h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a friend of Hypatia's and have been reading the "Rights of the few" thread. I noticed some interesting projects you're following that you mentioned in post 207 of that convo, of a sustainable/green nature, which are right up my alley. Wasting fresh water on a lot of things in this country, when people are thirsty elswhere is just so...wrong.

If I ask *really* nicely, could you please forward me some links about those projects, or the names of the groups? I have some time on my hands these days, now that I'm on disability, and those topics would be good to put into my green blog/website, which is currently under construction.

I'd also like to add you to my friend's list. I don't spit, or swear (much!) and promise not to cause any flame wars, ever.

Diane

Hi, Diane.

First, let me say that I'm sorry you're dealing with a disability.

Second, feel free to add me to yiur friends list.

Thanks, Paul, I will!

I've been working on getting a green blog/website together, for renters, property owners (landlords) and homeowners on what products are coming up, and what they can do to be kind to the environment, without torturing their wallets. It's coming along, but I don't think it'll be ready for prime time until December at the earliest.

[please ignore any typos, I'm, a little aphasic these days. It should have said "Hootoo-izen in the subject line! }

Hi, Diane.

My projects are works in progress. Every so often I think of something new to add, or something old to cross off. Pretty much everything I need to get for my daily life is within a three-mile radius of where I live--two supermarkets, two cinemas, three malls, the swimming pool, three libraries, a bus stop, a great many restaurants, etc. The only reason I need a car (apart from visiting or helping family members) is so that I can get to work on time and fetch groceries. I could walk or ride buses otherwise, if being at a given place by a given time were not so essential. The necessity of working creates a lot of distortions in people's lives.

I hear you about the groceries -- I have an average size backpack with wheels, that I shop with. Sometimes I feel like a pack mule!

That's the problem with our cities -- it *is* possible to find a place where you have things within public transportation and walking distance, but it's rare, that you don't need a car. I think it's why so many younger folks are fleeing suburbia back to the downtown areas, at least here in California. There are a *lot* of shopping developments being built, which are topped with residential housing, like apartments and condos. Looks like L.A. and S.F. are turning into NYC. Which may be a good thing, if it cuts on carbon emissions.

The newer developments around Boston seem to be combining residential units with shopping.

What seems likely is that as fossil fuels become more costly, streetcar lines will run along the major roads, maybe in the median strips. This would harken back to the 1920s, when you could get around just about anywhere in the Boston area with streetcars. They were fueled by electric wires that ran oevrhead. One by one, these were dismantled as automobiles and roads expanded. Commuter railroad lines were much more extensive, as well.

Los Angeles had the Pacific Red Cars, which sounds much like what Bostoon had, and went from east of downtown to the ocean in Santa Monica, plus down to Long Beach (at the time, a major naval base) and up to the northern borders of the San Fernando Valley. That ended, finally, in 1969. the system is being (slowly!) rebuilt to the tune of billions, and I can't help thinking "If we had just kept the Pacific Red Cars going..."

Conspiracy theories abound, about how the oil companies saw it as competition, and wanted to get people off the trolleys and into personal cars. It's discussed briefly in the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Good film, conspiracy theorists aside, and the one about General Motors' reason for killing the EV-1 is even true.

How has the Big Dig changed Boston? I remember the accident last year, and I hope that's all corrected by now, or at least on the way to it. I remember friends saying how much of a pain all the detours and temporary routes were.

I think they finally got most of that stuff sorted out. Water leaks into the lower reaches of the tunnels, and has to be pumped out. That's about par for the course wherever you're near the ocean and below the water table. For instance, Manhattan has pumps going around the clock to get seawater out of the subway lines. Without the pumps, the whole system would be full of water within days.

I saw that, on the series, "Life After People." Morbid as all get out, but I couldn't stop watching it.

And oddly reassuring to know that even our mightiest monuments and skyscapers won't outlive us for too long. Whatever, or whoever, comes after us should get a chance to build it "their way." I'm not too worried about the planet dying, either. It's been hit by countless meteors, had numerous mass extinctions, and survived it. Life Abides.

But I'm a human, so I'm hoping we can party on for a few hundred millenia more -- just more conscious of our part in the scheme of things!

[Sigh. Heavy on the cliches much? ]

We've ensured that many of our plastics will still be as good as new millions of years from now. I'm not sure if styrofoam will *ever* biodegrade. And, the plastic fragments that are going in endless circles in the Pacific Trash Vortex may get smaller due to erosion, but they're made of polymers that will stay intact on the molecular level. They may become part of organisms' bodies, but they'll still be polymers.

Geez, you're right, Paul! Our skyscapers will fall and disintegrate, but that Winchell's cup will remain for eons, in memoriam of some cop's morning break...

If there are any geologists practicinmg their profession 15 million years from now, they'll marvel at styrofoamstone, the metamorphic rock.