Al Gore

The Nobel Peace Prize 2007

Nobel Diploma

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2007
Artist: Britt Juul
Calligrapher: Inger Magnus
Photo reproduction: Thomas Widerberg

Authority Zero (Revolution) Lyrics

Look at the blueprints as they disappear
Gaze at the blank space filled with all our fears
To make a move could mean devastation
To take a chance is the way to face them
Making a choice to take a different road

You want a revolution?
You've got to make a difference on your own
You want a revolution?
Stand up, stand out and make it known

A new state, renovation
A new day, brings rejuvenation
These days, another way no replay
No replay, I think about it this way
Time's up, how can I say that's okay?
Too late, I should've, could've maybe
Why wait when in the end it could be my last big mistake?

You want a revolution?
You've got to make a difference on your own
You want a revolution?
Stand up, stand out and make it known

Face first, new days, choices we've made
Face first, new days, the choices we make
Face first our ability to choose
I make a change instead of saying that it's just fine
Time to open up and time to realize
You can make a difference if you try

You want a revolution?
You've got to make a difference on your own
You want a revolution?
Stand up, stand out and make it known
You've got to stand up and make it known
You want a revolution?

These are the lyrics to the song linked through youtube under my "Face for Radio" photo.
This song is on a compilation album titled Rock Against Bush and is one of my favorites.
Want a revolution? Vote for progress with your time, energy, $$$$$, and oh yeah at the polling booth. You can make a difference if you try!!!

Positive Energy Conference at Findhorn (Scotland)

I encourage anyone with the means to attend this conference to please do so. We need to wean ourselves from fossil fuels with their heavy environmental and social costs. I have heard many amazing things about these folks from several sources. My friend Paul Symanski who carpooled to the Bioneers conference with me said that the month he spent at Findhorn was amazing (this from a Ph.D. energy researcher). I'm looking into attending myself, so if anyone has too much money and wants to help sponsor me, please let me know.

Green Jobs Growing

Thanks to Grist for pointing the way to a fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute showing that clean energy, already a job-creation engine, will soon rev even higher:

• Energy efficiency now employs 8 million, and renewable energy 450,000, in the U.S. • Renewable energy creates more jobs per megawatt of power installed, unit of energy produced, and dollar invested than fossil energy. • Generating 20 percent of U.S. electricity from new renewable energy by 2020 will add 185,000 new jobs, while cumulatively reducing utility bills $10.5 billion and increasing rural landowner income by $26.5 billion. • A national light vehicle efficiency standard of 35 mpg by 2018 will create 241,000 jobs, including 23,900 in the automotive sector, while saving consumers $37 billion in 2020 alone. • The Massachusetts clean energy sector employs 14,000 and will soon be the state's 10th largest economic sector. • Washington state's 15 percent renewable energy standard will result in a net increase of 1,230 jobs in-state. • California's Million Solar Roof Initiative will generate 15,000 jobs there. • Germany employs 214,000 in renewable energy, including 64,000 in wind. • Denmark's wind industry employs 20,000 and Spain's 35,000. • U.S. wind power was responsible for 16,000 direct jobs and 36,800 total jobs in 2006. •

Not to mention which, renewables revive communities.

(taken from The Blue Marble Blog)

Green Energy the Next Frontier

Great piece by Declan Butler in Nature on the new venture capitalism in Silicon Valley. Green energy, folks. California gold. Butler reports how the venture-capital industry in the US spent $2.6 billion on clean-energy technologies in the first three-quarters of this year. Up from $1.8 billion in 2006, and $533 million in 2005. Google joined the game last week, committing millions more to solar, wind and geothermal, seeking a technology patch to make renewables cheaper than coal. A few weeks earlier, Al Gore's London-based Generation Investment Management partnered with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Menlo Park—the green-energy investors that nurtured Amazon, Google and Genentech—to fund global climate solutions.

For the fast-moving entrepreneurs of the [Silicon] [V]alley… the next frontier is the roughly US$6-trillion energy market, where the dinosaurs of power-generation utilities have traditionally invested a pittance in research and development. "Venture capital is exactly what we need to try new things outside the bounds of what the traditional energy companies think is worth doing," says Vinod Khosla, a veteran entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Microsystems and now heads Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, one of the most prominent clean-energy venture-capital firms. "There is almost no technology risk-taking in any of the energy companies." Khosla predicts that within five years there will be a green form of electricity that is cheaper than coal, and cleaner fuels that are cheaper than oil.

Butler also notes that although the US lags far behind Europe's leaders, Denmark and Germany, in renewables, its venture-capital investments in clean tech now more than double those in Europe.

