Gorillas in the Myth: second edition

I’ve just released a second edition of my first book, “revisited and revised a smidgeon.” Here’s a timely excerpt, written more than ten years ago.

The crystal plummets

Raving tree huggers, myself included, sometimes claim we may be destroying planet Earth. Pie-eyed techno-idiots insist that everything will be peachy if we just dump environmental regulations and the Endangered Species Act, and let the free market rock and roll. Who is right? Is there any prayer that we can find common ground?

When I voice concern about the environment, I tend to believe that I support Life. But the truth is, my concern is for life like us. Bacteria are really neat little goobers, and we couldn’t survive without them, but they did just fine without us for about ninety percent of the time since things began to wiggle on this planet.

The urgency I feel about toxic waste or global warming involves preserving the current population of the planet. I have a fondness for oxygen-breathing, carbon-based life forms like dolphins and cats and gorillas and bats, hummingbirds and butterflies, tuna, termites, lizards—and people. Well, some people, anyway.

When I factor people into the equation, it looks as though I might be speaking the same language as the movement that has adopted “wise use” as its slogan. The wise-users are the folks who want to permit mining, grazing and hunting in national parks, and who insist that old-growth forests are a renewable resource. They claim that global warming is an illusion, that there are no foreseeable limits to the human population of our planet, and that science will solve all of our problems by some time next week. They say the only useful measure of any policy is whether it is good for people, and they’re fond of trotting out a few scientists to bolster their claims.

OK, let’s go with that.

What? Me, a raving tree hugger, ready to accept the bottom line defined by earth rapers like Rush and Chainsaw Charlie? [former Rep. Charles Taylor, R-NC] Have I been drinking to excess?

My single caveat would be that we all must be willing to rely on real science, instead of rhetoric, to settle policy disputes. I am ready to concede any environmental debate on that basis. And by “real science,” I mean the consensus of the majority of knowledgeable researchers in a given field. Why do I say consensus? Shouldn’t we demand scientific proof?

Nice idea, but science doesn’t work that way. Outside of mathematics, where everything either adds up or it doesn’t, proof is impossible.

For example, if you release a crystal goblet ten feet above a brick patio, it will probably fall and shatter. Scientifically speaking, there is actually a tiny chance that it will bounce and land safely—and a much tinier chance that it won’t even fall. But, based on our experience of gravity and bricks, most of us would agree that the crystal is history.

In the same way, if the overwhelming majority of scientists agree about a particular issue, and one or a few disagree, the odds are very strong that the majority is correct.

Ready to be blinded by science? In 1992, nearly sixteen hundred of the world’s senior scientists, including more than half the living Nobel laureates—women and men from every discipline and every continent—signed The World’s Scientists Warning to Humanity. More have signed it in the years since then. In 1993, fifty-six of the world’s scientific academies met for the first-ever world Science Summit and issued a collaborative statement.

Most of the world’s scientists agree that, if the human race is to survive, we must reach zero population growth within the present generation. We must act now to shift from fossil fuels and nonrenewable resources to sustainable technologies. We must act now to reduce introduction of toxins and pollutants into the biosphere. We must act now to protect the biodiversity upon which all life depends.

Translation: The crystal goblet is headed toward the bricks.

There is nothing wrong with using human benefit as the measure of our policies, but short-term profit is a bad gage of success if it threatens long-term survival. If you are intent on amassing a fortune to leave to your heirs, you will also need some heirs to leave it to.

Are our current environmental-protection laws necessary? Sorry, Charlie: We have barely begun.

Coming soon to Amazon.com

Reader’s business hammered by blog post

Cecil,

Last week a woman contacted me regarding commissioning an oil portrait.

She drove up here and saw my work in person at DOWNTOWN BOOKS AND NEWS and was suitably impressed, but then she mentioned to me that she had found on-line my letter about Billy Graham’s column.
She found it on YOUR web page.

She left without commissioning a portrait.

Surely with the skills you have honed as a reporter you can go back and rewrite history and delete the word “portrait”, which appears on the same page on your site as your inclusion of my Graham letter. (Surprisingly, in context, “portrait” is used as a description of your book about Mr. Graham, rather than in reference to the craft I practice.)

