Radical Avenue

It’s back to the future all over again for the environmental movement. Maybe those Bronze Age architects with their homes of straw and sod had the right idea after all. Indeed modern builders have now returned to these old school building materials and are leaving bricks and asphalt behind.

Sod Roofs
Whatever happened to the first person to make this suggestion: Let’s move large sections of our landscape, plants and all, up to the top of our buildings? As it turns out, the plan has its advantages.

• Sod roofs, also known as green roofs, collect and store rainwater, thereby reducing runoff from storms. This helps prevent local flooding, keeps contaminants out of the groundwater and lessens the burden on water treatment facilities.

• Rooftop greeneries trap airborne particulates, counteract air pollution and are fire resistant.

• Dark asphalt roofs act as a heat sink, especially when they dominate a neighborhood. It raises the temperature all around. Green roofs and walls do not reflect energy from the summer sun and instead help cool the air.

• Sod roofs provide excellent insulation and last longer than conventional roofs.

• Birds love the extra garden space. It gives them more places to hide and hunt for food.

• Green roofs are aesthetically pleasing.

Straw Bale Walls
Straw Bale houses can be constructed to look like any other modern suburban home on the outside. But the distinctive thick walls create an old world ambiance inside. Those walls can insulate a home enough to completely eliminate the need for air conditioning, even in 100 degree heat. This, of course, reduces stress on our overtaxed electrical grid and takes greenhouse gas emitting air conditioners offline.

sod roof, green roof, straw bale home, straw bale construction

While oil companies and public utilities continue to seek the Holy Grail of alternative energy, smaller businesses are quietly developing innovative new ways of reducing power consumption. The latest devices on the market conserve energy by automatically adjusting artificial light during the day. Several promising technologies have emerged.

Daylight Harvesting
Conventional light fixtures always burn at the same intensity. Manual dimmers have been around for a while now, but as the name suggests, they require someone to adjust the brightness by hand as called for during the day. However the newest light fixtures can automatically dim in proportion to the glow from the sun. So now that funky skylight will finally come in handy for something other than leaving a weird fade pattern on the carpet.

A Nebraska company called Axis Technologies has introduced a type of florescent lighting ballast that turns itself down gradually with an increase in sunlight. According to the company their product “allows significant and sustained lighting energy reduction without compromising lighting quality and can be integrated into new and existing fluorescent lighting without special requirements”.

Variable Lighting
American workers often ply their trade in cubicles or small offices with overhead fluorescent lights that stay on all day. Smarter lights that turn off or dim when a workspace occupant leaves use less energy according to a Canadian study.

The study was conducted in partnership with Canada’s Program on Energy Research and Development, Public Works and Government Services Canada, BC Hydro Power Smart, and Ledalite Architectural Products. Three lighting control devices showed promise: occupancy sensors that gradually switch off lights when people leave a work area, light sensors that slowly dim lights when there is enough daylight to maintain illumination levels, and personal lighting controls that workers operate from their computer screens.

Energy Conservation, Light Conservation, Daylight Harvesting

Ghana
The peace loving citizens of Ghana have seen their diamond encrusted West African neighborhood explode in violence over the past two decades. Fortunately, the civil wars in Liberia, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone are now over and Ghana’s vibrant democracy gives this region hope.

When Ghana gained independence from Great Britain in 1957, it became the first sub-Saharan African nation to break free from colonial rule. Ghana and its tiny neighbor Benin have had several elections followed by peaceful transfers of power since then. With the battle scared countries along the coast now holding free elections, democracy is on the rise in Africa.

Nepal
The untimely demise of King Birendra in 2001 shook Nepal like no earthquake ever will. This Himalayan country situated between India and Tibet doesn’t often make headlines, but the news accounts of multiple assassinations inside the Royal Palace read like a story from medieval times.

Birendra and several members his family were shot to death, apparently by Crown Prince Dipendra, before Dipendra turned a gun on himself. The comatose Dipendra actually became King for several hours before his death.

This episode places the fragile and inherently unstable nature of ruling monarchies on full display. Voters in Nepal have now elected a 601 seat Constituent Assembly, and have tasked them with writing a new Constitution.

