Posts Tagged ‘environment’

Water

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Good Morning!

While drinking my hot beverage made from the beans of a tree and paying my water bill I started thinking more about water.  Coffee bean trees grow because of water and my coffee is brewed in water.

Water keeps our exquisite Earth alive.  It saves us and our earth from being lifeless mineral globs.  Of course, we nor the earth would be alive long if all the earths water was contaminated.  I wonder why we care more about oil,  than clean water?

The critter above seems to be savoring that little orb of clean water the way I am savoring my coffee right now.  I am a lifeless mineral glob without my Java.

Water plus carbon and a few other minerals makes us.  To give anything life, to keep anything alive it must have water. Someone came up with a way for cars to run on water.  Who would interfere with that technology and why, someone devilish?

Water is so life giving that I think maybe God is water and we are drilling for –> well,  you get my point?


Food sovereignty vs Monsanto

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
If we’re not careful our water will be made by Monsanto


Did you know that Monsanto (the same company that brought us agent orange) together with Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer controls almost all agriculture in the World?  They are like drug suppliers except they are in the seed business.  Ever wonder why the fruits and vegetables at grocery stores are so big and plump and colorful compared to the fruits and veggies at farmers markets?  Monsanto adds stuff, pesticides and they have created hybrid seeds that the farmers have to buy.  They have a contract. Small farmers have been successfully sued by Monsanto when they violate any terms of the contract.  Drug suppliers send out heavies that break your arms and Monsanto sends out heavies in the form of lawyers that break your family.

Independently owned farms are actually corporate farms as long as they use Monsanto seeds.  This is a fact of life in the US and we have grown accustomed to our giant red and yellow produce. Literature tells us to eat colorful food to be healthy.  Many Americans are wising up and going to farmers markets and food co-ops to avoid the pesticides and antibiotics and fungicides like Thiram that are added to Monsanto seeds to make stuff look better.  We have hospitals full of antibiotic resistant diseases and cancer.  Do you think there is any relation?

I had my own garden many years ago when I was pregnant with my son.  We had the good fortune of renting a little Wisconsin farmette that had been abandoned for many years after the owners died.  We washed the house and painted it.  We took the 10 year old cow crap that was in the barn and put a little clump at the bottom of every hole and put seeds and starter plants in the bottom.  It was a small town and people took pride in their gardens.  This garden was my first and my neighbors were full of wonderful advice.  I wrapped my tomato plants with newspaper to prevent pests, I picked off the little sucker growths, and I planted as they advised to make sure the tallness of the corn didn’t block out the sunlight to the lower plants.  We had a pear tree, an apple tree, and a concord grape vine.

Ken (my husband at the time) shot deer and traded the meat for pork and beef.  He fixed an old wringer washer he found somewhere on the farmette and I washed our clothes with that thing.  We heated with the wood he cut up from old dead trees on our property and our neighbors properties.  We had to open a window in the dead of winter sometimes to cool the place off.  It stayed toasty warm with that wood burning stove.  I felt like Harriet Homesteader, but, I wish I still had that old wringer washer it was the coolest ever.

yep it looked just like this

yep it looked just like this

and our stove was very similar to this

and our stove was very similar to this

OK, back on subject…

I had a basement full of potatoes, giant red tomatos, squash, peppers, melon and everything was huge and colorful.  My take on all of this is we buy the cow poop from organic ranchers and pay Wisconsin farm wives to teach us how to grow stuff.   Then we won’t need seeds with scary additives.

Meantime, I was reading an article in “Yes” magazine…

Monsanto has donated to Haiti some of their hybrid corn seeds.  These seeds are treated with the fungicide Maxim XO, and the calypso tomato seeds are treated with thiram. [ The EPA determined that EBDC-treated plants are so dangerous to agricultural workers that they must wear special protective clothing when handling them. The EPA also ruled that pesticides containing thiram must contain a special warning label. The EPA also barred marketing of the chemicals for many home garden products, based on the assumption that most gardeners do not have adequately protective clothing. Dress like an astronaut to do your gardening?

The concern of Haitian social movements is not just about chemical dangers and the possibility of future GMO imports. They claim that the future of Haiti depends on local production with local seeds for local consumption—otherwise known as food sovereignty. Monsanto’s arrival in Haiti, they say, is a further threat to such a future.

Vía Campesina, the world’s largest confederation of farmers with member organizations in more than 60 countries, has called Monsanto one of the “principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty for all peoples.” [In the United States –>The Center for Food Safety has led a four-year legal challenge against Monsanto that has just made it to the U.S. Supreme Court. After successful litigation against Monsanto and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for illegal promotion of Roundup Ready Alfalfa, the court heard the Center for Food Safety’s case on April 27. A decision on this first-ever Supreme Court case about GMOs is now pending. [14]

Go to

http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/beverly-bell-in-haiti/haitian-farmers-refuse-monsanto-hybrid-seeds

and

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/food-rebellions-7-steps-to-solving-the-food-crisis

if you’d like to read the entire article and others like it.

trash trawling

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

America loves plastic because it lasts a long long time and it doesn’t cut our feet if it falls on the floor.

