When John Kennedy asked Werner Von Braun what it would take to build a rocket that would carry a man to the moon and return him safely to earth, his answer was simple and direct. “The will to do it." Do we have the power of will with regards to our oceans, our rivers, our lakes, our water, our life?
Remove any woman of her freedom and of her dignity and see what happens to her. But don’t just do it once. Do it day in and day out. Starve her and reward her with food only when she complies to your commands. Now do this to a dolphin for human entertainment. How would you expect this non-human person would cope?
Dolphins are “killers”. The secret is out. They sneak around in the dark depths of a SeaWorld aquarium like a gang of bored teenagers looking for trouble. Or are they just tricksters who go along with human games to get fish because they are just as basically lazy as the people who sit in the stands drinking super-sized Slurpies waiting for the enslaved species to entertain them with flips and squeaks, right?
Can you hear her? The Boreal Forest? The delicate feather that will tip the scale towards mass extinction? The migration nookie nook for half of ALL North American bird species? Where the chicks get to frolic, play, and thrive? No? Would you like to know how?
When you have a water leak from the ceiling in your ground floor condo or apartment what do you do? Water is fluid and stealth. She slips through the most unexpected cracks (many a plumber can attest to that as they bend over to fix a leaky sink) and weaves her way through the most unpredictable of places. What if the leak is underground?
I thought it would be interesting today to anthropomorphize a corporation since I love to do that so much with the animals and other creatures of our planet. Heck, I even like to give Earth the characteristics of a graceful warrior and serene being. What traits then could we attribute to a corporate entity?
Just then the ground starts to shake. “Honestly! 7am on a Sunday morning?” You slam your laptop shut and head to the window expecting to catch construction crews banging away on the half-finished condo next door. But instead you come eye-to-eye with something else.
The logic corporations use to just keep digging is that our population is growing and we must satisfy the needs of all those billions wanting to live the unsustainable lifestyle that westerners live. But do we really need more? Or are we suffering from a profit-seeking paradigm that needs a sanity check?
In a country as rich in minerals as Canada one would imagine that international exploitation would be unnecessary. However, this seems not to be the case. It’s much more convenient to pollute someone else’s backyard rather than your own, especially if the neighbour’s eyes hunger over the promises of easy short term riches. But where's the accountability?
It’s your sunday and you’re stoked. You’ve been thinking about this moment all week long after yet another 6 day week working hard for someone else’s dream. Well 5 days of actual slaving and 1 day of zombie brain. You lie there in bed and yell: “Let the inspiration come!” But nothing happens. How come?
How we choose and what we choose to eat is completely within our control. The only thing stopping us is that our taste buds got used to certain flavours. They can easily get unused to them. The question is, do we have the will do to so?
If you are at all familiar with Monty Python, you may have seen the movie The Meaning Of Life. Granted the humour is not always palatable at the dinner table but it is still hilariously ridiculous. So along those same fishing lines, let’s look at what is happening in our oceans because although you might like the taste of Skinny Mermaid Salmon and even buy into claim that it is a sustainable fish when grown in closed containment facilities or inland, it still contributes to the “one wafer-thin sardine” problem. But that's not all.
When it comes to food choices we need octopus arms to count them and then some. In fact, I am convinced that two-third of all Americans secretly have 6 extra arms pasted against their chest which magically bust through their shirts at the all-you-can-eat buffet when the other third of Americans aren’t watching. How else would more than two-thirds (68.8 %) of adults be considered overweight or obese and then half of those actually be obese?
Inspiration is that exhilaration we feel when we are one with everything and everyone as we transcend the laws of space and time. And what better day than on a sunday to tap into the universal creativity that is within you and I?
The population of the state of Texas is literally imploding in density while simultaneously exploding in numbers. The cities are becoming stars that spread human-induced global warming outwards, scorching the surrounding land and creating hard crusty regions where there were once grasslands. Now where's the beef?
Nan and Sam are running through the darkness with a flock of roadrunners in hot pursuit. Sam reaches into her basket from time to time and pitches something that distracts the speedsters momentarily but their numbers are too huge to make much of a dint in the charge. A panting Nan attempts to keep a vigil on for scorpions as she runs but it is no use. The birds are everywhere. And what does Sam have in her basket anyway?
