Our World and Everything in It

I wrote this as a diary on other blogsites and found people weren’t as down on our car companies as thought. Since this blog does involve the environment I thought I would post it here also. Replies I’ve received from the west coast that buy foreign were a little surprised. One wanted to know about the new Ford Fusion hybrid. And many people including a congressman that I read about also find it curious that all three automakers ignored foreign competition. Here’s the blog:

We all had a hand in the recent demise of the American auto industry. Consumers ate up big gas guzzling SUV’s, trucks, and 300 hp engines in cars like my 9 year old Cadillac. Like most consumers, I figured if the Big 3 produces them, they are all right to buy; after all, the car companies have the inside track, and an eye up on the competition. We trusted their judgment and we were willing to buy.

American automakers sold us big gas guzzling cars, yet at the end of the Clinton administration, the Big 3 produced prototypes of energy efficient and hybrid vehicles for the future. When Bush/Cheney was elected all was abandoned. The Big Three were obviously assured by an overtly oil connected administration that the crude would keep flowing. The Big 3 trusted Bush/Cheney.

It is the trickle down of trust. Even though the source of this trust lies in an administration that is Wall St. friendly, (obviously), and anti-union, (prefers dictatorial management), even though the rest of the industrialized free nations are highly unionized and benefit from national health care systems. Hmm? Meanwhile, the Big 3 blindly and stupidly followed the lead of this anti-environmental administration, and totally ignored the competition that continued making hybrids. Odd. The assurances must have been great enough to go against basic business sense.

And what about the environment? The Bush administration appointed Michael Leavitt as EPA administrator in 2000. As new reports about global warming began to surface, they were either squelched or altered by the EPA. ENS reported: “The White House reversed course and rejected actions to control global warming pollution.” It is one of the worst deceptions the Bush/Cheney regime perpetrated on the American public, to cause doubt about global warming for the sake of the billionaire oil industry relishing the use of gas eating American cars by a trusting America and its auto industry.

As for Michael Leavitt, he left the EPA to head up Health and Human Services. Health and Human Services under his rule turned around and issued an e-mail to some 67,000 govt. employees urging them to buy hybrid cars, when U.S. automakers had none to offer. Of course the e-mail was a mistake, so sorry. What? As in a trial, the jury heard the stricken comment. Buy hybrid, buy foreign.
Within a span of a few years Michael Leavitt at the Bush/Cheney bidding was both anti-environmental, then suddenly green conscious. Bush/Cheney was purchasing more and more foreign oil. The beginning of 2007, before the economy took a dive, the Big 3 raced to Washington when oil prices rose to record highs. The Big 3 recognized the trouble ahead. They were snubbed by the same administration that obviously assured them early on. The oil was flowing but at outrageous prices, and now Bush/Cheney washed their hands of the auto industry. Not their problem. The Big 3 knew they had been duped. The environment was skillfully used as a means to an end.

The Big 3 scrambled back to Detroit to produce environmentally friendly cars. Ford is unveiling a hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan that goes up to 47 mph on electric power before switching to gas. The Prius tops out at 30-35 mph. Quite an achievement for Ford in a short time. GM is in the middle of producing a plug-in car. And Chrysler helped produce hydrogen-powered buses for Iceland in 2003. So they have the know how.

But there are new problems out of the auto industry’s control. The beloved Wall St. darlings of the Bush/Cheney era fumbled badly. Instead of just breaking unions, at least two of the Big 3 are on the precipice of extinction now. The final sword is bailing out Wall St. with $700 billion, and corps. like AIG twice, but stalling on the car companies for $25 billion citing that it will just be a cup of water on the fire.

If GM sold all 8 of its jets @ $35 million each, the total $280 million would by the same rationale be a thimble on the fire. If 20 execs conceded $5 million each in any perks or salary increases the resulting $100 million would be half a thimble on the fire. But there is no real fire. The auto industries have advanced greatly toward producing hybrid cars of the future in a very short time after realizing it was sheer stupidity trusting an administration that lead us into a war with Iraq. We’ve been mislead by the Bush/Cheney administration many times over and the one source that has profited greatly is Big Oil.

I believe Big Oil should return the favor to the Big 3 and float them the money to stay on the final stretch of track toward cars that won’t need oil in the future. If Obama can appoint his adversaries, then the oil industry can boost the car companies to a greener future without them. The auto companies deserve a bailout. The oil industry can easily afford it. They were bedfellows before. It’s time for some alimony.

