Our World and Everything in It

If you get a chance grab the August 27th issue of People Magazine. There is an article with pictures titled, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Global warming is indeed a chain reaction. The Lake Tahoe area has been plagued by wildfires due to drought and guess who is showing up in homes to get food, bears! Bears are breaking into houses. The pictures and details are hilarious. This is right out of goldilocks. The bears know what they’re doing.

Many people think global warming doesn’t affect them, but Lake Tahoe residents beg to differ; first the drought, then the fires, and now the wildlife. The bears break out windows, punch through walls. The article said 170 homes have been hit by the hairy thieves and caused an estimated $85,000 in property damage. The director of a the BEAR League teaches homeowners how to get the bears out and to understand they aren’t coming to kill the residents as much as make off with their Hershey’s chocolate. One resident’s Jack Russell and Yorkshire terrier chased a bear outside that was caught at the refrigerator with a container of orange juice and a jar of pickles at his feet. He dropped the orange juice container outside, but came back to grab it.

There is a picture of a bear walking along with a Pepsi bottle in his mouth and his head tilted back so he can drink it. Bears totally took out an entire garage door because they smelled food inside. Some of the bears weigh as much as 700 lbs. so when they are hungry, the neighborhood houses are easy targets. One woman said she ran into a bear in her hallway and chased another out of her living room where it had been eating chocolate kisses. She found “15 wrappers on the floor—just wrappers, no chocolate mess. He was much neater than my own kids ever were.”

 Another couple came back from vacation to a broken window. The husband found a little bear sitting in the foyer with a beach ball. Another had a bear that got inside the house, set off the alarm, ruined two doors, and then was a perfect gentlemen making off with a tub of “java chip Starbucks ice cream and a five gallon tin of popcorn.” It looks to me like all the bears have a sweet tooth and are particular about what they grab. They don’t seem to crave Jack Russells or Yorkies as much as junk food. Twinkies are supposedly a favorite. One of the pictures is really hysterical, the bear decided to take a dip in a pool and stayed long enough for the owner to take a picture. Check it out for a laugh if you get the chance.

Someone should post the pictures on I Caught or You Tube and congratulate the residents on their patience and understanding. Many people don’t take the time to realize that we are not the only ones who will be suffering the effects of global warming. All the creatures will suffer from a chain reaction and we should practice some empathy, not lose our heads, and try to kill every last critter if and when they invade our territory. They’re only trying to survive what we helped to create.

After all the problems we’ve had with tainted imports from China, the FDA planned to outsource some 322 jobs and shut down 7 of 13 field labs. What is wrong with this picture? This administration’s rush to privatize just about everything in the country is becoming more blatant.

If it weren’t for the National Treasury Employee’s Union that covers the FDA employees, the labs would be shut down right now, at a time when we should have more field labs to ensure imports are safe. That’s what Reps. Dingell and Stupak think also. They sent a letter to the FDA Friday questioning the outsourcing of so many jobs. Both Dingell and Stupak are quoted as saying, ” “It is truly incomprehensible why the agency would again consider reducing the expertise and institutional knowledge of the FDA at a time when FDA’s credibility with the American people is at an all-time low.” Evidently, the FDA doesn’t care what we think.

There is an Import Safety Working Group in place as of last month. Dingell and Stupak called the FDA’s move to outsource the FDA jobs without recommendations from the Import Safety Group, “hasty and injudicious.” That’s being kind. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of connection left between the American public and many of our Federal bureaus. They simply do not care what we think in lieu of privatization everywhere. Privatization is a nice word for the wealthy taking over. Somewhere in my earlier blogs, I said the wealthy have already done that. They just aren’t wearing their gold crowns yet. I plan to blog on the state of this move to privatize everything in the country soon. There is a huge article in Rolling Stone about it, I haven’t read yet and will certainly pass along.

