Well well well I started the day in a bit of a funk but then got to journaling, and decided, hey, I've got some ideas that might be good alternatives for sustainable economic development in Nova Scotia. Maybe I'll start a blog series listing them off. Maybe they are crap, but, they're just ideas conjured up from my 40 years of living in this world. I've traveled a lot and lived in various Canadian cities. Maybe instead of staring out the window feeling depressed at the thought of fracking coming to NS I will post these ideas on line. People are free to love them or hate them or suggest alternatives. My intention is finding solutions for better lifestyles for more people, I think everyone could get on board with that, even Bill Black! Unless they are greedy overlords I guess, who depend on humans to exploit.
I did hear back from Bill Black (referring to my post yesterday) who doesn't think we'd find common ground, doesn't think solar or microhydro are economically viable (though farmed mink and salmon are). Maybe he's right. But maybe what is fundamentally flawed is our model of the economy in the first place. I'll refer back to my post on Sacred Economics.
In thinking about a preamble, and thinking more about oil and gas, I came up with this:
What child, when asked what he/she wants to be when they grow up says, "oooo, I'd like to have a job for a multinational petrochemical company, draining a watershed to pump carcinogens into the earth to make natural gas"? I think kids want to help others and animals, create, invent, make things, perform, play, communicate ... and somehow along the way they all get drafted into a school system that doesn't help them listen to and realize their hearts desires. Instead, for the most part, it grooms them to be good employees and good followers. Not so much freethinkers or creators, as this TED talk by Ken Robinson describes: (fyi I've watched a lot of documentaries while working on art and lying around waiting for my back to heal after breaking it in 2007. Some are fantastic so I'll be linking to them)
So all this thinking about solutions has prompted me to symbolically dig my biology degrees out of the trash. I think the biggest issue human beings have is that we've somehow forgotten that we're also animals and are subjected to environmental constraints.
One concept from ecology I can share is the notion of "carrying capacity". Carrying Capacity is the maximum population of a given species that can survive indefinitely in a given environment.
The term was taught to me to describe things like how many deer can live in an area etc etc, but if we're going to keep increasing the population, or even hold it steady as we deplete and pollute our current resources, we need to come up with more creative, sustainable ways to use resources to meet our needs.
The following is an excellent lecture I've watched many times, on resources, arithmetic and the exponential function. I wish everyone in the world would watch this.
"Arithmetic, Population and Energy" by Dr. Albert Bartlett
here is a link to it on Documentary Heaven
http://documentaryheaven.com/arithmetic-population-and-energy/
and I found it on youtube too so I could embed it here:
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Silent Auction
Well I've got an idea now for a series of blog posts (soon to follow) but before I get started I wanted to post this cartoon I drew this week.
No offense intended to anyone I've donated work to for fundraisers, I like other artists are pleased to have the opportunity to contribute in this way for worthy causes,and yes, most moms who have asked for school fundraisers aren't like the one in the pic. The drawing is meant to poke fun at the fact that artists get hit up for donations a lot, and many artists aren't all that well off. It makes me wonder if it'd be better to seek donations from people like lawyers and accountants. anyways.
No offense intended to anyone I've donated work to for fundraisers, I like other artists are pleased to have the opportunity to contribute in this way for worthy causes,and yes, most moms who have asked for school fundraisers aren't like the one in the pic. The drawing is meant to poke fun at the fact that artists get hit up for donations a lot, and many artists aren't all that well off. It makes me wonder if it'd be better to seek donations from people like lawyers and accountants. anyways.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Future of Fracking In Nova Scotia
Well this is better, two blog posts in two days.
I just drew this cartoon:
Big thanks to Bill Black for making me mad and sad with this article the Halifax Chronicle Herald published today
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/530204-black-when-it-comes-to-fracking-enough-study-consultation
Yes, yes, Bill, enough with the study and consultation already lets get to work pumping those carcinogens into the ground to extract some gas. Never mind the fact that relative to other provinces Nova Scotia has a tiny land mass and a population density second only to PEI. Natural gas all the way! Forget about any sort of development that might be sustainable and earth friendly, um, like organic farming, ecoforestry, value added forestry products, help for landowners wishing to construct solar arrays or microhydro projects to sell power back to the grid (uh oh, Emera wouldn't like that at all!)*, IT, other technology, marketing the province as a haven for retiring baby boomers, tourism, finding ways to promote and develop the province's creative class... bah... forget all that and let's frack! and fill the province with mink farms and salmon pens while we're at it! Yes!
from Bill's article:
"Although there have been isolated problems, as occur with any resource industry, fracking has been largely safe and is responsible for revitalizing many parts of rural North America. "
ah, so Bill says it is largely safe. Good maybe we can start by fracking in his yard then. I hope someone will give Bill a copy of "GasLand" (the documentary) as well as a map of Canada so he can notice how small Nova Scotia is, and how full of fresh waterways.
