Comments John former Marine has made

Cool beer...

I prefer my stouts at about room temperature.  Lighter beers are best drunk at the temperature of whatever stream you're storing the bottles in.  "Cold" isn't necessary at all.  And I don't necessarily think it would be a reduction in my standard of living to not have ice-cold beer.  But I do agree with you that it doesn't have to be one or the other.  We can have modern conveniences with a lot less destruction.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Wolverine, you're wrong....again

The earth has a creamy nougat center of petroleum that will last for thousands of years.  Also, we have a whole universe to exploit as long as we don't run out of rocket fuel to get us out into space.

There's no reason to assume that our civilization will eventually collapse, like every single other civilization before us that eventually overextended itself, exhausted its soils, or enslaved/exploited a large number of "barbarians" who eventually fought for their own freedoms.

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Dirty Dozen list is incomplete...

I don't see any meat or dairy products on the list.  They accumulate pesticides in them as well.  I'm sure there must be information out there on pesticide loads in meat.

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Beer is better than wine...

mtvyfan,

     I also make wine at home, usually from berries that I pick when I find them ripe and in abundance but I've also bought concentrated wine must before.  With beer, the ingredients are pretty uniform regardless of the name on the label so you can buy bulk dextrose, bulk dark malt, bulk dry malt extract, etc. and come out with a predictable, uniform product.  With wine, it's very different.  When you make wine, 99% of how it turns out depends on the quality of the grape juice, which can vary from year to year.  It's also quite expensive - probably 2 or 3 times as expensive as making beer if you buy grape concentrate that is decent.

     As for the electricity that goes into making beer, total cook time is generally under 2 hours.  A typical 8-inch heating element on a standard electric stove uses 2,000 watts on high power.  Assuming 8 cents per kilowatt hour, that means that I use between $0.08 and $0.32 of electricity to make a batch of beer...pretty much an insignificant cost addition.  Also, the energy used to heat the water and other ingredients isn't lost...it goes into my home.  So it probably replaces some of the energy the my furnace would be consuming.  Yes, it's electricity that is coming from coal...but I'd be willing to bet that the amount of energy expended to make 60 glass bottles is huge compared to what it takes for me to boil 2 gallons of water on my stove for an hour or two.

But wine is good too.....especially if you make it with highbush cranberries. On Umbra on beer and wine posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

I second that!

I take a walk on Monday mornings before going to work and carry a canvas bag to pick suitable bottles out of my neighbors' recycling bins.  You soak the bottles in dish water and the labels come right off.

With a food-grade plastic pail and a few other equipment items, making a batch of delicious, rich homebrew is as easy as baking a cake.  You already own most of the equipment you need in your kitchen.  Buy the caps and other ingredients in bulk.  One 40lb bucket of malt extract (available organic) typically costs $70-$100 and will produce 6 5-gallon batches (about 320 standard 12-oz. beers).  Buy a pound of hops for $25-30 in bulk, caps for about $0.02 each, and six packets of yeast at about $1-$3 each.  If you're a gardener, you can grow the hops yourself (buy a $4 rhizome and plant it near your house or trellis) and one single hop vine will produce enough to flavor 30 gallons of beer.  Yeast can be re-used again and again as long as you maintain cleanliness of your equipment and are careful not to kill it with excessive heat.  You can store it in tupperware or jars in your fridge or freezer between brewing batches.  

Net result:

320 rich, delicious, full-bodied beers for under $0.40 each.  That stuff you're buying at Whole Foods...the organic stout for $10.00+ for a six-pack....you could be making it at home for $3.00.

And much smaller carbon footprint...On Umbra on beer and wine posted 9 months, 2 weeks ago 15 Responses

we still have time to impeach Bush!

If the Canadians can move in a new direction, so can we.  Let's impeach Bush and force Obama to take some non-lobbyist, progressives into his administration.

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Letterman for President!

I say if the Dems can't get their act together and win an election, we just need to elect another, separate government (kind of like how there used to be two Popes).  Letterman's got a big following...I'm sure he could get elected.

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Live within your means

My in-laws built a 5,000 sq foot home in 1982 for $125,000.  They were over their heads from the beginning.  They ended up only finishing about 2/3 of the living space and never finished the basement like they planned.  Having a huge home on waterfront meant that they had high taxes, big energy bills, a long drive to work...and all these things have added up over the past 25 years.  Five years ago, I told them they needed to get their stuff in order for retirement and they said they didn't need to because their house was their retirement investment (even through they now owe more than twice what they built the house for).  They're under the impression that they can sell it, buy a smaller "condo" and retire on the difference.  But now, since it's been too big and expensive to maintain, it needs major structural work, siding, a new roof.  It's a total mess and really almost a micro-economic view of what's going on with the entire economy overall.  

We as a country just have to make more reasonable, less egotistical, less greedy, less narcissistic decisions.  We have to learn to want less and be happy.  The country wouldn't be in debt right now if not for this rampant materialism.

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This will cut into their profits

My mother used to work as a cashier at Walmart and they actually use information recorded by the register to guage how fast you work.  Walmart can tell you how many "items per minute" that each of its cashiers scans, on average, a measure of productivity for cashiers.  Pay, advancement, desireable shifts, and a lot more depend on being able to scan things at a fast rate and throw them in convenient plastic bags on a rotating platform (which is patented, by the way).  If they have to slow down the rate of merchandise leaving the store, or hire more cashiers, Walmart is going to lose profit.  I'd like to know how they're going to counter this...pay employees less?On Wal-Mart will slice use of plastic bags posted 1 year, 2 months ago 5 Responses

Kit, I'm not sure...

Surveys show that a lot of people actually think the earth is only 6,000 years old or aren't sure.  Surprisingly, those of us who agree with geologists on the 5-billion-ish figure are a minority.

I do, however, think that most people would be totally shocked (since everybody is talking about genetic stuff these days) if they were to hear about the rediculous views Pentacostals hold on genetics (and how these views would influence policy, their implications in racism, etc.).  I know that an understanding of geologic time is very important to being science-literate but there are a lot more shocking things about fundamentalism that could be exposed.

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Corporate Bill of Rights?

Hey Everybody, I know paper money is soon to be about as worthless as the U.S. Constitution but I have a suggestion that would really simplify this problem for our elected representatives in the House and Senate - a "Corporate Bill of Rights."  Our government leaders have been working hard for the past few years to redistribute wealth upward to the top 1% and I really think a bill of rights would help them in their struggle.

Article 1:
     Corporations have an intrinsic right to exist.  We cannot allow them to go bankrupt.  Therefore, we will guarantee their existence forever by subsidizing them in our new system of "command economy modified-free-market government-protected lobbyist-influenced crony-capitalism."

(example...instead of posting $60B profits, Exxon gives its executives and lobbyists $80B and comes up short $20 Billion.  Rather than let this corporation go bankrupt, the government would make up the difference, year after year).

What do you all think?  I think it would definitely help out our Senators, who are working hard to stomp the last breath out of our Republic.

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M Rienhold...you're wrong....

Both problems are real and both were sent to us by God because of homosexuals.  Get your party line right!

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The problem here....

If you take a look at the photo, you'll notice that both of the white guys pictured there are wearing dark suits, bleached white shirts, and red ties (a power color).  We westerners have no respect for people of wisdom (were Socrates or Jesus here today, we'd probably throw them in jail), only respect for people who have big egos and who represent other white people who have a lot of money.  I'd like to see an Alaska native or a gristly-looking free-thinking bearded mountain man running against Stevens.  I hate to judge the white guy by his suit but...

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Bring on the inflation!!!!!

Ok, I know it's not so good for you old folks but those of us who have just started out in life with extremely overpriced homes (prices driven up, of course, by speculation, second-home owners, and baby boomer resource hogs) want inflation.  When bread is going for $100 a loaf, paying $2,000 a month mortgage on a small townhouse won't feel so rediculous anymore.  You know, it's kinda crazy in a way but I almost hope that re-electing McBush to a 3rd term would put the final nail in the coffin and end this wasteful, money-worshipping, earth-destroying, humanity-devaluing way of life.

And as for my job....working is overrated anyways.  I know you Boomers love doing it...you designed a society for your kids to enjoy where we get to drive 1 or 2 hours to work at a boring job then drive 1-2 hours back home again to watch TV.  I'm not really into it, personally.  If the economy crashes and I have to leave my comfy little townhouse, I'll move in with my little brother, who I just helped buy a very well-priced home...a trailer.

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No, NPS has to bend...

Political appointees of the correct pedigree are selected to run the Department of the Interior and they, in turn, pressure career Park Service officials to lower standards.  There are a few renegades out there who refuse to bend but they just get replaced.  It's the American people to blame here...and it's very clear to me.  There's a reason that our National Parks are spending more on road building/repair than on park rangers.  It's because Americans couldn't care less if they don't gain any understanding of the places they visit, they just want a spectacle, something to occupy their short attention spans that they can drive by in a big mother-ship RV.  If you tell them you're not gonna build roads and campgrounds for them, they'll stop supporting the parks.  When I was working as a park ranger at Grand Canyon, I had to deal with annoying questions like "why can't I ride my dirt bike in the canyon?" every day.  The only people more annoying were the Bible thumpers who wanted to know where they could buy a "geology" book on how the canyon was created in one day by a great flood.  Americans are ignorant, selfish, wealthy, sheeple.  When the price of gas gets really high and the economy crashes, fewer of the tourons will be driving "through" the national parks and more genuine good people will be visiting to truly enjoy and understand them.

In the meantime, thank goodness for the judges.On Judge tosses federal plan to allow more snowmobiles into Yellowstone posted 1 year, 2 months ago 4 Responses

It's all gonna be underwater....

Using taxpayer money to buy that land was a big mistake.  They won't have nearly enough time to "restore" the Everglades.  Before they get even half-way done, most of southern Florida will be underwater.On Everglades restoration deal could still benefit Big Sugar posted 1 year, 2 months ago 2 Responses

I'm for higher gas taxes...

As someone said earlier, fuel=miles.  I actually think that, in this case, a fuel tax is the "small government" solution.  Inevitably, however, somebody will come up with some other incredibly complex, corrupt, big government scheme to keep wealthy people driving their fancy cars on fine roads.  And they'll be taxing the poor to do it, believe me.  We all know rich people don't pay taxes on the wealth they "create" by exploiting the labor of poor people or by various banking schemes.  It seems to me that if you believe in the marketplace, truckers should be passing on the higher cost of shipping to customers.  If customers decide that $10/lb is too much to pay for strawberries in Maine in winter, then they'll eat something that has travelled less distance and truckers will stop transporting stuff they shouldn't be shipping.  The idea that we should be supporting an industry that we may not need is totally communist (and not very environmentally-friendly).  Let the marketplace decide who can afford to drive and let those people driving pay for the roads.  When this cheap fossil energy runs out, there's nothing you can do to keep shipping costs down.  In fact, they should just let all the highways fall apart and use the money to repair and build up our rail networks in this country.  Cars are soon to be a thing of the past and I don't think that heavily subsidizing highways with my taxes is the answer.  Let the Hummer driver pay for the highways.

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Limestone, Maine

Bob, you'll find your Russia experts in Limestone, Maine.  Loring Airforce Base was located there until the mid-90s because it was the closest point in the US to Moscow (in the case that we wanted to roast a million commies in a nuclear blast).

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Did anyone else get the chills?

Did anyone else get the chills listening to a bunch of scary crazy Republicans chanting "drill baby drill!"?  My wife and I looked at each other and started brainstorming on places to go...Canada, Belize, Argentina?  The Republicans have already arranged to have our e-mails and phone calls monitored.  With Censoring Sarah in office, they'll soon be having neighborhood book burnings instead of block parties.  That chant was pretty blood-chilling to me...sounded like a Fascist movement about to take off.  Maybe it's time I shave off my beard....

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Is it possible that nobody has told her...

That God is dead?

I can't help but think that a lot of this woman's problems with understanding logical, rational ideas is the fact that her mind is stuck in the stone age.  No angry Near East desert god is going to replace the oil in the ground or take the arsenic out of the water.

As for calling the Alaska salmon fishery "sustainable", I'd say that's only as long as most of the 300 million people in our country continue to eat filthy farmed fish.  If they all went for wild salmon, it wouldn't be sustainable by a long shot.

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Gardening in the desert....

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to be gardening in Cortez for one reason...it's in high desert.  The McPhee reservoir was pretty low just a couple of years ago.  It's definitely not sustainable.  The population of the west is going to either have to reduce significantly if rainfall patterns change or people in Cortez are going to have to permanently give up wasteful water use...lawns and irrigated cow pastures/alfalfa fields.  On the other hand, having been through Cortez, I think that place that have fewer water resources to start with might be the places to implement conservation measures that could serve as an example to the rest of the country.  For example...Cortez is a great place to build a straw house, develop a rain barrel/cistern system, and use household graywater to water your vegetable garden.  The straw bale homes wouldn't work in Atlanta but it's starting to look like the historically wet southeast US has overextended itself as well with regards to water resources.  When everyone in the desert is using water efficiently, then those of us who have lots of water around might follow their lead.  As it is, ruining ecosystems and sucking down the Dolores River to grow a few tomatoes doesn't seem like an efficient use of resources to me.  Even though that part of the country is sparsly populated (except when the Californians are on vacation), it could get really hard to live there if you all start getting less rain for the next 500 years.  