China loves plastic because they make it and sell it to us.

Petroleum plastic, a material designed to last forever, yet used for products that we then throw away. This throwaway mentality is a relatively recent phenomenon. Just a generation ago, we packaged our stuff in glass, metals, and paper, and designed products that would last. Today, our landfills and beaches are awash in plastic packaging.

much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea.

Sunlight and wave action cause these floating plastics to fragment, breaking into increasingly smaller particles, but never completely disappearing.

coupled with wind and the earth’s rotation, create “ocean gyres”, massive, slow rotating whirlpools in which plastic trash accumulates are being researched.

Plastic pollution is not a benign material in the ocean. Scientists are studying whether these persistent pollutants, transfer to the marine organisms that mistakingly consume them.

consider borrowing a  small research trawl from Algalita Marine Research Center  to collect scientific samples. Our new “Suitcase Manta Trawl” and “Winged Trawl” include easy protocols, which can be used by anyone to get valuable data. The objectives and methods are simple:

Step 1. We send you a trawl with easy instructions
Step 2. You sail, collect samples and dry them out according to our protocols
Step 3. You mail the trawl to the next sailor somewhere in the world
Step 4. We process the samples and import data to 5gyres.org

PR Inquiries

Zan Dubin Scott
(310) 392-1130
http://zdscommunications.com

Website Inquiries

Brennan Novak
(503) 662-2442
http://brennannovak.com

So next time you’re out sailing about, perhaps you could help these people with their research and do some trash trawling.  I only have a kayak that I use in the bays, rivers, and back waters down here in Florida.  When I see floating plastic stuff I try to fish it out of the water and dispose of it after I get home.  Sometimes there is just too much to bring it all home and sometimes I celebrate just being able to enjoy my paddle without encountering trash. Can you imagine walking, biking or paddling and not finding trash?

please visit their site at –> http://www.5gyres.org/

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ecoaqua-apocalyptic-phobia

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

eco-aqua-apocalyptic-phobia (the sudden, overwhelming sense that the world is coming to an end because every once-tranquil biosphere where land meets water has been developed or drilled or trashed).

Where do you go when trying to escape ecoaqua-Apocalyptic-phobia; the Gulf, the Arctic, where?

Stop!

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Iceland_volcano_37

Do you think that an otherworldly influence is trying to get a message to us?   Or am I reading too much in to all the earthquakes and volcanoes.  Religious extremists say that bad things happen because of our heathen ways and disregard for our maker.  George Carlin said the earth is going to shake us off like a bad case of fleas.  I look at these pictures and that is one pissed off volcano wreaking havoc and causing millions to just stop.  Maybe the message is we need to stop for awhile and hang out on cots and talk about stuff with strangers in large rooms.


Iceland_volcano_33

or else…

AP_ISCK104_ICELAND_VOLCANO

See more volcano images and havoc at –> http://blogs.tampabay.com/photo/2010/04/iceland-volcano.html

PS:  this woman and her daughters were highlighted in a blog I did in December.  Well…

Angie and her daughters
have been able to spend a few extra days with their soldier/husband/Dad because of the volcanic ash.   It can be a wonderfully mysterious world eh?

Copenhagen’s “I have a nightmare”

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Ok, so are we exaggerating global warming?

No one would have followed Martin Luther King if he had said “I have a nightmare”, as mentioned by energy secretary Ed Miliband.

We need to unite in being good to this earth.  It has been so good to all of us.  I am  hopeful that the decision makers representing the world in Copenhagen are uniting in the dream — and not denying the nightmare.

Side note and a bit of irony –> more than 1200 limos are being called in from all over Europe to meet the delegates, officials and presidential demands of the Copenhagen climate summit.  Too cold to ride bikes I guess.  The “economic growth” advocates ie: Republicans for continued pollution, will be represented by US Senator, Jim Inhofe

We all know the nightmare –> So many pictures of people riding bikes in China through polluted air with face masks.  Stories of asthmatic children in the Bronx breathing diesel fumes.  Photos of decapitated mountains in West Virginia and the subsequent coal muck escaping in to small towns.  Growth was so big and so fast that sewage spilled in to drinking water in Florida.  Many fists pound many tables when you suggest that things need to change.

Polluters love muddling the facts, and making fun of the nightmarish scenarios.  Some scientists  actually feed the machine that is profiting currently.  The collaborative machine of industry, shipping, air flights, hospitals, manufacturers, and on and on are horrified by the idea of changing energy production and usage. We have evolved to need stuff, rather than just water, food, shelter and coffee.

