THE GREAT HEALTH DEBATE

HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, we seem to be on the verge of some needed changes to how health care is to be covered and who will benefit. Both the Congress and the Senate have passed bills. These now have to be reconciled and represented as final legislation. This process is different from that of some countries where the Senate serves only as a place of review of legislation passed elsewhere.

Back in April, I observed:

Seeing Michael Moore's film, 'Sicko', has a few surprises and is good back grounding. Much easier to access are the PBS FRONTLINE documentaries, Sick Around the World and Sick in America. These are readily available online (just right click on the titles to open the relevant Websites). The first reviews health insurance and health care in five capitalist countries (The United Kingdom, Japan, France, Taiwan, and Germany) and gives some idea of the variations that are possible based on the model invented by Bismark in Germany in late 19th Century.

Of the five countries mentioned, Japan is touted as being the most healthy. Interestingly, in Japan, health care was built into the constitution of Japan by the American, General Douglas MacArthur. This made the health of the people of Japan the responsibility of the Japanese government. Taiwan is unique in that, when seeking a new approach to health care, it investigated systematically health systems in other democratic nations.

There is a lot of concern about the overall cost of health care here in the US. About 17% of Gross National Product goes to providing health care and may rise to 22% over the next few years. This is roughly twice as much as in peer countries and with inferior health outcomes in several areas such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Some put this down to the fee-for-service basis of health care in the United States. However, most other countries retain this approach, such as Australia, France, Canada, and Japan while keeping health care costs lower. The report I alluded to in my September post (Accounting The Cost of Health Care in the United States, published in January 2007, by the McKinsey Global Institute) showed that costs related to diagnostic procedures, inpatient care, drugs, and multiple administrative structures contribute most to the overall cost of care. To see this report, you will have to register on their Website.

According to some polls, Americans appear to be loosing interest in health care as an issue. There is a some chance that the Republican Party may be able to rally sufficient support to defeat the final bill. If we are loosing interest, it may be because of rising disillusionment with the political process. In my April posting, I suggested you look to the lobbying around health. In September a CNN report (Health care lobbying: Political power machine) indicated some $400 million had already been spent and I have read that as much again has been spent since. The spending "leaders" are drug manufacturers, hospitals, and nursing homes. The legislators most active in opposing the present legislation seem to be those who have benefited most in campaign contributions and lobbyist support over the last year.

What could have possessed Gen. Douglas MacArthur to make health for everyone the responsibility of the Japanese legislature? However could he have conceived such a radical approach? Perhaps because, as a military leader, he knew how critical health is to the functioning of an army. Despite the many 'horror' stories we hear and read about the personal tragedies (see 'Sick in America' above) resulting from the failure of the so-called 'health system' in the US, politicians appear to be insensitive to the importance of good health services for all citizens. Unlike the President, they perhaps have been insulated from the consequences of our dysfunctional 'system' of care.

The cynic in me wants to leap to the forefront. In this year, the House of Representatives faces re-election as does one third of the Senate. Additionally, many governors face re-election. Due to the central role of TV advertising, the costs of political campaigning continue astronomical despite the ncreasing importance of the Internet in gleaning election funding. Meanwhile contributions, or the promise of contributions, from corporations can be critical to the degree when viewed as a safe source of support for those aspiring to election or re-election.

In the struggle over health reform, could we be experiencing the slow death of democracy where the 'rights' of vested interests supervene over those of ordinary citizens? If the price of peace is eternal vigilance, what then is the price of democracy?

As The Bard remarked, There is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.

About 40 American voters read this post. If you have a concern about health reform, pass on the need for vigilance and action to some of your friends. I recommend you review the sources I have listed.

And, a Happy and Healthy New Year!

'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS...

WHAT WAS YOU MOST FAVORITE OF ALL CHRISTMAS EVE? Let me tell you about mine...
This is about the first Christmas eve that I can recall.

Though we could not know it, it was in the middle of the Second World War. That year (1941) our family had moved into the little town of Clare, about 80 miles north of Adelaide in South Australia. Previously we had lived on our farm but manpower shortages had forced my father to give up life as a farmer; he had rejoined the Army. So we were just my mother and my two sisters living in what seemed to be a quite grand house overlooking the town, nestled in the Clare Valley. The elder of my two brothers was in the Navy and the younger was living in Adelaide with my Grandfather, getting ready to join the Air Force. Most of the male friends of our family were off in the armed forces.

Our mother would get us off to bed around sunset. Christmas in Australia is in the middle of summer, so that would be around 9 in the evening. Then she would go around all the windows making sure the blinds were down and the curtains drawn. The air raid wardens would be patrolling the streets checking that not a ray of light escaped any window. The peaceful little town was nonetheless in the grip of war. With less than a dozen cars to be driven about, due to severe fuel rationing, the town was hushed and dark. Occasionally, there would be the sound of a train from the nearby rail station (steam locomotives in those days).

At the foot of my bed was my Christmas stocking. Hugging my dear Teddie bear and comforted by the dim light from my night lamp, I drifted off into slumber land.

But then a strange thing happened.

It seemed much later but the house had not its accustomed quiet. I awoke to the sound of low conversation from the direction of the kitchen. My mother was talking to someone! Who could it be? I got out of bed and crept towards my bedroom door. I opened it a crack to look and listen. Then I knew that the sound I could hear was the voice of my father!

He had come home unexpectedly on leave. The last passenger train up from Adelaide had brought him home. My parents seemed to be busy with the sound of things being wrapped in paper. It seemed wise to return to bed and to sleep. I felt very happy, knowing I would see my father in the morning.

When I awoke, at the foot of my bed was a large paper-wrapped object. Of course, we were not allowed to unwrap presents until after breakfast. I sat on my father's knee, his strong arms around me and the sweet smell of him all about me. Later, when the unwrapping began, I found, beneath the brown paper, a large, red tricycle! It was somewhat bigger than my proper size; so my father made wooden blocks to fit on the pedals so my feet would reach!

Such a happy Christmas morning; my father was home for a few days.

May your Christmas this year be as happy as was mine then.

YIKES...WINTER!

IT MUST BE FIVE AM, said I to myself as I awoke this morning. What was that sound I heard? None other than the sound of the snow plow going up the street. Then a brief relapse into light slumber. There it goes again...the plow going down the street.
For the past week or so, I had been pooh-poohing the weather forecasts for snow. So I did yet again yesterday. I'll believe it when I see it...those forecasters are ever the conservatives, they do not want to be caught out not forecasting snow when it finally does come. Talk about crying, "Snow" (rather than "Wolf").
Last night the weather really did mean business and four inches of the stuff lay on the driveway. So...out I went with the snow shovel. Yuck...wet snow and heavy; how I hate it! Much better when it is all light and fluffy. I am very methodical when it comes to clearing snow, dividing the driveway up into nice rectangles and shoving the snow across the drive to the side. Wet snow means smaller sections. The whole operation took me about 45 minutes and raised a fine sweat. By then the sun was up and it looked somewhat like this. I think we are due for some more tonight. However, it looks like those of you who live in Portland, Oregon, are going to get quite a bit as well and even colder than here.
Somewhat of a contrast to the pictures in my last blog. I think I am finished with the garden now. Anyway, the snow is here and I am astonished at how my energy revives now that the waiting for winter is over. What sort of winter will it be, I wonder? Some say, cold and not much snow. Others...wet and warmer than usual. Everyone has an opinion.
Its getting dark around 4:30 PM these days. Just a fortnight (two weeks) or so and the days will begin getting longer.
What to do about the onset of slight Seasonal Affective Disorder (how appropriate, the acronym...SAD). Here's my antidote: Get up early, have an hour out in the morning light before lunch, drink at least four cups of strong, black coffee, take Vitamin D, eat a little dark chocolate each day (I love that semi-sweet cooking chocolate), exercise each day if one can, drink hot chocolate, go to bed around 10 at night, and make sure to read the 'funnies' in the newspaper several times a week. Send a few jokes around the email circuit.
Anyone else have ideas?
Of course, you lucky ones who live Down Under, you have the summer. Lots of sun, long white beaches, surf, and Bar-b-Qs. How can you stand it? Well, yes, and bush fires. Let's hope not as bad as last year.
Apart from all that, be sure to have a happy holiday time and dodge the Christmas jingles (jangles?) if you can. Anyone got a good joke?

