Sobering Thoughts on a Green Future

David Rothkopf is an author, blogger, consultant, and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is also president and CEO of Garten Rothkopf whose  "largest practice is in the intersecting areas of energy choice and climate change."

So, when Rothkopf writes about security and energy issues in a greener future, I think it would be wise to listen!

In his August 24/09 article "Is a Green World a Safer World?" in Foreign Policy, Rothkopf discusses the ramifications of conversion to greener technologies. He sees five areas as the most critical.

First, "green trade wars" may be a future green feature, wars arising from "tariff regimes" and "fiddling with trade laws to 'protect' local jobs." 

Another area of concern is from the "complex consequences of the simultaneous rise and decline of petrostates." Imagine the negative potential of a super-rich petrostate faced with the coming death of the golden goose.

Stress on already diminishing water supplies will be a further consequence of the development of greener technologies, as they are "water hogs." The need for lithium and the concentration of supply in mostly Chile and Bolivia raises the potential for serious political consequences.

Finally, any reliance on nuclear power raises concerns about the safety of the technology itself and also about security of the fuel and possible plans of terrorists and shaky, cash-strapped governments.

Sobering thoughts, but necessary to consider in the usual romantic rush to a future green utopia.

Rothkopf's most recent book is Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making.

I would like to invite David Rothkopf to my soiree.

Reading Freeman Patterson for the Joy of It

In 1975, I bought my first 35mm SLR camera.  In 1977, after a few courses, much trial and error, and a few good photos, I bought Freeman Patterson's book Photography for the Joy of It and found something special beyond the usual discussion of technique. I still have the book and re-visit it often.

Thirty years later, I switched (finally) to a digital SLR camera and have just found that Patterson's book was revised in 2007 to include digital photography. Being in much the same learning stage with digital as I was with film those many years ago, I have ordered the new version.

Photography and the Art of Seeing was published in 1979 and, as did the Joy book, changed my thinking about photography further; I still have and re-visit it as well. What a nice surprise to find that it has reen revised also -  in 2004. I have ordered it too!

Freeman Patterson is an awesome photographer, and his advice for artists/photographers is the most helpful I have ever found. He lives in New Brunswick, Canada, teaching, writing, photographing.

I would like to invite Freeman Patterson to my soiree.

Writer for the Rest of Us.

Although I like his writing, I also appreciate Ishmael Reed  as an editor and publisher.

The poetry anthology From Totems to Hip-Hop: a Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002 is welcome relief from the usual anthologies and concept texts for teaching poetry. Much of the content, especially the mainfestos, captured the attention of a first-year poetry class expecting the usual.

The anthology includes work from generally marginalized writers from many races and cultures, and in doing so presents not only diverse views but diverse forms.

I loved teaching with Reed's book and will continue to use it.

Ishmael Reed's Konch Magazine is another welcome relief from much of the usual mainstream news, views, writing. In Reed's own words about the publication:

"While the American media, progressive, mainstream, corporate and alternative literary magazines, book reviews, etc. continue to publish writers and poets from the same background and values Konch will continue publishing writers from the world over who address the important issues of our time. We will continue to publish poets who have something to say.
Konch is a publication for the rest of us."

The "rest of us" are grateful for the poetry anthology and the magazine.

I would like to invite Ishmael Reed to my soiree.

Why Jerry Coyne is Right

Jerry Coyne's most recent book is Why Evolution is True.

Coyne is an evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Chicago. Along with other scientists -notably Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Steven Pinker - Coyne takes on those who either deny the validity of scientific method or insist that science and revelation are just two equal, but different ways of viewing the world.

Coyne argues powerfully in his blog, and elsewhere, against the claim that religion and science are compatible in any other than a superficial way: "First of all, nobody doubts that science and religion are compatible in the trivial sense that someone can be a scientist and be religious at the same time. That only shows one’s ability to hold two dissimilar approaches to the world simultaneously in one’s own mind."

