What Can Green Do For Your City?

 After watching Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles at the Clinton Global Initiative announce the Mayors Climate Action commitments, I was inspired to investigate what cities are doing and how their action on the front line will impact our future. Climate change is now and it will not wait for culture to catch up to its concerns. As Mayor Garcetti had mentioned, a majority of the United States population resides in cities and 70% of the United States emissions originate in them, so the Mayors of these cities (especially large cities) cannot get by on inaction. The best place to strive for meaningful change is at the source.

Mayor Garcetti presented a few action plans for top city agendas and a few are as follows:

Mayor Garcetti of Los Angeles:

• Harnessing solar power energy and creating energy star buildings

Mayor Parker of Houston:

• Retrofitting streetlights with LED fixtures

and Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia:

• Creating large scale green infrastructure

While these actions appear prosperous, what are their actual impacts and what can be done to make them better?

How will harnessing solar power in Los Angeles offset carbon emissions on a large scale?

In Los Angeles:
Mayor Garcetti is not personally planning to implement large scale solar panels, but instead make it easier and more affordable for the residents to do so themselves. Mayor Garcetti is taking to City Hall to streamline permits for residential solar systems which will include making these available online. With these changes in current procedure, the city is expecting it's current 13,000 residential photovoltaic systems to TRIPLE by 2016. The reduction of power demand will reduce stress on the city to supply energy and actually give pay backs to residents who push power into the system.

How useful is solar energy to reduce carbon sourced electricity consumption? Great, but you will need to live in a place that facilitates its functionality.

In Houston:
While you would imagine places like Houston would be boasting about their capacity for photovoltaic systems, the highlight of carbon emission cutting at CGI was their street light LED retrofitting plans. Houston plans on converting all 165,000 street lights to LEDs over the next five years. This change is expected to use 50% of the old conventional HID's, a reduction that is expected to save Houston around $26 million over the next 10 years.
BUT, there are downsides to this LED retrofitting. The preparation and procedures for the implementation are lengthy and require a large amount of documentation and administration. And, more notably, the start up costs are enormous (often 2-4 times more expensive than their HID counterparts). This could be an issue if smaller cities that do not have the capital large cities are afforded want to hop aboard the LED express.

I foresee if LED technology reduces in cost, at least to a point where it is competitive with HIDs, it will be nationally implemented based on its projected energy consumption.

In Philadelphia:
In February of this year, the EPA awarded $5million of funding to researchers investigation green infrastructure in Philadelphia. With this funding, Philadelphia plans to explore the possibilities of more efficient storm water management by using pervious pavement, green roofs and rain barrels that will allow the storm water to seep into a surfaces or be temporarily stored rather than immediately rushing into the sewage system proceeding heavy rain. Among other things, many smaller (and large cities) such as Syracuse, New York, that face common issues will reap great reward from the research being done to prevent flooding and promote green friendly environments.

Check here for more information regarding alternative energy in major cities.

The Fruits of Failed Labor: CGI, A Review of Failure by Alexander Grashow and President Grimmson of Iceland

Fail, to fail, failure, failed. The root of these always radiates a negative connotation.

During this past weeks Clinton Global Initiative, Alexander Grashow, the Founder and CEO of The Adaptist, The GIIFT, and "Can we fail faster, bigger, and better for greater impact?" breakout session moderator brings life to the what failure should mean and challenges the world to utilize, not hide from failure.

Grashow playfully points out that when assembling the panel for this discussion it was near impossible to find an American to join and discuss failures, interesting.

A lesson in failure: Alexander Grashow set out to end poverty in several third world countries, spending millions of dollars sourced from partners with similar goals. As they continued to dump funding into their efforts, their train to change was derailed when they were told that their efforts may very well be setting the community back further than where they started. 

Considering all they had done, Grashow offers "How can we make sense of that"?

The conclusion he comes to are that in life there are two types of failures, dumb failures and smart failures.