FALL BEFALLEN

AUTUMN ONCE MORE. All the leaves (just about) have detached themselves and fallen to the lawn. They got a bit of a start ahead of me while I was in Australia but I have gradually caught up. Fortunately, the three large trees take it more or less in turns The red maple has the most leaves and thankfully is last of all. There it is above, about halfway through its shedding. During what we had of a summer, this tree took most of the sunlight and my garden turned out not so well, apart from my lettuces. That area can be seen behind the green fencing and will be a herb garden next year.

At least we are back to a sensible time, with the sun getting up at the right time and setting around 5 PM currently. Also, we have had some great autumn weather with bright, crisp days. We have had a couple of snow falls, nothing to disrupt things but harbingers of the cold, dark days to come...the winter of our discontent. This has made it possible for me to be out with the mower, first set to mince up the leaves and then to pick them up along with lawn clippings; all for the compost heap of course. I have made good use of compost in setting up the new garden patch for the coming spring.

The new patch is in a good, sunny position. It has been well dug and the pH adjusted by adding the right amount of lime (the local soil is quite acidic) and the nitrogen content enhanced by a late summer crop of buckwheat. A final topping of compost will encourage the worms so everything should be nicely set up by the spring planting time. In the background, beneath the hedge, you may be able to pick out a line of black plastic bags. These contain excess leaves that I was not able to start converting to compost. I expect they will render down to leaf mold and be a start for the spring compost heap. The bags had holes in them to assist this process and I will roll them about from time to time to 'push the business along, as it were. This is a trick I picked up from the Green Gardening magazine.

The latest compost pile is cooking along nicely. I turned it over this weekend and had to wear work gloves due to the heat coming from the pile. I have discovered that there is quite a bit of science to making compost but I will not bore you with the four or five phases of the composting cycle. In the photo, you can see what is left of this year's compost alongside the new pile. Notice the garden hose...compost piles need quite a bit of water to keep the microbes happy. My easy-to-assemble and disassemble construction has made turning over the pile wonderfully easy. With so much fall leaf content, it also has quite a sweet smell.

Well, enough of the wonders of compost and the Fall chores. Hereabouts there is quite a lot of work to do to get the garden ready for spring and I quite enjoy the work. It is good exercise. Speaking of which, I am back to the gym more regularly and have taken out the roller skis to begin training for the ski season. My first goal is to get back being able to balance on one ski at a time. Cross country skis are designed to have most of the skier's weight on each ski alternately, unless one is gliding down hill. The goal is to get maximum glide from the leading ski from the time it is placed ahead until it becomes the driving ski. This requires balance and it more demanding when on a real ski on real snow, which is hardly ever an even surface. Roller skis are more stable but, if one pushes the body too far to the side it can turn into an out of balance situation. Falling to the black top is not desirable so there can sometimes be a quick skip sideways to keep upright! I think I have a photo somewhere of me on roller skis.

Finally, I have visited several times now the local glider club. I did quite a bit of gliding and flying when living in Australia. I like the look of the local operation which has its origins in the early days of soaring in North America. Who knows...I may join this club next spring and get back to a little soaring. I am going to conclude this post with a couple of gliding pictures; one of me sitting in a glider and the other of mountain soaring over the Mt. Beauty area in Victoria, Australia, so you will get some idea of the magic of soaring.
These were taken in the early '90s. In the winter, these slopes are covered with snow, so I have done a deal of skiing in the country below.

DOWN UNDER

A 'DOWN UNDER' POSTING
Without doubt, writing this post has been difficult. I began some three weeks back, in the public library in the charming coastal town of Robe. I had been visiting my family (I get to see them once a year). Going back is quite an experience. For one thing, it involves about 21 hours in airplanes. Despite that I have not a few hours flying small planes and gliders, I do not enjoy commercial flights, especially long flights cooped up with several hundred others. I have come to understand that it is the spiritual aspects of the return that attract me almost as much as the pleasure of being with my family.

One of the very early settlements in South Australia, Robe is a four hour drive south-east of Adelaide. It has quite distinctive architecture that I think may have been influenced by early Cornish miners. The picture will give you some idea. In those days, there was no nation called Australia; just several British colonies, each started by different groups. Of course, New South Wales is best known for its beginnings as a penal colony that, in turn, spawned a penal settlement in Tasmania. No convicts were involved founding the other states (possible exception being Western Australia).

South Australia was settled in much the same way as the earlier colonies in America, being founded by religious dissenters, mostly Baptists from England who, In turn, encouraged persecuted Lutherans from Germany to join them. The discovery of tin and copper attracted Cornish miners who were Primitive Methodists. It was not long before the colony was a hotchpotch of different beliefs and the eventual capital, Adelaide, soon had as many churches as public houses! The town has quite a history. For example, between 1856 and 1858, some 20,000 Chinese were offloaded from ships at Robe and made their way to the goldfields some 280 miles to the east, because the ship owners wanted to avoid the head tax imposed by the state of Victoria, where the gold was.

I had a great time with my daughter, her husband, and two children. This included a visit to fossil bearing caves some 70 miles distant. A World Heritage site, the fossils displayed were deposited between one million and forty thousand years ago. The entrance to the caves is surrounded by typical Aussie Bush. As you can see, it is dense, almost impenetrable in many places. It is hard to imagine those Chinese folk of yore trudging their weary way through this stuff to seek their fortune.

People came from all over to join in the great digging for gold, including many from Californian still seeking riches once the gold rush there had ended. One outcome of the gold diggings around the towns of Ararat and Ballarat was the rebellion by the miners against the British soldiers enforcing taxes. This culminated in an act of rebellion known as the Eureka Stockade. Despite being put down, this was one of the early stirrings of nationalism but becoming a country in its own right was some 50 or so years in the future. Australia remained very British right through to mid-Twentieth Century. Of course, it still has the Queen of England as its titular head, represented by the Governor General and the State Governors, and the Parliamentary system of government. Since the 1950s, the population has been swollen by waves of immigration from Europe and Asia. The population growth rate is the second highest in the world and 60% of this is due to immigration; some 24% of Australians were born elsewhere, and only 37% give their ancestry as Australian.

