gaelwolf’s Recent Comments

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  RE: say what?

  You and I are beneficiaries of the drilling that takes place in developing nations in the absence of adequate environmental protections.  Is it morally preferrable for us to use the oil extracted with few rules, or is it better that we accept the environmental consequences of our fossil fuel use by using fuels extracted from our own national territories under our nation's environmental regulations...which allow for far less damage to ecosystems than those in Russia or Ecuador?

  I am not blaming our environmental activists for their success in preventing drilling in ANWR or in other locations in our nation.  I am trying to take them to task for not acknowledging and publicizing what their success here means for those who bear the brunt of the consequences of the impact displacement that results.  I'm hoping that they would not only make sure we understand what that displacement is all about, but that they would turn their attention to bringing about more appropriate environmental regulation and enforcement in the less developed nations, so that people will be protected from extraction industry excesses in the less well-off parts of the world.

  "Clean" energy sources are a wonderful concept, but we are at a stage where they have their own impacts that their promoters oftend don't want to discuss too much.  Biodiesel is great...the first diesel engine ever built ran on peanut oil.  Have you ever stopped to figure out how many acres of oilseed it takes to run a single diesel VW for a year?  Do you know how much fossil fuel energy it takes to produce a gallon of biodiesel, and whether or not you are going to get as much useful energy out of that gallon of biodiesel as it took to raise the crop and produce the fuel?

  How clean is that "clean" energy, when you take all of the production requirements into account?

  If you want to run your personal vehicles and your local government vehicle fleets on biodiesel, how do you feel about the irrigated agriculture it's going to require to produce the fuel to do that?

  Electric transportation is also a great idea in development.  It doesn't come without costs of its own, though.  Plug the car into the wall, and you contribute either to pushing water through a turbine where fish can't use it, or putting more CO2 into the air from a smokestack.

  What about all the hazardous materials in the car's batteries?  What happens to them when the battery finally dies?

  Environmental impact displacement and environmental justice...topics that go hand in hand...On Why aren't conservationists fighting poverty? posted 4 years, 3 months ago 23 Responses

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  Forgive Us Our Debts

  Having traveled all over the world during my career, I would like to note that the developed world's successful conservation and environmental organizations have a huge blind spot twoard what I call "environmental impact displacement".  This may be a contributing factor to the absence of emphasis on the elimination of poverty in the developing world.

  What is environmental impact displacement?  Well, one example would be the success in preventing fossil fuel exploration and extraction in North America.  We may be able to prevent drilling in ANWR, but the result is pools of oil waste on the surface of Russia's arctic tundra or in rural Ecuador, to name two.  While trumpeting their success with ANWR, our environmental conservation "majors" are strangely silent in the North American media when it comes to oil companies shifting research and extraction to countries where there is either a lack of environmental regulation or an absence of enforcement of what little regulation there may be.

  Sure, there's an occasional article...but never on Page One or at the top of the Six O'Clock News.

  If the environmental bigs are not going to place emphasis on impact displacement, why would we expect them to be fully on the ground with respect to poverty elimination?On Why aren't conservationists fighting poverty? posted 4 years, 3 months ago 23 Responses

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  Be nice to your mother!

  The person asking for this advice mentions that we are discussing an elderly mother who has, for whatever reason, moved in.  Mom apparently has spent her lifetime using water in a manner not untypical for many Americans.

  While many of us try to do more to conserve water than our parents might have, perhaps the best approach to all of this is to do whatever it takes to quietly, but not obviously, help Mom reduce her water use without her noticing the difference.  An aerator does tend to provide the perception of a stronger water flow while actually using less water, for instance.  Some...not all...reduced volume shower heads will do the same.

  The main thing here is that Mom isn't going to be around for that many more years.  Should she be nagged about how much water she's using, or should the offsprung one shrug it off and enjoy Mom's presence for as long as she's still here?

  I know which course I would take if faced with a similar challenge to my personal lifestyle.On Umbra on conserving water posted 4 years, 8 months ago 2 Responses