Our World and Everything in It

As a Democrat, I couldn’t be happier with this pick. I had to laugh when it was said her campaign for governor was run on “ethics.” OMG!

Wait until the large environmental groups disclose her ethics.  For example Rodger Schlickeisen of Defenders of Wildlife issued this statement already about Palin’s destructive environmental policies:

“Sarah Palin, whose husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum), has repeatedly put special interests first when it comes to the environment. In her scant two years as governor, she has lobbied aggressively to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, pushed for more drilling off of Alaska’s coasts, and put special interests above science. Ms. Palin has made it clear through her actions that she is unwilling to do even as much as the Bush administration to address the impacts of global warming. Her most recent effort has been to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list, putting Big Oil before sound science. As unbelievable as this may sound, this actually puts her to the right of the Bush administration.”

To be to the right of the Bush/Cheney regime is a scary thought. That’s pretty far out there. Sarah Palin is a scary thought for wildlife. Alaska’s predatory management program is barbaric. I recently blogged about 14 wolf cubs shot in the head on the spot after an illegal stakeout by Alaskan Wildlife Agency employees? Bears have been added to the predatory list now. Funny how wolves and bears have always been a part of the Alaskan landscape, but now they are intolerable. Animals in Alaska do not have a friend at the governor’s house.

I don’t think Sarah likes living things as much as money. That will come out sooner or later. Cruelty is not a nice trait to see in a woman. 

Sad to say, despite door-to-door grass root efforts that got 75,000 voters in Alaska to the polls to vote to permanently stop the aerial assault on wolves, the initiative failed.

Those lovely guys at Safari Club International, who think it’s their right to shoot and kill just about ANYTHING, lobbied for the kill, and talk about a pro-active government/lobbyist relationship in Alaska. Coldhearted Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska paved the way and added $400,000 out of the state’s coffers to keep the kill going. After Ted Steven’s indictment, I think everyone should direct more attention toward Alaska.

The reason the assault on wildlife continues, is that sport hunting is a main industry in Alaska, therefore, Alaska will slaughter predators to preserve that game for humans to hunt for fun and Alaska’s profit. But the predator management system is out of control according to residents of Alaska. http://www.wolfsongnews.org/news/Alaska_current_events_1626.htm

It looks like the taste of blood is irresistible after all. The current predator management in Alaska includes bears too. Are we going to start killing the bears because they eat too many salmon and it interferes with sport fishing?

What I want to know is what are the great white hunters are going to kill when the population of critters is diminished not only by hunting but by loss of habitat from industry and global warming, and the many diseases that are going to crop up in the future as a result?

People are already being hunted. I posted a blog about hunting albino human beings in Tanzania. And the bushmeat trade is near cannibalism in my book.

It’s as if the example we’ve been given over the past decade by the Bush/Cheney group has infiltrated our spirit here in America, and the example continues off of our shores. How are we to tell Canada not to club baby seals, or Japan to quit whaling and butchering dolphins, when we’re slaughtering our own wildlife everywhere? And everyone knows it’s for the MONEY!

This type of cruelty is a growing concern to me. If we have a generation of kids that never enjoy nature by stepping away from the Internet long enough to go outside, it’s not hard to imagine that empathy, sympathy, and responsibility for nature, all the traits that are supposed to put humans a step above the animals, will be gone

If this cruelty continues against innocent wildlife, where a hunter can just walk up to a den of small pups and plug each one in the head with a bullet without flinching, my prediction that seniors will live in gated communities in the future for safety sake is just a generation away.

We must break the growing cycle of cruelty against nature for our own human sake.   

An article in the New York Times stated:

The technology [compressing and storing air] has been around for decades, though the only major plant in the United States opened in Alabama in 1991. Another plant was built in Germany in the 1970s. But compressed air storage is getting a fresh look because so many windmills have been built across the country in recent years, and energy producers are increasingly looking for ways to avoid building power plants that rely on expensive oil and natural gas.

Who knew? And this is supposed to be old hat? I hope it’s stored way down below because compressed air reminds me of the movie No Country for Old Men. That little tank of compressed air was mighty powerful to say the least.

