Glacier shrink rate

And then they kept throwing pollution into your air.

Harley-Davidson calls for climate action in Paris

There are a lot of these business and corporate groups forming to work and lobby for action to cut fossil fuel emissions.  Another was formed a few days ago, the "B Team".  22 large companies with high profile names kicking out calls and letters like this - “The science, economic costs and social risks of climate change are becoming increasingly clear. We believe that securing a long-term goal in Paris should therefore be an urgent personal priority for you, as it is for all of us.”

Notable member of the "B Team", Jochen Zeitz, the Director of Harley-Davidson motor cycles.  Please, go pet your Harley, or inform Harley riders that the company has taken the same position as 97% of scientist, that based on the evidence it is clear climate change is happening now and is human caused.  

If your bike runs hot, imagine in a wind 8° hotter.

ask (R)'s to co-sponsor H.Res.424

On October 12th, Greg Page, Executive President of Cargill spoke at Kansas State University.  His message was to farmers and Ag students.  It was short and blunt.  Climate Change is real, it is happening, it will damage our supply chain of food production.  Further, it will change the way farmers work, and their income.  We need to tackle climate change head on, we need to develop the political will to do it, now.

Cargill as you may know is a food giant, meats, grains, food processing.  Love'm or hate'm, but they know which side of the bread the butter is on.  Climate Change is an economic issue and they know it now. 

Not a good couple of months for deniers, the Pope was here, 81 large corporations came out supporting Obama's efforts of action on climate issues, then Bank of America says climate change is going to cost the economy trillions if not attacked immediately, then 5 more of the largest banks in the nation ask Congress to take meaningful action, then 5 of the largest oil companies said they are prepared for a price on carbon.  Yes, thats right, oil said that.  (I can tell you why they would do this, if you want to know ask

in comments)

Now we have 12 (R) GOP members putting forth H.Res.424, which simply says lets play nice, look for solutions to climate change, accept the science, and get on with it.  If your in an (R) congressional district, write or call said GOPer and ask him to co-sponser the Gibson resolution H.Res.424.  Do not ask a (D) to support it, they will support it, but it will poison the well if a (D) signs on before they get about 25 (R)'s.  

99% of scientist agree.

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/07/31/human-climate-link-still-97-nope-99-video/

you can't burn your way out of this

the best story I ever read about Bush 43

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/31859-what-i-think-of-george-w-bush#

Sol-No-Coal

A Mural from New Mexico.  At the center, the sun, no one owns the sun, or the light from it.  Next the people are installing solar panels to harvest clean renewable low cost energy.  At the edges of the inhabitable world is the coal burning utilities, monopolies spewing smoke that kills, sickens, and reduces brain development.
Be sure you correct anyone who says Obama is waging a war on coal.  It is not a war on coal, it is a war on smoke and it's pollutants and greenhouse gases.  If the company wants to continue to burn coal a scrubber is all that's needed.  But the fact is, financing coal plants is going out of style, everyone knows it is filth, investors know it's risky now, the payoff just isn't there.

Levy a fee on carbon and refund it to the public like British Columbia did, the economy improves and so does air and water quality.

List of medical groups declaring climate change a health threat

http://www.lung.org/about-us/our-impact/top-stories/a-declaration-on-climate-and-Health.html

Perhaps the best "Stairway to Heaven" ever

http://singers.littlethings.com/robert-plant-cries-stairway-to-heaven/?utm_source=sungazing&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=tt

King Bush III hits Pope for coal money.

In June King Bush the 3rd met with Coal companies, environmentalist booed, and his spokesman said he met with them because they are job creators.  Coal mines and supporting industry have been losing a lot of jobs the last few years, while mine production has fallen only a couple of percent.

Automation, bigger faster machines, more explosives, mountain top removal rather than shaft work are the primary cause of loss of jobs.

King Bush III met with King Coal for money, and for that money he promised to attack Pope Francis when he says we are hosing up our world.  "Leave it to scientist" Santorum said yesterday.  Guess what, the Pope is also a scientist.

“Pope Francis is not the only moral or religious leader speaking out on this issue,” says Rabbi Rieber from Kansas. “The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katherine Jefferts Shori, have both recently made strong statements calling for action on climate change and calling denial of the problem ‘a sin.’ And over 300 rabbis have signed a ‘Rabbinic Letter on the Climate Crisis.’ So this is truly an multi-faith effort.”

