Category Archives: climate change

Energy Citizens Protest Rally In Springfield Was The Most Surreal Event I Have Ever Attended

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I could add sick, disgusting, phony and funny to that list but why bother? I can show you how it was by example. But on the 150 aniversery of the first oil well..it is just plain sad. Oil guys used to be such roughnecks now they are kinda wussy.

The 2 most surreal events I had ever been to before was an Alice Cooper concert in 1969 and the Opening of Ticket Sales at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for the English Opera Peter Grimes in Los Angeles in 1984. I know Alice doesn’t need any explanation (it does really), but the opening of ticket sales for an obscure opera?

But first a picture:

catprotest31.JPG

(thanks for the pictures Wes King)

It is in a BALLROOM. I have never been to a protest in one of the ritzyest ballrooms within a 100 miles of Springfield. This is the most senior citizens I have seen at a protest not sponsored by the AARP ever. There is no ethnic diversity in the room. I have been to plenty of protests, some where there were simultaneous counter protests and I have never seen this Caucasion of an audience since my last KKK rally. It is probably tough to see but the 2 black skinned men in the room are a waitstaff member at the bottom of the picture and way off in the distance there is a black camera man for the only news organization I saw that day, Channel 20 TV. Considering the cost of this rally that in itself was bizarre. But back to Alice Cooper.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA-sjSkRM4M&feature=channel

This Alice Cooper concert was when I was 14, and it was my first rock concert ever. It was in Peoria in a place since torn down called the Cow Palace. Which it literally was. A barn like structure with a dirt  floor where they sold cows (and other live stock). It was my 3rd acid trip…my first in public and I was with my fiance’ Denise and some other San Jose (Illinois) crazies. All the lights were on so it was real bright, and all of the sudden the Wedding March starts playing, these flowers POP up on the stage and simultaneously a man in a tux (stage left), a women in a wedding dress (stage right) and a minister (center stage) all walk to the center of the stage. The audience was stunned. The minister performs the wedding complete with “is there anyone here who may object to this union”? Stunned silence. Towards the end of the ceremony Alice Cooper and his band in their full make up started peering through the flowers. At the “kiss the bride” part the room goes to BLACK, the stage lights come on low and giant trash cans come hurtling over the flowers, followed by Alice and the band…In that 2 second period my life changed for ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUFO_04J1r4

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My second most surreal moment could take some set up but I will try to make it as quick as possible. But first another picture of the event:

catprotest4.JPG

I mean really do these people look angry? Do they look passionate about preventing “cap and trade” in the area of carbon production because it has already worked for sulfur? NO these people look like people at the Republican Convention in Minnesota last year.

Anyway in 1984 I lived in Las Vegas with a woman who celebrated her 30 birthday. I had patiently gone to the Lyric Opera in Chicago for 2 seasons with her. Then I said enough! I am not going to another Opera unless it is in English and I was off the hook for a couple of years. BUT someone (probably her sister) told her that Peter Grimes was playing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA.  Yes the same place where the Academy  Awards are occasionally given out. So we got a room in a South Central L.A., yes the place that burned down in the riots which was surreal enough as it was. We went for a driving tour of the LA area (Hollywood, Venice Beach, Malibu) and then we had Oriental Food downtown someplace. The next day we had to go pick up our tickets at the Pavilion. Yes I know that seems quaint now but you had to physically pick up your tickets. While we were waiting in this 500 person line we were subjected to a surprise Japanese Performance Art piece.

http://www.musiccenter.org/

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/japan/pro-performing_arts.htm

http://outwestarts.blogspot.com/2008/03/attend-tale-of-peter-grimes.html

Nobody was looking up so I have no idea how it started, but suddenly you hear a huge horn sound…like a foghorn or something real deep and loud. I looked up and there on top of the Pavilion (4 stories maybe) was a long robed Japanese figure in an elongated paper masked, flanked on each side by 2 naked guys in diapers. He blew on this big horn again. It was about 8 ft. long and rested on the ground like an Alp Horn:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070905040636AAXDrTt

Then these 4 nearly naked Japanese guys rappelled down the front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Australian style to some really weird Japanese music played through the Pavilion’s very small very tinny outdoor speakers:

swatman6.tripod.com/srt1.html

This rapel took forever. When they landed in front of us they did some short welcoming ritual (I am guessing). The guy on the roof blew the horn again. These naked guys jumped up and down once, turned and ran to the entrance way. They threw open the doors and ran inside the building and the guy on the roof was gone. People were so stunned nobody actually went through the door. Then people started clapping and several brave soldiers advanced into the que.

So there you have it. What I witnessed at the Energy Citizens protest rally yesterday was somewhere between an Alice Cooper Concert and a Japanese Performance Art piece on my surreal scale. WHOA

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Happy Birthday To Oil, Happy Birthday To Oil, Happy Birthday To OOOOOOil

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Happy birthday to you…You belooooong in a zoo. Actually you made Zoos absolutely necessary as ARKS for the species that our use of oil has driven either to extinction or near extinction.

 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/oilat150/

Wired Science News for Your Neurons

Happy 150th, Oil! So Long, and Thanks for Modern Civilization

 

  • By Alexis Madrigal Email Author
  • August 27, 2009  |
  • 2:39 pm  |
  • Categories: Energy

shootingthewell

One hundred and fifty years ago on Aug. 27, Colonel Edwin L. Drake sunk the very first commercial well that produced flowing petroleum.

The discovery that large amounts of oil could be found underground marked the beginning of a time during which this convenient fossil fuel became America’s dominant energy source.

But what began 150 years ago won’t last another 150 years — or even another 50. The era of cheap oil is ending, and with another energy transition upon us, we’ve got to scavenge all the lessons we can from its remarkable history.

“I would see this as less of an anniversary to note for celebration and more of an anniversary to note how far we’ve come and the serious moment that we’re at right now,” said Brian Black, an energy historian at Pennsylvania State University and and author of the book Petrolia. “Energy transitions happen and I argue that we’re in one right now and that we need to aggressively look to the future to what’s going to happen after petroleum.”

When Drake and others sunk their wells, there were no cars, no plastics, no chemical industry. Water power was the dominant industrial energy source. Steam engines burning coal were on the rise, but the nation’s energy system — unlike Great Britain’s — still used fossil fuels sparingly. The original role for oil was as an illuminant, not a motor fuel, which would come decades later.

Before the 1860s, petroleum was a well-known curiosity. People collected it with blankets or skimmed it off naturally occurring oil seeps. Occasionally they drank some of it as a medicine or rubbed it on aching joints.

Some people had the bright idea of distilling it to make fuel for lamps, but it was easier to get lamp fuel from pig fat or whale oil or converted coal. Without a steady supply, there was no point in developing a whole system and infrastructure dedicated to petroleum.

Nonetheless, some Yankee capitalists from Connecticut were convinced that oil could be found in the ground and exploited. They recruited “Colonel” Edwin Drake, who was not a Colonel at all, mostly because he was charming and unemployed. He, in turn, found someone skilled in the art of drilling, or what passed for it in those days.

Drake and his sidekick “Uncle Billy” Smith started looking underground for oil in the spring of ‘59. They used a heavy metal tip attached to a rope, sending it plummeting down the borehole like a ram to break up the rock. It was slow going.

