Ecotopia

Date:  3/17/09

Vernal Equinox

Tonight’s show is a celebration of Spring and an exploration of the Vernal Equinox which occurs on March 20, marking the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and fall (autumn) in the southern hemisphere. It will occur at 11:44 (am) at Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on this date.

Poetry Readings:

 “Today,”  Billy Collins
 “In Just-Spring,” e. e. cummings
 “Firstlings,” Louise Imogen Guiney
“Paschal,” Robert Pinsky
 “Mahayana,” Philip Whalen
 “Matanza to Spring,” Jimmy Santiago Baca
“The Gardner 85,” Rabindranath Tagore
“Time and the Garden,” Yvor Winters
 “Daffodils,” Robert Herrick
 “Spring, the Sweet Spring,” Thomas Nashe

Our poetry source is the Poetry Foundation 
http://www.poetryfoundation.org

We also provide a good deal of factual, scientific, and cultural information about the spring equinox from Time and Date.Com http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox-traditions.html and from http://www.thesantafesite.com/articles-database/Matanza—A-New-Mexico-Celebration.html.

 And we read some gardening tips for our region from Katherine Grace Endicott’s Northern California Gardening. http://books.google.com/books?id=SxS_C90WjB0C&pg=PP1&dq=Northern+California+Gardening+Katherine+Grace+Endicott&ei=nmnCSdyDKZTUlQTXv4CBDg

The Playlist for Ecotopia #24

1.  “Here Comes the Sun,” the Beatles, Abbey Road
2.  “Spring is Here,” Carly Simon, Torch
3.   “I Got the Spring Fever Blues,” Ella Fitzgerald, All My Life
4.   “Earth Anthem,” The Turtles, “Songs for Earth Day”
5.   “Spring Fever,” Orleans, The Essentials 
6.   “Feelin’ Groovy,” Simon and Garfunkle  

 

 

 

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Date: 3/10/09

This program focuses on things nuclear. Our guest is Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma, Maryland. We talk with him about the potential and peril for nuclear electricity in coming years as well as the continuing threat to the world because of nuclear weapons.

Listen to Ecotopia #23 Online Now!
To download the show, right-click (Mach users control-click) and select “Save Target”.

Background for Our Interview with Arjun Makhijani.

We begin with an eyewitness description from July 16, 1945. The scene is the Manhattan project command bunker near Alamogordo, New Mexico, during the testing of the first atomic bomb: General Thomas Farrell observes:

In [a] brief instant in the remote New Mexico desert the tremendous effort of the brains and brawn of all these people came suddenly and startlingly to the fullest fruition. Dr. Oppenheimer, on whom had rested a very heavy burden, grew tenser as the last seconds ticked off. He scarce breathed. He held on to a post to steady himself. For the last few seconds, he stared directly ahead and then when the announcer shouted ‘Now!’ and there came this tremendous burst of light followed shortly thereafter by the deep growling roar of the explosion, his face relaxed into an expression of tremendous relief. Several of the observers standing back of the shelter to watch the lighting effects were knocked flat by the blast.

The tension in the room let up and all started congratulating each other. Everyone sensed ‘This is it!’ No matter what might happen now all knew that the impossible scientific job had been done. Atomic fission would no longer be hidden in the cloisters of the theoretical physicists’ dreams. It was almost full grown at birth. It was a great new force to be used for good or for evil. There was a feeling in that shelter that those concerned with its nativity should dedicate their lives to the mission that it would always be used for good and never for evil.

[A Harvard professor], threw his arms around Dr. Oppenheimer and embraced him with shouts of glee. Others were equally enthusiastic. All the pent-up emotions were released in those few minutes and all seemed to sense immediately that the explosion had far exceeded the most optimistic expectations and wildest hopes of the scientists. All seemed to feel that they had been present at the birth of a new age – The Age of Atomic Energy – and felt their profound responsibility to help in guiding into right channels the tremendous forces which had been unleashed for the first time in history.

General Farrell’s account appears in – Department of State, Foreign Relations for the United States Conference of Berlin (Potsdam) (1945); Lansing, Lamont, Day of Trinity (1965). www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/atomictest.htms

Would the power of the atom be “always used for good and never for evil”? In the sixty plus years since the testing of the A-bomb, General Farrell’s optimism seems naïve at best. The following is from an interview conducted just last Friday, March 6, by the National Journal Online. The interview was titled, “Entering A Nuclear Energy Crossroads” and the interview was with with Dale Klein, Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, appointed by President Bush in July 2006 after serving as assistant to the secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs.

NJ: A recent International Atomic Energy Agency report said that Iran has enough nuclear fuel to build a bomb. The report explicitly connects having nuclear fuel with the ability to build a bomb, even though Iran hasn’t signaled that’s what it’s going to do with the fuel. How do you react to reports like this?

