Our World and Everything in It

I had a big revelation in the body lotion, potion aisle in the grocery store about how even the smallest things are affected by politics, the environment, big business, etc. I couldn’t find any body lotion that didn’t have mineral oil or petrolatum in it. I stood staring at a huge section of lotions and nary a one in that selection was free of the stuff. There were a lot of brands, smells, types, but all pretty much the same. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago.  

For most cosmetics, the first 3 ingredients listed are the bulk of what’s in that container. I found mineral oil way down the list on some items but it was there. After reading all the labels, I remembered not that long ago, mineral oil in cosmetics was taboo. Water is the liquid that is readily absorbed by the body. The example was to “dunk a dried up piece of leather in water and one in oil and see what is absorbed fastest.” Good point. Plus all of our faces look best when rinsing.  Look in the mirror and it’s all plumped out but sopping wet. Can’t go around like that. So the next best thing is to follow up with some sort of natural oil, they say olive is most like the skin, to lock in that water. Another good point.

There used to be all kinds of lotions without mineral oil or petrolatum, but in this government of big oil, we’re seeing this by-product back in cosmetics. I suppose I could look at it as environmentally sound that big business has found a way to recycle the by-product from the production of gasoline by putting it in stuff that goes on our bodies and faces, but the stuff is nasty. Besides if I wanted mineral oil, I’d just buy a cheap bottle of the stuff, add some sort of essence and call it a day. 

My experience with gasoline, even if it is only a by-product of the production of gasoline, is not something I want to spread all over. I don’t know about you, but when I get gas on my hands, at first it feels oily. If I don’t get it washed off right away, my skin looks ashy later on. That ashy color is dried up skin. I know.  I looked at it under a magnifying glass once to find out what was going on. I can see a whole bunch of problems down the line using this stuff. I can certainly see that it cyclic. Put lotion on, feel good for awhile, dry up. Apply lotion, dry up. Apply lotion, dry up. Good racket.  

So this is what I thought about while standing in the lotion, potion aisle thinking of yet another good reason to get away from oil and oil by-products. For an informative view of why it’s not natural to use mineral oil read: http://www.dld123.com/q&a/qandatemp.php?id=Q77.
 

My last post was about funding for “green” business. I read another article in Time Magazine, March 2007, about a commercial bank, New Resource Bank in San Francisco, that states, “sustainability has become a major market force.” It wants a piece of that market. “It operates like a full-service community bank but deposits are used to finance loans for green businesses.” The article said green builders can get lower interest rates and homeowners can finance solar installations for the same amount as their monthly electricity bill.

This bank has nearly $60 million in assets and is only 6 months old. It’s attracting green depositors as far away as New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Texas. Peter Liu, the banks vice chairman, wants to expand throughout the U.S. The article went on to say funding green startups is becoming popular.

Liu’s bank and the other funding institution in my previous blog are the exception not the rule. Lenders for new “green” construction are slow to come around. They have no special standards to rate the value of a green home and are unwilling to fund anything differently than normal construction. Another article in the St. Louis Business Journal stated, lenders don’t see why they should lend more money up front because costs may run higher for a “green” home simply because they won’t be the ones reaping the benefits, the homeowner does.

The Journal explained that many factors such as insulation ratings double and have a 40-year warranty. The homeowners have no maintenance and can save themselves $200 a month so they can afford a larger mortgage or pay it off sooner. Makes sense to me, but are other banking institutions listening?

I’m still working on a hybrid car. So US automakers listen up: sports car, gas/electric, nice lines no cartoon look to it, maybe a convertible…?

http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2007/08/20/focus9.html?ana=from_rss.

Got a green company and looking for funding? According to World-Wire, “Environmental Capital Partners, LLC (”ECP”) announced today that it has formed a relationship with New York Private Bank & Trust to invest $100 million exclusively in green companies. Sectors of particular interest for the firm include: green consumer products, eco-friendly building materials, alternative energy, and industrial environmental services. ECP is actively seeking growth and buyout transactions that will require equity investments of $10-25 million though the firm also has the ability to complete larger deals.” http://www.world-wire.com/news/0709250001.html.

It’s good to know there are companies forming to help propel a green economy. But companies that are already trying to do the right thing and go green, are waiting for direction from congress. From what I’ve read, many American companies are doing what they can to the best of their knowledge to cut emissions, lower their usage, recycle, buy green, etc. But beyond the usual, they are floundering for leadership to outline specifically what is expected of companies for the future and what direction the country or regions of the country are expected to go be it solar, wind, bio mass, bio fuels, or a mixture of them. I was surprised the percentage of companies making attempts to cooperate and help the global climate crisis.

Scientists are alarmed about the latest news that more ice has broken away from Canada. The results from the UN meeting today about climate crisis say our world is in a state of emergency. When I think of companies in Michigan sliding by with little regulation like the CAFO’s that will surely pollute our water supply in the future, and our obstinate path to construct even more coalburners is just poor business practice. I blogged about this before. We the consumer will end up picking up the tab for last minute change of plans for big energy that failed to heed a new green economy that is and always has been advancing forward. It is no longer a hoax by the liberals, or Al Gore’s scheme to get rich. It’s getting ridiculously evident the world is in trouble. To continue to pollute is a public display of horrible ethics. The voting record of Michigan’s Senate relative to the environment is atrocious. If you will, please urge our Senate to get a conscious.

