Kunstler's Monday Advice

Wake Me, Shake Me

It's coming on springtime and things are breaking loose all over the place. I give Saudi Arabia three weeks before it starts to blow up. And even Iran might get the fever. Plan on a staycation this summer and start thinking about that garden because it's not altogether certain that we'll keep up the conveyer belt of Little Debbie Snack Cakes and other staples of the American table into the supernarkets when diesel fuel hit $10 a gallon and the truckers stay home to watch the Kardashian girls. I'm already getting hungry.

We better start honing our basic skills. From gardening to basic repairs - may be all too important in the next few months.

Bring the outdoors in

Image by ex.libris via FlickrEarthly Delights | The Slug and the Squirrel Terrariums

"I was shocked to learn that not everyone makes terrariums!” says the designer Jose Agatep, who grew up making terrariums with his father in their garden. Agatep surprised friends with these handmade flora snow globes, and they wanted more. “People started calling me an artist!” he excitedly recalls.


His terrariums, which he designs under the name the Slug and the Squirrel, come in all shapes and sizes and are a recent addition to Anthropologie’s home décor collection. The containers are welded together from vases, bottles and cups Agatep that finds at flea markets and then embellishes with silver. He fills them with plants from a local Philadelphia flower shop and soil and wood chips from along forest trails and train tracks. (He particularly likes taking components from the outdoors because they come with the bacteria and insects necessary to maintain the self-contained ecosystem, and sometimes they sprout mushrooms, much to his customers’ surprise.) “Everything is so … technology,” he says. “We need the nature. It’s a good reminder of how it used to be.”

Easy to make one yourself. Bottles, jars, lightbulbs, glasses... endless possibilities of containers.

Styrofoam back in Congress

GOP Cancels Biodegradable Packaging, Brings Styrofoam Back

"Foamed polystyrene" is a miraculous invention that manages to be completely awful through every step of its near-eternal "life cycle" -- it is manufactured with petroleum that must be imported from Middle East dictatorships, toxic "styrene oligomers" migrate into the food it holds, it's highly flammable and produces black poisonous smoke, and most of the 25 billion polystyrene cups tossed every year will take more than half a millennium to degrade. And that's why the Republican-led House of Representatives made it an immediate priority to cancel the House cafeteria's four years of biodegradable food and beverage packaging.

Congress switched to biodegradable packaging, along with a number of other green initiatives like composting, as part of its Green the Capital program. But the program was lead by Nancy Pelosi, whom, you may have heard, is unliked in certain conservative circles. So John Boehner -- the new Speaker of the House -- and company dismantled her program, largely as a political jab.

Makes Johnny feel good politically, but what is his decision doing to the planet? Guess he doesn't care and won't shed a tear.

Be prepared

What are you doing...?

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to start to grow your own food, because you can save money, the quality can be higher, and it’s a good skill, especially to pass on to your children. But you aren’t going to be feeding yourself in some sort of Mad Max scenario. If it comes to that point, your garden won’t be much help.


I don’t think food insecurity will hit the U.S. directly this decade and probably not the next one (except, again, through global political instability). By the 2030s, though, all bets are off (see Must-read NCAR analysis warns we risk multiple, devastating global droughts even on moderate emissions path). I don’t expect the electric grid to become less reliable — the impact of extreme weather will cause havoc locally, but improved technology and growing demand response strategies should in general improve reliability.


Peak oil is another matter, though, and that is worth thinking about and planning for, though, again, most European countries are already paying higher gasoline prices than America is likely to average this decade, so even $7 gasoline isn’t the end of the world, and I’m skeptical we would see that this decade for any length of time (mainly because the global economy would contract first).


My three main suggestions for what people should do in the next few years are:

• Sell your SUV, sooner rather than later, unless you really need all that interior room on a regular basis, since resale prices are certainly going to collapse when gasoline prices sustain at $4 or higher for any length of time. Get a hybrid or, even better, PHEV.
• If you live in a 100-year flood plain, move. You can wait for housing prices to recover a bit, but the risks here are just going to keep growing.
• Plan to sell your coastal property, especially if you live anywhere between Manhattan and Corpus Christi (and thus also have to worry about hurricanes). Coastal property values are going to crash at some point (see “What year will coastal property values crash?“) I think the peak in prices come some time in the 2020s. Coastal property values crash long before you actually get the devastating sea level rise (SLR). They crash when a large fraction of the financial community and of opinion-makers — along with a smaller but substantial fraction of the public — realize that it is too late for us to stop 4 to 5 feet of SLR. The staggering success of the fossil-fuel-funded disinformation campaign — and the ongoing lameness of the media — may put off that awareness a few years, but I still think the peak comes by the mid- to late-2020s.

