EcoSpot

The road not yet traveled

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road / the one less traveled by / offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”

-Rachel Carson, from her book Silent Spring 1962

CARBON in lyrics

A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
Screaming to an emptiness of how we deified ourselves
With our hands over eyes, claiming all of creation.
What inspires in us this madness
That our existence should be defined
By a light that can’t be seen by anyone?
What inspires in us this madness
That our existence should be defined
By a light that we can’t see?

A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
I can’t see this all as progress
How did we come this far when we see ourselves as deities,
Claim nature for ourselves?
By our actions we betray the instincts in our race
By our blindness and stupidity
We kill everything, we kill everything.

Can someone see our self destruction?
Are we reminding ourselves that our existence is so delicate
That without this light we are no more?
That without this light we’ve made we are no more.

A million points of light ascending to the sky
Monuments in darkness standing watch until the sun will rise
We torch the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see
We cut the earth until it bleeds, rain ashes from the sky
Just to make a light that no one can see.
Just to make a light. Just to make a light
We kill everything
By our blindness and stupidity
We kill everything.

In a thousand years what will be our legacy a million lights that no one could see?

A million points of light.

"Carbon" by Ronan Harris of VNV NATION

On Water

It is estimated that the average American individual uses 100-125 gallons of water a day (most of which is used for anything other than drinking e.g. showers, laundry, toilet, dishes, lawn) while an African family will use only five. I know, one reading this one might argue that usage rates have to do with abundance. There is a misconception that the U.S. has plenty of water to quench the thirst of its 300 million residents. But....

Ben Grumbles, assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water, stresses the importance of conservation. "We predict 36 states will experience water shortages by 2013. Water is this country's greatest liquid asset."- from USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-07-15-xeriscaping_N.html

"Water has become imperiled, not through the deliberate actions of evil men...but through the small doings of many — far too many — ordinary people, doing things the way they have always done them. That’s where the real danger lies.”
-Marq de Villiers

"When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water."
-Benjamin Franklin

A human being can survive a mere 4 days without water.