Winds of Change

Ok stop whistling, I don’t mean these guys.  In a recent post I suggested that the future of renewable energy ought to be on site production for autonomous buildings.  This of course SHOULD be the future.  However, given our propensity towards oligarchy and the necessity for us little people to pay bills, it doesn’t seem that it is an attainable goal at the moment.

Yet, that doesn’t mean we can continue to work towards a better and cleaner tomorrow.  So I had this idea that I felt I would share with you.  After reading Christopher Mims‘s post on Grist here, it hit me.  Why not begin retro fitting aging oil rigs with giant wind turbines and solar arrays?  We could decommission their drilling operations and refit their decks with wind turbines and solar panels.  The challenge then being the transport of the power ashore.  But if there is to be a massive ramp up of offshore wind power why not use existing structures as opposed to creating new ones?  Whats the sense in reinventing the wheel?  More importantly, I’d take an off shore wind/solar farm over one of these ANY DAY.

Take a Walk

No seriously, take a walk.  It might just be the greenest thing you do today.  I’m not talking about the dog around the block either, I’m talking about a walk with a purpose.  To the store, for a meal, or to the bar for example.  Walking instead of driving is one of the easiest and most obviously things we can do everyday that has a direct positive impact on the environment.

It really is that simple.  If you don’t drive you’re not burning gas and you’re using the most renewable of all modes of transportation, your legs.  And guess what?  When you walk instead of drive for whatever reason, you’re being active!  This contributes towards a more healthy lifestyle and a fitter body.  Your legs and ass will look better and your significant other will appreciate the better view from behind.  Hmmm maybe that Jared guy was on to something?  Anyway, if you’re gonna talk the talk regarding losing those extra lbs and being more sustainable, then WALK THE WALK!

*If you read this and you walked someplace you normally would drive let me know by replying here or tweeting me @bigwersk

America’s Green Cleaning

In terms of renewable energy, where are our priorities?  It feels like we’re just very slowly trying to retro fit our traditional system, where we create and dump a bunch of energy into a grid with newer renewable technologies.  Things like massive wind farms could be seen as the modern day power plants which are subsidizing the traditional coal and nuclear plants.  Is this really progressive? Does this really change the paradigm of energy production?

The fact is that large renewable energy sources like wind farms are impressive but have their drawbacks.  They take up a lot of land and they need to be far from the users.  This means a lot of time and energy spent transferring the power to the communities their supposed to feed.  There’s also the fundamental question of does the cost of the land, construction, maintenance, and transportation of the power add up for the megawatts they produce?

Given these hard questions and debates which has kept the growth of wind power at a slow but steady pace, why isn’t the main focus of renewable energy production shifting from an off site grid framework towards on site autonomous production?  Meaning, we should be striving to make every home, office building, high-rise, hospital, school, train station, etc etc into mini power stations in and of themselves.  Any grid would then be fed by the production from every building in a given community.

With focused campaigns and programs at the government’s behest we could renovate all the buildings across America with newer high efficient designs, systems, appliances, electronics….EVERYTHING really.  Then go to work installing on site renewable power systems viable to that particular region.  It could be America’s Green Cleaning!

The most important aspect of this truly progressive approach is the weaning off and elimination of the dependence of a grid supplying power to every building.   Talk about American FREEDOM.  Oh wait, there’s that pesky energy industry which would be put out of business in the way.  Talk about American oligarchy…..

Commodification Isn’t Sustainable

Ultimately if we want to transform society into a sustainable one, we need to move away from the commodification of food.  History has shown us that trading food on a market has led to international scarcity, over pricing, human conflict, and more on point environmental degradation.

Now some might scream socialism/Marxism and try to disregard this suggestion on the grounds of some imagined American ideal.  They would be ignorant.  Using isms to denounce anything is usually divisive and intentionally misleading so if that’s your bag then go have fun at the corporate funded tea party rally.

