The French Broad River is at an historic low and is finally getting some press. Asheville still hasn't placed any mandatory water restrictions which I find amazing. You can find 65 years of good data here. Surf the real-time and find the flow rates in your neck of the woods.

This morning was a record low temperature here. It's welcome after the record highs we experienced just a few days ago.

Here I sit typing a blog that few will ever read while I should be at work or at least on my way to work, but I'm not going to work today. My conscience is finally winning

I'm supposed to work on the Pigeon River today, guiding raft-loads of people through rapids for a good time on a hot day, but I just cant do it. This is what bothers me....we're in the midst of severe drought which is really hard on river-guides and the white-water industry. The deeper water of the resevior upstream of Walters Dam contains a lot of toxins and when the water level becomes too low, no water should be released because the concentrations of pollutants becomes hazardous to people and environment. It's that low now, perhaps lower.

There's not much in Hartford, TN, two gas stations, one cafe and about a dozen rafting companies. A good day of rafting can probably bring in $200,000 of revenue. That's a lot of money for us poor people. I suspect that all that money is contributing to some poor decisions. Who can blame them? I'm not even sure who they are, but I do know that the rafting companies and the employees thereof are loosing considerable income, more than a months worth. That's about one-third of the years income. That hurts.

Hell, I could use the money, but it's not worth the price I'd pay. That little voice inside my head has been nagging for weeks already, accusing me of being complicit in crimes against humanity and nature.

I love it. I need it. I crave it. I'm greedy for it. I'm frustrated by it.
We utilize it as it uses us.
In mind and/or spirit I seem to feel through times and dimensions.
Feeling is Primal.
Before there were eyes to see or ears to hear, there was feeling.
I pause from typing as I search for the words as I contemplate touch to find my hands rubbing across my face, my head, neck, chest and back.  I feel drawn to stand, to stretch, to move, to feeeeeellll
When we touch, we commune, and I love to share the love.
Everyone has boundaries though and I've felt uncomfortable plenty of times by the touch of another or others and occasionally but rarely by myself inappropriately touching another.  I try to be careful, respectful.
I'll hug about anyone who wants or needs one. I've been known to hug from behind and grab some man-boobs. I'd do it to the ladies, but that could be trouble.
Yeah, I love to be caressed and petted, pushed and pulled, pinched (not too hard), hit and slapped (but not too hard), tickled (but not too much) and I love to reciprocate.
 May we all touch one another with infine expressions of love.
Can ya feel it?

Tuesday I attended a free lecture on climate change in 2008 presented by The Asheville Chapter of the American Meteorological Society and The Colburn Science Museum.  There was some public recognition and awarding, after all, Asheville is the hub for climate data.  There was a six-minute video with an intro from the director and founder of AmericanGreen.tv.  followed by a seemingly condenced and updated ameturish lecture in the vien of An Inconvienient Truth. By no means should the reader imply that the presentation by Anne Waple was anything less than professional and of high quality, but she hasn't had the many years and refinements that Al Gore has.

The crowd was elder, I judged the vast majority were older than I and was slightly unsettled that those who would be affected least by climatic changes were those present. The irony is more poingiant with reflection. The end of the lecture focused on the possible timetables and consequences for mitigating greenhouse gasses. The youngest among us will suffer the most in porportion to how quickly and effectively we address these impending crisies. 

It is my opinion that Global Warming is an undersold issue, tragicly  under-played and under-reported. Nothing inspires greater sadness in my soul than contemplation of the future of humanity and the fate of the animal kingdom and life on this precious planet.

We need to make profound changes within a decade, probably less, and it doesn't look promising.

It's a brave new world, globalization is inevitable, resistance is futile. There are many who are opposed to the ways of globalization. Some are anti-globalists, but most are more sophisticated alter-globalists. There is also plenty of hype, paranoia, mis- and dis- information concerning globalization and centralization of powers. 

