Working For Jobs

by Richey Piiparinen.

This essay originally appeared in Rustwire.

Living in
the Rust Belt, one becomes accustomed to things that
many people would find shocking. Examples: Not
long ago, I saw the façade of an abandoned building fall out of itself
on fire and into the street. Firemen and neighbors gathered around to look.
Nobody was surprised, really. It was more a communal experience
than anything. Not a few weeks later, I went for a jog and came upon another
building that had been reduced to a skeleton of twisted metal that had its
insides sunken in. It was quiet. The smell was of a cooled burning.

Such
scenes of destruction are prevalent in post-industrial
cities like Cleveland, where I live. The commonness of vacancy,
disassembly, and decay can be damn near Mad Max-ian. Don’t believe me? Spend a
day in Detroit. Chunks of the city feel like real-life versions of the
fictional setting in Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. An excerpt:

On the far side of the river valley the road passed through
a stark black burn. Charred and limbless trunks of trees stretching away on
every side. Ash moving over the road and the sagging hands of blind wire strung
from the blackened lightpoles whining thinly in the wind. A burned house in a
clearing and beyond that a reach of meadowlands stark and gray and a raw red
mudbank where a roadworks lay abandoned. Farther along were billboards
advertising motels. Everything as it once had been save faded and weathered.

Depressing,
eh?

I don’t
think so. Detroit to me is a
special place. In fact I don’t feel the modern ruins littering
the Rust Belt landscape are a negative. Rather, I believe that Cleveland and
Detroit and other cities that have borne the brunt of a broken system are also
home to something else: a possibility tied the ubiquity of so many vacant and crumbled things.

After
all, “every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Picasso said that.
Picasso could have painted Detroit the way it is. In Guernica,
he kind of did.

Destruction
and decay get a bad rap in America. Cities have died and shrunk since the onset
of civilization. Cities are not immune to death.
Yet here, we treat urban decline like leprosy,
as it goes against the grain of the American philosophy
of growth, expansion, and construction.

Being
broken is the key to transformation. The future of America is about re-imagining the geographies of
its past. Anton Chekhov once said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me
the glint of light on broken glass.”

It’s not
easy to perceive value in ruin. Self-flagellating is common in these parts — it
can be toxic. We are fucked here. We are cities with tubes and prosthetics in
an arena where Manhattan and Silicon Valley dunk on everything. But what we
really need to be doing is winking at each other in self-confidence.

Why?

Because
the America of Times Square and Texas-style
growth is an illusion that is barely keeping itself from falling apart, whereas
the Rust Belt has been able to stare at the pieces of a broken paradigm for
some time now.

So is the
future really here? I think so. So does Alex Krieger, a professor at the Harvard
Graduate School of Design. From a Fortune article:

“The
notion of a walled city, a contained city — that’s an 18th-century idea,”
[Krieger said]. And where will the new ideas for the 21st century emerge? From
older, decaying cities, Krieger believes, such as New Orleans, St. Louis,
Cleveland, Newark, and especially Detroit — cities that have become, at least
in part, “kind of empty containers.”

The
question becomes, then: What can spark a
perceptual change not only in the Rust Belt but in the American psyche? A
change from the avoidance of failure to the need for it — from the hate of
ruins to the possibility inherent in them?

Enter ruin
porn.

Ruin
porn, an artistic movement centered on photographing the scenes of
post-industrial decay, has been called condescending to Rust Belters. It has
been called a necessary evil. It has been called masturbatory
art. I call it a tool for changing perception. Let me explain.

Ruin porn
has “outed” urban decay. It did this through
the simple act of caring to look. Before that, ruins in America really were a
pornographic experience: a scene from the underbelly, of and for the poor, the
scrags. It was a private affair dirtied through the interaction between the
filth of the aesthetic and the guilt of the observer for having to live with it.
But by outing and framing it, and by capturing the inherent beauty in broken
things, ruin porn exposed the failure and decay, thus clearing the secrecy, the
shame, and leaving room to see less emptiness and more space.

The lie
behind the motive to say “there is nothing to see here” becomes the truth
behind the courage to look. And through that, we feel our past in the ruins,
which allows an enlightened view of where it
is we want to go.

Ruin Porn
has the potential to be the tip of a powerful perceptual movement that allows
America to change the way it has confronted its structural failures in the past.
If we look at regions like the Rust Belt and all
we see is emptiness, then the subsequent escapism will simply lead to more
hollowing out. But by framing ruin, what we may find is that what we once
called dirty we can now call clean.

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PETA Foundation/Norfolk, VA (Hampton Roads area)

Position Objective:

To assist the Gift Planning Department with PETA donor relations

Primary Responsibilities and Duties:

• Perform data entry duties in a timely and accurate manner

• Use the department's database systems to track PETA donor information, generate acknowledgment letters and responses to PETA donors' requests for information

• Maintain information on PETA's Planned Giving Club members and planned giving prospects

• Assist with the preparation of mailings

• Complete special projects related to charitable giving

• Assist with tasks related to planned giving, including conducting research and gathering information in order to address PETA donor needs

• Work with other departments to accumulate and prepare information necessary for completing charitable-giving assignments

• Maintain departmental information, files, and records

• Perform any other duties assigned by the supervisor

Requirements:

• High school diploma

• One year of experience in an office setting

• Experience with fundraising software (e.g., Raisers Edge) or similar database systems as well as the Windows operating system

• Demonstrated ability to maintain strict confidentiality at all times

• Proven excellent organizational skills and attention to detail

• Proven ability to work independently with limited supervision

• Ability to organize and manage multiple projects simultaneously

• Commitment to the objectives of the organization

Apply To Job

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by Michelle Nijhuis.

This interview originally appeared in the Last
Word on Nothing.

