Janet Larsen has a good article on how the vacuum of leadership in Washington has actually encouraged mayors in America to stand up and try to fight climate change. The White House still denies that climate change is a reality, but the citizens of the United States seem to know better.
Environment
Entangled Humpback Thanks Rescuers
Last December a crab fisherman working the open waters off the coast of San Francisco spotted a whale that was completely entangled in the nylon ropes that link crab pots. The whale was a female humpback nearly 50 feet in length and she had rope wrapped at least four times around her tail, the back and the left front flipper, and there was a line in her mouth. Rescuers were quickly on the scene and four divers spent about an hour cutting the nylon ropes with a special curved knife, a risky undertaking since a single flip of the gargantuan mammal’s tail could easily have killed any of them. At least 12 crab traps, weighing 90 pounds each, hung off the whale, the divers said. The combined weight was pulling the whale downward, forcing it to struggle mightily to keep its blow-hole out of the water.
Eventually they freed the humpback, a feat that a representative of the Marine Mammal Center (MMC) in Marin County described as the first successful attempt on the West Coast to free an entangled humpback.
When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them and pushed them gently around thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The diver who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.
“It felt to me like she was thanking us, knowing that she was free and that we had helped her. She stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun. It seemed kind of affectionate, like a dog that’s happy to see you……….I never felt threatened. It was an amazing, unbelievable experience.”
Government Says Kyoto in YOUR hands now.
Not only did a single tear escape my eyes but a torrent at hearing the death of the Kyoto protocol in the Conservatives budget last night. I shed so much, doctors say I might be in a permanent state of dehydration.
But I woke up this morning with the Gatorade of new ideas and good intentions. My proposal: use your tax return to sponsor environmentally friendly initiatives and achieve your own little Kyoto. If the government kills a provided service and sponsors a tax break the shift that occurs is in the responsibility of the people to provide the service for themselves. Let me make this point perfectly clear, the CAPACITY to achieve Kyoto has not changed. In fact (in a strange way) the prospects have actually increased a little. Instead of blunderng government programs and off the mark service delivery (the government planned to buy emission credits to bail Canada out, the opposite of what a developed country was supposed to do) we now have the workings of a grass roots campaign funded by your tax return.
So invest in environmentally friendly initiatives. Use the money to buy energy effecient lights, support a wind farm, buy a solar panel, buy that fancy new bike and bike to work, take public transit (its cheaper now) and gobble up all the pollution credits you can and just hold them. This space is not the place for advertizing but I would be happy to suggest many of the excellent programs I have experience with, so please leave a comment.
I do wish to state that my proposal is mainly aimed to those of middle to higher income status who can afford such ventures. Lower income people deserve a tax break aimed directly at them and hopefully this proposal will meet the two goals of keeping Kyoto and helping to provide a government service for free that those of lower income couldnt afford.
Simpler Three R’s
A growing movement thats building in the waste management world is recognizing the Three R’s of waste disposal. The main difference is these Three R’s (Reuse, Recycle and Refuse, listed by priority) relates to importance of providing waste disposal services in coordination with the motto of the Three R’s.
The real rub is that when people talk about recycling they still speak as if they are going to the garbage. That’s because garbage is synonomous with waste disposal and recyclable material is still seen as a waste, not a valueable resource. People just tend to throw “garbage” away into the first available container. Those in the waste management industry see this as a failure to provide the services in line with the motto. The government mandates recycling but sponsors increasing the number of garbage containers. It’s kind of like putting a fast food resteraunt in the middle of a farmers field. Your offering quick and convient food, but your so far out of the way the trip isnt worth the service.
With prevalence and distribution of garbage containers vastly outnumbering those of a recyclable nature, its no wonder garbage is jam packed with recyclables. Reversing the situation and placing recycling containers everywhere and hiding garbage containers in dark and out of the way areas would be a great boom to the recycling industry. As much as it pains me to admit it, people just want rid of their garbage and will throw things away at the first available opportunity. Lets make the first spot they find be a recycling bin.
Oil Pipeline Route Changed
Sure, the exploration, extraction, exploitation, transportation, and many other blank-tion realated to oil have done a lot of damage to the world, so it is nice to see that a little less damge will be done.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that an oil pipeline be re-routed around an environemtnally sensitive area. The pipeline is still underconstruction.
“Greenpeace Russia, which has led demonstrations against Transneft’s proposed route, has welcomed Mr Putin’s decision.
Spokesman Andrey Petrov said: “It is victory for the whole of civil society in Russia, not just the ecological movement.”
He said environmental considerations would still have to be taken into account when the new route was planned, but moving it from the shore of Lake Baikal had been a key issue.”