The Loma Prietan
December 2001/January 2002
Meandering
by John Maybury
Oil and terrorism
“The pursuit of oil puts us at risk from terrorism here at home. The use of fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, the cause of droughts, floods, famine, and dislocation of environmental refugees. Oil is a finite resource that will someday be depleted. Therefore, for our own survival, we need to move to sus-tainable energy sources, such as affordable solar hydrogen energy. All that is missing is the political will. Because it may take 30 to 50 years to make these massive system conversions, we must start now. We are running out of oil worldwide, but we keep buying gas-guzzling SUVs. If everyone drove a 47-mpg Toyota Prius or Honda Insight hybrid car, we wouldn’t need imported oil. What are we waiting for?” (from Tom Dickerman)
Gimme shelter
I recommend “Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties” by D.C. Beard. Originally published in 1914, this practical classic
is still an essential guide for homesteaders and outdoorsmen, with instructions
for building sod houses, log cabins, tree houses, log ladders, and Native American hogans.
Stream of consciousness
A sickle, tires, light fixtures, liquor bottles, beer cans, and a ton of invasive Cape ivy. Just some of the things that Pacifica’s Creek Coalition volunteers pulled out of San Pedro Creek recently. Join the cleanup crew: 650/557-9971.
Wheel of misfortune
Skip that daily-grind drive to work.
Try telecommuting. Bay Area commuters wasted 168 million hours last year sitting in traffic. The average driver spends more than five hours a week behind the wheel of misfortune. Telecommuting info: 650/355-6407 or www.telecommute.org.
Save Action Jackson
Famous Yellowstone Park ranger Bob “Action” Jackson, who was rewarded by the Clinton administration for protecting wildlife from hunters who sneak inside
the park to kill, has been taken off patrol, slapped with a gag order, and may be fired without just cause. The new Republican Secretary of the Interior wants to open park land to hunting and corporate development. Save “Action”
at www.petitiononline.com/ajl/petition.html. (from John Deamer)
Huzzah!
Congratulations to F. Scott McKellar, whose war for peace and quiet in Burlingame led to city council action there to restrict the hours and noise levels of leafblowers. The squeaky wheel gets oiled!
Lion eyes
S.F. Chronicle columnist Tom Stienstra reports that, according to the California Fish and Game Department, the Bay Area has had only one mountain lion attack in the past 100 years (Gilroy, 1911, due to rabies). Only 12 attacks are documented statewide since 1890, the latest in Auburn seven years ago. Stienstra thinks
the public is unnecessarily nervous about mountain lions because of state-posted warning signs on hiking trails. He says if the state were truly concerned about our safety, it would post signs at freeway on-ramps saying: “Warning! Idiots ahead!”
Tunnel breakthrough?
A bit of wishful thinking may have inspired a merry prankster to put a
huge sign at the construction site for the Rockaway-Linda Mar Trail. The sign read: Tunnel Relocation Project Opening 2070. Motorists passing by the sign on Highway 1 were laughing so hard they couldn’t steer straight.
Bobby Brady bags bucks
Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby on the Brady Bunch TV show, won $10,000 on The Weakest Link game show Sept. 24 and will donate the money to the Sierra Club Foundation, a public charity that supports the Sierra Club’s conservation education programs.
Hydrogen cars
Gas up and go. BMW is demonstrating its hydrogen-powered vehicles on The Clean Energy World Tour 2001. BMW’s
15 sleek prototypes are not yet for sale. The carmaker is still tinkering with fuel storage and handling. Safety is a major concern,
but in government crash tests, the liquid hydrogen fuel dissipated harmlessly into
the air. (Source: www.cnn.com)
Pause for thought
“In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.” (Robert Green Ingersoll)
Jaco rocks
Never again pollute the environment (and ruin your back) by taking that old refrigerator, dishwasher, dryer, air conditioner, hot-water tank, or television set to the dump. Now you can call Jaco Environmental at 800/741-0172 to do the job. All it costs
is $20. Call before your new appliance is delivered. When it is delivered, ask the delivery person to move the old appliance to your driveway or other street-level location. Make sure the old appliance
is clean and empty. Give Jaco the new appliance sales check number, purchase date, and store location. By the way, Jaco’s certified technicians recycle the freon
(CFC) before crushing refrigerators.