Dearest
readers, we hope you had a gluttonous, slothful, greedy, and lustful holiday,
with only the tiniest touches of wrath. My compatriots and I at the Last Word
on Nothing are celebrating the season with a series of posts on the Seven
Deadly Sins. I got things started with a conversation with conservation
biologist Michael Soule, the founder
of the Society for Conservation Biology and
The Wildlands Network and a professor
emeritus of environmental studies at the University of California at Santa
Cruz. In recent years, in pursuit of an ultimate explanation for human
reluctance to protect biodiversity, Soule has turned his attention to the seven
deadlies, examining their history and evolution as both a scientist and a
longtime Buddhist practitioner. I spoke with Soule at his home in western
Colorado.

Q. From a biologist’s perspective, what is sin?

A. Sin is about the most primitive emotional
elements of survival and reproduction. If you look at the seven deadly
sins, you see that each of them concerns a major component of fitness —  how we survive, and how we succeed in courtship and reproduction.

So in that sense, there’s nothing biologically bad about any of the
sins. All of them are necessary for survival and reproduction.

Q. So the reproductive purpose of lust is obvious. What about the other sins?

A. Well, let’s start with greed, which
evolutionarily is by far the oldest sin — as old as life itself. All
organisms have to seek resources, and in our species this desire for
energy leads to the sin of greed, because our awareness of selfishness
lets us choose to be greedy or not. Competition for resources is also
ancient, and with competition comes aversion, or anger, toward one’s
competitors. So the second-oldest vice is anger.

Then you have the ancient visceral impulses, those that arise from
the animal needs to sleep, eat, and mate: In humans these become sloth,
gluttony, and lust. Gluttony is just the inherited desire to eat when
food is available, because it’s never certain when the next meal is
going to show up. Sloth is simply the need to rest. Lust is clearly
essential for sexual reproduction. These five sins are all in the limbic
system — they’re primitive.

The two remaining sins are envy and pride, the only so-called sins
that are nearly uniquely human. They’re by far the most recent ones,
located in the young neocortex, according to functional MRI scans. They
require theory of mind — the capacity to understand that other people
have minds — and they can only exist in highly social animals. Envy
motivates a person to get more stuff, status, or sex. Pride is based on
ego, which can be attractive to potential mates and friends.

Q. Does every culture have a concept of sin?

A. Every major spiritual tradition does. The
Torah, the five books of Moses, doesn’t talk about sins, but it talks
about behaviors and impulses that are bad for the group. It’s a
different typology, but it overlaps a lot with sin. As far as I know,
sin — the concept of the seven deadly sins — was invented by Horace. The
seven sins were adopted by the early Christians as a typology for
explaining the obstacles to becoming one with Jesus.

In Buddhism, you have the three poisons: greed, anger, and ignorance.
So different spiritual traditions have different typologies of sin, but
they all end up being about self: too much self, too much me and my
cognition.

Q. Have these concepts changed over millennia?

A. The emphasis has changed. For example, the
major sin in early Christianity was greed. Then Pope Gregory — St.
Gregory, the fifth Pope in the Roman tradition — decided that pride was
the mother of all sins. He decided that self-centeredness, self-bias,
was the root of all of our sins, just as the Buddha had believed. It’s a
wonderful convergence.

Q. Do you see us shifting that emphasis once again, or even developing new sins or a new set of sins?

A. In the modern world, I think the ranking of
the sins is shifting again. Greed is such an overt factor in the
destruction of the world. I mean, greed is killing nature, and causing
global warming. It’s bringing us down, that’s essentially what Occupy
Wall Street is about. So I think that over time, we will shift the
ranking of greed and pride again. On the other hand, greed has of course
come to be perceived as a virtue. We certainly reward people who are
conspicuous consumers in this society.

Q. We’re all really good at justifying our sins, right?

A. Yes. And that gets back to your other
question about modern sins, whether there are any sins that are left out
of the old typology. I think there are a lot of them, but my favorite
is denial, which in a way is a form of mental sloth.

Denial is really an example of an immature mind. We’re the youngest
species of mammal I know about, and we’re just so capable of deluding
ourselves, so good at not thinking about things that make us a bit
uncomfortable.

When I go to a restaurant with people, I often say, “There’s not much
I can eat here,” because it’s all factory-farmed meat, or kinds of
seafood that are ecologically problematic. So my companions say, “Well,
why don’t you get the shrimp?” I say, “Do you want to know why?” and I
go into this elaborate story about all the ecological harm caused by
shrimp collecting. I’m a professor, so of course I go on and on. And I
get about halfway through my lecture, and people say, “Okay, that’s
enough.”

And then they tell the server, “I’ll have the shrimp.”

Q. Is that denial, or rebellion?

A. I don’t know. But rebellion is also denial, I think. We’re capable of infinite levels and degrees of denial.

Q. You said earlier that from a biologist’s perspective
there’s nothing wrong with sin, but of course we’ve evolved all these
ways to help people resist sin — systems of confessing, systems of
making people feel ashamed. Why do cultures try to control our sinful
behavior if there’s nothing particularly wrong with it biologically?

A. Everything changed with civilization.
Instincts and impulses that were adaptive for an individual or a family
have, when expressed on a large scale, become highly nonadaptive for the
world, the climate, and even civilization as a whole. Anger, for
instance, comes out of the need to compete and reproduce. But anger,
when it’s magnified by civilization and war and the kinds of weapons we
have now, destroys the planet.

Also, excessive self-bias is harmful to the group, and we’re a social
species. The efficient functioning of a social group, whether it’s a
war party, a Girl Scout troop, or a town, requires a certain amount of
self-control. It’s often believed, and quite often true, that religion
is a way of limiting the harm people do to the group.

Q. You’ve said that neuroscience is changing the way we understand sin. Can you tell me about that?

A. Sin was kind of a mystery behaviorally and
biologically until about the last 20 years, when people started looking
at human behavior under the lens of functional magnetic resonance and
electroencephalography and other forms of visualizing what the brain is
doing when it is feeling or thinking about certain things, or when the
person is behaving in certain ways.