The economics will win over the climate deniers

Jobs — Fossil Fuels Vs. Renewables

In 2012, there were a total of 137,650 permanent coal-related jobs nationwide [1], and 806,831 oil and gas jobs as of 2011 [2]. By contrast, there were 3,401,279 green jobs in 2011 [3].  The Department of Energy predicts using conservative estimates that by 2030 there will be over half a million wind jobs alone [4].

Putting a price on carbon when it comes out of the ground is simple, will raise the cost of fossil fuel spurring more development in high mileage cars trucks and energy stingy appliances and factory machinery.  It grows the economy, creates jobs.  There is no good economic argument against it.

How the painter Böcklin made music.

 Rachmaninov explained, that he was fascinated by a painting by Böcklin, “Toteninsel”, when he composed his symphonic poem, Op.29, “Isle of the Dead”.

 

Where's the snakes, monkeys, birds, tigers?

Cleared for palm oil farms, a monoculture that will support maybe, maybe a few species of birds and snakes,  gone are the thousands of animals, endless varieties of plants and bugs. They don't just move, they die, compress available territory and the population must decline.  Read the labels on food, never, never buy anything with palm oil in it.  Find out if your favorite restaurant uses palm oil, give them plenty of static about it if they do.  Consider finding another cafe.

200 white guys arrested in Waco- got that picture?

Ya just gotta be amazed at the pictures and videos, 200 white guys wandering around talking on cell phones, talking in groups, sitting on motorcycles.  A few feet in front of them,  lay 9 dead people, and a wide open crime scene, in the bikes for the next few hours they have the chance to drop drugs on the ground, throw away ammo, anything to get rid of stuff and more than enough milling about to claim anything found must have been put there by someone else. 9 people lay dead 15 feet from these guys.  Got that picture?
Now lets think about the blacks and latinos we see maced, jumped on, beaten, tazered and left on the ground handcuffed, tossed in to vans,  for what - running - eye contact - stealing candy at the quick-trip?  It's an amazing time we live in.

Daddy, what did you do in the climate wars?

What's it been, 2 weeks?  Another pipe, a refinery, a train?  This time another train full of bitumen from  tar sands or shale.  This in the Dakotas, and it caused a small town to be evacuated for a day.  This train load had also been treated to make it less explosive.  How's that working for us?
Note that I used the term bitumen not oil.  Some of this stuff is bitumen.  It's that blonde skinny girl on the oil and gas happy talk adds on TV that wants to call it oil.  Oil because that sounds better to the public, and in fact oil has less carbon in it than bitumen, and carbon when burned makes CO2 which acidifies the oceans and insulates the earth driving up temperatures.  There are all kinds of fossil fuels, oil, gas, bitumen, coal, probably others I don't know about.

Climate scientist convinced global warming is real based on evidence.

You've seen this chart before I bet, but do you know the rest of the story.  These almost 14k articles finding proof of global warming are not in  news stand rags, they are in academic journals.  The key term is peer-reviewed.  This means the writer submits the article, it's reviewed by 3 credentialed experts with knowledge in the field it's focused on, plus the editor. They have to be able to re-create or verify the claim, the conclusion, the reference material, and check to see it's original work and text.  It's not uncommon for them to ask for minor corrections or more info.  If it's more than minor, it's rejected.  The process can take many months.  So, you can take that 14k number and multiply it by another 4 people who proved it's true.
Except for these 24 articles, all the information denying global warming comes from news stand magazines, trade magazines, and articles prepared for and given to news outlets, or books by some blabbermouth, are virtually never written by climate scientist, and are not peer reviewed.
So take this seriously when you hear:
97% of climate scientist are convinced that global warming is real based on the evidence.
If it was your mom, and all the docs in the hospital said we're 97% sure if we don't lower the fever she will die, are you going to let it run it's course on advice of the flower delivery boy?

Sarge is back

http://rivercitypatriot.blogspot.com

not all of us are cowards, some women know what it means to be human.

Newmont Mining wanted Peruvian farmer Máxima Acuña de Chaupe to get off her land so they could build a giant, polluting gold mine, but she said no. They took her to court, she won, they harassed her, even sending a security team in and destroyed part of her home, and she is still there.  This is what bravery looks like, this is what human beings do, stand up to pollution, corruption, thugs, stand up.

