Climate Change

So, last night was my Earth Ethics class, which I am trying to count as a skewl class, not just something fun, or interesting, or enjoyable. How I'm making that happen, besides really paying attention, is I'm writing some research papers, and then the pastor leading the class, Tony, who used to be my youth pastor, is going over the papers, sending them back, I'm making revisions, etc. Last night, in addition to going to class, I finished a paper on environmental justice. All of it was fairly outrageous. Lack of access to clean water, destruction of habitat in poor countries, exploitation of resources in poor countries, rich countries dumping waste in poor countries, etc. The issue (I boiled it down to a longish paragraph) that really got me going though, is climate change, and how it is going to effect the poor, and poor or developing nations, in particular. The whole issue of climate change is one I have strong feelings on, but this particular aspect of it really drives me up the wall, and then breaks my heart.

I feel like I need to clarify things just a little here. I think there are poorer nations that will do fine. Heck, some might benefit a little. There are rich nations that will be totally screwed. But of the nations that will be screwed, the rich ones, even if they get hit harder, are still better off. They have a strong infrastructure, allies who will help them, economic wherewithal to incentivize behaviors that help deal wit the problem, and many more assets, assets that poorer nations don't have.

When I was in Liberia (you regular readers understand this) one of the things I brought back was a realization that we really are trying to do a lot about climate change here in the states, and we would have a pretty good handle on things when/if it gets dicey. A majority of the population lives in one of two cities, both of which are port cities. If you check out my web pictures, you can see how close they live to the water, and how devastating even a rise of a few feet could be. Look at the last 4, and then pictures 145-148. Devastating, sure, but everyone can just move, right? Well, when most of the roads are one-lane, bumpy roads, and not very man people have their own cars, moving gets tricky. Also, where would you go? No village is equipped to shelter refugees without any but the most vital possessions. In addition, what little clean water there was would be gone, food would be even harder to come by, and what industry and farming was in the area would come to a halt, due to a combination of drought and flooding. This volatile mix would result in hundreds of deaths, and these conditions would not be isolated. Millions of people would be displaced, there would be riots, battles, and trillions of dollars in loss.

What really irks me though, the bottom line that always pisses me off, is the fact that those nations, cannot make the changes to soften the blow of climate change. Without technology or education, they cannot save themselves from their impending doom. That responsibility falls on us, the privilaged few who contribute a disproportionately large amount of the GHG's in the atmosphere, and also have the ability to make the choices to deal with this problem. Why don't we?
Night!!
Now I think I'll sleep deep, untroubled dreams. Right.

Fresno, and Catching Up

So I've been a little behind. Whoops.
Aquarium Stuff-Going well, good to start meeting a new group of kids, and working with a new group of ambassadors and mentors. Also, frozen yogurt is really not the best dinner. Adding berries and nuts doesn't help either.
Work-Pulled the front bumper off a MGB. Got dirt in my eye, repeatedly. Waxed the floors. Wouldn't want that unseemly floor hair. I'm really not a huge fan of gorilla shelving anymore. It's pretty absurd.
School-Reading City of God, by Augustine. Taking an "Earth Ethics" class with Pastor Tony. It's kinda hard for an average person to find good sources on say.....environmental justice. The rest of my classes are going well. GBT is interesting, as always. I'm having some inter-classroom conflict in a couple classes though. Don't really get along too well with my classmates.
Habitat for Humanity-The site is looking good, some serious work is getting done. Makes me sore just looking at it.
Softball-The only game I've played in so far, we won, and we still are undefeated. Supposedly the "tough" games are coming up. I scoff at tough games. How I knew I still had the knack for the game was our team's last at bat. Tie game, 10-10, bases loaded. Grand slam. Chris Hays. I think everyone there was surprised. Including me. I've still got it.
The news-Everyone in America agrees President Obama does not deserve the Nobel. No one knows who should have gotten it. Perhaps the most moving story I have read for a long time. Military Contractors Suffer Due to Lack of Care

Just a little gloaty moment, I got an invite to Google Wave, the new Google product/service that is being rolled out, bit by bit. As of now, there are 700,000 invites being given out, and then those 700k are allowed to invite 8 people. Roughly comes out to a lot of people, but not a lot really, considering the amount of people that use the internets.