Can you please delete the word “portrait” from your web page ?
And also the words:

DOWNTOWN, BOOKS, NEWS, Escape , Freedom, Christian, empire, holiday, particular, attention , Dream, download, stream, post, January, civil, rights, international, national, Brevard, head , North, Broad, Street,.Enka, reader, Asheville’s, accomplished, portraitist, stalwart, defender, arboreal, beauty, year, apropos, NC, Tuesday, question, courageously, clear, point, leader, founder, final, authority, truth, life, father, Christianity, Asheville, Mountain, Xpress, review , describe, evidence, sources, example ,different, high, new ,market, essence, good, beliefs, valid, thinking, selling, specific, seriousness, world, valuable, reveal , difficulty, biography, perspective, every, aspect, career, legacy, Who, anything, WNC, excellent, first review, source, walled, fortress, attention, independent, house, handle, title, Prince, War, interests, soon, counter, darling, created, dollar, envy, subject, shocking, award, winning, Brave, formidable, Introduction, curious, culture, fame, eye, influence, Considering, reputation, paranoia, impression ,blonde, fifteen, years, experience, astonished, present, volume, past, several, decades, fearful, time, human, history, tangible, grew, ancient, phantasms, myth, unfathomable, mysteries, posited, ignorance, electronic, live, color, modern, print, techniques, erupted, glossy, photographers, fanned, globe, surprise, fear, promised, prosper, proved, expert, brandishing, stick, carrot, stadia, planet, understood, early, professional, salesmanship, carefully, cultivated, contacts, presenting , best, possible, light, radio, television, film, production, Focus, Family, 700, Club, widely, influential, Left ,series. enthusiastic, big, consistently, portrayed, recently, February, 2005, Time, magazine, five, decades, 86, stuck, soul, explained, selfimposed, separation, state, language, apparent, corridors, rooms, overtly, sometimes, quietly, secret, letters, private, phone, segregation, disobedience, aggressive, police, tactics, punitive, laws, figure, sealed, personal, documents, connected, life, cases, death, consent, interviewed, work, published, unpublished, documentary, record, speaks, volumes, unabashed, capitalist, advocate, American, empire, disinterested, cloth, political, operative, stems, naiveté, self-professed, biased, media, accepting, versions, facts, tale, words, biographers, historians, figures, surprised, picture, emerges, pages, man, & peace.

Thank you.

r. ogle
Asheville

Click here to see more of Ron’s work.

Wonderful send-up of corporate spin

Biofuels in the mountains

WLOS TV-13 reported yesterday that ” A well-known Haywood County moonshiner faces his second bust in less than a week. Monday evening, Haywood County Deputies raided a storage facility rented to Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton in Dellwood and seized nearly 800 gallons of moonshine.”

Reporter Charu Kumarhia went on to state that the 797 gallons of hooch were worth more than $22,000. A little quick math suggests that the government estimate of the retail price of white lightning is about $28 per gallon. Looks like cars won’t be lining up at Popcorn’s filling station any time soon.

Unless, of course, Bush bombs Iran.

Clinton and crime: Wald endorses Obama

Speaking for the Older Women: On Obama and Clinton

by Patricia Wald

I have spent more than 40 years of my near-80 in public service as a federal judge, international judge, public interest lawyer and government official. A veteran of the woman’s movement since its infancy in the 1960s, an ardent Democrat and an equally ardent supporter of women’s right-to-choose, to work, to live as we see fit, and yes, one day to elect a woman president. I hail the advances in my lifetime that have resulted in Senator Clinton’s dynamic bid for the presidency.

But women my age fought for the opportunity to be judged on our skills, talents and abilities, not on our gender, and that is the standard by which Senator Clinton’s candidacy should be judged. Perhaps we were naïve, but legions of us believed that if we were allowed to enter the game alongside men, we would prove

Read more on Huffington Post.

bloggerati in westville

I’m posting from the bloggers/MAIN meeting at the Rocket Club in West Asheville. There are more than three dozen folks in attendance.

Gordon Smith (screwy hoolie) did an intro, now Wally Bowen (MAIN/WPVM) is talking about his vision of a way to aggregate a readership for local blogs and citizen journalists.

***

Wally’s talking about grants available for citizen-journalism, and the idea of using new networking tools: cell phones, video cameras, content management, networked computers to create a new type of journalism and build community.

***

Now he’s talking about why “progressive” isn’t left or right, liberal or conservative, but rather top-down. Progressives are grassroots activists, from all walks of life … he mentioned Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican progressive.

***

Gordon: “Are you here to listen, or to share?”

he noted that people blog for a wide variety of reasons — political, personal, promotional, etc.