Sculpture complete, Hermann lives, it's alive it's alive

After about 48 hours of accumulated work over several months, Herman Hesse is finished and ready fro the kiln.  That's Hermann on the left.  The skull behind us, ominous huh?
Hermann Hesse is one of my favorite authors, and perhaps the most famous German writers of the last 100 years.  1877 to 1962, born in Germany. During WWI he was assigned to guard and transport POW's, meeting these men in this situation changed his life.  During this he published essays that caused plenty of trouble and gained him the label pacifist.  Before WWII he married a Jewish women, moved to Switzerland where they lived until his death. He won a Nobel prize.  His best known works include: Steppenwolf and Sidhartha my two favorites, If The War Goes On, The Glass Bead Game, Journey To The East, Demian.  His writing can be summed up as a "search for self" and "journey of discovery", he traveled often to India and Indonesia, some of his work is infused with this eastern flavor of life's meaning and passage of time as a component of the whole of our lives.  You can imagine his work was of keen interest to the countercultures of the beat generation, and the hippies from the flower power to the peace movements. His peak of popularity was late 50's to late 70's. If you have never experienced Hermann Hesse, do the first two listed, Sidhartha might be the smoothest glide of the two.
This sculpture depicts him in what I think could be his 40's to late 50's, most sculptures and pictures show him as elderly.

Cold Water, trout fishing and climate change

google and join climate hawks inc, or some other envrionmental group that is offering a solution, not just a bunch of cry babies bitching. Do Something to Help.

hydrogen folly

Over the last few months I read a number of stories about hydrogen development at a number of universities.  The latest is to make it from corn field waste, the stalks and leaves left.  This is not good news for the soil we leave our children.  When we harvest grain crops, the straw and stalks left cover the earth, prevent erosion, keep soil temperature down, and become the compost to build soil.  Raking the earth clean year after year may fuel your Hindenburg car, but it will leave future generations with crappy little soil to live on.
Another thing, most projections indicate natural gas will be used to make hydrogen fuel.  Well, tell me how making one fuel from another is a victory?  It is unsustainable, like ethanol it takes almost as much power to convert corn to gas as you get out of the ethanol.
Neither of these are sustainable.  Speak against them both at every opportunity.  Electric vehicles are the easiest to convert to, the infrastructure is already near by, a good extension cord will complete it.

the price of oil is a disaster

Just broke at desmogblog.com, a confidential paper from 1981 when Lord Lawson proposed turning the Army lose on striking oil workers. One truth remains, no matter what the price of oil, it is a disaster.

Happy earth day to me.

To celebrate earth day, I bought an electric lawn mower, and I will only charge it on windy days, and we have lots of those. The wind farms south of town will be glad to hear this.

Two neighbors have them, they are really quiet compared to typical gas mowers and their grass looks great.  My mower is like 15 years old, smokes when it starts, it's loud, and every month I have to put a gas can in the trunk and come back with a few gallons - the trunk loaded with fumes, an IED on wheels.  Plus, when I go in the house after mowing the wife says, eee-you smell like exhaust, I can't smell it cause I been breathing in the poison while I hump that screamer around the yard.    I could keep the old thing going full time for another couple of years, but screw the Kochs, there's another few dollars of mine they will never see.  I'll keep it for a while to mulch up leaves and sticks after wind storms.

What is that jelly they eat in England?

Simple, fair, workable, and you can still keep your world.

One way looks better than all the others in solving the warming of the planet caused since 1760, the start of the industrial revolution and the mass burning of peat, coal, oil and gas that made modern life what it is.  A good thing but with a problem.  Burning fossil fuels causes greenhouse gasses.  Shine light through them and they warm, then they insulate.  10,000 years ago agriculture began, based on a favorable climate.  Like humans, a fever of a few degrees makes us unproductive, if it lasts long it means death.  The same is true with our crops and meat sources.

Carbon Fee and Dividend is the best solution to prevent earth from getting a fever, harming our food sources, and it can fix it in a hurry.  Put a steady increasing fee on carbon when it enters the economy, at the well, mine or port of entry.  This drives prices of these energy's up, making wind and solar more competitive, making fuel efficient trucks and cars more attractive etc.  The money collected is given to citizens equally, if you shop wisely, use less fuel, your going to make money on the deal, and more all the time, bending the market to energy efficient products and practices.    Check it out at https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
Sign up, it's the most interesting approach of any environmental group I found.  My group already has speaking engagements, is working with a farmers group, and much more.  Do more than just bitch.