Great article. The article also mentions paul Gilding and his new book called The Great Disruption.

Gilding, former director of Greenpeace International and now on the faculty at Cambridge University™s Program for Sustainable Leadership, proposes that global warming is just one piece of an impending planetary collapse caused by our overuse of resources. According to the Global Footprint Network, we surpassed Earth™s capacity in 1988, and by 2009, we needed the resources of 1.4 planets to sustain our economy—and any increases in efficiencies that some claim will solve the problem are likely only to encourage us to use more. Gilding argues that, like addicts who need to hit bottom, we energy users will deny our problem until we œface head-on the risk of collapse, but when we do, we will address the emergency with the commitment of our response to WWII and begin a real transformation to a sustainable economy built on equality, quality of life, and harmony with the ecosystem.

After Oil

Love the Treehugger article and title:

Graphic Video Demonstration of Life After The Kunstlerian Decline of a World Dependent on Oil

Car blog Jalopnik is traumatized by this "conquest of old technology over new" whereas we deem it symbolic of the inevitable Kunstlerian decline of the fossil-fuel powered world we live in.

It really is something out of Kunstler's novels. The question is - fiction or non-fiction?

Another Crazy Train Passenger

Maine Gov Says BPA No Concern, Just Gives Women "Little Beards"

This has to be one of the weirder anecdotes in the ongoing BPA saga in the US. Maine governor Paul LePage was discussing the health risks of BPA the other day, and decided that it wasn't much of an issue. The only bad thing that could come out of too much exposure to BPA, he believes, would be women growing little beards. You can't make this stuff up.


Here's his amazingly scientifically-minded quote, via the Bangor Daily News:


"Quite frankly, the science that I'm looking at says there is no [problem]," LePage said. "There hasn't been any science that identifies that there is a problem."
LePage then added: "The only thing that I've heard is if you take a plastic bottle and put it in the microwave and you heat it up, it gives off a chemical similar to estrogen. So the worst case is some women may have little beards."


Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor, and has been shown to cause a host of health issues, especially developmental problems in children.

I don't think I even have to comment.

Direct versus Indirect Cash

American Petroleum Institute To Begin Direct Political Donations

One of the biggest oil lobbying organizations now plans to directly back political candidates.


The American Petroleum Institute (API) -- the main U.S. trade association for the oil and gas industry -- recently announced that beginning in the second quarter of this year, it will take a turn towards direct political donations. API, who has companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron among its 400 members, spent about $7 million last year on lobbying efforts alone.

But their impact was there even before. Cash flowed into pockets and it is not only the oil boys...

Pesticide Industry Ramps Up Lobbying in Bid to Pare EPA Rules

The pesticide industry is applying extra doses of lobbying in an effort to eradicate federal requirements it considers harmful.


CropLife America -- the trade group for Dow Chemical Co., DuPont, Monsanto Co. and other pesticide makers -- aims to influence dozens of measures, from safe food and drinking water rules to toxic chemical regulations and antiterrorism laws.


The organization in the last three months of 2010 significantly ramped up persuasion efforts. CropLife America in that period spent nearly $751,000 on lobbying, a 58 percent increase from a year earlier.


The spending came as the industry saw signals that regulation could increase, analysts said.


"In the first two years of the Obama administration, you had a lot of saber rattling by political appointees" who appeared to favor the European approach to broader regulation, said Jon Entine, editor of the book "Crop Chemophobia: Will Precaution Kill the Green Revolution?" That, he said, "seemed to signal to chemical industry, agricultural and otherwise, that they were going to push for more precautionary oversight of chemicals."


The trade group's efforts continue this year with what many now see as a friendlier Congress and a U.S. EPA likely to feel new pressure from Capitol Hill. While pesticide makers have had bipartisan support, the Republican-led Congress last week showed its distaste for regulations, passing a spending bill with hundreds of amendments that would strip away existing rules.

Do we the people have to "pay" our elected officials to protect our lives and interest? Aren't we, the voters, the bosses? Aren't our lives more important than "cash in the pocket?"

Seeds Straight From Your Fridge

For generation after generation of farmers, the staple crops we ate at the table — wheat and barley, maize and beans — were the same seeds we sowed in the fields. They were descendants of the first semi-wild crops that had more or less “ ‘volunteered’ for domestication,” as Peter Thompson, the British conservationist, wrote in his 2010 book, “Seeds, Sex and Civilization.” These seeds “germinated rapidly, completely, and at low temperatures.”


Today’s farmers, with their pedigree seeds, grow foods that are bigger and more bountiful than the peasant crops of the past. The viability of the seeds these cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables produce, though, is an afterthought.


