editor, Shelley Boyle

Shelley created this site as an outlet for talking about the environment.  Her degree is in Forensic Anthropology, with specializations in Evolution and Biochemistry.  She decided to use her skills to research the complexities of the science behind climate change, global destabilization, and other environmental concerns, and try to explain it in a way that all people could understand and get the relevance in their lives.

After a time, there became a need to expand that further, by changing her site into an outlet for all types of people to write about their concerns, and how they live a sustainable life on a daily basis.  As a result, The Golden Spiral has become a destination for people desiring to learn as much as they can about the ways of our home: the Earth.

contact: cshells@thegoldenspiral.org

contributor, Ali Sadrieh

Amy Swanton Mills

 

Welcome to new contributor Amy Swanton Mills

A Los Angeles based designer and writer; Amy is the founder of Glamour Goes Green, a boutique interior design and home furnishings business devoted to vintage and green furniture and accessories. Prior to this, Amy was an in–house designer and sales associate at Grace Home Furnishings, one of the most glamorous and unique furniture stores in Los Angeles. She began her design career with post-graduate work at UCLA and Harvard, and honed her writing skills with a degree in English and History from UCLA. She is passionate about changing our culture of disposability and waste, and seeks out simple tools everyone can use to live more sustainably. She strives to find and support companies who are sustainable, organic and eco-minded.

Marcus Griswold

Welcome to another new contributor, whose bio and photo will be coming soon!

celebration

Happy Holiday.. which ever one you think is important….

I take this time of year to honor the rotation of the Earth, acknowledging the darkest day of the year and the transition from light to dark to light, again.

This is the time of year when we start to think about new beginnings. We have stored our food for the colder climate and start to think about the next harvest. We can shed what no longer serves us and start to create newness with the growing light. This is the time of year that can be the most trying, as the nature of winter; but humans have an uncanny ability to tuck in and strengthen our resolve and gather our strength and emerge rejuvenated and refreshed to start the battle, again.

I do not celebrate what this time of year has become to symbolize: over consumption of food and gifts, living beyond our means for some ideal we can never live up to. I do not understand why families gather on this day to express their love for one another, when they have 364 days to say “I love you” that pass by unused. I do not understand why we use this day to be generous to our neighbors; the same neighbors we will not talk to tomorrow. I feel the true essence of this time of year should be honored and practiced each and every day.

I think it fortunate that in this country we hold elections at the end of the year. It gives us the transition of letting go of the past, with the dark, and bringing in the future, with the light. I think it is fortunate that the world is understanding and acknowledging that something needs to be done to save this home; and there is every indication that it will be. I think it is fortunate that we have had the economic issues we have had, so that we can go deep inside to our core values, the truth and the integrity of humanness, to come out of this grounded again in what really matters: community, not things.

I am spending this day with my family. My grandparents were very clear in teaching us that family matter before all. And, I am honored to have the aunts, uncles, cousins, and parent that I do. I count my blessings every day for them being in my life. So what I celebrate today is my family; this group of misfits that taught me unconditional love, gave me my sense of humor, encouraged education, instilled an incredible work ethic, and most of all, through think and thin, sticks together at all costs. I love them and can’t imagine anything with out them. That, to me, is the essence of this time of year.

I wish all of you the healthiest and happiest of times, this day and many more to come.
many blessings.

note to the world: it’s over

 

I just read an article about the climate change summit that happened in Poland a few weeks back. I have heard disheartening things, like the United States was useless there. But, THIS, takes the cake.

 

IMAGINE that some huge rocky projectile, big enough to destroy most forms of life, was hurtling towards the earth, and it seemed that deep international co-operation offered the only hope of deflecting the lethal object. Presumably, the nations of the world would set aside all jealousies and ideological hangups, knowing that failure to act together meant doom for all.

At least in theory, most of the world’s governments now accept that climate change, if left unchecked, could become the equivalent of a deadly asteroid. But to judge by the latest, tortuous moves in climate-change diplomacy—at a two-week gathering in western Poland, which ended on December 13th—there is little sign of any mind-concentrating effect.

 

To be fair to the 10,000-odd people (diplomats, UN bureaucrats, NGO types) who assembled in Poznan, a semicolon was removed. At a similar meeting in Bali a year earlier, governments had vowed to consider ways of cutting emissions from “deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation [and forest management]”. After much haggling, delegates in Poland decided to upgrade conservation by replacing the offending punctuation mark with a comma.

The article is from the Economist and is quite good.

first 100 days

Yale e360 is a fantastic site, for those who have never visited it. This week they have gathered some of the best minds to address what Obama should do in his first 100 days.

