Sunday, February 21, 2010
Mother Nature gets big boost from EPA
The Chicago Tribune reported today that The Environmental Protection Agency will spend $2.2 Billion over five years to clean up polluted water and beaches, restore wetlands, and fight invasive species in the Great Lakes. The push is being called The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan. Developed by 16 federal agencies, the plan seeks to heal the Great Lakes ecosystem from 150 years of abuse. Included in its goals are to prevent the release of 45 million pounds of electronic waste, 45 million pills of unwanted medicine and 4.5 million pounds of household waste from the Great Lakes basin by 2014.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Do you know where your food comes from?
I finally watched the movie Food, Inc. Great film that everyone should watch. A large part of the beginning of the movie, which is on meat production, I already knew about. What was really eye opening was the second half of the film which was on agriculture and politics. It's really amazing that nearly the entire soybean industry is controlled by a single company who forces farmers to raise their genetically engineered soybeans or puts them out of business. The other shocking thing was people in government positions that are supposed to help protect the average American from unsafe food practices were lobbyists for the exact companies they are supposed to protect us from. I guess P. J. O'Rourke was right, "When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators."
This is a great film that I encourage everyone to watch. You can even download it as I did strait from Amazon. My basic take on the film is that fast food and factory produced foods, everything from soda pop and ketchup to hamburgers and french fries to chicken and beef you buy at the supermarket, is kept at artificially low prices due to a farm bill that subsidizes products such as corn and soybean and greatly benefits big business. Because of this these products are pumped full of corn syrup that lead to poor diets and obesity. Chickens are pumped full of antibiotics and raised in crowded unsanitary conditions where they grow so fast they can't even carry their own weight for more than a few seconds. Cattle, who evolved to eat grass, instead are fed corn, which is unhealthy for the cattle and has a poor environmental impact since feed and manure from corn fed cattle have to be shipped great distances.
If you really want to make an impact try to buy organic or sustainable locally grown foods. Do as I do and cut soda out of your diet and replace it with water. Drink pure juices that aren't pumped up with corn syrup. And finally, take a stand and get involved. Push for healthy lunches in schools, tell congress that food safety is important to you, and finally, learn where your food really comes from.
This is a great film that I encourage everyone to watch. You can even download it as I did strait from Amazon. My basic take on the film is that fast food and factory produced foods, everything from soda pop and ketchup to hamburgers and french fries to chicken and beef you buy at the supermarket, is kept at artificially low prices due to a farm bill that subsidizes products such as corn and soybean and greatly benefits big business. Because of this these products are pumped full of corn syrup that lead to poor diets and obesity. Chickens are pumped full of antibiotics and raised in crowded unsanitary conditions where they grow so fast they can't even carry their own weight for more than a few seconds. Cattle, who evolved to eat grass, instead are fed corn, which is unhealthy for the cattle and has a poor environmental impact since feed and manure from corn fed cattle have to be shipped great distances.
If you really want to make an impact try to buy organic or sustainable locally grown foods. Do as I do and cut soda out of your diet and replace it with water. Drink pure juices that aren't pumped up with corn syrup. And finally, take a stand and get involved. Push for healthy lunches in schools, tell congress that food safety is important to you, and finally, learn where your food really comes from.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
No bats in the belfry
There was an article in today's Chicago Tribune that there has been a record die-off of bats. Is this yet another sign that mother nature has taken ill?
Across the Northeastern states bats are experiencing mortality rates over 90 percent. The cause is a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The fungus covers the heads, legs, and wings of hibernating bats. The bats wake up out of hibernation in an attempt to scratch off the fungus which depletes their fat reserves. The hungry bats then leave the cave in search of insects which haven't hatched, causing the bats to die in large numbers in fields and snow covered lawns. The fungus itself can also lead to skin loss and ulcers that can be fatal. How bad is this loss? In Connecticut's largest hibernation site the population of little brown bats has dropped from 2,320 bats in 2007 to only 108 this winter. Northern long-eared bats in the same cave declined from 527 in 2007 to 70 this year and tiny pipistrelle bats fell from 396 to 98.
While scientists aren't sure what's causing the fungus one thing for sure is those areas affected will probably see a huge increase in insect populations. Bats consume 1/3 of their body weight each night. This means that a group of 1,000 bats could eat four tons of insects each year. With a die off of over 2,000 bats in one area, that's over 8 tons of insects flying around that otherwise would have been bat food.
Is this fungus caused by global warming? Is it an invasive species brought from somewhere else? We don't know. One thing we do know is with fewer bats things will get downright buggy.
Across the Northeastern states bats are experiencing mortality rates over 90 percent. The cause is a fungus that causes white-nose syndrome. The fungus covers the heads, legs, and wings of hibernating bats. The bats wake up out of hibernation in an attempt to scratch off the fungus which depletes their fat reserves. The hungry bats then leave the cave in search of insects which haven't hatched, causing the bats to die in large numbers in fields and snow covered lawns. The fungus itself can also lead to skin loss and ulcers that can be fatal. How bad is this loss? In Connecticut's largest hibernation site the population of little brown bats has dropped from 2,320 bats in 2007 to only 108 this winter. Northern long-eared bats in the same cave declined from 527 in 2007 to 70 this year and tiny pipistrelle bats fell from 396 to 98.
While scientists aren't sure what's causing the fungus one thing for sure is those areas affected will probably see a huge increase in insect populations. Bats consume 1/3 of their body weight each night. This means that a group of 1,000 bats could eat four tons of insects each year. With a die off of over 2,000 bats in one area, that's over 8 tons of insects flying around that otherwise would have been bat food.
Is this fungus caused by global warming? Is it an invasive species brought from somewhere else? We don't know. One thing we do know is with fewer bats things will get downright buggy.