SAY NO TO PLASTIC …

Wildlife charity WWF say that figures show that 341 rhinos have been killed in 2011 so far, which has already overtaken last year’s total of 333.  South Africa National Parks keep a record of the number of rhinos who have been found with their horns sawn off.  WWF think the rise is down to more people using rhino horn in Vietnamese traditional medicine.  BBC

It always comes down to cold hard cash, that combined with the cultural heritage excuse.  You know, our ancestors did it, so we continue to do it and the consequences to damned because it’s tradition!

Shark finning and killing rhinos for their horns are one in the same hideous unforgivable act.  Cutting off shark fins for soup and killing rhinos for their horns to used for ornamental and pseudo medicinal reasons are barbaric acts of cruelty.

And so it is with a great deal of sadness that it is being reported that the sub-species black rhino is now officially extinct!

GENEVA — The Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct, and two other subspecies of rhinoceros are close to meeting the same fate, a leading conservation group said Thursday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature said a recent reassessments of the Western Black Rhino had led it to declare the species extinct, adding that the Northern White Rhino of central Africa is now “possibly extinct” in the wild and the Javan Rhino is “probably extinct” in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010.

Take a good look at that suffering animal, it should be embedded into your consciousness. Now, what are you going to do to change this?

In the current case, the government said even if India says Gibson is not violating their laws, our government has interpreted it as a violation of their laws.

The Obama Administration’s raid on Gibson USA  may have slipped under the radar, but it shouldn’t have. This is serious business because the brute use of force and intimidation by Team Obama against Gibson is unconscionable and dangerous.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood (worth a half a million dollars), electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company’s manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company.

“The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier,” he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

[...]

The Fish and Wildlife Service said they were looking for banned Madagascar ebony (in the past, it was used for fretboards). This is banned under The Lacey Act of 1900 – that’s what I said, 1900. While The Lacey Act has been updated over the years and it’s an obscure, little-used law.

Then the Feds said they were looking to see if the wood from India that Gibson uses meets every petty regulatory everything. In other words, the Feds are investigating whether or not Gibson violated Indian laws, not U.S. laws, Indian laws.

Their excuse is that Gibson USA has violated the 1902 Lacey Act a little known act designed to protect certain species. The real reason that federal goons from Obama’s Injustice Department are after Gibson USA is because the CEO of Gibson is a Republican and Tea Party supporter! 

Oh, let’s not overlook the fact that Gibson is not a union shop or the fact the Gibson’s major competitor is a Democrat. According to Seeing Red AZ , “Chris Martin IV, CEO of the Martin Guitar Co., is a long-time Democrat supporter, donating tens of thousands of dollars to numerous far-left candidates and organizations, among them Barack Obama.”

Forget anything Team Obama says about wanting to create and save jobs.  This raid is yet another example of their ham-handed tactics designed to destroy American jobs and support unions. Gibson employes workers in four U.S. factories and has continued to hire in a down economy.

Now want to hear something scary? The federal government has said that all Gibson’s problems will all go away if Gibson will have all of the work outsourced to India! Let’s just call this use and misuse of the Lacey Act.

One other thing. Do you own a piano, guitar, or other musical instrument that was purchased in the past (many years past) before these novel interpretations of law took place?

Did you know under this knuckle dragging enforcement of the Lacey Act by the Fish & Wildlife Service that  if you try to sell your musical instrument you could go to jail several years and pay a minimum $1,000 fine?

So tell me again, “how’s that hopey changey thing working out for ya?”

This one makes my blood boil.

The Obama administration’s policies to permanently destroy the Gulf oil industry along with thousands of much needed jobs in this country is also causing irreparable damage to marine ecosystems. What we’re dealing with is irrational hatred of anything not perceived as green according to the Book of Obama.

Make no mistake, Obama and his team of radical progressives are incapable of making any decision that isn’t submerged in rank ideological stupidity. Team Obama talks green but then adheres to policies that destroy the environment.  Team Obama  supports industries they like and have decided will be the winners of the energy race.

The reality is they hate anything that competes with their vision of windmills for as far as the eye can see, electric cars and solar energy for everyone regardless of the costs, ergo their war against oil, gas, and coal.

The focus and raison d’être of this blog is common sense environmentalism.  The consequences of the government dictated dismantling of oil platforms in the Gulf is destroying tens of thousands of fish and their ecosystem of artificial reefs that grew as a result of the huge platforms in the Gulf.

According to FrontpageMag:

The most prolific marine ecosystem on earth is being systematically destroyed on orders of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Where the BP oil spill failed miserably, Obama’s Dept. of the Interior now triumphs.

[...]

Dismantling their production platforms could cost oil operators “$6 billion to $18 billion in lost future production,” according to a report by Mark Kaiser and Allan Pulsipher of the Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies.

The federal government, however, is unmoved by such projections. Production? Costs? Profits?—come on! Where’s the federal “environmental expert” affected by such stuff?

So let’s try this: the most prolific and “diverse marine ecosystem” ever recorded by marine scientists was created by the “facilities” the U.S. Dept. of the Interior is hell-bent on dismantling (offshore oil platforms). Acting as artificial reefs over the past half century, the natural beauty, teeming fish life, coral colonies, and “bio-diversity,” created by these structures is amply documented in several studies commissioned by none other than the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.

One recent report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Minerals (a division of the U.S. Dept. of the Interior) boasts that “fish densities are 20 to 50 times higher at oil and gas platforms than in nearby Gulf water, and each platform seasonally serves as critical habitat for 10 to 20 thousand fishes.”

In fact, “villainous” Big Oil produces marine life at rates that puts to shame “wondrous” Earth Goddess Gaia. “The fish Biomass around an offshore oil platform is ten times greater per unit area than for natural coral reefs,” found Dr. Charles Wilson of LSU’s Dept. of Oceanography and Coastal Science (emphasis added). ”Ten to thirty thousand adult fish live around an oil production platform in area half the size of a football field.”

I look for and support common sense energy policy and environmental solutions. This policy lacks common sense and good stewardship of the earth’s marine environment. This is wonton destruction on a grand scale!

Accidentally drop your boat anchor over coral off the Florida coast and you’ll be fined up to $25,000 pursuant to federal regulations. Catch and keep a Gag Grouper, Amberjack or more than 2 Red Snapper per fishing trip in any U.S. federal waters and you’ll be fined $600 per fish, pursuant to federal regulations.

Yet endangered coral in the Gulf of Mexico is being blown up, blow-torched, and winched out of the Gulf by the ton to bleach in scrapyards — as mandated by federal regulations. Tons of Red Snapper, Grouper, Amberjack and thousands of other “endangered” or “threatened” fish species are being dynamited in the Gulf of Mexico and left as shark-chum—as mandated by the same federal regulations. Most of these “facilities,” you see, are “dismantled” with explosives detonated around their legs below the Gulf floor.

I once called Barack Obama the worst pResident for the environment ever. These federally mandated regulations prove this beyond a doubt.

For more read here.

Manufacturing plastic bags is big business, make no mistake about that. The inroads that Eco- groups and blogs like Say No to Plastics have made getting consumers to switch from single use plastic bags to reusables has not gone un-noticed by plastics industry.

Rather than change their products by producing biodegradable bags that consumers could feel good about using, theses plastic bag manufacturers have decided to  bully ChicoBag and sue the company in South Carolina.

What’s their gripe? Well, it seems that according to the lawsuit, entrepreneur Andy Keller aka The Bag Monster and President of ChicoBag, his company’s website is using outdated EPA information about the percentage of plastic bags being recycled and that has caused them irreparable damage.

What this is really about is intimidation and bullying by manufacturers who see the future of their company’s bottom lines. Keller’s creation Bag Monster, so named because Americans use an average of 500 plastic bags a year, is having a lasting impact.

It’s hard to forget a guy running around wearing 500 plastic bags walking down the street, swimming in the ocean, and riding a motorcycle! In other words, his message is getting through.

According to the New York Times:

Three large plastic bag makers are suing ChicoBag Company, claiming that the eco-friendly company has caused irreparable harm to their businesses.

