Our World and Everything in It

  
I wrote a blog way back when about trying to save our health while ruining the environment with the endless stream of God awful, empty plastic bottles from water. And now Aquafina made it official, although it’s right there on the bottle, that it’s just filtered tap water. Ditto for Dasani.

Filtered tap water is what I drink everyday from that neat little gizmo called a Brita and/or Pur filter that is attached to the end of my tap. And I’ve been waaaaaay ahead of everyone on that front. I haven’t drunk tap water since 1979. Let’s see—28 years. I gave up drinking tap water after ruining a large, heavy, thick walled pot that I utilized to humidify my apartment in the winter. The crust that built up on the surface of that pot couldn’t be knocked off with a sledgehammer. I suppose it was some sort of calcium deposit, but nonetheless, I decided it could build up in my body the same way. So I stopped drinking tap water. Besides, you know they’ve never really done any analysis of the long-term use of fluoride that’s put in the water to keep our teeth safe.

I started buying gallon jugs of distilled water. I would take the empty jugs to those good old recycling semi’s we used to have when we gave a hoot. You know. There would be one for paper, one for glass, and one for plastic. They are no more, which is sad. I would use them. I use the Alitibi paper drop-offs all the time. Just because our community doesn’t care about recycling doesn’t mean I don’t care. If the recycling semis showed up again, I would most definitely use them, trucking all the separated stuff down to them once a week.

Anyway, when the 2-½ gallon jugs of distilled water showed up on shelves, I started buying them. They have a tap so one would sit on my counter for drinking water. This is back when people thought my husband and I, (he saw my ruined pot and that hardened crust so he joined me in not drinking tap water), were nuts when we would announce we’re out of water. I can be blindfolded and pick out distilled from mineral from tap water. But, I never went for the fancy water at the time like Evian, or Perrier, just too many bottles, and more on that farther down.  Distilled is distilled. Everything is out of it. There is absolutely no taste and it’s extremely soft water, that’s how to tell it’s the real thing. Start adding minerals and I can’t tell what it is, and I become doubtful with visions of bottled water being filled out back with a hose. So for years I stuck with distilled. Then came Brita and Pur. What plastic jug savers they were, halleluiah! But then the Aquafina started, and Dasani, and Absopure got in the picture (sorry the big jugs of Absopure bring back the old vision of the hose out back).

All it took was a few water contaminate scares in some major cities, and the bottled water craze was off and running. I could never figure why someone would want to deal with all those plastic bottles anyway? This is before environmentalism mind you. Now we know for sure we’re not helping the environment or ourselves since a lot of the bottled water we drink is simply purified tap water, the same as I drink with absolutely no plastic added. Consumers trying to save themselves from bad water while ruining the environment are a stupid paradox. Lose the environment and we’re goners anyway, no matter what water we drink, duh.

As for the fancy ones like Evian and Perrier that tout they are from springs, well they are.

But one has to ask, where exactly are those springs? Evian is actually mineral water and comes from the Cachat Spring located on the Southern shore of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Unfortunately, I found some bad reports of the water content in Lake Geneva. Core samples were taken for Pb or lead. There is runoff into the lake from a plant in Lausanne and deposits of Pb from industrial (and domestic) activities predominates there. The maximum contamination of lead occurred in the lake in the late 1970s, and has declined to the present. I’m glad I didn’t choose the Evian route back then.
 
And well, Perrier, suffered a real blow when a study in the states found benzene in the Perrier water. Perrier said it was an isolated incident when a worker goofed on the filtering procedure, and that the spring itself was uncontaminated. If so, why the filtering procedure? I never figured that out. They recalled 160 million bottles of the stuff.
 
It just goes to show, we’re gullible, very gullible and need to stop that. Our country is in a mess because we are gullible. We still haven’t moved forward, environmentally that is, because we are still being gullible to the same guys that we were gullible about that have this country in a mess. Is that double gullible? I thought for sure America had street smarts, if any smarts, although the academic type of smarts is rapidly declining also. If we did have some smarts, we would not be spending approximately 5 cents per ounce or $365 per year to drink just one 20 oz. bottle of filtered water each day and clogging up the earth with plastic that does not break down.  According to LighterFootstep.com: http://lighterfootstep.com/5-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water.html, bottled water is a bigger rip off than gasoline at just over 2 cents per ounce. Now that’s a real kick in the pants. If we’re going to continue to be this naive, maybe I should start a bottled water company and hook a hose up to the filter on my tap. I could spell naive backward for a name, but then again Evian has already done that.
 

