Slow Living

Last weekend I headed a state over to see my mom who flew in from California. On my way I had to stop and get some gluten free flour, while on my way I was able to drive through super tiny towns. And I'm talking TINY. Like a 4 way stop with a sign that said the name of the town, tiny. Can't remember if I've mentioned it before, but I grew up on a farm. Looking back I claim I loved it, but I can't really remember if I loved it while I was there or not. I think I did, I remember having all kinds of fun and being outside for hours on end. Or maybe, as one of my sister claims, I look back with rose colored glassed on. Eh. maybe I do. However, back to my point of this rant (devoid of any anger, for once), on my way through these tiny little towns, I seriously longed to live out the middle of nowhere again. I mean I reallllyyyy want to live there. I can't wait until my husband is done with school so we can leave the suburbs! So on my wonderful Monday morning of work I was reading a great article that actually made me chuckle, mainly because I've been saying the same thing and it's what I want to do. The article was touting the benefits of "slow living." Another term would be village living. The world has gotten so big with so many people living in an urban environment that we are no longer living sustainably. We are using way more than we can replenish. This article says that we need to get back to our roots. We need to buy local and grow our own food. Did you know that the average American meal has at least 5 imported ingredients. Not only does the amount of imports contribute to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, it hurts the American farmer. There are many reasons that my husband and I want to live out in the middle of nowhere on a farm. One is that we will be able to know exactly where our meat comes from, and we will be able to know what was put in it. There will be no growth hormones or antibiotics to affect our health. We will be able to grow our own fruits & veggies that won't have harmful pesticides on them that will cause cancer or other diseases. While tasting lots better, our food will also be lots cheaper than what you find in the store, since it won't have to be shipped from halfway around the world. You have to wonder about our ancestors and their health. Yes, they were more likely to die of things like the flu, small pox or measles, but they also didn't have cancers, asthma, or allergies that affect us like they do today. When you look at their lifestyle and compare it to ours the biggest difference is that they lived close to their food source. They didn't eat fruit and veggies that were out of season, they ate what they grew, when it grew, and canned the surplus. And if they lived in the village, it was food that was grown locally, not from thousands of miles away. Because they lived close to the food source there were less pollution in the air. Because the farmers were small local farmers there wasn't a need to large amounts of pesticides and genetically engineered foods to combat pests & increase yield, like there is today. I guess my point is people should buy locally as much as possible. I don't know if I could ever give up my bananas, so that is one thing I'd willingly go tot eh store for. People living in apartments and cities can buy or grow locally as well. There are container gardens where fruit and veggies can be grown, even on a postage stamp size porch. In some cities they have small plots of land within a city block that can be used to plant fruits & veggies. If growing your own food isn't an option for whatever reason, visit the local farmers market! "Live Slowly!"

Using the sense God gave ya!

Has anyone heard about California and their increased effort to push this bullet train idea through? Oh my goodness! What a bunch of idiots!! Yes, that is my favorite word. It's about as strong as I can get without swearing, which when I read about the stupidity I was to scream and cuss up a blue streak. SO, what's the big deal with the bullet train you ask. Well, lets see. It's going to cost $$68.4 billion to construct. That is in current U.S. dollars, no correction for inflation. but wait, you say how can California do this they are broke? hmm, good question. I think some of you might remember when California couldn't actually pay ANY of their state employees. That was before Arnold was governor, but the fact is, the state is still operating in the red. And for the entire time he was in office he didn't get paid. not one penny! And the state still ends up with a current deficit of $$14 billion. The only other states that even come close to that are Texas & Illinois.  I was wondering how in the heck the general public in that state would stand for the construction of that thing since they are fighting to have teachers for their kids. Well the public voters okay $9.95 billion to spend on the train, and the federal government agreed to spend $3 billion on this thing, and they've also come up with $2.6 billion in bond revenue. So, if you can do basic arithmetic, that leaves the project $$$$$53 BILLION DOLLARS SHORT. And as I said before, that's in today's dollars, with no accounting for inflation. Can you imagine how expensive this thing will be in just 5 years? Seriously people, what's so important about this stupid train?! At that price the damn thing should look and be like something out of a Star Trek movie! Do they even have the infrastructure to run high speed trains, or are they going to need to rebuild everything, creating lots of waste & use of more resources? I tried to look at their website to see if I could get any good information. uh, no. It's all propaganda, cause of course, they want their train. Supposedly these trains are built to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The trains will run on electric power and will be modeled after high speed trains worldwide. Since electricity is provided by more alternative sources, I guess I could get behind that small fact for improving the environment. But,  I hate to tell these people, there are more important things to worry about than building that stupid train. Like funding teachers for schools, welfare systems, decreasing college tuition to name a few. Someone needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Where is the heck is every one's common sense? If you don't have the money to build it, and your budget is billions of dollars in the red already, WHY would you want to do something that would put you even further in the red? I have to live on a budget, why doesn't the government?!

