Incredible Visions

Yesterday I saw a news clip about G8 Asian powers urging an oil production hike

AOMORI, Japan (AFP) — Eleven nations that guzzle nearly two-thirds of the world’s energy called Sunday for an urgent hike in global oil production as host Japan warned the world could plunge into recession….
In a joint statement, they called for boosts to their own production and asked major oil producers “to increase investment to keep markets well supplied in response to rising world demand”.
The European Union’s energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs warned that high oil prices were a fact to be reckoned with and that major economies needed to come up with alternative energy.

“The era of cheap energy seems to be over and no economy should gamble on a potential return to low prices,” Piebalgs said.

What incredible wisdom-if there is not enough - ask mom and dad for more. The “end of oil” has been a long time in coming. Peak oil production had been predicted, ridiculed and discovered again. But,none of this wisdom reached politicians or car manufacturers. Standards for emissions were relaxed as the new gas guzzlers (SUVs) came into being.

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Title: Dead Ducks: The Environment and Making “Clean” Oil

500 hundred ducks landed in a Syncrude toxic tailings pond 75 km north of Fort McMurry. Only 5 were strong enough to even try saving, of those, 3 have survived. The tailings pond contains water that is used to wash the oil from the tar sands. The contaminated water contains a mixture of heavy metals, sands and residual oil. Birds that land on the pond are quickly coated, loose their waterproofing and drown.

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It seems that our exposure to Bisphenol A, may be much greater than was previously assumed. Bisphenol A is an endocrine disrupter and can have a drastic effect on the endocrine system, especially in infants and children.

David Biello writes an excellent article in “Scientific American”:Plastic (Not) Fantastic: Food Containers Leach a Potentially Harmful Chemical

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found traces of BPA in nearly all of the urine samples it collected in 2004 as part of an effort to gauge the prevalence of various chemicals in the human body. It appeared at levels ranging from 33 to 80 nanograms (a nanogram is one billionth of a gram) per kilogram of body weight in any given day, levels 1,000 times lower than the 50 micrograms (one millionth of a gram) per kilogram of bodyweight per day considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union’s (E.U.) European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

This seems all well and good, the levels in human urine are less than the arbitrarily defined level deemed harmful by the EPA. I say arbitrarily defined as the more subtle, affects of Bisphenol A (sperm counts, developmenal anomalies, cancer rates i.e. non-lethal effects.) were examined. However, almost ALL urine samples had Bisphenol A. Further, it seems that humans can degrade Bisphenol A quickly.

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Title: Testing the Nikon 70-300 mm VR at the Edmonton Valley Zoo

Posting has been slow as I am studying for an acupuncture course. Today, I took a break to test out the Nikon 70-300 mm VR zoom. I was interested in getting this lens because it was reputed to be sharp, especially under 200mm. The VR technology was interesting, but I was not hoping for too much.

I visited the Edmonton Valley Zoo. The zoo is very small; it was even smaller today as many exhibits had been closed for the season. Unfortunately the zoo tends to feature exhibits with a lot for wire cages, and sometimes plexiglass in such poor condition that it makes viewing difficult(tiger, arctic fox exhibit). On the plus side, there were so few people at the zoo, that the animals were quite interactive. The Tiger would follow me around from window to window. If you held your hand out at the window, he would then come up to the window for a “rub”. The wolves would rush down to the fence and look at any new combers that would pass by. The Calgary zoo has much better exhibits;they are pleasing to the animal and the photographer. But, I have never seen the animals at the Calgary Zoo at all interested in the viewing public.

Edmonton Valley Zoo 1/5/08 11:33 PM

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Steven Harper managed to dilute the agreement at the Commomwealth talks from a proactive statement to a statement of hope that one day things would be better, just not now.

Commonwealth leaders agreed to a much watered-down agreement on climate change after Prime Minister Stephen Harper resisted any reference to binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement, announced at a news conference Saturday afternoon was a setback for other Commonwealth members, led by Britain, who had called for binding commitments for greenhouse gas reductions in the statement.
Instead, the statement speaks of “a long term aspirational global goal for emissions reduction to which all countries contribute.”

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I did not comprehend our utter dependance on oil in food production. I have been listening to “The Ominvore’s Dilemma”, by Micheal Pollan. The beginning of the book discusses the utter dependance of animal feed and processed food on the abundance of corn. This is probably slightly different in Alberta, as there is more wheat than corn, but the ideas are the same. The diagram below illustrates the entire convoluted relationship. The book is worth a read or listen for a deeper understanding how we are essentially eating petroleum. Plastic pollution makes this statement more literal.

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In a move that is classic for the Harper government, funding for climate research has been slashed.

Last year

Forty per cent of this year’s budget for climate change programs has been slashed from the departments of Natural Resources and Environment, CBC News has learned.
The cuts include the much-advertised One Tonne Challenge, 40 public information offices across the country and several scientific and research programs on climate change.

In fact, the Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network has been shut down.

The Canadian Climate Impacts and Adaptation Research Network (C-CIARN) was established by Natural Resources Canada in 2001 with the mandate of promoting and encouraging research on climate change impacts and adaptation, as well as promoting interaction between researchers and stakeholders.
C-CIARN successfully met the mandate that it was given when it was created in 2001, and on June 30, 2007, the network closed.
The Harper government has claimed that the C-CIARN had met its mandate. But, there was also a question of funding.

