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.

Garbage Island

I keep hearing about Garbage Island and wondered more and more about it. About a month ago I finally saw some stirring pictures of this morass of plastic. It spans twice the area of Texas and is decompossing into a goo. Besides the obvious fact that garbage island is a ecological nightmare the clean-up of this mess will take a global effort. It needs to be addressed now. When plastics break down to their lowest form they play havok on reproductive systems. Plastics are cancerous. Our plastics industry is an affont to the health and harmony of this planet and we've been fooled into thinkink of plastic as a neccesary and benign product. It is everywhere and it really should be either eliminated or converted into plant based plastics.

Evolve or die !

We live in a rapidly changing environment both socially and ecologically. Sometimes when I think of the human race I think of a virus. It's a viable analogy! Why? We are infecting the earth in much the same manner as the common cold or maybe the HIV virus. We breed exponentially and change the systems upon which we live off of. In some ways, global warming is akin to a person having a fever created by the infection of the virus. Mother Earth is infected and feverish from our invasion. Is it too much to imagine that like all good viral infections the end results can be either death for the host or a recovery and general immunity. Evolution suggests that a species either adapts from viral attacks or perishes. It's theorized that viruses can ultimately incorporate themselves into the hosts DNA and become part of the system. Our invasion of the Earth sounds fairly similar to a standard viral infection. In terms of geologic time we are a blip and a blip with an impact. Will we become extinct as we deplete our Earth's resources and stress it's ecological systems or will we learn to coexist on a new and powerful level that allows us to grow yet not at the expense of the the other amazing species that share this planet with us? Time will tell us the end. I would like to think that the Earth will abide regardless of what we do. Maybe twenty million years from now some creature will dig up remnants of us and wonder at who we were and what we did and how we became extinct or maybe we'll have destroyed the planet completely and we'll be left to a lonely grave until the sun turns red and goes nova or simply stops shining.

It's been awhile

How about the current state of affairs? We're going to have a new president and things are changing as always. Yet things also remain the same or are getting worse right? Our oceans dying, the globe showing signs of strain. One of the things that really get me is the irony of some of the situations I've been encountering on the news. For example, the Chronicle features a story on the dying salmon runs and then on the next page there's an article on Bush's attempt to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Go figure. A combined effort of 20 years of Republican and anti-environmental efforts it's a wonder that we even have the ESA.

Recently, I've been studying gas mileage on current vehicles and I'm sad to say that cars have gotten worse gas mileage on average since the 80's and early 90's. For example the Honda CRV H got 50 mpg and my old 82' Jetta got close to 40 and we're supposed to jump for joy at a hybrid that gets 45mpg? I know some of this has to do with catalytic converters and other factors but I distinctly remember a Humboldt State University engineering professor completing an engine in his lab that got 100mpg! Where's the promist of the future amazing gas sipping cars? I'll tell you that it won't happen until it's convienent for the gas companies. It's up to you to push for something better. We have some serious options that people are promoting and I hope that they come out soon with something that people can handle!

Fact or Fiction..If it's fact we could be in for some great change.

Perpetual Motion machine:

Do we have to wait until it's too late?

This summers ice melt off in the Arctic reached record levels. NASA scientists are extremely worried. We keep hearing that the Arctic melt off is happening faster and faster. The most current estimate has been 2040 for the possible disappearance of polar icecaps. Now this: This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions." Why should we care if there's no Ice caps? Well, the ice caps reflect radiant heat from the sun and the absence of them would mean even more accelerated temperature fluctuations and increases. As a people what do we do? This is a reminder that we live on ONE planet and it's our only home. At this point we need to come together as a human race and put aside all of our differences and make the change now! What change? A wholesale change in how re rely on our energy. Our governments have the power to make this happen. Our corporations have the power to make this happen. We as individuals have the power to make changes in our own lives and to influence the politicians to pass the laws. If we want to have any kind of future for our children and their children then we need to act now and not later. Now is the time for each individual to participate in calling for wholesale changes to our energy use. Drilling for more oil will not solve the problem. Fuel efficient cars will not solve the problem. A massive effort to fund solar and wind, electric cars, conservation, rapid transit, and every other means should be a National priority. The situation is starting to feel like a state of emergency. Do we wait ten years and then start pointing fingers? By then it might be too late and we'll just have pay the piper.

If we change now there will be big losers and big winners financially and the losers will put up a fight to keep change from happening. The losers: big oil companies and the plastics industry along with anything imperatively tied into oil. The winners: The Earth and everything that lives on it. All the money on Earth won't buy a high quality of life is there's not much left. Do you want to wait until Mother Earth steps up and starts really kicking some major butt? I have a feeling we really haven't seen anything yet. Let's not wait until it's too late.