Schreiner’s Media Landscape

August 15, 2010

Solar Power Growth in Utah Finally Paying Off? Major Developments Prove The Sun is Too Big to Fail

Filed under: Earth, Environment, Legislature, Obama, Power Grid, Salt Lake, Schreiner Productions, Solar, Utah, coal, conservation, mining, politics, renewable, video — Ken Schreiner @ 9:48 am

It’s been four years since we went solar. It started with Solarius Precarious (pic left), our 2 kWh, sun-tracking array in November 2006 (it went on-line in March 2007). We expanded our commitment in January 2010 with the installation of our solar hot water system (video below). During this time, we’ve felt strangely alone. Not only do the vast majority of people not share our beliefs, commitment, and investment. Many of them still consider us stupid, crazy, and perhaps even dangerous.

After a couple of years endlessly talking about and promoting solar energy- part of my role as director for the Utah Solar Energy Association which I left in 2009 after three years- I’ve pretty much stopped. In conversation or at parties, I still get the blank disinterested looks, the angry eco-terrorist-in-our-midst reactions, and more than anything, the I-just-don’t-get-it capitulation. It’s at that point I cease my ramblings and return to the subjects of other people’s kids, movies, celebrity scandals, and the other stuff most people seem to care about.

Throw in the lousy economy and a president who seems to have abandoned his commitment to clean energy and solar appears to be a dead issue. But a couple of developments the past few days have me encouraged again. First,

the Salt Lake Tribune ran this article today about the growth of Utah’s solar industry. There are woefully few articles about the subject here despite the fact that we are one of the best places in the world to have solar. FYI: I

was featured in one of the few in the Deseret News last year (pic from the article at right). Things have definitely improved in Utah from when I got here in 2006. But the change has been glacial, mostly because of the ruling

Republican Party’s blind allegiance to coal, the fossil fuel lobby, the bad economy, and lack of effective renewable energy industry lobbyists.

Second, my commitment, promotion, and knowledge of solar power may have scored my biggest renewable energy video gig. I can’t give out details yet. I’ll know more this week and report it here. All I can tell you is it’s big- really big. That’s why I’m so excited about solar again. Not just for me but for the entire planet. Things are indeed changing for the better. And it makes me want to talk about it again- even if I still get the blank looks and have to talk about other people’s kids first.

August 10, 2010

EPA Crackdown on Cement, Mercury Pollution; Finally a Solution?

Filed under: Climate Change, Earth, Environment, Nature, Obama, Salt Lake, Sierra Club, Utah, coal, conservation, dualism, mining, pollution, renewable, water — Ken Schreiner @ 8:13 am

Inexplicably, people have been scratching their heads for decades over where all the mercury pollution in our lakes, rivers, and other waterways is coming from. It’s been steadily increasing in our fish supply during this time and prompted occasional then permanent warnings about the dangers of eating fish because of the escalating amounts of mercury in them, regardless of species. Utah’s Great Salt Lake is a cesspool of mercury. It sits among a cement plant, a couple of smelters, and a coal-burning power plant, all known mercury polluters. Yet, researchers seem at a loss to determine the source of the pollution. All I do is read a little and I figured it out.

We’ve known the source of most of this mercury all this time and have done nothing- until now. The Environmental Protection Agency is finally going after cement manufacturers, the leading emitter of mercury and one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and possible human-induced climate change. This will not sit well with birthers, right-wingers, Andrew Breitbart groupies, and other Earth-happiness-and-peace haters who think restricting their right to destroy the planet is another sign of the apocalypse.

How about cancer, asthma, birth defects, and heart attacks? Better now? Of course.

July 28, 2010

Jack Hanna Blows Off Bears with Pepper Spray; Don’t Hit the Trail Without It

Filed under: Environment, Nature, Obama, Sierra Club, Utah, conservation, dualism, gun, media, television, wildlife — Ken Schreiner @ 9:09 am

Unlike a gun, it won't kill the bear- or you.

I first reported the advantages of using pepper spray instead of other more dangerous weaponry against bears more than two years ago. Since BYU here in Utah released the findings of their study showing pepper spray is more effective than guns in warding off bears, we’ve carried it with us on our hikes where we know bears live (in the mountains’ lowers elevations, among trees where they have food, shelter, protection). You can buy it at REI or any other outdoors store.

Jack Hanna, the famous animal dude, has been carrying it for years and finally got the chance to use it successfully the other day in Montana. This should not only serve as additional incentive for people to arm themselves appropriately and safely (sorry, Stephen Colbert), but as more evidence that the NRA’s and other gun fanatics’ efforts to make firearms legal in national parks are the product of paranoia, bad or dis-information, and the current administration cowering before the frightening spector of Fox News and right-wing power freaks.

If I was afraid of anything in the wild, it would be these Glock-toting psychos who don’t feel safe in their own living rooms wandering around ready to plug the first thing that rustles in the brush including their five-year-old daughter. As Colbert himself would say: “Bears- not so much.”

