Witchy Woman

Unsurprisingly, the consumer is prevented from knowing what chemicals are in the products they use by federal law. Why? To protect government's favourite customers: major corporations. Although "a number" of the 17,000 secret chemicals "may be harmless" (emphasis mine, as usual) but many "pose a substantial risk" to both public health and the environment. These businesses don't even have to disclose the ingredients if you are in intensive care as a result of exposure to their products. Simply because it contains "inert" components does not mean that they are safe.

The cutest crab has been recently discovered off of Taiwan. (I refuse to say "new" because it isn't. We just haven't seen one before. It's like referring to Christopher Columbus "discovering" the Americas. No, he didn't. The Native Americans did). Unfortunately, the crabs died soon afterward "possibly because the water in the area was polluted by a cargo ship that ran aground." So, we find a species that we have never encountered before and then manage to go and kill it. Brilliant, just brilliant.
Also being killed off by humans, false killer whales are being considered for the endangered species list. Not to mention another rare white rhino was killed by poachers in Kenya, where hunting has been strictly outlawed since the 1970's. Luckily, they caught most of the killers and the buyers. They are primarily hunted for their horns, which they can actually live without and even grow back because it's the same material as fingernails and hair.
Then the largest freshwater fish in North America, the white sturgeon, has been dwindling because Libby Dam prevents sufficient water flow to allow the prehistoric fish to swim upriver to spawn. Unfortunately, they are only one symptom of the many problems caused by the dam.
Even the North American honeybee has been declining, which puts not only the environment at risk but our agriculture. Although one theory is, is that they are suffering from Colony Collapse Disorder because of climate change.
Not just animals are rapidly disappearing, quiver trees in Namibia are dying out due to drought. But, as we all know, there is no such thing as human-caused climate change.

I brag that the only New Year's resolution that I've kept is to never make another one again. This year, I'm breaking it. My resolutions? To be greener by doing the following:
1. Go organic.
2. Eat local.
3. Compost more.
4. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
I already recycle, compost some, try to keep the heat down, and avoid chemical cleaners, but I obviously can do more.

"Until recently, the Build-A-Bearville website (part of the Build-A-Bear Workshop) featured online videos telling children about manmade global warming and the dangers it holds for the North Pole. In the videos, little animals learn about the problem and teach Santa Claus about it. The right wing has been outraged over the antics of these bears and penguins. One conservative called for a boycott of Build-A-Bear, and another said the the videos amount to “indoctrination.” In response to this right-wing pressure, Build-A-Bear has taken down the educational videos."

So now science = indoctrination to the evil communist left-wing radicals. Although anyone can see that it's really anything with which we disagree = indoctrination. Say it with me now, "The Greater Good."

The following is blatantly and unashamedly stolen from a friend's email rants.

Peak Oil is PART of the understanding that at some time in the future the oil will run out. The 'Peak' in peak oil is referring to the highest point of oil production for an oil well or an oil field. Unlike a water well which is refilled every time it rains there is no way to refill an oil well, so there is only a very limited amount of oil in the ground.
Now due to the way oil is produced and the machines that pull it up and the pipes that carry it, it can only be produced at a very limited rate. This means that a well is drilled, then a pump is put on and the oil starts to flow. A couple of decades later somebody with a clipboard and a lot of notes notices that this well has produced less oil this month than it has last month, and the month before, and the month before. This means that the well is past its peak and will never, EVER again hold steady or increase in its production. From that point onward it will be in 'terminal decline' meaning that while it may never run dry, it will fall off to the point of being useless.
This happens with every well, in every field, in every country. In fact back in 1971 it happened here in the US. That was the cause of the big oil shock and big price jumps you may have heard about. The US oil production had been falling for more than a year and then on day the amount we produced could not meet the amount we needed and everybody freaked. On a world wide scale this happened in July 2008, according to OPEC and Saudi Arabia and as you saw by the price of gas last year... everybody freaked.
It is a known and widely accepted fact that on a world wide scale we will never again be able to produce, or match, the amount of oil pumped up from the ground as we had in July 2008. In fact, on a world wide scale, our oil production is already in terminal decline. Oil production will gradually decrease until sometime in 2010 at the rate of about 5% to 7% per year. After 2010 the rate of decline goes into a "free fall" at about 17% to 25%.
"OK." You may think. "But what the hell does that mean to me and mine?" Good question. What it means in the personal scale is that the price of gas and electricity will rise, taking with it the price of food, clothing, and housing. At some point we will no longer have the energy to sustain this disposable lifestyle and we will have to go back to living like the Amish, or as we like to say, communal lifestyle.
Now here is the spooky part. According to the Saudi Arabian government, they peaked last year and they were among the last. There is a saying in Saudi Arabia, "My father rode a camel, I drove a car, my son drives a jet, his son will ride a camel."

Right now the world is using about 82.2 Million Barrels a Day of oil. That right about 3,616,800,000 gallons a day, or about 150,700,000 an hour, or about 2,511,667 gallons per minute, or about, 41,861 gallons per second. In understandable terms, 4 Olympic sized swimming pools every minute. A bar of soap or two is not gunna change much. The basic fact is that all we gotta do is wait a couple of years and oil use will change itself.
I am thinking when we run out of oil, or it becomes to expensive to use, our society is in for some deep shit problems. But thats just me.

Although China is much more subdued about Earth Hour because they want to celebrate the exile of the Dalai Lama and their repression of Tibet in the ironically named "Serf Liberation Day."

"GHG is the scientific shorthand for Greenhouse Gases, the gases whose build up in the upper
atmosphere is the cause of anthropogenic climate change. GHG Photos is a coalition of science,
environmental, nature, and documentary photographers who have spent the last several years
focused on the emissions and effects of those Greenhouse Gas emissions, as well as attempts to
mitigate their release and adapt to the changing climate."

Go check it out.