Our planet deserves far more, but the least we can do is give it five minutes respite. On February 1st, the Alliance for the Planet has asked us all to turn out our lights, laptops, and whatever else is sucking electricity for just five minutes (between 1:55pm and 2:00pm EST… that’s 11:55am to 12:00 noon for my fellow Santa Feans), to give the Earth a short a break. Let’s all participate.
If you’re a regular blog-reader, you’re probably already familiar with this horrible story. If not, here’s a recap:
A 21-year-old woman was raped recently in Florida. When she went to report the crime, she wasn’t helped, but thrown in jail for an outstanding warrant from a 2003 juvenile arrest. As if that wasn’t enough, she was then denied emergency contraception because someone working at the jail didn’t want her to have it and cited “religious objections.”
What a great legal system we’ve got, eh? As attorney Virlyn Moore said, “So, here we have a medical supervisor imposing her beliefs on a rape victim. As a human being, how someone could be so violated by this monster and then the system comes along and rapes her again psychologically and emotionally - it’s outrageous and unconscionable.”
Outrageous and unconscionable indeed. Use this form to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and let them know what you think about these horrendous actions.
From Feministing, it is now officially safe to drink coffee while pregnant.
Party.
An “inversion” is a layer of warm air the keeps cool air at the surface, and traps everything from car exhaust to chimney smoke in a death-cloud. Northern Utah is currently stuck in one. They’ve been on red alert: kids can’t play on play-grounds, anyone with respiratory problems must stay inside.
Mike Atwell, 47, of Bozeman, Mont., in town for an outdoor-industry convention at the Salt Palace, looked east toward the barely visible Wasatch Mountains, site of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and shook his head.
“It’s a huge bummer. It’s not what you see — it’s what you can’t see. You feel robbed,” he said. “Mountains are why we live in the West. I feel like I’m in a foggy daze.”
Another convention visitor, Beth Brewster, 36, of Seattle, said: “You expect it in Los Angeles, not Salt Lake City.”
Alicia Reichert, 19, typically spends her lunch break skating at an outdoor rink at the downtown Gallivan Center.
“I cough a lot more than I usually do,” she said, pausing after a set of tricky spins. “It seems harder and harder to come out here.”
Some relief finally may come this week. The remedy is simple: a stiff wind or storm, no matter the direction, to send the stuff elsewhere.
Gross…
I have a crush on the state of California.
This week, California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine plans to introduce the How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act, which would ban incandescent bulbs in California, mandating CFLs.
“Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications,” California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine said Tuesday.
“Meanwhile, they remain incredibly inefficient, converting only about 5 percent of the energy they receive into light.” . . . Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) use about 25 percent of the energy of conventional lightbulbs. . . . “They save money and energy,” EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said. “They are more convenient than other alternatives and come in different sizes and shapes to fit almost any fixture.”
Also, CFLs generate 70 percent less heat than incandescent lights, Jones said.
About a fifth of the average U.S. home’s electricity costs pays for lighting, which means even if CFLs initially cost more than conventional lightbulbs, consumers will save, Jones said.
A 20-watt CFL gives as much light as a 75-watt conventional bulb, and lasts 13 times longer, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit group studying energy issues.
Good luck, Mr. Levine!
We love our English class. Today, we were all given “A Blessing” by James Wright with words missing, to make our own version. Check out what Emily and I created…
A Blessing, by us
Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota
Wind bounds softly forth on the grass.
And the eyes of those two Indian ponies
Darken with glee.
They have come galloping out of the woods
To welcome my friend and me.
We step over the barbed wire into the pasture
Where they have been grazing all day, ravenous.
They move tensely, they can hardly contain their delight
That we have come.
They bow shyly as we approach. The prepare each other.
There is no hunger like theirs.
At home once more,
They begin munching the young tufts of flesh in the darkness.
I would like to devour the slenderer one in my mouth,
For she has walked over to me
And bitten my left hand.
She is mad with hunger,
Her mane falls wild on her forehead,
And the light breeze moves me to consume her long ear
That is as delicate as petals.
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of her way I would get
Into his.
Go listen to some lovely music at our friend Ari’s new 80 Proof mp3 blog, A Poor Sort of Memory That Only Works Backwards.
Be a liberal like you mean it: The Rhetoric of Righteous Rage.
And lots more coming later this week.
Martin Rees is president of the Royal Society in London, a group that took part in moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock to read 11:55, just five minutes from extinction. He’s also the author of Our Final Hour, and in this book predicts that human civilization has only a fifty percent chance of making it to the year 2100.
A few years ago, he posted this prediction on Long Bets: “By 2020, bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event” because “Biotechnology is plainly advancing rapidly, and by 2020 there will be thousands-even millions-of people with the capability to cause a catastrophic biological disaster. My concern is not only organized terrorist groups, but individual wierdos with the mindset of the people who now design computer viruses. Even if all nations impose effective regulations on potentially dangerous technologies, the chance of an active enforcement seems to me as small as in the case of the drug laws. By ‘bioerror’, I mean something which has the same effect as a terror attack, but rises from inadvertance rather than evil intent.”
Long Bets is an organization that allows people to make predictions, post them online, and take bets on them and those of others. Whoever wins donates the money gained to a charity of their choice. John Tierney, author of this article, is wary of the future but more optimistic than Martin Rees and has posted a counter-prediction.
“I predict that our civilization will survive until at least 2100,” he says, because “In his 2003 book, “Our Final Hour,” Martin Rees writes: ‘I think the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that our present civilisation on Earth will survive to the end of the present century.’ Dr. Rees is an eminent cosmologist, president of the Royal Society, and the astronomer royal of Britain — but also, I think, a short-sighted prophet. He correctly notes that humanity will face unprecedented risks this century, but we will also have unprecedented tools to deal with them. I believe the best way to predict the future is to look at past trends — the longest trends possible. And my reading of history is that humans have a longstanding habit of surviving. As the late Julian Simon pointed out in his refutations of doomsayers, there is a long-term trend of humans facing news problems and not just overcoming them but emerging better-off as a result. Our species now has more members living longer than ever before. It’s always possible this trend will end abruptly, but I think the odds are against it.”
Most Long Bets voters side with John Tierney.
Ryan Duggan’s book exchange has been a hit in Chicago.
From Treehugger:
“I kind of got the idea in my sleep,” he says. “One day I just woke up and thought, if I took one of those boxes and repainted it, I could fit a lot of books in there. Everyone has books worth reading that they’re not going to reread.” A free book exchange might get those books into the hands of people who would read them, Duggan thought. As the box says, “You give, you take, everyone reads!” Now, they have added a video exchange as well.
I feel sorta compelled to set up a box like that in Santa Fe. It’s not really necessary, I guess (or is it?), but it seems like fun. Local readers- what do you think? Would you participate?
Due to WordPress workings of some kind (we think), no one can access our pages right now. Don’t worry! Everything should be back to normal soon.
