greenswitch – climate change and cleantech solutions

Another way to kill ourselves even faster!

“Two planets get together. One planet says to the other ‘there is something itching’; the other planet says:”don’t worry, these are just humans, they will be extinct soon..” so, are we going to kill ourselves — or get killed — the quick way (wars, hunger, other catastrophes) or the slower way (poisoning our environment, depleting our resources, etc.). It seems, there are more urgent issues to ponder about these days than taking care of the environment. But, as always, everything is interconnected. And there are always groups who try to use current situations to push through their selfish interests. How about energy? Shall we be less dependent on oil from the middle-east? that means drilling for oil, right? Consequently, that should help to boost the Alaska wildlife drilling, right? Check out this very interesting piece in Salon that deals with this issue. It’s all about *security* these days. Fortunately, environmentalists learned to push the right buttons as well and play the game: fat pipelines from Alaska could be a perfect target for terrorists, they argue! Who’s going to secure the pipeline…the last remaining bears, elk and snow lions?

Salon.com Technology | Oily insecurity Those who favor drilling have started treating Alaska’s oil fields as a key source of energy for the military and as a potential buffer to influence and instability from the Middle East, where an estimated two-thirds of the world’s oil can be found. But environmentalists are also playing the security card, arguing that drilling in Alaska carries with it its own unsustainable risks. Extracting oil or natural gas from ANWR will require the extended use of the 800-mile Alaskan pipeline — a pipeline that has been attacked before and that is, in the words of one expert, “indefensible.”

Back to the salt mines..

I am back from Europe, I feel sort of double-edged: relaxed and at the same time exhausted — built-up stress that comes from being too loungy the last couple of months. And now I am giving myself a hard time for spending most of July on my parent’s couch watching Tour de France on TV from 1pm till 5pm…;-). Guess, sometimes everbody needs some deflating, right? Vacation, after all.

Nevertheless, on my way through Europe I managed to collect many resources/impressions, had the chance to ‘breathe green awareness’; saw solar panel powered electrical fences up the Swiss mountains to secure big fat happy cows — actually they were everywhere, sometimes it seemed the cows considered themselves as mountain goats…and I talked with many friends about the ‘green/sustainable revolution in the US’: boy, that was a trip! Now I really need to do some research to convince my European readers that there is something cooking in the US — and I think, there really is. I just came back from a ’sustainable environment’ conference in Portland and enjoyed talking to attendees and listening to good keynote speeches by Vicki Robin (author of “Your money, your life’ — in my opinion, she was a little too pushy to sell her 9 step program to attain a better life. All these recipes, all the time. That is truly American…’10 steps’ to whatever, oh well), Paul H. Ray (who made us chant and later even stand up and shout: ‘WE CAN WIN’ — felt like a cheerleader, umm cheerboy, in a warped and twisted gospel choir. Ray is all about ‘Cultural Creatives’, will comment on this later) and Dr. David Korten, telling us all about bad corporations, a shift in awareness from the ’suicidal society’ to a more livable alternative. I will write more about the ‘Sustainability movement’ the next few days — looks like the US is once again one step ahead with the right buzzword — although it’s not really ’sexy’ but rather awkward. German readers: help me out…is there a German term for this? I am blanking here. Dankeschön!