The Garlic: Interview With Carbon Dioxide

The Onion hasn’t lived up to its journalistic standards of fake news, so I’m writing a piece for The Garlic, and interviewing Carbon Dioxide to get its thoughts on surpassing the dangerous 400 parts per million mark.

John Klein (JK): So, Carbon Dioxide, do you mind if I call you Carbon for short?

Carbon Dioxide (CO2): Sure John, no problem. I’ll even let you abbreviate my name to CO2 without making the two subscript.

JK: Very kind of you, Carbon.

CO2: No problem, it’s my pleasure to help out. It’s the least I can do, for helping to destroy your climate.

JK: It’s really humanity’s fault though for burning so much fossil fuel. You can’t take responsibility for that, you’re just a molecule created through oxidation of carbon.
Let’s get to the questions. How do you feel about surpassing 400 ppm in the atmosphere for the first time during human civilization?

CO2: I feel pretty negative about the whole situation, right down to my electrons. I was quite content at levels under 300 ppm, and it seems like only a few years ago that I was at 350 ppm.

JK: It was only a few years ago you were at 350 ppm, before 1988.

CO2: Anyway, I feel really burned out by all of this talk about sequestering me. I’d rather spend time at the ocean.

JK: You mean you by becoming carbonic acid in the Earth’s oceans, and harming shell fish and other aquatic life?

CO2: There’s no malice intended, I’m just a molecule, as you’ve already pointed out. If you had a choice between taking a soak in the ocean, or being put into a high pressure situation under the Canadian plains, what would you choose?

JK: I see your point.

CO2: It’s not easy being humankind’s most despised molecule, with some many millions out to reduce my levels. I can count on some support from misguided, or well paid carbon fluffers, but it’s not easy being anti-green. At least plants (and potted plants in Congress) love me.
See:

Another twisted and scientifically bad #climate piece in the #WSJ. Deceptive from the first paragraph to the last. online.wsj.com/article/SB1000….—
Peter Gleick (@PeterGleick) May 09, 2013

JK: The plants that don’t end up underwater from flooding, or burned from drought, love you?

CO2: Yes.

JK: My city has been trying to cut back on creating Carbon Dioxide since the early 1990s. Here’s a sign from 1999′s Cool Down The City Challenge:

They installed one bike rack for ten bikes. There are over 220,000 people in Regina. It would appear people don’t take Carbon Dioxide very seriously.

CO2: My influence on human civilization and daily life is vastly underestimated by most people.

JK: Indeed. It was a pleasure speaking to you, I should let you get back to warming our atmosphere too much.

CO2: Thanks for asking me to talk, John. I think I’m going to chill for a bit (as a liquid, naturally).

JK: Poor Carbon gets such a bum rap. There are so many good politicians on its case.

Atmospheric CO2 levels breached 400ppm for first time in history of human civ. A sad milestone. A call to action. bit.ly/10ztcQU—
Al Gore (@algore) May 10, 2013

Conservatives Stopped Conserving

It’s frustrating to be a Canadian, with such terrifically stupid and dishonest political representation. Sure, our insecure ‘strong’ leaders don’t send the police to your door (unless you’ve written them a mean letter), but that mildly redeeming trait isn’t enough. They have to stop denying that climate change isn’t killing people, and they must stop pretending that there is more wildlife in less habitat (particularly polar bears).

We don’t have until 2015 to piss away a chance to reduce air pollution. We’ve wasted 30 years already, we’re out of time.

“Hostility to expertise in all of its forms is the closest thing that Canadian conservatives have to a unifying ideology.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/defence+sociology/8317722/story.html#ixzz2RzLVxko5
“

A Few Thousand Dead Indians

What makes me mad? People like Saskatchewan’s infamous shock-talk-jock John Gormley, who thinks the world needs fewer “activists”.

Here’s the resulting story from a recently released PLUSD cable from the Kissinger Files fit together with a Cablegate cable.

Then US Ambassador David Mulford urged the Indian government to “drop its claims against Dow” in a cable sent on September 18, 2007.

