When the People Lead….

by Matt DeNoto

There is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that Congress seems well on its way to passing through a cap-and-trade scheme to begin the process of lowering our country’s carbon pollution.

The White House had been pressing for the cap-and-trade program to start with 100% of the pollution permits being auctioned off. This would give companies the financial incentive to begin thinking about ways to cut down on their carbon output now.

But the bill recently unveiled by the House of Representatives details a plan that would call for only 15-20% of the permits to be auctioned off. The large majority of the permits would be given away to the polluters.

That is the bad news. As if the mere numbers weren’t enough of a clue, it should also be taken as a bad sign that energy companies, such as Constellation Energy Group, Inc., are applauding the bill. If the people who should stand to lose the most money are praising the new system, it’s probably not going to be very effective.

I understand the arguments. If we force companies to pay for the right to pollute, those companies will simply pass those costs along to consumers. We, ultimately, will pay for the pollution.

And that’s the whole point. Just like businesses, we regular folk need incentives to clean up our act. Because it is our responsibility. Companies don’t pollute for the fun of it. They do it to create products and services that we, the public, pay them for.

Near the end of March, the Environmental Protection Agency finally announced that it had the authority to regulate Carbon Dioxide as a pollutant. Since then, not much has been done about it because lawmakers have stated that they would prefer to regulate CO2 through new legislation than through EPA regulation.

As I watch the legislative process at ‘work,’ I secretly hope that the Obama Administration is keeping the EPA under the radar to use as a secret weapon, in the event that Congress is unable to pass effective legislation.

In other words, if it turns out that ‘The American Clean Energy and Security Act’ is a lot of hot air that sets up a useless program with no chance of actually effecting real change, I hope the White House isn’t afraid to point out to the world that the legislative angle didn’t get the job done, but luckily the EPA still has the power to regulate the pollutants and it will enforce that power.

It’s depressing to have so little faith in our ‘representatives,’ knowing that nothing matters to them except the perception of their constituents and major contributors. Their habits seem so disconnected from the real world. When Clinton was in office and pushing for fiscal responsibility, Congress abided by the Pay-Go practice, not submitting for new spending without finding somewhere appropriate to cut in order to pay for the new program. When Bush stripped away any sense of idealism, Congress dove in head first, racking up a debt that now chokes us all and still somehow getting shockingly little done.

Now, with a new President actually trying to change things, the Congress seems incapable of making strong choices, bold decisions. In sports, it is sometimes said that the best offense is a good defense. In politics, it seems, there is only defense.

Creative Destruction

by Matt DeNoto

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse.’” – Henry Ford

One factor of this great economic mess that does not come up often enough (in my humble opinion) is mention of the economic principal of creative destruction. It’s the driving force of progress. The same way arrows replaced knives and bullets replaced arrows, innovation equals market supremacy. Creative destruction is how industries that were once the best thing ever crumble into obsolescence as new ‘best things ever’ are created.

Creative destruction is the natural way of things, but it is always painful. Companies go bankrupt and workers lose their jobs as the world learns different, better ways to accomplish the same tasks. For example, our society no longer requires the services of blacksmiths.

Soon we may be saying the same about paperboys and gas station attendants.

Newspapers and automobiles have seen an unusual lack of innovation over the last couple of decades. But innovation cannot be held off forever. Not even by bailouts. Indeed, already companies that used to supply parts to the auto industry are repurposing themselves to provide parts for an industry with more growth potential: wind power.

Speaking of bailouts, there’s one other industry that has for too long seen far too little innovation…

Government.

Since the founding of this country, the government has been run in the same basic way by the same kind of people; rich, old, male, and white.

But we have changed our pattern, and innovation in government may really be on the way. Finally, something will truly ‘trickle down.’ Many criticize the new president for creating so many new offices, new government posts. Posts like Chief Technology Officer and Climate Advisor. But these positions are actually overdue. F or too long the government ignored all the different ways the world was changing around it. But it was only a matter of time before someone of the current generation (i.e. someone who knows what a BlackBerry is) made it to a position of power.

Websites of government agencies have always been notoriously unhelpful. But with a new administration calling the shots, one that understands that we live in the Information Age, things are changing. The old ways are crumbling.

For just one example, visit the webpage of the Environmental Protection Agency. On the bottom left side of the screen is a box titled ‘My Environment.’ Enter in your address or zip code, and a page will come up with all kinds of ecological information about your area, including air quality, water sources and cancer risk.

