It’s tragically but tantalizingly ironic that the once-mighty Republican Party is cowering in the shadows of an approaching storm, not terrorists, oil companies or even the Chinese. Bush and Cheney have canceled their last chance to say something good about their horrendous nightmare of an administration. The GOPhers are talking about cutting the convention short: more worried about being seen partying during a national disaster (isn’t that what they’ve been doing the last seven years?) than actually doing anything to help.
What the Republicans fear most is America watching John McCain give his acceptance speech in split screen with live video of bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans. Especially after Obama’s triumphant Denver address that was more like the Jacksons’ Victory tour. But that’s the Republicans’ karma. They created the PR nightmare that is approaching our southern coast, not Nature. And hopefully, many of them are thinking what Robert Preston’s character Big Ed Bookman, faced with divine retribution for his corruption, confessed so eloquently in “Semi-Tough”: “Lord, I’m a sinner and now you’re gonna f**k me.”
Keeping up appearances is a 24/7 gig when all you’ve got is the APPEARANCE OF CARING OR ACCOMPLISHMENT, not any kind of record of it. But after seven years of monumental gaffes and dismal failures- 9/11, Iraq, energy prices, the federal deficit, Social Security, the housing crisis, one ill-fated debacle after another- it is Hurricane Gustav and Nature that frighten our pillars of strength and integrity more than Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama, protesters- even Janet Jackson. You think the GOP considered curtailing its little bash in the face of threats of violence, $4/gallon gasoline, and crippling recession?
Bush, Cheney and the Republicans have led an all-out assault on Nature during their reign of error. Now, their endless, senseless campaigns of destruction make any hurricane, wildfire, even a bear attack or other act of Nature seem like justifiable revenge against an evil overlord. I feel for the people of New Orleans and hope Gustav and his younger sister Hanna who’s yet to come are not as bad as everyone fears. But I also hope that Bush and his partying party finally get the message:
YOU MESS WITH NATURE- NATURE MESSES WITH YOU. Party on, fellas. Don’t bother cleaning up when you leave. We’ll pick up. Just go.
Every time I see one of these stories I wonder “Why isn’t Utah getting any of this?” Google is dropping $10.25 million on a “breakthrough” geothermal technology which will be spent in Texas, California and other places that don’t have nearly the abundance of geothermal activity that Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada do.
It’s clear that AS LONG AS THE SAME PEOPLE RUN UTAH, WE WILL CONTINUE TO LOSE BILLIONS TO COMPETITORS INVESTING IN AND DEVELOPING RENEWABLE ENERGY while we dish our money to the same old, wealthy fossil fuel companies who are going NOWHERE.
What do we have? Pie-in-the-sky oil shale, unproven gasification and a bunch of other maybe technologies that won’t do anything to bring the price of energy down or fight environmental degradation. What are our so-called leaders thinking- assuming thinking is, indeed, going on?
Most of today’s articles and stories from the Olympics are about foreign journalists’ first encounters with Beijing’s air pollution. But most of these writers come from big cities including Salt Lake City (left) who have some of the worst air, quantities and forms of airborne pollutants in the world. As critical as I am of the Chinese, it’s time the editors of American media recognized and restate for the benefit of their audience and in the interest of fairness and accuracy that air pollution is a global problem of which THE UNITED STATES AND ITS CITIES ARE THE MAJOR CAUSE.
When athletes start dropping from breathing problems, warnings or other societal alterations occur, those stories should be done. But I think we’ve already gotten the message that Beijing has bad air. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Houston and other big U.S. cities cannot claim the moral high ground on this issue. America can get away with being preachy about things like democracy, human rights and even product safety when it comes to China. But pollution isn’t one of them.
When I lived in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1997-99, my house was near a small lake which no one ever used. So I bought a boat. But not the kind you think of as a “boat”: the one with beds, a kitchen, room for eight, motors, sails, radar, 12-inch cannons. This was an inflatable boat: a German model by Sevylor called, appropriately, the “Fish Hunter.” It looks like either a bizarre cartoon character or a Navy Seals assault craft. Back then, it cost about $100. Their website says it’s now $158 but it’s $110 on eBay.