The foundation has received $110 million in federal grants since 2000 and will continue to finance research projects until 2010, while seeking additional government money.
But a spokesman for Environment Minister John Baird last week questioned whether they were managing their funding properly.
“The question one has to ask is, if CFCAS has spent the $110 million it received from the government already, why have they run out of money three years before the end of their allocation?” wrote Garry Keller, Baird’s director of communications, in an e-mail to CanWest News Service.

…Gordon McBean, a climate scientist who is the volunteer chairman of the foundation, said the organization still has money, but that it could shut down in a few years if it doesn’t get more funding for new projects.
>”I’m quite concerned because they never ask us,” said McBean. “They have never allowed us to give them a briefing on what we do … They don’t acknowledge our requests.”

Scientist are surprised at the rate of climate change. It is occurring (faster than predicted)[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5303574.stm}. Given that the scientists are surprised, I am not sure how the Harper government can claim that the C-CIARN has fulfilled its mandate of climate research. The C-CIARN had research that was used for the IPPC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Cange) report. This was the same report that for which the IPCC was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.

This is the real reason for clamping down on climate research. It has gotten public attention. Public attention means that the Harper government will have to undergo public scrutiny on its lack of any concrete plan to address climate change. The funding cuts come at a time that the Harper government has made election winning, $60 billion dollars worth in corporate and personal tax cuts. Harper has once again taken his direction from George Bush. This is an echo of the Conservatives’ Afghanistan policy, where muzzling the press is the best response

Without adequate research, we are unable to determine what is actually happening with the climate. As the news gets ever more dire and the evidence more conclusive, government will have to set policies to meet the crisis. But, the Harper government would rather take the route of not knowing. Not knowing means not doing - business and pollution as usual. It is not as if resource are tight, after a $60 billion dollar tax break, how tight could they be ?

I thought that any reasonable government would have to acknowledge the problems and challenges we have to face. It is not as if the research is tenuous, although even at this late stage, debate is rife by a minority of oil company scientists. What I did not count on was the incredible power of cognitive dissonance. In spite of increasing evidence that the climate is in serious trouble, the Harper government takes the route of ignorance. Not knowing is better that actually making the hard decisions to change.

Our “leaders” are unable to change the direction of our society. Leadership has to come from the people. Without this internal leadership we will end up like Easter Island. Decimated on a deserted Island with no trees and a lot of large stone statues that stare back with the folly of its creators.

Title: Product of Canada or not

I watched the CBC Marketplace epsiode “Product of Canada, Eh?”. In the episode, Wendy Mesley tracked down the origin of food products with the “Product of Canada” label. But, just because the label says product of Canada,this is not necessarily so.

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Dr. Kevin Patterson wrote a personal account of his 6 week tour in Afghanistan in Mother Jones magazine. The account is gripping, and well written. It captures the pain, futility and true cost of war.
A portion of this account dealt with the death of Cpl. Kevin Megeney.
Corporal Kevin Megeny died March 6, 2007 of a “friendly” fire incident, he had volunteered to go in December. He was motivated by a desire to help.

“He believed in the mission we are carrying out in Afghanistan today,” Cpl. Bowden, dressed in beige fatigues, said in a eulogy that mixed humour with raw emotion.
“That was his reason for serving. That was his reason for going. He believed that he would make a difference. He wanted to help.”

The account of this young soldier’s death is very graphic and hard to read. It is hard to read because Cpl. Kevin Megeney has become more than a statistic, more than another coffin ceremony. The last moments of Cpl. Megeney’s life have been described, not in attempt to shock or horrify but to understand the last sacrifice of this soldier. I did not find the descriptions particularly horrid, but they were real. Coming from a medical background (animal not human), I have been there , but certainly not to the same emotional level. A controversy arose after the publication of the article.

Members of Kevin Megeny’s family were upset by the graphic description of his death and the lack of express permission to use Kevin’s name.. Even singer, Loreena McKennit, entered into the debate:

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I have been trying to use my decade old Trackman Marble Fx . This is a great deal less stressful than the traditional pronated (plams downward) position. I had tried a standard USB adapter. The iBook had no idea anything was connected. The death of my Marble Trackman Wheel forced me to go from casual search to active hunt, or continue using the dreaded mouse.

I needed a converter not an adapter to inform the system that a ps/2 device was connected. I briefly tasted success with a $50 converter advertised at Memory Express’s website. The server was puzzled as the computer listed the part available, but none were to be had. The server’s puzzlement extended to condolences but no actual reordering. I am not sure what they are teaching the kids in the store these days to let a $50 sale disappear.

It worked out well as I bought a $14 Sabrent USB to 2-Port PS/2 Splitter Cable Converter . This worked beautifully. I was using the trackball in minutes, without any need for additional drivers. It lasted a day.

I really missed the scroll wheel. I had no idea how much I used the thing. I tried to use streemouse, to see if I could emulate a scroll, but was not successful. However, I am using a newer model of the trackman wheel, also ordered from Tiger Direct, which is a ergonomically better than the older model. It places my hand in a more supine position, although less so than the Marble Fx, but I have the scroll wheel back.

I like using trackballs, because I am not picking something up and driving all over my desktop. With two screens this becomes even less fun. I am not really sure why mice seem popular and trackballs seemed to have languished. Logitech’s current line up of trackballs is quite inadequate. What is the point of a wireless trackball ? Anyway, I am glad to be using a trackball again.