Lovely ad by "Environmental Policy Alliance" (about more here http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Environmental_Policy_Alliance) that basically calls people opposed to fracking gullible idjits and basement-dwelling losers. Except for the ones that are young, street-protesting radicals.
Though what really gets me is the visual diss of "Firefly". _Now they have gone too far._
Okay, so political ads that make fun of the other side, dredge up dubious assertions, and pretend to be from non-partisan or even beneficent organizations ("But they Environmental Policy Alliance as trees in its logo! It must be a bunch of nice people who love the environment!") are nothing new. But, c'mon — there are enough people in the state of Colorado who have grave doubts or opposition to fracking that simply identifying them all as buffoons seems more likely to stir up further opposition. An ad like this is clearly aimed at encouraging the base who already support the sentiment ("Hey, Larry, did you see that commercial about those stupid anti-frackers? Hi-larious!"), but by being too irritating they run the risk of engendering the other side to more vigorous action.
Indeed, the only thing I find more irritating than this ad is the +The Denver Post's new new "You've exceeded your free article views this month" message, which is why I'm not posting through a share of the DP's article.
It's not just the panhandle, of course — the Ogallala Aquifer extends across multiple states (including Colorado). But, in a classic example of the Tragedy of the Commons, Texas has not had any restrictions on individual land owners pumping out however much water they want to pump out (or sell).
(I'll also note the cattle trough below which would probably lose less water if it were canopied or otherwise covered, and the first photo in the story showing a nicely watered lawn around Mr Spinharne's flag pole.)
Oh, well — I don't have the answers, except that I'm sure it will come down to less government regulation and letting the free market make it all better for everyone.
Yup, 1,250 tons of horse droppings in NYC per day, back before those Evil Internal Combustion Engines took over. Sure, cars and trucks have their own problems and costs and environmental impact — but all that manure (and the more-than-occasional dead horse) had both olfactory and significant health issues.
In 1893, 2.5 million pounds of horse manure filled NYC streets per day
Think New York summers are pungent now? Imagine what it must’ve smelled like at the turn of the 20th century. Before the introduction of the automobile, horses were leaving about 2.5 million pounds of shit in the streets per day.
The problem being, of course, climate change. Never mind that the DoD has been looking at the risks and impacts of climate change since the George W. Bush years. Never mind that climate change has a direct impact on potential threats, unrest, allies, opponents, logistics, etc. Any involvement in gathering info, sharing info, or making use of info about climate change is just "political," and therefore must be expunged.
The amendment, from Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va. — hey, who would have guessed a coal state would be the source of this) is will probably not survive the Senate and conference committees. But it's another indicator to me of how the "politicization" of climate change is leading to willful ignorance being imposed by the GOP on the Defense Department and anyone else they can get hold of … for political (and campaign-financed) reasons.
Oh be proud, so very proud: "The U.S. House-passed 2015 Defense Appropriation bill apparently intends to have the Pentagon stop using leading scientific assessments of global climate disruption in national security planning. The Pentagon takes climate change and its impacts seriously and has included these issues in two Quadrennial Defense Reviews. But an amendment by a coal-state Republican would direct DoD to disregard the U.S. National Climate Assessment and the IPCC international assessment."
It isn't just the GOP led House Science Committee that is packed with jibbering loonies. They swarm across America in this civil war, in which the battleground is science and reason.
House votes to direct the Pentagon to disregard climate change assessments
The U.S. House-passed 2015 Defense Appropriation bill apparently intends to have the Pentagon stop using leading scientific assessments of global climate disruption in national security planning. The Pentagon takes climate change and its impacts seriously …
I used face cleaners with micro-beads before, but I'll be going back to just plain old face cleaners (and a loofah) instead.
I'm amused / irked by the soap companies wanting this put off (the law doesn't actually go into effect for years) because they must have some sort of scrubby bits in their soap. Which is, of course, nonsense. They would like to have them, and customers have certainly shown they, too, would like to have them, but such a product is neither a moral imperative nor the only way to get one's face clean.