However, it is the land of my birth and I have been witness to the tremendous changes related to the power of massive immigration, from a very 'British' country (when England was the 'Mother Country') to a polyglot, multicultural hotchpotch where folk from very many nations get on amazingly well. I think the multicultural mix is one element that leads me to be proud to be Australian. Being multicultural seems a strong strand in the sense of being 'Australian'. Other powerful threads are the value of leisure, interest and participation in sport, and 'mateship' (the willingness to help others overtaken by hardship); this is not the land of 'dog eat dog, catch as catch can, and the devil take the hindmost'.

It usually takes me a couple of days to decode the current Aussie ' lingo' which seems to be born of a desire to keep visitors from other countries in the dark even when appearing to speak English. Occasionally, when excited, I have been known to drop into Aussie vernacular becoming, in that moment, almost incomprehensible! Certainly, there is a kind of spirituality (hardly Christian since less than 1% of Australians attend church) and kinship that requires a deal of living in the Land Down Under to understand and acquire.

I felt this very much that sunny afternoon in the library at Robe, while my family were off hunting native orchids in national parks. Later, in one of the local pubs, standing before a friendly, warming fire place and holding a glass of the local red, conversing with perfect strangers, I felt another, particularly Aussie kinship. From home grown Aussies, recent Brits, folk from the Baltic states, the Mediterranean countries, through to the most recent migrations from Asia, one can find oneself next to someone from almost any country in the world

In that little coastal town, Robe, I had the strongest feeling of the Land Down Under. Australia is a long way from America and Europe. On the other hand, it is quite close to Asia, China, and Japan. Not so far from India either! Australia is increasingly drawn into Asia. Did you know that Perth is closer to Singapore than to Sydney!

So there is quite a sense of history around this little coastal town. Then it was back to Adelaide for several days before returning to Sydney to rejoin my son and his family. He and his lovely partner have two sons, so I have four grandchildren in Australia.

The journey back was broken by a pleasant day in San Francisco, spent with two good friends, that included a visit to the recently refurbished Academy of Sciences in the Golden Gate Park. I confess that I found the 'red-eye', the mid-night special to Philadelphia more than a little wearying, as I had had little sleep and got little on that flight. However, I perked up after breakfast at the airport. How nice it was to catch the commuter plane to Elmira and to be once more 'home'. It is said that one who has lived in more than one country is ever homesick. I find this to be so; nonetheless, it is good to have two homes.

EVIDENTLY, IN THE MOOD FOR RISK TAKING

I DID SOMETHING NEW THIS WEEK.venturing once more into the breech of health care, I went to my first Town Meeting. Town Meetings are much more the thing here in the NE than I recall them being in the NW. On Monday, in the auditorium of a local high school, Congressman Massa (Corning-D) met with some 800 local folk to discuss health care reform issues. I was impressed by several things. One was the size of the auditorium; high schools here in the US are really big. About half the attendees were Medicare recipients (by show of hands) but there were also quite a few young folk present.

More significantly, I was impressed at the way the Congressman ran the meeting; he spoke for several minutes, then the rest of the two hours was open for questions. As you may have read, some of these across-the-nation public meetings have been marked by outbursts of ill-tempered excitement. Predictably, there were plenty of placards and slogans, but everyone kept their temper and maintained a polite approach.

One of the big issues is the cost of care. The US spends about twice as much per person on health services as do other developed countries but falls short of universal health care. It is useful to look at come of the components of cost. At the bottom is the cost of doing business for a medical practice. Billing is a considerable part of the cost of care. In the US, billing is based on the extremely complex CPT coding system and medical practices must purchase expensive electronic billing systems to submit claims. This is a fertile arena for disputing claims from the viewpoint of the insurer. Challenging disputed claims involves additional expensive software, often vended by subsidiaries of the insurance companies. The physician I see has observed that up to 40% of his day may be given over to negotiating treatments for patients with insurers. A pity, as this raises the per patient per day cost of care.

Not that one can particularly take issue with the health insurers. They compete for insurance contracts with other companies and often have to pare premiums to the penny to get the business. They then must control claims so as to stay inside the total premium income. The point of this is that the considerable cost of doing business has to be included in the per treatment cost of health care, thus raising the price a doctor must charge in order to stay in business. This has been well summarized by Paul Krugman, "So it’s an arms race between insurers, who deploy software and manpower trying to find claims they can reject, and doctors and hospitals, who deploy their own forces in an effort to outsmart or challenge the insurers. And the cost of this arms race ends up being borne by the public, in the form of higher health care prices and higher insurance premiums." The cost of this 'arms race' has been estimated to add upwards of $US 45 billion to the cost of health care.

It has been argued that the cost of malpractice insurance can be very considerable and that a practitioner may order multiple and possible unnecessary lab tests to guard against possible malpractice suit, adding to the total cost of health care. However, the report of a recent study suggests this is relatively slight. A more likely villain is the marketing practices of the larger drug companies.

For example, the considerable effect of advertising by drug companies encouraging you to 'ask your doctor' or 'tell your doctor' about some new medication or test. This adds significantly to the cost of care. Very few developed countries permit this type of advertising. A review of rising costs in the Canadian health system some 20 years ago showed that the main cause was unnecessary tests and procedures.

As to the costs of medications (much dearer in the US than elsewhere), consider the effect of the cost of marketing by drug companies to the medical profession. This week a large company was fined $US 2.3 billion for fraudulent marketing and was labeled a 'repeat offender'. It is illuminating to read how this company went about marketing drugs to doctors. Consider how the fine plus the cost of the actual marketing practices adds to the cost of the prescription pills you buy. As one doctor remarked to me, 'You don't know how much money there is in the world until you meet the drug companies; they have more money than God!'. Collectively, the drug companies and health insurers spend amazingly large amounts on lobbying politicians. Here a little, there a little, all this adds to the cost of care. According to a 2005 analysis by McKinsey & C0, the costs of important components of health care are between 2.2 and 4 times higher in the US than in peer developed countries, despite that we use fewer medications and spend less time in hospital.

The cost of care in the US is quite a tangled web and therefore not amenable to an easy fix. The Town Hall meeting got me going, as you can tell, pulling together numerous threads I have encountered these last two years. Therefore, I like the Congressman's proposition that, instead of one piece of legislation passed in relative haste, it may be better by far to understand this web and bite off pieces of the apple one important bit a a time. In the meantime I keep in mind that there are several players of influence whose interest it is to keep things pretty much as they are. Unfortunately, this is at the very considerable expense of the rest of us.

Coincidentally, I received in the mail today from my health insurance company the latest one inch (2.54 cm) thick directory of the practitioners who are in the network. Goodness know what it cost to prepare, print, and post. I never would have received such a publication in Australia, when I lived there, as I was free to see any practitioner, usually on the same or the next day. Well, that is 'socialized medicine' for you.

Now, where is that chap with the sign?

A COUPLE OF THINGS ONE SHOULD AVOID

ONE IS, CATCHING A COLD; THE OTHER: FALLING OFF A BIKE. Neither is pleasant and, taken together, quite debilitating. I suppose anyone can catch a cold. It requires no special talent. Coming at it another way, it helps to wash one's hand frequently if in a crowded place and meeting strangers. I may have neglected these precautions a week or so back when visiting friends at the Chautauqua Institution. They did not have colds but there must have been one lurking as I came down quickly with a sore throat and the infection dived without delay into the shelter of my lungs.

