Category Archives: Blogish

Are you shutting down for Earth Hour?

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Earth hour, which takes place on March 29th at 8:00 P.M. your local time, is an event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of the dire ((Hyperbole much? Yes and no. My view of climate change is: if we want to kill ourselves slowly, let’s go ahead and do it.)) threat of climate change.

What do you have to do? Nothing much, just turn your lights off for an hour when 8pm rolls around. I’m planning on hitting my circuit-breaker for a total blackout, but you don’t have to go that far. Want to participate? Head over to the Earth Hour website for more information.

Now this is one of those “make a lot of publicity but not have much of a real effect” events, so not even the organizers would argue that this would save the world, so don’t worry about that part of it. However, these little things do add up, and if you can turn off your lights one night a year and still survive, why shouldn’t you be able to do it a little more often? Why allow one step to remain one step?

A quick note on the event:

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagshipsAtlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

I haven’t decided yet, but I think that I may even shut down the website for the hour. Maybe, I don’t know. (Oh and a big hat tip to ecogeek )

Failings of American Education system.

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Many people feel that outsourced jobs are a problem in American; however, it is just a reflection of the failings of the American education system. For several generations, America was a technological leader, and this technology created what are essentially low-leveled white-collar jobs such as telemarketing, informational technology, computer programming, and other support services. While America was the technological leader, these jobs were the source of revenue for the middle class as they moved away from the factory-type jobs. The American education system prepared people to work in these jobs that could not be performed by the most of the world. However, time marched on and the level of technology in the rest of the world caught up. Suddenly, the developing nations were capable of performing the same duties for a much smaller cost.

This is not the first time the American economy has shifted many of its lower-skilled jobs to developing countries. The American factories of the previous generations ground to a halt as they shifted their operations to less developed countries, but the middle-class responded by moving into technology and related fields, and all was good. However, since then, the American education system has fallen behind many countries of the world, and the new American middle-class has no where else to go.

Had this mass-outsourcing been coupled with a push by the middle class into new higher “low-skilled” jobs, the American economy would only have to suffer a small “jolt” before surging ahead. However, these low-skilled jobs are not being replaced as fast as they are lost, and there are no emerging industries that Americans can perform better than the rest of the world.

My feeds. You’ve kept me entertained, now I’m returning the favor.

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Ever wondered or cared what I read in the mornings?

That covers most everybody. Got a favorite blog that you think I might like too? Feel free to post a comment. I think I’ll make this a monthly feature. ;)