Dale Klein’s reply suggests the complexity of nuclear issues today including the fact that the science has become inextricably bound up with politics. Klein said:

In terms of the uranium program, that is one that is a very difficult situation. If you look at a country’s nuclear ambitions, very few countries would start off with needing the fuel enrichment capabilities that Iran is doing. They don’t have operating commercial reactors now and there is a surplus availability of fuel on the world market. So, from a technical standpoint, it doesn’t make sense that Iran is going so robustly with an enrichment program based on their current demand for fuel. Russia has indicated it would sell it. France has indicated it would sell them fuel. That has been a difficult position technically. Iran has also not been forthcoming with the [International Atomic Energy Agency] with their inspections. All of those raise questions as to what is really the Iranian intent. That makes it a very difficult problem, not only for the United States but for our allies and what should we do and what can we do. I think that story is yet to be told.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/ii_20090306_2993.php

And from Maneater, the newspaper of the University of Missouri, comes this report, also dated last Friday, March 6. Recent legislation in Missouri has opened up the possibility that a new nuclear energy reactor might be built near an existing reactor in Callaway County: Greg Young writes:

With the passage of the Missouri Clean and Renewable Energy Construction Act passing in a House committee on Tuesday, an old debate in Missouri between the benefits and drawbacks of nuclear energy has resurfaced. The bill, which would repeal 1976 legislation prohibiting utility companies from raising rates on consumers while [nuclear plants are under] construction, has not only drawn ire […] about whether it has sufficient consumer protections, but also whether investment in nuclear energy is beneficial to the state of Missouri.

Opponents of the bill, and of nuclear energy, point out notable problems with nuclear energy in terms of storage of the radioactive nuclear material. Missouri Votes Conservation believes nuclear energy is dirty and will distract utilities companies from pursuing efficiency. […]. “Nuclear is not clean nor is it renewable, given that uranium is not an infinite resource,” [Missouri Coalition for the Environment] spokeswoman Erin Noble said [. . .]

[However] Warren Wood, a spokesman for the Missouri Energy Development Association, said public support for building of more nuclear [energy capability] has increased: “If you look back 20 to 30 years ago, if you polled the population you would find that it was very much a divided issue,” Warren said. “But now with the polling, you can get up there close of 80 percent of people are in favor of building a […] nuclear power plant.”

Another issue related to the controversy has been the transportation of nuclear waste across the state of Missouri. Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, has sponsored a bill to add fees to trucks that drive nuclear waste through Columbia, which passed the Senate unanimously two weeks ago. Despite these concerns, Schaefer said further investment in nuclear energy should be considered. “It is certainly a clean emission, and I think we do need to look at nuclear, and we do need to incorporate it,” Schaefer said. Recent ballot initiatives in Missouri have avoided concerns about nuclear energy. Proposition C, which passed last November by a considerable margin, does not include nuclear power in the language, which states that by 2021, investor-owned utilities in Missouri must have 15 percent of energy generated from renewable resources. http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/3/5/proposed-callaway-county-nuclear-plant-divisive-am/

Our Questions for Arjun Makhijani

Our guest tonight is Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland. He has a wide range of interests including both nuclear weapons and the nuclear energy and waste disposal. Please tell us about the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and your work there.

The first part of our interview focuses on nuclear energy:

• Both presidential candidates talked of nuclear power as part of a sustainable energy mix for the US, along with “clean coal” solar, wind, geothermal. What do you see as the emerging reality here? What’s likely to happen?
• Just how dangerous are nuclear power plants anyway? After all, we know that France and much of Europe are generating a lot of nuclear energy, so far, without incident. Were the American people overly frightened by Chernobyl and Three Mile Island?
• Is nuclear energy “clean”?
• We’ve lived in Nevada and are thus part of the not-in-my-backyard resistance to the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. There is also a good deal of evidence, including position papers from your institute, that says that Yucca Mountain is not a solution to nuclear waste disposal. Please discuss both that specific site and alternative to the disposal “problem”.
• President Carter put an end to the “breeder reactor” programs that reprocess nuclear fuel into something fissionable plus byproducts with a very short half life (compared to 10,000 years for the wastes to be sent to Yucca Mountain). What do you think of breeder reactors as a source of “free” fissionable materials and a solution to waste disposal?
• The 1950s saw “Project Ploughshare,” with ideas about using atomic energy for peaceful purposes, e.g. controlled bomb explosions to dig a new canal across the Isthmus of Panama. In our time, are there any hopes for the peaceful applications of nuclear energy?

In the next part of the interview, we focus on the bomb. The other night we watched the Stanley Kubrik film “Dr Strangelove,” with Peter Sellers and were reminded, once again, that sixty-plus years into the nuclear age, the threat of mutual destruction is still high. http://www.filmsite.org/drst.html Also, the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist is set at 5 minutes to midnight (not at close as it once was), but still frighteningly close at hand.  http://www.thebulletin.org/content/media-center/announcements/2007/01/17/doomsday-clock-moves-two-minutes-closer-to-midnight

• How close are we to a nuclear World War III? Where are the threats from? Hoe might it break out?
• Do terrorists have or will they have a bomb? Are “rogue” nuclear weapons a threat to the US? the world?
• What are the odds in favor of a genuine reduction of nuclear arms world wide? Can we hope for nuclear nonproliferation and a nuclear-free world? What is likely to come of President Obama’s initiative with Russia to reduce nuclear arms?
• Activists in Chico are part of a national movement, “Beyond War: A New Economy is Possible.” We suspect you support demilitarization of the budget. What kinds of savings could be made through cutting back on nukes, e.g., not putting an offensive/defensive nuclear missile system in the Czech Republic or Poland?
• More broadly, your institute publishes a newsletter called Science for Democratic Action. (We’ve been part of a teaching movement called “Science, Technology, and Society” that wants young people to think about the consequences of science, not just the magic and mystery.) Can Americans be “technologically literate”? Are we smart enough or can we know enough to make intelligent decisions about science?
• What should our listeners do to keep themselves educated on science issues and to make their voices heard in places that matter?

