We interrupt your green tech propaganda for a low-tech eco-ramble

Spent the day today hiking the environs of the Mohonk Mountain House, a resort established 138 years ago on the Shawangunk Ridge.

I actually intended to submit this entry as a plea for better solar chargers yesterday, since midway through the first draft, my iPhone battery decided to take a bit of a rest while I was good enough to charge it. Maybe next year when I am determined to revisit during a peak fall foliage weekend, since SolarStyle, which offers a bunch of different product lines, still hasn't released a universal one. Although maybe one of the iPod derivatives would suffice, but I digress.

Anyway, back at home base on my desktop as I write this, my head is still reeling from the canoe trip I took on Mohonk Lake early this morning with the hotel's resident naturalist Michael Ridolfo. (Ironically, Michael is a former research and development guy for IBM, although he wouldn't actually disclose WHAT he did because of some super-duper top-secret clearance. Or maybe he just didn't want to talk about it.) Turns out Mohonk is one of those special places where scientists (from botanists to anthropologists to geologists) flock because of the wealth of data to be collected. Ridolfo tells me that the first evidence of human settlement comes back around 11,000 years ago.

I was minding my own business at Mohonk. I didn't MEAN to find fodder for this blog on a mini-vacation, but it turns out that Dan Smiley (a member of the resort's founding family) was cataloging the harbingers of climate change way before we collectively started using that term to describe it.

Smiley was responsible for the establishment of a national weather station within the preserve way back in 1896. Apparently, the guy was METICULOUS in his collection of daily stats. So much so that the scientists manning the station today still use the same recording equipment he was using. While we may think of his techniques as antiquated and very "analog," Ridolfo says scientists from all over the country have called upon Smiley's records as evidence for their own projects. They are full of dozens, if not hundreds of eco-indicators about temperature fluctuations, rain fall and the comings and goings of wildlife species

Green tech is no substitute for the awesome power of human curiosity and imagination. But combined, their power is awesome.