Bosnia
Years of sectarian bloodletting in the 1990s make consensus building a monumental task in the Balkan States. But recently Bosnian Serbs, Croats and Muslims all compromised on security reforms as part of Bosnia’s effort to join the European Union. These once warring factions have already proven that they can work together for a common purpose when given the right incentive.

Paraguay
After six decades of single party rule, Paraguay elected an opposition party leader as their new president last week. This peaceful transfer of power is a necessary part of fair elections, and comes as welcome news to those concerned about the status of democracy in South America.

Ghana, Nepal, Bosnia, Paraguay

It seems fairly certain that any serious US response to the humanitarian crisis in Colombia will have to wait until after the next president takes office. The 3.8 million Colombians currently living in exile have failed to penetrate the presidential bubble. And don’t bother asking Dick Cheney about this tragedy either. It’s not something he reflects on while fly fishing.

Dropping the remaining tariffs on products shipped between Colombia and the United States would certainly provide a revenue boost to the merchants now paying those taxes. But violence from the forty year old drug war in Colombia still scares away investors. The conflict has crippled the region and a free trade agreement won’t matter to millions of impoverished Colombians.

Trickle Down vs. Rising Tide
President Reagan justified tax cuts for wealthy Americans under the theory that well funded entrepreneurs would grow the economy through their wise investments. However the “trickle down” effect did not make up for lost federal revenues and the deficit grew during Reagan’s presidency.

On October 3rd, 1963 in Heber Springs, Arkansas President John Kennedy described how public works projects benefit an entire nation.

These projects produce wealth, they bring industry, they bring jobs, and the wealth they bring brings wealth to other sections of the United States. This State had about 200,000 cars in 1929. It has a million cars now. They weren’t built in this State. They were built in Detroit. As this State’s income rises, so does the income of Michigan. As the income of Michigan rises, so does the income of the United States. A rising tide lifts all the boats and as Arkansas becomes more prosperous so does the United States and as this section declines so does the United States. So I regard this as an investment by the people of the United States in the United States.

Since the United States is Colombia’s leading trade partner, this rising tide approach to public spending could also apply to our investment in Latin America. The Colombian free trade agreement currently pending in Congress however relies on the trickle down plan. It offers tax cuts to wealthy Colombian merchants as a panacea to the countries’ problems.

Reagan is the lazy farmer who dumps all of his seeds in the most fertile corner of the field. Kennedy prefers to carefully till the entire field and spread the seeds around evenly. Some of the plants will die in either case, but Kennedy’s egalitarian approach will result in a more bountiful harvest.

In Kind Aid
According to the World Economic Forum, Latin American countries have fallen behind European and Asian nations when it comes to internet network readiness. Upgrading information systems infrastructure in Colombia would give more Colombians access to the World Wide Web and an opportunity to trade directly with Americans here in the States. I’m sure eBay wouldn’t mind the extra traffic.

Providing foreign aid in the form of public works projects has the added benefit of preventing corrupt local politicians from diverting public funds to private accounts. Put people to work wiring up remote villages and self serving politicians will have a much harder time appropriating that investment for their own purposes. The local governor may insist on having the new server farm named after his favorite polo pony, but that shouldn’t hold things up too much.

Colombia, humanitarian crisis, foreign aid investment, trickle down, rising tide

The US State Department estimates that Colombia ranks second only to Sudan in the number of internally displaced refugees. Up to 3.8 million Colombians live in exile, more than 5% of the population. Our country fuels this humanitarian crisis with $500 million in annual military aid, which is used in a drug war pitting the Colombian military against cocaine distributors and their militias. In the meantime Washington haggles over free trade agreements. Talk about misplaced priorities. A free trade agreement won’t help the Colombian refugee community anytime soon.

Does the conflict in Colombia really matter to the US? Well, the Colombian government recently seized 66 pounds of uranium from that nation’s largest rebel group, something the US government considers “disturbing”. Indeed.

Radioactive material in the hands of our enemy is never good news, and they’re probably not using it for clean energy production. The situation is just another example of a dangerously inept US foreign policy. The United States should fix its counterproductive relationship with Colombia.

