Stop Speculation Now - Black on Black Thought
July 17, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
Guess what? Gas is expensive. Expensive gas impacts almost everything in Americans’ day-to-day lives by making almost everything we do or consume more costly. One of the large contributors to the high cost of fuel is speculation, which in simple terms means to buy something you have no purpose for other than to make money off of its unstable price.
Well, the argument against excessive speculation, especially on commodities like oil, has brought together groups of citizens, organizations, and companies that often times are at odds with one another. The Stop Oil Speculation Now effort has caused many to join in a call for smarter, more responsible government regulation and an end to one of the major drivers if high gas prices.
And you thought gas was high, what about the food?
June 11, 2008
What’s up fam,
The price of gas is comfortably over $4 and is not expected to come down soon. We are at the point where you need to buy gas cap locks to keep people from siphoning off your gas. People are breaking even just to go to work and this is even more pressing for places like Metro-Detroit where you don’t have a reliable and efficient mass transit infrastructure. However, the MS M focus on the price of gas ignores a more sinister problem; hunger. The price of gas is probably more important than Obama getting the nomination as Fred Pearce from the Yale Environment reports,
“food prices have been soaring this year, causing more misery for the world’s poor than any credit crunch. The geopolitical shockwaves have spread round the world, with food riots in Haiti, strikes over rice shortages in Bangladesh, tortilla wars in Mexico, and protests over bread prices in Egypt.”
Earth Day is about more than being nice to the environment
April 22, 2008
Today is Earth Day, and as I walked out of my work cafeteria this afternoon, I realized why so many “environmentalists” annoy me. It’s not because they’re bad people or because they I disagree with their ideas, but it’s because I really think that they go about promoting their cause in the wrong way. Many of them attempt to get people to change their ways out of some sort of guilty moral obligation. Straight up, this approach will not work in the medium or long term. Read more
The Growing Battle for the Right to Water
February 14, 2008
What’s up fam,
Those who know me have heard me talk passionately about my fear of how I think “water wars” is going to be the single greatest cause of our lifetime. The drought we are seeing in places in the Southwest and Southeast are not cyclical and as countries throughout the world become more developed, the need to be better stewards as it relates to water increases dramatically. Having said that, I pulled this article from alternet.org, regarding a new book on water policy that is a must read. The book is entitled, Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water,
The link to the article by Tara Lohan is here and I posted the article in its entirety here.
Put a stake in it
January 23, 2008
What’s up fam, I found this great article in Salon.com that discussed how we can all save energy by running appliances that run all night. Though this was not mentioned in the article, I did think about my slight obsession with making sure all of my gadgets are fully charged because I am on the road so much. I posted the article in its entirety, enjoy.
Cut up to 10 percent of your electric bill simply by turning off “vampire” appliances that run all night.
Detroit’s urban garden
November 28, 2007
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Cross posted at the Michigan Messenger With its shortage of big-box grocery stores and the lack of enough fresh produce, much of Detroit could be said to be in a food desert. An urban agricultural movement is emerging as a solution to the problem. |
The Long Shower
July 14, 2007
Earlier this week I had a little back up in my tub’s drain and when I went to take a shower, my feet became submerged in a puddle. Not a good look! So I turned off the shower to let the tub drain and I proceeded to lather and get SuperSpade fresh. After I finished lathering, I turned the shower back on, rinsed, and got out. While I was drying off, I was ashamed at how much water I waste by taking showers everyday.
As I try to be more environmentally aware of my actions, I know that water is fast becoming a scarce resource. Before I leave this earth, there will more than likely be military conflicts between countries over access to water unless we really get serious about conservation. A while back, I wrote about the growing and troubling nexus between the environment and national security.
Most troublesome though is that there are millions of people in this world that will never be able to take a shower in the way that the West is accustomed to. My shower experience made that sad reality visceral and stark. Sometimes it is easy to forget how privileged we are in America and my shower experience helped me empathize with those less fortunate on a deeper level.
From now on, I am going to take “dry showers.” Give it a try and let me know what you think. If I am way behind the curve on this, that’s cool too.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Blackle what?
May 29, 2007
I have written about environmental issues here on the site and the more I try to make a positive impact, I realize how much it requires a completely different approach to almost every aspect of our lives. I am at the point where I don’t even keep my alarm clock plugged in until I get ready for bed. What is the purpose of wasting energy by keeping small appliances plugged in during the day when you are not at home?
National Security, meet the Environment
April 9, 2007
In my experiences, the only two things that get people really riled up over global warming are jobs and national security. To the latter point, Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Dick Durbin of Illinois introduced legislation that “calls for the director of national intelligence to conduct the first ever ‘national intelligence estimate’ on global warming.” Read more
Eco-Apartheid
April 3, 2007
There was an article in Blackelectorate today entitled, “Whole Life Times: Eco Apartheid.” In it, author Van Jones goes through the history of the environmental movement in
