ha ... finally a second of blogging peace

I'm gaining a whole new understanding for a famous person which I will name later on in this blog, but not yet for the sake of suspense. All the info below (unless sarcastic and unless otherwise noted) is thanks to a book by this guy.

Grab a bit of fresh air before you read this... our topic today is Waste!

The largest monument (by volume) in the Americas was the Sun Temple in Mexico. These days in San Fransisco, the main landfill is 5 times the Sun Temple. (What a monument we are leaving to future generations, what a testament to our ingeniosity...)

The Fresh Kills (what a name) Landfill on Staten Island (for NYC's garbage) will soon be the "highest point on the Eastern seaboard south of Main". (courtesy of a Newsweek story). It had to apply to the FAA for a permit because it poses a threat to aircraft.

Baltimore was negotiating with China to dump its crap in Tibet (both saw the situation as a massive win, Tibetans were not invited to discuss the topic, but eventually international pressure prevented that scheme was being realized).

"A cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" (Oscar Wilde)

"There is something fundamentally wrong in treating the earth as if it were a business in liquidation" (Herman Daly)

The author also points out that, really, we "ought to understand the economic significance of a healthy environment as a kind of infrastructure supporting future productivity". (At this point he is particularly peeved that economists fail to take external costs, 'externalities' per the Damsetz model of property rights, such as the price of polluting smoke into account in their economic analyses, based on the fact that it's hard to calculate).

Now, I'm only half-way through this book, Earth in the Balance, and it's already yielding tons of valuable stuff (only some of which is noted above). The book is on my reading list for my Engineering for Sustainable Development class, and the author is none other than ... Al Gore. Interesting, isn't it, that the guy has such insight, knowledge, and interesting things to say. Depressing though that while living in the US during the 2000 elections, I had no idea the guy was one of the most environmentalists of the Senators. What is that a tribute to: the guy's bad campaign or the insanity of the US election process and the need to rush to the center?

As a side note, he brings up an interesting insight into the French Revolution. Chapter 3, called "Climate and Civilization: A Short History" covers our vulnerability to a slight disruption in the expected weather patterns. For instance, the "year without a summer" of 1817: the explosion of the Tambora volcano in Indonesia saturated the air with thick dust for a few years, reducing the amount of sunlight, causing lowered temperatures and resulting in massive starvation and revolutionary fever worldwide. Similarly, part of what sparked the French Revolution could be the explosion of the Asama volcano in Japan. Whoever thought global impact was a new thing?


Thanks to Catherine for passing along the following url: http://www.electoral-vote.com . Which highlights for those not living in the UK (!), that the BBC leaked a Florida republican reports on (allegedly unconstitutional) tactics to disrupt African American voting.
Also an interesting story from the LATimes on the election as a cultural war, not an economic election. I like the story, but hasn't the US always been massively divided on these issues (e.g. abortion & religion)?

Well, while we are getting ready for the stay-up-all-night election night here, where we'll watch Outfoxed & Fog of War and the numbers come in, (and like 1/3 of Americans we're worried about massive mess-ups a la Florida'00), life tends to go on - despite Michael Moore's personal plea in my inbox the other day to let the dirty socks pile up and do nothing but activism work from now until the end of the election. In fact we went to a lovely (lovely and brilliant are soo British words) formal dinner last night at St. John's, a 500 year old gorgeous college, with the company of the members of the Cambridge Pugwash society.

I hope you're all well. A +.