The Sierra Club is hosting a meeting  at Monroe Charter Twp. Hall, 4925 Dunbar Rd, tonight, Tues. Sept. 25 at 7:00 pm. They will be discussing Energy Legislation in Michigan.

The Free Press had an article about Representative Dingell wanting constructive input from citizens about his proposal to issue a carbon emissions tax to polluters. I already put my 2 cents in. Join me if you have some good ideas at: http://www.house.gov/dingell/contact.htm.

I wrote that I don’t want to see just a carbon emissions tax. We need to start cleaning up our mess. Everyone should be included in a tax on air, water, and land pollution. I know that scares some people because of the threats by companies like Holcim lately that are bullying us with demands to either let them pollute or they will close their doors. But, think about it if we put aside any and all fines to be used as incentives to invite new green industry here?

Holcim paid over $550,000 in fines for polluting at that small, 350 employee Dundee plant. They’ve got thousands of dollars in fines across the states, and the world. Scotland called them “planet trashers.” The head of Holcim, Schmidheiny, formed a council, The Business Council for Sustainable Development that pushes the idea of self-regulation, citing that governmental agencies often fall short. Companies would do a much better job of policing themselves. If you saw the trail of violations and pollution Holcim leaves behind, then his statement is literally about the fox watching the henhouse.

Add to that millions in lobby money thrown at Washington by Holcim every year to keep polluting, and you know where Holcim is coming from. Our federal EPA, which is smaller all the time, issued them a violation at the Dundee plant last year. They don’t just pollute. They polluted 7.5 times over allowable levels there.

My suggestions consider that companies like these bullies can pay fine after fine and still afford lobby money. So why not create a fund with that fine money to use as incentives for new green industry in Michigan. It will create the competition needed to set the bullies packing or complying. Think about Holcim who threatens 350 jobs who wouldn’t be so smug doing so if their violation money had enticed a brand new ethanol  or bio-diesel plant into their location, something that offers a future for generations of workers to come with good wages, decent benefits, and job security for even more than 350 people.

If we continue to support polluters, we’re going to miss out on that green industry for Michigan and succumb to more demands with threats to leave. Case in point, Indiana may loose BP energy because BP decided to scuttle their special permit to pollute Lake Michigan more. So 2300 jobs may be lost. Bad for Indiana, yeah but, Indiana has landed the countries largest bio diesel plant with two more on the way, along with 6 new ethanol plants. That more than makes up for BP. Add the Cummins, Honda, and Toyota plants and Indiana hedges that threat by BP to leave. Michigan needs to start thinking about the future and quit paying the past to stay.

The “Galloping Glacier” in Greenland has receded 9 miles in the past 5 years. The water produced in one day from this glacier melt equals what N.Y. uses in one year. This could mean that Boston, Galveston, and Seattle will be under water by mid–decade. Anyone notice these predictions keep moving closer and closer? 

This isn’t a pretty picture. Michigan should start looking at environmental issues a little closer, a little faster. Indiana has some sweet deals going with one of the nation’s largest bio-diesel plants and 2 more to follow, plus 6 ethanol plants to be built. This looks like a lot of jobs for Indiana. So what about Michigan? We’re still courting big polluters as everything appears to be stagnating. It’s one thing to save jobs but a decent economy also requires getting more jobs, like Indiana!

Read more about Indiana’s new bio-diesel plants:  http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/03/one_of_largest_.html.  

This year’s race is just 2 months away in Australia. This year’s challenge: Design and build a car capable of crossing the vast and imposing continent of Australia using only sunlight as fuel and to prove it, in the spirit of friendly competition against others with the same goal. Read more about the race at:

http://www.wsc.org.au/.

Michigan’s contribution to the race is from U of M’s Continuum Team. The Continuum has the definitive look of a futuristic race car. Targus, a company many recognize immediately relative to its line of laptop accessories is the newest sponsor for the Continuum. U of M’s entry is in transit at present for the race down under.
Read more about the Continuum and U of M’s proud achievement at : http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/.

Connect the dots. The Bush Administration was caught altering reports about global warming. I watched an investigation that showed the altered reports on a Canadian news channel. And many scientists have come forward to speak out about censorship. I just received a new petition in the mail to urge the latest EPA official to use science not politics in its reporting about the environment. So they did it. It needs no explaining. They are oilmen.  

U.S. automakers followed the government’s lead, and produced and kept selling gas-guzzlers. They sidestepped what should have been their business savvy and figured surely the Bush Administration would come through. All the while, Time Magazine and many other publications were reporting about Toyota’s push to be number one. Toyota is now way beyond introducing a hybrid. They are working on perfecting it. I wrote a blog about this because I thought is was in the poorest business sense for the Big 3 to overlook the competition. We can do just as well, but needed to get going on it yesterday.   

