Our World and Everything in It

Unbelievable isn’t it? The Washington Post ran the article about Iran’s mandate to its “domestic automakers to make ‘dual-fuel’ cars that can run on both gasoline and natural gas, a crash program to convert used vehicles to run on natural gas, and a program to convert Iranian gas stations to serve both kinds of fuel. According to the International Association of Natural Gas Vehicles, more than 100 conversion centers have been built throughout the country: Iranians can drive in with their gasoline-only cars, pay a subsidized fee equivalent to $50 and collect their newly dual-fuelled cars several hours later.”

What a novel idea to switch the cars over AND create the filling stations, AND conversion centers at the SAME TIME.

Then there is Brazil who was no better off than we are now, importing 80 percent of its oil supply in the 70’s. Since then, Brazil has switched to its own oil, which is used to “insulate” the country’s economy from the pain of spiking oil prices. Even so, this year more sugar-based ethanol will be sold in the country than gasoline, which is the goal, to get off of gasoline altogether.

Meanwhile, China is moving toward methanol, which is made from wood grain alcohol. There are many methanol plants currently under construction. And China is set to produce flex fuel cars for that methanol. The nice thing about methanol as the article stated is that: “it can be made from natural gas, coal, industrial garbage and even recycled carbon dioxide captured from power stations’ smokestacks — an elegant way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

It looks like China whose smoggy environment is a source of concern for the Olympics has got plans to use up all that filth and fuel their cars with it. That’s really one up on us, and pretty much everyone else.

Finally, Israel is going to electric cars with “hundreds of thousands of recharging points planned to be erected throughout the country. Israeli motorists, the government hopes, will be able to swap their batteries in a matter of minutes at dedicated stations or recharge them at home or at work.” Hmm, stop at a station and swap out a battery—never thought of that.

The Washington Post went on to say that: “Policies such as ‘drill more’ and ‘drive smaller cars’ all keep us running on petroleum. At best, they buy us a few more years of complacency, while ensuring a much worse dependence down the road when America’s conventional oil reserves are even more depleted — whether or not we drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

Looks like Al Gore’s challenge to change within a decade isn’t ridiculous. We’ve just been fed another fat lie by political forces working with the oil industry about what we can and cannot do, and we fell for it again. We need a big dose of street smarts in this country, or a kick in the pants.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/03/AR2008070303250.html

 I heard on ABC news this morning that the deer population has gone from 330 thousand to 30 million deer. The news had video coverage of deer walking right inside the door of a house and jumping through a picture window. There was video after video of deer in homes and businesses in different urban areas too. The question was to shoot or not to shoot?

The deer invading everything from homes to yards to downtown stores are usually young deer that don’t know any better and have no fear of humans. Consider also that one village with homeowners up in arms over deer munching on their landscapes has a population of only 20,000 that decided to live in an area with 2,000 deer. So who is invading whose territory? 

And why are we eradicating natural predators like wolves? Seems like we’re not going about this right. We have the wolf depicted as a ravenous carnivore that threatens a dwindling DEER and elk population, as well as, people, children, and pets. Except the deer are hardly dwindling. There are more than enough deer to go around for double the wolf population. Wait until the coyotes follow the deer. Wolves keep coyotes down too.

Simple solutions have been offered to use a speaker instead of a gun for both deer and wolves. Deer have a keen sense of hearing, and certain tones will repel them. Wolves honor another wolf’s call over territory. A strange wolf call will repel them.

A speaker system, instead of a gun to kill what we deem invaders, seems like the sanest solution for now, at least until we figure out who the real invaders are.

 http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5478591&page=1

First I read one of those quick moving news feeds that the EPA warned it’s enforcement officers not to speak to Congress. That little bit of info just peaked my curiosity–speak up about what?

Now four senators on the Environment and Public Works Committee are urging Steven Johnson, the third EPA administrator under Bush, to resign as it appears he lied to a Senate committee.

Johnson claims he acted alone when he decided California should not regulate CO2 emissions from motor vehicles, but he was originally going to issue a partial waiver to CA. Someone changed his mind. The preceding EPA administrators left just as questionably and quickly as Johnson.

Christine Todd Whitman, 2001-2003, resigned just before reports of the clean up of 9/11 came out and according to SourceWatch,  “Eric Shaeffer, the EPA’s head of regulatory enforcement under Whitman, resigned under protest. He told Flanders that Whitman is ‘a Republican first and an environmentalist way down the list.’”

Michael Leavitt was Bush’s second appointee as EPA Administrator. Twelve states and several NE cities sued the EPA to block the new Clean Air rules during his leadership. The states argued the rules would weaken both environmental and health protection for citizens. Nice real nice. Scientist’s discontent with censorship was surfacing along with altered reports about global warming too. Leavitt left the EPA to head up Health and Human Services. That’s when a memo from Leavitt’s new department suggested its employees should buy hybrid. It suggested the whole federal fleet should go hybrid. This suggestion was via e-mail to 67,000 employees! So was Leavitt environmentally minded or not, altering reports of global warming on the one hand, then telling employees to buy foreign hybrids on the other?

