Silly Girls In Dresses

Some one who I have a lot of respect for sent me this article by Andrew G. Marshall for Centre for Research on Globalisation, as the reason why he does not believe global warming exists.

Now, if you couldn’t tell by my previous posts….I really like the environment. If I have not said it yet, I’ll say it now: I think global warming exists.

Which is why I was particularly disturbed when this person sent me this article. Not only did I have that ping! of fear that maybe…just maybe…I was crazy? That Al Gore was the real evil politician? That climate change was a crock of shit?

Thankfully, this article was whats bullshit. It has tons of links to various articles that it claims support its central hypothesis: that global warming is happening, but it is not a catastrophe. Marshall claims climate change it is not caused by carbon emissions but instead by a natural change in the temperature of the sun. These links are B.S., as is the article.

First:

It does not address Al Gore’s central point in ‘An Incovenient Truth’ which was that the earth is prone to temperature swings, but that the current rise in temperature is completely unprecedented. Basically, the temperature has never risen this much in earth’s history – ever – even during previous periods of climate change. Not addressing this key point is very damaging to his argument.

Second:

His cited sources are AWFUL. He uses quotes from scientists that he extracts from other articles written for independent news sources by non-scientists like himself. (Ex, he bases part of his argument that Al Gore’s facts are circumstatial on an article in the Canadian Free Press by Tom Harris. Tom Harris is a “mechanical engineer and Executive Director of Natural Resources Stewardship Foundation”, and although he obviously has an interest in the environment, is not a qualified source.* Plus, the quote that Marshall claims he pulled from Harris’s article is simply not in there. He improperly cites the article.) Plus, he claims at one point:

One major thing being pushed through with little, cancel that, no debate, is a UN recommendation that we impose “a global tax on greenhouse gas emissions”. Most people will hear this and think, “Good, polluters need to be taxed”. Well, this means people who drive cars will be taxed, because according to Al Gore, when you drive your car, you’re causing global warming. This is no joke, as an article in the UK’s Guardian Newspaper reported that, “The government is throwing its weight behind a revolutionary plan that would force motorists to pay £1.30 a mile to drive on Britain’s busiest roads”. That is approximately $3.00 per mile. A study conducted by an expert in transportation and infrastructure found that, “a Birmingham commuter might end up paying about £1,500 a year for driving 19,000 miles.” That’s equal to about $3,000 per year. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many people who can afford that.

He leads you to believe that the extra $3.00 a mile is related to global warming and a U.N. initiative on global greenhouse gas taxes. THE ARTICLE HE CITES says this tax is for the purpose of reducing congestion on British roads to prevent LA style GRIDLOCK. There is nothing about global warming. There is nothing about CO2 emissions. He twists these articles around to suit his purposes.

Oh, and he also calls Pluto a planet…which it isn’t anymore.

Third:

Mr. Marshall is not an expert in anything. In fact (as it says at the end of the article) “Andrew Marshall is a 19 year old political science student at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia (BC).”

Ha.

Ha.

Hahaha.

So, the moral of the story: don’t believe everything you read. Unless it comes from a qualified source, cites professional, relevant articles and scientific studies, correctly identifies and attacks the main points of the argument it refutes, and is written by someone who is not a teenager. Then you can kinda trust it a little bit.

*By “qualified source” I mean someone who has done the research directly, or is a member of an established and trustworthy news organization. I understand this is confusing and can get a little tricky. Basically, I feel like there is a difference between, say, the Associated Press and Uncle Joe’s Random Political Blog. There are many different types of news sources and I personally feel as though we should strive to be more media literate. Of course, this clearly opens up an area for massive disagreement; but inciting discussion in the first place is always a good idea, eh? So, basically, when I say that Tom Harris is not a “qualified source” I mean that, in this context, Mr. Marshall is quoting from an article (Tom Harris’s) that quotes a scientist: quoting from a quote. Basically….I like primary sources. The end.

I wrote this a while ago, before I went farming even, and just found it…

For a while now, I have been trying to figure out what bothers me about capitalism. I tried to explain it to a friend once, but I think I just couldn’t get my thoughts to coalesce into a clear position. I think Michael Pollan, who just might be my favorite human being on this planet, captured it in this op ed:

Why Bother?

The article is about carbon footprints, global warming and going green in general, but this paragraph really caught my attention:

As Adam Smith and many others have pointed out, this division of labor has given us many of the blessings of civilization. Specialization is what allows me to sit at a computer thinking about climate change. Yet this same division of labor obscures the lines of connection — and responsibility — linking our everyday acts to their real-world consequences, making it easy for me to overlook the coal-fired power plant that is lighting my screen, or the mountaintop in Kentucky that had to be destroyed to provide the coal to that plant, or the streams running crimson with heavy metals as a result.