Almost all of the sins have been looked at and been located in the
brain. It’s pretty crude at the moment. But still, we know the sins are
in the brain, which means that the biological basis is clear. We’re
hard-wired to behave in self-biased ways.

Over the last several hundred thousand years, we’ve also become
hard-wired to behave in a social way. Which means that the self has to
submit to the group in some way, to subordinate its greed and envy and
gluttony and so forth to what the group needs to survive. Because we
depend on our groups to survive and prosper.

Q. I want to ask you about E.O. Wilson’s recent comment about virtue and sin in The Atlantic.
He says that group selection brings about virtue, and individual
selection creates sin, and that in a nutshell is an explanation of the
human condition. How do you respond to that?

A. I think he’s more or less correct about sin,
that sins are self-biased behaviors. But the virtues are also probably
sexually selected. That is, they’re about looking good in the context of
a highly social group, or actually elevating your status in the group.
Patience, tolerance, and compassion are things that make you attractive
as a mate. So the virtues are not just good for the group, they’re good
for the individual, too, indirectly.

The virtues, to me, are no different than the sins. They’re just another way of benefiting the individual.

Q. Okay, so where does that leave us? If we’re so
hard-wired for self-bias, but yet self-bias is causing other people and
other things so much suffering, is there a solution?

A. We’re in deep doo-doo. That’s why we’re
destroying the world. That’s why we’re wiping out life on this planet,
and why we can’t deal with big problems like climate change. Our
self-interest gets in the way. That’s why I’m so pessimistic.

But like all human beings, I’m an optimist at the same time. I just
started this new initiative through the Wildlands Network, a National
Corridors Campaign, to protect corridors between wildlife habitats and
create potential for movement of flora and fauna as the climate changes
from Mexico to Canada.

Q. So where did your motivation for that initiative come from?

A. (Laughs) From being an alpha male.
Being an alpha-type person, I want recognition, I want to be known as
somebody with vision and big ideas, so there’s greed and all that stuff
wrapped up in my work. But religious and spiritual practice helps me
dampen those motivations a little bit, helps me identify them so you can
buffer and moderate them. People on spiritual paths generally know when
they’re fucking up.

Q. How else has thinking about sin helped you, on a personal level, contend with your own sins?

A. A lot. It’s subtle, but understanding
yourself is the key to growth. The spiritual path, to me, has been
really important in tempering and moderating my sinfulness, and
reminding me to focus on what is needed for the world, for society, not
just for me. Unless you are truly a saint, you really can’t overcome
your greed and anger and ignorance. But you can file off the sharp
edges, and focus your ambition on projects that are good for society and
the world. You can change ambition into aspiration — sometimes.

Related Links:

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by World Resources Institute.

Cross-posted from the World Resources Institute. The post was written by Kevin Kennedy, director of WRI’s U.S. climate initiative.

As the year winds down, it’s a good time to take
stock of climate policy in the United States.  Here’s a quick roundup
of what happened—or didn’t happen—in 2011.

The year began with big questions about what the Obama administration
and states would do to address climate change and clean energy, absent a
comprehensive federal climate policy. This year’s record was decidedly
mixed. Not as much happened as some would have liked, but it was in
total better than many feared as the year began.

The clearest objective benchmark is how well the U.S. is doing
against the administration’s target of reducing emissions 17 percent
below 2005 levels by 2020. Our assessment is that the administration is
making progress to keep the 17 percent target within sight, but it will
require a sustained effort in 2012 and beyond to reach the goal.  WRI
has been tracking the actions by U.S. federal agencies—click on the
pie chart below to explore the interactive tool.

The following is our “Top 6” list of climate actions for 2011:

1. Congress didn’t act

Coming into 2011, a big question was how far Congress would go (and
how far the administration would go along) in slowing or stopping action by the EPA and other federal agencies.  While the House repeatedly approved
anti-environment and anti-climate measures, those efforts did not make
it through the Senate. In a sign of strength, the administration has
consistently signaled that President Obama would veto such measures if
they ever got to his desk.

Another question was what would happen as a result of Obama’s call in the State of the Union address for a clean energy standard that would set a goal of generating 80
percent of the country’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.
While the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee issued a white paper for comment, no further action was taken.  Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), the committee chairman, has indicated that he intends to introduce clean energy standard legislation in 2012.

2. National vehicle rules established

The biggest bright spot on the domestic climate front was the
administration’s announcement that it would raise national vehicle fuel
standards to 54.5 miles per gallon. These standards for cars and light
trucks will reduce U.S. emissions from vehicles by nearly 50 percent by 2025. The EPA and the Department of Transportation (DOT) finalized greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions standards and efficiency standards for vehicles with model years 2012 through 2016, and proposed new standards [PDF] for model years through 2025.

In addition, EPA and DOT finalized the nation’s first-ever efficiency standards and GHG emissions standards for medium- and heavy‐duty vehicles such as tractor trailers and buses.  The EPA estimates [PDF] that these standards will reduce CO2 emissions by 270 million metric tons over the life of the vehicles covered by the rules.

3. California moves ahead

California continues to implement its comprehensive statewide climate program,
which combines targeted measures to achieve emission reductions in
particular sectors with a broad multi‐sector GHG cap‐and‐trade program.
California has one‐eighth of the national economy and is the eighth
largest economy in the world, so action in California is significant.

The regulations governing the cap‐and‐trade program were finalized
this year, setting the stage for the system to come into operation in
2013.  As part of the Western Climate Initiative, California is looking to link its program with that in Quebec starting in 2013, and with programs in Ontario and British Columbia once those are established.

