Belated Happy New Year!!

Hello all…

I know I haven’t written anything here in a very long time.  I am sorry for my absence.

At some point in the last few months, I got uninspired.  Everyday I would search for articles that were worth re-printing, linking to, and discussing.  At some point, all the stories became the same and I wasn’t finding anything original.

Journalists and scientist weren’t reporting on anything positive.  Not to say, that there isn’t a necessity in saying what is truth about climate change.  And the truth about climate change is it takes a keen eye to find the glimmer of hope. We have a serious problem on this planet.

The powers that be have relegated that to CO2 levels.  But what I have learned since starting the site is that it is so much more than that.  “CO2” is not just something that you address by changing your car, or a lightbulb, or solar paneling.  Changing this planet has to be a complete shift in lifestyle.  This planet needs a reset button.  But, people don’t want to hear that because they are comfortable in being able to get a hamburger and fries.  They want to go to the mall and get the latest fashion.  They want the privacy of their cars, instead of the invasion of actually interacting with another human being.

In other words, when it comes to climate change, global warming, global destabilization or any other phrase you associate with what is going on, I have become negative, as well.  And, it isn’t fun to live in a space and energy that is negative.

So, I had a lot of thinking to do.  I had to look into figuring out what made me excited, passionate about something again, the thing that had the hope of the positive, and if I were lucky… that could also maybe help people start caring, or doing something, to help the planet.

I have found it.  But, I’m not going to share with you what it is until, hopefully, this weekend.

This site still gets a lot of activity and comments.  I will always maintain it.  If I feel so inspired an article or two or three may be posted.  We’ll see.  I will for sure be maintaining my twitter account, so please keep following me (or start, hee hee).  When there are interesting things out there, I will be sure to let you all know!

Thank you for your support over the last year.  I look forward to your readership in the future… either in the new endeavor or with Golden Spiral.

No Animal Too Small

Everyday, I go for a morning walk. I always cross over this one particular bridge. Actually, I cross over this bridge a lot, independent of my walk. This bridge is the connection from my neighborhood over to Ventura Blvd.

The story, however, starts on my morning walk. Monday Oct 5th, to be exact.

Just to give you a little peak into my brain… I enjoy walking over this bridge. It crosses the LA “River”. This particular section has a lot of birds; ducks, egrets, small birds (the type unidentifiable to me), and the occasional hawk. I think it is because this section has a patch of “land” (the cement on one side is exposed). I sometimes stop to look at the birds. I always look down to see what’s around. It makes me happy.

This particular Monday morning, I looked down and I spotted something that wasn’t supposed to be there. A squirrel.

After walking over the bridge a few times that day, doing normal errands, and noticing he was still there… I realized he was trapped. I watched him to try get out by climbing the wall, to no avail.

Hesitantly, I called animal services. For one, because I am sensitive to that fact that our public services are crunched due to budget constraints and secondly, because it seemed a bit ridiculous to call over a squirrel. An animal, I was reminded, was no different than a rat… just a bushier tail.

Everyone I talked to at animal services was amazing and assured me that it was good that I had called. Monday was a “closed because of budget issues day”, except for large animals. The officer asked me to “see if he is still there in the morning and if so, call us back. We’ll go get him.”

Lo and behold, he was there. I called.

After an exchange of calls, I was informed that this happens all the time and an officer will go out to inspect. If they felt that the squirrel could safely get out, they would leave it be, otherwise, they would send out SmART… the Small Animal Rescue Team.

I never heard back from Animal Services. Fretted for a while. But then I decided, the officers knew their job and could assess the situation and determine what needed to be done.

Then on Thursday, I was on my walk again. I looked over the bridge. And, yep…. there he was. Again, I didn’t want to think about it, because I knew the officers knew what was best for how to handle it. But, that afternoon I got a call.

A different officer was calling to see if I had noticed if the squirrel were still there, to which I said “yes”. He informed me that he was with the SmART and that they would go by the next morning and get him out.

