just me

I can understand why some people choose to be vegetarians. I’ve even considered becoming a vegetarian from time to time, but I just like hamburgers too much. And I’ve always felt a connection to nature and to animals. And while I’m quick to agree that Homo Sapien Sapien are intellectually superior to animals, animals aren’t stupid creatures. They can communicate with one another. They can communicate with humans if the human is really willing to pay attention. And they have feelings. They care for their young. They care for their elders. There are endless stories of one species caring for the young of another.

So when I hear stories of animal cruelty, whether by an adult or a child, it makes my blood boil. This story, though, is truly heinous. I genuinely felt physically ill when I first read this article. If it was my call these perps would suffer the same punishment that they doled out to these pigs. It’s mind boggling that a species that is capable of incredibly selfless acts is also capable of such disgusting and appalling crimes. Now where did I put that veggie burger…

PETA video shows pigs abused at Iowa farm

I imagine because of my continual rants of people emailing crap without verifying if it’s true or not, my mom has gotten into the habit of asking me if it’s true/hoax/cause for concern. I honestly am happy that she does this. So a few weeks ago she forwarded one on to me from my aunt and uncle (her brother and sister-in-law) about how “the liberals care more for flowers than they do for America.” Basically, it was about why we should drill in ANWR and why it really won’t harm the environment. Below is my response to them. I haven’t heard back from them since.

Let me start off by saying I’m neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Both parties care nothing for fixing anything, unless it helps them retain power…

I can’t vouch for the validity of the photographs, but the maps and the size of ANWR are accurate. Spills will happen (in 2006 there was a spill of between 134,000 and 268,000 gallons of oil near Prudhoe Bay) and roads will need to be built, as there are zero roads within or leading into ANWR. But even though there are no roads, there are thousands (at least 5,000) native Inupiat peoples that live in ANWR and depend on the flora and fauna of the area.

Sure, jobs will be created and there will be oil pumped out, but it’s a tiny amount of oil and a relatively small number of jobs. According to the Department of Energy’s EIA (Energy Information Administration:

“The opening of the ANWR 1002 Area to oil and natural gas development is projected to increase domestic crude oil production starting in 2018. In the mean ANWR oil resource case, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR reaches 780,000 barrels per day in 2027 and then declines to 710,000 barrels per day in 2030. In the low and high ANWR oil resource cases, additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR peaks in 2028 at 510,000 and 1.45 million barrels per day, respectively. Between 2018 and 2030, cumulative additional oil production is 2.6 billion barrels for the mean oil resource case, while the low and high resource cases project a cumulative additional oil production of 1.9 and 4.3 billion barrels, respectively.”

“Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR would be only a small portion of total world oil production, and would likely be offset in part by somewhat lower production outside the United States. The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light crude oil prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 for the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high oil resource case, relative to the reference case.”

For the average case, drilling in ANWR would reduce crude oil by 75 cents, in 2025. The total production from ANWR would be between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030. So, we won’t see any oil for at least 10 years, and at best the price per barrel of oil (not per gallon of gasoline) will drop by $1.44 in 19 years. To me, that sounds like a huge waste of time and money. Instead, we should be investing our time and money on weaning our country off of oil, not just “foreign oil.” The more we invest in alternative energy sources for the production of electricity the less oil and natural gas we’ll need to import, which will bring the price of oil, and therefore gasoline, down.

Furthermore, the U.S. consumes 20,687,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2006). At best, and only at it’s peak, we would be able to extract 1,450,000 barrels of oil per day. Since the entire world consumes a total of 83,607,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2005), we Americans use nearly 25% of the worlds oil but account for less than 0.5% of the total population of the planet (300 million out of over 6 billion). The real kicker is that the total world production of oil is 82,532,000 barrels of oil per day (as of 2005). So, not only are we using much more than our fair share of oil, but we’re using it faster than we’re finding it. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. If I spend more money than I make it’ll eventually catch up to me, and then I’ll really have problems.

There is no magic bullet to save us from this energy crisis. People want simple solutions, but there are never simple solutions to complex problems. And this is a problem that has been decades in the making. I don’t profess to speak for God (or Jehovah or Allah or…), but I’d imagine he’s extremely disappointed at how humanity has run (ruined?) this beautiful planet. Aren’t we supposed to be stewards of the Earth?

Mike
—
“A free America, democratic in the sense that our forefathers
intended it to be, means just this: individual freedom for all,
rich or poor, or else this system of government we call
democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the
machine and make him like it.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright

Go read this article now: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/21/begala.ticket/

Mr. Begala hit the nail on the head. And Mr. Pickens should be named Energy Czar of the next Administration.

Try to tell me I’m wrong, I dare you.

If one guy can do this in his spare time (and $500,000) then why can’t big corporations and/or the government do something half as useful? Democrats tell us the the government can solve all of our problems, while Republicans claim that it’s big corporations and the free market that will come to our rescue. Personally, I think both camps are full of shit. I prefer to believe in people.

Read more about Mike and his home at Scientific American.

This is such a freaking cool idea. Sure, it’s a concept and is largely untested, but it combines brilliant architecture and design with sound science. If I had gobs of money I would throw millions at Mexican-born designer Agustin Otegui and get this on the market. We’re dependent on fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine at the moment, but we won’t always be. Nature is constantly evolving and improving, and so should humanity.

From CNN…

Organic by Design
As a product designer, Agustin Otegui’s has to “think big” about the objects he creates. From novel portable chairs made out of shovels to chrome radiators that look like modern works of art, he recasts the mundane in a modernist and functional new light.

The Nano Vent Skin forms an organic skin around a building providing its energy needs.

Yet when he got thinking about how he could help with solutions to mitigate climate change he started thinking small. Very small, in fact.

His futuristic concept is called the Nano Vent-Skin (NVS) and the design — to wrap buildings in an organic lattice skin made up of micro wind turbines — is radical… read the rest of the article…

His blog & his portfolio site