not all of us are cowards, some women know what it means to be human.

Newmont Mining wanted Peruvian farmer Máxima Acuña de Chaupe to get off her land so they could build a giant, polluting gold mine, but she said no. They took her to court, she won, they harassed her, even sending a security team in and destroyed part of her home, and she is still there.  This is what bravery looks like, this is what human beings do, stand up to pollution, corruption, thugs, stand up.

Sculpture complete, Hermann lives, it's alive it's alive

After about 48 hours of accumulated work over several months, Herman Hesse is finished and ready fro the kiln.  That's Hermann on the left.  The skull behind us, ominous huh?
Hermann Hesse is one of my favorite authors, and perhaps the most famous German writers of the last 100 years.  1877 to 1962, born in Germany. During WWI he was assigned to guard and transport POW's, meeting these men in this situation changed his life.  During this he published essays that caused plenty of trouble and gained him the label pacifist.  Before WWII he married a Jewish women, moved to Switzerland where they lived until his death. He won a Nobel prize.  His best known works include: Steppenwolf and Sidhartha my two favorites, If The War Goes On, The Glass Bead Game, Journey To The East, Demian.  His writing can be summed up as a "search for self" and "journey of discovery", he traveled often to India and Indonesia, some of his work is infused with this eastern flavor of life's meaning and passage of time as a component of the whole of our lives.  You can imagine his work was of keen interest to the countercultures of the beat generation, and the hippies from the flower power to the peace movements. His peak of popularity was late 50's to late 70's. If you have never experienced Hermann Hesse, do the first two listed, Sidhartha might be the smoothest glide of the two.
This sculpture depicts him in what I think could be his 40's to late 50's, most sculptures and pictures show him as elderly.

Cold Water, trout fishing and climate change

google and join climate hawks inc, or some other envrionmental group that is offering a solution, not just a bunch of cry babies bitching. Do Something to Help.

hydrogen folly

Over the last few months I read a number of stories about hydrogen development at a number of universities.  The latest is to make it from corn field waste, the stalks and leaves left.  This is not good news for the soil we leave our children.  When we harvest grain crops, the straw and stalks left cover the earth, prevent erosion, keep soil temperature down, and become the compost to build soil.  Raking the earth clean year after year may fuel your Hindenburg car, but it will leave future generations with crappy little soil to live on.
Another thing, most projections indicate natural gas will be used to make hydrogen fuel.  Well, tell me how making one fuel from another is a victory?  It is unsustainable, like ethanol it takes almost as much power to convert corn to gas as you get out of the ethanol.
Neither of these are sustainable.  Speak against them both at every opportunity.  Electric vehicles are the easiest to convert to, the infrastructure is already near by, a good extension cord will complete it.

the price of oil is a disaster

Just broke at desmogblog.com, a confidential paper from 1981 when Lord Lawson proposed turning the Army lose on striking oil workers. One truth remains, no matter what the price of oil, it is a disaster.

Happy earth day to me.

To celebrate earth day, I bought an electric lawn mower, and I will only charge it on windy days, and we have lots of those. The wind farms south of town will be glad to hear this.

Two neighbors have them, they are really quiet compared to typical gas mowers and their grass looks great.  My mower is like 15 years old, smokes when it starts, it's loud, and every month I have to put a gas can in the trunk and come back with a few gallons - the trunk loaded with fumes, an IED on wheels.  Plus, when I go in the house after mowing the wife says, eee-you smell like exhaust, I can't smell it cause I been breathing in the poison while I hump that screamer around the yard.    I could keep the old thing going full time for another couple of years, but screw the Kochs, there's another few dollars of mine they will never see.  I'll keep it for a while to mulch up leaves and sticks after wind storms.

What is that jelly they eat in England?

Simple, fair, workable, and you can still keep your world.

One way looks better than all the others in solving the warming of the planet caused since 1760, the start of the industrial revolution and the mass burning of peat, coal, oil and gas that made modern life what it is.  A good thing but with a problem.  Burning fossil fuels causes greenhouse gasses.  Shine light through them and they warm, then they insulate.  10,000 years ago agriculture began, based on a favorable climate.  Like humans, a fever of a few degrees makes us unproductive, if it lasts long it means death.  The same is true with our crops and meat sources.

Carbon Fee and Dividend is the best solution to prevent earth from getting a fever, harming our food sources, and it can fix it in a hurry.  Put a steady increasing fee on carbon when it enters the economy, at the well, mine or port of entry.  This drives prices of these energy's up, making wind and solar more competitive, making fuel efficient trucks and cars more attractive etc.  The money collected is given to citizens equally, if you shop wisely, use less fuel, your going to make money on the deal, and more all the time, bending the market to energy efficient products and practices.    Check it out at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
Sign up, it's the most interesting approach of any environmental group I found.  My group already has speaking engagements, is working with a farmers group, and much more.  Do more than just bitch.

April 1980 Walter Cronkite, the most respected man in news reports Climate Change

Wisconsin puts George Orwell's "newspeak" to practice.

Today's forbidden words in Wisconsin: Global Warming, and Climate Change.  

In "1984" the totalitarian government regularly issued new words and phrases, and banned others from use.  Use the new ones, drop the old ones or face firings, prison even.  The constant changing of the language for political purposes was called new speak and there was a whole department dedicated to it in the book, I believe it was a single word, newspeak.

In my town, Wichita, it is not yet forbidden to use these terms, however only yesterday a city councilman complained some departments use of these words were not constructive or helpful, I assume he will get the wheels rolling to outlaw them here.  "Sustainability" though was ridiculed recently as a UN term, and had corrosive implications to our way of life.  I think soon we are going to follow Florida and Wisconsin down the totalitarian rabbit hole.  

Pops, look at this painting

hold your horses - art and fun