On Aug. 27, 1859, at 69 feet of depth, Drake and Smith hit oil. It was a big deal, but the Civil War stalled the immediate development of the rock oil industry.

“When the discovery happened, the few people who were there and not involved in the war, went around and bought all the property they could and had outside investors come in,” Black said. “But the real heyday of the development happened from 1864-1870. It’s that 11-year period when the little river valley was the world’s leading supplier of oil.”

derrickforest

The “little river valley” in western Pennsylvania earned the nickname Petrolia. Centered in the Oil Creek valley about one hundred miles north of Pittsburgh, the wells of Pithole, Titusville and Oil City pumped 56 million barrels of oil out of the ground from 1859 to 1873.

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Though there is some question about whether it was the first well in the world or even in the US:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=whither-the-oil-age-150-years-of-bl-2009-08-27 

And let's get the record straight. The Drake well was not
the first oil well in the U.S. Historical geologic research data
my father paid for circa 1979 pegged a well outside Oneida Tenn.
as the first producing oil well in the U.S. It preceeded the
Drake Well by a couple of decades or more (I believe the well
was struck around 1819 but I am going from memory as I read the survey
a long time ago). Unfortunately it was deep in mountainous terrain
making it nearly impossible to commercialize. Plus there wasn't
much of a use for oil yet. The well was accidental - they were actually
after water. The survey mentioned the Drake well as being considered
the first viable commerical well. But the Drake well definitely was
not the first oil well in the U.S. Dad commissioned the survey because
of a good oil producing lease on the mountain that over looks
Huntsville Tenn. In fact, the land was leased from Bobby York - one of
the grandsons of Alvin York. Yes, that Alvin York, a.k.a. "Seargent York"
 of WWI fame.

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Even then there were people who thought that the mass consumption of oil would cause big problems:

http://www.enotes.com/earth-science/arrhenius-svante-august

Arrhenius, Svante August (1859-1927)

Swedish chemist

Svante August Arrhenius was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his research on the theory of electrolytic dissociation, a theory that had won the lowest possible passing grade for his Ph.D. two decades earlier. Arrhenius’s work with chemistry was often closely tied to the science of physics, so much so that the Nobel committee was not sure in which of the two fields to make the 1903 award. In fact, Arrhenius is regarded as one of the founders of physical chemistry—the field of science in which physical laws are used to explain chemical phenomena. In the last decades of his life Arrhenius became interested in theories of the origin of life on Earth, arguing that life had arrived on our planet by means of spores blown through space from other inhabited worlds. He was also one of the first scientists to study the heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in a phenomenon now known as the greenhouse effect.

Arrhenius was born on February 19, 1859, in Vik (also known as Wik or Wijk), in the district of Kalmar, Sweden. His mother was the former Carolina Thunberg, and his father was Svante Gustaf Arrhenius, a land surveyor and overseer at the castle of Vik on Lake Mälaren, near Uppsala. Young Svante gave evidence of his intellectual brilliance at an early age. He taught himself to read by the age of three and learned to do arithmetic by watching his father keep books for the estate of which he was in charge. Arrhenius began school at the age of eight, when he entered the fifth-grade class at the Cathedral School in Uppsala. After graduating in 1876, Arrhenius enrolled at the University of Uppsala.

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Yahoo Attacks The Illinois State Fair – Well not really but my Yahoo account was attacked

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The reason this Post is so late in the day is because I opened my web browser today and it showed that I had 35 messages waiting for me. Someone had unleashed a worm on my address book and it was busy sending all my friends spam. Some of it dangerous spam. I was mortified. I spent over 2 hours checking to make sure it was originating on my computer. People sent some of it back to me so I could see what the heck was spewing out of my account. Then in consultation with my computer expert Afredo I determined that just changing my email password could halt the attack…So I did and it ended. I had to blow off lunch with David Lasley, Dave Fuchs and the Sangamon County Democrats just to get to here…Damnit.

There were some things that I saw at the Illinois State Fair that I did not really care for. One of those things was the prominence of Biofuel in both of  Governor Pat Quinn’s tents. We all know that biofuel, especially ones made from foods, distract people from getting rid of the internal combustion engine. It also drives up food prices so this:

fairs4.jpg

and this:

fairs81.jpg

were NOT appreciated.

Though the latest craze in biofuels is watermellons that are farm waste:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/26/watermelon-fuel.html

Watermelon Juice: The New Fuel?

Michael Reilly, Discovery News

Fill 'er Up

Fill ‘er Up | Discovery News Video

Aug. 26, 2009 — A staple of backyard barbecues and summer time snacks, watermelon is also a promising new source of renewable energy.

According to a new study, leftover watermelons from farms’ harvests could be converted into up to 9.4 million liters (2.5 million gallons) of clean, renewable ethanol fuel every year destined for your car, truck, or airplane’s gas tank.

Agriculturally, watermelon is a peculiar fruit — each year farmers across the country leave between 20 and 40 percent of their crop to rot on the ground. These are the ugly ducklings of the lot; though perfectly fine on the inside, the misshapen or blemished melons simply won’t sell at the grocery store.

“If a crow lands on a melon, takes two pecks at the rind, and then flies away, it’s no good,” Wayne Fish of the United States Department of Agriculture in Lane, Oklahoma said. “I had farmers telling me, ‘I’m leaving one-fifth of my melons on the land. Is there anything I can do with them?'”

Across the United States, he estimated that 360,000 tons of watermelons spoil in fields every year.

Some local growers wondered whether the waste melons could be turned into ethanol, the clean-burning fuel derived from plant sugars. In a series of new experiments published yesterday in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels, Fish and a team of researchers showed that they can.

What’s more, watermelon juice may turn out to be the perfect way to optimize industrial-scale production of ethanol from corn, molasses and sugar cane.

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Then there was this. What the hell. This causes Earth Quakes in Texas yet it makes it to the State Fair?

fairs2.jpg

Fracking is Coming to Decatur. People better get ready for it:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,526233,00.html

Drilling Eyed as Possible Culprit Behind Texas Earthquakes

Sunday, June 14, 2009

CLEBURNE, Texas  —  The earth moved here on June 2. It was the first recorded earthquake in this Texas town’s 140-year history — but not the last.

There have been four small earthquakes since, none with a magnitude greater than 2.8. The most recent ones came Tuesday night, just as the City Council was meeting in an emergency session to discuss what to do about the ground moving.

The council’s solution was to hire a geology consultant to try to answer the question on everyone’s mind: Is natural gas drilling — which began in earnest here in 2001 and has brought great prosperity to Cleburne and other towns across North Texas — causing the quakes?

“I think John Q. Public thinks there is a correlation with drilling,” Mayor Ted Reynolds said. “We haven’t had a quake in recorded history, and all the sudden you drill and there are earthquakes.”

At issue is a drilling practice called “fracking,” in which water is injected into the ground at high pressure to fracture the layers of shale and release natural gas trapped in the rock.

There is no consensus among scientists about whether the practice is contributing to the quakes. But such seismic activity was once rare in Texas and seems to be increasing lately, lending support to the theory that drilling is having a destabilizing effect.