April 1980 Walter Cronkite, the most respected man in news reports Climate Change

Wisconsin puts George Orwell's "newspeak" to practice.

Today's forbidden words in Wisconsin: Global Warming, and Climate Change.  

In "1984" the totalitarian government regularly issued new words and phrases, and banned others from use.  Use the new ones, drop the old ones or face firings, prison even.  The constant changing of the language for political purposes was called new speak and there was a whole department dedicated to it in the book, I believe it was a single word, newspeak.

In my town, Wichita, it is not yet forbidden to use these terms, however only yesterday a city councilman complained some departments use of these words were not constructive or helpful, I assume he will get the wheels rolling to outlaw them here.  "Sustainability" though was ridiculed recently as a UN term, and had corrosive implications to our way of life.  I think soon we are going to follow Florida and Wisconsin down the totalitarian rabbit hole.  

Pops, look at this painting

hold your horses - art and fun

Soil moisture, if the war goes on.

Yesterday KY Senator McConnell sent a letter to all the governors asking them to ignore and oppose Obama's environmental efforts, directives, and the EPA's.  Like the letter to Iran, he is siding with the enemy.

Latest forecast from both NASA and some international sources is that North America will fall into a decades long drought if the war on the environment goes on.  This map shoes areas of decreased soil moisture in brown as compared to current levels.  Your tomatoes wont' grow in that.

Next time your crazy neighbor talks about Obama's war on coal, correct him, it's a war on drought.  And the guys we are fighting are in control of the US Congress, and on the payroll of fossil fuel.

A return to newspapers taking on a "higher cause".

March 17, 2015, Front page of Englands great newspaper, the Guardian.
Today the Guardian stated it has set out to expose the fossil fuel industties, to start a movement to turn public opinion to fixing global warming, they ask for industry insiders to come forward with stores, they ask every institution to divest from fossil fuel, specifically they ask Bill Gates to divest immediately or bare the brunt of what's coming.
This is a style of social activism from a newspaper that hasn't been seen since the great William Allen White of Emporia Kansas was the soul of journalism fighting corruption with his brand of get the facts, don't let a politician answer a question with an untruth and let it stand, find out, call him out, print the fact and report that he lied.  A shame the first large paper to rejoin this ideal is not in the US.

Baked Alaska

Alaska didn't have many forest fires until the last few years.  This winter it was warmer in much of the state than in the eastern half of the 48.

Sea ice is the lowest this March ever seen off much of the state.  Palin might be able to see Russia, but over water not ice.

150 years ago an Irish Scientist John Tyndall put CO2 in a glass and shined light on it, the higher the content of invisible CO2, the higher the temperatures rose.  A few years later other scientist started calculating the warming trend that lay ahead as we burn fossil fuels, their prediction has has unfortunately come true.

Putting a fee on fossil fuel at the well, mine or port of entry aligns with conservative principals - the pottery barn rule - you break it you buy it, in this case who ever pollutes it pays to help correct it.  This puts the ability to correct it on the consumer, the ultimate polluter as we buy and use all this crap.  The fee on carbon would be given monthly to every American household equally to offset higher prices, but by making energy efficient choices of products they can save more of the dividend received and cause the market to bend towards low carbon use and a cleaner world without so many regulations.  It's based loosely on the Alaska yearly oil dividend they put on oil production.  Never thought I could learn something from the snowbillies, but so it is.

If you can read this you are not a carnivore. No, you're not.

*Carnivore has claws, herbivore fingers-toes or hooves.
*Carnivore has a short gut, herbivore a long gut up to 2.5 times their height/length.
*Carnivore do not gain cholesterol from eating  meat, herbivore get high cholesterol if they eat meat.
*Carnivore have teeth that tear, herbivore have teeth to snip off and grind.
*Carnivore drink by bringing water up on cupped tongue, herbivore pull water in by lip and suction action.
*Carnivore can get all the protein needed from meat, herbivores can get all the protein needed from plant based diet.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, overweight, diabetes, sleep disorder, dimentia, almost all of these can be avoided, reduced, put off, or even treated with a diet of beans, nuts, fruit, vegi's, whole grain, brown rice, dark greens and spices, lots and lots of wonderful spices.   You are not designed to eat meat, you are a herbivore.