People can be intellectually lazy, I know, I happen to be one. We tend to look for simplistic answers and fall into camps for top-down or bottom-up solutions. There are few who take the time to dig for the deeper truths, appreciate the complexities and the deep roots of our systems. Fewer still are those who can outline reasonable solutions. 

Conservatives tend to view human nature as inheirantly lazy and evil, needing strong central authority to maintain law and order. Liberals tend to view humans as inheirantly good with the problems we face caused by environmental conditions. It seems strange to me as I transcended the old nature vs nurture debate when I was still a child. Today, I think that the transcedence of dualism is a benchmark of higher philisophical development.

When we look at globalization, we should bear in mind the historical momentum that brought us here. Nobody has presented that better than Jared Diamond. We should also keep in mind the systems of polity, economy and technology that affect our world so profoundly.

Modern democracy is still young, waxing and waning in its spread around the world. There have been studies illuminating that no modern democracy has ever suffered famine and no two modern democracies have ever gone to war with one another. Some even belive that democracy is a panacea for war and famine.  

Modern industry has become a force without parallel. More than one-half of the world's biggest economies are companies, not countries. These companies are transnational corporations and cannot be adequately managed by countries without the risk of capital flight.

When we look at the institutions that govern these beamoths, we see an accute lack of democratic principles involved. The UN and the WTO are among the most "democratic" of governing instutions, yet these organizations are more republic than democratic.

I'm not going to elaborate about the differences between the various types of democratic and republic systems here, but encourage the reader to do so at thier leisure.

I do want to impress upon the reader the imperative of time. We seem to be approaching some tipping points. The tipping point that most of us are familiar with is in the context of run-away global warming. The consequences of that are catastrophic. To the nay-sayers, I would like to point out that there have been many societies through history that have collapsed from similiar problems to that which we now face today.

I now suggest that there is another tipping point. A tipping point of polity in which humanity will gain or lose the collective will to adequately address our environmental problems. Problems of nuclear management, deforestation, marine depletion, pollution, unsustainable development, etc. are now global problems that will require a united humanity to solve in a civil manner rather than fighting over diminishing resources.

A good recent case in point is the Iraq War. The American public was duped by the propaganda, with a majority of people believing that Saddam Husain was connected with the 9/11 attacks. President quasi-elect George W. Bush admitted that the most difficult part of his job was convincing people about the connection of Hussien to the 9/11 attacks. Yet people were convinced despite a lack of solid evidence. Few people are aware of the other possible motives for US aggression against Iraq such as the speculations about peak-oil, petro-dollars and the industrial-military-complex having undue influence in US international policies.

There are many who dismiss conspiracy theories with knee-jerk reactions and who can blame them? If some of them are true it is more horible than our worst nightmares. It is foolish however, to live in denial. It is no wonder that the pharmaceutical industry has grown so enormously in recent decades. It is understatedly difficult to go about our day-to-business in light of the present dangers and problems. It is no wonder that those who do not medicate with the aid of legal perscriptions do so by other means.

Conspiracies exist, always have and always will. The official 9/11 story is itself, a conspiracy theory. Can anyone deny that the closed-door energy policy meetings run by Dick Chenney with Ken Lay were a form of conspiracy? One great example of a conspiracy was the altering of scientific documents by the White House. Considering the gravity of the situation, I consider that to be one of the greatest crimes in history. 

Conspiracy "experts" such as Alex Jones do a great service to shed light into the deep collective shadows, but they may be doing more harm than good. They inspire fear and fail to offer solutions. They help to create dysfunctional anti-globalists rather than constructive alter-globalists. Fortunately there are those who shed light on matters of corruption in a more healthy manner.

If we do not participate in the development of healthy democratic institutions dedicated to the common good, then we will be subject to the less healthy forces of narrow interests. The telos of utopia and dystopia pull upon us all.    

  

There was a very stubborn and foolish young arctic tern that refused to migrate with the rest of the terns. Everyone warned him that it would become unbearably cold and food supplies would vanish, but he wouldn't believe them. When the great migration ensued, he was left alone.