I was working at something else on my laptop when a commercial came on for Subaru cars. I had to post this right now after watching it. Here is this commercial about Suburu cars that wants to give the listener the idea that Suburu is thinking of the environment and states that their factories contribute nothing to landfills. Everything is recycled, reused, or converted to electricity. What??? What the heck? Tell me the Suburu gets 50 miles to the gallon, uses hybrid technology, or that they somehow don’t emit much CO2 or use gasoline. The fact that they choose to show their environmentalism by recycling raises a flag with me. It’s a car company. What about the actual cars? 

Then I found out. According to the NRDC: “Subaru, the automaker that built its name marketing to skiers, bikers, kayakers and other outdoor enthusiasts is telling customers to take a hike. The company is about to skirt federal fuel economy rules by officially reclassifying the sedans and wagons in its popular Outback line as trucks, making small design adjustments to exploit a loophole that subjects the car to much weaker efficiency standards. Decreased fuel economy means more pollution from the tailpipe. Subaru’s contempt for air quality and the environment runs sharply counter to the image promoted by the company.” The reason they choose to talk about recycling and not their cars is because their vehicles are not that environmentally friendly. As the NRDC found: “One probable reason for the embarrassing move (to reclassify their vehicles): Subaru’s average fuel economy has been falling steadily for several years, with their 2003 models barely meeting the 27.5 mpg requirement for cars. Light trucks must average only 20.7 mpg today, and 21.2 mpg in 2005. The Outback is based on the Subaru Legacy, which has been treated as a car under federal guidelines since its introduction as a 1989 model. Subaru is able to skirt car standards by raising the suspension and ground clearance of the current vehicle. 

I just wanted to put out a warning after seeing this commercial because I think we’re going to see a lot of “We’re friendly to the environment” rhetoric pretty quick. Don’t get snowed by nonsense. We’ve already been snowed by this administration. We don’t need to continue to be duped by big industry. Let’s try to gain a little street smarts in the future and really try to grasp what people, industry, whoever, and whatever are saying relative to what they are doing. What is the number one “heads up” Jesus related? –”You will know them by their deeds.” Look up the records of those that tout environmental quality of some sort. Don’t just here the words “We’re environmentally friendly” and forget about the hows and whys. Be aware of paradoxes like “clean coal”–WHAT? The hows and whys are what make sense of everything. So in the case of that Suburu commercial, I have to say once again–WHAT?  For more about Suburu: http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0114-12.htm   

After fighting the fight against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge throughout this administration’s tenure in office, our voice has been overlooked again. The Bush Administration is allowing Shell Oil to drill there this summer! The National Resources Defense Council thinks the only way to stop them is through the courts. They believe they can win the case because they can prove that allowing Shell to drill there is a violation of this country’s environmental laws. Every square foot of the Arctic coastline, except the refuge, is available for oil development. But Bush and Shell specifically aim for the Wildlife Refuge. It must be the least expensive route so they can put more millions in their pockets.

The oil spills that are inevitable are what is the most threatening because the oil industry doesn’t have a way to clean up in icy waters. Do you know how dangerous this drilling expedition is? They are drilling in an area known as the “Arctic Ring of Life” or the Beaufort Sea. It’s home to polar bears, walrus, gray whales, endangered bowhead whales, belugas, ringed seals, spectacled and Steller’s eider sea ducks, and migratory birds. One oil spill would be disastrous. The NRDC has one heck of a record of wins over companies like Shell, Arco, and Texaco following their spills. They need help. Click on the NRDC link to the right to go to their home page to see how.

The non-compassionate Shell Oil Co. is using seismic exploration also. Do you know about sound decibels? The noise is deafening and harmful to whales and other marine animals that rely on sound to communicate. The NRDC says, “The underwater noise produced by seismic air guns in locating oil deposits is among the most intense. I worked at Sibley Quarry. The blasting there often exceeds the seismic decibel level for the surrounding buildings in the neighborhoods. There has been a constant battle and threats of lawsuits due to the sound vibrations that many say caused large cracks in their foundations and basements. Sound vibrations cause cracks in concrete. These same sound vibrations are what are being perpetrated on the animals that live in our PROTECTED ARCTIC REFUGE!!! Refuge means free from harm. We promised.

The really bad part is that this administration has been given a scenario of what will happen if there is an oil spill by its Minerals Management Service. They predict that a spill by Shell will likely spread to the bowhead whales’ migratory route, the shores of the Wildlife Refuge, and possibly the nesting areas of the birds. But they are doing it anyway for money, money, and more money.

