Buffalo Boy's Blog
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Recently in environment Category
No Ice At North Pole Is a Big Deal
No ice at the North Pole is a big deal no matter what your views on climate change are.
First, this has never happened, second, the ice at the top of the world is one of the big "air conditioners" of our earth. Without it we lose its cooling effects, which could really get global warming in high gear. What sickens me is the fact that people are looking at the benefits. What benefits? There are none. How can you look at this as a benefit? Shipping lanes and natural resources being accessible should be the least of our concerns. No ice at the North Pole is no different than if the Amazon Rain Forest were to wither away for the Winter. Same type of idea, or if the great lakes were to dry up every summer. The cause of this is from the increased melting last summer that left the Arctic with more new ice (ice less than a year old). If it all goes, it will melt even sooner than the expected date of September of this year. It is most certainly evidence of a warming planet and without that ice, a planet that will no doubt start to speed in its warming trends.The naysayers out there can keep on doubting but I think its better to play on the side of caution and respect the fact that the crap we spew into the atmosphere is having an impact. There is more evidence for it than against it with virtual consensus amongst any credible scientists in the field. Its happening whether you believe in it or not.
Category: Global Warming | environment
Oil Companies Paying Off US Supreme Court
Obviously the conservative judges on the US Supreme Court can be bought off by big oil. The US Supreme Court decreased the punitive damages that Exxon Mobil needed to pay for the Exxon Valdez Oil spill from $2.5 billion to $500 million.
Alaskans are none to happy about the decision and no one can argue that $2.5 billion is too much. Not when Exxon Mobil is making that 10 times over per quarter. $2.5 billion is a drop in the bucket, Consider it interest on what they should have paid back then to a community and state that is still recovering and obviously bitter about the spill today.
I guess its okay to have a drunk captain driving a oil tanker according to the US Supreme Court of judges who can now be bribed. The damage that that spill did to the Alaskan economy, its wildlife and that community is worth well over $2.5 billion and is yet another example of how little conservatives and the Bush administration care about the well being of the people and the land, air and water that we have a right to be clean and healthy.
Instead they will do anything to save the coorporate interests as long as they get their pockets lined. There is the other reason Obama needs to win the presidency, so he can balance the liberal vs. conservatives on the supreme court. At a time when Exxon Mobil could have been made to step up and do the right thing, they are let off the hook in a time when no one trusts them or the system this country was founded on. Almost 20 years later Alaska is being essentially told that big oil's profits are worth more than their environment and economy that was brought to a stand still by this spill.
Category: News | environment | oil/gas
Gore's Environmental Agenda Not Political
Al Gore does not have a politcal bone in his body when it comes to the environmental issues he so dearly supports. This article basically sums up where Al Gore is headed and despite last week's endorsement of Barack Obama, its not back into politics. He was just showing his support for the candidate he feels will be best for the environmental causes he supports.
His roots are as an environmentalist even if he started as a politician. His plans are to stay out of Washington, except to provide his voice on environmental issues. You can look at his track record dating all the way back to his days in congress and he has always been pro-environment. He has written more books than just An Inconvenient Truth. He wrote Earth in the Balance in 1990 that is a very solid and informative read for those who do have an environmental bone in their body.
I wanted Gore to run because I thought that he could make a huge difference in a time when we need someone to lead, but I respect his choice to stay on the outside looking in. He'll provide his expertise when needed Im sure, but he will pick his spots. His number one passion is now and really always has been the environment and "green" causes. No matter how you view him, you have to respect him for avoiding the spotlight.
He could have easily made it very interesting and jumped on board with Obama back when the primary was still a dead heat, but he stayed out. He wants people to recognize that hes not doing what he is doing for politcal reasons but for the right reasons. Hes doing it for that blue ball we call home.
Category: Global Warming | News | Politics | environment
Polar Bears Fair Game Again
Apparently the Polar Bear is not as threatened as we thought, either that or George Bush and his lack of an environmental conscience are at it again. Im sure Ill get all the negative comments about screw the polar bear we need oil and get called all sorts of names like commie pig or tree hugger or some shit like that and so be it.