Capitalism has made us soulless. It’s true; it has utterly disconnected us with everything that makes us human, while simultaneously feeding off the natural human tendency for progress. I see it even now, in someone close to me, who has become a person I don’t recognize; this person came into money quickly, and now he is unwilling to do anything unless it involves luxury, ease and comfort. He also prefers to live in a world of luxury, ease and comfort alone. Solo. With no one else. No wonder he is constantly in a state of depression! I can’t imagine condemning my self to a life living in a pristine bubble with no human contact. Hellish. But, that is what capitalism, in it’s current form, dictates; gated communities, fast transportation that gets you from place to place quickly and does not allow you to enjoy the actual journey from point A to point B, a drive for money that causes us to work more instead of valuing our free time, and a decline in community activities. I had wondered why the quality of music and art was becoming worse and worse. It’s because people are used to instant gratification, thats to the cheap energy Pollan talks about in the article. People want to write a masterpiece NOW. Everyone writes a song in five minutes. I hate artists who brag about how they write a song a day. That means you’re not actually writing a song, you’re just a song factory, manufacturing mediocre and expendable melodies.

However, the point is, I think capitalism (much like communism) has not produced the same kind of society that Adam Smith and others thought it would. We are so comfortable, though, in our little plastic bubbles of bliss, that no one realizes the damage its done. The signs are all around us, though: global warming, obesity, social networking sites (which i also think are terrible terrible indicators of society’s ill health), divorce rates.

Capitalism gives us what we all THINK we need. We can’t imagine living without plastic cups, air conditioning, Wal-Mart, etc. But we can live without them, and we should. I’m officially taking the moral high ground. All you capitalism pigs can go kiss my vegetarian, locavore booty. Who wants to grow some food with me?!

The dock across the bay

I’m finally back in the USA.

It’s a weird feeling, especially since I was greeted by:

1) Record amounts of burned acreage in California

2) The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

3) Uproar of the New Yorker’s cartoon of Obama

4) Lift of ban on offshore oil drilling, (even though it wouldn’t really do anything)

5) Oil reaching $131 a barrel

So, it’s a bittersweet homecoming I suppose, especially since the most important political issue I got involved with in Canada was the freedom to drink raw milk.

In the last week, I spent my time weeding tomatoes, killing potato bugs, partying at The Hayloft, (basically a frat party in a barn without the frat), doing yoga on the beach, swimming in Lake Ontario, hanging out with Vicki’s family, cooking, talking, eating, and feeling at peace with everything. The contrast to my life here was extreme, and although I miss it, I realized how cut off I was from the horrors of the world while I was there. Life over the summer was the way life should be for everyone…full of friends and health, and knowing how to be happily busy and balance work with pleasure. But, life is not like that most of the time. Most people live darker lives than that, where most of their time is spent getting through to the next day instead of being content in the now. I think there are a lot of reasons for that, and I don’t think I can just go off and live the life I know is good, without trying to change the pattern we, as humanity, have trapped ourselves in. Perhaps this is selfish, because I know this tangled societal web will end up effecting my decisions and ability to live a certain way of life, so maybe I want to change it for myself. I’m not sure. All I know is that I have a better idea of what’s ahead, and that’s always a good thing.

My last day in Canada started with a quick harvest of the carrots I had so painstakingly weeded on the day I had arrived. Not only had they developed from little white wisps into thick, solid, orange and purple and yellow vegetables, but I must have pulled out a dozen carrots in love. A fitting end, I think; I came full circle and ended up pulling love itself from the soil.

Carrots in Love (by Harizma Art)

I’ll leave off with more pictures of the farm, and then it’s time to move on.

Sorrel

The Barn

Duck Solo!

Swimming in Lake Ontario

Fields

Black Water

Sunset

While all you guys celebrated America’s independence on the 4th, I got to celebrate Canada’s independence on the 1st of July! Tuesday was Canada Day, and to celebrate, Canadian’s basically do exactly the same thing we do: set off fireworks and barbeque.

Happy Canada Day!

Tuesday was extra awesome for me, though, because while Tim was out on his CSA delivery run, Vicki revved up the big tractor and took Stephanie, Jocelyn and I for a tractor ride to a blueberry field a few kilometers away. If you’ve never ridden on a tractor before, I highly recommend it. The blueberries weren’t quite ripe…they should be good to go by this Thursday. But there were some that were nice and fat and dark blue, and they tasted amazing. Still bitter, but in a delicious, biting kind of way.

