The Flight of the Phoenix

One of the biggest travesties facing the Earth is our vanishing wildlife. We are supposed to be shepherds of the planet – caring not only for each other, but for all the living creatures who share the planet with us – both plant and animal. It is as much their home as ours. Between global warming, poaching, pollution and the destruction of habitats, many species of animals, insects, fish and birds will soon only be living on YouTube videos.

In past centuries, many species have become extinct – some because of natural factors, but most due to human (or should I say inhuman) behavior. One of the most notable extinct species is the Dodo bird (as in “dead as the dodo”). The last confirmed sighting of a dodo was in 1662, a little more than 100 years after the bird was first seen by man! Human actions in the form of hunting and the introduction of alien species to the dodo habitat killed off the odd looking birds in a very short period.

Perhaps the biggest crime by humans against the animal kingdom was the complete destruction of the passenger pigeon. This bird was once extremely common throughout North America – perhaps the continent’s most numerous avian. It is estimated that there were approximately 5 billion passenger pigeons on American soil at the start of the 19th century. By 1915 – one hundred and fifteen years later – there were NONE. The species had been exterminated.

Passenger pigeons were colorful and gregarious birds that lived in enormous flocks – sometimes up to hundreds of millions in population. As the US expanded westward during the 1800’s, many of the bird’s habitats were destroyed. This was one of the reasons for the decline in the bird’s population. It is also postulated that the birds were struck by a disease. But the primary reason for extinction was the massive hunting of the passenger pigeon. Their meat was used as cheap food for slaves and the poor in the US.

The birds were concentrated in the Central and Eastern part of North America – from the Rocky Mountains to Southern Canada to Florida. They traveled as far south as Mexico during the winter. The passenger pigeon was a very social creature. They lived together in large flocks with many nests located close to each other. They also migrated together. Early American settlers often wrote about the pigeons. Cotton Mather described one flock as taking “several hours to pass overhead.”

In the mid 1800s, hunters began capturing the birds in mass quantities for food, as live targets for trap shooting (a truly disgusting thought) and as fertilizer. For slaves on American farms and plantations, it was often only their only source of meat. Since the birds lived in such large communities and were not scared of humans, they became easy targets for slaughter by hunters. This mass hunting resulting in the depletion of passenger pigeon colonies. Since the birds only thrived when they were living in these enormous colonies, passenger pigeons could not adequately reproduce when their numbers were reduced. Their fate was sealed/

By 1870, environmentalists and avian experts realized the bird population was declining. But the mass destruction continued unabated. There were no strong laws protecting the bird (or practically any other animal for that matter). Zoologists attempted to breed the birds in captivity. This attempt at a rescue of the species failed, as the birds could not successfully breed in small, captive spaces.

After 1870, the last super-large nesting ground of passenger pigeons was located in Michigan. In 1878, hunters began killing up to 50,000 birds each day for five months. They were being hunted into extinction – and the federal and state governments did absolutely nothing to prevent their destruction. In 1896, a flock of about 250,000 was killed – that was the last large flock left on earth.

The rapid extinction of the passenger pigeon did rouse public interest in conservation. Some laws were finally passed in the late 1890s to protect the bird. They were weak and barely enforced. Besides it was too little, too late. Conservationists soon realized that the passenger pigeon’s numbers were too few to regenerate the species. The last live passenger pigeon seen in the wild was in 1900. The only birds left lived in several zoos across the country – where they could not successfully reproduce.

On September 1, 1914 – Martha, the last passenger pigeon in captivity, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. Martha was carefully stuffed and sent to the Smithsonian. The closest related species to the passenger pigeon is the Morning Dove. This dove is still abundant in North America.

From billions of birds in 1870, to none in 1914 – 44 years is a blip of time to see such mass extinction. Laws protecting animals started to be passed – but not in time to save the passenger pigeon. Watching how we treat the seas and ecosystem today – the passenger pigeon will sadly only be one of many species left standing as a stuffed bird. You have to wonder if Daphne Du Maurier’s novel The Birds was about the revenge of the passenger pigeon.

