Green = Green
The color green is in the exact middle of the spectrum visible by humans. I wonder what this says about our species; other species perceive other wavelengths. Green is said to be a healing color. It certainly seems so to me; I find that - especially in the winter or when I'm somewhere where there's not much of it - I'm attracted to what little green there is. Studies have shown that people are healthier, happier and more productive (outdoors and in) when there are either other living things present or at least nature is depicted in photography or art. I wonder if anyone's done a study to find out if just the color green by itself tends to make people happier or healthier or more productive.
Green is one of money's nicknames. Money is an interesting substance. I've had times when I've had it and times when I didn't. I've had times when I had more money than good sense...and I still think about the consequences of the decisions I made at those times. I've had times when I didn't really have enough money, and those times taught me to appreciate that green.
Nowadays, like everyone else, I'd like to be secure in the knowing that I will always have a comfortable income. I'd like that for the whole world. We all know that's not going to happen, but it's a good ideal to work for - sustainable economics for everyone.
Each of the enormous number of plants on Earth each has green somewhere on it. One of the best memories I have from childhood is of looking at the one-celled plant spirogyra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirogyra under a microscope; the green spiral chloroplasts in each cell link up to form strings. You wonder where this orderly beauty comes from. Now that some scientists are saying that the planet we are a part of functions in some ways as a living being, I'm developing a more spiritual perspective on how all the beauty of living things comes about.
Picture in your mind this incredibly complex planet with all it's activities. One relatively minute part of that unfathomably complex functioning whole is taken up by the human species. Another relatively minute section of the functioning whole Earth system is the world's economy. So a proper perspective on people and money would have a big dose of caution and humility, since we never know what's going to happen in the financial world. And, for that matter, we never know what Nature's going to deliver either (though we can make some - hopefully educated - guesses).
The words "sustainable" and "sustainability" must have been used millions of times by now, and their translations in other languages millions more. Economics thinkers I bet have used the phrase "sustainable economics" thousands of times. Since the world's economy is a subset of it's ecosystem, the best whole system economic analyses will include Earth's ecosystem services - those things that living things do which help such other living things as us humans. From this point of view every butterfly is worth money. And every earthworm, every plant, and so on. So striving towards the best possible cost/benefit analysis of any decision we make means we try to take Nature into account. This is, of course, only an ideal - something we should try to be mindful of. So many of life's decisions have unexpected consequences; all you can do is do the best you can by your own lights.
Some of the fastest growing business start-ups today have to do with green plants, from one-celled algae fermentation processses to huge tree plantations. The advancing biotech sector which nurtures various types of green plants is skyrocketing, partly because there's no shortage (by any stretch) of the plant nutrient carbon dioxide available now. And partly also because too much carbon dioxide is causing climate change and ocean and soil acidification, and so is (aside from it's role in photosynthesis) a pollutant.
It is a tribute to the wise leadership of some of our leaders (including at the city and county level) that Hazelwood is developing in a green way.
We as a city have been blessed by an abundance of water, which is an essential nutrient of every living thing. But we have also been blessed, in the long run, by our challenges - such as the fact that our topography has lots of ups and downs. Those developing cities which started out on flat open ground were uniformly de-vegetated and developed with many straight and perpendicular roads; their trees were pretty much all cut down. But Pittsburgh has always had spaces that were just too steep to build on. And, eventually, we started to realize that those spaces where wildlife still survived had value just to be left alone. That we developed laws against buying and building on what we now call "Greenway" areas (with exemptions possible) has supported Pittsburghers' quality of life and so standard of living. This is one reason Pittsburgh has so often been voted most livable city.
Jim McCue (St. Jim the Composter)
composter and biotech researcher
412-421-6496
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://hazelwoodhomepage.org
2/5/2009
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-greening-of-hazelwood.html
http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/power-plants/Content?oid=1341462
http://hazelwoodharvestinc.blogspot.com
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
Green is one of money's nicknames. Money is an interesting substance. I've had times when I've had it and times when I didn't. I've had times when I had more money than good sense...and I still think about the consequences of the decisions I made at those times. I've had times when I didn't really have enough money, and those times taught me to appreciate that green.
Nowadays, like everyone else, I'd like to be secure in the knowing that I will always have a comfortable income. I'd like that for the whole world. We all know that's not going to happen, but it's a good ideal to work for - sustainable economics for everyone.
Each of the enormous number of plants on Earth each has green somewhere on it. One of the best memories I have from childhood is of looking at the one-celled plant spirogyra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirogyra under a microscope; the green spiral chloroplasts in each cell link up to form strings. You wonder where this orderly beauty comes from. Now that some scientists are saying that the planet we are a part of functions in some ways as a living being, I'm developing a more spiritual perspective on how all the beauty of living things comes about.
Picture in your mind this incredibly complex planet with all it's activities. One relatively minute part of that unfathomably complex functioning whole is taken up by the human species. Another relatively minute section of the functioning whole Earth system is the world's economy. So a proper perspective on people and money would have a big dose of caution and humility, since we never know what's going to happen in the financial world. And, for that matter, we never know what Nature's going to deliver either (though we can make some - hopefully educated - guesses).
The words "sustainable" and "sustainability" must have been used millions of times by now, and their translations in other languages millions more. Economics thinkers I bet have used the phrase "sustainable economics" thousands of times. Since the world's economy is a subset of it's ecosystem, the best whole system economic analyses will include Earth's ecosystem services - those things that living things do which help such other living things as us humans. From this point of view every butterfly is worth money. And every earthworm, every plant, and so on. So striving towards the best possible cost/benefit analysis of any decision we make means we try to take Nature into account. This is, of course, only an ideal - something we should try to be mindful of. So many of life's decisions have unexpected consequences; all you can do is do the best you can by your own lights.
Some of the fastest growing business start-ups today have to do with green plants, from one-celled algae fermentation processses to huge tree plantations. The advancing biotech sector which nurtures various types of green plants is skyrocketing, partly because there's no shortage (by any stretch) of the plant nutrient carbon dioxide available now. And partly also because too much carbon dioxide is causing climate change and ocean and soil acidification, and so is (aside from it's role in photosynthesis) a pollutant.
It is a tribute to the wise leadership of some of our leaders (including at the city and county level) that Hazelwood is developing in a green way.
We as a city have been blessed by an abundance of water, which is an essential nutrient of every living thing. But we have also been blessed, in the long run, by our challenges - such as the fact that our topography has lots of ups and downs. Those developing cities which started out on flat open ground were uniformly de-vegetated and developed with many straight and perpendicular roads; their trees were pretty much all cut down. But Pittsburgh has always had spaces that were just too steep to build on. And, eventually, we started to realize that those spaces where wildlife still survived had value just to be left alone. That we developed laws against buying and building on what we now call "Greenway" areas (with exemptions possible) has supported Pittsburghers' quality of life and so standard of living. This is one reason Pittsburgh has so often been voted most livable city.
Jim McCue (St. Jim the Composter)
composter and biotech researcher
412-421-6496
http://facebook.com/alllifelover
http://hazelwoodhomepage.org
2/5/2009
http://bioeverything.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-greening-of-hazelwood.html
http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/power-plants/Content?oid=1341462
http://hazelwoodharvestinc.blogspot.com
http://hazelwoodurbangardens.blogspot.com
posted by St. Jim the Composter at 10:24 AM
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