Category: Environment

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Daffodils

This just ain’t right…

Here it is the 31st of December, 2021  in St. Louis, Missouri and our daffodils are trying to come up.  At least part of our yard of northern grasses looks like a pass with the mower would do it some good. The temperature currently is 65. Most of the week has been mild and rainy.

But wait, there is about to be a major beat down of our poor, confused flowers.  Sunday is going to be a high of 24 with an overnight low of 10. Later in the week snow might be here with lows in the single digits.

I once heard someone describe Mother Nature as a pissed off biker bitch with a bad attitude.  And yet we keep messing with her.

And so it goes.

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From NYT: It’s the Fauci Awards!

Back in the 80s I worked a dual function position in a rural county in Arkansas.  On one side I was Administrator of the Local County Health Department.  A function that was more or less office manager for the Health Unit and I interfaced with public officials in and outside the county.  When I put on my other hat I was the County Sanitarian.  As a Registered Sanitarian I had a wide range of duties Continue reading “From NYT: It’s the Fauci Awards!”

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One Small Rebellion Against Trump

This is just one example of many possible examples of how petty and low we have sank as a nation under the disaster masquerading as a human being, Gospodin Trump.

I needed some new light bulbs, but I required ones with a candelabra base for a ceiling fan light.  This POS, this so called POTUS, for some unknown reason has rolled back the regulations mandating the use of energy saving light bulbs.  When asked why, he had no explanation, but said a report was forthcoming.  I am assuming some crony of his will benefit from the sale of old style light bulbs.

The only other reason that makes sense is that he is doing all he can to destroy the planet.  I am clueless as to why anyone in this day and age will deny the reality of climate change.  I believe the scientist on this one, but even if they are wrong, we still need to be hedging our bets just in case they are right.

I made damn sure I found the energy saving style of light bulb, and as I picked them up I thought, “Fuck you, Donald Trump!”

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Rolling Stone Article: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending

From the article:

“The United States has spent more subsidizing fossil fuels in recent years than it has on defense spending, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF found that direct and indirect subsidies for coal, oil and gas in the U.S. reached $649 billion in 2015. Pentagon spending that same year was $599 billion.”

We do so many things wrong headed.  And why are the Republicans NOT willing to trust market forces on this one?

Click link below for full Rolling Stone article.

Study: U.S. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Exceed Pentagon Spending

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EPA website removes climate science site from public view after two decades

Apparently anything that gets in the way of immediate profit is to verboten , no matter the future consequences.  Almost every time I look at a news site my stomach does a flip-flop over some new piece of idiocy.   Trump and his administration’s world view is totally incomprehensible to me.  The best I can figure these people have absolute no social conscience and probably no conscience at all…sick, sick, sick.

EPA website removes climate science site from public view after two decades

Trump executive order aims to allow Arctic drilling

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Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers

A famous Carl Sagan quote definitely applies to Paul Krugman’s editorial in today’s New York Times.Pioneer10-plaque_tilt

“In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”

Mr. Krugman’s editorial, Points of No Return, describes how if you are not a climate change denier it will get you excommunicated from the Republican Party.

From the editorial:

“Think of it this way: Once upon a time it was possible to take climate change seriously while remaining a Republican in good standing. Today, listening to climate scientists gets you excommunicated — Continue reading “Paul Krugman on Climate Change Deniers”

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Bad for business… Good for business…

Bad for business… Good for business… Two terms that one hears quite often. We apparently need business to some extent to meet our daily needs.  The unfortunate aspect of business is that to a large extent it is based on the profit motive which often translates into unbridled greed.  The way businesses and corporations are structured in this country it tends to shield individuals from most responsibility for less than desirable actions.  A familiar buzz phrase is “corporate citizen” which in my mind is the paradigm for explaining what an oxymoron is.

When I hear something is bad for business it generally grates on my nerves.  It frequently is a case of the tail wagging the dog.  In this country, businesses and corporations have garnered more than their fair share of wealth.  This wealth has bought politicians and who knows whom else.  This wealth has managed to change the laws to shield and benefit these legal fictions. It has reached the point that if Lincoln was giving the Gettysburg Address today, his closing would read “and that government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, shall not perish from the Congress.”

What started me down this well trodden path again was a news story this morning on NPR. It was reported that “Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at the rate of about a football field an hour. Since the 1930s, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed up an area the size of Delaware.”

Many folks allege that this erosion of the wetlands that provide a buffer between hurricanes and New Orleans is the responsibility of the various oil companies operating in the area.  For mysterious reason some of these folks feel that the entities that caused the erosion due to their business activities should pay to restore the land.  It is costing  Continue reading “Bad for business… Good for business…”

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Hucksters selling you a ray-gun-proof magic hat…

The following quote is from an op-ed piece in the New York Times.  I found it exceeding rich and to the point.

‘“Do you think that storm was from global warming?” everyone asked after coastal New York and New Jersey were smashed by Hurricane Sandy. “Well, maybe,” was the best anyone could say; there have always been storms.

But the aliens are in the backyard, Granny, and it’s time to start hitting them with the cast-iron pans. The [climate] deniers are the equivalent of hucksters selling you a ray-gun-proof magic hat.‘

Hear that Ann Wagner?

Here is a link to the full article: The Aliens Have Landed