Category Archives: Green Revolution

WHEN OUR OCEANS ARE BARREN …JAPANESE ATROCITIES … of WHALES, DOLPHINS, & SHARKS

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If you have been watching the Whale Wars on Planet Green, you already know what a treacherous existence it is for whales.

It isn’t bad enough that our oceans are treated like cesspools where areas have ten times as much plastic trash as plankton.  The trash is ingested by hundreds of thousands of birds and seas creatures … a time bomb  going off in their guts that silently kills.  The number of whales, in particular, that are found stranded with stomachs full of trash is increasing with greater frequency.

No, we have a few nations, Japan in particular, that behave with utter disregard to savage, mind numbing killing of  sharks just for their fins.  Harvesting sharks as a food source is one thing … killing hundreds of thousands of sharks just for their fins and tossing the rest of the carcasses away is criminal waste.


 

The Japanese apparently feel that all of  the oceans fish, sharks, dolphins, and whales are there to feed their voracious appetites for sea food and the rest of the world be dammed. It’s part of their culture, don’t ya know!

If you have seen The Cove you have viewed  the tragedy of the Japanese insistence of mindlessly killing dolphins every year. The worse part of this story is that the rationale for the dolphin round-up is so that business corporations like Sea World can add to their supply of performing dolphins.

What is particularly hideous about the slaughter of the dolphins and whales is that these aquatic mammals are intelligent creatures that possess self awareness.  They know who they are! They are cultural animals that can learn and teach one another. They mourn and feel pain.

According to the Sunday Times:

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

Studies into dolphin behavior have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.

The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.

Just how intelligent are whales?

It has been shown that whales, including baleen species, exhibit exceptional acumen. Studies show that they can solve problems and use tools; show grief and joy; and of course they live in complex societies as a key adaptive strategy to their vast watery environment. Cognitively advanced, whales have powers of acoustic processing, communication and social intelligence.


CALIFORNIA BANS THE PLASTIC BAG

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It’s time for the US to get serious about banning or (at the very least) addressing the environmental damage caused by the ubiquitous single use plastic.

It is ironic that for a country that has led the world in so many environmental issues that we have such a shameful record of ignoring this hazard … all in the name of convenience, of course!

How’s this for a statistic?Plastic constitutes a whopping 90 percent of all trash floating in the oceans, and that represents as much as 80 percent of all plastic waste on earth!

China, New Zealand, Ireland, Bangladesh, India, Kenya all have single use plastic bag bans of some type.

Obama Worst President for the Environment Ever

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Lost in the din of the BP Deepwater Disaster oil spill was the announcement that the United States and the Obama Administration have been major players in back room negotiations that will allow Japan, Norway, and Iceland to restart commercial whaling.

Every President since Reagan has supported the international ban on the killing of whales going back to 1986.

According to numerous sources that include the Los Angeles Times and Current TV:

After years of backroom negotiations and closed-door meetings, a secret deal has emerged that would re-start the cruel commercial slaughter of our ocean’s great whales.
That’s right, the same country that for decades has led the international fight to stop the cruel and unnecessary commercial slaughter of whales…whose president promised to be a leader on wildlife protections…is now behind the deal that would reintroduce commercial whaling. In fact, four out of the last five closed-door meetings that produced this plan have been held on American soil. This is a deal that was literally “made in the USA!”
But now – on President Obama’s watch – the United States is about to support a plan that will reintroduce legalized commercial whaling – this despite his campaign assurances that he would strengthen protections for whales.

Greenpeace has labeled President Obama as Public Enemy #1 because of his support of of this unconscionable deal that sanctions the slaughter of these magnificent creatures.

Toxic Shocker … Extremely High Toxin Levels found in Whales on Global Level

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The AP is reporting exceedingly high levels of deadly heavy metals and toxins in the bloodstreams of whales.  Roger Payne, the American scientist who headed the research with the Ocean Alliance, has been studying whales for decades.  Mr. Payne, is the founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report as follows:
Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth’s oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years.

From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

[...]

Payne called his group’s $5 million project the most comprehensive report ever done on ocean pollutants.  U.S. Whaling Commissioner Monica Medina informed the 88 member nations of the whaling commission of the report and urged the commission to conduct further research.

In an associated article written by: Nancy Roberts 2 days ago,on the Care 2 site more details are given about tragic effects of pollution on whales and the entire food chain:
Human-caused pollution, including deadly toxins and heavy metals, are reaching into the farthest corners of the ocean and into the systems of the largest creatures on earth.

Even if you didn’t care about whales, the fact remains that they are at the top of the food chain, a reflection of what all of the other creatures are consuming, in even the most remote waters.

