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Photo Essays - Toxic Urban Landscapes - Air Pollution - Climate Change
Photo essays of visibly distressed landscapes in the urban American West. Our health, and our landscape, is being destroyed by the toxic components of the air pollution we generate. These photo essays, centered mostly in Santa Barbara, CA, and Portland, OR, serve as stark reminders.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Bumble bees suffering in Portland, Oregon USA
Bumble bees suffering in Portland, Oregon USA. June 2015.
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Wednesday, March 4, 2015
A Rambling Letter of Confession to Extinct Children in a Dying Climate
I tell you now, this is a
letter.
A memo, if you like.
A confession of empty words for children that
will never be.
Endless generations of
them. Who will never be -- can never be.
Not ever.
None are expected to read
these words but that is irrelevant. It is my confession. And only mine.
I must write it. This path
to extinction. A murky whimper.
Call it humanus habitus deletum -- " Only
following, orders you know."
Sure -- only doing my
job. A victim, you see.
You just will never be.
And I tell myself that
every profit savior church of god's school of learning is surrounded with asphalt
dead zones. You know, motors, and emissions --
all licensed of course.
And I can say that I
was pretty close to god in the parking lot.
But this screed is also
about time. I write this to be subsumed -- by time itself.
Let's see -- E equals emcee of my favorite
quiz show squared by thirty-six easy payments of the tax and licenses minus
sticker shock factored in after the added price of a multi million gallon
petrochemical spill into the municipal water supply of my choice.
That's why I use bulky
engines and combustion devices that bring me the zest that only freedom can
bring. And save me time.
Or so tell
myself.
Why, I must have
centuries of time banked up -- a giant depository of time. All in my encrypted numbered account.
Ok, maybe most of those
centuries rightly belong to you. But you'll never know because I have all of your
time too.
You might argue, if you
had time, "If no one is alive to talk
about it over a cup of espresso, then what good is it, this -- time?
Right. You'll get no
argument from me.
Remember, if I throw a clock,
whether it's running fast or slow, through a store window, it's still a felony.
Which I wouldn't want on my record.
For now, here I am, racing about, blinking my eyes a
lot because of this veil of carbon dust with free parking and smog dead children
who never make it on TV.
####
All hasn't been well
since the Hitler Ford guys got away with putting exhaust pipes on the rear of
their cars -- instead of upfront where the drivers can breathe deep the
wonderful fuel that makes them go.
See, this Hitler guy,
he was resourceful. And his workers knew where put tail pipes where they did
the most good for them. And this Ford man, he knew how to do on the cheap. And
most important, he got very many other men to help. Paid them money. Everyone
got their hands dirty. All the way to the bank.
But as it was, those
Nazi Third-Reichers, they put one end of a hose on the engine pipe, and the
other they stuck in small cramped room full of the unwanted.
And the engine would
hum, and the fumes would fill the room.
And the unwanted people inside would choke and die for the Fatherland or the company's stockholders -- whichever came first.
Or some such occurrence.
###
And the unwanted people inside would choke and die for the Fatherland or the company's stockholders -- whichever came first.
Or some such occurrence.
###
So, America, wins the war. The victors come home with
a pack or two of cigarettes and cancer in their shirt pockets and use a millions
of tailpipes to fill the big, big room we call our air. Call it a living room where
things don't live very long.
Too bad for us.
Much too bad for you.
I doubt we operate in total
ignorance. But it helps -- and we do know that air pollution kills children.
Yes.
We do.
And the old folks, the
grandparents and others that went along with the sordid mess -- they die too.
Now let us wax and
wane philosophical.
Look at the cold hard facts at what we have done here.
By doing away with the children, we avoid a future. You. And by zapping the elderly, we renounce our past and any wisdom they may have had.
Look at the cold hard facts at what we have done here.
By doing away with the children, we avoid a future. You. And by zapping the elderly, we renounce our past and any wisdom they may have had.
Put that in some
equation, I say. As pointless as it is.
What use is it to say
"Zero plus zero, is 00 or "Negative zero squared is still negative
and lifeless."
###
These days, all is
wrong. The world's air is full poison gases.