And if you don’t think there have been that many spills that you can remember, it’s because you don’t hear about all of them. The oil industry reported 4,534 spills across Alaska’s North Slope and Beaufort Sea from 1996 to 2004, involving 1.9 million gallons of diesel fuel, oil, and acid according to the NRDC. They say that’s more than one spill per day.

This is a disaster, not only to the animals, to American citizens whose voice is being totally overlooked again. Do you know the Teamster’s Union pushed hard to allow this to happen? Might want to give them a piece of your mind. Thinking jobs before the environment is the stupidest thing I can think of. Without a world, jobs will be useless.  This is a runaway administration that concedes nothing to the will of the people. It only listens to unions when it serves their purpose. Start blogging like you’ve never blogged before. I’m hitting abcnews.com.  Contact our reps. If you’re into NASCAR start complaining about Shell Pennzoil.
 
The phone number for Shell is: 713-241-6161. Help the NRDC do whatever they can to stop this.

Tomorrow is it for the new Farm Bill I’ve been telling everyone is so important. I just received an e-mail from Defenders of Wildlife. Defenders of Wildlife understand the connection between wildlife and habitat in our world and our policies here in the U.S., among them the Farm Bill. Here is what the e-mail said:

Tomorrow, Congress is expected to vote on one of the most important conservation bills in recent memory: the 2007 Farm Bill.
 
You can help our farmers protect wildlife and the habitat it needs to survive. Urge your Representative to support the Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment and other efforts to increase conservation funding.. From wolves to warblers, farmers and ranchers can and do play an important role in protecting wildlife… when they have the resources to help.All across America, farmers and ranchers are participating in programs to restore wetlands, protect habitat, conserve natural resources and reduce agricultural runoff. These programs are funded through the Farm Bill, which, at $4 billion per year in conservation funding, is the nation’s largest source of conservation funding.

The version of the 2007 Farm Bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee takes important strides toward ensuring that conservation programs produce more benefits for wildlife. Unfortunately, funding for these important programs remains insufficient to meet landowner demand.
 
The 2007 Farm bill is our best opportunity this year to support more sustainable, wildlife-friendly farming and ranching practices. Please take action now. The Farm Bill is only debated once every few years, so it’s incredibly important that as many people as possible speak out for wildlife conservation on U.S. farm and ranch lands.

The Dream Cruise is around the corner again this year. I love old cars but when I think of all the CO2 that’s concentrated in one spot, Southeastern Michigan, from that parade, I cringe. That’s a lot of fumes because the cars are old and more than likely have no catalytic converter. I know people who’ve driven their cars in the cruise once, and never again. Many of those old cars do not have A/C for one thing. It’s hot! The other issue they said were the fumes, especially on hot humid days where the air kind of lingers. Don’t think it’s any big deal? A study was done on tollbooth workers at a busy highway. Blood and urine samples were taken from the toll booth workers, along with a control group. The toll workers had nearly twice the urine levels of 8-OHdG, a marker of DNA damage inflicted by free radicals. They also had higher levels of 1-OHP, a metabolic byproduct from inhaling exhaust fumes. Free radicals cause cell mutation and cancer. It’s not hard to believe. Inhaling exhaust fumes is a no muss, no fuss choice for suicide. I know a lot of people reading this will be up in arms, “Oh no, not our Dream Cruise.” But why do they have to be moving is what I want to know? I like being able to walk around and look at, and in, old classic cars thank you. The parade is basically for the car owners, not the observers.

I’ve sat through and been trapped in the Downriver Cruise. Let’s put it this way, we jury our art shows so that we don’t have too many of one type of artistry. That isn’t so with cruises. There may be 10-20 old 57 Chevy’s. I don’t need to see them in every color. See what I mean? Everyone from everywhere should not be invited. That might help alleviate the world’s largest old car traffic jam.  And that traffic jam is what causes many of those old muscle cars to overheat. One friend of ours was cruising his old vet. He made it about 4 miles and pulled over with an overheated engine—never again. There has got to be a better way.

The Pontiac Silverdome isn’t doing much these days and has a huge parking lot. Like I said, sitting for hours watching the cars go by is just that. You get all cars, any cars, and many repeats of the same model. Give me a classic car show any day, where I can walk around, look inside. If you think I’m a big party pooper for the Dream Cruise, think again.

The biggest racecar organization in the world, Formula One, wants to become high-tech pioneers for the environment. They’re proposing smaller engines, the use of bio-fuel, and restricting the use of wind tunnels. Formula One will introduce major rule changes by 2011 to promote fuel conservation. When I read this, I knew the Dream Cruise is more than likely on it’s last leg altogether, or at very least will be substantially downsized in the future. When the leaders in the racecar business go green, it’s a pretty good precursor to changes for other automobile extravaganzas. This also paints a dubious picture for classic car owners. What happens when we no longer have gas, as we know it, particularly high-octane gas?