On May 16, three small quakes shook Bedford, a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Two small earthquakes hit nearby Grand Prairie and Irving on Oct. 31, and again on Nov. 1.

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The Big State Agencies Love The Illinois State Fair As Much As I Do

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*+ On a personal note..CES is a nonprofit organization and when you click on our google ads you make a donation to us. The more you click the more we get. Thanks for being so nice+*

Illinois State Fair

They show up with a vengeance. In all fairness (HAHA) I think some of them are mandated to show up. Again I was disappointed that I did not make it to the Illinois Building for Seniors day because IDENR puts on a great energy conservation display. I also did not make it to the Conservation area so I can not run a picture of the Oil Well like I do each year, nor did I get a chance to buy a TShirt from DENR if their stand was open this year. That said…The Governor had 2 tents and they covered the gambit:

http://bestofneworleans.com/gyrobase/index

First there was the U of I’s Sustainable Technology Center. They claim to have served Illinois since 1985. I got my doubts about that but….

fairs1.jpg

at:

www.istc.illinois.edu

Then there was the

fairs.jpg

Illinois Community College Sustainability Network:

http://ilccsn.ectolearning.com/ecto2/partners/ilccsn/htmsite/pages/home.shtml

established in 2007 to take advantage of the Stimulus Package of 2009…

Eguimqunon was there too:

fairs5.jpg

Sorry I meant Emiquon..I never can say that name..

http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/illinois/preserves/art1112.html

Plus the GREEN House:

fairs6.jpg

MEET THE GREENS: Now almost all these exhibits were for kids:

fair7.jpg

Then again aren’t we all KIDS at Heart?

http://www.meetthegreens.org/

Did I mention the Butter Cow:

sfair21.jpg

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Or the Mehan’s 75 years at the Fair?

sfair71.jpg

I know I did..

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Why Rightwing Fundamentalism Is So Environmentally Destructive

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Why are Conservatives so stupid. Usually right away I get accused of name calling and class warfare. I usually respond that I am not questioning their intelligence so much as I am questioning their larger view of the world. I point out there is a class war going on and most of us are losing it. In much the same way that the VERY Rich slave holders perpetuated the fighting and hatred of the less wealthy poor whites and blacks, the world destroyers and the mega wealthy must have the lower classes fighting and bickering over “tree huggers” and Cap and Trade. This is what the fundamentalists miss. For lofty ideals that do not exist like “personal freedom” they are watching the only world that we have slip away for the enrichment of the very few.

Further more as I have said for 30 years it is not the “little guy” that is to blame for things like destabilizing the climate and acidifying the oceans. It is in this order, The militaries of the world, the Airline Industry, the Big Smoke Stack users (mainly megawatt coal fired electrical plants), and the Shipping industry. That is it. The little guy can ride his stinky garden tractor, fire up his stinky grill and drive his F150 to work everyday if he wants to. THINK about it for a moment. The aforementioned Earth wreckers want the burdened pushed off on the public. It means they get to keep on polluting because we STOP.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2007/11/14/the-10-biggest-carbon-dioxide-polluters.html

The 10 Biggest Carbon Dioxide Polluters

By Marianne Lavelle

Posted November 14, 2007

Ten large companies generate more than one third of the 2.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year by U.S. electric power

generators, according to figures in a first-of-its-kind database unveiled Wednesday.

American Electric Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, and Southern Co. of Atlanta, which run the largest coal power plants in the country, top the list of U.S. companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, according to data compiled by the Center for Global Development, a global economic development think tank in Washington, D.C.

The database, called CARMA or Carbon Monitoring for Action, culls for the first time data both from government regulators around the world and commercial databases to provide an up-to-date look at the state of CO2 from power production—which accounts for one quarter of all carbon emissions. (The database doesn’t look at other large sources, like transportation and manufacturing.) Here are the top sources of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation in the United States:

The 10 Biggest Carbon Dioxide Polluters

COMPANY TONS OF CO2 PER YEAR
1. American Electric Power 174 million
With 5 million customers in 11 states from Ohio to Texas, its biggest carbon emissions come from its Gavin coal plant in Cheshire, Ohio.
2. SOUTHERN 172 million
Has 4.3 million customers in the Southeast and owns the top three carbon-emitting power plants in the country: Scherer, in Juliet, Ga.; Miller in Quinton, Ala.; and Bowen in Cartersville, Ga.
3. (tie) AES CORP. 108 million
Has power plants from New York to California, with the worst emissions from its Petersburg, Ind., plant.
3. (tie) DUKE ENERGY 108 million
Serves 4 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Its Gibson plant in Owensville, Ind., is the nation’s fourth-largest carbon emissions source in the power sector.
5. TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY 101 million
The nation’s largest public power company serves the 8.7 million residents of the Tennessee Valley. Its Cumberland City, Tenn., plant ranks eighth in the nation in CO2 emissions.
6. NRG ENERGY 82.7 million
A wholesale power producer that operates in deregulated electricity markets throughout the country, its W.A. Parish plant in Thompsons, Texas, is the nation’s No. 5 carbon emissions source.
7. XCEL ENERGY 76.1 million
With 3.3 million customers in the West and Midwest, its largest carbon generator is its Sherburne County plant in Becker, Minn.
8. MIDAMERICAN ENERGY HOLDINGS 70.9 million
A Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway company, MidAmerican serves customers in Iowa, Illinois, and South Dakota, with its largest CO2 emissions from the Jim Bridger plant in Point Of Rocks, Wyo.
9. PROGRESS ENERGY 68.1 million
Based in Raleigh, N.C., its plant in Roxoboro, N.C., is its biggest emissions source.
10. DOMINION RESOURCES 66.6 million
Dominion is based in Virginia, with operations stretching into the Northeast and Midwest. Its biggest carbon emissions source is its Mount Storm, W.Va., plant.

……

Strikingly, three Chinese power companies, South Africa’s giant Eskom, and India’s NTPC all generate more CO2 emissions than any single U.S. firm—underscoring the shared challenge posed by global climate change. The largest, Huaneng Power International of China, has emissions 68 percent higher than American Electric Power’s.

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I am quoting extensively from the article because it makes the point rather well. It is well researched and Lavelle is a good writer. In a startling 2 paragraphs she cuts through all the smoke and the fog to the heart of this story.

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One of the most striking findings in the data, says David Wheeler, a Center for Global Development senior fellow who led the research, is how concentrated the problem is among a relatively few large power generators. He said the top 100 companies worldwide produce 57 percent of CO2 emissions coming from the power sector. The top 30 companies produce 30 percent of the total. “On the one hand, it’s sobering,” he says. “But it might be hopeful. You could actually assemble the CEOs of those firms, and there might be many channels through which they can organize and address this as a group themselves. I think that’ll be critical to a solution.”

