Our World and Everything in It

Operation Spotlight is a new move by the League of Conservation Voters to expose the politicians who accept the most money from special interest groups (lobbyists). It’s a timely program, since congress has a new bill in front of them now, to limit lobbyist donations. This bill to restrict lobbyists may or may not pass in Congress. Regardless, the LCV hopes to defeat the candidates that do the bidding of rich lobby groups through Operation Spotlight. What a good name for the program. What do you think about lobbyists? Remember there are lobbyists that want good things like more research and funding for children’s diseases, humane organizations for animals. Lobbyists are not all bad. Do we want to get rid of all of them, or some of them, or put restrictions on what is allowed?

LCV plans to let senators and reps know that Operation Spotlight will be paying attention to who contributes what, to whose campaign, relative to blocking efforts to curb global warming, and allowing pollution to continue. They will publish the information. This is a good thing. The first Operation Spotlight report will be out in the coming weeks. But LCV has been keeping track all along, and I was a little surprised at the figures from 2006. The big contributors against efforts to help the environment are:

       Electric utilities, which donated $15 million;
       Oil and coal industries that padded coffers with $21 million;
       Transportation, such as car companies, that offered up almost $40 million.

Over all, since the 2000 election corporate polluters contributed $586 million dollars to candidates in congress! That’s some mighty big opposition to going green. My biggest surprise was the contribution by car companies. Aren’t they supposed to be in financial trouble ? No wonder we can’t come up with cars that get more than 35 miles per gallon. Fuel efficiency like that gets put off until 2020. Thirteen years is a pretty steep wait, considering we are supposed to get moving in the next 10 years to try to squelch some of the bad weather and rising waters that are already turning up. It was clearly stated, at least I got it, that even though we act quickly; we are still going to see some pretty bad stuff. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna.

I read an interesting article on World Wire about electric scooters. People are fed up with gas prices and are genuinely concerned about the environment. So scooters are selling like hotcakes all over the country. The number one question potential scooter buyer’s ask: “Will it get me to work and back?” Sure will. They run on pennies compared to dollars per gallon for gas, have 1/10th the impact on the environment, a cheap model can be purchased for $200-$300 dollars, and they are quiet.

Cities are beginning to revise their laws to allow these scooters on the streets. Will we have scooter lanes? Some cities have bike lanes. It’s all very Asian I think. It reminds me of pictures of downtown Saigon. Everybody is on a scooter. Unfortunately, Vietnamese scooters are puffing out CO2, but the picture remains the same. Will people in suits use a scooter? I can see the tie trailing behind now. Will everyone have to wear a helmet? This is all pretty new.

Green is a brand new industry waiting to happen. Scooters sales are a good example of a green market that is taking off because it offers a product that does the job with very little environmental impact, comes in all price ranges, and the savings on gas pays for the scooter in a short time. It’s a good green product that the public will buy when offered the choice. An electric scooter dealer reported over 28% increase in his sales on-line and at his Tampa retail-outlet since 2006.

Tampa retail outlet? New picture here. Senior citizens, I love em to death, but many do not drive well. My new mental picture is of senior drivers on the street at the same time as a bunch of electric scooter commuters. Scooter Commuter has got a ring to it. Anyway this could be a recipe for disaster.

My dear departed father was a moped man in Florida. To me, moped is a scooter with another name. I got him a baseball hat that said “Senior on Wheels.” He had all kinds of mopeds. His hobby was restoring them to run like new. We each had our own when we visited and would tear around in the orange groves on them.

My husband set out with my dad on mopeds. When they got back my husband, hair sticking straight up from the wind and eyes wild, swore he’d never go with my dad again. Why? Because they went along side a highway on the shoulder (illegal), my dad then cut across 3 lanes of traffic to a ramp, while cars were winging buy, and then stood up and waved for Ed to come on; it was all right. Mind you my husband has owned 2 Harleys. On top of that my dad had a heart condition and knew it. He shouldn’t have been out there to begin with. See what I mean about scooters in FLA?

Now that I’ve taken you off the subject, if you are interested in becoming a scooter commuter, or want one for fun, to get around your property, or to buy for your kids (scooters come in sizes) check out this website:

http://www.tm-scooterhaven.com/

Hey, I just remembered. Mary, who writes the HR blog, used to wing to her job at the bank on a scooter way back in the 70’s. It was an old gas bike, but I remember that now. She wore a helmet. I can’t remember if she wore a skirt too. Rotten I should blog this huh? LOL
 

Gusty winds have caused the ongoing Lake Tahoe fire to jump barrier lines today. 2000 more residents are literally running from their homes. The fire is facing winds that are much greater than those that caused the fire to spread. It seems incredible doesn’t it, that a Lake area can actually burn? It’s a scary thought for Michigan residents, especially when it’s been dry around here.