Yet whether out of nostalgia or novelty, the home gardener likes to tinker with the old ways. The “Don’t Throw It, Grow It Book of Houseplants,” published in 1977 and reissued a few years ago, introduced readers to dozens of seeds that could jump from a dinner plate to a planter. And one of the book’s authors, Deborah Peterson, advanced the cause by founding the Rare Pit and Plant Council, a New York-based gardening club.


The group’s newsletter, The Pits, seems to have fallen fallow. So I started from scratch in the spice drawer, with nutmeg, mustard seed, poppy seed and cardamom. In theory, at least, any of these spices could sprout into a seedling. Next, I raided the cupboard, collecting figs, dates, red beans and chickpeas. Finally, I Dumpster-dived the crisper for grapefruit and ginger.

Had great success with black beans and kidney beans last year - and of course taters (white and sweet) and squashes. What to experiment with this year? Wonder if beer bottle caps will sprout into 6 packs?

If animals are threatened...

Monsanto's Roundup Ready Crops Contain Organism Causing Animal Miscarriages, Scientist Says

Recent research claims that Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically modified crops contain an organism, previously unknown to science, that can cause miscarriages in farm animals. This disturbing find comes on the heels of Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's decision to deregulate Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA). Roundup Ready is designed to survive Roundup, Monsanto's weed-killing chemical.


Purdue University's Emeritus Professor Don M. Huber presented the findings of the research, which observed the new organism using a 36,000X electron microscope. According to Treehugger, the organism can cause disease in both plants and animals, a rare feat.


Huber wrote an open letter to Vilsack requesting a moratorium on deregulating Roundup Ready crops. Huber states that Roundup Ready has a high concentration of an animal pathogen connected to "plant and animal diseases that are reaching epidemic proportions." Huber finishes his letter by stating, "It deserves immediate attention with significant resources to avoid a general collapse of our critical agricultural infrastructure."


A recent article in The Washington Post suggests that Roundup Ready Alfalfa is unnecessary and harmful to the farming community. When RRA is grown, reports suggest that weeds develop a resistant to Roundup. This has reportedly already happened to Roundup Ready corn, soybeans, and cottons. As The Washington Post remarks on GMOs, "You can't recall them the way you can a car or a plastic toy. They're out there for good. And no one knows what their full impact will be." Although the impact of Roundup Ready Alfalfa has now become disturbingly more apparent.

What threats to human life? Do we have to wait to find out? It's time to reverse Ag's decision.

Who has the oil?

Top 20 oil-producing nations

A recent list from the AP reveals the top 20 oil-producing countries (in barrels per day), according to 2009 statistics by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.


In light of recent oil spills, lawsuits, and environmental damage, it is debatable whether these statistics are something to be proud of, or if they merely further point at the urgency with which we need to pursue alternative forms of energy.

Look at the list. May signal the next "arena of operation."

Knowing the Future

It’s like Gadhafi is telling us to get off oil or something

Moammar Gadhafi is a crazy dictator who is murdering his populace and needs to get a cruise missile shat down his neck, but what we all really want to know is: how are the actions of this homicidal crazypants going to affect our summer vacation?


Those of you heading to the Jersey Shore for copulation and spray-tan are going to have fewer dollars to drop on wine coolers, for one. A combination of economic and political factors could see gas reach its highest level, ever -- higher even than the $4.11 record set in July 2008 that may have been a precipitating factor in the most recent economic collapse.

Read the article and weep. It looks like it may be a fun summer.

The World Is Flat - So Watch Out

I really enjoy reading James Howard Kunstler and suggest everyone read his "every Monday" essays. I especially note today's: White Is The New Black