Note:
The phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold. After its nest burns, a new young phoenix bird arises from the ashes. The Flight of the Phoenix was the title of novel by Elleston Trevor about a plane that crashes in the desert. It was made into a terrific movie in 1965, starring James Stewart and Peter Finch (do not watch the crappy 2004 remake).

Crossposted at Distributorcap NY.

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Climate Change- Pay now or pay later.

With the extremists on the right still screaming that climate change is a myth perpetuated by ‘libruls’, our government is still sitting on it’s proverbial hands.

Inaction on this front could become very, very costly. It’s the pay me now, or pay me a lot more later scenario. There is a new report out (pdf) that attempts to lay out what American’s will end up paying if we don’t get in gear and make sizable changes in how we deal with climate change NOW. From the Union of Concerned Scientists:

If global warming emissions continue to rise unabated, we will see growing costs related to climate change. This fact sheet reports some of the projected damages—to our coasts, our health, our energy and water resources, our agriculture, our transportation infrastructure, and our recreational resources—that will occur in states and regions throughout the United States.

Here in Cali’s San Joaquin Valley, we already see the effects of climate change on agriculture, our number one job creator. The state is literally running out of water. Actually, it’s been running out of water for years..decades even. We are now rationing water, which means the farmers are not getting enough water to plant all of their farmland.

This means fewer jobs and less food just for starters. From the MSNBC writeup in Feb of this year:

Federal water managers said Friday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the deepening drought gripping the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to completely stop surface water deliveries for at least a two-week period beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven’t had to take such a drastic move for more than 15 years.

The drought would cause an estimated $1.15 billion dollar loss in agriculture-related wages and eliminate as many as 40,000 jobs in farm-related industries in the San Joaquin Valley alone, where most of the nation’s produce and nut crops are grown.

*snip*

Farmers in the nation’s No. 1 agriculture state predicted it would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which would have to be grown using expensive well water.

“Water is our life — it’s our jobs and it’s our food,” said Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the farm bureau in Fresno County. “Without a reliable water supply, Fresno County’s No. 1 employer — agriculture — is at great risk.”

Any move by the Fed worsens the problem here in the valley. The state has already started rationing to all cities and farming areas. The Governator and the state assembly can not, for the life of them, come to an agreement on how to deal with the problem of not enough water. Fuckers are dancing around the problem and playing politics at the same time. From the Mercury-News link:

Democrats and Republicans have tangled over water issues for years, pushing off decisions while conditions have worsened for farmers, water districts and wildlife. The trouble is especially acute in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the water conduit for two-thirds of the state’s residents.

Federal courts and agencies have ordered severe reductions in pumping to protect the delta’s collapsing ecosystem.

During negotiations, lawmakers have disagreed over protection of water rights, mandatory conservation standards for cities, groundwater monitoring of private water supplies, who should make water decisions in the delta and how to pay for the infrastructure and restoration efforts requested by lawmakers.

So, we are damned if we do, damned if we don’t solve this problem. How do you feel about paying 10 bucks for a pound of broccoli, or any other veggie or fruit grown here in Cali? The price hikes also hit the dairy and beef farmers as they are having a hard time finding feed for their cattle and cows at a price that doesn’t bankrupt them. Guess what..they pass the costs on to us, the consumer.

Because the less we grow, the more you will pay for what is grown. The citizens of Cali are now paying exorbitant rates for their suburban water needs, plus higher food prices.

Sucks don’t it? And the shit hasn’t even hit the proverbial fan yet..not by a long-shot.

This post is part of the Blog Action Day on Climate Change.

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What Farts and Burps Have to Do with Global Warming

Due to their flatulence (farts) and eructation (burps), U.S. cattle put out 20% of U.S. methane emissions every year, about 5.5 million metric tons! Yes, rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gasses than cars, says a UN report. That makes livestock a major threat to the environment. Their gasses are only a small part of the problem. A complete report would also consider their land usage, the impact of grazing, global water use, deforestation, factory farms….the list goes on.

Headline: UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

Pardon the pun, but you don’t have to go “cold turkey,” giving up meat entirely, to make a global difference. Simply reducing the demand for meat will reduce the need for raising livestock (and their gaseous by-products). We just have to cut back.