No such thing as a sustainable status quo in the stock market.   We just need to make change less horrifying and point out the advantages to health and stocks.

So lets describe the dream Andrew Gilligan wrote an article for the telegraph.co.uk…Copenhagen is a city filled entirely with bicycles, stuffed with retrofitted, energy-efficient old buildings, and seems to embody the civilized pleasures of low-carbon living without any of the puritanism”.

Costa Rica produces 99% of its energy from renewable sources, reversed deforestation and is aiming to become a carbon-neutral country by 2021 by combining its ministries of energy and environment, and abolishing its army.  Ok abolishing armies will probably never happen world wide, there will always be bad guys to fight.  We can dream though.  Other small island nations such as the Dominican Republic and Jamaica are also fairing well in levels of health and a very low footprint.

A Gristy guide to the COP15 climate talks
We need to stop being so full of ourselves because we are hanging our clothes on the line and carrying our water in a glass jar.  We need to help young smart people get in to colleges that promote environmental engineering and require environmental awareness in their curriculum.  Industry and manufacturing can make products sustainably.  It can be done and is being done. Lets study how they’re doing it.  Lets study the countries that are successfully achieving sustainability.
I think there is a little island country — the maldives?  They are trying to figure out how to keep their sea turtles and their tourists happy.
bora-bora-22bora-bora-21


There are many nightmares to learn from.  Bhopal is a nightmare to remember.  Do you remember?  A cloud of poison gas leaked from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in the middle of the night and drifted over the Bhopal slums killing thousands.

Union Carbide convinced India that the big new plant they were going to build in Bhopal was going to make their lives better and they’d be happier.  We need to be careful when a huge company like Union Carbide or Monsanto claims to care about our happiness and well being.  I’m not saying we should forget the nightmares, lest they happen again.  Just, maybe, focus more on the dream, lest we lose our focus.


smarter, gentler

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Well, hello.  Are you lunch?

A Polar bear dives underwater.

This diver is hitching a ride on the fin of a 50 foot female humpback whale in the Pacific Ocean.

Wildlife photographer James D. Watt photographing Humpback Whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, Pacific Ocean. A moment of contact. This fully-grown, 50 foot female humpback whale was so curious she sought physical contact with this diver. She was so big and m

These are manta rays feeding on plankton.  I think if I saw them coming at me I wouldn’t stop to take a picture. I’d be glad they were eating plankton and not me.  Did you know manta rays are related to sharks.  They’re brains are bigger though, so, they’re smarter and gentler.  I wonder if all species get gentler as they get smarter?

Manta Rays - NATURAL WORLD - ANDREA QUEEN OF MANTAS

Remind you of a Chevron or Monsanto CEO?

Bruce Yates loves taking pictures underwater, and the investment manager obviously has spent a long in the water because the wildlife is starting to recognise him!  Bruce took this image of a smiling lemon shark in The Bahamas as it swam a few inches from

This smiling great white brings to mind former Congressman Richard Baker from Louisiana. He reportedly, took home a salary of One million in 2008 in the hedge fund industry.  The hedge fund billionaires hired him while he was still overseeing the House Financial Subcommittee on Capital Markets.  That seems fishy doesn’t it?

A diver has captured a photograph of a great white shark approaching his camera with a toothy grin like that of Bruce, the terror of the 2003 film Finding Nemo

Look at this Beluga Whale blowing bubbles!  You just want to hug him.

A beluga whale exhails a bubble ring as part of a performance at the aquarium AQUAS in Hamada, some 700 km (434 miles) southwest from Tokyo, on July 26, 2008.  Beluga whales in a Japanese aquarium have attracted thousands of visitors this summer but not b

Last but not least I didn’t want to leave out this little sparkly fellow

Colourful nudibranchs commonly known as sea slugs photographed by Thomas Vignaud off the coast of southern France

I got all of these pictures from the earth picture galleries at www,telegraph.co.uk

empty seats in the senate

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

pure joy


There is evidence that a student of Aristotle noticed and documented how human activities disrupted the climate back in 300 BC. Now, I’m not sure how anyone is sure about what was said in 300 BC, but, I am sure that my fifth grade teacher taught us (many years ago) how human activity disrupts the climate.

I wasn’t a student as long ago as Aristotle, but, science has recognized and studied the problem for long enough. My weekly reader explained the effects burning coal and petroleum has on the atmosphere. I was apparently dismayed by this information because I remember it vividly. I remember feeling worried.

In 1965 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson told Congress: “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through…a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”

We know that this planet is pretty small as far as planets go and extremely unique as far as being inhabitable. Since we know good planets are hard to find, you would think the world would find that taking care of this one is much more important than pretty much anything else. Why then would senators boycott a meeting designed to protect the climate of our planet.