Smart failures are what fuel progression. With smart failures, we learn from our mistakes publicly, not privately. By increasing our accountability, measurement and transparency (as they have learned to do), mistakes or "failures" that are made become learning experiences and aids in future endeavors. Smart failures allow society to "fail forward", the next best thing to success. 

While on the other hand, dumb failures are exactly the opposite. By hiding, or being ashamed of our non-successes we are erasing an important part to every trial and error experiment, knowing and learning from what did not bring success.

Grashow offers that what the world needs, is a different kind of conversation about failure.

The first speaker for this breakout session was Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of the Republic of Iceland. If anyone has reaped the benefits of utilizing failures, it is Iceland.  
6 Years ago, Iceland was hit with a traumatic financial crisis during which their financial sector (banks etc) dove into bankruptcy. Throughout the initial wave of economic decline and failure, President Grimsson did something extraordinary, he turned against the prevailing system on how crisis should be handled and looked to democracy in order to function and make fiscal decisions. This really allowed the people to oversee how the situation would be handled and also allowed them to better understand why and how the situation would get better. 

Iceland agreed to let the banks slip into bankruptcy and not bail them out. By allowing the banks to fall into bankruptcy a diamond emerged from the rough of the situation. Since the banks had become so "high tech", requiring workers in the field of engineering, computer science, and many other technical skill sets, the decline of banks led to an incline of skills on the job market. Looking desperately for work, these men and women joined other job fields and provided much necessary talent and expertise to the sectors that were previously unable to grow. The result? A boom in innovation, progression, and collaboration. The appeal of the financial district (money) had imprisoned Icelands more skilled workers from working in sectors that really needed their talent. The result of this all has lead to great success over the past six years, leaving Iceland as President Grimmson has said, in a better state than where they were before the crisis started.

If there is one lesson to be learned from the situation in Iceland, it is that there are alternatives, some that may even work better, than the prevailing system on how things should be handled. And although there are many alternatives, the one thing that needs to happen is a change in the way that we face possible failure. President Grimmson states that people are afraid to be recognized by their failures, so they often never leave their comfort zone in order to secure their status and sometimes even their elected positions. Without exploring where ideas can take us, bottling these notions and inspirations has prevented possible progression and meaningful reforms that may have result in a better system than what resides today.

In short, culture needs an adjustment. An adjustment where politicians are not be afraid to transform political society, but rather be willing and inspired to go to the world and attempt to make meaningful change without the fear of failure and without the fear of loosing their next election. 

Wind Energy Is Killing More Than Carbon Emission's: Bird Fatalities

It's difficult to imagine something as elegant and "harmless" as a windmill could be accounting for so much spilled blood, but according to the 2014 State of Birds Report, windmills are predators, and birds should beware. 
This is not the first time I have pondered the circle of life for our feathery friends (Avian Morbid Recluse), but it is the first time I have found well supported answers on where they dig their graves. According to this chart, birds lay victim to humans in a multitude of ways.

source

This bird massacre is getting out of hand, even cats (owned by humans) are partaking in this slaughter frenzy.

It pains me to see media coverage on these incidents, and stinging statement such "the wind energy industry has occasionally been at odds with conservation groups because of bird deaths" especially because there are bigger birds to fry on the avian hit list. Partially outlined in a previous post of mine (Climate Change: Retire Your Binoculars), a factor not accounted for in this chart is the fatality count for birds lost to the effects of climate change. This is unfortunate, because when the body count from these incidents above are summed, they are laughable in the face of the dangers presented by our changing climate.

But enough of that rant, I am sure you have heard enough climate change action from the media lately, and while the most effective method for saving the birds may be a reversal of this climate conundrum, many of the causes of death above are unfortunately unforeseeable and irreversible. I would have never considered many of the columns to be significant threats to the birds right to life. Who would have thought building windows would be so effective in bird population control?

To be continued...

Indigenous Values Part 1: Impartiality: Good Mind and Good Science

source

It is very hard to conquer indecision, but even harder to conquer predisposition. 

Beginning this semester my choice to partake in Women's Rights: A Native American Tradition seemed questionable to me. To my surprise, this class would open my mind and heighten my awareness of the world around me. 

