Our World and Everything in It

Rising waters swamp an Alaskan island forcing 400 inhabitants to abandon their homes, the recent ice melt the size of New Jersey in just 6 days time, the housing market unable to sell what has been termed “McMansions,” Walmart’s evolution into a “green” retailer, and Princeton University Scientists identification of 15 technologies “that are ripe for large-scale use” and… that each could solve a significant portion of the [global warming] problem,” are just some of things that may propel environmentalism forward and soon. There are so many other things I’ve read about recently that it is inevitable we will be advancing quicker than expected into the future of environmentalism. The extremes of ice melting relative to rising waters and millions not hundreds of people that will be affected, will get the world’s attention shortly. 

A blog I did earlier in the Spring about our urban sprawl and how those new, big homes were unnecessary considering many of them now stand empty was joined by input from the Monroe News staff with commentary how they cope quite comfortably in smaller homes has come to fruition.  It’s no surprise to me those “McMansions” as they are termed cannot sell. GMAC showed several that have been on the market 3 years. Contractors are now scaling back on the average sq. ft. for homes to under 2000 or less and forgoing high end products like granite countertops and huge bathrooms with large jacuzzi tubs. 

 And Walmart, who is steeped in controversy with union folk, anti-import phobes, civil rights people, and wealthy communities who find it tacky, is reinventing itself as a green corporation. Despite the anti-Walmartians, it remains the largest retailer in the country. Once this giant goes green, watch Target, Meijer, Kmart/Sears scramble for a piece of that pie.  And finally, a couple of Princeton scientists have squelched the belief it will take America forever to produce alternative sources for fossil fuels. The Environmental News article stated: “Their analysis, published recently in Science , indicates that many combinations of these 15 technologies could prevent global emissions of greenhouse gases from rising for the next five decades.” “Pacala and Socolow’s research [at Princeton] is part of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, a project in the Princeton Environmental Institute funded by $20 million in grants from BP and Ford Motor Co. Read more about the Princeton study at: http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/8

I received this from Defenders of Wildlife and know how important it is after getting another report ready about the amount of ice that has melted at the North Pole—close to a half a million square miles of ice has disappeared in the last two years. Defenders is urging us “to ensure that this national treasure is permanently protected to the full extent of the law by supporting the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act (H.R. 39).”

It went on to say: “The bill, sponsored by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN), would designate the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a wilderness area with permanent protections.

These permanent protections are especially important for America’s remaining polar bears. According to a U.S. Geological Survey report, polar bears will likely be extinct in Alaska in as little as 50 years due to rapidly melting sea ice. The Arctic Refuge is one of the most important onshore denning habitats for these magnificent creatures — and permanent protections will give them a fighting chance at survival.

This special place has long been protected from harmful new drilling operations. But year after year, big oil companies and their allies continue lobbying to open up the Refuge to new drilling.

This can only have devastating consequences for our imperiled wildlife.

Drilling and the transportation and infrastructure needed to support it could wreak havoc on the Arctic Refuge and the animals like caribou, our last remaining polar bears and the millions of migratory birds that depend on this vital habitat.

With around 400 crude oil and toxic spills each year and just 30 miles west of the Refuge, the Prudhoe oil field is testament to the destruction that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would face if Big Oil were allowed in.

In light of these facts, I strongly urge you to support H.R. 39 and permanent protection for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Only this type of “wilderness” designation will stop the ceaseless efforts to drill in this special place — and give America’s struggling polar bears a chance at survival.

To contact John Dingell goto: http://www.house.gov/writerep/.

Please do so. This is every bit as important as the permanent ban on dove hunting in Michigan. This bill will be permanent and we won’t have issue about Arctic Drilling again!

On Tuesday, September 25, at 7:00 pm, The Sierra Club of Michigan will be hosting an information program on Global Warming and Energy as it relates to energy legislation for the State of Michigan. It wil be at Monroe Charter Twp. Hall, 4925 E. Dunbar Rd., in Monroe. Everyone is invited to attend.

The info on the invitation stated that Michigan now spends $20 billion each year on imported fuels, all which are polluting and non-renewable. This dependence harms public health and natural resources, while doing nothing to stimulate our struggling economy. There are cleaner, home-grown alternatives along with  “Energy Efficiency” programs that would negate the need for two proposed coal plants in our state.

Decisions to go ahead with plants like this is irresponsible and what I plan on blogging about soon. The anti-environmental attitude of our Republican Representatives, a majority in Michigan’s congress, who are pitting jobs against the environment, and putting people in the terrible position of taking sides about it, is unacceptable and a ploy. They are the ones who should be defending their poor decisions for our state’s clean air, water, and land relative to their campaign contributors under the guise of saving jobs. And what about company’s that threaten to close their doors on their employees if demands aren’t met to allow them to keep polluting? There’s an ugly word for demands that are followed by threats.