Over four hundred blogs and all of the research, I’ve learned that all things lead back to politics through policy, legislation, and regulation. The past 8 years saw the demise of many things we’ve only just begun to notice. To blame unions and U.S. autoworkers for any of the problems the auto industry is currently experiencing continues to play into the hands of the Bush/Cheney mindset that would like to render our entire country an “at will” entity where no U.S. citizen will have the job security most of our major competitors in the free world enjoy. Understand that unions are the last powerful voice any average citizen has against the likes of a Wall St., that will most certainly make sure nothing, absolutely nothing trickles down. In light of what has happened, we’d be fools to think otherwise.

Japanese unions: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D8163EF933A15754C0A964958260.
Germany’s unions: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3755519,00.html
Britain’s unions: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/rov-a
06.shtml

When we think of Oregon, we think of lush forests and the shores of the Pacific; forests that have been in tact long enough to call ancient. These ancient forests of cedar and fir trees are along the western side of Oregon. After all the devastating fires we’ve had out west, it’s good to know that this ecosystem still stands. Its trees, wetlands and miles of rivers are a respite for the environment, an oasis compared to the scorched California terrain.

Oregon’s ancient forests are also home to black bear, and deer, as well as endangered species like the spotted owl. But that may change quickly. Bush is planning on handing out last minute offerings to his industry buddies, like two million acres to big lumber who will mow through the middle of Oregon’s ancient forests. The Wilderness Society said: “It would fragment this old growth ecosystem with the desolation of stumps and logging roads.” Two million acres would indeed look like desolation from the air.

Nice real nice. But it’s not a done deal. Conservation groups have backed the president down and now he’s accepting public comments. So let him know that in view of all the fires, and what might be a lack of water out west, to waste 2 million acres of Oregon’s forests is just plain sinful. What I want to know is where is all the lumber going? No one is building right now because of the economy. This really does look like nothing more than a wasteful hand out with no foresight as to how it will affect the environment, animals, their habitat, and all of us in the future.

Take action against this last minute logging: http://action.wilderness.org:80/campaign/ognw/xwnke5kr1ent8k5?.

As we continue to argue whether or not man causes global warming, brown clouds are shadowing land from the Arabian Peninsula across Asia all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Hey when we can see it, it’s idiotic to deny it.

The clouds are not only darkening cities but also causing the Himalayan glaciers to melt. How is that happening? One would assume that darkened skies shield the glaciers from the sun’s glare. An article from Beijing, China on Environmental News Service states: “Atmospheric brown clouds, formed by the burning of fossil fuels, biofuels, wood and plants, absorb sunlight and heat the air.” Not only that but, “The clouds also mask the actual warming impact of climate change by anywhere between 20 and 80 percent because they include sulfates and other chemicals which reflect sunlight and cool the surface.”

There is no logic relative to global warming. You know the same simple logic that figures we are getting cooler so it can’t possibly be global warming. That’s a little too easy. As anyone can see from this latest study, what should be isn’t, plus the affects are hidden.

The scientists that conducted this study are from universities and research centers throughout Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The article went on to show yet another chain reaction: “The possible impact of atmospheric brown clouds could include elevated levels of ground-level ozone, which could result in crop losses of up to 40 percent in Asia.” And the Himalayan glaciers are the source for the rivers throughout China. Food and water shortages may happen in the near future. With over a billion people, could this mean a widening world famine?

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2008/2008-11-13-02.asp

While many are busy trying to make change in this country through our upcoming elections, the Bush administration is feverishly trying to deregulate more. And some of this deregulation would not only have horrible consequences for the environment, but also public safety.

Think that it’s no problem because either Obama or maverick McCain will undo the Bush damage? Think again. The Clinton administration tried to put through regulatory laws a little too late at the end of his administration. When Bush took office he scrapped over 250 of Clinton’s regulations for the environment, public safety, etc., quite easily. So this time around the Bush administration is making sure there are no loose ends to their lobbyist loving deregulation push. It will take a heck of a lot of time, trouble, and interest to undo what Bush puts in place now. It affects farms, animals, our food, imports, fishing, environment, clean air, water, global warming, and public safety.

We’ve seen what deregulation has done with tainted food, toys, the sell off of our national parks, a spike in killing wolves, buffalo, and wild mustang horses, and many -other things that affect global warming like over fishing, which allows the growth of rotting plants that results in increasing methane explosions into the atmosphere. We’ve slowly learned that every little thing affects something else in a big way—a process that the Bush administration has never grasped. Their concern is for corporate gain at the expense of many things that directly and adversely affect us.  

