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Re: E-M:/ global warming/population

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Enviro-Mich message from "William Tobler" <williamtobler@critterswoods.org>
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Hey Alex,
You were maybe the last that I expected to take my comments out of context.

No where have I said that anyone should not bother to do what works for them. Let me narrate what worked for me:

I installed a heat pump system when I built my house in 1978 because it was the most energy efficient "conventional" choice available at that time. We did the analysis, made the choice and chalked up the bucks.
And other than having a wind or solar system today where these are actually practical, today I am not aware of any system more efficient. Passive solar with heat storage will work well almost anywhere, as amply demonstrated during Jimmy Carter's presidency. Effective and affordable and highly recommended.
I installed triple glazed Anderson wood windows and extra insulation.
I supplement my heating almost from the beginning with wood burning with a catalytic converter. Wood burning is carbon neutral (except for a little smoke from properly cured wood), and I only harvest dead wood from my own land. I have planted some 2000 trees.
My house is only 1250 sq feet, the smallest that our zoning ordinance allows, and the single wood burner in the living room easily heats the entire house on 0 degree days.
I always drove the most fuel efficient car that Ford offered. First Fiestas, and then Escorts with manual transmission and w/o air conditioning and w/o power steering. Easily got 45mpg on my commutes, and more on trips. Beats the 35 mpg standard and 20 years earlier. Fun to drive, and you even can go to Home Depot and get some stuff. I strongly promoted the most fuel efficient transmissions within Ford, and maybe this will finally come to fruition in a year or two. However, this will help only about 10%. The "technology" to high fuel economy is small and sans the creature comforts. Nothing else comes close.
As stated earlier, almost no trash leaves the farm. Most everything is composted and reused.
We grow most of our own food in a 15,000 sq foot garden, and can and freeze a years supply. Wendy is almost a vegetarian. We grow our own eggs. I've started curing my own meats.
We get our water from the well on our land even though city water goes by on the road and we were forced to pay $500 for 40 years. We don't rely on municipal sewers for dumping our sewage and stormwater on somebody else with the resulting environmental impact.
We don't drive around the nation on vacation, nor fly to Europe to look at Churches.
We don't have "security lamps" everywhere or anywhere, which only light the way for the crooks and spoil the night sky as well as make the power meter go round and round.
I've spent a huge percentage of my time on environmental matters of community importance, and received virtually no outside support in taking on large corporations, even when I asked.
I spent some $40,000 of my own money as a result of my environmentalism to create a winning outcome, not only for myself, but for my community that lost some $50M in the inept hands of Michigan government.
I proved the hydrogeologists of Uof M, MDEQ, and EPA wrong, and my own analysis was proven 100% right by both independent USGS analysis and after the legal outcome of a 5 year lawsuit. The water came back just as predicted.
I've spent the last 27 years on the township's Planning Commission and now additionally on the township Board. A big part of what I promote is environmental sensitivity (for things like stormwater management and wetland protection), and am constantly challenging the ineffective County and State government.

So, in my personal life, I have made the personal commitments to make my contributions. Did any of you notice my contributions? Doubt it. What I have been trying to do these past few days is to create a sense of urgency to make the right decisions now, instead of another round of wrong decisions or half hearted decisions. I was one of the first to bash ethanol, much to the dismay of the State democrats who had just signed up for Corn Ethanol as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

My biggest frustration in all of this is that it is largely done alone. I'm constantly fighting a huge crowd pushing the other way for their personal gains, manipulating facts and misleading those who haven't taken the time to get involved or become educated. I get real peed off when I see a major environmental group deliberately misleading the public on some issues while refusing to take a stand on important ones - this creates far more damage than any possible good.

I believe we are running out of global time, and not just on Global Warming. There are big things coming while Nero fiddles and the only solution will be big changes now.








----- Original Message ----- From: "Alexander J. Sagady" <ajs@sagady.com>
To: "William Tobler" <williamtobler@critterswoods.org>; <enviro-mich@great-lakes.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: E-M:/ global warming/population


In response to Bill Tobler, one of the most effective environmentalists
in Michigan, I offer this in response from Edmund Burke:

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing
because he could only do a little."

You're absolutely right that we need a transformational approach
that reaches everybody with the need to change and sacrifice.  However,
starting small is not the enemy of final solutions.   While we wait
for significant technology/price performance solutions for photovoltaics,
maybe  that solar collector and tank in the basement to do some water
preheat makes some sense.