Anywho, I’m certainly not suggesting that we remove trading as a function in our economy, that would be crazy.  However, in terms of our food and the well-being of the environment it might just be the right play.  Consider that the main drive of the sustainable ag and food movement is localized or regional, small-scale, organic production.   Which is really just the old way of producing food.   What makes it old?  Well once things like beef, corn, and grain became tradeable on an international market we saw production shift towards large-scale production for a specific crop or livestock, or what we might now call the industrial farm.  Before those markets developed and open commodity trading began, food was in fact just food produced locally, on a small-scale, by no other means than what has been known for millenia or what we now call “organic.”

The key catalyst towards the industrialization of agriculture was the commodification of the product.  Some of the negative byproducts of industrial agriculture have been a massive reliance on fossil fuels to produce and transport the food, habitat loss, loss of biodiversity, and poorer diets.  If we remove that catalyst can we switch to a more sustainable form of agriculture?  One that might manifest itself in roof top or abandoned lot urban ag, greenhouses on top of supermarkets, community or backyard “victory gardens,” and small local farms?  Consider it food for thought.

From Bison to BP

Back in the mid 19th century American’s got drunk on Manifest Destiny and stormed westward to claim the savage wilds in the name of American democracy.  Little did they know or understand that the interior of the nation was inhabited by people for thousands of years already.  But that didn’t seem to phase them.   Nor were they phased by the fact that the endless sea of grasslands, savannas, prairies, and woodlands and the people who inhabited them weren’t necessarily compatible with European agricultural and civil sensibilities.   Oh well.  By god and by country the west was to be tamed, surveyed, plotted out, and ultimately eradicated and destroyed.

This is a history of our nation that is sort of swept under the rug.  Sure its acknowledged and every child studies our westward expansion to some degree in school, but the reality sort of sits there in the corner like the creepy guy at an office party.  It’s there, but nobody is going to engage it.  The reality is a rich and ancient history of both Native American Peoples and an ecology unique to this continent were systematically destroyed and plowed under fields of grain, corn, and beans.

How or why this happened?  Well that’s a huge undertaking to explain, one that is in untold volumes of books that most American’s will never read.  But if there was anything that could take the blame for it, it would be the railroad companies.  The conventional story is that America was an unbridled force ever-moving westward.  That her citizens had an intrinsic drive to settle the continent and claim it for the fledgling democratic experiment we know as the Untied States of America.  It sounds romantic, elicits national pride, and seems as though it was an inevitable benign soft ooze slowly blanketing the land.  Well no.  It was ruthless entrepreneurialism driven by the railroads and supported by politicians with good intentions that probably didn’t know any better or were paid off.

At the outset, the railroad industry was the beneficiary of massive land grants from the federal government to subsidize their development westward.   Most likely this public policy was lobbied for by the railroads themselves, but needless to say they were given the keys to the west.  Millions of acres of land were simply given to the railroad companies to lay the tracks to settle the west (again totally neglecting that it was already settled by native people).  In reality the railroads laid the tracks and then brought men to kill all the bison, armies to kill all the natives, and people to buy their lands from them and plow over the native habitats.  A key distinction was that this was not a bi-product of the railroad expanding westward, but it was policy of the railroad companies to increase their massive profits.

At the time, the great bison herds were so large that it would take days for them to pass a single spot.   Millions of head of bison that were 50 miles deep were the chief resource of the native people and their hides commanded a good price in the eastern and European markets.  So as the railroads hired men to slaughter bison for their hides, and they brought other independent men to do the same,  the bison was completely eradicated from the west in the matter of a mere decade or so.

Native American’s fought back as their lively hood was being taken from them.  Hostilities that existed since Europeans first began colonizing this continent flamed up to the point of all out war.  The United States Army was conducting full-fledged campaigns against Natives, largely at the behest of the railroads, to clear the land of conflict for more markets and trade.  A war that the Natives had no chance at winning because of the loss of the bison.

Once the railroads had taken much of the land with the governments blessing, killed off the bison and made a killing on their hides, eliminated the threat of violence from the Native Peoples, they then railroads were able to start shipping in droves of people to buy back their lands and begin plowing.   This was the end of the massive grasslands, savannas, and woodlands that covered the majority of the country.  Manifest Destiny was that of the plow and the disappearance of an entire ecosystem so rich in diversity and beauty that it was never fully understood before it was gone.

