Midwestern Towns Sue Manufacturer of Weedkiller

Fifteen Midwest towns and cities have filed suit against the manufacturer of Atrazine a chemical that is used on cornfields. Despite being banned by the European Union years ago tens of millions of pounds are used in the US every year on corn and other crops.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois by 16 cities in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, and Iowa. The communities allege that Swiss corporation Syngenta AG and its Delaware counterpart Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. reaped billions of dollars from the sale of atrazine while local taxpayers were left with the financial burden of filtering the chemical from drinking water."

The EPA won't restrict it's use.
"In America, though, farmers continue to spray the weed-killer heavily on corn, sugarcane and other crops throughout the country. As a result, some portion of the more than 60 million pounds of atrazine applied annually makes its way into streams, rivers, lakes and drinking water supplies. The problem is at its worst in the spring, when atrazine is applied most heavily, then washed by rain into waterways."

This is a classic example of the true cost not being reflected. Cheap corn is not cheap. If companies had to pay the cost of what they pump into the environment corn would need to be even more subsidized more than it already is.
We give the subsidies and pay to clean up their mess. What do you think the true cost of those one dollar McDonald’s hamburgers is?

Helping Giant Salamanders

This is a must see video. It is how Japan is helping the Giant Salamander navigate thru man-made structures such as damns, locks, and resevoirs by altering their construction. Something we should take inspiration from.

Talk Me Down.

As I was discussing in the comment section of another post, I had just watched the new documentary called something like, The Future of Food. It was very good and presented minimal bias while providing a bunch of information I didn't know about... Again, I'd like to credit Netflix for this. I feel like I won the lottery and I get to watch every documentary ever day-in and day-out. I'm sure you may have been frustrated in the past by how elusive they are at video stores.

Anyhow, in the end of the series (3-part documentary), they discussed aquaponics. Here is the definition: The integration of hydroponics (growing plants without soil) and aquaculture (the cultivation of the natural produce of water such as fish or shellfish). So in the documentary they were discussing adding livestock to the mix.

So this is how I took the whole thing. We should set up perfect micro-ecosystems where we grow our food. Micro? Can't we look at the whole planet as one giant aquaponic+animals ecosystem? Like, I was holding my hand on my forehead thru-out the whole thing. I get this would help certain people grow food with better results, but I feel like the entire documentary just missed the larger point. The way they presented the argument is that when you introduce fish to plants they provide nitrates, white yields better crops, which could support healthier animals..... No shit. The next thing you are going to tell me is that you are going to seal it all up and the plants will clean the air and convert the animal expiration back into clean oxygen and there will be no pollution. By all means we should do this where we grow out food, period. What a novel idea. If there were anyway we could use this study to help the planet at large.

One great thing about this documentary that I had never seen before is how we are exporting water with our produce. How much water was taken from the environment that grew your corn, apple, or whatever else. If you look at produce as packaged water it makes sense that our farms are drying up all over the world, especially in the Punjab. Their water table is dropping like a meter a year for over decades. I like the argument they brought up that said we should only eat food grown in our community. They even featured a town in Britain somewhere that is growing vegetables and fruit on city grounds, like downtown, roadside, at schools, in parks and they are aiming at becoming self sufficient in less than 10 years. It was quite inspiring.

Link to the official website. Edit: I just watched the trailer at the website and found out this is a different documentary than the one I watched. This one looks to be about GMO's and legal questions. The one I watched was about environmental science not genetics.

A humpback whale has been found dead in the Thames River. The actual picture can be found thru the link. It had most likely died of starvations. I had recently heard about the Portuguese Man of War being found in a bunch of places it shouldn't be as well. I don't know why exactly but I am getting increasingly more and more worried about global warming as every day passes. I just watched that documentary "The Future of Food." Man, that was upsetting too. Maybe I'll post about that too later, but I likely won't. If you have a Netflix account you should add it to your queue. If you don't have a Netflix account you should look into getting one because you can just click on a movie and stream it there on your computer.... unlimited.

Weird question, but can anyone else tell by looking at a picture of water what the temperature roughly is? It sounds silly, but I just found out it isn't common knowledge. I swam competitively for over 10 years and you can tell a lot about a pool, lake, or ocean by just looking at the surface of the water. I can tell the picture of the whale I posted is in cold water, not off Hawaii. The easiest way to put it into words is the more active or choppy the water is the colder it is, the more it "rolls" the warmer it is - warm water is a lot more smooth (even with waves).