Example: If you usually put 12,000 miles on your car each year, merely switching from eating red meat to chicken, fish, eggs just one day a week is like driving 760 miles less each year. If you’d switch to a vegetarian diet that one day-voila-you’ve saved the equivalent of driving 1,160 fewer miles.

And it is even easier to kick it up a notch. By eliminating red meat and dairy completely, you’ve cancelled out 5,340 miles of driving a year. By going vegetarian, you’ve just cut your emissions by over 60%. It is like driving only 3,900 miles instead of the 12,000 miles we started with.

Cutting back on the size of meat portions we eat will have an impact, too. If we each ate the equivalent of three fewer cheeseburgers a week, claims Mark Bittman in Food Matters, we’d cancel out the effects of all the SUVs in the United States. Bittman also provided the statistics given in the previous two paragraphs.

“How can one person make a difference?” good people sometimes cry out in despair when they reflect on our wounded planet.

That answer is easy. Eat less red meat.

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antarctic ice shelf breaks off

ice shelf the size of jamaica breaks off in the antarctic:

“It’s the culmination of yet another ice shelf retreat that’s been driven by [warming] climate,” Vaughan said.”

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Memo On Global Warming

M-E-M-O-R-A-N-D-U-M

April 3, 2009

To: The Flat Earthers

Fm: A Voice of Reason

Subject: Time To Stop Burning Or Start Bailing

It has come to the attention of those of us of sound mind and a belief in the principals of all Earth sciences, those of us with the basic human capability of observing phenomena in the natural world, analyzing and arriving at rational findings that some among us have still not understood the concerns we have with industrial man’s continued exploitation of Earth’s natural resources, and the ultimate destruction of the same natural resources and of Earth itself.

In case you have not figured it out, nothing on Earth lasts forever, nothing on Earth is frozen in time, man has not figured out how to turn oil in to water, let alone create more oil than which already exists in the crust of the Earth.  (The world’s total proved oil reserves are estimated to dry up by the year 2160, a scant, in geologic terms, 150 years from now, or in terms more understandable by a human consumer, after two lifetimes, in time for your great, great grandchildren to revert back to horses and buggies because there will be no fuel for internal combustion engines.)

Some might posit that all is not lost, that coal will come to the rescue, that coal which is currently the fuel that is burned to provide approximately 40% of the electricity generated for world consumption, could also be used, through gassification, or liquifaction to fuel internal combustion engines.  Of course those who would be proponents for more reliance on coal are those who would mine it, process it, and sell it to the rest of us.  The same people who will tell us the lie that there is such a thing as “clean coal”.

The reality is that coal, which is rock that is extracted from the Earth’s crust is primarily carbon, with additional elements of sulfer, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, that when burned produces heat, which transient in the sense that it eventually dissipates in the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide, which is not transient.  The carbon dioxide enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and because of the force of gravity, remains, wrapped around Earth, forever.  As the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere builds up, and as other chemical elements enter the atmosphere, they coalesce as an atmospheric “blanket”, allowing the rays of the sun to come through to Earth, warming the planet, but also acting as an “insulator”, preventing heat from dissipating off of the planet.  The planet is gradually, inexorably, warming, and this global warming has begun to manifest in incremental, and ultimately, life changing consequences.

We have seen the impact of global warming in climate change all over the planet.  As temperatures have risen more and more farming and grazing land become drought prone and crop yields diminish.  Man becomes less able to feed himself. Polar ice has retracted, with the polar ice pack melting and glaciers throughout the world melting, the resulting fresh water run off draining in to the oceans, so as the lands dry up, the sea levels rise.

Mohamed Nasheed, the president of the Maldives has recognized the challenges presented to man by global warming and has revealed a plan for the Maldives to be the world’s first country to become “carbon neutral”, within ten years.  Nasheed does not want to needlessly burn any more carbon that will add to global warming, and has good reason for this, the average elevation of the Maldives is 1.5 meters (60 inches, less than the height of an average human) above sea level.  If enough ice melts throughout the globe his entire country could be under water in a mere few generations.

A Maldive island at the beginning of the global warming era

Post global warming

Time is quickly running out, Flat Earthers.  If you believe that man was created and the universe were created a mere 10,000 years or so ago, you might think the next 150 to 500 years are an eternity in your frame of reference, but 150 years will come sooner than your great grand children will forget that you did nothing to prepare them for the perils that they will face.