Better Avenues for Investment
Here are some alternative ways to spend $500 million a year:
1) Humanitarian aid in the form of food, shelter, medicine and other necessities for displaced Colombians.
2) Research into the medicinal benefits of the cocoa plant, which has powerful analgesic qualities but which is also highly addictive.
3) Treatment for drugs addicts, so that they can get back to living productive lives.
4) Education programs to warn kids about the dangers of drug abuse.
5) Schools in remote Colombian villages, where education serves as a socio-economic equalizer, thereby giving poor communities leverage against dangerous local militias.

Treat the Illness
If every ounce of cocaine on the planet vanished overnight, thousands of cocaine addicts would still wake up in the morning needing a fix. Removing the drug doesn’t cure the addiction. Without remedial intervention, addicts will just move on to some other intoxicating substance.

Some people are more susceptible to addiction than others. Effective drug prevention programs help at risk kids before they ever get hooked. Plenty of recovered addicts have conquered their demons with a bit of intestinal fortitude and help from professionals. We can lessen the problem of drug addiction in America through a more therapeutic, less punitive approach.

The Bloody Black Market
During the days of Prohibition, alcohol production and consumption went underground. The ensuing gangster violence in Chicago and New York shocked the nation to such an extent that prohibition was repealed. Now cocktail parties are back in fashion. But drug and alcohol abuse still plagues America. In the modern era however, we’ve exported the intimidation and assassinations to places like Medellin and Cali. That’s why we need a fundamentally different arrangement with our Latin American friends.

Colombia, humanitarian crisis, refugees, foreign aid investment

Good news. One of the pillars of democracy has taken hold around the world. Wherever the Olympic torch travels on its way to Beijing, free speech follows.

The People Have Their Say
In America we love open political discourse so much that we’ve enshrined it in the First Amendment to our Constitution. Even two hundred years ago, the founders realized that government suppression of dissenting opinion is one of the first harbingers of totalitarianism. Conversely, free political speech is vital to a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The US commitment to free speech is so profound that we allow leaders of antagonistic countries to criticize our government on American soil. So it’s unlikely the Chinese government was unaware of the American tradition of open discourse. The Chinese do however seem taken aback by the supporters of Tibet disrupting the torch run at all of its other stops. Apparently word of Chinese atrocities in Tibet has gotten out.

More Bad Publicity for China
Pardon me for shedding no tears over the public embarrassment of the Chinese government before, during and after the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese wanted to host the Olympics so that they could showcase China as an influential modern nation. It seems that old expression “Be careful what you wish for” applies. The spotlight is about to shine directly on China, and the Chinese government may not like what others will see.

The Olympic Games survived Hitler in the 1930s, racial protests in the 1960s and boycotts in the 1980s. They will survive the Free Tibet demonstrations as well. Let the celebrations begin.

China, Olympics, Tibet, free speech

When the senior Senator from Arizona indicated that he would be comfortable with a 100 year US military presence in Iraq, he let slip a dirty little secret about the Bush-McCain vision for the Middle East. The neo-cons have been planning on establishing permanent US bases in Iraq all along. Welcome to Ft. Baghdad kid. Here we have no demilitarized zones.

South Koreans Friendly, Iraqis Hostile
In Korea, we sided with the friendly South Koreans against our mutual enemy, the North Koreans. Iraq is not divided in this manner. In Iraq, the enemy lurks around every corner. Our forces can’t retreat to the south because Hussein’s army was defeated 5 years ago.

The traditional war in Iraq ended in 2003. The insurgency began later that year, followed by a sectarian civil war. Now our soldiers are left to police the streets of neighborhoods where many residents continue to harbor an ill will towards them. Iraq has no population of citizens comparable to our allies, the South Koreans.

They’re Not Standing Up, We’re Not Standing Down
For years George Bush gave Americans optimistic reports about the new Iraqi military. Bush said as they stand up, we’ll stand down. But Iraqi troops are still deserting in the heat of battle, and militia groups are still active in places like Basra and Sadr City.

George Bush has no intention of even considering a withdrawal from Iraq. He will instead pass two wars on to his successor, having utterly failed to resolve either one.

Nation Building All Over Again
Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam. The US Military patrols the villages in support of a weak and corrupt central government, while the citizens cling tightly to the words of their own local religious leaders.