Nan stands frozen and shivering in the desert night staring in horror at the scorpion army seemingly locked for battle in front of her. If she could scream she would no doubt wake up her parents sleeping soundly in their heritage home just a quarter mile away, but her voice is stuck somewhere between her larynx and her tonsils. A meek whimper is the only sound that she manages to squeak out as she keeps a vigilant eye to the stingers ahead. But why aren't they moving?
The thought of heading out in the middle of the night into the cold Coachella Desert brings images of scorpions to Nan’s mind— little armies of stingers marching in unison looking for water. The scene is the stuff nightmares are made of, more specifically, it’s the stuff her own nightmares are made of. Ever since the Colorado river dried up things are no longer as they used to.
On those crusty deserted lands there is nothing like lying on a sandy beach relaxing with a cool drink listening to surfer tunes. There are only the sounds of insects and the occasional tourists uttering explicatives while thumbing it on the side of the highway because they decided to blast their air conditioning without paying attention to their gas gauge. Whoops! Why is this happening and what can we do about it?
Imagine for a moment that the skies are overcast, like today in Toronto, and you are pining for the joy a little sunshine brings into your life. Unfortunately, the sun has decided to take a much needed break from your neighbourhood so you’re left digging deep into your reserves to muster up the energy you need to get through the day. What if you had your own personal sun-in-a-box?
The truth is we have a love/hate relationship with the sun. We love it in the cold winter months as we sip a hot cocoa après-ski but we hate it when we get into the car in our short-shorts and toast our toosh on the hot leather seats because the tree moved. When you think of the word sun, what vision comes to your mind? What about fossil fuels? We have enough oil to last out through the transition to clean energy so what’s our excuse?
It’s coming on to the ducking hour and I’m just returning from a final quick walk with my floppy-eared duck hunter. At this time of day, the creatures of the night are getting into position. They take advantage of those who cannot see in the dark, of those who require artificial light to guide them because of their habitual over-dependence on one sense. They sneak up from behind with their marsupial vision and often scare the be-geezes out of them. Could they be ducks?
What I like about this bubble chart is the visual representation the author devised in order to summarize the massive amounts of information you can currently find on the internet about the ins and outs of polyculture— the sustainable way of future farming, in my opinion. What about you? What kind of visual tools spark your imagination?
Farmers used to till their fields and rotate their crops from harvest to harvest. For example, they would plant a nitrate vampire like corn one year, and then rotate it with a nitrate miser like beans the next, thus reducing their dependence on synthetic fertilizers filled with way too much nitrate for yummy, or rather yucky, plant food. The new mono-crop methods put an end to all that. Was this a smart move?
Now when I go for a walk in the Music Garden at Harbourfront I stop to watch the bees pollinate. I can almost hear The Flight Of The Bumble Bee play as they zip from flower to flower. Maybe’s that why it’s called the Music Garden. I even got up close and personal with them and my smart phone this summer. When I look at the pictures though, the image is all fuzzy, just like the bees themselves. They just can’t seem to stay still long enough to strike a pose. Why the rush?
The thing is, you never know what will trigger a creative thought and where that creative though will take you. But the real magic happens when the noise falls away on the inside and you hear the pitter-patter of little webbed feet. What happens if you let your inner duck wing it on your computer?
Yesterday the developing "aquacultural" practice of open ocean farming questioned our appetite for More Fish Please, so today let’s continue evaluating our habits by looking at fish farmed closer to shore. Humans love their salmon as sure as they love their beef or even more so than in countries other than Texas. Whoops! Texas is [...]
It seems we have all the ingredients and technology that can make ocean farming a reality. We’re not just talking fish farms along the coastlines. There are companies currently fish farming in the open ocean and seeing results to their liking (aka. bottom line bounty). The question is: What are they NOT seeing?
The cell looks more like a living room or even a private den. Of course, it could very well be anywhere since Svetlana and Igor seem to have lost all recollection of the recent turn of events at their ocean farmhouse. Post traumatic stress is a plausible cause if one of them is still mostly functional but for both of them?
