I so often forget to include a link to the DailyKos Environmentalists at the end of the Eco-Diary Rescue that this week I’ve placed them at the top. There are 600 of them now, and you can join them if you’ve a mind to do so, with just a few clicks.
Several Diarists pointed to the idea of spurring the government to turn talk of stimulating the economy into an opportunity for doing so by investing in green energy.
One of those was Michael Shellenberger – whose Breakthrough Institute and Breakthrough, the book he wrote with Ted Nordhaus, is making big waves in the environmental community. He wrote Take Action to Support Clean Energy Stimulus!: "Increasing numbers of bloggers and grassroots activists are calling on Congress and the White House to direct a portion of the economic stimulus package (which could be as large as $150 billion) to clean energy. Take action today by clicking here to sign the Breakthrough Institute petition. Breakthrough colleagues Energy Action, 1Sky, Center for American Progress, Ella Baker Center, and the Center for State Innovation."
Another was A Siegel, who recommended that we ENERGIZE AMERICA via a Stimulus Package: "Energize America has joined 29 other organizations in writing to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to call on them to ensure that the stimulus package doesn't put tax increases on America's unborn, but to make smart investments in longer-term, sustained economic prosperity by moving our nation towards a clean energy economy that provides employment opportunities for poor and working-class Americans. ... We are facing a miasma of troubles in this country and across the globe. Peak Oil, Energy Prices, Fiscal Crises, Economic Inequalities, Global Warming ... "
And WattHead expanded on the idea in Take Action to Support a Sustainable, Just Economic Stimulus: "Today, the struggles for economic and racial justice must merge with the struggle to stop global warming. Its worst effects will be visited on the poor, and the great economic opportunity a clean energy future offers should be shared fairly with them. Equal protection and equal opportunity was what King demanded in the 1960s. We should be demanding the same today. As Congress prepares a giant Economic Stimulus package -- up to $150 billion in emergency spending -- and George W. Bush suggests that it be more tax cuts for the rich, there is no better way to honor Dr. King's memory and continue his struggle than to demand that Congress offer stimulus that is green and economically just."
Even ill, jillian managed to put up two of her eco-compilations last weekBREAKING!...the Earth (MLK day version). Here’s a sample of one of the articles: "As CO2 levels rise, staple grains could lose some nutritional value. Protein levels in staple foods like rice and wheat could decline by as much as 15 percent by the year 2100, due to increases in carbon dioxide, a contributing cause of global warming. Austin American-Statesman." And BREAKING!...the Earth (Voted for Edwards today): "Plastic ingested, study finds. Scientists furious at conclusions reached by a federal panel charged with assessing the safety of a common household chemical, bisphenol A, have retaliated. And they're using science as their weapon. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel"
GREEN PHILOSOPHY & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Beware the Coming of the Green Bubble was spotDawa’s warning: "Al Gore last November joined with some powerhouse venture capitalists to help transform the Green Economy. Wow! Go Al...right? Well not so fast. The company that Gore joined was one of the principal forces behind the dot com bubble. And they made out like bandits! How’d they do that, you ask? Short answer: they knew what was happening, and rode the wave like surfer dudes, while most people (not me – I never bought the hype) crashed and burned. Actually, the VC’s and their ilk got out at the peak or near it – so it was just before everyone else crashed and burned."
Nuisance Industry used the Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration to discuss a subject that gets too little attention. In the Diary MLK and the struggle for environmental justice, he wrote: "One of the many corrosive effects of racial segregation in the United States is the unequal exposure to wastes and hazardous substances faced by people of color in both urban and rural areas across the nation. Consciousness of environmental racism grew in the 1980s, after a variety of incidents (including the siting of hazardous waste sites in Houston and the 1982 protests of a polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) dump in Warren County, North Carolina that marked the first time Americans had been arrested for protesting a landfill) became public."
