Ego is the Agent of Chaos

I'm on a non JitterBook project where for whatever reason, each person feels the need to restate the other person's insight in their own words, thus making it "their own insight".

In restating the objective, the baton of thought is passed to each person in the meeting, allowing everyone to clarify each other's comments, explaining the same freaking thing, but again from their perspective as if to say, "my take on the idea is better than yours". What a waste of everyone's time. It creates all this disorder, simply because folks can't put their ego aside and just be real. We get very little done. It sucks.

The only reason I state this - I mean after all, it is all but common place in the business world, everyone's egos stepping on the others, is that every now and then you see a beacon of "fuck you all, I'm riding down my own path and I really don't care what any of you think". A person who is an anomaly, who doesn't necessarily stand out, because that's not their intention, but they are differentiated from the rest of humanity simply by being there own person.

I applaud these people, mainly because i meet so few of them and also because for a brief moment I am meeting someone who has the integrity to be real and not some facade of what they think they should be.

I don't think any of us can be that person at all times, we all have needs after all. I'm not even saying the person in my mind's eye even displayed this high personality trait on our brief encounter, but I did see more than a hint that it was possible. Having been living the repeated hell of meetings and daily life where ego's try to trump each other, even the brief moment of time with someone real is a refreshing.

How this fits into global warming, I'm sure I could be clever and think of a connection, maybe in my rewrite. Right now I'm too drunk on wine to care...

Okay, maybe not too drunk.

I think we all know what the right thing to do is even if it is relative to our own personalities. We tend not to do that right thing because we second guess. We shouldn't be afraid of making fun of ourselves, of being wrong, of letting others be who they are, of wanting, caring, not caring, even if it goes against the grain of so called society.

The mass society is what got us to the problems we face, is what brought us idiot leaders and bad choices, so yes, fuck the masses. They are sheep acting in accordance to their own fears. If more of us were true to ourselves, we would find less bad decision making, which in turn would aid in all causes and issues that need attention, including, um, yes, you guessed it, global warming.

Then again, ha! maybe I'm just second guessing myself!! .....

Thanks www.svH3.com and the person who turned me on (to the site) for the inspiration for this blog :+)

Some Thoughts on Extremism

It's a mural of a whale now, but at one time there was this graffiti tag I would walk by on my way to class that said "Death to Extremists!". I loved the irony of this phrase. I mean, isn't death a bit of an extreme punishment for someone who is being, well, extreme? Each day started with a little chuckle as I pondered the incongruity of what was being proposed in that statement.

The campus town I lived in had two sides, the loggers and the environmentalists. They both hated each other and each went to their own extremes to argue their causes. From running over tree huggers to ceramic spikes in the trees, each went out of their way and accomplished little as a result. This was something I never quite understood as it always seemed to me that there must be some middle ground, a place where both groups could get what they wanted.

In playing spectator to this war of the takers and the savers, I came to realize that all fanaticism was myopic, one sided and thus ultimately a poor choice as a route to take. The takers couldn't just take or else there would be nothing left to harvest down the road. The savers couldn't save everything and btw - not one of them wanted to live in a plastic home or a cave, they all seemed to have a general liking towards wood and paper. Somehow, a middle ground, an objective, less fanatical ground would produce better results.

Fanaticism's work against us in all that they are applied to, be it in global warming, religion, harvesting of our natural resources, even in relationships. They ultimately bear little fruit.

For years since, I followed my own advice, but lately I had a moment where I too saw things from a narrow perspective and got carried away.

Missteps were made and I realized, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on these extremists. Maybe at one time or another, every one of us rallies behind something that we really believe in and we forge ahead like moths to a flame, not realizing we will only get burned in the end. Maybe getting carried away is a journey we need to go through from time to time before we can land on our feet again, hopefully a little wiser. Perhaps it is in knowing what the end points are that we find the middle ground we are ultimately looking for.

So in my own journey into the underworld of extremes, I came out the other side thinking that while all of those "-isms" are ultimately not the best way to go, I guess I should give them a break seeing as I succumbed to my own "-ism". In other words, sometimes, despite our wisdom, we still do dumb things. Maybe I should apply a bit more empathy at this point.

With that I say to all the tree huggers, all the loggers, the door to door zealots, the Mac fanatics and Linux users, to all the career folks who put in more hours and work harder than I, to all the A students, the gang members and the Evangelists, and especially to all who want death to extremists, I forgive you. I still don't agree with you but at I guess from time to time, we all get carried away despite our best intentions.

Lessons from Penguins

THE ANTARCTIC -The Emperor penguins which featured in the film Happy Feet have suffered a devastating population slump in the past 50 years, according to a report by the WWF or so the article begins.

The problem here is the remoteness of penguins to most of our lives. The only people reading this article are those who care about penguins or have little kitten posters on their walls because they care about all living things. For the rest of us, we have seen penguins probably once or twice in our lives, most likely in a zoo, most likely behind glass..

Now, if the article read:

GEORGIA - 90% of the population of the state of Georgia have moved or are dead due to lack of water in the region, according to whatever hack of a president happens to be in the White House in the next 50 years... Now this is an article that might give us notice to read and care and want to do something.

Unfortunately, if it's getting so bad you can't inhabit Georgia, it's probably too late to do anything to change global warming for another 75 years or so, you just have to ride it out at that point.

If however, we do something now, hell, if every college student replaced a light bulb or something else that had no downside, then maybe Georgia will remain a lovely livable place.