Maybe he has a point about not studying it too much. I quit my career as a biologist in BC when I realized I was a 'biostitute' and that corporations will pay people fat contracts in order to say they spent x amount on the environment. And then they'll put the report on a shelf and go ahead and do whatever they were going to do in the first place. So I decided to give up trying to be a 'conservation biologist' and I moved to rural NS to try and live off my ecological footprint, and protect my own bit of land. So far so good, but I really hope nobody fracks with my delicious well water!
since writing this post I've emailed both Bill Black and the editor of the Herald, here's the note I sent with my post.
*****
Dear Bill Black and Herald editors,
I was greatly disturbed by Bill's pro-fracking article in today's paper. I've published my response with a cartoon I drew here on my blog and will copy/paste below in case any part of it is suitable for the letters section. In fact I'll add this letter to my blog post.
Bill, I'd encourage to do some more google searching about fracking, its impacts, and the enormous volumes of freshwater it uses and pollutes, and watch some documentaries. I believe this is a terribly shortsighted thing to wish on this province. I have lived through 2 economic booms, one in Vancouver and one in Regina before moving to Nova Scotia, and I'd be pleased to meet with you in person to share with you further some of my own ideas for sustainable development for this province. I think Nova Scotia has the potential for a much brighter future than what mere resource extraction and depletion would provide. I think if you could see this and understand the problems with fracking you might change your mind.
Sincerely,
Susan Paczek.
BSc McGill - Biology, MSc University of British Columbia - conservation biology, former registered professional biologist (RPBio)
Wait, it gets better, I've decided to include some links on this blog to compelling resources that point out issues with fracking:
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/fracking-natural-gas-affects-water-quality
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
http://www.dangersoffracking.com/
I could go on and on but you get the point...
* maybe Nova Scotia Power is more on the ball than I thought, see
http://www.tomorrowspower.ca/
I just drew this cartoon:
Big thanks to Bill Black for making me mad and sad with this article the Halifax Chronicle Herald published today
http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/530204-black-when-it-comes-to-fracking-enough-study-consultation
Yes, yes, Bill, enough with the study and consultation already lets get to work pumping those carcinogens into the ground to extract some gas. Never mind the fact that relative to other provinces Nova Scotia has a tiny land mass and a population density second only to PEI. Natural gas all the way! Forget about any sort of development that might be sustainable and earth friendly, um, like organic farming, ecoforestry, value added forestry products, help for landowners wishing to construct solar arrays or microhydro projects to sell power back to the grid (uh oh, Emera wouldn't like that at all!)*, IT, other technology, marketing the province as a haven for retiring baby boomers, tourism, finding ways to promote and develop the province's creative class... bah... forget all that and let's frack! and fill the province with mink farms and salmon pens while we're at it! Yes!
from Bill's article:
"Although there have been isolated problems, as occur with any resource industry, fracking has been largely safe and is responsible for revitalizing many parts of rural North America. "
ah, so Bill says it is largely safe. Good maybe we can start by fracking in his yard then. I hope someone will give Bill a copy of "GasLand" (the documentary) as well as a map of Canada so he can notice how small Nova Scotia is, and how full of fresh waterways.
Maybe he has a point about not studying it too much. I quit my career as a biologist in BC when I realized I was a 'biostitute' and that corporations will pay people fat contracts in order to say they spent x amount on the environment. And then they'll put the report on a shelf and go ahead and do whatever they were going to do in the first place. So I decided to give up trying to be a 'conservation biologist' and I moved to rural NS to try and live off my ecological footprint, and protect my own bit of land. So far so good, but I really hope nobody fracks with my delicious well water!
since writing this post I've emailed both Bill Black and the editor of the Herald, here's the note I sent with my post.
*****
Dear Bill Black and Herald editors,
I was greatly disturbed by Bill's pro-fracking article in today's paper. I've published my response with a cartoon I drew here on my blog and will copy/paste below in case any part of it is suitable for the letters section. In fact I'll add this letter to my blog post.
Bill, I'd encourage to do some more google searching about fracking, its impacts, and the enormous volumes of freshwater it uses and pollutes, and watch some documentaries. I believe this is a terribly shortsighted thing to wish on this province. I have lived through 2 economic booms, one in Vancouver and one in Regina before moving to Nova Scotia, and I'd be pleased to meet with you in person to share with you further some of my own ideas for sustainable development for this province. I think Nova Scotia has the potential for a much brighter future than what mere resource extraction and depletion would provide. I think if you could see this and understand the problems with fracking you might change your mind.
Sincerely,
Susan Paczek.
BSc McGill - Biology, MSc University of British Columbia - conservation biology, former registered professional biologist (RPBio)
Wait, it gets better, I've decided to include some links on this blog to compelling resources that point out issues with fracking:
http://www.watershedsentinel.ca/content/fracking-natural-gas-affects-water-quality
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/
http://www.dangersoffracking.com/
I could go on and on but you get the point...