Rather than tomatoes, I recommend people start planting more almond and peach trees.  Focus on drought-resistant, low-input permaculture.  The desert is not a good place to grow lettuce.

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Po Ditty!

Dat po man can affo to rad in hez own pimpin jet nomo.  My arab bruthas plez sen' me sum ol'.  Mr. Prezudent, P. Diddy be askin' you please brin' the price of gas down.  It's impotant to all us impotant folk.

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coffee grounds...

I've been picking up free coffee grounds every day all summer at a coffee shop across the street from my bus stop.  I've been mainly tossing them into my garden and using them to augment potting soil.  I've heard there are tons of uses for spent coffee grounds though, inclucing using them as an exfoliator.  Haven't tried it yet though because I just use a washcloth like Roz suggests.

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Wolverine, carbon is better than nothing...

If we can get people to care about their "carbon footprints" more than they care about habitat loss, development, mining, endangered species, migrating birds, the Chesapeake Bay, factory farming, or any other environmental issues, I see it as a positive.  Watching your carbs could benefit all of the causes I listed...

I know global warming has a lot of media hype but if it means we build fewer coal plants and have cleaner air, that would definitely be a positive.  And if they stop cutting down forests because they store carbon...another positive.  And of course, we'll need those wetlands for flood control because of global warming...maybe we'll even start restoring more of them.

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SUV owners deserve what they're getting.

Whenever I pull my Civic up to the loading dock at a hardware store and proceed to load a couple dozen planks into it along with whatever else I'm buying, I routinely see an SUV pulled up next to me loading a single item like a bag of potting soil.  Those people should be embarrassed and definitely deserve to reap what they sowed.  I hope gas hits $10.  I know more poor people will have to ride public transportation but at that point, the government won't be able to ignore the problem and will have to rebuild the public transportation infrastucture that we should already have.  But the people who just keep buying SUVs in case they have to go pick up a loaf of bread definitely deserve to lose their shirts.

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Jabailo, you're a fascist...

I say if you don't think women or black people should have the right to vote, just come out and say it.  

Yeah, you can pick everything apart...right down to her earrings but wearing plastic earrings is a far cry from owning an unknown number of homes like John McCain or doing your photo ops on oil rigs.

You're exactly the reason that people like me get out of the military...because as Cynthia McKinney says, our energy policy is war and drilling.On Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney talks to Grist posted 1 year, 3 months ago 19 Responses

Obama's not getting my vote

Unless he withdraws all support for ethanol, clean coal, and oil, I'm not voting for him.  Green or Libertarian, either would be better and less hypocritical than Obama.  He's not for progressives, he's for liberal conservatives.

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Question...

How much of the corn produced in this country is directly consumed by humans in the form of fresh corn, corn bread, tortillas, corn oil, etc?  I'm guessing it's an incredibly small percentage of the total.  

The people being hit the hardest by this whole ethanol thing are the CAFO meat producers.  We really don't need to be powering our cars with food, but then we really don't need to be feeding food to cows and pigs.  In this country, the price of meat might go up...no biggie for me.  My primary concern with food prices going up is that Mexicans and Guatemalans (the heart of the corn civilizations) will be forced to leave their homes when they cannot afford to eat.

But if CAFOs struggle in the meantime and people start to think more about what they eat, I think this could be a good thing.  The good thing about all of this ethanol BS is that people are starting to think about energy and food.

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Pinger, you must be a baby-boomer...

You've got some old ideas there.  Let's drill until we have hybrid cars.  And then, lets transition to clean coal while we're waiting for plug-in cars.  And maybe we can build a hundred new nuke plants while we're waiting for solar panels.  Look, old folks...we never asked for all your shit.  We don't want your big rediculous 4,000 foot homes, your millions of cars, your long commutes, your fast food, or any of the other crap that sucks down tons of juice.  In fact, everything you old people have been working towards is a big lie.  Tell me why the hell you're working more hours than your parents did when we've got all of these "labor-saving" devices now.  I'll tell you why, it's because you've got three times as much crap as they did.

Pinger, let me clarify the expectations of younger generations so you can understand what we want from the world:  I want to live in a very small, economical home, eat healthy food, have a decent quality of life and only have to work 20 hours a week to support it.  Of course, if I go for the bigger house, I'll have to work 30 hours a week.  With a nice big car, I'll have to work 40 hours a week.  And unless we can end your build-up of nuclear weapson and oil wars, I guess I'll have to work 50 or 60 hours a week just to keep up with the taxes.  Although your money-worshipping lifestyle is tempting...I think I'll pass.  And I think a lot of other folks are getting fed up with your ideas as well.  Offshore drilling might do something for Exxon but it will do nothing to improve our lives or make us happier.  We've only got 100 years or so on this planet and we shouldn't spend all of it trying to amass wealth.  I repeat...we don't want your oil.

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EB,

Thanks for the break-down...it seems to make sense to me.  I had a strange feeling that the airlines were pulling more BS.  It doesn't surprise me...they get a new tax-payer financed bail-out every couple of years.  Maybe they're just "building their case" for their demands for more bail-out money.On Umbra on driving versus flying, again posted 1 year, 3 months ago 13 Responses

Cute veg put-down...

You clowns are so funny!

Seems strange to me that if you ask a bicyclist why they don't drive an SUV and they respond "it's good for the environment," nobody questions their reasoning or their ethics.

But whenever somebody asks me why I'm a vegan and I tell them "it's good for the environment," they look on skeptically, listed to three or four arguments, aren't convinced, and walk away saying I'm a self-righteous evangelist.

Most of us become vegans for environmental reasons and yet the environmental community strains to push us away...On How to green your grocery list posted 1 year, 3 months ago 8 Responses

How much difference does weight make to a bus?

I know that airplanes use more fuel the heavier your luggage is (although, apparently nobody has thought to charge passengers by the pound...that wouldn't be politically incorrect in today's fatso America).  How about buses?  Do they use significantly more fuel when you bring two suitcases instead of one or is the difference not measurable?  

Also, while we're on the subject, I think that airplane tickets should be generated using a per seat and per pound formula.  There's no reason that I should have to squeeze in next to someone who takes up half of my seat and pay the same as him when the plane is using twice as much fuel to keep him at 30,000 feet.

The only thing I don't like about the bus is that you get squeezed in by people with huge derrieres, which I generally think is bad manners.  On Umbra on driving versus flying, again posted 1 year, 4 months ago 13 Responses

It needs to go away.

If we can't break the military-industrial-corporate-media web in the next four years, I think our republic will be over soon.  Not that we really have representative democracy right now anyways...a single lobbyist can walk into the White House and overrule the will of millions of citizens.

I say we work to reduce the size of the military to about 1/5th it's current size.  In the meantime, I'll all for giving them missions as Mad Mac proposes.  Since they are the biggest polluters in the world, I say we give DoD the mission to rehab all of their superfund sites.

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better idea....

We should let the line out another ten thousand miles so our little wind copters can catch the solar wind!  Ohh ooh!

Get serious!  Do any of you ever think we'll have flying wind copters?

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D'accord with cookierescoe

Many farmers will joke (as they compare their "conventional" and "organic" fields that the only difference is that their organic fields have lower yields and have to be sprayed with MORE chemicals, more often.  Granted, a lot of the pesticides used on conventional crops should never be put into the environment at all, but likewise, many of the chemicals approved for use on organic crops are just as dangerous.

Integrated Pest Management  - IPM - is probably a better system for managing pests.  And IPM can be used in conventional situations.  I've been through "conventional" blueberry fields that were only sprayed once in over five years.  Now, that particular farmer probably could've gone through the effort to become "organic" but since he's not really using chemicals anyways, why waste his time?

Also, the way pesticides are regulated, they have to first be registered with the EPA (a long, complex process which involves a lot of well-connected consultants) and then registered in each state that they're going to be used in.  When a pesticide is registered, it's limited for use on only a limited number of crops.  So if you're growing a specialty crop, for example, it may be incredibly expensive to get a pesticide you can use, either organic or conventional.  Corn, for example, covers so many acres and is such a valuable crop that many companies have gone through the trouble to develop and register lots of chemicals for use on corn.  But take something like horseradish...one single field of about 200 acres produces enough horseradish to meet market demands for all 300 million of us in this country.  It's not an incredibly valuable crop, obviously, so if there were some new pest introduced into the horseradish crop and there wasn't a registered organic pesticide approved for use on horseradish, that farmer would be up the creek if he was "organic."  In fact, even if there isn't a conventional chemical approved, he's still going to lose his crop.  So the process of registering pesticides is one of the problems here, although I'd argue it's a very necessary hurdle to ensure the safety of the food supply.  Not that USDA, FDA, and EPA have been doing the best job...but they do their best with the resources available and within the current political context.

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Mad Mac, I've seen it too

I've seen people making their living digging through trash piles in Guatemala.  First they look for clothing that they can wash and sell or shoes/sandals that still have a few miles left on them.  Then they pull out the metal and other recyclables to sell.

I think the main problem here in the U.S. is that we've still only got a 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans.  It's the same deposit as when my father was a little kid.  When I was in middle school/high school, my best friend and I would get up at about 3:00 during the summer and run from one end of town to the other picking cans and bottles out of trash cans.  We did it early morning so nobody would see us.  After about two hours of running and trash digging, we'd each net about $2 - $4.  Not a whole lot of incentive for most kids to recycle.

I propose a 50 cent deposit on every bottle and can.  People would definitely stop throwing those containers away if they had substantial value.  

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Synthetic motor oil

My father was selling AmsOil back in the early 80s so I think it's a product that's been around since the 70s at least.

I started putting synthetic 5W-30 and later, 0W-30 in my '98 Civic about six months after I bought it (used with 25K miles on it).  I saw an immediate jump in mpg from about 37 mpg (driving carefully, cruise control 60 mph) to 42 mpg under the same conditions.  The other benefit is that the oil change interval is every 25,000 miles instead of every 3,000.  It also protects your engine better than conventional motor oil.

Using AmsOil in my little Civic has saved me a lot of gas over the past eight years.  Had I been driving a bigger vehicle, it probably would've saved me even more.

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for a really serious oil indurstry perspective:

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/were_investing_so ...

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Great environmental food article for Grist

From the July 9 issue of The Onion:

T.G.I. Friday's Executive Chef Recommends Booze-On-Meat-With-Cheese Thing

July 9, 2008 | Issue 44*28

SCHAUMBURG, IL--The executive chef of the Tremont Road T.G.I. Friday's strongly recommended that a table of VIP guests try the evening's special: a "tender, juicy, and heavily seasoned" booze-on-meat-with-cheese thing. "Tonight's special is a succulent 8-ounce meat, infused with imported cheese and drizzled with a creamy reduction of booze," said chef Tom Pinelli, adding that the entrée is served on a bed of cheese and meat, and is best paired with a glass of booze. "However, if you're in the mood for something a little lighter, we do have a refreshing selection of sauce-on-fish-on-stick stuff, as well as some healthier cheese-filled-meat-under-bacon options." For vegetarian diners, Pinelli recommended the 56-ounce fried mushroom.On Getting to the meat of the matter with Boston chef Jamie Bissonnette posted 1 year, 4 months ago 21 Responses

Good news....

Another good thing about artificial turf is that it could come in just about any color you can imagine.

Today, everyone is talking about kids having a deficiency of "nature" and "green," but tomorrow, who knows what the medico-pharma-corporate-media will be telling us...maybe that kids have a deficiency of neon pink or or candy apple red.  I assume that artificial turf could be made neon pink, right?On Artificial turf found not harmful to children posted 1 year, 4 months ago 10 Responses

it looks like a bed from a dump truck

It's been taken off an old farm truck.  It's got taller sides in the front and is tilted forward (up on blocks in the back).  So I'm sure the kid will be fine.  Got to be at least six feet deep at his end.

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Efficacy...

For those of you who are wondering how well these products work, you have good reason.  

EPA regulates insect repellants...all of them.  Except for a small group that is exempt from regulation, the "25B" products.  These products do not have to be registered, they don't have to submit efficacy data, and they can pretty much make whatever claims they want with nobody checking on them.  It's a huge loophole in the law that allows a lot of bogus products onto the market.

Yet another fluffy article from Grist...why am I not surprised.

Look, eco-friendly products are great but a lot of them are total BS.  You're better off eating a head of garlic every day.On A buzzworthy review of DEET-free bug repellents posted 1 year, 4 months ago 12 Responses

Camel-swallowing....

I'm a big fan of efficiency.  I don't see how having an organic landscape "greens" a second home.  Having lived in a small town in Maine where 85% of the homes were only inhabited for a few weekends/yr., I have to say that an edible landscape would make almost no difference.  When your gargantuan cabin is sucking down 200 gallons of fuel oil (or a lot more) every month to keep the place heated when nobody is living there, I don't see how growing a few organic brussels sprouts makes the place any better.