Although the respondents — including entrepreneur Paul Hawken, Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, activist Van Jones, and green investing leader Mindy Lubber — represent a broad range of interests, they were largely in agreement on how best to solve the current economic and environmental challenges. Basically, they agree that weaning the country off fossil fuels and onto renewable sources of energy is the single best way to rebuild the U.S. economy; that Obama must use all the tools at his disposal — from invoking the Clean Air Act for regulating greenhouse gas emissions to persuading the new Congress to put a price on carbon — to tackle climate change and spur the move to alternative energy; that under an Obama administration the United States must lead in forging a new global climate change treaty; and that, given the rapidity of global warming, Obama must be made fully aware of the “scary” scientific facts — as environmentalist Bill McKibben puts it — and move with a sense of urgency.

You can go HERE for the full article. It will be interesting to see if he follows any of the advice.

clean coal, part 2

The folks at www.thisisreality.org did it again!

remember: in reality, there is no such thing as clean coal

do you like clean water? then, you better pay attention…

The Colorado River is the water (and power) source for millions of people; it provides power to 3 million homes, waters 15% of our agriculture in the West, and gives one in 12 people something to drink. That is why many are concerned about its sustainability and longevity as a provider. In fact, many do not know this, but one environmental group has called listed it as the “most endangered” waterway.

The reason: the region could contain more oil than Alaska’s Arctic Wildlife Refuge and people want to get at it. And, now.

Rulings under the Bush Administration have not helped, either.

In the eight years George W. Bush has been in office, the Colorado River watershed has seen more oil and gas drilling than at any time in the past 25 years. Uranium claims have reached a 10-year high. Last week the departing administration auctioned off an additional 359,000 acres of federal land for gas drilling projects outside Moab, Utah.

As still more land is leased for drilling and a last-minute change in federal rules has paved the way for water-intensive oil shale mining, politicians and water managers are now being forced to ask which is more valuable: energy or water.

 

“The decisions we are making today will be dictating how we will be living the rest of our lives,” said Jim Pokrandt, a spokesman with the Colorado River Conservation District, a state-run policy agency. “We may have reached mutually exclusive demands on our water supply.”

It is estimated that if all the oil and natural gas drilling that has been requested to be done, were in fact, done, the annual demand would be the equivalent of shutting off the water to all of Southern California for five days. Oil shale drilling is the equivalent of 79 days.

And then there is a question of contamination. The major mining companies claim that they adhere to the EPA guidelines, but those guidelines are getting less strict every day. Add on top of that, Uranium mining, and there is the potential of radioactive material infecting our water supply.

Scientists say some degree of pollution is inevitable, because mining sometimes uses toxic chemicals like cyanide. It also exposes naturally toxic metals that would otherwise remain deep underground.

Drilling for uranium creates pathways where raw, radioactive material can migrate into underground aquifers that drain into the river. Surface water can seep into the drill holes and mine shafts, picking up traces of uranium and then percolating into underground water sources. The milling process itself creates six pounds of radioactive and toxic waste — including ammonia, arsenic, lead and mercury — for every ounce of uranium production.

So, this has become a question of competition: food and water for the citizenry or lack of dependency on foreign oil. Not to put too much pressure on the Obama Adminsistration, but many are looking to them to undo the leniency allowed by his predecessor and to come up with a happy medium between the two.

The full article can be found at ProPublica.

weekend roundup

A listing of interesting articles, then I did not give expanded coverage.

GMO, article 1:
GMO Job: Will the Obama administration be the first to seriously regulate genetically modified food?, via Grist.org

On the heels of a report out of Germany, emphatically concludes that awidely used strain of GM corn appears to decrease both birthrates and the size of offspring in mice — and the problems seem to grow with each generation, Grist investigates if Obama will stop the GMO legacy. Given whom he just appointed to Secretary of Agriculture, and the fact that he has the hands of some Monsanto executives in his pockets, I am going to say: probably not.

GMO article #2:
Seeds of doubt: Rules for bioengineered crops need close monitoring

To create genetically modified crops, scientists swap the genes from one microorganism or plant to another plant, in combinations that could never occur naturally. The result might be corn immune to weedkillers; cotton that automatically fends off pests; even “pharma-plants” that are tiny, green laboratories for cultivating powerful medicines.

It’s easy to see how genetically modified crops might solve a range of ancient problems.

 

The problem is not that genetically modified crops are in some way “unnatural” — few plants are as unnatural as domesticated corn or wheat, which require intensive human effort to grow at all.

GMO article #3:
Monsanto Funds Groups to Improve Mississippi River Water

With a $5 million contribution from the St. Louis-based Monsanto corporation, The Nature Conservancy, the Iowa Soybean Association and Delta Wildlife will work with farmers to remove nutrients and sediment from agricultural runoff in the Mississippi River Basin.

“Our goal is to use science – research and data – to systematically develop and implement a suite of management techniques that help production agriculture measurably improve stewardship while maintaining or increasing profitability,” Wolf said.

another food one:
Multitasking canola: A California miracle crop?

Farmers, water managers and agriculture researchers are closely watching an experiment using canola plants to absorb the salt from soil and water. The seeds are then crushed to extract oil for blending into environmentally friendly biodiesel.

“It’s all part of what we have to try to do here to turn a profit,” said Diener, who also grows almonds, tomatoes, grapes and corn on 5,000 acres.

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