When I wrote about moving into the Big Haus a few weeks ago, Leslie Wilson promptly (and graciously) brought to my attention that I had omitted a key component of the lieutenancy program. Since lieutenants are only required to pay for board (the room is free), it is expected that we take responsibility in maintaining the Haus and other various chores as needed. So far, I have raked, mowed, and fertilized the property (which presents its size modestly). Earlier this week, I compiled a live CD and video collection with which Leslie’s band, Groovehaus, will advertise itself at this weekend’s bridal fair. Also this weekend is the Wilson’s first ever Fire and Reign marriage seminar, which I plan to record for them.
In addition, a pet project of mine – which is still in the research and planning phase – will be to broaden the scope of waste recycled by the Big Haus. Needless to say, a full house of fourteen generates quite a bit trash, much of which falls under the categories of materials accepted at the Moscow Recycling center. I was encouraged to learn that we already send them our cardboard and glass, and other good candidates will be items like milk jugs, soda cans, and light bulbs. The hard part will be arranging a centralized collection station and then getting the rest of the residents to use it. After that, it will be my distinct honor to sort and assemble the recyclables for weekly curb-side pick-up.
That said, it just so happens that November 15 is “America Recycles” Day, hence the flashy new image in the sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the official ARD website, where you can learn more about the basics of recycling and find out if there are any related events happening in your area. For example (though not listed on the ARD website), Moscow Recycling will celebrate by offering an increased payout for aluminum cans. It seems appropriate, therefore, to impose a deadline of November 15 for launching a Big Haus recycling program. If I’m successful, I’ll get a bonus for the cans. I’m even crossing my fingers for a cape.
Whether one is being encouraged to save money or save the planet, a commonly suggested alternative to driving a car is taking the bus. If one lives outside of a metropolitan area in the United States, that idea might not be as popular, because – let’s face it – there ain’t no bus. This is particularly true “out west;” but here on the Palouse, the option is one to consider. So today, I considered it.
When I returned to Moscow in the Spring and started my job in Pullman, I didn’t have a car. My parents offered me one of theirs, but I was curious enough to check out the bus schedule. Let us first acknowledge that were it not for both towns being home to state universities, our only buses would be yellow (and I despise yellow school buses). Still, I was surprised to discover that the Moscow/Pullman service wouldn’t be running during the Summer months.
Until now, I have been borrowing my parents’ 1985 Jeep Cherokee to make the 26 minute, 12.9 mile commute to SEL. With students beginning to migrate back to the area over the last few days, I decided to revisit my lofty aspirations of public transportation. As expected, the bus will soon be up and running again. But just because there is a bus, does that mean it would be a viable option for me? The more I learned, the less I thought so.
First of all, it is not just one bus. It is four of them. Run by three different operators. Meaning it took a good half hour of comparing schedules just to figure out how I could possibly get from the east side of Moscow to the north end of Pullman. If one is not entirely dumbfounded that a combined community of fifty thousand (including students) can support three local bus companies, one might at least figure it would make my task easier. Au contraire! Instead, I had to literally map out a twelve mile itinerary of transfers.
One would almost think they were intentionally recreating the hassle of living in a big city (without any of the excitement), where a similar distance might involve jumping off a bus down the subway and arriving by tram. Which brings me to my second point: a commute that – by car – has barely been long enough to tune into radio headlines and sports trivia would suddenly develop into a ninety minute ordeal. That’s right, nine-zero. A ten minute walk to and from the stops at either end means that my transit time would be nearly quadrupled, and that is not even compensating for the maze of road construction currently under way in Moscow.
So if I am going to give up three hours of my day to board eight different buses, at least they are going to entice me with an irresistible price, right? Actually, Moscow Valley Transit agrees, which might have something to do with the fact that they are funded by the University of Idaho, the Public Transportation Division of the Idaho Transportation Department, the City of Moscow, and New Saint Andrews College. Their leg of the commute would be free of charge. But unless I am a student or a university employee, I am not getting any love the rest of the way. Wheatland Express would charge me four bucks to get back and forth to Pullman, onto which Pullman Transit would add another dollar a day. In other words, even in an old Jeep, the cost savings are a toss up, not to mention the lost time. Assuming I pay $2.80 for a gallon of gas, the Cherokee would have to get worse than 14.4 miles per gallon for me to save a single penny by taking the bus.
