Moon Landing, Meeting Current Needs, Ensuring Earth Remains Sustainable
Apollo 11 moon landing. Astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag. Photo taken by Neil Armstrong.
We put a man on the moon 45 years ago. Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Six hours later, U.S. Astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human being to step down onto the lunar surface, on July 21. As he stepped down from the space ship onto the surface, Armstrong declared “one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.” Astronaut Buzz Aldrin followed and spent slightly less than six hours on the Moon’s surface. Astronaut Michael Collins piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to the space ship for the trip back to Earth. They returned to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. That’s the last time the United States set out to accomplish something really big in the world – something that had never been done before – and it succeeded, with flying colors!
Happy 4th of July to all!
We proclaimed ourselves to be a nation by publishing the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness….”
THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
We have been citing “The Pledge of Allegiance” since it was formally adopted by our representatives in the U.S. Congress in 1942. It reads as follows: “I pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written by Francis Julius Bellamy, who wrote it as a young man while traveling in Massachusetts. He submitted it to a patriotic circular he became aware of called “Youth’s Companion”. “The Pledge” was published in the circular on September 8, 1892. Following its publication, Bellamy described his reasons for writing it and for its “careful wording”:
“It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence; with the makings of the Constitution; with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people…”. “The true reason for reciting allegiance to the Flag is … to make it clear that we are “One Nation” – the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches.”
Francis Julius Bellamy was born on May 18, 1855 in Mount Morris, NY. He became a First Baptist Church minister and married Harriet Benton in Newark, NY in 1881, raised two sons, and spent most of the last years of his life living and working in Tampa, FL where he died on August 28, 1931 at the age of 76.
Now, in 2014, few U.S. citizens and others living in the U.S. and abroad seem satisfied with where the United States of America stands in the world on many issues of concern. Wars are still raging on, with or without U.S. involvement it seems everywhere, and U.S. soldiers, foreign civilians, foreign soldiers, and even young children are dying, or being maimed, needlessly.
Billions of people in the world live in poverty, including millions of U.S. citizens and non U.S. citizen and young children living in the U.S.. Yet we hear in the media that there are more millionaires now in the United States than ever before, and that income inequality in the U.S. has reached an all-time high, especially adversely affecting African-American and Latino youth populations in the U.S. the most. Yet it seems clear the majority of our representatives in the U.S. Congress, and the men and women serving in our state Legislature, and Governor Scott Walker, must be content with the deplorable situation this country finds itself in in spite of the above ideals embodied in our country’s broad declarations.
And while this injustice continues to take place in America and in Wisconsin, [“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”, said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, dated 16 April 1963], human-caused global warming of our planet’s atmosphere and oceans and the resulting climate catastrophes, [California’s long-standing drought and high wildfire numbers; Hurricane Katrina devastation; Midwest flooding; Hurricane Sandy; Supertyphoon Haiyan …] which many credible scientists have said are linked to a warming climate and oceans, are evidence enough that we ought as society begin to act in major ways to begin significantly reducing our collective greenhouse gas emissions to the urgent degree that what’s happening to our planet now demands. Because the crisis that is emerging worldwide is the result of decades and even centuries of a collectively massive amount of fossil fuels being burned, and therefore equally massive volumes of greenhouse gases being released to the atmosphere from the combustion – combustion of oil, natural gas, diesel fuel, and coal in power plants, jet engines, automobiles, trucks, ships, motorized recreational and work-related equipment, generators, food processing facilities, and other transportation and recreational devises, mostly by those who can afford it, as well as increases in emissions of other potent greenhouse gases (eg. methane releases from natural gas pipes and oil drilling and fracking activities, where they are allowed), and the positive feedback releases resulting from a warming planet even more (thawing rotting permafrost region from warming temperature releases powerful greenhouse gas methane in larger and larger quantities, resulting in even more warming, even more thawing and rotting permafrost, and so on…; it is essential that we act now before it’s too late.
This problem should not be viewed as insolvable. However, the likely impacts should be planned for and ample adaptation measures taken by all. In doing this, we can be guided by the words of President John F. Kennedy spoken on September 12, 1962 before a crowd of 35,000 people in the football stadium at Rice University in Houston, Texas:
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
As Albert Einstein said: “The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Click on “About this Blog” to read about a socially just approach aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time reducing economic inequality and poverty for people and families in the U.S. who demonstrate they burn significantly fewer fossil fuels over the course of a year than the average American.