Then earlier this year, we watched as the Big 3 scrambled to Washington, only to be snubbed by the president. I thought the scramble was curious. What would prompt the automakers to do that? And why the sudden snub by an oilman president who should love these guys? 

Lately one of our own federal governmental agencies, Health and Human Services, suggested its employees should buy hybrid. They suggested the whole federal fleet should go hybrid. This suggestion was via e-mail to 67,000 employees! A spokesman for Health and Human Services said no malice was intended. Like a lawyer asking to strike a comment, it’s too late. Secy. of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, took office Jan. 26, 2005. Prior to this he was head of the U.S. EPA. Does this strike anyone else as odd? The EPA has been full of scandal. Reports of global warming must have been altered when Mike was there. And now what the heck, let’s go green and buy foreign comes from his agency?

What??? This is clearly an effort to hurt the U.S. automakers and not because they haven’t produced hybrids, since it was fine with this administration just last year. The only other reason to hurt a U.S. industry this quickly would be to break the unions. Excuse me, but I missed something if there is another reason. Leavitt isn’t part of the new congress that is pro environmental. He’s been buried in the Bush administration all along when it went from pro-polluter to environmentally friendly??? 

I might not have the dots connected perfectly but there are far too many questions with this whole scenario. It looks like the environment is suddenly the order of the day when it comes to vehicles, something that is a real stretch to believe of the Bush Oil Administration.

What is really becoming clear is that the environment is being used as a pawn lately for all types of spin, pitting the environment against jobs here in Michigan. Now it’s being used to work against U.S. automakers by the feds. Rep. Dingell said it right when he said, if we go green, everyone goes green. The auto industry should not be singled out. It looks to me like that’s exactly what is happening.                              

American Scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center set up camp on the great Greenland ice sheet to see if anything in the terrain could explain the recent rapid ice melts. I blogged last week that arctic ice the size of Florida melted in just six days.

The scientists looked at samples of the surrounding ice under a microscope and found million of black carbon dots throughout. The carbon is from soot from forest fires worldwide and industrial manmade pollution. An atmospheric scientist for University of Washington confirms what most of us already know. The color black absorbs light rays and heat us rapidly. Millions of these little specks are revving up the heat causing the ice to melt at a rapid rate.

This is conclusive evidence of human involvement with the recent heating up period many liked to say is just a natural part of climate history repeating itself. I did a blog, in the archives by now, about the little ice age and medieval warming period. No one seems to understand that those periods were so slow over hundreds of years. What we’re witnessing now is extreme.

The scientists still hold out hope we can save the Arctic and slow down global warming, that is if we cut our carbon emissions and quickly. We have a new energy bill before congress. That bill needs to pass and move us forward. Progress against global warming continues to be stymied by our own EPA.
Just today I received a petition in the mail from the Union of Concerned Scientists to urge Stephen Johnson, EPA Administrator, to make decisions based on the finding of scientists, not on politics.

Is that a clue as to what’s been happening? Having to urge our own EPA to listen to scientists for scientific matters is a matter of common sense and ethics. I’m disgusted and thoroughly wary of anything the Bush Administration offers up for explanation on anything anymore.

For more info read: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TenWays/story?id=3618049

BP says it will stick to the limitations in its former permit for wastewater emissions at its Whiting Refinery in Indiana. This comes after pressure from environmentalists in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois that were joined by politicians. BP will try to redo the plans for its new expansion to accommodate that former permit, but said if they can’t, and the material costs go too high, they may have to scrap the expansion in Indiana.

This is another example of a company waving pollution vs. jobs again, like the Holcim plant in Dundee. BP claims to be putting millions into alternatives for the environment in its commercials, but are only giving-in now due to the large outcry and publicity over their newly won permit. The new permit would have allowed 54% more ammonia, and 34% more sludge into Lake Michigan.

I could see if there were absolutely no other alternatives for BP but there are filtration systems used by other refineries that double filter the water to counteract unnecessary pollution. Why didn’t BP do that in the first place if they claim to be so environmental? Costs?  They worry about money! How much more can they possibly want? While BP isn’t Exxon Mobil, they’re close enough. Exxon Mobil made $75,000 per minute last year. The Holcim plant that threatens to close its doors is the same way. A billion dollar company and it won’t put 6.5 million into finally cleaning up its act. It spends every bit as much to lobby every year to get its way and pollute.

I don’t like the spin of pollution vs. jobs. It’s dangerous and usually based in greed. It’s also unnecessary, when there are all sorts of jobs to be had in a green economy too. The Eco Tech series on the Science Channel thought upwards of 250,000 jobs would be created with green business. It’s waiting to happen if we can get  fossil fuel people to move over. It would do our world and everything in it a whole lotta good. 

Read more about BP:

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=43729&newsdate=16-Aug-2007 http://www.takingdownwords.com/taking_down_words/2007/08/make-it-go-away.html