Two-step

Sep. 11th, 2014 01:22 pm
rebeccmeister: (bikegirl)
When I hear music that I like, I would like to be able to own copies of it and also support the artist(s) who produced it. I don't need hard copies (CDs), but sometimes that's the most straightforward option.

Recently, I listened to Interpol's latest album, using NPR's First Listen thingy, which had a link towards the bottom to purchase the album while also benefiting NPR. Well, there's a way for me to show support for some of the NPR programming I continue to appreciate (I am grateful for print-versions of topics they cover, even if their coverage is simplified and watered-down relative to other news sources). PLUS it won't give NPR my most recent home address, so they can't send me junk mail. Great.

The only two purchase options are through Amazon or iTunes.

I got pretty peeved recently when I discovered that recent Apple operating systems have started using the App Store as the sole method for distributing software and updates, in particular because Apple was requiring credit card information as part of the process. I try very hard to maintain barriers between my personal financial information and online purchases because they take financial interactions to a new level of abstraction and make it too easy for corporations to drain money out of my wallet. As an example, I keep separate eBay and PayPal accounts.

So, no thanks, Apple.

Here's the Amazon purchasing workflow, which makes me think twice before actually purchasing any music through Amazon (I already try hard to avoid ordering material goods through them because I disagree with their predatory pricing practices and labor practices):

1. Put music in virtual shopping cart
2. Attempt to check out, get error message because my account does not contain any automatically saved payment information.
3. Enter in payment information as part of "updating account info."
4. Make purchase (click!...that was fast, with minimal confirmation windows)
5. Attempt to download music, get error message that I need to install the Amazon music downloader installer application.
6. Download downloader thing and install it.
7. Download music.
8. Delete credit card information out of Amazon account.
9. Move downloaded music into separate directory.
10. Delete Amazon downloader application and associated Amazon directories.
11. Listen to music.

Alternatively, I could pirate music and then try to make a direct payment towards bands/organizations of interest.

Sigh.

Mining.

Jun. 24th, 2010 06:05 pm
rebeccmeister: (Default)
I should be eating some food and going to ceramics, but I have to write a few words first instead.

I'm reading an article that was passed along to me by Ms. [livejournal.com profile] gfrancie, about the state of affairs of the sustainable agriculture industry in the US these days. Clearly, the perspective is biased, but it's also got some seemingly well-researched information about key players in the whole extravaganza, and their connections to Industrial Agriculture.

I've just read a section on some of the US goals to export crops, and it's making me think back to what I've learned about different native American groups who have resisted and protested against mining on their reservations. Reservations were established before anybody had any clue about the value and location of oil deposits, and as soon as those deposits were mapped out on reservation lands, people started getting greedy about them. I'm not sure of the particular native nations involved, but a lot of native groups don't want to have resources mined from their lands because they see this as a violation of the sacred nature of the land. In a way, they are right - once a precious resource is removed from the land, there's no going back. Mine tailings, the consequence of selective extraction of a resource, are a terrible sight.

So how does this tie in to food? Perhaps you are aware of worldwide problems with soil erosion. In some time, I think the public will become more aware of this problem, as the public has become aware of the problem of global warming. Those who pay attention to soil erosion issues have noted that it is becoming a much larger looming crisis than global warming.

For although plants gain some important nutrients from the air, such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen, they are also critically dependent on important nutrients that are non-gaseous, like phosphorus. In fact, my university (the one that makes me grit my teeth) has launched a Sustainable Phosphorus Initiative to foster discussion about this particular biologically important player. Where does this phosphorus come from? Well, it must come from young soils, or it must be mined. Old soils, such as the weathered soils that underpin tropical rainforests, are often very low on phosphorus, which affects the plants that are capable of growing there. The water cycle eventually pushes all phosphorus towards the ocean. Though the recent oil spill is causing massive problems in the Gulf of Mexico, you may be unaware that there has been a longstanding "dead zone" at the gulf of the Mississippi River, due to nutrient runoff from all of the agriculture along the river.

So, when this country decides to export agricultural goods en masse, I have to stop and think of it as sending off mined resources. It's such a different situation than what's faced in Australia, where the human population is relatively small compared to the mineral resources, and where mining can thus be more readily justified. I just don't think that, in the long run, the US will get enough bang for its buck if it continues to pursue the strategy of exporting food.

Many of the key players involved in structuring agricultural policy in the US have ties to biotechnology. The problem is, people who study biotechnology are typically not biogeochemists or ecologists. So they have a myopic view of the best way to grow food.

---

I don't know that my perspective has anything unique to offer - the original article is probably more informative. But I do know that Americans need to stand up and speak up about this issue if we are to have any hope to make real change to how our country's agricultural system operates. No one can pretend to have the right answers to this one, but there's certainly a lot that could be done to more effectively address the situation.
rebeccmeister: (Default)
Last Wednesday evening, D, L and I attended an event put on by the Phoenix Permaculture Guild. It was a presentation by a guy named Scott Kellogg, who is a co-founder of an Austin-based organization called the Rhizone Collective.

Do you ever have one of those experiences where at first you feel like the information that is presented is relatively simple and straightforward, and only later realize that actually learned a whole lot? Well, that was kind of what this presentation was like. It was a presentation/workshop called Radical Urban Sustainability Training, where the overall idea was to teach us about cheap and innovative methods to make urban living more sustainable.

One of the most interesting aspects of the whole thing was how it incorporated knowledge about microbiology and other living systems into design plans. Kellogg pointed out, for example, that drinking water is chlorinated to kill bacteria/harmful microbes, but that this also affects beneficial bacteria in soil ecosystems. So when people irrigate with chlorinated water, they often do as much harm as good. He also said that one of the main reasons why worm castings are so great for gardens is because worms don't kill microbes during digestion, so their castings are still rich with all sorts of delicious bacteria.

But Kellogg also talked about the opposite side of dealing with microbes, particularly the case of composting human waste (which can be pretty dangerous if done incorrectly) and also simple systems for water sterilization. And I should mention that he also described some systems that can be used to treat most types of household wastewater, keeping it from unnecessarily undergoing the extensive municipal treatments that are designed for treating everything from household wastes through industrial wastes.

One subject that he commented on towards the very end of his lecture really stuck with me. Someone in the audience asked about the application of many of the ideas/methods to other countries, and Kellogg said that, based on his experiences, such applications won't be nearly as cheap/simple in developing nations as they are in the United States. That's mostly because of the amount of excess waste that Americans produce--companies here pay to dispose of still-valuable resources, which makes those resources cheap/free for people who can creatively repurpose them. In contrast, landfills in so-called developing nations are thoroughly picked-over, so that little reuseable material is ever left behind. The described technologies could certainly be applied, but they won't be nearly as cheap as they are here.

And the last aspect that I want to mention is Kellogg's perspective on alternative energy, because it's in marked contrast to the emphases that are receiving a lot of public attention these days (systems that seem designed to line the pockets of corporations inasmuch as they provide alternative energy sources). He pointed out that alternative energy sources that are heavily technology-dependent will never become very widespread, because they are dependent on advanced technology for their manufacture. For example, even if we could get solar panels shipped out to some place in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, they would eventually become difficult/impossible to repair. And such technologies often break before they manage to pay for themselves in purely monetary terms anyway.

No, the energy solutions will have to come from elsewhere. Instead, Kellogg said that the Rhizome Collective has been focusing on low-tech alternative energy sources. For example, they created a solar water heater by taking a regular water heater, stripping it of its insulation down to its black iron core, and placing it into a stripped-down refrigerator. When this system is kept in the sun, the dark metal does a fantastic job of capturing energy from the sun to heat the water. The refrigerator insulation then keeps the water warm enough through the night so that one can take a warm shower in the morning. At present, old water heaters and old refrigerators are abundant in the US of A, and here's a system that's cheap and simple to build (=also simple to repair) and could replace one of the devices that consumes the most electricity in many households.

And all of that is probably just the tip of the iceberg. I believe that we need more people capable of this kind of thinking/innovation/inspiration if we truly seek to create a sustainable future.

Whew.

Mar. 28th, 2008 05:03 pm
rebeccmeister: (Acromyrmex)
This past week flew by, in odd spurts. Instead of going to the boatyard to erg this morning, I decided to sleep in, and I'm pretty sure it was the right idea. I had to write a humongous e-mail to fellow TBAG members about the projects I mentioned a few posts down, and by the time that was done, it was 9:30. From there, I headed in to school to do a photo shoot for this project we're putting together on how to build an ant farm out of 2 CD cases. The photos turned out tremendously well, but I can't say I had much to do with that. The whole project is going to be extremely cool when it's finished, and I'm particularly excited about it because it's a great form of science outreach. The next thing we're going to have to do is put together more content on how to collect ants, and then basic stuff on ant morphology (body parts). Oh the fun never ends.

In the midst of all that, I had to help write a letter of recommendation for Ms. [livejournal.com profile] myrmecology's research scholarship application, and then attended an undergraduate poster symposium. But by now, my brain isn't really functioning properly. Fortunately, the only other plans I have for today are to go to an opening reception for some shows at the art museum. That's all. Heh.

I wish I had something more profound to report; I've been continuing to read Small is Beautiful and have been appreciating a chapter on Buddhist economics for its perspective on right living. It's refreshing to think about an economic system not based on maximizing profit, but instead based on maximizing human well-being. At the same time that those economic ideas slosh about in my mind, other ideas about energy slosh around as well, as I ponder my participation in the Emergy project. Consider this, for example: supposedly on Saturday, we're all supposed to remember to cut back our energy use to basically nothing for an hour, as some kind of symbolic gesture in recognition of the relationship between our energy consumption and global warming. It's the same old negative message about energy.

Emergy, in contrast, forced me to think otherwise, to see myself as an integrated part of the energy production-consumption process. I'll never be able to look at exercise bikes in the gym in the same way, ever again (how futile!). I don't know if I'll get to the point of powering my computer via bicycle, but I hope I at least start to pay more attention to flagrant wastes of energy. One of the people who rowed right after I finished one day commented that the experience of rowing was especially marked at night--after she left, she was so much more aware of how many lights were on outside. It's different when you can put the amount of light into human, physical terms--given how tired I felt after powering a small bank of lights for 30 minutes (not that tired, but still), I'm exhausted just thinking about how much energy goes into maintaining the lighting and temperature in the lab where I do my research. Emergy was a much more intimate experience of energy consumption.

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