4. RGGI delivers economic benefits

The first compliance period will soon be coming to a close for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a greenhouse-gas cap-and-trade program for the electricity sector in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S.  A recent analysis concluded that RGGI has injected $1.6 billion into the region’s economy and
created 16,000 jobs, while reducing energy bills by $1.3 billion.  A key
driver of this success has been the region’s investment in energy
efficiency.

While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has announced his
intention to withdraw New Jersey from RGGI, it is not clear if that will
go through. Meanwhile, the other nine states are currently undertaking a program review that could lead to program enhancements, such as an increase in stringency.

5. EPA makes slow progress on GHG rules

EPA has continued to move ahead with most of its planned regulations
on power plants, which produce about one-third of U.S. GHG emissions,
though it has not met all of its deadlines. EPA is scheduled to release GHG rules for the power sector, originally due out in June 2011, in early 2012,
though these are expected to cover only new power plants.  It is not
clear when the more important guidelines for existing plants will be
issued. The implementation of these rules will be an important marker to
watch if the country is going to reach the 17 percent reduction target.

EPA also moved forward with regulations to reduce other forms of pollution from power plants, such as mercury, SO2, and NOx.
  These rules could lead to greenhouse-gas benefits by promoting
generation from cleaner, more efficient power plants over generation
from older, more polluting ones. (Read WRI’s fact sheet on new mercury rules here.) However, in a major setback for
environmental protection and public health, new rules for ozone were delayed until 2013.
In addition, in July, the EPA proposed a suite of regulations that would reduce harmful air pollution from the oil and natural gas industry.
  While the rules focus on reducing emissions of volatile organic
compounds, they are expected to substantially reduce the emissions of
methane, a very potent GHG, from oil and gas operations, including from hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) to produce shale gas.

6. Emissions continue to climb

While the global economic downturn resulted in reduced GHG emissions
in 2009, that trend is no longer the case. In September, the International Energy Agency reported that 2010 was a record year for emissions globally.  The recent rise
in emissions highlights the need for further action by the United States
to go further in reducing emissions.

Time will tell if the country meets its 17 percent target. New
climate and energy legislation would make the target easier to reach,
but even without legislation, we believe this is still possible with
sustained effort. And we’ll be watching to see how far Congress and the
administration get in 2012 and beyond.

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Southern California Edison/Rosemead, CA

This position will be in the Corporate Communications division within Southern California Edison (SCE). The successful candidate will support the SCE media relations department by managing large-scale, corporate and issue-based communications campaigns and projects, coordinating resources from other departments as necessary.

Typical responsibilities will include:
• Managing the evaluation, development, and implementation of multiple communications projects that have major financial or operational impact to the business unit or company.
• Developing and implementing communications plans, objectives, and initiatives for the organization that include executive communications support, event management, development and design of collateral, media relations, social and online media outreach and stakeholder communications.
• Identifying and managing resolution of unusually complex issues that typically require innovative solutions and a wide spectrum of communication skills.
• Leading company-wide communications strategies and media plans to support major corporate initiatives and effectively present them to executives, officers, and senior management.
• Managing and directing cross-functional development teams to address strategic issues.
• Providing performance management, mentoring, and coaching support to project team members to meet established long-term and short-term goals.
• Managing and monitoring labor and operational budget for assigned projects.
• Representing the Company with contractors, suppliers, regulatory agencies, customers, other departments, and/or other parties as required.
• Acting as a key consultant to senior management, serving as Media Relations Manager when required, and exercising prudent judgment involving issues of a highly-confidential, sensitive, and/or controversial nature.
• Maintaining a safety conscious work environment by following Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
• Working in a 24/7, on call environment.
• Performing other responsibilities and duties as assigned.
Qualifications

BASIC QUALIFICATION:
• Must have a minimum of three years of experience managing communications projects using project management tools and concepts to develop and implement project plans.
• Must have a minimum of three years of experience leading cross-functional teams for a combination of at least three of the following activities: executive communications support, event management, development and design of collateral, media relations, social and online media outreach and/or stakeholder communications.
JOB REQUIREMENTS:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, Communications, Public Policy, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Typically possesses seven or more years of experience in developing and implementing communications strategy and planning.
• Typically possesses five or more years of supervisory or project management experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional teams for executive communications support, event management, development and design of collateral, media relations, social and online media outreach and/or stakeholder communications.
• Demonstrated experience managing, planning, and directing overall communications strategies for projects with broad enterprise-wide impacts.
• Demonstrated experience formulating, developing, and leading communications strategies and tactics that provide the company with a competitive advantage.
• Demonstrated experience with and strong understanding of global business issues.
• Demonstrated experience managing and implementing projects, including identifying, maintaining, and/or adjusting the cost, scope, and resources, managing vendors, and overseeing the formal planning, tracking, and reporting of project performance.
• Demonstrated proficiency with and experience conforming to the AP style guide to create press releases and edit written communications.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively during high-level presentations to executives, officers, senior managers, and other client organizations communicators on specific policy issues and communication projects.
• Demonstrated ability to articulate and understand complex policy and regulatory issues, technical concepts and strategies in order to leverage company-wide internal and media communications strategies.
• Demonstrated experience using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Demonstrated ability to follow Edison safety protocols and safe work practices.
• Must demonstrate the ability to integrate work across relevant areas, develop the business and services to enhance customer satisfaction and productivity, manage risks appropriately, develop and execute business plans, manage information, and provide exceptional service to internal and external customers.
• Must demonstrate effective resource and project planning, decision making, results delivery, team building, and the ability to stay current with relevant technology and innovation.
• Must demonstrate strong ethics, influence and negotiation, interpersonal skills, and the ability to effectively manage stress and engage in continuous learning.
• Must be able to work in a 24/7, on call environment.
Comments:
•If you are interested in this position, please submit your resume in confidence by visiting www.edisonjobs.com.
•Additional testing may be required as part of the selection process for this position.
•Edison International and Southern California Edison reserve the right to close or cancel a posting at any time.
•Edison International is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
•Candidates for this position must be legally authorized to work directly as employees for any employer in the United States without visa sponsorship.

