Only a FOOL stands between me and the blood wine!

Dear Evan,

Yesterday's blizzard was a time machine back to February and today was earth day with everyone in parkas at Caras Park. I volunteered for the Global Warming Solutions.org table. I talked to a lot of people very intelligently (in English) and felt like I was on wild civ field trips again grilling people at their booths about the one thing they know the best. It was empowering, in a totally non-fossil fuel sense of the word.

Except the people are still weak. They need to drink blood wine and turn Environmentalism into something to be proud of. I would not mind suffering. I think I'm going to try and save the earth. Oh wait you already knew that. But how... Well I'll need your help. Next year, when you and I live together in the perfect little cottage in the Rattlesnake, we'll organize our community until it sings with the joy of the earth. There will be pot lucks and hot ducks. There will be sustainable entertainment every night and there will be GOATS to trim the grass. We can do it. It'll be a good time. I want systems that are indestructible. If all the trucks stopped driving, the supermarkets would be empty in three days. three days after that the warehouses would be empty. Then what? We gotta be ready. Ready for peak oil, ready for hollywood to wash away and ready for the ice age to rise. I'll drink blood wine and sharpen my shovel. Gardening shovel.

Go Micheal Pollan!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

This is a real good article that really addresses my brother's questions. Micheal Pollan is a very smart guy, very famous and very influential. He is the author Omnivore's Dilemma, Botany of Desire, and his newest one is the Eaters Manifesto, or something like that.

Not to brag, but I believe that Pollan is saying a lot of the same stuff I have been on this blog. His comments about Adam Smith, his comments about the significance of small changes like switching light bulbs, were reminiscent of my own views, if better written. Its a little long, but go ahead and read it. What You're afraid of a little reading?

Dear University of Montana

Above: the nine students who were arrested for sitting in Dennison's office. They look pretty dangerous, no? The real fun was going on outside, where my band, Babaganoush played in support of the Designated Suppliers Program, or DSP that ensures University apparel is made in fair working conditions. The university didn't sign on to the program.


To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing to urge you to drop the charges against the nine students who sat in President Dennison's office this Wednesday. Yet again, the university has been given the opportunity to fight sweat shops by signing the DSP, but it has chosen to react to this peaceful and organized protest with police involvement. Was the intention of the arrests to allow University business to proceed as usual by removing the protest from the work place? If so, then that end has been achieved and Main Hall is quiet again, quiet enough for you to rethink what you have done and what these actions imply for UM's image and for workers' rights. I do not want to attend a school that punishes honor; that would rather arrest its own students than do its moral duty. If you believe in what these students stand for, it is not too late to release them from the charges.

Every day on campus I see hundreds of people sporting UM's colors with pride. The football games paint the streets maroon and silver for blocks in all directions of the stadium. The economic weight of this apparel is considerable. Why not place that weight squarely on the side of the scale that stands for justice? Use it to crush unethical, exploitative manufacturers. Use it to pressure them toward standards you would demand for your own workers. Why not join the 42 other schools that have adopted the DSP in an organized boycott of injustice?

On the basis that it is an institution of higher learning that stands for world awareness, personal enrichment of students and equal opportunity, I whole-heartedly believe that UM's administration is by default opposed to worker exploitation and should be required to combat this exploitation within its power. Failure to sign the DSP demonstrates conscious endorsement of sweatshops and studied non-observance of the university's moral obligation to put these hurtful systems to their end.

Your decision to involve the police to end a peaceful, organized protest was a political one that definitively categorizes UM as an enemy of workers' rights. These nine students, after two years of work, saw no alternative to their action. They are tired of waiting, and so are the workers of the third world. These nine have engaged in "disorderly conduct" and "criminal trespassing" in order to prevent the far greater crimes of social injustice in Asian and South American sweat shops. This necessity justifies their crimes. What justifies yours?

Like the heads of the Hydra, those who were arrested will be replaced.

Put your Senators on SPeed Dial

My brother, John wrote,"Hey, Adam. I really like reading your blog, and getting some ideas of what our economy and environment might look like far in the future. I'm wondering what we might be looking at as intermediate steps to help us get there, and what information sources you would recommend for individuals hoping to tread a responsible path."

I gave this a lot of thought. And I think I'll answer these questions with poetry and rants... like always.

#1, The intermediary step is starting at home. I recommend finding out if your neighborhood, school, or job has an action group of some kind, whether environmental or community building, or what have you. One need never work alone on these kinds of things. If you need to, though you can start an action group. When I was pondering this, I came up with the following dialog, like a poem.

