If you ever watch a travel channel you will note how many pacific island resorts have seen sea levels rise six inches a year and so that there governments are 100% behind the Paris Accord on Climate Change. Hotels all over the world proudly show their commitment to “green practices” and sustainability. They feel that these ideas are the biggest selling point to get you to stay with them. Mean while in this country we have paid Climate Change deniers from the fossil fuels industry.
This blog will be a series of points and the subsequent comments I make to talk about the Climate Change issue. I am not a scientist but only and observer—an observer of things in our environment that are unique recordings of why we think Climate Change is REAL.
I went to Alaska and the National Glacier Park in 2008. The Captain of our ship said he doesn’t necessarily believe in Global Warming but in the 25 years he has been going up the glacier bay this was the furthest he has gone and the highest on-deck temperature at 45 degrees. Then we went to Ireland in 2013 and it didn’t rain for the 8 days we were there (usually rains every 3rd day), the land temperatures were from 90-100 degrees the highest in the 150 years that Ireland has had recorded temperatures (before then no government thermometers). Remember Miami Vice’s opening credits and a speed boat goes up a canal under some low bridges? Those bridges now have less than 5 foot clearance—the sea is rising!
Then here in New Mexico, a 36 inch snowfall in 2006, a three inch rainstorm in 2010—all records and personal records for our ranch where we have recorded the weather since 1965. On the Arroyo Hondo and Highway 14, in 2014, they recorded 4.4 inches of rain in two hours causing massive flash floods wiping out barns in the La Cienega Valley. Something is amiss….
Something NOONE EVER TALKS ABOUT is pet overpopulation and how it adds to Climate Change. If every one of the 7.5 billion people has 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 bird and 1 fish—we are talking about another 30 billion animals in captivity—that require food that must be transported. Much of it grains. Then it results in waste and unless we are composting it, it requires transportating to landfills and sewer systems.
How to Stop Farts From Warming the Planet: Feed Cows Seaweed
Livestock accounts for 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Now scientists discover seaweed dramatically reduces methane in animal burps and farts. http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/10/25/solution-planet-warming-cow-farts-seaweed
I wonder if algae would serve the same purpose? Perhaps it could be a stock tank treatment (because it occurs naturally and all pastures would have access—more so than “importing” seaweed). Maybe we could get Los Alamos National Lab to look at this; curing Climate Change is a national emergency. There are a group of investors in La Cienega who are growing Algae for the nutritional supplement. Because we are at over 6,000 feet in elevation our Algae has better quality than the stuff grown in California. The one that turns red in stock tanks is the best quality stuff.
Although the cow does have 4 stomachs they actually have some 13 chambers in them. It is a really complex system. Cows graze in the morning then usually lay down and chew their cud in the afternoon by throwing it up and rechewing it. I always wondered why they burp so much if they have such a complex system. The end result is always the cow pie instead of the horse bun. Cow manure almost has no weed seeds in it like a horse manure does because of the extra processing. I don’t remember our grass fed cows actually farting unless they were driven home by the horses and forced to run. Maybe the factory farm cows fart more. Maybe the corn fed to them because it is fermenting. More study is needed.
[…] https://williamhenrymee.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/climate-change-notes/ […]
Timeshares, condos, duplexes and now sub-leased apartments. The greed will kill us in Climate Change. I wrote a piece, that I now can’t find, on a new subdivision in Montana in the 2000’s where the ranch was 10,000 acres and the couple got too old to ranch and cashed out by subdividing into 160 and 40 acre “ranchettes.” This is where the homes are 12-28,000 square feet and they have a private airport to get there. The subdivision is on a former large working-ranch, which couldn’t make it selling beef anymore. Most owners are Wall Street types and fly in for a week twice a year at most. Jet fuel is trucked into the private airport from a source over 100 miles away. Caretakers must drive fifty miles from the nearest town to feed the 4-8 horses one must have—to make it appealing for friends to have a trail ride, like in the movie “City Slickers.” Caretakers also must make sure the pipes don’t freeze for the absentee owners. The heat alone for the vacant houses in the brutal Montana winters will be enough to heat a small city —for really no purpose but vanity (to tell another stock-broker “I have a ranchette in Montana”, “what do you have?”).