So Alex and I left for Fresno on Thursday, about 8:50 in the morning. The ride was normal for public transit. Slightly creepy driver, alternately scary or scared looking people, and uncomfortable seats. This last fact is my personal theory for why more people don't ride buses. The seats are awful. It's like someone paid a 5-year old to look at a comfortable seat, and then draw a picture of that seat, and built the seat from that drawing. Also explains the lame fabric patterns. Like I said, the ride was pretty normal, except for the part where we picked up about 20 women who had just gotten out of jail. That was interesting. Unless my grasp of slang failed me, one of them had already gotten her hands on some pot, and was discussing its street value with the other ladies. They looked like they had just gotten out of jail, with the shirts, the boxes of stuff, the tattoos, the hair, but if you had just heard the tone of the conversation, they sounded like a book club headed off for some trip to a romantic field mentioned in their current book. Lots of laughing, having fun, and being "normal". We arrived fully inctact, and bundled off to where we were staying (Thanks again!!) Then I sat through about 4 hours of speech and debate class, in which I was not enrolled. Taking books with you is a good thing. John Le Carre's latest book is pretty great.

Next day I got to meet one of the host family's good friends, who I will call Joshua for anonymity. He is a good guy, and a fun addition to the group. We played gatorball that night, which is a sick combination between soccer and football. The game starts with kicking the ball, but as soon as the ball is up in the air, anyone can catch it, and then run with it. The point of the game is getting the ball into a goal, by kicking or throwing. It was hilarious, and tiring. The next day I woke up around 9:00, but it felt like 11:00, so I guess that's better than the other way around. The girls were off to a bridal shower, and two of the boys were at a swim meet, which left me, Alex, a 9 year old, and a 5 year old alone. We did some dishes, cleaned up a bit, and then played guns. Yes, guns. My favorite moment was scaring the daylights out of the 9 year old. He was looking for me, I was hidden well, and then I killed him. Done.

Later that night was "contra dancing". Not totally sure what that means, but it was traditional dancing, with simple music, and confusing terms. Sounds fun huh? I actually did all right, and enjoyed myself. My personal favorite move was the California swing. Easy for the male. Just spin the girl, then smirk at the other guys who can't pull off the move. Good times. Then we went to Sonic, which is one of the best places in the world. THEY SELL TATER-TOTS!! I know, right?

Riding home was pretty much the same, just without lady prisoners, and with two men who had been in jail, and at least one had gotten out recently. Got to hear some jailyard philosophy. Very 12-step program meets Chicken Soup meets Reader's Digest.

The picture is the grassy shared area in the complex, which is flooded, thanks to a 24-hour plus a little rainstorm. First one of the year. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome......El Nino!!! Anyway, we had a little wading pool for a while.

The rest of my weekend is busy. If I get a chance, I'm blogging about Earth Ethics, a great class I'm taking, which is simultaneously enjoyable and depressing. How's that work?
Hope you all are doing well!!

The Way Things Were

So, this post is going to sound a little random, but I think it will be enjoyable.
I was bored, and decided, for old time's sake, to read one of my favorite series from when I was younger. That's right, The Bobbsey Twins. I jumped in the middle, and was immediately enthralled, not by the story, or the writing, but some of the details of the story, and events that take place. Children going on picnics, just because, small children sleeping in haylofts, citizens calling up the sheriff, who they know by name, and my personal favorite, two boys who are having some conflict of personality being told by an adult to get it out of their system, and to have a good old-fashioned wrestling match.  Crazy, right? Amazingly enough, it sorta worked. There are some great examples of how things were way back when. Way more relaxed, much more communal, and everyone was a lot happier and healthier. The healthier seems a little odd to me, because everyone is eating ALL the time, and the most awesomely rich food. Homemade cake, coleslaw, ham, just outrageous. Perhaps the fact that everyone was outside+the fact that there wasn't a lot of processed foods, lots of things were handmade from scratch could account for that. Huh. Anyway, I just wanted to share a bit of random thought process, prompted by a passage from a children's book from 1950. Isn't it interesting how children's books reflect the times?