So, now we are at Friday. The squirrel is still trapped in the river. I am on my morning walk and as I approach the bridge, I see the team is setting up the “rescue”.

After introducing myself, I learn that they are going to repel into the river from the bridge, trap the squirrel, determine if he is healthy to be released and if not rehabilitate and treat before releasing.

I also learned the most important thing: they do all of this on their own dime. They pay for all of their equipment, supplies and training out of their pocket. Because of the river and the ocean, they have all taken swift water rescue training, which came in handy when they had to rescue a deer from the ocean! Can you imagine!

These are a great group of men and women who kept assuring me that THERE IS NO ANIMAL TOO SMALL.

The whole thing gathered a crowd. I have to say, I was so disappointed in talking to the people that came by. Each and every one of them lived in our neighborhood and had seen him since Monday. Not one person called. One woman threw him granola. But that was it. It left me sad. It’s funny to think about how ridiculous I felt having called animal services, but in my book it was the only option. I couldn’t walk by everyday looking at him, doing nothing, and essentially waiting for him to die. Maybe it is an overreaction, but it seems if you chose to do nothing and let him die, that is animal cruelty. Even if it is just a squirrel.

Unfortunately, on this Friday, the squirrel got away.

They don’t know how he got down, but he indeed did not have a way out. All of the storm drains were clogged. However, one was clogged in such place that he could hide up there, out of reach of the rescuers. After a while, they had to give up.

I had left before all of this had happened. In fact, I was going to call on Monday to find out how the story ended. But, I didn’t need to… I walked by the bridge on my way to the Farmer’s Market on Sunday… almost a week later… and the team was there, getting ready to repel and save him again.

I really wish I had thought of taking pictures sooner…. using a rope, they sent down what looked like a trap to block the storm drain that he hid in the last time. We could all see him in another storm drain, poking his head out looking at us. They went into the river and blocked that storm drain he was in with a net. Through the net, they poked at him with a rod of sorts and that got him to run out, into the net, and they GOT HIM!

He was healthy! According to the law he had to be released within a mile of where he was rescued because of territory and displacement of other squirrels. (I will admit, I offered my yard.)

One reason I am sharing this with you is because it was a week long experience that made an impact on me. Most notably because of the three volunteers who go out and rescue these animals, of all sizes: cats, dogs, deer, raccoons, and even squirrels… paying for all of their equipment and training by themselves. This group needs to continue.

I would like to ask of all you to help me in sending a donation to this group. For one thing, they have a hard time getting donations.. when someone makes a donation to Animal Services, who gets the money is determined by the administration. The team doesn’t need cash… they need gift cards to Home Depot, Sports Chalet, OSH.. those kinds of places.

I was thinking if I could get people to contribute a little, we could get a gift card for a nice large amount and help them out.

I will collect the donations through my paypal account… log onto paypal just send to my email address listed which is cshells@sbcglobal.net. If you want to contribute, but don’t want to use paypal, please contact me and we can arrange something.

Thanks for reading this story. Thank you even more if you choose to contribute a donation!

Earth Gay

by Matt DeNoto

That what Gerod Rody’s gay/green organization, OUT for Sustainability, named its Earth Day events, when it built a garden and did some habitat restoration in Seattle, where the organization is located.

Gerod Rody was looking for a way to combine what he sees as the two defining facets of his life; trying to maintain an environmentally-aware, sustainable existence, and being gay. He did some research trying to find a group that filled that niche and when he couldn’t find one, he started one.

Judging by the website, the group’s focus tends more towards being green. It simply advertises itself to the LGBTQ community as a way of getting people to pay attention and giving them a reason to come out and join the group. It’s great if you can change the world, but if you can change the world while finding a date, even better!