Meanwhile, it is good that union forces that are supposedly breaking America, saw to it that the labs didn’t close. And Reps. Dingell and Stupak are a good pair for being quick with the questions and investigations. This is just another in a string of federal agencies that appear to be inept and out of touch with middle class America. The EPA is a joke with over 400 environmental laws loosened or lost altogether during the past 7 years.  FEMA is questionable, and now the FDA tried to pull a fast one in light of all the bad imports. It looks to me like we need a whole lot more whistleblowers among government workers. We think China is awful and untrustworthy, but it looks like we can no longer have faith in the U.S. agencies that exist for our well-being.

Lyme disease is nothing to be taken lightly.

I woke up this morning and the news just happened to feature a woman who had just gone through a yearlong ordeal because of Lyme disease from a tick she found on herself.  Her testimony was an eye opener. Did you know 20,000 people a year get Lyme disease but then only 30% get diagnosed correctly for the disease. So who knows how many people a year get it.

This particular woman went to bed fine and woke up paralyzed from her waist down and neck up. No one diagnosed her correctly for a year. Think about that. If you are the head of the household and wake up one morning paralyzed and then can’t get diagnosed correctly for almost a year after constant visits to the doctor and hospital, pills, treatments, etc. It would just about break a person. There is even more bad news. 60% of the blood tests for Lyme disease are inaccurate also. There really is no way of diagnosing the disease.

The woman remembered pulling a tick off of herself a year prior to any symptoms showing up. A person can harbor the disease for years before any symptoms show up. Once a tick of this sort gets engorged with blood they are easy to spot. It needs to be removed within 24 hours. Once removed, there will be a bulls-eye looking mark. It is important to seek medical treatment immediately because the disease is caused by bacteria. Antibiotics work more easily if they are administered right away, otherwise the bacteria will cause an infection throughout the body. The woman who was on the news was lucky. After a year, a doctor diagnosed her correctly. She had to get high doses of antibiotics into her heart for two weeks.

This is just an example of why no one should feel global warming won’t affect them. Besides the weather itself getting worse with more tornadoes, and straight-line winds, bugs that carry disease might really be worse. There are many, many hunters in Michigan that could be affected easily if the tick populations continue to grow.  Deet is the spray of choice to keep ticks off. But Deet is dangerous to children. Keeping covered up from head to toe is the next best thing. What affects everyone in the summertime here is mosquitoes. That’s a bad scenario if global warming keeps warming our winters to the point nothing totally freezes anymore. There will nothing to kill off pests like mosquitoes, which really carry some miserable and deadly diseases.  

A really large article and headline made the front page of the Detroit Free Press entitled “Deadly Chain Reaction.” It is about predator/prey studies done on the Isle Royale on Lake Superior. The predator is the gray wolf and the prey is the moose. Moose populations are way down and not because of the wolves. Moose numbers are beginning to decline due to increased tick populations, which weaken them so they become easier prey to the wolves.

The big thing about the tick population on the rise is that it is due to global warming. Since 2000 the weather is hotter and hotter farther and farther north, and the hottest since this study began. Michigan Tech’s predator/prey study started in 1958 on Isle Royale and is the longest running predator/prey study in history. I did not know that. Researchers are up there all the time watching the wolves and moose.

The title of the article is what is important and what I’ve been trying to get across to anyone who simply thinks global warming does not affect him or her. It will sooner or later. This is an example for the hunting industry. We don’t like to disturb money making industries in Michigan because our economy is already so bad, but if we do not start thinking of the environment over the energy bill, or the car industry, or the hunting industry, global warming just may go full circle and force the issue.

The tick/moose problem is an example. So much for moose hunting soon. One poor moose can have up to 100,000 ticks on itself. They suck the moose’s blood, weakening the animal. The moose bites at itself and has more bare patches than fur so it cannot withstand the cold in the winter or the scorch of summer. Scientists have yet to come up with anything that is effective against the tick populations. Many other migratory animals have changed behavior due to warmer weather here in Michigan also.

