Polar Bears - Death by Starvation

The other day, a report appeared on the net about a polar bear that was found dead in northern Norway. The bear was little more than skin and bones. It had starved to death. 

Polar Bears are apex predators. They're very good at finding food in the short season of sunlight in the far north. They are biologically fine tuned to hunt and catch seals and other prey while roaming the permanent pack ice.  In the few months of summer, they have to eat a lot. They have to put on a lot of fat to tide them over during the long dark winters in hibernation.    The problem is the pack ice on which they depend for access to their natural food supply is going away. It used to be that these bears could walk on to the ice from the landed areas of the arctic during the entire summer season.  That is no longer true.  In many places, the ice recedes hundreds of miles, leaving bears in those areas no way to access the ice.  There have even been cases where polar bears have drown while trying to swim to the ice they are adapted to and which  has always been there in the past.  It's no wonder that these predators have become an endangered species.

Undeniably, the loss of the summer sea ice is caused by anthropocentric warming... climate change caused by human dependence on fossil fuels.  

The demise of the polar bear is but one tragic example of human hubris.  Our indifference to nature's rhythms is directly causing the decline of plant and animal species in every corner of our planet. It is deeply distressing to see life on Earth being destroyed purely because we humans are unwilling to practice good planetary stewardship.  We can and should be better than that...

Pollinator Pathways

So, we live in a lovely, quiet neighborhood on the west side of Portland, Oregon.   I have written in this blog before about how few songbirds we have around our home.  We never hear birds singing. When I was a kid, I grew up waking up to birds singing on Spring and Summer mornings. Not here. Part of the problem  may be crows and jays driving other birds out.  Part of it may be chemicals that people use nowadays on their lawns. Part of it could be kitties doing what comes naturally when they're free to roam.  

I would not say that bees are uncommon in my neighborhood, but I have to wonder if we're doing all we can to nurture them. In my mind, that is the proper role of humans when it comes to the places where we live. We should be doing all we can to shape our human habitats to be in harmony with the natural world.

Anyway, I say all that as a lead in to this blog piece, which is about a group in Seattle called Pollinator Pathways.  It's a  gathering of like-minded citizens in a residential neighborhood a half mile or so East of Downtown Seattle.  In 2008, in response to the increasing concern about bee hives being decimated by what is now called, 'Colony Collapse Disorder'  a group of neighbors came up with a plan to create an urban strip with plantings designed to encourage a healthy symbiosis with native bees and other pollinators. The group attracted a lot of support from the city government, local universities, and their neighbors.  They created a formal structure for their effort and called it Pollinator Pathways

I read about the Pollinator Pathway program and thought to myself, 'That's exactly what we need in my neighborhood.' 

I called our Home Owner's Association and asked if something like that might be encouraged in our Portland neighborhood. Their initial response was encouraging, so I'm going to talk to the good people behind Pollinator Pathways in Seattle, and see what I can learn about adopting their program here in Portland. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, for more blog pieces on this subject, click on the labels below for 'Bees' and 'Pollinators'

Electric Airplanes

I used to fly. Then, it got too expensive. It costs even more now. A gallon of aviation fuel goes for $5 or even more. Even a small, ultra light airplane could burn four gallons per hour. That's $20 or more just for fuel for an hour in a single seat aircraft that flies about 50 mph.  The Cessna 180 I used to fly burns about 14 gallons per hour. Do the math. That's $70 an hour just for fuel.  It's no wonder there aren't that many Cessna 180s still flying.  It's no wonder that aircraft manufacturers like Piper and Beechcraft are out of business, and Cessna makes almost no small, fixed gear aircraft anymore. They simply are not practical. They cost too much to operate.

Those us who love going aloft need some other way to quench the passion for flying. We need aircraft that don't run on any kind of fossil fuel.  The good news is a number of innovators have come up with new light aircraft designs that are powered by electricity. A few of them run on fuel cells that make electricity by converting hydrogen to electric power.  No one expects the fuel cell to come down in cost sufficiently to commercialize fuel cell powered aircraft anytime soon.