Before my cold really set in, I was riding my bike back from the local library after a thundershower and thought to take a short cut to avoid traffic. The front tire of my bike struck a low kerb at about 45 degrees and slipped sideways, pitching me to the pavement. This must require some special talent as I have now managed this twice on the same bike. It may be bike specific as, in twelve years of riding it, I have never fallen off my other bike. The split second of falling affords time for just a small thought, 'This is going to hurt!'. As indeed it did.

A skun knee and elbow, as well a mashed and sprained thumb, do make for discomfort. Also, there are the hard to define aches from the fall. These have a special contribution when producing a hacking cough. Ah well, I am just about over it and in the mood to attempt a new posting. I celebrate escape from small miseries. Too bad I can't show photos. The good thing is, my bike was not even scratched.

Have you ever heard of the Hegelian Dialectic? Nothing to do with falling off a bike or catching a cold. This refers to a process whereby opposing views may lead to eventual agreement: comprising three dialectical stages of development: beginning with a thesis, followed by its reaction, an antitheses, contradicting the thesis, and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.

Right now, in the political debate here in the US about health care reform, we are in the midst of clash of thesis and antithesis. I am keeping out of it. The last time I wrote about health, some reader slapped a 'possibly subversive' label on my blog! I must have said something sensible. Mostly, I despair of the political process and wonder if a useful synthesis can be attained. For an illuminating shaft of light, I invite you to look at Nicholas Kristov's column in NY Times (Health Care Fit For Animals), just right click on the title to go to the article.

The dialectic to which I mean to refer is the global warming debate. Not whether the world's climate is warming, which it has been doing since the end of the last Ice Age some 16,000 years back (with a slight backward step with the Little Ice Age). We are in one of those short inter-glacial periods with another Ice Age somewhere in the future. It seems like the next planet out from the Sun, Mars, is also warming. However, the Martians (who don't exist) do not seem to be part of the cause.

Back in the 1970s, the big concern was that our planet might be cooling, rapidly approaching the next icing over. Now we are concerned about the warming. We have had the most unreasonable weather around here (hardly any sunny days, rain, rain, and more rain, and lots of thunderstorms). The cause of this? Almost everyone agrees it is due to global warming; as well it might (or not, as the case may be).

My friend Brian, in Vancouver, recently drew my attention to the work of Lawrence Solomon who has just published a book, The Deniers, in which he displays the interplay of thesis and antithesis on the possible role of our use of fossil fuels, which may lead to catastrophic climate change effects. What, I thought, isn't this all settled? Everyone knows that our heedless use of fossil fuels is getting us into serious soup. So I jumped to good old Amazon.com and ordered the book. Two days later (how do they deliver so fast?) the book arrived and I have skimmed through it for the most part and read some sections really carefully. I was amazed to find that there are lots of serious, respected climate scientists, geologists, and the like, who do not agree that this proposition is any 'slam dunk'.

You may or may not be interested in this debate and I do not propose to bore you further, just to remind you of the wisdom of the old song, 'Tain't necessarily so...'. You can find out more by Googling 'Lawrence Solomon'. In my old age, it is good to find that things may not be quite as bad as they may be made to appear. With some years yet to run, I look forward to the synthesis.

In the meantime, no harm in using less gasoline (petrol), conserving energy, revitalizing our energy infrastructure, and developing alternate energy sources. I am not so sure about carbon credits, could be a lot of mischief down that track even though there seems mounting enthusiasm for this approach. Why not a simple carbon tax (like in Denmark where it seems to work quite well)? Well, who wants another tax? Maybe the government could do with the money. As for carbon trading, there may be a lot of profit in that and even the possibility of derivatives (future trading and option trading). Wait a minute, haven't we just had a bad brush with that sort of thing?

I have to go...I think I see someone dashing up, waving a "Possibly Subversive" sign.

WWOOFING IT IN SW FRANCE

I FOUND OUT ABOUT WWOOFING through the Frugal Traveler column in NY Times. Just by Googling 'wwoofing' you can get a wealth of information to start you on your travels in just about any country. WWOOF is a world wide organization that links to opportunities to live and work on organic farms. In previous posts I have described how I journeyed to and from my wwoofing experience in the Ariege Region in South West France, adjoining the Spanish border. Quite a journey from the small rural community around Corning/Painted Post (Upper NY State) to the small rural community around St. Girons, Ariege, the best part of which were the long rides through the lovely French countryside absolutely alone in the sense that hardly a soul in that part of the world had any knowledge of me. This may seem curious to you but I recommend the experience of solitude.

My hosts were Erwin and Jasmin Berg who, for the past 12 years have owned and run an organic farm of 40 hectares in the hamlet of Rames, near Moulis, near St. Girons, in the very hilly beginnings of the Pyrenees. You can Google-Map these places to see the region. Here are my hosts. They are dear people whom I am now very pleased to count as friends. They have hosted many wwoofers over the past decade and have wwoofer friends all around the world. Besides being hard working, they are wonderfully welcoming and kind; as well, they are most interesting people. Erwin is German and Jasmin was born in England. They have been traveling entertainers and Erwin is a professional glass worker (which automatically gives him entrance to Corning, the center of glass working here in the US), and also briefly ran a circus. They raise cattle and rabbits and grow produce for local markets.

I had the company of two other wwoofers (Katy and Matthieu) and also Celia who was doing her second internship on the farm as part of her studies. One of the really great experiences were mealtimes, sitting around and eating wonderful food (Jasmin is a very good cook), and talking a lot. Here we all are (I am out of the picture, taking the photo). From left to right, clockwise, Celia, Matthieu, Katy, Dominik (the son of the house), Erwin and Jasmin. As most of the talking was in French, I gradually became better at hearing French and I think my spoken French has improved a good bit. Both Katy and Matthieu were good tutors. Also in the company were two dogs, three puppies, several cats, and two kittens.

How did each day go? Up around 7 AM and coffee which we all seemed to need to get going. The French do not make much of breakfast (which is why it is called 'petit dejeuner' or 'little lunch') so we each were responsible for our own food. For me, that was oatmeal. Then it was off to work. This might be haymaking, weeding, digging, mulching, planting out, or cleaning out. we did a lot of haymaking since it was the season. This involved a deal of successive turning of recently cut hay and, finally, baling. It being hot and humid on haymaking days, at some altitude, and the ground steep, I can vouch that this was hard, steady work. Fortunately, being German, Erwin had a good supply of beer which we were all very glad to drink whenever available and at all times of the day, as well as copious amounts of water. Maybe I am getting too old for this? I asked myself at times! As wwoofers, we could work at our own pace and rest as necessary. I took time out to wonder at the view, especially that across the vally of the other farms. Even so, as part of the haymaking team, one really had to just keep up with the work. I will up-load a video of the haymaking, when it has been edited. We would take mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks as well as for lunch and dinner. All up, a working day might be 10 hours but, apart from the hay, not hard or difficult, just pleasant and steady. Have you discovered the zen of weeding?

It was not all work. Several times I went off with Erwin to visit friends or neighbors...very pleasant and involving drinking good French wine (sometimes a good bit of wine). On another day,we all went off to explore part of an extensive cave system under the hill on which the farm was situated. My first experience of real caving. I passed on the final descent and spent some 20 minutes in complete darkness (I did have a flashlight) listening to the voices of my friends coming up from the deep...another experience of solitude. This is a well known cave system (Grotte du Portillou a Moulis, Ariege) and begins through a quite tight entrance and steep descent leading to large chambers formed by a (subterranean) river. On other days we went to the local markets at St. Girons and Engoumet. Also, I took a Saturday off to visit St. Girons and St. Livier on the day of the finish of the 8th Stage of the Tour de France at St. Girons. And then there was the pub at Engoumet where we all had a drink (clockwise: me, Matthieu, Celia, and Erwin), so it was hardly all work and no play.