Stupid politicians & the Lacey Act

As you may know, I hate politicians. Most, if not all politicians. Nothing but sneaky, underhanded, lying, jerks. Although I guess since I did find Jill Stein to vote for for president they aren't all bad. Maybe it's like the squeaky wheel thing, the ones that make the most noise get all the attention. So the ones making the most noise that have made me mad today are the idiots trying to limit the Lacey Act. The Lacey Act was first enacted in 1900 and prohibits the trade of illegally harvested plants & animals. Illegally harvest ANYWHERE!! That means if something is illegally harvested in Russia, it's illegal to sell it here. You get the idea? So now we have these idiots, yes, I'm being nice, from Kentucky & Georgia that say the Lacey Act is too harsh and that people are being over-criminalized for minor infractions. IDIOTS, I tell you. This would be Paul & Broun, respectively, and imagine this, they're republicans. So what is behind their idiocy. I'm guessing someone is paying them, because that company or individual wants to fish or harvest animals somewhere where it's illegal and those individuals want to get the law "downgraded" so they can do whatever they want. Damnit, those laws are in place for a reason. A lot of the the laws have to do with harvesting size. The reason behind the harvest size is to ensure the population doesn't crash. If you take something before it's had a chance to reproduce you have a really good chance of having a population go extinct. So harvest size limits are used to ensure animals are allowed to reproduce before they are harvested for food.  Anyway. These idiots (policiticians) are claiming that 2 people back in 2001 were thrown in jail just because they didn't have lobsters they harvested packaged correctly. At least that is the crap they are touting to the public, trying to get support for their moronic quest to loosen regulations. Back in 1999 2 guys were caught for harvesting lobsters that were too small, in violation of a Honduran law. Not only were these lobsters not large enough they were also packaged incorrectly, in black plastic bags. hmmm, maybe so they weren't easily visible, since the fishermen KNEW that they were taking lobsters that were too small. The idiots are claiming that these were just men trying to make a living and they didn't know that they were harvesting lobsters that were too small. I call BULLS**&T!! (if you've ever played the drinking game or card game, you know what I'm talking about) These men knew EXACTLY what they were doing, and the federal agents in charge of the case were able to prove that these men had smuggled in over $$15 MILLION DOLLARS worth of illegal fished lobsters. Seriously? trying to make a living? Not only were the feds able to prove that they smuggled in 15 million worth of lobsters, they also proved that these guys used an obscure port were the inspectors didn't know much about foreign laws on catch size. And then when the men knew that the feds were looking at them, they changed ports, not once, but twice! Even trying to come in through Canada. Does that really sound like men "just trying to make a living"? no, I think not.  The crazy thing about the Lacey Act is it's hard to prove, people are more likely to get prosecuted under the ESA than the Lacy Act. The feds don't go after minor infractions, they go after people that smuggle $15 mill of illegally harvested lobsters into the country. So now the idiot politicians want to limit the Lacey Act. Seriously, go fight for something else, like health care for everyone, or how about food for everyone. There are starving people in the U.S. as we speak. I hate politicians!

What to do wtih all the trash?