Those of you who would ignore the signs, you are in a race, a race to develop the technology to leave this planet, and find and colonize another habitable planet in the universe that will have the necessary resources to support your way of life, before your conspicuous and unrestrained consumption destroys the human habitability of this planet.  Expend your treasure and time continuing to burn Earth’s natural resources and you will be left with no resources to help you escape the calamity that you have brought upon us.  Expend your treasure and time trying to find and get to another, human habitable planet, and ignore the global warming of your own planet Earth, and your great grand children are likely to cease to exist because they could not escape Earth and you did nothing to mediate the global warming, and time will simply have run out for the consuming human race.

The real race that you should embark upon, Flat Earthers, is the race to adapt, to change your way of living, to evolve from a carbon burning spendthrift, to a serious, careful preservationist of our planet.  But then, you don’t believe in evolution, do you Flat Earthers?

Read more from Big Fella at the BFD Blog!

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Whats wrong with this picture?

I am in California’s San Joaquin Valley. My son is currently living in central Oklahoma.

The temperature at my house @ 10am is a chilly 51 degrees.

My son is enjoying a balmy 74 degrees, at this very moment.

This ain’t right people..it just ain’t right.

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The Smell Of Snake Oil In The Wind

T. Boone Pickens, as Thomas Boone Pickens likes to be called, has been all over the media recently with his Pickens Plan.  The wealthy oil man and former corporate raider is touting himself as the country’s energy crisis savior and global warming re-mediator, or as it would seem, all around American hero.

Pickens has had a long, mostly successful run, and according to an article by Karen Breslau in the current issue of Newsweek has a personal worth of approximately $3 Billion.  Now Pickens, it seems, wants everyone to know he has seen the future, and in the future oil, particularly foreign oil will not be as readily available as it seems to be today.  No kidding.  According to Pickens his Pickens Plan will rescue us all and will work like this: he will lead the investment of $10 Billion to build the world’s largest wind farm in the Texas panhandle by erecting 1,700 to 2,000 wind turbines producing up to 4 gigawatts of electricity.  The wind fueled electricity would then replace the need to generate electricity by burning natural gas, and that would free up the natural gas to be used to fuel automobiles converted to natural gas.  Thus reducing our dependence upon foreign oil and reducing motor vehicle emissions (natural gas burns cleaner than gasoline).

While Mr. Pickens comes across in his television spots as sincere, knowledgeable and committed, he also avoids discussing all of the facts that are relevant to his proposal.  While Pickens’ wind farms might account for fueling 20% of our electrical power plants that are currently fueled by natural gas, at a very nice profit to Mr. Pickens, they will have no bearing on the 100 coal burning plants that produce 57% of the nation’s electricity. Coal fired furnaces are by far much more deadly to the atmosphere and living organisms than the gas fired furnaces that the wind turbines would replace.   While natural gas fueled vehicles might arguably be cleaner burning than gasoline powered vehicles, the fact is they will still burn fossile fuels, of which there are a finite amount under the Earth’s crust, and still result in spewing carcinogens in to the atmosphere.  The United States would still also be captive to foreign oil, and dependent upon another foreign power, Canada, which is where the bulk of the natural gas fields exist in the North American continent.

Visitors to the Pickens Plan web site probably will not find any disclosures describing Mr. Pickens’ holdings in natural gas distribution, or his motivation to increase the consumption of natural gas as an automotive fuel and thus improve his bottom line, not to mention his cornering the market on wind power.  Nor will they find any advocacy to dismantle coal fired electrical power plants as more wind farms are developed.  Pickens would have us focus only on reducing our dependency on evil foreign oil, but not on appreciably mitigating the ultimate effects of global warming on the planet.

What is really needed is a comprehensive national initiative, modeled on the United States Apollo moon program of the 1960’s and on the war effort of the 1940’s that included the Manhattan Project, bringing together the best scientists, engineers and industrial infrastructure, and human resources our country can muster, and develop a 21st century paradigm for the generation of electrical and automotive power.  Something that is not dependent upon a finite amount of carbon based Earth resources.  Something that through the process of generating energy does not negatively impact the ability for life to continue and thrive on this planet by destroying any part of the environment whether on land, sea or air.