Please read the entire article and contact your congressional reps to stop this last minute deregulation that could prove to be the last blow to the environment and our own safety!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004749.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

I watched a segment on ABC news about people greening up their RV’s. The RVer that was interviewed showed what he did with his fifth wheel. I figured sooner or later the RV industry was going to catch onto going green. There are too many used campers and RV’s for sale.

The RVer in the interview added solar panels along the front, what would be the upper berth over the driver. He added a small wind turbine on the back. He said it powers everything inside he wants it to. He devised a way to catch rain water whenever possible, and runs it through an inline filter. And finally he maps out where he can buy B10 biofuel. So far he said he has been lucky to find it.

More entrepreneurship is needed in this industry. I blogged about “trashing out” homes in need of some ingenuity, now the RV industry could use some ingenious mechanics out there to recycle some of the really nice RV’s I’ve seen for sale. Between solar, methane, wind, and all types of fuels that will hopefully debut in the very near future, surely with a little modification here and there, some mechanic, somewhere can launch a guilt free, economical cruising home.

I hope it’s soon because I would love to criss cross America with an RV. Throw the pets on board and visit all the national parks before they’re ruined by developers that bought some of the land auctioned off by the Bush administration. It’s more likely this will happen than not. My husband retires in 3 years. I have a degree for writing so…”Have laptop; will travel.”

Tips on greening up an RV: http://www.ehow.com/how_2269205_green-rv.html

Check out this website’s comments section. Someone has been installing solar panels in RV’s for 6 years and knows what to expect and the costs. Another commenter is looking to convert his old VW camper to hybrid. Now that’s what I mean about ingenuity. http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/03/21/what-could-be-done-to-green-up-rvs-here-are-coachmens-ideas/.

http://thesustainableearthproject.blogspot.com/2008/09/big-ol-guzzling-rvs-reconsidered-are.html

CO2 gas has competition in our atmosphere. Methane gas and nitrogen trifluoride is increasing at an alarming rate. The ice melt in the Artic is releasing an enormous amount of methane from rotting plants. The nitrogen fluoride is used in the manufacture of flat panel monitors.

According to an article in USA, two Scripps Institute geoscientists have collected cylinders of air samples from around the world and both methane and nitrogen fluoride is building quicker than expected.

I’ve blogged about the little known methane gas explosions along the coast of Africa: http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/04/mankind-contributes-to-global-warming-through-fish/. They are caused by the same thing—rotting plants on the ocean floor, plants that used to be food for sardines and a rapidly declining fish supply due to overfishing, especially in that area.

Understand the chain reaction of imbalance now? One thing like overfishing causes excess plankton, which eventually dies and begins to rot on the ocean floor. The rot releases methane gas, which builds under pressure and eventually blows. The caveat to all of this is that the first global warming event 40 million years ago that literally scorched the earth was caused from excess methane gas. http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2007/06/world-environment-day/.

And what about nitrogen trifluoride as evidence man truly is affecting global warming by excessive output of harmful gases that throws the (closed system) atmosphere out of balance? If geoscientists can actually register the growth of toxic nitrogen fluoride, which is not a naturally occurring element but rather a combination of elements used in the silicon industry, than that is proof man is contributing to the toxicity of our atmosphere and an imbalance of what we witness as global warming.

The more scientists are able to gather air samples worldwide the more our eyes will open to the fact we’re polluting at an awful rate and by doing so promoting the demise of our world and everything in it. I hope we can unite on this conclusion soon enough.

For those that say this is a normal cyclical happening, did we have excessive nitrogen trifluoride in the air back then too? We certainly didn’t have almost 7 billion people on earth to think about relative to global warming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27400533/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/06/worse-things-increasing-in-the-air-than-co2/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/05/humans-have-been-affecting-the-earths-atmosphere-for-at-least-2000-years/

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/category/environmentalism/global-warming/page/4/

I was watching PBS news last night and found out a little more about how the foreclosed home situation is being handled. No wonder banks/lenders are in trouble. The waste is unbelievable. It’s called “trashing out a home” when mortgage lenders pay someone to carry everything out of a house to a dumpster. The items are many times top notch household furnishings and electronics. It all ends up in a landfill. What a waste. This pillage should be spread around.

I watched a whole new genre of mover called “trash-out crews.” They go into foreclosed homes and strip the house of all its belongings and send it to the trash dump. You might think that wouldn’t be much, but many upper middle class homes that have been vacated, leave behind much of their high-end belongings too. In some cases it looked as if someone came through and yelled “run for your lives the damn has burst” because food was left out, and toys were still on the floor. There is a large amount of TV’s and electronics like PCS left behind. These items could be put to use in schools.

