Rant on Gov't trust issues...

 In response to said article below
 See:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_go_ot/us_government_distrust
Wow...this is supposed to be a democracy. A democracy only works if people stand up and let their voices be heard.  Unfortunately, people think that less government is the answer which makes me laugh and cry at the same time because it's an ignorant statement.  It's not the AMOUNT of government ...our government has grown just like our population.  It's the quality of government and whether or not it represents us.  In this case people are mad because of the economy.  We want jobs.  We want security and our slice of the pie.  As Americans we have been perhaps THE most privileged country in the world. Blessed with abundant natural resources due to the fact that this land was 'unspoilt.'  An Earth respecting local native population now mostly marginalized, demoralized and destroyed and living in squalid territories allowed the new immigrated populations from Europe to use what they saw fit. Later, as the U.S grew it's demand of resources grew too.  At some point it was claimed that the U.S used somewhere along the line of 3/4 of the worlds energy and resources  As of now, the U.S uses roughly 25% of the worlds energy yet we make up 5% of the worlds population.  China is the fastest growing energy users at this point which should be no surprise since they are going through a rough industrial revolution.  Unfortunately, the world has FINITE resources and as countries use more up...like damming the Amazon, overfishing, depleted soils, contaminating fresh drinking water...the competition for resources can lead to war and as in this case political discontent.  In other words, Americans are being forced to 'size' down some and it irritates us!

"Why can't we have MORE?"

We STILL make more money then most of the worlds population!  The IRONY of this?  It's always the poor and the middle class that gets hit by economic downturns.  Yes the rich lose too but if you made 100 million and lost even 90 million ..well you'd still have a million which is a hell of a lot more then most of us including me. There are a lot of reasons for our economy being screwed.

 I believe the Military Industrial Complex to be cause. To put it plain and simple we've spent a LOT of money on bases, war and weapons to further our political and economic agenda.   Russia's collapse is a lesson to be learned from.  We didn't really defeat Russia they overspent on the military and collapsed from it.  Now we're in danger of the same thing.  We KEPT spending like there was still a cold war.  The Empire days are over.  Everyone is tied to each other economically.  For example: We owe China billions of dollars.  If the Chinese called in that debt we'd be DONE but they would sink too since they are tied to us.  Right now we are really should be paying attention to corporations.  Why? Well for one we've given them WAY too much power.  They now can contribute unlimited amounts to campaign contributions! And since the early 1900's have been considered 'persons' with the same rights as you or I.  What does that mean to you? Well for one there's no national allegiance.  Huge transnational corporations move factories to where ever it suits them..like ...China or Taiwan.. which means less jobs for you and I. If your mad at the government now then wait till Exxon or Dow elects their own proxy 'Senator'  Of course it's already been that way for some time now but you've seen nothing yet.