Monday I was in a shopping area at Allen and West Rds., and passed a median in a parking lot, covered with what apparently was some pretty dry mulch that was smoking and on fire. Someone may have innocently flicked a cigarette butt out his or her window. I think we need to watch where we use any type of fire on hot, dry days like this, especially since we know that lake areas can burn.

I caught a little bit of an interview with a person who lost his home in one of the fires that admitted he used to think and practice what many of us still think and practice; it isn’t me, isn’t going to happen to me, or it doesn’t concern me. And then it happens. He said the reality is numbing. There is absolutely nothing left of a lifetime. Everything is in cinders or melted. He and his family are displaced. They are going through any savings they had, waiting for insurance benefits to kick in. They have pets and need to find housing. They have very little in clothing. The reality is devastating.

I think we need to concentrate on important things in the news. There are fellow citizens everywhere whose lives are being ripped out from under them because of natural disasters. Texas is flooding; the Missouri area has been flooding. Fires in Florida really took a toll in the Lake Okeechobee area. The news reports these things of course, but immediately following new clips like this, is the latest news about Paris Hilton. With all the important things going on in the world, when a 16 year old married her 40-year-old coach from high school, abcnews.com got 80,000 hits on that one piece. What’s wrong with this picture? Everyone’s got an opinion about a 16 and 40 year old marrying, but nothing about all the cuts being made in the federal budget that affects our lives and our environment?  Or maybe it’s because government news isn’t being reported as readily as it should be. What is reported appears to be watered down. Does anyone else think we’re getting selective news in the media these days?

No Impact Man is 46-year-old author, Colin Beavan, who lives in New York that decided to live one year without making a net negative impact to the environment. His wife and 2-year-old daughter are along for the ride. By no net impact the family means they will not create any new environmental pollution. They are not using lights, their refrigerator, their car, drinking coffee, and he is not using toilet paper. Hey, don’t ask me. I missed the segment of Good Morning America that explained exactly what he was using. He has one single solar panel on the roof that powers his laptop. They live on an upper floor and have to climb 9 flights of stairs without the elevator.

What they’ve found half way through the experiment is that we are mistaken thinking we need all kinds of things. They’ve certainly become very fit, riding bikes everywhere and climbing stairs. Living by candlelight, and more than likely retiring early, they find they are outdoors much more than before. They make an effort to go to the park. And he says everything is much more romantic. The experiment has increased intimacy and connection. Of course, there are no diversions, with no lights, no TV, they have to talk and entertain each other. Now we know why 3^rd world countries reproduce at such a high rate. There is nothing else to do. The number one thing that is missed is the refrigerator. Buying fresh food everyday and immediately taking it home to cook would be rustic to say the least.

If you’re curious and have any questions at all about what it is like without modern conveniences and going green to the extreme contact Colin at his website. I think I’m going to have to ask what it’s like in New York without A/C nine flights up. Ever been to NYC in July? Trapped heat is all I can say. Your feet get hot.

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/2007/02/what_you_need_t.html

I know “Not From Around Here” wanted to know the deal with the Fish Flies around here. Someone commented that fish flies indicate the good health of our lakes. I’m reading reports of what’s being dredged up at designated sites around the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Legacy Act. We have a lot of coalburners, particularly around Lake Erie, that put mercury in the atmosphere and ultimately the water, I see tumors on fish, and I’ve lived on Lake Erie for the past 20 years. Fish flies are synonomous with clean water but the facts presented don’t warrant that. I went to some websites to find why fish flies mean the water is clean. There is no big connection other than the fish flies live on the bottom of the lakes for up to 2 years before they emerge. So the logic is that the bottom of the lake and water must be pretty clean. Fish flies are sensitive to oxygen levels. Polluted water has lower oxygen levels.

Oxygen levels in water are also low when there is a lot of weed growth. And what about adaptation? The fish flies we’re seeing used to be rare to Georgia I believe. Suppose they’ve adapted to pollutants? And because we’re warming up here in Michigan we’ve had a new influx of these southern fish flies. We had a minor plague of fruit flies last fall that didn’t leave until Christmas that were also a rare type of fruit fly. They had already adapted to global climate change and came from Europe. Lower species of life like fruit flies, and fish flies adapt to change easily, and extremely fast compared to higher forms of life. That is why fruit flies are used in biology classes. The results for generations shows up quickly.