This type of program (Conserve, NOW!) is doable and could be funded from reductions in capacity expansion of highways bridges, airports, power plants and major transmission lines, since the need (economic demand) for these costly and environmentally damaging tax-payer financed boondoggle projects would be reduced as a result of decreased use of fossil fuel derived energy by the public in driving cars, jet travel, home heating, electricity use, etc.. If need be, a carbon tax could also be applied to all fossil fuel combustion, no matter the use, to generate additional revenues for offering financial incentives to the everyone in the U.S. to reduce activities they engage in that require fuel burning.
In an April 23, 2013 interview with Space.com contributor Elizabeth Howell, Astronaut Eugene Cernan, who became the last man to walk on the Moon (in December 1972), shared his thoughts on how the Apollo missions achieved such grand success: “When Kennedy challenged us to go to the moon we didn’t know beans about it. “I was just a young lieutenant flying out in the West Pacific off aircraft carriers, and at that time I believed – and I think most other people did too – that they were asking us to do something that was impossible. And then all of a sudden we got involved – all of us. And the rest is history. Don’t tell me I can’t do it: I think that’s the America I grew up in.”
As Cernan prepared to climb up the lunar ladder for the last time on the Apollo 17 mission, the last maned spaceflight mission to the Moon, he paused and spoke these words:
“As I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come – but we believe not too long into the future – I’d like to just (say) what I believe history will record. That America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus–Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.”
He and his crewmates returned to Earth on Dec. 19, 1972.
The cost of not proceeding with any major Congressionally approved program to massively conserve on burning fossil fuels, NOW, will surely ultimately be astronomical. The costs will not only skyrocket, ending up in the trillions of dollars, and but the number of human and other animal lives lost will likely end up in the billions, all because we already have and we are continuing to burn unsafe quantity levels of fossil fuels, which is now scientifically linked to rising atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulations, rising surface and ocean temperatures, worldwide, and which is also scientifically linked to ultra-extreme weather climate disasters, such as the one presently being experienced at Okinawa, Japan. What more will it take for our government officials in the U.S. to begin taking appropriate scale actions?
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Blames Climate Change for Slow Economic Recovery
At a news conference Monday in Washington D.C., the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagard, suggested climate change might be a factor in the U.S.’s slow economic recovery the past several years, and that it could make economic predictions more difficult in the future. Years of disappointing growth mean the economy might not reach full employment – which many economists say is when the unemployment rate is between 5 and 5.5 percent – for three more years, according to an Associated Press report on the IMF’s latest predictions.
In releasing the predictions, Lagard said: “extreme weather occurrences have repeated much more frequently in the past 20 years than the previous century,” she stressed. “That’s a reason to wonder about climate change and how to deal with it.”
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, home state of former Senator Gaylord Nelson, who founded Earth Day and was a presidential “Medal of Freedom” recipient in 1995, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) approved steps last week to allow a controversial Canadian tar sands crude oil pipeline expansion through Wisconsin closer to reality, according to a Wisconsin State Journal news report by Samara Kalk Derby. “The move immediately drew criticism from environmentalist”, said the report.
The crude bitumen contained in the Canadian oil sands is described by the National Energy Board of Canada as “a highly viscous mixture of hydrocarbons heavier than pentanes which, in its natural state, is not usually recoverable at a commercial rate through a well because it is too thick to flow.” Crude bitumen is a thick, sticky form of crude oil, so heavy and viscous (thick) that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons such as light crude oil or natural-gas condensate. At room temperature, it is much like cold molasses. Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil, due to the heating and energy required to process and transport the heavy crude.
The DNR approved an air construction permit for expanding crude oil storage capacity at a Superior oil terminal owned by Houston Based Enbridge Energy Company, and located on the shore of Lake Superior, despite receiving more than 200 written comments and about 3,400 emails from the public on the proposed action.
Lake Superior is the upper most of the 5 Great Lakes and the largest freshwater lake by area in the world. According to a study by professors at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Lake Superior average water temperatures have increased by about 4.5 °F (2.5 °C) since 1979, compared with an approximately 2.7 °F (1.5 °C) increase in the surrounding average air temperature [Marshall, Jessica. (2007-05-30.) “Global warming is shrinking the Great Lakes.” New Scientist, via newscientist.com.]
