This blog has closed!

Friends,
This blog has officially closed. I'm still keeping the archives open, which you can access at right. Otherwise, if you have bookmarks to me, please relink them to eastbayenvironment.blogspot.com. Thanks

Skiing in Tahoe

Last weekend I went up to near Lake Tahoe with some friends to go cross-country skiing. It was a beautiful weekend. The sky was clear blue the whole time, temps up to 60 (in the mountains), and a relaxing healthy activity in the high elev. woods. We skiied trails at the Royal Gorge "cross country resort", which is a huge, 9000 acre system (the "largest in North America") with over 300 KM of groomed cross country ski trails. The conditions were pretty ideal: high 50s, sunny, and not too many people. (it might have been too warm, but not being very expert skiiers, it didn't bother us). I'm not sure if the price of tickets discouraged people from coming (they cost $29 per adult on a weekend, to use the trails). Anyways, we brought all our own equipment and shared the cabin together (found it privately) so the trip was still a bargain. The skiing itself was good but not great. It was a little too warm and thus the snow was slushy. I had to switch to my "ribbed" skis, which are slower, so I could get up the inclines. Having done cross-country skiing for many years, I was often waiting for others in the party to catch up. This gave me a chance to enjoy the surroundings. Also I noticed a lot of people "skating" on those trails. That is a special technique (as opposed to what most people practice, that is the "normal", or classic, nordic technique). "Skating" is really like roller blading on snow, with poles and light skis. Done correctly, it looks very graceful. I resolved to try it out ... next year.

And with that, friends, I conclude my last post on this blog. I think it's time to turn the page and close this chapter of my existence! It's been nearly 2 years of blogging with "blogger.com" (the first post was May 2005). The service has not disappointed. However, I feel this blog has achieved everything I think it can, and, speaking honestly, I just don't feel like maintaining it anymore. Plus, my name now is getting out to more and more people in the East Bay due to conservation activities I am involved in. I feel this blog has just a little more personal information than I care to share with the public. Besides, it's not like I don't already spend enough time on the computer! so Adieu, Sayonara, and Auf Wiedersehen. You can always check my alternate blog, which I intend to keep up, for the time being.

Word ... to the Mummy

ODE TO THE MUMMY:

Oh Mummy, how old art thou
With your golden face
Ever raising your eyebrows
From behind the glassed case

Your mask of cool restraint
Belies your inner torment
As you try through ink and paint
A signal to your master to send

For looking at your new environ'
Concerned you are become
At the lack of order, of clean, and of light
It looks very much like a slum.

But no fear, my Mummy, you are safe
in good hands have you arrived
in Oakland I treat guests well
have some Zinfandel and enjoy the ride.

Trip to Texas

Ahh, Texas. This year for the first time I visited my parents who were snowbirding as usual during cold Wisconsin weather in Alpine, Texas. Alpine is a very nice town. It's got about 4 stop lights (ok, maybe a few more, since it's also got Sul Ross State University). All the streets are wide and straight (compared to the Bay Area, they are), and there is practically not a single hill in the whole town (except an incline leading up to the college). There is also a nice restaurant and hotel, Holland House, that purports to run the smallest brewery in Texas (the brewmaster, whom we couldn't meet because of some legal troubles he's having, came from Bavaria). We ate there and enjoyed the beer.

The highlight of the trip though was the 2 1/2 days I spent with Mom and Dad in Big Bend national park. The park is huge - it takes about 1 hour to drive through (similar to Yosemite, but less ups and downs). It's also semi-arid. And, a great place to take photographs. I stored my digital pictures here at yahoo photos (clicking "slideshow" will give you the easy to watch 5 minute show).

One photo of note is the "Prada Marfa" permanent art exhibit (shown below).

This exhibit, featuring real Prada shoes and handbags (I read on the sign these were donated by Prada Italy), has already been vandalized in the year or so since it opened in the middle of ranch country about 20 miles outside the town of Marfa (approx. pop. 2,000). A friend and I speculated this was because of the high price of the shoes, which apparently retail as a pair for over one thousand dollars! This friend, who is Texan, doesn't like the exhibit. She says it's an insult to the local people, because the exhibit says "you can look but you can't shop." (the door does not work) Or something like that. I think, hey, it adds coolness and hipness to the place.