As to the idea that a status-carrying trend will spread to the rest of the population, I'll have to disagree entirely.  Most popular trends come from the bottom up, not the top down.  For example, bling bling jewelry and baggy pants.  You didn't see people wearing accessories like that on Cape Cod and then two years later, everybody is doing it.  No, fashionable trends come out of the ghetto.  I think that if organic agriculture is going to move forward as a "trend," it will come from the inner-city community gardens on abandoned lots, not from second home-owners in Cape Cod, Aspen, or Maine.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Your french fries....

When a farmer decides to grow potatoes, he doesn't choose a variety that he finds interesting.  He doesn't choose a potato that tastes good or is nutritious.

Farmers are told by the middlemen that the french fry factory wants a particular type of potato.  The french fry factory is told by McDonalds and Burger King which type of fry they want.  In the end, the farmer chooses a large "brick"-shaped potato that has a poor nutritional profile and no flavor.  It has been bred and engineered for uniform size, shape, and color.  It has been perfected for disease resistance or herbicide/pesticide tolerance.

This is the equivalent of telling an artist that they have to mass-produce paintings so that everybody everywhere in the world can have the same soulless, cheap painting.

As for the people in developing countries who are dependent on their export markets...there's this whole theory as to why Latin America has been 3rd World so long...Dependency Theory.  Basically, the Mayan farmer in Chichicastenango or Momostenango may be tending 100 acres of coffee plants today.  But his great-grandfather was growing the necessities of life - corn, beans, squash, amaranth, onions, tomatoes.  They built their own homes, educated their children, and had health care provided by the local medicine man.  Today, the Guatemalan countryside is littered with plastic packaging and soda bottles.  The people are not self-sustaining but dependent upon the economy of some spoiled Gringos to the north.  They wouldn't be growing coffee if they didn't have to.

On a recent visit to a farming region in the pacific northwest, I met farmers, gov't officials, and pesticide-company representatives who told me that nearly 100% of the labor force was from Michoacan and that 85% of them were undocumented.  If we were to have a crack-down on illegal labor, there would be no asparagus, cherries, apples, and a huge number of other crops that are labor-intensive to cultivate or harvest.

A farming system that is almost entirely dependent (once again...dependency being the key word) on an illegal labor, huge energy inputs, and tons of chemicals doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.  We might sustain it for a while longer but I think it's overdue to collapse.

Going back to local food produced with local labor and local energy would be a good thing.  I know those poor Guatemalans wouldn't have corporate coffee plantations to work on anymore, but I'm sure life would go on.  I'm fairly certain they can do without our cheap corn, our missionaries, our invasive culture, our invasive soft drinks, and our invasive language.

I honestly don't know how you can even call a 5,000-acre wheat field a "farm."

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

I've got a 98 Civic for sale

It gets 40+ mpg if you drive it right (under 65 highway, use O-weight synthetic oil).  I'm willing to let it go for $100,000.On Surprise first-quarter profit for Honda, unsurprising giant loss for Ford posted 1 year, 4 months ago 13 Responses

Wolverine, I couldn't agree more

And many at EPA would agree with you as well.  The problem is the Administration, which has hamstrung EPA's enforcement capabilities while expanding EPA's regulatory branches.  We will see big changes in a year or two.  If not, I say we set up a guillotine and get the revolution started.On Sick of algae-polluted water, Florida groups sue EPA posted 1 year, 4 months ago 3 Responses

Hello Pandion,

I've never killed another person and I don't intend to unless in defense of myself or another.  I consider the choices I made to have been the best choices available to me in my economic class and personal situation at the time.  Had I been born into a comfortable middle class family, I never would've dreamed of signing up to kill Amerikka's enemies.

That being said, the reason I wrote to Roz is because her article was pointless and fluffy.  She didn't get any closer to what she was seeking and I can say that from personal experience in slaughter.  I also can say honestly that when I became a vegan it was for environmental and ethical reasons and I never intended to remain a vegan for life.  I may, someday, go back to eating eggs or chicken or other flesh, but only if I raise and slaughter it myself.  And if it requires no additional energy inputs from beneath the Persian Gulf in the form of grain, fertilizers, etc.

Roz says that she's working to reduce the meat consumption in her family, perhaps the most important thing anyone can do to reduce their eco-footprint.  And yet her article wasn't about reducing meat consumption and excitement about finding some delicious new meatless recipe of stewed pumpkin or pilaf or wheat berry salad.  No...she's trying to reduce meat consumption so she writes on an environmental blog site about watching a sanitized pig carcass get butchered and then offers a recipe that is entirely meat (probably about 30 servings worth).

I would suggest that if Roz acknowledges that eating less meat is something that can reduce one's eco-footprint, then she should write articles about people eating less meat and offer vegan recipes to inspire people to eat less meat.

If she was just trying to better "know" her meat, she didn't get close to anything meaningful.On If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast posted 1 year, 4 months ago 41 Responses

One redeeming point

The one thing Roz got right in this total fluff article is that eating factory-farmed chicken technically has a smaller eco-footprint than factory-farmed cheese.

I also noticed that in the photo, Jamie's arm is covered in tatoos.  He probably got them when he was a vegan...because he didn't give up eating irresponsibly because it was the right thing to do, he did it because he's a vain, faddish person who also wants people to notice his arm artwork.  I've actually met quite a few former vegans with tons of artwork plastered on themselves.  I guess they just thought that veganism was part of the rebel-without-a-clue fake-counter-culture they were a part of.  Then, when they realize that the cute hippie chick still isn't interested in them even after they've gone vegan and got some cool tatoos, they go back to being an uncaring, clueless chef serving thoughtless food to thoughtless people.  On If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast posted 1 year, 4 months ago 41 Responses

Roz....you definitely missed the worst part...

The demonstration you watched was next to pointless.  As a kid, I helped to slaughter all of our own animals every year (chickens, turkeys, ducks, cows, pigs) and I have to say that the actual killing is a big part.  Next, gutting and bleeding the pig, which makes a huge bloody mess and smells everywhere of blood, guts, and shit.  After that, you boil up a huge tub of water and drop the pig in it to scald the skin, making it easy to scrape the hair off.  I found the stench of scalded pig skin to be much more offensive than the smells of blood, guts, and shit combined.  

So what you saw was a killed, cleaned, de-haired pig carcass.  That's like saying you want to learn what it's like to murder someone and cut them up like Jeffrey Dahmer so you go the morgue and watch an autopsy.  Actually, that's a bad comparison since the pig you watched get cut up didn't have any guts left in it.

I recommend you head out to a rural area if you want the experience.  Getting it from a chef who serves the interests of the meat industry is clearly not what you need to really experience what a slaughter is like.  I've (personally) known pigs that didn't go down with their throats slit and 12-guage slugs in their heads.  The "back-up" tool in this case is a large iron sledge hammer, with which you beat the pig until it stops breathing or its heart stops.  Slaughter is an extremely dangerous season where I'm from because if you don't kill a 500-lb pig with the first cut/bullet, it becomes a bezerker that can tear you up so you have to be prepared to take it out if you have to with any means available.

Now, the bad part is that by encouraging people to think that eating meat is ok and not qualifying that you're talking about only organically-produced, small-scale farm operations, you're helping to keep a system of slaughter in place that is much more disgusting than the one I just mentioned above.  Factory farm slaughterhouses (where your slaughter, gutted, cleaned-up, and chilled pig came from) are places where animals are often stunned or don't lose consciousness before they are slit open and gutted, skinned, etc.

Thank you for the totally meaningless article.  I hope it made you feel good about eating pork chops to see a meat-industry representative chop up a sanitized porker in a sanitized environment.On If you're going to eat meat, you can't shy away from the whole beast posted 1 year, 4 months ago 41 Responses

justlou....call EPA

Justlou,

     If you've got a plane spraying pesticides over residential areas, you should immediately call the regional EPA enforcement office in your area or contact EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs.  EPA regulates most of the pesticides on the market and there are very strict rules regarding spray drift, aerial spraying, etc.  Local police can't do anything about it...you need to call EPA.  If you have information about the time/place (and photos would be even better) of the incident, they'll investigate.  It could quite possibly be a totally benign chemical that was being sprayed....and then again it could have been a nerve agent...

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Ah yes....run into any houses on wheels?

I love those Cruise America RVs that you can rent in Phoenix once you've flown in from New York.  Then you proceed four hours northward, getting 5 miles a gallon, to the Grand Canyon.  You then cruise through one of the country's national treasures at least 10-15mph above the posted speed limit on narrow, winding roads.  You kill a snake, possibly a deer, and almost hit a couple of hikers and a bicyclist...but hey, you've never driven one of these beasts before...it's to be expected.  You then break the lower branches off half a dozen junipers and pinons while you're trying to park the bohemoth in the Desert View campground...which was designed back when people used to go camping with a tent.  Then a ranger comes around and tells you that he's going to be giving an educational program on the environmental history of the Grand Canyon at sunset at the rim.  You think...oh, what perfect timing...yeah, we're interested...we love the environment!

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

has anyone thought about...

the link between bad government and obesity?

or corruption and obesity?

or No Child Left Behind and obesity?

how about ToysRUs and obesity?

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

If this movie didn't convince you of the link...

I suggest you go to youtube and check out George Carlin's skit on "Fat People."

I think George made a very convincing argument that obesity and the environment are linked.  Unless there are people out there who doen't believe that obesity is linked with consumption, and consumption is linked with the environment.  Factory-farmed meat (with growth hormones), soft drinks, refined carbs from cheap grain, and dairy products (with growth hormones) are all linked to an expanding waistline...and to a bigger ecological footprint.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Yes, whiners all....

Americans are a bunch of privileged, entitled whiners.  I ride my bike every morning to a commuter lot to catch my bus to work.  It is always crammed with cars but mine is often the only bike on the rack.  Most of the whiners driving to the parking lot are travelling less distance than I am.  The price of gas should be $10 a gallon, not $4.  

In my yuppy neighborhood, people drive to the commuter lots and drive to the gym to ride stationary bicycles...but they don't ride their bikes to work!

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

but the strawberries they grow are soooo good!

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have a cheap, abundant supply year-round of perfectly-shaped, pretty, big, red, blemish-free strawberries.

If anybody actually knew what strawberries were supposed to taste like, they wouldn't buy the crap grown in California with all the soil fumigants.

It must've been troublesome for Californians when strawberry growers were spraying these things without buffer zones.  All those sick migrant workers flooding into free medical clinics and burdening those poor Californians with high taxes.  Hopefully, this should be a little tax relief for California if this results in fewer incidental casualties and liabilities.On EPA cracks down on the pesticides on your peppers posted 1 year, 4 months ago 3 Responses

and if the markets don't do it....

Peak oil and climate destabilization will.On As the ground shifts under their feet, food giants experiment with new strategies posted 1 year, 4 months ago 8 Responses

ooooohhhh.....eco-organic consumer goods....

And modeled by hot women no less.  This is definitely much classier than the trashy advertising used by conventional cotton products.  Mmm....I just want to go out and buy some organic cotton lingerie right now for my wife.  Maybe I can get a solar-powered tanning bed, some botanical-based hair color, some animal-friendly make-up, and some low-impact silver and gold jewelry.  Then she'd be an eco-queen!

Consumption is consumption, right?  I would say we probably have enough cotton stored in our respective attics, garages, and basements right now to halt all cotton production right now for the next 10 years.

All that being said, organic cotton is much better than conventional, pesiticide-intensive, water-intensive cotton grown in Texas deserts.  Where is "organic cotton" grown?  And does "Boll-Gard" or other genetically-engineered BT-cotton count as "organic" according to USDA?  I've got the feeling that we have more questions to ask...

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

In another 20 years...

There will be a class of eco-conscious pork consumers shunning COFCO to buy local, free range, hormone free, non-CAFO, all good, humanely slaughtered pork.  We just have to wait a while...

See, look how much eco-consciousness has done for our Chesapeake Bay...imagine that goodness spreading to China while you're eating your pork BBQ sandwiches.On As the ground shifts under their feet, food giants experiment with new strategies posted 1 year, 4 months ago 8 Responses

On pets....

I have to agree with KenGreen that having pets is fundamentally wasteful...but I have three cats and a dog, all of which were street animals.  In every neighborhood I've lived in, I've volunteered trapping and neutering stray animals.  I have to tell you though, that it's actually wrong that pets need a "protein" diet.  It's only American pets that need a protein diet, just like American humans.  Dogs and cats from the rest of the world will eat leftover beans and rice, lentils, rats, mice, cockroaches, and lots of other stuff.  Dogs really don't need to be eating meat, unless it's scraps being thrown away.  

When it comes to cooling a house/apartment for the sake of the animals, don't bother.  Unless it gets incredibly hot in there, you're just being wasteful.  I'd say that as long as you leave water out for them every day, they'll be fine.  I mean...it's not like they're running around and working hard when you're not home...they're just sitting in a window or sleeping.  If it gets to 90 degrees, they may pant a bit but they'll be fine.On Umbra on fans versus AC posted 1 year, 4 months ago 19 Responses

I know where you can get cheap farmland....