In two Diaries, Klamath: dam removal & KRECR and Smoke, Mirrors, Klamath, bottsimons looked at a complex, still uncompleted story regarding dams and the indigenous Yurok people. bAccording to Japhet Weeks in the North Coast Journal, a subset of the Klamath Settlement Group is working on an agreement with PacifiCorp, potentially moving closer to removal of four dams on the Klamath River. News on the outcome of negotiations is expected in February. ... In the Albany Democrat Herald, Regina Chichizola, Klamath Riverkeeper, points out that the algae (a tumor-promoting liver toxin) occurring in reservoirs behind the dams contributes to global warming by releasing methane, while abnormally warmed and de-oxygenated river water contributes to disease and death for salmon."
Cassiodorus gave us some insight in Book Review: The Environmentalism of the Poor: "In this pathbreaking 2002 book, Joan Martinez-Alier, professor of economics at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, divides environmentalism into three main movements. They are: 1. The ‘cult of wilderness,’ preservationism which ‘arises from the love of beautiful landscapes and from deeply held values, not from material interests.’ ...2. The ‘gospel of eco-efficiency,’ connected both to the ‘sustainable development’ and ‘ecological modernization’ movements and to the notion of the ‘wise use’ of resources. ... 3. The ‘environmentalism of the poor,’ which has as its main interest ‘not a sacred reverence for Nature but a material interest in the environment as a source and a requirement for livelihood; not so much a concern with the rights of other species and of future generations of humans as a concern for today’s poor humans.’"
FORESTS, LAND & SUSTAINABILITY
tnichlsn reminded us that Deforestation of Brazil's Amazon Continues Unabated: "An estimated 2700 square miles of forest was cleared between august and december of 2007 by Brazil's cattle and soy industries. AP reports a 30% increase in these numbers over the same period for 2006. Last year Brazil cited a drop in Amazon deforestation, but the new statistics indicate that this trend has been reversed. Most of last year's destruction was concentrated in the three Amazon regions of Mato Grosso, Para and Rondonia. Mato Grosso is the center of Brazil's soy industry, and is second only to the United States for soy production. ... There is a complex battle going on in Brazil for the ecology of this southern region pitting pro-development forces against environmentalists and local indigenous peoples."
ANIMALS
Chaoslillith provided an ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION ALERT!!!" "So the wolves have made a comeback, and the Republican, right wing sadistic bastards are just jumping for the chance to start killing them again. They are using the justification that the increased wolve numbers are causing serious declines in elk and moose populations and that old time favorite ‘livestock losses’ ... So people want to wipe out wolves for killing less then 1 percent of cattle that are lost and about 2 percent of sheep that are lost. WOW!! Talk about shock and awe ... Now are these ranchers out their money? NO!! Defenders of Wildlife and other groups COMPENSATE RANCHERS for their loss if it is definitely a wolf kill."
If Jaws still makes you twitch, then Mark H ’s Marine Life Series: Megalodon about a shark with some real jaws may send you to the medicine cabinet: "Thirty-three years ago a young upstart director named Steven Speilberg made what is now viewed as the first summer blockbuster movie. This film made stars of Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw, who played the fantastic trio of characters named Hooper, Brody and Quint. But the real star was "Bruce," the mechanical fish named after Spielberg’s lawyer, whose job it was to bring to life Peter Benchley’s killer great white shark that terrorized the fictional town of Amity, New York. ... a twenty-foot long fish with razor sharp teeth and a top swimming speed of thirty miles per hour is pretty intimidating. Now imagine if this shark was closer to fifty feet in length. Megalodon has been extinct for at least five million years."
POLLUTION
One of the banes of modern existence has met its demise in one big market, reports koNko in China Bans Disposable Plastic Bags: "China, with a population of 1.3 billion people, consumes up to 3 billion plastic shopping bags daily, equivalent to 37 million barrels of oil annually. Millions of these bags find their way to the open seas contributing to "White Pollution" and the death of marine life. January 9, the State Council announced that effective June 1, China will totally ban ultra-thin plastic bags requiring alternatives that meet new regulations that promote reuse, reduction and recycling. The regulation package also includes improvement of government operated recycling centers to facilitate proper recycling of packaging meeting the new regulations. In doing so, China joins Bangladesh, Ireland, South Africa, Taiwan and Uganda in prohibiting use of these environmentally hazardous disposables and establishing infrastructure to promote alternatives."