Do-It-Yourself: Resources for the Nuclear Activist or Interested Citizen

We want to thank Halimah Collingwood of the Mainstream Media Project for putting us in touch with Arjun Makhijani. Mainstream Media has also prepared some excellent materials for people who would like to learn more about nuclear issues.

• Project for Nuclear Awareness: PNA seeks to end the global threat of nuclear weapons by educating the public and lawmakers about the real danger of nuclear weapons, the need for nuclear disarmament, and the urgent necessity of nuclear non-proliferation. http://www.projectfornuclearawareness.org/
• Ploughshares Fund: A public grantmaking foundation, Ploughshares Fund pools contributions from individuals, families and foundations and directs those funds to initiatives aimed at preventing the spread and use of nuclear weapons and promoting regional stability, in the pursuit of a safe, secure and nuclear weapon-free world.  http://www.ploughshares.org
• Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to enhancing international peace and security in the 21st century. http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/
• New America Foundation: Has a Geopolitics of Energy project that focuses on structural shifts in global energy markets have important political and economic implications that are not adequately understood or discussed in the ongoing debate over American foreign policy. http://www.newamerica.net
• Council for a Livable World: a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization dedicated to reducing the danger of nuclear weapons and increasing national security. Their mission is to advocate for sensible national security policies and to help elect congressional candidates who support them. http://www.livableworld.org
• Center for Defense Information: Provides analysis on various components of U.S. national security, international security and defense policy and promotes wide-ranging discussion and debate on security issues such as nuclear weapons, space security, missile defense, small arms and military transformation. http://www.cdi.org
• Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: Focuses on nonproliferation and disarmament, including anti-missle systems, biological weapons, chemical weapons, and nuclear testing. http://www.carnegieendowment.org

Playlist for Ecotopia #23

1. Nuclear Infected (Album Version) 2:16 Alice Cooper Flush The Fashion
2. The Invention of Nuclear Power 2:46 Peter Adams The Spiral Eyes
3. New Frontier (Album Version) 6:23 Donald Fagen The Nightfly
4. Mutually Assured Destruction (Bonus track)) 3:13 Gillan Futureshock
5. Masters Of War 4:36 Bob Dylan The Freewheellin’ Bob Dylan
6. Weave Me the Sunshine 4:28 Peter, Paul And Mary The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary
7. Long Ago and Far Away 2:21 James Taylor Mud Slide Slim & The Blue Horizon

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 Date: 3/3/09

Tonight we’re getting down and dirty—our topic is DIRT. We’ll be talking with Randy Senock, professor of Soil Science at Chico State to learn more about this amazing stuff and then with a guy who works with and in it,  Carl Rosato, the owner Woodleaf Farm, an organic farm in Oroville.

Digging Up the Facts on Dirt

To provide a little background for our interviews we begin with Michael Bloch, writing for Living Green Tips in September of 2008, who makes some key distinctions in providing us  “the dirt on soil.” he explains:

Dirt, or more accurately, soil, is amazing stuff and something that we very much take for granted. But not all dirt/soil is created equal. I’ve been fascinated with soil since I discovered how long and how much material it takes to make it. For the sake of clarification, let’s make a couple of distinctions.

Dirt – mainly mineral based; pebbles and finely ground rock

Soil – mineral, plant, fungi and animal based.

Soil is a smorgasboard of nutrients; animal droppings and decaying plants and creatures add to its fertility. It contains a multitude of life forms including insects, fungi and bacteria – it’s an ecosystem unto itself. Because there’s so much dirt around, we can tend to see it as a limitless resource; but so much of the dirt on this planet isn’t really capable of sustaining life. It’s easy to tell dirt and soil apart. Soil will usually be darkish in color and have a rich earthy smell. Dirt just tends to smell like dust.

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/266/1/Dirt-vs-soil.html

From the Inter Press Service News Agency  on February 27, 2009 Comes this story by Stephen Leahy  about the  “ENVIRONMENT:  Dirt Isn’t So Cheap After All”

BROOKLIN, Canada, – He says that  “Soil erosion is the ‘silent global crisis/ that is undermining food production and water availability, as well as being responsible for 30 percent of the greenhouse gases driving climate change.

“We are overlooking soil as the foundation of all life on Earth,” said Andres Arnalds, assistant director of the Icelandic Soil Conservation Service.

