Our World and Everything in It

I’ve complained about an unscrupulous EPA before, showing that some of its exiting hierarchy was tied to the oil industry. I’ve also tried to get the point across that the Bush administration has dismantled the federal government in small increments handing out contracts to for-profit corporations to do the work our agencies used to do, while cutting the budget drastically in many departments across the board. Sound alright? A lot of people think so—less spending. But do we know who is doing the work instead, how the contract was awarded, who is responsible if something goes wrong, or how much the contractor was actually paid for the job?

Cuts are going to happen. We must pay for the war.  But we just don’t know all the things that have been cut, until it’s too late that is. Just last year around this time, the Bush administration planned to cut some $500 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget and was met with fierce opposition in congress. The complaint was that it would shortchange vital environmental programs and was unacceptable. Do ya think?

Now it’s the FDA. The cover of the April 2008 Reader’s Digest asks “Can We Trust the FDA?—Must Read Special Report,” and reveals the Food and Drug Administration is in crisis. Most of the article is about the drugs we take, but the department is responsible for regulating $1.5 trillion in food, as well as, animal feeds and drugs. The article stated that insiders say, “it’s [FDA] woefully underfunded, dangerously understaffed and fractured by bitter internal tensions.” I immediately suspected feuding within the department exists because some people have ethics. In 2004, the FDA came under fire for silencing a staff scientist about antidepressants causing suicidal tendencies in teens. Ditto for the EPA, when scientists testified before congress last year that they were tired of being suppressed, and their findings/reports compromised.

The FDA receives only $2 billion in funding, which sounds like a lot but as the article says “is about what Fairfax County, Virginia, pays for its public schools.” It’s really frightening to read words like “chilling new report” in reference to the department in charge of our food and medicine. Worse yet the “chilling” report was commissioned by the FDA’s own advisory Science Board that also describes it as “nearly out of control.”

Congress has just begun to help shore up the FDA, increasing their funding by $145 million, but hey compared to billions, that’s a drop in the bucket. Of course about a quarter of that went to the drug review branch, another reason to read this story to see how much conflict of interest there is within the FDA relative to the drug industry. But special interests and conflict of interest on the food side of this equation cause an equal amount of damage. We start seeing problems like tainted food, beef, and chicken recalls, lax inspection of CAFO’s and runoff from them that may make its way into our tributaries, and of course really lax inspection of imported food. I watched a program where farm raised shrimp in an Asian country were swimming in polluted water with feces from farm animals. I check what I buy now. I steer clear of imports. I know the FDA isn’t checking.

The article said the public needs to weigh in. Weigh in? Scream for Pete’s sake. This is our bread, this is our health and it’s being handled shabbily. This type of decision-making and ethics is repetitive in the EPA, and more than likely throughout our federal agencies at this point. As I read the five key problems in this industry, they were similar to the EPA’s problems:

· The FDA suffers pressure from industry to speed decisions, and soft-pedal problems.
· Safety of New Drugs. Safety decisions are many times based on inefficient industry studies.
· Sloppy Record Keeping
· Conflicts of Interest
· Muzzled Experts

This list just about says it all doesn’t it? From the looks of things, we’re on our own.

Read the article: http://www.rd.com/national-interest/special-reports-and-surveys/problems-in-the-fda/article55513.html

The U.S. just had the largest beef recall in history.  Who can tell? We’ve had so many. Is it slowing anyone down from eating more burgers? Probably not. Most of the beef, 143 million lbs. was heading to school cafeterias. There was enough tainted beef to provide two burgers to every man, woman, and child in the U.S. according to ABC. Finally, ABC news aired film footage showing how sick, downed animals that are too ill to stand are pushed, prodded, even fork-lifted into a slaughterhouse to be hacked into our food. The news said: “It might be disturbing.”

Disturbing? If we really wanted to cure obesity in America, everyone should have to visit a petting zoo and interact with farmyard animals, pet their soft muzzles, feel their innocence, then visit a CAFO and a slaughterhouse. How about inhaling some fumes from the open-air lagoons while we’re there? It just might work to cure our eating disease.