And now Stephen Johnson appears to have succumbed to political pressure from the White House too. Who will be the replacement this time, someone from oil, someone from the NRA and/or hunting industry, or lumber, or coal…? I mean we had Steven Griles as Deputy Secretary of the Interior that oversees the EPA, and USFWS among other things, that resigned and went to work for Conoco Phillips oil as a lobbyist. The Deputy Chief of Staff to the Dept. of Interior, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, denied living with Griles when she still worked for the EPA. And then there was Philip Cooney, former head of the White House Council for Environmental Quality. Cooney was caught editing important data from scientific reports for quite awhile as well as pressuring the EPA to go along, so much so, that in 2002 the EPA removed an entire section on global warming from its annual report about air pollution. Cooney came to his position at the council as a lawyer and former lobbyist  for the American Petroleum Institute.  He left to work for Exxon Mobil. Right now a former lobbyist for an Intl. Hunt Club heads the USFWS. Ethics abound in the Bush administration.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/29/AR2008072902020.html 

Alaska’s Ted Stevens, longest serving Republican in the senate, was indicted on seven charges for his connections with VECO, an oil services company, and the renovations done to his home.

Ted is pro-oil, and we see why. VECO CEO Bill Allen pleaded guilty to bribing Alaskan lawmakers. And Ted has been accused of influence peddling. So we have an admitted briber, and a guy who invites it. So now Ted’s been indicted for lying about his dealings with VECO.

Ted has consistently put ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) drilling language in defense bills. Remember the recent Senate hearings with oil execs about high gas prices in relation to excessively high profits? We can thank Ted, the Chairman of that committee, for preventing them from having to speak under oath.

Senator Stevens is best remembered for financing two Alaska bridges to nowhere to a tune of over $220 million. A fiasco that had Ted threatening to quit the senate if congress took money away from those bridges. The money  for them would have been redirected for repairs desperately needed in New Orleans afer Katrina. Stevens got his way, but the bridge money was given to Alaska’s transportation fund instead.

But Ted’s mid 80’s age and this haven’t stopped him. He’s put in his bid to run for senate again. This is not the way to top off a long career.

Democrats want Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage, in the race. Begich is the favorite. Alaska could use someone environmentally friendly for a change. If they could just get rid of Governor Palin, Alaska might stand a chance at remaining a pristine wilderness.

After this, maybe Senator Waxman, who is investigating everyone, and doing a fine job of doing his job by the way, should direct more attention to the goings-on in Alaska and why so many are protesting.  

Read more of Stevens bio at: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ted_Stevens

I heard this on ABC news last week that food prices were rising still higher, another five percent, due to corn production for ethanol. But it’s not because of rising prices of corn overall. It’s due to high oil prices.

The following is very good report about this: http://www.ncga.com/news/notd/pdfs/061407_EthanolAndFoodPrices.pdf

One thing I noticed in this article was about the huge increase in ethanol production reported. Is anybody else finding these ethanol pumps, because I’m not locating a whole heck of a lot?

Oil prices just dropped a little so our food should be cheaper for awhile too, otherwise this equation isn’t working. Or is the oil price drop just a facade for the election? If so, and rising food prices are relative to oil, then we know what we’re in for after the election.

And what about the rest of the world that is in starvation mode because of corn? I’m going to have to look that one up. Is much of the world’s starvation due to high oil costs, or high corn costs? Either way it’s just not right.  

The little Italian motorbike has always been cool in Europe. Many a foreign movie depicts young lovers wheeling around on a Vespa or the like.

In the U.S., or Harley Davidson country, not so cool. But with high gas prices and the need to wheel around in an urban setting, Vespa has taken off, cool or not. The little bike gets a whopping 72-mpg!

Needless to say, Vespa sales are up 105%. And with a price range from near $3,000 to $7,000, there is a Vespa for everyone. The little bike has become so popular; it’s spawned a new word “Vespanomics.” According to the definition on Vespa’s official website, vespanomics means:

“The ecological, economic, and personal satisfaction one achieves from buying a Vespa scooter.” There are additional meanings too, one of my favorites, “…saving a boatload of money on gas.”

Check out the website: http://www.vespausa.com/index.cfm.

The Coast Guard has shut down 98 miles of the Mississippi due to an oil spill by a Liberian barge with an apprentice pilot at the helm of the tug pulling it. Almost 420,000 gallons of industrial oil was dumped. The oil is “widely used as marine fuel, is heavier than diesel but lighter than crude, and it is likely to stick to rocks, trees and wildlife,” according to a CNN article.

We’re supposed to feel reassured that “the spill is much smaller than the ones that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Let’s hope so. The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Mississippi and nearby waterways then.”  Considering the biggest oil spill of all, the The Exxon Valdez spill with more than 11 million gallons of crude oil, Katrina’s oil spill was worse than we know. 

The CNN article went on to say that,  “Wilma Subra, a chemist who advises the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said the oil could endanger wildlife and eventually harm those residents who fish for a living.” No kidding.