I don’t know about this technology. There certainly are plenty of abandoned mines and old gas lines to use. Perhaps if the alternative energy industry ever gets fully loosed, we will see improvement upon improvement so that wind technology no longer involves huge, noisy turbines that don’t always produce energy. Look at mainframe computers of yesterday compared to the laptop of today. It’s a matter of getting started. Once the ball starts rolling, improvements are inevitable, especially for wind power, which increased five fold between 2000-2007. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/nyregion/26wind.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin.

Another county in Michigan is looking to acquire additional tracts of land to add to one of its county parks. The bid to keep 91 acres of dune land adjacent to Meinert County Park is ongoing thanks to the Land Conservancy of Western Michigan.

According to the Muskegon Chronicle, “It’s the same organization that recently helped raise money to secure the purchase of a 68-acre natural area in Laketon Township, including Lost Lake, so it can be added to Muskegon State Park.”

The Land Conservancy is picking up where the Trust for Public Land bailed. All involved are hoping to get a grant to cover about 70% of the cost of the purchase from Michigan’s DNR. “Officials from the Land Conservancy also made a presentation to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund board last week, featuring information about the property and its intended use.”

Besides grants, the property is being reappraised. There are efforts to raise local contributions because many in the area do not want to see that land developed. And the two different families who have put the 45 and 46 acre parcels up for sale may drop the price to see the land protected as part of Meinert Park.

It’s great to see locals doing something to conserve beautiful untouched land in their area. The article says,  “The land, on the southeast border of Meinert Park, is completely undeveloped. It’s rugged and hilly in spots, has lots of wildlife, and includes a lake and many existing hiking trails.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1219761913189040.xml&coll=8

The lawsuit is the latest attack on the EPA for not regulating emissions again. This time it’s emissions from oil refineries. The New York Times article stated that 15% of all CO2 emissions comes from oil refineries. The other states are

New York atty. Andrew Cuomo leads the current fight, claiming it’s another example of the Bush Administration’s “do-nothing policy” regarding global warming.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled that it was the duty of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas under the Clean Air Act. The NY Times article said, “Since then, the agency’s director has said it is the job of Congress to regulate them.” Don’t you love it?

The EPA is like Teflon. Nothing sticks. They’ve been sued to set standards for power plant emissions and recently by California to regulate emissions from autos.

As far as the EPA turning out any standards for any of the above, so far nada.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/us/26epa.html?_r=1&ref=environment&oref=slogin

Owen Lutz bequeathed his Victorian era Farmstead property of 300 acres to Livingston County to help preserve the wild places he loved so much. It is located a half-mile north of Cohoctah Road, near Lutz Rd. in Deerfield Twp. The property was just dedicated last week.

The county is going to try to keep the area as original as possible but still accessible to the public who can walk along trails of wood chips and enjoy nature as Owen had intended.

I hope this dedicated land never faces the threat of slant oil drills like the Mason Tract, another wilderness area dedicated by the head of the Mason family. Mr. Mason, an auto industrialist, donated the land to preserve the experience of the river and the wild, that is, until an upper Michigan utility company started to build a road near the Mason Tract area with the intention of drilling for oil there. If Earthjustice hadn’t intervened, the area would have been ravaged. Considering it has some of the best trout fishing in the lower 48 states, that would have been a travesty. And an irony, when we consider it was the express desire of the person dedicating the land that it remain a sanctuary against development of any sort.

Meanwhile, thank you Own Lutz for loving nature enough to hopefully preserve it forever.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS05/808240394/1007/NEWS05

In yesterday’s Free Press was a giant one-page ad about the Heat Surge Fireless Flame unit. It supposedly looks like a real fireplace that gives off instant heat with no chimney, no vents, no wood, and no smoke and runs on pennies of electricity no more than a coffee maker. The ad was a call for the public to call within 48 and qualify for a home heating bill relief instant rebate.

