages of “Look before you leap” and “He who hesitates is lost”.

    “A rising tide floats all boats” sounds promising at first blush but does not hold up for all circumstances under closer scrutiny. This and other adages, generalizations or aphorisms are not unlike horoscopes in that they suggest to the reader that the message applies to his/her life. The general public must be taught to better understand as well as challenge such generalizations that emanate from political leaders around the globe. Societies need to hear more do-good statements rather than feel-good ones.

    The image above was for a conference hosted by the California College of the Arts and Stanford University. It was designed to bring “together creative professionals, scholars and students to engage in conversations and debates about the intersections of ethics, aesthetics, and environmentalism”. Perhaps, it is time for a similar type of conference about the notion of “tides and rising boats” applied to the impacts of scores of concepts that have been bandied about for the past several decades for economic development of developing countries .