"Good thing I've got this shovel!
And what a shovel it is!
It shines as bright as acorn shells and glistens in the sun,
I got it cause I wanted holes, it hasn't dug me one!"

"Good thing we've got democracy!
And what a system, oh boy!
We got it for to garner peace and bring self determination,
ol' democracy just sits there, though, I thought it ran the nation?"

Asking a Shovel to dig a hole for you is like asking Democracy to represent you. The government only asks you what you think a couple of times a year. I believe that voting is necessary, but it is possibly the weakest form of democracy there is.

"Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence."
-Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

No one who works at the grocery store is going to knock on my door and ask me if its okay that they import all of their food from an average distance of 1800 miles away. That item will not appear on the ballot any time soon either. But its something I care about, so how can I be heard? Well, just speak your mind. Join a group. Talk to them, ask if there is anything they want to do with regards to your issues. Organize fasts, boycotts, sit ins, put up posters, call your senators, go door to door. Don't wait for democracy to ask you what you want, It's a tool that only works once you pick it up and use it. In my brother's case. I encourage you, John to chase that dream of a sustainable theater. Make it work, make it appealing, and sell it to every theater in the world.

#2 In terms of Treading a more sustainable path, I recommend deciding what you need for your lifestyle, rather than what you are accustomed to.

To nurture hearts, make songs and arts,
to keep us fed, farms and bread.
To give us heat, tend woods and sheep,
with Thrift and Peace to safely sleep.

That can be my epitaph if I die before coming up with anything better. I think that your question John, would be likely to direct you to a book called "Tips and Tricks for Sustainable Living." By Papa Greenbeard. This book is hypothetical, but it exists in various forms throughout the environmental movement. The real answer to your question isn't to explain methods of reducing your footprint, its to recognize that rather than using your foot to make a print, you can use it to kick things.

Kick things onto the floor of congress for example. Put your Congressional delegation on Speed Dial! Don't just save oil by insulating your windows, save oil by fighting for a green building code in your state. Don't just carpool, make an oath to never fly in an airplane again. Do huge things that matter, rather than small things that don't.

Most of the tips and tricks out there only end up providing self satisfaction, self motivation's worst enemy.

I've said it before. The only technology we need to save the world is the off switch.

Coal Train!

Cars and cars on hard, thin rails.
Heat and smoke fill heavy sails.
What's creaking by is blood-black coal,
taken direct to Santa's pole.
Thousands of decades of moving tons,
just to punish the naughty ones.
As fast as they can dig the stuff,
use it to fill their stockings up.

Coal Train is a dragon's name,
With spray paint scales, headlight flame.
Like the wyrm, coal made no friends,
and like the wyrm, coal must end.
Shot by Bard, through one weak scale,
or creaking, die upon the rails.
With no one left, not a soul,
just ever-belching, blood-black coal.


We played a show today! Babaganoush was supposed to have a show at a bar tonight, but instead it was cancelled so we played at an ANTI-COAL rally! Right by the train tracks. We turned what would have been just a bunch of cold people holding stark signs, into Bluegrass, party with a small crowd of people. It was great! I adjusted some of our lyrics on the fly to apply to the protest:

Let me tell you where I am.
I'm right next to a Railroad!
Let me tell you what I can
I don't want no more Coal!

It worked better in lyrical form. Anyway we had a blast. 32-96000 TONS of coal go through Missoula every single day. For each pound of coal, there is an output of 2 pounds of atmospheric Carbon. I don't know how... I'm no chem wiz. Well, Then the band just went and had a slice of pie. It was delightful. Our fingers froze off, but we sure were smiling.

Realistic Portrait of Subsistence Economy

I imagine this taking place at a meeting house downtown. Much like town meetings in Vermont, or City council meetings across the country. People would propose things they'd like to see in the community and then there would be discussion. This discussion would result in an organized boycott by a whole community on some products while welcoming other products.

Someone would look down through their bifocals and see that the next item on the list is "halloween decorations." The discussion that ensues always asks the following questions.

To what level will consuming this way make us happy?
To what level will it make us healthy?
Is there anything else we can use instead for the same purpose?
Is this product sustainable?
Where is this product from?
What are the social costs or benefits of the product?
Can we afford to purchase and maintain the good?