In media and in myth, the indigenous people of North America have consistently been displayed as "primitive" or "uneducated". Living near a nation my whole life, these views have been obvious slander, but where I had often parted ways with the nation was their science.

John Mohawk of the Seneca Tribe in New York wrote in the book Original Instructions that "nature is so complex and its interactions so dynamic that the idea that science could ever understand it all is utterly laughable". These words really strike a nerve for me. How is it possible to just sit back and allow the unknown to consume your life? It is impossible for me to think of a world where we do not strive for a more comprehensive understanding. But I digress with this existential rant, is my scientific bias obstructing something much more profound.

The downfall of science, which natives understand all too well, is that no matter how hard we calculate and discuss the pro and cons it is near impossible (in part because we do not fully understand nature) to know all of the possible consequences for of our actions. At what point do we stop and drop a proposal because the unknowns are too great?

Does that happen when we understand our contribution to global warming and its incredible list of cons. If we had foreseen the adverse effects would we have limited our pollution?

Would companies have stopped polluting the environment if they know about the monumental destruction they were causing in local environments? Probably not because they continue to do so...

And, if the environment doesn't hit home for you, how about the unforeseen consequences of drugs development. By the time this mistake was caught, "around 10,000 babies had been born worldwide who either had shortened arms or legs, or no limbs at all". One of many historical medical disasters. 

Science is great, I put my faith in it to better our future, and to fix it's wrong doings, but we shouldn't survive on faith alone. This must be met with skepticism and general worry for the earth we live on. 

Is it fair to abuse the Mother that has nurtured our ancestors and will nurture our children? Science should strive to reduce Mother Earths work load for she is an old work horse and we are overtaxing her. 

Of the many things we can learn from our native friends, worldly concern and responsible science is number one. 

A debunking of Jennifer Graham's "A generation of idle trophy kids"

source

In English, we have been exploring the world of fallacy, and the tactics of its tongue. The best way to debunk an argument is to expose its wrongness.  So without further adieu, I present the fallacies of Jennifer Graham's "Idle Trophy Kids" argument. 

Jennifer Graham, a regular writer for the Globe, composes an article full of flagrant, ill-informed comments with an apparent vendetta on the millennial generation. For starters, Graham continually redefines the key word “generation”, specifically the age range to which she is referring to; this could be referred to as either a fallacy of equivocation, ambiguous terms or unnecessary vagueness. She most likely does this to 1) apply to a broader audience and 2) be able to find some more “Statistics” to exploit. Overall her argument radiates a fallacy of oversimplification, the issue of why “Generation X” is currently more unemployed is unsupported by her arguments and much more complex then her claim of “hikikomori”. Graham alludes to the living conditions of colonial times, stating “9 out of 10 people worked on food production” and “He who works no, eats not”; this comparison to todays conditions could be taken as the fallacy of faulty analogy. Among others, she also is guilty of the fallacy of quoting out of context. Using MTV’s 2012 as an “authority”, Graham states that MTV’s study supports her claim that “it’s getting harder to believe we’ve given millennials the skills and, more important, the motivation to provide for themselves” when “half said they’d rather have no job at all than a job they hate”. Her statement is grossly out of context because in comparison, TIME, who wrote the article she is referring to, uses that statement as a positive attribute contributing “millennials aren’t all about the money” and for millenials, “among the top options for job desirability, “loving what I do” outranked salaries and big bonuses”, an ode to this generations desire for a certain quality of life. To top off her fallacy-ridden op-ed, Graham makes hasty generalization when she makes statements such as “Today’s kids simply can’t imagine downsizing to quarters like that. They’re victims of their parents’ success and frustrated that they see no way to replicate it”. 

Overall, after analyzing Grahams argument, her premises seem laughable based on the number of fallacies. Because this is not an academic piece but rather an opinion, I am sure her statements were meant to stir a little fire. It is my hope that no one reading this piece took her comments to heart, for the situation millennials are facing will require more than just an “attitude change” to get “generation x” out of their parents basement and reduce the unemployment rate.