What we need to do is figure out how to harness the renewable constants that exist not just on our planet, but in our solar system.  We need to achieve a much higher degree of leverage over solar power, the sun is a constant, the sun will remain “alive” for eons to come.  We need to leverage wind power, as long as there are weather systems circulating on this plant, there will be wind power.  We need to learn how to leverage gravity, gravity is what keeps the Earth in orbit around the sun, keeps the moon in orbit around the Earth, controls the tides.  Tidal power will generate electricity.  We need to perfect, if we can, hydrogen generation.  Motor vehicles that are powered by hydrogen power cells are just being developed, these are very fuel efficient and non polluting (the only emission from a hydrogen powered car is water vapor from the exhaust), but the current cost in fossil fuel and pollution to generate supplies of hydrogen gas for fuel negates any displacement of costs and pollutants associated with gasoline engines.

Replacing gasoline powered engines with natural gas is only a stop-gap, until the natural gas supply runs out.  The combination of wind power and natural gas bandwagon that Pickens would have us all jump aboard sounds more like a snake oil salesman’s gimmick.  It might sound like the solution to all of our energy problems, but it only postpones the inevitable, if we don’t figure out how to create power in a non-destructive manner.

Snake oil is right up T. Boone Pickens’ alley, he is the same guy who donated $3 Million to fund the Swift Boat smear attacks on John Kerry, trying to sell the country on those lies.

Cross posted from BFD Blog!

Updated 21-Aug-08:

See Scott Thill’s post at AlterNet calling out the Pickens Plan as just a shell game.

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Unbearable

This week the polar bear was designated as a species threatened with extinction, making the arctic bear the first creature added to the endangered species list, primarily because of global warming. A U.S. District Court in Oakland, CA, forced the Bush administration by imposing a May 15 deadline because it was supposed to have been done by January 8.

They did not have time to address the bear’s needs, but did find time on Feb 6 to open offshore oil fields to exploratory drilling in prime polar bear habitat.
The proposal to include polar bears on the endangered species list came from interior Secretary Kempthorne with an announcement that there was “sufficient scientific evidence of the bear’s melting habitat” to officially propose polar bears be put on the list of species threatened with extinction.

In classic Bush admin form, the proposal does NOT include designating critical habitat. It does not include a scientific analysis of the causes of climate change wither. Arctic sea ice last summer retreated to record levels, half the climate modelers did not think would happen until 2050. U.S. Geological Survey released a 9 volume survey saying 2/3rds of the bears habitat would be gone by 2050.

No ice • no hunting • no food •thin bears • lowered reproductive rate • weak cubs that don’t survive

This beautiful species is at risk because of Human irresponsibility.
Our country has refused to get onboard with the global community to address global Warming and is one of the biggest consumers & polluters. Everything get’s put off, actions taken are things like we will deal with getting off foreign oil sometime later, we will address fuel efficiency in a decade, maybe.

Too little • Much too late

Will we let this happen under our watch?

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no debate needed on global warming

[youtube]mF_anaVcCXg[/youtube]

please watch- thanks to tengrain

Resolved: Greed Is NOT Good

How often did we hear the promises made by the “free” traders that abolishing tariffs on countries that allow de facto serfdom and allow unregulated assaults on the environment would be just great for us? We did NAFTA, we’re implementing CAFTA, and we’ve basically outsourced our manufacturing and service sectors to China and India. How’s it working out?

We’ve also been told forever that if we just did away with those bothersome regulations, that the good-hearted souls in the financial sector would behave like altar boys in church. We’ve done away with a lot of those regulations, and we’re turning a blind eye to a lot of violations. How’s THAT working out?

Like it always works out. Greed seems to be an addiction that is worse than opium, or tobacco, or alcohol. The greedy will absolutely cut their own legs out from under themselves in the quest to turn over that quick profit, and they’ve been that way forever. To deregulate and not supervise business seems to have the effect of encouraging the pathologically greedy in the business community to act upon their pathologies with a complete abandoning of ethics, or even common sense.

Read more

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