Similarly, there’s been press over the past few months about different churches beginning to preach the benefits of a green lifestyle. They argue that God gave the Earth to humans so we could watch over it, not so we could exploit it into oblivion. There’s a Bill Moyer’s PBS Special called ‘Is God Green?’ that examines the subject.

In a previous article, I wrote about another PBS show, Building Green, which chronicled one man’s journey to build the most environmentally-friendly house he can. The website for that show, buildinggreentv.com, has grown into a community of members sharing information about sustainable building practices.

The point is that there are a number of ways to approach bringing the Green Revolution to your community. Part one is, naturally, finding out what ‘your’ community is. Outside of work, where do you spend the majority of your time?

If we each do our part to raise the consciousness of those around us, pretty soon all of us will be thinking a little more about these issues. Then they might not seem so intimidating to those unfamiliar with what the Green Revolution means. It might also help us convince those in power that we, their constituents, are ready to see them make the laws that lead to real change.

And if you can do all that while finding a date, even better.

Location, Location, Location

by Matt DeNoto

Today I have a couple of humble suggestions for relatively simple ways to make a couple of changes we might all like to see.

My first suggestion relates to guns.  There seems to be an ever-raging debate between those who believe people have an inalienable right to own guns and those who feel that guns are made only to kill and should therefore be taken out of people’s hands.  While it may be true that people kill people, they often use guns to do it.  And while we can’t get rid of the people, we can in theory get rid of the guns.

But there are plenty of enthusiasts out there who are very respectful of their guns, who just want to use them to hunt or, in an emergency, for self defense.  They practice strict gun safety and would never consider using their weapons for any illegal actions.

There may be no easy way to reconcile the two camps.  As long as the NRA has some lobbying power and the Constitution is interpreted as it has been for decades, people who want guns will be able to buy and keep them.  But many guns find their way into the hands of criminals.  Accidents kill children and gang violence affects innocent bystanders.

While the debate may not be new, perhaps some new technology can help ease the tension.  These days GPS chips are finding their way into many different forms of consumer electroni cs.  Mobile phones, cars and even laptops are being fitted with the location devices.  Why don’t we use this same technology in something a little more old school?

Putting GPS chips in guns would mean that those who simply wish to own their guns in peace could do so, because at any time it could be confirmed that those guns were where they are supposed to be.  But those who use guns to commit crimes would find that they are suddenly unable to hide.  The gun might be thrown away, but it couldn’t disappear.

I imagine there would still be an uproar from those who wish not only to own their guns, but to own them in secret, stockpiling and getting concealed weapons permits.  But they’ll have a hard time garnering sympathy when this change could have a major impact on gun use in violent crimes.

So anyway, that’s one suggestion.

The other one is a little more dear to the Green Revolution.  It relates to oil.  Besides its harmful environmental effects, there is also the oft-referenced political problem associated with our dependence on foreign oil.  Importing so much oil requires us to do business with dangerous regimes and governments that don’t much care for us.

But we love our oil.  We love it so much we don’t care who we get it from.  Right?  Perhaps that’s not fair.  Perhaps the true issue is that we don’t think about it much.  We don’t have to.  It’s not as though w e as consumers are ever given the choice between buying gasoline made from foreign or domestic sources.

What if that were not the case?  What if gas stations had to label their sources?

When you walk into a Target or a Wal-Mart and pick up a product, almost always there will be a label indicating from whence the product came.  For many products, that label says, ‘Made In China.’

What if, when you pulled up to a gas station, there was a big label on the pump that said, ‘Made In Iran?’  Would you feel so comfortable shelling out your money if you knew where it was going?

I imagine that there has already been a debate about this, that it took place a long time ago and the powerful oil lobby was able to quash the issue.  But perhaps the time is right, now that we have admitted more than once that we are addicted to oil.  Maybe now we are ready to start giving people reasons to acknowledge the consequences of paying for foreign oil, when we could be using plug-in hybrids, natural gas, or maybe even plain old domestic oil.

Just something to think about.  Enjoy your day.