Block the box
Dozens of communities across the country have stopped Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and other big-box stores from moving into town and siphoning off local resources. Sprawl-Busters has successfully campaigned against the big-box promise of low prices, tax revenues, and lots of jobs. Turns out these are false promises. Most of the money drains off to the home office and only the most menial, underpaid jobs are available. Check out Bill Quinn’s book, “How
Wal-Mart Is Destroying America.” Info: www.sprawl-busters.com or 413/772-6289.
Paddle pushers
Save the Bay invites you to paddle canoes and kayaks in San Francisco Bay, Petaluma Estuary, Napa River, Suisun
Bay, Cosumnes River, and Feather River.
Info: Josh Bagnato at 510/452-9261
or jbagnato@savesfbay.org.
Cool nature
“The highest purpose is to have no purpose at all. This puts one in accord with nature in her manner of operation.” (John Cage, composer, 1912-1992)
Ghoulish goulash
In 1970, Americans spent $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, more than $110 billion (scary factoid from Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation”). In a perhaps not unrelated vein, two University of Buffalo researchers just published a study showing why the Subway sandwich diet works: People eat less if their food has less variety in flavor, color, and texture. Call it the boredom diet.
Tube or not tube
Germany’s experimental electric-powered cargo capsules whizzing through underground pipelines are reminiscent
of the old department store pneumatic tubes that fired message capsules from one cashier to another. The Paris postal service also had a system of vacuum tubes beneath the streets for dispatching rush mail. Recently, SFO planners rejected the idea
of a people mover to Oakland Airport via transbay tube.
Antiglobalization
Alternative cultures oppose corporate orthodoxy. This movement includes home schooling, New Age religion, communes, cohousing, folk schools, Green politics, land trusts, eco-villages, holistic health, farmers markets, bicycle transportation, yard sales, recycling, Internet communication, organic farming, solar energy, hydrogen power, intentional communities, homesteading, humanistic economics, and ecology.
Wine or beer?
A Danish study suggests that red-wine drinkers get an extra boost against cancer, heart disease, and stress over both beer and booze drinkers and teetotalers. The hidden health benefit of wine drinking is a sense of well-being, according to the Danish research, based on wine drinkers’ healthier habits and psyches; higher education, intelligence, and wealth; and lesser like-lihood of alcohol abuse.
Corncam
See corn and soybeans grow, and cows being milked, all in Internet time, live from Iowa, on www.corncam.com.
Smog lover
I love it when a guy like John Graham shoots himself in the foot. Graham testified in a recent Congressional hearing that: smog protects against solar rays, reducing dioxin levels does more harm than good, pesticides in food are a trivial problem, environmental regulations are a waste of money, and public concern about toxic chemicals is just paranoia. As a so-called expert in risk analysis, Graham thinks EPA’s formula for valuing a human life at $4.8 million is at least 10 times too high. The real shocker: Graham is the White House “regulatory czar.” Sharpen your pencils, letter writers!
Solar power pack
It may sound like rocket science, but it’s for real: the U.S. Army is testing it at the South Pole, Greenpeace is using it in India, and a dive boat company is trying it in
the Caribbean. Solardyne’s “power plant
in a backpack” weighs only 24 pounds
but produces 120 watt-hours a day. Its photovoltaic panel charges the unit in six hours. Info: www.solardyne.com.
Cold starts
Researchers at the University of Texas
in Austin are developing a five-pound gas vaporizer to reduce pollution emitted by cold engines up to 50%. Ford is testing
the device in its Lincoln Navigator.
Hot stuff
Radioactive waste from former Soviet Union nuclear weapons test site at Chernaya Bay has contaminated the food chain, threatening the local fishing industry. Not too far away, the Canadian territory of Nunavut is polluted with industrial dioxin from the United States and Mexico. Dioxin concentrates in the high-fat seafood eaten by the Inuit people of Nunavut.
Free juice
A new energy solution without drilling for oil or using electricity: solar panels that convert sunlight to electricity for hydrolyzing water to get hydrogen.
Good and bad
Dr. Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington has discovered why so many people hate the taste of healthy food: phytonutrients. These bitter-tasting chemicals, which we humans are programmed to avoid as signs of spoiled or poisonous food, are actually good for us in very small quantities. Phytonutrients occur in brussels sprouts, grapefruit, cabbage, kale, mustard greens, spinach, arugula, dark chocolate, and red wine.
E-mail Meandering John Maybury at mayburrito@mindspring.com.