June 19, 2010

Father’s Day 2010: Right-Wing Family Values- NOT

Filed under: America, Children, Obama, dualism, politics, religion — Ken Schreiner @ 8:28 am

Colbert King’s excellent column in today’s Washington Post is a delightful skewering of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and the rest of the “family values” folks leading the pompous parade of moral know-it-alls while hypocritcally romping and closeting their own dirty laundry when the cameras are off. If America’s right-wingers hadn’t lost their senses of humor decades ago, they’d probably enjoy King’s column too. But to get the full effect you must know how to read.

June 17, 2010

Feds Should Seize BP as Collateral; Hey- We Already Own a Car Company

Filed under: America, Environment, Obama, Oil, politics, pollution, water — Ken Schreiner @ 1:44 pm

With BP head Tony Hayward walking and talking more like a bankrupt Wall Street broker or American car company exec, Washington better act fast: Seize BP, take their money and give it to the “small people” of the Gulf region whom BP thinks are not quite big enough for them to help. It’s either that or BP files for bankruptcy and leaves the federal government and us, the taxpayers, holding the cleanup bill just like all the other bailed-out, loser corporations. Socialism not looking so bad now, is it?

June 15, 2010

Breaking Irony: Eco-Terrorism, Green Conspiracy Theorists Help Environmentalists in BP Gulf, Chevron Red Butte Oil Disasters

Filed under: America, Bush, Cheney, Environment, Obama, Oil, Salt Lake, Utah, conservation, dualism, politics, pollution, renewable, water, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 8:17 am

When Rush Limbaugh vomited his “speculation” that eco-terrorists were responsible for the BP Deepwater oil rig nightmare, I was amused yet annoyed. First of all, Rush has NO CREDIBILITY on any subject (he is, like Glenn Beck, an “entertainer” by his own description). I find his rants and those of the paranoiac groupthink sect known nominally only as “conservatives” comical and often pathetic. But in spectacularly ironic fashion, what Rush and other green conspiracy theorists have done during the BP mess is give new strength, credibility and urgency to the environmental movement, particularly renewable energy.

Similarly, the recent oil pipeline leak on Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City caused speculation here in the reddest of the red states that bands of long-haired, hippie hooligans were spending their Friday night driving spikes into Chevron’s hardware. But alas, it appears a tree branch blown off during a wind storm caused a power line to contact a metal fence that caused an arc that blew a hole in the pipe. The only consolation for the Republinoids is that it was an act of God.

The radical Gaia worship theorists were also radically wrong about the BP oil rig too. BP’s own incompetence, greed and arrogance led to the accident. Worse than the accident itself, BP obviously had no idea what to do if and when their operations caused trouble and still doesn’t. But again, there is consolation for the Right. Despite BP’s obvious responsibility, they blame the Obama administration for not reacting fast enough, though one of their mantras is less government involvement in anything.

So I’d like to personally thank Rush Limbaugh, BP, Chevron, the Tea Party, the Republican Party, and the rest of the wacky gang for hanging themselves from the wreckage of the Deepwater rig. If America’s real conservatives were smart, they’d stop pointing fingers and start looking at themselves as the source of the “trouble” our country’s in and even come up with a few constructive ideas for getting us out of it. But that’s probably too much to ask. What recent history shows us is America’s right-wing is interested in only talking- and blaming anyone who’s actually trying to do something.

May 26, 2010

I Can’t Believe I Almost Supported Off-Shore Drilling; Palin’s Payoff to Spread the Big Lie

Filed under: Environment, Obama, Oil, coal, conservation, pollution, renewable, water — Ken Schreiner @ 9:53 am

I don’t know why the question isn’t asked by the mainstream media and by others if there’s any connection with the contributions made to President Obama and his administration and the support by the oil companies to the administration.

- Sarah Palin trying to shift responsibility for the BP oil spill

The McCain campaign- that would be the McCain-Palin campaign- received $2.4 million from oil and gas interests to Obama’s $900,000.

- Ruth Marcus, Washington Post

In reading accounts of the gross criminal negligence, ignorance and incompetence of BP in both the management of their Deepwater rig and the disaster that happened because of it, I have finally made up my mind about off-shore drilling. It can’t go on and probably shouldn’t have ever started.

It’s clear THE OIL INDUSTRY HAS NO PLAN OR EVEN AN IDEA HOW  TO HANDLE PROBLEMS THAT DEEP WHEN THEY HAPPEN. So why are we even discussing doing the same thing until we come up with a way to better prevent and deal with accidents when they do happen? And obviously, they do happen.

If this doesn’t end the controversy over renewable energy’s mandate and the phasing out of stupid, dangerous and costly oil drilling and coal mining, I don’t know what will. But you can bet that the Obama administration, fossil fuel industries, and corporate news media are ramping up their propaganda machines to convince us that the status quo is the only alternative.

