The Universal Recycle Bin

If you take the extreme view of environmental systems you end up with something deeply profound to both cosmology as well as philosophy.  There is an effective permanence in the universe.  The conservation of matter and energy describe how things are always changing and rearranging themselves but never truly disappearing.  For instance: the plastic housing the computer on which you’re reading this contains carbon atoms comprised of the fundamental particles born in the Big Bang.  The plastic itself may only be a few years old, but those particles comprising it are over 14billion years old.

And the same applies to ourselves.

The universe is a great cauldron of ingredients in a slow, yet violent churn.  Everything we see and experience around us has coalesced from ancient material.  Everything we see and experience around us will one day be returned to the recycle bin to be reused in some other way.

I don’t recall where I heard this, but someone once noted that “The Universe wastes nothing”.
That’s pretty amazing. Even my own wedding touched on this theme in a tangential way. At the service was read a statement compiled by me and my wife which related to the nature of the universe. That in the longest view there is nothing fair or unfair. That there is no injustice and everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to – not due to some interventionism by a benevolent/malevolent sky wizard, but the determinism of causality. Nothing is random.

But don’t take my word for it.  Listen to Neil DeGrasse Tyson say it with sufficient gravitas and give your tummy the willies.

New Year’s ecolutions

So I’ve noticed a meme floating through the tubes.  Declaring resolutions for an environmentally concious year.  I realize I’m late, especially since I celebrate my new years 10 days early, but here are my environmentally oriented goals for 2009:

1. Stop leaving my reusable grocery bags in the house. I am perpetually stopping at various groceries while I’m out and find that I’ve once again left my bags by the door.  No more.  The trend stops and from now on I will make returning those bags to my car a bona fide part of unloading the groceries.
2. Replace one of my toilets with a high efficiency high pressure low flow dual action one. I have two toilets in my house.  One of them is still the cheap one put in before the house was bought.  It needs an upgrade and when that happens it will be something like this.
3. Start building my raised beds for my vegetable garden. I love my herb gardens and I plan to expand my potted herbs into a larger garden.  I like leaving most of the herbs in pots so I can bring them in come winter (except the rosemary), but I want to have several raised beds for various vegetables.
4. Compost.  This follows from the above goal.  Much of my back yard is plant/flower garden.  Adding a vegetable garden will make composting more than worth it.
5. Install rain catchment. Again, this follows from the previous goal.  I rarely water my lawn.  It doesn’t need it, and I don’t mind some mild browning.  We get some pretty steady rainfall here anyway.  However, a vegetable garden will require some more disciplined and consistent watering, which I’ll only feel comfortable doing via rain storage.  My roof is great for this.

Considering the other tasks, goals, issues and plans that I will be dealing with this year I know I am completely fooling myself if I think I can get to those last few.  If that’s the case then I guess they’ll just roll over into next year.

Foxy Lady

So I’m driving through DC this afternoon, trying to go with the flow.  There is a delicate balance between keeping my passenger from throwing up on herself, and avoiding the natives.  Seconds after we cross the DC line into Maryland I spot a Red Fox standing on a sidewalk apparently contemplating the 6 lane road before it.  Keep in mind this is 2-o-clock in the afternoon. They’re usually twilight/nocturnal creatures.

My wife assumed at first that it might be rabid, hence its mid day urban excursion.  I doubted that – it looked quite pensive.  And for good reason.  Mid January is mating season for North American foxes, and today fits that bill.  I can only assume this fox is a male and in search of a mate.  Unfortunately the prospects of finding one at that spot are pretty slim.  Rock Creek Park is about 7 blocks behind where I saw him.  I can only hope he decided to backtrack through the side streets and neighborhoods rather than chance Connecticut Ave to reach the Country Club.   He’ll have much greater chances of finding himself a…  well, you know.

Paleoparenting

I found this comic via Digg. I think it’s great. I intend to raise my children fully aware of the fact that all things on the planet share a relationship with all other things. Environmental events are never simply all that they appear.

Success(ion)

Undergoing primary production…