Earth Day

I’m skipping Earthfest at the Cleveland zoo today, despite having multiple groups ask me to do various things at it. I would have loved to do the 30 mile “Bike for the Earth” and work the different exhibits, but time pressures are probably going to limit me to going for a run in the metroparks instead. Besides, I’m not sure how I can justify driving 40 miles in my car so I can bike 30 miles to save the planet…I might be better off staying home.

I suppose it goes without saying that I am a somewhat crazy environmentalist. I try to limit unnecessary driving, I unplug appliances when not in use, avoid paper napkins, recycle, rarely eat meat, and quit my job to get a pair of graduate degrees in an effort to figure out a practical way to keep us from rendering the planet unable to support human life as we know it. Of course, I also have as many environmental vices as virtues: I keep way to much junk in my car, I take long hot showers, I still drive too much and I live on my laptop.

A lot of people don’t buy into the whole “we have ourselves in a wee bit of a problem, ecologically” mindset.  I can understand that.  The world is very big, there are a lot of uncertainties, and the vast majority of environmental problems are not visible to those living reasonably well in a first world country.  I could jump on my soapbox and go on for hours about feedback mechanisms, economic externalities, abedo effects, poverty links, brain development, etc etc etc.  But I won’t.  I’m way to lazy to type all that up.

I will say this though: it amazes me the amount of flack and ridicule I get for partaking in some of the above steps to reduce my impact on the environment.  Anyone making an effort in that area is doing things that are inconvient for themselves but no one else, with the benefits from those inconviences going almost entirely to other people.  If you don’t want to partake, that’s fine.  But why mock the people that are making sacrifices* to make your life, and the lives of your children and everyone you care about, better?

*I use the word sacrifices with intent.  Every “green tip” you see attempts to make it sounds like doing better environmentally takes no effort, which is complete bull.  Its annoying to rinse out and separate recyclables, I miss eating fish, and cutting out the occasional trip to avoid driving or flying can really disappoint.

Reflections of ourselves

Today has been one hell of a day. I keep trying to work my way out from under my impending deadlines, but my attention and thoughts are continuously drawn back to the shootings at Virginia Tech. Going through the morning news, I didn’t take too much notice of a headline mentioning a shooting death at a Virginia college, especially given the disturbing yet numbing regularity of shootings lately. As a society, we’re reaching a point where single shootings, regardless of the context, fade quickly from the news and our thoughts, even quicker when they occur far away (excepting, of course, instances where the victim is young, attractive and white).  I was shocked when the headline changed to 20 dead, dismayed watching the casualty count mounting as information trickled in and more victims died.

The role taken by the media in times of tragedy is often fascinating – they alternate expressing heartfelt sympathy and providing information with searching for ways to both justify and magnify what occurred. It is the desire for justification that seems most human for me; we all have an inherent desire to remove the specter random death and pain from our lives. Its deeply disturbing to be confronted with the reality that such acts can and do occur, and are largely beyond our control. The most prominent questions at the news conferences were not about who or how, they were about why.  A collective search for the sense behind a series of senseless acts, not only in terms of the killer’s motivations and mindset  but also in the response of authorities, and their perceived failure to prevent the murders. I think the desire the find incompetence on the part of those in power stems for our need to be reassured that further acts are preventable and that this one was caused human error, not random chance or the inherent impossibility of protecting everyone from everything.

Watching and reading the news coverage throughout the day, I was amazed at how quickly the incident was framed in terms of different people’s viewpoints. I hesitate to say agendas, even though a significant portion of the commentary immediately turned to gun control, with both sides posting arguments as to why their positions would have prevented the killings.  While I’m sure there was an element of pushing for political gain, my shock over what happen has stripped some of my cynicism and takes me back to the idea of people searching for security amidst chaos.  There will be elements of blaming a lack of gun control for enabling the killings, or a lack of concealed-carry permits for preventing anyone from shooting back, or overly permissive immigration policies for allowing the shooter in the country.  These arguments will be for political gain, yes, but also out of an unstated belief that senseless acts such as this are partially the fault of those preventing our idealized world from coming into being.

There is a great human need to find justification and reason in the chaos that can wash over our everyday lives.  The absense of reason in the face of tragedy breeds confusion and uncertainty, and as the dust settles we find not reason but the reflections of our own anger, prejudice and fear.

Finally…

I got around to writing on my more serious blog, in leiu of doing an ecosystems project.  Check it out here.

Things men should not say…

Girlfriend checking out the weather forecast online:

“Look, they have a link that lets you predict the weather on your wedding day!”

Me, from the  couch:

“I think its probably gonna be a pretty cold day…in hell.”

I’m still counting up the bruises.

A well-balanced diet…

I’ve been trying to eat much healthier over the past two years, mostly for environmental and health reasons.  Environmentally because some aspects of our food production are insanely unsustainable and polluting, and healthy wise because I was getting a bit o’ belly and it seemed easier to eat better than to work out.  So I’ve become a “flexitarian” if a label need be applied.  I eat meat maybe once or twice a week, and then I try to have it be a flavoring, such as pepperoni pizza, as opposed to the meal, such as a steak.  Beyond that, I’ve been eating a lot more vegetables and fruits, lots of almonds, walnuts, beans and tofu for protein.  I don’t drink milk much anymore (trying to drink more water), but I eat a lot of cheese.  I don’t add salt to any of my food anymore either.  I will say that it makes me feel much better to be eating this way, in terms of energy and most noticeably in not feeling lethargic or sluggish after eating.  I’ve been eating a lot more spicy and ethnic foods lately too…Thai, Mexican, Indian, Lebanese and Japanese, mostly.  And I’m normally pretty good at sticking with the new food regime (I don’t like calling it a diet, because I’m eating more and better food), although I do have plenty of fast food relapses, especially nights when I’m just too tired and hungry to think about microwaving a bean burrito and hit up Mcdonalds instead.

I am eating some interesting, healthy stuff though.  For lunch today, I had a mixture of black beans roasted with red onions, peppers and mangos in a mango sauce, over a seven grain rice pilaf, all organic.  Full of protein, fiber and vitamins, sustainably grown.  Even cooked it in the microwave, because for small meals microwaves use much less energy than ovens, due to the smaller size, shorter cooking time and lack of pre-heating.  It almost made up for breakfast, which was a bag of cheddar goldfish and a pickle.