“We are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP.”

here is some reality for ya... (and a really excellent article)

None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use

By David Roberts

The notion of “externalities” has become familiar in environmental circles. It refers to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses. For instance, industrial processes can put pollutants in the air that increase public health costs, but the public, not the polluting businesses, picks up the tab. In this way, businesses privatize profits and publicize costs.

Of the top 20 region-sectors ranked by environmental impacts, none would be profitable if environmental costs were fully integrated. Ponder that for a moment. None of the world’s top industrial sectors would be profitable if they were paying their full freight. None!

Here’s how those costs break down:

The majority of unpriced natural capital costs are from greenhouse gas emissions (38%), followed by water use (25%), land use (24%), air pollution (7%), land and water pollution (5%), and waste (1%).

So how much is that costing us? Trucost’s headline results are fairly stunning.

First, the total unpriced natural capital consumed by the more than 1,000 “global primary production and primary processing region-sectors” amounts to $7.3 trillion dollars a year — 13 percent of 2009 global GDP.

(A “region-sector” is a particular industry in a particular region — say, wheat farming in East Asia.)

Second, surprising no one, coal is the enemy of the human race. Trucost compiled rankings, both of the top environmental impacts and of the top industrial culprits.

That amounts to an entire global industrial system built on sleight of hand. As legendary environmentalist Paul Hawken put it, “We are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP.”

But the UNEP report makes clear that what’s going on today is more than a few accounting oversights here and there. The distance between today’s industrial systems and truly sustainable industrial systems — systems that do not spend down stored natural capital but instead integrate into current energy and material flows — is not one of degree, but one of kind. What we need is not just better accounting, it is a new global industrial system, a new way of providing for human wellbeing, a new way of relating to our planet. We need a revolution.

the rest  <--click to continue reading

vegan stuffs

Ill start by saying: wow, it sure is harder to keep up w/ thoughtful blogging that I thought it would be.
Ill finish by saying: I am going to take this opportunity to share another (well done) blog with you here--
in honor of Earth day (every day!) and the power of going veggie/vegan - here is a hug!

Vegan Hug!

wtf was up with that dream?

I just woke up abruptly out of a very weird dream, and I'm trying to note some of it here before it all disappears into the mental place where dreams go to die and wont return no matter how much you struggle to recall.

lets see what I can remember now... it has been a solid half hour.

I had to move, like, into a new apartment but I dont know why. It was a big rush though.   I had a few friends around, I cant say who they were but they were the random faces playing the role of real friends from back home.  most of this took place in ft lauderdale and surrounding areas, or so it seemed, not up here in DE where I am.

the friends helped me find a new place to move to and so when I was informed what had been found for me, I went there... my stuff was somehow already accounted for. I had a truck, not a car.  not because of moving, I mean i just drove a truck in the dream.  So I headed to the new place, though in the dream i had no idea where it was yet i thought i did? or something.  so I was driving towards the henry whatshisname tunnel in lauderdale only to finally call the friend person and learn that the place was off stirling road. i turned around and went there and the friends were already there helping get things set up. it was a somewhat old run down place (but most are over there).  it was okay on the inside, it was a 2/2, and even had this weird storage thingy in front that you had to open w/ a key and was shared w/ the neighbor. it looked like a big storage thing for tools that you get from home depot, with all the drawers. but when you opened it, it was useful shelves and also a cloth-lined laundry hamper.  inside i found that the AC unit control looked like an equalizer and didnt seem work well (for AC or equalizing) my cats were already there as well.  i then discovered 4 small cats (they were kind of weird looking... like retarded cats???) in a windowsill that had been left behind by the previous tenant (presumably), along w/ some other items that appeared through the process..

i called the office for someone to  come retrieve the pets and other items.  the guy came and was useless, beyond taking the cats.  no help on the AC/Equalizer, no help when i asked about transferring my alarm over, no help w/ any questions and actually kind of just left the apt while I was talking to him.   like, just walked away. i think it was 6pm and he was done w/ work but still...

then.... I went outside to find my truck had 1 flat tire and was already up on a jack - like the kind that comes w/ your car.  actually it wasnt just flat, it was shredded - all f'd up. and then suddenly my mom was there telling me i needed to take care of that immediately, soozin!  i called AAA, knowing also that i did have a low tire earlier (this is in real life as well), but that was a different one.  while on the phone w/ AAA, i looked at the initially low tire and saw a huge gash in the side and it immediately went flat. it was sort of like it exhaled, actually.  Then the truck started sliding all over the place in the parking lot, i couldn't keep it steady or still (Im sure THAT means something). out of control up on the jack and all.

i asked AAA to bring me new tires since I only had 1 spare (which were different sizes between front and back, btw).  then, I realized they didnt have my new address so I had to call back.  but, i didnt have my new address either!  so i went inside to ask my friends what it was and i couldnt find them and because suddenly the 2/2 was a big townhouse or something and they were scattered all over.   turns out my building was called "elephant". yea, i dont know.  then some friends i could actually recognize as real were there and getting ready to go out.  also, the shower curtain wouldnt stay up because the gizmos that you use to hook it on there -- they didnt work right on this particular curtain rod.  and I dont know where my shit was, i kept finding things left behind by the other tenant - everything from a coffee table to an art easel thingy and other things i cant recall.  my stuff... not sure where it was.  some other things went awry during the dream but i cant remember them. i dont remember saying in the dream that it was the worst day of my life..   and somewhere around here i woke up abrupty and now I am going to the gym to get this weirdness out of my head.   so yea.  huh?

watch this immediately

i dont know if this counts as a blog post, but I dont really care either way ... this is worth sharing in whatever format.  watch immediately !

napping ...

In the library?
After careful consideration, I see nothing wrong with this.  Yes you can buy coffee and other caffeinated items on site until late into the evening hours, I still think library naps are acceptable at this level of academia.  While spending the better part of my afternoon here trying to get lots of work done, I started feeling my eyelids getting heavy while my vision began to blur...
To my left I see a nap in progress.  I considered this but opted for the coffee instead.   On my journey to the coffee area I ran into a colleague.  She had just slept for 45 minutes in some other section of the library and was headed to class.  gotta do what ya gotta do!

coffee

I just sometimes wish they made something stronger, ya know?

Lentil

just because.