I am by no means a stereotypical environmentalist who knows global warming is a *serious* problem just because I want to get environmentalism into policy… But I’ve read a lot about global warming, listened to debates and done a lot of schooling around the topic … and it happens to be one of the very few areas of stereotypical environmentalism that I agree with. Here is Ian’s reply which was short, sweet and to the point.

Everything you say has been thoroughly debunked repeatedly before.

There IS a consensus among real climate scientists (notice how, like in the evolution/creation debate, engineers are the major opposition “scientists” to the established facts).

The 1970s global cooling myth is a result of a Newsweek article not a scientific journal or consensus among scientists. In fact, articles being published were 44-7 in favour of warming over cooling hypotheses.

Also, if you were concerned about the CRU hacked data, analysis of the emails results in no real “gotcha” moments, and does nothing to discredit the mountains of evidence that exist. At most the emails demonstrate that scientists remain human with all the associated flaws (jealousy, anger, frustration, etc.) that result from continued attack by self-proclaimed sceptics.

Finally, most of the “scepticism” movement is heavily funded by the oil industry similar to how the tobacco industry funded PR against the notion of cigarettes causing cancer or how evangelical religions fund PR against evolution.

2000-2009 was the warmest decade on record and despite what high school chemistry teachers believe (similar to under-trained biology teachers) we are very likely to have caused it. The greenhouse effect is real (or else the planet would be 30 C colder than it is), and putting more carbon into the atmosphere that is normally buried under ground is bound to have an effect.

Scientists do share some of the blame for bad PR and not communicating their findings properly, but nevertheless, the data is in, and it’s time for action. I really did like Jon’s piece at the National Post about why he thinks people are keen to be doubters of the science on this piece, give it a read if you haven’t yet.

There is a lot of really good and easy to understand literature out there about global warming and “Limits to Growth”… It makes economic, mathematical and logical sense that something like global warming is happening and that we need to respond to it so we can be more readily prepared for the future.

Claiming that the science is too hard to understand and therefore it is best to just be agnostic is intellectually lazy. Scientists have devoted their lives to this topic, and have come to the same consensus - global warming is happening. The scientists have done the science for you AND done a good job of framing it for people who aren’t scientists for those willing to put the effort into learning about it.

I understand that some people want to go against the grain and be a skeptic about stuff… but being a skeptic about global warming at this point…is like being a skeptic of evolution. Only skeptics of global warming are VERY dangerous and will result in a lot of possible death and suffering in the potentially near future.

You start to notice how much food you ate before and the different ways that people try to get you to eat more food. Some people just love eating and will do anything to have you eat with them (including the good ol’ “ahh, its just this ONE time! lets get McDonalds!”). Companies try to make their food seem really appealing by going green and olympians (champions of athletics) appear in commercials for really crappy food. …McDonalds is notorious for that sort of thing.

It’s getting to the point where I’m getting really cynical about food and food advertising. Can Patrick Chan eat McDonalds and be a face for their brand while being an athlete? Are Cheerios and the other big names really “going green” or are they just trying to fit in? How could I possibly have spent $19 on a meal that I could easily make for $3 and it wouldn’t be 80% salt?

Eating less is better for the environment, for my health and for my wallet. Eating at home is better for the environment, for my health and for my wallet. I hate food advertising and I hate that athletes claim to eat at McDonalds.

I lost 9 lbs last month!

My first class is Monday morning at 11:30. It’s Resource Management - pretty straightforward. We are learning about policy making around resources, how to measure resources…and other…resource management things. The worst thing about that class is that over 1/2 of our mark is group work. I absolutely detest group work. Already I’ve had to do someone else’s part to make sure something got done in a good enough fashion. *hate group work* >.< The prof is nice, he’s this big fisherman-like guy who is really friendly and jolly.

Second up is ecological economics on Wednesday mornings at 8:30… This is my favorite class. The prof is brilliant and has a lovely english accent. He wrote a book on ecological economics called Manging Without Growth. I think he’s wonderful. I read a lot of the book and a few papers on the issue and Im pretty sure that I want to get into this for my senior honours thesis. It has quite a bit of potential.

Thursday is a busy day with into to senior honours work at 8:30, urban planning in developing countries at 11:30 and environmental politics and policy at 2:30. Senior honours is a waste of time…we’re basically using the time to learn how to develop a thesis and write a giant proposal. We’re also supposed to do interviews with faculty to find the right person to work with. The class usually only lasts like an hour each week then she just lets us go early. It’s silly.

Urban planning is okay. I thought it was going to deal more with the lack of planning in developing countries, but its more about the practical application of theories of planning. Lots of case studies… But I love the prof. He is this delightful Turkish man who is really intelligent and has a lot insights into things. He worked as an urban planning in the middle east for a few years so he has really crazy stories and experiences.