Here's why Illinois banned microbeads in soap, and why other states should too:
Why Those Little Plastic Microbeads in Your Soap Are So Bad
This week, Illinois became the first state in the country to ban exfoliating plastic beads. Good for Illinois. Plastic microbeads have been running off by the billions into the Great Lakes and the oceans, causing huge amounts of environmental damage. Yet most consumers didn’t even realize they existed.
The Colorado River leaves its home state big and powerful, but by the time it reaches the border with Mexico, it's barely a trickle, sucked up by the states along the way to feed agriculture and (especially, these days) cities in the arid southwest.
This experiment to revitalize the Colorado River Delta by sending a brief surge of water through it is remarkably cool on multiple levels.
The Colorado River Flows to the Sea
This week, the Colorado River will be reunited with the sea – a destination it hasn’t seen in many years – thanks to the “pulse flow.” Scientists monitoring the flow expect the two waters to meet sometime tomorrow, during high tide, but it’s actually possible that the river reached the sea last week, as we…
Why Minnesota banned antibacterial soap, and why every other state should follow its lead:
The Case Against Antibacterial Soap
It’s been ingrained in us since childhood. Don’t want to get sick? Wash your hands with antibacterial soap. But the same compound we entrust to fend off the sniffles could actually be harming us—and creating an army of superbugs in the process. It’s time to ban antibacterial soap.
Um … no, it's not. And, ironically, as more has been done to scrub contaminants out of the air, it's mean those contaminants instead end up in the solid ash waste left behind. Waste which the utilities want to keep unregulated because it would cost money to do something about it.
So remember when we also talk about coal being "cheap," part of that cheapness is that the costs of handling it and its waste are simply not being included in the equation. They're being left for people later on — or downstream — to deal with …
Great article. I think Texas city might beg to differ about this being the largest industrial accident, but the worst thing about coal ash spills is that They. Keep. Happening. And even when they don't spill, they're radioactive and full of heavy metals to try and keep out of the ground water.
WHEN THE RIVERS RUN BLACK
America’s largest industrial accident tore apart the town of Kingston, Tennessee. Five years later, has the industry lea…
The arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and is common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in cold environments. It has a deep thick fur which is brown in summer and white in winter. It averages in size at about 85.3 cm (33.6 in) in body length, with a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat.
They prey on any small animals they can find, including lemmings, voles, ringed seal pups, fish, seabirds, and bird eggs. They will also eat carrion, berries, and seaweed. They form monogamous pairs during the breeding season and usually stay together in family groups of multiple generations in complex underground dens. (^_^)>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_fox KGB
… is usually non-controversial, whether it's kudzu or zebra mussels.
But when it's purty birds like mute swans, then all of a sudden folks who would normally be all pro-native-ecosystem get their priorities in a bunch.
(Note to critics: putting forward the argument "humans are far more destructive than swans" sets the precedent that the Biggest, Worst Problem Only needs to be dealt with in any circumstance. Is that really what you want to do?)
New York Has A Plan to Wipe Out Swans. All of Them
Mute swans aren’t actually a natural part of the New York landscape, and now, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has targeted the birds for eradication.
Who came first, the park or the squirrel. Actually … the park.
A bit of fascinating ecological tinkering.
The Fascinating Story of Why U.S. Parks Are Full of Squirrels
In most American cities, it’s hard to walk through a park without spotting a gray squirrel. Those bushy-tailed little buggers are everywhere, chomping on nuts and climbing up trees–but not thanks to nature. No sir. They’re there because we put them there to entertain us—among other things.
Some alarmists (or folks poking fun at alarmists) talk about climate change (for example) as an extinction event for humans. But that's unlikely. Humans will almost certainly adapt to dramatic climate change. We won't die out.
But that doesn't mean civilization will survive. Or that we (those left of us) will be happy. Or, if we are, that we'll know how far we've fallen.
