tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54071600226180737522024-03-05T14:56:09.664-05:00Mitten StateHugh McDiarmid Jr. lives in suburban Detroit, Michigan where he works in communications for a nonprofit foundation. He was a journalist with Michigan newspapers for 22 years including a decade at the Detroit Free Press before moving into nonprofit, government and foundation work -- primarily on behalf of natural resource protection, climate change mitigation and adaptation and social justice. Views solely his own.
Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.comBlogger157125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-16366638374895625482013-03-19T18:29:00.002-04:002017-03-01T09:42:55.220-05:00How it came that I took a faceful of skunk juice<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSM6TvQt_QBJ8q1nOQqG2DpQ712m-BOdT6qn2gHkLd-bcJ16lh9hVOdi6Qa9StdqSBn5KxVkD46bhrgMgTaEUCwNNJuQujFjcieWvk2QLq7QjlKLvMjcmKZhHi-7lBSAnO-XDd3Hh_qUYr/s1600/Skunked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSM6TvQt_QBJ8q1nOQqG2DpQ712m-BOdT6qn2gHkLd-bcJ16lh9hVOdi6Qa9StdqSBn5KxVkD46bhrgMgTaEUCwNNJuQujFjcieWvk2QLq7QjlKLvMjcmKZhHi-7lBSAnO-XDd3Hh_qUYr/s200/Skunked.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Skunked!</td></tr>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rudy, the 11-year-old mutt and Milo,
the young 14 pound Yorkie mix were five houses from home at the end of a two
mile walk. We’d already run the gauntlet…keeping Milo’s leash secure at all the
trouble points – where Grand River traffic flies past perilously close to the
sidewalk; where the big German Shepherd rushes the sidewalk; where Milo wants
to charge the gate where two Golden Retrievers live. It was autopilot the last
few hundred yards to home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lost in thought – a topic I can’t retrieve – I was surprised
when the leash tore out of my hand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“MILO! MILO!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Damn! A cat. He’s going to kill the neighbor’s cat. Can’t
let that happen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can be quick. And Milo
had now made contact with the “cat” underneath a bush and out of sight. It was
about the same distance from the middle of the baseline to a well-placed shot
in the corner. I can get there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it wasn’t the tennis court, and my pivot to the right
was awkard and staggering. As I lunged toward the bush I fell forward, grabbing
for Milo’s leash with my free hand. My other
hand death-gripped Rudy’s leash – I wasn’t about to let him join the attack –
and he was dragged with me toward the bush.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I missed Milo’s leash, but
arrested my fall by landing on my knees, falling forward on my free forearm. I
looked up. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Skunk! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No. Cat!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The mind plays funny tricks. In retrospect, there were four
fully-formed thoughts that raced through my head in the next millisecond. The
last three were barfed forth by some primitive part of my anscestoral brain as
a defense mechanism against a truth too ugly to confront.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">Skunk!</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">No, it
can not be a skunk. (Because my face is only a foot, maybe two, from it.
So, no. Therefore it can not be a skunk)</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">It is
a cat. A cat that looks uncannily like a skunk. How unusual!</li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;">I do
not smell skunk. If it were a skunk, it would have sprayed me. It is
definitely not a skunk. Definitely. A cat that looks like a skunk!
Striking.</li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I saw the stream coming. Point blank. In my eyes. Up my
nostrils. In my mouth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What happened next is spot-on with anything I’ve read about
people who’ve been teargassed or pepper sprayed at close range. Throw in a couple
cop cars, drop 30 pounds, and I could’ve been a flailing, Tasered, meth addict subdued
on an episode of Cops.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I shot upright and staggered into the neighbor’s driveway.
My face felt on fire. My eyes tightly shut, tears streaming, snot flailing out
my nostrils, drool lolling out my mouth. I dropped to my knees and vomited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How long was I paralyzed on my knees, cursing, drooling and
snotting? A minute? Three? 30 seconds that felt like five minutes? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I still had a hammer grip on Rudy’s leash, but Milo?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The scrappy little bastard showed up in our lives this
summer. Ragged and burr-covered. Nothing but an old-fashioned clear flea collar
to testify that someone had once tried to own him. Heroic efforts to locate an
owner failed. And he defaulted to us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
His proclivity for bolting joyously through an open gate and
disappearing on racous adventures gave some clue to his vagrant nature. Now he
was on the loose. In the dark. With a skunk. And I was helpless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
MILO! MILO!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What to do. Call Karen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I unlimbered the iPhone from my pocket. I was doing
something proactive and it felt good. A first step toward taking control. Call
for backup! Cool in a crisis! Wait. I can’t open my eyes. I kneeled, stupefied
for some inderminate amount of time. Would I be able to see in another minute?
Wait it out? Or will it be an hour? Should I try and feel my way to the
neighbor’s door and knock? (“Hi. I’ve been sprayed in the face by a skunk. Can
you take my phone and dial “Karen?” This is my dog, Rudy. Say hi to the nice
people Rudy. Do you see my other dog? Can I use your restroom? Just kidding!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All the while, my face burned. Each breath sucked nature’s
original nerve agent through my inflamed nostrils. Teary saline gushed down my
cheeks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A little panic, crept in. Raw jabbing at the outskirts of
racing thoughts. Will I need to go to the hospital for this? Could it be
serious? I’ll Google it on my phone! Wait, what? No. Can’t use my phone, right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gradually, I was able to crack open an eye, then two. Milo. He was right there. Bewildered. Maybe frightened.
And he’d stuck by. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I grabbed his leash. Dialed Karen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having just emerged from a long, hot shower before bed, she
answered.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hi there!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m having a crisis. We all got skunked. I’ll be there in a
minute.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our screaming match, the first in more than a year I would
guess, was inevitable in retrospect.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I stumbled into our yard, shutting the gate behind and
began stripping off collars and clothing, things were on the upswing. Ninety
seconds earlier I was blind, helpless, vomiting man with a missing dog and the
possibility of an emergency room visit. Now I had secured both dogs, regained
vision, alerted reinforcements, and the worst-case-scenario – hospitalization –
seemed remote.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For Karen, that trajectory was different. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a few minutes away from a warm bed, a
book, and drifting off to sleep after a long Monday. Ninety seconds later, her
husband was drooling and staggering about the driveway, her terrified dogs were
cowering, she was rushing to put clothes on the hideous scent of skunk had
already begun wafting into the house.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She assembled our armaments. And, for the love of God. Write
this down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Fresh hydrogen peroxide</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Baking soda</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Dawn dishwashing detergent</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nothing removes skunk odor. This comes closest. We know this
from experience. But never one like this.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I watched, still crying and drooling, outside. She held her
phone up. Jesus! She’s trying to find the exact recipe. Just dump the shit in a
bowl! I barged in … a move that will cost me in June when I’m working in the
hot, damp kitchen.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It says a half a cup of soda.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think it
matters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It says to apply it as soon as possible. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Damnit, that’s what I’m trying to do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It says to rinse your eyes with water.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
\Seriously, I can barely keep them open without running
water over them. Oh damn that hurts. What bullshit web site did you read that
on?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It stinks. Yeah, I am aware of that….BECAUSE IT SHOT UP MY
NOSTRILS!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“GO TO THE STORE AND
GET MORE PEROXIDE!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“WHAT DO YOU THINK I’m DOING?!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
WELL THAT”S WHY I HAD THE DOGS BACK ON THE LEASHES!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
WELL HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE KNOWN THAT?!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She left. And she reminded me this morning that she did not
use the F word during the exchange.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I poured the bubbling mixture over the terrified dogs in the
garage. Milo shook Fear? Cold? Crummy time of
year to be bathing dogs outdoors.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I rubbed the peroxide mix into my face. My hair. Up my
nostrils. Shit was real now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leashing the dogs back up, I literally dragged them down to
flights of stairs and into the tiny, standup shower stall. Barely enough room
for a person, much less this miserable collection of stinking beasts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I rinsed off the peroxide as best I could. And we sat.
Shivering. While Karen checked out of the grocery store. “Have a good night,” the
clerk beamed. Probably not.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*****</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Milo and I slept
downstairs. Rudy, who we unwisely determined “wasn’t that bad” slept in our
bedroom with Karen. Every hour she awoke to open or close windows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve taken a “skunk day” off work. Milo’s
at the groomer. Karen’s at work where she reports red, itchy, watery eyes;
respiratory irritation; headache and nausea. And her coworkers say she smells.