Creative destruction is all about the natural tendency of people to find the most efficient methods to overcome our obstacles. But to get there, we must leave behind our old, less efficient ways.

Air Pollution

Just last week the list of the most hazardous cities in regards to air quality was released. Sadly, on the heels of that report, is a report that it may be far worse than originally expected.

Pollution levels have historically been calculated using sensors on the ground.  Because of a lack of resources and funding in many populated areas, a scientist decided to use satellite data to see if they could determine air pollution levels.  What they found is that particulates are 5 to 10 times higher than guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At this point, there is nothing reported about remedies to the situation.  More than likely, a cross section of scientists will look at the data, determine its statistical significance and evaluate future methods of measuring air quality.

In the meantime, be aware that the air might not be as clean as we think.

by Jennifer Jaykins

Special Report: Mercury Contamination

We are constantly warned about mercury levels in fish.  We are told to stay away from many varieties because of the effects of long term exposure and links to brain damage, severe respiratory issues, and kidney and liver failure.  This is something that we laugh at when Jeremy Piven claims he has it, but should take all precautions to ensure our children are not exposed to it.

In a new report released about our children and their exposure to mercury, we find that it is much more common than expected and quite expensive to clean up.

In fact, in a four year period, 37,000 calls were made to the Poison Control Center  regarding possible mercury exposure.  While many are centralized to broken thermometers, there are a significant amount due to mishandling in science labs at schools.  One researcher found that of 300 schoools inspected, 40% of schools have high levels of mercury in the atmosphere due to unknown or unreported spills.

Despite the high level found in schools, 75% of mercury exposure comes from the home.  The EPA feels that the way to reduce is exposure is to educate parents and children on proper clean up techniques, as well as, reminding them what products contain mercury.  For exmple, with the positive shift to an eco-friendly lifestyle, CFL’s have become the most common household item to contain mercury.  These lightbulbs cannot be disposed of by placing them in the normal trash, where they contaminate the land fills and surrounding areas.  They need to be disposed of properly.

Mercury poisoning symptoms start within hours of exposure and are indicated by tremors, chills, vomiting, abdominal pain, headache and anxiety.  If you feel there is cause, take the individual to the emergency room immediately for treatment.

Increase in Autism Seen in California

New data, released today, indicates that there has been a twelvefold increase in autism in the state of California, surpassing levels of cerebral palsy, according the the San Jose Mercury News.

While the cause is still unknown, many experts believe that the most likely suspect is environmental triggers on genetically susceptible individuals.  This is why this site has always stressed the need to get back to basics when it comes to food and food containers, cleaning products, and lifestyle choices, such as turning off the television.

In a related article, Discovery investigates why the autism/vaccine controvery continues, despite, their belief, that it shouldn’t.

by Jack Golde

Oprah: you are a fraud

This is such a disappointment.  And there are so many things to this story that need to be addressed.

Oprah Winfrey has partnered up with KFC to promote their new grilled chicken dinner by giving away free meals.  I don’t know where to begin, in all honesty, because so much of this is wrong.

First off, promoting something as unhealthy as KFC by a woman who has a show on about health, child obesity, and her own obesity nearly every week, it seems that someone might not have thought this through.

KFC is promoting this as a healthy, UNfried version of their Original Recipe.  However, when you look at the nutritional information provided on the website, it is still not the healthiest alternative.  In fact, it is less healthy that getting the Original Recipe and taking off the breading and skin.  The other thing to note is this little trick of deception: the serving size is listed in grams.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t bring a scale with me when I go out to eat.  And, most places would either try to figure out the per piece nutritional value or, at the very least, tell you how many grams an average piece weighs.  For example, the serving size of the chicken breast is 119grams which is the equivalent to 4 ounces, or the size of your palm.  So, if you are eating any more than that amount, the “health” benefits of the grilled chicken are null.

Now, let’s talk about the term: chicken.  Here is how KFC has listed chicken, this time from its ingredient list.

Chicken, Salt, Sodium Phosphate, and Monosodium Glutamate Seasoned with: Maltodextrin, Salt, Bleached Wheat Flour, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Monosodium Glutamate, Spices, Palm Oil, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder, Soy Sauce (Soybean, Wheat, Salt), Chicken
Fat, Chicken Broth, Autolyzed Yeast, Beef Powder, Rendered Beef Fat, Extractives of Turmeric, Dehydrated Carrot, Onion Powder, and Not More Than 2% Each of Calcium Silicate and Silicon Dioxide Added as Anticaking Agents. Contains Wheat and Soy.

