It has been a sad, sad month for me and thousands of others. Petters Group, the discount corporate raiders who scooped up a bankrupt Polaroid Corp a few years back, announced cessation of production of Polaroid film. Instead, the company will focus on licensing the logo to electronic gadget manufacturers. The genius of founder Dr. Edwin Land has now passed.

The world of photography will soon be left to computer-bound digital shooters. The uniquely beautiful world of in-camera photography has now come to an almost-total end. Early next year, I’ll no longer be able to procure so much as a pack of the beautifully fecund integral film that I’ve come to love so dearly. Truly, I’m quite upset.

What? You didn’t know of my Polaroid obsession?

Look here, at my other site, JUNETEN.COM.

Or this one: SPLITSECONDCOLLECTIVE.COM

Or here, at my Polaroid camera collection:

What can YOU do to help? I’m so glad you asked.

PLEASE VISIT WWW.SAVEPOLAROID.COM.

Sign the petitions, spread the word. The creative community can’t afford to lose yet another tactile, real-world means of artistic output.

Every morning, over 90 million Americans wake up and drink a glass of milk.

Over 70 million Americans have a cup of coffee.

And over 200 million Americans drink a glass of water.

Right there, we have 360 million containers of liquid filled every day. Or, over 100 BILLION per year.

Now, what if instead of using paper/glass/ceramic for our drinks, we simply drank straight from the bottle/tap?

I’ll tell you what: As a nation, we’d save enough energy to POWER CALIFORNIA FOR SEVENTY-SEVEN YEARS!!
That’s right, just cutting out the water and energy wasted in washing dishes and manufacturing paper/plastic cups will go a long way to reducing our emissions.
So there you go. Just when you were running out of ideas on how to reduce your footprint, I’ve stepped in with a big one. You can thank me once the ice caps refreeze.

<—(I’m not suggesting we take it this far, but the reductions would be amazing.)

This guy lives in Pasadena or El Segundo….and he’s for real.

 

I came up with a revolutionary method of maximizing MPG. No longer are you bound to that godawfullyugly Prius! Hoorah!

Team Creates Rat Heart from Scratch

Turns out that fighting over the Prius isn’t just petty, it’s bad for the Erth. Divorce may help your sanity but it will torch the planet.

Here’s the lead-in:
As if going through a divorce was not stressful enough - now researchers are saying marriage break-ups are bad for the environment.
A survey of 12 countries shows that rising divorce rates around the world has resulted in more households with fewer people in them.
This escalates the use of resources like water, land and energy, leading researchers to declare that divorces lead to less sustainable lifestyles.

Check out the rest of this illuminating article (CLICK ME).

Choice quote from above: “People have been talking about how to protect the environment and combat climate change, but divorce is an overlooked factor.”

I feel like such an asshole. Had I known, the world would be in slightly less peril, while I would be suffering stoically.

My hope is that divorce rates will plummet among the rest of the eco-conscious crowd, once they get wind of this. In turn, they’ll outbreed the rest and their innumerable descendants will rectify the wrongs of past generations. Too bad eco-couples don’t pop out many babies. We need to swiflty bring the Mormons into the fold. And the Mexican Catholics. We’ll have Amory Lovins or Lester Brown elected President by 2028.

Am I suggesting that eugenics can save us? Fuck yes I am.

Why Oil Is Skyrocketing

Forget the Peak Oil nonsense. This video spells out the REAL reason: Ligon-Tyrox!

I know the web is overflowing with smut and I don’t typically traffic in erotica or visit nasty, dirty sites like FarmCum.com, but. . .sometimes beauty is just too incredible, too sublime, too ample. Whatever you do, don’t tell Andi (my wife) about this!

HERE IS THE LINK!

(In other news, former Defense Department Analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, recently penned a piece titled ‘A Coup Has Occured’. Really great stuff from an intelligent source. Not eco-related directly, but if we don’t overthrow this coup (no, electing Hillary doesn’t count), we’re utterly fucked.)

From time to time, I am inclined to promote my other creative ventures. Dearest visitor, bear a dear and take the scantest of time from your mad schedule to peruse the following links:

JUNETEN.COM: Polaroid Madness

POLAFICTION.COM: Photos + Story Drafts

Thank you, ever so much. As I’m withdrawing of late from my past habit of near-daily outpourings of eco-angst, I am no more than happy to promote YOUR creative enterprise on this site. Email me. Call me. Send smoke signals. What the hell are you up to, anyway?

David DuByne, who lives in China, recently penned quite a nice piece for EnergyBulletin, one of my favorite online sources of the politics and science of global energy issues. David’s piece is definitely worth a read: “Low Grain Harvest, Rising Food Prices & China’s Ethanol Plan”.

From the article:

On September first the head of China’s Energy Ministry, Ma Kai, in a live television speech stated “For the long-term development of our Chinese nation, saving energy and reducing pollution are so important, so urgent. If we don’t change this situation… the economy will go badly and won’t go far”. It was the first televised large-scale appeal to consumers to change their lifestyles and conserve energy.

What’s more, it seems that China has decided to abandon most new construction of food-based ethanol plants. Oddly schizophrenic, China. Here, they’re leapfrogging the U.S. and other nations, while in so many other areas they still have such a long way to go. Regardless, I have to applaud this decision. Of course, this increases China’s reliance on petroleum, but the Chinese very much realize the need for finding an alternative. The fact that they’ve so quickly realized the massive problems with ethanol gives me a bit of hope.

Thanks, David, for alerting me to your writing. Keep it up. We need it.

Technorati Tags: china, ethanol, lester brown, petroleum, oil