He was proud of himself at first for being so independently minded, but his pride diminished as quickly as the Arctic summer's warmth waned prior to global warming and as his food vanished more quickly than a polar bears habitat.

The young tern realized his mistake and began to fly South, but he soon became too cold and hungry to fly any further so he stopped to rest and fell asleep. He woke suddenly to discover a bear had found him. He expected to be eaten, but to his surprise and disgust, the bear defecated upon the little bird and walked away.

As the little tern's horror faded, he realized that he was pleasantly warmed by the feces and that there were seeds and berries within that were wonderfully nutritious. Warm and full, the tern's spirits lifted and he began to sing a happy song.

Unfortunately his song reached the keen ears of an arctic lynx. The lynx swiped the little bird from his crappy new nest and promptly ate him.

There are a few morals to this story:

~ if the crowd is going somewhere and you just don't understand, perhaps you should just go along

~ if someone shits on you, that person isn't necessarily your enemy

~ if someone pulls you out of the shit, that person isn't necessarily your friend

~ if you are warm and well fed, you might want to keep your mouth shut

Together we can make a difference. It's always been that way, always will....

It's important to view people as people, not as others, evil others, bad others, othermuckers....

Yeah, we've gotten ourselves into a real mess. It's complex, it's confusing. Over one-half of the world's biggest economies are corporations, not countries. Think about it, the implications are HUGE. Sure, there are some bad apples out there, but the majority are relatively innocent, caught in the machine. So many of us work for corporations. We cant simply dissolve corporations, although that might be a good idea for a few. Part of the problem is that we have created an insanely competitive system in which even the giants struggle for survival. Blame isn't going to help matters very much. Fortunately, there are plenty of good and smart people dedicated to making the world a better place.

A good example of environmentalists and capitalists working together can be found in the Forest Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council. Industry leaders of forestry and fisheries understood that a few bad apples could spoil things for everybody, so they enlisted the help of the World Wildlife Fund to help create viable solutions. It's a work in progress and your help would be kindly appreciated. Perhaps this and this will help.

There are many dysfunctional myths that we live by. Perhaps the most powerful and damaging myth is Conspicuous Consumption. It's more than just a myth, it's a system that affects our entire planet, so this is where we'll begin, with The Story of Stuff.....and with a good measure of gratitude to Free Range Studios

We usually think of happiness as a state, a state of mind, a specific emotion or attitude. This morning the grapevine threw me a gem, gave me a heads-up, so now I'm paying it forward.

One of the reasons that it came my way is the local buzz that was created about it. It, happens to be some of the content in The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. He did a geographical study and wrote about theconnections between happiness and geography. He found Asheville, NC to be the happiest city in the US and is where I now sit and compose this blog.

Denmark was found to be the happiest country. I think that there is a whole bunch that we could all learn from a good study of Denmark's fine example.

You can find his site along with some content on NPR and 20/20 with a bit a searching, if you care. And don't forget Denmark...

Happy surfing,

Mitt Romney scares the crap out of me. I find his rhetoric simplistic and misguided.

I cringe every time I hear anybody speak about how we need smaller government, even when Ron Paul does it. Such talk ingnores the simple fact that government is a significant sector of economy employing millions of people. If we cut government jobs, where will all those newly unemployed people find gainful unemployment? Has everyone forgot the lessons of the past and the fantastic success of The New Deal? When people speak of smaller government, the important issues about the quality of government are never addressed in favor of the uninformed opinions (prejudice) about the quantity of government.

Likewise for talk about the regulation of business. Uh, did everyone forget the lessons of the past or have we just evolved beyond the needs for environmental regulations and worker rights?

The appeal to greed really pisses me off. Yeah, the old let's cut taxes bullshit that exponentially and disporportionally favors wealth to the detriment of the poor.

Okay, I'm starting to get the picture....we cant forget what has never been learned.

Getting that off my chest is an ounce completed with just a few tons to go....