Footprints Filled With Water

Everybody's buzz word this day is "footprint"--our mark on the world. We--most of us--are looking for ways to reduce our "carbon footprint", though I don't see much evidence that we are reducing the size of our physical footprint. One thing we did, and I think it will catch on very soon, with the huge rise in the cost of building materials, is to build on what's there, instead of building anew.

In the long run, though, it's the quantity of the footprints that is causing the problem.

On the related topic of global warming, there's an excellent article in this month's "OnEarth" (or "Onearth")--the publication of NRDC, the Natural Resource Defense Center--on Bangladesh. Bangladesh is clearly Ground Zero (or maybe Ground -10 feet) for the mass effect of the rising sea level that is expected to result from global warming. (Reference: http://www.onearth.org/article/the-gathering-storm)

My take on the article is that the Bangladeshis are resourceful and active and will not get surprised and inundated by rising sea levels. People will be displaced and crowd into the cities, particularly Dhaka, one of the most hellish cities on earth, but that is really nothing new. The likely principal victim in that area will be the Bengal tiger, as their safest habitat in the world, the Sundaram swamp near the border with India, is likely to end up entirely underwater. India is planning ahead and building a tall border fence. We know this story, and it will only work at crunch time if it's manned by soldiers with automatic rifles.

On a related subject, I read in the San Francisco Chronicle the other day about the real-life girl who held the record for tree-sitting, the inspiration for T.C. Boyle in Friend of the Earth.
The good news appears to be that the founders of The Gap are taking their rapidly-shrinking pile of money from the stores and investing in virgin forest there in Northern California, ensuring the survival of the lumber mill (at a lower level of activity).