How we roll in the county

To add to the joy of Canada Day, when we got back, Vicki’s friend had come over and randomly brought us a ton of ice cream. Sweet. At night, Tim, Vicki, Stephanie, Sage and I went over Vicki’s aunt’s house, which is actually a cottage right on Lake Ontario. It’s view is one of the best I’ve seen; you can see all the way to the lights of Kingston (an hour and a half drive away), and then right out over the lake in the direction of Rochester New York! Some of Vicki’s cousins went out on the dock and set off fireworks (don’t know how safe that was, but I was on shore so oh well?) and it was really beautiful watching them explode over the water. 

Stephanie outside Vicki's aunt's house

Look what I picked!

Besides that, we’ve been picking strawberries almost every day to get the last of them out of the bushes, planting a LOT of lettuce because our last batch is growing bitter-tasting, planting some cardoons, and weeding the beets. We also made another 113 containers of pesto out of the garlic scapes (when Vicki and TIm first harvested them, they had 260 lbs!). The spinich is all gone, sadly, so we’ve been using beet tops to make dinners. Tim’s also been teaching me a lot about the political things that are going on with farming. He gave me a very interesting article in Acres US, some farming magazine I’ve never heard of, and it talks a lot about what’s going on with corporate agriculture. We started the conversation because we passed a field of canola on our way to visit Tim’s aunt. Vicki mentioned that, currently, all canola grown is genetically modified (GM). Heirloom (non-genetically modified) canola doesn’t really exist because farmers growing GM canola let the seed blow into non-GM fields and contaminate the heirloom crop. So, there’s that. And now, argribusinesses are starting to patent the seeds they create (known as GMOs) and charge the farmers for the use of them. One company, Monsanto, sued a small farmer who was growing genetically modified wheat they claimed was theirs. The farmer claimed their GM seed had blown into his field and contaminated his crop, because his family had been saving a certain kind of wheat seed and growing it for generations. Although I think his claims were probably true, he lost anyway, and Monsanto bankrupted him out of business. The article Tim sent me also described how companies are developing something called “Termination technology” in their seeds. Normally, farmers can save the seeds of corn, soybeans, wheat, and other plants and use them to grow new crops year after year. This termination technology would be implanted into GMOs and cause the seeds to “terminate” after one year….so the plants, in effect, produce useless seeds that the farmers can’t save and grow beyond one season. This could mean that US corporations could control the food supply of entire countries; first, these countries have to pay for the rights to use the patented seeds, and then, if they do something the US or the corporations doesn’t like, the companies could refuse to sell them seed, and the farmers can’t save seed from plants they have just harvested thanks to this termination technology. Stuff like this just makes me want to be a lawyer even more, so I can kick these bastards in the ass. I hate them! I’m really glad intellectual property as a subject can apply to both agriculture law and music law, because I love both. I’m finding that we talk a lot about music here, and when I first got here, I used shared musical tastes to kinda make friends and start conversation. Plus, we have a lot of disco dance parties. It made me realize how important music is to society, and how integral it is to the enjoyment of everything we do. So that’s good!

Canola Field...all GMO.

The rest of the week was tamer. I had a slight cold, which is all gone thanks to some homeopathic healing by Vicki. She gave me a bunch of teas mixed from varied herbs, and did some “touch therapy”…which doesn’t actually involve any touching at all….it’s weird, but I let her try it, and something worked I guess! I think I really got better when all the girls and I went to this field on Friday morning and attended a Chi Gong class. Chi Gong is related to Tai Chi, I believe, and it’s all about moving different types of energy around your body. It was actually really relaxing, and kinda felt like I was giving my body some kind of spiritual steam bath. It also helped that I was in some huge, expansive, gorgeous field overlooking the water. I’m thinking of looking for some Chi Gong sessions in Central Park when I get home. I don’t know if I actually believe it moves energy around, but the experience was really pleasant nonetheless. Everyone here is very into spiritual and homeopathic remedies, and they seem to work for a lot of people here. One woman who is friends with Vicki has cancer, and she has switched to a completely raw diet and homeopathic treatment after two rounds of chemo did not work for her. Her cancer is slowly disappearing. In the future, I might try more homeopathic medicines just because they seem to be less harsh on your body…but if I’m really sick, I’m gonna want Sudafed and that’s just the way it’s gonna be.