Policy and Politics is by far my absolute worst course…not only the worst class of this year - but the worst class of my entire university education. My prof is a phd student …which automatically rubs me the wrong way. I want to pay for someone who I am certain is smarter than me… Not someone who has yet to prove themselves to the academic community. The course content is so far…bullshit. And the people are really dumb. They have no depth… and think money can be gotten rid of and this will make the world better. They’re all ridiculous.

So…lots and lots of work… 2/5 are interesting… and 1/5 is absolutely amazing. This semester may not be a bust.

I guess the most exciting update is that I’ve lost 19 lbs! Almost my first 20 lbs! …So I’m only 51 lbs away from my weight loss goal and I have 9 months to do it. That shouldn’t be too hard.

It’s really starting to show and I’m really starting to feel the difference. My old pants fit again, my bras are gigantic on me, and my shirts are getting baggy. So, success is still here! And it really feels great. I can’t wait for summer…

Then I came across this grist article that talks about a family who is giving up what they have to better the world. It’s a really wonderful thing and I hope that more people can start to live like this.

It makes me reflect on what I do… Yesterday I ordered a new MP3 player (not even an Ipod…a zone? zune?…i dont know) because my Ipod just flat out stopped working. But I’m not like that with everything. Phones, for example - I buy new phones all the time just because I like new gadgets. Laptops… I buy new laptops and mini laptops because it’s fun to have new things. Clothes… I am really horrible for buying clothes and never wearing them. Jewelry, shoes, stuff… and I’m someone who knows and cares about the earth and other people.

So, what am I going to do about it…? (this sucks…) I’m going to stop accumulating things. No more makeup from Sephora, clothes from H&M, jewelry from Forever 21… etc.etc.etc. I will challenge myself with this for a year and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll save a bunch of money! That would be cool, too. I’ll (try) to keep track of what I don’t spend and will donate the full amount at the end of the year. I’ll keep you updated on it…

(What a year! dieting, not spending money, working my ass off at school… sounds fun =0.0=)

Tom Philpott tells us why we need to see Fantastic Mr. Fox

And why do I give a damn—and insist that you do, too? First of all, Fox is a beautiful piece of visual storytelling, based on a book by the peerless children’s author Roald Dahl. Its lead roles are voiced by two of Hollywood’s very few genuine stars at the height of their powers—George Clooney and Meryl Streep. The stop-action animation is downright artisanal. We need good popular filmmaking in this country; otherwise, it’s all dumb-guy fart comedies and brainless action sequels. Well, here it is. Support it.

I saw it, and I absolutely loved it. At first, I didn’t. Because I love Wes Anderson… and this movie didn’t seem like his other ones and I really missed the cool real-life colors etc. But after further consideration and reading other people’s reviews… I’ve changed my mind. I still love Wes, and I think this movie is great.

The rebellious little fox was a character to love and the weird animation was never boring.

Go see it, so Wes Anderson knows how incredibly wonderful his films are. I wish we lived in a world where people loved Wes Anderson more than James Cameron.

This is what I’m studying, recently - Ecological Economics. What I like about it? It’s giving solutions. What I don’t like about it? I’m not really sure yet. I do know that I need to start learning more about economics if I plan on doing this for my senior honours work. So… I’ve started doing the Teaching Company’s economics courses and plan on taking economic courses in the summer and next year. So hopefully that helps as I start doing my thesis.

If anyone still reads my blog and has any opinion about Ecological Economics I’d be happy to hear about it.

I’m not sure that I like this new development of bottom-up approaches to different areas of society. Ecological Economics, Green Legal Theory and Ecological Planning. They all start with ecology and the environment and branch out from there. I really like it, in theory - but I’m wondering what it takes to change people’s minds to start thinking like this. It won’t be easy…

A

East Antarctica, long stable, is now losing ice.

B

Bolivia needs $1 billion over the next seven years to build reservoirs, as theglaciers that hold the nation’s water supply are shrinking rapidly.

C

Leatherback sea turtles that spawn on the beaches of Costa Rica are threatened with extinction by warmer temperatures and rising seas.

D

Denmark joined United States, Norway, Canada, and Russia in identifying climate change as “the most important long-term threat” to future existence of polar bears.

E

The rapidly warming highlands of Ethiopia are becoming too hot for its elite athletes, such as local-born Haile Gebrselassie, to train there.

F

Noting the unprecedented floods this year in Fiji, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama recently warned that rising sea levels affect not just the islands’ economies, but put into doubt the very existence of his nation.