Flash forward a century or so.  Today we’re faced with a peculiarly similar situation.  The oil industry is largely supported by our federal government much in the way the railroads were in the 19th century.  They possess large swaths of land and sea and are given free rein to develop their dirty business under the guise of energy.  The railroads were given carte blanche under the guise of American expansion.  The oil industry pollutes and destroys ecosystems the world over, arguably killing off an entire sea last summer just as the railroads killed off the bison and prairies.

The parallels are easily drawn and more alarming is our failure to learn from history.  After the rise of big railroad power during the expansion westward, it took decades of strife to wrestle economic and political power from the railroad tycoons.  Really, the main reason why their hegemony over the US political and actual landscape was mitigated was the invention of the automobile and the rise to power of petroleum.  Under which we are now ruled.

Remember this? Its still an ongoing horrific disastor.

Urban Prairie

I got all giddy last night after work because I decided to finally explore the Somme Prairie Grove in Northbrook IL.   It’s about 90 acres of savanna, prairie, woodland, and ephemeral  ponds which is bordered by two four lane roads, a major interstate, and some very busy train tracks.  So it’s quite an unlikely location for what is actually an astounding preserve.

After about two hours of walking around the preserve I saw an amazing amount of wildlife.  I have an untrained eye mind you, but I saw all kinds of birds including but not limited to Orioles, Woodpeckers, Thrashers, Cardinals, I think a Blue Jay, a Hawk (swooping down for a kill), and the highlight was an Owl pellet.

I’ve been studying Owls the last couple days and the main focus of my hike was to look for evidence of Owls and sure enough I found it!  The pellet itself was fairly large and it had what looked to be some teeth and a bone in the middle of the fur ball.  My best guess is that it was from a Great Horned Owl.  I plan on spending quite a bit of time in Somme Prairie in hopes to catch a glimpse of an Owl.

Check this Owl out, he’s all like “say whaaaaaaa?”

Anywho, while I was walking through the savanna, prairie, and woodlands I got this overwhelming sense of disappointment.  Not from the beauty around me, but from the lack of preserves of this caliber in the state of Illinois.   Less than 17% of prairies in Illinois are larger than 10 acres leaving the rest to be small isolated patches in local parks and preserves.  Illinois proudly proclaims itself to be the “prairie state” yet it contains such precious little prairie.  All that’s left of what used to be prairie, savanna, and woodland as far as the eye can see  is urban and suburban sprawl and a ton of monoculture corporate farmland.  That makes places like Somme incredibly valuable as a stronghold of an ecosystem that once was.

I also got this sense that most people have completely lost their connection to the native ecosystem they live in.  Probably because nobody really lives in a “native ecosystem” unless you consider a sea of pavement, Wal-Marts, manicured lawns, and cell phone towers to be a native ecosystem (there’s an argument there.)  But for the most part we go through our daily lives with little or no regard to our natural environment.  Even things so tangible and natural such as the weather are barely noticed, save for the BS small talk.   How can there be any hope for a grassland ecosystem and the flora and fauna there in, when the people who live amongst it don’t even know it?

There is hope because biophillia is strong.  In all of us resides a very real and strong connection to nature.  It’s just deeper and harder to thaw out for some.  But It only takes a little time and reflection in a place as beautiful as Somme to rekindle that connection in a person.   This is why we need to fight like hell to protect and preserve places like Somme and work towards their expansion as well as development of new conservation projects where possible.  We all need to do our part to help this cause.  I for one plan on volunteering at Somme this summer, but for others it can be difficult to find a place to start.  I suggest starting by talking a walk through a local prairie preserve.

Wisco Shenanigans

In recent fun democratic news, last week the state of Wisconsin held an election for a seat on their state’s Supreme Court.  In response to the republican war on labor, voters turned out for an election many of whom would probably not have known was taking place otherwise.  Surprisingly, the conservative incumbent David Prosser was dealt a narrow loss on Tuesday the 5th with wide reports claiming that challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg had pulled off the upset by merely a couple hundred votes.  BUT WAIT!

As the Kloppenburg and Prosser camps were preparing for the 2001esqu court battle to come, some new shit had come to light man.  The Waukesha Co. Clerk had up and forgotten to pass on the results from Brookfield WI which were saved on her pc.  Once she turned them in for counting Prosser gained about 11,000 votes and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat…or something like that.