For now, savor the Dream Cruise.  Embrace it, revel in it, take pictures, and buy memorabilia, because we just don’t know how long it will continue in the face of growing environmental problems that cannot be denied. Michigan is hurting economically and won’t do anything drastic yet because the Cruise brings money for many small business owners here. But, just watch the news about the weather on CNN tonight—fires, floods, volcanoes, and earthquakes worldwide. Our world and everything in it is important too. Without a world to live in, economics is for not.  To read about changes for Formula One: http://www.enn.com/todays-news/13181.

What did I tell ya about aging pipes in this country? My Blue Planet Run blog contained info about the New Jersey water main break last year when a wave of water ran through a neighborhood and deluged people while they were asleep in their beds. Now we have a steam line break in the middle of New York that injured several people. The woman that died did so from a heart attack not from the actual line blowing sky high.

 Good luck getting funds from the federal government to update lines that are close to 80 years old in some areas. There is a program on TV that investigates some of the dirtiest jobs in America. One of the segments was about water and sewer lines in San Francisco. Now that’s a disaster waiting to happen. Numerous leaks are fixed daily. The lines are a maze of crumbling antiquity twisting through the underground of the city. I don’t think breaches in water lines are healthy. They certainly shouldn’t be happening in America. But rest assured nothing will be done about it anytime soon. Funding has been cut all over. As I reported in another blog, the federal funds that filter down to help communities update and correct aging pipes throughout America has been hacked as have many other important programs; the war you know.

Five dollars per gallon for milk by fall might be enough to cause people to give it up. Milk and dairy prices are going up because gas prices are spiking transportation costs. Supposedly feed for the cows has gone up because corn is being used for ethanol also. Which I think is a crock. Anybody see a bunch of ethanol pumps anywhere? Anyway, there are droughts in many parts of the world affecting milk production also while demand for milk worldwide is increasing.

I suggest that people in Monroe buy Monroe milk from Calder Brothers Dairy. If you’re going to pay $5 per gallon for that shabby milk from the grocery store, you may as well get the best. Calders is the sweetest milk my husband and I have ever tasted. It’s pure milk like it used to be. We are lucky enough to be within the delivery routes for Calders out here in South Rockwood. We have had a milk box and a milkman for 20 years. I am spoiled forever. We get 3 quarts per week and anything else Calder’s produces on my porch every Tuesday, like fresh eggs. We drink skim milk, and I will challenge my Calder’s skim milk to the regular milk at the store for taste and substance anytime. It might be skim but I still get a cream ring at the top of the bottle. Now that’s real milk. I ran out of Calders once and picked up a quart of 2% regular milk at the store. My husband wanted to know if it was sour. Calders is worth the money.

If you live in Monroe you should visit the Calders Farm off of Stony Creek Rd. because it’s fun to walk around a real farm. The more land we loose in this country to fire and urban sprawl the less likely farms like this will be around for generations to come. Turn left onto Stony Creek from Telegraph Rd. north, and follow the road until you see the signs for Calders. You’ll know you’re close when you see the black and white dairy cows. It’s an old fashioned farm with all types of animals roaming around including llamas. Kids love it.

Calders is kind to animals also. I found a home there at the farm for a rooster I rescued. The rooster was abandoned in a park near my house. Calders said they would take him. He was ornery and I figured they’d off him in a stew pot, but since he was black with green feathers, and a handsome guy, Calders found the value in his offspring. The next time I visited, I found he had his own fenced area and hen house. Nice. By the looks of all the ducks, chickens, and cats, others have left their former pets off there also.

The best part of the visit to Calders is getting ice cream in their country store. It’s oh so good. Visitors can purchase just about anything Calder’s produces at the country store. Oh and if you are an eggnog junkie during the holidays, the most decadent, richest eggnog you’ve ever tasted is made by Calders. The farm is a nice asset for Monroe. Check it out while the summer months are still here. The animals and ice cream await you. For more info read:  http://www.calderdairy.com/.

All the ruckus over Chinese imports, especially food, may have caused many of our own food producers to rush to change their packaging to assure the American public that American food is fine. I got a kick out of the packaging on some popular American brands of chicken at the grocery store today. They assure 100% chicken with no antibiotics or additives in big bold letters on the packaging.