But it's growing zone 3B.  Aroostook County, Maine...it's the end of the line.  It's a long way to any markets so you're pretty much farming for yourself.  But decent farmland up there ranges from $200 to $1000 an acre if you buy in bulk.  You can buy a whole kingdom for less than it will cost you for a condo in NYC.  Taxes on 100 acres might be $400 a year.  It's cold though...at least for the next couple of years.  But if you get yourself a good wood stove, life can be good.  One of you must have some money...start a good telecommuting business up near Fort Kent...I'll be your first employee.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

I commend Susanna

Raising your own chickens is one of the "big" steps that most people aren't willing to make.  Convenience, convenience, convenience.  I assume you've got yourself some books?  Chickens are probably the easiest things to raise...in the summer they eat a lot of insects around your garden and clip the grass.  They'll also eat any food scraps so if there's a restaurant or grocery store that you travel by daily, you might want to inquire about the availability to overripe/spoiled food (unless they're already sending it to a commercial pig farmer or the like).  Also, make sure that your coop doesn't have the smallest hole and that it's shut up tight at night...a single weasel will kill every one of your prize chickens in a matter of an hour and they can squeeze in through a whole the size of a quarter.

To everybody else, unless you're willing to humanely raise your own animals and then take the knife in your own hand, I recommend you try to eat low on the food chain if you absolutely must shop at grocery stores.  Also, if you go to a grocery store and it's all nice cars/white people in the parking lot, you're paying too much for your food.  A grocery store doesn't need the "atmosphere" of a night club...yet if I go into a SafeWay, a Giant, or a Harris Teeter, I immediately ask myself how expensive it must be to have everything so neat and clean and pretty.  

The absolute best grocery stores with the best prices are the ones you see Central Americans, Koreans, Chinese, and Indians walking out of with old beat up little cars in the parking lot.  They've got the best produce, the best grains, and brown rice comes in economical 20# bags, not the 1lb bags like Harris Tweeter.  Sure, it stinks like a third world fish market, but that's what real life smells like anyways, not a sterile, synthetic, flower-like smell.  Oh, and by the way, if you trade in your car and buy the car that those people have been driving, you'll save a lot on gas too.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Picky kids...

I hear you about the kids.  I know a lot of parents who talk about the "chicken nugget stage" as if it was a chapter in a child development book.  Some kids just eat what you put in front of them for some reason and others won't eat anything that doesn't come in a Happy Meal.  It must be genetic...On How author Betsy Block convinced her finicky family to mend their dietary ways posted 1 year, 4 months ago 25 Responses

Vermont and the Sacred Cow

Latenac,

      Yes, I know many "Vermonters", most of whom are from New Jersey or New York.  They live in big houses, they have money from out-of-state, they pay land trusts to preserve their views, they eat lots of "local" gourmet cheeses, and send their kids to ski schools.  Vermont, being a state with poor soils and steep fields, was never suited to agriculture, really, or much else other than eking out a living.  Yet the dairy industry has convinced Vermonters that agribusiness is part of their identity.  It's totally greeenwashed propaganda but everybody says "it's a dairy state."  I know for a fact that you can get tempeh up there in Coops from locally grown soy.
     Anyways, yes, I know a lot of Vermonters.  I tried making a living in that state for two years before I realized I'd never have any hope of owning a home because I'd have to pay New York City prices on old farmhouses and double-wides.On How author Betsy Block convinced her finicky family to mend their dietary ways posted 1 year, 4 months ago 25 Responses

I second that...

What you consume locally you should produce locally.  Stop making poor people in other parts of the world deal with the costs that you've externalized.  Big Solar is not the answer to responsible/sustainable consumption.On BLM reverses stance on solar-project moratorium posted 1 year, 5 months ago 37 Responses

Or...

They could change the ingredient list to say:

"one or two chorizo made from free-range, hormone-free pigs fed on food scraps and sustainably-harvested acorns."  That should be an item pretty easy to come by at any quaint farmers market in rural Vermont towns.  That way they wouldn't be encouraging people to purchase pork products from Dean Foods or the other suppliers of CAFO products.

Of course, chorizo is expensive in general.  I suppose if you were trying to feed a family on a budget, omitting the chorizo from a bean soup recipe might actually be a financially (and environmentally) responsible choice.  But then I know a lot of people in Vermont who don't worry that much about money...1/3 of the state's GDP comes from trust funds.On How author Betsy Block convinced her finicky family to mend their dietary ways posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses

We don't need their corn....

We don't need their ethanol, their beef, or their soft drinks.  Let Iowa farmers grow real food again.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

Sounds good....

One more "small change" you could make to the bean soup to make it more healthful, ethical, and sustainable would be to remove the one or two links of chorizo and add a bit of oregano, cayenne, garlic, pepper, cumin, and vinegar to replace the flavors.

I know some of you out there might be concerned that bean soup without a little pig in it might be nutritionally deficient and will cause protein deficiencies, but I assure you, it will taste every bit as good and will actually be healthier.On How author Betsy Block convinced her finicky family to mend their dietary ways posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses

They're mercenaries...

Warriors defend their village and I'm sure wouldn't dump toxic waste within its boundaries.  Full-time, well-paid, insured, and pensioned military are not warriors, they're mercenaries.  They go where you tell them to go and kill or bomb where you say.

War is a Racket.  And it's a huge waste of resources.  But it's good for the economy...or at least for defense contractors, oil companies, and arms dealers.

Don't think you're gonna change it anytime soon though.  Many people in top ranks still get their primary education/philosophy from a book in which a "God" orders Joshua to kill men, women, children, animals and to burn everything else that his enemies own.  I'm sure "God" would've said "nuke the bastards" if he had invented the atomic bomb a little earlier.On U.S. Defense Department fighting EPA orders to clean up Superfund sites posted 1 year, 5 months ago 3 Responses

I agree 100% with Wolverine...

"Big solar" isn't gonna be much better for consumers than deregulated "big nuke" or "big coal."  We need to decentralize the grid and tell people to live within their local means.  I'm sure we could all live at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean in a glass dome if we paved over the Mojave desert with solar panels and pumped the energy to where it is "needed."  The reality of the matter is that our populations are too big and too dense and they don't produce enough of the basics locally - food, lumber, energy.  

If I can easily put solar panels on top of my townhouse and meet most or all of my energy needs, why should I pay a monthly bill to a big energy company?  Why pave over natural areas when we've got thousands of acres of rooftops that are wasted?  

Think of places like Phoenix, AZ, where its sunny probably 360 days a year.  Why do we need a major solar utility in the adjacent desert when all of the houses and office buildings there could be modified to produce a large amount of electricity.

I see this issue as key to sustainability.  It's like the argument raging over organic/local/conventional agriculture.  Part of moving away from conventional involved decentralization and more local production.  Most of us agree that a 1-acre lawn is a huge waste of fertilizer and water that should be used to produce food.  So why do we think differently about our energy sources? On Feds freeze new solar projects on public land, pending review posted 1 year, 5 months ago 26 Responses

corn ruined?

Let them eat cake!  Or trout mousse.  I hope they're farmed trout.  It would be a waste to put brook trout into a blender.On Iowa's chefs and their farmer-suppliers get busy recovering from disaster posted 1 year, 5 months ago 15 Responses

Lower cost...

Mad Mac says that if the farming industry could do organic at lower cost, they would.  If I told you that you could prevent breast/colon/prostate cancer or diabetes by not eating red meat, avoiding processed foods, and dairy products and that it would be a lot cheaper than chemo therapy, would you do it?

How is it that a $100K farm tractor, tons of sprayers and equipment, seed, fertilizer, and pesticides can cost less than the old way of doing things?  It can't.  The way the system is build up, however, farmers don't get paid for growing crops, they get paid subsidies.  If conventional agriculture was indeed cheaper than organic, then they'd be doing it our way everywhere in the world.

Cheap oil enables this unsustainable form of agriculture.  It will come to an end soon enough.

Shu pas a vende.

Amazing, I'm not sure if tubes would be good

Would someone ride from Chicago to Seattle if all they saw was the inside of a concrete tube the whole way?  In that case, the rail cars may not even need windows.  It would be like being on a submarine, a very very small submarine.

I think part of selling the concept of rail, in addition to safety and speed, should be the quality of the ride and the beautiful landscapes.

But tubes really would be more efficient, for sure.  I'd ride anyway, but I'm not sure everyone else would.

Shu pas a vende.

1870 Vermont...

One need not look further than New England to see how quickly things can change.  Vermont, by most estimates, was upwards of 90% forested in 1800 and by the end of the Civil War was figured at 10-30% forested.  That was for heating, building, and, of course, sheep farming.  We're not wearing much wool these days...lots of petro-clothing and cotton (another petro-cloth).  Luckily, the small home that used to take 10 cords of wood to heat through the winter now will only use 1 or 2 cords due to the vast improvements in the efficiency of wood stoves, insulation, windows, etc.

The trees are back in Vermont today.  That's because it rains quite a bit there, despite the relatively short growing season.  Go out west though, where trees in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico may grow at 1/8 the rate that they grow on the east coast.  Extremely efficient use of forest resources out there will be absolutely essential.  Of course, out there, if you just point your house in the right direction, it should heat and cool itself.

Shu pas a vende.

The only thing better than the Everglades...

would be a North Woods National Park that encompasses most of Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscataquis, and Somerset counties in Northern Maine.  On Florida will buy out sugar company to restore Everglades posted 1 year, 5 months ago 9 Responses

Not to mention other gov't projects

For example, since it rains in Maine every summer, it makes sense to grow a variety of crops (whatever you can grow in Zone 4).  However, when the government funds water projects out west in Utah, eastern Washington/Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, etc. to create a very cheap supply of water in an area that doesn't get enough rain, you create artificial and unsustainable situation in which it becomes economical to raise crops in large-scale monocultures.  Irrigating crops in Texas with water that fell as rain 10,000 years ago, for example, isn't what I'd consider sensible and if you consider that the water there is gonna run out before they run out of oil, maybe crop rotation and small-scale agriculture will have an economic chance in places where it's sensible to farm.

Idaho wouldn't be growing thousands of acres of Russets without artificially cheap water and transporation costs to the east coast.  And it would make ZERO sense to be growing alfalfa in Utah if they treated water as the precious commodity that it is.On Convicted eco-vandal sentenced to six years in prison posted 1 year, 5 months ago 57 Responses

I'll tell you why...

They're not eating buckwheat pancakes anymore (ployes de sarassin) for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and dessert) because USDA and FDA said "you've gotta eat more meat, eggs, milk and cheese..."  Food habits changed not only in Maine but across the country.  As for the wheat, it comes in from the Dakotas now.  Mainers used to grow it themselves and it made sense to keep it in rotation with potatoes but it turns out that when you add a bunch of cheap energy and chemicals into the equation, it just makes more sense to just grow potatoes year after year.  Until now...

The end of cheap energy changes everything.  You can create GM crops but they're not gonna grow in huge monoculture plots unless you continue using the same energy-intensive, fertilizer-intensive techniques.  

Without the cheap energy and nitrogen, you have to use organic techniques for keeping the soil fertile, including crop rotation.  And done right, that'll solve the blight problem.On Convicted eco-vandal sentenced to six years in prison posted 1 year, 5 months ago 57 Responses

Wisc, I disagree again...

Back in the day, my great grandparents planted potatoes one year, oats the next, winter wheat the next, and buckwheat the following.  After four years, it was time for potatoes again.

If you plant potatoes in the same plot of earth again and again, year after year, it's almost guaranteed that without some chemical (or GM), the spores in the soil will re-infect the crop each year.

Then the Dept. of Agriculture came in and told all these Acadian farmers that the way they'd been doing it the past 200 years wasn't profitable enough.  So they bought big tractors, sprayers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers...

Today, most farmers in northern Maine make more money at the paper mill than they do on their farms.  GM is just another chapter in Big Ag history.  It's not going to solve anything in the long run.  We need to get back to planting buckwheat and oats.  And perhaps the dozens of varieties of (lower yield) healthy potatoes we had before Yukon Gold and Russet took over the grocery stores.On Convicted eco-vandal sentenced to six years in prison posted 1 year, 5 months ago 57 Responses

Fed vehicles...

Yes, I've noticed that a lot of these federal vehicles are SUVs.  Generally with just one person in them at one time.  Now why would he want to make them "flex-fuel"?  Does that cost more?  Help out GM?

Shu pas a vende.

I consider myself a part-time vegan...

I swallow flies from time to time when I'm riding my bike.

I agree that eating less animal products is good.  Eating meat 30% of the time is certainly incredibly better than 100% of the time.

Shu pas a vende.

Wisc, we finally disagree....

Genetically modified organisms are not the way to go.  IPM and organic farming is the way...

When you take away industrial scale agriculture (and associated GM organisms and chemicals) the only way to produce enough food to feed our current population is to bring another 50 million people into the profession of farming.  My parents sold off their land in a dying community because our current policies and unsustainable chemical/energy-intensive agriculture make it impossible to make ends meet.

You can feed your family with 1/4 to 1/2 acre of potatoes.  You can cultivate that by hand with no animal/mechanical labor.  You just can't afford a shiny new car, new clothes, fancy consumer goods in disposable bottles, etc.  Our entire way of life needs to change to become more sustainable.  But GM crops create more problems than they solve.On Convicted eco-vandal sentenced to six years in prison posted 1 year, 5 months ago 57 Responses

$4 a gallon is bad enough....