If you want to view the number of oil spills by year and area, a great interactive tool can be found at: http://www.incidentnews.gov/map. You simply zone in on the parts of the world you want to check, and select the year. The map will pinpoint all of the oil spills.

We think everything is under control with oil spills that we have all this new technology to clean them up, but the fact is oil spills churn up for years to come and don’t affect certain marine life until years later either. Read about it at: http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/aquatic_oil.php.

Continued dependence on any oil is not good for our future. Drilling now will not help us for at least 4 years. So what exactly is the intent to drill? In 4 years time surely we will have other means of sustaining our energy if we can be encouraged, not stymied, to innovate in an environmental direction. If and when we replace some of our existing source of fuel over the next fours years with wind and solar power and find that we can go without oil altogether, what will we do with all the oil we drilled for in 2008, sell it at high dollar to an under developed country that is not concerned with environmental issues as much as staying alive?

Or, is there some sort of push to allow those with oil leases in the Arctic to drill now without rhyme or reason to reap the current top dollar for that oil, and then sell off before alternatives actually become a reality? All oil companies have vested interest in alternatives now, even Exxon Mobil. Wouldn’t that be something new to see, an oil stock sell off?

It wasn’t all that long ago I blogged about the bush meat trade. Since apes are our closest DNA relatives this seems not only barbaric, but I wanted to know if cannibalism was next.

While watching BBC news late last night, I heard something worse if there can be such a thing. People are hunting people, but not for food or because of starvation, but because of religious beliefs.

In this country we may denigrate voodoo, shaman, and tribal religions of other countries, but to many these occult beliefs are as legitimate as ours.  This is not about religion vs religion though. This is hunting for wealth and prosperity, like bringing in an exotic animal skin in exchange for prosperity, or so the albino hunter believes.

In Tanzania, Africa there happens to be a disproportionate number of albino citizens. Albino’s have no melanin or dark pigment in their skin so they are white; their hair is white, eyelashes, etc. Witchdoctor’s in Tanzania believe albino body parts will bring wealth to a person.

Twenty-five albino’s have been killed, children included, the latest was a seven month old baby.  One woman watched as three people approached her albino husband sitting outside and hacked at him with a machete.  By time she returned with help, he was dead.

Another albino women pleaded with anybody listening to get her out of the country or to a safer urban area. There is a big denial that this religious belief is being propagated but BBC news is still investigating. Many Tanzanian’s say occult like religious beliefs infiltrate the government also. So everyone is slow to help the albino population.

Protected mountain gorilla’s have been poached for their hands. Their bodies left lying without them. Now people are found lying without body parts, body parts that supposedly bring wealth to someone else.

I don’t even know how to tag this blog. I’ve got categories for blogs for saving animals, marine life, trees, even insects, and habitat, air, water, parks, and human health, but humans as actual prey by other humans is a new one on me.  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7518049.stm

Good news! A federal judge “has restored endangered species protections for wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies,” according to Defenders of Wildlife.

This kinda throws a wrench in the proposed sport hunting of wolves by the likes of Butch Otter, Governor of Idaho, who vows to fight the decision. Ron Gillette, Idaho’s Anti-Wolf Coalition leader predicts a war.

Anti-Wolf Coalition sounds silly somehow, doesn’t it, like the “wolves-are-at-our-doors” campaign commercial? It’s just another generation that wants to eradicate wolves as a form of sport hunting.

For now the wolves are protected and Defenders says it plans to:

Make the case in court to restore full protections for these endangered wolves;

 

Pay for guard dogs, range riders, turbo fladry fencing and other non-lethal wolf management strategies to keep livestock and wolves safe; and

Combat distortions and misperceptions about wolves to build tolerance and understanding for the vital role that wolves play in healthy ecosystems.

It’s too bad this new protection came too late to save “Limpy,” the park’s icon.

I heard these facts on the news this morning. Carpooling with just one extra person in each driver’s car would save the U.S. 32 millions gallons of gas per day.

Baby Boomers remember all the stuff from the 70’s. I don’t know why those same coping mechanisms aren’t automatically kicking in now anyway. It’s a no brainer. Can’t afford gas money and insurance, take on a rider. I picked my girlfriend up in Dearborn Hts. everyday from Flat Rock to travel to Farmington Hills.  She paid me gas money. Sharing the driving was not an option. She had an old station wagon with no heat. She actually drove it a short distance in the winter and had to scrape the inside of her windows! I had a old Ford Grenada with heat but no A/C.

The economy was horrible in 1974 too. There was a war, and an oil crunch. Unemployment lines were horrible. This is how we coped. Everyone seemed to have more than one job, and second hand furniture to include crates for end tables and the ever lovin tapestries on the walls, ceiling, as throws, and bedcovers. Being picky about a roomate wasn’t an option. It was about survival. So of course we carpooled, usually in ratty can’t-believe-it’s-still-running cars. And vans, well they could really haul a bunch of people around.

Now it’s like pulling teeth to get people to carpool. People comment that they love their cars. They really enjoy driving alone. I hope they like them well enough because if things get worse for the economy and housing, plenty of people will be calling his/her car ”Home” as many have admittedly done.