Category: Sustainability

The Wasteful Lunch

On By Norbert HauptIn Sustainability2 Comments

A couple of days ago I had a layover at Chicago O’Hare. I got some Chinese lunch at one of the food courts: rice, spicy tofu and potato chicken. For a quick bite between flights, it’s very filling and quite tasty.  I asked for a cup of water to go with the. The meal cost $8.27.

When I was done, I realized that I had spent perhaps 20 minutes eating. I used three paper napkins (which I was given), a plastic fork, a styrofoam food container with cover (like they give out in restaurants for left-overs) and a styrofoam cup for the water.

I created a lot of waste for the landfill. I used up lot of petroleum and paper products.

Just to have one meal.

More People at Our Table

On By Norbert HauptIn Economy, Education, Energy, Need to Know, SustainabilityLeave a comment

The world population is growing by 80 million people a year. That’s about 219,000 a day.

How much is 219,000?

That’s about three full average football stadiums full of people.

That’s how many people we add daily to the world’s population.

Every one of these people come to the table to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. They need transportation, clothing, education, healthcare, shelter, security and iPhones.

219,000 More. Every. Day.

Do Not Drink From Toilet

On By Norbert HauptIn Crack-Ups, Sustainability1 Comment

At the Bright Angel Lodge, directly at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, in the bathroom off the lobby, this will give an unsuspecting tourist pause:

After posting the first ever picture of a toilet bowl in this blog, I just found out from Bill Gates’ Twitter feed that today is World Toilet Day. How about my impeccable timing:

Bill Maher on Prop 37 Loss

On By Norbert HauptIn Political, SustainabilityLeave a comment

Need I add anything to this?

We Californians actually DID vote AGAINST knowing what we’re putting in our mouths.

What  possibly possessed us to do that?

Gas Prices in California – Call Me Paranoid

On By Norbert HauptIn Business, Energy, SustainabilityLeave a comment

In 2000, I remember traveling in Northern California. I was sitting in a restaurant for breakfast at 9:00am when all of a sudden all the lights went out. Fortunately, I already had my food. I finished my breakfast by the sunlight coming through the windows, paid cash, and left. The restaurant had to shut down because the kitchen didn’t have any outside light or power.

This was the time of the California rolling blackouts. We were told that there were problems with the power grid, and supply and demand. During that time, our rates for electricity in San Diego doubled and tripled, and we got astronomical power bills from SDG&E.

Over a year later, on December 2, 2001, Enron collapsed. Only then did we find out that there were a few people who called themselves “the smartest guys in the room” who had manipulated the electricity market and not only caused the outrageous prices but also ordered plants shut down for no reason at times of highest demand. Their hands were in our pockets and we didn’t know it.

In the aftermath, one guy committed suicide, a few went to jail, but the great majority took their money and went about their business. Thousands of people all over the country lost their life savings. Their pensions were in Enron stock, since their mom-and-pop power company was bought up by these “smartest guys in the room.”

But that was all more than ten years ago.

When gasoline jumped from $4.19 to $4.69 at my local gas station within five days last week, I remembered Enron. I wonder how long it will take before we find out who is stealing the money out of our pockets right now?

Labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms

On By Norbert HauptIn Bad Product, Education, Political, SustainabilityLeave a comment

In the 1950ies and beyond, we used asbestos as a common building material. Not until years later did we realize we were also killing ourselves with it.

Today, (G)enetically (M)odified (O)rganisms (GMOs) are food products that are modified for a variety of purposes. Monsanto is the conglomerate that brought the world Roundup, DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, marketed aspartame, and created bovine growth hormone  (rBGH). GMOs have invaded soy, corn, sugar beets, cotton, and alfalfa.

Rats fed a lifetime diet of Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn or exposed to the company’s popular Roundup herbicide, in amounts considered “safe” in drinking water and crops in the U.S., developed tumors and suffered severe kidney and liver damage, according a study released this week.

We are eating products that include GMOs and we don’t know it. Just like we didn’t know we were breathing asbestos dust in our walls and ducts when it was making us sick.

Now California Proposition 37 should create labeling of such products. Why do you think Monsanto, Dow and DuPont and major food processors like Pepsi and CocaCola have already put up $25 million to defeat GMO labeling in California?

Because they know that if we know what we’re ingesting, we have a choice to boycott their dangerous products.

They want to keep us stupid.

Wrapped into the cloak of “bigger government is evil” they are telling us that it will make food more expensive and complex.

And exactly how is that MY problem?

They are employing a common scare tactic. Socialism. Big government. Regulation. All bad words.

Why in the world would a rational human being not want to disclose a simple truth:

I want to know what is in my food before I buy it. VERY SIMPLE DEMAND. And since I can’t enforce it myself, I want my government to do it for us. That’s what I have it for.

Toyota Prius Commercial

On By Norbert HauptIn Energy, Good Product, Sustainability, Technology1 Comment

Fill up the tank in Bishop, California.