They’re probably imagining it. I’m fine, save for red eyes and 4 hours sleep. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The house, for all I know, is a stinking hellhole. But all I
can smell is the occasional rank smell on me, my dogs, or, especially, the
nifty new down coat Karen found me last fall. Best coat I ever owned, toxic
beyond salvation. Also destined for waste disposal:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Michigan
State sweatshirt (this
can’t be a good Tournament omen)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Workout pants</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Iphone cover</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Leashes, collars, harness</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
--- Socks (shoes?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mom laughed hysterically. The way she only does when I’ve
been utterly humiliated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“You know, Mr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>McDuffie
(our late friend who was curator of reptiles at the Cincinnati Zoo) used to get
skunked all the time. He said the odor would go away in a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">week (hey, that’s actually not that bad!… count on Mom for looking at
the sunny side!)</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“….but that then months later on some warm, humid day no one
at church would sit next to him it would come back so bad!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I love that woman!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
###</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-85273316130425952322011-08-02T08:35:00.001-04:002011-08-02T09:25:30.261-04:00What Nolan Finley really means<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>No links in this post. Just some plain English translations of Nolan Finley's </i> <br />
<a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20110731/OPINION03/107310303/1467/opinion01/EPA-raises-risk-of-blackouts" target="_blank">recent column</a> <i>spreading unfounded terror among the citizenry....... </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">EPA raises risk of blackouts <span style="color: red;"> As an opinion columnist, I do not need a source or any data or attribution for this statement, unlike the poor schlubs in the newsroom who are required to substantiate statements they make in their stories. Can you imagine?!</span><br />
<br />
NOLAN FINLEY </div><div class="MsoNormal">An especially stormy summer gives us a taste of what life would be like if the electric umbilical cord attached to the side of our homes were to run dry.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: red;">Prepare to panic</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Silent air conditioners and refrigerators full of spoiling food is the shared experience in countless neighborhoods hit by weather related power outages.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Saved by the backup</div><div class="MsoNormal">A generous generating reserve in the state kept the power interruptions fewer than they might have been. Despite an unrelenting heat wave, no blackouts occurred because of shortages in electricity supplies, says Steve Kurmas, president and chief operating officer of Detroit Edison, a DTE Energy subsidiary. <span style="color: red;">The utilities did their jobs. I’m about to use their talking points to string together this column.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">DTE has a production capacity that exceeds normal demand by 26 percent, and is more than twice the standard 12 percent reserve, Kurmas says. That's largely because the recession wiped out so many customers in this region. So when demand peaks, DTE can ramp up production to cover the load, even on hottest days. <span style="color: red;">Customers are paying to maintain capacity they don’t need, but on a handful of days a year, the utility is able to fire up the oldest, least efficient, most expensive and dirtiest coal plants to meet demand. It may well be less expensive to buy that energy from the electric grid, but exploring that would collapse the premise of the column.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">EPA energy killers<span style="color: red;"> You thought I was going to use "job killers" again, didn't you!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">That's the situation today. Four years from now, who knows?</div><div class="MsoNormal">Between now and then, DTE will have to shutter 10 coal-burning units, reducing capacity by 20 percent to meet new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on coal plants. Updating the plants to comply with the new EPA standards in the three-year period allowed would be massively expensive. So DTE will take them off line. <span style="color: red;">Anybody with brainwave activity would question my contention that the utility will shut down 10 coal plants in 36 months, but I'm counting on no one applying critical thinking here.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That will reduce reserves to 6 percent and leave the system vulnerable to blackouts on scorching hot days like the ones we've had this month. <span style="color: red;">Now you may panic. I remain calm because I know full well the huge lobbying power of the coal industry will easily tie the whole thing up in court for a decade.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Kurmas says DTE has no intention of allowing reserve capacity to drop so low. <span style="color: red;">The utility also is not panicking because they know this too. </span>The company is taking time to assess the regulations, and to get some clarifications from the EPA. <span style="color: red;">Michiganders are going to be funding a new team of utility company lobbyists and lawyers to castrate this idea. </span>If there's a change in the White House next year, it will likely mean a new regulatory ballgame. <span style="color: red;">We all know a new administration will mean more delays, if not a complete about face. Utility lobbyists can outlast any president.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But the plan now is to replace the coal burners with plants that operate on natural gas. That's cleaner power, but costlier. <span style="color: red;">I am pointedly ignoring mountains of credible evidence that energy efficiency programs have vast potential to meet energy needs at a fraction of the cost of gas, nuclear, coal, windmills, solar, etc. Instead, I will pretend natural gas plants are our only option. I'm also not going to mention the conclusions of our state's Public Service Commission, which foresees no need for a new coal plant for more than a decade.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">Watch your wallets</div><div class="MsoNormal">Kurmas says to expect electricity bills to soar by 25 to 35 percent. <span style="color: red;">Panic, I tell you! I need not provide any source for this claim, because you can trust the man from the utility company. </span>For residential customers, that'll leave less money to spend on other goods and services, further closing the damper on the economy.</div><div class="MsoNormal">For power-intensive businesses, such as manufacturers, it will mean higher operating costs that will have to be offset either by raising prices or trimming workers. <span style="color: red;">Manufacturers can lower their costs with energy efficiency upgrades, but you'll have to read that elsewhere. We're against that because dope-smoking hippie environmentalists are for it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The consequences of the coal mandate will be huge. And yet such a momentous change was pushed through by regulatory fiat, without a vote by our elected representatives.</div><div class="MsoNormal">President Barack Obama has proven wholly inept at putting Americans back to work. But as an economy killer, he is without equal.<span style="color: red;"> I stray from the topic here to take a generalized, gratuitous shot at the President, who by most accounts is moderately liberal but by the Detroit News’s standards is a raving, communist devil.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal">The EPA's move to turn the occasional summertime power outage into a daily threat is just the latest example.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:nfinley@detnews.com">nfinley@detnews.com</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">(313) 222-2064</div><div class="MsoNormal">Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Read more of his recent columns and read his blog at detnews.com/finley. Also watch him at 7:30 p.m. Fridays on “Am I Right?” on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-10004312611809090152011-07-28T18:15:00.001-04:002011-07-28T18:15:00.238-04:00Catching up: Michigan River News; North America's awesome-ist marathon river race and some guy who treaded water 17 hours in Huron<div class="MsoNormal">Geez. Looks like we've got some catching up to do!<br />
<br />
In June, the <a href="http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/" target="_blank">Michigan Environmental Council</a> released <a href="http://environmentalcouncil.org/mecReports/PublicHealthImpactsofOldCoal-FiredPowerPlantsinMichigan.pdf" target="_blank">a report</a> showing that the state’s oldest coal-fired power plants cost $1.5 billion annually in health care costs and damages – the equivalent of $500 annually for a <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?q=nuclear+family&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1076&bih=885&tbm=isch&tbnid=LLls9XsY4nDYJM:&imgrefurl=http://greenby0815.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/1/&docid=LDaL8IRhtpSUMM&w=263&h=298&ei=mjwwTtLBEvCGsALUl6k8&zoom=1" target="_blank">family.</a> We pay for that in our health care premiums and copays. It is not reflected in our electricity rates, nor is it ever cited by clean energy opponents when they compare the costs of various energy sources. But it should be. Dirty air costs us, <a href="http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/health-costs-of-california-air-pollution/" target="_blank">new reports</a> increasingly show.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/" target="_blank">Mackinac Center</a> is <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20110717/OPINION05/107170459/The-Mackinac-Center-Green-energy-mandates-raise-costs-hinder-growth" target="_blank">still clinging</a> to the status quo though, prompting <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20110724/OPINION04/107240456/Letters-Michigan-wind-win-green-energy" target="_blank">this response</a> from some really smart and handsome dude.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">If you’re a fan of Michigan’s rivers (and who’s not?) check out the news <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20http://www.michiganrivernews.com/" target="_blank">Michigan River News </a>web site co-founded by my <a href="http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/" target="_blank">MEC</a> colleague Andrew McGlashen. The coolest river news lately is a Circuit Court <a href="http://articles.petoskeynews.com/2011-07-26/dam-removal_29818750" target="_blank">ruling</a> that a dam must be fully removed from the Pigeon River, after numerous <a href="http://record-eagle.com/friday/x75055476/Pigeon-River-dam-spill-kills-trout" target="_blank">fish kills</a>. Thanks to our friends at Trout Unlimited’s <a href="http://www.michigantu.org/" target="_blank">Michigan chapter</a> for fighting for the ecosystem.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The RiverNews guys will be at the awesome <a href="http://www.ausablecanoemarathon.org/" target="_blank">AuSable River Canoe Marathon</a> this weekend. It’s the longest nonstop canoe race in North America, and been part of our <a href="http://www.michigan.org/Topics/Pure-Michigan-Ads/Default.aspx#Pure-Michigan---Warm-Weather" target="_blank">pure Michigan summers</a> for 64 years.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Finally, <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hsJt3anKWCg9pm4jZrf4saqwq4Xg?docId=a44623e78cce47189430a4a1bf6bf9ab" target="_blank">this guy</a> is my hero for the day, 17 hours without a life jacket in Lake Huron, “I have people that depend on me,” he said.<br />