Battery powered airplanes are a different story.  There are a couple aircraft emerging that could make flying affordable again, at least for people who just want to have a little fun in the sky for an hour or two.

One company, GreenWing International,  is just now starting to market a single seat, battery electric ultralight aircraft.  It's called the eSpyder, and the list price is just under $40,000.  For that, you get an ultralight that flies for about two hours under optimal conditions at a cruising speed of 38 mph.

As aviation experiences go, flying something like the eSpyder is not exactly scintillating.  But, it's a lot more fun than being stuck on the ground.  

Greenwing also has another design, the two seat e430 with better performance for a lot more money.

e430

It could be that the eSpyder is the leading edge in a  revolution in general aviation that will again allow the average person a means to fly at a cost that is affordable.  I hope it turns out that way.

Here is a link to a video of the eSpyder on the ground and in the air... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuFpkc5odWc

Food for Thought - Real Sex Vs. Porn

I saw this You Tube video the other day that uses edible illustrations to illuminate it's comparison of porn star sex versus the real deal.  Fun!

Here is the link to the video that apparently originated in Brazil... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q64hTNEj6KQ&feature=player_embedded

George Clooney - Inspiration

As celebrities go, some are good, others not so much. They are a reflection of what you find in society in general. My definition of a good soul is someone who has a high level of awareness of the world in general, and enough caring and compassion to want to make the world better.  I would count in the category of celebrity good souls,  Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Ben Affleck, Don Cheadle, Leo DeCaprio, Charlize Theron, Betty White, Ryan Gosling, Elle DeGeneres, Bono, and Brad Pitt.  There are others, but the latter names always come to mind first. If there is one among them all who has elevated himself above everyone else, in my mind that would be George Clooney. 

George Clooney

George Clooney has got the world by the tail. He's remarkably good looking.  He's elegant. He's dapper and charismatic. He moves gracefully from one gorgeous woman in his life to another. He's got an amazing coterie of friends. He's a very talented actor, director, and writer. It could easily end there, but it doesn't. With all that he has going for him, George Clooney is also a deeply committed and compassionate champion for those in the human family who struggle for survival every day.

George Clooney lends his voice to many good causes, but he has chosen to give the greatest share of his activism as a voice for the long suffering, oppressed peoples of Darfur, in the South Sudan of Africa.

The Sudan is an arid nation in east Africa, directly south of Egypt. It is one of the poorest places on Earth.  The northern part of the Sudan is Arab culturally, the southern part, called Darfur, is ethnically African.

The political power in the Sudan has always been held by the Sudanese Arabs in the north. They didn't bother much with the Africans that had always occupied the southern, Darfur region of the Sudan. That is until oil was discovered in Darfur. When outside interests started sniffing around for oil and found ii in Darfur, the Arabs running the country decided it was time for some ethnic cleansing. What ensued was not much different than many historical instances of ethnic cleansing, including the one perpetrated by the US government on indigenous, native American populations in the 19th century.

About ten years ago, the Sudanese political power structure started sending planes with bombs and armed military forces into the Darfur region to terrorize the people and drive them from their homeland.  Since then, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the  Darfur War by forces controlled by the Sudanese government. In fact, Sudanese  President Omar-Al-Bashir has been indicated on genocide charges by the International Criminal Court.

Anyway, this is a piece about George Clooney. How does he fit into the conflict in Darfur?  Turns out,  he is an important player in this real life drama. For several years, George Clooney has been using his celebrity to draw attention to the atrocities done by the Sudanese government to its own people in Darfur. Part of this effort is channeled through Not on Our Watch, an organization Clooney co-founded with several other celebrities.