* maybe Nova Scotia Power is more on the ball than I thought, see
http://www.tomorrowspower.ca/
Friday, January 25, 2013
Sacred Economics
Ulp... thought I'd be posting more this year. I've taken a wee break from sculpting and have been doing a lot of thinking.... about potential solutions to the state of the world, my life purpose, etc. I've been a big fan of the Idle No More movement. I also watched this video, which I like very much. There are a pile of other lectures by this guy on youtube, really interesting stuff.
Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein.
Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Sculpting Mr Wonderful Part 3
Here are the finished Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads, clustered on a table. They have holes in the back of their hats to I can wire them like I do my other ornaments, but the larger ones are heavy, and some may look more like him than others!
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Sculpting Mr. Wonderful Part 2
Here are the Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads in progress, ready for glaze, as well as my first Nativity scene! Minus the puppy, who has has run off somewhere. I'm enjoying working in the low-fire white, which is grey as raw clay because apparently all talc in Canada is now grey. So as the pieces dry they are different shades of grey.
Once I got the hang of Kevin's head, making more heads became easy. when they're glazed and done I want to hang them all on a tree outside and take a photo. I'm also thinking up a modern day legend to turn the Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree head into a Canadian Christmas must-have. Maybe written as a poem that scans to "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. so far all I have is:
Once upon a Christmas Cheery,
Floating there all smug and sneery
Was the Head of Kevin O'Leary
Hanging on my Christmas Tree...
 |
| Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Head #1 In the palm of my hand! later ones are smaller. |
 |
| Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Head #1, side view |
 |
| My first Nativity Scene |
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Update, and, Sculpting Mr. Wonderful part 1
So I've been remiss about posting more frequently on my blog... partly because I can't find my camera anywhere!! so here is a written report.
Last big objects (including the yin yangs and large bowls) blew apart in my kiln. Oops, first such disaster since art school actually, and a good reminder to fire more slowly. Good thing I'm all about process! I'm glad the big pieces didn't take out more small pieces, and I'll definitely try to remake everything.
So I took a break from working in clay to work on some papier mache xmas decorations. The ornaments I'm making are pretty ridiculous and need to be completed and photographed.
Then I started watching Shark Tank re-runs with a bag of Low Fire white clay because I've decided to have a go at sculpting Kevin O'Leary Christmas Heads. The coffee table in my studio is now covered with 8 smirking Kevin O'leary heads wearing santa hats. I'm pleased with how they're going as I haven't tried sculpting a human before. At least not since I was about 5 years old. They're big though, and may be heavy for an ornament so this week I'll be on to season II of Shark Tank and trying to make some smaller ones.
Today I went to Chapters to pick up Kevin O'Leary's biography "Cold Hard Truth" in order to get to know my subject better, and just found out I had just missed Jim Treliving's own book signing ("Decisions") at the same Chapters. Drat!! I really would have liked to have met him! Maybe some day on Dragon's Den I'll be able go in and pitch a proposal to license my "Canadian Celebrity Christmas Heads". Maybe they could be produced at NSCAD.
In other gardening news I made my first ever pumpkin pie from scratch, including gluten free crust. The pumpkins we grew were Connecticut Field pumpkins I believe, and actually surprisingly tasty! So this week as well as carving up my Christmas Heads I'll be steaming, mashing, draining and freezing more pumpkins, in order to make pies through the winter. Might try making pumpkin leather in the dehydrator too.
Last big objects (including the yin yangs and large bowls) blew apart in my kiln. Oops, first such disaster since art school actually, and a good reminder to fire more slowly. Good thing I'm all about process! I'm glad the big pieces didn't take out more small pieces, and I'll definitely try to remake everything.
So I took a break from working in clay to work on some papier mache xmas decorations. The ornaments I'm making are pretty ridiculous and need to be completed and photographed.
Then I started watching Shark Tank re-runs with a bag of Low Fire white clay because I've decided to have a go at sculpting Kevin O'Leary Christmas Heads. The coffee table in my studio is now covered with 8 smirking Kevin O'leary heads wearing santa hats. I'm pleased with how they're going as I haven't tried sculpting a human before. At least not since I was about 5 years old. They're big though, and may be heavy for an ornament so this week I'll be on to season II of Shark Tank and trying to make some smaller ones.
Today I went to Chapters to pick up Kevin O'Leary's biography "Cold Hard Truth" in order to get to know my subject better, and just found out I had just missed Jim Treliving's own book signing ("Decisions") at the same Chapters. Drat!! I really would have liked to have met him! Maybe some day on Dragon's Den I'll be able go in and pitch a proposal to license my "Canadian Celebrity Christmas Heads". Maybe they could be produced at NSCAD.
In other gardening news I made my first ever pumpkin pie from scratch, including gluten free crust. The pumpkins we grew were Connecticut Field pumpkins I believe, and actually surprisingly tasty! So this week as well as carving up my Christmas Heads I'll be steaming, mashing, draining and freezing more pumpkins, in order to make pies through the winter. Might try making pumpkin leather in the dehydrator too.
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