Articles by Biodiversivist
My real name is Russ Finley. I also have my own blog called Biodiversivist, which contains articles in addition to those submitted to Grist. I live in Seattle, married with children. Suffice it to say that although I am trained and educated as an engineer, my passion is nature. I very much want my grandchildren to live on a planet where lions, tigers, and bears have not joined the long and growing list of creatures that used to be.
All Articles
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You’ve got to see this to believe it
I kept expecting one of the kids to look into the camera and kick this spoof into high gear. I finally realized ... it's real. Too bad, just a few modifications to the script and this film would have been hilarious:
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You may be surprised
I have been reading negative reports about Prius mileage and cost effectiveness for years. Here is one called "The Hybrid Hoax," written about a year ago. The author propagates misinformation by referring us to another article written in 2004 by a USA Today reporter (Kiley) who drove a Jetta diesel from Detroit to Washington, D.C., and a Prius back from Washington, D.C. to Detroit:
Kiley had to stop to refill the Prius, which ended up averaging 38 miles per gallon, compared with 44 miles per gallon for the Jetta
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It’s Africa
Imagine a place where women must average seven children in their lifetime while risking infection from a fatal sexually transmitted disease (passed to the human population by eating other primates) that has left almost seven percent of those children orphaned.
This place experiences extreme climate shifts, cyclically throwing vast numbers of people into chronic starvation.
This place has been ravaged by constant civil war, wherein rival religious factions like the Lord's Resistance Army enslave and rape the populace while others cajole them to stop using contraception.
This place is home to some of the last of the 380 wild mountain Gorillas, two of which were just eaten.
This place has a ruler who is about to turn over to developers nine more tropical forests to grow biofuel stock (sugarcane and palm oil) instead of food.
Welcome to Children of Men in real time.
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Not every ‘environmental’ action makes sense
I spotted a freshly remodeled house in my neighborhood the other day. It had a large array of shiny new PV solar panels on the roof. Wouldn't it be great to be able to afford such things? Wouldn't it feel great to watch your electric meter spinning backwards?You don't see many solar panels in Seattle. It piqued my curiosity, so I found a solar cost calculator to find what it would cost to replace my electricity use with panels. The answer is about $160,000 dollars (taking about half a century to break even).
