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High rollers trying to cut consumption
Lisa Stiffler, Dateline Earth, Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog
Only the Wall Street Journal could bring you this story from its Saturday “Pursuits” section detailing the efforts of resorts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (note while most WSJ stories cost, this one’s free).
Resort and hotel strategies include helping guests figure out how much CO2 their trip produces and selling offsets that support renewable power or tree planting; setting AC units to shut off when doors to the outside are opened; producing biodiesel onsite to replace diesel; and getting guests to triple-up on fishing boats.
The P-I took a look today at excess on the homefront. From Lawrence Cheek in his On Architecture column:
This year, Seattle’s annual Street of Dreams home show is trying to paint itself green, bringing waterfalls indoors to recall a home’s “connection to nature,” and outfitting the mansions with features such as on-demand water heating and recycled paper countertops that resemble stone.
But as a theme, this rings as hollow as a General Motors promise to build energy-efficient SUVs. The smallest house in this year’s collection outside Woodinville is 4,200 square feet, and the showcase dwellings are as lavish as ever in anachronistic pomp and fatuous luxury.
SNAP! I guess the greenwash rinsed right off Cheek.
The response to greening-up luxury travel was a mixed bag, according to the WSJ. The story focused on the floating King Pacific Lodge on the shores of the stunning Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia. Robert Penman, the lodge’s general manager, instituted carpooling requirements: “The lodge’s twin-engine boats must have at least three guests plus a guide before leaving the dock, and its single-engine boats must have at least two guests plus a guide.”
It drew a more-heated protest a few weeks ago from a guest from Texas when Mr. Penman refused to give the man and his party as many of the twin-engine boats as he wanted. “We drive Hummers. We drive big SUVs. And when we go away on vacation, we don’t care about the environment,” the guest said…
The man — in one of the world’s most beautiful natural settings — declares he gives not a damn for the environment. I can’t… it’s just… I give up.
(31 July 2007)
Suggested by contributor Bill Henderson.
My Name Is Randy, I Work For Clear Channel, and I support Al Franken
Randy White, Lawns to Gardens (blog)
Well, I guess I’m announcing my support for a candidate that gets it. We really need to do something about Peak Oil other than stay at war. It’s just not working out like it was planned.
I mean, yeah – we need oil. We get it. Black gold – makes lots of money and keeps our cars on the road. Helps us grow our food – we need oil to survive. Understood!
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are solutions available – we just need to come together as a country and muster up the strength to downsize for a while. I have met the coolest people, doing amazing things – and I tell you there is a way to grow the food we need to survive – all you really need is food, water and shelter.
I mean, if there IS a big crash, what’s the big deal? So money goes away. Ok, then what? How will everyone pay for food? I suppose we could do what they did back in the Great Depression – sharecropping and community teamwork. I suggest EVERYONE watch the movie “Our Daily Bread”.
…Ever since my brother Chris killed himself, I have realized that life is about what you make of it, and you can choose to either be happy and whistle while you work, or be miserable and die having never experienced the thrill of having a MISSION.
America, it’s now your COLLECTIVE MISSION to start preparing your local neighborhoods for the oil crash. There are lots of ideas to help you get started, there’s even a HOW TO PLAN you can tweak to meet your local needs.
And that’s why I support Al Franken for the Senate. He gets it folks, and he would like nothing more than to help America get back on track to prosperity. His track record of being RIGHT is superb, and he truly represents the desire to fix America by helping us relocalize and prepare our local communities for an exciting, opportunity-filled future without oil.
(2 August 2007)
What about the Third World?
Kyle Schuant, Kiashu (blog)
…The optimistic story of Business As Usual is actually very dangerous for the elites to promote, because the greater the space between the promises and the reality, the greater the disappointment and anger. Today’s optimism risks tomorrow’s collapse.
But most likely the energy won’t be evenly spread about, with 2bbl per person worldwide, and just as we engage in trade and real wars for oil, we’ll engage in trade and real wars for biofuel and electricity; just as today there are people who consume 50bbl equivalent, and others who consume none or one, so too tomorrow. The rich-poor gap today is also an oil gap, and will be an energy gap tomorrow, too. But because the overall pool of energy available will be smaller, the gap will be more noticeable. The CEO stands out in the unemployed suburbs, but the king stands out in the muddy fields even more.
So that is why I don’t think India and China are ever going to have two cars per family. We’ll run out of the fuel for them, and be overtaken by more serious problems, before they can build that many cars.
(26 July 2007)
Rock music for when the grid goes down: Celtic battle music
Albannach, YouTube
(29 September 2006)
This group from Scotland shows that you don’t need electricity to rock – just a bagpipe, big drums and a lot of endurance. More Albannach. Related groups include the Wicked Tinkers, Clann An Drumma and Corvus Corax (actually, a German neo-medieval group). -BA
