Burger King = Fly zapper (and things about slow violence)

Fragrant flowers

Today as I was walking home from work the sky was hanging low and there was the smell of spring in the air. Dampness, sweet flowers, impending rain, a nice breeze. The impossibility of perception washed over me as I realized that it is actually just impossible for most humans to actually see the entirety of Earth with their own eyes. All we will ever have are paltry representations (maps) or photos from those lucky enough to go into space. In that moment I found it hard to even begin to conceptualize what the whole town of Manhattan looks like from the sky. My mind strained and eventually I gave up because I had to cross the street. It is so difficult to shift levels of perception from the local to larger. When I begin to do so I feel like I am just playing with simulacra, that one person will never be able to truly see and understand. Of course, that may just be my cynicism but Ingold’s globe vs. sphere remains a main feature on my thought buffet. But to the main point of this post →

Vancouver Set to Eliminate All Fossil Fuel Use

 

Several years ago, Vancouver decided to set a goal; the city would completely eliminate use of fossil fuels. Other major cities, including Stockholm and Copenhagen soon followed suit. Now the question is exactly how and when the city will be able to meet its goal.

While already achieving about 98% renewable electricity, the city wants to eliminate every use of fossil fuels within the city, including cars and public transportation. “Vehicles will be a major challenge—converting to electric vehicles and other greenhouse gas-free forms of mobility will likely be the greatest challenge,” says Sadhu Johnston, Vancouver’s deputy city manager.

“The city is starting to build new infrastructure like separated bike lanes, dense neighborhoods next to transit stations, and EV charging at 20% of new parking spaces.” (Peters).

Vancouver will have a complete plan and outline in preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference later this year. While the city is perfecting its plans, it is also working toward a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, as a member of a new group of cities called the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, “which is a new collaboration of international cities committed to achieving aggressive long-term carbon reduction goals.”(USDN). (A majority of these cities are actually located in the US including; Boston, Boulder, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.)

Making aggressive changes within the community you live in is bound to bring around various positive changes regarding the environment. Being that the CNCA was formally launched in March of this year, hopefully we will continue to see other large, impactful cities around the world joining in on their efforts to better our planet.

For more information about the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance:

http://usdn.org/public/Carbon-Neutral-Cities.html

Rethinking Expertise - Experts as Specialized Citizens

This week I continued my reading in Fischer’s book and was pleased to find that he too, talks about many of the concepts that we have been discussing in the past few weeks. Some new things that he brings to the table and focuses on specifically, however, is the relationship between the citizen and the expert and rethinking expertise. The following is kind of an overview of chapter 2 from his book: Professional Knowledge and Citizen Participation: Rethinking Expertise.

A robot from I, Robot (2004) that was the main suspect throughout the film.

Working toward a Greener Future: Floating Solar Panels

 

With our non-renewable energy sources depleting at an alarming rate, many people have been looking into new energy and new sources for renewable energy. A new possible solution is the implementation of large, floating solar panels being developed by Ciel and Terre. “Their innovative Hydrelio Floating PV System allows standard PV panels to be installed on large bodies of water such as: drinking reservoirs, quarry lakes, irrigation canals, remediation and tailing ponds, and hydroelectric dam reservoirs.” An issue that many people find with solar panels installed on land is that they disrupt the immediate and surrounding landscape around them. Installing these panels on water still allows for companies to extract energy from the panels and still allows for the respective bodies of water to be utilized for their own separate purposes. “According to Ciel and Terre, the system is easy to install and dismantle, can be adapted to any electrical configuration, is scalable from low to high power generation, and requires no tools or heavy equipment. It is also eco-friendly, fully recyclable, has low environmental impact and its cost effective. To date the system has been installed in the UK, and a Japanese system will be installed by March 2016.” The installation of floating solar panels could potentially provide insight into the largely untapped possibilities of renewable energy sources. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below.

Find more information at:
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/floating-solar-panels/

Precautionary vs. Proactionary?

Proactionary WITH precautionary

How to begin? Let's start with the conclusion. As with many things, especially in the socio-political realm, everyone is a little right. The error or the disagreement in my opinion comes from degrees, or lack of moderation. So rather than it being precautionary vs. proactionary, maybe it should be proactionary WITH precautionary. Diligence and vigilance; expectation and acceptance of mistakes.

The proactionary as a response to the precautionary principle made many extreme assumptions that are plain wrong. Part of this of course is to illustrate their point but we have to acknowledge what is actually happening rather than an abstract extreme. Taking precautions is not equated with the entire annihilation of innovation and creative thinking. Yes it can “slow” down the process but if anything I could see it stimulating along this front. In addressing the potential impacts you can expand and even come up with new ideas and inspiration along the way. It is simply a different mode of thinking, not a complete cessation of the other.

My Framework

Alright guys, hopefully next week I will be able to turn my time back towards Japan and 3/11 but yet again after discussion in class this week, I am left feeling uncomfortable and would like to use this space to sort out my thoughts.

In talking with other people casually about the way the world works and even our own discussions in class I am beginning to realize the extent in which I have internalized one of the first steps in being an anthropologist: suspension of judgement. So much so that I’m beginning to think that I don’t even pass judgement/have an opinion about different cultural practices because it is so easy for me to see or slip into a mindset where they could be seen as perfectly normal and acceptable. Obviously extreme relativism has its downsides so I am still one to say that killing another human being without reason is unacceptable. However, my limits only really seem to work at the absolute extremes so in contrast, it’s usually okay to kill someone in order to protect yourself.