Wheeler was a former lead economist in the World Bank’s Development Research Group, where his team used public disclosure as a strategy to generate pressure from lenders and communities for pollution reduction in China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Wheeler says his team similarly hopes the CARMA data will be used not only by environmental groups but by institutional and private investors and insurers, to encourage power companies to use less coal and oil and shift to renewable resources

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If you want to check the data here is the CARMA site:

http://carma.org/

About CARMA

Posted by Christopher Frazier on March 25, 2006

Frequently Asked Questions
CARMA’s Partners
All About Icons
Plant-Specific Information
Citation Policy
CARMA Version Tracker

At its core, Carbon Monitoring for Action (CARMA) is a massive database containing information on the carbon emissions of over 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies worldwide. Power generation accounts for 40% of all carbon emissions in the United States and about one-quarter of global emissions. CARMA is the first global inventory of a major, emissions-producing sector of the economy.

CARMA is produced and financed by the Confronting Climate Change Initiative at the Center for Global Development, an independent and non-partisan think tank located in Washington, DC.

The objective of CARMA.org is to equip individuals with the information they need to forge a cleaner, low-carbon future. By providing complete information for both clean and dirty power producers, CARMA hopes to influence the opinions and decisions of consumers, investors, shareholders, managers, workers, activists, and policymakers. CARMA builds on experience with public information disclosure techniques that have proven successful in reducing traditional pollutants.

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Yet yet at least one of the social values issues also comes into play and that is abortion. Now I could go on and on about a woman’s right to control her body and how god does not play an active role in the world so birth is not a “miracle”. But the fact is that the main hatred of abortion by the various world’s religions is based on their desire for world domination. The idea being that once the world is “totally” christian for instance then NIRVANA will arrive. But what this ignores is the Over Population that this has caused. The world population stands at 9 billion people. The Earth has a carrying capacity of about a billion people soooooo at some point there is going to be a huge die off. Probably when my niece Taylor is in her 30s or 40s. I just want to say to my mother and others like her…don’t you realize that you are killing Taylor off?

http://www.overpopulation.org/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/popaware/article.pl?display_subsection%%%NewsDigest_NewsItem%%1

If we don’t halt population growth with justice and compassion, it will be done for us by nature,
brutally and without pity – and will leave a ravaged world.”
Nobel Laureate Dr. Henry W. Kendall 023934

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Tough Decision – My mom is stupid or burning is stupid

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OK so Mom wins but let me very quickly qualify that I love my Mother and I mean that unconditionally. My Mom is a rightwing fundamentalist Christian. So really what I am saying is that I hate the ideology more than my mother. I am not talking about the social agenda either or most of it anyway. I am pro abortion. I think everyone should have one. I am pro civil rights which means I am for samesex sexuality. I think everyone has tried just one. I am for universal health care.

I am more talking about her pro corporate business, pro rich, pro military, deregulation, anti union and anti evolution stances. Mom things that rich people and powerful people are the best. She got this from Eureka College where Ronald Reagan was big man on campus:

http://www.hindu.com/2009/07/07/stories/2009070750300200.htm

Budget pro-rich, says TDP Special Correspondent

‘No solution shown for unemployment and agricultural crisis’

Budget failed to specify how 1.20 crore jobs would be generated’

‘Promoting disinvestment in PSUs amounts to encouraging privatisation’

KADAPA: The Union budget is pro-rich and not oriented towards poverty alleviation and ignored the cause of the middle classes, Telugu Desam Party leaders alleged.

The budget failed to specify how 1.20 crore jobs would be generated, TDP State Secretary V.S. Ameer Babu, TNTUC president S.A. Sattar and party leaders S. Goverdhan Reddy and J. Rayappa Raju said in a statement. They deplored the government’s contention that it would attract foreign direct investment when there was global economic recession and did not specify how it would clear the foreign debt and interest.

The budget did not show any solution to unemployment, agricultural crisis and suicides. There was no mention of unearthing the black money of Rs. 1 lakh crore, they alleged. Inflation grew from 2.8 per cent last year to 6.7 per cent this year. The Bill passed for unorganised workers was confined to paper.

Promoting disinvestment in public sector units amounts to encouraging privatisation, the TDP leaders alleged.

Steps were not taken to curtail the increase in petrol and diesel prices. The budget made no mention of the lakhs of workers who lost jobs in IT industry, they said.

The TDP is opposing the budget, they asserted

‘Highly disappointing’ Tirupati Correspondent adds: Federation of the Farmers’ Association and various other farmers organisations have termed the general budget introduced today as highly disappointing from the farmers point of view.

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Which I think should clash with her Christian values. Lets face it, the rich just want more money at the expense of not just the poor but the environment. As long as they believe that their money can buy them clean water and clean air – even if it has to come in a bottle – well then the heck with the rest of us.

http://a4a.mahost.org/fakes.html

DON’T BE FOOLED!

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten.
–The Cree People

Big Business is terrified of the environmental movement, which remains the single most popular left-wing movement in the US. The dirty secret of Big Business is that it is principally responsible for pollution and environmental degradation around the world. The majority of Americans want a safer, cleaner environment. They know that, and have taken extensive countermeasures to protect themselves from the people at large, including pouring money into bogus environmental groups designed to further industry causes while appearing to be environmentally conscious. They also launch massive PR campaigns to paint themselves green.These anti-environmental initiatives are, in essence, efforts to thwart democracy.It’s important to note that the only green behind these efforts is money, not concern for the environment. These groups are very well-financed, backed, as they are, by corporations and other capitalist interests. What they lack in public support, they make up for in resources and powerful connections.Going over the list, you can see the copious use of buzzwords by the anti-environmental movement, as they strive to create the appearance of a broad mandate and public support. However, these groups are funded and controlled by economic and political elites, with a vested (financial) interest in thwarting and reversing environmental reforms.The following is excerpted from The Greenpeace Guide to Anti-Environmental Organizations, put out by the excellent Odonian Press, Box 32375, Tucson, AZ 85751, and is part of their Real Story series

TACTICS

  • Greenwashing: When a company adopts marketing strategies whereby the company appears to be adopting a more environmentally-conscious stance, when really it’s simply doing its usual routine.
      Examples:
    1. Mobil Chemical added a small amount of starch to the plastic in Hefty trash bags and called them “biodegradable” (however, the bags would not degrade if buried in landfills, but only if left out in the sun; moreover, the bags didn’t degrade, but rather broke up into smaller plastic pieces — not the same thing!) A Mobil Chemical pitch man said, “degradability is just a marketing tool. We’re talking out of both sides of our mouth because we want to sell our bags.”
    2. Coors Brewing sponsors a greenwashing campaign called Pure Water 2000 that funds “grassroots organizations [engaged in] river cleanups, water habitat improvements, water quality monitoring, wetland protection, and pollution prevention.” In 1992, however, Coors pleaded guilty to charges that it had dumped carcinogenic chemicals into a local waterway for 18 years!
  • Astroturf organizing: These are industry-funded organizations meant to function like environment grassroots groups, except that they are heavily financed by industry and seek to manipulate public opinion by distorting facts. They seek to put environmentalists in an unfavorable light by launching personal attacks against them, charging that activists are “anti-family,” “anti-American,” and pitting jobs and the economy against environmental reform. They are termed “astroturf” because they are designed to look like they are genuine grassroots movements.
  • Physical violence: Activists are routinely harassed by the FBI, which considers any progressive movements “terrorist” in nature, justifying surveillance, break-ins, arrests, and worse. Activists find themselves the victims of assaults, sabotage, death threats, and worse.
      Examples:
    1. 1990: Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were nearly killed by a car bomb — incredibly, the authorities arrested them and accused them of transporting a bomb, which was later thrown out for lack of evidence. The actual perpetrators were never apprehended.
    2. 1992: Activist Stephanie McGuire of Florida was assaulted by three men for opposing a Procter & Gamble pulp mill’s practice of dumping toxins into the Fenholloway River (this mill still does this, btw). They beat her, burned her with a lit cigar, and cut her with a straight razor, while saying “now you have something to sue us over.” No one was arrested in this crime.
    3. The Center for Investigative Reporting noted 104 violent attacks on environmentalists from January 1989 to January 1993, averaging one every two weeks.
  • Government involvement: Through official government channels, whether Congress or the courts or the Executive Branch, government has been shown to regularly side with Big Business where environmental issues are concerned. The conservative 104th Congress recently showed this in its efforts to weaken endangered species laws, open up wetlands and parklands for economic exploitation, and lessening clean air, food, and water legislation. They also cut the funding for the EPA to the bone, all of which pleased industry greatly!