The world is changing and so should you.

What is Carbon Fee and Dividend

Carbon Fee and Dividend is the policy proposal created by Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) to internalize the costs of burning carbon-based fuels. It’s the policy that climate scientists and economists alike say is the best first-step to reduce the likelihood of catastrophic climate change from global warming.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby volunteers pride themselves in being FOR something rather than AGAINST things. So Carbon Fee and Dividend is the policy our citizen volunteers around the world are advocating FOR.

Join today, it's not set-ins or yelling at town hall meetings, it's writing and talking politely, gaining trust, building political will, and it's starting to work.  We need a group in every congressional district, go here, join or start a chapter in your town.  citizensclimatelobby.org

And the heat goes on

Feb. 2014 to end of Feb. 2015 was the hottest 12 month period on earth in recorded history.  As for the month of Feb. 2015 it was the hottest on record globally. The only place with significantly below average temps was the US east coast, where all the politicians spend their winters, thus the Inhoff spectacle, "It's cold where I am therefore it can't be getting warmer in the other 99% of the world".
Look at Russia, any wonder they are feeling aggressive, it's been a warm winter, could bode ill for their wheat if they have a hot spring.

Citizens' Climate Lobby solution to pollution

Carbon Fee and Dividend

Our carbon fee and dividend proposal works like this:

A fee is placed on carbon-based fuels at the source (well, mine, port of entry).

This fee starts at $15 per ton of CO2 emitted, and increases steadily each year by $10 so that clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels within a decade.

All of the money collected is returned to American households on an equitable basis.

Under this plan about 2/3 of all households would break even or receive more in their dividend checks than they would pay in higher prices due to the fee, thereby protecting the poor and middle class.

A predictably increasing carbon price will send a clear market signal which will unleash entrepreneurs and investors in the new clean-energy economy.

Kansas City comes clean

1,000 charging stations for cars within 2 or 3 years.  Nissan, Kansas City Power and Light, and a charger maker, teamed up for this.  Fossil fuel, the Koch's, the Chamber of Commerce, all were caught off guard, the deal was done before they could poison it.  The chargers will handle most car brands.

Kansas City will soon have the most densely populated charger network in the US, maybe in the world.

In another state VW has done something like this, but on a small scale .  Ford also got in the act a few months ago with the largest home builder in the nation (who cares the name) reaching a deal that every garage they build will be wired to accept a charger, a bigger wire and breaker now for a few dollars could save a homeowner hundreds to rewire for it later.

For the record, a car powered with electricity from dirty coal is still cleaner than burning gas, add a few watts from wind and solar and it's much cleaner.  One more tidbit, car dealers do not like selling electric cars, service is almost nil, electric motors last longer than petro engines and have a fraction of the parts that might wear out.

1984 gets to Florida with new word smithing rule

Since Rick Scott became gov. officials responsible for making sure Florida is prepared to respond to the earth's changing climate are barred from using the terms "global warming" and "climate change" in official communications, emails and reports, according to new findings from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.  Also "sustainability" is forbidden.  

Have a nice day.

Your tax dollars burning in the train wreck.

Every few days another explosion.  An oil train, a refinery, tanker truck, a pipeline, a drilling rig.  Then there are the leaks, pipes pumping oil into the Yellowstone, onto farm land, city water sources.

This is not paid for by oil companies or railroads. The rescue and fire fighting, the closed roads, bridges, the detours that cost time and money, the bulk of that is picked up by the communities.  There are liability limits set by Congress, the maximum it will cost fossil fuel guy is set, and at a bargain rate to them.  And the fine if any is levied, he writes that off his taxes, it's a business expense, sure it may hurt a little, but as a tax deduction it means his fine lowers how much of the taxes he pays otherwise, which already aren't much, it's a sweet deal.

Bottom line, this is your fault by not reducing demand.  Find a way to use less of these products.  Write your local and US reps.  Tell them politely you want them to stop working for oil and coal and start working for a future of clean  energy and the safety of all of us.  This aging infrastructure will not get better as it gets older, failures will increase.  Starve the bastards out, buy energy efficient appliances and cars, lights, air up your tires.

new fossil fuel happy talk

Oil field sequestration is Science Fiction standing squarely on a myth, all are leaking.