Bringing Up the Rear

by Matt DeNoto

Fair warning, this is a bit of a rant.  Apologies.

One of the major arguments politicians have been making regarding the recently passed (by the House) American Clean Energy and Security Act is that the steps that it takes to try and cut America’s CO2 output are practically useless, because countries like China and India also produce a lot of CO2.

These politicians have been saying this quite a bit lately.  So much so that I feel the need to point out something that seems to me to be pretty obvious.

We can’t make laws for China and India.  They have their own governments.  If you would like to make laws for China and/or India, you probably have to move there first.

The argument also seems to imply that if we can’t make laws for China and India’s CO2 output, we just shouldn’t make any CO2 laws at all.  Which means we’ll just be sitting on the sidelines while the rest of the world innovates and reinvests and cleans up.  South Korea just dedicated 2% of its GDP over the next 5 years develop environmentally-friendly industries.  There’s a small town called Guessing, Austria that already produces more electricity than it consumes using natural biofuels.  The rest of the country also hopes to be energy self-sufficient by the end of 2010.

What will America look like then, if we still haven’t addressed our own environmental concerns?

We will look obsolete.  Antiquated.  Desperately clinging on to outdated, dirty methods, blindly insisting that we are keeping prices low for taxpayers, and profits high for companies.

And what happens when China and India’s lawmakers DO decide to pass regulations in those countries?  Will those who complained so loudly here be proud that America held out the longest?  That America dug in its heels and refused to do what reason and responsibility required?  That America, known and respected for so long for its progress and leadership, continued to wallow in its own crapulence even after it knew better?

It’s fascinating how much of the anti-environmental movement seems to be driven out of nothing but spite.  There’s a Volkswagen commercial being played now that mocks the sound hybrids make.  As if to suggest that what’s really important is having a car that makes the right engine noises.  Loud ones.  Ones that you can only get from combusting gasoline.

It’s a distraction, and in the coming years when people see the real benefits of living more while taking less, those spiteful whimperings will grow fainter and fainter.

Now let’s hope the Senate doesn’t give in.

the news item you are not being told about

For once, I am not going to fill space talking about climate change or food or chemicals.  This is going to be a blurb about media literacy.

I posted earlier about what the media isn’t telling you about swine flu.  But, there is something else the major media conglomerates have decided to not tell you about either: a pulitzer prize winner.

From Salon.com:

The New York Times‘ David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered.

What did he uncover?  That retired generals, that were working with major news outlets, were co-opted by the Pentagon to make the case for the Iraq war.  In fact, this is what was written about what Brian Williams of NBC had to say on that evening’s broadcast:

No mention that among the five NYT prizes was one for investigative reporting.  Williams did manage to promote the fact that one of the award winners was an MSNBC contributor, but sadly did not find the time to inform his viewers that NBC News’ war reporting and one of Williams’ still-featured premiere “independent analysts,” Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was and continues to be at the heart of the scandal for which Barstow won the Pulitzer.  Williams’ refusal to inform his readers about this now-Pulitzer-winning story is particularly notable given his direct personal involvement in the secret, joint attempts by NBC and McCaffrey to contain P.R. damage to NBC from Barstow’s story, compounded by the fact that NBC was on notice of these multiple conflicts as early as April, 2003, when The Nation first reported on them.

So why should you care?  Because the media is supressing a story.  A benign story at that.  So, it makes you wonder… what more to it is there?  And if they are withholding information on this, possibily because of corporate obligation, don’t you wonder what else they are withholding for those same reasons?

This was a prize won by a journalist who discovered that generals were being paid by the White House and the Pentagon to sell us the Iraq War through the use of mainstream media.  If you were a true journalist, like Couric, Williams, Brokaw, and all claim to be, wouldn’t you be mad that you had been lied to?  So why is it they are not mad and not telling you what happened?

swine flu: the mis-information

As we have all heard, there are great concerns over a possible pandemic of swine flu.