Maybe this isn’t enough of a wake up call for the residents of Michigan yet, but it should be, along with those 6 twisters, and what was described as the weirdest lightening many have ever seen, including my 84-year-old mother. She is not afraid of storms. She told me lightening struck my grandparents home when she was young. Nothing was grounded then, and she remembers balls of fire rolling across the floor. But she says this weekend’s lightening was strange and intense. I was out of town but friends and my mother described it as sizzling, sideways, straight up and down and all the way to the ground. 

All I can say, and have been saying is that global warming will affect everyone before too long and it isn’t going to be pretty. Ticks and tornadoes today, viruses and the return of many diseases for people and pets tomorrow. Michigan is too wooded; too wet an environment to not have deep freezes in the winter necessary to kill off things like ticks and mosquitoes. I feel bad for Mr. Moose. What a horrible way to die. I can’t stand the itch from poison ivy, let alone leach like creatures stuck all over siphoning blood. What happens if and when the ticks spread to people like the one that causes Lyme disease? I’ve already heard about the return of Cholera in parts of India. And I know that more deaths are caused worldwide by water born sources than anything else. Michigan with all of its water will be one big scientific experiment if our weather continues to get warmer year round. The hunting industry may be one of the first to be effected. It certainly is a bad and deadly chain reaction.

First it was 8 states have huge fires, now it’s 9 states have huge floods. I hope there aren’t too many people left out there that still think this is a fluke instead of the effects of global warming.

There are people suffering all over the country from the effects of horrible weather. CNN showed one homeowner in Minnesota whose nice house was swept 150 ft off its foundation. They lost everything and do not know if their insurance will cover anything because their policy didn’t cover mudslides. A shot of Main St. in New Hartford, Iowa showed it’s under water and unusable and the skies were clouding up again. 

I have to have flood insurance because I have a lien on my house for other property I bought. My house is on a canal off of the Huron River. Insurance is not cheap and I can only get it through FEMA. I can prove that in 1973, when Lake Erie flooded badly, water never entered my home because it is 4 blocks high. Since that time, dikes have been placed along all the banks and a large drainage system created by the Army of Engineers along S. Huron River Dr. has been in place. Since we just got a new road last year, the dike along the road was refurbished. It has never flooded along here since 1973. Our canal would have to rise at least 9 feet to clear the dike and flood over and then rise 3 ft. higher to get into my house. But I still have to have flood insurance. And it’s FEMA flood insurance. Many of us don’t put a lot of faith into that agency.

There are limits to flood insurance also. There is a $250,000 limit for structure. Don’t think you will just scrap the old and build new. Flood insurance only replaces things in the house based on depreciated cost. This means if you have 20 year old cupboards in your kitchen, then you’re only getting what those cupboards cost, not what new ones will cost. So people are not rubbing their palms together. They are more likely to clasp them together in prayer that flood insurance pays for something, anything. The outlook for that is not good. The number one thing to get the ball rolling is that the area has to be declared a disaster from floods. Remember Katrina?

There is a way out of flood insurance. You must get an Elevation Certificate from a reputable surveying company. Standard costs are $500 to $700. Don’t let a company rip you off for $1000 or more. Once you have that cert, contact your mortgage lender for the paperwork or address and number to get the paperwork to fill out and submit to FEMA. FEMA expects to see that Elevation Cert. and you are expected to document why you feel you shouldn’t have to have flood insurance. Don’t be fooled by the area you live in either. I have friends that live in Detroit Beach, two roads in from the boat club that have never paid flood insurance because they sit higher than the rest of the neighborhood. You certainly cannot see that elevation. And I am positive in 1973, water just raced through there since it came across Dixie Hwy. at least 6-8 roads inland from the back of the beach area where they live.

