CSM: On Earth Day, hope for the environment

[whimsicaldeb]

On Earth Day, hope for the environment
By Brad Knickerbocker
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

As the US celebrates Earth Day this Saturday, there is good news to report on the environment for a change.

• Air pollution has decreased 50 percent overall, with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides dropping steadily.

• Lakes in the Northeast are recovering from their earlier dousing with acid rain.

• Endangered species, including bald eagles, wolves, and grizzly bears, have rebounded.

• Cars no longer burn leaded gasoline.

• Ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been generally phased out.

It's in sharp contrast to the first Earth Day in 1970 when there were signs of serious trouble.

Back then, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was so polluted it caught fire. The Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., was permanently evacuated when a chemical dump was discovered just below the topsoil. Bald eagles were dwindling toward extinction. And as the EPA administrator Steve Johnson remembered recently, "air pollution was so thick that in some cities people had to change their shirts twice a day."

"The facts speak for themselves," says Steven Hayward, author of the 2006 Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, released last week by the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco and the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "It's impossible to deny the environmental improvements we've made and the certain progress we'll continue to make over time."

Among the indicators included in the report: A steady increase in the percentage of toxic waste superfund sites where contaminated groundwater has been controlled; a large drop in the rate of automobile hydrocarbon emissions; while the number of cars and miles driven has more than doubled since 1970, smog levels have dropped, resulting in far fewer "code red" days in Los Angeles, Washington, and other cities.

In the context of economic and social trends, such improvements may be more impressive.

Between 1970 and 2004, total emissions of the six major air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and lead) dropped by 54 percent at the same time that the US population grew 40 percent, energy consumption increased 47 percent, and gross domestic product increased 187 percent, according to the EPA.

Though environmental activists spend most of their time hammering politicians and bureaucrats over the problems, they agree that progress has been made since that first Earth Day.

"Thanks to strong safeguards, which were generally won after tooth-and-nail battles, we've made some real strides on basic clean air and clean water," says Jon Coifman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. "Rivers aren't catching fire anymore, and you can see the sky in Los Angeles."

But all is not sweetness and light from environmentalists' point of view. "Growth and sprawl are working against the positive trends," says Mr. Coifman. "Species are still disappearing, and we're up against the granddaddy of them all in global warming, which if allowed to continue at its current, unprecedented rate, will overwhelm everything else, successes and failures alike."

Still, important legislation passed after that first Earth Day - the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others - have positively impacted the environment.

Public knowledge and attitudes regarding the environment have also changed. "EPA has not just changed the way our environment looks, EPA has changed the way we look at our environment," Mr. Johnson said this year, noting his agency's 35th anniversary.

Environmental education is now part of most schools' curricula. All major religions have taken up protecting "God's creation." Public information such as the EPA's annual Toxics Release Inventory lets people know where pollution is in their community and who's responsible for it.

Many businesses have accepted - often welcomed - programs and policies that will clean up their operations, and are good for business and the environment. Many industry leaders grew up when Earth Day was a new idea, and they've shaped their approach to manufacturing, distribution, and waste disposal, accordingly.

Since 1970, there is a much larger human "footprint" on the environment. The US population has grown by more than 95 million people. The rate of economic output per unit of pollution or energy consumption has increased steadily. Human activities in the US still result in some 140 million tons of the six major air pollutants being emitted every year.

"It's true that human beings cause lots of environmental problems, but we're a creative species," says Hayward. "And when we put our minds to it we're pretty good at figuring out ways to remediate some of the environmental damage we do, protect species, protect land, reduce pollution, and so forth."

Source:
http://search.csmonitor.com/2006/0421/p ... .html?s=u2

[Diana Moon Glampers]

Environmental education is now part of most schools' curricula. All major religions have taken up protecting "God's creation." Public information such as the EPA's annual Toxics Release Inventory lets people know where pollution is in their community and who's responsible for it.

There is my best hope. I watched Water Planet on PBS the other night. It cheered me up immensely.

MTBE's something new to replace leaded gas nasty stuff I been pretty intereseted in watching the story unfold over the past couple years.The Bushco wants to cut the oil companies a sweet heart deal on the clean up. Taxpayer bail out.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 162760.DTL

But no doubt things are better now.

except For The World's largest city
http://www.studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6772

[whimsicaldeb]

I'm partical to biodiesel myself ...
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/biodiesel_basics/

excerpts...