When James Watt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt#Secretary_of_Interior) was the Interior Secretary under Reagan the whole idea of selling federal public lands arose. This helped fuel the Sagebrush Rebellion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagebrush_Rebellion) that had started in the 1970’s and had pretty much stalled.
The Republican Tea Party, composed of many millionaires in Congress, have reinvigorated the ideas of selling of the federal public lands or giving them back to the states, where they will have greater likelihood of purchasing them at bargain prices: https://www.outsideonline.com/2093281/great-public-land-heist-has-begun
https://www.adventure-journal.com/2016/04/these-are-the-representatives-who-want-to-sell-your-land/
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Republican-platform-Privatize-public-lands-in-8376467.php
The Republican Primary resulted in an unprecedented and bizarre race to the bottom about which candidate would sell off the most public land: https://thinkprogress.org/ted-cruz-vows-to-sell-off-or-give-away-nevadas-public-lands-911c97eb13be#.y3n8e6b52
(which probably only an appeasement of the Cliven Bundy faction in Nevada)
http://ijr.com/2015/07/358124-elected-rand-paul-plans-take-federal-lands-away-big-huge-government-bully/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cramer-trump-public-lands_us_57910d96e4b0bdddc4d393b3
http://www.snopes.com/2016/07/16/gop-platform-proposes-to-get-rid-of-national-parks/ But it was a “nail biter” vote.
A number of groups have reacted to these rumblings:
http://westernpriorities.org/issues/selling-off-our-public-lands/
http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/why-are-montana-democrats-selling-off-public-lands
http://www.kcwy13.com/content/news/Wyoming-Residents-Protest-Selling-of-Public-Lands-400184631.html
http://gizmodo.com/national-park-vs-national-forest-your-public-land-expl-1697581346
The Election of Trump and further takeover of the Congress, statehouses and the courts, have led to the best chance of totally dismantling the environmental movement and the recreational opportunities for ordinary Americans.
[…] I tried to find you all some citations but only came up with this: https://williamhenrymee.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/climate-change-notes/#comment-570 […]
It has started: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865668520/Bishop-to-meet-with-Trump-transition-team-to-discuss-overturning-monument-decisions.html
http://usuncut.com/climate/trumps-advisors-just-proposed-privatizing-native-american-reservations-worst-reason-possible/
Mullin’s response:
http://mullin.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/mullin-statement-on-tribal-sovereignty
Without badgers and coyotes digging them up–this population is unchecked, and it is unnaturally expanding inviting overpopulation and disease. Owls may get them at night but since they don’t pop out much it is too safe for them—totally unnatural. They kill trees and eat earthworms which are damaging to the environment (oxygen generation and air purification, and soil health). They must go!
They also bring up rocks and caliche which turns the soil sterile, so as engineers in the desert they are killing everything around us. On the midwest prairies and some mountain areas they are beneficial and natural; but not here!
We mentioned using small traps placed in their tunnels or drenching the soil with emulsified castor oil (“Mole and Gopher Med” is one brand locally available).
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/08/040803094929.htm
Bill McKibbon did a speech for the Quivira Coalition on this Keystone topic and the numbers will actual cut existing U.S. jobs, make #1 crude oil more expensive (the pipeline must have heated top grade oil piped into it to ensure a constant flow of the degraded tar sands oil) and export everything that runs through the pipeline to China. So how is it good? Good thing President Trump divested of the $100,000 in stock or else this would be impeachable. How about his VP or aides? Investigation time….
McKibbon says that over 2,000 Longshoremen, union truckers, and others will lose their U.S.-based jobs. The Longshoremen will be replaced by Chinese Nationals on the docks. At one time McConnell, Cantor and Boener ALL owned stock in Keystone. We need Congress to recuse itself.
Then there is a little matter of using Chinese Steel because it is cheaper (and it also fails on U.S. bridges). So where are the U.S. jobs there?
How easy was it for Trump to greenlight the Keystone XL pipeline on 1-24-2017. President Barack Obama could have easily done that too but stood against it because the risk/benefit wasn’t worth it. Trump claims 28,000 new jobs will be created (maybe in China?), what he doesn’t say is they are temporary lasting 2 years afterwards only 50 permanent jobs will remain (this figure was 25 in the initial proposals and was upped when people said: “how can only 25 pipeline riders make it safe?”). It’s a Big Oil win where they reap the benefits and Americans along the pipeline route take the risk (to drinking water!). NONE of this refined oil is for American consumption rather will be shipped overseas.