“Soil and vegetation is being lost at an alarming rate around the globe, which in turn has devastating effects on food production and accelerates climate change,” Arnalds told IPS from Selfoss, Iceland, host city of the International Forum on Soils, Society and Climate Change […]. Every year, some 100,000 square kilometres of land loses its vegetation and becomes degraded or turns into desert.”Land degradation and desertification may be regarded as the silent crisis of the world, a genuine threat to the future of humankind,” Arnalds said.

There is no formal agreement on protecting the world’s soils. Delegates at the weekend forum in Iceland will consider propositions for an International Year of Land Care to focus attention on soil stewardship, which affects food and water security worldwide.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39083

A “New soil map for African farmers” is being reported by  James Morgan, Science Writer for the BBC in a January 13 posting. He reports:

The first detailed digital soil map of sub-Saharan Africa is to be created. The £12.3m ($18m) project will offer farmers in 42 countries a “soil health diagnosis” and advice on crop yields. Scientists from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) will take soil samples from across the continent and analyse nutrient levels. These will be combined with satellite data to build a high-resolution map, to be disseminated freely to poor farmers by local extension workers [. . . .]  The interactive online map, known as the African Soil Information Service (AfSIS), will be accompanied by advice on how to tackle soil deficient in nutrients. It is the first stage of project to build a global digital map – called GlobalSoilMap.net – covering 80% of the world’s soils. The initial four-year programme is being funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra). [ . . .] “From the farmer in the field, right up to to the secretary general of the UN, we need precision soil information,” said Pedro Sanchez, of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, a partner in the project.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7826275.stm

In June of 2008, Science Daily reported on “Sophisticated Soil Analysis for Improved Land Use.”

Researchers investigated different components of variation in soil at diverse scales ranging from the nanoscale to entire biomes in order to improve predictions of soil processes. Scientists used a variety of mathematical approaches to explore patterns of soil properties including water content, water movement, corn yields, and remote sensing data. Soil variation occurs across multiple geographic scales ranging from vast climatic regions of the Earth to a 50 acre farm field to the molecular world of soil nano-particles in a pinch of soil. New methodological developments better enable us to separate out these different sources of variation by examining soil variability over a range of scales, which is important for linking soil properties with soil processes. These linkages have important predictive capacities, such as forecasting corn yields based on soil characteristics, or understanding where microorganisms live in soil and how human alteration to certain soil properties affects their livelihood.

Journal reference:  Logsdon, S. D., Perfect, E., Tarquis, A. M. Multiscale Soil Investigations: Physical Concepts and Mathematical Techniques. Vadose Zone Journal, 2008 7: 453-455 DOI: 10.2136/vzj2007.0160

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080530132127.htm

Our questions for Randy Senock:

Randy Senock is professor of Geological Environmental Science at CSU, who specializes in such topics as land managaement, environmental physics, and sustainability.

• What is soil ecology? What do you do as a soil ecologist?
• You said in an e-mail to us that “soils are the foundation of many aspects of sustainability.” Can you talk about what you mean by that?
• Often people think of dirt as, well, dirt. Just brownish dead stuff. But, in fact, the soil has a lot going on. What is happening in soil?
• So the soil is a kind of ecosystem? What are the components of the soil eco-system? (We think of the old animal, vegetable, mineral game we used to play as kids.)
• What are the regional differences in soil ecosystems? What causes those variations?
• With all the rain we had in February and early March, we’re wondering about how the rainwater affects soil and its ecosystem?
• What are the effects of air and temperature?
• What concerns should we have in about the soil in our region?

Our Questions for Carl Rosato:  Carl Rosato is a very successful organic fruit grower from Oroville,and we recently had an opportunity to visit his Woodleaf Farm through David Grau’s organic gardening class at the Chico Grange. Carl is also a soil consultant and knows an incredible amount about our dirt.

• Please tell us a little bit about the soil in our region of the Sacramento Valley and the foothills? What does it consist of?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of soil in our region?
• You’re a farmer, and you consult with other farmers and gardeners. What are the kinds of things growers have to do to make the soil good for growing?
• How do plants differ in their soil requiarements?
• Can you tell us a little about the route that brought you to organic farming? What motivates you as a grower?

Do-It-Yourself: Understanding, Preserving, and Enhancing Soil

We began the program tonight with Michael Blochs “Green Living Tips” distinction between dirt and soil. We’ll end with some of his suggestions for “Things you can do to help save our soil”:

·        Start a worm farm and return the casting to the earth

·        Start up a compost pile

·        Mulch; this not only saves water in your garden but protects the soil and adds to it

·        Use natural fertilizers

·        Plant more trees and deep rooted vegetation

·        If you’re moving soil from one area to another, try to do it on a calm day or cover up the pile

·        Don’t pour hazardous waste and toxic substances onto the ground e.g. gas and oil.

http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/266/1/Dirt-vs-soil.html

From the City of Chico website, we find this information about Curbside Yardwaste Recycling

Lawn clippings, leaves, weeds, prunings and other yard waste make up about a third of the waste taken to the landfill each day. To protect groundwater and the environment, landfills are designed and operated to limit the flow of air, light and water. Without these elements, normal decomposition of yard waste does not take place. Additionally, state law requires cities and counties to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. To make it convenient to recycle your yard waste, the City of Chico established a curbside yard waste recycling program.   This program is available through your garbage service provider for an additional monthly fee. The City of Chico also operates a compost facility in which residents and businesses can drop-off yard waste for a small fee for recycling. Finished compost is also available for sale at the Facility.