California scooped $726.2 million of this year's US clean-tech venture funding, followed by Massachusetts ($292.6 million) and Texas ($149.4 million). Almost $1 billion of US investment went abroad, including a $200-million investment in Brazil's Brazilian Renewable Energy, which produces ethanol, and a $118-million investment in China's Yingli Green Energy Holding Company, which makes photovoltaic solar systems.

This is the reason I refuse to surrender all hope.

[taken from Julia Whitty's blog The Blue Marble Blog (title link)]

Dream for President Bush

Dream for President Bush (excerpt) by Colleen Redman

I want President Bush to have a dream
like the one that Ebenezer Scrooge had
I want him to be visited by the ghosts of Iraqi children
who cry out, “But mankind was your business.”…

I want President Bush to be haunted
by the ghosts of our Founding Fathers
until he learns this lesson:
that killing civilians is a terrorist act
and pre-emptive strike is invasion…

If President Bush doesn’t have a real dream soon
he should step aside for those who do
He should impeach himself
and ask for forgiveness
for imposing his nightmare on the world…

(I found this on crooksandliars, title link) I want to make clear that while I fundamentally disagree with the international policies (domestic as well) of the current administration, I do support the troops (I spent 8 years as one). Most military people I've had contact with do their jobs with integrity and the best of intentions. We do need a strong and capable military, I only wish that their mission were very different. How about focusing on intervening in genocides, protecting aid shipments, and disaster relief.

I've been crazy busy this week.

Hey kids,

I've been really busy this week and sleeping very little (all good except for falling off of a welding table today) so I've been neglecting contact and replies with my readers for a few days. So I want apologize to both of you here and now [sorry ;)]. Mushtaq left me a fun voicemail berating me for this, so blame him for today's activities here.

I'm curious about people's thoughts on income generation without having to spend all your waking hours during the week preparing for work, working, and recovering from work. I've been reading The 4 Hour Work-week by Timothy Ferriss. It is both brilliant and hilarious. Michelle Drew recommended this book (thanks Michelle). She is also both brilliant and hilarious. Timothy Ferriss is a maniac. He also happens to have an incredibly flexible lifestyle, which he gives the blueprint for in his book.

Perhaps the ridiculous number of work hours for this project has gotten me thinking again about uncoupling my time from my income. I don't want to set up a sketchy pawn shop, loan sharking operation (3% skim today to cash my payroll check issued by a bank), or internet casino. I'm looking to research legitimate streams of income to support me while doing research and activist work. Maybe I need a book or movie project. Anyone silly enough to consider collaborating should let me know. I'll be here (Cincinnati, Ohio) for a while yet, but a lot of preliminary work could be done via the internet. There are apparently myriad legit ways to generate passive income through e-commerce and I would love input on this possibility as well.

The fact of the matter is that all of the things that I want to do to get off of the treadmill, presently have me running faster to generate income with which to buy my freedom. It's a little too ironic. (OMG it must be a kleptocrat conspiracy or maybe a terrorist plot to keep us distracted and vulnerable)

I'm obviously delirious from sleep deprivation so I'm going to stop typing for now and get some dinner.

Buddha

What Would Jesus Buy Trailer

This man is totally nuts! In a very amusing (and moderately obnoxious) way, he brings into question what most people equate with Christmas: intense consumerism. He (Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping) was arrested at Disneyland on Christmas Day while filming this movie. My feeling is that kids would be better off if their families saved $$$ and spent time with them. Just a thought...(allow time for youtube to load 2 minute video)

Permaculture 101

High production values and good explanation, 3 minutes.

Houses of straw - the rediscovery of strawbale building

The end of this clip shows some beautiful examples of what's possible with strawbale construction. Some in German with English interpretor.

I'm refining my thoughts on what constitutes a home.

Hello all,

Much of the time in the weeks leading up to the move to Ohio I was living at Innovative Martial Arts with Chuck, Jeanne, and Mushtaq (and various folks passing through). After both Jamilah and then Adam & Cassie moved out in the last year or so the house started feeling more like a storage facility than a home. While the house had been crowded it was always dynamic and usually fun to hang out in. I found out that living alone is rather quiet and not nearly as interesting (I did get a lot more reading done though). So I very stealthily moved back into the dojo household (ninja). With that I've realized that for me home is at least as much about the people as it is about the built environment. With this in mind I am beginning to seriously look at various housing solutions that will be very multi-purpose in nature.

Some of the criteria I will be using are as follows: The home must be sustainable, affordable (or owner built), healthy, beautiful, elegantly simple to build and operate, site appropriate, adaptable, and fun.