In any case, "Bid Bend country" is a cool place to visit in winter. Also a real bargain compared to the West Coast. Put it on your destinations list...

Super Bowl

So what did you all think of the Super Bowl? I watched the second half at a friend's place in S. F., and was most impressed with their risotto herb dish, the grilled chicken with wood flavoring, and the rich dark chocolate cupcakes. Oh yeah also the 6 different kinds of wine they were offering. Thank you April and Bob!

As far as the game itself ... well I wasn't paying such close attention but it looked like those Bears took a real thumping. In fact, I came in and the Bears had 14 points. I think at the end they only had 17. In that time, the Colts scored like 13 points unopposed. And I lost $20 to my uncle, because I bet on the Bears (and he is from Chicago, wouldn't you know it).

Halftime observation: Prince looked great. Who is his makeup artist? Or skin therapist? I need to hire that person. He even performed well in the rain... finishing with "Purple Rain" : how appropriate. We were debating if he was really playing the guitar. Several people doubted it.

One other tidbit : here in San Francisco, we had absolutely beautiful weather. 60s and sunshine. It was a shame to go inside today. I noticed how quiet the streets were. Old people, couples, and non-football fans (apparently) were doing shopping, walking around Market St. (downtown), or just chilling out. Next year I may have to skip the party and join them ... but only if it's NOT at April and Bob's :-)

Berkeley Tree Sit

I thought you might like to read a NY Times article regarding the tree-sitters trying to protect some Oak trees in Berkeley. I have been twice myself to this grove to observe the tree-sitters in action, and can attest that they have been perched up there since before Christmas through some unusually cool temperatures here in northern California (high 30s and low 40s at night in some cases). They are getting "ground support" (like food and water, plus exchange of buckets) and once in a while are relieved by other activists who go up in the tree to replace them. UPDATE: The Sierra Club, which I am part of, does not have a position on this particular grove of trees. I need to make that clear, as there have been attacks made against me in connection with my role in the local Sierra Club group. However, the Club DOES oppose the University's overall expansion plan, the "Southeast Campus Integrated Projects" - which includes the removal of these Oaks.

I just wanted to blog this item, since it's a typically Berkeley story, and it's going to get very interesting in the next days and weeks as the University finally decides what to do. My suspicion is that enough noise has been made and local celebrities have spoken out, that the University will back off its plans to take down the trees. But the UC is large and Berkeley is only one campus ... so I could be wrong.

p.s. the grove itself is not very large, just a bunch of scraggly looking oak trees (not the large oaks that grow in other U.S. locations like in the midwest), plus one healthy redwood tree (which towers above the oaks). But it's the principle of tearing down these trees to build a football facility that has so many folks riled.

Sierra Club Filmfest

Well Folks,

Again I "volunteered" to do an event on behalf of Sierra Club and it's running now and looks like it's not a total failure. So I may as well tell the 5 blog readers about it. The event is called "Sierra Club / Sustainable Peralta Film Festival" and it's basically a chance to show a bunch of environmental themed movies from a list provided to us by Sierra Club national productions. (click the link to the page from national club and you can see all the movies I had to choose from). As the lead Club organizer for this event, it was my job to pick from all the available movies, the ones that I thought would go over best in Oakland. Take a look at our program and you will see which ones I chose. I did this after viewing at least twice as many movies at home on my own. The ones we aren't showing I excluded mainly because they are too, well, "white". How does one say this. Most of the movies tend to focus on issues that are rather academic / scientific and don't highlight the theme of environmental justice very well. For instance, if sea level rises 1-3 feet by 2100, as some scientists predict, which neighborhoods do you think will be affected first?* The lowlands. In Oakland, this means the neighborhoods in West Oakland surrounding the Port. These are traditionally not "white" (though it is changing even in these neighborhoods due to "gentrification" and the escalation of property value)

So what I'm saying is it's not a black-and-white issue. However, if you see most of these movies, you might not get that impression. So, we / I selected movies that highlighted social justice / environmental justice themes.

