The Lorax R Us

Cover of The Lorax (Classic Seuss)Arbor Day 2011: Are We Living Out 'The Lorax'?

Every minute, we lose 36 football fields-worth of forests. Are we living out Dr. Seuss’s environmental fable, “The Lorax”?


WWF recently released their 2011 “Living Forests” report. Based on data showing that over 230 million hectares of forest could disappear by 2050, the report proposes a universal goal of “zero net deforestation and forest degradation” (ZNDD).


The report states that we are exceeding Earth’s biocapacity by 50 percent. Human demand is “overshooting” the planet’s ability to produce renewable resources and absorb CO2. At our current rate of resource use, we will need two planets to live on by 2030.

Unless...

What Rush wants...

Limbaugh tells Boehner to flip-flop and “defend Big Oil” — and the House Speaker does

When Rush Limbaugh says “jump,” the Speaker of the House apparently says, “Can I do a flip, too?” John Boehner courageously supported ending taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil for 12 hours, as CP noted yesterday.


Obviously Boehner heard from Big Oil about his claim that oil companies are “not paying their fair share.” But Think Progress has the story of someone else Boehner heard from:




As the White House and Democratic lawmakers congratulate Boehner on having “seen the light,” right-wing mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh is choking on Boehner’s betrayal. Aghast that Boehner failed to defend Big Oil’s slick situation, Limbaugh said that, were he a Republican political leader, “I would defend Big Oil“

Amazing that a nut like Rush can have this type of power.  This situation is one that should make Boehner cry is eyes out.

Oh no!!! More Ideas

More ideas for my garden.  Fava here I come...

Quirky, Perhaps, But Easy to Grow (and Fun to Eat)

I recommend the fava bean for home gardens because it's versatile, hearty, and produces a high yield. With nutty, creamy, and slightly sweet flavors, the bean can be grilled, roasted, or slow-cooked and complements a wide variety of cuisines. Plant it in early spring, after the last frost, in soil rich with organic nutrients.

The fava bean thrives in partial shade, sowed about a half-inch deep and four inches apart, against a wall or trellis. In dry climates, it's crucial to lightly water the plant consistently, as opposed to soaking it at odd intervals. If you harvest the bean when it's young, it's sweeter and more delicate. As the pods grow larger, the beans get an earthier flavor and firmer texture.

Kale for supper?

My kale survived under all the snow and is ready to pick...again.  I have the kale...I have beer...
Easter Beer Kale - Only The Local Will Do

Only way to make this dish is if you or a good friend grow kale two years running. It's best with a local beer that's light on the hops.


The kale you see in the pan above was planted in the spring of 2010, harvested through July - at which point leaf-chewing bugs made it unappetizing - and let to resurrect after the snows of a Pennsylvania winter had melted. This semi-perennial aspect is key: the first pickings off a year old kale plant have none of that peculiar kale off-taste that some dislike and which is most prominent in the heat of summer. No bug holes either.


Wash the leaves. Tear into thirds and place in plan. Add salt and a bunch of olive oil.


Pour half the beer on the Kale and half in your mouth; cover tightly, and cook for maybe 20 minutes - until the glistening green has about faded away. Definitely: stop cooking before it looks like canned spinach or canned kale.


Add more fresh-ground black pepper than a TV cook would advise and let it sit covered, until ready for dinner. Sometimes I add tomato slices half-way through.


Kelly makes kale pesto...

Worth a try.  Always need an excuse to have a brew on a work night.

This makes sense?

USDA Outsources Biotech Crop Evaluation to the GMO Industry

The U.S. is already cultivating 165 million acres of genetically modified crops, up 7 million acres from just two years ago. Modified seeds and large monocultures in general, are monopolizing our nation's agriculture system like never before and crop after crop are deemed "safe" by the USDA. We're headed full speed down a dark, winding road and it seems we're driving blindfolded. And most recently, according to a story on Grist, the USDA is starting a new program which will outsource environmental impact statements on biotech crops to the GMO industry. Obviously, biotech companies are thrilled with the idea.


Once the industry conducts its own crop environmental impact statements, which will no doubt paint a glowing picture of each Round Up Ready gem, it will present the assessment to the USDA in the hopes that they will approve the assessment.

Can you say "fox guarding the henhouse?"

Why would this happen? Come on do you really have to ask - it's all about cash in the pocket.

As said before - we consumers will never win as long as the lobbyists and CEOs are in control of our nation.

Happy day

For those celebrating tomorrow - I found this and thought it appropriate.

Green Jesus

Earth Day is Every Day

Crazy train runs on coal

Joe ‘I am not a doctor’ Barton denies any “medical negative” for mercury, smog, and soot pollution

At a congressional hearing on Friday designed to lay the groundwork for an effort to delay critical EPA toxic pollution standards, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) claimed that reducing emissions of toxic mercury, sulfur dioxide and soot would not bring health benefits. Though conceding he is “not a medical doctor,” Barton offered the “hypothesis” that EPA estimates of the benefits of its proposed air toxics rule are “pulled out of the thin air” because there is no “medical negative” to the pollution:


To actually cause poisoning or a premature death you have to get a large concentration of mercury into the body. I’m not a medical doctor, but my hypothesis is that’s not going to happen! You’re not going to get enough mercury exposure or SO2 exposure or even particulate matter exposure! I think the EPA numbers are pulled out of the thin air!


Barton denied decades of science and the experience of anyone who has ever lived downwind of a polluting facility, noting the factory and plant owners on the panel didn’t know of any workers inside their plants that have gotten sick from the pollution.