Hilex Poly Company, LLC, Superbag Operating, LTD., and Advance Polybag, Inc. have an issue with ChicoBag’s Learn The Facts page on its Web site. Here, the firm cites facts from the Environment Protection Agency and other reputable sources about the effects of plastic bags on the environment. For instance, the group cites facts such as “only one percent of plastic bags are recycled.” This and other similar statements, the plaintiffs believe, are false advertising and unfair competition.

The lawsuit, filed by three leading plastic bag manufacturers, contends that ChicoBag (whose reusable bag, when compressed into its carrying pouch, looks like a slightly squished Hacky Sack) knowingly overstated figures like the size of the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean and the number of marine creatures killed by eating plastic garbage.

Andy Keller, like millions of us,  is absolutely passionate about the environment’s need for us to break our addiction to single-use plastic packaging.

BTW, the EPA’s new figure on the percentage of plastic bags being recycled is a whopping 7%, not very impressive!  The plastic bag manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves and their companies. The degree of death and devastation caused by these single use plastic bags outrageous.

Of the 30.7 million tons of plastic generated in 2007, only 2.09 million tons, or less than 7%, were recycled. Learn more about municipal solid waste facts and figures (Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the United States).

As a reminder, we have been recommending these reusable bags for two years.

Elephants are amongst the world’s most intelligent species…Elephants exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including those associated with grief, learning, allomothering, mimicry, art, play, a sense of humor, altruism, use of tools, compassion, cooperation,^[3] self-awareness, memory and possibly language.^[4] All point to a highly intelligent species that are thought to be equal with cetaceans^[5][6][7][8] and primates.^[9][10][11] Due to the high intelligence and strong family ties of elephants, some researchers argue it is morally wrong for humans to cull them.^[12]

I don’t like PETA.  No, correct that. What I don’t like is PETA’s  tactics and messaging.  Their publicity stunts (many extreme in concept & execution) have caused the group to become a laughing stock to most people. Sadly, their cooked up stunts drown out the very real topic of cruelty to animals.

This morning I happened on this series of photos about Ringling Bros. using electro shock to train the elephants used in their shows. The more I investigated the angrier I got. It is hard not to knowing about the intelligence of these great animals.

PETA is right on what is happening as it relates to the treatment of elephants by Ringling Bros. Circus.

A recent article from Live Science discusses elephant traits, their intelligence and their innate abilities to cooperate with humans and each other.

Elephants are widely regarded as possessing advanced brains, displaying levels of intelligence seen only in humans, dolphins, chimpanzees and others capable of higher forms of thinking. For instance, elephants recognize themselves in mirrors, learning that such reflections are images of themselves and not others, behavior apparently unique to species that show complex empathy and sociality.

Watching these two videos should be enough for you to take pause and to take action.

Next time the circus comes to town, you might want to skip it until Ringling Bros. cleans up its act.

Plastic is a bigger danger than global warming, or at least it is in the immediate sense, considering it is snuffing out the lowest common denominator in the food chain, says Neil Seldman, a waste recycling expert and president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, an organization with a long track record of promoting sustainable communities.

Forget the hokum about global warming. Plastic pollution can be seen everywhere. This problem is here now not some place in the distant future.

The vast amount of plastic trash that enters the oceans is a real problem, a problem that grows ever omnipresent on a hourly basis.

Plastic pollution is destroying the world’s ocean ecosystems. The real problem with all the plastic entering the oceans is the fact that it never degrades. It photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic particles.

Billions upon billions of smaller and smaller plastic pieces have now become part of the food chain finally absorbed within zooplankton.

The oceans are constantly in motion.  Areas called gyres pull in waste from one part of the world and bring to other side of the world. As the plastic photodegrades into barely visible pieces, plankton have plastic debris in their bodies. Zooplankton are at the core of the marine food chain.

This situation is so dire that we have places in the oceans where plastic debris outnumbers plankton.