For more information call: 624-3529.

http://www.chico.ca.us/Re-Cycling/Home_Recycling/Curbside_Yard_Waste_Recycling/Curbside_Yard_Waste_Recycling.asp

We’d also like to recommend a website for teaching children about soil. For example: Some experiments with “Soils, Water, Ecosystems, and Aquifers”

·        using an Apple as Planet Earth: A quick, simple illustration using an apple to help students understand the importance and limited nature of the soil resource or

·        creating a scale model of a soil profile: A simple illustration that gives students an opportunity to take home their own microscale model of a real soil profile.

·        using a sponge to examine several soil properties related to agriculture, water, the environment, and engineering.

·        demonstrating soil as a filter by  using different soil types to examine the filtering ability of soil when exposed to contaminants

·        showing how Soil Charges work by using magnets and paperclips to examine the mechanism of soil charges.

·        showing how Aquifers Hold (and Release) Water by using rocks, gravel, and coarse sand to visualize where water is stored in aquifers, and how it becomes available.

To find out more about these projects visit “Dr. Dirt’s” website: http://www.wtamu.edu/~crobinson/DrDirt.htm

Playlist

1. Poor Old Dirt Farmer       3:53    Levon Helm      Dirt Farmer             

2. Mr. Soil’s Song      1:45    Singin’ Steve   Billy the Bean          

3. Dirt  4:20    Mary Mary  The Sound                                

4. Zemelya-Chernozem.   Black Soil. (Variations ) 3:35  Andrei Krylov Russian Classical Guitar Music. Vol 2. Romance, Folk Songs.                     

5. Dirt Made My Lunch         2:25    Banana Slug String Band    Dirt Made My Lunch                        

6. Weave Me the Sunshine  4:28    Peter, Paul And Mary           The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary           

7. Track 02     3:51    Angela Rose & Kate Stone March Sketch           Country                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tonight’s topic is the weather, what we can and cannot do about it and whether it’s a good idea to fool with mother nature. Our guest is Rosalind Peterson, who is California President and Co-Founder of the  Agriculture Defense Coalition.  She and her organization have studied weather modification programs and projects in California and around the world and are raising serious objections.

Scanning the News on Weather Modification

From Hindustan Times of northeast India covered a huge snowstorm in Beijing, China.  A  story by Reshma Patil dated February 20 reads:

The Chinese can replicate designer handbags, iPhones…and make artificial snowfall over the Great Wall. This week, Chinese ‘weather modifying engineers’ ended Beijing’s longest drought since 38 years by covering the capital with artificial snow. The clouds over Beijing obeyed China’s command to such an extent that 12 snowed-in highways around the capital had to be closed and flights delayed on Thursday. Chinese weather engineers used 28 weather rocket launch bases around the city to seed the clouds with about 500 cigarette-sized silver iodide sticks to trigger the formation of ice crystals and snow.
http://www.hindustantimes.com

 From the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune .On February 20, its editorial board wrote:  “Cloud Seeding Project Should Answer Questions:”

In 2002, then-Wyoming Department of Agriculture Director Ron Micheli invited a Utah cloud-seeding consultant to a meeting of our state’s drought task force. Some Wyoming ranchers were convinced that Utah unfairly captured a lot of Wyoming snow that winter by cloud seeding before the Winter Olympics, and Micheli wanted to learn more about the practice. He was skeptical, however, and told a Star-Tribune reporter that he viewed cloud seeding on par with voodoo. Seven years later, there’s still plenty of reason to be skeptical about the effectiveness of cloud seeding — using chemicals to try to squeeze more precipitation out of passing storms. But Wyoming should have a good idea in a year or so whether there’s anything to the practice. […] [S]cientists are in the fourth year of an $8.8 million, five-year pilot project funded by the state to determine whether cloud seeding is a practical way to increase Wyoming’s water supply. […] But there’s little reason to expect that the results will show that cloud seeding makes economic sense for Wyoming. Cloud-seeding scientists estimate that, if done properly, pumping silver iodide into a cloud will increase snowfall in most cases by about 10 to 15 percent. Problem is, that’s roughly the same percentage of natural variability in normal weather patterns.
[…] Wyoming’s effort has been described as the biggest cloud-seeding research project in the country. As a result, scientists from around the world are watching it closely. The results will either give a boost to cloud-seeding believers or throw water on the practice. […] In some ways, it’s nice to see Wyoming on the cutting edge of something. But only time will tell whether the $8.8 million gamble was a wise move or futuristic folly.
http://www.trib.com/articles/2009/02/20/editorial/