We heeded the advice of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after she explained to the United Nations: “The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level. It is no good squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay;” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1995.   They concluded that humans are causing global warming, saying: “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”

The world is finally deciding we need to do something and our senators are boycotting meetings. Why!!

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee tried to overcome a Republican boycott of a major climate bill. Only one Republican senator even showed up for the meeting, and he stayed just long enough to ask for a five-week delay and more study. (I won’t go as far back as Aristotle, but, it’s been studied) Senator Bernie Sanders lamented the obstruction tactics by what he called “the party of no.” The stalling strategy has so far blocked action on critical issues ranging from health care to global warming. The country, Sanders added, has gone from electing a new president one year ago whose uplifting promise was “yes we can” to the spectacle of a small but stubborn rump group of senators whose motto is “no we won’t.”

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/photos/gallery/?id=b862022d-95b1-4625-963d-34a3a69ac839


So in 2009 our President, along with the other – Group of Eight leaders agreed industrialized nations should cut emissions on average by 80 percent by 2050 and limit warming to a maximum of 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times. The 8 leaders went home to their various congresses and parliaments so we could get it together for our unique planet.

to do list

Our senators are so busy disliking our President that they are forgetting what their job is. I guess the citizens who vote for these senators are so busy disliking our President that they are ignoring scientific facts. I just want to jab my eyes out when I read about crap like this! What would happen to you or me if we didn’t go to work because we didn’t like our boss.  Come to think of it the American public is their boss and we should be outraged.

Scary stuff from China

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

I read about the folks who are against healthcare reform they seem to belong to the same pile of people who are against cleaning up the environment.  The common denominator seems to be they don’t like the costs of these humanitarian interventions.  Talk about jab my eyes out and WTF!  Is it that they figure some people and places are just expendable?  They are poor and uneducated and someone has to clean up our shit and make our chemicals.  Look at these pictures from China.  This would seem to exemplify the cost of not caring.

yangtze pollution

So when you are shopping for a toy for your favorite tot and you notice that it was made in China.  Remember this picture of plastic factory waste going in to what was once a beautiful river.

even more yangtze pollution

Next time you buy an Iphone, computer or various other electronics and some jewelry remember this titanium plant.

Without rules a nations people are allowed to suffer.  Without activism the suffering continues.  Our country allows activism and yet some refer to those activists as socialists.  I don’t get it.

chinese orphans

chinese child and her grandfather

Don’t blame this horridness on the people of China.  Just like here there are good people trying to do good things to advocate for the health and happiness of all people.  Not just those who can afford good health and happiness.  Please see the entire article and all the photos at

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

Tim Gummer says:

2009/10/24 at 7:55 pm

If it wasn’t already obvious, then it is surely clear here that our Stuff is made in a Mordor of this very earth, by a people in slavery. In a globalized world, our complicity in their deaths and suffering is no less than those who stood by in the towns of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. These workers’ horrors may be marginally less, but unlike the deathcamps’ neighbours, we cannot pretend we have not seen.

styrofoam

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

justsayno

Did you know styrofoam AKA polystyrene is manufactured using benzene, from coal; styrene, from petroleum; and ethylene, a “blowing agent”.  Dow Chemical is the world’s largest producer with a total capacity of 1.8 million metric tonnes in the USA, Canada, and Europe (1996 figures). The main manufacturing route to styrene is the direct catalytic dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene: If you understand that and want more detail go to…
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/styrene.html

Short term exposure in humans results in mucous membrane and eye irritation, and gastrointestinal effects.   long-term exposure to styrene (like drinking coffee in styrofoam cups every day or working in the factory where it is made) in humans results in effects on the central nervous system (CNS), such as headache, fatigue, weakness, and depression, CNS dysfunction, hearing loss, and peripheral neuropathy. This only happens after long term exposure, so if you live long enough you’ll be a deaf, unbalanced, dummyhead with tremors and restless leg syndrome. Know anyone like that?

Now, when your drinking your coffee from a styrofoam cup and throwing your cigarette butt out the window of your Excursion, you might think to yourself…  Somethings gotta kill me, I’m not gonna worry about monomers of styrene.  Try thinking of this.  It takes 500 years for the chemical components of styrofoam to dissolve and it’s foreverness accounts for 25% of landfill waste.

While Styrofoam is recyclable, most recycling programs don’t.  I found one in Florida called Blue Earth Solutions. http://www.blueearthsolutions.com/index.php

Burning styrofoam releases all the stuff its made of into the air;  including dioxin, and carbon monoxide.  yeah, run a search engine on dioxin and see what you find out.

So what do you think?  Wouldn’t you like to get styrofoam out of your house, your place of business, your town, your world?

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