I’m going to give it a try. My cousin lived on a canal on the south end of Grosse Ile. That’s the end that floods if and when it does flood. He had a sunken living room! I could see his boat in the canal from that living room only about 150 ft. away. But the little hill, I’d call it a mogul, that his house sat on was high enough to get him out of flood insurance. Flood insurance is a good thing if and when you need it, but for many it is just a rip-off. It’s worth a try and cost of the cert. if you have a good argument against it.  The cost of the Elevation Cert. for me is less than my annual flood insurance rate. And I think I have a good argument. When I stand on my dock and see the water needs to rise at least 9 ft., and my house was through the last flood untouched, I think I have a chance.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch EchoTech, here’s an outline of the show, which was an hour long.  The program started out by asking, “How do we survive in a world that is heating up, and running out of oil? It went on to show some pretty remarkable things for the near future. It’s on again tonight at 9:00 pm, on the Science Channel. I’m not going to say it is a rerun of last night because I don’t know. I just caught on TV that it will be on again tonight.

The show presented a Dr. Angela Belcher first, who figured out a way to isolate the proteins that make a seashell and whether they could work with other types of elements. She picked viruses and looked for those that would bond with electro magnetic materials. She made a virus battery. It explained in detail how the virus made a battery; a lithium rechargeable ion battery made of very, very thin clear material. This inexpensive battery is also extremely lightweight.

Next up was Dr. Nyet Ming Chang who is working on a plug in hybrid that will get 150 mpg. He looked at a class of organic materials called olivines, with which to make a battery. He added metals to this material and created a new generation of lithium ion batteries. His batteries discharge energy fast for speed. It is 10 million times more conductive then the present lithium battery. His battery was used on a racing bike in a quarter mile strip. The bike went 0-60 mph in 1.4 seconds but the battery discharged so quickly it burned up the engine. His own plug in car gets 150 mpg. 

Then there is the company that is producing fuel from the thick-trapped grease of restaurants. It’s the sludge that goes down the drain. The process the company uses is called Centia, which stands for I Crudus Potentia, or green energy or the power of crud. The question then was who rounds up this crud? And there was RWA, a company that collects and transports the greasy crud, while employing the homeless and unemployed. Restaurants generate 4 billion lbs. of leftover grease annually so they have quite a job, and this company has quite a future. Buy stock when it’s offered, because the other company has perfected their Centia process. They have jet fuel that is indistinguishable from the real thing that they sell for $2.23 cents a gallon. The company will be mass-producing this fuel by the end of 2008. It produces much less CO2 and uses all of our waste grease.

This was just the beginning. There was a guy named Jerry that discovered how to make hydrogen on demand. The problem with hydrogen has always been storage. It is volatile stuff. His invention will have us buying a tank of pellets that transform into hydrogen when needed.

Another, Dr. Daniel Nocera, studies photosynthesis and hopes to use solar energy to makes hydrogen fuel. If humans could do what the leaves do, we would have an unlimited supply of energy

In 2 seconds the sun releases enough energy to fuel 1 millions cars for a year.

There was a segment on cellulosic ethanol. Corn ethanol is not good. It means one man’s transportation, for another man’s food staple. Whereas, cellulosic ethanol comes from woody materials, stalks, stems. This inventive group used e-coli bacteria to convert the woody stuff into ethanol. They predict that three quarter of a million new jobs will be needed in the bio fuel industry in the near future.

And yet another ingenious man, Bob Schneeveis, is looking at motion without fuel altogether. He has created several inventions that run on totally clean energy. He is like another Ed Begley. This man creates robots with solar energy. His robot speed-walks as a human.

The final segment was about big, fast and powerful, the reason cars use 1/3 of a percent of their fuel energy to move. They found that the biggest fuel savings come from the racecar industry with its use of carbon fiber for car bodies. It’s too expensive for regular cars, so they reinvented the process that produces carbon fiber. The fiber car is made of 14 parts that snap together. Tires are made out of stiffer material. This car will be out in 3-5 years and will get over 100 mpg. A fuel-efficient car has extra energy. As a plug in, the extra energy will get you a credit on your electric bill, so this new car produces energy. This all looks like good news for our world in the near future.