The Ivanovich’s purchased their ocean farm less than three months ago for a great price and they have had nothing but bad luck ever since. Their first halibut harvest was modest (much less than historical figures predicted) and their second harvest even smaller. “Could today’s catastrophe also be related?” Svetlana mumbles to herself as she struggles to stem a deluge of self-pity bubbling up inside her.
Svetlana cracks open one eyelid and twitches her nose. Her second eye opens and her tongue sticks out as she contorts her face in disgust. “Igor!" Her husband snores peacefully face down with one leg hanging off the side of the bed. Svetlana whips around and wacks him on the butt. “Cve-NYA! Wake up! What did you eat yesterday?” But that's not what she is smelling.
Today, my quinoa is mouthing off at me as if I had the time to deal with a duck right now. The White crew will be here at 9:30 and the actors are scheduled to start arriving at 10. Unless the imminent duck knows how to remain “Quiet on set”, she will have to wait until after we wrap for the day. Ring ring ring. It's only 9AM. Who could be showing up 30 minutes early?
Today's post is a brief philosophical piece on the featured topic for this week, geoengineering, inspired by my current state of mind as I complete the last minute pre-production for a sci-fi short film voice recording session called White. Being the director is quite the challenge and a whole lot of creative fun! It's also [...]
Carbon. It’s not underground anymore. Humanity has been pulling it out of the ground for a good 150 years and there is no sign of slowing the hunger any time soon. Are the odds of reversing a 150 year old habit too insurmountable to even fathom?
“There’s something not quite right about the whole situation, Sally,” Boris explains as he examines a Nunavut berry under a microscope. He grafts a piece off it, places it inside a vacuum sealed container, and starts the DNA test on it. Melissa and Nathan are mesmerized by the image they see on the computer display. But it's not the berry which worries Boris.
Boris is analyzing the harvest report for his orchard and frowning. The trees need water desperately and it hasn’t rained for weeks. His farm just happens to be on the wrong side of the county line. What is happening on the other side?
Sally is preparing the lunch for today’s special adventure when Melissa skips into the kitchen with her little brother Nathan in tow. She sneaks past her mother rummaging inside the fridge for her kids’ favourite soda pop, walks her fingers along the edge of the counter, snatches a few berries, and gobbles them up. “Melissa Ann!” Her mother slaps her tiny fingers with a bunch of celery tops. “Those are for Uncle Boris. You KNOW how important they are.” But why?
Since the industrial revolution, CO2 has been bad, really bad, so much so that we are at the point of sequestering it. Off to the corner it goes never to romp around with the other molecules in the atmospheric playground. Well, except for about 350 of them. That’s all the school-sky Stewards can manage before tempers get heated. What kind of detention can we impose on these airborn bullies?
I must admit that I had a dream of walking the red carpet myself but not as a giant face on the sliver screen (Eech! That thought gives me chills) but as the artistic talent behind a visual masterpiece that ensnares the senses of the science fiction/fantasy aficionado. Of all The Ducks that Are Quacking, there is but one duck who holds the answer to the question. Do you know the question?
You are likely familiar with the fast-food marketing concept of supersizing your drink, your burger, your fries,…your waistline...that the supply-and-demand model of economics has brought us. Never mind the fact that people are consuming more than they need and that it is simply making corporations nice and fat as well. What this economic principle has done is conditioned us into thinking that we deserve a price break by buying volume. What about water?
Yes. Eutopication. I decided to ignore that little red line in my text editor by invoking my license to be poetic. With your permission I shall continue on with why I believe a new word is necessary in the English language. So what exactly is eutopication and is it all related to "eutrophication"?
A dozen or so motorcycles are cutting through the field behind them positioning themselves for an attack. Iris locks the exterior cameras onto their heat signatures. The infrared lens picks out enough detail for her to identify which gang the belong to— the White Scorpions. “Crap! They must have tracked us since the Ute Reservoir. But how did they get across the border?”
The Esperanza’s are keeping a steady eye on the flanks of US-54 as they make their way to Dalhart on the road to the Oklahoma border. They slow the truck down and switch over to their electric engine as they begin their stealth approach. Will they make it there undetected?
