Our World and Everything in It

Today is blog action day. And I don’t want to talk about the environment per say, post the latest news, or try to convince anyone man’s part in global warming is real. Today I would simply like to thank the thousands of volunteers of many, many organizations that give their time, energy, and passion to helping the environment and every creature in it, including humans that won’t get off the couch to save their own lives. To these volunteers and spokespeople we owe you our lives, many of us  just don’t realize it yet.

Volunteers for the environment are tireless in their efforts. I’ve been to meetings where the person holding that meeting drove an hour at night, leaving family at home, to offer a presentation of information about what is happening and what can be done, only to have 8 people show up.  They have to pack it all up and drive an hour to go home to a household already asleep. Yet they are never daunted in their determination to inform possibly one new person. That’s dedication, discipline, and selflessness.

While we sit in our comfortable living rooms there are countless organizations of people like Greenpeace on board ships in the freezing cold to stop whale hunts, or fisherman using nets that trap dolphins, others like Earthjustice, Environmental Defense, and NRDC holding oil drills at bay in some pristine part of our country, or The Sierra Club lobbying in state’s senates against industry pollution, or Waterkeeper Alliance that has joined Sierra Club’s fight against CAFO’s. Their volunteers took 3000 plus photos of CAFO’s and produced DVD’s to expose that industry’s pollution.  There are the many, many meteorologists that have ventured to the N. Pole, Greenland, and Iceland in small boats to get photographs and gain first hand knowledge of crashing ice falls from glaciers not 50 ft. in front of them in order to inform the masses about what they’ve seen, and the brave and undeterred efforts of the scientists who testified before congress that they are fed up with being censored by the Bush administration relative to reports of global warming. They’re brave, bold, and forthright while much of the population flounders in a sea of apathy.

Take for instance what is called “junk mail.” It’s tossed without a thought. But in those envelopes are the voices of those that I’ve just described that are trying to get the truth out, trying to stop the insanity of pollution, trying to stop further fossil fuel endeavors, or simply trying to save the lives of animals that have no one to speak for them. It’s valuable information that took research, time, effort and skill to produce with the hope one more person will open and read the contents in lieu of being tossed without conscience or concern. Ditto for the many TV networks like The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, and Sundance that dedicate themselves to saving the environment by showcasing the marvelous inventors, scientists, and engineers from around the globe that have solutions for our ailing earth already.

To all the wonderful, passionate, faithful people that see the Almighty in their surroundings and fight to save and nurture what we were given as a blessing, I want to say thank you heart and soul. The road you travel is new and like any other time in history, your fellow humans are not quick to follow a new revolution. Go with peace and passion in every step because most assuredly you have one Traveler that will remain by your side always. Nature is Earth’s Metaphor for God and you “get it.” Bless you. Keep the faith, keep up the fight.  
 

I was working at something else on my laptop when a commercial came on for Subaru cars. I had to post this right now after watching it. Here is this commercial about Suburu cars that wants to give the listener the idea that Suburu is thinking of the environment and states that their factories contribute nothing to landfills. Everything is recycled, reused, or converted to electricity. What??? What the heck? Tell me the Suburu gets 50 miles to the gallon, uses hybrid technology, or that they somehow don’t emit much CO2 or use gasoline. The fact that they choose to show their environmentalism by recycling raises a flag with me. It’s a car company. What about the actual cars? 

Then I found out. According to the NRDC: “Subaru, the automaker that built its name marketing to skiers, bikers, kayakers and other outdoor enthusiasts is telling customers to take a hike. The company is about to skirt federal fuel economy rules by officially reclassifying the sedans and wagons in its popular Outback line as trucks, making small design adjustments to exploit a loophole that subjects the car to much weaker efficiency standards. Decreased fuel economy means more pollution from the tailpipe. Subaru’s contempt for air quality and the environment runs sharply counter to the image promoted by the company.” The reason they choose to talk about recycling and not their cars is because their vehicles are not that environmentally friendly. As the NRDC found: “One probable reason for the embarrassing move (to reclassify their vehicles): Subaru’s average fuel economy has been falling steadily for several years, with their 2003 models barely meeting the 27.5 mpg requirement for cars. Light trucks must average only 20.7 mpg today, and 21.2 mpg in 2005. The Outback is based on the Subaru Legacy, which has been treated as a car under federal guidelines since its introduction as a 1989 model. Subaru is able to skirt car standards by raising the suspension and ground clearance of the current vehicle. 

I just wanted to put out a warning after seeing this commercial because I think we’re going to see a lot of “We’re friendly to the environment” rhetoric pretty quick. Don’t get snowed by nonsense. We’ve already been snowed by this administration. We don’t need to continue to be duped by big industry. Let’s try to gain a little street smarts in the future and really try to grasp what people, industry, whoever, and whatever are saying relative to what they are doing. What is the number one “heads up” Jesus related? –”You will know them by their deeds.” Look up the records of those that tout environmental quality of some sort. Don’t just here the words “We’re environmentally friendly” and forget about the hows and whys. Be aware of paradoxes like “clean coal”–WHAT? The hows and whys are what make sense of everything. So in the case of that Suburu commercial, I have to say once again–WHAT?  For more about Suburu: http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0114-12.htm   

After fighting the fight against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge throughout this administration’s tenure in office, our voice has been overlooked again. The Bush Administration is allowing Shell Oil to drill there this summer! The National Resources Defense Council thinks the only way to stop them is through the courts. They believe they can win the case because they can prove that allowing Shell to drill there is a violation of this country’s environmental laws. Every square foot of the Arctic coastline, except the refuge, is available for oil development. But Bush and Shell specifically aim for the Wildlife Refuge. It must be the least expensive route so they can put more millions in their pockets.