While I do not think this should be taken lightly, I do think the media is not providing the entire truth to this story.  Whether this becomes serious or not, only time will tell.  But the one fact that is not being told is that we (the public and consumer) have in our power the possibility of this absolutely NOT getting worse in the future.  But, they don’t want you to know this.

You may find in the various reports that the great omission is how this all happened.  So, I am going to tell you:

This all happened because of our insatiable desire for meat, and our unethical treatment of animals.

There.  Done.  You are not in the dark anymore.  Don’t you feel better.

In order to have enough meat to provide for U.S. consumption, corporations create Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO’s), or factory farms.  These are farms where large volumes of animals are raised and slaughtered to produce as much food, as quickly as possible. They have developed ways to grow these animals to as large as they can in the shortest of times.  Most of this is because they fill them with growth hormones.

Because of the confined nature of the farm, along with the use of hormones, they have to do disastrous things to these animals.  For example, pigs don’t like to be contained.  It naturally makes them nervous, and with the addition of hormones, that behavior can get worse.  As a result, many pigs have taken up the habit of gnawing on things.. any things.  There is a tendency for the animals to gnaw off another animals tail.  To prevent this, instead of changing the way they raise these animals, because that would affect the bottom line, they simply cut off each pigs tail.  This is one resaon, all the animals have to be on a cocktail of antibiotics to prevent infection and disease.

The combination of the hormones and the antibiotics has led to an ever increasing resistant strain of bacterium and viri.  Which in turn leads to an ever-increasing dose of antibiotics, and the circle continues.  So, we are now in a situation where we have extremely resistant strains of this virus migrating whereever the pork is being delivered.

Hence… swine flu outbreak.

And before you jump on the anti-mexican, anti-immigration ship… aside from the fact it is racist, it is also ill-informed:

In the last several years, U.S. hog conglomerates have opened giant swine CAFOs south of the border, including dozens around Mexico City in the neighboring states of Mexico and Puebla. Smithfield Foods also reportedly operates a huge swine facility in the State of Veracruz. Many of these CAFOs raise tens of thousands of pigs at a time. Cheaper labor costs and a desire to enter the Latin American market are drawing more industrialized agriculture to Mexico all the time, wiping out smaller, traditional farms, which now account for only a small portion of swine production in Mexico.

This is not a fault of Mexico or Mexicans.  This is UNITED STATES corporations using international policy to grow swine in such a way that is leading to the death of these people.  THIS country is the sole holder of the blame.

The only way we can fight this current outbreak is through the localized treatment of individuals with the hope that we have an antibiotic strong enough to counter the swine flu.

The only way we can prevent this in the future is stop our current practices of how we raise animals for consumption.  The only way that can stop is when we, the consumer, demand better food and eat less meat.

well, could it?

Could your trash can solve the energy crisis? is the question asked by the latest issue of the New Scientist.

The article highlights one of many companies looking to convert your trash into clean, green energy.

IST is not alone in this revolution. It is one of a growing number of companies and research groups around the world working on gasification – a process that zaps household waste into energy and which, its advocates say, produces few or no harmful emissions. Yet as pilot gasification plants begin to spring up around the world, this apparent environmentalist’s dream is not being universally welcomed. Opponents argue that the process is far from clean and that its track record in terms of energy efficiency and emissions can hardly be considered green. Not to mention the fact that it encourages the throwaway society that the environmental movement has been trying so hard to get rid of. So what is the real story? Is vaporising trash the answer to our energy and waste-disposal woes, or an environmental wolf in sheep’s clothing?

It involves a process called plasma gasification, which is something I won’t go into, since the article is very informative about the process.  

I am directing you to this article a.) because it is interesting, but more importantly, b.) continuing proof that people are innovative and working hard to come up with alternatives to how we view waste and energy.  I think it is also important to look at criticism of these new process by looking at who is the critic.  Many large, established, politically active corporations are looking at these innovations as a threat.  They have the time and money for extensive ad campaigns to confuse the consumer with what is good and bad about emerging technologies.

