Hills of Hayward

It is 10:00 PM PST.  I woke up after a two hour nap after dinner; tired from a day of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity that started at 8:30am and ended at 4:00pm.

What is Habitat for Humanity?  It is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing GREEN and affordable homes to the 30%-60% income bracket of the population.  HFH doesn’t give homes away, but builds eco-responsible homes with volunteer labor, finds deserving families that have problems buying homes for themselves, and gives them an opportunity to purchase a home with a 30 year zero percent interest loan.

Why volunteer at HFH?  I believe that I should do more than complain about personal or social injustices of the world. I also believe that actions speak louder than words; however, performing deeds that mainly benefits me personally such as practicing conservation or being an active voting citizen is not enough.  I hope to make charitable deeds part of my everyday life, and I wish this is an aspect of moral and social responsibility that I can impart Anders as he grows up.

My good friend Peter was a good sport and joined me today in the City of Alameda work site.  There were 8 townhomes being built simultaneously, and we joined 15 other volunteers from Bank of the West headquarters.  Peter and I were assigned to Rob, our purple spiky-haired team leader, who instructed us on the proper way to install baseboards.  Pretty quickly, Peter and I were cutting baseboards on the table saw, fitting the boards into the room, and nailing the boards in with a nail gun.  I think our work quality was quite good, and we had a great time.

An aspect of HFH homes that impressed me was that they took building Green homes seriously.  Some of the various ways they incorporated green design:

• Solar panels on every rooftop
• Energy efficient argon-gas low-E double pane windows
• Tankless water heaters
• Low VOC paint
• Compact flourescent lighting as a standard
• Low water-consumption toilets
• Wood is reused from other sites

The floor plan was comfortable, and the bedroom sizes were generous.  I would be proud to live one of these homes, and best of all, these homes are constructed as a labor of love by many people in the community around me.

Rarely in cyberspace do I see something that breaks through my skepticism. Although it is already old hat to many, logging 4 million views, some of you, like me, may not have enjoyed it yet.

Something I actively tried to avoid happened today.

Once it happens, there is no way to undo it.   I’ll explain.

NPR has been the only radio station in my car for the last 3 years, and I would venture to guess that I have listened to all from As it Happens with Barbara Budd to ????????????Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor.

My favorite show is Fresh Air with Terry Gross.  Terry interviews a wide assortment of interesting people from musicians to politicians to celebrities.

Her voice is a multi-layered harmony, her pace is a little low-key and sometimes awkward, but always very intelligent and inquisitive.  In short, it is a very sexy radio voice.  She would have no problem hosting a 90’s love song radio show.

Even when I could not imagine the guest to be interesting, Terry brings out appealing story lines and candid emotions by asking very intimate questions.  The way she expertly draws out the answers, sometimes from unwilling guests, is fascinating and makes listening to her interviews exciting for me.

Having appreciated Terry’s voice and style for many years now, I have vowed to myself that I do not want to see a photo of Terry.  I like listening to her so much in a purely auditory and intellectual manner that knowing what she looks like in real life is superfluous.

As I was browsing the internet last week, I stumbled across and article with picture of Terry.

I subscribe to RSS feed for these Tom Tomorrow comics. Some of my recent favorites. Click on them below for full version.

PBS’s Nova is an amazing show. It does to science what Law and Order does to law. Unfortunately, the Nova episodes are not “based on actual events”.

I watched a disturbing episode of Nova called Dimming the Sun. The basic idea is that multiple studies in the last decade have found that the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth has decreased a substantial amount (20%) since 30 years ago. Despite the decrease in solar heat, average temperatures across the world have continued to rise during this time.

The implication is that global warming is occurring even faster than originally predicted. Imagine if solar dimming has not taken place… our average temperatures would have increased even more dramatically than they have now.

So the scientific consensus warning us about the pace of global warming were wrong; the previous scientific consensus was too conservative in their estimates.

This new understanding of global warming is tremendous news in terms of its scope and affects every single person in the world. Yet, we see little to nothing in mainstream US news. Instead, I have been informed by a show nobody normal watches.

Now you have been informed by a blog hardly anybody reads, but all we can do is have faith that enough people understand how dirty the earth has become, maybe something will be done in time.

Help spread the knowledge.