Schreiner’s Media Landscape

The controversy over how- or even whether- to save Great Salt Lake from mercury and other toxic substance pollution, is heating up again after the discovery of even greater levels of killer chemicals. What the announced or written controversy is really doesn’t matter. Kennecott and other mining, energy and big polluters to blame for the problem continue to dodge their responsibility for keeping their work areas clean.

The root of the problem is that for years, these companies have been allowed to operate with comparative impunity in the name of commerce. Now that the environment is eclipsing commerce in the minds of many Utahns, and even a handful of our political and religious leaders, our big polluters are struggling with the concept of stewardship, even while the LDS Church- who runs the place- embraces stewardship more and more each day. I even expect to see President Monson out at the Downtown Farmers Market tomorrow.

Mark Thomas, a Mormon business consultant, sitting on a recent panel on the environment (that’s a headline in itself!) said some interesting things about his religion’s markedly disinterested position, according to this Deseret News article:

“I have a notion in the next few years you will see some surprises,” he said, advising people to stop and look around, and talk to their bishops and others about ways to save energy and help the environment. He believes creativity is the key to solving environmental issues. “With a small effort, we may save ourselves,” he said.

Important to note is the state motto of Utah is one word: Industry. It appears Mormon leadership wants us to believe the conspicuous absence of any environmental policy or commitment by the LDS is due only its monolithic lethargy, not its aversion to the concept of stewardship at the expense of holy, transcendent commerce. Also note that it will only take “a small effort (to) save ourselves” according to Thomas.

The talk is encouraging. But talk is hot air that won’t help power the Tabernacle’s sound system. Where are the solar panels on the churches? “You see the rumblings already started,” Thomas said. I just hope that’s not just another “earthquake” caused by one of “BS Bob” Murray’s coal mines collapsing on more of Utah’s hard-working, church-going worker bees.

It’s not only amazing that Big Oil- BP Solar- is financing a huge solar project to help power an entire university. They just announced it last week and it’s going to be in full operation AT THE END OF THIS AUTUMN! More proof that solar is here NOW- so much so that even the oil companies are pushing it.

So another western state walks away with a fantastic new renewable energy system while Utah keeps using the same finger to look for oil and coal that it keeps planted up its butt the rest of the time. What is it about Utah’s political and corporate “leaders” and George W. Bush that makes common sense invisible to them? Maybe they need x-ray glasses. Probably just replacements. Not of their glasses. Of them.

It didn’t start out as a challenge to myself. Ultimately, that’s how it evolved but not why it succeeded. I’m talking about NOT running our central air conditioning units the entire summer. In fact, I didn’t even take the winter covers off (pix below). This despite the fifth hottest July on record in Salt Lake this year, a hotter-than-average June, and 2007’s being the hottest summer here EVER.

The reason? Were were out of town for a couple of weeks during that time. But the major reasons were our solar PV electrical system and our evaporative or, as popularly known in the west, “swamp” cooler (pix left). Its principle is quite simple: a ferris wheel in a box on your roof blows naturally cooling mist using water from your home into your house keeping the temperature down and acting as a ceiling fan/giant spray bottle.

Ol’ Swampy kept our house 15-20 degrees cooler than outside even on the hottest days. Luckily, the humidity during this time was low (10-25%) which is how the swamp cooler works its magic. Above 25%, it doesn’t work very well which is why you don’t see them much outside of semi-arid climates like Utah’s. What’s more, swamp coolers use about 75% less electricity than central air conditioners and an “advanced ducted” system (we don’t have one of those) can save up to $10,000 in operating costs over the 15-year life of the system.

I can’t tell you what our total savings over last summer are yet. I have some more number-crunching to do. But 2007 was hotter than this one and we mostly ran the AC. I can tell you that combined with our solar panels, our electric bill for mid-June-mid-July this year was $28.20. Last year during that period, we spent $122.40. From mid-May-mid-June 2007 (a scorcher), we experimented with our then-new solar system, ran totally off-grid and paid $8.20 (the hot tub’s on 220v). That same period this year, we were grid-tied and net-metered and paid $34.07. July-August 2007 was $122.40. We haven’t gotten the bill for that period this year yet.

Swamp coolers use water but not nearly as much as you’d think. And with routine maintenance, not enough to make much of a difference in your water bill. From June 8-July 11, 2007, the hottest month on record in Salt Lake, we spent $68.03 on water. This year during the same period (slightly cooler), we spent $62.19. The water bill from July 12-August 9, 2007 jumped to $151.75. We haven’t gotten our bill yet for that period this year but I’m expecting it to be similar or less. I’ll let you know.