***

“BlogAsheville” said that the site just evolved. No particular goal.

***

Wally: talking about how we can utilize citizen journalism via WPVM. Also talking about how the consolidation of the Web is threatening net neutrality and the telecoms are getting their hands on all of our data. Using that data to build profiles of how people use the internet to use for marketing. Mentioned the Microsoft bid for Yahoo, the consolidation of data by Google, ATT announcing that they will be the internet copyright cops. He thinks congress will not be likely to enforce any regulation on those businesses.

***

Gordon talking about the unused TV spectrum that could be used for wireless service.

***

Greg Lyons: WPVM can offer a megaphone for the community. The relationship between the radio and the Web can be synergistic. He mentioned that Gillian Coates’ new show will in some ways be an audio blog. She concurred, that she will be doing street interviews.

***

too dark to identify people here in the bar, ideas being offered about ways to enhance, interconnect local blogs.

***

7:35

Wally talking about using the Web to keep people connected with legislative changes that affect the internet, about improving the aggregation of news to keep people in touch with local politics.

***

Up to four dozen in attendance now.

***

Shelly, from WPVM “Listen to Women” talked about need for more training on how to blog, tools that might be used.

Blog Asheville: said tried that at Bele Chere, teaching people basics.

Unidentified: have taught myself to use droople. I’m sure we could organize a one-time seminar at the West Asheville Library. Come on down, I’ll show you what you need to know.

***

My connection died for a while. some great conversation about the possiblities for organized blogging, anonymous blogstorms, etc. Paul Van Heden (”Brainshrub.com”) mentioned the current battle between “anonymous” and the Church of Scientology as an emblematic battle. He noted that the blogosphere could take on mainstream media in the same way.

At 8 p.m. the meeting devolved into conversation, pizza and drinking. Life is good.

Warming in the western mountains

Decline in Snowpack Is Blamed On Warming:
Water Supplies In West Affected

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 1, 2008; Page A01

The persistent and dramatic decline in the snowpack of many mountains in the West is caused primarily by human-induced global warming and is not the result of natural variability in weather patterns, researchers reported yesterday.

Read the rest here.

My note: We need to look hard at how changing precipitation patterns may affect water in North Carolina. If we continute to assume that future growth can depend on past water conditions we may be in for some very rude surprises. I note that electric utilities announced recently that if the current drought continues, nuclear power plants in the southeast will be forced to cut back or shut down completely.

WNC’s energy future on Our Southern Community

Ned Doyle, proud parent of the Southern Energy and Environment Expo as well as ubermeister of REALITY (Rational Earth Actions Learning Institute, Thank You), continues to do what needs to be done on his weekly radio show, “Our Southern Community.”

Tune in Sunday morning, Jan. 27, 9:30 a.m., for the first of a two part interview with Robert Sipes, Vice President of Western Operations for Progress Energy. Tune in to WNCW 88.7 FM or click here for streaming audio.

This show begins a series dedicated to exploration of our current fossil fuel and nuclear energy systems and how they impact our environment and economy. The first discussion, “Problems and challenges facing the utilities,” and Progress Energy in particular, is a starting point for additional detailed conversations with a range of objective regional experts (not just utility representatives), in the coming months. In addition to examining the core responsibility of utilities to provide “safe, reliable and affordable” energy as mandated by law, the series will also focus on positive action steps that we can take as citizens to develop a sustainable future for our region.

Building Bridges to the future

Racism remains so much with us, evident in the presidential primaries, in the financial pages, in the pictures of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq … it’s uplifting to see that Asheville is on the front lines of doing something positive. Building Bridges is a program that works to bridge the racial divide in our community and it began right here in the Paris of the South.

I’ve been through the course twice—it’s the kind of learning experience that is eminently repeatable. You learn more about the world and yourself each time, and make new friends. I’d encourage anyone to experience it for themselves. A couple of thousand Ashevillians are already graduates. We need many more.

The next session begins Jan. 28.

Building Bridges, Session 31
Going Beyond Racism

Nine Sessions:
January 28, 2008 – March 24, 2008
Monday Evenings 7pm – 9pm
MAHEC Bridge Building
501 Biltmore Avenue

Registration Fee: $20

Register online at www.buildingbridges-asheville.org or on site at MAHEC’s Thomas Bacon Lecture Hall at 6:30 pm on January 28th.
For more information call 828-777-4585

And while we’re considering coins, how ’bout economics?