Why?

It's a good question that we never ask. Why do we do all the things we do? I can understand growing food, building houses, making clothes. Those address real, straightforward, physical concerns. Any other species would do the same in our place.

But then you hear about experiments like the Hadron Collider, a $6.6 billion facility on the border between France and Switzerland, and, for me, all I can ask is why? Why do we need to recreate the conditions present at the start of the universe? Wouldn't you rather be playing with your children instead? Or maybe planting a tree? What about inviting a few friends over for a get-together? What about just enjoying the warm spring sun on your face?

Now of course I know the answer: Science! So our little species can know everything about everything. But again, what's the point? In knowing everything what will we do with that knowledge. Why do we need to know everything?

I don't need to know everything. I'm happy with a degree of magic in the world. I'm happy that things just happen.

The other goal of this project, I'm sure given our track record, is to militarize the results of this experiment. So instead of merely nuking Tehran we can create a black hole there and suck all those terrorists out of existence. If we happen to rip the earth in two during the process then you'll thank your lucky stars that we invested in the planet glue experiment.

The ultimate, unquestionable make work projects. Maybe that's what science is all about!

Too Stupid?

In a recent interview with the Guardian, James Lovelock remarked that humans are too stupid to prevent climate change. We're definitely not able to deal with all the complexity involved in the issue. That's probably why we get taken so easily by skeptics who have no real evidence behind what they say. Just read the thread of comments after any article on climate change. Good luck to all of us.

It's pretty crazy. I just stared off and wondered about this moment in history. Essentially we are at the end of our species on planet earth. I try and deny this as much as the next person, I must admit. I'm just starting to realize how beautiful and perfectly complex our home is. And as much as I am disappointed in our species I think that we are a special community. We could lead really comfortable lives as hunter gatherers. I know some people think that hunter gatherers really had a hard life but the truth is something much different. If you can build a supercomputer then you can hunt successfully stalk a deer with a few friends. And if you can't catch one you can always pick mushrooms or other edible wild plants. Tan and sew together a few hides and you've got a mobile home. Life was not scary in those days because we had each other and we had our wonderful inventiveness and a bountiful world. But life is definitely scary today, with the prospect of runaway climate change looming.

I'll say it again, when the economy shrunk 3% last year we had a 3% reduction in GHGs. How much clearer does it have to be?

I feel pretty powerless to stop this raging juggernaut of civilization. I think the key is for me to not be afraid to speak out. I may not be able to do much but I can remind people of our insanity. With a little luck we'll never recover from this recession (given peak oil this is not an unreasonable pronouncement). Every year the global economy will shrink, GHGs will shrink and the population will shrink as well and we'll head back to a more balanced life and eliminated the threat of anthropocentric climate change. I would have preferred it if this had been a choice, and people are going to be really angry, but it isn't and that's fine. It's the price you pay for being so stupid, as Lovelock would say.

Sustainable Diversity?

Today at work we had a lunch and learn on sustainable diversity. Basically it was about how we can have real dialogue with different groups (ethnic or otherwise). I just wrote this message to the facilitator:

I had one thought that I’m always loath to share in big groups (I don’t want to come across as a downer, though I would just call myself a realist). I know that the subject of your talk was sustainable diversity but I don’t actually see diversity (not that we have it) as sustainable. Of course this means big trouble for visible minorities. Let me explain myself.

We’re heading for a period of declining energy (peak oil). This is a well documented fact though the date of the peak is debatable. This is going to impact lots of things but most importantly food, home energy consumption and mobility (it already is, especially two years ago with food prices spiking and the current recession is intimately connected to high oil prices).

Now for the past 60 years (and maybe a bit longer) we have had abundant energy so much so that we wasted it all the time. We could heat our homes excessively, drive and take airplanes anywhere we wanted at the drop of the hat, and we could throw away food no problem. But now this accepted fact of life is starting to change.

How has this over abundance of energy affected diversity? I would argue that the “comfort” that the middle and upper classes received from cheap energy enabled them to “tolerate” visible minorities or otherwise. So Martin Luther King Jr. could get some of the things he asked for (not all mind, he was still black after all) and Harper would say sorry for residential schools and gays and lesbians could get married and women could make (almost) as much money as men and immigrants could move here from other countries thanks to Pierre Trudeau.

“Why not?” the white, heterosexual, relatively wealthy middle and upper classes would say. “I’m comfortable enough to be magnanimous. Throw these poor people a bone.”

But what happens when their comfort is challenged? When resources are less abundant or they finally feel a rumble in their empty stomachs, something they have never known their whole lives? Are they going to come together to build resilient communities with people they “tolerate” but who look different and eat different food and speak a different language? I doubt it. In fact, I could see them casting blame on the “immigrants and gays and lesbians and other minorities.” They'll be angry and resentful that they have lost so much (stuff).

So not that I’m a downer I’m a realist. And there is some good news. The solution is so difficult but is the subject that you spoke on today. Making space for dialogue and getting people together for frank and difficult conversations. I’m so happy that you are taking this work on and I know lots of other folks are too. This is so difficult though, a real uphill struggle, much like my work asking people to question their fundamental beliefs about consumption, civilization, our species self-assigned exceptionalism and what makes a happy life (here's a hint, it's not more stuff and having less contact with other humans). Dialogue is so important giving the changes we are going to experience in the next 20 years.

Bread Perfect

I wanted to celebrate the fact that I made an almost perfect loaf of sourdough bread this past weekend. Yeast is easy but now I understand how to make sourdough and have it turn out reasonably like the bread we all buy in the grocery store. Of course it's made from wheat and not spelt or rye but perhaps I'll make a perfect loaf of those breads next!

Starting Stopping

This weekend I had some lovely conversations with friends about a lot of things from peak oil to family relationships to overconsumption and overconsumption of pot. And all in the bright sunshine of a spring day.

But it was a nighttime conversation with a certain Brentor X, the man who gave me my handle, that really blew me away. He had just finished reading a book by Jared Diamond called The Third Chimpanzee. Obviously it had left an impression. Though Diamond may not have said it directly (perhaps it's time for me to read this book) this books seems to be all about civilization. How the rise of agriculture and empires has led us to this point in history and why we are destroying the planet by dominating literally every square inch of the earth with farmland and cities and towns and "managed forests" and roads. With civilized humans taking up all this room there is no room for other creatures.

This was the line that really touched me (and I'm paraphrasing now that it has been a few days): "All the things humans are trying to do to help save species and 'protect' the planet are pointless unless we stop growing our populations and our economies".

That really says it all.

Of course once you realize this, that next step of stopping growing becomes the big challenge. How do you fight against 10,000 years of myths and stories and change the course of your species when very few people even give any thought to our collective impact on the earth? I'm happy to say that Brentor X and his partner are making a start by stopping at two children. What a conscious choice!

Oh Sun!

It's nice that the weather and the bright sun are becoming more meaningful to me. I think I didn't put two and two together before. Like I may have been sad from many days of grey but I wasn't aware that that was what was making me upset. Also it could be the difference between Ontario and Nova Scotia. Out here perhaps winter just means more grey days. In Ontario the sun seems to poke itself out with more regularity. So this is just something that I have to adapt to.

But for the past two weeks it has been bright and sunny apart from one Sunday. That has filled me with happiness. I was getting pretty low because I swear, I didn't see the sun for about a month and a half. I think it was wearing on everyone. But now let the Vitamin D flow.

I'm riding my bike more and being more active. I'm playing soccer on the Commons. I'm watching fewer films. I'm spending more time with friends. All these things seem connected to the sun.

What a glorious thing! And the spring is coming and the possibilities are endless. Lucky me!