Closer to home, for those who can afford to put the most expensive nutrition on their table, Eddie C reported that Whole Foods has Good News for Mother Earth: "It is a simple story Whole Foods Chain to Stop Use of Plastic Bags. The Whole Foods Market chain said Tuesday that it would stop offering plastic grocery bags, giving customers instead a choice between recycled paper or reusable bags."
Indexer and his son did some demolition before they did some reading, as recounted in Home Repair Hazards--Asbestos: "A couple of months ago I took on the project of redoing my daughter's bedroom. Strip all the plaster off, move some plugs and switches around, reinsulate, and put up wallboard. My son was excited since he always wants to help papa with chores and as an added bonus he got to put on his Bob the Builder hat, safety glasses, and toolbelt and whack away at some plaster. We had a great time, though of course he lost interest periodically and hundred-year-old plaster turns out to be a lot heavier than it looks! The stuff behind the walls was even nastier--at least three different kinds of insulation and electrical work that had been jury-rigged at different times over the past century. But we stuck to it and got everything down to the studs, called in an electrician to make sense of the wiring, insulated and got ready to put up the wallboard. ...I should explain that I do what my username suggests: index books. As I was working on one of the most recent titles I ran across words to this effect (paraphrased because it's not published yet): WARNING! Vermiculite, a lightweight, flaky gray mineral used for loose-fill insulation, often contains asbestos. DON'T REMOVE IT! CALL AN ASBESTOS CONTRACTOR AND HAVE IT TESTED! In other words, "Freak out now!" My heart stopped. There was indeed some lightweight flaky material that my son and I bagged up. Not a lot, maybe a contractors' bag worth but I ran to the computer to find out what I could."
TXsharon reported New Mexico: Big Oil Retaliates with HB-125: "House Bill 125 - Sponsored by Rep. Dan Foley Proposes to Establish the ‘Oil Conservation Division Oversight Committee’. This bill is widely recognized as the oil and gas industry’s retaliation against the Oil Conservation Division’s rulemaking to establish a strong rule protecting soil, water and public health from oil and gas waste pits. Last fall the industry launched a high profile campaign to oppose the pit rule, claiming it is unnecessary and will simply cost operators too much to haul their waste or used closed-loop/pitless drilling systems."
ENERGY
mole333 came up with A Biofuels Proposal: Making Alternatives Work: "There is one major problem with biofuels. There are, depending on where the raw materials come from, limitations on just how much biofuel can be produced without competing with food production, thus driving up food prices and reducing availability, or leading to deforestation. So the challenge is to find sources of raw materials for biofuels that are plentiful AND don't compete with food production or preservation of forests. There is no single source that will do this."
Peak Oil: Global Lights Out was Stranded Wind’s take not on what will do in the future but rather on what is already happening in some places: "The United States acts as if its the center of the world, a position that will be slipping away as the dollar collapses. While that collapse is driven by the asset inflation antics and lack of regulation that go all the way back to the Reagan years, this was inevitable as the dollar's value after 1971 was predicated on the United States' ability to secure the flow of the global oil supply. Globally it’s more serious than having to drive the speed limit for the sake of gas mileage; electricity goes out for many hours a day. Nuclear armed and fragmenting Pakistan stars far too often in these reports. Lets take a peek into just a week's worth of the electric power outages and related news, courtesy of Leanan's Drum Beat over at The Oil Drum."
Lib Dem FoP gave us the skinny about Power Outages Spread Accross Southern Africa: "There is currently a crisis in electricity supply in Southern Africa. Power outages have spread from South Africa to Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The position arises from the economic progress in South Africa since majority rule. The rising black middle class has adopted the US like lifestyle of the white middle classes with its heavy dependence on things like air conditioning to alleviate the heat of summer."
Finding that a new convenience was also a major electricity sucker, interguru lamented There Go the Fluorescent Bulb Savings: "Several years ago, I replaced all my home’s commonly used incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents (CFL.) I saw a noticeable decrease in my electric use and bills. A few months ago, I got Verizon’s Fiber Optic Service, FIOS, for my cable TV and high speed Internet service. It’s remarkably fast, but that comes with a hidden cost, substantial power consumption. Shortly after the FIOS installation, I noticed that my new cable TV box and Internet modem were noticeably warm, indicating significant power use. I feared my CFL power savings were going up in heat. ... These FIOS boxes are not alone in bringing new costs along with a new service. Take flat screen TVs which are making mass inroads into homes. These TVs use 200 to 600 watts while on, compared to 100 watts for older CRT TVs. Many have an EPA Energy Star rating, but the ratings for electronic devices only applies to power consumption while they are 'off' (actually on standby)."
JohnnyRook learned that Germany may produce all power from renewables by 2050 (updated): "No coal, no nukes, just clean renewable energy. Check out the video below to see how Germany is integrating solar, wind and biomass into a network capable of providing power 24/7. I was particularly impressed by the use of artificial hydropower to store excess power for later use when it is needed. This is what is possible when a society is serious about tackling global warming."
Eddie C was delighted to discover Green Legislation for Multiple Dwellings in New York: "Wednesday was good day for Green Living. ... The good news in (Solar) Power to the People Is Not So Easily Achieved is that two ordinary co-op board members lobbied for and got some legislation changed so that buildings can utilize the same incentives that private home owners already had. The New York State tax credit for 25 percent of the installation cost was capped at photovoltaic systems of 10 kilowatts. Not anymore. Now it is possible for buildings in the Empire State to go green too.
Delawareliberal urged some reporter to get busy because Delaware Wind Power Drama Provides Pulitzer Prize Quality Material: "Everybody is talking renewable energy and suddenly off shore wind power gets a big boost through an open process which selected it to wide public acclaim. Just when the project is set to be approved, a group of corrupt state legislators clearly in the employ of the big local dirty energy conglomerate suddenly nix the deal after secret back room meetings. Those out of touch legislators expect a few red herrings and a packet of lies aimed at discrediting the clean energy will make the whole mess go away and their paymasters will be happy. Why not, it has always worked in the past."
MichaelNYC wrote that Biofuels Won't Fix Everything: "The oil reserves of our planet have functioned like a huge savings account, which we have been drawing from thirstily since we learned how to do so. Now that we are within sight of the end of the savings, we have to realize that another such supply does not exist on our planet. Biofuels are a recent darling of the misguided hope for endless energy. Burning them for energy produces less pollution than burning fossil fuels. They are renewable, coming as they do from plants. At first blush, biofuels certainly do seem like a solution. There are, however, problems."
If you look closely, edscan wrote, you’ll find Maggots at Work: "This is a ‘cause’ that could be even more important than the next Presidential election. The ‘oil maggots’ have a hidden agenda. Use the ‘ethanol issue’ to keep America using fossil fuels. You add 10% ethanol now in order to keep the $3.00 gasoline price where it is. In two years we make it 20% ethanol and raise the price of gasoline to $4.00 a gallon.... And on and on until the World's oil is all consumed at outrageous prices. There is a common sense solution."
The Big E compiled This week in peak oil.
a gnostic pointed us to AP: Drought could cause nuclear power plant shutdowns: "The next crisis on tap is sure to escalate stagflation worries: the drought in the South might cause nuclear power plants to get shutdown due to lack of cooling water, resulting in skyrocketing electricity bills."
GLOBAL WARMING
Having seen many people confused over whether Antarctic Ice: Growing or Shrinking?, ClimateLurker sought to provide an answer: "A recent paper in Nature Geoscience reported large increases in ice loss from West Antarctica over the past 10 years. It’s a sobering result that’s in line with earlier, independent studies. This paper was covered by a Kossack who noted that skeptics often claim that ‘Antarctic ice is increasing, not decreasing.’ Today I thought I'd explore the science behind that claim: why do some people say that Antarctic ice is growing?"
A Siegel dipped into Debunking Inhofe's 413: "Senator James M. Inhofe (R-Exxon) certainly has staff who understand how to play the media and influence game. On the eve of the Senate recess for Christmas, out went a truthiness (disingenuous, misleading, etc.) ‘report’ about how ‘over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries recently voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called 'consensus' on man-made global warming'. ... 84 have either taken money from, or are connected to, fossil fuel industries, or think tanks started by those industries. 49 are retired. 44 are television weathermen. 20 are economists. 70 have no apparent expertise in climate science. Several supposed skeptics have publicly stated that they are very concerned about global warming, and support efforts to address it. One claims he was duped into signing the list and regrets it."
SteamPunkX found the deniers frustrating in Confessions of a Former Climate Skeptic: a Primer in Political Communications: "UN negotiations are ugly, tedious things. Ugly because few thousand diplomats, bureaucrats, lobbyists, aristocrats, military officers and environmental protestors cooped up together for long hours over several weeks away from their homes make for a terrible biological stench. Tedious because you can spend hours listening to discourse over the placement of an article, such as "an" or "the" in a sentence. The environmentalists in particular bothered me. I wasn't bothered because the environmentalists represented a position diametrically opposed to my client, a consortium of fossil-fuel dependent companies who were dreading having to pay a carbon tax. I was bothered by them because they wouldn't dance with me."
Lovo explained how The EPA Invokes Executive Privilege: "True to form for most of the current crop of Federal agencies, the EPA is performing an act of obstructionism. Lie, deny, defy. Lie:
A January 11 letter from U.S. EPA's Associate Administrator Christopher Bliley informed Henry Waxman that the EPA would not be able to meet the January 10 deadline in providing documents for Waxman's investigation into why the agency denied a waiver to California but that the Agency ‘respects your very strong interest in this issue and is committed to providing the Committee information necessary to satisfy its oversight interests to the extent possible and consistent with our Constitutional and statutory obligations.’"
The Cunctator followed EPA Lying, Cheating, Breaking the Law: LIVE HEARING: "Sen. Barbara Boxer continues the investigation into EPA administrator Johnson's decision to overrule his staff and deny California a waiver of the Clean Air Act in order to regulate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions. This follows the EPA's failed attempt to make any decision on carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court shot down (Massachusetts v. EPA). Now Johnson is hiding documents and claiming his decision wasn't really a decision (it was just a press release), so the lawsuits to overturn the decision are presumptive."
The Environment Has Been Redacted got some attention from runesmith: "While most of the Big Dogs around here are busy obsessing over polls and primaries, some folks at TPM Muckraker are actually following the drama currently being played out in the Senate environmental committee. This is all over the EPA’s decision to refuse to allow California to impose its own, tougher greenhouse gas emission standards last December."
Contributing Editor Devilstower also explored Cheney-Bush’s EPA shenanigans with well-named his Environmental Procrastination Agency: "In hearings yesterday, EPA head Stephen Johnson sat down in the Senate to explain why he thought it important to protect the right to continue cranking out suicidal levels of greenhouse gases."
Contributing Editor smintheus objected to Censoring Arctic scientists: "The day after New Year's we learned that the Interior Department was rushing ahead with a plan to lease oil-drilling rights in the Arctic's Chukchi Sea. The Sea, lying to the north west of Alaska, is a critical habitat for around 16,000 polar bears and other threatened species. ... It's another case of scientific evidence threatening to get in the way of raping the environment. The standard response from the Bush administration in such circumstances has been to censor science. That's especially true when global warming is at issue. In this case, Bush & Co. managed to reach overseas to censor an international group of Arctic scientists."
NNadir Constructed Wetlands in Norway: Greenhouse Gas Implications: Yet another strategy for purifying water mimics nature. This is to construct artificial wetlands, and frankly, it's a good one. A recent paper from Norwegian scientists however, indicates that the whole wetland deal is hardly perfect, that is wholly without environmental consequence."
If there is such a thing as scato-ecological, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse revealed it in Cow, Dog & Kitty Poop Rescue Global Warming: "The UN reported in 2006 that cow poops, farts and belches were a significant contributor to global warming. The culprit is the digestive system of cows and their propensity for lots of poop and frequent belching. Scientists from around the world quickly conducted studies to control the livestock emissions of methane. ... Scientists quickly uncovered that most of the cow emissions come from belching rather than farting. ... Japanese researchers may have found a way to stop cows from belching methane: Supplementing the animals' diet with cysteine, a type of amino acid, and nitrate can reduce the methane produced by the animals, the researchers say..."
POLITICOS
In two Diaries, apsmithblasted Senator James Inhofe’s communications director for the minority party on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Work, Inhofe's Morano attacks AGU (updated) and Senate staffer continues blog rampage: "NY Times reporter Andy Revkin's environmental blog Dot Earth has generated comments from a wide variety of respected scientists such as the realclimate bloggers and other prominent folk, particularly on climate issues. In response to today's post on the the latest American Geophysical Union statement on climate change, who should put up a comment but none other than Marc Morano, communications director for James Inhofe's notorious (now minority) US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Yes, that same Morano who created that report on 400 scientists supposedly against the global warming consensus. ... As of 8:00 pm Eastern time Jan 25th, Morano had written a total of nine comments in this thread, some very lengthy, attacking not only the AGU, but also the IPCC, the American Meteorological Society, the National Academy of Sciences, Andrew Dessler, Ray Pierrehumbert, realclimate, Rajendra K. Pachauri ... "
Virginian lowkell took a poke at a state legislator in Global Warming is Not a Big Truck, It's a Series of Tubes!: "Remember when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) talked about how the Internet is not a ‘big truck’ but a ‘series of tubes?’ Remember how much ridicule Stevens was (rightly) subjected to, like the YouTube video here? Well, now it looks like we have our own version of Ted Stevens right here in Virginia -- Del. Frank D. Hargrove Sr. (R-55) believes that global warming doesn't matter because...uh, ‘Virginia is a small dot on the map" and ‘[a]bout 8 million years ago, the glacier came right on my farm.’"
In A Little Bit of Green Politics in the Mail, gorgonica explained: "What this diary is about is giving the Hillary Clinton campaign credit for not only talking about the environment but paying attention to the environment...even if it is in a small way."
A Siegel asked why the World Bank is Banking the Globe To Disaster?: "In many ways, the World Bank is a magnificent institution, with many tremendous people working at it, with a highly valuable large charter in terms of changing the world for the better. Sadly, as is all too known by anyone who pays attention, the World Bank's core charter does not speak to sustainability, does not address ensuring that the path for generating wealth does not foster disaster for tomorrow."
And he had harsh things to say in Federal Award for GW Denier Website: "The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave a contract to the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) to do an analysis of Congressional websites; all 618 of them. Among the recipients of the Golden Mouse Award (warning: 115 page pdf) for excellence in public communication by a Congressional website, the highest available, the minority of the Senate Environmental & Public Works Committee. This is, to remind you, the site of Senator James Inhofe (R-Exxon) and his Global Warming denier / skeptic crowd who regularly peddle misleading and false material to the nation, using their taxpayer funded site. Yes, using this site to trap unwary visitors in a web of deception, deceit, and denial."
In A Voice of Reason from an Oil CEO?, he was what some might consider more fair than the subject deserved: "Yet again, Shell's CEO, Jeroen van der Veer, has put himself out in public speaking truth that merits attention. ... Again, this might be optimistic. But, here is a major oil company CEO who is stating, rather bluntly, that Peak Oil will hit no later than 2015. ... But, even in these paragraphs, some serious questions can emerge. Why focus on sequestering carbon in the few words available to him? Is it more likely that CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration) will be figured out, at an affordable cost, or that renewable power options like Combined Solar Power, High-Altitude Wind, Space-Based Solar Power, Wave Power, and others will be developed, with ever lowering price points, to be more than competitive with fossil fuels (especially coal with unreliable, expensive CCS)?"
FOOD & AGRICULTURE
In her weekly > Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 3.48, Frankenoid provided one of the reasons why some of us are glad to be ex-Coloradans: "So, last week I was complaining that we here in Denver had not gotten our customary January thaw. Nature answered. The Arctic Express roared into town on Wednesday, so now it's been really cold. Single digit lows. Highs that don't come near to freezing. And yesterday, to add insult, it was cloudy and damp and felt even colder."
OrangeClouds115 gave us insight into the government’s split decision in her FDA Says Clones are OK; USDA Says They Aren't: "...the FDA has OK'd food from cloned animals. The article states that clones are expensive so most likely their offspring will be the ones entering the food supply. Meanwhile, the USDA requests a voluntary moratorium on food from clones. From the article, it appears they fear the impact allowing clones into our food supply would have on sales and exports. But - get this - that article also says that clones are already in our food supply."
And she had some words about Pigs! (And I'm Not Referring to the Clintons): "I came back for a local food conference and I've got far more to report than what will fit in just one diary. For now, I'll stick to one topic: PIGS. It's not the world's most crucial issue but if you'd like to bump a candidate diary off the rec list, feel free to hit the rec button. Otherwise, just sit back, have a fun read, and I'll enjoy flying under the radar while everyone else fights over Hillary, Obama, and Edwards. (If you really want to get in the mood, pour yourself an ice cold pint of Fat Squirrel... Wisconsinites, you know what I'm talking about!)"
greendem wrote Monsanto Rushing GE Sugar to Market, Feds Sued: "Sugar is a huge market. Needless to say, the US consumes large quantities of sugar every day. Thus many of our obesity problems. Nevertheless, it seems Monsanto is now out to get its grip firmly on sugar beets, where a large portion of US sugar comes from. And the Bush Administration is deregulating genetically engineered ‘Roundup Ready’ sugar beets to speed along the process. This despite the unknown health impacts, or contamination potential to neighboring conventional and organic crops."
Jason Miller didn’t take the soft path in his Meat’s Meat....So Let’s Eat: "There is plenty of room on our plates to accommodate a few slices of Lassie. Even here in our resource-hog of a nation people experience hunger. Why not run a hundred million or so Rovers through the meat industrial complex each year? We have no reservations about torturing and slaughtering billions of other sentient beings to satiate our lust for meat. Research has indicated that pigs are actually more intelligent than dogs and thus would be more conscious of their misery. So there is no valid moral objection. Our capacity to immunize ourselves from conscience and compassion as we greedily devour the flesh of non-human animals (who experienced pain beyond the scope of our imaginations so that we might savor their cooked remains) will serve us well if we implement this solution to the problem of hunger (both here and abroad). In some nations, dog meat is already prized as a delicacy, so we’d be in for a real treat! Being the good little capitalists that we are, we need to determine the most profitable means to deliver "dog food" to our tables."
Not often do we have an obituary in the Eco-Diary Rescue, but ATexanButSane took note that a Pioneer of Applied Precision Farming, Passes: "John W. Colburn, Jr., dedicated engineer and scientist, died Sunday, December 23, 2007, in his home in Bandera, TX, at the age of 63 from complications of Diabetes. With his wife by his side, he developed the world’s first fertilizer applicator to benefit farmers, the environment, and the nation’s energy needs, by integrating his proprietary on-the-go soil sensor into his instantaneously-responsive, chemical applicator. By establishing since 1987, reliable fertilizer reductions of 25% to 65%, while usually increasing yield; John’s Soil Doctor® System remains the world’s only chemical applicator to benefit everyone, everything; with the exception of the all powerful fertilizer and chemical industries, sponsors of government and university ‘scientific’ studies."
TRANSPORTATION
Enjoy driving alone in your cars while you can: was friday durdikova’s warning to the "77% of all Americans (who) drive alone to work. Look at that pie chart and understand we will never be able to sustain that kind of freedom ever again. It doesn't matter if everyone started riding horses. We'd simply be talking about a shortage of hay, and how the growing of hay is impacting our food supply. We'd simply be talking about how methane from horse shit is continuing the rise of global warming. The simple truth is we are past the tipping point, and at a certain point in our future, we will be forced to give up these single-serving cars, and we will have to share. We will have change where we live, how we grow food, how we get eleectrical power -- we will have to radically change the American way life. ... We can do it voluntarily or have the circumstances force us."
In his Diary, eugene Call(ed) All Californians: High Speed Rail: "While other states kick around abstract ideas, California has had since 2002 a complete plan for high speed rail - with the all important EIR/EIS finalized - to link the state's major metro areas - San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, OC, Riverside, and San Diego - with a true high-speed system. This November, after two postponements, the $10 billion bond plan is scheduled to go before voters. It is my ardent belief that this plan must pass. California's future depends on it."