Climate Change: Retire Your Binoculars

source

While browsing NPR, a chilling title crossed my page, jabbing a needle through an issue that has grown to be near and dear to my heart.

More Than Half Of U.S. Bird Species Threatened By Climate Change

Bologna, there's no way that climate change has begun to affect anyone, it is still being debated..
Wrong, while the government has been disputing where the finger should point, mother earth has not been waiting for an answer.

It is easy to get caught up in how this can affect us, the "center of existence", but who is the real victim and how are they going to be affected?

BIRDS

In the study outlined by this article, of 588 species of birds in the U.S. and Canada, 314 of them will be facing, as the ornithologist have the displeasure of saying, "unsure outcomes" in the near future due to climate change.

Warmer climates have forced many birds, for example 40 species of Western song birds, to seek refuge in the cooler climate of the Western Mountains. But, as is discussed: What happens when these animals leave their natural habitats for lands they are unsure possess the ingredients they need for life? Uncertainty.

Climate change is not discriminative; your favorite all-american birds such as the bald eagle and the common loon will experience drastic reduction in habitable landscape within the next 65 years (up to 75%). Is it fair to our symbol of freedom and glory to be limited by humanly negligence?

Is it natural for record setting droughts in California, now exceeding the 1988 drought and the 1930's Dust Bowl? Is it natural for 90-95% of raptors nests to fail, in these areas because of droughts? The absence of these apex predators (such as raptors) will have a profound effect on the ecosystems they live in.

The effects of global warming are not localized to droughts and bird population. The effects go much deeper than the news media cares to cover:
1. Higher temperature
2. Changing landscapes
3. Wildlife danger
4. Rising seas
5. Increased drought, fight and flood chances
6. Stronger storms and increased storm damage
7. More heat-related illness and disease
8. Economic losses
For more comprehensive information on climate change and it's effects go HERE.

The summation of these consequences will bring changes in your lifetime and change the world as we know if for your children and your children's children.

Climate change is now, and collateral damage is imminent if we cannot find a way to secure the global environment.

What excuse will you use for spying on your neighbors when the local birds are dead or gone?

Syracuse University: Out With the Snowbirds, In With the Pre-Meds

source

Its is well documented that of the ~15,000 undergraduates at Syracuse University, a whopping 56% are not from the beautiful state of New York, but rather from all 49 other states and 123 other countries. As an ecology enthusiast, this statistic is staggering. What could be causing this migratory behavior, it is definitely not the weather.

For me, as a central New Yorker, Syracuse had always been an option. It's close to home, it's a respectable school, it generally touches all of my interests, it has good sports teams, but was there something I wasn't seeing? I had often visited the university throughout my childhood, watching sports games, attending events etc, but not once had I ever really looked at it as an academic institution. While frantically searching for schools, that forced perspective really changed me.

As an aspiring medical student, there are 3 necessities for undergraduate study:
1. Well-funded science facilities and programs
2. Research opportunities
3. Clinical opportunities

Syracuse is fertile ground for undergraduate pre-meds,

1. The Life Science Complex (LSB), completed in 2008, this 230,000 sq. ft. $113.6 million building, in addition to it's conjoined older brother, The Center for Science and Technology (CST), an equally impressive 200,000 sq. ft. building provide a state of the art research and education environment. LSB alone provides 27 interconnecting research laboratories for faculty and student interests. Well-funded science facilities and programs, check ✓.

2. Research opportunities? No problem. In addition to all of the research the University provides, students can venture outside of the university to two other Universities less than a block away. So you like the Environment? SUNY ESF, Syracuse's "little brother" provides a plethora of "alternative" research for pre-medicine students including but not limited to the areas of plant, animals and the environment. So you like medical research? Apart form the various medical research taking place at SU, SUNY Upstate Medical University also hosts many undergraduate students. I imagine whatever life science your research interests lie, "The Hill" of Syracuse can accommodate. Research opportunities, check ✓.

