Schreiner’s Media Landscape

I like to give credit where credit is due, especially when it’s someone who repeatedly disappoints and angers you. So congrats to the Bush EPA who finally did something good for the environment: tightened emissions standards for gas-powered lawn mowers. This is no small feat as fossil-fuel burning lawn mowers produce more pollution than vehicles, according to a famous Swedish study.

Me? I’m still using my now two-year-old Ken-powered mower though I’ve nearly beaten it to death and am a little disappointed that it wasn’t more durable. My next mower- solar-battery powered.

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.

I don’t consider myself a member of either party. But clearly, one party appears much more ready to make America more energy independent and environmentally responsible while the other is satisfied with enslaving Americans to foreign terrorist governments, wealthy multi-national corporations, deteriorating air, water, environmental and climate destruction, and economic doom. Maybe there is a clear choice for president this year…

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.

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.

As a member of The Nature Conservancy, I’m really proud of the research our organization does to show not only how important maintaining our wild places is but how much damage and death is caused by encroachment of humans on our environment. This new study proves the harmful effects of air pollution on Nature, just in time to head off the attempt by the Bush Regime to allow the building of more coal-burning power plants next to wilderness areas and national parks. Of course, Bush’s people never read, listen to or follow even their own research results. This study will likely only be good in dsicouraging yet another disastrous policy mistake that will end up getting overturned by a federal court.

With the exception of Governor Huntsman, Utah Republicans don’t give a crap about you, the environment, your power bills or anything that involves something other then the legislature and those it really serves: powerful special interests like utilities, construction companies, the fossil-fuel and mining industries. That’s why the release of the new report on global warming and its effects on the western U.S. drew nothing but scorn from Utah’s lead idiot, alleged Representative Mike Noel R-Kanab.

Despite the fact that most of the symptoms of excessive fossil-fuel consumption already exist here i.e. increased respiratory and childhood illnesses, hotter summers, longer droughts, he and his fellow incompetents insist nothing should be done and the report is just more hooey coming from the radical environmental movement. OOPS! This is a federal report done by the Bush Regime’s own EPA. Are the only remaining Bush supporters in America going to tell their boy that he’s wrong?

If that happens, maybe they’ll even find the brain cells to see how wrong he’s been about Iraq, homeland security, Social Security, immigration, stem cell research, North Korea, China, energy, the economy, the environment and virtually everything else life consists of.

Naaaaaaaaahhhhhh.