It’s a cold summer’s evening in the Albuquerque desert. As the sun sets over the abandoned gated communities less than 100,000 people remain. The rest have either died of disease in the overcrowded camps or were wealthy enough to buy their way up the list for relocation. The Esperanza family count themselves amongst the fortunate few who have thus far survived the catastrophic desertification of the Southwest. What's their secret?
Forums such as International Water Week are extremely important for discussing issues, presenting scientific findings, and forging relationships between benefiting parties, but do they really change our individual relationship with water itself? Isn’t that where the problem lies in the first place? And what is that relationship?
As I became engrossed in the writings of Napolean Hill, the engine assisted aerial performers seemed to slip into another dimension…or was it I who tapped into a parallel universe— a universe where Earth was pristine, intact, and peaceful, where people pushed around wheel barrows filled with gold. Was this the gold he spoke of?
…or my front yard, or my side yard, or my driveway…Take a look out your window. What do you see? Is there a big gaping hole in the grass, pavement, sidewalk, gravel, sand, garden, paving stone, or in whatever you count as your stable entourage? For some, it's their immediate reality but for the rest of us...
Apparently there is a sinkhole epidemic going on right now and theories abound as to why the sudden reshaping of Earth’s crust. Hmmm. Sudden? There is nothing sudden about a sinkhole spontaneously appearing out of seemingly nowhere. But the real question is whether there actually are more sinkhole sightings across the globe or we are just little randy bunny rabbits moving into new previously uninhabited territory?
Some ducks even go so far as to disguise themselves in a way that makes them repulsive to anyone who is desperately searching for an invitation to the Gangnam procession of their own minds. I wonder if they are just afraid of being bitten. You know that old idiom once bitten, twice shy? So will an otherwise shy duck chance a visit?
If Gaea, our mother Earth, could speak would we listen? What if she could grab us by the ear and drag us to the time-out corner like a mother pushed beyond her tolerance threshold by a seriously misbehaving child?
Shout out to all you L.A. Disco Divas out there! Does the picture look familiar? It may not be The Valley skyline but you might recognize the lovely brown haze hovering over the landscape. If you look closely, you’ll notice that nobody in the picture is wearing bell bottoms or a “Movember” mug. What if you zoom in?
The screams, helicopters, sirens, and megaphones directing people to higher ground turn into white noise. Gisele can only faintly hear her own thoughts as she tests out her treadmill endurance on real terrain. Ms. déjà-vu had not seen this coming. But someone did. Who?
Gisele tunes into KNX AM to find out what the holdup is on the San Diego Freeway: “A bridge collapse at the Marian Freeway is causing a backup on the 405 as far back as the Santa Monica Freeway. Emergency crews are on the scene. It’s going to be a hot and smoggy parking lot today! Hope you have some extra filters in your glove box.” She mutters: "Why did I move to America again?"
Gisele is sitting at her regular table on the enclosed patio at La Petite Coquette in Beverly Hills sipping an Americano as she scrolls through her Twitter feed. She raises her cup to her lips and shifts her eyes to a man in a designer suit taking a seat at the table next to her. He sits down, places a laptop on the table, and as he opens it he scans the big red sign on the post in front of him. What could it say?
Fracking is an eloquent verb invented to animate the scientific term Hydraulic Fracturing, a process in which high pressure water-based toxins are pumped into shale rock in order to break it apart thereby releasing natural gas that placates our need to burn baby burn. Farcking on the other hand refers to something different.
Whoa that was a frackin’ bizarre dream I just had. What time is it? 5 AM? I’ll take the wake up call as a good omen. Rising before the crack of dawn to Richard Simmons with the body of a duck in short-shorts, a wife beater, leg warmers, and a bandanna is not up there in my life’s bucket list, but at least he gets my day off and running…running away, far away. Is he my duck for the day?
Depending on how accurate the math is, the climate fortune tellers can be full of the same stuff their carnival counterparts are or they can be superstars constantly surrounded by paparazzi. I haven’t seen any of them grace the cover of People magazine yet. Hmmm. Where does that leave us?