The movie THIS BLACK SOIL, which we showed Tuesday, was in fact a "stretch" in terms of being environmental, because it was really about how a very poor (black) community out east was able to organize itself (with help from outside), resist a planned prison construction and later got help from the government. But still it was a good message. In the end they showed the community getting their hands dirty working some farm fields, and so that at least made something of a connection from the people to the land vs. people to prisons. Tonight we showed POWER OF THE COMMUNITY, which was about Cuba. Attendance was about double what it was Tuesday (70+ people compared to about 35 on Tues.) This movie was probably a little more entertaining. Or maybe showing free movies on a Tuesday is just hard? After all the publicity work we did I kind of hoped more people would come. But still it's good at least that many people did come and hear our message.

I was a little nervous tonight. But since I didn't have to do much at the mike except fill in some dead space in between the movies, and act as moderator for our featured speakers, it was not too bad. My friend did remark that I used the "evil umm" a lot. Maybe Dead Crow in Georgia can give us tips how to avoid the dreaded "umm" and such filler words?

p.s. Crow, I have learned (by doing a public service announcement at KPFA) the 7 "banned" dirty words on the radio. Do you have them memorized? :-)

***

* from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise : If all glaciers and ice caps melt, the projected rise in sea level will be around 0.5 m. If the melting includes the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (both of which contain ice above sea level), then the rise is a more drastic 68.8 m.[3] The collapse of the grounded interior reservoir of the West Antarctic ice sheet would raise sea level by 5-6 m.[4]

Who Killed the Electric Car

I was at the screening of "Who Killed the Electric Car" at Humanist Hall in Oakland Friday. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It basically answers the question, "what happened to the electric car and to California zero-emission mandates." Basically, California CARB (CA Air Resources Board, a governing body with offices in Sacramento) "caved" to industry, at least according to this movie, in 2003 when the "zero-emission vehicle" requirement, established in the early 90s, was being challenged.

Mark Geller from the organization Plug-in America showed up at the movie and did a great Question and Answer afterwards. One interesting answer I thought was to my question "what about BioFuel?". Mark's opinion (granted, it is a biased opinion), is that biofuel is great, as long as biofuel / ethanol / vegetable oil is available LOCALLY, in sufficient quantity, for those people who need it. Apparently we are still far below the level where biofuel could "run out" in Northern CA... I don't know. In a mass industry scenario, according to Mark, this would not work. Callifornia would have to import biofuel from Nebraska (which is of course better, than importing oil from Saudi Arabia ...). He thinks the electric vehicles are better overall, because the "grid is available already. We don't need to build a separate infrastructure" (biofuel filling stations). I know this probably sounds like anathema to biofuel advocates. But it's an opinion worth considering ...

Studies have come out both for and against the ZEV program.
For: http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?page=article&storyid=691
(this article is by an EV advocate)

Against: http://www.rand.org/publications/randreview/issues/rr.12.02/driven.html
(RAND corporation - they argue that a "Partial ZEV vehicle" is more effective that a ZEV - and also have good ideas about the CARB buyback program to get old polluting engines off the road )

The movie is great at pointing out how far industry, for instance General Motors (and other automakers) as well as BIG OIL, are willing to go, to protect their established industry, that is, an industry based on carbon-based fuel, and carbon-burning parts, that wear out, and need to be replaced (auto parts, which are not found in ZEVs).

Interestingly, I asked Mark afterwards, did he ever talk about the subject to any international folks, and he mentioned he met some German engineers from BMW. He said they're ignoring electrics just like we are, and are focusing on the fantasy-hydrogen cars (as are the big 3, at the encouragement of our president). So it sounds like the German auto industry has its own government in its pocket, as well.

"Who Killed The Electric Car" can be rented at Blockbuster and other major DVD /video stores.