I do think the article is well written and deserves attention so that you have this in your mind.  Especially, if we start seeing the attacks by other “scientists” challenging or refuting these processes as a possibility.

happy earth day

Just for some fun…. 

A list of the things you could buy someone to celebrate the Earth: 

1.) Buy your loved one a big bunch of perfect red roses…. the Earth LOVES creating flowers through genetic alteration, over fertilization and a good dousing of pesticides…. cause nothing says I love you more than lack of originality and giving the same thing every schmo is giving!

2.) send a greeting card:  old growth forest have managed to stick around for THOUSANDS of years to make sure Hallmark can make a profit.  Those trees sure are generous to us!

3.) Surprise your partner by switching out her birth control pills with a placebo… there is no better way to tell her you are ready for a kid!  Besides, what’s another few kids in the face of billions?

4.) Gardening your thing… there ain’t nothing that says loving like the 36″ high pressure watering broom hose.  I mean.. I know they say we can’t wash down cement… but it all goes to the ocean!

 

5.) The auto industry needs help, and you have a ton of kids… go buy that Range Rover you’ve been drooling over.  Besides… its green!

6.) Thinking of a romantic dinner?  There is no better way to say “I love you AND the Earth” more than a factory farmed, hormone filled, grain fed slab of beef… medium rare, hold the veggies!

and lastly…

7.) we may only have cold weather for a few more years, so why not enjoy it while you can… either one of you can wear the polar bear fur coat.   I mean… they are dying anyway, and recycling is A HUGE priority for you….

 

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!  This is a day to think of IT before you think of yourself…..

my precious-s-s-s-s-s-s

There has been a lot posted about water in the last few days, that I thought I would do a group post for all of the articles.

If you read here often, you know that I care a great deal about water and its longevity as a resource. Having grown up in California during the 70’s, I was exposed to a state that was in constant awareness of our water supply.  Even in times of plenty, the scarcity mentality has remained.  I worry about the rumors I hear of large corporations buying up large supplies of water, so that they can one day make a profit out of our need for a basic life building block, just as much as I worry about sea levels rising and wiping out communities that have every right to exist.

I hope when I post articles about water that you read from the perspective that water is life.  

AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water

 

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water – contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

 

 

Effective July 1, the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reduced supplies its member public agencies for the first time since 1991.

The financial impacts of higher Delta costs due to supply reductions caused by new regulatory restraints also were primary factors behind a rate increase approved by the board in a separate action. The rate increase will take effect Sept. 1.

“Up to 19 million Southern Californians this summer will feel the impact of a new water reality that has been in the making for years, if not decades,” said Metropolitan board Chair Timothy F. Brick.

Changing Rains, via National Geographic

Warm air holds more water vapor—itself a greenhouse gas—so a hotter world is a world where the atmosphere contains more moisture. (For every degree Celsius that air temperatures increase, a given amount of air near the surface holds roughly 7 percent more water vapor.) This will not necessarily translate into more rain—in fact, most scientists believe that total precipitation will increase only modestly—but it is likely to translate into changes in where the rain falls. It will amplify the basic dynamics that govern rainfall: In certain parts of the world, moist air tends to rise, and in others, the moisture tends to drop out as rain and snow.

Blue Gold: Have the Next Resource Wars Begun, via The Nation

 

It has often been said that water is “blue gold” and the next resource wars will be fought, not over oil, but over water. Maude Barlow, senior advisor to the United Nations on water issues, wrotethat the way in which we view water “will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous.”

The British nonprofit International Alert released a report identifying forty-six countries where water and climate stresses could ignite violent conflict by 2025, prompting the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to affirm, “The consequences for humanity are grave. Water scarcity threatens economic and social gains and is a potent fuel for wars and conflict.”

 

 

 

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