CO2 Emissions---Revolution Watch

So today, just after I did my last rant on global warming, this article shows up in the local paper---interesting in that the local Gannet paper usually will not broach such issues.So with all the talk about controlling emissions, all we get is more of them. It is a joke. As I have previously mentioned, in recent years our emissions have been going down a bit and as I pointed out that was due to the recession and to out-sourcing our pollution to China and elsewhere.

As a result of our continued consumption of fossil fuels, and that would be world wide but we are by far the worse per capita, it would appear that nothing is being done and I mean like nothing.

Two things happened to me in the last 4-5 days that got my attention--again. First off, and maybe the most disgusting, is that I just drove 500 miles to go fishing for 2 days. I can't believe that because it is so wrong, and so not possible in the future even if my Golf gets 45 miles per gallon. I don't know if anybody can just say no. I know the problem and I don't do shit.

Then, today I read this article with statistics on GW and find myself even more floored. I am including some of their graphs because they really lay it on the line.

 The above graph shows possible projections, possible scenarios. Clearly not good as it would seem the most likely is toward the worse.

 This graph demonstrates how the developed countries have off-shored many of their emissions. It is not like we have really cut ours--in fact, even though we have off-shored our emission, ours are still going up as the article mentions. Good God. From the article, "Here's another tricky issue. Emissions can also be "outsourced" abroad. Say, for instance, a US factory moves to China and produces goods that are then shipped back to the United States. America's emissions decrease. China's emissions increase. But who's responsible for that carbon, really? This isn't a trivial issue. The Global Carbon Budget 2014 report notes that virtually all of the reductions in emissions made by wealthy countries like the US and Europe since 1990 have been offset by "outsourced" emissions to places like China. These emissions transfers are now growing at a rate of 11 percent per year."

This one may be the most telling and makes me feel all the worse about my 500 mile fishing outing. It is insane but I still did it because I could, I had the money, the fuel was cheap and I am an American but that is why our per-capita consumption is way the hell above everybody else. What do you do? This will be one very hard transition. This revolution is going most poorly and I am a part of it. Holy shit!

Revolution Watch----Global Warming and the War Machine

Yesterday there was a large march in New York city and the day before one in Washington calling attention to Global Warming. Today I looked at the Yahoo News on the interweb and noticed zero coverage of the events even though there was rumored to have been in excess of 300, 000 people there. What I did find is about 20 (at least) articles on our efforts in Syria, Iraq and news of various atrocities, actions of the Islamic State. Considering that those efforts, the ones reported on the news, the military ones, are all efforts to make sure the oil flows out of the Middle East, I found myself uncomfortable.

This is the same oil that is causing Global Warming, so I was at a bit of a loss as here we are talking about bombing the shit out of a bunch of blood-lusting religious fanatics because they may slow down the oil flow at some time in the future. They really might, that I know because Iraq is now pumping in excess of 3 million barrels a day (the same as they did under Saddam) and Saudi Arabia is pumping close to 10. That is like 13 million barrels a day or almost 20% of the total consumed ever day on day in the world. While damn little of it comes to the USA, all of it is used to drive the capitalistic system of the world and our corporations that run that system. So sure as hell, we are in the middle of it because we have to keep those corporations going and keep the oligarchs here happy.

Crazy thing is, that same oil, the oil that we are burning is contributing to global warming. It is a weird dichotomy to me, particularly when the news is only covering the efforts to secure energy stability, and ultimately consumption, while there are huge demonstrations going on to slow that very train down. Generally, I was pissed because in reality, our government is hell bent on burning every ounce of fuel it can get its hands on and will go to any length to make it so.

 Now, I know there is more to the story, in that I was not born yesterday nor did I just fall of the turnip truck, but we have an issue here. As pointed out, 98% of all competent scientist believe Global Warming is anthropogenic. It is also becoming obvious that if it is not brought under control our children and grandchildren may well be subject to horrific situations that are clearly life threatening.

Here is a great talk by Admiral Hering, that is right, a friggen Admiral from the US Navy, on the seriousness of the situation. http://citizensclimatelobby.org/calls/CCL-September-2014.mp3 (His talk starts at 7 minutes.) This guy is not messing around and I suspect he is on the money. Also in the last few days Naomi Klein released a new book called This Changes Everything  With this information in mind, it is hard not to be concerned. I mean, concerned if you have kids and grand kids.

So while I may know the system of oligarchic capitalism has to go away and that is going to be one tough call, and we are getting absolutely no where, I decided today to go to a small rally in Stevens Point to make a little noise and at least say I care. The big trucks rolled by and a fingers were thrown but many honked.

As for the sustainable revolution we have a long way to go---it would seem we have yet to start.  I suspect the only action we will see on Global Warming will only come as the fossil fuels begin to run out--which interestingly may be next summer. World wide liquids production has been stable or dropping for a number of years (graph below of world production minus the US) with only the USA and its fracking keeping the total production climbing slowly. Hopefully, next summer the Red Queen will catch the frackers and the downward trend will start. I'm pissed.