The bottom line is that the option of taking the bus is really no option at all. If I worked in Moscow or lived in Pullman, it might be a different story. Being a student would also change the picture, not only by eliminating the cost, but also because the routes are primarily oriented around the university campuses. Of course, it is good to know that if I ever find myself without a vehicle, I won’t be at a complete loss for transportation. But until there is an express route between Moscow and Pullman that services the working class, don’t expect to see me riding the bus.
There has been little time for blogging since I returned to Moscow a month ago. When not in the office, I have been spending evenings with family and friends and using weekends to work with my dad on several overdue landscaping projects. On the other hand, since my travels have been reduced to the daily thirteen-mile commute, I find myself with fewer adventures to tell of. Settling back into a familiar daily routine has not only sidelined my artistic creativity, it has robbed me of inspiration.
Of course, that is not quite fair. To everything there is a season, and even if this is not the season for blogging, I have no shortage of things to keep me awed, occupied and entertained. “Entertaining,” for instance, would be a good word to describe a couple of conversations I overheard at work last week. First there was the woman who, when asked if she had Vista, replied “Oh no, we use Clearwire!,” demonstrating that not all Schweitzer Engineering employees are computer geeks, or even computer literate. Then there was the Chinese woman who was told that the hardware for her project would be ready in a month, to which she skeptically retorted, “I’ll see it when I believe it,” (which I have since adopted as my modus operandi).
In family news, Josh has arrived in Moscow for the Summer so that Kristen doesn’t have to keep me up at night while Skyping with a boyfriend in California; and Heather has purchased a new laptop with some help from the in-house expert. I think we were equally excited when it arrived in the mail:
I wish I had thought ahead to take some “before” and “after” shots of the yard work we’ve been getting done around here. Some of these projects have been on hold since I was in college – or even high school – when my dad was too picky and I was too lazy to be any good to each other. A few years have done a lot of good, and now that Summer is here, we are bringing our cursed acres of earth into subjection, shoulder to shoulder. The weather has been cooperating, and the sunsets in Moscow still live up to their reputation, especially when the occasional storm does blow through.
Since I first read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard a couple of years ago, I have always imagined it would be the first book I would assign to my students if I were a biology teacher. Any who failed to be simultaneously mystified and terrified at the natural world by the end of the first chapter could feel free to transfer to economics while the rest of us unpacked the incredible masterpiece Dillard created from simply taking time to watch the small world around her. An excerpt from Publisher’s Weekly printed on the cover of my early copy from 1975 describes “This book of wonder [as] one of the truly beautiful books of this or any other season… which, on any page, offers a passage one can scarcely wait to share with a friend.” This is what I will do as a preface for the remaining photos I have taken around the mosquito haven that has been our backyard for the past couple of weeks. The following is an excerpt from one of the gruesome passages in her chapter titled “The Horns of the Altar,” yet the book contains equally beautiful passages with power to amaze and frighten any brave reader. In discussing parasites, Dillard provides this happy description:
“Parasitic two-winged insects, such as flies and mosquitos, abound. It is these that cause hippos to live in the mud and frenzied caribou to trample their young. Twenty thousand head of domestic livestock died in Europe from a host of black flies that swarmed from the banks of the Danube in 1923. Some parasitic flies live in the stomachs of horses, zebras, and elephants; others live in the nostrils and eyes of frogs. Some feed on earthworms, snails, and slugs; others attack and successfully pierce mosquitos already engorged on stolen blood. Still others live on such delicate fare as the brains of ants, the blood of nestling songbirds, or the fluid in the wings of lacewings and butterflies.”
Last July, I signed up with the Pickens Plan, a grass roots movement headed by former oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens. The purpose of the organization is to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil. The proposed solution is utilizing a combination of domestic natural gas and wind power to fuel automobiles (especially diesel semi-trucks) and to supply electricity. It is a plan that is actionable now with the help of lawmakers, and today is day two of a three-day “virtual march” intended to make the millions of Pickens Plan voices heard in Washington.