After lengthy dinners, so beloved by the French, we would retire around 10 PM, bone tired and quickly off to sleep. Matthieu and I shared the loft above the main living area while Katy and Celia had separate quarters attached to the house. The house was built in the 19th Century and has needed (still needs) quite a bit of work. It is pictured at the top of this post. It is comfortable and has a wonderful fireplace which was just great on one cold and rainy day. We did have some cold and wet days. The locals have a couple of sayings about the weather. One is, 'If you cannot see the mountains, it is because it is raining; if you can, it is about to rain!' Another, 'We have seven months of winter and five months of terrible weather!' Living in Ariege is no picnic; as one of their story tellers (Olivier de Robert) has remarked, 'This mountainous area is never a gift for anyone..." It has long attracted folk who are suspicious of central authority, seeking a free, simple, and independent life.

Wwoofing is not everyone's idea of a vacation. It is unparalleled however as a way of entering into the life and ways of a region and of making friends. Would I do it again? I must admit that age may be working against me but...maybe once more in a wine growing area? If you like the idea and really search it out, you may be lucky enough to meet folk like Erwin and Jasmin.

BACK IN THE USA

BACK IN THE USA now for almost a week and just about back to my former self. It has been hard to leave behind the experience of 'wwoofing it' in that small hamlet where Erwin and Jasmin have their 40 hectares on the steep slopes of the rising Pyrenees. What have my fellow wwoofers, Katie and Matthieu, been up to these last seven days...haymaking, digging, weeding, transplanting, or perhaps have they been up to the mountain pastures to check on the cows?

I will write about the wwoofing experience in my next post. Here I simply say a little about watching a finish of le Tour de France, the journey home, and my state of being.

Yes, I did get to see the Tour competitors go by! Through no fault of my own, I found myself in an excellent position about 400 yards from the finish, able to see about 250 yards up the hill in the direction from which the riders would be coming, and about the same distance towards the finish (which was around the corner). More of this in a moment.

The highlight of the day for me was to visit the Cite and Cathedral of St. Lizier, about two miles west of St. Girons. The town of St. Lizier, set atop a hill overlooking a beautiful valley, has a history going back to roman times while that of the cathedral goes back to the 6th Century. The cathedral is said to be made of bricks from all over France, has a beautiful adjoining cloistered garden containing a crypt and the burial places of several religious notables in the distant past. Given the steep descent from the farm and that the wind was behind me most of the way, I made it up to the cathedral in just half an hour. A baptism was in progress so I spent an hour walking around the cite streets and exploring a garden atop the hill from which are some great views of the valley and distant mountains.
Here you can see the cathedral. The crane does not go back to roman times...France is spending a lot of their economic stimulus money on refurbishing historic sites. The photo at the top is of the cloisters.

I then rode down to St. Girons along the old road joining the two towns and found myself in the small square where I had first stopped when arriving almost two weeks previously. Time for lunch. When I had finished a leisurely meal 'a la terrace', I discovered that the gendarmerie had locked the town down (must have been 200 0r so positioned along the final route). So I had to abandon my plan to ride further out of the town. I found a position right next to a TV camera and figured this would be a good spot.

So began a two and half hour wait for the action which consisted of about three quarters of an hour of 'The Caravan'... a cavalcade of all the team and sponsors, throwing out all sorts of gifts (hats, bottles of water, scarves, clappers). Then, after about 15 minutes, in came the first three riders! Several minutes later, the peloton; a hundred of so riders going past in just about 30 seconds!! At this point, one realizes that the Tour is what it is because of the TV coverage that so effectively expands the scope and detail of the racing,

It took two hours to get out of the town and on the way back to the farm. Here I am in St. Girons on that memorable day.

My trip home had several segments. Riding first from Rames to St. Girons and then east to Foix (with a couple of long climbs and a great lunch at a pretty hotel at the top of the final climb) where I was due to catch an overnight train to Paris, via Toulouse. However, the train drivers were still on strike and I made it to Toulouse by bus. A long wait to catch the 1:15 on Tuesday morning. Only five minutes late into Paris Austerlitz station and smooth connections to the airport. With luggage checked and customs behind me, I got trapped in a long, slow security check and nearly missed my plane. The cheers that greeted me as I took my seat were premature, unfortunately, as we then had a six hour delay due to a technical fault with one engine. However, I had good company and we actually enjoyed our conversation through the long wait. All this led to an overnight stay in Philadelphia that gave me a chance to catch my psychological breath and arrive really clean and refreshed in my local airport. Home at last!

Alive and well, bone weary after two weeks of farm work and lots of French, about five pounds lighter and not quite back into my accustomed self.

FROM THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

I PROMISED A POSTING FROM FRANCE; so here goes.
First, thank you, Glenn for your comment.
I have been here for two weeks now (almost), writing on Friday morning July 20. After arriving in Paris (CGA) two weeks ago in the morning, I made my way to my train connection, lugging my suitcase containing the bike and my soft luggage (attached to the suitcase by bungee cords) up and down stairs with lots of help from Parisians to catch a crowed train to Toulouse. Quite an experience, sitting one's suitcase watching the world wizz by at 200 kph!
At Toulouse, I found my way to the Metro (more stairs) and then to the Youth Hostel for my two nights and one day in this very pleasant city (fourth largest in France) where everything is so compressed compared with the US (I refer to streets and houses). Sunday saw me off early with the weather fine and warming. Coffee and pain au chocolat for breakfast some 17 km down the road and soon I entered the Valley of the River Leze, catching glimpses of the distant Pyrenees at turns on the road. The day warmed and the slight wind was in my face, so I drank lots of water and an occasional beer or two at the lovely little towns along the way.
It was steady going with gradual ascent as the mountains drew nearer. The total distance was to be 112 km but my average speed took a dip by the time I had reached Le Mas d'Azil, some 77 km from Toulouse where I crossed from one valley to the next. In this area there is a large cave that has been used as a refuge over the centuries by several groups (hence the name, which means 'house of refuge'. Nowadays it is a park where both the river and the road go through the mountain from one valley to the next.
It was not too long to Saint Girons with the ride becoming easier. There I stopped for a beer and called my hosts. Just 12 km to go; no sweat I though to my self. In fact, after the village of Moulis, the road steepened very considerably. Now I know why my host had wished me, 'Bon courage, Robert'! For the final 3 km I mostly walked, pushing my bike along the quite narrow road. It is hard to accept that, some 15 years ago, the Tour de France competitors actually came down this steep, narrow, winding track to the finish at St. Girons...surely a suicide mission!
Altogether, due to the last 5 km or so, probably the toughest ride of my life.
I soon revived with a beer from my host. I had a quick look around, met the other wwoofer working on the far, had dinner and went to bed.
Since then, dear Mates, it has been farm work: digging, haymaking, weeding (being an organic farm, there is a constant war on weeds) and the occasional visit to neighbors and friends, some of whom appear to be serial murderers dedicated to the putting to death of wwoofers by the administration of large quantities of wine. We have since been joined by a third wwoofer and a fourth worker who is doing a second placement on the farm as part of here degree. Which is just as well, as there is lots of work to do and the days are long. However, they are punctuated by excellent meals and long conversations around the table.
Saturday and Sunday last, we went to the markets at St. Girons and at a small village called Engomer, more to the South. Here is a photo of my hostess, Jasmin. She and her husband, Erwin, have the farm. She does three markets each week

Here is the market. This market is just a small village market. They had just concluded their three day 'fete de ville' and everyone was in good spirits.

