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Maybe it was the martinis I had already drunk, or the beers he had already drunk, or maybe it’s just plain impossible to have a discussion about Biofuels without getting heated. But boy, did I have a doozy on Friday.

It all started with an energetic, but cool-headed conversation with a friend’s husband (who is an engineer, but grew up on a farm) about Biofuels, the government’s policy on using our farmland to put ethanol into gas tanks, and what a generally lousy plan that is in terms of the Climate Change.

I can’t remember what his point was, but I remember nodding vigorously when he made, so clearly I approved. Then for my part I pointed out that we have zero chance of getting the government to back off of this plan because it’s too sweet a deal in terms of PR. They get to appear to care about the environment because the overwhelming majority of our citizens aren’t well enough informed to realize that it takes more fossil fuel to raise the crop and process the ethanol, (not to mention cut down the rainforest to grow the same crop for food because we didn’t leave ourselves enough farm space in our own country to do that), than it would to just burn the gas in our cars in the first place. At the same time, by paying more for an ethanol crop than they would for the same product sold as food, the government is providing a farm subsidy, making farmers happy.

Happy farmers and happy lay people mean a happy government and, in this case, a really bad policy.

At this point though, a young man sitting a few seats away leaned over an asked if I could please explain how on earth this could possibly be considered a subsidy. So I re-capped for him: in the government’s report “A Climate Change Plan for the Purposes of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act”, they outlined a $1.5 Billion renewable fuels strategy to help farmers grow crops for fuels. When the government gives money to a group of people to bolster the production of their product, it’s generally called a subsidy. But this guy still wasn’t getting it.

Somehow the discussion then veered away from Biofuels specifically and towards agriculture and GHG emissions in general. At which point, he presented his most sensational argument yet: agriculture in North America is actually a carbon sink because, before we all came here there were 2 million buffalo roaming the prairies. We mere humans, he contended, with all of our cows (…and pigs and chickens), our tractors and our fertilizers can’t possibly create more GHG equivalents than those free-ranging buffalo and their methaney farts!

I should have walked away at this point. Ok, I should have walked away well before this point. But, whether due to the Martini-effect, or my general abhorrence of stupidity, I stayed.

I argued that any rational person, who took 3rd grade math can add up the GHGs emitted from our 15.6 million farmed cattle, 13.6 million hogs, the acreage tilled with petroleum-powered machinery to feed those animals, the production for and release onto those crops of hydrocarbon-based synthetic fertilizers, and the transportation of all of those fertilizers, crops and animals around and see that we get a bigger number than we do from the calculating rumblings of a buffalo’s gut.

But he STILL didn’t get it.

Sometimes, I really worry that it’s hopeless.

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Al Gore will be speaking to the UN Climate Change Conference this week in Bali calling for a treaty that goes far beyond Kyoto.

This treaty will include every country in the world, developed or otherwise. It will call for a moratorium on new coal-fired power generators that do not include CO2 capture and storage. And most revolutionary of all, it will propose, not an addition of tax, but a change from a tax system based on income, to one based on pollution.

Finally, the treaty he proposes should be ratified in two years, and will call on world leaders to meet several times per year until the situation is under control.

And to help make his proposal, Al Gore is asking for your help. He will take with him on stage a petition showing support for his treaty, which you can sign at ClimateProtect.org

Sign today to stand with Al in Bali!

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via:: ecoble

While I’m disappointed to see Canada’s oil reserves grossly underestimated, the Oil Map does give a startling new perspective to the world. Or more importantly, it shows us all the world as the US sees it.

It certainly explains a few things about the US administration’s actions.

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This was my first post as a Rethos Journalist! As part of the Rethos journalism team, I’ll post a new article every couple of weeks, the next coming out November 1. Make sure to check them out, and join Rethos if you haven’t already.

photo via Treehugger

About four months ago, I started my blog. Determined to subject the public to my rantings, rather than keeping it a personal journal type of blog, I’ve been promoting it rather vigorously, partly by participating in conversations on other blogs and forums. And in doing so, I’ve noticed a very disturbing trend: militant and elitist environmentalism.