<br />
### </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-83616735174916580652011-07-05T09:25:00.000-04:002011-07-05T09:25:14.974-04:00The Alamo? Not so much, but bike sharing service in San Antonio was the real thing (and maybe coming to a Michigan city near you?)<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRY06UdUjNndAWeQM-3TiNgtE0MlnIOS1hPW57eOf2reGTHBCurMorDGvX6aWM7LIYgRv1MJOcxFaUns89Dlkgo6iiZc_EgJ-l7R7MxXI9yttJwF1RhMn8YfEX8mII_7Ozj9DMDZmKtup/s1600/Bikeshare.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDRY06UdUjNndAWeQM-3TiNgtE0MlnIOS1hPW57eOf2reGTHBCurMorDGvX6aWM7LIYgRv1MJOcxFaUns89Dlkgo6iiZc_EgJ-l7R7MxXI9yttJwF1RhMn8YfEX8mII_7Ozj9DMDZmKtup/s1600/Bikeshare.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This woman does not come with the bike</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Our trip to <a href="http://www.sanantonio.gov/" target="_blank">San Antonio</a> would have been much, much different if not for their outstanding new <a href="http://sanantonio.bcycle.com/" target="_blank">Bcycle service,</a> which allows people to check out bicycles and drop them off at numerous points throughout the city.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">We rented cycles three days, pedaling ourselves to the point of heatstroke checking out places like the botanical gardens, the many tremendous Tex-Mex restaurants and the meandering <a href="http://www.kens5.com/news/Mission-Reach-expansion-opens--124545459.html" target="_blank">Mission Bike Trail</a> that follows the San Antonio River.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">And of course we joined thousands of sweating, sloppy tourists ogling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo" target="_blank">The Alamo,</a> where an IMAX movie and lots of other "educational" materials explained the mission's historic and inspirational role in Americans <s>stealing Texas from the Mexicans </s> standing up for freedom against the tyranny of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_L%C3%B3pez_de_Santa_Anna" target="_blank">Santa Anna.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">But the cycles were the most pleasant surprise of the trip, allowing us to tour the city in a way we never otherwise would have been able to.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You just insert your credit card and select a bike from the rack. When you’re done, you find another rack (an easy Smart Phone app will locate them for you, but there were plenty of signs in the city too) and slide the bike in an empty slot, where it locks tight until the next user arrives</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">$10 per bike per day, plus fairly nominal charges for the time you use (the first half hour of every use is free).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">My friend and colleague and Lansing City Council candidate <a href="http://www.roryneuner.com/" target="_blank">Rory Neuner</a> is among a group trying to <a href="http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-5737-rent-a-bike.html" target="_blank">bring Bcycle to Lansing.</a> I’ve heard several other Michigan cities are considering such programs, but I don’t know which for sure.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">It’ll take some work in Michigan’s cities, which still are designed primarily for cars and NOT for pedestrians or cyclists. But <a href="http://www.micompletestreets.org/" target="_blank">that is changing</a> and Bcycle might help that momentum. Bike lanes, curb cuts, great signage and the Riverwalk all helped make San Antonio’s work.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Honestly, I don’t know if we contributed any more cash to San Antonio’s economy than we would have if the Bcycle rentals weren’t available. But the whole Bcycle experience makes it far more likely that we will return one day. And we can recommend a trip to that town far more enthusiastically than we otherwise would have.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Linked to Michigan’s already <a href="http://www.michigantrails.org/map/" target="_blank">outsanding trail networks,</a> bicycle sharing programs in certain areas could be a great, low-impact way to market a region's best cultural, recreational and retail opportunities to visitors.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-49171046144013582862011-06-23T06:03:00.008-04:002011-06-23T06:03:00.032-04:00I get a campsite, you get Pure Michigan NASCAR and everybody's happy<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY0tXKshhNydfn6P-mJrwDmiD4YnVeDHZcxAfUF5LSEmIhOoMLAwSPGVpStvs3L4rBvwDkJZ1IuxJ38X1Ha-U5RrqNIO3l94YyeowJP1ucwPBzq0JDgaZbOnm-dkB2ExPbNJmScDvCmTb/s1600/camp+food.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY0tXKshhNydfn6P-mJrwDmiD4YnVeDHZcxAfUF5LSEmIhOoMLAwSPGVpStvs3L4rBvwDkJZ1IuxJ38X1Ha-U5RrqNIO3l94YyeowJP1ucwPBzq0JDgaZbOnm-dkB2ExPbNJmScDvCmTb/s320/camp+food.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seemed reasonable at the time!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>There are eight rustic camp sites, first come, first served.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">There were three left when we got there, and we got site #2. It wasn’t one of the lakefront spots, but it was nestled back in the woods far enough so that … at night with a fire crackling, unobstructed stars overhead and a couple of Bellaire Browns it seemed like we were the only ones in the county. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Where? Oh hell no. I’m not about to tell you. But with a little detective work on the DNR’s <a href="http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/ParkMap.aspx" target="_blank">web site</a> you shouldn’t have a problem figuring it out.<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Our campground was a couple hours from Lansing, and a couple hours from magnificent Torch Lake where we spent the day Saturday with family. That night, again, we were the only ones in the world. In the morning, we drank camp coffee and a breakfast of soy sausages and homemade pesto (it seemed sensible at the time).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">After a three mile walk in the woods interspersed with magnificent meadows of sun-dappled chest high grasses, we were home in time to watch the Tigers and entertain more family. Maybe I took a nap too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">It was a little slice of Michigan living. But it may not so for long. Fifteen dollars a night, times eight campsites, generates $120 … not nearly enough to cover the expenses of trash removal, outhouse and fire pit maintenance, road grading, administrative matters, tree trimming and securing the picnic table to the ground with a braided metal cable the thickness of a child’s wrist.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">That leaves taxpayers on the hook. Many never use a rustic state campground, and never intend to. Many of our friends and neighbors don’t believe their tax dollars should be used to supplement the campgrounds' user fees. In fact, many were on the <a href="http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/06/michigan_dnr_officials_23_stat.html" target="_blank">verge of closing</a> this year for lack of funding, until DNR Director Rodney Stokes found a way to limp along in 2011.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">So why should taxpayers who never use the rustic campgrounds be willing to fund them?<br />
<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Because it is that sort of opportunity -- and thousands like it and very much unlike it – that makes people want to live, work and play in this state. It’s not very quantifiable, like tax rates and safe streets and availability to public transportation are. But it’s real, and it shows up consistently on surveys nationwide about what attracts people to live where they do.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">So as legislators – many of them indoctrinated in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist" target="_blank">drown government in a bathtub</a> cult prepare to slash away at many of the opportunities that makes our state so unique, we need a robust discussion. Not just about closing a few dozen rustic campgrounds. But about what sort of opportunities we can capitalize on here to create the Michigan we all want.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">In that mix, I vote for some tax money to maintain the rustic campgrounds. In fairness, I’ll agree to use state money on something I have no interest in, like <a href="http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110620/FREE/110629994/state-buys-right-to-add-8216-pure-michigan-8217-name-to-august-nascar-race-at-michigan-international-speedway" target="_blank">NASCAR races. </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Iit’ll cost a lot less than $972k to maintain a fire pit. And while you’re at the race, I’ll be putting another log on.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"> *****</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i>If you feel like <a href="http://www.michiganvotes.org/Find.aspx" target="_blank">contacting your legislator</a> you might tell them you’re glad the state’s rustic state forest campgrounds remained open this year, and that you expect him/her to work to maintain adequate funding for the state’s DNR to operate them. </i></div><i> </i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"> ###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-59367129444555701742011-06-03T14:03:00.000-04:002011-06-03T14:03:07.950-04:00Environmental funders reassess climate change tactics: First base starting to look pretty good now<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDX54FpZmaeErmjLen20BqZMpKfEFIPhszmhz_PLBC_T_Fux-D61THY24F_V1pznm0WL1iosmkxfHkle5fcvBEMLdmlEeUd7dSB7iS2QclXkhkIdWwxqW8I3fFsEdZT_umIn77-n-f19T/s1600/kissing_20030918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIDX54FpZmaeErmjLen20BqZMpKfEFIPhszmhz_PLBC_T_Fux-D61THY24F_V1pznm0WL1iosmkxfHkle5fcvBEMLdmlEeUd7dSB7iS2QclXkhkIdWwxqW8I3fFsEdZT_umIn77-n-f19T/s200/kissing_20030918.