The Lorax, selling SUV's!!!

Ok so the Lorax was, is, and always will be absolutely hands down my favorite book. You can imagine my excitement when I first heard it was going to be a new movie. The excitement didn't last long, however, when I found out that Danny Devito was playing my favorite character, and Tayler Swift and Zac Efron were costars. The movie cost 70,000,000 (yes that's millions) dollars to make. From what I hear that is a modest price for Hollywood today, but come on, put that money where it will matter.

The Lorax originally came out in 1971, and in '72 an animated TV special came out. I grew up singing along to the musical and still remember the words. It follows the book really well and I love it.

So after you read the book and watch the '72 version how can you not be appalled at the next clip.

Other than the Truffula Tree Certified Mazda CX-5 SUV that gets at best 32 mpg, good, but it's still gas. The Lorax movie has over 70 different product tie ins! 70!! Considering Seuss wrote the book when he was upset with over consumption in his area I think this movie effort is a disrespect to his name.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

 Catch! calls the Once-ler.
He lets something fall.
It's a Truffula Seed.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back.

Earthlings

"Ignorance is the speciesist first line of defense, yet is easily breached by anyone with the time and determination to find out the truth."-Joaquin Phoenix "Earthlings"

Earthlings is a look at the mistreatment of animals. It is a horrific documentary filled with graphic content. I warn you, it is very graphic and will change you. It takes a look at the progression of hate, starting with racism, going to sexism and, finally the point of the film speciesism. The documentary uses the word Earthlings to describe any thing that lives on earth, we are all earthlings as are everything else that lives and breathes on this earth. So why do we discriminate against other species? Do other species have rights? Filmed largely on hidden cameras, Earthlings takes on the fur and leather market, the food industry, and pet trade.

Michael Pollan has said "It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal." I challenge you to at least watch the preview. And if that doesn't have an effect on you, watch the whole movie. End the hate.

Make the Connection. EARTHLINGS.com

Prince Charles On The Future of Food

With the best of intentions

Have you ever been working on something so hard that you forget why your doing it in the first place? I have. You focus on the means so much that you forget the ends, or your goal changes, or you find out your pursuing the wrong goal. I believe this happens to us all the time.

I heard a story about a guy who traveled to Tibet with the goal to climb the largest peaks in the world. Upon the journey he met cultures that had very high rates of blindness. He realized he needed to help these people and changed his goal. now he brings the gift of sight.

This is an example of how goals can change after we realize we are pursuing the wrong goal. Sometimes we do not realize we are pursuing the wrong goal. Take wealth for instance, if you are chasing wealth your whole life and leave no time for love, on your deathbed will you be able to say you chased the right goal? A great example of this scenario is the movie "The Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

Michael Pollan on ted.com

Bounded Rationality

Bounded rationality- The logic that leads to decisions or actions that make sense within one part of a system but are not reasonable within a broader context or when seen as part of a larger system.

In layman's terms bounded rationality is doing the best with what you got. It becomes very difficult to take into account all the externalities that comprise a system and be able to predict the waves that your decision will make. I especially like an example Donella Meadows used in her book. She referred to a fisherman overfishing his fishery and basically ruining his livelihood. Although it is ridiculous to think it was the one fisherman who caused the downfall of the fishery, it is externalities such as other fisherman's bounty that helped lead to the downfall. The fisherman did not have access to the information and thus was doing the best he knew how. Donella states "The bounded rationality of each actor in a system may not lead to decisions that further the welfare of a system as a a whole."

Backyard Chickens

On Saturday I had the privilege to attend a backyard chicken seminar on some beautiful property up Main Elk Creek. One of the aims of this seminar was to raise awareness for a City Hall meeting coming up on March 1 addressing the current Glenwood Springs ban on owning chickens in the city limits. From my research I have gathered that every other town in Garfield County allows residents to keep chickens. Even cities such as Denver and New York City allow backyard chickens.

So before getting into the reasons why we should allow backyard chickens, lets look at possible reasons they were banned in the first place. A large argument about keeping fowl in a city setting is that they are likely to attract predators to the area. A legitimate argument, except by those standards we should also ban cats being outside, or small dogs, and while we are at it lets ban dumpsters and fruit trees as these attract predators to our area as well. I can also see noise being a concern. Chickens do love to 'talk' and I can see how it might be annoying to a neighbor, however you can melt your neighbors heart with a dozen fresh eggs a week. Roosters are no doubt loud and with backyard chickens being raised for egg production there is no reason for having roosters and many cities don't allow roosters. 

The merits of having chickens are far more numerous than the pitfalls. First off eggs are a great source of protein, and anyone whom has a fresh egg with its deep yellow yolk can tell you it is far superior than your average supermarket variety. Chickens are a great disposal unit. With landfills filling up with food scraps it only makes sense to utilize biological methods for food disposal such as chickens and composting. Lastly, lets work on our local food production by encouraging locals to raise chickens. I believe Backyard Chickens will be a great step in the long term sustainability of Glenwood Springs. Come show your support on March 1 at City Hall!