Recently in the LATimes, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum argue for what they call the accommodationists - scientists who allow that religion and science may be compatible in more than the superficial way Coyne describes, and they see no need for a "holy war" on religion. According to the pair, the accommodationist way will be more successful in convincing more Americans that science, in general, and evolution, in particular, are reasonable.

I find the LATimes article misleading in a couple of places.

For instance, Mooney and Kirshenbaum use a quote from the National Academy of Sciences which basically says that some religious denominations accept evolutionary biology and that some more fundamentalist denominations believe more literally in the bible. They use the quote to support their claim that the National Academy of Sciences has "the stance that science and religion can be perfectly compatible."

I don't know whether that is true or not, but I do know that the quote used to support this claim simply doesn't. All it says is that some religious denominations find science and religion compatible (and that some don't).

Further on, Mooney and Kirshenbaum claim that the Faith Project of the National Center for Science Education "seeks to spread awareness that between creationism on the one hand and the new atheism on the other lie many more moderate positions." To me, this strongly implies that the Center promotes moderate positions between creationism ( the concept) and evolution (the new atheists' position). I don't think they suggest that at all.

Peter Hess (NCSE Faith Project Director) actually wrote: "...the dichotomous view represented by creationists and antireligious atheists leaves out a large range of more moderate views." Hess writes about the range of views, not about moderate positions between two competing ideas. Quite different.

While Mooney and Kirshenbaum's project is well intended, the slippery arguments make me suspicious. One hopes it's just sloppy writing. But considering their view about science and good communication in their recent book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, the less than precise language and arguments are unfortunate.

I agree that we don't need a holy war against religion, just some rigorous secular reasoning, like that provided by Jerry Coyne.

I would like to invite Jerry Coyne to my soiree.

Fearless Vegetarian, Passionate Writer

My introduction to Crescent Dragonwagon was through her awesome cookbook Passionate Vegetarian. I loved the recipes and was eager to try every one.

As I read further, her persona emerged throughout in a way that made me want to pick up the book for an anecdotal  interlude between the recipes.

Dragonwagon writes with humor and intelligence, tells stories about both herself and the history of the recipes, and reminisces about life with her late husband, Ned Shank, and their country inn, Dairy Hollow House. They also founded the Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow.

Dragonwagon has written children's books and other cookbooks. She conducts Fearless Writing Workshops, and cooks, writes, lives, loves, and laughs.

See how she got her name here.

I would like to invite Crescent Dragonwagon to my soiree.

Cursing Silence

I first learned of Linda McCarriston in Bill Moyers' film series The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets that I showed to a first-year literature class. I was awed by her poetry, especially the work she read from her 1991 book Eva-Mary.

Many of the poems in Eva-Mary deal with McCarriston's cruel and violent childhood with a father who beat her and her brother, and sexually abused and assaulted both McCarriston and her mother.

In these poems, McCarriston, with pointed and precise language, transfixes the reader, as her gaze does not waver from the brutal scenes of her past.

My earlier post -Voice of Silence - reminded me of McCarriston's poetry, especially the poem "To Judge Faolin, Dead Long Enough: A Summons" from Eva-Mary. McCarriston summons the spirit of the judge who sent her mother back to her violently abusive husband. He would not hear the agony of the woman appealing to him. In short, he gave her testimony little weight when set against the preservation of the family and the law.

In her interview with Bill Moyers, McCarriston says that this poem is an example of "flinging the curse."

Reminds me of Solnit's curse on Mr. Very Important II and my borrowing of it to curse Mr. Justice Douglas Cunningham - To Judge Faolin: "a carbuncle on the face of humanity and an obstacle to civilization".


I would like to invite Linda McCarriston to my soiree.

Mozart Puffery

James R. Oestreich, in his NYTimes article "Damning Mozart with Fervid Praise," takes to task Carl Vigeland for both the factual errors and overblown hyperbole of his book The Mostly Mozart Guide to Mozart.

