Schreiner’s Media Landscape

It’s always interesting when someone vehemently and convincingly claims innocence of a crime for years then abruptly admits they indeed committed the offense and want to get the punishment over with as quickly as possible. That’s what’s happened in the case of a West Valley City mining operation that finally ‘fessed up that they dumped deadly selenium into some of Utah’s signature waterways including Great Salt Lake.

There are a number of environmental criminals still running around free and claiming innocence: chief among them Crandall Canyon mine owner Robert Murray. But as independent media coverage, resulting public outrage and political pressure grow, hopefully more of these liars, thieves and environmental murderers will meet justice.

Now let the investigation of the Bush Regime into its protracted efforts to destroy America’s natural places begin. And so too- the claims of innocence.

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…

I confess: I water my lawn. But I also let it get a little brown and my water bill is below the national average. America’s and Utah’s obsession with grass has made our state the second highest water-users per person in the country. To what end? Our own vanity? With the spector of water simply running out here by 2020 and human-caused “drought” due to over-consumption already hurting America’s southeast and southwest, WHY DON’T WE JUST STOP IT?

Ideological pathology. Like those who cut down the final tree on Easter Island, who will be the last person to watch the final drop fall from the nozzle of their hose as it falls uselessly on a blade of outdoor carpeting?

Our U.S. ag secretary says the Bush Regime is spending $600 million on renewable energy research and implementation. But note that all the forms of renewable energy mentioned are biofuels, one of them the dubiously-effective corn ethanol. But you should also know that biodiesels and other organically-based fuels, besides increasing the cost of food and taking land out of food production for a growing human population, require LOTS OF WATER. Do you want to pay more for water, or maybe water your lawn less, and risk shortages and deeper, more serious droughts, so you can drive a biodiesel-powered vehicle?

More evidence of how much power the agri-business lobby has, how politics is more powerful than truth in America, and how little public opinion, hard evidence and quality scientific research really influences our elected official, corporate media and the free market.

Utah’s making international environmental news over alarmingly high levels of toxic mercury in Great Salt Lake. It’s no secret that concrete makers, coal-burning power plants, refineries, mining and fossil fuels pump most of the mercury found in ground water into the air and it eventually falls to Earth. We know that eating fish or water birds from mercury-laden water is hazardous, so much so that Utah’s and other health departments across the country have issued warningx to not eat too much from our poison ponds.

Contentions that mercury is appearing naturally seem to be swimming upstream from the obvious truth that Great Salt Lake is a popular spot for a long list of migratory birds who have either adapted to the toxic levels- or have not yet dropped dead. But could this be a case of “no harm, no fowl?”

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.

War causes more environmental destruction than any one thing. It’s not a story you hear about much in the corporate media because drought is not as visual as bombs exploding and guns firing and, like torture and child prostitution, it’s one of those dirty secrets that take the glamor out of beating your enemy into oblivion. But what’s happening in Iraq now is not only a more serious crisis but the logical and eventual result of wars with no long-term strategies: not just both Bushes’ but Saddam Hussein’s conflicts with Iran, and his own people over several decades.

Fortunately, war-ravaged Afghanistan has determined that their post-war economic and environmental future (if there is one) rests on one major crop: heroin. Nice to see them standing on their own again. We can only hope that Iraq follows their Afghan brethren and produces an obviously marketable commodity- other than oil- that is in also in high demand among more affluent, western societies and will similarly bolster their economy.

Now that’s nation building!

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.

People haven’t even forgotten about the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster near Alaska almost 20 years ago. Now a collision has dumped unknown tons of oil into the flood-beleaguered Mississippi River and into hurricane and Bush-beleaguered New Orleans. Besides gasoline prices rising even more as a result, here’s even more reason to make the big push into renewable energy now not later. When you drill for and use more oil, guess what happens? MORE OIL SPILLS. Can the world really afford more of them?

One thing the oil shale advocates and the nuclear-crazed Aaron Tilton/Mike Noel Axis of Imbeciles don’t talk about is that their energy-producing technologies require LOTS OF WATER. The Bush Regime, while announcing its plans to open Utah’s public lands for oil shale speculation and destruction, hasn’t said where their water will come from because THEY DON’T KNOW. And whenever Tilton is asked the question of where the water will come from to cool his precious nuclear plant, the answer is always- and pretty much has to be- the Green River. Look at the Green River, Aaron. You think THAT will cool a nuclear reactor? If we have a drought, we may have to do what they do in France and what’s being threatened in parts of the U.S.: cut back or shut down reactors for lack of water.

Add the possibility of a uranium leak like the one in France two weeks ago that polluted the local water supply and forced a plant to shut down and you’ve got an undesirable scenario for a major power source. There are already legal battles being fought over water just for homes, businesses, agriculture and other stuff in Utah. Add oil shale and nuclear power into the mix and we will be lucky to have enough water left to brush our teeth.