The Discovery Channel conglomerate has so many channels… I had trouble finding EchoTech after it was advertised on Discovery Channel. Sorry.

I’m going to watch EchoTech. It looks like a very interesting program with not only facts about the environment but about how much pollution we produce and what alternatives are out there to get away from all the pollution.

It looks like this new program will dispel a lot of the spin we’ve been fed about the environment and that we must continue on with the exploration for more of our own oil as a key to change. I’ve noticed lately on monroetalks.com that is the number one thrust right now, to get away from foreign oil. It misses the whole point of going green. Our oil burns no cleaner than anyone elses. We need to get away from ALL oil and all fossil fuels, including the much touted coal industry as a resource for energy. After the mine cave-in in Utah, do we really want to continue in this cave man style of digging and purging out of the earth to sustain our energy? It’s backward. And the only reason it’s backward is because of the power of big energy that keeps us spinning in reverse.

So, if you get the Discovery Channel, tune in. We just might learn something, and it might even save us money.

The BBC announced this morning that a large protest by environmentalists would take place this weekend over Heathrow Airport’s plans to expand. Are you kidding me? They are that aware of the environmental problems jet fuel poses that they are organizing protests? Finally, someone has the foresight to see an environmental problem ahead of time and the stamina to start doing something about it right away. The protesters said “Holding the camp at Heathrow aims to highlight the lunacy of the government’s airport expansion plans,” says a statement from campaigners,” according to the BBC. What’s wrong with the lunacy in America?
 
While they are setting up camps to thwart efforts to expand Heathrow because that will mean more jet fuel released into the atmosphere exacerbating the CO2 problem, which aggravates global warming, Michigan is seeing to a massive expansion right here at Metro airport. Instead of protestors, we have people rubbing their palms together. Just like the so so response I got on the Monroe talks blog about BP’s dumping more sludge and ammonia into Lake Michigan. Someone responded that it’s all right, the EPA signed off on it. EPA in this administration? Right. The idea that it creates more jobs (80), and oil for us overrode any environmental problems it produced.
 
And finally what do you think the protestors would think about our Dream Cruise where hundreds of cars from across the country will show up here to dump a big load of CO2 in the air over Michigan in just one weekend? Oh, but it brings income into the state and is so much fun. Money is the name of the game. I hope people learn to eat and drink money when there is no fresh water, or decent food to eat. Without irrigation in the ever-increasing intense heat, we will not be able to grow anything, including corn for ethanol. 39 people have died in the south so far because of scorching heat.
 
As always, Americans have their heads buried in the sand about our environmental gaffs in lieu of money, always money. I blame this administration for the spin they’ve put on an ever increasing and obvious weather problem. This administration has done more evil by altering reports about everything including the war than anything else. What they’ve done is create doubt. And as the earth’s weather gets more and more erratic, the doubters cling to the validity altered government reports. I think feeding the public lies about climate change is a crime against humanity.  A 4.6 earthquake in Hawaii, and 7.9 earthquake in Peru, with over 590 dead so far and thousands injured, and now this morning a 6.2 earthquake in Indonesia again. The satellite view of hurricanes show spinning masses everywhere in the oceans. There is a searing heat wave hovering across many states, and massive fires across our country. But all is well. Our government said so.
 
Many people do not see the correlation between earth quakes and global warming but doesn’t it stand to reason if excess pressure builds up on the earth’s surface due to an unusually heavy atmosphere from CO2, there will be consequences beneath that surface? Peru’s earthquake was 25 miles deep! Some thing is going on. The protestors in England have my admiration; unlike the response I get here about environmental problems in a country that is supposed to have the best of everything but the truth.
 
Michigan has a law in effect against outdoor burning right now as we proceed ahead with an airport expansion and the Dream Cruise. More CO2, more global warming and more fires. 18,000 acres burned in the UP and the fire is only 62% under control.  Is this irony at it’s finest? We’re just not getting it.