I'd hate for them to double it to $8 a gallon.  For me to be able to afford that $8 gas, they'd have to stop spending my social security and federal income taxes on a war I didn't need and didn't ask for.  In fact, if you average in the cost of smart bombs, cruise missiles, and an aircraft carrier group sitting in the Persian Gulf 365 days a year (and a trillion dollar war in the oil fields), I'm probably already paying $10 a gallon.  So I'm not any better off than the Europeans.  They just pay higher energy costs rather than paying for a war to have lower energy costs.  

How much money/blood has Germany spent in Iraq the past 5 years?  Ok...so how much are they actually paying per KW of electricity then?

Shu pas a vende.

Well, I agree with you on one point...

I don't believe that each life has it's own intrinsic value, I believe that governments and corporations need to make sure that they're sustainably exploiting people.  Slavery, for example, wasn't sustainable...a few more John Browns and there would've been a real mess.  Vietnam wasn't sustainable.  The Cold War wasn't sustainable.  

Shu pas a vende.

You must read...

Wolverine...you must be getting your information out of books or something, not cable "news."

Shu pas a vende.

medicine and dentistry?

I'm pretty sure that the archaeological record shows that before the age of refine grains, people had healthier teeth than they do today (unless they used them to tan leather, break up yucca fibers, or other chores).

As for medicine, sure 500 years ago, things were pretty bad.  When the Catholic church called natural healers "heretics" and "witches", the only things they allowed were based on the Four Humors.  Blood letting, etc.

Before 500 years ago, however, we had some pretty good medicine.  In many ways, better than today.  In fact, the "father of medicine" said "Let food be your medicine".  And I don't know many doctors who will tell you what or what not to eat.  Most of them hand out pills.  If you call pill-vending medicine, then I'd say even the Four Humors was better.On Corn utensils not helpful without widespread public composting posted 1 year, 5 months ago 12 Responses

And the cost?

Since it takes a fraction of the amount of water, acreage, and fossil fuels to produce patties out of veggies instead of beef, can I expect to pay a fraction of the price of beef?

What if the government were to add in the externalized costs of heart disease and colon cancer to the beef burger.  Then would the veggie burger be economical?  Why exactly does a package of 4 veggie burgers (8 oz.) cost $4.50 or...$9.00 a pound?  

If I were to buy some soy beans, some pintos, some brown rice, carrots, celery, etc., how many burgers could I make and how much would it cost me?  I understand that we Americans love convenience but I think the key to encouraging more people to become "veg-heads" is to show that it's much more economical in the long-run to eat vegetarian food that you prepare yourself, not pay hyper-inflated prices for packaged foods (at Walmart or Costco) when we can easily make these veggie burgers at home for much less.

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I disagree...

When Rome ran out of lumber, it invaded Gaul.  When they ran out of arable land, they took over North Africa.  At the height of empire, they were importing most of the basic staples of life from other areas, including wheat for bread and wood for heat/construction.  And then the Roman Empire disappeared.

Yes, lifestyles will change.  So MadMac, I disagree with you.  We can either decide to make the change now to a more sustainable lifestyle or, eventually, the chickens are going to be called in to roost.  We're already having difficulty maintaining our own empire.  We, like Rome, import the basic staples of life...oil, oil, and oil.  It's becoming increasingly difficult to ensure a steady supply...the dole is about to end.On Corn utensils not helpful without widespread public composting posted 1 year, 5 months ago 12 Responses

Maybe McCain...

will put a moratorium on Obama's moratorium on Bush's moratorium moratorium.On Backing up McCain, Bush calls for ending offshore drilling moratorium posted 1 year, 5 months ago 11 Responses

Just another "diet" for her....

I think of food choice as a lifestyle.  I haven't tried the Mediterranean Diet, the South Beach Diet, the Atkins Diet, or any other diets for that matter.  I also haven't gained a single pound in over 8 years since graduating from college.  

I think Oprah has done her fans a disservice by suggesting that going vegan is a "diet" that one can do for 21 days to "cleanse" oneself.  Rediculous.  I guess not for a talk show host, though.

Shu pas a vende.

The hardest part of going vegan...

Is trying to explain it to people.  Seriously, there's nothing challenging about learning to love food again and taking time and care in its preparation.  Going vegan, you'll find that suddenly, you're eating foods that you never knew existed.  You'll go shopping at Korean, Salvadorean, Chinese, or Indian grocery stores and spend less than you did at Harris Tweeter.  Fruits, veggies, nuts, whole grains, seeds, spices, oils...they can be combined in an infinite number of ways.

If you really can't see going without meat because you're scared God will damn you for going veg (Cain/Abel), just try to cut back to to servings of meat a week.

Also, eating meat, in my opinion, is more ethical than eggs and dairy.  Those animals are just as mistreated but have longer, more miserable lives.  If you've got a big lawn or back yard, get yourself a goat and a dozen chickens.  Feed the chickens your table scraps...you'll have more eggs than you'll know what to do with.

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But Segways are expensive....

Sure, they may be incredibly impractical and make you look like a dork, but they make you look like a RICH dork with lots of "disposable" income.  I've only seen Segways used twice.  One was while I was driving through Hanover, NH and saw a Dartmouth student riding one to class and the other was in Crystal City in Arlington, VA where people were riding them and handing out pamphlets for some hotel.  The Dartmouth student just looked like a dweeb (if you're not a weakling yet, riding your Segway is as good exercise as watching TV or playing Sega).  In Crystal City, the people riding them didn't hand out any pamphlets that I could see because they were busy driving.  Oh, and I saw a cop on one at Dulles Airport riding back and forth on a distance he could have covered just as fast with his legs.
     In every instance where I've seen them used, I've thought it looked incredibly inconsiderate as they force others to move off the sidewalk to let them pass.  If I ever come face to face with one, I'm just gonna stand there and make them go around me.  Motorized scooters aren't allowed on sidewalks, right?  But Segway riders just assume they can use the sidewalks because Segging is a form of walking now, I guess...On Segway sales at an all-time high posted 1 year, 5 months ago 4 Responses

An evil God then?

If not human-induced climate instability, who will the Republicans blame the droughts, floods, famines, hordes of eco-refugees and other phenomena on?  An evil God?  Or I guess they do believe that it is human-induced after all, we're calling these problems on ourselves for not being pious enough!

Shu pas a vende.

Go with anasazi beans....

Lower emission beans.

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Commuter buses are crowded....

Now that gas is $4 a gallon, my commuter bus has become crowded to the point that it's practically half as full as a chicken bus in Guatemala (which get pretty packed in).  Our DC metro is now almost 1/3 as overflowing as the trains in Rio de Janeiro.  It's bad!

Honestly though, the hardest part of riding a commuter bus now is that it's full of SUV drivers who can't wait to get back out on the road in their Escalades (Escape/Escalante/Excapade/Excalibur) as soon as the price of gas drops back to a reasonable price ($3.85/gal.).  It used to be that all of us bus-riders could laugh about the price of gas and bash SUV drivers openly...now we have to self-censor.

Shu pas a vende.

Taco Bell...

Taco Bell sells a bean burrito "al fresco" that has a really small eco-footprint.  You should try it.On 15 Green Chefs posted 1 year, 5 months ago 25 Responses

Got milk? Ethanol is baddddd!

Ok, we're cultivating millions of acres of unneeded corn (and using pesticides, fertilizer, fossil fuels, and water) to feed to cows for beef and milk.  It's clear that the milk/beef industries a lot of corn.  The amount of corn that we feed to our cows in this country could probably feed billions of Mexicans.  But we're not Mexicans, we're Americans.  We drive cars (which run on corn), we drink corn-based softdrinks, we eat corn-based meat, and drink corn-based milk.  We could easily eat tortillas and beans.  That would reduce our collective ecological footprint enormously.  But we're still not talking about that...

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isn't REUSE the greenest thing we can do?

I see beautiful cloth bags and discarded clothing in dumpsters all the time.  Unfortunately, in this time of swollen, diabetic America, I have a hard time finding throw-aways that are normal sizes.  But all the same, I dig them out, wash them, and drop them off at donation sites.  I know an old lade in Wilder, VT who will make you a beautiful baby bag out of pieces of discarded jeans.  Her name is Larch and she volunteers at the Upper Valley Haven, where her bags are sold for much less than $200!  Going green isn't about more consumption!

Shu pas a vende.

recruiting costs....

The Army's recruiting budget is more than this stimulus for alternative energy.  Please...can we elect some politicians that actually do what they're paid for?  (by us, not the lobbyists)

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Gimme a break...

BioD,

     You make it sound like slavery is some kind of natural phenomenon that occurs when we aren't making high enough profits.  No...it happens when you dehumanize other people.  Institutionalized racism kept slavery alive as long as it did.  And please don't argue that racism is just one of our natural human tendencies.  Nor is ignorance.
     So when fossil fuels become so expensive that the price of sugar starts going up, we're going to enslave a bunch of our fellow human beings again unless technology comes along to lower the price again?  You must be an engineer or something...

John

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Television sells "stuff" too...

It's not only all of the commercials for Burger King and Pepsi and "Got Milk" and "Beef...it's what's for dinner," it's also all of the hidden advertising and the selling of the American lifestyle.  These characters are telling us how we should live, what we should drive, eat, and otherwise consume.  

Throw your TV out while you have a chance.  Or recycle it at least...

Shu pas a vende.

I agrew with Ethicurean

I've been a vegan for 8 years now and have to say that nothing tofurky makes actually tastes good.  Vegan feta...tried it.  It tastes like sheet.  Really...better to go with basic, whole ingredients, not just have a "vegan" version of the Standard American Diet.  Plus, all processed soy foods require huge quantities of Beano so you don't stink out your co-workers.  I think the body resists digesting them because they're about as natural as cardboards.

Plus...watching football is a total waste of time.  I even thought that when I worked security at the Superdome.  Had I not needed the money, I would never have wasted my time watching those nimrods ram into each other.  Honestly, kids kicking a ball around in the streets of Rio is eco-friendly.  There is absolutely no way to twist something like American-style mega sports worship and consumption into anything resembling eco-friendliness.  Plus...I'm pissed that my tax dollars build those stupid coliseums.  On A noncarnivorous path to Super Bowl-snack nirvana posted 1 year, 10 months ago 9 Responses

4-hour workdays....or 3 day work weeks

Justlou, growing up just as computers were coming into the classrooms in the early 80s, I remember being told how much more "productive" each hour of work time had become thanks to technology.  An executive now only has one assistant and doesn't need a dozen secretaries to type memos all day.  A farmer can feed thousands of people with the same plot of land that used to feed hundreds.  So where is the disconnect then?  If I double my output, shouldn't I get double the pay or only have to work half the hours?  They don't give you that option.  And so what do you do with the extra money?  You have a house that's twice as big as the one your parents lived in.  And a car that weighs twice as much as your grandparent's model T.  Honestly, people, quality of life is an envrionmental issue but until talking about "labor" is allowed in this country, we're probably not going to go anywhere.  I mean...the burger flipper at McDonald's today probably produces two or three times as many dollars worth of product as the burger flipper in the 70s and get, in terms of real wages adjusted for inflation, is only making half as much.  Same goes for the clerk at the check-out at Walmart.  I don't know if any of you who visit Grist have ever worked at Walmart like my mother, but they actually have computers that monitor now fast a cashier scans and bags stuff and then they've got some kind of program that tells them which cashiers make them the most money and they fire the "slow" ones.  The grocery cashier in the 70s could never have moved tens of thousands of dollars of product out the doors like they do today.  Hell, when I was 18, I was single-handedly manning a huge gas station that ran 16 pumps.  So did I get 16 times the pay as the kid who was pumping gas back in 1975?  No...

The people with the means to exploit others have fine-tuned this labor machine to the point that we're all putting millions of profit into their pockets but still trying to survive by not heating our apartments and living on borsht and rye bread like our grandparents.  It's time for a revolution.  If the output in the USA has doubled since 1980, then we should all be sharing in that...or having the option to work half as much and maybe have more time to go camping/canoeing than our grandparents did.  Wait...I get two weeks a year.  My grandparents had months off...

Maybe it's just the French in me speaking but I think it's almost time to pull that old guillotine out.  Anytime I hear those politicians talking on the radio it all becomes "waa waa waa" and what I'm hearing is "let them eat cake."  Off with their heads!

We need a new labor/environmental movement!  Not one based in the status quo that's just about selling eco-gadgets...

Shu pas a vende.

Oh...and they'll be spending some advertising too

Yeah, Super Bowl is gonna spend "X" millions of dollars in advertising to tell us how green they've become but like BP/Shell, they'll be spending a few thousand on planting trees.  Honestly, this is total greenwashing hype.  The NFL won't be the first company to spend $100K on some green project and then spend millions in advertising to tell us all how green they are.  The fact that it made its way to Grist is pretty pathetic.On Super Bowl to be powered by renewable energy posted 1 year, 10 months ago 2 Responses

How do you look the other way?