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oops, wrong first base photo!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Shortly after joining the <a href="http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/" target="_blank">Michigan Environmental Council</a> in 2006, I became aware of an obscure public notice in the <a href="http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/" target="_blank">Federal Register</a> soliciting comments on a <a href="http://www.educatedangler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=831" target="_blank">plan for</a> the U.S. Coast Guard to begin live ammunition training exercises with .50 caliber machine guns in 34 areas of the Great Lakes.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I tipped some journalists to the story, lighting the fuse for a maelstrom of protest that forced the Coast Guard to <a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1755714/posts" target="_blank">re-evaluate</a> its plans. For a couple months, I invested a fair amount of time into helping spread public awareness of a plan that heretofore had been very, VERY quietly pursued.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">At one point, a longtime veteran of the environmental movement asked, “so, who’s funding you for this?” When I replied no one was, she appeared befuddled, and perhaps a little put off. It had not occurred to me that my work priorities should be dictated by funders. The most important work should get the most attention, right? Not necessarily.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55980.html" target="_blank">this interesting article</a> from Politico points out, the donors who fund environmental work call the shots … to a certain extent. And they are not happy about the results they’ve gotten from the money they’ve poured into addressing <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html" target="_blank">climate change</a> during the past several years.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Federal <a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/" target="_blank">Cap and Trade</a> legislation that would have begun to address the issue crashed and burned. Amid the wreckage, environmental groups are regrouping to try and accomplish change on a piece by piece basis – fighting for better building <a href="http://www.climatetrust.org/buildEff.html" target="_blank">efficiency standards,</a> and <a href="http://michigan.sierraclub.org/issues/cleanenergy/coalfiredpowerplants.html" target="_blank"> stopping new</a> coal plants, and <a href="http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/newsroom/pressRelease.php?x=62" target="_blank">investing in</a> public transportation. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If this seems like a half-assed way to deal with the planet’s most important issue, it is. But it’s what we have. As the aforementioned <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55980.html" target="_blank">Politico article</a> notes, the environmental community has neither sufficent power to punish do-nothing politicians, nor the clout to reward the good ones.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Without that power – or a groundswell of public demand for action – there is little hope of the sweeping change that many of us would like to see.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Does that mean we don’t need visionaries laying out idealistic plans? No. But it means most of us need to hunker down and work for incremental change if we’re going to have something to show for it at the end of the day.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As President Obama’s Advisor Rahm Emanuel told an environmental funder, “Your DNA and my DNA are so different. I’m about trying to get to first base. You’re about trying to hit it over the fence.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First base might sound like a crappy place to be when you’re <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/" target="_blank">so far behind.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But it beats striking out. And it might get funded.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-24940033309882636542011-05-17T08:11:00.000-04:002011-05-17T08:11:00.201-04:00An antidote to what ails you; a remedy for disillusionment: Michigan's Dark Sky Park<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8jcisSgVadlVNdHjrDCRtq4HtTpJw9r5UAThUeWD90SGAWiEXbQNKyOGSzOQOjI-zHRTwusj5_YzZiZYeHBzkbSqg_N5nkhORPBMOxZ3qUZpe1p7BCglIKTxoxE_U0zMF0-tyk20e6qx/s1600/night_usa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8jcisSgVadlVNdHjrDCRtq4HtTpJw9r5UAThUeWD90SGAWiEXbQNKyOGSzOQOjI-zHRTwusj5_YzZiZYeHBzkbSqg_N5nkhORPBMOxZ3qUZpe1p7BCglIKTxoxE_U0zMF0-tyk20e6qx/s320/night_usa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Unnecessary <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/light-pollution/klinkenborg-text" target="_blank">light pollution</a> plagues our cities, suburbs and countrysides.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Gas stations are illuminated like white hot suns. Whole floors of office buildings <a href="http://www.efficiency3.com/UMC%20Website/Company/Waste%20You%20Can%20See.htm" target="_blank">stay lit</a> for a solitary night owl worker. And blazing security lights click on constantly throughout my neighborhood (note to neighbors: walking my dog on the sidewalk is NOT A THREAT; recalibrate your lights, goats).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">But in Michigan we are still blessed with dark places where the Milky Way and a million twinkling stars inspire awe and wonder. Places where science and religion combined seem pitiable tools of inquiry. Places where – necks craned and mouths agape – words are insignificant to define what we see.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">One of those places has now been recognized internationally. Michigan has an <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/new-international-dark-sky-park-michigan.php" target="_blank">International Dark Sky Park.</a> It’s one of only six Dark Sky Parks in the nation – one of nine in the world. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Located along the Straits of Mackinac on 550 acres of undeveloped Lake Michigan shoreline called <a href="http://www.emmetcounty.org/headlands/" target="_blank">The Headlands,</a> the stargazers' paradise is the result of years of hard work by Emmet County citizens and officials. They were dedicated to preserving this little slice of <a href="http://www.michigan.org/" target="_blank">Pure Michigan</a> that speaks volumes about the quality of life <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Michigan" target="_blank">Up North.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">The designation required light meter readings from the <a href="http://www.darksky.org/" target="_blank">International Dark Sky Association,</a> the adoption of a special lighting ordinance and 75 pages of paperwork according to my friend Ron Dzwonkowski’s <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20110508/NEWS06/105080470/Emmet-County-park-gets-top-designation-sky-watching" target="_blank"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Detroit Free Press</i> column.</a><br />
<br />
In a great tidbit of storytelling, Ron says one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“key to securing the designation was the endorsement of Patrick Stonehouse, a teacher and astronomer in neighboring Cheboygan County who from his rooftop observatory in Wolverine discovered a comet in 1998 that the International Astronomical Union has labeled 1998 H1, or Comet Stonehouse.”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Michigan’s International Dark Sky Park. What a great, great story!</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">##</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-7822042580007416872011-05-10T07:57:00.003-04:002011-05-10T07:57:00.524-04:00Michigan Senate cave dwellers vote to cripple Great Lakes protection, strip governor's powers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvkmVxLtNgFwZv6kg4yg-1seaUgrBxkGw62Fcn0Aiy-Mjnnx7th923C5eDwM0Lu6zbDKt3m4Nvd0-fIAXNavEcDm_GUwZtE-U1mOpvdcaM29CZivx92XIMivl3xZVC8zRQSUrVsCwd9GnD/s1600/Cavemen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvkmVxLtNgFwZv6kg4yg-1seaUgrBxkGw62Fcn0Aiy-Mjnnx7th923C5eDwM0Lu6zbDKt3m4Nvd0-fIAXNavEcDm_GUwZtE-U1mOpvdcaM29CZivx92XIMivl3xZVC8zRQSUrVsCwd9GnD/s1600/Cavemen.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SB 272 sponsors</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Back in the 1970s Lake Erie was dying and Michigan’s waterways were choked with weeks and algae. <a href="http://www.epa.gov/glindicators/water/phosphorusb.html" target="_blank">Phosphorus</a> from laundry detergents was identified as a major culprit in the problems. But the state legislature and federal regulators – under intense industry pressure – were paralyzed with inaction.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Michigan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Milliken" target="_blank">Gov. William Milliken</a> put on his big boy pants and took a stand in 1976, using his power to ban phosphorus. It was the beginning of a steep <a href="http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/features/news/PhosphorusintheGreatLakes.php" target="_blank">decline in Great Lakes phosphorus</a> and the recovery of Lake Erie. Other states followed suit. It wasn’t until 2008 that Michigan’s legislature affirmed the Milliken-era ban.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Now Michigan Senate Republicans – under the treacherous guise of reducing regulatory burdens – want to strip Michigan’s governor of his power to protect the lakes and other natural resources. <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/2011-2012/billintroduced/Senate/htm/2011-SIB-0272.htm">Senate Bill 272</a> was passed last week. It forbids the governor's environmental regulators to exceed any federal environmental standard. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">That means Republicans believe that water protection laws in places like Arizona and New Mexico are a good fit for Michigan, where we are stewards of the <a href="http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/geog/intro/intro_1.html" target="_blank">greatest freshwater resource</a> on planet Earth. It means Republicans, erstwhile protectors of state’s rights, believe Washington bureaucrats know what’s best for Michigan. And it means they want to strip Michigan governors of a key power they’ve held for decades.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">The bill is part of an onerous package of legislation that seeks to intimidate state regulators into tepid enforcement of environmental laws. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">Here’s hoping that – if these cavemen and women get their way in the State House of Representatives – <a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20110421/BUSINESS06/110421020/Gov-Rick-Snyder-Green-Leaders-Find-common-ground-do-green-things-together-" target="_blank">Gov. Rick Snyder</a> will veto the bills. If he cares about the lakes, he will. And if he’s offended that the legislature is seeking to strip him of the power to enforce the law, he will too.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">You can help. <a href="http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/" target="_blank">Find your state representative</a> and tell them a vote for SB 272 and the rest of this package ensures your vote will go to someone else in 2012.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">###</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br />