What I want to know is can’t we just check the water in the Lakes to know the lakes are clean. The idea that fish flies indicate the water is clean over-all might not hold true.  It’s not really scientifice. I don’t get very many fish flies and never have in 20 years of living on the water. I know Bolles Harbor is littered with them sometimes. There is a very big difference where they do and don’t appear in quantity. To say the water is clean over-all, based on fish flies, is not correct then. The assumption is that the presence of fish flies indicate water is clean, then the absence of fish flies indicate it’s dirty. Some places are full of fish flies, others are not, therefore, the water is clean in certain areas only. Somebody needs to do more research on this new, rare fish fly. Quite possibly, I don’t have any fish flies because I live near the mouth of the Detroit River, or my fish flies haven’t fully adapted yet.

In any event, I’m glad I’ve never really been plagued with the little boogers and everyone I know is amazed my neighborhood is not overabundant with fish flies. I’m glad because after the plague of the fruit flies last fall, I have a greater sense for what could be real life plagues in the future. Fish flies would be one of the most repugnant plagues for sure.

I just read a scathing report about concentrated efforts by the Bush administration to distort and obstruct scientific facts about global warming over the past 6 years. It’s called “Six Years of Deceit” by Tim Dickinson, in this month’s issue of Rolling Stone. It’s a must read if you are at all interested how badly we’ve been lied to. It does a good job detailing everything and everyone involved in this huge denial machine, beginning in 2001 to the present.

I think it’s criminal. Global warming will have dire consequences for every living thing on earth and in short order. Any attempt to stop the flow of information that could save millions of lives is simply criminal. There is no other way to look at it. If you venture to argue the point, just remember your argument when you can no longer take a shower when you want, when your energy usage is limited, when you are forced to go on a diet because of food shortages, when the whole western population of the U.S. begins to migrate toward states with clean water, and when having homeowners insurance means absolutely nothing because there have been so many disasters in this country, insurance policies can’t possibly pay up. I keep asking if we are ready to move over here in Michigan. We think it’s bad that everyone is leaving the state now. Wait till the entire country attempts to move here for the water.

It sounds far fetched, but 8 million people without homes are already wandering the earth right now. 8 million people are an awful lot of nomads, refugees, whatever we want to call them, but they are human beings without a place to stay. Our own country is not that far from this scenario, if we don’t get a grip on global warming. Because we live in the automobile state, the fight to save that industry is causing a backlash on efforts to move forward to save the planet. The latest energy bill gives the American auto industry 13 years to come up with cars that get 35 miles per gallon? Thirteen years? Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are part of the stall this time and will be hearing from me. Let them know what you think about the dismally, disappointing energy bill. I know what I’m doing when I go shopping for a new hybrid next year. I’ll buy Japanese with a clear conscience. The Rolling Stone article revealed that Ford Motor Company was in on some of the policy making for global climate change policy along with the likes of Exxon Mobil people. It’s totally unethical. Ford has been whining about profit loss and their only going to lose more by not getting in the race at all. I’m seriously thinking of trading my stock next, because Ford reminds me of Jefferson schools.

It wasn’t that long ago in my school district, Jefferson Schools that I ran into the same type of sad story telling straight from the superintendent. The school was hurting for money and every cut the school could possibly make, had been made. But through the Freedom of Information Act, I was able to procure the salary and perks for the same superintendent with the sad story. His benefits revealed a completely different story. So every time I hear Ford Motor Company’s spokesman talk about the hurt put on the auto industry by global warming initiatives, I think of Jefferson schools. Once I saw an expose of Ford officials on the program 20/20, my doubts were confirmed. The same spokesperson for Ford that whines about the company’s financial situation, flies a company jet every weekend to his winter home in Palm Beach and back again to Detroit on Monday. Just how bad is Ford supposed to be hurting? Regular weekend travel in a company jet is not an example of a company that’s in dire straights. And what about GM’s latest claim that hydrogen fuel cell cars will be mass-produced by 2020? One car company seems to be moving ahead, and another is still whining, getting sympathy from our legislators, while still another, Chrysler, who produced hydrogen fueled busses for another country 3 years ago, simply sells out. There are three different scenarios for three different American car companies. Go figure.