The Sierra Club said the proposal triples the present capacity of the pipeline, creating the largest tar sands pipeline in the United States, according Kalk Derby’s report.
The DNR said it did environmental assessments for the pipeline companies projects in 2006 and in 2009. However, it did not do the more extensive “Environmental Impact Statement”, which requires a an a more detailed and in depth analysis as well as a series of public hearings, and which is required by the state Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act” of 1972 for all major projects “significantly affecting the quality of the environment”. The Wisconsin Environmental Policy Act (WEPA) is a state law designed to encourage environmentally sensitive decision-making by Wisconsin state agencies.
Gaylord Nelson: “Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.” [Part of Earth Day speech, April 22, 1970 – 1st Earth Day]
WMO: CO2 Concentrations Top 400 Parts per Million throughout Northern Hemisphere
Carbon dioxide levels throughout the northern hemisphere hit 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in human history in April, an ominous threshold for climate change, the World Meteorological Organization said on Monday.
The 400 ppm level in the atmosphere, up 40 percent since wide use of fossil fuels began with the Industrial Revolution, is rapidly spreading southwards. First recorded in 2012 in the Arctic, it has since become the norm for the Arctic spring.
The WMO expects the global annual average carbon dioxide concentration to be above 400 ppm in 2015 or 2016. Rising concentrations of the heat-trapping gas raise risks of more heatwaves, droughts and rising sea levels.
“Time is running out,” WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.
“This should serve as yet another wake-up call about the constantly rising levels of greenhouse gases which are driving climate change. If we are to preserve our planet for future generations, we need urgent action to curb new emissions of these heat-trapping gases.”
Almost 200 governments have agreed to work out a deal by the end of 2015 to slow climate change as part of efforts to limit the average temperature increase to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.
Temperatures have already risen about 0.8C (1.4F).
In April, the U.N.’s panel of climate experts said that greenhouse gas concentrations, led by carbon dioxide, would have to be kept below 450 ppm to give a good chance of achieving the 2C goal.
The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is seasonal, since plants absorb more in the summer months, causing a peak in the spring. The northern hemisphere, with more human-related sources of the gas, has a more pronounced seasonal cycle.
Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. It is emitted by fossil-fueled vehicles and coal-fired factories and power plants as well as by natural activities such as breathing.
During the last 800,000 years, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuated between 180 ppm and 280 ppm, and has probably not been above 400 ppm for millions of years, scientists say.
With the widespread burning of coal and oil during the Industrial Revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide rose to about 290 ppm by the end of the 19th century.
That accelerated last century, with levels between 370 and 380 ppm by the year 2000.
Obama Wrongly Promotes Tourism to U.S. by Other Countries
It’s a fact: The water levels of the earth’s oceans are rising. It’s a fact: the oceans are becoming more acidic due to rising concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the water. It is also a fact the increasing water acidity is creating intolerable conditions for many ocean species. Ecological and biological systems everywhere are likely to be severely impacted.
Sustaining life (and living) will become more difficult on Future Planet Earth. If we continue our ecologically reckless burning of fossil fuels, even at the level we burn them now, the next children to see daylight are doomed. So are the rest of them that follow.
Everyone knows people who can afford to fly to vacation trips over seas and routinely take them pollute the air and add the warming of the planet. Why shouldn’t they pay a heftier cost?
Why should those avoid taking planes trips and thus put fewer greenhouse gas into the atmosphere be rewarded for helping to preserve our climate? The tipping point – of “positive global warming feedbacks”, such as more methane releases by the increasing thawing of the permafrost region; and increasing solar radiation absorption (heating) of the Arctic ocean waters due to white snow replacement with Arctic water which it darker, more sunlight-absorbing has already been reached in several biological/physical relationships. Once those tipping points are are reached, it will be exceeding difficult to reverse the trends. Global warming could take on the characteristics U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently described as: “the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction”, and moreover that “the science of climate change is leaping out at us like a scene from a 3D movie… It’s warning us; it’s compelling us to act” (Kerry).
Now President Obama is saying we need to attract more foreign tourists to our shores, because foreign tourists bring lots of money to spend in our country. But they don’t fly here on their own power! Flying long distances by jets burns huge quantities of fossil fuels, emitting millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas high in the atmosphere, where they are less likely to remain for centuries and not get sequestered back into the biosphere.