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by Lisa Hymas.

Newt Gingrich told conservative activists on Wednesday that
Sarah “Drill Baby Drill” Palin would be an ideal candidate for
secretary of energy.

“I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of
driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin, for example,” Gingrich
said during a conference call hosted by Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom
Coalition. “Tell her that she would certainly be on the list of one of the
people we would consider.”

No matter that Palin is clueless about how global energy
markets work. In trying to blame President Obama for high gas prices in May
2011, she made these
rambling and nonsensical remarks to Fox News: “But rising gas prices—there is an inherent link, David, between energy and security, energy and
prosperity, and energy and freedom, and this is something that obviously our
president doesn’t understand because he’s doing all that he can to manipulate
the U.S. supply of energy. He is diminishing and decreasing the amount of
energy in our market domestically and that, of course, resulting in prices that
are rising and gas having doubled since he has been in office.”

She also doesn’t understand climate
change, cap-and-trade,
and, oh, so
much else. 

Of course, Gingrich’s
own energy and climate views are awfully muddled, so perhaps he hasn’t
noticed. 

Gingrich also said he would consider Palin as a running mate, though one might figure he was just being courteous, as that strategy didn’t work out so well for the last Republican presidential nominee. Considering how Gingrich’s poll numbers are tanking in Iowa, it’s unlikely we’ll  get the chance to find out how sincere he really was.

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View full post on Grist.org – the latest from Grist

by Steph Larsen.

I am not a hunter. I don’t (and will not)
own a gun and, though I’ve toyed with the idea of bow hunting in the
past, my aim really stinks. Even so, the deer population where I live
does need to be thinned, since we’ve taken their natural predators away. 

And I sure do appreciate a good venison steak.

So
while chatting with our neighbors who hunt this fall, my partner,
Brian, and I hatched a plan. Two of our ewes were being culled because
they had health issues that were impacting their abilities to be good
mothers, but would not impact the quality of their meat. We decided to
trade the meat from one of the ewes for some venison.

Here
in Nebraska does are not in short supply—in fact, many hunters are
after a trophy buck and the state has to push hunters to shoot their
female counterparts. Having many more does than bucks is not only bad
for the raw population numbers—because one buck can sire many
offspring in a season—it’s also bad for the genetics of the wild
herd. This year, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission was giving out
“antlerless” deer permits, and our neighbor took one for himself and an
extra for us.

The
opening day of deer season arrived, and by noon my neighbor had bagged a
huge doe. Many laborious hours later, he had steaks and ground meat
waiting in the freezer for his family to eat this winter. We stopped by
as he was finishing up, and he told us he was headed out again the
following morning, and would call me if he shot another doe.

Sure
enough, my phone rang the next day before noon, and he let me know he
had another deer in his truck and was coming home from the courthouse
where he’d registered her. I was to meet him in a half hour in his dad’s
machine shed so I could learn for myself how a deer becomes venison.

I
arrived to find the truck already in the shed, and I’ll admit I was a
little apprehensive. When it comes time to handle raw meat in my
house, it’s rarely me who volunteers. I was a vegetarian for many
years, and there is definitely something a little unpleasant about the
sensation. But I’m not one to shy away from the task at hand, especially
when it comes to harvesting my own food. So I came prepared—with a small
hunting blade and my newly honed kitchen knives.

I
peered in the back and saw a smaller doe, field dressed with dark eyes
that reminded me of the many trophy heads I’d seen decorating country
bars. I was expecting to feel guilt or sadness—but instead I felt
gratitude. I touched her head briefly, closed my eyes, and thanked her.
The deer’s sacrifice would feed us well all winter, perhaps longer.

Through
the next four hours, I lost all the squeamishness I’ve ever had for handling
meat. And I learned a few of the skills that hunters have been perfecting
for millennia, such as: where to cut so that the deer can hang evenly,
how to skin the animal, how to use an animal’s anatomy to make the
carving job easier. I’ll be frank—my inner scientist came out to
play. Mammalian bodies are fascinating, and I got very familiar with how
muscles look, feel, and behave. I
also learned what muscle looks like when it gets pulverized by a bullet, and
how to avoid tainting meat with spinal tissue (which can be dangerous
because it can be the source of Chronic Wasting Disease, a relative of Mad Cow). It took two of us four hours to carve
the deer, and another couple hours to grind the meat with the help of a
KitchenAid.

Brian and I have already had some venison in a pasta casserole that was quite tasty, as
were the burgers I made when my parents visited—per usual, I put too
much garlic in them. The tenderloin steaks we grilled that first night
weren’t very good. Perhaps it’s because of the way it was killed—one
of the benefits of gun vs. bow hunting is that guns can be faster, but
unless the death is instantaneous, the adrenaline that pumps through the
deer can affect the quality and taste of the meat. Arrows, on the other
hand, though more difficult to achieve a kill, are much quieter. A
skilled hunter can down a deer without scaring the animal.

Either way, I’m thankful for the sustenance and hopeful that, because of the record hunting season, I’ll see fewer deer dead on the side of the road this winter.

Related Links:

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The bad food news of 2011

View full post on Grist.org – the latest from Grist

Ecova/Portland, OR (Location is open at this time)

Facilities & Engineering
The Facilities & Engineering group is a leading advisor and solutions provider to companies looking to reduce energy consumption and costs. We are tasked both with delivering proven solutions and developing custom out of the box solutions for our clients. The team identifies energy conservation measures and then helps clients implement them. The team also works very closely with Advantage IQ’s analysis, carbon and sustainability teams and leads overall delivery of energy consulting services.

The Facilities & Engineering team is a fast paced and quickly growing group that is on pace to be the market leading energy management team. The team has an immediate need for a knowledgeable and motivated Energy Manager I. In this role, you will report to the Senior Energy Manager and have the opportunity to immediately impact clients’ energy footprints.