At the top of this posting, you will have seen the River Lez which runs through this village and just the other side of the line of stalls you can see here. By way of contrast, the market in St. Girons is absolutely huge, flowing in all directions away from the town square and with an abundance of local produce, vegetables, fruits, meats, cheeses, shoes and other leather work, knives, garments, and much more beside

At the local, earlier an Irish Pub, I bought Erwin a beer; then he bought me one; and then, the publican bought us each another!

Lots of people come here to retire, attracted by the simplicity of life, including Germans and English, as well as French. I love it here despite that we have had a good bit of rain up in the mountains where the farm is. In the valleys, the weather is mild and town life very charming indeed. Back to the US of A next Tuesday, after riding to Foix on the Monday and the overnight train to Paris. Oh yes, and tomorrow, I will watch the finish of the eigth stage of the Tour de France at St. Girons.

GOING PAST 72

YES, I MADE IT PAST my 72nd birthday. This seems somewhat amazing to me. I have outlived my father, who just missed getting to 71 but probably will not outdo my mother who died at 102. My health is good and I do, more rather than less, the right things in regard to diet and exercise.

I suppose the main dread , given the probability of long life, is the threat of Alzheimer's disease. It looks like there are several things one can do to offset this possibility. Most are not too onerous, such as drinking several cups of coffee a day plus one or two glasses of red wine. Black and bitter drinks do no harm. Regular exercise to ensure circulation to the brain seems like a good idea. Taking aspirin each day is said to be good for vascular health and it appears that some ibuprofen (to ease the arthritic twinges in my knees) also helps offset the approach of dementia. Speaking of diet, I find I am moving in the direction of the vegetarian approach, and may even end up vegan. Certainly, I am eating much less meat and diary products; this from reading 'Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes'. I don't have diabetes but have a high risk for it. Besides being a good read and containing useful recipes, this book seems based on solid research.

Being in a loving relationship does not harm; quite the opposite in fact.

I regret I can offer little of philosophical worth about getting older. Try to arrange oneself to enjoy each day, keep active and creative, attempt to be a contribution to others, don't give up things one did when younger; all these come to mind.

Since that fateful day, life has moved along quickly. My little garden us coming along well (we ate our first radishes the other day); a spike of excitement earlier this week when a young black bear too up residence temporarily in one of the trees in our yard.

Being interested in neurology, I am impressed by what is being discovered about the brain's ability to reconstruct itself and to lay down new neural networks in response to learning and solving problems. On this basis, I have continued my study of French language and took a course at the local community college last semester. My growing interest in gardening opened up an opportunity to complete the Master Gardener's extension course out of Cornell University; it is astonishing that some folk know so much about gardening and that there is so much to know!

Aside from taking the lawn mower apart to replace the drive belt and discovering how much easier it is to turn compost with my new portable composting bin and pitchfork (I can turn the entire heap within a half-hour), the most engaging experience has been getting ready for my trip to France. I leave on June 25th and will spend almost the entire time on an organic farm in one of the least populated areas of France, the region called Ariege. This is in the southwest of France, bordering Spain, in the slopes of the Pyrenees.

The farm is about eight miles toward the Spanish border from the ancient town of St. Girons (so you can Google-map the location). I discovered this through the The Frugal Traveler's column in NYTimes. You can find about this program by going to wwoof. One can 'wwoof'' all around the world.

But how to get there? One can do so by train and by bus but it is somewhat complicated. After dreaming about riding through the beautiful French countryside, I decided to train it from Paris to Toulouse (on the Very Fast Train), stay a day or so, and then ride the 112 Km to the farm . It is mainly flat going until the last pitch. Having worked hard with Google Maps, I now have the route worked out.

My folding bike travels in a suitcase. At my destination, out it comes and the suitcase becomes a trailer. Here I am somewhere between Quebec and Montreal back in 2006.

Would you believe that, after days of unrelenting rain here, what weather can I expect for this ride?



You've guessed it...rain showers! Still, the die is cast and I will take my chances and preprare for a wet ride.

I leave on Thursday next and will try to get a blog posting done while I am in France.

LAST POST ON COMPOSTING?

HOORAY!!! NO MORE POSTS ON COMPOSTING? Well, maybe a mention occasionally but I promise not to bore you with dreary details.

Have you noticed my new profile photo? I am caught partway through making a portable composting bin and, in the process, reviving some satisfying carpentry skills. The bin is likely the final phase of compost bin construction for me; I set it up just last night. Here is the historical array, from left to right, the first to last.

As remarked in a previous post, a compost pile needs to be around 48 cubic feet (1.9 cubic metres) so that heat is retained while the myriads of microbes go about their work. A hot pile means compost faster. The catch is that the pile has to be kept aerated or else it will go anaerobic (smelly and not quite what one wants) which means that the heap has to be turned over regularly. A pitchfork helps a lot but a portable bin goes further to ease the work. The four sides are held together by 'hook and eye' latches. When the pile needs turning over one simply disassembles the bin, sets it up alongside the pile, and pitches the pile into the bin.

Here is the latch arrangement and you can see that the frames are lined with hardware cloth (of course, chicken wire is fine too). All this will be put to the test today (Memorial Day) when I do the actual forking over.

All told, I think it took about two days work to make the bin, no doubt faster if you have a proper workshop including a bench saw that would make the cutting out faster. I admit to enjoying the construction. The frames are quite square and exactly the same size. Why the white paint? you might well ask. Well, it was the paint I had and I thought it would turn out brownish. Ah well, at least it is weather proofed and will last longer.

Apart from the benefits of composting (great for the soil structure and worms love it), I have enjoyed finding out about the entire process. Maybe I will venture into vermiculture but worms seem to be a picky bunch and have to be treated well. As I say, Watch this space....

Expect the next post to be a Birthday Post.

COMPOSTING 201 or THE DEVIL HIMSELF

COMPOSTING OCCURRED TO ME when I first encountered Autumn (Fall) here in the US northeast; mowing the huge lawn was not a problem to me (after all, there are two mowers, one a ride type, motor mowers in the garden shed), but when the leaves began to fall from all the trees and hedges the picture changed for me. At first, I raked the leaves and, like all the neighbors, took them out to the front to be collected by the local corporation. This was hard work. What did the corporation do with the leaves? When I discovered it was believed the leaves were composted I thought, why not do that myself? Anyway, you can read my earlier blogs on this.

Since I joined the composting army of enthusiasts, I have not raked leaves all that much and none have left the property (except when the wind blows hard). This is because I discovered that the (non-ride) mower is a "mulching mower"; the blades have a special shape that, with the mower set up one way, shreds material and returns it to the ground as the mower proceeds. Later, the mower can be set up to collect this material, rather like a vacuum cleaner. All that is required is to remove a plastic blocking plate from the rear of the mower so that cuttings and shredded leaves can go back into the catcher bag. Then all one has to do is to empty the bag contents onto the compost heap.