President John F. Kennedy once famously said: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Not many Americans these days must be thinking about the meaning of those words. So many Americans in particular take round-trip flights by jet to far away places, yearly, which requires the burning immense amounts of fossil fuels, especially in take-off and cruising very long distances.
The World Soccer Cup is three weeks away. The distance from Madison to Brazil World Cup is 4,612 miles. One shutters to think about how many planes will be flying to Brazil and back so their passengers can see the game in person.
But President Obama has made a case for attracting more foreign visitors and helping the sectors of our economy that cater to tourist purchases, increasingly bringing more money into the United States. “When it comes to tourism, we have a great product to sell,” Obama said in New York last week. “Nothing says ‘Made in America’ better than the Empire State Building or the Hoover Dam.”
Earlier Thursday, Obama signed a presidential memorandum giving his homeland security and commerce secretaries four months to come up with a plan to streamline the entry process and reduce wait times. He also asked the departments to work with the 15 largest U.S. airports, following steps taken by Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago international airports to cut wait times so tourists aren’t delayed.
Obama acted two years ago to speed the processing of tourist visas for visitors from China and Brazil. On Thursday, Obama tackled the flip side of the problem: long waits for processing at U.S. airports and other ports of entry once tourists arrive. Fewer people will be discouraged from flying to the U.S. for vacation that way.
Before departing for upstate New York, Obama met with 20 travel and tourism industry CEOs and senior executives, including Arne Sorenson of Marriott International, Mark Hoplamazian of Hyatt Hotels and Roger Dow of the U.S. Travel Association.
Madison is 7,000 miles from China. Yet the Governor of Wisconsin (Scott Walker) and ones before him (Doyle) promoted visits and trade with China, as if the two were next door neighbors! The petroleum companies are laughing all the way to their Swiss bank accounts!
A prime example here in Wisconsin is Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) and Wisconsin Public Television (WPT) are sponsoring round-trip vacations for anyone who’s willing to pay them to arrange flights to Hawaii, Ireland, the Mediterranean, and New York City this year. More trips are being planned to other exotic places, as well. In addition to those people not spending their money to help out our state’s economy, those excursions contribute to the many tons of greenhouse gases from the jet airliners flying those tourists to their destinations and back to the Badger State over the course of those flights. I have informed WPR that flying by jet is without question the worst thing individuals can do if their goal is to minimize their greenhouse gas emissions. It appears they care only about making money off these excursions and care little or not at all about the perils of a warming planet they are helping to cause by arranging these exotic trips. It’s shameful.
The next time you hop on a plane to go on an exotic vacation, or to give an important presentation at some far off land or worldwide conference, or go on a “required” business trip, or maybe just fly to the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the Rose Bowl, or maybe just go visit grandma, don’t just consider the cost of flight in dollars and cents. Please consider the “real” costs of such flights, including the substantial negative effects on our entire planet including the atmosphere of millions upon millions of similar airplanes flying all throughout the Earth every year, including the many military aircraft, as well.
Yes, those jet airplanes and propeller driven airplanes burn significant volumes of fossil fuels every day in the world, in flight, taking-off and landing, thereby adding significantly to the increasing accumulation of the gas “carbon dioxide” (CO2) and other greenhouse gases that end up in the Earth’s atmosphere, daily, thus contributing to the increasingly grave rate of global warming of the earth, including the warming and acidification of the earth’s vast oceans.
State DNR Poised to Approve Enbridge’s Crude Oil Storage Facility and Pipeline Expansion
Enbridge Energy Co., located at 2800 E 21st St, Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin, FID 816010580, has submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) a permit application, including plans and specifications for construction and operation of three new large (24.5 million gallons each) crude oil storage tanks, modification of two large (under construction) crude oil storage tanks, increased pipeline 61 tar sands derived crude oil carrying capacity, associated piping components, increasing pumping pressure at 3 stations and installing 9 new pump stations, cleaning emissions from existing tanks T35 – T40, and a new diesel emergency generator.
Enbridge Company’s permit application proposes tripling the volume of tar sands derived crude oil transported by Pipeline 61. This pipeline is currently carrying Canadian tar sands oil through Wisconsin from Superior, WI, then south to Delevan, WI. The pipeline then crosses over the Illinois state line and continues south where the tar sands are distributed to refineries.