I really don't understand how anyone can continue to look the other way when the damning information continues to pile up every day.  This information is everywhere, totally accessible to everyone in the environmental community.  I work in a "conservation" field and yet, when I sit down at lunch with my bowls of squash soup, vegan chili beans, or curry, all of my co-workers look curiously to see what the "freaky vegan" is eating for lunch today...and then they all bite into their big thick ham sandwiches.  And being in Vermont, they all absolutely worship dairy, even though most of the little yogurt cups they consume come from half a dozen states away.  And this idealized "dairy" that we see in the photos of Vermont is not at all reflective of where the majority of milk products come from.  

Will people ever change?

Shu pas a vende.

Go Vegan...

or raise your own.  It's not that hard to raise chickens.  You feed them a handful of grain now and then and throw them your kitchen scraps.  If you go on vacation, your nextdoor neighbor feeds them in exchange for the eggs.  There's an old saying..."If you want it done right, do it yourself."  We all need to start producing food in our own communities.  The current system of exploiting poor immigrants and torturing animals is not right.

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A lot of Maine towns...

will have citizens with much happier noses if those paper mills have to contain their hydrogen sulfide.  Jay, Maine, for example, smells like raw sewage 24 hours a day.  Lincold, ME (a.k.a. "Stinkin' Lincoln") smells like rotton eggs.  These places will all be better off if the EPA ever starts protecting the environment.On U.S. EPA considers regulating hydrogen sulfide, industry not into the idea posted 1 year, 11 months ago 1 Response

Ahh...oil sands...

We can't start addressing global warming until we've sold off all of the oil.  Can we put off talking about it for a couple more years until oil reaches $120/barrel?  Then we'll come up with some jargon about making oil sands carbon neutral and we'll set a goal of 25% less consumption by 2050 or something.On Sweden best at addressing climate change, U.S. and Saudi Arabia worst, says report posted 1 year, 11 months ago 5 Responses

Why I'm worried this holiday season...

Because it's an election year and all of the politicians are starting and finishing their sentences with "god" and talking about family values.  Everyone listening to them is feeling all touchy-feely-Christmassy celebrating the king of family values, the son of god who came to usher in the end of the world.

Have you seen the polls lately?  Huckabee is rising from the dead!  If this becomes a faith-based Christian nation under God for flag and country and God for one and for all...kiss the planet goodbye.

I know it's a cute holiday.  But Jesus is a myth and he was only nice half of the time anyhow.  Nobody believes in gods and virgin births today.  Our lives are essentially secular...nobody believes that faith makes internal combustion engines or prescription medications work.  We understand the science behind these things.  I know there's the tendency to "backslide" into "faith" around the holidays but it doesn't have to be this way.  The only reason that Christmas has lasted as long as it has is because it's driven by consumerism.  Cute little baby Jesus it filling landfills with plastic snowmen and blinking lawn reindeer.

Anyways...these are just my opinions.  I promise I won't exile, excommunicate, or burn any of you at the stake for disagreeing with me.On Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 51 Responses

the "walkable" village

In New England's early years, when a new village was established by a group of responsible individuals, each was expected to maintain their share of the road, their share of the common fences, their share of the common fields.  Personal property was limited to a small home lot and vegetable garden.  Yes...sounds like a commune, doesn't it?  Anyways, when someone decided to pull up roots and head further out into the wilderness as the community grew, the members of the community got together to decide what to do with the house and lot.  The individual didn't "own" his house and lot in the way that we own them today.  When an individual tried to sell his holdings to a new person wanting to move into the community, the town selectmen had to approve the sale.  The maintained this power to keep absentee owners out.  That's right, second home owners were not welcome in early New England communities.  You would never know that to travel through Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire today.  In Rangeley, Maine, where I lived for a year, 85% of the homes are not lived in for most of the year.

The environmental impacts of second home ownership are obvious.  The fact that second home ownership drives up real estate prices and keeps the working class as renters and poor is conveniently overlooked by many.  The growing divide between the rich and the poor in this country is the reason why we can't have universal healthcare.  

Maybe Bush and his cronies should edit the constitution.  "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" should be, as it was in the beginning "Life, liberty, and property."

Shu pas a vende.

Christ never existed...

Ok, I guess I should say that my main argument against celebrating a fairy tale is that

A.  Christ couldn't possibly be the son of a virgin (it takes egg + sperm)

B.  If she wasn't a virgin inseminated by a god, then that means he wasn't a god either

C.  If he wasn't a god, he didn't rise from the dead

D.  Historians don't even know that he existed...

E.  The stories that we have of him suggest that he had "some" good ideas but also lots of bad ideas and advocated things that I would consider immoral today

F.  If your entire worldview is built up on these myths from the time you're a little kid, how are you ever supposed to face the problems of the world?

G.  Isn't celebrating Christmas (as the birth of a god child) the equivalent of celebrating "Earth is Flat Day" or "Earth is the Center of the Universe Day" or "God Hates Philistines Day" or "Darwin Was Wrong Day".  I don't see how some people can mix science and religion.  Oil and water.

H.  Couldn't we have a perfectly good holiday where people get together and exchange gifts, play scrabble, kiss under the mistletoe, and build snowmen...all without any virgin mothers or child gods?

I.  Wouldn't a generation who started out life with a science-based understanding of the world be better prepared for dealing with things like overpopulations?  (How many religions are advocating condom use...I bet I can count them on one hand).

The list goes on and on...On Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? posted 1 year, 11 months ago 51 Responses

should have used a different term...

I guess NIMBY isn't really a good term to use anyways.  It's not their back yard...it's MY back yard.  They only spend a couple of weeks a year here in their beautiful homes.On Barge collides with tanker, spilling 2.7 million gallons of oil off South Korean coast posted 1 year, 12 months ago 5 Responses

Inefficient system of food production...

I know the meat producers are working hard to gain efficiencies to boost their bottom lines.  It involves wasting huge acreage and energy growing corn and soy to feed cows.  It involves wasting enormous amounts of water.  Of course, being that they have such a small bottom line, they can't be held responsible for their wastes either.  But I have a suggestion that I think could solve the whole thing.

I've been reading more and more about how cows are being fed chicken shit.  That seems like an obvious inefficiency to me.  If they can take soybeans and make soyburgers out of them without using the inefficient cow, couldn't they make chickenshit burgers the same way?  Just add a little water and some binders and then all the meat eaters could eat chicken shit burgers.  They say it's perfectly healthy...high in potassium or phosphorus or something.  

Shu pas a vende.

Romney's intolerance

I think this is a pretty good article that shows how relevant their faith is.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/12/07/religion_ ...

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This is terrible...

When I hear something like this, my usual humor and sarcasm is just crushed right out of me.  This totally sucks...and yet, my apartment is heated with oil and my Civic runs on oil.  This is my fault but I don't really know what to do about it.  I have to take this opportunity, however, to point out that, as of yet, there haven't been any wind or solar spills ruining miles of coastlines.  Can we please kick all of the NIMBYs out of Vermont and get some wind power here!On Barge collides with tanker, spilling 2.7 million gallons of oil off South Korean coast posted 1 year, 12 months ago 5 Responses

And their deserts are spreading...

And their fresh water is running out.  And their soil is exhausted.

It may reach 1.5 billion...but it'll slide right back down to .5 billion.On China's population rapidly rising posted 1 year, 12 months ago 10 Responses

I agree with you 100%

I apologize if I sometimes come across as an atheist fundamentalist.  I was raised in "The Message"...a little sect of Oneness Pentacostals whose doctrine was based on the teachings of a "prophet" named William Marion Branham who was basically an uneducated bigot from some little town in Indiana in the 1920s, I think.  Anyways, it was pretty crazy and it took a long time for me to understand myself after I got over the whole God, predestination, hell, and lots of other ideas.  My wife often corrects me when I'm in "fundamentalist" mode, except when I'm online.  Anyways, it's hard enought to change or adopt new ideas.  But changing a way of thinking is even harder.  But I still think all religion is bunk.On Evangelicals gather in D.C. and reaffirm that climate is not their focus posted 1 year, 12 months ago 18 Responses

Christmas is propaganda...

http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id= ...

Read this article about religious propaganda.  The "nostalgia," for the Christmas ceremonies, pageantry, rituals, etc. is all part of the religion propaganda.  Once we all get over it, we can really start addressing the big problems.  And you all wonder why John Edwards isn't "greener."  Can any of you even count how many times he and Hillary invoke "God."  They're no better than the republicans.  Edwards isn't hard enough on coal...it's probably because he thinks "God" made the coal so it can't be all that bad.  

I'm all for taking time off work in the winter to enjoy good food, a family reunion, perhaps an exchange of gifts.  But can't we do all these things for their own sake?  Why does it have to be to celebrate the birth of Nimrod?  I mean...is spending time with your family so low on your list of priorities that you'll only do it when celebrating a myth?

Anyways, Christmas is just part of the advertising campaign of this religious propaganda.  Retailers love it too, I'm sure.On Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? posted 1 year, 12 months ago 51 Responses

I'm not dumping on someone's religion...

I'm dumping on EVERYONE's religons.  Come on!  Virgin birth?  Bringing the dead back to life?  Walking on water?  Turning rods into snakes?  Finding gold tablets?  

How can anyone come up with any rational solutions to our many environmental problems when your mind is stuck in the stone-age superstitious "God-fearing" gutter?  Problem solving requires educated, rational thought.

I'm sorry...but "nostalgia" is not important enough to make me tow the line for th emonth of December as my Baptist in-laws spout their crap about "God" creating the world, hating homosexuals, hating unwed welfare mothers, hating black people, etc., etc., etc.  

I'm going to teach my kids that "Christmas" is the time when we worship trees, which I think would make a whole lot more sense to a kid since the centerpiece is a tree full of decorations.On Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? posted 1 year, 12 months ago 51 Responses

No such thing...

There is no such thing as an eco-friendly bible unless you change the violent, tribal, stone-age messages inside.  We already number as the stars so I don't think "go forth and be fruitful" should be included in the eco-friendly version.  Also, as livestock are currently the largest contributor to global warming (and their share is projected to increase dramatically as other countries develop and their meat-eating increases), the eco-friendly version would have Jesus and all the followers be vegans.  Jesus should also tell people to use birth control.  He should also add  "blessed are the literate" to his long list of good people since it's widely established at this point that the higher percentage of literate people in one's country, the lower the birth rate.  We could also add in a few parables where Jesus educates consumers and tells them that they shouldn't be consuming products that are inherently bad for the environment, like eating CAFO meat, driving cars, urban sprawl, etc.  Maybe we could have a corporate CEO from Monsanto fall at his feet and Jesus say "go and sin no more!"  Wouldn't that be cool if, instead of underpriveleged people who have been forced into hard lives of prostitution, exploitation, and petty crime, that Jesus would minister that the worst sinners are actually Fast Food vendors, arms manufacturers, agribusiness CEOs, and oil companies?

If the publishers really want an eco-friendly bible, send them my way and I'll help them to rewrite it.On Publisher will produce first eco-friendly Bible posted 1 year, 12 months ago 4 Responses

The real meaning of Christmas...

It's the celebration of the possible birth of the genetic cross between a virgin human and the supreme creator.  The thing is...nobody can actually prove that it happened.  But this guy ended up growing up and "carrying" all of the world's sins away with him when he was sacrificed.  So it's a celebration of a scapegoat.  And since most of the people who celebrate it continue to practice stone-age rites and beliefs and continue to believe that this son of a god will come back and carry away everyone's sins again, I say...doesn't this religion (for which Christmas is an outward demonstration of belief) totally negate the need for an environmental movement.  I mean...producing carbon is kind of a sin, right?  And consuming vinyl, which poisons kids in poor towns in Louisiana...that's kind of a sin, right?  But let's celebrate the son of a god who is going to come again and take all these sins with him at the end of days.

Or maybe there really is no connection between religious belief and the environmental movement and I've got it all wrong.  Maybe the people advocating for the planet, for the millions of species (including humans), for the future of life...are actually deeply religious...but somehow I doubt it.

Let's get rid of this holiday and spend the day worshipping the earth, the only place that we know of that life exists.  And since we don't know that life exists after death...perhaps we should do a lot more to ensure that this life is as good as it can be for all of us.On Are you brave enough to say no to a high-stress holiday? posted 1 year, 12 months ago 51 Responses

What?

Uhhh....you mean, meat eating is bad for the environment?  Why hasn't somebody told me about this?  Why aren't Hillary and Barach fighting over who eats less meat rather than who takes more money from the coal and oil industries?  I think the answer is obvious...eating meat is actually good for the environment.  And not only is burning fossil fuel also good, it also makes God happy.  Just like animal sacrifices, he loves the sweet incense smell of burned coal as it rises to the heavens.

No...people will not change their habits until they change their beliefs.On Feeding ethanol waste to cows posted 1 year, 12 months ago 18 Responses

Churches in 2050?

Unless the churches all go away, I doubt any of this will happen.  But if this all does "come to pass" by 2050 and utopia is upon us, what use will we have for religion?  Please, no church in my "compact urban village."On America's climate and energy future posted 1 year, 12 months ago 15 Responses

I know everyone complains about gas prices

I know everyone complains about gas prices...I hear it almost every day at work, at the grocery store, etc.  But I'm always happy when I see the prices go up.  When gas is $10.00/gal., we'll start seeing some progress.  Maybe then wars for oil will become a thing of the past.  And, if you take $1,000,000,000,000 out of the federal budget (the cost of the war in Iraq to defend pipelines of freedom crude) and put some of it into public transportation and the rest into eliminating income taxes for the poorest Americans, we'll have more and more positive feedback as people become more interested and invested in saving the planet.