3. Apart from hosting its own student run ambulance, the University's location offers a key advantage that many other Colleges and Universities just cannot offer. Within two blocks of the University, there are THREE Hospitals (VA, Crouse, Upstate). Within fifteen minutes, there are FIVE hospital (St. Joseph's, Community General) as well as countless doctors offices and private practices. What more could you ask for? Volunteering and shadowing opportunities have never been more convenient... Clinical Opportunities, check ✓.

It is for these reasons I had chosen Syracuse University as a senior in high school. Syracuse University is an excellent incubator for success in medical careers.

Students do not travel to Syracuse for the weather, there must be something here for everyone.

Avian Morbid Recluse

http://i.imgur.com/uZs9U0o.jpg

Since the erection of this blog I have been fighting constantly to maintain a connection with my title, The Clumsy Bird. The spontaneity of my decision has kept me on edge in mind and pen to explore a world much different than ours, a world not restricted by walls or water.
So without digression I present my latest dilemma.
Free of humanly dangers (namely cars), that expose us to such morbidity, birds have been able to avoid a large part of the Darwinian games. So if they are not dying at the hand of their own stupidity, 

Where do birds go to die?

It's hard to say exactly... Because they are such free creatures, they have a near limitless amount of choices when the time comes to decide their grave. So how do they choose?

Exploring the possibilities I imagined an elderly majestic eagle accepting his impending fate and plummeting to his glorious death over the snow covered mount tops of Alaska. But how often do you see birds fall out of the sky? I wouldn't know, I suppose I am never watching for it (maybe I will begin).

Scavenging through google I found a very informative answer on askville from amazon.

The explanation offered by darwin™ states that birds, like many other small animals, are readily taken when found in the wild. The reason you don't see many dead birds laying around is because they have already become a snack for other animals (rats, raccoons, foxes, vultures), ants, maggots, worms and bacteria. AND, darwin even goes as far to mention that like many things, the answer is in the eye of the beholder. Have you ever started looking for a new car and found one that you really liked, then all of a sudden you see that car everywhere?

But this really only answers half my question, and now that I think of it, how pertinent is the afterlife of a bird to my initial problem? Through some productive googling I believe I have found the answer and unfortunately it is not as majestic as the one I had hoped.

Birds, like most animals, seek solitary shelter in times of weakness. When, sick, old or wounded, birds will fly solo and seek sanctuary. The reason for this is because, ailment unspecific, being alone is what may save them and their "herd". When sick, the bird will be unable to effectively avoid predation, so hiding lowers the possibility of them getting picked off, allowing them a chance to possibility recuperate and return to their gang. Interesting enough, their instinctive isolation is also a method of preventing the spread of sickness throughout their herd. When wounded, for the same reason, hiding could expand their life if they are able to recover.

As I explore these conclusions, I still have not found complete closure. In my initial realization I had not accounted for the many ways that birds can pass, I suppose my obsession with this topic is more focused on the natural expiration of our avian friends.

To be further explored...

Some interesting elaborations on a similar matter can be found here.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and how we can prevent it..

picture

One, or in recent times, a few, have flown over the cuckoo's nest and unfortunately the results have been much more devastating than the 1975 american film...

Thankfully, times have changed greatly since the day of Nurse Ratched, but it is still an issue that the mentally ill are not receiving adequate and appropriate care. The failure of professionals and the public to identify those that have become "cuckoo" has had vile repercussions up to and including murder and mass shootings. 

Hotly debated, how do we stop mass/school shootings? CNN reports this list of ten:
1. Strengthen Gun Laws
2. Keep Gun Regulation the Same or Relax Them
3. Arm the Schools
4. Improve School Security
5. Cut Down on Violence in the Media
6. Improve Mental Healthcare
7. Think About the Families, Not the Shooter
8. Focus on Parenting
9. Bolster Kids Social Skills
10. Watch Out for One Another
,more information can be found here. 