When the interviewer asked the head of one of these trash-out companies about giving it to charity he said the logistics of hooking up with a charity is slim. They don’t show up, or aren’t on time, or leave things of little value behind so that he has to go back a second time. Unfortunately, he said he tried the eco friendly way and it ends up costing him money. His company is paid by the mortgage companies to pick up perfectly nice items and send them to the landfill where they pay fees to dump the stuff too.

Don’t think this happens much? The same guy with the trash-out company started with 3 employees and now has 73. His trash out crews trash 15 homes per day—high scale stuff from the edge of the golf course homes. It was sickening to see what went into a dumpster knowing the mortgage industry is in serious trouble and wasting like this. To think people somewhere are living in huts on dirt floors, and the amount and variety of things that are getting buried in the earth here is ridiculous. 

I ran across one article that wanted to know where the entrepreneurs are when it comes to trashing out homes? Think about it. It’s a never ending supply of free merchandise that you can actually resell on eBay or Craig’s list, and the bank/lender pays you to pick it up. If you don’t resell it, you store it and in the future you charge the same bank that paid you to pick it up in order to stage the same empty homes for resale using the furniture you took from them in the first place. Think of it as getting paid to pick it up, then put it back.

My first thought was, “Where is Habitat for Humanity?” After all, if an organization like Habitat is going through the trouble of enlisting volunteers to build someone a brand new home, it shouldn’t be an empty home with all this “trash” around.  The same volunteers for Habitat could be working with the mortgage lenders for “clear out” not “trash out” jobs. Imagine presenting someone with a new and “furnished” home.

Is this socialist ideology? It’s certainly “spreading the wealth” around. I see it as recycling whatever, whenever from someone who didn’t care enough to take it, store it, or donate it in the first place. Besides the amount spent on trashing and landfill costs is not that much cheaper than doing the right thing.

I don’t buy it that there is no way to hook this stuff up with charity. There is always a way. If someone offered good money for a solution there would certainly be a way to do it, but then it wouldn’t be charity.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20081022/RE/810220376/1014/RSS02

http://www.maxgladwell.com/2008/10/foreclosure-crisis-where-are-the-green-entrepreneurs/

Previewing October 14^th on PBS is a presentation called “Climate Change; Then and Now.” Watch it as it will be replayed on either WGTE or PBS Detroit again. If you want to hear what has happened since the words “global warming” first graced our ears some ten years ago, you might be surprised. The results are in and we definitely have an impact on what’s up with the weather. Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/story/2008/10/heat.html.

I watched another presentation on WGTE’s Frontline last night relative to the oil industry and the environment that’s part of a larger series entitled “Heat.” I swear that it was a compilation of many of the blogs I’ve done over the course of two years from the net wealth of the oil industry down to Detroit automakers. It’s nice to know I’m not totally daft. 

The program began by showing Exxon Mobil’s baby “Hibernia” the largest (by weight) oilrig platform in the world. It’s 16 stories high and 200 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in God forsaken nowhere. Every 5-6 days a tanker leaves with a load worth 500 million dollars. This rig cost Exxon 4 billion dollars!

The storyline then settled in with the statement that no one has resisted change like big oil. The reporter harped about, the ratio of net income for every major U.S. oil company compared to what they invest in alternative technologies. There were quite a few times oil company spokespeople were flustered and could not answer the interviewer. I mean how do you say “we’re greedy?” The coverage then shifted to the Rockefellers, (not so greedy stockholders) demanding in public court that Exxon invest in more alternative energy. Let’s face it, the oil companies are not going to let their bread and butter go without a fight, and do they have the money to fight.

The fight consisted of spin regarding the state of our environment. This spin has made the plight of the environment political rather than scientific, inciting even more divisiveness. The program showed that big oil had a connection to many denial machines like “The Heartland Group, Competitive Enterprises,” and I have to add “Friends of Science,” Senator Inhofe’s favorite. Inhofe was included in last night’s foray of who and what helped stifle the movement toward alternative energy.