An additional consideration is local land use/zoning ordinances. Many places have totally counter-intuitive laws based either on ignorance (easily remedied) or corruption. It should be mandatory that new housing use rainwater catchments, composting toilets, passive solar design, etc. as a primary option and the "conventional" means as a last resort. If tax subsidies were changed to reflect the true environmental and societal costs, this would be an absolute no-brainer.

I am exploring flexible/convertible options that will evolve with the changing needs of a "family" as well as looking into ways to integrate several households into a community with many shared resources, including food producing land and a common building (or several). Eco-village at Ithaca has two neighborhoods which share a pond and a farm. Each neighborhood has a common building including guest housing, commercial grade kitchen, large dining area, library, daycare facility, and laundry as well as rentable office spaces. This idea could be morphed a number of ways into various workshops and studios. The community could create a thriving cottage industry and market. The limiting factors would be the imaginations and financial resources of the community members.

Many styles of housing fit this profile and I will be putting examples up on this blog and I recommend checking out some books on the topic. Some keywords: straw-bale, earthship, cob house, cordwood housing, log homes, green housing, solar house, rammed earth, rastra block, off-grid, permaculture , and sustainable housing. I also recommend looking into intentional communities and eco-villages. I have become very interested in what the Japanese architects and also shipbuilders have been doing with efficient and comfortable use of space.

Buddha

Earthships 101 part II

This picks up right where Earthships 101 part 1 left off. Be sure to watch them in order. You may need to allow time to load.

Earthships 101 part I

This is absolutely brilliant and very encouraging. I will be following up with more of their videos. Please check this out if you have any interest in sustainable, off-grid optional, comfortable living.

Ecovillage and Permaculture Certification at Lost Valley

There is homework & there will be an exam.

Hello family,

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to see for us all as we move forward. With this, I have been trying to determine what to do with all of the research I've done over the past decade or so. What I've come up with is this: You poor souls are going to be subjected (voluntarily and over time) to what may (hopefully) prove to be a mind-bending and reality-altering highlight reel. You are of course free to return both your seat back and flight attendant to their proper upright position and leave through one of the emergency exits (I hope you packed a 'chute).

At the risk of sounding crazy (crazier?) I will begin with some basic concepts and a few quotes.

The first point is that we can be infinitely more effective and have a much better experience of life through cooperation, rather than competition. "I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." (Woodrow Wilson)

Cooperative endeavors can be beneficial in ways most people never even contemplate, but examples abound throughout the world. Some easily grasped examples are carpools (which reduce greenhouse gases as well as dependence on mid-east oil), credit unions, buying clubs, business networking groups, work bees, and volunteer organizations. Less obvious, but equally compelling are ecovillages, discussion groups, non-governmental organizations, community supported agriculture, farmer's markets, neighborhood gardens, tool lending libraries, local business and economic development groups, childcare exchange networks among friends, etc. "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." (Oscar Wilde)

We must change our actions to change our circumstances. In order to change our actions we must change our thoughts. To change our thoughts we must first stop repeating negative and time-wasting patterns, then fill that time with exploration (and pursuit) of better possibilities. "If we simply continue doing what we've been doing we will continue to get the same results we've been getting" (unknown). As Benjamin Disraeli said "Action may not bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."

If we are not happy (and I mean deliriously happy) most of the time, we have as I see it two options. We can fit in and lower our expectations or we can raise our standards and work to create a more meaningful life. I personally am a trapezium peg and will never fit in the round hole of mainstream (asleep at the wheel) society. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." (George Bernard Shaw)

My experience has been that life is far simpler and much richer with less energy devoted to "stuff" and more focus on relationships and experiences. I am trying to pare down my stuff now, as I realize what a huge (ridiculous) burden it has become. In addition to being a burden the standard western model is horribly inefficient and tends to isolate us. I will illustrate the point by giving an oversimplification of the concept of trading life energy for cash; Every dollar (pick your monetary unit) we spend equates to x # of minutes (depending on your income per unit of time) of our lives traded away for what that dollar purchases. I personally have wasted huge amounts of my life on some rather silly things (education in any form is often expensive) while oblivious to this concept. Does every house in the neighborhood really need their own lawnmower, etc.? In addition to the wasted energy (time) there is an environmental cost associated with the production, shipping, and disposal of all of these widgets, some of which perpetuate unjust labor practices. Removing commercial media and advertising from my daily life has been one of the best decisions I have made. I pose this question for contemplation; "What is truly necessary to be fulfilled?". I can't find the quote so I will paraphrase Vicki Robin "What you do with your money determines what exists in the world".

I am going to develop a short (I'll try to keep it short) recommended reading and video list soon, which I will post as a feature on this site.