You might have heard of this, it's the newest "happy talk" pretending to be "clean energy".  As the quote above said, it's a myth and the few in experimental use are all leaking.  This system is to capture CO2 from a power plant or other facility and pump into old oil wells.  First the power plant has to be near oil wells, second it is so energy intensive it takes 30% of the power plants energy to do it.  Underground CO2 is free to move around, it's not like coal where it's an integral part of the rock, it moves around, follows the pipe, moves in water, moves through earth, percolates back to the environment.  The only benefit this has is as an advertising tool for the fossil fuel industry and to take government grant money from more deserving technologies.
The best technology would be to not make CO2 when you make power, wind and solar fit that niche.

the hot girls of Australia

How to fix yucky air, the climate, and save money.

35° hotter in the Arctic before 2090 - scorpions OK with that.

By 2090, your grandkids are going to wonder why you didn't do something.  16°C, thats about 35° Fahrenheit higher temperatures in the arctic than today.  Look at central US 12°f higher, northeast 18°f hotter.

Before 2050 temps in the US are estimated to be 8°f to 10°f higher than today.

As a farmer I guarantee you, corn, wheat, tomatoes, peaches, they do not produce at 130°f.  Cucumbers and cattle don't, scorpions do.

So, adapt the deniers say, no big deal.  Adapt, like move crops to cooler climates.  Yea, but proper soil types may not exist there, food crops only grow in certain soil conditions, what about sunlight, you can't move crops to mild weather where the sun only shines a few weeks a year.  With temps changing so fast, you can't start almond trees in a cold climate so they will be mature in a good climate, they would freeze out currently.  Likewise if we wait to start it there when temps are right, by the time it matures it will be so hot it will kill it in it's new location.

It's time for a carbon tax and dividend.  Tax carbon at the point it enters the economy.  I'll explain it later, maybe tomorrow.

Kill the K-Cup

Hot water, stinks, but it's hot.

Marco, thank you for the cancer, asthma, birth defects, mercury, dirty snow, smog, thanks.

Here is how we know humans are responsible for the rise in CO2 warming our atmosphere and acidifying the oceans.  Not all CO2 is created equal.  Naturally occurring carbon dioxide differs from that which was sequestered underground for millions of years.  CO2 picks up a radioactive isotope when it's created, but these decay, the half life of this isotope is 5,730 years.  The organic plants and animals buried for millions of years and transformed to oil gas and coal have long been depleated of this isotope.  When the air is sampled scientist can see how many carbon dioxide atoms belong to the natural cycle, and how many were thrown into the sky by human activity.  In this way we know the CO2 that has been increasing since the last years of the 1700's are all from burning fossil fuel.
Marco doesn't get it.  He also doesn't get the Cuba thing, or the immigrant thing, not ready 2 lead.

Kochs courts and crooks

$900,000,000 is budgeted by the Koch's and their friends for the 2016 Presidential election.  That's more than either party spent last year.
Aren't you glad now the Supreme Court stopped the inherent discrimination against the super rich.  Before "Citizens Entitled" the poor had the freedom to spend a higher percentage of their income on elections than the rich did.  A guy working minimum wage restaurant job in Kansas at less than $4 an hour gives $10 to a campaign, how can a millionaire compete percentage wise?  It just wasn't fair.  The rich guy was hobbled with those unfair limits on giving.  Thanks to Judge Roberts Court, the playing field is level now, and we should all rejoice at the freedoms that will buy.

Did you ever see a better reason to get off fossil fuel, to buy a energy stingy car, turn the unused lights off, cut the grass every 8 days instead of every 7?

In Mexico the drug cartels are starting to drill into pipelines, hi-jack oil transport trucks.  The cartels are now in the oil business, stealing oil and selling it back into the system they took it from.  In some regions they are getting as much as 5% of the oil.   Crooks are drawn to black gold, another reason to air up your tires.

Is the sixth extinction the Hopi's end of times?

When the Earth is Ravaged and the Animals are Dying,
A new Tribe of People Shall Come unto the Earth from
MANY Colors, Creeds and Classes AND who By their
Actions and Deeds Shall make the Earth green again.