Crushing? Yes. Incredibly shady? Yes.  Conspiracy? Who knows.  Immediately after these events occurred droves of people were up in arms rightfully upset about this blunder and more importantly calling into question the new election results.   Then the reports came out quelling the conspiratorial claims by identifying the honest mistake and thus killing any likely hood of a drawn out legal battle for the state Supreme Court seat.  Whether or not this election gaff was malicious is now a moot point and we’ll probably never know for sure if this was another case in a long history of election fraud in America.  Prosser has won.

This is a serious blow in the legal challenges to Gov. Walker’s (very illegal) anti-collective bargaining rights law.  The court is right leaning and will in all likelihood side with Walker when the hearing the cases regarding the union busting law.  How they will try to justify the illegal manner with which it was passed has yet to be seen.  Additionally this is seen as a set back in the democratic movement against Walker and the state GOP in Wisconsin.  With a handful of recall efforts set to unfold this summer, Prosser’s victory signals a state still divided and a judiciary on the side of the GOP.

An Apple A Day Kills the Environment.

If there was one thing that might define the last 10 years or so, it would be an Apple product.  Whether it be an iPod, iPhone, iPad, or a computer the Apple brand has dominated the techy consumer market for quite sometime now. So basically, If you don’t have an iWhatever you’re a loser.

Or are you?  Perhaps you care about the environment and have decided that Apple’s business strategy is not palatable for you?  Well if you are you’d be smarter than just about everyone these days.  Apple simply doesn’t have a very good environmental record which is completely the opposite of its fresh new and innovative corporate identity.   This is why people ought to start thinking twice about buying the latest Apple gizmo, and then buying it again 8 months later…again 8 months after that…. and again…..

See Apple is like a drug dealer that gets you all F’d up on fun software and a flawless user interface but then has you coming back again and again like a junkie with endless upgrades and releases of the latest products.    This is why having consumers constantly buying new pads, phones, and pods is great for business, but horribly unsustainable, and ultimately bad for the environment.

Apple’s business model leads to untold amounts raw materials being extracted, harmful chemicals and processes molding and creating plastics and components, massive amounts of energy (very little of it from renewable sources) needed to transport materials build and ship the products, and finally there’s the ever growing pile of iTrash.  Whats scarier to think is that the rest of this decade will see Apple blowing up in China and possibly India.  This would mean billions of new Apple consumers buying hundreds of billions of new Apple products every year.

Proponents of Apple would argue that planned obsolescence and rapid release of new generation products isn’t their business model but that’s its a byproduct of the exponential development of new technologies and capabilities.   I do consider this to be part of the equation, however that does not mean that it’s not done so on purpose.  It’s in fact the very reason why they’re so successful and that if you had a time machine you would go all the way back to the year 2000 and invest heavily in Apple.

Is it too much to ask for an iPad or an iPhone that you can own and happily use for 10 years?  I don’t think so.

Read more here

We Need A Progressive Tax!

Conservatives have always claimed that slashes in taxation, government  spending, and regulation are what stimulate the economy (trickle down economics.).  But it’s always been a pile of BS because in reality it just serves for rich people to hold onto “their” money.  If you really want a vibrant and healthy economy you need to amass capital in the middle class.  This gives the majority of American’s real buying power which then fuels the economy.  The key tool in doing this is a progressive tax.

A progressive tax serves to increase government revenue which is then reinvested into the country primarily with social services, infrastructure improvements, education, and private sector regulation.  Social services increase the quality of life for the majority of Americans and empowers them to be more vibrant workers in the economy.  Better infrastructure might be the most important aspect of this as it quite literally drives business.  Investing into educating our society is a no brainer.  However, under “trickle down economics” over the last 30 years we’ve seen college tuition rates sky-rocket and public k-12 schools performance rates slide.  Finally, wrestling back regulative powers from the private sector will safe guard our nation from environmental degradation, protect us from unsafe food and products, and reign in unfair business practices.  All of these aspects directly contribute to job creation and growth which leads to more wealth for the middle class.