What you generally get in political upheavals throughout history are protracted periods of confusion, factional fighting, and violence. More often than not, they resolve in the rise of a new tyrant, some figure who seems to know what he is doing when everybody else around him does not - which is the essence of human charisma, being a declension of the following:
1.) People who know what they are doing.
2.) People who seem to know what they are doing.
3.) People who pretend to know what they re doing.
4.) And people who don't know what they are doing.
Most of the human race is composed of the fourth category, which is why the figures in the categories above them claim their attention and allegience. Sometimes, the results are very unfortunate.
The world is now blowing up politically at the same time that it is blowing up financially, and there should be little doubt about the relation of these two conditions. At a time of rising resource scarcity (oil, metals, fertilizers), and capital scarcity (unpaid loans vanishing in the black hole of default), and raucous weather in places where grain crops usually grow (Russia, Australia, Argentina), you can be sure that things will get weird.
They are finally getting weird in the streets of the USA now, too. Wisconsin is surely just the first of many hashes that cry to be settled - and that state is not nearly as broke as Illinois, New Jersey, and California. A lot of stuff is shaking loose out there. Our charismatic leaders, alas, have been drawn mostly from category 3, and out of all their pretending comes a banking system that is flying apart like a Chrysler Slant Six engine that somebody poured Karo syrup into, thinking it might work as an "alternative fuel." The reverberations will be felt in every household, business, and office in the land.
Some wags out there are even blaming Ben Bernanke for the worldwide rise in food prices, and the cause-and-effect relationship there is rather plausible. You juice the world money supply with an artificial $100 billion a month, at least, and the juice flows somewhere, lately into stock and commodity markets because who the heck wants bonds when no issuing entity has a prayer of staving off some kind of default, and the interest rates are a joke anyway.
Americans lost in the Techno-rapture and the inane transports of Fashion Week have no idea how fragile our vital supply chain system is. If the lands around the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea continue to fall apart politically, you can be sure that something required by the oil markets will get broken over there - whether it is an oil terminal, or a shipping channel, or a royal skull - and before you can say Mike Huckabee the shipments of food to America's supermarkets will be interrupted, with predictable results.
This could be a helluva week. We've flattered ourselves for years about how wonderful it is that everything is connected in this world - the Tom Friedman fantasy about the eternal sunshine of the global economy. Now, we're more likely to see the dark side of connectedness, as the planet's goodie-bag deflates and folks in colorful costumes start fighting over what's left.

The World is a smaller place these days. Just look at how fast gas prices are going up in response to Libya's woes - of course this is also a great chance for MORE PROFITS for the behemoths. I think the best advice is to: be aware of what is happening around us (and around the world) and be prepared for whatever comes our way.

Green Jobs

Here's a clip with Van Jones, a guy who knows a little something about attacks from climate deniers. In the clip, Jones goes to a low income home where solar panels are bring installed by workers benefiting from new green jobs. "If you want to have a green economy, it's got to be about... reclaiming people, reclaiming neighborhoods. That's the green economy," said Jones.

Now you should cry John

House GOP Goes After the Environment

House Republicans, joined by a handful of Democrats, are making good on their campaign promises to attack the EPA and make life easier for heavy polluters but harder for actual life. Last night, the House passed its short-term government funding measure, which funds the government until March 4 and takes a hatchet to funding for environmental protection. Speaker Boehner, seemingly overlooking the irony, said, "Cutting federal spending is critical to reducing economic uncertainty, encouraging private-sector investment, and creating a better environment for job creation in our country."


Specifically, the bill takes a huge chunk out of the budget of the EPA, the government body that protects our water, air, and earth. The EPA's funding was cut by $3 billion and the Energy Department, which has been acting as a sort of venture capital firm in the absence of a real national energy plan, saw its budget reduced by $1 billion for the remainder of the year.

Knew it was coming but when it came true... Wonder if Boehner cries at the death of aniamls, at increased cancers, smog...

The Brothers Are Everywhere

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros.

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker, whose bill to kill collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions has caused an uproar among state employees, might not be where he is today without the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are conservative titans of industry who have infamously used their vast wealth to undermine President Obama and fight legislation they detest, such as the cap-and-trade climate bill, the health care reform act, and the economic stimulus package. For years, the billionaires have made extensive political donations to Republican candidates across the country and have provided millions of dollars to astroturf right-wing organizations. Koch Industries' political action committee has doled out more than $2.6 million to candidates. And one prominent beneficiary of the Koch brothers' largess is Scott Walker.

When you have so much money and don't have a clue about real life...

My backyard

The Greenpeace Coal Plant Protest

It's important to understand why Greenpeace did this today, and targeted the Bridgeport coal plant --


Bridgeport Harbor is an aging, inefficient plant -- it's 40 years old -- and it isn't necessary to provide power to Connecticut's grid. Yet it emits 3 million tons of carbon emissions every year, as well as 2,800 tons of toxic sulfur dioxide, 2,200 tons of nitrous oxide, and 50 lbs of mercury. The coal plant literally casts a shadow upon a low-income section of Bridgeport, where 1 in 4 residents have asthma. Health experts estimate that at least one death a year in the city can be attributed to the coal plant's noxious emissions.


Furthermore, all the coal that the 400 MW plant burns is imported from Indonesia, where it is mined by workers who enjoy low wages and few human rights, at an estimated cost of $79 million per shipment. Essentially, the plant epitomizes all that's wrong with coal-power in modern America -- it spews copious amounts of carbon emissions, poses an immediate risk to public health, is inefficient, expensive, and old

Not the kind of news Bridgeport would like to be recogbnized for - but a very important issue that has been around too long.

Make Big Oil pay?

Obama’s new budget would make Big Oil pay for clean energy

Republicans are vowing to fight President Obama's newly released budget for the 2012 fiscal year. Among other things, the new budget includes a few significant changes to spending on climate and energy research. In the energy sector, it calls for slashing tax breaks and loopholes for fossil fuel producers to bring in about $4 billion dollars of additional revenue. Obama has asked to end these fossil fuel subsidies in the past two years' budgets, however, and was shot down each time.