The sky is filthy. It
is no longer deep blue.
Trees and leaves are
dying. Ice fields and glaciers melt faster than ever.
Back to the letter of
confession to extinct children. The ones that will never be.
Too bad for you. But we
have to burn all the gas, oil, and coal we can get our hands on.
You children of my
fanciful dreams who will never be.
So what, if we go about
our businesses on plumes of poison.
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles know best how to burn stuff that kills the world. Yes, we do. We prove it every day.
Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles know best how to burn stuff that kills the world. Yes, we do. We prove it every day.
We can't stop
ourselves. We only do what we are told.
And that, my children
is why you will never live to grow or get old.
#
The power of our love
for you is surpassed only by that new car smell. And boy does it smell. Like if
you took embalming fluid mixed with hot cotton candy, then swabbed it
everywhere.
It sure got your
parents and grandparents excited.
On TV, they had choice
between your future and -- a brand new car! Well I don't need to tell you that
they chose the new car every time. But don't blame them too much. They were only
doing as the TV told them to do, or some
such crazy talk.
But
why should you care?
You will never be. And
assure yourselves that you don't want to associate with us anyways. We'll be
out looking for a bargain with plenty of free parking.
And not to be too harsh,
or put too fine a point on it -- but if you were to descend from us, you would act
the same. You wouldn't give a thought
for anyone's future either.
You are of the
generations that will never be.
We of the fossil fuels are
seeing to that.
###
Sunday, February 15, 2015
The State of the Climate: Scientists on the Hottest Year 2014
As we keep injecting more fossil fuel carbon into the atmosphere earth grows hotter. The oceans expand due to that same heat. Catastrophe looms for us. If we reduce our fossil fuel emissions we can 'buy' ourselves some time.
As for our children, we keep gambling their future away.
Surely, we can do better by them.
Can't we?
The State of the Climate: Scientists on the Hottest Year:
As for our children, we keep gambling their future away.
Surely, we can do better by them.
Can't we?
The State of the Climate: Scientists on the Hottest Year:
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
WOULD YOU FRACK YOUR OWN MOTHER?
One image, one plea, one question, and a crime against Nature, but considering the dire threat of human forced climate change from carbon -- a crime against Humanity.
DO NOT FRACK ME.
WOULD YOU FRACK YOUR OWN MOTHER?
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Questioning Today's Arctic and Northern Hemisphere's Weather, October 18,2014
Pioneering seismologist Robert Mallet, in his 'Manual of Scientific
Inquiry' circa 1860, gave us a phrase I much admire. As part of his report to
the British Admiralty, he wrote that, " Nature, rightly questioned, never
lies." He was emphasizing that, "All evidence should, as far as
possible, be circumstantial". And that each situation investigated had its
own unique physical conditions, in its own location, and in own time, etc.
My present day concerns about the present condition, and
influences, on weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, where I reside, cause
me to look closely, and ask questions about the following subject.
The upper image is a screenshot from Oct. 18, 2014 Nullschool shows anticyclonic (clockwise) high
pressure winds over the Arctic Ocean. It appears to be pushing air through the
Bering Strait, and feeding the (counter-clockwise) winds of a wide area of low
pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. A high just to the west of this low seems to be
receiving some of the air from the Arctic high. Meanwhile, a smaller area of cyclonic winds sits in the
western Bering Sea -- and seems to be getting some of the same wind.
The energy from these weathers are now linked together to
form a chain of energy.
The lower image is a screenshot of the Oct. 18, 2014 ClimateReanalyzer Air Temperature Anomaly. A
large mass of warm, or hot, air is over the Laptev Sea in the Arctic. This
warmth is also part of the above mentioned anticyclonic high pressure pattern.
How much of this warm Arctic air anomaly became entrained in
the low pressure air mass in the, struggling just to be cool, Gulf of Alaska?
And what chance does the Arctic have to keep cold and retain its ice?
And what chance does the Arctic have to keep cold and retain
its ice? And what of the jet stream, and its role as deliverer of our weather
systems?
These questions are likely to be answered by nature whether
I ask them or not.
Originally posted on DTLANGE2
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