While we wait for new technology to integrate home electricity generation
with space heating, make sure you start asking yourself questions like "how
old and how efficient is my furnace." That gas meter in front of your
house has a story to tell about tons of carbon transfer, but unless you get
down in the details, you won't have a good sense of the magnitude. Are you
operating with a 90-95+% gas furnace? If not, doing something about it can
be an important personal contribution so you don't feel guilty about doing nothing.

Can't afford a hybrid car? Cut your driving on your current car to the point
where it is equivalent to making the improvement to a more efficient car.

As you feel the air circulate in the bathroom in the morning when the furnace
comes on after being off all night while you're under the covers, do you notice
the air feels cool for quite a while? Maybe you can make a considerable
efficiency improvement by insulating your heating ducts (where a respirator
if you're working with fiberglass and wash and dry any work clothes separately).

Try to keep at least one energy efficiency project going around your home at
all times. There is no shortage of things to do. Notice that the snow melts
around your foundation? Put in R-10 on the outside of the foundation and below ground.

We can talk new alternative energy sources to death, but energy conservation will
always have to be the lynchpin of our energy approaches.

Can we get these things done.... To Bill Tobler I say what Barack Obama is
saying "Yes we can"......!

At 11:13 PM 02/06/2008, William Tobler wrote:
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Enviro-Mich message from "William Tobler" <williamtobler@critterswoods.org>
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Everything is possible when taken out of context.

If Bill, Chuck, Edie and Anna (and even everyone on EM) all do their utmost, then their individual contributions won't be felt in the world, even to the 15th decimal place.
I've made this point over and over again - the entire United States population has to learn to sacrifice some. And they have to learn what and how from somewhere. It is up to environmental groups and individuals to provide credible information and bearable solutions. I see next to nothing of this, and much of the information that I do see is technically wrong. Worse, other than some of the persons here on EM, I personally know of no one who cares. They are fully prepared go forward as they have always done.

Cutting our personal energy consumption in half would be a big accomplishment. But with the other things going counter, this benefit won't last long. Because the vast majority today see no need (as measured by their personal results, not stupidly designed polls) and nothing is happening with regards to the counter forces, and so many threats for existence are coming to a head at the same time, I am NOT very optimistic about our future.

Lest what I have said be taken out of context, and I am sure it will, I am trying to get people fired up to do something meaningful, instead of 0.1% here and 0.1% there which just won't cut it. Since population growth, both US and worldwide, is the main driver for total resource consumption, and there is no abatement in sight, my personal sacrifices are meaningless except in my own heart and mind.





----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Cubbage" <charles.cubbage@comcast.net>
To: "Anna Dorothy Graham" <grahama9@msu.edu>; <enviro-mich@great-lakes.net>
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: E-M:/ global warming/population


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Enviro-Mich message from "Chuck Cubbage" <charles.cubbage@comcast.net>
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Anna,
Whoa!! If I understand your comment right you are saying that collectively we can make differences, but I question the phrase "there isn't anything we can do as individuals"
William is right to point out the difficulties in dealing with global forces, but dead wrong in assuming that nothing we do as individuals makes a difference. Anyone remember the bit about the beachwalker who was tossing starfish back into the sea being questioned about why when so many would die anyway on the vast beach?

There is a difference between being all alone, the only one, etc., and being an individual who joins others to have an impact. But it all starts with individuals making choices. Edie is one heck of a lot closer to being right than those who cry her activities don't make a difference (sounds like the "sky is falling" mentality at work to me). Edie, is making a difference not in just her life, but by her example. We all do, so decide what sort of message you want to leave by how you live.
Sort of reminds me of JFK's quote, "Ask not....".
Regards,
Chuck

----- Original Message ----- From: "Anna Dorothy Graham" <grahama9@msu.edu>
To: <enviro-mich@great-lakes.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2008 7:03 PM
Subject: E-M:/ global warming/population


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Enviro-Mich message from "Anna Dorothy Graham" <grahama9@msu.edu>
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I absolutely agree with William Tobler that there isn't any point in our trying to combat global warming as individuals if the sole objective is to bring as many human beings into the world as possible and keep them marginally alive. We have to do it for all the species on earth -- which is how I frame my own efforts to myself.
Anna
Anna Kirkwood Graham, J.D., Ph.D.
"There is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave and severe; it is always in the right, and the faults and errors fall to our share."
-- Goethe


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and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action.   Archives at
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