"If you know what real orange juice tastes like, Tang is no achievement. But if you are on a 50-year voyage, if you lose the memory of real orange juice, then gradually, you begin to think Tang is delicious."
I’m not sure how I got onto a mailing list for The Tea Party (or that splinter of them hanging out at TheTeaParty.net), but it does make for some entertaining reading at times. Like, say, today.
Stop the Obama Regime and his EPA from taking our gun rights away! Sign and share our new petition!
Yes, of course, the “regime” is using their national police force, the FBI, to … wait, the EPA? What?
Dear Patriot,
Howdy! I appreciate being called a patriot.
The Obama Administration thugs are it again.
When in doubt, call the other side “thugs.” (Note, this is not strictly a right-wing thing. Zanies on either extreme use this term when the other side is in power and doing stuff they don’t like. Both sides like to prefix it with “jackbooted,” but the Far Right likes to use the term alone, just to evoke those Gang-Banging type of thugs.)
Turning up the heat on those who don’t play ball, …
Yes, requiring people to comply with the law is “turning up the heat” on folks who “don’t play ball.”
Lead! It’s what’s for dinner!
… the Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forcing the closure of the nation’s last remaining lead smelting plant, creating dire consequences for employees, their families and the millions of firearm owners across the country. We must continue to stand together against this tyranny!
Are they cackling and twirling their mustachios as they do so?
The nation’s last remaining lead smelting plant provides lead for ammunition used in firearms nationwide. Without the lead, ammunition will become scarcer and costs will continue to rise- a turn of events that is sure to delight the gun-grabbing leftists in Washington. Do you want that to happen?
Wow! Out of the blue, the EPA is trying to shut down a company vital for our home defense industry? The fiends! Clearly this is a back door avenue to rendering the populace helpless!
Operating like old-school thugs, …
Are those the ones who wear black uniforms or the ones who wear black hoodies? Just checking.
… the EPA has demanded the Doe Run Company, which has operated for more than a century, pay $65 million to be in compliance with the EPA’s restrictions and also pay a $7 million civil penalty. The EPA laughably gloats that Doe Run has made a “business decision” to close down the plant, leaving the plant’s 218 employees and contractors out of work.
Herculaneum, Mo., a small town on the bluffs above the Mississippi River, was always a company town. The company, Doe Run, is the largest lead producer in North America, trucking in lead from Missouri’s rich mines to a 120-year-old smelter on the river. For 25 years, the smelter didn’t meet federal air standards for lead, and now, after decades of battling government regulators and angry parents, Doe Run is leaving town at the end of next year.
Percentage of kids 6 and under testing with high lead levels in their blood around the smelter.
[…] For one thing, there was this thick dust on the streets where the trucks drove in from the lead mines. […] The Department of Natural Resources test came back: the dust from the streets in Herculaneum contained 300,000 parts per million lead. That’s 30 percent. […] Within a quarter mile, 56 percent of kids [6 and under] had high levels of lead in their blood. At a half-mile, it was 52 percent. Jordan-Izaguirre says she’d never seen numbers like that, except in the developing world.
[…] In 1988, Doe Run was fined for 177 health violations at the plant – accused of breaking “virtually every section” of the workplace lead standard. […] In 2002, Doe Run and state and federal regulators decided it was easier to get rid of the people than the pollution: the company agreed to buy out the 160 homes closest to the smelter. […] Around that same time in 2002, Doe Run met the Clean Air Act lead standard for the first time ever, since it was set in 1978. […] Despite all this, and even though the air was meeting federal standards, it was still recontaminating people’s yards with lead.
[…] By law, EPA is required to review the national ambient air quality standard for lead every five years to make sure it matches up with current science on public health. But Lipeles discovered the agency had never completed a full review. She filed a lawsuit against the EPA in 2004. Four years later, the agency released a new national lead standard. It was ten times more restrictive than the old one, dropping from 1.5 micrograms lead per cubic meter, to 0.15 micrograms. Doe Run agreed to close the smelter, rather than try to meet the new standard.