I have yet to come across a forum that doesn’t have a thread to the effect of “What did you do for the environment today,” and invariably these threads go something like this:

“I put a water saver in my toilet.”

“I decided only to flush (my already low-flow toilet) when I do a number two.”

“I do my number two right in the compost pile.”

“I haven’t bought a new shirt in 10 years.”

“I haven’t washed my shirt in 10 years.”

“I haven’t washed myself in 10 years.”

Seriously? Come on people. Does anyone think this one-upmanship really gets us anywhere? It is possible to be an EcoCrusader without subjecting one’s neighbours to body-odour.

Or probably the best example I have is from a blog called “How do I Recycle This?” One woman wrote in that she was out for dinner with some friends and someone at the table ordered mussels. When they were finished, there was a bowl full of shells, and she was wondering if there was a way to reuse them, if she was ever in that situation again. One oh so helpful “eco-elitist” replied that, if she actually cared about the environment, she wouldn’t have eaten them in the first place.

Now, what did he think he was going to accomplish with this attitude? Here was a person who had not only considered recycling something that most people wouldn’t look at twice, she had actually followed up the thought by actively researching a solution to the problem. She was being proactive. She deserved a big fat high-five. Not a snarky ‘you-should-be-doing-more’ reply.

Because really, we could all be doing more. We could all forsake electricity entirely. We could move to caves and eat the organic lichen off the walls. We could hold in our farts to save the methane. We could do many things. But the one thing we absolutely MUST do, is support each other.

Being the eco-minded woman that I am, I love to imagine waking up in the morning to a world with six billion people who choose smaller cars, eat only in-season food, buy wind power, and keep a composter. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen until the physical evidence of what is happening to our planet blatantly stares all six billion of its inhabitants in the face. And that might not happen until it’s too late.

In the mean time, the future of the world essentially rests on our shoulders. It rests with those of us who educate ourselves, share our knowledge with others, and make better choices every day. But some (in fact, I fear many) of us, are determined to be EcoZealots, and in so being are systematically destroying the work the others do.

This behaviour accomplishes nothing but to guarantee that environmentalism never truly gains mainstream status. It guarantees the continuation of the “crazy hippie” stereotype. It guarantees the alienation of anyone not yet committed to mitigating the dangerous changes that our planet is undergoing.

Until my dreams come true and all six billion of us are on board, we can’t afford to lose anyone who signs up; no matter how small a registration fee they pay. We have to applaud every CFL, every roll of recycled toilet paper, every mussel shell recycled, because we have an infinitely better chance of getting this planet back in shape with millions making these meager changes, than if a select few of us move back to the lichen caves, live methane-neutral and lament the others not following.

Let’s not forget, it’s about the planet, not bragging rights. Down with EcoElitism!

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The military regime in control of Myanmar (Burma) opened fire today on peaceful protesters led by Buddhist monks, killing 9 innocent civilians.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. The military junta has been responsible for massacring thousands since it seized control of the country over forty years ago. They have also denied Aung San Suu Kyi her right to govern the country, since her election in 1990.

Equally guilty in the conflict is China, the biggest supplier of weapons to the Myanmar military. China refuses to intervene and has thwarted efforts by the UN security council to impose sanctions on the country. In fact, China’s Foreign Ministry said only that they hope “the situation there [in Myanmar] does not… get complicated.”

Are nine dead people not enough to qualify as ‘complicated’? Were the thousands killed in 1988 not enough? How many bodies need to be stacked up before we put a stop to it?

In recent weeks images and videos smuggled out of the country by email have been one of the main sources of news of the protests, as Western journalists are not permitted into the country. So it’s reasonable to assume that the only news getting back into Myanmar is from the internet as well.

I know this is usually a climate change blog, but what good is it to save the future of the planet if I’m not also concerned with its people in the present. So here’s the challenge:

Write about it. Post the news on your own blog and on every forum you know of.

Comment about it. Leave a response here. Leave a response anywhere it’s talked about.

Digg it. Make the issue jump to the front page of Digg, Del.icio.us, Newsvine, wherever. Just make sure it gets seen.

Make today Blog Action Day for Burma.

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