What I saw on TV this morning is why I quit eating pigs and cows. If the average American experienced where our food came from, how it is processed, we would be a much, much thinner nation. We are an absolutely cruel nation in our utilization of Confined Animal Factories or CAFO’s, and are neglectful in paying any attention to the treatment of our farm animals. The only thing we are interested in is putting the feedbag on ourselves. 

Since the average American is not likely to come near a slaughterhouse, the next best thing is to watch the movie, “Fast Food Nation.” The movie gives many ideas as to why our food industry is serving us up tainted meat. We are processing everything far too quickly and completely neglecting what is known as  “Kosher” or clean and humanely raised food. I honestly don’t think that some of the pigs and cows that are sent into the slaughterhouse are completely dead before being cut up into steaks. The cow on this morning’s newscast was so sick it couldn’t stand, yet someone was screaming at it, scaring it, prodding it to actually walk into the slaughterhouse on its own. I sometimes hate the modern world. It progresses but with less and less empathy for other living things.

Thus is our sustenance these days. Not pretty. CAFO’s and industrialized farming should be stopped. We’re all too fat anyway. I could lose ten lbs. and never miss it. How about you and especially in light of the latest link between obesity and cancer? I’ve often thought the two somehow go together, but hey I’m not a scientist. I just know lugging around 20 extra lbs. is a lot of extra heft. I know that every time I buy 20 lbs of cat litter, or topsoil, or landscaping mulch. I can lift it. I can fling it still, but I can’t imagine walking around every day with that excess hanging about.  
 

Wonder what’s been going on behind the scenes on Capital Hill while the campaign takes over the news? I have. I don’t trust them. While the campaign smoke screen is up a lot has been transpiring, or rather conspiring against wildlife and the environment in an effort to get us away from foreign oil.  How will the Saudis like that? Is that why we’re supplying guns and ammo to them,  because we’re weaning them off?  Anyway, here is a sample of the urgent e-mails I’ve been getting from many environmental groups because our dubious administration is at work again.

I belong to Care2.com, a wonderful website of over 8 million members who care passionately about something, kids, people’s rights, animal welfare, the environment, etc. I got an e-mail to petition none other than Dirk Kempthorne, Secy. of the Interior, again. The same guy that is angling to kill off the entire wolf species in Idaho, and possibly Wyoming by aerial hunting, snares, etc. It seems we haven’t done enough to polar bears, now Kempthorne’s positioned to allow drilling for oil in the middle of their habitat too. Here is what the petition states: “At a time when the polar bear’s future is literally on thin ice, it’s no time to add insult to injury by drilling in their fragile Arctic habitat. But it could happen. Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort Seas - also known as the Polar Bear Seas - could be opened to drilling as early as February.” Better start pressuring Kempthorne, or join Care2.com and sign the petition, and many others on their website for a better world. This is almost a done deal. It doesn’t look like Kempthorne’s going to add the polar bear to the endangered list.

The Wilderness Society posted an e-mail that states: “A draft environmental impact statement to be released next week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will pave the way for 110,000 acres of wildlife habitat within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to be traded to the native-owned Doyon Corporation for oil and gas development. Under the proposed deal, Doyon also would obtain 97,000 acres in subsurface rights within the Refuge. Doyon would turn over approximately 150,000 acres of corporation land to the Refuge in the proposed exchange.” Sounds OK? Not so much. As the USFWS well knows, “Oil and gas development are not compatible with the purposes of the refuge—something that USFWS itself has acknowledged in the past. Development poses a threat to water quality, fish and wildlife habitat, subsistence cultures, and the wilderness and recreational values of the refuge and its adjacent public lands.”

