Who’s the 99%?

Rev. Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir have an answer to that question. It’s actually pretty obvious, ’cause the 1% (really the one-tenth of one percent) are all those folks you and I see pretty much every day. May Day is just around the corner.

U.Va. Beyond Coal

As some readers know, I am affiliated with the University of Virginia (U.Va.). U.Va. has been heated with coal for a very long time and, according to a recent request for proposals, anticipates using 34,000 tons of coal per year for coal-fired heat plants at U.Va. to “provide critical services affecting approximately 85% of the facilities on Grounds including the Hospital, research facilities, academic building and resident halls” (U.Va. Procurement Services, 2011, p. 4). I am hoping that my employer will join other institutions of higher education and move beyond using coal as a source of energy for heating.

Students and others at U.Va. are raising concerns about U.Va.’s use of coal. In October of 2011, some folks organized an event dubbed “Camp Out for Clean Energy” that echoed an event a year earlier conducted by an ad hoc U.Va. group called “UVa Beyond Coal” (Welch. 2010). According to Kurt Walters (2011) of Cvilletomorrow in “University under fire for use of coal,” the more recent event “featured up to 70 students and community members coming to sign petitions to university President Teresa A. Sullivan, listening to live music and hearing an address by John Cruickshank, chairman of the Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter.”

It’s good to see these current actions, but the issues are not new. Concerns about the effects of U.Va.’s burning of coal were raised in the early 2000s. As reported by Lee Graves (2002) in “U.Va., DEQ share same goal — an efficient, effective heating plant,” U.Va. sought to address problems with pollution emissions from the heating plants in 2001-2 when local officials raised questions about the health effects of operating a coal-burning plant in an urban area. For more on the earlier flare, see Lisa Provence’s (2002) report for The Hook.

There are a host of reasons that using coal for energy generates problems—from harm done by some mining practices through pollution from the burning itself to the waste from the combustion. To be sure, there are reasons using coal is advantageous, and one must weigh the costs and benefits. I consider the costs too great in this case, and I hope that U.Va. will agree with that calculation, so I’m endorsing the Campuses Beyond Coal effort. I encourage my colleagues to do so, as well.

Simply download the accompanying PDF of Campuses Beyond Coal’s faculty endorsement form, complete it, and send it to a local Campuses Beyond Coal representative. There are two pages to this form. One is a general endorsement form and the second is for faculty members. Use the appropriate one for your situation.

Sources

Graves, L. (2002) U.Va., DEQ share same goal — an efficient, effective heating plant

Provence, L. (2002, 21 March). Coal truth at UVA. The Hook.

U.Va. Procurement Services. (2011, 22 February). Request for Proposal: Coal (RFP Number: #JG022211). Charlottesville, VA.

Walters, K. (2011, 28 October). University under fire for use of coal. Cvilletomorrow.

Welch, G. (2010, 8 October). ‘Beyond Coal’ gathers supporters. Cavalier Daily.

Arctic Ocean: Ice melt

Photographed by Mila Zinkova

Amid the concern about diminishing sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean, and there’s plenty of concern to go around, came a report adding to that unease: An announcement from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center indicates that the sea ice extent averaged only a little over 3.06 million square miles during the July 2011, down more than 80,000 square miles below the low that was recorded in 2007. Apparently, weather patterns have changed in the last couple of weeks, but the overall effect is still dramatic.

Better biking just up ahead?

Is bicycling gaining on us? I sure hope so, and some academic researchers give reason to argue that it is.

In an article entitled “Bicycling Renaissance in North America? An Update and Re-Appraisal of Cycling Trends and Policies” that is to appear in Transportation Research A, Professor John Pucher of Rutgers University and his colleagues report the results of their review of trends in cycling levels, safety, and policies in Canada and the United States and case-study data for the cities of Chicago, Minneapolis, Montréal; New York, Portland, San Fransisco, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington (DC). Their paper is a follow-up analysis from one that they published over 10 years ago in the same journal.
Professor Pucher and his colleagues wanted to examine national trends in cycling levels, safety, and funding in general and in those cities that had “been especially innovative and successful at increasing cycling” (p. 4). The results are informative. According to their abstract,

Bike Week is coming

It’s just about here! Tomorrow is the official launch.

Bike Week. Spring is here. If you haven’t already, it’s time to get your bike out of the garage, dust off the seat, pump up the tires and of course, put those safety tips to use because May is National Bike Month and May 16-21 is Charlottesville Albemarle Bike Week. To celebrate, Bike Charlottesville, Charlottesville Community Bikes, Alternative Choices in Community Transportation, and UVa Parking & Transportation have teamed up with local sponsors to offer a bevy of free events for cyclists of all ages and abilities.

See Bike Charlottesville for a schedule of those events and a downloadable flyer.

Water sources

That venerable green group, the Nature Conservancy (TNC), is taking crowd sourcing on an interesting mission. On its Web site, there is a request that readers research the source of drinking water for US localities and submit the results to a TNC project. TNC has recommendations for tracking down the info on water sources, a multimedia feature showing images and such about the places (63 cities as of this writing) where people have submitted info about water sources, and an interactive map from which one can select those that have been submitted (yes neighbors, C’ville is already marked, of course; TNC has an outpost in the gracious hinterlands here).

Link to the Nature Conservancy’s Where Does Your Water Come From? Is your locality listed? When we lived out in North Garden, our water source was very local; we didn’t share it with anyone.

Junk mail’s gotta go

Yikes! I ought to do some fact-checking on the data here, but these numbers are awe-inspiring.

In the 1990s or so I began using the Direct Marketing Association’s mechanism for opting out of direct mail. I only have case-study level data, but I can testify that we don’t get as much junk as this graphic indicates we would. We also don’t get as much as some of our friends say they get. I’ve used the DMA for some of my family and seen a substantial reduction in the junk they get, too.

Now, I’d like to see it apply to the horrible marketing I saw in the just-completed election campaign.

The image is linked. Thanks to Jay and Tim Willingham for another good one.

Rev. Billy Reaches Out to California

Leave it to the Right-on Reverand Billy to tie about forty-eleventy strings into one bow.

According to Reed Johnson of the Los Angeles Times, Rev. Billy, Savi, and a bunch of the other of them are holed up in LA doing some gigs. They’re trucking along that lefty coast singing the gospel.

On a drizzly evening earlier this week, the Rev. Billy, who calls Mickey Mouse “the Antichrist,” was denouncing the evils of mindless consumerism at CalArts, the Valencia college partly founded and funded by Walt and Roy Disney.

Thursday night, the Rev. Billy and his Life After Shopping Gospel Choir will be preaching their puckishly anti-capitalist message from the bully pulpit of REDCAT, the multipurpose venue tucked inside Walt Disney Concert Hall. A late-night performance was added after the first one sold out.

Rah! Another local 10-10-10 event!

I see from a search of the 350.org site that there is now a second event planned for 10-10-10 WHICH IS TOMORROW! Some folks near Crozet will be flagging 350 trees to be left standing during mowing and bush-hogging operations, thus helping to develop natural CO₂-scrubbing systems for the future.

Scurry on over to http://www.350.org/ to learn more.

Yea! 22901 has a 10-10-10 event!

Rah! Rock Hill community garden leads the pack. At least there will be one 10-10-10 event in C’ville.