I've been thinking a lot lately about what can we do about all the trash that we produce. I'm not just talking about the Americans, cause holy cow we produce a lot of trash, but I'm talking world-wide. Australia is looking at reconfiguring their carbon pricing scheme for a cap & trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The one big problem they are having is with the landfills and the large amounts of methane that they produce. In the US there are a couple of places that are using the methane for electricity. The S.C.Johnson Company actually uses methane from a local landfill near one of their plants to power some portions of their factory. pretty cool. And there are a few other areas in the US where they are attempting to use the methane from landfills for energy, whether it be electricity or fuel for cars. While that is a great idea for the landfills that already exist, what are we going to do about the trash that we are still throwing out. Recycling is a great way to reduce our waste stream, but there are people that don't recycle anything. Take my neighbors for instance. They recycle NOTHING, not one little piece of paper. Just cause they don't feel like it. I'm not sure if maybe some confusion is the reason behind the lack of effort or just because they are lazy in that area. There are people in our neighborhood that put out at least 3 huge bags of grass a week. ugh,  horrible space waster in a landfill. Me, I recycle EVERYTHING. Everything that can be put in that can, goes. We even "recycle" our food waste, grass and leaves. Otherwise known as composting. It makes our garden grow :)  This is yet another area where I feel completely inadequate. I have ideas on how to improve recycling, but it won't work unless people are willing to change. one idea I had for existing landfills is to go and find the stuff that is recyclable within the landfills. I'm sure there are billions of tons of newspapers in the landfills, dating back to the turn of century. oh, that would be 1900, not 2000 :) Forgot what century I was in there for a minute. Anyway. And the plastic and glass that could be found from before we figured out how to recycle. Holy jackpot batman!! Someone needs to figure out a way to tap that resource. The number of permitted landfills is decreasing in the US. We are running out of places to put our trash, so what are we going to do with it? If we are able to use the resources within the landfills then there will be space to put more crap.  Plastic is a petroleum product. Can you imagine how much we could save if we were able to tap into the waste stream and tap the landfills for that resource? So now all I have to do is figure out a way to get the "stuff" out of the landfill efficiently. I guess once the price is right this will be something one of the big companies think of all on their own. Right now it's just cheaper to throw everything away and make new. sigh, people just don't get it, do they?

Jill Stein for President

As much as I'd love to run for president, I don't have the politcal savy to do it right. And I'd get so angry at idiots I'd probably get fired within a month :) So, I was reading an article at work today about Jill Stein. She's running for president for the Green party, and I am TOTALLY VOTING FOR HER!!!! One of her comments was the the political system is broken. oh, yeah, totally is! And it needs to change. She probably won't make it into the oval office, but maybe if enough people know about her she will have a shot!! Wish I had more than one vote. Here's a link to her website. http://www.jillstein.org/ Vote for Jill Stein!!!

Feeling frustrated

I read an article yesterday about people not believing in climate change or global warming, and a million thoughts ran through my head. First of all, how can these people not believe what is right in front of them. HELLOOOOO, climate change means bigger, meaner toranadoes, bigger, meaner hurricanes, longer droughts, horrible flooding, and any other weather event you can think of, just multiply it times 10. So, anyone hear about the tornadoes this past weekend. but I digress. I guess these people think that since climate change isn't happening, they don't need to do anything to conserve what they have. Or maybe they think if they don't believe it's true, then they don't have to change the way they do things and can continue doing things in the wasteful way they are. Speaking of, I have a neighbor that refuses to recycle....she can't be bothered. HUH?! really, doesn't her family realize that by them not recycling they are wasting tons of resources and causing tons of pollution? Seriously, if everyone recycled, just their plastic bottles, can you imagine the amount of trash that wouldn't make it to the landfills. Don't even get me started on landfills and how they are filling up at an alarming rate and there aren't very many new places to put them. yeah, wonder what happens then. So, back to the people with their heads in the sand. Even if you don't believe in climate change, lets talk about water. Yeah, I know, I've been on a water kick lately. It's been bothering me. There are already civil wars being fought for water in the developing countries. The Sahara desert is growing due to desertification because people are trying to scratch out a living on marginal land and there isn't enough water in the area to sustain their farms. Even here in the US there are fights in the west over water. Just read my last post about Las Vegas. They're just the recent problem. Southern California is another area that keeps begging for water and is looking all over the place to find it. There are lots of articles about India and the villages there that will be in dire straits once the glaciers that feed the streams that feed their villages are gone. Yeah, but climate change isn't happening. Science has proven that the glaciers are indeed shrinking, and they are shrinking fast. So, then there will be all those people without water. What are we going to do then? So, not only is the amount of fresh water available dwindling we are doing a damn fine job of polluting what we have. Think of all the stuff we put on the ground, guess where it ends up. Yep, you guessed it, in the water. And then there is the fracking to get natural gas out of the ground. They use fresh water to do that. like 30 million gallons of water to do that. And once they use the water, it's unusable for anything other than more fracking. But it isn't always reused. The chemicals that they put in the water has to be an exact mix, so they don't like to use "dirty" water, cause they have to think more and make up a new additive to put in the water so the combination comes out correct. Now, not  only are there more people needing freshwater for themselves, there are natural gas companies needing freshwater for their wells. This doesn't even take into account the agriculture and industry that will need more water to create more food and more products for the increasing number of people. Know what the sucky part is, there is a finite amount of water on the earth. Yeah, that's right, what you see is what you get, so when we mess it all up with our chemicals and overuse, we are soooo screwed.