(Meanwhile, a House bill called the Ending Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act would go much farther, targeting $40 billion in big oil tax breaks. It seems no one is sure, even roughly, how much fossil fuel tax breaks amount to.)


If the budget is approved, the extra revenue from ending these tax breaks would help pay for proposed boosts elsewhere. Overall, the U.S. Department of Energy budget would rise 12 percent to $29.5 billion. The budget for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy, dedicated to funding cutting-edge technologies, would jump from $398 million to $550 million.

Wouldn't it be nice? But don't hold your breath. This will die a quick death - lobbyists rule!

Who will protect us?

Republicans Are Using the Budget to Wage a Massive Assault on the Environment and Roll Back Crucial Protections

Water is our single most critical resource. Yet Republicans are using the latest budget bill as a weapon to strip away basic protections that help preserve the water resources we all depend on for survival, and they're also attacking our air, food, wildlands and health.

Read the entire article and see what our elected officials are up to. Clearly they are not interested in us, just their lobbyist buddies.

Bad Move by the FDA

Monsanto Herbicide-Resistant Crops Approved

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved plantings of three genetically engineered (GE) crops in as many weeks, including Monsanto Co.'s Roundup Ready sugar beets and alfalfa that are engineered to tolerate Roundup Ready weed-killing herbicide.


The USDA on February 11 also legalized, without restriction, the world's first GE corn crop meant for biofuel production. Biotech giant Syngenta's Event 3272 seed corn will simplify ethanol production and is not meant to feed animals or humans.


The USDA disappointed GE critics again last week when it fully deregulated Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta's Event 3272 GE corn. The corn is genetically engineered to produce an enzyme that converts starch to sugar, making it easier to process the corn and turn it into the biofuel ethanol.

Has anyone fought against Monsanto or Syngenta?

A 2004 investigation conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) confirmed that Syngenta had illegally distributed GE seed corn engineered to produce an unregistered pesticide on over 1,000 occasions to farmers in the US, South America and Europe.


The EPA fined Syngenta $1.5 million in 2006 for distributing the seed corn, which produced a then unregistered pesticide called Bt 10.

The same EPA targeted by Gingrich and others? Coincidence? Or a sign of "follow the money trail?"

People before Profits!

Climate cranks

Help Name and Shame the Climate Cranks Sabotaging Our Environment

For years, climate "skeptics" have denied the near-unanimous scientific consensus around global warming in an effort to delay action.


They're not "skeptics" -- they're cranks, and it's time to unmask those who are holding our nation's climate policy hostage. We're taking action to call out the climate cranks, shift the climate debate in Washington and, yeah, we're looking to make news.


Will you join us?




AlterNet is partnering with environmental author Mark Hertsgaard and other activist groups to name and shame the climate cranks sabotaging our nation's response to climate change. On Tuesday, February 15, Mark (contributor to The Nation and author of the new book, HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth) and the rest of the team will head to Capitol Hill, the Fox TV bureau, the Chamber of Commerce and other hotbeds of climate denial. Their goal? Put the climate cranks on the spot and make them explain -- on camera and in front of kids -- why they have condemned the young people of "Generation Hot" (as Mark calls them), to spending the rest of their lives coping with the hottest climate in human history.


When every credible scientific organization in the world disagrees with them, why are these cranks still insisting that climate change is a hoax? And why does the mainstream media keep giving the cranks a pass on their anti-scientific nonsense?


Want to help? Here's how you can get involved:

1. Visit the Facebook page for Generation Hot. Post your suggestions for which cranks to target, what questions to ask, and how to use this action to transform the climate conversation in this country.
2. Post your questions and crank suggestions via Twitter, using the hashtag #climatecranks.
3. Learn more about Mark and why he is fighting back by watching this short video with his 5 year old daughter Chiara, a member of Generation Hot, and reading his Nation article. And don't forget to buy a copy of his book, HOT.

Video of their encounters with the cranks will be shared after the fact with both mainstream and alternative media and circulated through the vast social networks of the participating organizations. Our goal is to wake up the mainstream media and generate renewed public pressure to prevent the climate cranks from further sabotaging the fight against global warming.


Let's call 'em out!

So many cranks to choose from. Who gets my first vote?

People or Profits?

Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters

Something's seriously out of whack when you put healthy profits for polluters ahead of the health and safety of the American people.


When the founding fathers described "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" as "inalienable rights" in the Declaration of Independence, "life" was listed first for a reason. And yet, instead of being defended in the halls of Congress, the right to a long and healthy life is under attack.