SIX TYPES OF ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

Most industries will rely on a combination of the following to undermine and roll back environmental reforms, lavishly spending money on campaigns to secure their financial gain at our expense!

  • Public relations firms
  • Corporate front groups
  • Think tanks
  • Legal foundations
  • Endowments and charities
  • Wise Use and Share groups

Of these, the misnamed “Wise Use” and “Share” groups need the most explanation. This anti-environmental movement is mostly a western phenomenon where timber, mining, ranching, chemical, and recreation companies banded together to fight the environmental movement. Ron Arnold, the movement’s founder, is a self-described reformed environmentalist, one who has “seen the light”. As he puts it: “We want to be able to exploit the environment for private gain, absolutely.”

Makes you wonder what kind of environmentalist he must have been, with an attitude like that!

“Wise Use” and “Share” (Canadian version of “Wise Use”) act basically as stormtroopers for industry, because, according to Arnold, the “Wise Use” movement can “do things the industry can’t. It can stress the sanctity of the family, the virtue of the close-knit community. And it can turn the public against your enemies.”

Wiseguys are recruited from the ranks of workers at company meetings (typically compulsory meetings, by the way), and through door-to-door canvassers claiming environmentalists are responsible for unemployment.

Here you see a classic tactic of capitalists, turning the working class against itself when they should be fighting their common enemies, the capitalists themselves! News flash, folks — capitalists cause unemployment, environmentalists don’t!

What the wiseguys want was hammered out in their 1988 conference in Reno, Nevada, where they created a 25 point platform cementing their goal to destroy the environmental movement. Below are eight of their “lofty” goals:

  • “immediate development of the petroleum resources of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska”
  • opening “all public lands, including wilderness areas and national parks” to mineral and energy exploitation and to recreational vehicles
  • exempting from the Endangered Species Act any species whose protection would interfere with resource exploitation (buzzword for “capitalist profit”, I’d say)
  • opening 70 million acres of wilderness that is currently protected by the Wilderness Act to commercial exploitation
  • logging 3.4 million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska
  • making enviromentalists pay industry back if they lose cases in court, as well as to pay for lost industry profits (this is the classic “big guy” versus “little guy” tactic, where the industry hopes to scare off potential suits because they know that while they have the money to fight a successful court battle, environmentalists don’t — it’s not unlike a wealthy incumbent’s campaign war chest scaring off would-be challengers)
  • giving anti-environmental groups the right to sue environmentalists on behalf of the industry (this is a real gem, where industry uses these goons as dupes to do their dirty work, while the industry keeps its nose clean — ever the capitalist way!)
  • implementing free-trade agreements (e.g., NAFTA and GATT) that will grant US industry access to natural resources (e.g., raw materials) globally

Looking at these, one wonders where the “Wise Use” comes in! Far from being populists, these wiseguys are snugly in the vest pockets of their capitalist employers. They are what you’d call “ruling class heroes,” I suppose, making the world safe for wealth, power, and privilege — and they even get paid for their effort!

ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

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More on this later but suffice it to say that couching all of the above in a religious certainty and finding proof of that in the Bible is just plain wrong. In fact it is what all the polluters want to happen. Ready made stooges.

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While I Was Gone Many Energy and Environmental Things Happened

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I was so tempted to post them but I swore that for the first time in 2 years I would take a break. Tomorrow I may even post some vacation photos (shock) and we will be going to the State Fair so there will be pictures of that too (awe). Maybe if you are lucky a picture of the Butter Cow. Anyway in a nutshell here are some of the things I missed:

http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x772302426/Dozens-show-up-for-jobs-at-former-Monterey-coal-mine

Dozens show up for jobs at former Monterey coal mine

By DEB LANDIS

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Aug 14, 2009 @ 08:51 PM

Last update Aug 14, 2009 @ 11:24 PM

WILLIAMSVILLE — Ron Semplowski of Gillespie has been laid off three times in the last four years.

Friday, Semplowski and three members of his extended family who also are unemployed drove an hour to Williamsville for a jobs fair for the Shay No. 1 coal mine that will operate out of the former Monterey coal mine facilities in Macoupin County between Carlinville and Gillespie.More than 50 applicants showed up by 9 a.m., according to the company.

“We drove 65 miles, and the mine is probably two miles from my house,” Semplowski said.  Rodney Rosentreter, who is also from Gillespie, said: “None of us has experience in coal mining, but we have other job experiences.”  Such jobs, said the Semplowski and Rosentreter family members, have included work with automotive, insulation and pork-producing companies.

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http://www.sj-r.com/entertainment/x1528792918/A-E-Notebook-A-new-Lincoln-musical-and-a-documentary-on-coal
Check out ‘Coal Country’ at Brew &View

Liberty Brew & View film series will host a screening of the documentary “Coal Country” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Capital City Bar & Grill, 3149 S. Dirksen Parkway. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.

The film is about modern coal mining and tells the stories of miners, activists who are battling coal companies in Appalachia, coal company officials and others involved in the industry. The film addresses questions related to the nation’s energy needs and the environmental impact of coal mining.

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I have it on good authority that the cinematographer will be there to discuss his work

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http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x1528792006/Ameren-to-lay-off-80-at-Illinois-power-plants

Ameren to lay off 80 at Illinois power plants

By TIM LANDIS (tim.landis@sj-r.com)

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Aug 12, 2009 @ 03:08 PM

Last update Aug 12, 2009 @ 11:17 PM

More than 80 jobs at Ameren Corp. power plants in Illinois will be eliminated by the spring of next year as the poor economy continues to drive down demand for electricity, the company announced Wednesday.The cuts include 47 jobs at the Meredosia power plant, approximately 60 miles northwest of Springfield. Wednesday’s announcement came three weeks after the company announced it would cut 55 jobs in its Illinois energy marketing operations.Laid-off workers will be offered transfers, if possible, or severance packages and job-search assistance, according to the company.

“While we regret having to take this action, the challenges we face demand a new model for our merchant generation business. We must build a leaner, more streamlined organization that can more effectively compete in today’s difficult economy where we see much lower prices for our power,” said a statement from Chuck Naslund, president and CEO of Ameren Energy Resources Co.