Capturing Wild Rice with Simple Tools.

Wild Rice Adventures

 Old Lenard once said when asked about his efforts to secure some wild grapes, “Yah, they was wild alright, but I didn’t have no trouble getting up next to ‘em.” He was one very backwoods character in the little town we called home for twenty three years out there on the high plains of Colorado. In the fall he just went out scrounging for what he thought he might use.

Now me, getting up next to a few wild things has always had more than a distant ring to it. Don’t think I got the interest from Lenard because he was not a totally admirable man---- he was also a yahoo who tried to sell me firewood that mostly resembled compost. Still, if he could “find” good things to eat out in the frequently dismissed backcountry. Why not take a look around.



Here in Central Wisconsin, wild rice does show up around lakes and rivers and with the assistance of a canoe, and some good advice, or better yet an experienced guide in the form of an old friend, who interestingly passed through our Colorado home some forty years ago, it is possible to harvest enough wild rice to pleasantly grace a winter meal on many a cold night.

A couple of years ago Ann and I tried gathering rice south of Amherst in the Harrisville mill pond. The place was filled with giant stalks of “wild rice” but it was, as I learned later after coming home with but a partial cup of grain, the wrong wild rice. Wild it was, but big grained, and yummy it was not. We were but fools on the local pond, the scoff of every duck that flew the airways. 

This year, with Rollie and Crow in tow, we headed out on a most glorious day, into the rice marshes on the Wisconsin River, marshes that I cannot fully disclose due to personal security issues. Ann was our picker as the other two marsh moguls wanted little to do with our inexperience and lack of physical prowess. Oh, they liked us but we were slow. After a brief demonstration on the appropriate ways to approach the project, we
were turned loose to find our way. 

                     

The method of picking was simple enough. The idea was to take the outside picking stick and carefully bring a clump of rice over the edge of the canoe and then with a single smooth stroke of the other stick gently tap off the ripe rice. The tap could not be too hard as there was still rice that needed ripening. It was also pointed out that some rice would not fall in the boat but rather into the water where it would sink and thus plant next year’s crop. The person in the back would propel the boat through the marsh with a pole, or in our case with a paddle. It was a team effort and as I learned later while picking with Rollie, it is a time to exchange chatter and ridicule the other’s weaknesses---any and all weaknesses including personal appearances. I thought his sodden hat was too western. He consistently reminded me that my central Wisconsin double tap was crude, unaesthetic and pointless while the Rollman Smooth Stroke was one of the finest in the state. Unscathed, and filled with the day, we flowed onward.

In addition to technique, we learned of the other distractions in the marsh, one being the six pound spiders as Rollie called them. He insisted we tie up our cuffs to prevent them from running up our legs. He made a point of showing us a giant Wolf Spider in his backyard as a way of creating fear and apprehension of the coming adventure. There was also the issue of the birds, meaning the Bald Eagles, The Rice Rails, murmurations of Red-winged Blackbirds and all that waterfowl distracting us from our task, the harvest of great quantities of rice much needed to get us through another winter. It was going to be brutal out there. Yah, sunburn was another problem not to mention the changing of fall colors. 

The work was not easy. That is the truth. The distractions were there in full force but the six pound spiders proved to be many pounds smaller but numerous and friendly. The rice came to us well even though I am sure Ann did more planting than harvesting. After four hours we had a great carpet of rice on the bottom of the canoe. We were puffed up like a couple of toads under a summer street light. At the dock, Crow and Rollie pulled in minutes after us noting they had close to one hundred pounds while we had a dribbling eighteen.

That evening we learned about the processing, the history and how what was being done here was no different than how it was done thousands of years ago in these same marshes. The indigenous peoples pushed their bark canoes through the same paths we had traveled using the same methods. As we started leaving the water’s edge Rollie removed one handful of newly harvest grain from his boat and threw it back into the water as a offering, probably a gesture that had also been done many times before by others.

The rice is wild but with much pleasure, some hard work and the struggles of watching birds and changing colors, we were, in fact, able to “get up next to  plenty of ‘em.”

Mushrooms are our Friends

While I have been hot on the trail of edible fall mushrooms, my luck has not been with me. There has been wild talk of Chickens of the Woods being out there but lordy be,  they have not been in the woods I have been in . No Hens, no Chanterelles, no Oysters, nothing. I have been wondering home like a wet dog unable to find a gut pile.

The upside is the forest floor is being penetrated with other fungus of all sorts. It is a fungal holiday out there, fit for any itinerant mycologist. Why, there are fungi on fungi, if you will. The moisture has brought out all the mycelium of the world and forced them to consider reproduction and thus, the fantastic fruiting bodies we all admire.

I have a couple of well-positioned oak logs out back that have been giving me a few Shitakes but those wooden breeding grounds have grown old, like me, and are not reproducing all that much. Hell, they are not even trying. I at least still try. It may not be pretty, still----

At one point in the deep dark forest floor, I looked down and there was this brownish toadstool that looked very much like my Shitakes but on picking and flipping over, there was those little pores that put it firmly in the Polyporaceae and not in the gill fungus family. What a shame.

