Saturday, October 27, 2012

Is the Dead Sea about to become the Dead Salt Flats?

Hi, everyone. It's been a while since I've posted a blog. I've been around, just retooling my communications channels as I prepare for the next step in my career. Expect this blog to feature more urban and economic development information in the upcoming years.

I haven't been idle since my last post. I've been doing a lot of research and reading. I recently finished reading The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg. I must admit that I am a skeptic when it comes to most things I read and hear, and every new tome about our current global economic crisis causes me to squint my eyes and purse my lips. However, I found The End of Growth a fascinating look at how the foundations of our economic models are about to change, resulting from the finite natural resources that have fueled the aggressive growth we've experienced since the industrial age. The book included a couple of points at which I pursed my lips with renewed vigor, but overall, it raised my eyebrows, made me question existing assumptions, and commanded more research.

As a result of the finite resources assertion, I have been keeping my eyes open for information to support or debunk this. Today's Seattle Times article (originally published by Bloomberg News) about the dramatic drop in the level of the Dead Sea over the past 12 months highlights the concerns about limited resources. The report states that the inland sea dropped a record 4.9 feet in the past 12 month due to industry use and evaporation. One source attributes half the drop to use by Israel Chemicals and Jordan's Arab Potash Co.

Is our demand for synthetic fertilizers are so great that it requires depleting the purportedly restorative waters of the Dead Sea? According to some of the research that I've done, the industrial farming infrastructure (particularly in the U.S.) relies heavily on chemical fertilizers derived from natural resources like the potash in the Dead Sea. I find this ironic, since we are dumping so much human and agricultural waste (i.e. natural fertilizer) into our waterways and oceans. I am finding reports about small, yet innovative, efforts to turn human and agricultural waste in local communities into energy and fertilizer (check out the September 21st and October 22nd post on my Facebook page). Why is this not being done on a larger scale?

I still believe in what I like to call the Star Trek philosophy: Everything gets reused and recycled. When you're trapped on a star ship a few light years from home, every subatomic particle counts. The processing of human, animal, and agricultural waste mimics natural processes. The world -- not just the U.S. -- should consider investing in large-scale industrial processing that turns organic waste material into soil that can feed our crops and be used retain natural grasslands and forests -- which thereby eliminates topsoil erosion. Instead, we're using taxpayer money to protect the bonuses of bank and insurance executives.

That's my two cents about The End of Growth and the latest report of water levels in the Dead Sea. I would like to see The End of Waste sometime before the end of my lifetime. What more can we be doing to reclaim waste resources and ensure that natural resources with multiple economic and human uses don't get stripped down or die out? How can ensure that the Dead Sea doesn't turn into the "Dead Salt Flats"?

Get The End of Growth in print or for your Kindle.

Already read it? Get the supplemental update from June 6, 2012.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Change your attitude by switching hands

Before I completed my undergraduate studies at Clemson University, I met the wife of one of my professors, who ran a design studio. After seeing the great work they were doing, I decided to ask her for a job. "We don't have any jobs available," she said. That didn't stop me though.

After weeks of gentle harassment, the woman finally relented and brought me on to do graphic design, design production, and sales. My first day, I settled into my computer workstation and noticed that the mouse was located on the left side of the keyboard. I, as a right-hander, made a motion to move the mouse to the right side of the keyboard.

"No," she said. "We use the mouse on the left side in this office."

I tried to convince her that I would be more effective if the mouse were on the right side of the keyboard. My new boss, whom I'd worn down to a nub to get this part-time job during my senior year, looked at me grimly and said, "You'll figure it out. Either that, or you're fired."

She walked quietly out of the room. Flabbergasted, and faced with my first deadline, I got a crash course in improving my dexterity with my left hand. By the end of the day, I was just as adept with my left hand as with my right. To this day, I still use the mouse with my left hand and write with my right. In fact, when I am faced with drawing on a computer, I'm much more proficient with my left hand.

One of my first employers forced me to look at the world differently and use the other half of my brain. In Dr. David Casasanto's article on Psychology Today, he shows how our handedness influences our emotions, motivations, and experiences. Unlike cognitive functions, emotional functions can switch between hemispheres, depending on which hand dominates. That means that a simple action like switching the mouse to the other side of the computer can influence how you feel about the task at hand, and even shape your motivation to complete it.

The link between brain activity and motor function lies at the heart of therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). How you literally see can impact the way you figuratively see. The act of introducing motor functions to aid in mental processes can shape our behavior and how we perceive interactions with things and other people. For example, Casasanto stated in an interview with Psychology Today writer Katherine Schreiber that "one in four studies found that a job candidate who appears on the dominant side of an evaluator is judged in a more positive light than a candidate who appears on the evaluator's nondominant side." Something this simple contains huge implications on how we think and act.

So next time you find yourself dreading a task, judging someone harshly, or are trying to stop a bad habit, switch hands. It could add more balance to your decision making and help you achieve much more positive outcome.