The list of casualties numbs Captain Jacob to the point of detachment: Wellington, Sydney, Honolulu, Lima, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are only the largest of the cities affected. Countless smaller communities were obliterated. Is this the end?
First Officer Tremblay’s voice trembles as he delivers the message to Captain Jacob. “Cassandra, the Ross Ice Shelf is collapsing.” He hands her a tablet with the live video feed from Scott Base in Antarctica. Josie appears on screen and what she shows them is simply surreal.
Captain Jacobs stands at the helm of the CCGS Terry Fox staring out into the vast open arctic ocean. It’s February 4th, 2015 and the winter seems to have finally vanished. She passes command of the bridge to Officer Tay, walks out onto the deck, and leans against the railing, windbreaker flapping in the wind. What happened to the ice?
Gaea longs for the healthy albedo she once enjoyed. She was confident, glistening with pride, and the envy of the galaxy. She could take the sun’s heat and shout: “Right back at you, fireball!” But no more. Her ability to reflect the sun, her albedo, is in question. Could planetary Viagra be the cure?
I had just made it past the covered pedestrian walkway when I slammed into the invisible dog-not-moving-anymore wall. I turned around and saw Lola’s paws planted firmly on the pavement and her body rigid. “Here comes more teendog attitude,” I thought to myself. But I couldn't have been more wrong.
The Ross ice shelf is not some guy with a big beard that scared my older sister at the age of 4 (that would be my uncle), it's an Antarctic glacier that is feeling a little unstable at the moment and no amount of lithium is going to normalize his behaviour. Why is Ross so important?
Head set on...Plugged in...Listening to relaxing music blended with the monotone drone of the engines...and flying high. At 36,000 feet to be precise. Just another 3 1/2 hours and I'll be landing in the ocean side paradise of San Diego. Good time for a Sunday duckisode. Who will show up this time?
It is a case of "not in our back yard" syndrome turned upside down. The North Pacific Gyre is clean compared to the biggest fresh water lakes in the world, right in the back yard millions of people. Hmmm. Which lakes would those be I wonder?
In 1997, Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Institute discovered what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In 1999, he began sampling the surface waters of that area, in the North Pacific Gyre. What he found was that his samples had 6 times more plastic yummy fish food morsels in them than plankton. And now?
A voice calls to Nayra in tube C-51. It’s the operator who green-lighted her appointment earlier. “Nayra! Get up! They’re in the lobby. Nayra, please!” Terry has his hands around his console and his face pressed against the camera lens. “You have to leave NOW!” What's the rush?
Nayra looks up toward tube C-51 and groans. She grabs the ladder and climbs to her cocoon for the night and settles in. The same instructional video she has been watching every Wednesday evening for 40 weeks now chimes in from the roof of the tube. What is in that medical kit that was handed to her?
Nayra hurries into the tunnel connecting her office building with the banking district while she completes her check-in process on her tablet. She places her thumb on the sensor as instructed and the operator at the Institute appears on screen, displeased. “You’ve been running again, 13-25F.” What's the hurry?
I had asked a question and the question had brought me to Ancient Egypt where people of all nationalities had journeyed great distances to hear me speak. The crowd below me radiated with hope and love. They knew that I had an important message to share, but the question that brought me there was still looping behind my teary eyes: Why am I here?
A shark is an apex ocean predator. Mrs. Monique White from the Fiji Or Bust saga is a case in point. She is the “Iron Fish” on the reef and the open sea. Nobody dares mess with her, that is, nobody except Colossal Carol the Killer Whale or perhaps Richard Dreyfuss. So why is Monique so important to cherish? Isn’t she after all just a big bully preying on the smaller fish and marine mammals?
So is shark fin soup really that tasty? It’s the broth that gives it flavour. The fin is there merely for texture. In that case, could we learn from the vegans and create a mock shark fin?
Apparently cats and dogs aren't the only creatures that fall from the sky in stormy weather these days. A cool breeze off the lake teases my Tina Turner coiffed dancing poodle with the scent of a duck landing. Lola rings the "Gotta-go" bell and we're off to investigate. Who will show up this time?