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</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-594341288450388092011-04-28T16:12:00.000-04:002011-04-28T16:12:03.776-04:00Spring! The season of rebirth. And carcinogens, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors wafting across our suburban lawns<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNxe3z3yhFBlQtn4p4s0GcKtnLHL9ZuSU99FJmjA1aH-wIbOK_lUitwixQfBvEASJhojp2hCPVz3zMK31eXDxZXLgkQ08mytSLdmFL50gbiOrJIuLGP3we9G7jbdn7gBhKvXuiOYD6NbD/s1600/toxic-lawn-sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinNxe3z3yhFBlQtn4p4s0GcKtnLHL9ZuSU99FJmjA1aH-wIbOK_lUitwixQfBvEASJhojp2hCPVz3zMK31eXDxZXLgkQ08mytSLdmFL50gbiOrJIuLGP3we9G7jbdn7gBhKvXuiOYD6NbD/s1600/toxic-lawn-sign.jpg" /></a></div><i>I posted a version of this a year ago. And probably will each spring when the annual rain of poisons descends on my neighborhood:</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The lawn care trucks are back at it, hosing down suburban lawns with <a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn/factsheets/facts&figures.htm" target="_blank">toxic chemicals</a> that they’ve convinced us are necessary for healthy grass.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a dangerous and sophisticated marketing con job that we’ve all bought into. Wholesale application of lawn chemicals is not only unnecessary and a waste of money, it is dangerous for children and pets.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The group <a href="http://www.beyondpesticides.org/" target="_blank">Beyond Pesticides</a> says that of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides 19 have studies pointing toward carcinogens, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 27 are sensitizers and/or irritants, and 11 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Children’s developing brains, nervous systems and reproductive organs are the most sensitive to long-term damage from environmental toxins. If you were intentionally applying the same chemicals to your child’s bedding, a call to the child welfare agency would be in order.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Lawn chemicals poison your pets, too. <a href="http://www.ecochem.com/ENN_herbicide_dogs.html" target="_blank">This study</a> by Purdue University researchers showed herbicide-treated lawns increased the risk of bladder cancer in Scottish Terriers by four to seven times. That adds to other research showing the danger to dogs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Pets and people aren’t all. Birds, frogs, insects and other critters are <a href="http://www.cqs.com/elawn.htm" target="_blank">at significant risk</a> from the overapplication of this crap.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But companies continue peddling their toxics to a largely indifferent public. And the industry’s clout in Michigan’s Capitol have ensured that meaningful reforms <a href="http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/priorities/article.php?x=31" target="_blank">have been muzzled.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are plenty of alternatives to artificially and chemically dependent turf grasses for your landscaping. And even if you insist on the turf grass, you can find companies who will keep it healthy without spraying dangerous chemicals on it.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You can establish a <a href="http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lawns/a/clover_lawns.htm" target="_blank">clover lawn,</a> which creates its own fertilizer as a nitrogen fixer.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">You could replace grass with hardier <a href="http://washtenawcd.org/you/nativelandscape.php" target="_blank">native plants.</a> Such plants don’t need chemicals to thrive because nature has already designed them to thrive in Michigan’s climate and soil.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Or you could simply hire a lawn care company that will agree to manage your lawn with nontoxic products.</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-63646959325317126452011-04-26T11:08:00.000-04:002011-04-26T11:08:55.933-04:00Consumers Energy asks to cut customers' renewable energy cost by 72 percent !Mitten State <a href="http://mittenstateblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-data-clean-energy-in-michigan-comes.html" target="_blank">reported weeks ago</a> that Consumers Energy customers’ utility bills would be lowered because renewable electricity was turning out to be substantially less expensive than originally predicted.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Today we learn just how much. The utility <a href="http://www.mlive.com/business/jackson-lansing/index.ssf/2011/04/consumers_energy_asks_for_perm.html" target="_blank"> is asking to reduce</a> the renewable energy charge on residential bills from $2.50 to 70 cents per month – a 72 percent cost cut.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Whether the money goes back to ratepayers or is funneled into solar energy development is a discussion worth having. But the bottom line is that meeting Michigan’s target of generating 10 percent of its electricity from clean, renewable energy by 2015 will be neither as difficult nor expensive as <a href="http://www.mackinac.org/12798" target="_blank">opponents</a> would have you believe.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-6358216629088023332011-04-25T07:09:00.004-04:002011-04-25T07:09:00.764-04:00If eggs and meat are made in the supermarket, where does your tap water come from?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ElC2EoGaPNec-wUuq4dXJFgzNoKzUu1gKvdP47N5sDU-pFNnIm2uz-W69ePt4X-1qRzIzhql3Vjc9wKnxbdfsUyjUqhbKW-jk3ZXnFbyKaYxrm3YCIiUoPSB7bPRsBgRwPcwwF2ETn_F/s1600/detroit_river3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ElC2EoGaPNec-wUuq4dXJFgzNoKzUu1gKvdP47N5sDU-pFNnIm2uz-W69ePt4X-1qRzIzhql3Vjc9wKnxbdfsUyjUqhbKW-jk3ZXnFbyKaYxrm3YCIiUoPSB7bPRsBgRwPcwwF2ETn_F/s320/detroit_river3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My drinking water source. Eat your heart out.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">We’ve probably all heard stories about city kids who think eggs are made in the supermarket, or can’t identify where their <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/interviews/schlosser.html" target="_blank">meat comes from.</a> Eventually they learn – at least in a book-learnin’ kind of way – that eggs come from chickens and meat from dead animals.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But apparently most don’t ever learn where their water comes from. A <a href="http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/habitats/riverslakes/is-ignorance-bliss-when-it-comes-to-our-water.xml" target="_blank">Nature Conservancy survey</a> released last month shows 77 percent of Americans who use municipal water can not identify the source of their tap water.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By itself, that lack of knowledge probably isn’t a big deal. We pay taxes and <a href="http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/index.cfm" target="_blank">pass laws</a> to have other people make sure that safe water comes out when we open the spigots. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But in a more global sense, our lack of connection with the natural world is symptomatic of larger problems. As the Nature Conservancy asks: <i>“If we are less aware of our dependence on nature for our most essential needs, are we less inclined to get personally involved in protecting it?”</i> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For the record, my tap water comes from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_River" target="_blank">Detroit River,</a> a majestic natural wonder which carries most of the <a href="http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/geog/intro/intro_1.html" target="_blank">greatest freshwater system on planet earth</a> on its journey to the Atlantic Ocean. Your water should be half as awesome!</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-8334852386953985612011-04-22T07:26:00.003-04:002011-04-22T07:26:00.284-04:00Detroit News duo vie to pen most outlandish, spiteful tirade against all things environmental<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNj4kkSC7eSSt_2FT5ijLPTMLtnMw7ws0hch21ZX-HtKxMwBW-Jy-9oSDgUm3_5chBMpvbTOZ2Q92xHd9OjeVUxawOYrfCZvh6wJLRXV2AGuglzH_T2ePNI4PEdvx0DJfZdsRsOVFOCDGA/s1600/DetroitNews_Logo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="46" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNj4kkSC7eSSt_2FT5ijLPTMLtnMw7ws0hch21ZX-HtKxMwBW-Jy-9oSDgUm3_5chBMpvbTOZ2Q92xHd9OjeVUxawOYrfCZvh6wJLRXV2AGuglzH_T2ePNI4PEdvx0DJfZdsRsOVFOCDGA/s200/DetroitNews_Logo.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Editorial columnists gone wild!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Pointing out errors, inconsistencies and tortured logic in <i>Detroit News</i> editorial writers’ ugly screeds against environmentalists and all they stand for could be a full-time job. Since Mitten State is only part-time – and because the <i>News</i> tells us that environmentalists hate jobs – we valiantly resist the urge to spend too much time playing <a href="http://www.addictinggames.com/whackamole.html" target="_blank">Whack-a-Mole</a> with them. Alas, pair of jaw-droppingly stupid columns this week are too irresistible to let pass by.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, News editorial board member and cartoonist Henry Payne invoked the visage of Nazis in his column titled <a href="http://www.detnews.com/article/20110418/MIVIEW/104180364/Payne--Sieg-Heil--warmingmongers-" target="_blank">Sieg Heil, warmingmongers!</a>. He warns darkly of coming “civil unrest” and “grim war” in the United States because of President Obama’s “radical green vision.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yes. Civil unrest and grim war. From the radical green vision of a president who’s backing so-called <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/energy/articles/2009/06/12/obama-administration-pouring-1-billion-into-clean-coal-project" target="_blank">”clean” coal</a>; expanding <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html" target="_blank">oil drilling in previously off-limits areas</a> of the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska coastlines; and <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-16/obama-seeks-to-expand-loan-guarantees-for-reactors-chu-says.html" target="_blank">authorizing massive taxpayer subsidies</a> for new nuclear plants.<br />
<br />