Role Description
As an Energy Manager Associate you will combine energy efficiency knowledge plus analytical and communication skills to assist clients in reaching their energy efficiency goals. To accomplish this, you will analyze client utility data to support contracted deliverables including development and tracking of performance metrics. You will identify and investigate energy and water anomalies and work with client to determine causes of high usage. You will prepare ad-hoc energy reports and financial analytics and interpret your results to the client.

In turn, you will support implementation of energy awareness programs including coordination of energy awareness newsletters and related publications. You will track changes in facilities’ energy usage following the implementation of new awareness projects and energy efficiency programs to test and demonstrate their effectiveness.

Role Competencies
As our ideal candidate you possess a bachelor’s degree in addition to three years of direct experience in energy management, energy analysis or a related field. You have working knowledge of building systems including HVAC and lighting. You understand electric, gas and water rates, and have experience working with energy bills and energy billing. You consider yourself highly proficient in MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint.

Your developed analytical and data management skills and your ability to communicate effectively through written and oral interchange are sources of pride and areas where you have been recognized by previous employers. You show strong initiative and are able to balance competing priorities while maintaining a high level of integrity and accuracy in your reporting.

Ecova Information
Our salaries are competitive and commensurate with experience. We are a performance-based culture and have goal-based incentive programs and generous employee benefits. Our comprehensive benefit package includes medical, dental, vision insurance, life, AD&D, short- and long-term disability insurance. We also offer flexible spending accounts and 401(k) with a generous employer match.

Ecova is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to age, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation or preference, religion, marital status, citizenship, veteran status, or physical or mental disability.

To learn more about Ecova and to apply online, please go to: http://www.ecova.com/about-us/careers.aspx.

EEO Classification

Apply To Job

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by Climate Central.

By many measures, 2011 was the most extreme weather year for the United States since reliable record-keeping began in the 19th
century—and the costs have been enormous. According to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2011 set a record for the most billion-dollar disasters in a single year. There were 12, breaking the old record of nine set in
2009. The aggregate damage from these 12 events totals at least $52
billion, NOAA found.

Severe weather across much of the nation has raised the question of whether global warming has already begun to
influence shorter-term weather patterns, raising the specter of even
more extreme years to come as global temperatures continue to rise.

According to climate studies, the short answer is yes: The new climate environment created by global warming is making some
extreme events, particularly heat waves and heavy rain, more likely to
occur and more intense when they do. Climate models have more difficulty
predicting how climate change may be influencing other types of
extremes, such as severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, but a warming
climate provides more fuel to these events in the form of increased
water vapor and heat in the atmosphere.

Throughout 2011, searing
heat waves, parching drought, deadly tornadoes, blizzards, and floods
cost billions of dollars in damage, affected millions of lives, and
killed more than a thousand people across the United States.

Climate Central examined extreme weather events from coast to coast to determine the 10
states that were clobbered the worst. Texas tops that list, with a
costly—and deadly—combination of intense drought, a punishing heat
wave, the worst wildfires in state history, and plenty of tornadoes.
Rounding out the top 10 were Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Jersey.

Climate
Central’s analysis factored the death toll in each state, damage costs,
the disruption caused to daily life, and how unusual the events were
compared with what transpires in an average year.

1. Texas

Texas
was hit by eight of the nation’s billion dollar disasters—the most
of any state in the country. Of the eight, the three most devastating
were drought, heat, and wildfires. The drought still grips the state,
and it is the most intense one-year drought on record. Unlike past dry
periods, the damage to the state has been aggravated by record-breaking
heat. Groundwater levels in much of the state have fallen to their
lowest levels in more than 60 years, according to observations from NASA
satellites.

The heat during the summer of 2011 was relentless,
with many cities smashing records for the longest stretch of 100-degree
days, including Dallas with a record 70 straight days with 100-degree
heat, and San Angelo with a whopping 98 days above 100. July 2011 was
the hottest month ever recorded statewide, and Amarillo, Texas, reached
111 degrees F on June 26, an all-time record high for that location where
records date back to 1892.

The combination of drought and unusually hot conditions during this summer helped fuel massive
wildfires, and the 2011 wildfire season was the worst in Texas’ history,
with about 4 million acres burned from November 2010 through November
2011, causing $750 million in damage and killing 10 people, including
four firefighters.

Lake and reservoir levels have fallen so low that they are revealing entire towns flooded decades ago at the bottom of lakes and reservoirs. Ranchers have been forced to sell off large portions of
their herds early, which is likely to raise beef prices by reducing
future beef supplies.

2. Alabama

Alabama was ground
zero for the largest tornado outbreak in American history, when more
than 100 twisters gouged paths across the state in late April, killing
240 people.

Some of the most intense tornadoes flattened heavily populated areas. One twister, shown nationally on
live TV, tore through downtown Tuscaloosa and went on to destroy parts
of Birmingham. Another monster EF-5 twister, with winds stronger than
200 mph, tracked across northern Alabama, killing 78 people, becoming
one of the deadliest single tornadoes in modern American history.

According
to the Storm Prediction Center, Alabama saw the most tornadoes of any
state this year, with 170. The staggering death toll and damage these
storms caused led to a wave of Alabama state pride, with the mantra “We are Alabama” spreading throughout social media networks in the storms’ wake.

3. Missouri

Missouri was the site of America’s worst tornado disaster since 1950, when a massive tornado, nearly a mile wide, wiped large portions of the city of Joplin off the map on May 22. With winds greater than
200 mph, that tornado killed nearly 160 people, making it the seventh
deadliest in U.S. history.