Democrats and Republicans and our Gov't reflect our inability to educate ourselves and take part in politics.  We get what we deserve.  In the end we have to decide what kind of services we deserve and want from gov't. Roads, schools, health care, National Parks and public lands, etc... Actually, many areas of gov't have downsized significantly over the years. Since Bush was in office for example the Forest Service's in the field staff has shrunk a lot.  If you get lost in the National Forest now..don't expect a ranger nearby because more then likely he's been laid off. The increase in spending went largely to the military. Peace!destroyed and living in squalid territories allowed the new immigrated populations from Europe to ususes somewhere along the line of 3/4 of the worlds energy and resources  As of now the U.S uses roughly 25% of the worlds energy.  We make up 5% of the worlds population.  China is the fastest ir voices be heard.  Unfortunately, people think that less government is the answer which makes me laugh and cry at the same time because it's an ignorant statement.  It's not the AMOUNT of government ...our government has grown just like our population.  It's the quality of government and whether or not it represents us.  In this case people are mad because of the economy.  We want jobs.  We want security and our slice of the pie.  As Americans we have been perhaps THE most privileged country in the world. Blessed with abundant natural resources due to the fact that this land was 'unspoilt.'  An Earth respecting local native population now mostly marginalized, demoralized and destroyed and living in squalid territories allowed the new immigrated populations from Europe to use what they saw fit. Later, as the U.S grew it's demand of resources grew too.  Eventually, the U.S now uses somewhere along the line of 3/4 of the worlds energy and resources  As of now the U.S uses roughly 25% of the worlds energy.  We make up 5% of the worlds population.  China is the fastest growing energy users at this point which should be no surprise since they going through a rough industrial revolution.  Unfortunately, the world has FINITE resources and as countries use more up...like damming the Amazon, overfishing, depleted soils, contaminating fresh drinking water...the competition for resources can lead to war and as in this case political discontent.  In other words, Americans are being forced to 'size' down some and it irritates us!  Why can't we have MORE?  We STILL make more then most of the worlds population!  The IRONY of this?  It's always the poor and the middle class that gets hit by economic downturns.  Yes the rich lose too but if you made 100 million and lost even 90 million ..well you'd still have a million which is a hell of a lot more then most of us including me. There are a lot of reasons for our economy being screwed.  I believe the Military Industrial Complex to be cause. To put it plain and simple we've spent a LOT of money spent on bases, war and weapons to further our political and economic agenda.   Russia's collapse is a lesson to be learned from.  We didn't really defeat Russia they overspent on the military and collapsed from it.  Now we're in danger of the same thing.  We KEPT spending like there was still a cold war.  The Empire days are over.  Everyone is tied to each other economically.  For example: We owe China billions of dollars.  If the Chinese called in that debt we'd be DONE but they would sink too since they are tied to us.  Right now we are really should be paying attention to corporations.  Why? Well for one we've given them WAY too much power.  They now can contribute unlimited amounts to campaign contributions! And since the early 1900's have been considered 'persons' with the same rights as you or I.  What does that mean to you? Well for one thing there's no allegiance to any country in particular hence the term transnational corporation which has supplanted multi-national corporation.  Huge transnational corporations move factories to where ever it suits them..like ...China or Taiwan.. which means less jobs for you and I. If your mad at the government now then wait till Exxon or Dow elects their own proxy 'Senator'  Of course it's already been that way for some time now but you've seen nothing yet.

Democrats and Republicans and our Gov't reflect our inability to educate ourselves and take part in politics.  We get what we deserve.  In the end we have to decide what kind of services we deserve and want from gov't. Roads, schools, health care, National Parks and public lands, etc... Actually, many areas of gov't have downsized significantly over the years. Since Bush was in office for example the Forest Service's in the field staff has shrunk a lot.  If you get lost in the National Forest now..don't expect a ranger nearby because more then likely he's been laid off. The increase in spending went largely to the military and our network of worldwide bases.

In the end we distrust our government because we should but complaining about it and electing another group of neocon conservatives or 'tea partiers' will NOT solve it and if anything will make it much worse.  The best thing to do now. Remove the electoral party and get rid of corporate person-hood!

Why nuclear energy is a mistake..

It seems that President Obama is supporting nuclear power as a partial solution to our use of gas.  Nuclear power is a mistake for a number of reasons I will list.

Waste
There is current no real long term waste storage solution. Even the Yucca Mountain site is deemed unsuitable for long term storage.  Nuclear waste can stay radioactive for many thousands of years contaminating anything around it and until that single issue is dealt with we put all life at risk. 

Safety
Risk of contamination from accidents involving transport of fissionable materials.  Anytime radioactive materials are moved they become a target for possible terrorism.
Risk of contamination from truck accidents. I once was passed by a trucker carrying high level radioactive waste at ninety miles an hour in Tennessee!
The plants themselves are at risk from natural disasters, terrorists, and breakdowns.  Many of us still recall Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

Workers at risk from radiation and contamination from the workplace.

Health
Radioactive contamination can be lethal to all most living beings.  You get it and it gets you if not soon then later. 