Water, Water everywhere....NOT

The states in the west has a serious problem. They have a serious lack of water. Especially those states in the southwest, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, you get my drift. I've read a few articles in the last month or so about how Nevada, specifically Las Vegas, is fighting for more water. At the end of March the Nevada State engineer issues a decision to allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to pump 84,000 acre feet of water from 4 rural valleys. The water in some areas will be pumped as far as 300 miles to get to Vegas. Currently Vegas gets about 90% of its water from Lake Mead. As you probably know, Lake Mead has issues of its own. You've probably seen pictures of the lake were there is a HUGE white stripe around the edge. That's because the water level of the lake has fallen over 120ft, which is about 35% of its capacity. There are docks sitting in mud and sand because the water level has retreated miles from the previous shoreline. Last year the lake did rise about 30ft from the wet weather and large snowfall, but this summer is predicted to be just as dry and hot as previously and the lake will be back down to previous levels. The drought that created this problem started in 2000, and hasn't relented. So, you ask, what is the big deal. Vegas is dry, always has been always will be, what's so different about that? The stupidity of the predicament is what annoys me. As I noted earlier Vegas has been granted access to water elsewhere, other than Lake Mead. About a month ago I came across an article from the Las Vegas Journal that talked about how stalled housing developments, of which Vegas has many, are expected to WASTE 3 days worth of water. After the housing bubble burst, and it happened on a large scale in Vegas, the Las Vegas Valley Water District had branches of treated water pipelines going to dozens of unfinished subdivisions. Without circulation the water would sit in the pipes and the residual chemicals would degrade, making the water undrinkable. In 2009 the water authority gave the owners a choice: pump enough water to flush out the pipes every three days or be disconnected from the system. If the owners are disconnected from the system, they have to pay to be reconnected at a high cost. So, this policy has created a problem where water is wasted constantly in a desert town, that has just asked for, and received, 84,000 acre-ft of water that will be shipped over 300 miles. now, lets do a little math. Sorry, I'm an engineer, everything is math to me :) On average, an American consumes 176 gallons of water a day (yes that is A LOT!!!). So say these houses have 4 people in each, that equals 704 g/day per family home. Now, these pipes have to be flushed every three days, that's 2112 g/3day per family home. Now, lets just say that there are 10 houses in each development (I'm all about easy math) that is 21120 gallons per development. Articles I've read on the Vegas housing market states that DOZENS of housing developments have been stalled. So, I multiplied by 12 to get one dozen developments that include at least 10 houses and that was 253,440 gallons, Since the articles said dozens, I did a ballpark of 10 (more easy math), there are probably lots more than that, but I don't live there so I can't drive around and check. Which leads to a grand total of 2534400 gallons of water that is wasted in 3 days in Vegas, and that is just for ONE pipe clearing event. And it's probably a a low estimate. This converts to 7.8 acre-ft. EVERY THREE DAYS! Each year has 365 days in it (last time I checked). If water is wasted every three days, then it's wasted 121.7 days out of the year. This equals ~950 acre-ft of water wasted a year. Let's just round that up to 1000, cause you know that there are more than 10 dozen stalled housing developments and there are more than 10 houses in each development, probably more like 20, in each category. I'm not sure what the duration of the 84,000 acre-ft request was, so I don't know if it was a year or total and how long it was going to take to remove. Comparably speaking 1000 isn't even close to 84,000, but to my way of thinking you need to start/stop somewhere. If the city of Vegas is wasting water in this idiotic way, how else are they wasting water?