Tornadoes were just one prong of the
deadly onslaught of extreme weather in Missouri, as a combination of
heavy spring rains and upstream snowmelt sent the Missouri and
Mississippi Rivers surging over their banks. According to NOAA, in an
average year, the Missouri River channels 24.8 million acre feet of
water. This year, it carried 24.3 million acre feet in May and June
alone. When the Army Corps of Engineers essentially blew up the levees
to save the small town of Cairo, Ill., floodwaters inundated around
130,000 acres of Missouri farmland.

4. North Carolina

April
2011 was the most active tornado month in U.S. history with 753
tornadoes. North Carolina was among the states worst hit. On April 16,
multiple tornadoes ripped through Raleigh and nearby towns, leaving a
trail of destruction behind them. Thirty-eight people died in a two-day
April tornado outbreak that spread through 10 states; 22 were in North
Carolina.

North Carolina was also one of the first states walloped
by Hurricane Irene in August. With its immense 450-mile span, the storm
battered the North Carolina coast with rain and driving 60-80 mph winds
for nearly 12 hours. Half a million people lost power during
the storm, and the gusting winds generated waves high enough to
demolish piers and damage homes along the coastline. All told, the cost
to North Carolina from tornadoes and Irene is estimated at $3.2 billion.

5. Oklahoma

In
2011, Oklahomans suffered through a brutal combination of severe drought
and intense heat, the likes of which have not been seen since the
infamous Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. The Sooner State had the hottest
summer of any state in U.S. history, narrowly beating neighboring Texas,
and eclipsing a record that dated to 1934. Oklahoma’s average day and
nighttime temperature during July was a scorching 88.9 degrees F, the warmest in any state during any month on record.

For
an idea of how hot it was in Oklahoma last summer, consider this: In
Grandfield, the temperature reached or exceeded 100 degrees on a
record-setting 97 days from mid-April to Sept. 1.

On top of
record heat, last February, the state froze its way through the coldest
temperature on record: -31 degrees F, and the state’s heaviest 24-hour snowfall on record, when 27 inches fell in the town of Spavinaw.

And if that wasn’t enough, Oklahomans also struggled with other weather hazards, including the largest hailstone in state history, some of which measured half a foot in diameter.

6. Tennessee

The
good news for Tennessee this year was that the drought that plagued
states to the southwest—Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas—didn’t make it
up this far. But for the Volunteer State, a little more drought might
have been a good thing. On April 30, Nashville was drenched with more
than six inches of rain, followed the next day by more than seven inches—
the third heaviest and worst single-day rainfall, and the worst two-day rainfall,
in the city’s history. It was even worse in Camden and Brownsville,
Tenn., with more than 17 inches of rain over the same period. By May
2, it was already the rainiest May on record.

Not surprisingly,
the record rains led to massive flooding on the Cumberland, Harpeth, and
Duck rivers, killing 23 people. The estimated property damage in
Nashville alone topped $1.5 billion.

Deadly as they were, the
floods weren’t the only lethal weather to strike Tennessee during the
spring. Just a week or so before the deluge came, the state was hit with
an EF-5 tornado—the most powerful rating there is—smashing through
Apison, killing 13. It was part of a wider outbreak that killed more than 300 people across the southeast. When you add in
the heat wave that blasted most of the eastern half of the U.S. in July,
the total damage from weather and climate-related disasters added up to
nearly $4 billion.

7. Kansas

The massive heat wave
and drought that devastated Texas and Oklahoma didn’t hit Kansas quite
as hard, but it was bad enough to help push the Jayhawk State into the
top 10 this year. By midsummer, much of the southwestern part of the
state was suffering under “exceptional drought” conditions—it ended
up being the ninth driest year ever recorded—and by year’s end, there
was still no relief in sight. Wichita had more 100-degree-plus days
than any year on record, beating out even the Dust Bowl summer of 1936.

As
of May, the state had seen unusually few tornadoes, but that didn’t
last: powerful thunderstorms, tornadoes, and punishing hail swept the
state in June, July, and August. To top it all off, a 5.6-intensity
earthquake struck on Nov. 5. The quake didn’t cause much damage, but
combined agricultural losses from the heat and drought topped $4
billion.

8. Connecticut

Snowstorms aren’t usually news
in Connecticut—but 2011 was hardly usual. Hartford was buried under
a record-setting 57 inches of snow in January, making it the all-time
snowiest month in state history. Then, nearly two months before the next
winter began, Connecticut was blasted by the worst October snowstorm in
200 years. The heavy wet snow, which cost the state more than $500
million, sent trees and tree limbs falling onto power lines, leaving
more than 700,000 people without heat or lights. In the worst power failure in state history, many didn’t get their electricity back for more than a week.

In August, tropical storm Irene pummeled the state with heavy rains and gale-force winds that caused devastating floods and turned the lights out on more than 650,000 people. Some areas were pounded with as much as eight inches of rain in just 24 hours.

9. Vermont

Just
as most of the Northeast thought they had escaped the worst of Irene’s
wrath, the super-saturated tropical storm ravaged Vermont. The furious
rains battered more than 2,000 roads spanning 500 miles in the state,
paralyzing commerce, stranding people, and demolishing thousands of homes
and businesses. More than 175 roads were completely destroyed and have
only been rebuilt months later in what has been described as a model of
fast-paced recovery from a disaster.

This all came after one of the snowiest winters on record,
which produced record snowmelt. In May, heavy rain and all that melting
snow drove Lake Champlain to its highest level on record, flooding
several nearby towns. Record-setting rains helped set the stage for Irene’s damage by saturating the ground and
putting streams and rivers at unusually high levels when the storm
arrived.

Vermont officials say the total damage costs from Irene will be between $175 and $250 million.

10. New Jersey

Hurricane
Irene roared into New Jersey to become one of the state’s deadliest and
costliest storms, as well as the state’s wettest storm in more than a
century. Tropical downpours sent rivers and streams overflowing, with
nine rivers rising to their highest level ever. The flooding closed 300
roads and highways and interrupted train service for days.