After a long week of TV non-news-sense, I would blow a Saturday afternoon just paddling around, letting the sun fry the sociopathy out of my ethically-abused body. I could float along shore to see how close I could get to the great blue herons and other beautiful birds that lived there (pretty close, actually though herons are pretty skittish). After I left Kalamazoo, I only used the Fish Hunter a couple of times during my stops in Burlington, Vermont and Champaign, Illinois. But recently on a week vacation in Park City, I hauled it out again.
After MacGyvering a way to inflate with our bike tire compressor instead of the foot pump, saving about an hour of leg exercise, Abbie and I paddled around nearby Jordanelle Reservoir and- ironically- had a gas. We watched as the intolerable loud and smelly Jet Skis and motorized craft zoomed past us, creating big wakes that tossed us around and added to the fun. I’d forgotten how fast and maneuverable the Fish Hunter is. Most of all, I’d forgotten how much fun it is just floating around on a hot, lazy afternoon not producing any greenhouse gases or other pollution, working my upper body by rowing, and seeing more of Utah’s spectacular scenery from a different perspective.
I haven’t taken it out on Great Salt Lake yet. It’s perfect for getting to those fresh water marshes ringing the lake where all the wildlife live. Yeah, I know it’s a petroleum product. But if you’ve got a choice between a plastic-coated, noise, water and air-polluting pond rocket or a zero-maintenance, zero-polluting bucket of fun, give me the Fish Hunter any day. Especially Saturday.
Escorting the United States into Third World status would seem to be a hard job. But Utah’s U.S. Senators Orrin Scratch and Bob Blownit are doing their darndest. Besides overseeing the accelerating downward spiral of the American economy, endless war and the most incompetent and corrupt administration in history, they are making China the preeminent, world-leading nation by letting them SAVE THE WORLD FROM AMERICAN EXCESS AND IGNORANCE.
I’ll admit to being a harsh critic of the Chinese government. But their progress in renewable energy is enviable and responsible. They may emit the most CO2 now, but the biggest eco-criminal has always been the United States. So let’s give credit where credit- and discredit- is due. China, despite its brutal oppression and deception, is really trying to reverse the effects of its economic growth. Can America say the same thing?
It’s sad to see Yosemite in California, one of America’s premier national parks, threatened by fire. It was sad in 1988 when Yellowstone, our largest and most popular park, was similarly devastated. No matter that it was a human (shooting a gun) that touched off this blaze. It could’ve been lightning or a number of causes. The dry conditions due to persistent drought in the southwestern U.S., people building luxury cabins and towns too close to and actually in Yosemite, and too many people driving into and around the park have turned Yosemite into a massive tragedy no longer waiting to happen.
We should take this time to recognize humanity’s role in not only starting the fire but creating the conditions that led to it causing so much damage and threatening so much more. Forests burned millions of years before humans walked the Earth. It was part of the natural process forests need to replenish themselves and stay healthy. But because humans demand consistency and predictability from Nature, the natural processes of our planet including floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, eruptions, droughts, etc. become DISASTERS. The ultimate disaster is that without an awakening to the devastation we have caused and a reversal of our destruction, there will only be more disasters- with no one to blame but ourselves.
A new reader Todd sent me this great info that appears on his own site ecomind and it’s especially important right now. He did a paper about energy use in Utah which contains a lot of very revealing and disturbing facts about who’s causing energy use in Utah to grow out of control, leading to the increased use of dirty, polluting coal, now 95% of all power generated in Utah. Here are some highlights:
Rocky Mountain Power is facing a 2,400 MW deficit by 2012 and Utah is facing a 300-400 MW deficit every two years. Most of this deficit is due to large households central air conditioning systems. National averages for home consumption are 41% for heating and cooling, 39% for appliances (mostly refrigeration), 9% for lighting (25% of 9% reduced by compact flourescents), and 7% on electronics and computers. It has been thought that plasma TV’s will consume as much as a refrigerator. With monetary agendas it’s hard to know what is factual. However, plasma TVs use .34 watts/in2 which is the same as CRT TVs. LCDs use .29 watts/in2 and rear projectors use .14 watts/in2.