DNR has already made its preliminary determination that Enbridge Company’s application meets state and federal air pollution control requirements, and that the permit should be approved. DNR’s analysis and draft permit is available for inspection at the Bureau of Air Management Headquarters, Seventh Floor, 101 South Webster Street, Madison, Wisconsin, 53703; (608) 266-2621; and at the Northern Region Air Program, Superior Area Office, 1701 N. 4th Street, Superior, WI 54880, tel. (715) 392-7989; and at the Superior Public Library 1530 Tower Ave., Superior, WI 54880-4880. Alternatively, the public may contact Don C. Faith, III at (608) 267-3135, or by e-mail at don.faithiii@wisconsin.gov. DNR’s public notice says the information is also available for downloading at: http://dnr.wi.gov/cias/am/amexternal/AM_PermitTrackingSearch.aspx.
The DNR held a public hearing on Monday, May 5, 2014 in Superior, Wisconsin. The purpose of the hearing was for the DNR to hear public testimony on Enbridge Company’s proposal. A dozen people testified against DNR issuing the permit at the hearing while four registered in favor of DNR’s granting of the permit.
The proposed Endbridge Co. expansion is planned in two phases: phase 1 will involve the modification of 3 existing pump stations to increase tar sands crude flow from 400,000 bpd (barrels per day) to 560,000 bpd; phase 2 will involve the construction of 9 new pumping stations in Wisconsin along the pipeline route and increase the tar sands crude flow to 1,200,000 bpd. That is an awful large amount of heavy crude oil to be flowing through Enbridge’s pipelines every single day.
Enbridge’s Pipeline 61 will be an avenue to export dirty tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, outside of the United States, to overseas oil markets, where it is likely to be used for combustion into energy, with the primary byproducts of (1) carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas that is being up to dangerous level in the atmosphere and oceans, as it remain in the atmosphere for over a century, adding to the warming of the atmosphere, in combination with the greenhouse gases emitted before and after it’s emission. This quantity of oil burning will greatly and negatively affect air quality around the surface because warming air is more conducive to carrying the pollutants and soot which emerge from all sources, causing disastrous air quality affects on human health all over when breathed.
The DNR claims that it has already made a determination under ch. NR 150, Wisconsin Administrative Code, that this type of proposal normally does not have the potential to cause significant adverse environmental or secondary effects; also DNR’s hearing notice states that “This is a preliminary determination and does not constitute a final approval from the Air Management Program or any other DNR sections which may also require a review of the project.
DNR decides to issue this permit to Enbridge Company, this will lead to more tar sands spills, water pollution, increased demand for tar sands oil, more climate change pollution, and more air pollution.
Warmer air holds more moisture, and thus more air pollution in the United States. DNR should deny the permit application for Enbridge Company’s Line 61 and the proposed massive oil storage facilities on that basis alone.
Line 61 crosses through Wisconsin from Superior to Flanagan, IL and will include new pumping stations (in Hawthorne, Ladysmith, Owen, Marshfield, Minong, Stone Lake, Adams, Portage, and Waterloo) and increased pumping pressure at existing stations (Sheldon, Vesper, and Delavan). This puts a number of our water bodies at risk, from Castle Rock Lake, the Rock River, Lake Koshkonong, the Flambeau River, and most importantly, Lake Superior and the Great Lakes, which provide drinking water for 42 million people. A spill could devastate these waterways, and the jobs and economy that depend on them.
Tar sands oil is more carbon intensive than traditional oil—greenhouse gas emissions of tar sands oil are about 17% greater than the average barrel of oil on a life-cycle basis. We are already seeing the effects of climate change in Wisconsin. The drought and heat wave in 2012, followed by relentless rain and flooding last year give us a glimpse of what climate change could cost Wisconsin in the future, from our farms to our forests to our cold-water fisheries. More tar sands oil is the last thing our climate needs.
The deadline for commenting to DNR on Enbridge’s permit application is May 18, 2014: Mail your comments to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Air Management, ATTN: Don C. Faith, III, 101 S. Webster Street, Box 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921, or email them to the address listed above.
Tars sands oil means more spilled oil: in order to extract the oil, it is mixed with chemicals, this makes it more acidic and leads to more ruptures and spills. Tar sands pipelines in the Midwest spill 3.6 times more per mile than traditional pipelines.