With higher revenues the government can also provide more robust economic incentives to the private sector to further stimulate economic growth. For instance consider our drive for renewable energy.  If there were an increase in government revenue, there would be more money available for R&D grants and subsidies for projects building and selling renewable energy systems.  As a matter of fact government grants and subsidies could serve to ramp up sustainable development across all industry sectors.  Whats that spell, higher wages and new jobs for the middle class.

It also acts as incentive for the very rich to reinvest “their” money back into their businesses as opposed to claiming it as income.  That means higher wages, job creation, and more business development for everyone.  Think about it, if you were über rich and had a choice of paying say 5 million in income tax or putting it back into your business (or starting a new one for that matter) what would you rather do?  Right now, the incentive is to simply take money in as income and stash it into the bank.  This is why we see billionaires thriving with huge paychecks and bonuses and something like 1.5 trillion in capital sitting stagnant in our economy.

The attack by the wealthy against a progressive tax has always been two-fold.  First, the assertion that government cannot do anything effectively and its inherently corrupt and wasteful.  This is why capital needs to stay with the rich so that they can then be the catalyst for everything I’ve outlined above.  They’ve got a point here as there is always some wasteful spending and corruption in government.  But it’s not any different in the private sector!  More importantly ineptitude and corruption in government are publicly accountable and can be made a moot point with sound laws, policy, and elections.  Furthermore, I reject the claim that government can’t get anything accomplished as there is a rich abundance of incredibly successful government services and programs throughout our nation’s history.

The second argument against a progressive tax is that it stifles business (primarily small business) by putting too much of a financial burden on them.  What this fails to acknowledge is that this nation had a progressive tax for a large part of the 20th century and we did just fine with it.  Actually, we grew into the financial world power that we are under a progressive tax.  Industry grew and thrived, rich people got richer, but most importantly so did everyone else.   When people talk about the good old days when a single income could provide for a home and a family, they’re talking about America with a progressive tax.

Finally, its of utmost importance to note that a progressive tax is NOT socialism and it’s NOT robbing the rich to feed the poor.  Its primary structure calls for high tax rates on income past a certain amount earned.   If you have to pay 70% tax on income after the 5 million you’ve already banked does that make you poor?  NO.  It actually makes you the rich industrialist beacon of society that the American Dream calls for as opposed to the vilified robber baron of today.   So lets stop being so damned greedy already and re-institute a Progressive Tax in America!

 

I’d like to thank Paul Krugman for his usual well written arguments on economics which although are very technical still seem to boil down to common sense which largely serves as inspiration for my economic beliefs.  Read his article about The Mellon Doctrine here which is relevant to my arguments above.

Also much more intricate and intelligent arguments are given for a Progressive Tax by our former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.   Check out his blog here

BigWersk’s BOLD predicitions: 2011 MLB Season

Opening day is finally upon us, but i’ll save you the trouble of watching 162 long boring baseball games and let you know whats going to happen.

NL East: The Nationals are an interesting team offensively and might surprise a few folks, but pitching is the name of the game and they just don’t have any.  They’ll be in cellar.  The Marlins have some decent pitching, solid youngsters, and Hanley Ramirez but they’re not well-rounded enough to compete with the big boys at the top of the division.  The Mets are intriguing as far as the line up is concerned.  But too much is riding on aging and injury riddled Beltran and Santana.  Although I think they’ll put up a decent showing this year, they’ll be battling for 3rd with the Marlins.  The Phillies have a legit all-star rotation top to bottom, might be one of the best we’ve seen in a long time.  However, they’ll struggle offensively and might have some back of the bull pen issues.  Sooooo I’m talking the Braves to win the division.  But its about as close to a push as there is this season.  Braves are very balanced and will squeak by the Phillies by maybe a game.