It’s nothing new that our elected officials are swayed by their contributors. That’s why the middle class keeps screaming to get rid of lobbyists. But when we have to petition the constituents for people just elected, like Randy Richardville, to urge him to vote for Michigan’s House Water Package that prohibits the sale of Michigan’s water to outside sources, there is something terribly wrong. Stay tuned.

To quote their own description from their website “Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.”
 
While many of us would like to jump on this bandwagon, do we really have the guts to forage in a dumpster for food? These are the same people I blogged about yesterday that have exposed the overproduction and waste of food products in this country. They’ve found tons of food that is perfectly good but tossed.
 
This makes me wonder about over-production, waste, and whether or not it has any bearing on GNP reports in this country.  GNP is the total dollar value of all final goods and services produced for consumption in society during a particular time. The key here is “produced for consumption.” What Freegans are finding is never consumed, which throws the whole equation out of kilter, doesn’t it? Shouldn’t the value of food produced, or GNP, drop when it’s no longer consumed because there is too much of it? Because I’m talking food here, it’s tossed and rots.  But what if it were, say for instance, steel beams? We’d have stockpiles, and stockpiles of the stuff to the point we could no longer produce steel beams without looking like idiots. The value of the steel would drop drastically, wouldn’t it?
 
To me this scenario is no different than the parents of children selling Girl Scout cookies. If they want to get out of helping sell the cookies, they buy all the boxes, and shove them in the pantry. No one eats the cookies but the money taken in for the cookies dictates the cookies were a sell out, so produce more.  It’s a false picture because the cookies weren’t actually consumed. They’re stockpiled like the steel beams. I’m no economist but this just doesn’t seem the right way to do business. It’s a very false economic picture. What do you think?
 
For more info on “Freegans” and “Freeganism” check out: http://freegan.info/.

That’s right. I was watching the news the other morning and there was a story about a challenge to buy nothing for a month, a form of “Freeganism.” A woman who took the challenge showed how she found perfectly good food thrown out every day by grocery stores. She found hundreds of warm bagels, sealed salads, cereal, canned goods, toilet paper, and lots of eggs in dumpsters. You know who’s to blame for this waste? The consumer for one. We’re so spoiled we don’t like anything that is a day old. Shelf space is limited. The food gets tossed.

This is absolutely immoral to me. People are starving and we toss 40-50% of our food? Here I am blogging about ethanol using up our precious land space, urban sprawl taking up more, fires burning through pastures of crops and we simply end up throwing it away. 

When I think of all those overloaded CAFO’s and pictures of dead pigs stacked up outside in a pile that lived a dreadful life then died for no reason it is immoral also. We simply overproduce if we’re throwing that much away. There needs to be a change in the tax structure where write offs for loss are less lucrative than write offs for charity.

I bet we throw away and waste enough in this country to feed a third world nation, not to mention plant flowers, shrubs, and trees all over to make it look good. There is a lot of waste in that industry also. Her testimony ended when she showed 40 people having a full barbeque with all the trimmings from what was found in dumpsters. I forgot to mention whole rotisserie chickens were in there too. She said based on what’s thrown away, someone can live a full life. We need so much reorganization of everything in this country it is outright daunting. Stay tuned tomorrow for more about the concept of “Freeganism.”

I’ve got a little riddle. What was in the air today, to make the birds stay away? It started last night. I was working in the yard until 0-dark thirty, and noticed a lack of birds. I filled our feeders that are usually bustling with birds of all types. I also have some 30 birdie apartments in the form of two large purple martin houses. My yard backs up to a canal and beyond that a protected wetlands marsh. Unless you live around this yourself, you can’t imagine the racket of birds chattering, singing, whistling, and calling to each other starting at 5:30 am to dusk. Personally I like it. Well maybe not the B-52’s (huge, screeching herons).

Last night already the birds did not come to eat. I noticed while I was outside that I kept getting itchy. It was not from the many, many mosquito bites I got. There really wasn’t anything there. It felt like an overall itchy rash with no rash. I didn’t think much more of it, until this morning. There hung my bird feeders with food in them. Now, you have no idea how spoiled my wild birds are. Those feeders need to be filled sometimes twice a day. My favorite bird is the sparrow. They are so spoiled that if we forget to feed them, they line up on our deck railing, pool railing, anywhere they can and stare into the house. It works. When I look out and start feeling like I’m on the set of Hitchcock’s “The Birds” I pretty much jump up and feed them. We also have a birdbath that has to be replenished more than twice a day on hot days it gets so much use. 