I have always liked my chicken made from beef fat.  Yum.

But, please keep in mind, this is what the chicken contains.  This is not the ingredients for a meal… this is the chicken.  I always thought chicken was just chicken.  But, at KFC, it is almost 26 ingredients…. and they haven’t even gotten to the eleven herbs and spices yet.

What Oprah is giving away is not just the chicken, but also two sides and biscuits.  I am not going to spend my time going over each ingredient list.  The bottom line is for someone who is trying to change the collective conscience on nutrition, it is hypocritical to promote such an item.

The second reason this promotion is so horrifying is because just six months ago the show did an expose on factory farms and the cruelty those animals suffer to provide us food.  This site has written about this many times, and you can find another article HERE, about the devastation CAFO’s have brought to us, the animals and the environment.

KFC is notorius for using animals raised in inhumane conditions, specifically farmed by Tyson.  Tyson has been caught on tape torturing animals, and is under investigation for multiple complaints of violations of animal cruelty laws.  Not too mention, it is a partner with Monsanto in creating legislation that will change the food dynamic of this country, in regards to the illegalization of organic products.

For a women who was named PETA’s Celebrity of the Year, I think it is a shame that she is now promoting a company that knowingly and admittingly has tortured animals.

The last reason this is this: disease.  Whether it is human, animal or the environment, the living conditions of how we raise our food is hurting and will kill us and them.  The animals raised in these conditions are sick and filled with antibiotics and hormones.  There is concrete evidence that this condition leads to drug resistant organisms which lead to the possibility of outbreaks like swine flu. (please note, we are aware that this latest ‘pandemic” didn’t amount to much, but that is not to say something like it won’t in the future).

These same conditions are creating an animal, that when we eat it, is a root cause to a national obesity level of 60% and growing.  As a result, we also have an increase in diabetes and other illnesses that are occuring at ever increasing rates.

Lastly, these conditions are hurting the planet.  The CAFO farming method is lethal to this planet via waste run-off, methane gas release, and dead zones in soil.  Elliminating a meat heavy diet just once a day can have lasting effects on the sustainability of this planet.

There are low income families all over this nation that are struggling to get food on the table.  I want to make sure that I am not saying she, or any of you, should not do what you can to help these people.  But they are the same peole that have no access to clean, healthy organic food.  And then, they have no access to good health care from the myriad of diseases causes as a result of their eating habits.

Oprah needs to spend her money and use her name more wisely.  She has created a marketing campaign that re-enforces the belief that healthy eating and organic clean food are for the wealthy and elite; that if you are of a lower income bracket you do not deserve to have the same food priveleges as other Americans.

She easily could have partnered with any other food company that would have gotten the same affect (free food to people in need) with a different effect; that being healthy and eating well, while not harming animals or the planet is the most important message to be passed to future generations.

But she didn’t.

by Shelley Boyle

the unknowing victims

It is one thing, as an adult, to eat unhealthfully.

I figure you are of an age where you can make a decision for yourself on what you choose to put in your body. However, I also believe, by doing so, you give big food companies carte blanche to put whatever they what in that food because.  You are making a ‘vote’ by spending money on a Big Mac or a Coke or Crispy Creme.  If you aren’t going to hold them accountable by not speaking up, that is your choice.  You are an adult human and I trust you to make a decision for yourself.

I do not, and will never, believe the same thing for a child.

A child is completely dependent on its parent to make a wise and safe choice for its well-being.  I also feel it is the responsibility of a company to make good choices when they are creating convenient food, marketed to a parent, for the betterment of their children.

Sadly, a list came out today that makes it seem as though at least some companies have no care for the health of our children.

Dietitians Name Five Worst Packaged Kids Meals via the Cancer Project

The thing that is upsetting is that Lunchables, the dominant force in convenient school kids meals, tops the list.

Lunchables Maxed Out Ham and Cheddar Cracker Combo topped the list because it has 22 grams of fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, and 1,600 milligrams of sodium—more salt than younger children should consume in an entire day.

The report found that most packaged lunchbox meals have little or no fiber and are high in fat, sugar, sodium, and cholesterol. Many also contain processed meats, which are linked to increased cancer risk later in life.

And while these foods may be convenient, they are foods that are hard on your child’s body.  Currenty, the United States sees a 60% obesity rate in children and “adult onset diabetes” is being seen in children as young as eight.

