My friend Heather Fink nicely touches on Lovelock’s Gaia Theory:

All things in the world, nature, people, mountains and all- they are all amazing in themselves. Our universe, as one living, breathing, interacting thing, is so fucking amazing, that I believe that all things and all atoms share existence as something that we all have in common. Simply that we are alive and exist, we are all sharing time. This time right now together. And the sum of all things existing, as a whole, works together to create a sum greater than that of its parts. So the world is so amazing and phenomenal that things perceived as supernatural or miraculous are actually a part of this world, and not something else.

A theory that has affected my spirituality immensely. When you stand atop a majestic mountain or plant your feet in the cool ocean water or look down at the earth from a satellite, you can see how everything is interconnected while interdependent. I study geography, the science of space & place, and the understanding of the Gaia Theory, the notion that I am apart of one giant living organism means that my space and place within such a system is crucial. Am I a virus (think Matrix, consuming and destroying) or am I an organ (collection of cells doing a specfic task in balance)? Or maybe I’m some vestigial organ? For some reason I like think I am a cancerous organ, doing a specific task while my free radical cells rebel.

Recycling and Environmental Facts:

Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. Trash to Cash

Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial fleet of airplanes every 3 months. Environmental Defense Fund

About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 28%. Environmental Protection Agency

Over ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. Eco-Cycle

There are more roads in our National Forests than the entire U.S. Interstate Highway system. National Forest Protection Alliance

Recycling creates 6 times as many jobs as landfilling. Colorado Recycles

Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. Environmental Defense Fund

Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. Eco-Cycle

If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees–or about 26 million trees per year. California Department of Conservation

The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year – or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. Steel Recycling Institute

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of 1,000 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissues with 100% recycled ones, we could save: 373,000 trees, 1.48 million cubic feet of landfill space, and 155 million gallons of water. Seventh Generation Co.

The U.S. is 5% of the world’s population but uses 25% of its natural resources. Environmental Protection Agency

Leave it to Boulder to have one of the best recycling programs in the country!

DC is going to single stream recycling shortly. It will render my “Recycling Room” slightly useless, but its still better than burning our trash.

Right now the weather outside absolutely beautiful! Its about 55 degrees and sunny. Not too shabby for the first day of winter right? Well…in my opinion, not really, contrast this temperature with Monday, 10 degrees and wind chill below zero. Climate change is an increase in variability of weather patterns and I definitely feel that today is a bit warmer than it should be. What I’d like to see in the field of meteorology is a 3 day net temperature change summary, as in go through the entire history of recorded daily temperatures and contrast the highs & lows of any given 3 day period. For example, by contrasting today’s temperature with Monday’s temperature would yield a 45 degree return. I’d like to see every date plugged into a computer and analyzed to show what the average 3 day net temperature change and to see if over time there has been a statistical increase in temperature variability. Would this prove once and for all that climate change is definitely happening? Probably not, but I’ll just go outside and feel it.

In other news, the Inaugural Map is now 100% operational and hosted off my site! I am going to be adding another layer of all names of buildings, or at least important buildings, on the map. Last night I spammed about 400 people with the URL and about 100 of which were the print media outlets in CT, RI, MA, and NY. In going through my inbox I had found that I still had a press list I had created. So far there has been no media response. Give it a few days, or weeks…