Tag: environment

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Raccoons in SF

Sunday night, K and I were driving home after participating in a fund raiser for a show of some friends. I was the MC, meaning I drank a lot and tried to get people to laugh. Well also introduced the acts and K and I did some recreations of Allan Kaprow’s work.

Anyways, we were on Folsom and 6th or there abouts at the light in the right lane. 11 p.m. @ night A racoon sprints across the intersection. Shock, surprise…a taxi comes up the street and generously rounds the corner hitting the racoon with both right side tires. Somehow the racoon survived. Waddled, scrambled of the street to hide underneath a parked car.

What are you supposed to do in that situation? Is there someone to call to help the damaged animal? Animal control? Human Society?

Made me think of the frozen burgers in our ‘fridge? Made me think of the time my dog Blackie was run over and died. Made me hate cities and cars. Why are national parks enclosed and roped off? It should be the other way around. Cities, places of human habitat should be sequestered and scrunched together in “national parks” As the human population becomes more urban hopefully that will happen. Restricted zones where we can build, kinda like Portland.

I wonder how long the raccoon lived.

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Hybrids

Talk about stupid. No, not hybrids. I have a Prius, had it since 2002. 1st generation!! On the forefront, the cutting (or is it bleeding?) edge. What I am calling stupid is SUV hybrids. Yes, they might get better mileage than a non Hybrid, but their mileage still sucks.
An SUV hybrid does not address the real problem of people driving around much more metal than necessary. A hybrid SUV allows people to justify their outrageous purchases, to assuage their guilt – “It’s really not that bad…it’s a hybrid…I am helping the environment…yeah, there is a green leaf on my car…”
An extreme analogy would be comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler. “At least Hussein didn’t kill 6 million people, therefore he is a good guy. Yeah, that’s it!”
C’mon, get real. 30 mpg is still 30 mpg to carry one fat person through the Jack in the Box drive through, whether or not you have a lithium battery in your trunk.

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Maybe he knew playing with matches is wrong. Maybe his parents had told him before this fire that matches are not toys. But he should not be “[removed] from his home and [possibly detained] as a ward of the state.” That is just going to #@#$ him over. How many people go through state systems – foster care, jail – and end up the better for it?

Cyndi Jo Means, a deputy district attorney in nearby San Diego County, says that,” Any finding of guilt… would not follow the boy into adulthood.” Yeah, right. Legally, maybe, but socially…screwed. He’d never get a job at a gas station (but then again who wants a job at a gas station?). People will definitely think twice about him, and not in a good way, when they find out about his fire history.

Why are people building way out there? It is terrible city planning. Massive sprawls of cookie cutter houses. Making houses further and further away harder for firemen to reach.

Instead of ugly stucco McMushroomMansions, high rises should be built. Make it 4o stories. 4 living spaces per floor, the cardinal directions. Thing of the views people would have. And then gardens would be around the high rise, acting as a buffer. There wouldn’t be miles and miles of roads, adding to global warming. Just think of how much smaller our eco footprint would be if we built like as opposed to having so many houses.

Come to think of it, he will be completely forgotten, the fires and destruction will be completely forgotten. The warnings, the anger, loss of life an property will be forgotten. And the people who were so angry will rebuild in the same exact places that are dry and fire prone and not maintain fire buffers. Maybe having your house burn down is how you pay the piper when you build in that area.

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Should Al Gore become a Vegan?

Al Gore is a huge, if not the biggest, champion of the fight against global warming. He did get the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions As the U.N. has stated “Raising animals for food, the report said, is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems…” To read more about it download this pdf.
So my question, raised by a video I watched on Youtube, is Al Gore a hypocrite if he is not a vegan or at least a vegetarian? Or has he raised enough awareness and caused enough people to shrink their carbon footprint enough to offset his meat diet?

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Better Complexion due to Global Warming

Recent studies have linked global warming to increased humidity. Increased humidity is good for the skin. Therefore as the globe gets warmer, everyone’s skin will look better.
Global warming ain’t all bad. Maybe GWB is looking out for everyone’s complexion when he is resisting doing anything about global warming.