fires, hurricanes & droughts, oh my . . .

I don't mean to be flip with the title of this entry but it seems that the environment, "nature", is definitely showing its nasty side in the news these days. As I write, the number of evacuees in southern California due to the wildfires is creeping toward a million, the Army Corps of Engineers is thinking of buying up homes in hurricane devastated areas of Mississippi, and Georgia has been facing record droughts and imposing emergency measures . . . What doesn't seem to be being put together all that well in the mainstream media is the fact that all these tragedies are somehow connected. While I would hesitate to lay all these tragedies at the foot of global warming, I can't help but think that they are the result of our inability to come up with development patterns that are more consistent with natural realities and constraints. Furthermore, if global warming is the most glaring example of this inability, it looks like things are getting worse instead of better.

So what to do? . . . well, for starters I think that we need to start admitting to the fact that our environmental problems are not the product of random chance and that we would do well to start behaving in ways that reflect that we are part of the system, not above, beyond or immune to its rules. This is old news. There are hundreds and thousands if not millions of people that know and understand this fact, and have been saying so for decades. Where we fall short is getting billions of people, as well as leaders and institutions to start acting in accordance with a few simple truths: 1) we are part of a natural system 2) our current actions and development patterns are having profoundly negative effects on said system 3) that system is in trouble 4) the evidence (see above) is right before our eyes.

Anyway, I'm sure that the few people that read this don't necessarily check it for missives on environmentalism but I had to get that off my chest, seeing as how I felt that it was a rather glaring point that hasn't been stressed in the news over the last week, although CNN and their Planet in Peril series, I'll admit, seems to be very well produced. In other, Coastopolis related news: I've been working on giving the current "placeholder" sites a little bit of a facelift so that the page has a bit more of a presence and a better description of what I'm trying to do with it. Hopefully those will be able to be published by the end of the week. Stay tuned.

and we're back . . .

Well, as should be rather evident, I haven’t written in quite some time. There are a number of reasons for that, but the two most important are that I’ve been trying to a) find a job & b) work on the behind the scenes part of Coastopolis.com. Both of these things are painstaking and time consuming and I would much prefer shaking a magic wand and have them be complete. However, they have also provided a much needed opportunity for some learning (mostly about Dreamweaver) and reflection. I’m becoming more and more comfortable with manipulating the makings of the site. I’ll probably be changing things up and adding a bit of information soon, although it won’t be a full fledged “launch”, it’ll be good to rework what is a there and will provide some practice for what is coming down the road. To be honest I think that there will come a point (hopefully) when the content and workings of the site are beyond my capacity as a “web-designer” and I’ll have to hire someone to take the reins of the technical side of things. Until then I’m really enjoying (for the most part) the process of learning how to use the program and make things work on the site. But all this learning takes a good amount of time . . . I don’t know if I actually qualify as being part of a generation for whom these things are beyond their grasp, but my excitement at learning to lay things with CSS is way out of proportion with the actual accomplishment. If nothing else its another good tool to have in my belt as I continue with the job hunt.

The job hunt. So the other thing that I’ve been working on is trying to seek out and send resumes or applications to several firms, institutions and organizations that do and/or are involved in “coastal planning” . . . I’m also not opposed to the prospect of working in the private sector if any amount of their work has something of a coastal component. So if you happen to be reading this, and you happen to have a job opening where you work, and you happen to work at a place on or near a coastline, and you do something related to the conservation and/or development of said area, feel free to drop me a note. Like I said, it’s a process that I don’t necessarily love and the longer it goes on the less I enjoy it, and yet, as I mentioned, it does allow for a good amount of reflection. About what I’d like out of a career, about what sort of work environment I picture myself enjoying, about what sorts of goals and means I could see myself promoting professionally and about what sorts of things are seemingly lacking in the various places that I’ve applied and how I might be able to add something to their team. So. There you have it. We’ll see what happens . . .

In other news, I’m not sure where this was covered, but I’ve been meaning to take it on myself but haven’t gotten around to it. Coastal Impact Study: Nation Under Siege. My next post will be devoted to this little bit of literature and what it means that a) it was taken on by architects & b) how it was received in the coastal realm (was it received?).

And I’ll be better about posting, I promise. I know that there aren’t many people out there that check this thing (yet). But I do know how frustrating it is to check blogs and not have them updated with any frequency.

. . . lastly. I went surfing yesterday for the first time in months. Go to the beach, get out in the ocean people. Go.