Not only are these goals a strategic move to eliminate the vulnerability of importing oil from places like Venezuela and the Middle East, they are also a step in the right direction toward developing alternative energy sources, like wind power. While the Pickens Plan can sometimes seem more about Pickens than his plan, there is no denying the weight his name carries when it comes to influencing legislation, like the bipartisan NAT GAS Act of 2009. During this virtual march in support of that act, his website makes it very easy to contact the appropriate policy makers: by simply entering your name and address, you can dispatch an automatically generated email (or modified, if you choose) to both the president and your congressional representatives. Those interested in learning more and joining the march this week can do so on the Pickens Plan website.
During a recent visit to my grandparents’ farm, my grandfather bestowed on me a small gift. It wasn’t expensive or even that shiny, but it didn’t have to be to serve it’s purpose. With a lifetime of experience, my grandfather gave me a small compass to remind me of the need for direction in life. I find it somewhat ironic telling the story on this blog, given its name, but grandpa Dave is right: I could travel the world over without having direction, find my favorite place on earth, and not know what to do once I got there.
Having it together on the outside doesn’t prove an inner purpose, and despite living the yuppie dream until last year, I couldn’t have said I was at peace doing so. My recent wanderings only bring to the surface a lack of direction that has quite likely been with me for much longer. Depending on one’s point of view, that might sound like something to look down on, but I think it is healthy and am comfortable with my present circumstances, as long as they don’t lead me to complacency.
My last post made it official that I’m thinking about grad school. The interesting thing about the programs I’m looking at are that most of them are relatively new, given the emerging fields of study related to global warming. They tend to draw on their respective institution’s existing environmental and natural resources department, which is the best point of reference I have for judging the quality and reputation of their students and faculty.
While global warming may be the catalyst that is pushing these programs forward, it is not the only reason I am interested in studying climate science (one name for the many variants of essentially the same course of study). I love being outdoors and enjoy the multifaceted beauty of creation. That is one of the biggest draws Norway holds for me, and spending most of the last year there got me thinking about the possibility of pursuing a career that took advantage of my interest. There is, of course, the practical side. Regardless of the causes for global warming, governments and economies around the world are poised to invest huge amounts of capital and infrastructure into making the world a cleaner place. Getting this degree will enable me to be a part of that.
When I enrolled at the University of Idaho, I felt like I could have enjoyed studying anything from journalism to engineering. With some insight and advice from my dad, I picked computer science and had a blast. I still remember the adrenaline rush I got from writing my first “hello world” program with the help of Jared Miller in the basement of the Janssen Engineering Building. My sister studied Greek in college; I studied Geek. After graduating in 2003, I landed a rewarding job with a successful company and will never consider the four years I worked there to have been wasted. But I knew I couldn’t spend the rest of my professional life in front of a computer screen. As much fun as I had developing software, I also wasn’t passionate about my end product.
It has taken me the better part of my twenties to gain a mature perspective on where I want to go in life. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I now have the tools and experience to be able to make that choice. Of course, that perspective isn’t complete and it doesn’t apply only to my professional career, though it makes me question how realistic our educational model is. Without developing that thought further, I will say that I could still see myself being content with a journalism degree (perhaps this blog is my outlet) or sitting in the R&D cubicle I escaped from fifteen months ago and not being entirely unhappy. But I would have been living someone else’s dream. Some lucky people might realize their life’s purpose by the time they turn eighteen. For me, it has taken a decade longer, and I’m still working on it.