Oh yes, we forgot the jobs available on the Ambulance chasing and haz mat crews….
I often wonder if Trump’s threaten use of nuclear weapons (limited nuclear tactical strikes against ISIS) will bring about a faster Climate Change doomsday.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/26/thanks-trump-doomsday-clock-now-two-and-half-minutes-midnight?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
Here is the review from the Pasatiempo:
Filmmaker Thomas Bena spent a dozen years making a documentary on the sprawling “trophy homes” that are spreading like a fungus over the little island of Martha’s Vineyard. Locals successfully fought off a McDonald’s, but huge McMansions are now changing the character of a place once dotted with small New England cottages. During the time he spent shooting this film, Bena married, had a child, and wound up building a house larger than he’d intended, which influenced his perspective. He talks to builders and architects, some of the new mega-homeowners, and shipbuilders, farmers, and members of the Wampanoag tribe. Bena acknowledges that growth is inevitable. But with longtime residents and neighbors, he works to pass a Chilmark town ordinance limiting house size. The battle between progress and tradition will strike a chord in any community that values its image and quality of life. As one local observes, “A lot of people came here because they didn’t want to live in America.” Not rated. 82 minutes. The Screen.
One Big Home
“Everyone needs to see this Film.”
Geraldine Brooks
“A universal, human interest story that asks what our responibilbites are to our environement and planet.”
Misan Sagay
One Big Home
A COMMUNITY DETERMINES ITS OWN DESTINY
Thomas Bena (USA, 2016)
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
88 minutes
Gentrification comes in many forms. On the tiny island of Martha’s Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the island’s unique character.
Twelve years in the making, One Big Home follows one carpenter’s journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, he takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera. Bumping up against angry homeowners and builders who look the other way, he works with his community and attempts to pass a new bylaw to limit house size.
The public needs to understand that the American Lands Council is funded by the Koch brothers and is part of their national effort to privatize the public lands throughout the West. They have other groups they fund as well like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which writes bills like the one Miller sponsored. The Koch brothers don’t care that these bills are unpopular, they press ahead anyway. For more information go to Publiclandwatch.org. The old “Wise Use” movement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wise_use_movement) would also be important to understand as it seems these players came back in the Trump Administration.
Ever seen Miami Vice from the 1980’s? In the opening scenes they drive a speed boat under some bridges connecting to island. Today that same boat no longer fits proving a rise in sea level….
What we can do in the USA is improve our soil and increase carbon sequestration—there are tiny microbes in the soil that ONLY EAT carbon. So stop soil erosion as a first step. Increase grass lands—because they are more successful in getting RID OF CARBON. Rainforests “STORE” the carbon in the tree until it dies or is harvested, and then it is released. So this is probably different than anything you have hear—so this will blow your mind. Raise grazers to intensify the carbon sequestration cycle: Cattle, Bison, goats and sheep. Use mob grazing to 3″ and stop overgrazing. The Quivira Coalition in Santa Fe https://quiviracoalition.org teaches these practices world wide—read stuff by Bill DeBuys, etc. I’m very serious here.
A small garden will help and use your home compost to make it thrive. Worms and nematodes indicate the presence of those tiny microbes.
Do not cut native grasses to less than 3 inches this mimics the action of the Bison on the plains. If we still had the Great Plains we would of had less carbon problems now. Change our backyards into a small solution. Pull weeds and compost them. Leave native flowers and scrubs.
There is a campaign to plant more trees: https://inews.co.uk/news/environment/climate-change-world-wide-tree-planting-campaign/?fbclid=IwAR0e3aPOfrhJq9ZitYeYRiwu7DdSoJKjnzgmoOO9AHhv72nLndbTsA89L6k; my friend Craig O’Hare says: Planting 70,000,000 trees A DAY would take 40 years to reach 1 trillion. There are only about a hundred trillion square meters of land are on the earth, including deserts and high lands where trees cannot grow. How can we plant a tree for every hundred square meters?
To which I added to this comment:
Maybe we should start with STOPPING rainforest decimation and deforestation.
“But none are in our borders. The Brazilian President was elected on decimating the rainforest.”
See also my other blog post: