Jay Inslee for WA Governor

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Friday April 22, 2011 · 7:33 AM PDT

2011/04/22 · 07:33

Last night Congressman Jay Inslee (D - WA 01) visited the regular monthly meeting of the Whatcom County WA democratic party. Jay Inslee is an inspiring leader. He gave an excellent talk that showed he knows what matters for our future. I don't know if there will be a primary field and don't want to jump to conclusions but .... he would be a great Governor.

As a candidate, we need someone who can stand up to our very own Walker, presumed R candidate Rob McKenna. As a governor, we need someone who can navigate us out of the horrible trap set by Initiative 1053, which, at least as it has been interpreted, allows 1/3 of the legislature + 1 to stop any legislation that would have the consequence of increasing tax revenues, even closing egregious tax loopholes. We need someone to provide 21st century leadership in clean energy development in our state. I think he's that person.

Travertine

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Friday March 11, 2011 · 3:35 PM PST

2011/03/11 · 15:35

The potential for truly distributed energy, truly distributed power, could be the contribution of solar energy that equals or even exceeds the importance of its reduction in carbon pollution.

It is no coincidence that electrical energy is also called power, the same word that also refers to the ability to free yourself or control others. In recent history, almost all development has taken the form of increasingly concentrated infrastructure, which in turn is concentrated power. Big concrete, justified in the name of increased efficiency, rules the day.

In the 20th century, big concrete was sold as beneficial, and perhaps on the context of the times, it was, at least for the prosperous people in the more prosperous countries. Hoover Dam killed numerous ecosystems and buried several dozen workers in its big concrete, but has delivered clean electric power in the decades since.

No more. Show me a big concrete project, and I’ll show you another tragedy in the making. Distributed energy, on the other hand, has stunning transformative value.

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Climate Pollutants by the Numbers

Travertine for Climate Hawks

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Saturday March 05, 2011 · 7:58 PM PST

2011/03/05 · 19:58

Nine gigatons! That’s big! Ten gigatons! Even bigger! What is a gigaton, anyway?

After reading this or that GHG number slung about, I realized that I had no idea what any of the numbers really meant. Now I know enough to be dangerous. This is what I found.

My mission: Giving you the ability to recognize the relative meaning of some of the big numbers relating to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) pollution, so they make some kind of sense when you read about them.

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Measuring Harm

Travertine

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Monday February 21, 2011 · 4:53 PM PST

2011/02/21 · 16:53

Two Koches = One standard unit of harm.

One Koch will be initially set to a value equal to one gigaton of carbon emissions. This is fitting, both in the sense of measurable harm and in conveying the image of large volumes of pollutants emitted from both industries and certain “information” sources.

Adopting a standard of harm is very helpful in comparing impacts on people in different areas such, but not limited to, social equity, climate change, and war. In world having so many disparate types of human-created harm and potential harm, this is important in order to not get lost in the swirling array of threats. Which harm matters the most? They ALL matter. Now, you can compare apples to oranges and see where to best focus your attention and energy.

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Peak Oil - It's a Good Thing!

Travertine

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Friday February 18, 2011 · 9:24 PM PST

2011/02/18 · 21:24

Like a pair of thugs closing in on us from opposite directions in a narrow alley, the combination of peak oil and global climate change may have our civilization pinned, with nowhere to go. No fire escape to climb down, no doorway to run into, no drain hole to climb down. Each of them steps closer every day, ready to wreak havoc and in fact already doing so.

All that remains is some kind of jujitsu, some way to play one enemy against the other. It is possible that, with some adroit maneuvering, peak oil and global climate change could nullify a large part of each other’s destructive force. All the while, we must also remember that these are not really “enemies” per se. They are simply realities. People who live in a reality-based world need to make the actual facts into their friends.

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Lord of the Flies - coming soon to your country

Travertine

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Friday January 14, 2011 · 9:30 PM PST

2011/01/14 · 21:30

There is more going on than just incitement, or violent imagery, or mental illness, or anything else cited in the MSM in reference to the recent tragedy.

What happens when more and more people are persuaded that the entire concept of society is a fiction? The government itself is evil? That social institutions no longer protect and only enslave?

In literature and history, we don't need to look far. We know what happens when the thin veneer of civilization is stripped away. What occurs in the absence of civil institutions is illustrated in books and movies, usually with a catastrophe such as an apocalypse (The Postman) or shipwreck (Lord of the Flies) as the backdrop.

Unfortunately, the same type of catastrophe can occur at any time, anywhere. It doesn't have to be real - you just need people who, for whatever reason, think that it is real. If it is real to them, and they act upon it, then it becomes real. Disaster follows.

Travertine

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Tuesday December 14, 2010 · 7:18 PM PST

2010/12/14 · 19:18

Previously, I described how it is every American's patriotic duty to vigorously protect themselves from getting taken for a ride in the area of financial services. The few examples, briefly covered, did not begin to do justice to the topic.

On the one hand, you can sharpen up your diligence any time you deal with a commercial financial institution. Out-shark the shark. It takes attention and care, but it can be done. On the other hand, you can opt out, turning instead to community financial resources that likely will treat you much better, give you a better deal, and give you the satisfaction of contributing to your community instead of helping cover a payment on the CEO's private jet.

It's funny, when corporations self-organize for their own interest, it's portrayed as a good thing, you know, the market. But when people self-organize for their own interest it's - socialism! or worse! Herewith, one example.

Travertine

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Saturday December 11, 2010 · 10:26 PM PST

2010/12/11 · 22:26

It's not news that the size of the financial sector in the US has grown rapidly, and there is plenty of evidence that this has been a significant driver in the ruinous maldistribution of wealth that is occurring in our country.

This seems on the face of it to be an unstoppable force, especially considering the new makeup of Congress. Since it is sadly very unlikely that the actual regulatory climate will change in the next few years, that leaves only one remaining option to achieve change.

Travertine

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Friday December 10, 2010 · 8:34 PM PST

2010/12/10 · 20:34

Yes, I vote, every election. That event where you mark your preferences, if you can find them, then watch your number get counted on TV among the millions of others, make snarky remarks about how you wish the counting was awareness-weighted, then either celebrate or cry depending on the results. That important, yet forlorn, way of expressing an opinion and being counted.

Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out the best ways to vote in a meaningful way on the other 364.25 days. Lots of ideas and none of them are news, but the question is – really – what will matter and what will my family and I sustain? Join the chorus howling at the moon over tax rate legislation? I doubt my notes on it would move the needle, clearly this role is being ably filled. While I do think that tax rates matter and the recently proposed legislation is a terrible step backward, I can’t help but have the feeling that it’s just another bright shiny object that wants to divert all of us. Tax rate this or tax rate that, other factors will eventually save or doom us.

So, how does a pretty much regular, historically non-activist family learn to live democracy and sustainability instead of just thinking about it?

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Jay Inslee for WA Governor

Solar, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways …

Climate Pollutants by the Numbers

Measuring Harm

Peak Oil - It's a Good Thing!

Lord of the Flies - coming soon to your country

Rolling back the financial sector II - George Bailey Lives!

Rolling back the financial sector

In search of the best ways to vote every day