Am I in Your Way?

From our dear leader: "the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress."

By which he really means: "Only the last vestiges of Congress's courage and decency is standing in between possible limited reserves of off-shore oil and lots of money for me and my oil tycoon buddies."

Furthermore, I stand in your way. Me and most of the country which is smart enough to realize that off-shore drilling is not an answer to the problem of our gluttony but only a small snack. Much like those bags of potato chips which look full, but then when you open them, you realize it was mostly puffed up with air.

Hmm..... puffed up with air. Can't think of anybody else that describes ....

Furthermore, I still don't understand why these oil companies don't start investing in new energy alternatives rather than go the way of American car companies: in debt and increasingly obsolete. If I had as much money as Exxon Mobile I'd try doing something decent for a change and fund projects to create cost-effective solar panels or wind turbines - or develope a fusion engine like the DeLorean had at the end of Back to the Future. Where's Doc Brown when we need him?

In the meantime, Bush, you're blocking my rays as you stand on the beach, drooling over the lost City of Atlantis or whatever treasure you think is out there. I'm not moving. Aren't you due for a month vacation? Go clear some brush and let the rest of us get back to work on the looming energy crisis.

Gone? Gone!

Good grief!

Lake Devlin, the lake that made Wisconsin Dells famous is gone. I'm probably the last person in the civilized world to have heard about it - but I'm going to blog about it anyway.

It's just crazy. How many Original Wisconsin Duck Tours did I take on that lake?

I'm flabbergasted. Not as much as the flopping carp on the empty lake bed, but still pretty stunned.

At least Noah's Ark is still there ....

Good-bye NKOTB CDs

Thanks, again, to my 5 Minutes of Caring email from CoolPeopleCare.org I have learned something this morning!

Instead of just throwing away those old scratched CDs and DVDs and the ones that are so embarrassing you can't even own up to owning them (let alone find someone who actually wants them), you can recycle them.

Nice.

Visit CD Recycling Center of America to find out how you can be eco-friendly while you spring-clean your music and movie collection.

How Does Your Air Rank?

The American Lung Association released its report on the state of the nation's air quality. Suffolk County, Massachusetts, the location of Boston, got a C. Oddly enough, it was one of only two counties in MA to even rate that high.

Boston didn't even rank on the nation's most polluted cities which was a nice surprise.

Out in the Midwest, Milwaukee and Chicago were tied for spot #24 on the list of most polluted cities. Appleton, WI was the only metro-area in WI to show up on the clean city list (which does not provide rankings).

Hopefully this report will give people pause (while the wheeze away and suck in all kinds of soot and nastiness). Our nation still relies far too heavily on coal-powered electricity - and that is some of the dirtiest electricity around. We need our government to take serious action and stand up to the lobbyists paid to promote coal.

Let's keep the coal for our Christmas stockings, OK?

Water Conservation

Tomorrow is World Water Day (thanks, CoolPeopleCare for letting me know) and perhaps we can all take a moment to reflect on our water usage. Could you take a shorter shower? (I am so guilty of taking longer-than-necessary showers! But I vow to shave a couple minutes off mine! I'll let you know how that goes.)

Think ahead and bring a Nalgene bottle (or container of your choice) filled from the tap with you when you head out instead of purchasing a bottled water along the way.

Hey there, crazy obsessed homeowner, how about not "washing" your driveway with a hose for 20 minutes. What's that about, anyway? And landscape with drought-tolerant and/or native plants. They're hardier and they don't need you to water them so much.

Here's a scary little fact out there for all you steak lovers:

The production of one kilogram of beef requires 16 thousand litres of water

And all you people out in the southwest US - stop trying to have manicured green lawns. You moved to the desert! Deal with it!

What's your water footprint on the world? (Be sure to also check out the food footprint too.) Find out, and spur yourself on to make some changes!

Happy Valentines Day ..... blahhhhhh

I generally allow myself to be sick once during winter. But twice?

Yesterday afternoon I made the mistake of admitting to myself that I was feeling a little sub-weather. And once I admitted those physical feelings of "uckiness" it was all over. Mental powers are amazing.

I spend the night in achy, parched misery. My mind wandered all over the place; the topic I remember most clearly: Bush's "clean coal" declaration during the State of the Union.

You'd think I'd be over it be now .... the idiocy of standing in the entry way of a new centuary and proclaiming that coal - the harbringer of the Industrial Revolution - is the 21st century answer to energy.

Let's pretend that clean coal power works, that archaic power plants would not be grandfathered out of upgrading. I know, I know, it's hard to imagine. Just hang up your disbelief on the coat rack and come with me.

All you have to do is walk away from the "clean coal" power plants and witness the environmental raping of strip-mines and the less-than-stellar working conditions of coal mines (under the ground in dark tunnels - you can't get less stellar than that) to realize that "clean coal" is pure fantasy. Never mind the energy and fossil fuels it takes to mine the coal and deliever it to these fabulous clean coal power plants.

Now excuse me while I consume my 100th glass of water, blow my nose, an crawl into bed.

(and why doesn't spell check work on blogger? Now my misspelled underbelly is vulnerable and composed ....)

[sniffle]

State of the Bush 12

The Enivornment ....

Let's create a treaty .... It's called the Kyoto Treaty! And you refused to sign it.

Green Gift Idea

Although my #1 rule for Christmas shopping is to buy local (closely followed by number #1A: knit it yourself!), I did a lot of internet shopping this year. Since I have a lot of presents that need to end up in Wisconsin, it's so much easier to just have them shipped there in the first place!

Anyway, one of my new favorite online shopping destinations is http://www.reusablebags.com/.

It's where I got my uber-cute lunch bag:

And I just purchased a set of cotton string bags to practically eliminate our collection of plastic bags. Plastic bags are my arch nemesis. They're blown all over the city. And almost as bad: people who pick up their dog poo in a plastic bag, but then leave that "present" lying about. What do they think is going to happen to that goodie bag? Totally gross, although safer for my shoes.

Anyway, just visiting Reusable Bags and watching that plastic bag counter spin away the number of bags being used every second makes me sick, so I like knowing that at least I'm not contributing to it. Get bags for yourself - or as gifts! Give the gift of no plastic! Better yet, give that gift in clever reusable cloth bags. How cute!