A Clean Water Action e-mail stated: “Polluter attacks on the Clean Water Act continue. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting public comments until January 21 on a policy that will determine which rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands are fully protected.” This maneuvering by “[t]he Bush Administration has sought to limit Clean Water Act protections through direct attacks on the law, by misinterpreting Supreme Court decisions and through a series of “No Protection” instructions to the federal and state bureaucrats.” But the e-mail asserts, “Congress is considering legislation to clarify that the Clean Water Act is meant to protect all water bodies. But the e-mail asserts, “Congress is considering legislation to clarify that the Clean Water Act is meant to protect all water bodies. In the meantime, we have to stop these backdoor attacks on the laws that protect our water quality.” This is a good link to take you right to the EPA site.

The only good e-mail I received is that the Greenpeace boat, the Esperanza, caught up with the Japanese whalers and is chasing them around the Southern Ocean. You might want to donate to any or all of these charitable organizations. We have no idea the sacrifice these people make to protect things we cherish like our national parks and rivers, lakes, wildlife, and environment. People like you and me are up all hours, in bad parts of the world, arguing/fighting with foreign countries sometimes, in adverse conditions for what they believe in. Imagine boarding a ship, leaving loved ones, to chase and confront another ship in frigid seas and rotten conditions out of passion for the cause. And we take them for granted. These organizations of everyday citizens are the “THEY” we all have spoken about when we say: “Oh well, THEY will do something about it,” or “I’m not worried, THEY will come up with something.” But THEY not only need monetary support, if THEY ask for people to write to congress or the Queen, please do it. It costs nothing but the time you’re spending goofing around on your pc anyway. And every voice behind these people shows those in charge that it is a force of many, many more people than THEY that are out there actually doing the job. God Bless THEM.
 
To write to Kempthorne about drilling in polar bear habitat: http://www.doi.gov/contact.html. Read more about Kempthorne ignoring senators, fishing industry, petitions, etc., http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20080102.cfm

To join Care2.com and sign many petitions about many causes and meet a network of 8 million worldwide who care: http://www.care2.com/.

For more about the Alaskan Land Swap: http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Magazine/Summer2007/yukonflats.cfm.

For more about the Clean Water Act: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2155/t/203/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=22196.

Google announced it would spend millions of dollars annually in search of alternative energy sources like geothermal, solar, and wind power. And no they aren’t doing it for the money, or the power. Google is worth $208 billion and has no debt. Boy I wish I would have caught that wave. Anyway the guys at Google have at least $13 billion in loose change to play with and why not? They earnestly want to slow climate change with alternative sources as cheap as coal within 10 years.

Google also plans to cut or offset its greenhouse gas emission by 2008. Joining Google is Yahoo and News Corp. If this chain reaction keeps occurring, it will really add up. There are many corporations and businesses with a conscience that are really trying to contribute like Google. I’ve run across more and more articles about businesses looking to both cut emissions and find ways to incorporate alternative energy into their daily usage. I already blogged about business pushing the environmental movement. Many are doing so because of the high cost of fuel. It worked for me. A few changes and I lowered my gas and electric bill combined to $114, $115, and finally to $103 this summer. I didn’t suffer for it either.

Meanwhile Silicon Valley is filled with start up companies working on green energy. After watching a week of Eco Tech with batteries made from viruses, and hydrogen on demand pellets, I’m keeping my eye on what comes out of Silicon Valley. Not long ago investing in anything technical was very profitable. Like I said, I wish I caught the Google wave early. Now is a very good time to keep an eye on the stock market for signs of “green.” I can’t find too terribly many things wrong with going green along with the opportunity to watch some really great inventors come forward. It’s exciting to work toward such a noble goal, to slow global climate change. Whenever there is purpose, there is passion and that usually results in amazing innovation. 

I like a good shrimp dinner like anyone else that likes shrimp, big, fat meaty mouthfuls of that sweet seafood, add scallops and lots of other types of seafood for that matter. But now I hear that 80% of the seafood we eat is imported. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but the FDA only inspects 1% of that seafood, and what it does inspect will more than likely fail due to unsafe levels of antibiotics, or just plain filth.