Naslund said the company also has cut about $1 billion worth of construction projects that had been planned from 2010 to 2013.

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http://www.sj-r.com/homepage/x1558733451/Wind-farm-neighbors-to-petition-for-greater-distance

Wind farm neighbors to petition for greater distance

By TIM LANDIS (tim.landis@sj-r.com)

THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER

Posted Aug 11, 2009 @ 11:30 PM

A group of Sangamon County residents plans to file petitions this week asking that developers of a commercial wind farm be required to put greater distance between turbines and non-participating property owners.Approximately 450 signatures have been collected for submission to the county board and a county zoning appeals board, Cathy Bomke of Sangamon County Citizens for Wind Rights said Monday.The petitions ask that the current 1,200-foot setback requirement from the property of non-participating landowners be increased to a mile, although Bomke said the mile figure is open to discussion.

“One mile is where we started based on research on health, safety and property values. It’s not cut in stone. It’s a starting point for us,” Bomke said.

Bomke said a few petitions still must counted, but that the group hopes to file the request as early as Wednesday.

“What we’re asking for is a simple review of the setbacks. We’re not trying to stop anything here,” Bomke said.

American Wind Energy Management Corp. continues signing up property owns and conducting tests for the Meridian Wind Farm, a utility-scale project that in the first phase would have as many as 200 turbines in an area roughly between New Berlin and Pleasant Plains.

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 http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/renewable-energy-world-north-america/news/article/2009/08/renewable-energy-world-conference-expo-exceeded-growth-and-attendance-expectations?cmpid=rss

August 13, 2009

Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo Exceeded Growth and Attendance Expectations;

Continued Strong Growth in 2010 Is Expected

March 30, 2009/Tulsa, OK

More than 4,000 renewable energy professionals from 75 different countries gathered in Las Vegas, Nevada for the sixth annual Renewable Energy World North America conference and expo March 10-12. With more than 225 companies exhibiting, both the exhibit and attendance numbers reflected significant increases over a year ago. Next year’s numbers are again expected to increase. A total of over 5,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors are expected at the Renewable Energy World North America conference and expo in Austin, Texas, February 23-25, 2010.

Renewable Energy World North America is owned and managed by PennWell Corporation and is the largest all-renewable conference and exhibition in the world. Conference sessions covered issues related to wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal and hydrogen technologies, projects and finance.

 

“Renewable Energy World North America has shown exceptional growth in recent years and 2009 was no exception,” said Richard Baker, senior vice president of power for PennWell. “Our association partners, corporate sponsors and growing number of exhibitors are instrumental in making this the premiere all-renewable event in the world. Our host utility, NV Energy, exceeded expectations when it came to their support and involvement.”

 

Exhibitors also reported results that exceeded expectations. “Following our successful launch to the utility industry at DistribuTech, we were excited to keep the momentum going with our debut presence at Renewable Energy World 2009 in Las Vegas,” said Therese Wells, Director of Marketing for Ice Energy. “The visibility and exposure we generated there among key influencers has been invaluable for us as we establish the importance of energy storage as a key enabling technology for the renewable industry. We are excited to be back again in 2010. From DistribuTech to PowerGen to Renewable Energy World, PennWell’s global energy conferences

are a fundamental cornerstone of our event strategy.”

 

“Renewable Energy World and Power-Gen are the premier power industry trade shows in the United States,” said Chris Huntington, Vice President of Business Development for SkyFuel. “For SkyFuel, these are the crucial venues in which to meet the customers, suppliers and developers with whom we hope to create a new paradigm in the power industry; one in which utility scale solar power is no longer a marginal alternative but a mainstream option.”

 

The Keynote Session on March 10 featured Roberto Denis, Senior Vice President of Energy Supply for NV Energy. Following his remarks he was joined on stage by the executive directors of each of the leading renewable industry trade associations for a lively roundtable discussion on the economic stimulus, federal and state policy initiatives and technological breakthroughs. Roundtable participants included Denise Bode, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association; Douglas Durante, Executive Director of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition; Karl Gawell, Executive Director if the Geothermal Energy Association; Linda Church-Ciocci, Executive

Director of the National Hydropower Association; Julia Hamm, Executive Director of the Solar Electric Power Association; and Rhone Resch, President & CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. Edwin F. Feo, Partner in the law firm Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP also took part.

 

Archived video coverage of the event is available by visiting Renewable Energy World.com, the event’s flagship media sponsor.

 

The 2010 event is scheduled for February 23-25 in Austin, Texas. For more information, visit the Renewable Energy World North America web site at www.renewableenergyworld-events.com.

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This is what we have to look forward to:

http://www.conferencealerts.com/energy.htm

August 2009

17 Preparing for a NERC Audit Chicago IL
18 United We Stand / Building A Sustainable Economy – Conference & Trade show Washington DC
18 National Renewable Energy Summit 2009 Kuching Malaysia
21 Beyond the Brain VIII: Self and Death – What Survives? Canterbury United Kingdom
24 High Voltage Transmission Conductors Conference – (?69 kV) Chicago IL
24 Oil and Gas Boot Camp™ Houston Texas
25 Utility Scale CSP–Breaking Barriers and Lowering Cost Denver CO
26 ICESE 2009 – International Conference on Electrical Systems Engineering London Other
26 CESSE 2009 – International Conference on Computer, Electrical, and Systems Science, and Engineering London Other
26 CESSE 2009 – International Conference on Computer, Electrical, and Systems Science, and Engineering Singapore Singapore
26 ICEE 2009 – International Conference on Energy and Environment Singapore Singapore
26 The 3rd International Conference on Fermentation Technology for Value Added Agricultural Products Khon Kaen Thailand
27 Australian Institute of Hotel Engineers Gold Coast Australia
28 International Workshop on Empirical Methods in Energy Economics (EMEE09) Jasper Canada
30 SYNERGY AND TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT in Agricultural Engineering Gödöllõ Hungary
31 The Indian Sugar Summit New Delhi India
31 Sustainable Energy Technology (SET) 2009 Aachen Germany
SET 2009 conference brings together leadingacademics and industrial partners and provides thelatest developments in sustainable technologies inthe energy, built environment, transport, waste &industry to stimulate new collaboration.

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Global Warming And Now Climate Change – The real term is Global Atmospheric Destabilization and Weather Unpredictability Effects

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edit – Oh shoot I forgot it was jam band friday – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBAasek8NR4

One of the stupid things that I hate the most is the phrase “Global Warming”. It is inaccurate, misleading and a bad marketing ploy by the environmental movement. The realization that something was going very wrong with the planet’s atmosphere really dawned on the Earth Sciences people in the 1970s. Up until then the weather broadly read as global climate had behaved pretty predictably. If there was a lot of volcanic activity the earth cooled. If there was very little sunspot activity the earth cooled. If both happened at the same time well a “tipping point” was reached and an Ice Age was formed.

http://www.iceagemovie.com/

But then something happened that was totally unknown. Sunspot activity (sunspot activity is near zero now – watch out) and volcanism pointed towards a cooling period like during the 1400s (commonly called a “little ice age” when crops failed and the black plague ravaged Europe).  But that did not happen. The world kept warming and scientists scrambled to find the causes. We now know that this continued warming trend was caused by greenhouse gases and the effects have gotten worse. My pet bitch here is that when we realized that the climate was being warmed and that the weather would become unpredictable the “leading lights” in the environmental movement declared that we had to have a simple title for the effect or “people” wouldn’t be able to understand it. The effects were too complex. Now in fact in, no sense recognizing their mistake, they call it Climate Change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change

In this divide and conquer world that left the capitalist to stir up pseudo controversies about warming or change without even beginning to address the real problem which is Food and population migrations due to Weather Catastrophes.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkmxNpF44n0&feature=related )

So when you see things like:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6554936.html

Texas’ hardest-hit drought area grows

© 2009 The Associated Press

July 30, 2009, 3:02PM

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1auRCameVY&feature=related )

DALLAS — There’s less drought in Texas, but the areas where conditions are worst actually expanded.

