Doing your homework

Well, I've been busy. I needed to get work to pay the bills and take my mind off the fact that S. left and while I've seen so many good signs, things have still gone to hell in a handbasket. The good news is there's a whole lot more interest in solar around here, and there's some folks who've asked me to work on the web side of the solar biz they are starting. I've kinda felt for a long time that I need to really walk a little but like a duck - and I have some issues with some of the initiatives going around. Biodiesel and all, great, but not if it means big multi-nationals tearing down rain forest and kicking out small farmers so they can make a killing off soy beans. Seems to me that solar is the way to go. And there's even problems there, but I'm hoping we can lick them. You have to do your homework - if you want to do like a good hiker does and leave nothing behind but footprints - you have to look hard at what all the solutions mean in the long term. Like the other day, there was a Q & A session near here with the people who made that cool electric sports car that runs on 9000 laptop batteries - and they were all 'you can run it on solar - a clean vehicle that's fun' - OK - then a guy in the audience asked - 'So, do you know what the carbon footprint is for making 9000 laptop batteries in China, and then disposing of them?'

Silence.

Not good.

It was kinda obvious that fun was more important than clean to them.

Reminds me of that article in the NYT sunday magazine last May 27 about plastic water bottles - water, good for your health, yep, all good, but it took 17 million barrels of oil to make the bottles that water was in - in 2005. They said there will be 30 BILLION plastic bottles this year. they say not to re-use those bottles. is that becuase they want you to buy new ones? And what is up with them making bottles you can't re-use? That's just irresponsible I think, and maybe greedy and careless.

My friends are the best, and troubles are making things hard for them, finding work and paying the bills isn't as easy anymore, but we take care of each other way more than before, so that's good news. And I have met so many good people who just came by the web site, like OrganizedChaos who sent me email today - she said she got  "some time off work to put my nose to the grindstone. I work 11 to 12 hours a day, six days a week ..., but somehow I've managed to keep up"

And that's how it is, we get time off to do work, but the work we're doing is better, even if it's a lot harder than before.