Why work with something we know is inherently dangerous when we DO have many other options?  Simple-the nuclear industry has spent billions on the technology and like the biotech industry uses lies and deceitful manipulation to convince the public of the safety of it's product.  We've been lucky so far but why push our luck?  I used to live by a now defunct nuclear power plant that sits on a major fault.  The Humboldt Bay power plant is still supposedly storing waste there because there is nowhere else for it to go..

As taken from San Diego Coast Keepers

Did You Know?

Fifty percent or more of marine litter is, in some form of plastic, whether it is bottles, food wrappers, plastic bags, or plastic pellets. Plastics are highly toxic to the marine environment, as well as the physical health of humans.
The biggest problem with plastics is that they DO NOT biodegrade. Plastic break down in a process called photodegrading, which means they simply break apart into ever smaller pieces, eventually forming “plastic dust.” As plastics go through this process they release toxins which have many harmful effects to the ocean and the wildlife and people that depend on it.
No matter how large or small they are, plastic bits are not digestible by any creature on land, in the air, or under the sea. We are literally suffocating the planet with these plastic products, which can never re-enter the life cycle. Plastics that are in the ocean today will, in some way, stay there forever. After decades of floating about plastics break down into smaller particles, gets absorbed into the food chain or eventually sink and become part of the ocean bottom sediment.
There are two common ways plastics end up in the ocean. Pre-production plastic pellets, used to create nearly all commercially consumed plastic products, are often carelessly handled in places where they are produced and transported. Approximately twenty percent of the plastic in our ocean comes from these pellets being blown into our oceans from waterfront industrial plants and cargo ships
The other eighty percent of plastic litter finds its way into the storm drain system and into the marine environment through urban runoff. Even plastic that gets “thrown away” does not always make it to the landfill, but rather gets diverted by wind or improper handling. The plastics that do make it are crowding landfills because of the long time it takes for them to break down. An estimated 63 pounds of plastics for each American enters landfills each year.
At present, plastics in the ocean outweigh natural zooplankton by a 6:1 ratio! What does this mean for marine animals? It means that they are consuming way more plastic than zooplankton. Fish and other sea animals mistake plastics for food because plankton and plastic, when broken down or in pellet form, have very similar appearances. These plastics eventually find their way up the food chain into the foods that we consume.

The Dirty Facts about Plastic

• Estimates run as high as one million pieces of plastic per square kilometer floating in specific areas of the Pacific Ocean.
• In the Pacific Ocean there is a patch of plastics know as the “Eastern Garbage Patch” the size of Texas! This patch is a huge feeding ground for many marine animals.
• Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags per year. This translates to about a million bags every minute across the globe. Plastic bags take 20 to 1000 years to break down, are made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource, and they are very harmful to marine animals that ingest them.
• A one liter bottle can break down into enough fragments to place a single fragment on each mile of beach in the entire world.
• More than 1 million birds, more than 100,000 whales, seals and turtles, and countless fish worldwide are killed by plastic debris each year. These deaths occur through entanglement, suffocation, and starvation by ingestion.
• 90% of Laysan Albatross chick carcasses and regurgitated stomach contents contain plastics.
• Fishing line and nets, six-pack rings, rope and other rubbish can wrap around fins, flippers and limbs of other animals, causing drowning or amputation. Some debris can kill for decades — trapped animals often attract predators, which then become entangled too.
• Plastic’s primary toxic contents are phthalates and Bisphenol which have been found in every part of a person’s body unnaturally through blood, urine, and amniotic fluid. Bisphenol is used in plastic fabrications such as baby bottles, tin can linings, certain toys, and food storage containers.