If we buy this BS, we deserve Sarah Palin as president. She also lives a parallel universe and has built her campaign for whatever on deceiving us into believing things that just aren’t true. Like off-shore drilling is smart, economical and essential. And like she’s capable of anything except lying.

April 13, 2010

Smart Electric Meters Not So Smart After All; Distributive Energy is Still Essential to Homeland Security

Filed under: 9/11, America, Bush, Cheney, Internet, Obama, Oil, Power Grid, Solar, coal, conservation, geothermal, nuclear, renewable, wind — Ken Schreiner @ 4:58 pm
“…an attacker may be able to force control messages to perform such tasks as turning off the power
latch, updating firmware, or attacking HAN devices. Potential ways of successfully executing such an attack may include stealing symmetric keys from a meter, private/public keys from a legitimate collector, or any other such authentication information.”
- Security firm InGuardians’ report on the vulnerability of centralized power systems caused by “smart meters”

Of all the so-called “successes” of America’s anti-terrorist campaign since 9/11, one that’s not talked about is our power grid. That’s because nothing’s changed. If anything, it’s worse. Even the invention of so-called “smart meters” has created yet another way for would-be terrorists to not only take over a home or business’ electricity system, but gain access to the grid and cripple it remotely.

As the Bush regime did with its 9/11 intel, you can expect the industry-friendly Obamanoids to ignore or bury this valuable intelligence and encourage an attack by terrorists whom you KNOW are reading it. The only total answer to this problem is distributed energy: requiring  every home and business to own and maintain its own power system: solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, even nuclear. As long as America is run by corporations though, you can expect not only an increased terrorist threat, but more power outages, shortages of coal, oil and other disappearing fossil fuel resources and, as Bush-Cheney showed us, lots of posterior-protection.

April 11, 2010

Chinese Spies Hack, Steal with Impunity: Memories of Tibet Four Years Later

Filed under: America, China, Internet, Obama, Schreiner Productions, Tibet, journalism, media, video — Ken Schreiner @ 9:40 am

“To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.”

- Confucius, ancient Chinese philosopher

The Great Firewall of China is infamous for censoring blogs, blocking incoming and outgoing email, videos and other data, and trampling the human rights of its own citizens and foreign visitors alike. So we should not be surprised when NYT issues this report on the rampant spying, thought-napping and privacy-invading Chinese government. However, we should be outraged and take action as a nation and a world.

The Chinese government has routinely exercised its paranoid prying for decades. It’s on the verge of driving out the very companies who helped build their information empire: Google chief among them. I experienced Chinese censorship personally when I attempted to blog out of China and Tibet during the shooting of my documentary “Kora: Tibet and the Trail of Truth” there four years ago. After several improvised work-arounds, I was finally able to post to YouTube. But I will never forget the creepy feeling of seeing those gray boxes pop up on my screen indicating access to my normal channels had been inexplicably denied.

As the NYT article captures, things have gotten worse in the past four years. As China grows economically stronger than the world outside, the government is empowered to ignore and even change the rules of how Earthly leadership treats its own citizens, and respects the rights and freedoms of sovereign nations. Simply stated: They don’t.

China doesn’t respect others and doesn’t care BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE TO. Google’s, Obama’s, and free speech groups’ efforts and even threats to get China to play nice have failed. The Bush regime’s pathetic pandering and pussy-footing only boosted Beijing’s belligerence.  It’s time to get REALLY tough. Tariffs, embargoes, travel restrictions, spying on their citizens here, penalties, and other economically and socially punitive actions are what the Chinese government understand. It’s what they do to us. Let’s see how much they like it.

April 9, 2010

Breaking Irony: Rupert Murdoch Doesn’t Watch Fox News- Only Owns It

Filed under: America, Bush, Cheney, China, Obama, dualism, journalism, media, politics, television — Ken Schreiner @ 7:53 am

“I have great respect for the (New York) Times, except it does have very clearly an agenda.”

- Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News

The world’s foremost corporate media collector’s comments from the National Press Club last night are so bloody rich with irony that they almost run past you. Everybody’s a media critic these days, and everybody, even the right-wing nut cases and snake oil salesmen who reap the benefits, knows that Fox News is the most biased TV news operation outside of China or the Arab world. But not everyone would suspect that the supposed-smartest-man-in-media is posturing as a defender of independent-thinking journalism while throwing stones from the rotted balcony of his huge glass house.

This is consistent with the continued effort by “conservative” puppet masters and their clueless minions to make real “independent thinkers” believe that Jesus is coming next Thursday, the world is flat, white is black, and wrong is right. We’ve seen propaganda work before: Hitler, the Bush administration, any major corporate advertising firm or political party. And as long as this deception is bought by a growing number of Americans, wealthy and self-serving corporate dictators like Murdoch can say anything they want and get away with it.

And if you believe everything Fox News, Limbaugh, Beck and the other clowns say, guess what that makes you.

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