June 12, 2008: Algae

[Imigo Jones]

Happy Father's Day!
Over the weekend I watched The Fugitive with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Afterwards we went downtown and had a beer.

I mean I watched the movie starring them. Part of the movie's action takes place in downtown Chicago on St. Patrick's Day , and a short establishing shot was very similar to this pic I posted the other day on page 1:

.

Right: Pic to fill space to right of pic under discussion

The river-dyeing boat was making the exact same curlicue, probably in front of the same bridge. Son of a gun--I'm going to fast-forward the tape and find that shot again. . . .

1. The main difference is that in the movie the river is already very green, so you don't totally get that it was the guys in the boat dyeing it and mixing it.

2. Also, in the pic the boat is stationary in the frame, whereas in the movie it is in motion.

3. In the pic the boat is just east of the State Street Bridge (we're looking west). In the movie the boat is just east of the Dearborn Avenue Bridge, the next bridge west in the pic.

4. The still camera is way up, plus over a block away from the boat, probably shooting out a window in the 360 N. Michigan Building (SW corner of Wacker & Michigan; the building lines up with the river like this because of the northward bend in the river starting in the bottom left of the pic). The movie camera is right down on the State Street Bridge, less than a block away from the boat, and toward the bridge's north end (in the pic this is the nearest bridge, and toward that bridgetender's "house" at right, between us and Marina City).

5. Both shots are toward the west, but the movie shot starts by looking SW toward Dearborn & Wacker, then pans right, following the boat, to look almost straight W.

6. The boats are making almost the exact same curlicue, but in the movie the boat swings out farther to the right (north). Since the camera is near the N end of the State Street Bridge, it still doesn't pan right enough to show any buildings on the north bank of the river (notably in pic, Marina City).

7. While panning right, the movie camera also tilts up a bit, so the end of the movie shot and the pic both show the warehouses and smokestacks in the distance, past Wolf Point (where the North and South Branches of the Chicago River join to form the Main Stem).

8. The Fugitive was released in 1993. The pic isn't too new, either, because this Wolf Point vista (7) is now horribly blocked off by the blah, 38-story Riverbend Condominiums (built 2000-2002). It doesn't look like the Smith & Wollensky restaurant has been plopped down onto the Marina City plaza yet (mid-'90s?), either.



Been doing it since 1962; don't know when they started doing it at Chengchow (Zhèngzhōu).

To read all about dyeing the river and see three St. Paddy's Days' worth of pics, plus stuff on other Irish traditions in Chicago, this woman with a Chicago architecture blog is the hostess with the mostes':
http://lynnbecker.com/repeat/stpat/stpat.htm
http://lynnbecker.com/repeat/stpat/08stpat.htm

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Ahhhhh.... China. The land of unregulated growth and destruction of their environment as they beg us to control green house gas while they build a new coal fired plant each week. Not surprising.

Originally Posted by newtimer

...and where the natives insist on cranking up their air-conditioners in the summer, while all the windows in the house are open for "fresh" air.

Excerpts from a NY Times article (hence the font):

China Increases Lead as Biggest Carbon Dioxide Emitter
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: June 14, 2008

China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year’s global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found.

The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, found that in 2007 China’s emissions were 14 percent higher than those of the United States. In the previous year’s annual study, the researchers found for the first time that China had become the world’s leading emitter, with carbon emissions 7 percent higher by volume than the United States in 2006. . . .

China is heavily dependent on coal and has seen its most rapid growth in some of the world’s most heavily polluting industrial sectors: cement, aluminum and plate glass. Twenty percent of China’s emissions come from its cement kilns, essential for its construction boom and likely to be working overtime this year amid preparations for the Olympics and rebuilding after last month’s devastating earthquake. . . .



Beijing, shrouded in smog on Friday, has heavy air pollution, as does much of the rest of China. (Guang Niu/Getty Images) [Looks fun to run in.]

The United States still has a vast lead in carbon dioxide emissions per person. The average American is responsible for 19.4 tons. Average emissions per person in Russia are 11.8 tons; in the European Union, 8.6 tons; China, 5.1 tons; and India, 1.8 tons. . . .

Eighty percent of the world’s coal demand comes from China, according to the International Energy Agency.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Imigo Jones

1. The main difference is that in the movie the river is already very green, so you don't totally get that it was the guys in the boat dyeing it and mixing it.

If one is from Chicago, one knows exactly what the boat in the very green river means.