Civilsations: Why They Fail

This is an excellent article from an ezine I receive by the name of "Cosmos." It is a general focus about all forms of science.

This issue features a very interesting article about Civilisations and Why They Fail. This is the first time I have seen validated a position I have held for years: that if we don't good care of and nurture our earth and its natural resources we are doomed to extinction ourselves. I have frequently said that if we can't find the wherewithal to save a few thousand of an endangered species we are doomed to extinction ourselves.

This is an excellent article and I hope you will find something of interest in it to you personally.

www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/print/2735/civilisations-why-they-fail

Questions for Yous Guys

I thought that I'd throw a little accent in there with the "yous guys." As many of you know I've moved in to my parents and I've spent about 3 grand so far making a suitable room for me. I'm used to a high standard of living... Leave me alone, I feel guilty enough as it is. Anyways, I am preparing for a garden next year, a field of wild flowers, and my parents are the biggest waste producers you have ever met. I am starting a binder full of print outs (not green I know) of different things we can do to become more green. I just spent 400 dollars on fucking CFL light bulbs last night, which my mom bitched about. She is afraid my dog will get mercury poisoning. This is what I'm dealing with guys. They are staying or I go, and they loose the house. End of discussion.

My question to you all, since I know Lisa and Kerry (what is your real name hun?) are environmentally aware. I will have specific questions regarding the wildlife here and maybe I'll go into detail with what is around here. I want to know some basic tips you may have though. When my room is done I should have a bunch of left over 2x4s and 2x8s, and I'm going to build a recycling center here, buy a can crusher, and try to get them off bottled water. I strictly use a britta filter and a stainless steel water bottle (I'm petrified of BPA). Can you help figure out how many bins I need? Paper, Plastic (does that need more than one?), Glass, what else? What can't be recycled? Like I think detergent can't be. Also, and this is a big question, anyone have compost piles? I really would like to start one for the garden. I just don't know anything or where to put it. Our property is basically the movie Bambi with an extra shit ton of raccoons. We have a forrest and a super mega massive natural pond nearby. I don't know how to keep them out.

Please be thorough if you can. I would really really really appreciate the help. I am going to do research too, but learning from your friends mistakes is always the best way to learn. So I'd like to start there. Any tips on how to get my parents into it would be great too. My mom is one of those people who will not accept change. Remember the lightbulb story. I will have to sell her like crazy. I just want to start doing some good in this world. When I get past the planning and actually building and practicing, I will keep a photo diary on here. I only have a shitty iPhone, but you'll be able to get the idea.

Unrelated: Farmer's Almanac said we are going to have a fucking freezing winter with mega loads of snow. So if that can be used somehow to green stuff let me know. I know since I started typing this, I am now going to save the saw dust for salt. You can do that right?

I'm also treating video right now that I will then have to upload just for you guys. It is about a company that has built a carbon filter for the air. Their theory is that one day we will have carbon filter farms like the pinwheels outside Palm Springs. You should enjoy it. It is high quality and from Nova Science Now (The Greatest Show on Television).

On a scale of practical to extravegantly expensive, lets keep the top side around moderate please. Unless you know how to grow a money tree. Also ways to make income off of it would be great too. I am also planning a garden, and I want to know what kind of stuff you can grow and can into different stuff that will save money throughout the year. I'm also trying coupons, but that will be another post. I have things I've found I'd like to share with you about coupons later.

Thank you, and please spend some time thinking about this. I really really want to do my part and my parents part in helping save the planet, or at least becoming the model green family in the neighborhood. We are really close with all 10 houses in neighborhood, so they may be able to help or give us stuff to recycle as well. I'm just begging for ideas guys.

Look forward for the video on Carbon Filter Farms later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks yous guys.

Pacific Garbage Patch

Here's some information and a picture of the "floating Pacific Garbage Patch." This has been in the news off and on for a while now.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115481&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

Christian the Lion

Joe posted a video a few days ago about the touching reunion of Christian the Lion with the two men who had raised him from a cub until about one year old. These two men delivered Christian to George Adamson, a conservationist, to Kenya so Christian could grow up in his natural environment (where he belonged) and live a free and wild existence.

