My wife came across an article saying that 13.5 percent of the 39 million tons of wild caught forage fish is eaten by pets, i.e., dogs and cats, and consumption of these products contributes +/- 64 million tons of CO2-equivalent methane and nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. Americans are the largest group of pet owners in the world, and in countries like China, the popularity of pet ownership is growing. As demand for pet foods containing meat-based protein continues to rise, so does the environmental impact of dogs and cats.
I sat down with our old dog to explain my concern with this news. She held eye contact for a moment, then struck the pose she’s inclined to use when she’s heard enough. It’s a profile with her chin up, ears laid back, eyes slightly squinted, and for all the world she reminds me of the Luck Dragon from the movie Never Ending Story. Regal. Learned. She uses it when she feels her vast life experience and wisdom deserves adulation and there’s been enough meaningless talk.
A friend sent an email describing an event hosted by a hypothetical talking car battery on tour to educate the public about batteries and green energy. I don't know who authored the piece but they did a good job describing what a battery does and how much we rely on them. Batteries are inherently toxic, most cannot be recycled, and the embedded fossil fuels that are tied to them and everything they power is huge. Suffice it to say they are far from perfect and no vehicle has “zero emissions” considering the hydrocarbon energy required in its manufacturing. One of our sons works in green energy and says the problem with current battery technologies is their reliance on old extraction industries which always come with big environmental price tags.
In spite of it all, a shift towards more electrification seems logical. The talking battery doesn’t address the long list of problems inherent to fossil fuels and it doesn’t speak out directly against electric vehicles or new technologies; it’s just asking us to consider the environmental costs of manufacturing anything, which is a line item rarely seen on business ledgers.
Journalist Bill McKibben wrote in The Crucial Years that on January 25th a tropical cyclone hit Madagascar leaving dozens dead and 65000 homeless and almost no one reporting it. Madagascar is ranked the fourth most likely country to be impacted by climate change and drought conditions there have brought the country to the brink of a climate induced famine. The people of the US produce about 125 times more CO2 per capita than the people of Madagascar, a fact worth remembering when drafting immigration policy. The poorest countries are the first to be impacted by a warming climate and we’re largely responsible for the warming. Now what?
Two of our state representatives have introduced a bill that would require businesses to work only with banks that have not divested from fossil fuels. At a time when many banks, as well as universities, the Vatican, trusts, and municipalities have chosen to divest because fossil fuel interests are threatening the earth’s ecological health, Representatives Manning and Soliday are proposing a law which might be hilarious if a joke, but it’s not a joke.
Every year since 1970, human demands have exceeded what the earth’s biosphere can provide through its capacity for renewal, a phenomenon known as ecological overshoot. Last year, by the end of July we had already reached the mark. Think of it as borrowing more from the bank than can be paid back, and the bank is failing. The good news is we can see the problem and choose our way forward. The bad news is the path is not perfectly clear and while we dink around with options our environmental deficit grows and ecological systems slide further into collapse.
We’ve created a world where we cannot live without making environmental matters worse, at least in the short term, and there are two responses. One is to shift the focus, to talk about anything else because the problem can’t be as bad as predicted or is too much to process or the whole thing’s a farce anyway. The other is to move ahead with an awareness and willingness to play a supportive role, making it a part of every conversation and action, keeping it front and center.
Maybe I’ve been misreading the old dog. Maybe her pose is meant to show total exasperation.
We’re knee deep in a winter weather event that is affecting the entire state and a huge swath of the country. A powdery snow is approaching 12 inch depth. It’s a big inconvenience for many but incredibly beautiful. A coyote crossed our lane this morning less than 50 feet from me, gray-brown on a white canvas, walking with a purpose. It turned its head mid-stride and made solid eye contact. In the kitchen there is the smell of rising dough and cinnamon. The wood stove is purring. There are birds at the feeders, fewer than expected given the snowy circumstances. Every available snow plow is on the road and people are digging out so life can return to normal, like it always does. Until it doesn’t.