Personally, I like to buy fish that says farm-raised in the U.S., even though the fish food contains PCB’s. In Vietnam farm-raised may mean “in sewage.” Eating in restaurants is a little more difficult. There are no labels. It’s a good idea to ask where the seafood comes from. There is a problem with an often used fungicide called Malachite Green found in imported fish. Malachite Green can cause cancer and birth defects over time.

The countries from which we import know what’s legal and what’s not. They do it anyway, and often replace the forbidden material with another that is potentially dangerous. That’s why it’s so important to have better checks on our imports, especially food. President Bush is expected to ask for reforms giving government the power to recall. Who is he kidding? His small government/privatization ideals have fallen flat in the area of imports already. More and more things we rely on as safe through governmental inspections are at risk because there is no government inspecting it. Some states like Alabama run their own inspections, but those states are few.

Be advised. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m going to start to ask where my seafood comes when I dine out. I had no idea that a good shrimp dinner may be the same as getting a big dose of unknown antibiotics. I refuse to eat meat because of CAFO’s. It’s getting very, very vegetarian around here.
Read more about fish inspections: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/Story?id=3825144&page=2.
 

Aha, another beef recall and this one originated in Michigan. The Michigan Department of Community Health was doing a routine investigation and found the E. coli. Davis Meats and Seafood out of Kalamazoo shipped the meat to Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia. It’s not the largest recall, however, at 130,000 lbs. There were bigger recalls by other meat packers before this and quite often. I was a little amazed.
 
The USDA recalled 1.1 million pounds of ground beef in 2000 for E-coli contamination. Anyone wondering how some beef gets contaminated in the first place? In this instance, the USDA claimed cows were eating the feces of other cows and thus making them sick with E. Coli. That following year it happened again. In 2001, 280 pounds of fresh ground beef possibly contaminated with E. coli were recalled. In 2002, approximately 63,000 pounds of ground beef products may have been contaminated with E. Coli. Cows eating other cow’s feces must be happening in very close quarters. If cows were in a pasture grazing, it’s doubtful that this would occur. Lock thousands of food animals together (CAFO’s) in one huge barn and the poor animals have no choice. When they can’t move or turn around and food and excrement get mixed together what do suppose happens? Add the fact that most of these places are surrounded by open air lagoons filled with waste, blood, bacteria and who knows what, it’s no wonder contaminated meat products keep popping up.
 
Another problem is that we have many, many agencies that check on our food, but none that trace it all the way from the farm to our table. These agencies are not integrated. Plus, as quoted in a speech from a group called SafeTables, “Most Americans are shocked to learn that all food recalls are voluntary and that the agency charged with that food product’s oversight does not have authority to force a recall, even when scientific testing conclusively establishes the presence of deadly bacteria in food that is on its way to our kitchens. Our government can only ‘request’ a recall, while food producers retain the right ‘to refuse to comply.’” Read more of this speech and what they propose are the 4 cornerstones for food safety at:
http://www.safetables.org/Policy_&_Outreach/Speeches/speech_barb_kowalcyk_pc_9_2004.html.
 
Please remind yourselves the meat we eat was once an animal. Most households in America have more than one animal per house. How is that animal any different than any other, because you love it? Try to care about all living things. If you have no empathy for living creatures than at least do something about the food you and your children eat. Start e-mailing and calling our representatives first about overhauling our food checking system to one that is integrated, so that someone is responsible from farm to table for our food. This will probably cut a lot of needless expense and mistakes. Secondly, call about the new Farm Bill that’s in front of congress right now or conditions for the animals are not going to improve. The Farm Bill needs to support farmers for being good stewards of their land and to practice ethical and humane farming habits. The number one thing to state emphatically to our politicians is to end industrialized farming once and for all. It’s time to bring the small farmer back. It will take a huge effort to do so, but our lives are at stake, or um should I say steak.