Here are some additional links to information/links about this amazing story:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dWzF-vSXQ ß Part I Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec-zUnMPp2s&feature=related <­- Part 2 Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuUagADuK9o&feature=related <- Part 3 Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCjyWp3rEk&NR=1 <- Christian the Lion Documentary End
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU6AjvibF50 <- The Reunion
http://www.vetlocator.com/newsarticles/christian_the_lion.php <-British paper article
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvNlwpK5i44 <- The Final Farewell
http://animal.discovery.com/tv/christian-the-lion/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QubDayYZ4wI&feature=related (Part 1 of 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFJ1qKXaTE&feature=related (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dWzF-vSXQ&feature=related (Part 1 of 2)

Forbes Names Greenest Company of 2009

I'm not kidding.

Electric Cars

This post is kind of shitty because I just rushed to throw this junk together. It still has all the relevant info though. I thought this was common knowledge, but I'm starting to wonder if it really is. There is a company called Tesla Motors based out of California who has been making and selling electric cars. I'm not talking about your EV-1 or anything. These are real cars. Super hot real cars. This is the model that is on the roads now, the Tesla Roadster:

• 244 miles per charge
• 0-60mph in less than 4 seconds
• $110k

They have a new model coming out called the Model S. It's base price is $50k and it is a normal everyday coup, but again this one is electric too. Here is a video of the unveiling of this model:

The country seems to think the Chevy Volt is going to be the answer, but that is a hybrid (still pollutes and wastes oil). It will only go 40 miles without needing gas. We still don't know how far it will actually go, we just need to take GM's word for it. By the way GM already had an electric car that the owners loved called the EV-1 that they killed. This was like 10 years ago. Now tell me why they needed to add a gas tank 10 years after they've already demonstrated that gas was unnecessary and that the technology had a market? 

I wonder how different the country would look if the government didn't give a failing giant billions of dollars and handed it over to these people. What if your stimulus package actually went into investments into the future? Why hasn't this car been all over the news? They've been selling the Roadster for over 3 years now. Matt Damon, Will.i.am, and Jay Leno have them among other people. You'd think that if something this amazing existed we would all know about it. 

Cash for clunkers? How about cash for cars that would save our environment and do EXTREME damage to our dependance on oil? This require NO gas. 

If not now, when?

The US acts as though this issue is something that can be postponed indefinitely. I vividly remember writing my letter to the first president Bush urging him to sign on to the Koyoto Treaty when he was hesitating to even go to negotiations. He went and I was heartened.

I voted for Bill Clinton because he had Al Gore as his vice. Bill got elected and I was hopeful. I don't know what happened to Al while he was in office but during the 90's vehicles kept getting larger and worse gas mileage. Gone was ANY talk of conservation. It was as though the 70's never happened. I know cars aren't the only carbon emitter but I think what happened with them is indicative of the run away energy usage that is going to be the death of us all, if our lack of health insurance doesn't get us first.

I finally got to the point where I realized that most people want to pretend the issue does not exist and politicians are only too happy to oblige. It finally is becoming more of a mainstream topic but is getting drown out by bank bailouts, a crashing ecomony and the heathcare fraud (just sign everyone up for Medicad already). I don't know what the US is waiting for:

BERLIN, Aug 17 (IPS) - The disappointing results of negotiations in Bonn last week are indication that industrialized countries are unwilling to make substantial contributions to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

"If we continue at this rate we're not going to make it," Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48107


All I can say is I am glad I don't have children.

Edit: I don't know why the site is not showing up as a link but can be pasted in your browser.
Still learning......

Second Edit: Thank you Joseph. Link now operational!!

Pandas Face Extinction

There are two endangered species that I have been supporting for years -- whooping cranes and pandas. The great panda is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund. Thousands of years ago pandas were found all over China, however they are now found only in small isolated regions of southwest China and their habitat is becoming smaller all the time.

It is now becoming so small that they may be extinct in the wild within 2 or 3 decades according to this article:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/6041990/Chinas-giant-panda-faces-extinction-in-two-to-three-generations.html

There are estimated to be only about 1,600 wild pandas left now. As usual the most immediate threat to their existence is man and development. At only 1600 left in the wild the gene pool diversity is seriously in danger.It made me so sad when I read this story today. If we, as a species, are unable to find the where with all to be able to save less than 2,000 of an endangered species, what does that say for our ability to save ourselves from extinction?
Endangered Species, Environment, Giant Pandas