Got solar?

You can lease a solar system from a company like Solar City (their office is in Sacramento). For about $80 a month you can become part of a massive distributed power grid that will:

(a) save the planet
(b) prevent Enrons from reforming

Righteous, no? Every day you can log on to a web site like the one in the picture. It gives you an accurate summary of what you generate each day, and how much carbon you offset.

Sorry about the lack of numbers in the graph—they didn't translate when I converted the file. But basically, it being a rather cold day late in the year, solar production peaked at about 1.2 kilowatt hours today. Can't wait to see what it gets up to in July...

Queer Ecology

I'm writing an essay called “Queer Ecology.” It's for PMLA, the flagship journal of my neck of the Humanities woods. To be honest, I'm a little nervous about how to proceed. But I'm passionate about my hypothesis: that ecology is queer to its very (un)foundations.

What do you think?

The Ecological Thought is away

I'm so happy to report that The Ecological Thought went to press today, on time. Finishing it was a three-day all-out effort.

Morton on iTunes

Greetings all. If you're at a loose end, you could always go to iTunes and click on iTunes U. Click on the link to “Universities and Colleges.” Then find UC Davis (under U, of course). Then click on “Literature and the Environment”—you can download the class I'm teaching at the moment, for free.

I'll be on UCTV fairly soon (also on iTunes) doing a symposium called “Creativity in the Face of Climate Change.”

Immense

The moment: Obama's. An immense wave of sanity and clarity just passed through the US of A. There's been something in the air for weeks—it was this. Many eyes have tears in them—two of them are in my face...

Never been so involved in any election in my life. I made about 900 phone calls to undecided voters and others, and to get out the vote. Obama created a gigantic movement, as well inspiring people to vote. It was like being part of a gigantic democracy rave. I couldn't stop thinking of my man Shelley:

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number;
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few. (The Mask of Anarchy)

My interactions with people will fill my mind for some time to come. I'll try to post on them here. I've spoken with people from Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Missouri.

A special shout out to Briana, a 20-year-old woman from Denver. Amazingly, she was voting at a school I know well near my sister in law's house. I walked her through her first time voting. She was so into voting for Obama and she was very nervous. One of the Latinas who swung it in CO.