There are so many unethical practices in this White House that I think people are immune to it. Most of the experts working on global warming in departments like the EPA, are linked to big oil, particularly Exxon Mobil. Writer Tim Dickinson did a thorough job showing an unethical trail from beginning to end. There is an easy to read chart, titled ” The climate Cabal” that introduces the “industry hatchet men who shaped Bush’s do-nothing policy on global warming.”
Of course, there can be no real dirt on this White House without Cheney, and Karl Rove. They are both ingrained in this very big cover up. I blogged about Cheney in the 2001 elections. His voting record consistently vetoes any clean air, or water initiatives in lieu of lovely things like trash dumps, or coal burners. His former supporters and even college roommates made statements that they had never met anyone that had lower empathy for his fellow human beings than Dick Cheney.

The article “Six Years of Deceit” is a must read:

 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15148655/the_secret_campaign_of_president_george_bushs_administration_to_deny_global.

If you prefer an easy to watch slide show on the subject, Rolling Stone has provided that also at the beginning of the page above. Just click on the links. 

“Fast Food Nation” may not be a Michael Moore documentary, but it is a movie about some timely topics like why more and more of our food is showing up tainted with E Coli. It covers quite a few subjects, many of which I’ve already written about. I witnessed a lot of true facts in this star studded movie about eminent domain, migrant workers, industrialized farms, and greed in exchange for our healthy food supply. Oh, and yes a lot of mention about the machine that’s at work in this current, less than ethical, administration of ours that is at the core of much that is wrong today.

 Watch it. It is poignant, sometimes funny, sometimes disgusting, but done well and worth seeing. For a public that’s always whining about not getting the truth, this is in your face with it. Just be prepared.

Our state congress has the subject of CAFO’s or Confined Animal Feeding Operations before them right now. If this means nothing to you, let me say “tainted food,” “tainted water,” “tainted property.” It has become apparent with all the beef recalls and tainted vegetable crops like spinach and lettuce last year that there is a breakdown in our food system from farm to table. Much of it has to do with handling possibly, but tainted food may begin right at the farm.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations should be confined to those things that are detrimental to our health. They exist as monopolies that have figured out how to mass-produce the largest amount of meat and dairy they possibly can, putting small farms out of business. Their environmental pollution is extreme. CAFO’s utilize “open air” lagoons the size of a lake filled with animal waste, afterbirth, slaughterhouse residue, and blood. I want to know who let them operate here in Michigan in the first place?

These farms number in the hundreds throughout central Michigan as if location is going to keep the overflow of this pollution out of all the tributaries running through our state. Heck a leaching ditch from one of these disgusting farms is enough to cause problems. CAFO lagoons in West Virginia breached into a subsidiary river and fish were dead and floating in minutes. That’s been documented with pictures. Stacks of dead pig carcasses were also showcased. Lovely.

Imagine living near these places? Which is another problem that hundreds of citizens in Michigan live with daily. Flies, smell, and polluted land are a small part of it. They’ve lost what most Americans consider their biggest investment, which is their home or small farm. Who is going to buy their house and inherit those lovely surroundings? This is just some of the protests from environmental groups standing up for you, for Michigan citizens, and Michigan’s freshwater right now in our state congress.

For once don’t toss this off like someone else will take care of it. There is an opportune moment here for you to make a real difference. The groups that are standing there in Lansing for you and me need e-mails, many, many e-mails to our local representatives that simply say we support what they are doing for Michigan. End CAFO’s here through force of numbers and bring back our small farms, the safety of our food and water, property values for Michigan citizens, and humane involvement with other living things.     

NASA had to shelve a $200 million dollar satellite mission headed by a MIT professor because of budget cuts by the Bush administration. They also had to cancel the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a project that measures global precipitation, and the launch of a new satellite to replace one of our aged, primary weather satellites. All would help scientists better understand the impact of global warming.

What does that mean for us? With the weather growing more erratic, we won’t know sooner, but possibly later, maybe too late, what lies in store for us as far as droughts, floods, and hurricanes. It also affects the accuracy of severe weather forecasts and scientist’s ability to improve climate models with greater precision so that we know what’s going to happen far enough ahead of time to save our lives.

 And where are the funds going instead? Well, president Bush has a goal to complete the International Space Station and get astronauts back on the moon by 2020. Is it just me, or is he out of sync with everything just a tad on purpose? After all, it is a fact that the present administration is anything but environmentally friendly since it has a vested interest in big oil. It’s just a little too coincidental that funding to NASA has been cut, and it’s goals redirected by the president, especially when NASA scientists were the ones to come forward in protest that their expertise and predictions about global warming were censored by this administration. Evidence about those alterations aired on BBC news.

