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Alan AtKisson on Sweden

Delightful.

Update [2005-8-12 10:25:6 by Dave Roberts]: Iceland sounds pretty cool too!

Being ‘right’ about peak oil is only the first step

All right, I've been meaning to write a post on this forever, but a comment from The Oil Drum's Prof. Goose finally lit a fire under my butt:

It seems to me that one of the keys to the puzzle of why people don't understand peak oil and other sustainability issues is innumeracy and a lack of understanding spatial functions.

Ah, so that's it! But wait, it gets better:

However, getting 100*ln 2(~=70, btw)/rate per annum=doubling time in years through your head ain't that hard...is it?

Oh, well heck no!

But let's get to the point:

One of the main points of Dr. Bartlett's lecture is that "we cannot let other people do our thinking for us." So, so true.

Um, no. So, so false.

In fact, we let other people do our thinking for us constantly. If we couldn't outsource some -- nay, most -- of our thinking, we would be screwed indeed. People think about their families, kids, boy/girlfriends, health, school, job, finances, parents, weight ... now they have to learn calculus?

I'm not trying to be cute. People are busy. Average folk can hope to have in-depth knowledge in one area, maybe two. For many it is sports, clothes, TV shows, hobbies of myriad sorts.

Even those who devote their lives to what we may consider good causes -- learning all there is to know about, oh, poverty, or ocean health -- do we hold them responsible for not knowing all there is to know about peak oil? Do we hold Prof. Goose responsible for not knowing the basic facts on, say, the tropical lapse rate quandary?

No. Most people rely, for most of their information, most of the time, on other people. They let other people do the thinking for them. It could not be otherwise.

Kernel knowledge

The Daily Show has done several funny bits on the energy bill. This one, on ethanol, is particularly funny.

Fedex doesn’t want you reusing their boxes

What do you do if you need furniture but are living on a limited income? If you're one Jose Avila, you direct your web browser to Fedex.com and order a bunch of boxes. Cuz, apparently, Fedex boxes can be used to make quite sturdy furniture -- from couches to beds to chairs to desks. To help spread the word that "it's OK to be ghetto," Jose setup the website FedexFurniture.com to share pictures and provide details for construction materials.

Enter Fedex and its lawyers with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in tow.

Head on over to Wired to get the full scoop and to read the exchange between the Fedex legal team and the lawyers from the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, who are representing Jose. After reading, let us know which is the crime: Jose's ingenuity or Fedex's attempt to crush it.

While I'm disappointed that Jose decided to use new Fedex boxes (I'm sure he could have been just as innovative finding used ones) I think his creativity is just another example of how we can reuse products that are often discarded.

And I'm totally disappointed in Fedex. Their antics will only encourage the Freecycle media relations people.

Why aren’t conservationists fighting poverty?

It’s a shame. Conservationists are sitting on the sidelines while the Big Game unfolds before our eyes. A major campaign is under way to change the terms of development, alleviate crushing debt, and help poor people around the world live better lives. Successes are being racked up. And conservation and environmental groups are nowhere to […]

Gambling site gives odds for oil

As news hits of a historic rise in oil prices (to $66 a barrel), America's "largest online sports betting destination" tells us they've turned the world's fuelish issues into a new category. Yup! Right there on the non sports events page -- tucked between "Who will win Tommy Hilfiger's 'The Cut'?" and "Who will win the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards video of the year?" -- you can bet on whether the price will reach $70 by the end of 2005.

What do you think: lie down and weep, or lay money down and reap?

Permafrost melting, methane coming, humanity doomed: more

If you read about melting permafrost in today's Daily Grist and were worried, well ... uh, what can I tell you? Be worried.

As is his wont, Jamais has much, much more over on WC.

Hello Cleveland!

Ohio city is latest to hire sustainability manager Cleveland, Ohio, has joined Seattle, Chicago, Portland, Ore., and other American metropolises (metropoli?) in creating a city-government position focused on going green and saving energy — ideally stimulating job growth in the process. Cleveland’s new “sustainability programs manager,” Andrew Watterson, is getting started with relatively simple and […]

The Sum of Owl Fears

Feds to shoot barred owls to save spotted owls Would you kill an owl to save another owl? It’s not a thought experiment from your Intro to Ethics class: Northern spotted owls — the feathered poster children of last decade’s timber wars — are dwindling in the Pacific Northwest, and bigger, more aggressive barred owls, […]

The Peat Is Gone

Siberia’s fast thaw alarms scientists Siberia is melting. Meeelllting! Ahem. Of particular concern is a 386,000 square-mile expanse of western Siberian permafrost that’s been icy cold for about 11,000 years and sits atop billions of tons of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If the permafrost melts, the methane could […]