Enbridge’s track record is terrible: Since 1999, Enbridge has had 800 spills, including the very severe, very significant spill in the Kalamazoo River. The pipeline spewed tar sands oil for over 17 hours, before Enbridge realized it was leaking. The environmental damage to the wetlands, Kalamazoo River, and Talmadge Creek will likely never fully remedied. The full extent of public health effects will possibly never be known, but 320 homes had to be evacuated.
Enbridge is responsible for a number of spills in Wisconsin as well: In January 2007, an Enbridge pipeline ruptured, pouring more than 29,000 gallons of crude oil onto a farm field in the town of Curtis in Clark County. A month later, another Enbridge pipeline rupture dumped 176,000 gallons of heavy crude oil in a Rusk County farm field. In January 2009, Enbridge Energy Partners paid the State of Wisconsin $1.1 million to settle claims under Wisconsin’s waterway and wetland protection and storm water control laws. In July 2012 a farm field in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin was covered by at least 1,200 barrels of oil after an Enbridge pipeline ruptured there. Enbridge had to purchase a nearby home that a local resident described as being “covered in oil.”
Tar Sands oil poses a greater threat to our water resources: unlike traditional oil, tar sands oil is dense and does not float, so the way to clean it out of a river is unknown. Four years later, the Kalamazoo spill is still not cleaned up and the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Enbridge dredge the river. Clean-up costs will exceed $1 Billion.
Technology cannot properly detect or prevent a spill: a Natural Resources Defense Council investigation found that leak detection systems missed 19 out of 20 spills and 4 out of 5 of the larger spills.
The climate cannot afford tar sands oil: Tar sands oil is the dirtiest and most carbon intensive form of oil. The extraction process is incredibly carbon intensive and requires destroying the Canadian boreal forest, one of the largest carbon sequestration sources in the world, capturing twice as much carbon as the tropical forests. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions of tar sands oil are about 17% greater than the average barrel of oil on a life-cycle basis.
Source: WisconsinSierraClub.org
Our Children’s Future is being Sabotaged by the Failure of U.S. Congress and Wisconsin Politicians to Act NOW to Reduce Greenhouse Gases
Things have gone real bad for our natural and human environment in Wisconsin, and especially for poor Black children in the state, under the governorship of Scott Walker. There may still be time to fix things, but scientists the world over say now that “major action is needed and fast” – from everyday people, from all businesses, and especially from all current and acting government officials. It is morally wrong for them not to act now, both meaningfully and without delay, for the sake of today’s children. It is they who will face the brunt of global warming impacts as this century progresses.
The effects of rising greenhouse gas concentration level in the atmosphere are latent and slow to develop. But once they do – and they are beginning to do that now – those effects are long-lasting. Decades and centuries, not just years. And more warming also creates chain reactions, producing positive feedbacks that lead to more warming;for example, reducing snow and ice cover at the poles leads to a reduction in albedo (reflection of Sun’s rays back out to space). Because less of the Sun’s radiation is reflected, more is absorbed by the darker (than snow) ocean, thus warming the ocean waters, which causes more snow and ice on the ocean to melt, reducing albedo at the poles even more, warming the water even more and so on. This has already been measured as happening now.
Another example of the positive feedbacks of more warming is that the Permafrost region, which covers one-fifth of the earth’s surface, is now thawing. The thawing of eons of organic material in the Permafrost causes the production and release of methane gas, which is another greenhouse gas (in addition to carbon dioxide and several others) that has 37-times the heat absorbing power of carbon dioxide in the earth atmosphere. This will add to the warming that is already occurring. Add the additional warming will cause even more methane to be released by the thawing Permafrost region. And so on. This dangerous compounding and reoccurring effect has already started as well.
It’s time to Conserve, Now! – for all children living today, and especially for those who follow them. Maybe by that time humans will find a way to safely combat the warming temperatures and rising oceans. But there is much yet that has to happen. The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are out, and farming and consumption as practiced in the U.S. must change in many ways. Researchers say climate change has already cut yields of wheat and corn, reducing gains achieved by better farming technology. Meat and dairy production consumes vast amount of fossil fuel derived energy, and animal waste adds more methane to the atmosphere.
Making matters worse, world population is expected to hit nine billion by 2050. The world’s population needs to be reduced, not allowed to grow more rapidly. To do that, aid and education will need to be given to countries having out of control population explosions. We are morally obligated to help them on this for the sake of all humanity. Future and distant future populations need to be given a chance. To achieve that, all the world’s countries need to drastically reduce all activities causing the most greenhouse gases to be emitted by their people and industries, while everyone should be encouraging activities that will sequester greenhouse gases from the atmosphere (growing plants and trees, primarily). Some of this is starting now and such initiatives should be amplified in number and be heavily financed by countries that have historically deforested the world while burning up the most fossil fuels.