George Clooney has seen the war for himself. He's traveled to Darfur several times.   He's gone to the White House on more than one occasion to ask for aide. He speaks about Darfur whenever he can. Where Darfur is concerned, Clooney not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.

Before I go on to his latest bit of assertive action for Darfur, I want to talk about how he inspires the masses with the movies he makes. I'm talking about films that wouldn't get made without him.  Good Night, and Good Luck, Michael Clayton, The Ides of March, to name a few. Sure Clooney makes movies that are entirely about entertaining and selling tickets. He's a bankable, 'A' List movie star. He uses part of the leverage he gets from his iconic status to get movies made that are about things that matter.  George Clooney is a very accomplished producer and director of quality films about things that matter. He's getting it done in an era when that kind of movie making is tantamount to swimming upstream against a very swift current.  You have to really admire the guy for that. 

Talk about a rich and very full life. George Clooney has got it in spades. It would be so easy for him to coast frivolously through life.  Fortunately, he's about as far from Charlie Sheen as one could be.

Now, Clooney's latest gambit for Darfur. He recently began to do a series of French TV commercials for a coffee called Nespresso.  He's using the money he makes from those commercials to buy satellite time to maintain a watch over the Sudanese government and its actions against the now autonomous region of the South Sudan (Darfur).  Buying satellite time to keep the bad guys in line. That is radically cool.

George Clooney is an inspiration.  I only wish he would consider politics at some point. Let's keep in mind that another actor became President. Ronald Reagan was not nearly as smart  as George Clooney. Reagan was a personality more than a person of substance.  It was charisma more than political savvy that got him elected to the highest office in the land.  George Clooney has at least as much charisma as Reagan, probably more political savvy, and for sure a whole lot more compassion. I would love to see Clooney as President.

Whatever George Clooney chooses to do with the remainder of his time on Earth, I'm sure he will have a good time doing it,  and I'm sure he will have a positive impact on millions of people in the process.  George Clooney is what every gifted person should be, a wonderful example for the majority of people, who need inspiration before they are willing stand and be counted.

Here are link to an article on Clooney and Nespresso ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/31/george-clooney-nespresso-spy-sattelite_n_3681937.html#slide=more214630

Here is a link some of George Clooney's Nespresso commercials....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXru4Q7Lgxo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIbwrwWDXfc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBp1e9zzBow


Here is a link to Not On Our Watch,  a Clooney co-founded organization dedicated to highlighting ethnic conflicts, particularly in Africa... http://notonourwatchproject.org/

The Power of Myth

Back in 1988, journalist Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell in a six part PBS TV series called, The Power of Myth.  It gave me an almost entirely new way to look at my place as a human person making my way through a life on Earth.

Joseph Campbell spent his life studying cultures and the role of mythology in shaping the lives of the individuals who were part of those cultures. As one might expect, the myths and legends that have formed around different cultures are extremely diverse.  Campbell found in a lifetime of studying myth and legend that there are many common threads in these stories that explain and give meaning to life.

Bill Moyers, Joseph Campbell

One of the common threads in myth and legend is what Campbell called, The Hero's Journey.  He wrote about it in a book titled, The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

Campbell found that the stories behind almost every human culture are about a heroic figure that risks all on a quest in service to his {virtually all heroes are male in mythology) people. Along this journey, the hero overcomes a series of challenges. In the process, he gains wisdom which becomes the foundation of his culture.

I was just thinking about Campbell and his wisdom this morning, and I realized that it was about that time, in 1988 when The Power of Myth was being broadcast, that my life went from a struggle to learn and find direction to one in which I began to see and follow a pathway that resonated for me and made me happy. In essence, I began to follow my bliss,  and I learned to enjoy the journey I was on,  and accept the failures along the way as part of the process that one grows from on the way to achieving something genuinely worthwhile. I'm still one that pathway. It has made me happy, and it has brought me some success, and I see even greater possibilities on the road ahead.