The Clean Air Act doesn't just make the air look cleaner -- it's our main defense from mercury, arsenic, carbon dioxide, and other life-threatening pollution in our air. Administrator Lisa Jackson and the EPA are charged with using the best science to identify and curb pollution that endangers public health and welfare. She and her agency take that duty seriously, and it was good to see her stand up this week to the first round of bullying from some who don't.


Because the alternative is inescapable: Don't put the health and welfare of Americans first. If you're a politician with close ties to the cash-drenched oil and coal industries (and I'm not talking about exchanging Christmas cards ), then you somehow find a way to rationalize that. Next thing you know, you're talking about repealing or overriding the Clean Air Act and restricting or even eliminating the EPA.


But there's no way around it: You're putting polluters ahead of people.


That's why Americans -- across the board and in poll after poll -- don't support the EPA witch-hunt on Capitol Hill. To them it is self-evident that what's really under attack isn't Lisa Jackson or the EPA -- it's all of us; our inalienable right to be protected from life-threatening pollutants in our air and water. In fact, Americans -- and not just the ones who belong to the Sierra Club -- think the EPA should be doing more, not less, to protect the health and safety of our families and communities.


That's why the Sierra Club is mobilizing our 1.4 million members and supporters in a national effort to stop these polluters and their friends in Congress. The American people already understand what's at stake. But now we need to send a clear message to our leaders in Congress and to remind President Obama: Protect our health, not the profits of polluters. If you don't want Peabody Coal deciding how clean your air will be or BP how safe your water will be -- then now's the time to make your voice heard.

But do those above mentioned polls stop Newt-boy and friends? Heck no.

The Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual event where conservative politicians and activists get together in something akin to a pep rally, has come to an end. The event can be seen as a sort of a bellwether for the pet causes of the movement, and this year conservatives placed a target squarely on the back of the EPA. In fact, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is rumored to be a presidential candidate, doubled down on his call for shutting down and replacing the EPA altogether.


Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, another likely candidate, told the audience that the White House is "trying to achieve through regulation what it can't pass through legislation," meaning that the EPA's authority should be curbed when it comes to regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

It's time everyone realizes that is MUST be people before profits. Mubarak now knows it.

The Weight

Great rendition by Old Crow Medicine Show and Gillian Welch.

Super Music Friends Show

Band of Horses...Enjoy

Fuel tanks versus people's lives

With global grain prices surging, corn ethanol looking dumber than ever

And right on the heels of Russia's wheat shortage, the USDA has just released a surprisingly frank report documenting that the current U.S. corn stocks are shockingly low, in fact the lowest in 15 years. The reason? I'll let the Washington Post explain:


The U.S. Agriculture Department's latest forecast said corn supplies are expected to total 675 million bushels as of late August when this year's harvest begins. That would be the lowest surplus level since 1996.


The government said supplies have dwindled over the past month because of improving demand, largely from ethanol producers.


Ah, ethanol. How we do love you.


All eyes are now on the 2011 corn harvest. As one analyst said, to avoid a price spike, it needs to be "huge." And it's still early, but here's hoping that the vicious winter weather out in the corn belt doesn't presage a wild and wacky spring. That could really spell trouble in the global south, where even more upward pressure on grain prices would be devastating.


The good news is that the fuel vs. food debate is for sissies. I know because Monsanto told me.

Fuel versus food? Which would you choose? Seems like an easy choice - so why are we making the wrong one so many times?

Chomsky on Green

Noam Chomsky has a big ol' brain, and over the years, he's devoted it to revolutionizing linguistics, pushing the boundaries of analytic philosophy, formulating trenchant political theory, and pissing off establishment figures. Whether or not you agree with his politics, there's no denying that he's a sharp fella. Which is why it's well worth watching his take on why the United States has thus far failed to tackle climate change:

Watch it all...

.... it could serve as a crash course on the roots of climate denial.

Peak Oil Right Now

Image via WikipediaSaudi Arabia's Oil Overestimated by 40%, Wikileaks Reveals

Looks like peak oil might be even closer than we thought -- the most recent Wikileaks cable released by the Guardian has revealed that US diplomats are convinced that Saudi Arabia has overestimated its vaunted oil reserves by a stunning 40%. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil supplier, and is widely believed to be sitting atop the largest supply of the stuff in the world. But this revelation shows that the country may not have enough oil to keep prices from rising drastically over the next couple years.


By the Saudi geologist's estimation, that means that the world may hit peak oil next year. This won't surprise many peak oilers who've long suggested we surpassed peak oil already, or those who've been predicting the event to occur this decade. Even the US military has openly predicted that the world may see severe oil shortages as soon as 2015.