I got a kick out of the controversy over cloned food that made the news this morning. The FDA is ready to make a new ruling. They say meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as any other meat. More than likely, our other meat is pumped with hormones. Our other meat is fed food that is filled with additives and fertilized with the hormonal animal manure, blood, and bacteria. Our other meat is doused with pesticides while breathing the fumes from the cesspools below them.  Our other meat is sickly and then pumped with drugs to keep alive. Where is the Center for Food Safety for these conditions? They are voicing their concern over cloned meat.

So to say cloned animals are as safe as any other meat is not saying much at all. I wonder if some of the medical conditions we suffer are from eating meat like this? Kids suffer Attention Deficit Disorder. Adults suffer ADD also. There are conditions out there that go undiagnosed after years of tests. Autism is growing. Girls reach puberty earlier. Boys go bald sooner.

We need to pay attention to our food industry. We’ve had a preview of tainted food already. Not a terrorist to blame but ourselves. We’ve allowed industrialized farming and they are terrorists of a different sort according to the small farmers they’ve put out of business.  And we’re worried about cloned animals? I suggest if we take up the fight against cloned animal meat do it also to discontinue industrialized farming. Read my “Pig Poo” blog. The future of our food and freshwater depend on our petitioning our representatives to stop monopolies like Smithfield Foods and other industrialized farmers.

45% of Americans polled thought cloning animals is morally wrong. Industrialized farming is the most immoral act I’ve read about yet. The pollution from them is overwhelming. The animals live a life of hell. They are literally traumatized from birth to slaughter. And this is on the heels of science that declares pigs have a high degree of intelligence. Oh how I loved pork. I don’t eat it anymore. Red meat is an occasional treat.

You might say animals have always been foodstuff. The act of slaughter is not pretty. But I like to think we at least allowed the animal to have a life first, grazing, and procreating. It’s called kosher.  A decree by God for his animals. They are to be treated with care and decency. The slaughter should be clean and swift. Our idea of morality and the animal kingdom is like the fickle finger of fate that points and misses more than not. We’re concerned about cloned animals while the suffering of those given us by God goes ignored.

The next time you receive “junk mail” that is from Farm Sanctuary, or a Farm Animal charity, read it. They exist for a purpose. We not only need to watch how much we eat for our health, but what that food went through to get on our plate.

I just read the most disgusting article about pollution I’ve read in a long time. And I read a lot of pollution articles. The article, “Boss Hog” by Jeff Tietz in Rolling Stone magazine took me on a tour of the pork meat packing business that got me thinking of hell, torture, something out of Revelations in the bible, to disgust, outrage, mistrust of the EPA, USDA and other governmental organizations. A lot of thoughts for one little article about Smithfield Foods.

Joseph Luter III owns Smithfield Foods. It is the largest meat packing business in the world. Smithfield killed 27 million hogs last year. Hogs weigh 50% more than people so it was the equivalent of processing, (a decent term), the entire human populations of 33 of America’s largest cities. Hogs also produce 3 times the poo we do.

The hogs are compartmentalized in cubicles from birth to slaughter in large buildings. The slats in the floor allow droppings, stillborn piglets, small piglets, and afterbirth to fall through to open air pits that flow into lagoons around the massive buildings. Large ventilation fans attempt to take the stench out but the animals breath  bacteria and methane gases. Coupled with the trauma from living in hell, the pigs immune systems weaken. They have to be shot up with drugs and antibiotics continuously. They are also doused with pesticide. Much of it falls into the pits and out to the open air lagoons.

Lagoons are lined, but liners can break.  Lagoons can cover an area as large as 120,000 sq. ft. and be 30 ft. deep. One slaughterhouse can have as many as 100 open air lagoons. The stench is described as putrid and fetid.  The lagoons are the color of Pepto Bismal from blood.  Dead pigs are piled up in areas of the premises. It’s a sewage horror story and I haven’t stated the worst yet.

