9.24.2K8: Black Fall

As Autumn begins in the northern hemisphere, the United States is thinking about seemingly everything except cooling temperatures and colorful forests. With a national election around the corner, gas prices going steadily up, the stock market coming steadily down, home lenders finally succumbing to bad business practices, automakers begging to do the same for the same bad reasons, and the taxpayer knowing they are about to pay for government bailouts to all of the above, Fall has taken on an ominous color... the color of black.

And amazingly enough, the government still does not have a mandate from the people to Make Things Right... instead the public is asking them to make things The Way They Were, which is what got us into this situation in the first place.

Discussions I've had with people around me—adults, primarily—make clear to me that America at-large is still not ready to Change. They do not see why they personally have to buy more efficient light bulbs, drive less, eat healthier, or work smarter... and they do not see how such efforts on their part will do anything for this country save making them personally more miserable. Even many youngsters, viewed as the harbingers of Good Sense Living and Change, still buy big trucks and big houses as soon as they have the means (or the means are loaned out), as if they are God-given rights owed to them. Like many emerging adults before them, they talk a good game, but when it comes down to making final choices, most of them get in line for the 50" plasma TVs like everyone else.

And the businesses keep selling those trucks and plasma TVs, too. The idea that companies would willingly do something that would lower their profit margins, in order to be responsible or "green," was the worst of folly. American businesses have demonstrated that they only go green when it is in their benefit, in this case, when it means happier customers that buy more of their goods. And until then, they will be as "brown" as they can, for as long as they can get away with it. Many executives have worked hard to squirrel away as much as they could into their platinum parachutes, and have planned their exits around the fall that their companies would eventually take, when their business plans were finally no longer viable. Believe me, those lending institution executives won't be hurting when they leave... most of them already have their tropical island homes built and move-in-ready.

So, we have a country full of people, ready to work... and companies that don't have work to give them. Companies that haven't managed to figure out that America doesn't need another SUV and a free gas card, it needs an electric car. That America doesn't need another coal-fired power plant, it needs solar, wind and tidal power plants, to be online last decade. That America doesn't need McMansions, it needs sensible, efficient and affordable housing for the people.

We have people that haven't figured out that the only thing we have to control this excess is the government... and the only way to get the government to do what you want them to, is to vote.

We have a government still in the pocket of Big Oil and Big Coal, and as they pay lip-service to alternative energy industries, they pass offshore drilling bills, and try to give the Vice-Presidency to the Governor who's literally in bed with a BP executive fighting to drill in Alaska—and who, as we now all know, isn't the only government employee who's literally in bed with an oil employee.

And we have an economy that is unraveling at the edges, global warming that is probably already too late to reverse, and we stand on the brink of ecological and biological disasters too numerous to mention and too frightening to contemplate.

The Almanac predicts that America will have a real nasty winter. I suspect they're spot-on.

9.26.2K8: Containers to homes

	Shipping container makes for good affordable housing.

There's been a recent trend to repurpose the universal shipping container, a 320 square foot steel box, into all manner of things, from factories, to server centers, to waste processing units, etc. Now, thanks to Brian McCarthy, we can add low-cost housing to the list.

McCarthy got the idea when in Mexico, as he rode through poor neighborhoods not far from the healthy industrial centers in Juarez. Distressed by the shelters mostly made of pallets, cardboard and sheet steel, he wanted to find a better way to provide low-cost housing to the residents of the border city. Together with partners Pablo Nava, Kyle Annen, and Mackenzie Bishop, he created a company, PFNC Global Communities; PFNC stands for "Por Fin, Nuestra Casa," which roughly translates as "Finally, our own home."

They have developed a simple home out of a standard shipping container, configured not unlike an efficiency apartment or trailer, with compact but efficient galley kitchen, bathroom with shower, beds for children and adults, hookups for heating and cooling systems, a heat-reflecting white paint to make the steel container bearable to stay in, and a locking door. They estimate a single home will cost about $8,000, and McCarthy hopes that the local factories will provide assistance for their workers to buy their own homes. The containers, due to their design, can be assembled in groups, stacked and side-by-side, with stairs and balconies for each unit provided as needed.

Although the homes will be basic, they are leagues above the quality of housing that many families have access to, and provide instant improvements to any family's comfort, security and health. And Mexico isn't the only country that could use the container-homes: Many third-world countries could put the ubiquitous containers to good use.

It's gratifying to see people coming up with good ideas like this, that provide honest benefit to people who need it. Here's hoping PFNC proves to be a comfort to many, and an inspiration to others.

9.29.2K8: CO2 levels are—yes—still going up

	Jakarta lives daily under the haze that is closing over the East.

Some scientists and economics experts hoped that a global economic downturn would help to reduce CO2 levels worldwide. Sadly, this has not been the case. From 2006 to 2007, global CO2 emissions have risen by 3 percent, a trend that some characterize as "scary."

The United States is, or course, a major culprit in CO2 levels, but it now takes second place to China, which is considered responsible for half of the global increase. Russia comes up in third place, but India is poised to outpace Russia within a few years.

Combined with the growth of China, India, and other third world countries who are using cheap coal to power their new industrial systems—without the financial resources to keep them clean—and the fact that global oceans are losing their ability to absorb excess CO2 at the rate they have managed in the past, and you have a recipe for a continued rise in global CO2 levels, at the point at which we have already passed the point at which we need to reduce CO2 to avoid climatic catastrophe.

Scientists' bad guesses are a result of a lack of practical thinking on their part. They assumed that hard economic times would cause some people to cut back on activities that pollute, like driving to work. But they did not count on the penchant of many people to resort to cheaper ways of doing the same things, ways which often pollute more because they use outdated technologies or old, inefficient power plants. For instance, many commuters are resorting to driving motorcycles and scooters to work, because of their low cost and lower gas consumption. Unfortunately, these vehicles largely do not include the clean technology that modern cars have, and so they emit more pollutants (a Hummer will pollute less than the average motorcycle).

They also did not count on the exporting of "dirty" American technology to other countries, who use them readily. For instance, many of the heavily-polluting SUVs and trucks in the U.S. are being traded in for more efficient vehicles. They are then shipped en masse to Mexico, where residents buy them cheap and drive them everywhere, resulting in more pollution created, just further south than before.

It is a fact that more efficient technology costs money. Cleanup also costs money, and the longer we wait, the larger the cleanup job will be. The global economic downturn will not encourage people to buy more expensive efficient technology, and as long as there is no real effort to convince people to conserve for their own good, it is unrealistic to expect anything but a resurgence in the use of older, more polluting technologies in an attempt to save a few dollars. It is unfortunate that the human desire to pay less now, only means that we will pay even more later to clean up our planet... or to survive a climate disaster as best we can.