Recently in Hypocrisies Category

"We are a species of unlimited appetites living on a planet with limited resources."
- National Geographic Earth Pulse: State of the Earth 2010, November 2009 (See also: Straining Our Resources, Satisfying Our Demands, and Crowding Our Planet.)

Also, check this out:

Thomas Hayden has written a compelling introduction to the National Geographic special addition (Earth Pulse). In the article, called "Making Sense of It All," he speaks eloquently on living with in our means,. Read it tree-less, online.

"Nothing is certain, but - and this is a fact conveniently overlooked by climate sceptics - although climate change may not turn out to be as bad as everyone says, it could be an awful lot worse. The only way to know for sure is to wait and see, by which time it will be too late." - UK Guardian

If you guessed this is a real photograph of California, you were right. Climate change has increased temperatures in California, making it more prone to wildfires. Wildfires release carbon, and accelerate climate change. Obama must be certain: we want him in Copenhagen this December, ensuring binding and ambitious climate emissions controls are set. Tell him! Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

"If I am confident that all the countries involved are bargaining in good faith and we are on the brink of a meaningful agreement and my presence in Copenhagen will make a difference in tipping us over edge, then certainly that's something that I will do....The key now is for the United States and China, the two largest emitters, to come up with a framework that, along with other big emitters like the Europeans and those countries that are projected to be large emitters in the future, like India, can all buy into.... I remain optimistic that between now and Copenhagen that we can arrive at that framework." - Barack Obama

"There are those who will suggest that moving towards clean energy will destroy our economy - when it's the system we currently have that endangers our prosperity and prevents us from creating millions of jobs," - Barack Obama at MIT

Environmental Working Group (EWG) cleaning products study was just released. It says cleaning supplies used in schools commonly include 450 toxins, including chemical agents linked to asthma and cancer.

Some of the culprits (when used as directed) include, Febreeze Air Effects air freshener and Simple Green (!!). The worst was Comet Disinfectant Powder Cleanser, which (again, when used as directed) produces formaldehyde, benzene, chloroform and other chemicals known in the state of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm.

Classroom cleaners can deliver harmful fumes to millions of school children each day, and parents have no way to know about it. Cleaning products aren't required to list ingredients on the label, leaving school systems and everyday consumers without critical information to make the smart choices.
- Rebecca Sutton, Ph.D., Environmental Working Group Senior Scientist

What does this have to do with climate change? You tell me.

Today there is a Ford Expedition parked on my street with Save Mono Lake on its bumper. (Nasty-thought bubble: if the driver truly cared about Mono Lake, then why drive a gas-guzzler like that? Well, maybe it's impractical to pedal one's bike over the the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the winter, to see Mono Lake?) But why dwell on the ironic contradictions of others? Here, in Climate of Change, you will find this very writer's dilemma revealed as sustainably-minded consumer.

The inherent hypocrisy of a climate activist who loves to cozy up with a toasty fire on a winter night (or of a mountaineer who drives an SUV) gives rise to one of the realities we must address if we are to truly become sustainable. How does a well-meaning individual, raised on the conveniences of a rich nation, learn to go with out?

"Less is more," a slogan oft attributed to architects Buckminster Fuller or Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, (but apparently first used by a German poet 1774, Christoph Martin Wieland,) describes a philosophy of minimalism. The principle is easy enough to apply to sustainability. (Use less fossil fuel for a more sustainable future.) However simple, when it comes to putting "less is more" into practice, the realities are complex.

How might an SUV driver put less-is-more into practice where the lake is concerned? How should a travel-loving, renewable energy advocate get to India?

Must I turn in my urban flat for a cave, my holiday to Tanzania for a bicycle camping trip to nearby John Muir Woods, and my Macbook Air for paper and pencil? In a recent TED talk, "3 warp-speed architecture tales," Bjarke Ingels suggests otherwise as he explains how his architectural firm has designed a carbon-neutral building modeled on a mountain in Azerbaijan.

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature -- they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy -- and creating stunning views.

Remember my confession, that I love a cozy fire, sultry jazz on a cold night? Well, nestled in my new apartment, on the coldest night so far this autumn, I swallowed my inner climate activist and put a purportedly "eco" log in the fireplace.

7:20 pm - Stifled voices rising in my throat and questions poking me. What could be more wasteful? I pay money for dust from a ground up tree, mixed with (albeit recycled/renewable) wax; throw it in a cement cavity in the wall; put a match to it and watch. My money and the tree transform to soot. The smoke--laced with greenhouse gases, particles of airborne garbage, and hazardous pollutants--curls up the chimney and out to taint the beautiful, black sky.