So a company that was responsible for massive environmental pollution did some stuff to clean up, but what they were doing was still dangerous (do I need to belabor the dangers of lead and other heavy metal pollution?), so they’ve decided to shut down rather than investing further to correct the problems. That hardly seems radical, or thuggish.
And note when that new national lead standard was released (after lengthy work by the EPA): in 2008, distinctly not during the “Obama Regime,” but during that tree-hugging, gun-hating Bush Administration.
The Doe Run smelter (2001)
Oh, and in case you’re worried that this is some innocuous Mom & Pop company being oppressed by the Man for harmless mistakes …
(Kansas City, Kan., Oct. 8, 2010) – Doe Run Resources Corp. of St. Louis, North America’s largest lead producer, has agreed to spend approximately $65 million to correct violations of several environmental laws at 10 of its lead mining, milling and smelting facilities in southeast Missouri, the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced today. The settlement also requires the company to pay a $7 million civil penalty.
The release from the EPA goes through the various pieces of what that’s about and what it covers. None of it strikes me as particularly vindictive or thuggish. Back to the Tea Party:
Is this the “hope” and “change” America signed on for? The Obama Administration, having been thwarted in their efforts to curtail Second Amendment rights time and time again by principled gun owners, have now tasked the EPA with doing their dirty work by making ammunition scarcer and more expensive. Enough is enough.
The main question asked is “Will this shut down your supply of lead.” The answer to that is no. First, Sierra buys lead from several different vendors to maintain constant supply. Second, this facility only smelts primary lead or lead ore. This is lead ore that has just been brought out of the earth. Sierra uses no primary lead at all and never has, so we use nothing directly from this facility. The lead we buy from Doe Run comes from their recycling facility in Boss, MO that is about 90 miles away from the smelter that is closing.
Our supply should not be in jeopardy and we do not anticipate any changes in our supply chain at this time. Could the lack of primary lead create a little more demand for recycled lead? Sure, but how much is unknown. Could this increase in demand also create an increase in price? Sure, but again, by how much is unknown at this time.
There are many other primary lead smelters in the world and so the flow of primary lead will not be shut off.
So a company that’s been responsible for lead pollution at multiple locations in the US and abroad is closing one of their smelters in response to pollution regulations put forward during the Bush Administration, and this will have little to no effect on ammunition supplies. Clearly nothing demonstrating a Deep, Dark Conspiracy to Take Away Our Ammo by the Obama Regime Thugs.
Yeah, nothing here that needs fixing! Defund! Defund!
Like the IRS, the EPA has become an enforcer in the Obama regime and it’s time for them to go. While maintaining protections for the environment remain important, the EPA’s heavy-handed tactics prove that they are not protectors of the environment, but enforcers of the leftist agenda. We must send a message that we will not be intimidated! Join the fight and sign the petition calling for the defunding of the EPA.
Well, that certainly makes sense. Or, more likely, not.
It's amazingly spiffy that the home of chemical warfare plants and pesticide manufacture would become the the new home of a thriving bison herd. So thriving, in fact, that some management needs to take place …
Which, frankly, I expect that most GOP congresscritters consider a good thing. And, look, they managed to do it without having to actually pass any pesky legislation. And if we piecemeal reopen the government, guess which kind of departments will be on the tail end of any restoration?
Yosemite National Park, closed for the GOP government shutdown. I'm sure Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, two Republicans who played key roles in the park's protection, would be proud.
Today in the U.S., our doodle marks the establishment 123 years ago of Yosemite National Park. About the size of Rhode Island (3,081 square kilometers), Yosemite is known worldwide for its striking granite cliffs, waterfalls, redwood groves and other natural wonders; John Muir, who was instrumental in its preservation, called it "by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter." In the wake of this year's devastating California's Rim Fire, our doodle celebrates Yosemite's past and future.