John McCain, George Bush, Iraq, Nation Building

Shortly before leaving office in 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower warned Americans about the rising influence of the military establishment and its corporate sponsors.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

President Bush’s missile defense program serves as a prime example of such unwarranted influence run amok. The president purposely antagonizes Russia on missile defense rather than using good old fashioned diplomacy to reduce the need for ballistic missiles and missile defense programs.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Putin should negotiate mutually beneficial treaties for once, instead of always talking past each other. Diplomacy doesn’t cost American taxpayers a hundred billion dollars.

Too Easy to Defeat
Since we live in a peaceful neighborhood, it would probably take long range missiles to attack the US. Very few countries in the world have Intercontinental Ballistic missiles. Great Britain and France pose no threat. And the chances of Russia and China bombing us from afar have greatly diminished in the past two decades.

Lots of countries have suicide bombers capable of making their way into America. Terrorists can smuggle bombs into the US by boat, plane, train, automobile or motorcycle. While the threat from incoming ICBMs diminishes, the threat from small terrorist cells grows. We should focus more directly on this security risk.

Too Expensive
The US has already spent $120 billion on missile defense since 1985. The Bush administration now wants $12 billion more for 2009. This money is better spent increasing port security, inspecting more cargo containers, supplying our troops with armored Humvees and helping to improve conditions in areas that may become havens for terrorists.

Too Unproven
All of the Defense Department’s tests have involved shooting down American rockets at a known time and place. These tests don’t account for steps the Russians and Chinese have taken to defeat missile shields. Missiles don’t always fly straight. They sometimes wobble, tumble or follow irregular flight patterns. It’s not clear how well a missile defense system would work against such rockets.

It’s essentially impossible to simulate a real world ICBM attack and we wouldn’t want to find out about our defense system the hard way. Our leaders should spend more time negotiating arms control agreements and less time touting questionable defense technology.

Eisenhower, military industrial complex, missile defense, ICBMs

In the sixth month, Democratic Party Elders sent the Messenger Howard Dean to Chappaquiddick, a town in New York, to a politician married to a man named Bill, from the town of Hope. The politician’s name was Hillary. Howard Dean went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Democratic Party is with you.”

Hillary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But Howard Dean said to her, “Do not be afraid, Hillary, you have found favor with Democrats. You will nominate and give endorsement to a Prince, and you will know him by the name Barack. He will be great and will be called the Leader of the Democratic Party. The voters will award him the throne of the Presidency and he will reign over the people from the House of White in the land of Washington; and his legacy will never end.”

Hillary asked Howard Dean, “How can I be sure of this? My husband and I have been faithful to the Party for many years.”

Howard Dean answered, “I am Howard Dean. I stand in the presence of all Democratic primary voters, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to address the delegates until the convention, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

Meanwhile, the townspeople were waiting for Howard Dean and wondering why he stayed so long in the house of Hillary. When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen an unholy vision in the house, for he kept staring blankly at them but remained unable to speak.

When Hillary realized that she had been outwitted by the Superdelegates, she was furious. She called together all of her best political consultants and pollsters, and asked them how to defeat this young Prince Barack.

And having been warned by a campaign staffer not to go back to Hillary, Howard Dean returned to Vermont by another route.

Democrats

News flash, April 1, 2008:
Very few Americans had even heard of this tiny Persian Gulf country before that fateful day in October 2000. That’s when suicide bombers rammed a boat loaded with explosives into the USS Cole and blasted a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

You could say that the US kept assistance to the Yemenis on ice for a few years after the Cole incident. But lately more and more Washington insiders have come to recognize how strategically important this tiny nation is to the War on Terror. Over the past few months our government has quietly initiated an ambitious new program which seeks to partner Yemeni citrus growers with young entrepreneurs.

Yemeni citizens have seen it all before. One farmer near the town of Meringue had this to say: “This barren land can be unforgiving, so help from the US sounds like cool refreshment on a hot summer day. But the Americans launched a similar initiative long ago. They came in and treated us like little children, as though we didn’t understand the basics of a commercial enterprise. Then they put the squeeze on us whenever we failed to meet their expectations. I think I speak for everyone when I say the whole thing left me with a sour taste in my mouth.”

Special Ambassador Armstrong Meyer spoke optimistically about the plan. “Look, anybody can put up a stand on the sidewalk and sell to the people passing by. This program will allow Yemeni citizens to save money for school and learn business skills at the same time.”

Yemen Aid