The bill for hurricane damage in New Jersey stands at $1.4 billion already, and at least seven people died during the storm. Then, two weeks later, a second round of drenching
rain—the remains of Tropical Storm Lee—swept across the state,
triggering even more flooding. All told, it was the wettest August and
September New Jersey has seen in 117 years.

Just as the Garden
State began to dry out, a freak autumn snowstorm hit over the Halloween
weekend. The wet, heavy snow stuck to leaves that hadn’t fallen from the
trees. The result: falling branches that blocked roads and downed power
lines, leaving half a million people without electricity, some of them
for a week.

Related Links:

2011 sets all-time record for tornadoes: 199 in one day

Politics blocks scientists from explaining why this year’s weather was record bad

Watch a time-lapse image of 2011’s crazy weather

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by Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan.

For my mother, sweet vindication came as an early Christmas
gift this year on page 59 of a lifestyle magazine. This particular magazine,
which specializes in snappy home décor, delicious cookery, and other ways to
make your life more fabulous than your neighbors’, ran a spread on stylish new
ways to wrap presents. There, nestled between the hand-stamped parcel paper and
the wrapping designed by local artisans, this anonymous magazine (okay, it was Sunset) featured a present swathed in
newspaper. Regular old newspaper, left over from last Sunday’s pile. Sure, they
tucked a sprig of redwood greenery into the ribbon, but newspaper it remained.

My mom has been wrapping gifts in old newspaper for my
entire life. I’ll admit, this used to be a source of embarrassment for me. At
the big holiday parties, one could always spot our family’s contributions under
the tree. They were the unshiny, unsexy packages, surrounded by boxes bedecked
in fancy Christmas prints and glittery bows tied just so. Social pressure made
me think that buying festive gift wrap (and don’t forget the fresh tissue
paper!) was a matter of extreme importance. I imagined fellow partygoers eyeing
the gift pile with distaste, thinking unmentionable things (namely: How cheap).

And now, suddenly, here we have a premier lifestyle glossy
lauding the humble newspaper. Mom’s time has come.

It’s no mystery why reusing old TV listings is now in vogue.
Our culture’s reigning wave of eco-hipness has met an economic recession,
creating the perfect storm for upcycled gift wrap. Others are awakening to the
truth Mom always knew: Gift wrap is inherently wasteful. Why not skip it in
favor of paper you already have? In fact, you don’t even have to use paper at
all. A little creativity turns handkerchiefs, blankets, or scarves into reusable
wrapping substitutes, too.

I saw the light on this a few years ago, but occasionally
I’ll still get suckered into buying new gift bags or tissue (usually because
I’m trying not to get how-cheaped by a recipient I don’t know very well). No
more. This year, I challenged myself to wrap all my gifts without using a
single piece of new wrapping paper or other accoutrements. Extra points for
making them somewhat attractive while doing it. And I’d do it all on Christmas
Eve, hanging out at my parents’ place.

Now that the last wassail has faded, I’m reporting back that
Operation No-Wrap Christmas was a great success. Yes, there were some setbacks,
but all told, I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this all along.

The biggest hurdle was arranging my offering to the extended
family grab bag — a hand-curated selection of homemade jams. (You want in on
this easy, sticky gift for next year? Get started here.)
The answer: Repurposing materials from other gifts. I began with a festive,
green aluminum tub from a gift box my parents had received the week before. I
crumpled up some newspaper — so hot right now — to help the jams sit at the
top of the tub. I covered that with green crimped packing paper swiped from a
package of chocolate treats I got from my boyfriend’s grandma in the mail. Into
this nest went the jams, artfully arranged of course, and topped with a
Styrofoam sheet that also came with the chocolates. (What, you’d rather I just
throw that crap straight into the trash?) It almost looked like the basket was
covered in snow, if you squinted.

I just needed some kind of bag to hold it all together. My
parents don’t truck in garbage bags (they reuse grocery bags instead), and I
vetoed a Target bag on the grounds that it actually deserved a “How cheap.” To
the rescue: an old, clear bag from the dry cleaner’s. I wrapped it around my
tub and tied it off with a red ribbon saved from last year’s loot. Perfect.

Most of the other gifts were almost too easy, as Mom sports
a collection of gently used gift bags, tissue, ribbons, and bows several
decades in the making. Having access to this bounty, it was a simple matter to
choose old materials and cushion my gifts with tissue paper that hadn’t yet
disintegrated. There were even plenty of Christmas-themed bags in the pot, so I
could steer clear of the one proclaiming “Congratulations, Class of 2000!” this
time around. She’s not the only one: I’ve even heard tell of people actually ironing pieces of used wrapping paper
and saving them to wrap once more. Hey, why not?

But I had to do more. Something more creative. In trolling
around for ideas, I came across the following suggestions for alterna-wrapping:
aprons, yogurt containers, decorated glass jars, maps, sheets of music, old
posters (finally! My adolescent-era Bush poster finds new life!),
and of course, newspaper. Oh, and pillowcases — I dug around until I found the
pillowcase I’d made it art class in second grade, the one with the purple
parrot on it, and filled it with still more of that green, crinkly packing
paper. Then I carefully arranged my dad’s gifts inside it, adding more crinkles
to cover it up, and tied it shut with some curling ribbon we had lying around.

The final product? Awful. A shapeless, lumpy mess. It looked
less like a present than like a sack of doll heads. But it didn’t matter in the
least to my father, for whom gift-wrapping ranks at about 78,956th in his list of things worth caring about. The pillowcase concealed his presents
until Christmas morning, anyway, and he liked them just the same.

After the present frenzy, all the gift bags were carefully
gathered and placed back in the collection for next year, all the newspaper
recycled, and the pillowcase folded and put back in the linen drawer. But don’t
be surprised if you see that purple parrot featured in a lifestyle magazine
next December — this family has always been ahead of its time.

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