The fish that some whales eat are also consumed by people—one billion of whom count fish as their primary protein source–and the consequences cannot be avoided. “The entire ocean life is just loaded with a series of contaminants, most of which have been released by human beings,”

Oil Glut on World Markets … Obama Lies About Oil Resources Being Depleted!

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Last night on day 57 of the BP oil disaster, we heard Obama give the speech he should have given 50 days ago.  All through the first half of the speech I kept thinking, “ya, ya I’ve heard that already… move on!“

True to form, once the first part of the “See how tough I am and I really can lead this government” speech/ propaganda was finished, he launched into his “now is the time to for us to go green and stop relying on oil … yada, yada, yada!” He devoted a third of this speech to Cap ‘n Trade and new legislation that we cannot afford or want!

Part of his pitch was to tell America the reason we’re here is because we are running out of places to drill … liar, liar, pants on fire … we have plenty of places to drill, many much closer to the shore, on land, up in Anwar etc.  It is the extremists on the left who keep insisting we ignore our own natural resources … that we stop using coal, gas, oil, nuclear … anything other than those green alternatives/companies that they have invested in.

Here’s what else you didn’t hear.  There’s an oil glut in the world!

According to a recent article on the Esquire Politics Blog:

Here’s the news that really got buried headed into the weekend: Former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister had his first substantive and detailed talk yesterday with Coast Guard officials in Louisiana regarding the viability and importance of deploying supertankers to the Gulf in an effort to recover the oil in the water before it ruins any more coastline.

Hofmeister has been extraordinarily tenacious in pursuit of this idea, and hopefully this breakthrough signifies serious movement toward action.

(According to Hofmeister) After all, it is not as if BP would have trouble finding supertankers to clean up the Gulf.

In all the world, there are 538 VLCC’s, or Very Large Crude Carriers.

[...] of these 538 supertankers dotting the oceans of the world, 47 were basically inert, being used for something (akin to) “floating storage.” That is, they were full of crude oil, going nowhere!

And half of these are full of Iranian heavy crude, which for various reasons no one seems to want. The point of this being that we’ve got a glut of crude on the market at the moment, and it is cheaper to store the oil on 47 of these tankers than sell it. This phenomenon is what is known in the petroleum business as a “contango,” where the delivery price exceeds the market price that you can get for the oil.

Want more?  Europe is facing a refining capacity glut and the possibility of facility closures! Read about it here and here!


SHOCKING VIDEO… OUR LEGACY OF PLASTIC TRASH & THE DESTRUCTION OF THE OCEANS & OUR ENVIRONMENT

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Watching this video it is hard not to become cynical about the selfish, lazy nature of mankind.

It remains incomprehensible to me how ANYONE who talks about saving the environment and the oceans can continue to use single use plastic bags, products, and bottles.

Less than a minute into the video, pause it for a moment and take a good look at the contents inside the stomach of that bird.

The massive destruction of our environment on a global scale is being conducted 24/7, 365 days a year, every year ad infinitum … for what?  Tell me again, for CONVENIENCE … so we can take home our groceries in bags that we use for minutes and that last thousands of years?

DEATH, TAXES, & DOG POOP … 3 THINGS WE CAN BE ASSURED OF!

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I’m betting you already know about death and taxes, but not so much about dog poop!  Well, here’s a real eye opener for you.  According to the Association of Animal Waste Specialists:


this country’s seventy-one million pet dogs produce over 4.4 billion pounds of waste per year. That’s enough to cover 900 football fields with 12 inches of dog waste!  Dog feces are more than just a nuisance – pet waste can pose a serious health hazard.

Children run the greatest risk of infection because they’re prone to play in the dirt at the park or playground and then put their hands in their mouths or rub their eyes with their hands.

In addition to health risks associated with dog waste, you need to be concerned with the manner by which the waste is recovered.  If you among the many millions who walk their dogs and carry a PLASTIC BAG for disposal after the walk you are making a serious environmental mistake.  Take heart, initially I wasn’t aware of this mistake either.

The problem with using plastic bags for animal waste is that once thrown away,  they most often end up in landfills.  We now know that plastic lasts forever unless it has been recycled!  The Daily Green puts it this way:

Unfortunately, if you put Lassie’s waste in a plastic bag, it takes up to 100 years to decompose. Flushing it down the toilet is inconvenient, and can potentially cause problems in sewer systems because of its high amount of grit.


If all else fails you can hire doggy poop service … here!

BRYDE'S WHALE DIES AFTER INGESTING PLASTIC BAGS

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Too many people refuse to take the impact of plastic bags, trash, and debris in the oceans seriously.

