Environmentalists close to the sauna

Sometimes I wish I knew Spanish.  Then again, many Spanish-speaking people are quite literate in English.  Like my sauna compatriot at the gym today.

Both of us pondering how cold its gotten today - 20 degrees colder than yesterday.  Now I love the sauna, but for me its winding down from a workout.  For him, well he seemed dressed in kneepads and a wool cat.  So maybe he did want to warm up.

He was commenting on the lack of rain in Cali - along the freeway the pear trees had been uprooted and were lying for dead.  For lack of water.  It was a sadness to him, since when he came from Mexico he worked the orchards.  Described how in lean water years the tree rings were barely perceptible.  And how rain came in 50 year cycles.

Whoa, new information to me.  But he seemed quite close to the land.  Making me wonder who is the better environmentalist - someone who had worked the land, day in and day out.  Who could see directly the impact of climate change.  Or the local lobbyists - my recent experience at an Environmental Quality Commission hearing - all the forces in opposite lined up to testify - "yes we need alternative fuels" and they create jobs, "yes we need fossil fuels" and they create jobs.

Maybe the metric shouldn't be job creation - but something more objective.  Preservation of the earth - surely that creates jobs.  For without the earth, well, jobs in space are even harder to come by.

Some Things Change..

The comment about "meet the new boss, same as the old boss", well, some things never change. You might have great "hope" about "change" but alas, you will be disappointed when you realize that some people are always in power, some are not. And there you are.

But landscapes *do* change. Took a walk over to the "New Brookwood Parkway", not to be confused with the old Brookwood. Sidewalks are underway. The vision of sidewalks, now covered with rebar, which is a fascinating substance, maybe one of the elements on the Periodic Table or something.

The dead space under the road, where it takes a huge death-defying turn, is now a true wetland. Which always happens after days of rain. I look forward to walking the sidewalks in the sun, some day, some day.

The last vestiges of old Washington County are still sort of there, if you look for them. Giant Douglas fir trees, giant Cedars. I have a few of my own! I should appreciate them. Trees should be declared a public resource. None of them suitable for hanging Christmas lights on, unless I knew someone who could climb 100 feet up.

Alas the old country houses are all but gone, this is a modern community despite the saving grace of old trees who pre-date any of the houses, any of the roads. But ones are coming into view now that they've widened the road, peeking out with their country windows and country porches. So they can watch the cars whip on by. While people may not change, landscapes do.

My Eighth Grade Self was Right

It Is all about the EPA..

When I was in 8th grade, all I wanted to do was work for the EPA (guess I hadn't yet thought about being Harriet). I remember telling this to my favorite Uncle Walter. He dismissed this as foolishness, telling me - no girl, you don't want to work for them. All they do, he said, is tell companies they can't pollute.

Why did I think he had answers for me?? And where would my life be now if I had listened to my inner 8th grade self?

Today in the U.S. Senate the Joint Senate Resolution sponsored by Murkowski and the Republicans to "disable" EPA's court-recognized responsibility to control greenhouse gasses was turned down. Yes! A good day.

I got the sense, listening to her, that she thought this was Congress' domain. Well! Has Congress showed they are capable of doing Anything? Like a landlord who does not enforce his own rules, they have mostly lost their ability to enforce or carry out any kind of legislation. Witness unemployment extensions, which expired on June 2. They continue in their inaction while people drop off the rolls, no jobs to be had (a story for another day)..

So thank you Obama administration for stepping up. The Time is Definitely Now.

Mr. Reid wants the Senate (ok I will try to have just a little faith) to work on global climate change legislation - this month - before Independence Day! OK, keep trying to have a little more faith, stop laughing. Hopefully he and Obama will quit trying to appease the Republicans with giveaways like offshore drilling (no possible chance in heaven or hell), or nukes. They can keep the nukes too.

More energy sins

Eleven more people give their lives for our energy needs this week - the oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana. When is enough enough.

Beyond Climate Change (as if people matter)

Someone at some time started caring about working people. Some trace it back to the disaster that was the Triangle Shirtwaist fire that trapped workers and ultimately led to the beginning of the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA). I’m sure there were seeds before that, but as is too often in the U.S. it takes a crisis to create real change.

Now we continue to employ people in risky unsafe environments, not for cheap shirtwaist clothing but for our endless energy consumption habits. The recent disaster at Massey Coal Mine in West Virginia was a crisis – of the administration’s oversight (this, after “reform” of MSHA, the administrative agency), of business’s ability to protect its workers, and points to the powerlessness of workers who need to support their family and have few options.

Internationally we are certainly not alone. The Bhopal disaster in India, or the Russian disaster in Chernobyl point to the dangers of nuclear power and its impact. The effects are widespread. A woman on my floor at work called herself “a Chernobyl baby”, with continual thyroid problems, having been birthed in the region. She was only about 23 years old! Way too young to live with the effects of her country’s negligence of its energy industry.

Alternatives are out there. Germany’s economy is totally oriented towards solar. Their production and distribution systems, as well as domestic reliance on solar energy, both allow families to have “net zero” homes which generate income for them by selling power back to the grid, and allow Germany to have a robust export economy with manufactured solar panels to sell. Here in Hillsboro we have a slice of Bonn and are quite fortunate that SolarWorld is here creating jobs, for the new energy economy.

New energy economy is starting to sound trite since it is getting overused. But please think about the consequences to people in your neighborhood, and neighborhoods in communities 3000 miles away, our working friends in West Virginia. We all deserve better. We deserve family wage jobs. We deserve clean energy. And mostly we deserve to make a living that contributes in a positive way to the world.

Other growing “sectors” of the Hillsboro economy include call centers. Lets talk about how sustainable that is. Any time I have ever placed a call (Toshiba, Comcast, etc) I am talking with a very polite technician in India. They even admit it these days and don’t try to masquerade, which is ok with me. I have even adopted some of their customer service habits in my communications at work – their politeness is what we should all strive for in customer service.

However Hillsboro workers cannot compete for call center jobs. It is lucky we have some to keep those parking lots full and keep people off unemployment till we figure out how to run an economy that works for everyone.

The other option that seems to excite people these days is Genentech. Even the Governor and other high level politicians showed up at an expansion of their gleaming new plant. Rhetoric about moving “up the food chain” from packaging to production to R&D. Visions of another Intel danced through their heads.. Now I see the underside of economic development (and I am generally the most optimistic person I know). Just rhetoric. The dignitaries at Genentech were unwilling to utter the words “R&D”. No dearies this is not the next Intel. Right now its just repackaging those bulk pills shipped up from Cali. Soon it will be real production – clean rooms, bunny suits, etc. But that is where the similarity to Intel ends. It will not bring family wage high tech requirements for engineering talent.

A random fact – position announcement for a “photocopy tech” in state government, that required a bachelor’s degree. How is this possible? Is this the best a university degree can get you??

The short view is we need to protect our economy, drill baby drill, build more nukes, even Obama is getting into the act and it really depresses me (and I told him so). Please get out of the political short term. People matter. This economy matters and I’m stuck here so I want it to work out.

The long view is about clean energy. The people who almost (almost) bought this house were planning to install a solar panel on the garage roof (oh, he did work for SolarWorld).

Footnotes:

[1] Thank you Wendy, for making Portland City Club read “Strange as this Weather has Been” by Ann Pancake, which sensitized me to the plight of workers caught up in mountain top removal in West Virginia.

[2] Thank you La Leche League for teaching me “people before things” which I have always tried to live by.