<i>(Aside: The </i>News’<i> editorialists rail constantly against taxpayer subsidies for clean energy like wind and solar. On the topic of taxpayer subsidies for coal, gas, oil and nuclear power they are as quiet as church mice.)</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Feeling challenged to up the ante in their game of <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy" target="_blank">batshit-crazy</a>, Payne’s colleague Manny Lopez ginned up an <a href="http://detnews.com/article/20110420/MIVIEW/104200369/Lopez--Helter-Swelter" target="_blank">incomprehensibly inane blog post</a> incorporating climate change with lunatic murderer Charlie Manson, Koran-burning Pastor Terry Jones and Al Gore. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On a junior high schooler’s Facebook page the post would be judged a failed attempt at clever. From the Opinion Page Editor of the state’s second-largest newspaper, it’s just embarrassing.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-88885522497307056722011-04-15T07:35:00.004-04:002011-04-15T07:35:00.576-04:00New study finds that....um...the uh....what was....oh yeah dude...so what were we talking about?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjy58ETYvebWDGAJ3jBPajaCmm3O8b1gcFFNgSg9YEYIT9htPmHrWMpPJw2yrt9X9Y1uYYedXjKATpBdMCZ-Mrxyk6vTc8kDgdK-xOtBq71QXi6i73mIJxs8mFYlGvDQhsCldh-bHy4k-/s1600/spicoli-300x221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjy58ETYvebWDGAJ3jBPajaCmm3O8b1gcFFNgSg9YEYIT9htPmHrWMpPJw2yrt9X9Y1uYYedXjKATpBdMCZ-Mrxyk6vTc8kDgdK-xOtBq71QXi6i73mIJxs8mFYlGvDQhsCldh-bHy4k-/s320/spicoli-300x221.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Sometimes you learn stuff that just makes you go:<br />
<br />
“Dude…..I’m like, so….um…you know when the uh….oh, man, .I forgot what I was going to say…..hey, are those <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-stoner-has-mindblowing-outofcheetos-experienc,1559/" target="_blank">Cheetos</a> all gone?”<br />
<br />
So it is with the news that our nation’s stoners are responsible for massive amounts of climate-altering greenhouse gasses. Yes, a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/04/11/11greenwire-study-pot-growers-inhale-1-of-us-electricity-e-62219.html?partner=rss&emc=rss" target="_blank">new study concludes</a> that marijuana cultivation consumes 1 percent of our nation’s electricity. That’s enough to enough to power 2 million homes. Each joint smoked represents about two pounds of climate-trapping carbon dioxide emissions.<br />
<br />
The study may have even underestimated <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stoner" target="_blank">stoners’</a> impact on the environment. It did not, for example, factor in late night pizza delivery, gasoline burned while idling at green lights, or the number of baked people still awake at 3 a.m. watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf5rIuJPTt0" target="_blank">Fast Times at Ridgemont High.</a><br />
<br />
###Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-6249125409365741812011-04-13T08:08:00.003-04:002011-04-13T11:13:46.868-04:00Beekeeping's subversive secret: These little traitors are anti-free market Communist heathens<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAhDlH4ITRJxWpfYFCeJ_o_1_fVNv6RQqhxAfAVg-8PJf45_anzKtATmw48-rB1ePHfSF15-VLZkGpwVeg98w25gTeaBnxI6Six6Zf3t1ONPek1gKRfsclnxBZNe5On8a7ADT1QIoroB8/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmAhDlH4ITRJxWpfYFCeJ_o_1_fVNv6RQqhxAfAVg-8PJf45_anzKtATmw48-rB1ePHfSF15-VLZkGpwVeg98w25gTeaBnxI6Six6Zf3t1ONPek1gKRfsclnxBZNe5On8a7ADT1QIoroB8/s320/photo.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hive. Karen did the artwork.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">I’m in bee school. The wise old hands from the <a href="http://www.sembabees.org/" target="_blank">Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association</a> are teaching me and several dozen other wannabes the ancient art and science of this fascinating trade/hobby. My bees arrive in 10 days. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Bees are good for the environment. They <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS1KCDVxcZg" target="_blank">pollinate</a> lots of plants and flowers. Michigan’s <a href="http://www.leelanau.com/cherry/industry.html" target="_blank">cherry crop</a> is 90 percent <a href="http://www.abfnet.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=14" target="_blank">dependent on honey bees</a> for pollination. California almonds growers – who produce 80 percent of the world’s almonds – are 100 percent dependent on honeybees.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Commercial beekeepers <a href="http://www.mnn.com/local-reports/new-jersey/local-blog/commercial-beekeepers-and-bees-support-njs-huge-produce-industry" target="_blank">truck their hives</a> around the country and get paid by farmers to let them pollinate their crops. No bees, no almonds, and not many cherries. Life without almonds or cherries would be unimaginably drab.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Honey also has antibacterial and other <a href="http://www.honeyo.com/honeyhealing.shtml" target="_blank">healing properties</a> that may include protection against pollen allergies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The health of the nation’s honey bees is <a href="http://blog.targethealth.com/?p=58" target="_blank">not good</a>, probably as a result of the stress we put on them using <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/028218_pesticides_honeybees.html" target="_blank">nasty pesticides</a> and other chemicals. Trucking them cross country all year doesn’t help. So in a small way maybe my bees will be good for nature.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s my worry though. In bee school I learned that bee colonies are, themselves, individual organisms. Individual bees are part of the collective, kind of like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg_%28Star_Trek%29" target="_blank">The Borg on Star Trek</a>. They share all the work and all the rewards equally. Bigger, stronger and more industrious bees don’t get </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWGnqLhB5cUIlCrnFNP70PHuZyS6JIi5QzZ5AnLN8heGF1ITg682jsohY5Gqad-1LHd0phDoFw2RKy1ePc5obbucB2dNp0LMmPSfwwBc2wP00g6IGpyRzuQJB7cdvHPsXp-c5Jhd8am7YY/s1600/Bees+that+dies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWGnqLhB5cUIlCrnFNP70PHuZyS6JIi5QzZ5AnLN8heGF1ITg682jsohY5Gqad-1LHd0phDoFw2RKy1ePc5obbucB2dNp0LMmPSfwwBc2wP00g6IGpyRzuQJB7cdvHPsXp-c5Jhd8am7YY/s320/Bees+that+dies.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead heroes with only their little bee butts showing</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/133508/20110412/highest-paid-ceos-2010.htm" target="_blank">astronomical rewards.</a> If they collect more pollen, they don’t eat more honey or get to take fancy vacations or hire lesser bees to pick mites off their fur and polish their wings.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On Sunday I saw a colony that died over our cold winter from starvation. Many bees had burrowed deep into the honey comb to get the very last drops of stored honey. Instead of eating it they passed it back to those behind them. They died as unselfish heroes, with only their little bee buts showing from the comb cells.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Do you see where this is going? Yes, bees are at least Socialists. Probably Communists. And as soon as the Tea Partiers come down from the euphoria of the <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/03/atlas-shrugged-movie-tea-party-/1" target="_blank">new Ayn Rand movie</a> they’re bound to introduce legislation banning these buzzing threats to the American Way.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m really going to miss almonds.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-65521491549101615142011-04-05T08:30:00.007-04:002011-04-06T10:08:34.453-04:00D'OH!! Climate skeptic scientists' data inconvenient for billionaire oil magnates who helped fund it<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIfsx98UNjN2M83uihDQ4c2lItPnJtF5on1QL8iwlp4JEyzx6VKkBRgC1nGlNqYfsUEMkKL8QvUpAg0ikrsVFdfbWCtslM4xS0M5TNtddLMDeX5y6IHAaDFPg00ko6WMgnJU2fnTCS1IO/s1600/homer-simpson-doh.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIfsx98UNjN2M83uihDQ4c2lItPnJtF5on1QL8iwlp4JEyzx6VKkBRgC1nGlNqYfsUEMkKL8QvUpAg0ikrsVFdfbWCtslM4xS0M5TNtddLMDeX5y6IHAaDFPg00ko6WMgnJU2fnTCS1IO/s200/homer-simpson-doh.gif" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">So two oil magnate <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/06/nation/la-na-koch-brothers-20110206" target="_blank">billionaire brothers</a> walk into a <s>bar</s> scientific discussion. They spend a bunch of money to help fund a <a href="http://berkeleyearth.org/" target="_blank">fresh analysis</a> of climate change data conducted by a scientist who’s outspokenly critical of the consensus on global warming.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The brothers are enthused, since they have a lot to gain if the nation believes that <a href="http://maps.unomaha.edu/peterson/funda/sidebar/oilconsumption.html" target="_blank">burning up fossil fuel</a> as quickly as we can pry it out of the earth is a good thing.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="MsoNormal">The skeptic community is enthused, since they believe this man is one of the only scientists not on the planet that is part of an <a href="http://mittenstateblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/climate-conspiracy-theories-fall-like.html" target="_blank">evil conspiracy</a> to perpetrate a massive hoax on the world’s people in order to, um .... get more grants or something.The scientist is the toast of anti-government hacks like Michigan's own Oakland University teacher who goes by the name <a href="http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2011/03/video-berkeley-professor-richard-muller.html" target="_blank">The Blog Prof<b>.</b></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The ending of this story has not been written. But there was a pretty damn good foreshadowing of it the other day<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-climate-berkeley-20110404,0,772697.story" target="_blank"> when the scientist testified before Congress.</a> The results so far, the scientist said to the chagrin of the billionaire brothers, are nearly identical to the results obtained by all the other leading scientific organizations on the planet and reported by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCC_Fourth_Assessment_Report" target="_blank">International Panel on Climate Change.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This has <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/global_warming/?story=/tech/htww/2011/04/04/richard_muller_anthony_watts" target="_blank">infuriated the skeptics</a> who once vowed to accept the conclusions of this lone, honest scientist. Even if the conclusions challenged their theory. Now they say this man, clearly, is part of the evil conspiracy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Ellerbee" target="_blank">Linda Ellerbee</a> used to say, “…and so it goes.”</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-56621847579239398182011-03-31T08:10:00.001-04:002011-03-31T08:10:00.143-04:00Newspaper correction of the month!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal">The <i>New York Times</i> carried <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/us/31obama.html" target="_blank">a story</a> on President Obama’s <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/text-of-obama-speech-on-energy-2011-03-30" target="_blank">speech</a> this week in which he called for the nation to reduce its oil imports by one-third over the next decade. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As Jon Stewart has <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future" target="_blank">pointed out</a> <span></span>Obama is the eighth consecutive president to call for such action. The first seven crashed and burned.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The <i>Times</i> apparently realized this a bit too late. They added this wry, pointed and somewhat deflating addendum at the bottom of their story:</div><br />