I also have to say that when I was active duty and this rediculous war for oil pipeline security was started in Afghanistan and Iraq, just about all of the Marines I knew (except for the Christo-fascists) understood what was going on.  And what made me feel really cynical about "serving" my country wasn't seeing 500 war protesters on the Capitol step, it was not seeing 5,000,000,000 protesters shutting down Washington.  When there has been such an obvious, flagrant violation of the public trust and of human decency for capitalist interests and yet the best this country can do is a few protesters, that's enough to make anyone in the military stop "serving."  Yes...I hope the price of gas keeps going up.  Maybe that will remind you all of the real price of a barrel of oil.  
     I would expect you all to pay me at least $100 for a loaf of Wonderbread is you wanted me to procure it by kicking down somebody's door, kill or abuse half their family, turn them into refugees, hire contractors to guard their bread box, and put landmines and depleted uranium around their house.  But you all think gas should be $1.25 a gallon!  Ha!
     Those (often first generation) black, Hispanic, and otherwise poor American legionnaires...I mean, Marines and soldiers, wouldn't be doing it if they had better opportunities and weren't brainwashed by million-dollar advertising campaigns ("Can you be an Army of One?") and the hope of going to college.  They're being exploited.  If you don't want them to be tools of American foreign policy, be willing to pay $10/gal., or better yet, give up your car.  Yes, it is time to sacrifice...the car.On A possible compromise in energy legislation negotiations posted 2 years ago 8 Responses

To produce our own food...

We need a major overhaul on our tax systems.  A progressive income tax.  Don't tax anyone who makes less than $50,000.  And, of course, tax the people at the top a lot more than they're paying now.  Also, property taxes should be changed.  They've been fine-tuned to benefit the rich, non-producing members of society.  Here in Vermont they've got this BS they call "current" use, which they use to give tax breaks to prop up the continuously failing timber and dairy industries.  But you have to own at least 25 acres.  Now...what if tomorrow I wanted to start a 20 acre veggie farm?  20 acres is a lot of land!  (just ask a Chinese or Guatemalan peasant).  But no, I wouldn't be in "current use", even if I use every square inch for agricultural/forest production.  And, of course, since the second home owners keep flooding into the state (since their taxes are way too low), the land prices are driven up.  So for anyone wanting to get into farming and produce food locally, it's nearly impossible just to get started because you've got outrageous land prices and property taxes.  
     Anyways, the whole system has been gamed to exploit as many people as possible and get the poorest to bear the heaviest burdens.  The people in Norwich, VT and Hanover, NH, can eat their organic, free-range, shade-grown, local foie gras and brie because they've got beaucoup buck...but not many other Vermonters can afford to buy into the "local food" movement right now because their are some huge problems built into the system.  I'm sure other states are dealing with the same issues.  I say tax the hell out of the second (3rd/4th/5th) home-owners and tourists.  Everybody is working so hard to pull tourism into the state but they're doing the same thing Vermont was doing back in the 1840s with their economy, they're putting all their eggs in one basket.  Back then, it was sheep farming and they devastated the state before leaving it dirt poor for the next century.
     Anyways, if people are going to produce their own food, they need land to start with.  And they need to be able to afford to grow the food.  A lot of people would do it for the love of it with their own labor (forget importing illegal labor) if they could just get by.On How globalization is smothering U.S. fruit and vegetable farms posted 2 years ago 11 Responses

Wolverine, you're missing the point...

What's important here is that the deforestation and palm plantation is going on in Indonesia.  If they said that they were going to deforest the entire state of Maine for biofuel production, I'd be concerned.  As it is, now when I'm rich, I can buy my vacation home up there on the coast and have beautiful views of spruce-covered mountains unobstructed by nasty wind turbines.  Let the Indonesians pay the consequences for our massive energy consumption!

And if you disagree with what I'm saying here, let me remind you "you're either with us, or against us."  Besides, I'm sure those Indonesians are more than happy to have well-paying, unionized jobs working in the palm plantations for like $30/hr.  Hell, they probably make more money than I do!On Palm oil may be certified sustainable, some greens skeptical posted 2 years ago 3 Responses

can we get non-GMO labeled Cola while we're at it?

I have to add that 99.99% of you who consume milk are just looking the other way.  If I drink a can of soda every day, I'm just ignoring the fact that it takes a lot of energy to mine and refine the aluminum, that aluminum is poisoning a lot of things (including our bodies), that the soda in the can is nothing but water with subsidized corn syrup, and that overall, it's a nutritionally-worthless, luxury, wasteful product.  I'm just saying that this whole argument is a waste of time.  If you really care about getting something nutritious, stop buying factory-farmed industrial-scale milk altogether.  Get the FDA to allow small-scale milk production without pasteurization and homogenization.  You should know the cow that's feeding you is what I'm saying.  What difference does it make when your milk is labeled BHG-free when it's mixed with the milk of 1000 other cows?  It's still industrial agriculture and it's disgusting and unhealthful.  If you get your own cow, you'll appreciate the milk a lot more...and it'll taste better because there will be less puss in it.  And if you've got a 3-acre lawn, you've got no excuse for mowing it when you could easily have a goat.On Pennsylvania bans hormone- and antibiotic-free labels on dairy products posted 2 years ago 21 Responses

Eco-booze?

Isn't that home brew?  There are tons of free apples everywhere in this country.  Hard cider isn't an eco-fad, it's the way of the past!On 10 great ideas for "stuff-free" holiday gifts posted 2 years ago 11 Responses

filthy animals!

My church and I support the protection of mountain gorillas.  They are not promiscuous and the guy on top of the social ladder is allowed to have many wives.  We believe, in fact, that Moses got the stone tablets directly from God in the form of a gorilla.  These filthy, sexually "liberated" bonobos should be wiped off the face of the earth.On Congo nature preserve set up to protect bonobos posted 2 years ago 5 Responses

I work in National Parks...

The average visitor is driving a SUV and is visiting a dozen national parks in the next two weeks.  I counted maybe two working-class hispanic families driving old beaters (that got probably 30+ mpg compared to the Escalades) in an entire season of working the South Rim of Grand Canyon.  Invite 5 million visitors a year and most of them drive their SUVs.  Nobody wants to talk about the huge glaring contradiction though.On An interview with Tom Kiernan of the National Parks Conservation Association posted 2 years ago 5 Responses

offsets are a copout

you can't consume more or the same and become "carbon-neutral".  You have to consume less.  No two ways about it.On Groups announce voluntary carbon standard for offset market posted 2 years ago 3 Responses

I bet torpedos are unnecessary...

A little sugar in the gas tank would probably work.On Japanese whaling fleet to hunt up to 1,035 whales, including 50 humpbacks posted 2 years ago 4 Responses

We're all with you 100%, Bernie

Thanks for taking a stand on our behalf.On The Lieberman-Warner bill is not strong enough to do the job posted 2 years ago 16 Responses

clean air and coal

I used to work in an office building where a co-worker complained of constant respiratory problems.  She searched high and low for the cause.  Our building was inspected numerous times because of her complaints.  But just outside...if you looked straight up the railroad tracks, right on the Potomac River just a mile upstream from our office in Quantico was a huge coal-fired plant.  It was the single largest point source for a huge number of pollutants anywhere near us.  We've got to kick this fossil fuel habit.  Get those lobbyists off the hill!On The cost of the FutureGen 'clean coal' plant doubles posted 2 years ago 16 Responses

please don't vote for Obama...

He's going to do absolutely nothing to change things.  Nor is Hillary.  

In fact, if we absolutely have to elect a Democrat, let's go with Kucinich.  I think at least with him we could get rid of the electoral college so we wouldn't have to choose between Democrat and Republican.  We'd have some real choices.On Obama condemns mining reform package as too hard on the mining industry posted 2 years ago 18 Responses

JFK, give us a break!

Your defense of meat-eating is pathetic.  What does fat have to do with a vegan diet?  I've known vegans who looked like holocaust victims and vegans who were a hundred pounds overweight.  One could be a vegan if they only drank corn oil and corn syrup.  No vegans are advocating a corn oil and corn syrup diet.  I know...low fat isn't necessarily good.  But what does that have to do with veganism?  Give it up, man.  Eating less meat is good for the environment.On On PETA's latest campaign posted 2 years, 1 month ago 256 Responses

Marines are all "green"

Or so we say.  I always thought it was kind of a funny coloquialism.  White, black, hispanic, poor, rich, we're all equal.  You probably can't appreciate that.  There's a reason why environmentalists are middle class white people.  Martin Luther King said we wouldn't have democracy until we have economic equality.  Environmentalism and conservation are going to be the hobbies of comfortable and wealthy people until the poor feel that they have a stake (not steak) in it.  Until we address the social issues in this country, environmental problems will continue to mount.  I think I've made it clear why I'm a "former" Marine.  Why weren't you ever a Marine, silver spoon?On The savory challenges of being a sustainable chef in Big Ag country posted 2 years, 1 month ago 34 Responses

back in the 70s

Yeah, I know...back then you didn't have STDs to really worry about either.

But yes, livestock is a major contributor to global warming.  Saying "it's going to happen anyways so why don't we make the best of the situation?" doesn't cut it for me.  We have too many cows.  We don't need them all.  We produce way too much milk.  And we subsidize farmers to continue producing a product that we're not willing to pay $5.00 a gallon for.  

The subsidies cause overproduction and the excess is fed to our children in school lunches.  The kids eat sloppy joes one day, cheeseburgers the next, and pizza the third.  The menu is almost completely unhealthful because schools are reaping Dept. of Ag's corn, soy, wheat, cheese, etc.  This, in turn, is going to cause a huge health problem for the country later down the road.  These kids are already showing blockage in their arteries at 10 years old.  Stop subsidizing milk...it is unhealthful and terrible for the environment.  A better way to deal with the methane would be to reduce those 800 cow herds to 200 cow herds and have everybody eat a lot less cheese.  Of course, here in Vermont, dairy is untouchable.  And the spoiled rich people who move here for the quaintness love eating their brie and gruyere but like to feel "green" while they're doing it.  So we pretend that our widespread dairy practices are green and part of some larger conservation movement.  Addressing the global warming problem for real would require everybody to eat fewer dairy products and those rich people would have to have their views spoiled by wind turbines.  Wind energy is a lot greener than cleaning up the tail end of a terrible industrial practice like dairy farming.  

Dairy should be a luxury.  We shouldn't be draining aquifers in Utah to grow alfalfa in the desert so that people can buy brie in Moab.On Methane from Vermont dairy farms to provide electricity for utility customers posted 2 years, 1 month ago 12 Responses

place blame where it is due....

If I were to agree with Kevin Michael, our 24 y.o. white anglo-saxon male protestant, that building a wall to keep illegal immigrants is a good thing, I'd only have to add that it's 500 years to late.  In which case we should blame it on the Native Americans.  If they had had the good sense to build a 20ft wall around the Americas before Columbus, John Smith, and all the others arrived, none of this crap would have ever happened.On Why environmental groups have been slow to fight the border wall posted 2 years, 1 month ago 38 Responses

the wall is pury cronyism...

Essentially, the wall will accomplish nothing.  The only people who actually support the idea of a wall who aren't just uneducated bigots are the few contractors who figured they could make a few easy billions of dollars building a structure that does nothing.  And the politicians who figured they could get the bigots to vote for them if they support the wall.  And the rich guys who own stock in the contracting companies that will be building the wall.On Why environmental groups have been slow to fight the border wall posted 2 years, 1 month ago 38 Responses

Land Trusts protecting land...ha ha!

Land Man,

     Land trusts are keeping cattle land as cattle land and dairy land as dairy land.  Those don't do anything for the environment.  Here in Vermont, they're just another way to prop up the failing dairy industry.  Oh...and lot's of rich Americans buy estates and second home McMansions and put a cute easement on their 350 acre "farm."  I know some land trusts are doing truly valuable work but creating private game reserves and permanent pretty views for the rich doesn't count as environmentalism for me.  Most of the people FROM Vermont can't ever afford to own land in their own state now because real estate prices are being driven up by second home owners.  A huge waste of materials, heating fuels, etc.  It's not poor social-justice types sitting on the boards of these land trusts, it's wealthy patricians.  They're protecting their estates and their fortunes.  And this administration has expanded the tax breaks for them further.  And yes, for the record, there are some Vermonters who don't think "dairy" is the holy of holies.  If it goes away, our rivers will all be a lot cleaner.