7:25 pm - In my case, invisible wisps of the smoke also come into my living room, giving me an immediate headache. (Or is that from the climate activist guilt of indulging in a fire?)

7:30 pm - RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAA. Fire alarm. It's not (just) guilt! I open a couple of windows, notice the log has not started burning too much, and decide to forfeit the whole venture. A glass of water poured ritualistically over the log, with a silent nod to the tree gods, puts it out. I spend the evening thus, cozy-ied up on the couch with Alain de Botton's, "Pleasures and Sorrows of Work." The log merely sits, charred and silent, with out another flap of its orange tongue (or puff of carbon emission) for the remainder of the evening. Instead, a few candles make a mediocre substitute for the missing ambiance.

11:30 pm - Candles blown out, teeth brushed, I hit the sack.

(DREAMY PAUSE...)

4:30 am - Abruptly, my partner and I are delivered instantaneously out of our respective dreams by screeching fire alarms and onto our feet. I throw open the door. (Did I think to feel it first? No! So much for grade-school fire safety training.) Smoke so thick I can not see across the living room. We are in a flurry of cursing; scrambling for cell phones, shoes and clothes; holding our breath to run across the living room and open windows. We make for the door running as I'm dialing 911.

5:30 am - The two fire trucks and heroic fire fighters are gone, having transferred an (apparently smoldering for hours) eco log to a stainless bowl full of water out on the balcony, and aired out all the smoke. Johnnie and I sit dazed on the sofa in the lobby.

The coming days will include: carpet and upholstery shampooing ($300), wall and surface scrubbing ($150), air fresheners and cleaning products (each with its own unique combination of toxic and nontoxic ingredients); headaches, sore throats, achy lungs and stinging eyes; immense gratitude for the fire alarms that probably saved our lives; new-found appreciation for firefighters and the gift they give our communities; a smokey scent that will not leave our bodies, books, walls nor the insides of our noses; and a lingering question.

If five minutes and the corner of an eco log can do this much damage, what does all the world's wood burning do?

Levine, Cofer, Cahoon and Winstead, in Biomass Burning: A driver for global change, estimate that 1,430 Tg of wood fuel are burned yearly. After some searching about on the Web I learned that Tg means teragram. Using a handy conversion tool, I learned that the relatively benign sounding (at least to the untrained ear) 1,430 Tg is equivalent to 3,152,610,349,000 pounds of wood fuel burned annually in the world.

So, as I was saying:

If five minutes and the corner of an eco log can do this much damage, what does burning three trillion pounds of wood per year do? (How many cords of wood would that be?!)

Reading more about biomass (living and non-living vegetable matter) burning, I learn that 45% of those 3 trillion pounds are made up of carbon. When burned, the carbon releases carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and nonmethane hydrocarbons-and particulate or elemental carbon.

Therefore:

If five minutes and the corner of an eco log can do this much damage, what does burning three trillion pounds of wood per year do?

I'll tell you: It releases 1,410,958,478,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and nonmethane hydrocarbons-and particulate or elemental carbon.

I want to have a fire in the hearth, for a cozy evening. But, I'm haunted by the trillion and a heal tons of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and nonmethane hydrocarbons-and particulate or elemental carbon. I want to have a fire in the hearth for a cozy evening, but this knowledge kinda ruins the mood anyway.

I'm a romantic. I like cinnamon candles, a cozy fire in the hearth, Diane Krall on the stereo and a nip of port. BUT WHAT ABOUT MY GOAL OF REDUCING MY CARBON EMISSIONS BY 10% IN 2010?

Worried about the implications, I did a little searching and at the very least found what appears to be a lower-emissions option. Helen Suh MacIntosh, Professor of Environmental Health at Harvard University, opines on Treehugger that an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional firewood are renewable wax and sawdust composite logs (like Javalogs and Duraflame). Duraflame claims to use 80% less resources than natural wood logs, be made of 100% recycled / renewable materials and create 80% less particulate matter, 75% less carbon monoxide and 90% less hazardous pollutants. Java Logs are made from coffee grounds!! Their website says they burn brighter / hotter than sawdust logs, and producing 85% less carbon monoxide than conventional wood logs.

Against my own better judgment and rabble rousing, maybe once or twice a year, I could consider this approach? It might meet my need for mood on a rainy, winter night in San Francisco, while I tap out my Climate of Change post for the day.

Ah, the unbearable hypocrisy of contradicting desires. What to do when one's internal romantic faces off with her counter-part climate advocate?