There should be only a minimum number of fossil fuel development projects developed, and only the most clean and energy efficient fuel should be taken from the earth for combustion. The goal should be to obtain as much power from wind, solar and and renewable energies as possible.
Last Sunday’s (3/2/2014) Demonstrations of Civil Disobedience on Potential Approval of Keystone XL Tar Sands Crude Oil Pipeline to Enter U.S.
Several hundred people were arrested during a peaceful protest in Washington DC after they strapped themselves to the White House fence and laid out their demands on Pennsylvania Avenue in protest against the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline.
More than 1,000 students from across the country signed up to take part in the march. They carried placards reading “climate justice now” and “don’t tarnish the earth” with the aim to convince President Obama to reject the pipeline saying it will have dire consequences for the environment if built.
Along their route, they made a stop outside the residence of US Secretary of State John Kerry to push him to recommend President Obama reject project of a 1,700-mile crude oil pipeline stretching from western Canada to the US Gulf Coast.
This protest took place a week ago today. I could find no Mainstream TV news on the action or arrests. WORT-FM carries Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” program so that’s where I first heard of it.
Police were waiting for them in front of the White House in their buses and vans. Around 450 people were arrested in this “largest youth act of civil disobedience at the White House in a generation,” according to the environmental organizers 350.org. Prior to the detentions authorities warned the activists that blocking the sidewalk or strapping themselves to the fence would lead to their arrest.
According to the Sierra Club, Keystone XL is the “keystone” to expanding the tar sands in Alberta, Canada. “This madness cannot continue. Treasured wild places, threatened wildlife, and the health of our climate are all at stake if the pipeline is built.”
“Our future is on the line. The climate is on the line,” said 20 year-old Aly Johnson-Kurts, from Smith College in Massachusetts. She said she had decided to get arrested on Sunday. “When do we say we’ve had enough?”
The $7 billion oil pipeline is destined to deliver high-carbon tar sands oil from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to a hub in Nebraska, where it would then connect with other existing pipeline networks to deliver 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries in Texas.
Critics of the project say that, in addition to the carbon-intensive impact that results from the extraction of tar sands that will only worsen the effects of climate change. The opponents also feel that the pipeline will also put communities nearby at risk of oil spills and their subsequent fallout.
Activists are also concerned that oil will go to growing economies overseas that have an increasing demand for more fossil fuels and is unlikely to lower the price of gasoline in the US.
In late January, the US State Department released a report on the project raising few objections to the environmental impact of the pipeline.
Obama blocked Keystone XL approval in January 2012, saying he needed more time for a fair review, pushing the decision to after his re-election campaign. Following the publication of the report Obama is expected to make a definitive decision on approval of Keystone XL in a matter of months.
NOAA: 2013 November Average Global Temperature was the 345th Straight Month of Above Average Global Temperatures and Earth’s Warmest November of Record
November was a hot month for planet Earth. Government scientists reported Tuesday, December 18, that last month was the warmest November on record, across Earth, since record-keeping began in 1880.
In 2010, the United States emitted over 6.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (CO2e). Greenhouse gases are emitted by all sectors of the economy, including electric power (34% of total), transportation (27%), industry (21%), residential & commercial (11%), and agriculture (7%).
The growing demand for air travel has resulted in increasing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the aviation sector, despite efficiency improvements. Compared to driving, traveling by bus or taking the train, flying has a greater climate impact per passenger mile, even over longer distances. It’s also the mode of freight transport that produces the most emissions.
A special characteristic of aircraft emissions is that most of them are produced at cruising altitudes high in the atmosphere. Scientific studies have shown that these high-altitude emissions have a more harmful climate impact because they trigger a series of chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that have a net warming effect. The IPCC, for example, has estimated that the climate impact of aircraft is two to four times greater than the effect of their carbon dioxide emissions alone.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says average global temperature, for water and land surfaces combined, was 56.6 degrees (13.7 Celsius). That’s 1.4 degrees (0.78 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average. It was the 37th consecutive November with above-average temperatures. The last below-average November was in 1976.