A few weeks ago we read a story concerning public protests of PG&E’s plans to do cloud seeding in Shasta and Siskyou counties. Now, From the Shasta News, a February 4 story by Charlie Enkefer announces: “PG&E halts cloud seeding program for this winter”

PG&E announced last week that it plans to cancel its Pit-McCloud Cloud Seeding Program for the rest of the 2009 season.  PG&E representative Paul Moreno said, “Due to the lateness of the season and the fact that the generators are not yet in operation, we thought it best to stop for now.”   Moreno noted that winter cloud seeding season is half over and current drought conditions have resulted in few “seedable” storms. He said PG&E does not feel that is has been missing out on any great opportunities. Mount Shasta resident Angelina Cook, who has been actively involved in the opposition movement to the project, said, “While nature is the primary entity to thank for this development, our incredible grassroots response certainly helped.” PG&E does plan to continue the project in the fall of ’09, Moreno said. When asked if the mounting citizen opposition had anything to do with their recent decision, he said no. “It is simply not feasible for us to continue right now,”  […] When the issue was brought to the County Board of Supervisors last November, several community members made public comment, urging the board to look into the legality of the proposed project. Many called for the County to initiate a[n] […] environmental review process, citing a variety of concerns from air and water contamination, to the potential negative side effects of weather modification.
http://www.mtshastanews.com/news/x1452245096/PG-E-halts-cloud-seeding-program-for-this-winter

From History News at George Mason University Bernard Mergen, author of aWeather Matters: An American Cultural History Since 1900”  wants to dispel the myth that: We will soon be able to control the weather.

Call this the scam that will not die. For thousands of years humans have sought to control the weather. Mongols wove a [talisman] into the tail of a black horse to bring rain, and tourists flock to New Mexico to watch Zuni rain dances. Currently, ten western and Great Plains states spend millions of dollars seeding clouds to increase rainfall without convincing results. Sixty years of rain and snow enhancement efforts have culminated in the attitude expressed by a cloud physicist: “Even if it’s wrong, it’s like buying a lottery ticket where not much investment might pay off big.” Weather modification for commercial and military benefit is a dream that fires the imaginations of geoengineers. In 1996, a report prepared for the chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force argues for “Weather a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025,” and the president of the National Academy of Sciences and some Nobel laureates are supporting projects to fight global warming by launching small lenses into orbit where they would reflect solar radiation away from the oceans and building ships with tall towers to spray seawater into clouds to increase their reflectivity. In their audacity, such schemes remind me of Soviet era efforts to warm Siberia by damming the Ob River and irrigating the Aral Sea basin. Weather is inherently chaotic. Anyone who has watched a super cell develop over the prairies senses the complexity of these energy systems. Although the atmospheric sciences have advanced considerably in the past century, a good meteorologist, like an historian, is humble in the face of a storm.  
http://www.hnn.us/articles/60058.html

Our Interview with Rosalind Peterson:
Rosalind Peterson is the California President and Co-Founder of the Agriculture Defense Coalition, formed in 2006 to protect agricultural crop production from uncontrolled experimental weather modification, atmospheric heating and testing , and ocean and atmospheric experimental geoengineering programs.

Part I:  Weather Modification and the Specific Concerns for Agriculture here in California:

• Please tell us a little more about ADC and your work
• When we first talked with you a few weeks ago, PG&E was planning to do cloud seeding plans for Siskyou and Shasta Counties.  But recently, PG&E cancelled those plans saying that it was too late in the season and that there was a lack of seedable storms. They also said that public outcry had little to do with their decision. Please comment on that.
• What other programs are going on in California?
• What is the range of “weather modification programs”?  Who conducts (and pays) for them? for what purposes? What’s the science or technology What might be their effects?
• The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration conducted some 50 weather modification projects, mostly in the west, in 2007. Please describe the effect of these.
• What sort of Federal legislation and regulation is required for these projects.   Specifically, legislation for a national weather modification policywas passed by the house and senate in 2006. What did these bills include?

 

Part II: Let’s relate our discussion to global issues and climate change.

• You are critical of so-called “cap and trade” projects toward carbon emissions and call into question Al Gore’s rhetoric and motives in climate change. Please explain.
• Some of the projects in “geoengineering” described in your writing sound very much out of science fiction movies. Please explain:
• the Planktos Project, fertilizing the oceans with iron dust in order to induce algae blooms. What’s that all about? What are the possible consequences?  Who regulates projects like Planktos?
• shielding of sunlight from reaching the earth through the use of particulates (like sulfur being released into the atmosphere).  Why? to what effects?
• putting giant sun reflectors into orbit,  Why? What’s the interest?
• Hurricane Control: the Dyn-O-Mat project, where  jets would drop thousands of pounds of a water absorbing chemical powder  into hurricanes to absorb moisture to try dissipate hurricanes.

Part III:  Community Involvement. You are an activist organization trying to publicize and control weather modification programs.

• What motivated you to found the Agricultural Defense Coalition? Who else is involved? What activities do you have coming up?
• What can concerned citizens do?  Whom should they write? How can they become involved?
• Where can people learn more?