Oestreich's obvious annoyance with this book is finally because "mindless, cliched, indiscriminate cheerleading is the last thing classical music needs just now, as it finds itself increasingly challenged to prove its relevance in the multicultural, anti-elitist, pop-saturated arts climate of the 21st century." I couldn't agree more.

I also especially like Oestreich's writing. I do hope that when he calls Vigeland's description of the "Jupiter" Symphony "one of the most egregious examples of strained puffery," he is being somewhat ironic!

Vigeland's book was done in collaboration with the Lincoln Center and contains anecdotes from festival participants, but is "unworthy of what the Mostly Mozart Festival has...become."

The festival runs from July 28 to August 22, 2009.

Oestreich is always knowledgeable and enjoyable to read.

I would like to invite James R. Oestreich to my soiree.

Voice of Silence

I had never heard of Rebecca Solnit until I read her LA Times article "Men who explain things." In the article, Solnit discusses the imbalance that creates both women's literal and virtual silence.

She tells of an occasion when a "Mr.Very Important" dismissed her book in favour of another very important work on the same subject - but Solnit had written that other very important work (River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West).

On another occasion a "Mr. Very Important II" sneered at her assertion that the group Women Strike for Peace had contributed greatly to the ending of the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the early 1960s. Solnit was correct.

Solnit uses both examples to show how women's voices are silenced in various ways around the world. Solnit experienced sneering and overtalking, but women are silenced legally and violently too. She reminds us of some "Islamic countries where women's testimony has no legal standing."

At this point, I had planned to say how pleased I was to discover Solnit's other books in a bio of her, but something happened in Canada last week that totally distracted me and demonstrates how the forces of silence are still present and powerful everywhere.

Mr. Justice Douglas Cunningham of the Ontario Superior Court would not accept the evidence of a member of the provincial parliament in the influence-peddling trial of Larry O'Brien, mayor of Ottawa. The member has to commute between home in Ottawa and the provincial parliament in Toronto, leaving HER family. Lisa MacLeod's testimony is, thus, unreliable because of the distraction this causes, and the judge felt that he "must assign it little weight." And just where is it that a woman's testimony has no legal standing?

I will borrow Solnit's description of Mr. Very Important II for Mr. Justice Douglas Cunningham: "a carbuncle on the face of humanity and an obstacle to civilization."

I would like to invite Rebecca Solnit to my soiree.

Sartor Realistus

I love The Sartorialist and the pictures of real people wearing cool clothes. This blog began because of the disconnect between what the fashion industry offers and what people actually wear.

Fashion magazines are fun to look at, but many of the clothes shown don't offer much inspiration for real life. The ostrich-feather mini teamed with the cheeky flower-pot hat and faux gold-leaf satchel may be artistic, but the concept doesn't translate easily (at all) into anything I can or want to wear.

Hats (of any variety) off to The Sartorialist.

I would like to invite Scott Schuman to my soiree.

Raison d'Etre

The mission of At My Soiree is to find the people, food, drink, and stylish clothes that would make for a chic soiree.

But the people are the key and the focus of this blog. I want to include people whose work, art, publications, ideas are interesting and creative. I read about them all the time, often thinking that I'd like to talk with them, invite them to a party.

Hence, At My Soiree - the people I'd like to gather together for intelligent, interesting conversation - and a nod here and there to the stuff that makes it fun .

A Pox on Bores

Sparkling conversation is the goal of any soiree. Too often, though, gatherings that could be enlightening and exciting degenerate into exchanges of complaints, diagnoses, prognoses, and travel bragging.

Boring!

In Mark Edmundson's article "Enough Already," he voices his feelings and ideas about bores, with examples and some suggestions about the bore's motivation.

"How are you?" - this question can ignite a firestorm of information, from the full life story, to the list of past and future travel destinations. Not interesting for a soiree!

Edmundson says interesting things about bores. That's good for a soiree!

Mark Edmundson is professor of English at the University of Virginia.

I would like to invite Mark Edmundson to my soiree.