In reply, then Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia assured Mulford that the federal government does not hold Dow responsible for the cleanup but is unable to withdraw its claims against the company because of “active and vocal” NGOs.

Abandoned Community Pastures At Risk #cdnpoli #skpoli

The last remnants of a unique ecosystem on Earth are entering what is potentially their last years of natural existence. This will lead to the extinctions of some plants and animals that exist only on the Canadian prairies. Extinctions destabilize an ecosystem, and it’s an ecosystem where humans cannot be assured of long-term survival if it becomes destabilized.

The Conservatives removed protection for the community pastures in an apparent effort to privatize the land. The Sask Party, instead of putting the land under provincial management, has opted to sell off the land, following in the Conservative Party’s wishes. This is against the interest of Canadians, and of most of the ranchers and farmers who’ve used the pasture land over the decades they’ve been in the public trust.

Trevor Harriot in the Globe and Mail:

As for the program having achieved its goals [according to Ritz], the need for soil conservation and managing ecosystems in the public interest does not simply go away.

Press release sent my way today:

For Immediate Release:

April 17, 2013

Public Pastures – Public Interest

Uniting to Save Saskatchewan’s Community Pastures

Joint Venture Video Release

In April of 2012 the federal government announced it was divesting itself of 2.3 million acres of PFRA community pastures, 1.78 million of which are located in Saskatchewan. The control for these pastures has now reverted back to the prairie provinces and in response the Saskatchewan government has announced they will be seeking to sell or lease these lands to the current pasture patrons. With rising land values putting the purchase of these lands far beyond the reach of most patrons, exceeding their ability to run a financially viable operation, patrons are looking to find an alternative solution. Other stakeholders affected by this decision are looking to ensure a sustainable environmental action plan for the land is continued, safeguarding the continued health of the ecosystem and the 32 species at risk that reside there.

To help communicate this message, the various stakeholders (Patrons, First Nations, Academic and Wildlife/Environmental groups) have been meeting over the past several months to discuss their common concerns and encourage the two levels of government to reconsider their position on the importance of preserving and sustaining our community pastures. The result is a collaborative and inclusive video showcasing stakeholder concerns and their belief that, in order to ensure a positive outcome for all, they must work together to find a viable solution.

It is their hope this video will also help communicate the message to stakeholders not yet involved and encourage them to join the collaborative effort towards protecting out public interests, and maintaining current and long term sustainable management of our Community Pastures.

For more information on this video and the joint initiative please contact any of the following:

* Trevor Herriot, Public Pastures – Public Interest, Regina, trevorherriot@gmail.com , home 306-585-1674
* Senator Roland Crowe – First Nations representative, 306-539-9200
* Joanne Brochu – Patrons representative, jbrochu@sasktel.net , cell 306-255-7602

Oil Spills Create Jobs

I’m severely disappointed in the lack of vision that conservatives have regarding our economy. Faced with information that burning a lot of fossil fuel is not able to be sustained without Catastrophic, Repulsive, Atmospheric Pollution (CRAP), their response tends toward ignoring evidence of damage to their environment in favour of delaying the predictable economic train wreck that would occur if fuel production were to halt in the span of months or a year.

Jobs are being created to create the doomsday device known as the KXL pipeline. Jobs will be required to [partially] clean up the many spills it will create. Doctors will be needed to treat the cancers created by the soil and water contamination, and the burning of the fuel.

@Rhino_Bob @votelau the long term goal *is* to wind down oil production as much as possible. Cleaner forms of energy are better for life.—
John Klein (@JohnKleinRegina) March 31, 2013

@JohnKleinRegina @Rhino_Bob @votelau
Sorry, NO viable solution to end use of fossil fuels (cars, plastics, power prod, etc) = pipe dream.—
Chad (@Chad4Mayor) March 31, 2013

Yet when asked if they’d like to wind down fossil fuel production in favour of renewable sources, they answer “No!” because they can’t envision it ever being an equivalent and essential source of power. When you ask them if they believe in higher education, most will say they do, choosing (at that time) to instead embrace the idea that short term expense and investment can lead to longer term gain through a change in skills and information. There are plenty of conservatives at schools of business.