Website = www.californiaskywatch.com

 Do It Yourself:

• You can learn to measure the weather yourself. When Steve was a kid, he read Athelstan Spilhaus’s Weathercraft. New York: Viking, 1951.  Chico State call number QC 871 S76. A fun book for adults and kids with instructions on how to build your own weather station.

Do-It-Yourself Weather Forecasting, farmer style [this list appears on a number of weather-related web sites, the one we’re reading from was posted in West Virginia and Michigan—so it may not be completely accurate for California]:
Indicators of Deteriorating Weather:
Clouds lowering and thickening, ceiling lowers.
Puffy clouds begin to develop vertically and darken.
Sky is dark and threatening to the West
Clouds increasing in numbers, moving rapidly across the sky.
Clouds at different heights moving in different directions.
Clouds moving from East or Northeast towards the South.
Heavy rain occurring at night
Barometer falling steadily or rapidly.
Smoke from stacks lowers.
Static on AM radio.
Wind shifting North to East and possibly through East to South.
There is a ring (halo) around the moon.
If on land, leaves that grow according to prevailing winds turn over and show their backs.
Strong wind and / or a red sky in the morning.
Temperatures far above or below normal for the time of year.

• Do you have weather pointers to share?  Please send them to us at ecotopia@kzfr.org and we’ll compile them for a future program.

Playlist

1. Weather Girl          4:37    Fruit    The Trio Album – Live at the Church            Alternative     
2. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!     2:42    Ella Fitzgerald          Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas                
3. The Rape Of The World   7:08    Tracy Chapman        New Beginning         
4. (Love Is Like A) Heat Wave         2:46    Martha & The Vandellas      The Ultimate Collection: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
5. Don’t Go Near The Water (2000 Digital Remaster)     2:43    The Beach Boys        Sunflower/Surf’s Up 
6. Weave Me the Sunshine  4:28    Peter, Paul And Mary  The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary    
7. Rain Rain Beautiful Rain  3:05    Ladysmith Black Mambazo  Long Walk to Freedom       

 

 

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In this program we explore some creation stories from around the world, which we  then link to a discussion of Evolution, in celebration of the 200^th anniversary of the birth of Darwin, through a conversation with CSU professor Chris Ivey.

Listen to Ecotopia # 20 Online Now!
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A Creation Story from the Hopi People:

The world at first was endless space in which existed only the Creator, Taiow . This world had no time, no shape, and no life, except in the mind of the Creator. Eventually the infinite creator created the finite in Sotuknang, whom he called his nephew and whom he created as his agent to establish nine universes. Sotuknang gathered together matter from the endless space to make the nine solid worlds. Then the Creator instructed him to gather together the waters from the endless space and place them on these worlds to make land and sea. When Sotuknang had done that, the Creator instructed him to gather together air to make winds and breezes on these worlds.

The Creator [then] charged [his nephew] Sotuknang [with] creation of life. Sotuknang went to the world that was to first host life and there he created Spider Woman, and he gave her the power to create life. First Spider Woman took some earth and mixed it with saliva to make two beings. Over them she sang the Creation Song, and they came to life. She instructed one of them, Poqanghoya, to go across the earth and solidify it. She instructed the other, Palongawhoya, to send out sound to resonate through the earth, so that the earth vibrated with the energy of the Creator. Poqanghoya and Palongawhoya were despatched to the poles of the earth to keep it rotating. Then Spider Woman made all the plants, the flowers, the bushes, and the trees. Likewise she made the birds and animals, again using earth and singing the Creation Song. When all this was done, she made human beings, using yellow, red, white, and black earth mixed with her saliva. Singing the Creation Song, she made four men, and then in her own form she made four women. At first they had a soft spot in their foreheads, and although it solidified, it left a space through which they could hear the voice of Sotuknang and their Creator. Because these people could not speak, Spider Woman called on Sotuknang, who gave them four languages. His only instructions were for them to respect their Creator and to live in harmony with him. These people spread across the earth and multiplied. Despite their [differing] languages, in those days they could understand each other’s thoughts anyway, and for many years they and the animals lived together as one. Eventually, however, they began to divide, both the people from the animals and the people from each other, as they focused on their differences rather than their similarities. As division and suspicion became more widespread, only a few people from each of the four groups still remembered their Creator. [Thus the Hopi story explains the differentiation among species.   The Hopi story also has a version of the fall from grace, for as people forgot the creator were reduced to the existence of ants and the world was destroyed by both fire and ice. The story concludes:] The Hopi trekked and far and wide, and went through the cold and icy country to the north before finally settling in the arid lands between the Colorado River and Rio Grande River. They chose that place so that the hardship of their life would always remind them of their dependence on, and link to, their Creator.

The Creation According to Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  […] And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and […] And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. […] And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. […] And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

The Origin of Species According to Darwin:

As this whole volume is one long argument, it may be convenient to the reader to have the leading facts and inferences briefly recapitulated. […] Nothing at first can appear more difficult to believe than that the more complex organs and instincts should have been perfected…by the accumulation of innumerable slight variations, each good for the individual possessor. Nevertheless, this difficulty, though appearing to our imagination insuperably great, cannot be considered real if we admit the following propositions, namely,–that gradations in the perfection of any organ or instinct, which we may consider, either do now exist or could have existed, each good of its kind,–that all organs and instincts are, in ever so slight a degree, variable, –and, lastly, that there is a struggle for existence leading to the preservation of each profitable deviation of structure or instinct. The truth of these propositions cannot, I think, be disputed.