This is another example of how the Bush administration makes a law only to break it. The polar bear is threatened yet, oil companies (because the Bush administration was probably paid off by the oil companies and they were to the tune of $2,500,000,000 for these contracts) get freedom from the threatened status and the penalties that go with it. The federal government gave away public lands to private oil companies who when they are through with it will leave it a shadow of its former pristine self with nary a penalty to pay.These are people in the White House that would take your home if they thought there was any oil under it.
Its not unlike the lack of the superfund bill that holds coorporations accountable for toxic landfill cleanup. Only in this instance, the federal government is basically saying, go in, do your damage and there will be no punishment if you damage it. Its disgraceful and an insult to our intelligence as citizens of a country that should have learned its lesson with the near extinction of the Bald Eagle.
I grant you that according to the article no polar bear has been killed by an oil company since the 1970s, maybe not directly. The habitat that will be taken from these creatures by the hundreds of miles of roads and refineries and loss of ice that will occurr will surely indirectly affect the bears habitat and ability to thrive in this area.
Im not saying that oil companies shouldn't drill for oil, but I see little being done to address the need for other sources of fuel. I see little being done to introduce more ethanol into the fuel we use, more hydrogen power, wind power and using other things to decrease our dependence.
For as much as they are going to get out of this, I hope its worth it. Realistically, we won't see a drop of this oil, even if there is any for at least 5-10 years and even if they do find oil, how much is there that is realistically going to put a dent in our appetite as a country that uses 20+ million barrels a day. You are going to have 5 companies competing for what? Maybe 1,000,000 barrels a day? Thats 1/20th of what we use now.
I one day want to take my future kids to Alaska and I would like to see polar bears still there without seeing huge refineries and drilling rigs.
Category: Politics | environment | oil/gas
Over Fished
Im an environmentalist at heart and this article is worth the read. Many commercial fisheries are struggling right now due to a decline in fish populations. The cod fisheries in the northeast have been struggling and many claim globalization of the fish market is putting a strain on the oceans ability to feed us.
This article is the first in a series from the Christian Science Monitor that goes in depth into the state of the oceans. Many fisherman are on the quota system and can only bring in so many before calling it a season. One fishing family in particular bought a second boat for clamming because that is an all year round species.
There are a few parts to it and several good links that provide some indepth looks at other environmental hot spots. It is a delicate balance between us and nature and many things point to the need for some balance and conservation in there somewhere.
Category: environment
Can't Eat The Fish
How sad is it that we have polluted the greatest mass of readily available fresh water to the point where you literally can't eat anything in it. Most species are limited to eating one a month and still others, you can't eat any due to pollution by humans.
PCBs are the main culprit around here. They are polychlorinated biphenyls. They were banned in the 70s but they don't go away and build up in the fat of the fish over time.
Dioxins also play a role around here especially the stuff that has leaked from the Love Canal and the S dump which is actually bigger than the Love Canal. Dioxins are the same but come from burning smoke of motors and ash/soot and trash burning. Gee can't think of anywhere we would burn trash around here.....(two big piles of garbage on either end of the Grand Island Bridges ring a bell?).
Its sad. The largest mass of fresh water and its essentially no better off today than it was in the 70's. From foreign species that have invaded them due to our lax laws on shipping to the chemicals we dump into them. I found this on the WGRZ Channel 2 website if you want to investigate further.
I try to go out fishing a few times a summer and I have been out twice so far this year. I love going but it sucks when you catch something and know that you can't eat it even if it was a keeper.
Category: environment
One More Little Tidbit
The impeachment articles were not just about the Iraq war. George W. Bush has also been the worst president involving the environment. Laws made to protect our precious resources have been obliterated by this agency including one that played a big role in my families life, the Superfund bill which was designed to force coorporations to cleam up their shit if they choose to dump into a landfill on public land. That bill no longer is funded and thus landfills filled with toxic waste are no longer being cleaned up because the Bush administration choose to let industry not be responsible for their fuck ups.
