Gobbled by Google
I’ve been gobbled by Google. I can’t believe it. I was doing a little research for my next blog. I wanted to give DTE the benefit of the doubt as to whether they trap their CO2 emissions (gasification process) from their plants. I searched Michigan coalburner info. The second and third header under that search said My World and Everything In It. Well stupid me thinks, hmmm someone’s got the same title as me—until I read blogsmonroe.com. Holy cow, I’m listed in a Google search. Of course it’s the blog about “Who’s Stalling.” I think the politicians mentioned got the attention, not me. But I’ll take it. When I clicked on it, it brings up my web blog in general.
Back to DTE. Well so much for benefit of the doubt. I went to the homepage of their own website, clicked corporate, and clicked environment. http://www.dteenergy.com/environment/2004/pdfs/history.pdf#Carbon. It brought up a PDF file that states in a header “Carbon dioxide emissions are expected to increase somewhat over the next 15 years.” Somewhat? What’s somewhat? Their website had statistics. “In 2004, Edison power plants emitted 43 million tons of CO2—25% increase from 1974, but a 10% decrease from 1987.” They do employ a CO2 offset program that lowers emissions a little, but they don’t explain how it works. They are trying to eliminate other larger particles and SO2. They do not use the gasification process that traps all emissions and stores them. It is too expensive.
We are back to something Erich commented about in a blog, with which I agree. We will be charged for everything. We will suffer most of the inconvenience. My last blog addressed this. Why does the public always pay for bad decisions by corporations? Corporations should be held accountable. No, I don’t think we should ignore global warming. That’s not an answer. Gore’s movie isn’t called “An Inconvenient Truth” for nothing. The longer we procrastinate about change, the more we argue about whether or not it’s true, the more we are going to be inconvenienced. Our lives will be the most miserable as a result. The wealthy will suffer less no doubt. Get off your duff and start complaining to politicians. That’s how our country is supposed to work. Don’t be afraid to do it. Heck I’ll give you the number to Capitol Hill for Levin: 202-224-3121 and Dingell: 202-225-3121. Someone always answers. They take down everything you say. No muss. No fuss. The squeaky wheel thing works. It’s always worked. Whiners win if only to shut them up.
The biggest reason I was checking out our coalburners and general air pollution is because a new study by the New England Journal Of Medicine have published findings that women are more at risk from air born pollution than men. The results are higher rates of various cancers, emphysema, lung related diseases, etc. Women are 76% more likely to suffer heart attack or stroke than men from air born pollution. The magnitude of the findings is substantially higher than in prior studies. It was a long term study of 65,000 post menopausal women regardless of weight, smoking, cholesterol, or blood pressure. Women have smaller coronary arteries. They suffer greater risk. The study also measured areas of the country with the highest levels of air pollution. Detroit-Warren-Flint area is #6 of course. The report did state that instead of moving from the high pollution area; try to reduce risk factors we can control. Are they saying we have no choice about our air quality, that we just have to eat it. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work in this country. That’s more like capitalism dictating to us.