Earth matters

[apeman]

LOL good point, even though obvious I hadn't thought about it, it is mostly lawyers, finance professionals, engineers and architects.

[Montegriffo]

I had to come into the city (Norwich) today, I'd forgotten how much traffic stinks. Bloody glad I don't do it often.

Yeah, I envy you. You have no idea what it's like to fight through that shit every morning and evening, for a job you hate.

Bad commutes are secretly the worst thing for someone's happiness.

I have long been a huge proponent of living within walking distance of work, even if it means making massive compromises in housing. Not only does the average american spend 20% of lifetime earnings on transportation, but it effectively increases the length of the workday and decreases the time left over for yourself.

I have a 5 minute walk to work through a historic district. My wife drives 40 minutes.

Luckily if it's for work and it's more than a day in one place I can park up nearby and cycle in. One of the big advantages of driving your home around with you is no commuting. I actually do very few miles in a year.
Today unfortunately I had to get a new phone so couldn't avoid the city.

[apeman]

That is nice, as you well know, I have long been interested in van life.

Though I gotta say, now that I've upgraded from a single-wide trailer to a house right downtown, my past arrangements and considerations don't look so appealing, and neither does a sprinter van.

[pettertb]

Short commute good. Agreed.

I'm looking at a commute for at least 30 mins (26 by car, according to google maps) for my new job. Not looking too much forward to it.

Moving to live with the GF, so theres that. And the job seems nice.

[Otern]

Short commute good. Agreed.

I'm looking at a commute for at least 30 mins (26 by car, according to google maps) for my new job. Not looking too much forward to it.

Moving to live with the GF, so theres that. And the job seems nice.

Half an hour seems pretty sweet. At least if you can do it by car. Just enough time to drink a hot cup of coffee, and listen to some Finnish folk metal.

[pettertb]

I was thinking pod casts, but sure

Link to finnish folk metal plx.

I can drive, and it is against traffic, so not much of a rush I think. On the other hand I can take the bus, be enviromentally friendly, and save myself scraping ice and driving up the idiot hill up from our apartement in winter. Not sure yet. I'll at least bus if Im meeting someone in town after work, and drive if Im going somewhere other after work, not sure on the in between.

[Montegriffo]

So does any one know the truth behind the claims that the early PV solar panels used more energy to manufacture than they produced in their lifetime or that off shore wind generators take 20 years to claw back the CO2 produced by the massive concrete bases they are built on?
Solar panels are much better now but making cement and the curing of concrete are big CO2 producers.

[Otern]

http://www.wwf.no/bibliotek/nyheter_fak ... wsID=52405

Sigh,,,

So, WWF managed to get their wishes through, leading to even more small farms going out of business, being replaced by factory farms, and the disintegration of the cultural landscape and the species dependent on it.

Because wolves are cool.

At least, now, enough people will get pissed off to the point of resorting to poaching of these pests.

[Montegriffo]

I don't know enough about this so I really shouldn't comment but is a population of around 70 wolves in a country the size of Norway such a big problem?
Surely compensation for lost stock and monitoring the size of packs to make sure populations don't get out of hand in the future would cope with the current situation.

[Otern]

I don't know enough about this so I really shouldn't comment but is a population of around 70 wolves in a country the size of Norway such a big problem?
Surely compensation for lost stock and monitoring the size of packs to make sure populations don't get out of hand in the future would cope with the current situation.

There's a lot more than 70 wolves in Norway. 70 is the number of registered wolves, solely residing in Norway. There's lots more traveling between the borders. And there's lots more the government haven't registered. (I've met and tracked wolves in the opposite part of Norway, where there's officially no wolves).

The original cull plan was to ensure the population didn't get out of control. Remember, there's no "Norwegian wolf population", it's all shared with Sweden, as it's in the border areas. Then, the latest years, the population has grown too much, and farmers were put out of business in the eastern regions. The original plan, was to cull enough to keep with the "predator agreement" between the parliamentary parties a couple of years ago.

This backpedaling on the agreement means we're going to have an unmanaged increase in the wolf population, and even more farmers will go out of business.

Compensation for lost sheep doesn't really work. As they're never getting the true number of losses replaced. Finding the cadavers is rarely possible, and it's been more and more of a requirement for compensation. Then there's the loss of good breeding stocks, which doesn't really get replaced with money, as the farmers get less than the meat price for their losses. (They have to pay a deductible for the compensation).

The original cull plan, was not something thought up by the farmers, but by the professionals working with predator conservation. Now that the thing's been politicized, and turned into 1/3 of the original plan, the politicians have gone against the work of the professionals (who want wolves, but in manageable numbers).

This will threaten the mountain fox, and lots of other species dependent on the cultural landscape. Just add this into one of the ecological disasters pushed with good intentions from the WWF.