Head south on Hwy 395 toward San Diego.

Set the cruise control on 68 miles per hour.

Let it roll.

Arrive in San Diego 337 miles later with a gas mileage of 54.6 mpg and the tank still half-full.

Cool car!

One Man’s Trash

On By Norbert HauptIn Sustainability1 Comment

…is another man’s treasure.

Recently I had to repaint my rental house when tenants changed. The house had been painted some ten years ago with many different colors, as was the fashion then. This proved difficult to maintain when having to touch-up paint between tenants. The colored paints were no longer the same after standing for years. So I had the entire house painted one neutral color, and I needed to dispose of the old paint.

Calling around, this proved difficult and a hassle – and possibly expensive.

So we thought we might list it on Craig’s List under free stuff:

Within minutes of posting the above ad, calls kept coming in and people actually asked us to hold them so they could get here. Apparently, arts and crafts people can always use old paint, since the exact shade and color does not matter so much when painting small quantities. I would have never thought it.

The paint was gone in less than a day.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 

Electronic White Elephant

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Sustainability3 Comments

On high up on my shelf in my home office, next to the Internet router, is this device:

It’s a clock – and it’s not set correctly, since I took the picture at 10:00am. It’s a weather forecaster which I don’t know how it works, it’s a thermometer, which I never use since I have a thermostat in the house, and it tells me the humidity, which, in San Diego is pretty non-informative. The comfort level shows a smiley face. I never, ever look at this device. It’s been sitting there for at least a year.

Why do I have it?

I received it as a “free gift” with a magazine subscription. I don’t remember which magazine, so in my mind, the magazine does not get any credit.

The device does something, but the time display is dim, so I never look at it for that. My good old analog clock on the wall is much better for the time. There are a bunch of buttons on the back, but since I don’t have instructions anymore, I would not know how to set the correct time anyway. It seems to have different modes, but so what?

I don’t need this thing.

But it’s working perfectly fine, so I don’t think I should throw it into the trash. That would be a waste

I would be embarrassed about giving it away to anyone, because it’s an electronic white elephant, a piece of junk nobody needs or wants.

Some company in Asia, probably China, is shipping millions of these things to people in the US on behalf of magazine publishers. Recipients don’t need the things, magazines don’t get the credit since people forget, and the Asian company still gets paid – some of our trade deficit sitting on my self – until I find the heart to throw the thing in the trash – where it will be working just fine doing its thing buried in some landfill.

Modern consumer age insanity.

Universe of Oil

On By Norbert HauptIn Energy, SustainabilityLeave a comment

Have you seen those ads by oil companies touting that they are investing billions of dollars into research of renewable energy sources. They do. But it requires putting the numbers into perspective.

Sierra Magazine of July/August 2012, published this informative chart which puts into perspective what is really going on with oil companies and research into renewable energy.

As you can see, the $4 billion of investment into renewable fuel is a tiny moon in a solar system where the sun represents a 500 times larger investment of capital expenditures. Note also the Jupiter-sized planet of taxpayer subsidies. I don’t understand why in the world we taxpayers subsidize oil companies.

President Obama: The Biggest Government Spender in World History

On By Norbert HauptIn Political, SustainabilityLeave a comment

An insightful and well documented, very long article in Forbes by Peter Ferrara, refuting my chart about spending increases by Obama I posted a few days ago.

Read this all the way through, and walk away scared.

I wish there was another choice but Romney.

I always wish there was another choice in every presidential election, don’t I?

U.S. and World Statistics

On By Norbert HauptIn Commentaries, Energy, Need to Know, SustainabilityLeave a comment

When I grew up in the 1970s, it was common knowledge that the U.S. had 5% of the world’s population, but used 50% of the world’s energy resources.

This has changed. We still have 5% of the world’s population, but our share of energy consumption is now about 25% and still declining. This is not because we’re conserving more energy. It is because the emerging nations like China, India, Brazil and Russia are using an ever-increasing share, and that presses back the size of our slice in the total energy pie.

Here is another statistic:

Today the U.S. still has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prisoners. That surprises me, and I don’t know why.

  • Do we breed more bad guys than other countries?
  • Do we incarcerate more people for stuff you can get away with in other countries?
  • Are our laws stricter?
  • Perhaps we imprison people for minor stuff that other countries just chuckle about, like possession of marijuana?

I  don’t have the answer.

We  always pride ourself of being an angel of freedom around the world. Except that we  take away the freedom of a disproportionate percentage of our own citizens by locking them up.

 

Population Growth, Religion and Economics

On By Norbert HauptIn Religion, Science, Sustainability1 Comment

Do you want to know if religion has impact on population growth?

Do you want to know if the number of children per woman has changed in the world over the last few decades?

Are we breeding out of control?

Is our population going to grow beyond 7 billion?

Are we facing a population disaster?

One of the most enlightening speeches on the subject I have ever seen is by Hans Rosling. It’s 13 and a half minutes well spent. I promise.