But hitting peak oil as soon as next year would have a momentous impact on the global economy, which is still extremely dependent on oil. As we speak, oil prices are creeping above the $100 a barrel mark. As usual, analysts have counted on the Middle Eastern nation to pump additional oil if the prices rise high enough, and threaten to choke off demand, as the Guardian notes. But this cable suggests the era when Saudi Arabia can stabilize oil demand is well past its twilight.

This is a big "Oh Crap!" We all knew it was here. We all know what the future may look like. Now we won't have to wait for the crap to hit the fan.

And so many people condemn Wikileaks.  They are doing us a service in getting the truth out.

Related articles

• WikiLeaks Says Peak Oil Could Be Coming Soon (ecocentric.blogs.time.com)
• Wikileaks on Peak Oil (theoildrum.com)

More deaths to report

Dead Fish in Florida

Thousands of dead fish washed ashore a Florida state park beach on Friday, WPBF 25 News reports. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists believe a lack of oxygen resulted in the deaths of thousands of menhaden fish at Sebastian Inlet State Park. The officials say this type of fish is especially prone to dying from a lack of oxygen when they swim closer to shore in such large numbers.

In the week prior, around 500 drum fish were found dead in the Arkansas River, in the same location where 83,000 dead fish were discovered a month earlier on December 29th, AP reports.

After the major fish kill at the end of 2010, and the deaths of thousands of birds also reported nearby in Arkansas days later on New Years Eve, news of mass animal deaths from around the world began receiving prominent coverage, though officials have attested that the events are not connected. More birds were reported to fall from the sky across the U.S. and around the world, while similar mass fish kills were also reported worldwide.

Wildlife officials have suggested everything from extremely harsh weather to fireworks andindigestion as being responsible for the various mass animal deaths, while the USDA has taken responsibility for some of the U.S. bird deaths. According to the AP, mass animal deaths are not that uncommon.

Not that uncommon? Come on now. Don't they wonder what is happening? Face it - we are in trouble.

Job opening

Buckingham Palace Seeking Environmentally Savvy Gardener

Are you a green-minded person with a green thumb? You might want to check out the job listings at Buckingham Palace. "The £15,000-a-year post entails maintaining the 42-acre garden 'to the highest standards' and recycling 99 per cent of the waste - even from the Royal Mews stables. The successful applicant must also be able to maintain shrub, herbaceous and rose borders in line with 'good organic horticultural practices' and 'to assist in the development of the wildlife in the gardens'," reports The Telegraph, which lists has the details.

Wonder if they'd pay relocation fees?

Food Prices Going Up

World Food Prices Hit Record Highs

Enduring the economic crunch isn't getting any easier, especially with world food prices at all time highs. From political flare ups to very strange weather, the costs of some of our favorite foods could be nearly out of reach.


According to Breibart, food prices have incited violence and unrest across the globe. Some of the hardest hit countries are Egypt and Tunisia amongst others on the brink of flaring up.


"The new figures clearly show that the upward pressure on world food prices is not abating. These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come," FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian said in a statement.


Here are some of the hardest hit food categories:

• Chocolate 
• Sugar
• Ice Cream
• Meat 

Being a vegetarian I am not concerned about meat prices.  chocolate - not a huge fan - can take it or leave it.  Sugar - just need it for my kombucha.  but ice cream!  Now that is a problem,

The Gateway Drug

Why Bacon Evokes a Carnivorous Moment for Vegetarians

To start, this isn't the first time I've heard this. I'm mostly a vegetarian, minus a piece of fish once in a while, but my friend is an austere vegetarian who admits that even she can't resist stealing a piece of bacon once in a while. Last week NPR explored bacon as a gateway drug. Why is this the meat that even hardcore meat haters find pleasure in? Scientifically speaking, it may be more our noses than anything else.


According to SHOTS, NPR's health blog, the sizzling, salty, and downright decadent smell of bacon arouses our predatory instincts. Hardcore vegetarians even admit to carnivorous cravings for bacon.


Johan Lundstrom, a scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center says it's more than just the taste that arouses a vegetarian:


There's an intimate connection between odor and emotion, and odor and memory. When you pair that with the social atmosphere of weekend breakfast and hunger, bacon is in the perfect position to take advantage of how the brain is wired.


Lundstrom says that it's bacon's protein makeup and high fat content that swoon us as well. And the intoxicating smell of bacon is what in the end temps our taste buds because 90 percent of what we taste is a food's smell.

Totally agree. The smell does drive me crazy and close to consuming that little small piece of pork.  Damn that smell!.

Farts are Criminal?

Malawi Government Proposes Fart Ban

In Malawi, a new bill in the country is trying to make it against the law to fart in public.