It looks like the heaters cost $250.00, but add the Amish mantle and it’s $500.00. The rebate kicks the price back down to $250.00. I wondered if they work. My 48 hours is running out. I’ve already got my methods for cheap winter heating bills, but if I can do more I will. This looked like the perfect way to get away from expensive gas bills in the winter for pennies of electricity. And I would like what looks like a small fireplace in my living room, or roll it into the bedroom, or whatever room. I felt like the pledge to go electric might not be that far off with inventions like this, until I read a review on MacCompanion. It was pretty comprehensive and disheartening.

Not worth the money. Read the review for yourself: http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/February2008/Greenware/Roll.htm.

There is another electric heater, the Eden Pure, that’s touted to be like warm sunlight. Non-drying like furnace heat, the radiant heat from an Eden Pure warms the air without removing a lot of moisture. Baloney. It’s a heater too. It got an exceptionally bad review and ended up at the bottom of the list out of 20 heaters. http://www.wcpo.com/content/news/localshows/dontwasteyourmoney/story.aspx?content_id=7527da3d-ad3f-423a-933a-e5dcde00b12f. Shoot, I was enticed by the ads for this too.

It looks like there is no new miracle for home heating yet. Thank goodness for reviews and the Internet because the hype on some of this stuff can be costly to consumers.

If you get the Science Channel, it’s running the series Eco-Tech tomorrow, Saturday, August, 23, 2008 at 06:00 PM ET. You won’t be disappointed but amazed at this series called  “Future Fuels.”
 
“Meet the chemists, engineers, and designers who are finding incredible new ways to power planes, trains, and automobiles. They are using everything from cooking grease, plant stalks and algae, to hydrogen, viruses and sunshine.”

Get the latest in science and technology at Discovery News. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/news.html

Marvin Odum, the new president of Shell Oil, the second largest oil company, said that Shell would be investing big in alternative energy today on ABC news. How big is big? More than their reported net profits of $27 billion. Incredible. I did a blog that did the math for the percentages that have been offered up by the top 5 oil companies in the recent past. It didn’t amount to a hill-of-beans compared to net profits.

But Shell is stepping up to the plate with the largest investment in alternative energy so far by the oil industry. Odum said it was historic. I would say so. Shell will invest $35 to $36 billion dollars yet in 2008.

Yesssss!  With this mindset, and example, we may just clean up yet.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=5632698&page=1 

I’ve been wondering how long it would take for religious communities to recognize the cruelty of animal farming; how extremely opposite it is from the idea of kosher where animals are tended with kindness and the ” method of slaughter is a quick, deep stroke across the throat with a perfectly sharp blade with no nicks or unevenness. This method is painless, causes unconsciousness within two seconds, and is widely recognized as the most humane method of slaughter possible.” A condition under which the meat is further processed is supposed to be extremely sanitary.

This is hardly the definition of a CAFO, where animals are so depressed and frustrated, they chew on the metal bars of their confinement. I’ve written so many blogs about CAFO’s and animal farms. That’s why I was so happy to read an article in the Summer publication of All Animals, by the Humane Society of the U.S., about America’s churches stepping forward to start a grassroots endeavor to restore humane farming.

Methodists support totally natural systems of farming. Jewish rabbis recommend that humans strive to prevent animal suffering. While many other denominations condemn factory farms altogether.

HSUS’s “All Creatures Great and Small” campaign plans to call on the religious, I like to say spiritual, individuals to only purchase cage-free eggs. The article says that “participants can make an on line pledge to do so and pass it along to friends as a form of networking. It also said, “They can then download materials to use in youth groups, Sunday schools, sermons, and bulletins.” There is also a documentary from “people whose religion inspired them to make dietary changes.” This particular campaign will be this October during the monthlong feast of St. Francis of Assisi, saint to all animals.

This one small pledge is designed to spread grassroots style and hopefully bring awareness to the spiritually minded about the guidelines in the bible as to what and how we eat. People can argue that the guidelines are in the Old Testament that we’re living the New Testament now. Yet we cannot simply disregard the entire part of the bible that tells us where we came from can we? Without it, we would have no heritage.

At very least, in America, where spiritualism seems to abound these days, it might make us pay better attention to not only what we eat but how it was raised. It could make a big difference in our health and diminish the amount of pollution we unleash into the environment from factory farms. Not bad by-products for a little extra awareness about what we eat.