G

Greece suffered through another storm of extreme wildfires this summer asheat waves and drier conditions increase.

H

Global warming-fueled hurricanes, intense poverty, and widespread deforestation combine to form a gathering storm of disasters for Haiti.

I

The deforested peatlands of Indonesia are drying, disintegrating, and burning.

J

The increasingly early arrival of cherry blossoms in Japan reflects rising global temperatures.

K

The more frequent and severe droughts that are killing off the elephants will likely trigger more conflicts in the arid lands of northeast Kenya.

L

The incidence of wildfires in the cedar forests of Lebanon has increased tremendously over recent years.

M

“If things go business-as-usual, we will not live, we will die,” MaldivesPresident Mohammad Nasheed told the UN General Assembly. “Our country will not exist.”

N

The ministers of Nepal have held the world’s highest cabinet meeting on Mount Everest, as rapidly rising temperatures have reduced snowfall over the mountains and caused glaciers to melt.

O

More than 50 per cent of the population of Oman lives on coastlines vulnerable to rising seas, but its supplies of peridotite may help sequester carbon dioxide emissions.

P

The massive floods that killed hundreds in the Philippines this summer arebecoming the norm.

Q

Petroleum-soaked Qatar emits 60 tons of carbon dioxide per person, the most of any nation on earth.

R

Increased floods and malaria outbreaks from global warming, deforestation, and unsanitary conditions have hit Rwanda hard in the past decade.

S

The inhabitants of the Alpine villages of Fieschertal and Fiesch in Switzerlandhave asked for the Pope to bless their prayers for the restoration of their nation’s glaciers, which shrank by 12 percent over the past decade.

T

Newly discovered, exotic species like the fanged frog of Thailand are especially vulnerable as climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats.

U

Agriculture in the United States has been ravaged this year by catastrophic droughts in Texas and California, heat waves in Louisiana and Nebraska, storms across the High Plains and the Midwest, floods in North Dakota and Minnesota, and torrential rains in Illinois and Georgia.

V

Speaking from Vatican City on the eve of the Copenhagen conference, Pope Benedict XVI counseled “all people of good will to respect the laws laid down by God in nature and to rediscover the moral dimension of human life.”

W

Warming oceans and sea level rise threaten the coral reefs of the remote Polynesian islands of Wallis and Futuna.

X

The nomadic descendents of Kublai Khan in Inner Mongolia, where Xanaduonce stood, are being driven from the grasslands as the Chinese government attempts to fight the region’s desertification.

Y

Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, may be the first capital city in the world to run out of water, as drought and overuse diminish its supply.

Z

On the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, the flow of Victoria Falls is far below average, as drought and high temperatures reduce the Zambezi.

I can’t stop listening to this song. There is no way I can even count the number of times I’ve listened to this song in the past 2 days. I listen to it when I wake up, before I go to bed and during the day I dance like a crazy woman in my mom’s basement listening to it. I can’t stop!

What’s even weirder is that after I listen to it, I then listen to this song right after:

Does this mean that I think Regina Spektor is a sexy bitch? Because …that would be news to me. I do think her name sounds like Vagina Inspector, but I definitely don’t find her sexy.

Anyway, I’m in love with these two songs. Which is weird, because neither of them is really my prime musical style (Vagina Inspector is definitely closer to it than Akon, though).

I’ll be weighing myself on the first of every month. My hope in doing this is that the amount of weight I see losing will be relatively large. Most people weigh themselves every week and get discouraged when they only lose 1 lb or no lbs. So…this way I could be weighing in and seeing myself having dropped 8 lbs, at least.

So I am happy to announce that on December first I weighed in and I had lost 9lbs! Christmas time will be a bit of a challenge, however I just need to stick to my guns, say no to the cake and use small plates. I’ve signed up for sparkpeople.com and am pleasantly surprised with all the information they have on there and how often they send out articles to keep you in the “diet mood”… it really does help.

My goal is to lose 90 lbs by October 1 2010. Then I have 20 more lbs to go to read my dream weight and the theoretical size I’ll be when I get there. I should mention that I’m not doing this to be skinny and more desirable to the world around me. In fact, most people in my situation who live with a man go the opposite way - the begin to feel comfortable etc and forget about weight. I am not doing this to get a boyfriend, or fit into society’s perception of beauty. I’m doing this to be healthy. The weight I am at right now is really unhealthy for my heart, my legs and my mind. I am a prime target of diabetes and other weight related illnesses - I’d rather not live with those sorts of dangers.

I’m still not really comfortable revealing my weight to the entire world yet, so …I will reveal on Oct 1 2010 how much I weigh, and how much less that is from when I started. Hopefully I can do some fun before and after pics too! That would be neat…