Now I am seriously considering a Master’s degree. My heart is not completely set on it, and I will keep my options open as I begin the application process, which I expect to either solidify or dissolve my curiosity. First comes the application itself, followed by figuring out how to pay for it, waiting for acceptance, selecting a program if given the choice, and relocating to wherever that school may be. For now, I am focused on four universities:
The Geosciences degree offered by the University of Oslo would be my first pick for obvious reasons, despite the fact that Oslo is my least favorite city in Norway. Unfortunately, I have already all but written this option off, as I would need to win the lottery just to submit an application. While there is no tuition to study there, the government requires a bank statement showing that I could support myself for the next two years, or the equivalent of roughly twenty grand. The program does have study abroad options with the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, which may mean those schools are worth looking into down the road. This makes my realistic first pick the University of Michigan. Their GIS and Modeling coursework is right up my alley, given my background with computers, and the school is not too far from my extended family here in the Upper Midwest. Coming in third is the University of Washington, also because of proximity to my family in Idaho and friends across the Northwest. Honorable mention goes to Stanford, simply for name recognition. That, and they have a cool picture on their webpage. Application deadlines for Fall 2009 range from December to next Spring, so I plan to get the ball rolling by the end of this month.
I just saw something for the second time in my life. At first, I thought somebody was setting off fireworks. When I heard nothing and saw only one, I immediately knew what I had actually witnessed. The first time it happened (scroll down to #167d), it ended up being confirmed by several other sightings. We’ll see if this one does, too.
It was surprising and encouraging to learn that the state taking the most initiative in efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions is California. While Schwarzenegger’s record isn’t perfect, he is forging ahead while the issue is largely pushed aside at the national level. Although the economic crisis is affecting California as much as anyone else, they are setting the example that other states will need to follow in order to make climate change a federal priority.
Filed under: Environment
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) is hosting their World Conservation Congress this week in Barcelona. More than eight thousand are in attendance. The IUCN publishes the world’s most authoritative list of endangered species. It is called the Red List. Today at the congress, the Red List was updated with surprising results.
The percentage of mammal populations in decline is now up to fifty percent. Of course, this isn’t all attributed to global warming. Habitat encroachment and environmental pollution don’t need to change the climate to be harmful. But climate change seems to be having some effect now, and it is getting worse.
Humans are responsible for global warming, but we can also do a lot more for ourselves to escape the effects. The animal kingdom, on the other hand, is defenseless and vulnerable to a changing world. For many of the species, this will mean extinction. When we are looking at extinction on a scale approaching fifty percent, the effects of a broken food chain are likely to be felt by us, whether we care about the polar bears or not.
Mankind was charged to fill the earth and subdue it. Given that our number has tripled from two to six billion in the past century, we have no problem with the former. The trouble comes with the latter in addressing the impact of an unprecedented population increase, manifested chiefly in the emerging crisis of climate change.
While “global warming” has become a familiar phrase in mainstream vocabulary, it remains an uphill battle to convince the majority of voters that we must do something about it. There are those who still doubt that unchecked global warming will have any measurable affect on everyday American life. Indeed, most of the devastation of global warming is not affecting voters yet – a reverse take on pie in the sky, if you will.
But global warming is the most important election issue for a number of reasons. Here are three: First, it is time critical. While that alone does not distinguish it from many other issues, the longer we put it off, the worse it gets and the more irreversible it becomes. Wasted time affects this issue more severely than any other. Second, climate change affects the greatest number of people. By focusing on global warming now, Americans can significantly improve the lives of the nine billion people who will otherwise be dealing with the growing consequences (especially in Africa) just one generation from now. Third, an effective solution to this problem will have positive ramifications on a wide range of other important issues, including the turbulence in the Middle East, the struggling world economy, and the enormous health problems that result from environmental pollution and which would accompany rising temperatures.
Unfortunately, this topic is not scheduled into the agenda of any of the presidential debates. This Tuesday may be the only chance the candidates will get to discuss global warming at length. In case they do not, these are the facts on their energy plans:
Grist has an article here that comes with a handy chart and candidate interviews. The audio clip of the interview with McCain is particularly interesting.
Here is a program from Earthbeat featuring the opinions of two experts on climate change, who compare the positions of McCain and Obama and explain some of the hot-button issues, such as carbon offsets and clean coal. (The interview takes up only the first half of the program.)
Here are speeches made by the candidates themselves:
Finally, on a lighter note, Letterman’s take hasn’t changed in eight years: “We’re screwed!”