The oil spills that are inevitable are what is the most threatening because the oil industry doesn’t have a way to clean up in icy waters. Do you know how dangerous this drilling expedition is? They are drilling in an area known as the “Arctic Ring of Life” or the Beaufort Sea. It’s home to polar bears, walrus, gray whales, endangered bowhead whales, belugas, ringed seals, spectacled and Steller’s eider sea ducks, and migratory birds. One oil spill would be disastrous. The NRDC has one heck of a record of wins over companies like Shell, Arco, and Texaco following their spills. They need help. Click on the NRDC link to the right to go to their home page to see how.

The non-compassionate Shell Oil Co. is using seismic exploration also. Do you know about sound decibels? The noise is deafening and harmful to whales and other marine animals that rely on sound to communicate. The NRDC says, “The underwater noise produced by seismic air guns in locating oil deposits is among the most intense. I worked at Sibley Quarry. The blasting there often exceeds the seismic decibel level for the surrounding buildings in the neighborhoods. There has been a constant battle and threats of lawsuits due to the sound vibrations that many say caused large cracks in their foundations and basements. Sound vibrations cause cracks in concrete. These same sound vibrations are what are being perpetrated on the animals that live in our PROTECTED ARCTIC REFUGE!!! Refuge means free from harm. We promised.

The really bad part is that this administration has been given a scenario of what will happen if there is an oil spill by its Minerals Management Service. They predict that a spill by Shell will likely spread to the bowhead whales’ migratory route, the shores of the Wildlife Refuge, and possibly the nesting areas of the birds. But they are doing it anyway for money, money, and more money.

And if you don’t think there have been that many spills that you can remember, it’s because you don’t hear about all of them. The oil industry reported 4,534 spills across Alaska’s North Slope and Beaufort Sea from 1996 to 2004, involving 1.9 million gallons of diesel fuel, oil, and acid according to the NRDC. They say that’s more than one spill per day.

This is a disaster, not only to the animals, to American citizens whose voice is being totally overlooked again. Do you know the Teamster’s Union pushed hard to allow this to happen? Might want to give them a piece of your mind. Thinking jobs before the environment is the stupidest thing I can think of. Without a world, jobs will be useless.  This is a runaway administration that concedes nothing to the will of the people. It only listens to unions when it serves their purpose. Start blogging like you’ve never blogged before. I’m hitting abcnews.com.  Contact our reps. If you’re into NASCAR start complaining about Shell Pennzoil.
 
The phone number for Shell is: 713-241-6161. Help the NRDC do whatever they can to stop this.

 I just read my National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) newsletter and thought I’d pass on some of the latest news. There is a new plan—again—to sell off some of our national parks. It seems the U.S. is shy of money, (the war), and this is one of the ways this administration plans on making up some of the deficit. So why not sell off some of our national heritage, and to who? … the wealthy of course. Some prime habitat in Greater Yellowstone for bears, elk, and wolves, part of the Greater Cumberland Plateau, all in all 270,000 acres of national forests over 35 states may be up for grabs.
 
     If we sell off all this forest land, continue to have the forest fires that seem to increase every year, strip mine for coal, extract oil from tar sands which also strip mines large swaths of land, and continue the urban sprawl, what do we expect will happen? There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes that everyone assumes has cleared up. Well guess again. The war in Iraq overshadows much.The arctic drilling is not a dead issue either.
 
The Bush administration is eyeballing the Beaufort Sea, a year round polar bear habitat just offshore of Alaska’s Arctic national Wildlife Refuge and Western Arctic Reserve. Does reserve mean anything anymore? I thought we were supposed to be getting past the idea of oil?  Not going to happen until we get an oilman out of office. We have a president that says we need to get away from our dependence on oil and the drills are literally poised to ruin pieces of pristine land everywhere.

Take the tar sands oil development, which is supposed to be one of the most destructive mining techniques of all. The process involves strip-mining large swaths of land and Bush is prepared to offer tens of thousands of acres of it near Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and Glen Canyon wilderness. The terrain would be irreversibly altered forever.

To keep practice up for war games, the Navy plans on blasting thousands of square nautical miles with what is described as “ear-splitting” mid-frequency sound on sea mammals who are trying to survive in their ocean habitat that we are polluting with mercury and garbage from cruise ships to freighters. Coal mining threatens to strip the Rocky Mountain habitat of grizzly bears by taking 40 million tons of coal out of the Flathead River Valley by the Cline Mining Corporation. I’ve talked about the abuse of land from coal mining where mountaintops are literally removed. The plan will establish waste dumps and settling ponds right on top of the headwaters of the Flathead River in BC. It may be happening in Canada but the trouble is that it threatens wildlife downstream in Montana’s Glacier National Park and poisons the watershed region of the Flathead River.

And finally, the federal government threatens the revived wolf population again. I guess they think the wolves were only useful during the last election for scare tactics about terrorism and continuing the war that no one seems to want any longer. First we let wolves populate, and then brutally kill them off. To me it smells of canned hunts. There is no reason to attack wolves en masse this way. It was seen on TV that wolves are territorial. When a recording of another pack is aired via loudspeaker the experiment worked. Wolves that were predatory in that particular area stayed away. There are many humane ways to do business that this big moral society bypasses. If you really care about the wolves contact Governor “Butch” Otter of Idaho and tell him what you think of him. He wants to take the first shot at the wolves and to eliminate at least 75 percent of them. Ditto for the wolves in Yellowstone Park. Remember that big battle to allow them to come back. We did, and now those in power want to kill them off again. See what I mean about playing games with their lives. They were used for the last election, and now abused by the users.

I think we’re all feeling a little abused these days.