Note on his site, as a couple of other readers have since my post about the water needed for nuclear power not being available in Utah, how COAL USES AS MUCH WATER AS REACTORS. But the major blame for waste and extravagance falls on us:
Utah has the cheapest power of any state at 5.99 cents per kilowatt. Although it is argued that the low price of electricity encourages business in Utah it also creates wasteful practices. Also, Utah’s ethnocentric culture, politics, liquor laws, and lack of diversity discourage business investment. Coal plant emissions create environmental feedback as well. Water consumption per MW for coal plants is likely to be comparable to nuclear plants.
Emissions from Utah electric power generators in 2002 currently excluding mercury and other elements: Sulfur Dioxide 32,133 tons Nitrogen oxides 71,886 tons Carbon Dioxide 37,746,475 tons Total Utah generator emissions: 37,850,494 tons were just over half of 1% of the total U.S. emissions which were 7.2 billion metric tons or 6.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases (in 2005).
Before you switch on the AC again today, remember the swamp cooler- if you have one. At low humidity like we’ve been having, they will keep your house 15-20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature and use 1/7 of the power. As one reader has pointed out, on high pollution days (the past few have been Yellow in the valley), swamp coolers will suck ozone into your home which could cause reactions with substances inside your home releasing hazardous chemicals. But remember: air conditioning units release CFCs into the air which create ozone. So you’re aggravating the problem by running the AC.
My recommendation for escaping the heat, go camping in the Uintahs. Less than one hour away- and about 30 degrees cooler.
Please read Todd’s paper for more on this, oil shale and energy speculation in Utah, and more great information on why efficiency, conservation and renewables are the way to go for Utah’s energy future.
The Internet is smouldering with buzz over oilman T. Boone Pickens idea/plan to sever America’s umbilical to Saudi Arabia by building the world’s largest wind power network. I’m not sure how I feel about it because while I believe wind power is an essential component to any renewable energy portfolio, I’m not a big fan of centralized power generation. I’m a firm believer in distributive power where the homeowner, office maintenance staff or other building supervisor runs their own power supply and controls how much they use and how much they spend on it like they would with building supplies, lawn fertilizer or any other personal commodity.
Still, Pickens is an interesting fellow- maybe a little crazy but it certainly hasn’t affected his bank roll. No one can doubt his patriotism other than undermining the coal, oil and natural gas industries. But above all, we must remember he’s a businessman who will do anything, say anything to sell anything. It’s the same kind of approach used by defense contractors, social network advocates and car salespeople. Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
On my recent travels, I’ve run into a couple of people who think the nuclear power industry is not subsidized by the U.S. government. Here then are the facts:
Since 1943, nuclear received nearly all the federal money provided to alternative energy sources including solar, wind, geothermal, etc. This from the Renewable Energy Policy Project: “Historically, wind, solar and nuclear received about $150 billion (1999 dollars) in cumulative federal subsidies over about 50 years (1943-1999). Of this amount, 95% (145.5 billion) went to subsidize nuclear power. More importantly, the largest part of this investment per kilowatt hour to nuclear was in its beginning years, giving it a distinct advantage over other safer energy technologies.”
Since its inception, an estimated total (who knows what the real figure is) of $70 BILLION given by taxpayers to the nuclear industry to provide 20% of our nation’s power.
And there’s more to come. Another $125 million per reactor in tax credits for every new plant that comes on line. But to this 2005 act’s “credit,” other renewable plants are eligible for it too. It’s just that the best way to renewables is distributively, not monopolitistically which the subsidies not only encourage but reward.
If you want to see more, just search for “nuclear subsidies.” FYI: I’m not opposed to nuclear power on a limited and geographically appropriate scale. I just think it should be given the same consideration- and money- as solar, wind, geothermal and other safer, cheaper energy sources.