How you can be part of the solution

• Bring your own cloth or recycled grocery bags to the store.
• Reduce, Reuse then Recycle! Buy in bulk. Re-use when possible. Reduce consumption by avoiding excessively packaged products.
• Think twice about buying "disposable" products. (They really aren't disposable and are extravagant wastes of the world's resources.)
• Avoid buying food or household products in plastic or Styrofoam containers. They can't be recycled, deplete the ozone layer, and are not biodegradable. While some alternatives promote themselves as eco-friendly, such as ‘bio-degradable Styrofoam’, even these products are not necessarily good for the ocean. Learn more at http://www.worldcentric.org/bio/index.htm.
• Buy paper products instead of plastic if you must buy "disposables." They break down better in the environment and don't deplete the ozone layer as much.
• Avoid buying bottled water. Invest in a filter system or go to your local grocery store and refill your water jugs.
• Keep plastic debris and other contaminants (leaves, pet waste, toxins) out of street gutters and storm drains. This eventually ends up in the ocean.
• Keep beaches clean. Plastics and other debris harm sea life and pollute the ocean. Clean up after yourself.
• Get involved! Participate in beach cleanups if you live in a coastal area.
• Educated yourself and think about where each product you buy will end up when you are finished with it!

Reducing Marine Debris in CA

Marine debris, such as plastics, cigarette butts and other trash, is a growing hazard to our ocean ecosystem that harms hundreds of wildlife species through ingestion, entrapment and entanglement. On February 8, the Ocean Protection Council adopted a resolution outlining steps to reduce and prevent marine debris. The resolution will make California the national leader on efforts to reduce waste and pollution and protect our coastal waters

For More Info:

• Learn about the impact of plastics by watching this video
  Directed by Benjamin Chen, Megan Peterson, Kelly Sayce and Rachael VanderWalde: MAS 2006-2007 Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Marine Debris Resolution

Plastic a blight upon the Earth

By now many of you have heard of the Great Garbage Gyre(GGG)  is a huge are of garbage twice the area of Texas floating in the Pacific.  This floating garbage island is a eyesore and  ecological catastrophe.  Marine life is being negatively affected.   The plastic as it breaks down to its' smallest molecule is still plastic meaning that it biologically incompatible with life on a positive level.  There are arguments raging through the scientific community on how how the plastics molecule imitates reproductive hormones giving reason to believe that plastic could be responsible for the rapid rise in testicular and breast cancers.  Plastic is also associated with sexual mutations in animals.  It is well document that marine life are  killed by various  forms of garbage and plastic being one of the largest contributers.  Remember the Nalgene water bottle scare?  Heated water bottles made with rated 3 plastic released the toxic bdp a known carcinogen.

As taken from the Tree Hugger:

 Many Nalgene water bottles and other hard plastic sport water bottles are made of polycarbonate (#7 on the bottom) , which may leach Bisphenol A, an estrogen-like chemical. Canada is considering a ban of products containing Bisphenol A (BPA) and a new American study links it to breast cancer and early puberty, and is particularly concerned about the effect on babies. Others have raised concerns about the effect of feminizing hormones on men, such as breast enlargement or dropping semen counts. At the same time, sport water bottles are ubiquitous and we don't want people going back to buying bottled water. What should you do? Time to nix the Nalgene? We looked at our past posts and the latest reports, and suggest the following.

We know that we to make change now! What can we do? 

Please check out these Videos for more information!

Tea Party....

The Tea Party: Feeding on peoples fears it's a another front for the sagging GOP. Using Sarah Palin as a keynote speaker? Hahahah! The idea that a smaller government and paying less taxes sounds great! Look behind the hocus pocus and see the reality. It's not about less taxes neccesarily but how taxes are raised and where they are used. Why is it that huge transnational corporations get to scoot virtually tax free on so many levels while you and me pay proportionally more? Why should so much of our money go to stupid projects..like biowarfare labs and overseas military bases in countries that don't want them?

Why is it that people fail to look back on history and see that international wars are almost solely based on resources and that the use of idealism is almost always a front to motivate the masses. Example: The war on terrorism: Oil extraction from middle east countries.

The Tea party is simply another way for the GOP to create a 'grassroots' movement that in the end will mean more poverty and more corporate hegemony. Downsizing the Government would be great but attacking the wrong programs like roads, schools, health care, the environment, and social programs while boosting defense budgets for 'security' and promoting greater states rights would make us a poorer country all around. Why do we need to kill others. To this day 911 is the fearsome catch phrase that is bandied around to create the hype needed to make people tow the line. Right now the propaganda machine to disprove the 911 'Truthers' as one program put it has still failed to quell critical questions such as why building seven collapsed in the evening and yet before and since no steel girder constructed buildings haved ever collapsed from fires.