What is biodiesel?

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

How is biodiesel made?

Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products -- methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerin (a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products).

Why should I use biodiesel?

Biodiesel is better for the environment because it is made from renewable resources and has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel. It is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar. Since it is made in the USA from renewable resources such as soybeans, its use decreases our dependence on foreign oil and contributes to our own economy.

[stilltrucking]

I am for the abolition of the infernal combustion engine. Why dont people stay in one place anymore. I say eat more gorgonzo beans we need the gas. I think the Inca's were right.

I bet you biodiesel going to take its toll. Renewables like corn? Well we need the corn for the red meat. No there I go again being smart ass.

I think the only cars on the road should be on a NASCAR track.

there I go again



to0 whimsical today deb. yeah there has got to be another way, who knows, solar cells become so effiecient maybe electric cars someday?

Some kid on water world about 12 I think raised a million bucks to provide clean drinking water for people in a fourth world country.

[whimsicaldeb]

also ... for those interested, this article from Feb 06 Discovery mag is very good...

http://www.discover.com/issues/feb-06/f ... er/?page=1

The Energizer
Amory Lovins has a vision: The U.S. economy keeps going and going and going—without any oil
By Cal Fussman
Photography by Ben Stechschulte
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 02 | February 2006 | Environment

AMORY LOVINS is a physicist, economist, inventor, automobile designer, consultant to 18 heads of state, author of 29 books, and cofounder of Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank. most of all, he's a man who takes pride in saving energy. The electricity bill at his 4,000-square-foot home in Old Snowmass, Colorado, is five dollars a month, and he's convinced he can do the same for all of us. his book winning the oil endgame shows how the united states can save as much oil as it gets from the persian gulf by 2015 and how all oil imports can be eliminated by 2040. And that's just for starters.

As told to Cal Fussman

When I give talks about energy, the audience already knows about the problems. That's not what they've come to hear. So I don't talk about problems, only solutions. But after a while, during the question period, someone in the back will get up and give a long riff about all the bad things that are happening—most of which are basically true. There's only one way I've found to deal with that. After this person calms down, I gently ask whether feeling that way makes him more effective.

As René Dubos, the famous biologist, once said, "Despair is a sin."

Continue...

[stilltrucking]

I am interested deb honest I am. I would never discourage a child. As I said this generation is not going to change with out a catastophe. Except for a few enlightened beings who I hope will stick around to teach the young. But I believe in despair. For some twisted men like me it is our only hope. sinners that we are

yep I am interested all right, I heard some one say their are no problems only solutions.



-

[whimsicaldeb]

I am interested deb honest I am. I would never discourage a child. As I said this generation is not going to change with out a catastophe....

Well, first ST ~ my postings aren't just for you. In fact - they are for everyone - and no one at all. Please don't feel you need to feign interest, or reply, for my benefit -- it's not necessary.

Second - I'm not a child, nor am I childish. Nor are these ideas.

Speaking of “this generation” …

"This generation" that you’re referencing to is our generation (you’re my age – ST) ~ and contrary to our selfish egos; we are not the only generation. Things did not all “begin” with us – thus things will not “end” all with us either.

Furthermore ... we are passing away – we’ve begun our passing... as it should be. It’s time.

And thank god, because as you said - many of "our" generation have created this self fulfilling prophecy of "unless we have a catastophe - we will not change" – and that way of thinking and being is not only a total ego trip ~ it’s abusive to all the generations coming up behind us.

Like the Chambers Brothers said in their song “Time has come today” ~ “… but I’ve had my fun!”

Our generation has done much, but it's done so selfishly.

The best thing I’ve seen in this world, is how the generations after us are NOT thinking as we are … they do not hold this same mindset and resistance to/about/or for change – having to do so "Only" from a crisis. Nor are they afraid - or so jaded - that they can't look at things as they really are - and still see a way through.

And while they may, from time to time, take the time to listening to us “old people” whine about all the woes in the world … they don't stay long for they are much to busy getting on with life. Moving on – moving ahead.

Their time has now come today; and thankfully - and due to our errors - they are not as selfish as we are (were) … they are mindful of the true cost of having ‘fun’ without regard to consequences.