The federal drought monitor map released Thursday shows 61 percent of the nation’s most drought-stricken state is under some form of drought. That’s down from about 68 percent last week and 86 percent a year ago.

About 19 percent of Texas is under the most severe level of drought, up slightly from last week and way up from about 3 percent a year ago.

Nearly 25 percent of Texas is under the worst two categories of drought, mostly in south-central Texas

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or

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvp25jA_02jSEcqpsAXUp2_a-NRgD99OGNEG0

Seattle breaks temp record as heat wave continues

By PHUONG LE and RYAN KOST (AP) – 1 day ago

(  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MltrnVOG2s&feature=related )

SEATTLE — Northwesterners more accustomed to rain and cooler climate sought refuge from a heat wave Wednesday, as Seattle recorded the hottest temperature in its history and Portland fell just 1 degree short of its own record-breaker.

The National Weather Service in Seattle recorded 103 degrees at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, breaking a previous record of 100 degrees, set in downtown Seattle in 1941 and repeated at the airport in 1994.

Jay Albrecht, a Seattle meteorologist with the service, said it’s the hottest it has been in Seattle since records dating to 1891.

In Oregon, heat records were set in cities across the western half of the state, with Portland topping out at 106 degrees, breaking the old record of 100 for the day but falling 1 degree shy of its all-time record of 107. Portland most recently hit the 107 mark in 1981.

Oregon weather data goes back to the 1850s, although meteorologist Charles Dalton said the 107-degree mark, recorded at the Portland airport, reflects records kept at that site since 1941.

Meteorologist Doug McDonnal in Seattle said the stretch of hot weather has lasted longer than usual. Wednesday was the fifth consecutive day above 85 degrees for Seattle, he said.

Throughout the region, shade, icy treats, ice-cold water, air conditioning units and fans were in high demand.

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or

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/chicago.coldest.july.2.1103959.html

Jul 28, 2009 5:55 am US/Central

Chicago Sees Coldest July In 67 Years

Average Temperature Only 68.9 Degrees

(  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyyDyraBnOU&feature=related )

CHICAGO (CBS)
Have you left your air conditioner in the closet this summer, and worn long pants more often than shorts? If so, you may not be surprised to find out that Chicago is seeing its coldest July in more than 65 years.
The National Weather Service says 2009 has seen the coldest July since the official recording station was moved away from the lakefront in 1942. The average temperature this month in Chicago has been a mere 68.9 degrees.

Even in the years before 1942, when the National Weather Service recorded temperatures at the cooler lakefront, there are only three years that had colder Julys through the 26th.

There have also been far more days than usual with high temperatures less than 80 degrees this year. In 2009, there were 13 days where the temperature did not exceed 80 degrees. Only three Julys in the past 67 years have had more days in Chicago with highs less than 80 – there were 18 such days in 1992, and 14 in 1996 and 2000.

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IN THE SAME YEAR (sorry) then you are seeing the beginnings of something unpleasant. Farmers depend on predictability to farm. No farming no food, no food no us. Now that is a pretty simple concept to understand…Global warming however IS an inconvenient truth.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRRZzQQ6POE&feature=related )

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Barack Obama And Stupid – The situation just got out of hand

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The public DEMANDS that the police investigate just about everything. The police DEMAND respect. College Professors always DEMAND respect. There was an awful lot of DEMANDING going on in the situation. The thing is I can sympathize with everyone involved. See before there was driving while BLACK, there was driving while HIPPIE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPd4FmlpVxI

Anytime the police saw long hair, they presumed that there was drugs involved. My girlfriend had a nickname for me. She called me PC and it did not stand for politically correct. It stood for Probable Cause.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGhcECnWRGM

At that time I had a brother who rode around with me a lot. He did not like the police – he called them PIGS. So when I got pulled over and he was along he would start making PIG noises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU8LBnOJNxk

So I wanted to “kill” them both because the situation was so stupid. I believe that is what Obama meant but did not say, that the situation was STUPID not the people involved because see when you call people stupid they go getting all there back up and stuff. So in that spirit the next several posts will look at things in the environment and energy world that I think are stupid. A list follows:

The phrase Global Warming

Burning things

Cars

Windows

Apples in Illinois in the Winter

Illegal drugs

My mother

Eating meat

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Since I owe Dan Piraro for letting me post his cartoons and I share his concerns, Let us start with the last one first. If we are going to admit that Burning Things is Stupid (more on that later) then we have to admit that there are only several sources of legitimate power. These are geothermal, tidal, wind and solar. Just to keep things simple while this is a lot of power it is still finite. ALL food is solar power. No Sun no food. So when we become rational and we may be in the process of doing that, would we eat meat? The answer is probably not. Here is Dan and the Washington Post’s take on it:

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Prius vs. Prime Rib

If you are a person concerned with what you can do to help mitigate climate change, read this short article from the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072800390.html:}

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The Washington Post opines:

Gut Check

The Meat of the Problem

By Ezra Klein

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The debate over climate change has reached a rarefied level of policy abstraction in recent months. Carbon tax or cap-and-trade? Upstream or downstream? Should we auction permits? Head-scratching is, at this point, permitted. But at base, these policies aim to do a simple thing, in a simple way: persuade us to undertake fewer activities that are bad for the atmosphere by making those activities more expensive. Driving an SUV would become pricier. So would heating a giant house with coal and buying electricity from an inefficient power plant. But there’s one activity that’s not on the list and should be: eating a hamburger.

If it’s any consolation, I didn’t like writing that sentence any more than you liked reading it. But the evidence is strong. It’s not simply that meat is a contributor to global warming; it’s that it is a huge contributor. Larger, by a significant margin, than the global transportation sector.

According to a 2006 United Nations report, livestock accounts for 18 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Some of meat’s contribution to climate change is intuitive. It’s more energy efficient to grow grain and feed it to people than it is to grow grain and turn it into feed that we give to calves until they become adults that we then slaughter to feed to people. Some of the contribution is gross. “Manure lagoons,” for instance, is the oddly evocative name for the acres of animal excrement that sit in the sun steaming nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. And some of it would make Bart Simpson chuckle. Cow gas — interestingly, it’s mainly burps, not farts — is a real player.