They shall be Known as the Warriors of the Rainbow.

                                      Hopi prophecy
----------------------------------
It's not an end of times prophecy, they had a more optimistic religion, the world would be made green again by a diverse tribe of people.

Because the Pope is a Marxist

Catholics don't have to obey him on changing a system that fosters income disparity and destruction of the environment.  So says Rush liverballs, and now 10 Catholics in Congress are saying the same, well, actually they are saying it softly, the Pope is misguided, they say.

Bobby's shrinking state, the first of many.

Luzeeanna is losing a football field of land to ocean rise every hour, about 11 square miles a year.  One part of the state government is suing oil companies for causing it, Jendell and other departments are trying to stop the suit.  A cluster mating if ever one was.  This opens a path for the next hurricane to drive water higher into cities further from the coast, well where the coast was before the glaciers melted.

Mitt Romney said he is one of those Repubs who believes in climate change and we are the cause of it.  Good for you Mitt, clearly the Repubs are casting about for a way to get on board with the rest of the world on this issue, but he's going to get some push back.

The Senate voted 98 to 1 that Climate Change is real.  Thats no shit, they did, even Inhoff voted for it.  A few hours later he was given the gavel on the science and climate haters committee and launched a rant that it was a hoax.

The Pope tipped his hat he is going to tell Catholics to clean up the earth in June, so some papers took him to task on it, claiming it is worrisome he would take up the environmental issues, coupled with his radical view on poverty it is all very disturbing.  Rush Lemonball didn't put any sugar on it, he said we got ourselves a Marxist Pope.

The oil glut grew last week another 10 billion barrels in storage.  Iraq just brought another field back on line.  A hugh oil field went into production off Norway last week, and another in the Gulf.  These guys can't back down or cut back.  It's a game of chicken.  Bankrupt (small drillers first) firms are the only solution to cut back, and the collapse will go so low and the cut back forced so deep the stage is set for 2 years or 3 from now a shortage and prices back to $4, so don't go buying a low mileage vehicle, you'll be sorry.

there's nothing like the smell of asthma inhalers in the morning

Lifted from Moms Clean Air Force.  momscleanairforce.org

Im not a scientist, but holy melted ski slope batman.

1 in 27 million.  That's the odds of a random occurrence causing since the 1850's that 13 of the hottest 15 years could be after the year 2000.  It ain't random, we done it.

quaff some suds and save mother earth

 There are these guys, and gals that get together for a beer or two at a social event just to meet others also interested in clean energy technologies for power, transportation, to clean the air and water, for jobs, connecting with information for business and home.  The name of these monthly or quarterly events is Green Drinks.  It quickly spread over the world.  You can look for your nation and city to see if there is one near you.   http://www.greendrinks.org/   Go to one, the worst that can happen is you drink a beverage and leave early.  The best is you might learn something and meet others with the same concern for the future of your community, and thus the world.

Devils Tower with Milky Way

Solar energy produced 20 percent more jobs last year than any other energy sector, including oil.  Thats big medicine qemo sobie!

Extraterrestrials not visiting Kansas

The (R) Kansas Secretary of State in Kansas won his Nov. election.  Almost 25,000 were not allowed to vote, turned away under the new Jim Crow laws preventing voter fraud.  Over the last 15 years or so only 2 or 3 cases of voter fraud ever went to court.  So, he fixed this with a law that kept 25K from the voting booth.   Yesterday he announced that double voting is a hugh problem here, lots of people voted twice.  No numbers given, no arrests made, but he is sure of it.
It seems to me he is a total failure.  His plan to fix voter fraud failed, and he can't even quantify how badly it failed.  But he has a solution, oh yea he does. In some ways I think he might be right, the Republicans were polling behind in all the state wide races, yet they won, maybe they did vote twice.
Kobach is asking for authority to make additional (what he doesn't say) changes to the voting laws.  He also will put all the elections together, city, town, county, schoolboard elections, all of it will be in November with the big election.  Currently local elections are seperate, and most are non-partisian, listed without party.  This was designed to be a more friendly community atmosphere, well the Repubs in total control of the state now intend to end this kind of friendly shit and turn it into tribal rivalry.

