Longer Step: Ideas for Justice and Sustainability

  From an 'environmental stability' perspective, we'd like to see fossil fuel usage declining, while renewable energy use increases. Well, we have the 2nd part, but not the first one: Fossil fuel use continues to grow, as overall energy demand keeps increasing worldwide. Buckle up, everybody--the world will keep getting warmer and the storms worse. (Photo credit: The Guardian.com)

  HW Bush (the father) had honorable military and CIA service, and was the last Republican who was intelligent, honorable, and competent, though I disagreed with many of his positions. Romney comes to mind as an intelligent, honorable man, though he lost. Then there were a pair of unsatisfactory Republicans: one an idiot and the other both an idiot and dishonest: younger Bush (who tormented us when we lived in TX; his greatest failure was starting unnecessary wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which cost trillions and permanent brain injuries in thousands of American soldiers), and Trump, a narcissistic Facist who understands almost nothing except how to berate and antagonize others for personal gain. Most of the less-educated citizens now follow that party. The Democrats fare a little better. Clinton was a moral scuz but most of his positions were good for the country (except his excessive support of Big Business), and Clinton has the distinction of being the last President who oversaw a b

  I try to think like a Futurist. (That isn't to say that I ever do it well.) But the question churning in my mind is: At what point do we need to de-populate the coastal areas of Florida? I could imagine giving everything below, say, 50' elevation in Florida back to nature, and people would simply be moved to higher ground. Let Nature take over the coasts. People could go there for the day to play on the beach or marvel at the crumbling post-modern buildings as they rusted back to ground. That's short term thinking, however, as yet another hurricane forms to slam into Florida's west coast. Long-term thinking would be to anticipate 50' sea level rise, or even 200', when/if all the land ice melts. Might as well get started now in our preparations, instead of just rebuilding over and over in places where the new construction will only be destroyed again. That feels futile and misguided. And if Governor Desantis finds himself king of a smaller and smaller land, th

This week in my classes (to become a certified Organic Master Gardener), we're learning how plants exchange information and material with other plants, bacteria, and fungi, in complex symbiotic relationships. Here are a few random things I'm learning this week, which are 'wow' items to me: 1. N-fixing bacteria live on the plants' roots, extracting N2 from the air. Plants can't do that, but they take the N2 from the bacteria and they give some carbohydrates to the bacteria, in return. Perfect symbiosis.  2. Also, plants emit CO2 not just through leaves, but also thru roots, and this stores carbon in the soil. It slowly rises and gets released under the forest canopy, where trees prefer it to having to take it in from the air above the canopy.  3. Grass is toxic to trees, in a manner of speaking. Scientists don't think it's just competition--they believe grass can exude a chemical which retards tree growth, just as some trees do vs other plants. There are

  Neil Gaiman (author of American Gods, Good Omens, and many other books) is accused of sexual assault by two women. I asked Alexa to name some famous men accused of sexual assault, and she wouldn't respond. I guess there were too many for Alexa to try to list. Here's the point: It has to be a perverted, sick power thing, because surely any famous writer can certainly attract a willing partner, if they just put in some effort, right? So to go instead for non-consensual assault is incredibly sick, and needs to get massive monetary damages paid to the victims, plus super-long prison time. Being famous or successful does not give you any greater rights under the law than anyone else.

  1. Dom Perignon is tossing its entire 2023 vintage. It's just not good enough. This is one of those lessons that most of us winemakers may not be sensitive enough to. After years of making rose wine from Leon Millot (and winning lots of silver medals for it), I've finally decided I just don't like it enough, and won't make it again. This is partly because my abler winemaker friends are making killer-good reds from both Leon and Foch. I used to make Leon red, and yes I would let it spike to 85F to remove some of the herbaceous notes,  but people didn't like it unless it was aged a few years. But these younger winemakers are adding oak to the primary ferm, and removing the wine and cap from the seeds as soon as they can, and their wines are amazing. Leon is such a perfect grape for here that I simply must find some ways to use it. It was 25% of my red blend that won Gold this year, so that is one good way (blended with Valentin Blattner's Labelle, Ukraine's