At a glance, the combination of the solar panels and the swamp cooler is a massive economic and environmental savings. There are some critics of swamp coolers who point out that swamp coolers suck in pollutants from the outside air that can cause you problems. But central, car and industrial air conditioners, especially the older ones, give off HCFC (hydrochloroflurocarbons) that deplete the ozone layer, aggravating the problem even more. As for sacrificing comfort, if it’s 100 degrees outside and 80 degrees inside and you can’t feel and live with the difference, you need your blood pressure, not your air conditioning checked.

The question is: which do you want? More ozone in your home or creating more ozone that will eventually get into your home anyway? Not an easy choice. But because airborne ozone and pollutants vary in intensity from day to day, and an air conditioning unit gives off HCFCs all the time, it makes more sense to run the swamp cooler from a personal, and environmental and a neighborly standpoint.

Bottom line: if you live in the western U.S. in a semi-arid or desert climate, there’s no reason not to have an evaporative cooler. They’re cheaper to buy, install, operate, are much lower maintenance, use 25% the electricity of an air conditioner, don’t use much water, have far less impact on the environment at large and maybe equal the health impact inside your house as AC. When Nature gives you heat and drought- don’t whine. Get a swamp cooler, some solar panels and laugh all the way to the bank.

It was as if Salt Lake City had suddenly become the capital of Mars. I watched the front ooze into the valley from behind the Oquirrhs last night. With it came high winds, clouds and the distinctive smell of wood burning. It was smoke from Yosemite where the fires there burn on and the tourists keep coming anyway.

Ironically, and perhaps superfluously, I puffed on my cigar as the sky and eventually everything turned a grimy shade of pinkish-red (or is pink reddish?). I hadn’t seen sky like that since the Great Inversion of January 2007. This too demanded pictures for posterity.

At the same time, I found out on the 10 p.m. news, wildfires were burning near our own airport and up City Creek Canyon to our north. As the the aromas and plumes converged along the Wasatch, I felt an eerie oneness: a sense that a fire just up the road and another hundreds of miles away affect us all. Nature is so big, vast and powerful that it overwhelms us when it wills so without having to think, plan, choose or execute anything. No matter how we try we are incapable of taming or totally destroying it. We are only capable of destroying ourselves while Nature continues disinterested.

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.

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.

It’s curious when a new study produces evidence that all the bad things that will happen if we don’t change are happening already. That’s the case with the new study about Utah’s projected population growth, acclerated reliance on fossil-fuel burning vehicles and more roads. It says we need to spend more on mass transit and other pollution-mitigating infrastructure instead of the stuff we know will ultimately kill us or make life here intolerable. It all depends on the wording of the study, of course, and the stories in corporate media that follow.

It’s all related to the denial that most of the human race is engaging in right now over climate change, air and water pollution, oil and coal dependence, overpopulation, etc. The concept that we can go on forever doing exactly what we did 100 years ago is still deeply rooted in American culture, especially here in the western U.S. Ironically, resistance to change is actually more a characteristic of older, former imperial nations like England, France and Japan, not the United States. But in a dramatic reversal of attitudes, America now finds itself the stodgy, imperial old-timer and Europe and Japan the agents of change.

Funny how time, knowledge and experience help you stay alive- and how the lack of it helps you die young.

Most Utahns grimace and stick their fingers in their ears every time Al Gore says something. Which is highly ironic because after seven sorry years, it’s clear they’ve been listening to the wrong guy. In his latest speech/warning, Gore says America needs to change its energy ways fast if we are truly interested in helping our economy, helping our citizens, making America energy-independent again and, perhaps least important, avoiding a possible global catastrophe via a super-heated climate. But for a moment, forget global warming, Gore’s Oscar-winning, self-promotion vehicle and the sad fact that, JEEZ- HE SHOULD’VE BEEN PRESIDENT INSTEAD OF THIS LOSER WE GOT.

Al Gore is right- ESPECIALLY FOR UTAH. While our state leaders grasp for new ways to play the same, sad song, Gore is looking for better instruments for a new orchestra. Yes, Utah has coal, natural gas, uranium and all the other fossil fuels that have helped create the environmental crisis we must get ourselves out of. But we also have greater than average supplies of solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and other renewable fuels. Instead of just a few utilities, oil companies and corrupt political representatives getting rich while the world gets hotter and sicker, more smaller Utah companies providing renewable energy services could share the profits but building a new, sustainable energy infrastructure. The new revenue flow would make not only Utah as a whole richer, but put that energy money in the pockets of local communities, home and business owners instead of a very few utility magnates living in Portland, Los Angeles or wherever.

Ironically, Utahns and their leaders should be FOLLOWING AL GORE instead of opposing him if they are truly CONSERVATIVE. But we all know that common sense evaporates into our filthy atmosphere whenever politics get into the details. Utah must wake up and realize the incredible opportunity we have to distribute our energy wealth for the common good instead of handing more and more of our hard-earned money to wealthy fat cats who are no more concerned about Utah, you or your family than they are about our planet or future.

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.