There are many pearls of wisdom in the work of Joseph Campbell. For me, it comes down to one very meaty aphorism...
 

 

“Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.”
                                                         Joseph Campbell

Here is a link to a video trailer of the original PBS TV series, The Power of Myth... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdUaQNsjwNM

Robert Radin - Much Loved Friend

The other day, we lost a great friend.  Robert Radin was a mench of the first order. We loved the guy.

A few days after his 90th birthday, on July 31st, Robert passed away peacefully after a brief illness. It is heartbreaking to my wife Jenny and me to lose our friend, but we choose to celebrate the great life he had.

Robert was a very successful businessman. He was loaded to the gills with charisma. Even more, he had the heart of an adventurer.  I was fortunate to meet him when his close friend, the well-known author/filmmaker, Michael Tobias, signed on to write and direct my company's first documentary, Element One.  If Michael was Don Quixote, Robert was his Sancho Panza.  Long before I met Robert, the two had been traveling the world together making documentaries.  

One of the best parts about being in Robert's circle of friends was being invited to the soirees he held regularly at his home in Venice, California. Robert had an amazingly diverse coterie of friends.  Going to his house always translated to good conversation, good food, and good people.  Robert loved being the host and sharing his good will and food from his backyard garden with everyone. 

Every time we saw Robert, he welcomed us with a warm embrace. Robert gave great hugs. His willingness to show affection for his friends and to receive it from them was boundless.

Robert Radin

 

When my wife Jenny and I were married in 2002,  Robert was my best man. In that same year, Robert traveled with us to China to work on a segment of our documentary, The Hydrogen Age.

Our most memorable time with Robert came in 2004, when my wife and I traveled to Montana with him and our friend, Bettina.  We spent nearly a week  in Glacier National Park and Western Montana.

Glacier Park Lodge, eating Montana cherries

Robert at  Glacier Park Continental Divide

Then we went on to Seattle and to Robert's second home in Port Townsend, Washington, where his daughter Carol and her husband Todd live. Robert had a special friend named Cabot in Port Townsend.
 

Robert with Cabot in Port Townsend

In 2006,  when my wife and I were living in Salem, Oregon, I was unexpectedly diagnosed with a tumor on my pancreas.  It was the most terrifying time of my life. Robert and our friend Bettina came up from California and stayed with us through the ensuing surgery and some time after. Their support met so much to us.

Robert and I were also shareholders in a clean energy startup called, Element One Corporation. We traveled regularly together to Boulder, Colorado for annual board meetings. Robert was very anxious to see Element One succeed, not just because of the financial reward, but at least as much because the core technologies the company is built on are likely to have a big role in the  hydrogen part of the  clean energy revolution emerging around the world. Element One is doing quite well these days.  I'm so happy that Robert knew his investment in Element one was headed in a winning direction.

Robert Radin leaves two wonderful daughters, Janet and Carol, and four granddaughters, all of whom adored him.

I also must recognize and express my thanks to Bettina Gray, who has been an important friend of ours and of Robert's for the last twenty years.  It was Bettina who was at his side during his last few days.  I also want to thank Juanita, Laura, and George for their devotion to Robert these past years.

A review of Robert's life must include recognition for his wonderful photography. A website showcases the amazing images he created during his travels around the world. The link to Robert's photography webpage is  http://www.radinphotos.com/RadinExhibition/Welcome.html

A talented filmmaker named Elias Wondimu made a wonderful, 20 minute video about Robert and his photography just a short time before his passing.  I urge the reader to take a moment and see for yourself the beautiful, loving personality of Robert Radin in this video. The link is http://vimeo.com/71773680

There's no way to adequately sum up a life like that of Robert Radin. He lived it to the fullest and made many, many friends along his journey.  He was warm, and decent, and loving. He was kind and generous, and great fun to be with.   I count him as one of the best friends I've ever had. I already miss him a lot. I shall have a warm place in my heart for him the rest of my days.