Here is evidence of this administrations brain washing its following on global warming and climate change, this directly out of the Kucinich impeachment papers:
"4. A December 2004 paper in Science reviewed 928 studies published in peer reviewed journals to determine the number providing evidence against the existence of a link between anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and climate change. "Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position."
In addition:
" In December of 2007, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report based on 16 months of investigation and 27,000 pages of documentation. According to the summary: "The evidence before the Committee leads to one inescapable conclusion: the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policy makers and the public about the dangers of global warming." The report described how the White House appointed former petroleum industry lobbyist Phil Cooney as head of the Council on Environmental Quality. The report states "There was a systematic White House effort to minimize the significance of climate change by editing climate change reports. CEQ Chief of Staff Phil Cooney and other CEQ officials made at least 294 edits to the Administration's Strategic Plan of the Climate Change Science Program to exaggerate or emphasize scientific uncertainties or to de-emphasize or diminish the importance of the human role in global warming."
Thats just great, an oil lobbyist as head of the COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY!!!!!!!!!!! HOW DO YOU APPOINT HIM TO A ROLE THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE A WATCH DOG FOR THE ENVIRONMENT. His interests are big oil's interest, he doesn't give a shit about the environment.
How much more evidence do you need that we have all been mislead by this administration. I beg you to go read the rest of this its horrendous what this administration has gotten away with.
Clinton got a blow job and got impeached, Bush has a 65 page rap sheet of things a hell of a lot worse than Clinton having sex.
Category: Global Warming | News | Politics | environment
Defending Ethanol
Brazil is set to defend its position and use of ethanol stating that if done right, ethanol can sustain energy needs. At a UN summit on food security, with all respect to South America and specifically Brazil, why is it that it is not the US doing the talking at this summit and teaching the world about its successful energy independence.
I think its sad. Even if not the US, why not Japan, China, Russia, or Canada? Some industrialized country should be taking the lead on this. But instead we bitch and argue over a treaty about how best to solve global warming and ignore high fuel prices. Instead we bitch about fuel prices and ignore the solutions.
We can all learn a thing or two from Brazil and the sooner we do, the better. I hope that our leaders in this country are listening. They certainly don't listen to us. Instead their ideas include drilling for more oil, which really, is what got us to this energy conundrum in the first place. Its time for our elected officials to step it up and promote this issue. There are times when the government has to force choices upon us for the good of the people and this is one of those times.
The problem is, as long as our president's last name is Bush or is a republican, we will continue with the same energy policies we have right now.
Category: News | Science | environment
Extinctions At Highest Rate Ever
This is a May 16th article that discusses the mass extinctions we have seen globally in the last 35 years. The rate of extinctions is currently 10,000 times what is considered normal by scientists and we haven't seen an extinction rate like this since the dinosaurs disappeared.
The cause? Humans. For you who doubt it, the most interesting statistic in the article is that since 1960 the human population has doubled while animal populations have declined by 30%.
How can this be stopped? By not destroying natural habitats. We want to go into national parks and wildlife areas and drill, drill, drill for oil and we think this is fine because it won't hurt anything. Yes it will. It will hurt the biodiversity of this planet that is probably already damaged beyond repair.
Look at the coral reefs and rain forests that are dying out and destroyed, all due to humans. We need coral reefs and rainforests, they support thousands, if not millions of species some that could provide cures for diseases, yet in another article I read the second largest rainforest in the world is expected to be 50% of its former self by 2020.
So whether its via global warming that many still don't believe in, or via loss of the planets species, that we absolutely need to support food chains and thus ourselves, we do need to conserve and change our mass consuming life styles. Maybe you don't believe in global warming, but you can not dispute the loss of important species to this planet and their importance to us.
Category: environment
Mass Extinctions
We should not be surprised at this news and those of you who are surprised or even those of you don't believe the scientific evidence watch this video.
It puts into animation much of what a report today says is the biggest mass extinction since the last ice age. What will cause the greatest conflict though and probably generate the most responses is the fact that those extinctions are human induced.
Watch the video and leave me your thoughts, but I don't know how you can debate what the facts state. One incredible stat, we are now as a civilization using 25% more natural resources than our planet can sustain.
Category: environment