Because of our ways … they already know, are wise too/about (and ahead of) those that either can’t or refuse to change, and continue cling to old ways – old excuses – and a hurtful need to create a crises to ‘make them’ … people such as Bush and those like him. And because they can see the pitfal in the path ... they don't (aren't) making the same mistakes. Instead ... they will have their own.

That's why ST – I hope your are not implying that people with a positive forward view are being ‘childish’ because all your woes postings are not discouraging to them .. But only to yourself. Which was what Lovins understood when he quoted René Dubos "Despair is a sin.” He understands that despair is a method for creating catastophes.

Luckily ...
Not everyone is like ‘our generation’ ST – not everyone has to learn “the hard way" via catastophe.

[stilltrucking]

I understand.

[whimsicaldeb]

Good!

[stilltrucking]

Well, maybe. A lot of people in the world, they are all going to want freedom, dignity, and a car.

The proposal would give makers of MTBE, which has been found to contaminate drinking water supplies in at least 36 states, protection against product liability lawsuits brought by communities facing billions of dollars in cleanup costs.

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/ ... 34442.html

MTBE was going to solve the problem; I think it was California that got the ball started on that. It was added to oxygenate gasoline, make it burn cleaner. It is a bitch when solutions turn out to be problems. I know nothing about bio diesel, but if it is good enough for Willie Nelson it is good enough for me. From contrails of jet plans to car and truck exhaust, it looks pretty grim to me.

I look at the newspaper and half of it is devoted to automobile advertisements. In the short run biodiesel is a good thing. In the long run just too many got dam cars. You think I am joking and I am as serious as a fart in a space suit. Mocking you was the last thing on my mind. (Sarcasm is a birth defect of mine, unconscious sin) The catastrophe may be the best thing we got going for us. An economic catastrophe. Hopefully not a climatic one. We got a lot of new car buyers coming on line in China and India. Hydrocarbon man must die. Evolution has marked him for extinction one way or another.

No way we are going to get away from the internal combustion engine anytime soon. What ever helps alleviate the harm done is good. But there is always going to be something coming out the tail pipe that is going to screw up the atmosphere. Sooner or later we will find a better way.

[stilltrucking]

We clean up the exhaust and we constantly add more cars. One gain cancels the other.

TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: April 18, 2006


Dimming the Sun homepage

"Dimming the Sun" investigates the discovery that the sunlight reaching Earth has been growing dimmer, which may seem surprising given all the international concern over global warming. At first glance, less sunlight might hardly seem to matter when our planet is stewing in greenhouse gases. But the discovery of global dimming has led several scientists to revise their models of the climate and how fast it's changing. According to one recent and highly controversial model, the worst-case warming scenario could be worse than anyone has predicted. "Dimming the Sun" unravels this baffling climate conundrum and the implications for Earth's future.

To find out what global dimming means for the fate of the planet, NOVA reports on the findings of the world's top climate detectives, including an American scientist who found a grim but crucial opportunity immediately following September 11, 2001, when the entire U.S. airline fleet was grounded for three days. This presented a unique opportunity to study the effects of airplane vapor trails on the atmosphere (see The Contrail Effect). Comparing changes in the daily temperature range showed that the absence of dimming from aircraft pollution alone made a marked difference to the temperature. This result hints at how much the effects of atmospheric pollution had been underestimated.

Working in Israel, Dr. Gerald Stanhill was one of the first to discover the surprising fact that less solar energy is reaching the Earth's surface. While his measurements were met with skepticism, a review of worldwide data by Stanhill and a German researcher demonstrated that during the 1980s and early '90s, sunlight reaching Earth's surface had dropped just about everywhere. Halfway around the world, independent studies by Australian scientists confirmed this disturbing diagnosis. (For more, see Discoveries in Global Dimming.)

Scientists have long known that increasing air pollution—the smog that clouds urban skies—endangers our respiratory health. But they had underestimated the impact of pollution on the amount of sunlight reaching Earth. Some scientists now believe that global dimming may also disturb rainfall patterns such as the Asian monsoon. If they are right, global dimming may be one of many factors that contributed to severe droughts and famines in Africa during the 1980s

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/about.html

[Dave The Dov]

Let's remember Gaylord Nelson founder of Earth Day who was from my home state of Wisconsin and then let's see how we as a planet see Earth Day and what it means to us!!!!
_________________
tv episode recaps

[stilltrucking]

More power to him. As bad as it is, I shudder to think how much worse it could have been with out the movement he started.