I'm sure Facebook being what it is and how it is used will disapprove of this blog..

Lake Tahoe: Doomed?

Lake Tahoe will be invaded! It's only a matter of time that Lake Tahoe will be invaded by the Zebra and Quagga Mussels. Both mussels have been moving west and have already contaminated a number of lakes and rivers in the U.S. Currently boats going into Lake Tahoe will be subjected to random inspections. Random inspections will not prevent mussel contamination. All it takes is one and that will be it. To understand how these mussels can impact Lake Tahoe read the excerpt taken from Wikepedia below. As taken from Wikepedia:

Quaggas are prodigious water filterers, removing substantial amounts of phytoplankton and suspended particulate from the water. By removing the phytoplankton, quaggas in turn decrease the food source for zooplankton, therefore altering the food web. Impacts associated with the filtration of water include increases in water transparency, decreases in mean chlorophyll concentrations, and accumulation of pseudofeces. Water clarity increases light penetration causing a proliferation of aquatic plants that can change species dominance and alter the entire ecosystems. The pseudofeces that is produced from filtering the water accumulates and impacts the environment. As the waste particles decompose, oxygen is used up, water acidity increases (decreased pH) and toxic byproducts are produced. In addition, quagga mussels accumulate organic pollutants within their tissues to levels more than 300,000 times greater than concentrations in the environment and these pollutants are found in their pseudofeces, which can be passed up the food chain, therefore increasing wildlife exposure to organic pollutants (Snyder et al., 1997). Another major threat involves the fouling of native freshwater mussels.

Map showing distribution of quagga mussels in the U.S.

Dreissena's ability to rapidly colonize hard surfaces causes serious economic problems. These major biofouling organisms can clog water intake structures, such as pipes and screens, therefore reducing pumping capabilities for power and water treatment plants, costing industries, companies, and communities. Recreation-based industries and activities have also been impacted; docks, breakwalls, buoys, boats, and beaches have all been heavily colonized. Many of the potential impacts of Dreissena are unclear due to the limited time scale of North American colonization. Nonetheless, it is clear that the genus Dreissena is highly polymorphic and has a high potential for rapid adaptation to extreme environmental conditions, possibly leading to significant long-term impacts on North American waters. Also, the colonization of deeper water by D. r. bugensis, exposes the quagga to a new range of environmental conditions and new habitats.

It causes many of the same problems (damaging boats, power plants, and harbors and destroying the native mussel population) as the equally invasive zebra mussel of Russia. It is also displacing native burrowing amphipod (Diporeia hoyi) from the deep waters of Lake Erie.

In January 2007, quagga mussels were discovered at a marina in the Nevada portion of Lake Mead, and two other lakes on the Colorado River, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.^[3]

In 2008 the threat of quagga mussels being introduced at Lake Casitas and Westlake Lake in California from recreational boating resulted in the lakes banning the use of outside boats.^[4] As of March 2008, other lakes such as Castaic and Lake Cachuma are considering similar bans. In June 2008, the mussels were confirmed in Lake Granby, Colorado. The larva form of quagga mussels were found in the water. ^[5]

After talking with a number of biologists and other experts the prognosis is bad. It is commonly felt that Lake Tahoe will be invaded sometime within the next five years! The easiest way to possibly prevent non-native mussel invasion would be to not allow boats to leave the lake and allow no new boats into the lake. Anything other then that would simply a stalling measure. Of course boat limitations would create a HUGE political backlash. People want to be able to move their boats around. Lake Tahoe is an incredible lake and is already suffering from having motor powered boats in it and from other issues like climate change. If we are to protect Lake Tahoe from invasive species we should be prepared to take drastic steps even if they are uncomfortable ones.