The discussion on Halloween decorations yields the following conclusions in Montpelier VT. (numbers don't coincide with questions above)

1 Most of these products are highly disposable, unsustainable, and look phony.
2 The plastics and rubbers of the kids costumes contribute to toxicity at the point of production.
3 The festive look of the town when decorated makes us kind of happy, especially the kids.
4 The decorations do not contribute to our health much at all.
5 Carving pumpkins is a wonderful tradition that contributes to local farmers, gives us time with kids, and makes the town look great. There is nothing stopping us from making the pumpkins into pies afterwards, or composting them. The candles however produce toxic outputs and are made from unrenewable petroleum resources. Maybe they could be replaced with beeswax candles, or efficient light bulbs.
6 We can use durable, reusable products instead of disposable ones. Like cloth streamers that we can store in a box somewhere, or sheets for a ghost costume, or whatever else.
7 halloween lights, like christmas lights are nice looking, but use electricity.
8 the electricity comes from hydroQuebec which displaced native peoples, drowned Elk herds, and toxified the ecosystem with mercury. Supporting them is not in the interest of health and happiness. We can use more efficient halloween lights, leave them on for less time, and do without them.
9 Halloween candy is always individually wrapped, is there anything we can do...

Then the list of conclusions would be brought to the costume shop in advance so they could prepare to provide that which the consumers demanded. The request for beeswax candles would be brought to the candle shop, the request for pumpkins to the farmers who might grow pumpkins that you could eat as well as carve, and storage space would be arranged for the city's own Halloween decorations. Group Thrift meetings across the country.

Another example could be if a neighborhood composed a list of all their tools, and instead of each person buying the tools individually which they would only use once, the tools would be shared freely in a library system.

Another example could be if a city had a vacant store front, there could be a meeting to decide what sort of business would be supported there. Another restaurant? A boutique? A laundramat? Once a conclusion is reached which might include a list of different options, applicants would vie for the spot in the city. Based on the above principles, the city (an official or a committee) would choose one of the candidates and Voila! People decide rather than react.

Fallacy of Profit

"To a point, the lives of the people may be improved by the additional consumption of resources such as food, shelter, clothing, education, and entertainment. We recognize, however, that the benefits of continuously increased rates of consumption are rendered asymptotically toward zero when evaluated at the current scale."

I would like to reiterate this paragraph from the post below entitled "Revolution Time." The subsistence Economy argument is based on four pillars. Each is a recognition of our current flawed system and is a strong criticism of same.
The four pillars are:
Free trade is controlled by producers.
Free trade exploits the land.
Free trade causes social inequity.
Free trade produces useless goods and services that do not contribute to health or happiness.

Allow my to explain the quote above. I didn't say that consumption is a bad thing. All I said was that there is an inflection point beyond which additional consumption does not yield a benefit. I would never seek to deny additional consumption to someone who is going hungry or to someone who is cold. In math, an asymptote is a line which a graph never crosses, but comes infinitely closer to by infinite divisions of the distance between the graph and the asymptote. What I meant by the benefits of additional consumption being "rendered asymptotically toward zero when evaluated at the current scale," was that consuming one more bag of doritos makes so little of a difference in welfare of a person who is already fed, that the benefit is very nearly zero.

The logical next question is, "then how do we justify additional consumption? Do the benefits to one consumer outweigh the social and environmental costs of the good?" The answer is no, the benefit to the consumer does not justify the degradation of land and people. This is why I believe that free trade is not as much of an interaction between consumers and producers as it is a tool used by producers to make profit while hiding the true costs from consumers.

The joke is on the CEO's as well as all of us though, because making another five thousand bucks a year doesn't make them any happier or healthier. You might ask why my emphasis is on Health and happiness. This is because those are the only two things in life that actually matter. And I don't mean that the only thing worth pursuing is one's own health and happiness, I mean that the only thing that matters is working towards health and happiness for all, including the land.

Profit, to a point contributes to health and happiness. The food, health care, shelter, education you can buy with increased money is a boon, but there is a point where even buying these necessities becomes asymptotic. My friend Jeremy's mom has an internship in California where she is given sixty dollars a day for food alone. If she doesn't spend it all it just goes back to the company. She could be eating lobster, steak and dinosaur eggs for every meal with that much money. Does it benefit her? Is she inclined to eat an unhealthy amount? Is she stressed out by all the options? Does she feel guilty and spoiled? What does she think when she sees panhandlers on the street? She has to tell them she has no cash, but she then walks into a store and uses her magical charge card to eat a pound of moon chocolate.

So the fallacy of profit is that profit does not buy happiness. It can't really buy health either. Fancy gym memberships, personal trainers, diet books, organic food, they all cost money, but what really makes you healthy is self respect, self control, and self motivation. Those things are free.