[whimsicaldeb]

Here's another working part of the solutions, another part of the answer ... Thermal Conversion

http://www.discover.com/issues/apr-06/f ... il/?page=1

Anything Into Oil
Turkey guts, junked car parts, and even raw sewage go in one end of this plant, and black gold comes out the other end
By Brad Lemley
Photography by Dean Kaufman
DISCOVER Vol. 27 No. 04 | April 2006 | Technology

The smell is a mélange of midsummer corpse with fried-liver overtones and a distinct fecal note. It comes from the worst stuff in the world—turkey slaughterhouse waste. Rotting heads, gnarled feet, slimy intestines, and lungs swollen with putrid gases have been trucked here from a local Butterball packager and dumped into an 80-foot-long hopper with a sickening glorp. In about 20 minutes, the awful mess disappears into the workings of the thermal conversion process plant in Carthage, Missouri.

Two hours later a much cleaner truck—an oil carrier—pulls up to the other end of the plant, and the driver attaches a hose to the truck's intake valve. One hundred fifty barrels of fuel oil, worth $12,600 wholesale, gush into the truck, headed for an oil company that will blend it with heavier fossil-fuel oils to upgrade the stock. Three tanker trucks arrive here on peak production days, loading up with 500 barrels of oil made from 270 tons of turkey guts and 20 tons of pig fat. Most of what cannot be converted into fuel oil becomes high-grade fertilizer; the rest is water clean enough to discharge into a municipal wastewater system.

For Brian Appel—and, maybe, for an energy-hungry world—it's a dream come true, better than turning straw into gold. The thermal conversion process can take material more plentiful and troublesome than straw—slaughterhouse waste, municipal sewage, old tires, mixed plastics, virtually all the wretched detritus of modern life—and make it something the world needs much more than gold: high-quality oil.

Continue ...

~~~end excerpt

Thermal conversion ...

Another great technology that helps everything, is holistic - meaning it's doesn't just look at and work on a single issue, but works on many, all interrelated issues at the same time. Which was the missing element when we first began our technology. Thermal conversion took ten years and many tweaks to get started … but it is now up and running proving itself as resourceful as it was envisioned.

In addition, each/all of these programs are addressing the issue and offering solutions – jobs – for our closing auto/steel factories and out of work employees and the towns and peoples that come from/for those factories.

We don’t have to wring our hands and cry “what will do, what can we do” … the answers are here – and furthermore – they work.

What we have to do is keep them going, improvements while facing down the naysayers, all the various Pombo’s of this world as we face all the various issues: http://www.truthout.org/environment.shtml

And we are …
this is a continued work in progress. A never ending work in progress. And my posting was about showing our progress so far. That’s why I love Lovins approach …

When I give talks about energy, the audience already knows about the problems. That's not what they've come to hear. So I don't talk about problems, only solutions. But after a while, during the question period, someone in the back will get up and give a long riff about all the bad things that are happening—most of which are basically true. There's only one way I've found to deal with that. After this person calms down, I gently ask whether feeling that way makes him more effective.

Effectiveness is the measure of truth … and these process are not polly-anna, or childish solutions. They are the real deal... showing there truth, their true value by their effectiveness; and not just in one area (oil) – but in many.

These are working holistic solutions, in action. You could say, these are the answers to our concerns, worries, hard work and prayers.

[whimsicaldeb]

Well, maybe. A lot of people in the world, they are all going to want freedom, dignity, and a car. --ST

ST, if you were actually reading these articles you'd see that your concern is actually a 'non' issue. It's not about "giving up our freedom, dignity, and cars."

Read the article, don't just scan them ... see for yourself. It's not about giving things and going backwards, it's about moving forward and using what we have more effectively ~ for every things/ones benefit.

excerpt: http://www.discover.com/issues/feb-06/f ... er/?page=1

...the energy problem was generally considered to be: Where do we get more energy? People were preoccupied with where we could get more energy of any kind, from any sources, for any price—as if all our needs were the same. I started instead at the other end of the problem: What do we want the energy for?

You don't generally want lumps of coal or barrels of sticky black goo. You want comfort, illumination, mobility, baked bread, and so on. And for each of these end uses we should ask: How much energy, of what quality, at what scale, from what source will do the job in the cheapest way? That's now called the end-use/least-cost approach, and a lot of the work we do at Rocky Mountain Institute involves applying it to a wide range of situations.