Well, it is not quite that simple as you will see; there is periodic work to be done. The secret of composting lies with the work that billions of bacteria do the real work within the heap. These bacteria are already on the leaves and lawn cuttings. It is good to mix leaves and grass cuttings together as the grass has high nitrogen content and bacteria love nitrogen. To see how quickly these little fellows go to work, collect the lawn cuttings in a barrow; when it is full go away for a cup of tea or a well-earned glass of beer. When you return, place your hand into the barrel full of cuttings and feel the warmth as the bacteria go about their work.

In an earlier post I noted that I have learned how the size of the heap is important. The new pile contains old leaves from last year plus some material from last year's pile on its left which had grass cuttings as well as leaves. When making this pile, I found old leaves shed up into finer particles, which helps the bacteria no end. The new pile is much superior and actually got smoking hot despite the cool weather.

The bacteria like a moist, humid environment and it is wise to water each layer as it is added to make it a little soggy. They also like lots of air and the best way to keep the pile aerated is to turn it over each two weeks or so. Another trick is to place small tree limbs horizontally in the pile and pull them out from time to time. I like to turn the pile over but found this to be hard work when using a garden fork; good exercise however.

When Uma asked me what I would like for my birthday (at the end of this month I turn 72!), I replied that I would dearly love a pitch fork. Why wait, said she, and the next time we were at the hardware store, we got the fork. What a blessing proper tools are! How I love my new fork. Now I know why 'the Devil' is often pictured with a pitchfork...he has so much work to do, pitching those poor souls, and the right sort of fork makes the work so much easier!

Here I am, in my favorite gardening hat, good old Aussie Blundstone elastic sided boots and all! Is this the devil himself?

The great thing about compost piles is that one can put almost anything into them (except meat and fats) and, provided they are kept aerated, always smell OK. The microbes just munch it all up and turn it into stuff that, when added to the garden, does wonders for soil structure and is loved greatly by the worms, keeping the soil warm and so aiding plant growth. You can see I am a compost nut.

I made up a sieve from and old pallet and some chicken netting (left over from the 'banish woodchucks' project) and this is very useful in preparing the compost for adding to the garden and for potting. Here is some in the ancient wheel barrow. It smells fresh and sweet and has a wonderful feel to it. How could this, a year ago, have been pesky leaves and grass cuttings?

UPDATE ON ENERGY: Recent development of huge natural gas fields in Texas and Pennsylvania, along with new drilling techniques will translate into plentiful supplies of natural gas. This should enable, with carbon cap and trade, a shift away from coal fired power plants.

WAITING FOR YOUR CONCERNS ON HEALTH INSURANCE MATTERS and will see you next time.

HEALTH INSURANCE & HERE WE GO AGAIN...

HERE'S TO OUR HEALTH and, hopefully, our wealth as well. This is mainly directed to US readers of this blog; the rest of you can look on and jump in with comments if you wish.

Health Insurance is back in the Senate and everybody seems to agree that something has to be done to broaden coverage and reduce the cost of health care. This is something in which we all hold a vital interest so be sure you are all boned up and tuned in. I won't bore you with facts that you probably already have thrust at you and have mulled over many times. However, one might think it a curious matter indeed that the US, the richest country in the world, as we say, allocates double the percentage (17%) of Gross National Product (GDP) as do countries with universal health insurance and yet still manages to have 47 million of population uninsured.

Seeing Michael Moore's film, 'Sicko', has a few surprises and is good back grounding. Much easier to access are the PBS FRONTLINE documentaries, Sick Around the World and Sick in America. These are readily available online (just right click on the titles to open the relevant Websites). The first reviews health insurance and health care in five capitalist countries (The United Kingdom, Japan, France, Taiwan, and Germany) and gives some idea of the variations that are possible based on the model invented by Bismark in Germany in late 19th Century.

If you want to read up on the issues, try 'Social Security, the Phony Crisis' (by Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot); these two economists are relatively easy to read and lay out the issues relating to 'saving' Medicare and Social Security Insurance really well.. They are also a good introduction to how economists think about these things. This was published in 1998 but issues have not changed significantly between then and now, putting aside the rapid increase in health care costs since then.

On a personal note, when I came to the US from Australia in 1995, I stepped out of having health insurance as a right into having none at all. I was self-employed for six months, living in Arizona, and could not afford health insurance. It was a more than a tad scary, to tell the truth, especially as I came down with a severe respiratory infection and avoided seeing a doctor on account of cost. How different from Australia where I could walk into any doctor's (or doctors') office with my little green Medicare card and be seen within the day, more often than not, within the hour.

This is not a time to be fooled by such slogans as 'socialized' medicine. With the exception of the UK system, in the capitalist counties touched on in these documentaries (plus Canada, Australia and New Zealand), all practitioners operate on a fee-for-service basis. The government does not tell them how to practice health care, as US health care insurers seem to be coming increasingly close to doing. Not insignificantly, no one is ever driven into bankruptcy by health care bills.

In health programs that follow Bismark's model, all persons are covered for health care and all covered persons have to purchase cover. A simple way of looking at this is to take the total cost of health care and divide this by the total number of purchasers to get the premium cost which, as it eventuates, is not a horrifying amount.

Apart from the obvious advantages of universal care, this spreads the risk of health care vertically over all ages and horizontally over all disorders providing the opportunity of the collection of broad data to give a picture of the total health task. In turn, this enables a progressive shift away from treating disorders when they get serious to a focus on how they can be prevented or made of less effect in the long term.Information from the broad health practice over the entire population can indicate which are the most effective treatments ('best practice"). However, this not different from from undergoing professional education and training, or later professional training courses. While this is a hope of health care planning, the general concern in most advanced health care systems is to free up practitioners to good practice while focusing on fraud and questionable or excessively costly practices.

Universal health systems are developing ways of limiting the cost of health care without compromising the health of their populations or imposing financial stress. You can find out about this in the documentaries mentioned above. Also, as in Taiwan, it is very possible to provide electronic health care histories on the entitlement card (a smart card). Is it possible to provide adequate health care for all at about 8% of GDP? Actually...Yes!

How likely is it that the US will go all the way to universal health care this time around? Not very...unless ordinary citizens take up the call for urgent and extensive change. Who, currently, gets the most benefit from the US health set up? For the answer, one would have to look at who has the strongest lobbies in Washington and that would be likely to be the health insurers and the drug companies. These provide huge sums toward politicians' 'soft money', so essential for successful electioneering here in the US. Nothing is more coveted by politicians than re-election which is why, up till now, they have the health system all should have and do not.

What are your concerns about health cover and health insurance? I'll see if I can point to answers.

THE TAIL END OF ENERGY...

I THINK I AM ABOUT DONE with the energy dilemmas...do I hear a collective sigh of relief?

Now we know that most oil is used by folk like you and me who like to drive cars and 'light trucks'. The rest goes to the transport of goods, mostly to trucking and rail companies. At one time I thought that shifting from trucking to rail transport would be a smart move, since the efficiency of rail transport is about six times better than trucking. Unfortunately, it seems that the rail companies are not up to carrying more goods since they have not increased rolling stock. One can hardly blame them as too much capital investment that is not matched to increasing the volume of business could only reduce profits. Rail has not been able to compete with trucking so long as fuel has remained relatively low cost, nor can rail deliver door to door.

We face several dilemmas.