Oh ya, there was a smattering of puffballs but I never had a positive experience eating them. Too bland and the only real flavor came from the garlic and butter. They are nothing but a platform, one that is too often penetrated by worms. They are best used, I have concluded, for stepping on at which point they give a great puff of brown smoke, spores I would suppose.

Here and there the dead trees are invaded by the bracket fungus and while they seem to be able of working as a table for forest animals, or maybe a launching pad for raptors, I have yet to find a use for them. Can't smoke them, can't eat them but they might make fire wood---then not everything has to have a human use.

I did like the two sentinels that showed up in my wood shed. There in the darkened corner were these two just taking over in a quiet way. They had found a nitch, unchallenged, alone and comfortable there in the damp darkness. They do not ask for light, nor food other than the few nutrients hidden in the duff of the shed.

In the end, I latched on to a flowing, larger leathery mushroom and decided I'd take a attractive selfie with it, you know, as a way of showing my admiration for the forest mushrooms. Too bad the beauty just happened to stink rather loudly, loudly of rotting meat. Then again, I would think there might be another organism out there that would find this intriguing and want to lock a lip on it this spreading the multitude of spores. I had to wash up.

Please show me a delicious, appropriate smelling, edible mushroom. I have been a good boy and I want to eat locally. I want to forage---but no.

Revolution Watch----Thoughts from My Collected Pictuers

I collect comments and information that come in the form of pictures. Here is a sampling.

 This one is very much related to studies being done now that indicate humans may lack the genetics to actually deal with long range, pervasive problems due natural selection in the past for not being depressed and racked with hopelessness. Just don't what to hear about it. Put-head-in-sand syndrome. Probably won't play well in the years to come.

 Growth is a tough one to get rid off in that our form of capitalism is totally based on it. It is such straight forward logic that we can not have never ending exponential growth in a finite world , one would think it would be known by everybody but it is known by few.

 This is why we have art. We look. We know it is true and then we move on, not wanting to really talk about this as dealing with reality of GW will, as John Boehner says, hurt out economy.

 What can you say? Winston may have loved a wee dram or two but he hit this one.

 This is the mind of the corporate CEO who must by now actually realize that what he is doing will alter the lives of their own grandchildren in a way that well may be life ending. Still, they move ahead unaltered. Why is that?

 You are so right Kurt but who is listening? It will only change when the stuff starts to go away and then we will have to adjust and the sustainable revolution will take a new twist.

 Ho, Ho, Ho not me. Still, I like money and what it can do. What a game.

 Who will stop them? Get rid of Citizen's United and put in some campaign finance reform and we might have a chance---maybe bring back Glass-Steagall.

Ain't that the truth/.

Pudgy Pies---A Culinary Delight just Found.

I have been camping (real camping) for 65 years or so, 48 of them with my first wife, and 44 of them with our ratty-assed kids and while I thought I knew just about everything about camping, but one thing managed to get by me. It is the frickin' Pudgy Pie. It is true we tended to do things on the cheap, and on the lighter side even though we spent years camping and actually living in a tepee. We did not have many "contraptions" but we did have cast iron pots and pans that could do up a nice beaver stew---even though that is not something to brag about.

In camping, we did meet others, who like us, spent much time carousing the backwoods of the west and they too never had a bloody Pudgy Pie maker. I wouldn't say we were more sophisticated, actually we were very primitive in that being in a tepee required a certain attention to history and tradition. A fresh road killed deer or even a rabbit was all well and good---except in the hot summer when the microbes would get a real jump on us and those legs started sticking out.

In the winter or fall, or say weather below 60 degrees, many good thing can be found on the ribbon of death. Even got a nice Porcupine once that didn't offer much table fare but did give us a handy supply of quills that could be traded for other swag at a rendezvous. Found a good Musk Rat in good fur right in the middle of our little town here--smack in front of the bank is a $10 pleu.

Pudgy Pies? Well, the other day we were camping on Madeline Island and low and behold everybody there among the 12 of us, except us, had Pudgy Pie irons. With great glee that hauled out these rather heavy devices that consisted of a cast iron cups on the end of two steel handles. They looked more like some weapon form the Crusaders, or maybe Roman times and were used to kill Christians. They were club-like and weigh in at 10 pounds per unit.

The idea was to take two pieces of store-bought white bread (the good organic stiff didn't seem to fly), put one in each side of this iron and then fill the sucker with all the good things found in the camp cookies larder. This would include meat of one's choice if you were of the omnivore persuasion, vegetables, spices and cheese. Close the contraption up and then hold it in the fire like a marshmallow cooker. After maybe 10 minutes, roll it over and hit the other side. Bingo, flop it open and here is this sandwich type thing all steaming and looking good. Where the hell have I been hiding?

So the grand-kid shows up, and he is a bit of a pyro to say the least, and fire is his middle name. So, like, I head over to the Fleet Farm and there on the big wall are Pudgy Pie Irons hanging like they have been there since the freaking Romans invented them. Damn, how could I have missed one of modern man's greatest inventions?