So, why rush into upgrading ‘ethical’ oil infrastructure, instead of renewable energy manufacturing and design?

Group says latest oil spill is a preview of Keystone's "nightmare scenario" huff.to/10jaGJI—
HuffPost Canada (@HuffPostCanada) April 01, 2013

And seriously, if the tar sand oil companies can’t stave off repeated spills in the months leading up to an approval of KXL pipeline, how can anyone believe they’ll suddenly stop leaking oil all over the place once there is less pressure to behave because they’ll have the pipe built?

Oil The Humanity!

Oww, my sides would be hurting from laughing at the irony of this situation, if it weren’t a deadly serious joke that the Conservatives are playing on Canadians.

On a public relations mission to convince the public that the BC coast will be safe from oil spills, the clean-up vessel ran aground on a sandbar, and was delayed by hours.

British Columbia’s largest oil spill response vessel got stuck on a sandbar en route to a federal news conference where Monday about strengthening Canada’s oil spill defences.

This was only a test. If this had been a real emergency, your coastline would be covered in oil. Joe Oliver would be cackling.

You really have to love it when a press conference fails so badly for any politician hell bent on pitching a catastrophic idea destined to ruin lives and our environment.

Transportation: Where to go, and how to get there in #YQR

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Most of my speech as heard in the video above, and posted to my Regina politics blog:

I’m very pleased to have been asked to speak at Campion College about transportation issues. I got my Computer Science – co-op degree from here a decade ago, and I never imagined at the time that I’d wind up the President of a different sort of “co-op”, the Regina Car Share Co-operative. At the time, I had no idea that “car sharing” was even a thing. I’d heard of car pooling of course, but they are different. It wasn’t until I returned to work at the UofR, that I got an email about a group of people holding a pot luck supper in Regina to discuss forming a “car share”, and I thought that sounded like maybe a good way to use a car without the unpleasantries of maintaining one. A few years later, I was chosen to help guide a remarkable group of volunteers who make organized car sharing possible in our city, as it is in almost every other major Canadian and American city today.

Why am I interested in transportation? Well, I’m interested in nearly everything, but where curiosity meets reality is on the streets. Nearly everyone in the world has a daily need to move about the farm, town, or city they live at, and so modes of transportation are essential to how and where we live. If transportation isn’t timely or fun, people don’t enjoy where they live as much as they should. I don’t think car repair is fun, and feel dealing with SGI is about the worst thing that could administratively happen to someone (short of being charged with a crime). So I’ve set out to make transportation both timely and fun for myself, and it just so happens that I need to make it that way for the people around me too, in order to be successful.

Another big reason I’m interested in transportation improvement, is that it’s a major contributor to air pollution and climate change. These are not small, or easy problems to solve, but our little daily actions collectively point our society in either the right or wrong direction. Right now, Regina is unquestionably pointed in the wrong direction, and among our collective actions pointing us there is how we get around every day. Since public talks are always more fun with interaction (I think so anyway, because otherwise I tend to get sleepy especially if the speaker has a mono-tone voice like mine,): How many people got to University today by themselves in a motor vehicle? How many car pooled? How many took the bus? How many biked or walked?

Tarsand Analogy

This is an unpolished analogy of Canada’s attitude toward the tarsand/climate change problem.

Let’s say Canada is a person complaining about their weight (they think their carbon footprints are too heavy). To solve this problem they read a diet book that their friend Europa suggested to them, and they even try to get FIT in the Ontario core area, but they continue to eat at the greasy Tar Sands Cafe every day and never learn to cook their own meals in a solar oven. Canada’s friend Alberta and Tex suggest a new method of eating at the Tar Sands which will improve Canada’s bank account by next year. The only catch is that it requires hooking a food line right into a vein and causes early death. Canada isn’t totally sold on the idea, but is addicted, so this mainline seems like an option. Plus, they’re scared about not having enough money.