Or will it? The bigger problem is we haven't maxed out on our energy needs quite yet. In other words, if I could afford to run my heater at 74 degrees in the winter, I would. If I could afford to drive two cars at the same time because it was half as expensive, I would find a way. It's called the Efficiency Paradox and it basically says that while energy efficiency in the US has increased almost 50%, our energy consumption has gone up 40%.

At some point this levels off, I mean, I don't want my house at 104 degrees in the winter and really, how big of a car does everyone really need? There's cargo room and then there's cargo room. The bigger question is on the business side. If it cost a business pennies to light up hundreds of neon flashing ads all over the place, believe me they would do it.

Obviously the answer is to increase cost of energy as we increase efficiency of energy, but where's the capitalism in that? We commoditize energy to make it available to more people so they can buy more things that require energy, which translates to bigger profits for those making said energy, right?

This is a tough problem to solve. Reducing consumption, changing lifestyle is the only way to climb this hill of sand we've made. For the 2% that are smart enough to make a lifestyle change, who cares? There's still 98% who continue to wear their blinders and consume like their forefathers.

For the broader America to reduce consumption, that's a paradigm shift.... Those only happen because something big (and usually life changing or catastrophic) just occurred necessitating the change. We won't do it given the current state. Kind of like what's happening to the Emperor Penguins right now. I'm sure they are trying like mad to adapt to their new situation.

Perhaps Now We Can Focus on a Solution

In the past few months, while the bloggers and journalists have all said they agree that global warming was indeed a fact, there was still disagreement on whether this was man made (and thus had a solution) or a natural occurrence (implying that there is nothing we can do).

The UN article on global warming, which states not only are we in for some badness in the future but that humans are the main cause of global warming should help put an end to the debate.

Even so, what is the solution? It appears that even if we take every car off the road, the sea level could rise another 4.6 feet from where they were back in 1850. Nothing that drastic will ever occur and the two worst offenders, the US and China, are slow to react.

Here's one thing folks can do, a fairly brain dead video and well, okay, it's a parody on installing an Eco friendly light bulb, but good all the same - gets the message across:

Politically - It's Business as Usual

The White House apparently used white out on testimony regarding global warming. The justification here is that it didn't match UN findings in spite of UN panel findings supporting the parts deleted.

Another bill on setting limits on greenhouse gases isn't getting the support it needs, flailing in part because the limits purposed can't be met with given technologies.

Meanwhile, some of the first recipients of the negative effects of global warming belongs to a group of residents of the Carter Islands in Papua New Guinea, who are losing their homes due to higher sea levels.

Maybe they can move to the White House and help edit the testimonies..

JitterBook

Some folks have recently asked, how is JitterBook: the Blog, related to JitterBook: the online site? The site was created to offer students a place to sell back their books, the blog is my commentary on articles I read on global warming plus my own thoughts. These thoughts are my own and don't reflect or represent the company JitterBook. The two are tied together only in that a portion of the profits we make on www.jitterbook.com will go to charities fighting global warming.

As the CEO of JitterBook and the author of this blog, I would really like to keep the blog about global warming as it is an important issue. I don't want the blog to be misrepresented as a marketing tool, so aside from this little quip, the two should never meet. Equally, JitterBook, the textbook buyback site isn't a charity site. Aside from the little globe icon, this blog is hardly mentioned on the site. It's all very low key.

I am interested in folks comments on global warming, especially on solutions, charities that focus on solutions and any sites, ideas, and thoughts on the subject.

The Myopia of Global Warming

When I search news stories on global warming, I am curious to find that there are a lot of articles about what on earth (pun kinda intended here) could be causing this change. What is curious is the focus on the root cause, as if there is one as opposed to many contributors. It's as if to say that if we find this one little trouble maker and just get rid of it, all our troubles will pass.

The latest piece to this is a relief that agricultural soil erosion is not a contributor to global warming (cuz I was really worried it might be). Apparently, some pundits were worried, saying that ag soil erosion added 13% to the fossil fuel emission contributions of carbon in the air. This study concludes that contribution is more like 1.5%. Thank god we've put that to rest.

In fact, why worry at all. According to White House spokesperson Dana Perino, global warming can actually be good for us - and fun too! There's humor enough in the article itself, so I'll leave it to you to read it rather than take the obvious jabs.

Finally, it being Friday and all, I thought I should end on an article that talks about a Hollywood power cocktail that gets you drunk and fights global warming, all in the same gulp. Now there's a cause worth taking up.

my own dog food/from theories to realities

When I said Al Gore should spend more time discussing solutions, I didn't think that the very next article I would read suggested that most web sites and blogs don't offer more than information... I guess I too could provide more about the solution, though I have to admit, I'm still learning. This is worth a read, looks at global warming impressions in our society from the time Gore got nominated to the time he won the Nobel Peace Prize

In other global warming news, the change in the climate isn't just causing minor problems, GA is suing over lack of water, (like a lawsuit will end the drought and bring more aqua to all the states that use that watershed).

On the nervous laughter front, Mike Morin writes a editorial stating among other things that NH residents will no be able to participate in late January ski binges - (see? Drastic climatological changes can be funny..)

On an even more positive note, the Wall Street Journal foretells that there really is no hard evidence that global warming will have serious effects on life - so keep investing folks, nothing to worry about! Honestly, the author makes a nice case for the adaptability of species, which isn't a bad angle. However I think articles like these that tell us there's nothing to worry about causes us to lose focus.