By 10:30 am this morning the sun was shining away but absolutely no birds were around. I haven’t filled the feeders since last night and there is plenty left. When I stepped outside, I could hear a pin drop. There was nary a chitter. Something was not right in the air today. I started looking around for a hawk. After 20 years of living out here, I’m good at spotting them. No hawk and no eagle either.

Finally, a blackbird stood on the pole that holds the feeders looking around. He looked puzzled. I thought it was funny his beak was open like he was really hot, but it was not hot yet. When I looked out the front of the house, one bird sat on a line looking around also. No sound, no birds. I told my husband about it when he got home from work.  He walked around everywhere tonight—no birds.

I saw a handful of sparrows show up earlier, and about 15 birds ate for about 5-10 minutes and are gone. That was it for today. Right now there is usually a bunch of cardinals. They eat at dusk, but nothing is around. There were bees, and butterflies doing their thing all day. So where are the birds? They aren’t even in their birdhouses.

I didn’t let my parrot outside today. My cats came and went but weren’t interested, and stayed in a lot. When I went outside to tell my husband to look and listen for birds, I got itchy again. This isn’t right. Nature was un-natural last night and today.

All I think about is the end to a poem I know that states better to live in a birdless country without sun than go your way always alone. I’ll tell ya, a birdless country is a very, very lonely feeling. For the first time living out here, I felt seriously alone today without the birds and their chatter around. There was something wrong in the air I fear, something that we’ll never hear about. Anyone else notice diminished bird sightings lately?

I blogged about the Blue Planet Run, a 15,200 mile relay around the world, when it began June 1st. The relay was done to raise awareness for the millions of people worldwide that have no access to clean drinking water, something we sometimes take for granted.

 A Michigan native, Shiri Leventhal, from Canton was a runner. Her blogspot about her participation in this historic worldwide relay race is http://shirileventhal.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html.

Check it out. She’s got some great tales to tell and will probably never forget the experience or the people she’s met along the way. Congratulations to her for representing Michigan. It makes me feel a tad inadequate, changing lightbulbs, using a clothesline, not running my AC, while she’s out there running a gruesome race in foreign countries. She’s got to be proud and her parents have got to be proud, and deservingly so.

There is more about the run, the pictures, the highlights, and a map of where the races took place. It is sponsored by Dow Chemical to raise awareness and money to build pipelines and dig wells to get clean drinking water to so many people who spend their entire day in the pursuit of that water. It makes me feel guilty because again tonight I deemed a warm shower to be one of the biggest, greatest, most wonderful privileges on the face of the earth. After picking pears, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, sweating to death from the humidity, and just plain groady from working in the yard, that shower was gold to me. I can’t imagine hiking miles everyday to bring buckets back just to drink, when we get to slosh around in the stuff. The Blue Planet Run is trying to catch the rest of the world up to standards that every human being should be afforded.

Kudos to each and every runner, and to Dow Chemical as the sponsor for coming up with the idea, it was quite an event if you check out the Blue Planet Run website at: http://blueplanetrun.org/#.

Southern California is realizing some of the nightmare that all of us are going to experience sooner or later because of global warming. Temperatures there are expected to reach 110 plus degrees, while residents are being asked to turn off the A/C because of overloaded power grids. Again, the infrastructures in our country for electricity, water, sewers, and gas are obsolete and in dire need of upgrading while we continue to spend billions on a war we didn’t need.

So many people I talk to are self-serving, declaring global warming won’t affect them. I think many will be surprised, if not surprised already with fires, floods, and tornadoes. They do not comprehend what was said. We need to start immediately to alleviate a future of weather horrors WITHIN 10 years. That does not mean we can sit back and slide through the next decade before moving on alternatives.  It means we must employ alternative means of heating, cooling, fueling ASAP, before the 10-year mark is up.

We were warned bad conditions are going to escalate anyway. It is already too late to stave off what we are already seeing as a bad trend in weather. By acting now, we are only going to be able to alleviate the weather conditions of the future beyond the ten-year mark. It was said that if we do so, 30 years from now we will see the calming effects from our efforts. I think when people in the 50 year old age group see that 30 year mark, that is where they get the idea global warming won’t affect them. 

The weather for now is going to be akin to the line Bette Davis made famous, “buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride” until our efforts to reduce CO2 take effect. I can’t imagine 110-degree weather and no A/C. I can’t imagine what the cold weather months might bring either. Global warming doesn’t mean we all fry, it means the weather is erratic and some areas might freeze or get huge blizzards where there is power loss from frozen lines that snap. It’s not a fun choice to fry or freeze.

If I had my druthers I would run, but unfortunately our bad choices affect our world and everything in it, so there is no escape.

Urge our congress people to start acting now to push alternative renewable, clean energy sources and forego any more fossil fuel products, especially the newly touted liquid coal. Fossil fuels by any other name are still fossil fuels.