Home › Blog › Page 306

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

What should we make of the fact that Luxembourg no longer charges fares to patrons of its public transportation systems?  Since it’s one of the wealthiest countries on Earth, Luxembourg’s decision makes no impact on its citizens and its visitors.

Maybe this is one of these situations in which it costs more to administer the receipt of and accounting for funds than the value of the funds themselves.  Our Santa Barbara public library system has done away with meting out fines to borrowers of overdue books for this precise reason: it’s net-revenue negative.

I’m more interested in the governments of places like Curitiba, Brazil, whose public transportation system, while not free, is among the world’s most sustainable.

From this:

The bus system of Curitiba, Brazil, exemplifies a model Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, and plays a large part in making this a livable city. The buses run frequently—some as often as every 90 seconds—and reliably, and the stations are convenient, well-designed, comfortable, and attractive. Consequently, Curitiba has one of the most heavily used, yet low-cost, transit systems in the world. It offers many of the features of a subway system—vehicle movements unimpeded by traffic signals and congestion, fare collection prior to boarding, quick passenger loading and unloading—but it is above ground and visible. Around  70 percent of Curitiba’s commuters use the BRT to travel to work, resulting in congestion-free streets and pollution-free air for the 2.2 million inhabitants of greater Curitiba.

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The photo I took at left proves that there really are, at least a few, women for Trump.

These may be women who believe that abortion is murder, regardless of the circumstances, or that the Democrats are killing live babies, which many folks at the far right claim to be true.

More likely, they are women whose ignorance and hatred sits at the very top of their political thinking.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

From Wikipedia: A straw man fallacy is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction. One who engages in this fallacy is said to be “attacking a straw man”.

The meme here was submitted by a reader notorious for his fallacious arguments.

There are huge problems associated with the beef industry, probably the most impactful of which is the destruction of the Amazon rainforests to provide room for cows.  We’re losing 200,000 acres per day of this precious environmental resource.  That’s a rate equivalent to one championship-sized golf course every two minutes.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The presidential race in the United States is decidedly not about intelligent or academic achievement.

That would have been fine were it not for the fact that it’s not about character, honor, or decency either.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The United States refuses to offer its citizens healthcare or quality education.  Pregnant women with abnormal pregnancies often die because doctors are forbidden to perform abortions, even in medical emergencies. 16% of all American children live in poverty and frequently go hungry.

At left is what Russian author and Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said about cruelty.  It’s of particular importance as we approach the November election, which could result in sending Donald Trump, a would-be autocrat, back to the White House.

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

OK, what exactly is the point?

How about this: Rich white people get richer.

Everybody else faces some blend of exploitation: discrimination, hunger, impoverishment, disease, poor education, scarce resources, death/injury in war, etc.

In the Native American communities. decisions are made based on the way they affect the welfare of the next seven generations.  The right wing couldn’t care less about what happens to the common American 10 minutes from now.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The meme here isn’t quite correct.  Trump supporters aren’t avoiding the truth about their hero; they’re not pretending to be unaware of his lies, racism, cancellation of women’s rights, and criminality.  They openly embrace this stuff; it’s what attracts them to him.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Who would have thought American politics would have come to this, i.e., the parallel to Orwell’s “1984”?

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I just met a woman whose company develops and deploys sustainable agriculture solutions, and I had the opportunity to ask her about her viewpoints on the topic.  A quick summary:

• No-till farming.  This is an agricultural technique for growing crops with minimal disturbance of the soil.  It decreases the amount of soil erosion, while increasing: the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, soil retention of organic matter, and nutrient cycling.

• Spot spraying.  As one might hope in the information age, the idea of spraying certain chemicals, whether they are intended to kill insects or weeds, can be minimized.  Modern technology makes this possible.

• Vertical farming.  We’ve all seen this concept whereby (thus far) relatively small amounts of produce are grown indoors, in containers that encourage the plants to grow “up” as opposed to “out.”    One’s initial reaction might have been negative:  OK, we have the sun above, the fertile earth below, and rain that has made “horizontal” farming work, for the last 10,000 years.  What’s the matter with letting nature takes its course?  The answer resides in the growing scarcity of arable land and fresh water.  We now have grocery stores that grow the produce they sell on their roofs.

• Social media’s scorn of vegans.  There have been vegetarians for the last couple of hundreds of years, but it’s only been in the blink of an eye, since the dawn of social media, that meat-eaters have begun to ridicule those who have decided that killing and eating cows (or sheep or pigs) may be bad for human health, cruel to the animals, and bad for the planet.  By ridiculing sensitive and thoughtful people, humankind has arrived at a new level of meanness and stupidity.

• Plowing under rain forests to make room for more cows.  It was at this point that this erudite, sophisticated woman dropped the F-bomb to describe her repulsion for a society that eagerly welcomes its own death if that means more hamburgers.

Great to meet a kindred spirit.

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

As shown at left, voter fraud, albeit rare, does occasionally exist.  My personal theory as to why it’s so uncommon is that the penalties are harsh, and the prospect of changing the results of an election are infinitesimally small.

This moron and (former) attorney is doing three years, and, when released, will be looking for work, perhaps as a bartender or grocery clerk.

Tagged with: