Sunday, October 14, 2007

Promote responsible coal burning:  I was over 40 years old before I saw a lump of coal. Only about 15% of California's electrical energy comes from coal-fueled power plants and those two plants are located out of state. Here's a video about California and coal-powered energy. Click on the power lines.

Seven coal-fueled power plants are proposed for Nevada, as shown on the map with this 2005 article on California's energy plans. The yearly Burning Man festival may someday have a huge power plant looming over the giant desert party.

What can a far west person do? Vote for a presidential candidate that takes this issue seriously. Globally, it is a huge problem.

"Coal mining can destroy land and pollute water. When coal is burned as fuel, it gives off carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is linked with global warming. Burning coal also produces emissions, such as sulfur, nitrogen oxide, and mercury, that can pollute the air and water. Sulfur mixes with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide, a chemical that can affect trees and water when it combines with moisture to produce acid rain. Emissions of nitrogen oxide help create smog, and also contribute to acid rain. Mercury that is released into the air eventually settles in water. The mercury in the water can build up in fish and shellfish, and can be harmful to animals and people who eat them."

The above quote is from the Department of Energy Kid's Page.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

The EPA has a Personal Emissions Calculator ( a what?) that I tried to use. If I still lived in Long Beach, the numbers and questions would make more sense. As it is, I come in at less than half the average in greenhouse gas emissions. Although I have both natural gas and electric heat in this house, wood is usually what I use. And this may make you cry, I bought my firewood for the year, over 4 cords, at a cost, including transport, of $240.00.

I was feeling guilty when I read that one ton of dry wood is equivalent to 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide, but apparently it is considered carbon neutral. Part of a natural process that does not increase the greenhouse warming effect. Here's the reasoning. Trees take in carbon dioxide, which is released again when they die and rot down. This process has a cycle of around 100 years. By comparison fossil fuels took millions of years to lay down, but have been dug up and burned in just a few hundred years.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Another book from the library, Little House on a Small Planet, by Shay Salomon, promotes smaller housing. Give up your dream of an Oprah-style mansion. Here's an excerpt from the Introduction.

"Construction has some alarming effects on the environment. Forty percent of all the raw materials humans consume, we use in construction. Most of the trees we cut down become buildings. Half of the copper we mine becomes wire and pipe inside these buildings. Building an average house adds seven tons of waste to the landfill. It's estimated that humans, using machines, now move more materials than rivers do. New home construction is arguably the single greatest threat to endangered species; even in areas where human population is on the decline, animals and plants are more threatened each day, due to the construction of new houses. Might our homes feel more comfortable if they weren't also destructive?"

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

What's whitened without chlorine, made from 100% recycled paper, soft and absorbent, unscented, hypo-allergenic, no dyes, and here's a big clue - safe for use in septic systems. Yes, it's bathroom eco-tissue! You can find forest-friendly, river-friendly, TUSH-friendly toilet tissue in a store near you.

Trader Joe's and Earth First are two more brands that rank as earth friendly. You too can loiter in the toilet paper section of your local store, reading label after label. Yes, you can daintily dab or warily wipe with pride when you equip your bathroom with environmentally friendly tissue.

Join with others in this daily ritual of meditation. Never think that the small issue, or in this case, the small tissue, is not important.  For as Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pictured is the Fender's Blue Butterfly and Kincaid's Lupine. The image is part of a FREE poster illustrating eight endangered species. You can download and print this beautiful poster. I put mine on my refrigerator. It's from The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The endangered Fender’s blue (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) was considered extinct until its rediscovery in 1989 in Oregon. The Fender’s blue depends on the threatened Kincaid’s lupine (Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii) as a larval food plant.

Degradation, fragmentation, and loss of prairie habitat due to fire suppression and subsequent woodland succession, agriculture and forest practices, development, grazing, and road construction and maintenance led to listing the butterfly and the lupine under the Endangered Species Act.

Both species need management, restoration, and protection. Controlled burning, careful mowing, and hand clearing are now used to manage prairie ecosystems. Partners working to recover these species in cooperation with the Fish and Wildlife Service include the Bureau of Land Management, Army Corps of Engineers, Oregon Natural Heritage Program, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Oregon Department of Transportation, The Nature Conservancy, and private landowners.

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Remember the spotted owl controversy? In 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan (it covers federally controlled forests in the green area of the map to the left) was put in place to quiet the dispute between logging interests and conservationists. It's been challenged through the years and is again in the news in a New York Times article. Land Use Watch also has a current evaluation of the situation. Older comments on the plan include, the U.S. Forest Service, Yale University (2002), EPIC (2003), and Oregon Wild.

Here's the mission statement of the Northwest Forest Plan.

The mission of the NWFP is to adopt coordinated management direction for the lands administered by the USDA Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Management and to adopt complimentary approaches by other Federal agencies within the range of the northern spotted owl. The management of these public lands must meet dual needs: the need for forest habitat and the need for forest products.

I chose this picture of the spotted owl because it shows what old growth forest looks like here in the Pacific Northwest. You'll have to imagine the chill, the mist on you skin, the smell of green, damp forest, the small sounds in the quiet.

Here are the alphabet soup agencies involved.

A threatened bird in a threatened habitat being challeneged by a threatened industry on a threatened planet.

"Great news for New York City and mankind generally: Mayor Bloomberg is planting a million trees in New York City. It's all part of the city's plan to revitalize the city's logging industry." - Dave Letterman

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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Today's subject is PVC - polyvinyl chloride. This is something every consumer can do something about. And that something is not buy it.

How do you recognize it? PVC pipe is the white, cheap, plastic pipe. If it has that "shower curtain" smell, it's PVC. If the product is labeled as vinyl, it's probably PVC. The "new car smell" is partly PVC. If it has the recycle symbol with the number 3 in it, it's PVC.

What's the danger? It releases toxins into the air, into the water, into the soil, into drainage systems. Read the Wikipedia article, this information site by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, the Healthy Building Network, and a host of others on the net. Just search for PVC. It is linked to cancer, birth defects, and more. There are safer plastics to use.

There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is becoming an endangered synthetic. - Lily Tomlin

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