As the BBC is reporting, just whether or not the new bill criminalizes flatulence is being hotly debated among two of the African nation's most senior officials. The Local Courts Bill, to be introduced next week, reads: "Any person who vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the public to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighbourhood or passing along a public way shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."


Justice Minister George Chaponda certainly believes passing gas should be included among the various offenses. "Just go to the toilet when you feel like farting," he told local radio, before noting that local chiefs would deal with any offenders. According to the Afrik News site, the bill will also attempt to deal with citizens who hinder the burial of dead bodies as well as people who pretend to be fortune tellers.


Solicitor General Anthony Kamanga begged to differ, arguing that the "fouling the air" reference only directly meant air pollution. "How any reasonable or sensible person can construe the provision to criminalizing farting in public is beyond me," he said. Another Malawian is quoted as saying, ""How can this government criminalize the release of intestinal gases ... Everyone does that, even if it's in public or it has an accompanying sound which is boring, making it criminal is a joke of democracy."

This article is not a joke - though will lead to many. Letterman, Stewart and Conan will have a field day with this one!

Contact him now

FNL seeks CCDN for fun and good times

ENVIRONMENT/TODAY: Global Warming Causing More Snow? Come Again? -- FoxNews.com Deadline: Feb 01, 2011 11:00 PM EST
Former Vice President Al Gore told Bill O'Reilly that: "A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species." We need comments from someone who can point out the ridiculousness of his argument, even if you accept the somewhat-implausible argument. I've been assigned this story just now by Fox News in New York for the science and technology desk. I'm looking for comments. Please send comments via e-mail. Please send your name, title and company you represent. Please send comments by 10 p.m. CST. Contact: Gene Koprowski, [redacted]

Come on. Gene is lonely. Can someone please help him out?
For the uninitiated: FNL=Fox News Lunatic, CCDN=Climate Change Denier Nut.

Love this video

Big Green from Quiet Life on Vimeo.

Who's next?

Peak Oil & Poverty - More Background on the Egyptian Popular Uprising

Another turn in the back story of why the Egyptian people have taken to the streets to oust 30-year dictator Hosni Mubarak: Peak oil--well, nationally peak oil at least. A new article in Le Monde Diplomatique by Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed sheds light on how, in addition to food insecurity and political repression, the decline of Egypt's domestic oil reserves have played a powerful supporting role in this drama:


This quote sums it all up well (and not so incidentally applies in the bigger picture to many more nations on the planet as oil peaks across more of the world):
Egypt is particularly vulnerable. Its oil production peaked in 1996, and since then has declined by around 26 per cent. Since the 1960s, Egypt has moved from complete food self-sufficiency to excessive dependence on imports, subsidized by oil revenues. But as Egypt's oil revenues have steadily declined due to increasing domestic consumption of steadily declining oil, so have food subsidies, leading to surging food prices. Simultaneously, Egypt's debt levels are horrendous - about 80.5 percent of its GDP, far higher than most other countries in the region. Inequality is also high, intensifying over the last decade in the wake of neoliberal 'structural adjustment' reforms - widely implemented throughout the region since the 1980s with debilitating effects, including contraction of social welfare, reduction of wages, and lack of infrastructure investment. Consequently, today forty per cent of Egyptians live below the UN poverty line of less than £2 a day.
Due to such vulnerabilities, Egypt, as with many of the MENA countries, now lies on the fault-lines of the convergence of global ecological, energy and economic crises - and thus, on the frontlines of deepening global system failure. The Empire is uncrumbling. The guarded official statements put out by the Obama administration only illustrate the disingenuous impotence of the U.S. position.


It may not seem on the surface of it all that the revolution sweeping the Middle East in the past few weeks only has a tangental green connection, but if you look just beneath the surface--as more people are beginning to do--that connection is right there.

It's more than "democracy" and "liberty" - it is life and equality. So which nation is next? Which continent?  Too many are inb the same boat as Egypt.

Yummy?

Meat grown in lab

 In a small laboratory on an upper floor of the basic science building at the Medical University of South Carolina, Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., has been working for a decade to grow meat.

A developmental biologist and tissue engineer, Dr. Mironov, 56, is one of only a few scientists worldwide involved in bioengineering "cultured" meat.

It's a product he believes could help solve future global food crises resulting from shrinking amounts of land available for growing meat the old-fashioned way ... on the hoof.

Growth of "in-vitro" or cultured meat is also under way in the Netherlands, Mironov told Reuters in an interview, but in the United States, it is science in search of funding and demand.

Sounds like something out of Margaret Atwood's novels.
Yummy - I don't think so.

Gore versus O'Reilly

An Answer for Bill O'Reilly

Last week on his show Bill O'Reilly asked, "Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?" and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.


As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming. Here's Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune:


"In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow."


"A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species."

Gore drives, he scores!!!!!