Not to be left out, there was a segment on American auto companies. I could not believe my ears when a scientist being interviewed reiterated my words about our auto industry: “Where was the foresight?” It continued to show that Clinton funded the American auto industry to develop hybrid cars in 98. The prototypes were shown. The auto companies rolled them out and bingo, Bush got into office. That all stopped. The American car companies made bigger and bigger gas-guzzlers like SUV’s, Hummers, etc.  But Japan kept up with the hybrid idea since that time. Now Japan is 10 years ahead of us.  Japan’s factories are also aiming to cut emissions drastically more than they already have. If only we could work on the dolphin/whale thing…

It was quite a night for me to see the same content of some my past blogs come to life in a presentation. We live chaotic lives at times and so our news becomes disjointed and senseless. We only get bits and pieces. Heat is a long series to catch in its entirety. There are 9 chapters. But you can view them online. It’s nice to see it all strung together and for that effort we can always thank Public TV.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/view/6.html

WXYZ news announced this morning that Detroit area Coca Cola trucks would soon be running on hybrid electric motors. The trucks were purchased earlier this year from Eaton Corp.

Eaton is an impressive corporation as far as transportation and the environment. There website states: “We create innovations in hybrid power and low emission vehicles as a leading provider of diesel-electric hybrid power systems for truck and bus applications on three continents. Eaton is also developing hydraulic hybrid power systems technologies for use in refuse trucks, delivery vehicles, buses and other applications. Eaton has a hybrid truck drivetrain center outside of Kalamazoo and is a Cleveland-based Corp.

http://www.eaton.com/EatonCom/Markets/Truck/index.htm.

Coca-Cola ordered 120 of the hybrid trucks, the largest North American commercial order from Eaton’s hybrid systems according to WWJ. Coke previewed these trucks when they purchased 20 of them last year. They evidently liked their performance.

The article below said that Coca-Cola did extensive tests and found that “Eaton’s hybrid-electric drivetrain equipped trucks decreased emissions by 32 percent and fuel consumption by up to 37 percent.” This kind of fuel savings could start a trend.

http://www.wwj.com/Coke-to-Buy-Hybrid-Delivery-Trucks-From-

Eaton/1729913

The NRDC and other organizations like Greenpeace and Center for Biological Diversity have filed a suit against the Bush Administration again on behalf of the polar bear according to the NRDC. The polar bear is on the endangered list, but it seems its habitat is not. Soooo there is a lot of leeway (loopholes) in that plan for Big Oil.

The White House has been flooded with petitions to protect the polar bear and its habitat, but the NRDC and others have had to file suit even as Bush’s time in office is limited. Likewise, the Center for Biodiversity has a lawsuit against the Dept. of Interior, lead by good ole Dirk Kempthorne, for attempting to expand oil and gas development in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas or the “Polar Bear Seas.” It’s called the “Five Year Plan.” Real nice. In five years we should be on our way to oil independence.

It’s more tail chase logic. Allow oil companies to invade polar bear country with the industry that produces the fuel that emits CO2 fueling global warming that is melting the polar bear’s habitat in the first place. It’s another pretty package with little inside from the Bush administration. Apparently, we are to assume the package itself is a big portion of the actual present. And so goes this administration’s polar-bear-is-an-endangered-species offering that sounds right and just but turns right around and gives oil companies the upper hand in the Arctic.

An Arctic that is diminished with one million square miles, six times the size of California, melted away in the past 30 years. For those that want to argue this all happened before, well it wasn’t the Medieval Warming Period from somewhere in the 900’s-1300’s era. We’re a heck of a lot warmer now. According to New Scientist Environment website we might have to go back 6000 to 125,000 years to get as warm as we’re getting and it’s only going to get worse. This is not just natural phenomenon happening here. Anyway the difference between thousands of years ago and now is almost 7 billion people.

Look at the more dense population areas of the world. They are along the water. Take a pitcher of water with ice cubes in it and watch as they melt. No water level change, but add ice and that pitcher overflows. Imagine the scenario if all the ice that covers the land in our coldest regions slips into the surrounding water. That’s adding some mighty big ice cubes to our albeit mighty big oceans/seas but the pitcher will still overflow.

Big Oil’s intrusion in the Polar Bear Seas is adding insult to injury or in this case certain death to the polar bear. And it’s unnecessary. There are some 63 million acres of land leased for oil exploration that hasn’t been touched. The intruder polluters also endanger birds, fish, and other mammals with potential oil spills.

Organizations like the NRDC, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, Center for Biodiversity, and others are making progress. Shell put off drilling in the Beaufort Sea off the Arctic Refuge coast for another year. Now if they can just hold the Bush Administration and Dirk Kempthorne at bay for oh, a couple of months, maybe a new administration will have a little more empathy for the polar bear and our environment. 

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11644

http://www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature1.asp

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/081006.asp