While the solution is likely a concoction of these bullets, one thing is for sure: people need better access to and treatment from mental health providers. In life, there are many factors which can flick the switch on anti-social disorders, factors which can not be prevented by "proper parenting" or "social skill development". Identifying key indications and properly dealing with them could mean life or death for a child, an adult, or even a family.

The Washington Post reports in June that Congress's focus has now begun to shift from revising gun laws to reforming mental health programs. This is great, but it is only the beginning, the beginning to a process that should have started decades ago.

"It's not about what’s in their hand; it’s about what’s in their mind," Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), a practicing psychologist and chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said during a recent interview. "If guns caused mental illness, then we would treat that; mental illness needs to be treated, and it is not."

more information regarding this article can be found here.

Research at Mother Jones has produced this map to pinpoint mass shootings and spree killings from 1982 to 2013. (hover over the dots to learn more)


According to this well put together info-graphic by the Security Degree Hub, a whopping 65 of the 67 mass shooters in the past 30 years had a mental illness. How many more until we establish a connection and take appropriate measures to expedite action?

In a recent post by ThinkProgress, a road-block to revision is brought to light:

"Days after a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers at an elementary school in Sandy Hook, Conn., President Barack Obama issued a challenge to congressional leaders to create a bill that would reform the national mental health care system. Nearly two years later, the legislation has yet to reach the Oval Office."

As an issue with such media coverage and public discussion, where is the action?


If you want to join the fight for better mental healthcare you can start in a number of ways:
1. Sign this petition fighting for the US Federal government to increase the availability of mental health services NOW!

2. Donate to a Mental Health Research Group for example NAMI. Proper and progressive treatments require proper and progressive research.

3. And most importantly, if you see something say something. It does not take a professional (sometimes) to identify something is wrong with someone. sometimes just reaching out to a friend or family member is all they need to start their recovery process, many mass shootings have been triggered by trivial influences (August 20, 1982 - In Miami, 51-year-old history teacher Carl Robert Brown, angry about a repair bill and armed with a shotgun, kills eight people at a machine shop. He flees by bicycle, but is shot in the back by a witness who pursued him. He was on leave from school for psychological treatment. source)

Leaving the Nest: What It Takes To Be a Public Intellectual

http://uangrybirdsgame.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/angry-birds.jpg

With a little assistance from Professor Kuusisto, writer of the blog Planet of the Blind, I explored the ideology behind being a public intellectual. 

Much like a bird, there comes a time in our lives when we need to leave the nest behind and stop feeding from the mouths of our parents. Leaving the nest forces the public intellectual to support and develop their own ideas through research and reflection, and when needed, defend or oppose public affairs. 

Being a public intellectual, as Professor Kuusisto consistently stressed, is being a contrarian. And being a contrarian is not always being the Devil's advocate. To be a contrarian is to be critical, reflective, and yes, sometime a little passionate. Contrarians are skeptics, analyzing modernities and engaging in conversation to provoke public discussion. To the public intellectual, nothing is sacred anymore. 

A flaw of society is, as we discussed, the idea that if a thing is not thought of as wrong for a long time, then it superficially is labeled right. A great example of this is Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments. 

Mr. Hitchens a well known contrarian, takes a jab at a well-er known establishment: christianity. Standing in front of such a force usually meets unfavorable outcomes and critiques from religious bigots, but when armed with well researched arguments and statements, Hitchens is not putting himself out in the open unarmed. His passion for knowledge and willingness to give and receive criticism has allowed him to reach the world stage. As an ode to the late Hitchens, I aim to, in this blog and in life, analyze tradition and policy critically and unbiased to form honest and supportive arguments to things that I believe carry substantiative value in the world. 

If there is one thing we can learn from Hitchens, it is that persistence, rationality, critical thought and a  little passion for life can foster good character as well as public intellectuality. As a citizen of the United States it is a waste of freedom to not form an opinion on every argument. Public intellectuals are the angry birds of society released from the nest to analyze, clarify and when needed, confront the pigs of the world without mercy or remorse. Are you an angry bird?