Unfortunately, that is not the worst of it. When birds, fish, and other sea creatures and  mammals ingest plastic debris which they mistake platic bottle caps and bits and pieces for food’ the consequences often lead to a long slow death.

When these creatures consume plastic debris they suffer with blockages of digestive tract followed by satiation, starvation and general debilitation and finally death.

According to The Royal Society of Biological Sciences additionally they suffer a reduction in quality of life and reproductive capacity; drowning and limited predator avoidance; impairment of feeding capacity.

You can file this under “who knew?”  Sadly, not enough of us do.  Your clothes dryer can be deadly, a silent killer if the duct venting system is not properly maintained.

There are over 15,000 fires, 400 injuries, and several deaths caused by dryers every year according to TFRS. Most of these fires are caused by improper venting or the buildup of lint inside the venting ducts.

I came home from a business trip this weekend only to find the duct venting (flex dryer hose) had completely disconnected  from the back of the dryer. Instead of the lint being properly vented outside it was collecting inside the back of the dryer and collecting in mound on the floor.

I was stunned to see how much lint had collected and to see that the duct coming from inside the dryer was almost completely blocked.  We were lucky; that dryer was a disaster waiting to happen. I shutter to think the number of times I’ve left the dryer going while I took a short trip to the store.

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Here’s another video worth looking at. This one shows just how quickly a dryer can ignite and destroy your home.

Now that you know how deadly your dryer can be here are three things you can do to protect yourself and your family.  For more information read here and here.

• In addition to emptying the lint filter every time you are finished using the dryer, check the dryer duct on a regular basis.

• Never go to sleep or go to sleep with the dryer on.

• Replace plastic duct vending with metal ducting.

There have been warnings for years …  huge areas in the oceans (5 gyres) that have more plastic trash and garbage than fish.

What we’re seeing is the product greed, selfishness, and short sightedness on the part of government, consumers, and governing agencies alike.

Combine that with the excessive over fishing of the many species of fish is it any wonder that the one Bluefin tuna would fetch almost $400,000.00?

Tuna at Tsukiji Market in Tokyo, Japan photo by Hiratu Yasuyuki (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

According to the AP:

TOKYO — A giant Bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in Tokyo on Wednesday, in the first auction of the year at the world’s largest wholesale fish market. [...]

Japan is the world’s biggest consumer of seafood, with Japanese eating 80 % of the Atlantic and Pacific bluefins caught. The two tuna species are the most sought-after by sushi lovers.

They are in a severe population decline and many predict they could be extinct in the not to distant future.

The Japanese demand for the the Bluefin has depleted the Atlantic tuna by as much as 90% since the 1970′s.

Placing the Bluefin tuna on the endangered species list is currently under review for that status.

For more information on the Bluefin tuna and other fish species visit Seafood Watch here.

The world’s oceans are harboring a dirty secret: trash …  lots of it … and we are responsible for it.

If you are of a certain age, you most likely will remember that famous line in the movie Mrs. Robinson, “one word Benjamin . . . plastics!”

We took it to heart, because since the 60’s our use of plastics has gone exponentially through the roof.  This is true world wide.  It wouldn’t  be so worrisome if were not for the fact that most of the people on the planet use plastic (in all its forms) in an indiscriminate manner.

It doesn’t matter what corner of the world we are talking about, we all do … more so in the U.S. than other part of the world.

Watching a cable program a few years ago changed my outlook about plastic trash in all its forms.  I will never forget the following point.

Every piece of plastic that has ever been manufactured will continue to exist in our landfills and oceans for hundreds to thousands of years to come. Every piece! We use plastic bags, made of a material that has been manufactured to last into infinity, for a minuscule amount of time and then toss them away.

Our throw away society  … “Once ‘n Done” … has created a massive ecological nightmare that has to be faced. We are using our oceans like toilet bowls.

Our thoughtless use and disposal of plastic is helping us kill every form of life.  Fish, sharks, whales, dolphins, porpoise, pelicans, seagulls, etc.; the reefs that support so many forms of life . . . all are negatively impacted by our  thoughtlessness.

If  the oceans are to survive it begins with YOU! Remember it’s not just a plastic bag.