When the lagoons get too high, workers suck the stuff up and blow it into the air to land on the ground that grows the feed for the hogs. Pig poo hangs from the surrounding trees and covers everything. Industry people call this over-saturation and act as if this stuff is a nutrient. At this point, picture grease in a pan of cold water, the slimy crust floating on top a mix of blood, pig parts, afterbirth, chemicals, drugs, fertilizer, bacteria, and poo. Pour something like that on the ground. That slime is going to lay on top and draw more bacteria, and flies, before it seeps in. Raise a flag to the recent outbreak of bacteria tainted veggies? Smithfield has operations in 20 states.

The lagoons overflow into subsidiaries when it rains too much. When hurricane Floyd hit N.C., and one of the largest hog farms, entire counties became cesspools. Fish died within minutes of touching lagoon water. There were dead fish along the ocean shore at the mouths of the subsidiaries that swelled with lagoon overspill. People who come in contact don’t fair too well either. The stench cannot be inhaled for long or a person blacks out. A worker repairing a lagoon in Michigan inhaled too much, blacked out, fell in, and immediately died.

That’s right. Smithfield is in Michigan. All of our  lakes, streams, and rivers run into our Great Lakes, the world’s largest freshwater supply. If a Smithfield farm was dead center in our state, I wouldn’t rest easy. I don’t think this is the wave of the future at all. It is unnecessarily inhumane. Many states are fighting it as a monopoly because Smithfield sucks up all the small farms. Dead pigs piled up is nothing but waste and overkill. The pollution is uncontrollable, affecting our groundwater and soil, and eventually our other food and water supplies. The pigs are sickly. Many are pumped with drugs and kept alive long enough to kill and serve as our food.

While organizations are forming to keep Smithfield out of their state, and to stop industrialized farming, Smithfield Foods made the Fortune list, was honored by a leading meat packing industry magazine, and the EPA honored them for following ISO 14000 standards. These standards are a joke. The 14000 program is a pilot that only encourages active environmental management. None of the standards hold force so a company is not required to improve its quality control. Most significantly, the standards do not require sufficient public disclosure of a firm’s environmental impacts. What’s wrong with this picture? The EPA, not long ago, handed Smithfield the largest fine in history. 
Pollution is a political issue. Luter is a major contributor to politicians and part of the growing problem with lobbyists. Lobbyists like Smithfield Foods get the government to look the other way and dump their pollution on us when we don’t fight back. We don’t fight back when we don’t know about it. We don’t know about it because of flimsy, voluntary standards s like the EPA’s 14000 ISO’s.  
Smithfield Foods is not only killing off America, they are in Canada and have spread like a virus to Poland and Romania.  Search the article under Boss Hog by Jeff Tietz. One of the first urls brings up the entire article. E mail Senators Levin http://levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm, Stabenow http://stabenow.senate.gov/email.htm, and Representative Dingell http://www.house.gov/writerep/  to stop Smithfield Foods and industrialized farming.  Global warming isn’t the only threat to our environment. 

Today is the first time a global warming case has reached the Supreme Court. They will begin hearings based on testimony of 12 states that are asking the court to force the U.S. government to order its environmental agencies to control CO2 emissions from vehicles under the Clean Air Act.  Michigan is among 8 of the 12 states that support the EPA.

But do we really trust the EPA? It was originally established to be independent of government, focusing on public health and its relation to the environment. We all know any business or agency’s ethics and motives are only as good as the people governing them. Also, there are other governmental agencies that have an impact on the EPA. The White House Council for Environmental Quality, formerly headed by Phillip A. Cooney is one of them. 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. In 2003 it published an extensive report of the environment with no information whatsoever about global warming. Cooney came to his position at the council as a lawyer and former lobbyist  for the American Petroleum Institute.  He has no scientific background to make any alterations of scientific data. You might say throw the bum out, but he has already left the position and now works for Exxon Mobil.

James Hansen, a climatology expert from a NASA Space Study, was pressured by his superiors after giving a presentation about human related climate change. He was told it was still an uncertain topic by his administrator. He reported that in 30 years he never witnessed as much White House involvement and filtering of information from science to the public.