It was also the 345th straight month with above-average temperatures. That’s almost 29 years. Among the November hot spots: much of Eurasia, Central America and the Indian Ocean. In Russia, it was the warmest November on record. But parts of North America were cooler than average.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that “the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide [greenhouse gases] have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have increased by 40% since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and secondarily from net land use change emissions [deforestation]. The ocean has absorbed about 30% of the emitted anthropogenic carbon dioxide, causing ocean acidification”.
“Global mean sea level will continue to rise during the 21st century. The rate of sea level rise will very likely exceed that observed during 1971 to 2010 due to increased ocean warming and increased loss of mass from glaciers and ice sheets.”
“It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century”, the IPCC report states, and ” cumulative emissions of CO2 largely determine global mean surface warming by the late 21st century and beyond. Most aspects of climate change will persist for many centuries even if emissions of CO2 are stopped” and that “this represents a substantial multi-century climate change commitment created by past, present and future emissions of CO2.
Sources: IPCC, “Summary for Policymakers, Climate Change 2013”, October, 2013; Huffington Post Green, “2013 Brings Warmest November Since at Least 1880”, December 18, 2013; Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
27. Media, Government and Religious Organizations Derelict in Duties to Inform Public of Necessary Actions to Take to Avoid Global Warming Catastrophe
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Some may have wondered why our mass media sources, including CBS, ABC, NBC, ESPN, FOX News, CNN, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), National Public Radio, the National Weather Service, as well as the many major national and local newspapers and local TV and radio weather forecasters, have refused to sound the alarm bells on global warming the past several years when it started to become fairly obvious that humans were causing the world to warm as evidenced by the faster melting of the polar ice and land glaciers, the rate that sea level was rising, and the poleward movement of the growing seasons, insect populations, and animal in America and elwhere were happening at the same time as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere were rising., among other physical and biological changes,were all occurring
But all credible scientists are now admitting that catastrophic warming of the earth is underway and the resulting profound impacts on most of the world’s life systems has already been begun. They also say the warming will continue every day that people and businesses conduct “business as usual”, which is what the world’s fossil fuel companies and related corporations want everybody to do.
Despite President Obama’s speech to the graduating students at Georgetown University on June 25th this year, where unveiled his new policies to confront global warming – a transcript of the speech can be read at blog entry #18 – the. United States Congress and Wisconsin’s Legislature and Wisconsin’s state governor Scott Walker have been done virtually nothing to confront climate change in Wisconsin.
Every day we continue to live our lives as we did in the past, by engaging in activities that burn fossil fuels – in driving motor vehicles, in flying by jet airliner, in heating and cooling our homes, and in visiting places of business and/or recreation that cause the release of more and more volumes of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, we add more “fuel to the fire”, so to speak, Earth and her ocean’s will become hotter and hotter, setting in motion an almost unthinkable cascade unintended consequences upon all of us and the generations that follows. It is shameful that our Wisconsin Legislature, our governor, and our governmental representatives in the House of Representatives, and the U. S. Senate have all failed to take meaningful major actions on this growing catastrophe and have continued acting as though things should be done “business as usual”
In 2000, I proposed a strategy to my elected governmental officials at the state and national level that would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Wisconsin. I believe it would have resulted in significant annual reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in Wisconsin’s transportation and energy use sectors. In doing so, it would likely have benefited all sectors and income levels. Individuals and families who drive less (or not at all), fly less (or not at all) and use less fossil fuel derived energy in their home on an annual basis see blog #7: “A Socially and Environmentally Just Program that Reduces Greenhouse Gas Emissions to the Atmosphere by Offering Financial Incentives that Reward Less (or no) Driving, Flying and Home Energy Use”, or click on the links below:
26. A Reflection on the National Governor’s Association Meeting in Milwaukee this Month
Yosemite National Park – August 24, 2013. “”No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite… The grandest of all special temples of Nature . (John Muir)
I was disappointed reading the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel’s report on the National Governors Association’s meeting held earlier this month in Milwaukee, particularly that their agenda did not even include the growing threat of climate change and what steps the governors might take to reduce their state’s contributions to the rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as well as how they might better help their state populations cope with increasingly more severe weather conditions already being witnessed worldwide. The wildfire that has spread into Yosemite National Park is now being called “one of the largest wildfires in recent California history”. It is said to have already burned more than 125,000 acres.
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