I agree with Patrick that being anti-immigrant is essentially racist in nature.  If you want those countries to stop exporting their populations, erase their debts, provide opportunities, stop sending CIA guys to destabilize them, and throw all of the priests/preachers into the ocean.  You know Mormonism is the fastest-growing religion in many parts of Latin America?  If you think Catholics breed like rabbits, wait another 20 years until the first batches of Mormons start heading North.  If these religions would just update their rules for the 21st century and teach birth control, the population might stabilize.  Of course, there are lots of missionary churches here in the U.S. that send "the word" south to Latin America.  Baptists make sure Latin American women don't get an education, respect their husbands, and don't use birth control.  Good message for a planet with over 6 billion people on it.On Why environmental groups have been slow to fight the border wall posted 2 years, 1 month ago 38 Responses

sustainable farm subsidies

Oh yeah...and kiss your sustainable pork goodbye when corn reaches $10 a bushel.  Unless congress also raises the minimum wage to $20/hr. nobody will be able to afford it.  The farm bill subsidizes grain and meat.  Without it, conventional meat prices will go up.  And so will yours.  It's not a sustainable picture unless we can develop sustainalbe petroleum.  Or get our farm tractors to run on solar power.On The savory challenges of being a sustainable chef in Big Ag country posted 2 years, 1 month ago 34 Responses

Sustainable?

Not sustainability itself but rather the use of the word.  I think we should define "sustainable" before we label this and that.  Sustainable petroleum leads to sustainable corn which leads to sustainable pork and sustainable global warming.On The savory challenges of being a sustainable chef in Big Ag country posted 2 years, 1 month ago 34 Responses

6 to 9 ounces for each of us...sustainably?

If you want to pretend that 300 million Americans could eat "sustainable pork", you're going to have to quadruple the size of the planet.  Either that or add at the bottom of the pork recipe that it should be eaten only once per month.  Or that each "6 to 9" ounce portion should feed four people.On The savory challenges of being a sustainable chef in Big Ag country posted 2 years, 1 month ago 34 Responses

link to my spreadsheet...

Here's a link to my spreadsheet.  It shows that if you only use 50% biofuels, it's the same as a vegan who has 3.5 cats and a team of sled dogs that each run 180 miles per week in training.  Using 25% biofuels is the equivalent of a 50% vegan who only eats 8 ounces of lean pork every other day but doesn't eat meatballs with his spaghetti.  Driving a prius with two cows in the back is equivalent to 1.4 vegans who dream about flying elephants that smell like roses when they fart.On Politicians are still pumping biodiesel posted 2 years, 1 month ago 40 Responses

Everyone knows that biofuels are a good thing...

It's not convenient for me right now to believe that biofuels are bad so I'm going to develop a spreadsheet to show that, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, my continued use of them has no measureable impact.  This is something I feel very strongly about and so I'm going to waste everybody's time citing this and that and coming up with totally irrelevant arguments.  I should mention, that being a vegan is worse for the environment than not using biofuels to power your bicycle on cloudy days in Maine on December if the grass is covered by at least 14 inches of snow with a .05% content of particulate from a coal plant that burns methane from farting cows fed on arctic lichen grown under 82% or less shade cover of genetically-improved oak or hemlock trees with a minimum of 6% tannic acid compounds in their sap that might be used in making barrels to age wine or ale made from sustainably cultivated malted barley grains that are each at least .4 inches in length with a minimum 55% starch content unless they're eaten by a vegan first, in which case the protein in them would not be absorbed as it's missing one amino acid.On Politicians are still pumping biodiesel posted 2 years, 1 month ago 40 Responses

Better ways to raise livestock

Just as technology has provided us with alternatives for fueling our cars (biofuels), it will definitely find ways to improve the ways meat is being produced.  Instead of finding alternatives to the cars or the meat, technology only provides alternatives to fueling and producing.  Ultimately, the problem will only grow worse if we assume new productions methods will be the answer.  

I have an answer that will reduce everyone's meat production immediately.  Stop subsidizing it's production.  Let the store prices for meat reflect the actual cost of the grain, the petroleum, the water, the topsoil, the methane, the erosion, the riparian habitat destruction, etc.  I can be a vegan but if my federal income tax dollars are funneled into farm programs that encourage the overproduction of corn and soy, dairy products and meat, then the basic quality of our environment is going to continue to be degraded despite my personal choices.On On PETA's latest campaign posted 2 years, 1 month ago 256 Responses

Great idea...

Bookerly...this is the first really rational suggestion I've seen here in a while.  I also suggested reopening the Great Plains to raised tens of millions of mammoth-sized bison but nobody took it seriously.  Eating the rich would make perfect sense.  We could assign a point system and eat the people with the biggest carbon footprints first.  That would include people with big homes, who drive big cars, and those who eat meat.  Also...we should assign extra points to people who spread denial of global warming or deny the impacts of their consumption habits.  I nominate BioD as our first meal.  Since this is not a forum for animal rights, I'm not going talk about what constitutes "humane" slaugter.  And since we're not here to talk about nutrition, I won't waste your time talking about how long people have been eating other people or whether or not eating other people is necessary to get enough B12 in our diets.  We're here to talk about global warming and whether or not what we choose to eat can make a difference.On On PETA's latest campaign posted 2 years, 1 month ago 256 Responses

Better answer to lower food prices...

If there were fewer poor people eating the corn, demand...and thus, prices, would be lower for the rest of us.  Someone in the Bush administration must have developed a plan by now to get rid of the poor people.

Of course, when the price of wheat got too high, the Romans just took over Carthage.  There must be someone somewhere that we can subjugate.On Federal officials claim ethanol, border fence green as can be posted 2 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

Conspicuous consumption

Yes, tobacco, plastics, soda cans and water bottles, clothing, big cars, huge homes, and factory-farmed meat are all bad for the environment and contribute to global warming.  They're all just status symbols that we consume to show each other how rich or successful we are.  Dogs determine status in a much more rational way.On The eco-depredations of the tobacco industry posted 2 years, 2 months ago 4 Responses

You can be a meat-eating environmentalist...

You can be a meat-eating environmentalist.  We all agree that Al Gore is an environmentalist and he lives in a 14,000 sq. foot mansion.  Ted Haggard is an evangelical preacher and he hires male prostitutes and uses drugs.  On On PETA's latest campaign posted 2 years, 2 months ago 256 Responses

Forget Grass-Fed Beef - Go for Bison!

Ok, if we can all agree that meat is both necessary for human health and reduces global warming, we just have to figure out how to raise enough meat once we run out of fossil fuels.  Currently, most of the corn and soy grown in this country is fed to livestock.  This requires huge petroleum inputs.  I don't think it's very productive to suggest people eat less meat...we just have to find ways of producting massive quantities of grass-fed meat to feed our growing population.

I read a post a little while back that suggested that we reopen the Great Plains and reintroduce herds of wild bison, which could be harvested in a sustainable manner.  I think this is a great idea, easily accomplished, and a much better alternative to asking people to eat less or no meat.  First we have to figure out how many bison we'd need:

Assuming it will take about 10 years to put my plan into action, we'll need enough meat to feed 350 million Americans.  If each of us need 200 pounds of bison meat each for good nutrition, that comes to 70,000,000,000 pounds per year.  I think bison are pretty big so we can probably get like 1000 pounds of meat from each of them.  That means we'd only need to harvest 70 million bison each year.  Now before Manifest Destiny it was estimated that there were between 50 and 100 million bison on the plains.  Obviously if we eat 70 million a year, we'll run out too quickly.  What we can do is get our great scientists to genetically engineer will grasses, forbs, and legumes.  If we get these plants to produce the same hormones and antibiotics that are currently given to factory-farmed cows, they'll probably grow much faster and larger.  So...we'll get like 3,000 pounds of meat from our hormone-stuffed mega-bison rather than 1000 lbs from a normal bison.  That means we'll only need about 20 million per year.  That's still too large a number since bison only have one young each per year.  If we can genetically engineer the bison themselves to be even bigger, say the size of wooly mammoths, and to each have say...3 offspring each year, I think this thing could actually work and would be totally sustainable.

How to make it happen is the hard part.  Sure, PETA says we could just stop eating meat.  That takes a lot of effort.  What I'm proposing, re-opening the Great Plains, would only require the government to displace maybe 100 million Americans and move them all to California or New York.  They'll be happy to be out of Minnesota anyways.  So we take the land using eminent domain, bulldoze the houses and cities, take down all the fences, plant the plains with genetically-engineered grasses, reintroduce our mammoth-sized bison and voila!...enough meat to satisfy any environmentalist.

This same type of project could be done over and over again all over the world.  The steppes of Russia, Siberia, Africa.  Meat for everybody.  This would all be much more obviously easy to accomplish than not eating factory-farmed meat.  So PETA...get out of my face!On On PETA's latest campaign posted 2 years, 2 months ago 256 Responses

more reasons:

3. Skilled workers vs. unskilled labor.  Flipping burgers is a highly-paid profession that requires years of education.  Tossing salads, by comparison, is something that requires no education.  Most people, meat eaters included, know how to toss a salad almost instinctively.  It's also pays less than flipping burgers, putting further strain on our consumer-driven economy.

4.  Health professionals will be put out of work.  If heart disease, cancer, and other meat-related diseases are reduced drastically, many highly-educated doctors will be put out of work.  Are you going to trail all of them to toss salads too?

PETA be terriers an' moralisers

Once again, I submit to you that PETA is a violent, extremist organization.  They kill countless people every day by guilting them into starvation.  Everyone knows that cars are the biggest contributor to global warming gases and immoral behavior.  That's why I got a hybrid.  Obviously, PETA, with their extremist agenda, has infiltrated the U.N. and manipulated a 400-page report issued by that organization on the impact of livestock to global warming.

I'm sure all of you will agree with me that people trying to impose their morals on others are freedom-haters.  Facts aside...we need to seek the truthiness of this issue.  As Stephen Colbert says, forget what you read in books...do a gut check.

Al Gore is an extremist too.  He said that global warming was a moral issue.  If the environmental community would just disconnect themselves from these "moral" extremists, they would do better.  If we aligned ourselves with corporations and people that have no claim to moral superiority, like ExxonMobil, Haliburton, or President Bush, we'd get a lot more credibility.On PETA VP argues vegetarianism is the best way to help the planet posted 2 years, 2 months ago 77 Responses

hijacked discussion

Ok...this discussion really has been hijacked and I was drawn into it.  The fact is that the animal industry is the largest contributor to human-induced global warming.  Meat-eaters are so defensive about this fact that they go back to arguing over whether or not meat is necessary for human health, whether or not we're carnivores, omnivores, or frugivores, and so on.  I don't believe in dieties or in reincarnation so no...there is no hellfire waiting for those who eat meat or vegetables or murder other humans, etc.  The consequences are here and for this world only.  Global warming is the consequence.On PETA VP argues vegetarianism is the best way to help the planet posted 2 years, 2 months ago 77 Responses

Everything in moderation

What people don't like about PETA and their campaigns is that they don't offer the same, watered-down bs that everyone else is offering.  They put the ugly stuff right in your face and you have to choose to acknowledge it or look away and pretend you didn't see it.  It's not the "everything in moderation" message that we're used to getting on everything else.  They don't agree that "just a little" factory farming is ok.  They take a firm position.  

So...can we all agree that some things are absolutely bad and shouldn't be taken in moderation.  Just a few landmines.  Just a little lead paint.  Just a little child abuse.  As long as these things aren't used too much, too often, or by too many people, we'll all be ok.  It's kind of like a non-binding resolution to maybe possibly do something about global warming.

Sure, sustainable, ethical meat production on a local scale is an answer.  As is controlled hunting.  But how many of you are willing to pay $10/lb for chicken?  Take away the fossil fuels and that's what you'll be paying.  And obviously, not all of us can go hunting...the entire deer, moose, and bear population in my home state of Maine would be gone in just one year if everybody there hunted.On Umbra on meat eating and global warming posted 2 years, 2 months ago 41 Responses

yes...lets all go hunting

Lets all 6 billion of us all go hunting wild boars.On PETA VP argues vegetarianism is the best way to help the planet posted 2 years, 2 months ago 77 Responses

Deuteronomy

Ok...there are a lot of vegan fanatics online today so I'm hoping Dog will give me strength.  Look...God TOLD us to eat cloven hoofed animals.  Do you vegan fiends want me to go to hell for not eating beef?  

Ok...here's where my faith comes in.  PETA and vegans obviously have no faith.  They're getting all of their information from U.N. studies.  I get my information from The Good Book.  And it says eat meat.  Sure...Palestine used to be covered by forest but was overgrazed to hell.  But like I said earlier, it will all be repaired after the rapture.  I don't need any U.N. studies.  Eating beef just feels right.  I can't explain it.  You just need more faith.  

Remember, God accepted Abel's offering...meat.  Cain...that vegan freak was jealous and killed his brother.  Vegans are dangerous.  Don't listen to what they say.  Or the U.N.  Or scientists.  Or your high school chemistry teacher.On Umbra on meat eating and global warming posted 2 years, 2 months ago 41 Responses

meat-eating environmentalists...

I submit to you that Al Gore eats meat.  And he's an environmentalist.  He buys carbon offsets for his mega-mansion and travel.  

Just as pastor's like Ted Haggard can hate homosexuals and drug users, people who support factory farming can also call themselves environmentalists.  In this case, it's not the vegans who are being religious.  No...God so loved the world that he gave his only son to take our sins away with him.  He's coming again.  This time, he's going to offset our carbon.  Factory farms will be forgiven at the rapture.  Don't worry, ye omnivores, all will be forgiven.On Umbra on meat eating and global warming posted 2 years, 2 months ago 41 Responses