Under the force of the recession, transport of goods has been significantly diminished while our use of cars and trucks has remained at a lowered level. Consequently, oil reserves have tended to rise as world demand for oil has continued at a reduced level, keeping costs around $50 per barrel. An example of the effect of this is that gasoline prices are not expected to rise above $3 per gallon right through to the end of this year. It looks as if I am going to lose a side-bet that gas would cost $9 per gallon by November! This may lead to a tendency for new car buyers to return to purchasing 'gas-guzzlers'. In the face of this, at least some economists are proposing lifting the fuel tax to curb demand and increase funding for infrastructure improvement. However, drivers are unlikely to welcome this suggestion!

On the home front, natural gas prices are expected to fall through this year and over winter (here in the Northern Hemisphere). This is because the high price of natural gas sparked a frenzy of drilling, helped along by new techniques in extracting gas, so that supply has significantly increased. This will also lower the price of electricity to the degree that natural gas is used to produce electrical power. This likely will lower homeowners' incentive to effect economies, especially where these require considerable capital outlay. Likewise, the lower cost of energy is adversely affecting investment in alternative energy from wind and sun.

We seem to be caught in the 'energy doldrums'. The most likely energy enhancements will consist of picking the 'lowest fruit'; increasing power output will fall to upgrading nuclear power plants and 'decoupling' profits from power production. That will see the power suppliers encouraging lower power consumption through 'smart grids' (like sending you a message about when to run your air conditioner in summer heat), and increasing your use of power when it is plentiful and cheap (like turning on your water heater at night). To a degree, power producers will hold off, waiting to see how the wind of public policy will blow.

I think we can expect public policy to focus on infrastructure improvements and encouraging power companies to reduce consumption. Pushing alternative energy will be tricky so long as conventional power remains relatively cheap; long term, we must find a way to greatly increase the former and to store energy from these sources to make it available as needed.

As for you and me, likely we will hold off too.

Retreating to the present, I am once more back in the garden. Prior to Passover/Easter, we enjoyed the 'Springing Grass' New Moon and can expect some frosts still through to mid-May. But...things are warming up and all around the trees and shrubs are preparing to bust forth. I have joined a Master Gardner course on Tuesdays at the county center (an extension course with Cornell University, which holds the NY State Land Grant) and am finding out all about gardening in this part of the world. We took out some of the dead trees at the end of the yard and the tree fellers allowed me to use their massive chipper to get rid of quite a deal of cuttings. I now have a pile of chippings to use around the garden and some of the logs from the old trees. This enabled me to clear up a lot of leaf material and start a new compost heap.

I remain a compost enthusiast and have learned a great deal about this ancient art. My new heap is 4' x 4' (about a foot each way bigger) to retain composting heat better. A good bit of last year's product is now laid out in a new garden bed waiting to be dug in. The mower has a new spark plug and the blades are newly sharpened. I am in the process of mapping the garden so as to plan it's development, including a section for woodland environment. Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...it's off to work we go!

How wonderful it is to spend time in the warming, sunny back yard! I have even been out cycling about a dozen times as the world is warming.

LEFT HAND, RIGHT HAND

OIL DEPENDENCE REFLECTS the central role of motor transport in the US culture. Much the same can be said for all the developed nations. Most oil used is consumed in the transport sector. The private use of motor cars, SUVs, and light trucks forms the great bulk of this consumption. Putting this another way, the cars and pickups we ordinary folk drive about constitute the main reason for our dependence on supplies from other countries. It also means there is a sharp disconnect between the energy used for transport and other energy use.

Very little oil is used to generate electrical power. Electrical power is generated from burning coal and natural gas or from heat generated in nuclear reactors. A small amount comes from wind and solar sources. Saving power by, say, fitting energy efficient light bulbs will do nothing to ease dependence of foreign oil.

In the main, electrical power stations were built to meet relatively local needs. Over time, to handle fluctuations in demand, local grids were connected via high voltage transmission lines that also came to serve small communities. The power these networks could deliver remained closely related to demand, with new generating plants only being constructed to match increasing demand. The tendency of demand to increase above capacity occasionally caused blackouts, as also did the inability for the networks to manage transmission 'accidents' arising from decrepitude from having grown 'like Topsy'.

Oil used for transport is the left hand of energy while the right hand is the energy used in our homes, large buildings, powering industry, street lighting, and information transmission. While we might learn to use private transport less or come to use more economical vehicles, the tendency has long been for demand for electrical power to increase. For example, living in ever larger houses has increased the demand for air conditioning. Despite that it is not difficult to design and build so that little energy is needed for heating or cooling, most houses are woefully inefficient at managing internal temperature. Modern electronic devices like wide screen TVs and sound systems are energy hogs, even when seemingly turned off, as they remain in standby state so they can come back on quickly. Our reliance on the Internet and the great Web search engines demand considerable electrical power (Google reputedly has over 850,000 servers scattered around the US).

Building new power stations is no longer the easy option. Coal is the most abundant energy source in the US, enough for hundreds of years into the future. The problem is that coal-powered stations are too 'dirty' in regard to climate changing emissions, and use too much water for cooling. Carbon capture from these stations is likely to raise costs as much as 30%. Natural gas powered stations are quicker to construct and cheaper to run while being relatively 'clean' to operate; however, the US is not rich in natural gas and is already an importer of this energy source. Coal can be converted to oil or to natural gas but this is a 'dirty' process as well as costly. Nuclear power is probably the preferred option but such stations take long to construct and the power produced is fairly expensive. In any event, the electrical grid must achieve greater capacity and efficiency before much more power can usefully be generated and transmitted. Consider that, over great distances, up to 80% of power is lost by radiation. Generally, we are on the cusp and it is more likely that power suppliers will make money by encouraging less use of energy than by supplying more energy. We are entering the age of 'smart grids'.

All this casts a new light on the notion that we can shift from oil to electricity in order to maintain our current level of private transport by cars, SUVs, and light trucks. Suppose our fairy god-mother waved her wand and tomorrow half the car population had been transformed into electrically powered vehicles. Elated, the lucky owners would do their 50 or 100 miles commute and then do an overnight recharge , sucking electricity off the grid. Ideally, we would become less dependent on oil imports from the Middle-East, freeing money for internal spending and thus boosting the economy. In reality, this could have a disastrous effect as it is unlikely the power grid could support this huge increase in load; especially in summer when air conditioning comes on line. The Pickens Plan proposes that we switch cars to natural gas while we build alternate energy sources like wind and solar power, and enlarge and modernize the national electricity grid, paving the way to alternate power for cars. The transition to electric cars is likely to be slow, taking perhaps a decade to advance electric cars to a majority. Hopefully, over this period, necessary work on the national grid will have been undertaken, means to store the intermittent flow of power from solar and wind sources will have been invented, and the ability to produce renewable power greatly enhanced.

Seems as if we have painted ourselves into quite a corner. Without doubt the longer term view is likely to see the cost of energy rising, since current coal-fired power generation is the cheapest means. If the cost of electrical power rises steeply, as we saw with the rise in the price of fuel, demand will abate. We will use less either because of rising cost or because we become energy smart. In a world of finite resources and amidst the threatening dangers of climate change, Can we have our cake and eat it? I suppose the smart folk will adjust their mode of living and the rest will be adjusted by market forces.

The floor is yours...what adjustments have you tried, heard of, and can recommend? I invite you to write them as comments and the more the merrier.