NL Central:  The Pirates are well…the Pirates and perennial sellers of good young talent.  They’re bad.  After that this is where this division gets interesting.  The Astros look like they might have a healthy amount of fire power at the plate, but whether or not the pitching can step up  is a question.  They’ve got the arms who knows if they’ll show.  The cubs added by subtraction with the departure of Lou Pinella last season.  They’ve got a good pitching staff but poor defense and too many question marks for offense.  They’ll be better than last year but still need to get out from under a couple of bad contracts before they can be factor.  The Cardinals are solid top to bottom but the loss of Wainwright is a huge blow.  Regardless they’ve got Pujols and they’re still going to be a tough out for anyone.  The Reds are basically the same as last season so there shouldn’t be a drop off in their abilities.  The only concern here is whether or not Baker will find a way to burn out his young pitchers.  The Astros, cubs, Cardinals, and Reds are all going to compete making this summer a fun one for NL Central fans, but the Milwaukee Brewers will come out on top.  They’ve finally gotten a solid pitching staff to go along with their explosive offense.  Only concerns are some early season injuries and an average defense.  But they’ll win the division in a tight race with 3 maybe 4 teams contending.

NL West:   Even though the Padres surprised a lot of people hanging in contention for most of the season last year, they’re still the bottom of the barrel here.  Their best player is now in Boston.  The D-Backs are sort of in no man’s land.  It seems like they’ve got a shot at being competitive but at the same time they could be battling the Padres for last place.  The Rockies always seem to out perform expectations and this year will probably be no different.  However I don’t know if they can be as good away from Coors Field as they are at home.  The Dodgers are expected to have a drop off but I think their well-rounded and will raise some eyebrows this season.  They’re a real dark horse at winning this division.  However, I’ve got to take the defending world champions to win.  Even though they look very challenged offensively, their pitching is top-notch.  The Giants, Dodgers, and Rockies will take it to the wire with the Giants winning out.

NL Wild Card: Phillies

 

 

AL East: In Baltimore, Buck’s boys can bat!  But that’s about it.  After Guthrie I’m not sure who will be able to step up in that rotation. The arrow is pointing up for this team, but it’s pointing up from the bottom of the division.  Toronto isn’t far ahead of the Os, actually I wouldn’t be surprised if the Jays were in last this season.   But they do have some good young pitching and some spot pop in the line up.  The Rays had to move some salary and are firmly on the decline.  However, they still have a lot of good young hitters and a great manager.  3rd place is firmly theirs.  Well well well…what a surprise, down to the Yankees and Red Sox.  Frankly I hate both teams and don’t care what either does.  Yankees don’t have the pitching and are getting long in the tooth.   Red Sox got considerably better in the off-season, Bo Sox take the division.

AL Central:  Kansas City is still Kansas City only they dealt away their best starting pitcher.  They’ll be able to score runs but the problem is they won’t be able to keep other teams from scoring.  The only reason why the Indians might finish ahead of the Royals is they have a little better rotation.  Otherwise they’re pretty similar.  Both teams will be towards the bottom of the AL.  The Tigers are touted as a serious contender this year but I just don’t see it.  That’s not to say they won’t be competitive as they have tons of power and one of the top pitchers in baseball with Verlander.  But after Verlander their rotation isn’t very scary and they don’t have a proven bullpen.  Either way they’re going to hang with the top teams in the division but fall just short. The Twins are pesky with a lot of power in their line up and sneaky good pitching.  Even though they won without them last year this season rides on the healthy return of Nathan and Morneau.  If those two return to form the Twins will be every bit as good as they have been the last couple seasons.  So long as the White Sox shake their Minneapolis curse they should take this division in yet another tight race.  In a division where 3 teams really can take it all, I feel that the Sox will edge out the competition.

AL West:  The Mariners have some nice pieces but not a complete team…aaannnd Milton Bradley.  I really feel sorry for Ichiro because that guy deserves to be on a winner.  Not this year though.  The Angels are getting long in the tooth but also have some nice pieces mixed in.   They’ve got three legit starters so they should be competitive, certainly more so than the Mariners.  I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they jumped up and contended for the division.  But right now on paper I’ve got them 3rd.  I really don’t know why, but I’ve got Oakland 2nd.  Their pitching has the chance at being really good but I’m not sure where the offense is going to come from.  Lets call it a toss-up between the A’s and the Angels.  Texas is the cream of the western crop.   Tons of offense and solid pitching will have them winning the west without a problem.

AL Wild Card: Twins

 

 

 

 

NL: Braves, Brewers, Giants, and WC Phillies

AL: Red Sox, White Sox, Rangers, and WC Twins

World Series: White Sox v Braves

White Sox 2011 World Champions