I know that it may be hard to find the time to make a lunch.  Or, maybe your child is a picky eater.  I don’t know what the various reason may be.  But, I do know that I find it hard to justify giving your kids a meal that may cause long term health problems.  A parents job is to create an environment where their children are well taken care of, not subjected to disease and malnuriishment for the rest of their lives.

Children are the victims of the bad decisions parents are making, around the country.  I fully believe that if we want to create a sustainable future, we have to stop this behavior of performing a genocide on our youth.  Even if we, as a species, are able to survive and adapt to changes in the weather, are we going to have individuals that are healthy enough to reproduce and provide for the next generations.

by Shelley Boyle

girls are maturing at faster rates

A new study has shown that girls are reaching puberty sooner than expected.

While we have heard this over and over for the last few years, this study is significant.  The decrease in start of puberty had been primarily seen only in the United States.  As a result, for a while scientists felt that the data might not have been statistically significant.  Instead, they felt the disparity was due to different sampling and data collection techniques. But in this latest study, Europe is now seeing the decrease in age of menarche and breast development, according to the New York Times.

This has given many of the investigators reason to believe that it is environmental factors causing the early onset of puberty.  What environmental factors?  Food, air quality, and the ever discussed Bisphenol-A and other hormone disruptors.  In any case, this is a cause for concern:

The concern is that early puberty is linked with higher breast cancer risk in adulthood. Early puberty has also been linked with social problems and depression, and is associated with high-risk behaviors in adolescence such as alcohol and drug use and unprotected sex. It’s not clear whether these concerns are the result of physiological changes that influence behavior or are explained by the social pressures girls encounter when their bodies mature.

I think this is another study that shows there needs to be a shift back to a simpler way of life… clean organic food, lack of exposure to chemicals in cosmetics and other household items, and staying away from plastics and cans.

by Jennifer Jaykins

397

That is the current level of CO2 in the arctic atmosphere.
Early last year, James Hansen from NASA told us all that we had to be at 350.  Pre-industrial levels were 280.  What are we doing wrong? And, when are people going to figure this out.

“It is not the level of CO₂ that is the problem, because the earth will adapt. What is very worrying is the speed of change. Levels [here] are now increasing 2-3ppm a year.

“The rate of increase is much faster than only 10-20 years ago. You can almost see the changes taking place. Never before have CO₂ levels increased so fast,” he said.

The global annual mean growth rate for 2007 was 2.14ppm – the fourth year in the past six to see an annual rise greater than 2ppm. From 1970 to 2000, the concentration rose by about 1.5ppm each year, but since 2000 it has risen to an average 2.1ppm.

I think this is an important time to bring up rates of evolution as compared to rates of environmental change.

The Industrial Revolution started int he late 1800′s, really taking off in the early 1900′s.  So let’s say.. and to be generous… 150 years?  It has taken us 150 years to increase the CO2 in our atmosphere by 100+ppm.

With that change, we have seen ice caps melting, animal extinction, sea level rising, increased temperature, drought, snow storms… essentially a complete destabilization of the climate.

In contrast… DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated 200,000 years ago.  We diverged from Homo sapiens neanderthalensis approximately 500,000 years ago.  What I am trying to clarify is that human evolution occurs over multiple reproductive generations.  For a genetic mutation to be expressed in a population to show a complete adaptation to an environmental change takes thousands of years.  Tens of thousands of years.

Why would an intelligent Homo sapien sapien…. you or even your child… think that we could easily adapt to the changes of the planet?  The quote above is accurate… “the earth will adapt”. The probability that modern humans and this society will continue is actually quite low.  Quite low.

For another perspective on this same subject… may I please invite you to go HERE for a compelling essay.

good role model

In all honesty, I think beauty pagents are awful; debasing, degrading, sexist, objectifying, and I can keep going on and on.  I think they send young girls a bad message.  I think they give men an unrealistic ideal for a woman, whose expectation will never be met.

Which is why I have even surprised myself by sharing with you a contestant for Miss USA.  Meet Amal Bennett-Judge.

She has hopes of being the next Miss USA.  Unlike many of her contemporaries that are on the campaign trail against gay marriage, Miss Bennett-Judge is on the green trail… and she does it all wearing used clothing!

I think this is a woman that can speak to what the youth of America are concerned with.  She may have a way of doing it that I might not fully agree with, but her message is fantastic.  Maybe this is a case of the ends justifying the means.

by Jennifer Jaykins

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