 Many cuts are being made by this administration as we run into the red more and more because of a war no one seems to want any longer. While Bush signs a $100 billion Iraq war funding bill, most of us should be wondering and inquiring how we’re paying for it. So far I’ve found federal funding to communities to repair/replace aging water lines has been cut, NASA’s funding has been cut, $78 million has been cut for federal energy efficiency programs, $2 million has been cut from FEMA’s budget, and Bush/Cheney have attempted another backdoor entry into the Artic Refuge for oil drilling, while they continue to propose to auction land in our National Parks to the highest bidder. And finally, please contact our representatives about the Farm Bill. Cuts have been made to almost two-thirds of the $23 million designated for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs that was allotted in the 2002 Farm Bill.

I’m warning everyone about the Farm Bill putting a pinch on farmers right at a time when we need to support farms in America if we want to eat untainted food again. As the Union for Concerned Scientists stated recently about the Farm Bill “These people rely upon grant and loan programs to support energy efficiency improvements and the purchase of renewable energy systems including wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy sources. At a time when America’s rural communities are facing economic challenges, funding renewable energy and energy efficiency projects would help establish an additional income source for landowners, create jobs, and lower energy costs for rural consumers. The Bush administration also attempted to slash this program in the 2005 and 2006 budget proposals.” Nice, real nice.

 Some might argue that Bush has raised federal funding for solar power to $148 million and doubled biomass research to $150 million. But it’s curious that geothermal and hydropower has been eliminated altogether. To me this just looks like he’s playing to monopolizing capitalists that can charge for corn (biomass) like they do for oil, using the same infrastructure nationwide. By limiting what types of alternative energy we promote, leads to less diversity in a country where one region, like Michigan, might benefit from hydrogen power more realistically than the desert of the southwest where solar power would prevail, and the northwest where geothermal activity might produce energy for that region. But heaven forbid there would be a reduction in national monopolies like big oil. We’re long overdue to think outside the box. This should be a time of welcome innovation for renewable energy sources and a surge in entrepreneurs for the “green.”

NASA had to shelve a $200 million dollar satellite mission headed by a MIT professor because of budget cuts by the Bush administration. They also had to cancel the Deep Space Climate Observatory, a project that measures global precipitation, and the launch of a new satellite to replace one of our aged, primary weather satellites. All would help scientists better understand the impact of global warming. What does that mean for us? With the weather growing more erratic, we won’t know sooner, but possibly later, maybe too late, what lies in store for us as far as droughts, floods, and hurricanes. It also affects the accuracy of severe weather forecasts and scientist’s ability to improve climate models with greater precision, so we know what’s going to happen far enough ahead of time to save our lives.

As I blogged before, June 1st is an important date. It marks the beginning of this year’s Blue Planet Run, sponsored by Dow Chemical, to raise awareness and financial support worldwide for millions of people who need freshwater. With the world’s largest freshwater supply, it’s more than appropriate that Michigan is involved.  This is no easy feat. These runners must have a lot of heart to follow such a grueling schedule.

Leon Leventhal, whose daughter is a runner, has followed up on my inquiry as to how things are going. I’m posting his reply here as an update on this important run. His daughter the runner, has a website where more will be posted about this event. I can believe the miles they’ve run since June 1^st. I can’t even get myself moving to get my yard work accomplished. Here is Leon’s report.

   “Ria, we live in Canton, near Ann Arbor, and it is great to know that people like you know about this wonderfull run to improve people life in other parts of the world. I wish all people were so excited and committed as my daughter and the rest of her team. They are all splendid athletes and accomplished people, each and every one. They left jobs, schools and families to persevere and highlight the cause. They are doing it without much sleep, sometimes 36 hours straight, and not more than 5 so far, but they smile and run screaming the message in foreign lanaguages the best they know. They help each other and everything is going very smoothly. Today my daughter will leave Paris in the morning toward Belgium. So far they ran 1198 miles in 8 days. After reaching the coast of France they will continue on land without interruptions all the way to Beijing. The message is spreading. Yale professor joined in CT. Students in MASS asked questions and ran along briefly. Media in Ireland and UK was warm and ready to meet them. Things are going great. Thank you for caring. You can read on their blogs. My daughter’s is”   http://shirileventhal.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html