<strong><i>Correction: March 30, 2011</i></strong><br />
<i>A previous version of this article misstated how many of the president's proposals to reduce the country's reliance on imported oil were new in his speech on Wednesday. None of them were, not one of them.</i><br />
<br />
<i>###</i>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-75085262010956926022011-03-30T14:59:00.000-04:002011-03-30T14:59:10.867-04:00Synder Administration inexplicably blocks outdoor burn barrel ban; and it is not an April Fools joke<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy_bsHKqjVNv3WFYFci0-hVW_PTcILmbH9iQ_a7_vjd4aOrFSGAKKCx44UN1FAU5H2VMchm9pEVyhXbpBW70zwD-r3R-AvfCf7bYdwuk4YcZQvPrQN3fcAzO0vCY4liD3Ktyhv5L5Q2kzX/s1600/burnbarrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy_bsHKqjVNv3WFYFci0-hVW_PTcILmbH9iQ_a7_vjd4aOrFSGAKKCx44UN1FAU5H2VMchm9pEVyhXbpBW70zwD-r3R-AvfCf7bYdwuk4YcZQvPrQN3fcAzO0vCY4liD3Ktyhv5L5Q2kzX/s200/burnbarrel.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy_bsHKqjVNv3WFYFci0-hVW_PTcILmbH9iQ_a7_vjd4aOrFSGAKKCx44UN1FAU5H2VMchm9pEVyhXbpBW70zwD-r3R-AvfCf7bYdwuk4YcZQvPrQN3fcAzO0vCY4liD3Ktyhv5L5Q2kzX/s1600/burnbarrel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em;"></a>April 1 was to have been the day Michigan’s <a href="http://mittenstateblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/burn-barrels-may-go-way-of-blowing-up.html" target="_blank">ban on burning</a> household garbage in backyard burn barrels took effect. It would have taken Michigan off the dubious list of a handful of states that still allow the practice.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now Gov. Rick Snyder’s Department of Environmental Quality has <a href="http://www.wwmt.com/articles/proposed-1388690-burning-reverses.html" target="_blank">halted the ban</a> They say they want to review it and provide more public input.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It sounds like an April Fools Day joke. But it’s not.</div><h4><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h4><h4><span style="font-weight: normal;">It’s appropriate for <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/snyder" target="_blank">Snyder,</a> the new sheriff in town, to take a hard look at pending decisions made by his predecessor. New governor, new philosophy. But seriously, who in the administration looked at the medieval practice of outdoor trash burning and thought “hmmmm….maybe we should take a second look at whether it’s not a good idea to spew dioxins, particulate pollution, carbon monoxide, VOC’s, hexachlorobenzene, PAH’s, benzene, toluene, hydrogen cyanide and other dangerous stuff I can’t pronounce into the environment with no safeguards, filters, scrubbers or limits?”</span></h4><h4><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h4><div class="MsoNormal">The EPA is<b> </b><a href="http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/backyard/health.htm" target="_blank">unequivocal</a> about the dangers:<b> </b><i>Many dangerous health conditions can be caused by inhaling or ingesting even small amounts of these pollutants. Small children, the elderly, or people with preexisting respiratory conditions can be especially vulnerable....</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</style> <![endif]-->an <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ass%20backwards" target="_blank">ass backwards</a> Rust Belt state struggling to move into modernity.</div><h4><span style="font-weight: normal;">###</span></h4>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-36665378443967888652011-03-24T22:42:00.000-04:002011-03-24T22:42:18.550-04:00Report: 241 Michigan companies employ 10,000 workers in wind and solar supply chains<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVRY7G0L-NJo9j-g24vjVBSSMLA48WnwvmnH4gvFjzrs4pNVif73WdnN1iEabWQAoDtTwzHQ7pFQIU1_NBMbfmM8XtBVVbyvVq4iOMxwZLOzuz7C0t2XtZZp1yKMrzY9-s5pARtzZ_t5z/s1600/We%2527re+Number.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXVRY7G0L-NJo9j-g24vjVBSSMLA48WnwvmnH4gvFjzrs4pNVif73WdnN1iEabWQAoDtTwzHQ7pFQIU1_NBMbfmM8XtBVVbyvVq4iOMxwZLOzuz7C0t2XtZZp1yKMrzY9-s5pARtzZ_t5z/s200/We%2527re+Number.jpg" width="164" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...in solar energy jobs</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Michigan has 241 companies supplying parts for wind and solar industries and they employ 10,000 Michiganders according to <a href="http://elpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ELPCMichiganSolarandWindReport2011.pdf" target="_blank">this report</a> issued this week by the <a href="http://elpc.org/" target="_blank">Environmental Law and Policy Center</a> (ELPC).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Michigan ranks 4<sup>th</sup> in the nation for jobs in the <a href="http://www.michiganadvantage.org/Targeted-Initiatives/Solar-Energy/Default.aspx" target="_blank">solar industry</a>, and is leads the nation in clean energy patent applications. Clean energy is the fastest growing sector of the state’s economy; there is $10 billion in new clean energy investment in the pipeline right now. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">The ELPC report isn’t complicated. It mostly lists the businesses and their locations, including maps. But it’s nice to have around the next time some grump wants to know “so where are these so called clean energy jobs?” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110323/FREE/110329958#" target="_blank">This story</a> in <a href="http://www.crainsdetroit.com/" target="_blank">Crain’s Detroit Business</a> finds some other savvy business folks who think the wind and solar industries are a pretty good bet in Michigan. </div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-76895184287309899872011-03-21T21:07:00.000-04:002011-03-21T21:07:09.458-04:00A little something for fun because someone's been too lazy to post new material lately<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9CyPgRnOuXoWArWixzUa_b28UfcszLV0YhUJVlkOCsLPle1iprdzyZJ9wFt48-zBcV12LfP5jzxxU_zsLbl4prtsYbLDC-hBVsCf46weTLwXSxWMVhLHZqI1yEcVdmT44uS94loVUHV5Z/s1600/wheres-the-global-warming.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9CyPgRnOuXoWArWixzUa_b28UfcszLV0YhUJVlkOCsLPle1iprdzyZJ9wFt48-zBcV12LfP5jzxxU_zsLbl4prtsYbLDC-hBVsCf46weTLwXSxWMVhLHZqI1yEcVdmT44uS94loVUHV5Z/s400/wheres-the-global-warming.gif" width="400" /></a></div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-7923944299982649482011-03-14T21:38:00.000-04:002011-03-14T21:38:22.075-04:00"We are cutting the science and warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster."<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdlZtL5c9g1i7TuHY9Ss9CtxkFPhLmjd578WGaj8xKlAf0aqqzkg5wcCPnLdI5fkkfb_FPCrCMc1wA-24fZ7RtCWNoDjU8CrlgW8uEkH5jleoA17atkxh-K261rU3nrw3zYf321FUzu6N-/s1600/Rp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdlZtL5c9g1i7TuHY9Ss9CtxkFPhLmjd578WGaj8xKlAf0aqqzkg5wcCPnLdI5fkkfb_FPCrCMc1wA-24fZ7RtCWNoDjU8CrlgW8uEkH5jleoA17atkxh-K261rU3nrw3zYf321FUzu6N-/s200/Rp.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">This quote on CNN’s earthquake/tsunami coverage tonight from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs" target="_blank">Jeffrey Sachs,</a> an economist, <span> </span>director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="Default"><i>“The Republicans are cutting the science and the warning systems that protect us from this kind of disaster … they’re making terrible decisions, this should be a wakup call to Congress to stop being so anti-scientific, to stop neglecting these powerful forces of nature.”</i></div><div class="Default"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Make no mistake, the same type of shortsighted nonsense is brewing in Michigan’s legislature, fueled by the anti-government wing of same political party that once was home to proud conservation heroes like <a href="http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org/life/conservation.htm" target="_blank">Teddy Roosevelt</a> and <a href="http://press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=163940" target="_blank">Bill Milliken.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div><div class="Default"><br />
</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-40096728706753624332011-03-09T18:02:00.000-05:002011-03-09T18:02:50.874-05:00Michigan scientists have message for Washington, Upton: Don't make Congress a science-free zone<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOO6gq9GGdqDyB1p-EczfNQqc9vacq_hcgxCLK5j_9xTL5YBk643f1ohHlCmfOHM40Ehfp3gDHPrnho_qtPksI6zt0OOilqbmWxqi_sBL5gZFnRMJ9pM6IVnme1dLTSKijkxoYJ_oSrIzy/s1600/Fred+Upton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOO6gq9GGdqDyB1p-EczfNQqc9vacq_hcgxCLK5j_9xTL5YBk643f1ohHlCmfOHM40Ehfp3gDHPrnho_qtPksI6zt0OOilqbmWxqi_sBL5gZFnRMJ9pM6IVnme1dLTSKijkxoYJ_oSrIzy/s320/Fred+Upton.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Upton: For climate action before he was against it</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">More than 160 Michigan scientists have <a href="http://environmentalcouncil.org/mecReports/CAA_Greenhouse-Gases.pdf" target="_blank">signed a letter</a> urging Congress to <i>“reject any measure that would block or delay the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the people of Michigan from air pollution and human caused climate change, both of which put public health, agriculture, the environment and our economy at risk.”</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The scientists’ <a href="http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/03/more_than_150_michigan_scienti.html" target="_blank">appeal</a> comes as Congress, led by Michigan Congressman Fred Upton, considers whether to pass legislation prohibiting the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas pollution. Upton, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was <a href="http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/01/fred-upton-global-warming" target="_blank">for addressing climate change before he was against it.