Our Conversation with Chris Ivey:  Chris Ivey teaches  Biology at Chico State. He is a graduate of Evergreen State University in Washington and has his doctorate from the University of Georgia. Chris led the campus and community wide celebration of Darwin’s Birthday this past week.

• So how did the celebration go? What kind of student and community interest did you see in Darwin and the theory of evolution?
• In many ways, Darwin’s work has suffered from bumper sticker thinking, “Survival of the Fittest,” Man Descended from the Monkeys, even Social Darwinist oversimplifications that “Might Makes Right” or Hitler’s plan to exterminate some races. What do you see as the “real message” in the Origin of Species? (We realize we’re asking you to compose bumper stickers here.)
• Farmers have hybridized crops for favorable characteristics for generations. But a great many people and countries object to “genetic engineering,” most dramatically Monsanto’s “Roundup Proof” crops. How do hybridization and genetic engineering fit into the evolutionary pattern?
• One reads these days about “co-evolution” or Baldwinian evolution, where a culture or environment can shape evolutionary development. In the Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan makes the case that plants like tulips, potatoes, apples, and marijuana have not only evolved, but found ways to gain protection and cultivation from humans’ desires and attentions. Is Pollan anthropomorphizing blind nature? Is there room in the original Darwinian thesis for something like co-evolution or “Baldwinian evolution” ? (If so, can we expect evolutionary changes from global warming?)
• In the passage we quoted from the Origin, Darwin talks about how species have been “perfected” and that there are “gradations of perfection” in species. Stephen Jay Gould in has emphatically argued that to think of “perfection” or even “progress” in evolution is erroneous. Could you please talk a bit about these ideas . . . is effective function a result of a process of “improvement” or maybe just a happy accident?
• We read somewhere that Darwin’s reputation is based solely on evolution—that, in fact, many of his ideas were “crackpot”? Is that the case, and if so, was Darwin just lucky with evolution?
• As we conclude, we wonder if you could tell us a little more of the contributions of evolutionary biology toward resolving various societal problems—e.g., fighting disease, crop improvement, wildlife management.
• Quote from Darwin: “I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can.”   London Illustrated News (21 April 1862)

• Closing sentence of Origin: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

A Do-It-Yourself Evolutionary Universe

As Issaac Asimov once argued, science fiction (and fantasy)  are actually an extension of our known universe, a “what if” exploration, and that is certainly the case with the Planii, who appear on a very cool Do-It-Yourself science fiction site maintained by Selarpis books. Here’s a passage:

The Plani are a thin bipedal species descended from the Eldrandii. The genetic code for wings was removed from their ancestors as part of their punishment when they were exiled from Eldrand, so that all who descended from the exiles would be distinguishable from the true Eldrandii. They have even thinner bodies than the Eldrandii, and their legs remain unsuited to regular walking despite eons of evolution – only one of many genetic infirmities the Plani face. Their skin is a pale gray, and for reasons difficult to determine, they have none of the variety of other species, including the Eldrandii, in hair color, eye color, or skin tints. Their often sickly forms have had a significant impact their psychology.  The skin of the Plani has notably fewer sensory receptors than human skin has, but otherwise they have similar sensory capacities to Earthlings. They have a greater propensity for nearsightedness, though, but are on the other hand more likely to have an acute sense of taste. In some regions, their local food can seen bland to humans, while human food maybe slightly overwhelming to certain Planii.
Edit the Universe!   http://www.selparis.com/
Site creator Sam Winters explains:
This wiki’s goal is to present a deep, diverse fictional universe … materials on this site can be used in on-site stories…Practically anyone can have talents that might be useful to this collaborative project – artist can draw various species, or cities on other worlds; astronomers, biologists, chemists, and physicists are always useful when trying to manage the possibilities of space and to imagine entirely new possibilities; and writers can submit stories of different worlds, not to mention write compelling descriptions of species and worlds. Depending on the levels of detail, architecture, city planning, history, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and any number of other interests can be of the highest value in making this fictional universe compelling. There are no limits to the depths of imagination allowed in this project, and while this is undoubtedly a work of science-fiction, fantasy elements like magic are also welcome.

Playlist for Creation Stories and Darwin
Lightning Song (Apache)   2:20    Native American Indians    Music Of The Native Americans  
Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again    2:40    Stephen Moore        Sourwood Mountain: American Folk Traditions                             
The Spirit Of Uluru  7:23    The Australian Aborigine   Spirit Of Uluru – Music of the Australian Aborigine                                   
Pan Gu Creates Heaven And Earth Second Movement          9:41    Chen Yi         The Women’s Philharmonic: The Music Of Chen Yi                             
Tane Mahuta (Album)         2:58    The Ruby Suns        Sea Lion

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