Canada could choose to start using their solar oven, and make meals at home, but would have to convince Tex and Alberta to join them in making healthier food. That seems like too much work, and it’s so much easier to take the mainline and watch Rex Murphy rant on TV about how things should never change. The dough rolls in, and the weight piles on.

Wall’s Leaky Logic

Brad Wall went to Washington in order to pitch the Keystone XL pipeline project. In doing so, he made some really absurd claims, that CTV failed to juxtapose against the scientifically accurate situation that Wall mischaracterized. Joe Oliver of the Conservatives has also been making totally absurd claims about Canada’s environmental track record under his government’s [lack of] leadership.

“Saskatchewan’s environmental record is not good.” – Global TV news clip from 2009.

It’s totally irresponsible journalism by the Canadian Press to allow the Premier to make the opposite claim without also clarifying his remarks, or offering the comments from someone with a factual response to his fiction.

Here’s the economic case, here’s the energy security and oh, by the way, we care about the environment and here’s what we’re doing with respect to the environmental piece of this.”
“We need to indicate that we’re serious about the environment, because we are,”{… delusional or two faced, I must add.}

This was a horrendously unbalanced CP article. Experts can refute the “Conservative” premier’s claims that Sask. can care about climate change while pushing the carbon-budget-obliterating KXL pipeline project.

Wall’s claim is analogous to a captain saying that he’s serious about keeping a ship afloat by plugging a hole in starboard side, while boring a bigger hole in the port side. It doesn’t matter if water intake is reduced in one side, if the ship’s still getting flooded.

The premier added he’s confident Keystone will soon be approved, particularly following the U.S. State Department’s draft environmental assessment of the pipeline that was dismissive of many of the environmental movement’s concerns about it.

That State Dept. report was actually written by a KXL friendly contractor, we soon later learned. Hard to believe Wall didn’t know the integrity of the report is in doubt. What is not in doubt among scientists is the potential carbon from the tar sands, when burned, will far surpass the carbon budget our climate could possibly withstand for a less than 2 degree change in our climate’s temperature.

Thinking Is Not Hard

Thinking is not hard to do, but some people treat it like others should do it for them. Clicking that link may be painful, as it has details of a state representative saying cyclists pollute worse than car drivers because they are exercising and breathing out more CO(2) in doing so. I guess the worst thing you could do is get in a car, go to the gym, and get on a stationary bike, eh?

Idiots are all around us, and sometimes they are elected as government representatives. Because this story casts cyclists in a negative light, I suppose you’ll be hearing about it on Gormley’s radio show later on. You can then expect the usual cast of zombie callers recounting the last time they were irritated by a cyclist on a street they owned.

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There’s nothing more polluting, in every sense of the word, than a Republican on a high horse.

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Yesterday I noted on Twitter that there are many easy changes someone can make in their weekly routine, to make a dent in how much climate change (air pollution) they directly and indirectly create. For instance, someone can cut meat out of one of their days in the week, to have at least a 1/7th impact immediately on their demand for meat. If the demand falls enough, fewer animals will need to be raised to make farmers the same amount of money. More importantly, meat requires much more water and energy input for the same amount of food energy plants can directly provide to humans.

Some (intentionally) hard of understanding trolls came by to mock the information. It’s hard not to laugh at someone who thinks its hard to point out a time when Saskatchewan has faced a water crisis. Although the title is worded in a clumsy way, Forbes helps explain why basing so much of the world’s food supply on meat, is a folly.

This information didn’t slow down the trolls though, who went on to suggest that I’m a damned dirty easterner, never grew up on a farm, and couldn’t have the faintest idea of what it takes to understand the food system. Besides all that, I apparently want all people to stop eating all meat, and starve. It’s hard to argue with iron-clad logic like that, eh?

Some of these comments come from people who earlier chided me for thinking of solutions to our oil dependence. When did conservatives start subscribing to pre-Copernicus thinking? There are centuries of tradition after that sort of anti-science, anti-discovery thinking to “conserve” with their defence of the status quo. There’s no need to be so anti-intellectual and anti-solution.