Does that mean there were antibiotics and additives in their before? Or is our food industry worried that now that we’re nosey and picky about imports we might be looking over everything with a discerning eye. Like I said, I’ve quit eating pigs and cows until they roam the farm or range as free spirits again, er um, if we have any ranges left. Eleven states are burning now. Up two more states since the last time I blogged about fires.

But chicken and turkey what about them? I’ll tell you, they live horribly in deplorable conditions until they are killed and brought to the store all packaged up with labels assuring us they are without antibiotics or additives. No antibiotics in the conditions I’m going to explain is a little frightening quite frankly. A good dose might go a long way to staving off what might be ailing the poultry we eat after they live their short lives in hell.

Here’s a little excerpt and the website where a lone writer ventured to see for himself what a typical industrial sized chicken farm is like. Brace yourself. It’s not all that much better than the Smithfield Foods expose another reporter from Rolling Stone researched that I blogged about as ” Pig Poo Who Knew?” Michael Specter of the New Yorker said:

‘I was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe…. There must have been thirty thousand chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me. They didn’t move, didn’t cluck. They were almost like statues of chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every minute of their six-week lives that way.’

Lovely huh? I have to thank China for bringing curiosity about the food we eat to millions of Americans—finally.  Pay attention. Boycott if you feel the need. It would go a long way as a wake up call to the meat packing business in this country. I’ve pretty much gone vegetarian and it doesn’t bother me a bit. My grocery bill is cheaper too. And whenever there is a recall on any meat, I don’t have to sweat. I don’t eat any of it.
 
The FDA only has the capacity to inspect 1% of all our imports. And their funding has been cut, the war you know. So where does that leave them with our food? Specter reported about 30,000 chickens in one spot. You honestly think we have enough FDA to inspect all our farms and do it well?
 
We need some big reforms in this country. Chinese tainted food imports are just the start. The last largest 3 recalls were all home produced meat folks, not imports. Get informed. Contact your reps. Some things gotta change. Myself, I’m having Morning Star Farms Prime Grillers for burgers these days. They’re tasty, and it didn’t require that a living thing suffer in hell before the slaughter. Until chickens, turkeys, pigs, and cows are allowed a normal life on a farm again where they have a pen, a pasture, are allowed to bear young in livable conditions, and eat normal food, they won’t be on my plate. For more info on chicken farming: http://www.chickenindustry.com/. 

I’m thinking about bicycles as a mode of transportation. Mainly because there is a delay getting a new radiator in my car and if the car is finished before noon tomorrow, I could still run my errands. But I have no way of getting there. It’s about 5 miles one-way. Not bad. I remember using a bicycle for transportation more than once in life, but I wasn’t in my 50’s.

First I remembered using my bike about 3-4 miles in one direction when I dropped off our car for service a long time ago. But I was about 29, and lifted weights, ran—God what energy. I start to wonder if my bike tires are dry rotted? I wouldn’t want my husband using the compressor on them—too risky. Even if they were OK, would I make it? I figured I could do it, and probably like the ride, but about 2 days after the ride my legs are liable to lock up. I can feel the soreness. And my back, being stretched over for 5 miles would mean a visit to the chiropractor for sure.

Then I remembered that I got along quite well one summer without a car. I can’t remember why I didn’t have a car, but I do remember using my bike. I was in my 20’s. I lived in downtown Monroe, and friends lived nearby. I worked with friends and hitched a ride to work. I paid the gas. It really wasn’t that bad. When I moved to Charlotte Arms Apts., it was a little farther from downtown, but riding down Macomb St. about 2 a.m. was really rather pleasant.

Bicycling has its merits as a mode of transportation. If you think you live a little too far out, think again. Newer bikes are so light that they travel super fast. Of course nowadays one must have a helmet also. I remember getting to places really a lot faster than I thought I would on a bike.

Besides being environmentally friendly, the best thing about the bicycle is that you never have to work out again. You can eat pretty much what you want. Or not very much at all because a bike is not exactly like jumping in a car and running through a drive-through at the drop of a hat. Much ordering in goes on.

Although there are drawbacks to the bike, weather for one, weirdoes for another (carry a tire iron), and traffic, it’s not a bad mode of transport during the summer.  I might give a go again. I can ride along Lake Erie in the game reserve. Rough day huh? That is, after I get my old bike out of the loft in the pole barn, dust off the cobwebs and polish off the rust, check the tires, shine her up and see if I can still stay on the thing without wobbling down the road.

Watch Bears/Alaska: Spirit of the Wild on PPV. Whether you have HD or not, it’s a breathtaking and informative movie in IMAX. It’s about how the Artic came to be and the wildness of it. Eventually it gets around to the Artic inhabitants and bears, all about bears.