But the result isn’t funny at all: Two researchers at the University of Chicago estimated that switching to a vegan diet would have a bigger impact than trading in your gas guzzler for a Prius (PDF). A study out of Carnegie Mellon University found that the average American would do less for the planet by switching to a totally local diet than by going vegetarian one day a week. That prompted Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to recommend that people give up meat one day a week to take pressure off the atmosphere. The response was quick and vicious. “How convenient for him,” was the inexplicable reply from a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “He’s a vegetarian.”

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Did you get the half hearted humor – gut check?

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Alternative Energy In Central Illinois – Progress in the heart of coal country

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oh its jam band friday ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54bFYwGr_Y )

Just for kicks and because it is Friday, I googled up Alternative Energy in Central Illinois and this is what I found:

http://www.ciree.net/

Welcome to Central Illinois Renewable Energy Expo

The Peoria County 4-H and Extension Foundation is proud to present the Central Illinois Renewable Energy Expo, May 2nd and 3rd at the Green Sports Complex in Mossville, Illinois near Peoria. This event is designed to be educational and informative with plenty of vendor displays, seminars, kids’ activities and information on renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable solutions, green lifestyles, and earth-friendly technology.

The event, the first one to be offered in Central Illinois, is designed to provide an opportunity for area residents and businesses to learn more about renewable energy and energy-efficiency products and services. “Every time your turn on your radio or TV you hear something about energy consumption. Many, if not all of us, would like to know more about how to save money on heating, fuel, electricity and so on, so we thought the Expo would be a great opportunity,” said Gary Sutton, Expo Coordinator and a member of the Peoria County 4-H and Extension Foundation. “We were amazed at how many people attended in 2008—it confirmed the need for an event like this. We are very grateful for our volunteer event partners and we think the Expo will continue to be a great experience for all in central Illinois.”

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT1mbxOQxHY&feature=related

I mean if it has gotten to the 4-H people well then it has become a tidal wave.

http://moleprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/07/illinois-focus-blogs-food-co-ops.html

ILLINOIS FOOD CO-OPS

It took nearly 7 years living within a few blocks of one of the biggest food co-ops in America before Joy and I joined it. We were definitely reluctant. But, in the end the lack of good produce and the decline of our local supermarkets led to us joining. And the result is a slighly more inconvenient shopping trip each week, but much healthier, higher quality and cheaper food. I recommend joining a co-op if there is one nearby. You will save money and eat healthier. So I will list some local food co-ops in Illinois:

West Central Illinois Food Cooperative
P.O. Box 677
Galesburg, Illinois 61402
wcifoodcoop@wcifoodcoop.com
http://www.wcifoodcoop.com

West Central Illinois Food Cooperative is a not for profit natural foods Co-op located in Galesburg, Illinois serving people in Knox and Warren County. We are affiliated with United Natural Foods. United Natural Foods has a warehouse in Iowa City.

We are a small food coop with about 20 to 30 families at any one time. Our monthly orders average about
$2,000 – $3, 000. We have been operating as a Co-op since 1982. We do not have any one that earns a salary. All of our work is performed by members who work the different jobs as part of their monthy obligation. Working Members pay a 1% mark up from the wholesale price in the Catalog. We have nonworking members. They pay a 10% mark up. Please explore the various links on our site for additional information about the Co-op and United Natural Foods. You can also get additional information at United Natural Foods Buying Clubs site at www.unitedbuyingclubs.com

Common Ground Food Co-op
610 E. Springfield
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Phone: (217) 352-3347
FAX: (217) 352-2214
comments@commonground.coop
http://www.commonground.coop/

Common Ground Food Co-op is a cooperatively owned grocery store that promotes local and organic production, fosters conscious consumerism, and builds community.

Though we are community-owned, membership is not required to shop in the store!

Common Ground Food Co-op carries a wide variety of groceries, produce, and health and beauty products.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SKFwtgUJHs&feature=related

http://www.windaction.org/news/16700

Finally from one of the best writers in Central Illinois, Tim Landis:

Wind farms sprouting up on central Illinois landscape

Three more wind farms – each a utility-scale project with the potential for 100 to 150 towers – are in the works for central Illinois. Trade Wind Energy, a Kansas-based alternative energy developer, confirmed the company has signed leases with landowners for two wind farms in DeWitt County and is in discussions for a third in Christian County. The first two sites are east and west of Clinton, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield, and the third is north of Pana, 45 miles southeast of Springfield. …Trade Wind Energy has held meetings with Farm Bureau and elected officials in both counties, and Enger said company executives understand it is important to be “open and transparent” about development plans.

July  7, 2008 by Tim Landis in Southtown Star

Three more wind farms – each a utility-scale project with the potential for 100 to 150 towers – are in the works for central Illinois.

Trade Wind Energy, a Kansas-based alternative energy developer, confirmed the company has signed leases with landowners for two wind farms in DeWitt County and is in discussions for a third in Christian County.

The first two sites are east and west of Clinton, about 45 miles northeast of Springfield, and the third is north of Pana, 45 miles southeast of Springfield.

“We are substantially into the leasing process. We already have enough land there for a wind farm,” Trade Wind Energy development manager Duane Enger said of the negotiations in DeWitt County.

Enger said lease negotiations have only just begun for the site north of Pana, and that it is too soon to discuss a construction schedule for any of the projects. But he said all eventually would produce 100 to 150 megawatts of electricity.

A megawatt typically would supply 250 to 300 homes, according to industry standards.

Enger said, in addition to open expanses of farmland, three major transmission lines that run through the counties, including to the Clinton nuclear reactor, would make it easier to get power to the grid.

The Trade Wind Energy projects come a little more than two months after Virginia-based Dominion Corp. announced plans for a 25,000-acre wind farm and 150 to 200 wind turbines in southern Christian and northern Macoupin counties.

Dominion also is negotiating for land leases estimated by the company at $3,000 to $4,000 per year, per turbine.

Christian County Farm Bureau manager Eric Johnson said the wind developers have been generally well received.

“As long as the wind company offers good compensation and a good contract — most farmers are pretty open minded about it,” Johnson said.

Brian Fesser is among Christian County farmers approached by Dominion, but he said he has not decided whether to allow wind turbines on a 1,200-acre grain farm south of Taylorville that has been in his family for more than 50 years.

Money, he added, is not the only factor.

“It’s having to farm around the wind towers themselves. It’s just like mowing your lawn, the more trees you have, the more time it takes,” he said.

Trade Wind Energy has held meetings with Farm Bureau and elected officials in both counties, and Enger said company executives understand it is important to be “open and transparent” about development plans.

He said the company plans to open offices in the area as soon as possible.

Enger said improvements in wind-turbine technology have made it possible to operate at lower wind speeds – Trade Wind looks for areas with consistent 10 to 18 mph winds – but that rising energy prices also are a factor.

“There has just been more demand for energy the last few years,” he said.

Trade Wind Energy

  • Founded: 2001
  • Corporate headquarters: Lenexa, Kan., suburb of Kansas City
  • Largest investor: Enel North America Inc., a subsidiary of Enel SpA, one of the world’s largest publicly held utility companies
  • Current projects: Kansas, Missouri and Illinois
  • On the Web:www.tradewindenergy.com

Web link: http://www.southtownstar.com/business/1040540,0707…

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Things are starting to change aren’t they?

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1-Sv-HMHqE&feature=related

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