“I guess he forgot that the people most in risk of getting poisoned — babies — don’t work in factories,” Clean Air Watch’s Frank O’Donnell responded. “This is pretty appalling stuff, since Barton and colleagues will probably soon be voting on legislation to delay toxic pollution cleanup.”

Please don't play politics with our health and lives!

Youth assassins

Glenn Beck Attacks Powershift, Youth Movement Calling for Clean Energy

Was there ever a man who was wrong more often about more stuff than Glenn Beck? I know history has its share of demagogues, but Beck is certain to go down as one of the most profoundly prolific. Yesterday, he revived an old meme that conservative politicians love to lob around -- that the green movement is trying to indoctrinate your children! Trying to turn them against you! Even, as Beck exclaims in the video above, trying to get them to kill you! His target? Powershift, the event that gathers thousands of young climate and clean energy leaders from around the nation.


That's the tenuous link Beck tries to draw between the radical movements of the 60s, including the Weather Underground from which he draws his quote, and the extraordinarily peaceful gathering of college students and community leaders at Powershift.

I knew2 it. Powershift assassins! Stay away from me all who went to DC this past weekend!  Glenn wouldn't lie!

Too much power and bucks

Badass Electric Motorcycle Gets 185 Miles on a Charge

The Sora is a new electric motorcycle by Lito Green Motion, a Canadian company. It looks fairly badass and thanks to its 12 kWh advanced lithium-polymer batteries, it has an electric range of 300 kilometers (185 miles) and a top speed of 200 kph (124 mph).

If I wasn't so scared of speed and so cheap (can't afford a $40k plus bike) i would love to have this to get to work. Wind hitting my face, bugs getting in my teeth - on second thought....

Jesus and Gaia - the same?

Love this from James Howard Kunstler:

A more primitive radar would conclude that the planet Earth is angrier than usual this year. Japan is still in a radioactive daze from the seventeen inch shove it suffered and lots of people in Carolina are surely shaking their heads over this weekend's visitation of wrath. Is it possible that climate change and Jesus are one and the same? Let them figure that out in the little cinderblock roadside chapels next Sunday before they all trundle over to the Nascar track.

Grapefruit and bugs

Repelling Bugs With The Essence Of Grapefruit

"People really dislike a lot of the repellents available now," Dolan says. "They don't like the odor they have, they don't like the greasy feel they give. And a lot of people are just concerned about putting man-made chemicals on their skin."


That's why the CDC is pushing hard to develop a completely natural insect repellent made from a chemical called nootkatone, which is found in Alaska yellow cedar trees and citrus fruit.


Dolan says nootkatone "is nongreasy, dries very quickly, and it has a very pleasant, citrus-y grapefruit odor to it."


He recently demonstrated its effectiveness as a mosquito repellent, rubbing some on his hand and then sticking it into a cage containing 50 hungry mosquitoes. When he holds the treated hand near mosquitoes, they try to get away in the opposite direction as fast as they can.


Even after five minutes, Dolan has no bites on his nootkatone-treated hand.


Nootkatone is also effective against ticks, and scientists think it will work against bed bugs, head lice and other insects, too.


Moreover, nootkatone is so nontoxic you could drink it. In fact, it's already an approved food additive, officially classed as "Generally Considered Safe." It's also a natural ingredient in some foods.


"If you've had a grapefruit, you've consumed some nootkatone," Dolan says, "or drank a Squirt, for instance."

Hmmmm. Grapefruit and vodka?
I guess rather than compost the grapefruit skins I'll rub on my skin - see if it works.

Call to action

Tim DeChristopher Calls for More Civil Disobedience in Climate Fight

Tim DeChristopher committed one of the most famous acts of climate activism in the nation: by bidding on a parcel of land that oil and gas companies were keen to snap up during a midnight hour auction put on by the Bush administration (and of course, being entirely unable to pay for it), he inspired the fledgling, next generation green movement to fight back. DeChristopher gave the final keynote speech at Powershift, an event that draws 10,000 green activists from across the nation to Washington DC. In his speech, DeChristopher implored the attendees, mostly young students and organizers, to move beyond campus activism and to engage in more direct civil disobedience.


And his plan is certainly a bold one -- to send waves of activists to mountaintop removal mines, day after day, in order to shut down their operations and force the government's hand on the issue -- and it very well may appeal to an anxious group of students who are growing frustrated with the inert political climate in Washington...

He's baaack!

Van Jones at Powershift: "We Can't Afford for Poor People Not to Have Solar Panels"

Van Jones is one of the most exciting and effective green leaders in the nation -- and it's precisely because his message, that fighting for clean energy, social justice, and job growth is best done in unison, stands to rouse wide swathes of the nation to the cause. He's already made a powerful impact, first by working to bring good jobs to neglected urban areas, then by penning a bestselling book on the green collar economy, and finally, by joining the Obama administration as its green jobs adviser. Of course, someone with such an effective, powerful message was bound to stir the ire of corporatist conservatives, who lead a smear campaign that ended in his ouster from the White House. Since then, Jones has laid low. So it raised some optimistic eyebrows when he was given billing as a keynote speaker at this year's Powershift (a gathering of 10,000 students and young leaders in the clean energy movement).


Jones had a few inspiring words for the youth at Powershift. And the first were: "I'm baaaaaaack!"


Jones also made some emphatic calls for the students to reinvigorate activism. One line in particular caused a stir: "if you have a smart phone, you have more computing power than the US government had when it put man on the moon.Stop using them as toys, and start sing them as tools to change American ... You have to make a decision not to wake your turn."

Very glad to see he is back. hey Beck, what do you have to say about Jones' speech?