</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Our friends as Climate Crock point out <a href="http://climatecrocks.com/2011/03/08/the-tea-party-congress-a-science-free-zone/" target="_blank">here</a> that Congress is poised to become a science-free zone. And, that it could be worse. A <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iDLpqI-EvZ_8DYw-d3K8dpKohFHg?docId=5999165" target="_blank">bill</a> in the Montana legislature would declare that climate change isn’t manmade, and if it is that it is “beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"> <span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span></span>Good God. Don’t give the <a href="http://www.mlui.org/landwater/fullarticle.asp?fileid=17476" target="_blank">dimmest bulbs in Michigan’s legislature</a> any ideas.</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-71617438013619243322011-03-08T17:33:00.003-05:002011-03-08T17:38:47.249-05:00Michigan's Rep. Fred Upton fiddles with climate change show as gas prices, oil dependency continue to burn away at our security and economy<div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSu49g5w4yeA7zD6Csl_M8Gi_y99drnD5t3oMjayGlLL8RB89LkB-afTPDkT6JevzhXJMrMF9KUaFayuvHIYUh1d7TjJrkSLsx-OzNbxRW2U4NEkmBlRKwIsJeLOQBIlfKZOhyx_GBTaQ/s1600/gas_prices_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRSu49g5w4yeA7zD6Csl_M8Gi_y99drnD5t3oMjayGlLL8RB89LkB-afTPDkT6JevzhXJMrMF9KUaFayuvHIYUh1d7TjJrkSLsx-OzNbxRW2U4NEkmBlRKwIsJeLOQBIlfKZOhyx_GBTaQ/s200/gas_prices_large.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s <a href="http://www.frumforum.com/will-gop-give-climate-science-a-fair-shake" target="_blank">hearing</a> on climate change was today. Nice that the Republicans brought real scientists this time rather than charlatans like <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/lord_monkton_everything_you_need_to_know_video.php" target="_blank">Lord Monckton</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The hearing was in advance of a <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/148093-gop-will-move-bill-to-block-epa-climate-rules-despite-dem-pleas-for-a-delay" target="_blank">vote on</a> legislation sponsored by Rep. <a href="http://upton.house.gov/" target="_blank">Fred Upton</a> of Michigan to strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate <a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/ggccebro/chapter1.html" target="_blank">greenhouse gas</a> pollution. (Upton also chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, the committee addressed the wrong issue. As the New York Times’ Andy Revkin <a href="http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/the-elusive-dream-of-american-energy-plans/" target="_blank">points out,</a> the more immediate, more pressing, and more manageable goal should be our “sustained quest to break the economic shackles imposed by enduring dependence on oil.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But we've <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future" target="_blank">f**cked around </a> for several generations without meaningful action on that, so why start now?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Instead, we got the predictably unfocused questioning and <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/democrats-climate-change-big-guns-republicans" target="_blank">closed mindedness</a> that served more as a forum for Congressmen to grandstand rather than for scientists to explain. Clearly, the <a href="http://lightbucket.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/doubt-is-our-product-pr-versus-science/" target="_blank"><b>”</b>Doubt is Our Product"</a> strategy of the fossil fuel lobby and their toadies in Congress will continue to be effective for the foreseeable future.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-37447874151809645622011-03-08T08:05:00.003-05:002011-03-08T08:05:00.347-05:00An interview with me. Because it's all about me.<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_t3kjBy6S3GXJh4AvW_zhyphenhyphenUpUZ1640j6Fg1d0pZFA_T52aom7t_j-n6jBCw3JKSVYIHhbPOJL01mOih8zlv42xNJGsMOxRLMeNC9avaPD7uSgphR8orhskP6XIMlwt6BsIGjcWgeAJO3/s1600/Shameless.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_t3kjBy6S3GXJh4AvW_zhyphenhyphenUpUZ1640j6Fg1d0pZFA_T52aom7t_j-n6jBCw3JKSVYIHhbPOJL01mOih8zlv42xNJGsMOxRLMeNC9avaPD7uSgphR8orhskP6XIMlwt6BsIGjcWgeAJO3/s320/Shameless.jpg" width="249" /></a>I try to make Mitten State not about me. It doesn’t always work out that way. So <a href="http://www.greeningofthegreatlakes.com/modules.php?name=Programs&op=news&m1=31&sp_id=180&cat_id=37" target="_blank">here’s a link</a> to a short story and lengthy (23 minute) podcast of my appearance on the <a href="http://www.greeningofthegreatlakes.com/index.php" target="_blank">Greening of the Great Lakes</a> radio show that aired recently on WJR radio and other outlets in Michigan.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a wide-ranging talk with host <a href="http://www.greeningofthegreatlakes.com/modules.php?name=Pages&sp_id=245" target="_blank">Kirk Heinze</a> on a number of topics of interest to Michigan’s natural resources. Heinze and his crew do a good job of exploring environmental topics in more depth than most news outlets are able or willing to these days.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Listen, or don’t. But I thought it vitally important that you be given the opportunity to hear me talk. I'm sure you'll agree.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In other news, you'll notice on the right side here I've moved the "Blog List" up to the top of the page, and ordered them chronologically, with the most recent entries at the top...and cool little headlines of what the most recent posts are about. These bloggers are, unfortunately, not me. But they're interesting, in a not-Hugh kind of way. So you might check them out!</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Cheers,</div><div class="MsoNormal">Me</div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-16764856556447139382011-03-06T23:57:00.001-05:002011-04-13T11:44:40.839-04:00New data: Clean energy in Michigan comes in cheaper than coal; utility says it will only cost one-third of original projections<div class="MsoNormal">Everyone knows renewable energy is way more expensive than the ‘cheap’ coal touted by those slick <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Clean_Coal_Marketing_Campaign" target="_blank">industry advertisements</a> Right?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Two words: Bull. Puckey. And a pair of stunning new developments in Michigan make that analysis abundantly clear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">First, a refresher: You’ll remember that the Michigan Legislature passed the state’s first <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/ren_energy/ren_energy_defaultcontent" target="_blank">renewable energy standard</a> in 2008. It requires utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015. The utilities also are required to administer energy efficiency programs to help customers reduce their use.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">You’ll also recall that the anti-tax and anti-government zealots – along with the fossil fuel lobby – opposed the measures vehemently. Their mouthpieces at places like the Detroit News editorial page complained loudly that the programs were outrageously expensive socialist plots by “the Greens” that would bankrupt the state’s ratepayers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now, more than two years in, we have actual data on the cost of these clean energy programs. And two documents released in February show how it’s working out:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">#1: The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC), in <a href="http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc/Report_on_Implementation_of_PA_295_RE_Standards_and_Cost_Effectiveness_of_Standards_345871_7.pdf" target="_blank">this analysis</a> (PDF) released last month, reports that the cost of renewable energy in Michigan is 25 percent less expensive than electricity from a new coal fired power plant. It further reports that the cost of saving energy through the new efficiency programs is one-tenth of the cost of providing it with a new coal plant. These renewable energy costs are based on actual contract prices, not guesswork. Bottom line: Cheaper. Than. Coal.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">#2: Consumers Energy Co., in a <a href="http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2011/02/renewable_energy_costs_in_mich.html" target="_blank">rate filing</a> in late February, reports that meeting the renewable energy law’s requirements will cost one-third of its original projection. Instead of $1.5 billion, it will cost ratepayers $500 million to meet the 10 percent standards. Bills will be adjusted. Adjusted downward. Honestly, when was the last time a contractor started a job, and then told the customer “Geez, we didn’t think it would be so easy. We’re cutting your bill by two thirds.”?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Again: Cheaper. Than. Coal. And that’s even before we begin talking about the reduced health care and pollution costs that accompany clean energy. That’s not something you’re likely to read in a Detroit News editorial anytime soon. </div><div class="MsoNormal">###</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5407160022618073752.post-56210601985865184512011-03-01T22:52:00.000-05:002011-03-01T22:52:39.141-05:00GOP scuttles two-week pause on billions in tax breaks for Big Oil; and the Tea Partiers are outraged...um....well....not so much<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKrlsU2VgjvMy2WCJLX7i9F129_HT3s8FhLKDIfZXO80m8tklmyR9rXktqZmLX4Hvb3700L_fQHZmuMhZfTKUP-UDsYxmjqqggERwSxq1wU429zReKAI_v72H_BvbymVNBus4iFtXLjdC/s1600/8f2a503b58tl-006.jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKrlsU2VgjvMy2WCJLX7i9F129_HT3s8FhLKDIfZXO80m8tklmyR9rXktqZmLX4Hvb3700L_fQHZmuMhZfTKUP-UDsYxmjqqggERwSxq1wU429zReKAI_v72H_BvbymVNBus4iFtXLjdC/s200/8f2a503b58tl-006.jpg.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal">I don’t see the Tea Party folks quoted in this story, but I’m sure they were screaming loudly about the billions in tax breaks for big oil that were maintained by a mostly <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/146843-house-thwarts-dem-bid-on-oil-tax-breaks" target="_blank">party-line vote</a> in the U.S. House. Probably, the reporter just left out their quotes, do ya think?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The next time Republicans trash <a href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/12/tax-breaks-clean-energy-crazy.php" target="_blank">tax breaks</a> for clean energy industry industries like wind, solar and biomass, just remember what House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said about oil breaks: “… it would single out one industry "and increase their cost of doing business."”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I'm betting he won’t make that argument when it applies to an industry that might compete with the fossil fuel lobby. And I bet the Tea Partiers will be out in force then, given their impartial and principled interest in eliminating tax-break welfare.</div><div class="MsoNormal">##</div>Hugh McDiarmid Jr.http://www.blogger.com/profile/02566337229999683755noreply@blogger.com0