For some it is as simple as out of sight and out of mind.  If they can’t see it (the destruction caused by plastic trash), it cannot possibly be an issue to grapple with.  For others, the attitude they present is,”don’t bother me with facts, my mind’s made up!”

I happened across this video of a Bryde’s whale dying after having eaten plastic trash.  This was confirmed after the necropsy as this brief clip shows.


If you think this was a very rare occurrence, think again.  The following is from a recent post from The Nature Conservancy:

Plastics: 1, Marine Mammals: 0

Plastic bags, plastic cups, plastic sheeting, plastic bottles, plastic toys, plastic, plastic, plastic. There’s even a patch of Pacific Ocean — thought to be at least the size of Texas and dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — that is just plastic and other trash, bobbing along at the surface, circling in the current.

Still, plastics aren’t the only problem, just one of the most obvious. All over the world, animals (especially marine mammals and sea turtles) are dying from eating our trash.

  • Last December, seven sperm whales washed up on an Italian beach — all of them dead from plastic (and, let’s be fair, other debris like rope, tin cans and other containers) in their stomachs.
  • In 2008, it was a dead sperm whale near Point Reyes, California. Its stomach contents? An astonishing 450 pounds of fishing net, some kind of mesh, braided rope, plastic bags and one plastic    comb.
  • In 2006, scientists reviewed 371 sea turtle necropsies (an autopsy of an animal) since 1968 and discovered that one-third of the turtles had likely died from eating plastic.

    • Food Network "Stages" Iron Chef America White House Episode – Those Veggies didn't Come from "Le Jardin Extraordinaire"

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    I gotta admit, I’m miffed. Emeril (BAM!) Lagasse, Bobby Flay, and Mario Batalli all lied to us.  Was that a bit strong? Well, maybe they fudged the truth is more like it.

    I watched that episode of Iron Chef, the one where Michelle Obama made a brief appearance to announce that the show’s “secret ingredient” was to be the vegetables from the White House garden.

    All through the hour the audience heard Emeril droning on and on about the superior quality of the White House vegetables they were cooking with.

    Now it turns out our four competing chefs weren’t cooking with these vegetables extraordinaire after all. Turns out that the veggies used in the episode were locally sourced (and by extension not from the White House garden) according to a spokesperson for Food Network.

    White House vegetable garden

    Photo courtesy of The Food Network


    The Baltimore Sun is reporting

    that the vegetables used in the Jan. 3 episode of the Iron Chef — which were supposed to have been harvested from the White House vegetable garden — were actually stunt doubles.

    First Lady Michelle Obama famously appeared with competitors Bobbie Flay, Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batalli, who were joined by White House chef Cristeta Comerford, and charged them with making healthy meals with whatever they could find in the garden.

    Apparently, the time lag between the White House harvest scene filmed in October and the cooking competition filmed a week later in New York was too great for the vegetables to have remained fresh.

    It is also reported  here that the ratings for the White House Iron Chef of America special “set new viewer records for Food Network. ….With about 4.6 million viewers, it was the highest rated and most-watched show in Food Network’s history.”

    WHY IS THERE CARNAUBA WAX IN MY GUMMI BEARS?

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    Imagine my surprise, when by happenstance I checked the ingredients on the back of the bag of one of my favorite gummi candies.

    Let’s see … corn syrup, sucrose, gelatin, apple juice (that’s good, right?), natural and artificial flavor, carnauba wax.

    Hey, wait a minute, what’s that doing there? Isn’t carnauba wax for the outside of my car?

    Know what really makes me so unhappy?  It’s not as if I’m not aware that one should always read the ingredients of anything that we decide to ingest.  I do know that, but really, is nothing sacred?

    Guess what?  I now know carnauba wax is put in a variety of foods in addition to be used on my floors.  As this writer from FitSugar notes:

    I didn’t know this, but carnauba wax is often called the “queen of waxes.” It’s a hard substance, so it’s used to make durable coatings for floors and cars. It’s also used in polishes, varnishes, and beauty products like mascara, deodorant, and lipstick. In foods, it’s used as a coating or anti-caking agent, and can be found in frosting, candies (such as Altoids and Tic Tacs), gum, gravies, and sauces.

    All of this leads me to another imponderable.

    Why is my chewing gum individually packaged in plastic!  For years we got along fine with our Chiclets packaged in a paper product with cellophane to show the gum product.  Now gum is hermetically sealed in plastic … the gum will last 15 minutes and the plastic that will last many hundreds of years longer than the gum.  Isn’t this just a bit excessive?  Really the operative word is silly. This is a silly, nonsensical use of plastic.

    And this makes sense, she rhetorically queries?