The State Department pressured an international panel of representatives known as the Artic Council to alter their report on global warming. The final draft withheld recommendations for policy to reduce green house gas emissions in order to stop its horrible impact on the Artic. The State Department was also successful in ousting Dr. Robert Watson who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1996. During his time the IPCC produced a report that predicted an increase of 2.5 to 10.5 F in avg. global warming by 2100 with new evidence it was due to human activities. Exxon Mobil opposed the proposed regulation of CO2 and wanted Watson out. The State Department complied. Dr. Watson lost the support of the U.S. and his position as chair.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service developed a brochure on ways to curb agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. They managed to send the first printing but the White House’s Council of Environmental Quality objected to it and a reprint was canceled. 

As I stated in a previous blog, many Americans are wondering how our environment got so bad, so fast. Well this White House accomplished what they set out to do. Appointments to key environmental positions throughout the administration were filled by people that were once employed by the tobacco industry, and are now busom buddies with the petroleum industry. By altering scientific facts, they’ve attempted and succeeded in concealing from and confusing the public about the ever-increasing effects of global warming due to CO2 emissions. The biggest culprits of CO2 emissions are jet airliners, automobiles, refineries and coal burning facilities.  I watched a CBC segment by The Fifth Estate called “The Denial Machine.”  Phil Klapp cornered Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation about altering scientific documents. Klapp had in his hand documents with visible alterations. As he read the changes, it was clearly understood they were meant to dilute the message of the reports. We weren’t just duped about the war folks. We’ve been lied to about the state of our world. And now the race is on to clean it up. It can be done and hopefully the U.S. will emerge as a model in that endeavor. It will take each and every one of us to do our part.  

     There are all types of casualties we endure on a daily basis especially during times of war. Losing someone or something precious can happen moment to moment. And although our lives are upset to the point we don’t think we’ll recover, we do. I just wonder how many people realize the biggest casualty of all is happening in small increments every day that none of us will recover from if we don’t turn it around.

Our environment is taking hit after hit, and many of us still do not know that when it’s stated we have 10 years to do something, it does not mean we have ten years before we start doing something. It means if we do not start today toward reversing global warming by controlling our pollution it will be irreversible within 10 years. It’s a good idea to control pollution to begin with. By all the water bottles I see these days, I realize that everyone does get the idea that maybe our water isn’t all that clean, and probably our air.  What I also see by those same water bottles is that we really aren’t getting it at all. Where do you think those plastic bottles go? If your community recycles that’s great. If you recycle on your own, then bless you, but unfortunately only 70% of all our garbage is recycled. Those bottles end up in landfills of which there are approximately 6000 in the U.S.  Plastic takes around 500 years to decompose. Do we love our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren? Then what are we doing?

The intent of this news blog is to be in your face about our world because we’re all in this together, and if you or my other neighbors don’t jump in and help, the experience of living won’t be what we once knew. Right now it is what it is “An Inconvenient Truth” as Al Gore aptly named it. Many of our little conveniences in life may have to be abandoned to save our earth, save ourselves. It’s a rude awakening, but the sooner we snap out of it, the sooner we turn it around. No more burying our heads in the sand or waiting for “they or them” to do something. They or them is us, all of us.

Anyone who has any questions about anything environmental feel free to blog. If you know something you don’t think the rest of us are aware of blog it. If you don’t quite believe in global warming yet let us know why. Anyone who has already adapted his or her lifestyle differently to save on anything let us know how, so we might adapt. One idea becomes a ripple that becomes a wave and the whole community benefits.

None of us are perfect angels about the environment. I still drive a gas hog, although I’m looking at all hybrids and beseeching Ford to revive the cobra body style with an electric/ethanol motor. I’m a baby boomer that wants a hybrid sports car. Any baby boomers out there want to weigh in on that? Doesn’t an environmentally friendly sports car sound good? My tip to any other gas hog drivers out there, consolidate your running around. I’m down to 2 days per week. Group up and ride to work together. Quit running your kids around and enjoy family nights. Quitting our rat race can help the environment.