Seven Generational Ruminations

Reducing carbon emissions 75% by 2050 is like agreeing to stop smoking by the time your lung cancer becomes inoperable...

ZipCar is about helping people wean themselves from car ownership. In the U.S.A. we have become car dependent and it's difficult to live in our cities without owning a car. Strike that, it's difficult to live here without having to occasionally drive a car to something or other. In many places it is possible to get around without driving, for example by bicycling or motorcycles or public transit.

Grey water is perfectly reusable in certain ways. There are known standards and known practices that allow the use of grey water in a way that is safe. By using grey water you lessen water use, and extend the water supply so that more people can drink. Nature reuses water endlessly but somehow we humans don't seem to have caught on to this pattern, and instead our supposedly advanced modern society throws away massive quantities of water causing us to overly stretch the water supply available to us.

An unrecognized looming crisis is the availability of fresh clean water. Water supply systems are overloaded delivering water to current populations, and in many countries the water simply is not safe. And of course our ancestors also had to deal with unsafe water supplies, it was modern water treatment with all its chemicals that enabled us to have safe clean water available just by twisting the water tap.

"1 Block Off the Grid is a nationwide community-based purchasing program for residential Solar energy. We drive large savings by aggregating groups of residents and negotiating discount pricing with installers and manufacturers." They aim to bring the U.S. to the forefront of using and deploying solar energy technology. They aim to remove 'cost' as a hurdle by using group purchasing power.

"Oil Change International campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. We are dedicated to identifying and overcoming political barriers to that transition." That's what they're saying about themselves. This is a worthy goal as I think most people just fill up their tanks and don't think a thing about what they're doing.

The Green-e program is meant to bolster customer confidence in the reliability of retail electricity products reflecting renewable energy generation, expand the retail market for electricity products incorporating renewable energy, provide customers clear information about retail "green" electricity products to enable them to make informed purchasing decisions, and encourage the deployment of electricity products that minimize air pollution and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With a name that sounds like a utility company, California Interfaith Power and Light (CIPL) are an activist group working on environmental green issues from a religious perspective.

Barack Obama's epic win (salon.com) No president since John Kennedy or Harry Truman will come into office facing graver crises....Tuesday was the night that the 1960s -- the divisive decade that defined American politics for 40 years -- finally died.... by defeating Clinton (representing baby boomers) and McCain (representing Vietnam soldiers) ...The raucous Obama victory rally in Grant Park was the capstone of Democratic strength through unity.