There's more!  The democrate for Senate withdrew from the race and the independent (Orman) was kicking hell out of Senator Roberts until Kochs and out of state efforts brought millions into the race the last 5 days.  Kobach is asking for a new law, death is the only reason for removing a name off the ballot.

Finally, Kobach is asking for authority to put a party line lever on the ballot.  Instead of selecting individuals, you step in pull one lever for Republican and leave the booth, 15 seconds and done.  Every (R) on the page gets the vote, mayor, schoolboard, council, sherrif, judge, registrar of deeds, Senator, Gov, every one.  This is a slam dunk for Kansas, we will be 100% Republican, I guarantee it.  I will move if all this passes.  Like the creatures from across the universe, contacting people here won't be worth the effort, or as my old cousin Nelson said, worth a bucket of warm spit.

My friend, and the low spark of high-heeled boys

I think it was on the drive back from a Chicago concert in Frankfurt Germanay when the thought emerged,  Mi was her happy self and we were singing "Does anyone really know what time it is", then she switched to another of our favorites, Traffic's "the low spark of high heeled-boys". 

(now start the video, it's a slow start piece so drag the cursor about 45 seconds into it, turn up volume and read on)

 Mi was a pretty tom boy type, we took long hikes nearly every time we were together.  Up through the forests and vineyard in the steep sided Mosel valley, marveling at the views of the entrenched river and the sunsets.  We went hiking almost every time we were together, in all weather.  Often she found a tree that needed climbing, a good climber.  Sometimes we found a secluded sunny spot and lay nude under the sky for a few minutes.  Aside from posing nude together once, setting with our legs pulled up, chins on our knees, nothing could be seen but bare legs, we set skin to skin, other than our naked sides touching as we grinned at the camera clicking on automatic, aside from that time, our naked bodies would never touch.

Mi was a wonderful friend, I want to congratulate her for that.

Mi always wore t-shirts and jeans and hung out with the boys, adopting some of our habits.  So much so that on two occasions on blistering hot afternoons in my 3rd floor apartment overlooking the Mosel river, the unscreened windows thrown open, me without a shirt as we drank fruit juice and Reisling she casually took off her t-shirt and said "good, that's cooler".  On a second occasion we had smoked some Lebanese weed she brought, extremely rare as nearly all of it is made into hashish.  When she pulled off her t this time, in my smoky  relaxed state her breasts rose from under her t glistening and swaying as if radiating light, she was the sun.  I set stunned by this vision, she noticed my stare and said in a polite soft voice "I like your tits too".  The pleasure and humanity of that statement coupled with the beauty of the moment is indescribable.  Butterflies drifted in and out of the windows, a common summer benefit of that house, we danced our hippie dances wearing only our jeans, I can't recall the music playing but it could very well have been "the low spark of high heeled-boys", one of the finest afternoons of my life.

Mi lived on the opposite side of the river 10 minutes walk over the bridge, also in a house on the waters edge with her parents.  She came to the apartment to talk and spend time a couple times a week for the over 2 years we were pals.  Sometimes we had an evening out planned.  Scatted in the ancient villages along the river were a few clubs and bars, some utra-modern with D-jays and light shows, some rustic old world, we stalked them on a regular basis.  Our goals were much the same, find someone to dance with and try to get laid.  We devised a contest, who gets a girl first.  This was especially interesting and fun as a competition because we both liked the same kind, pretty feminine girls with movie star faces with either a very sexy developed figure or a slinky trim figure.  I was of the opinion I went into these contests at a disadvantage, young European women dance together and hold hands on walks, these are matters of customs, so her asking a girl to dance was not so unusual I argued.  She countered she had no advantage because this custom was for family and friends not strangers so she felt she started at the same place as I did.  OK, cut to the results, we won about an even number of these "get a dance" contests.  The get a snuggle or kiss contest I think I won more, the get laid goal as I recall never worked out for me on these particular visits, but I was told she would find her own ride home a time or two.  This with a sly grin and kiss on my cheek from Mi as I left alone wondering what if anything they would do.

One summer day she pops in all excited, she has a pattern for a pair of pants to sew, she took measurements and scaled it, in few days we had matching pants.  Pretty strange even for the late 60's and 70's.  Made out of white linen or percale, it seemed like I was wearing worn out sheets, thin, smooth, and skin tight, lucky for me back then I had a great body with a trim hard round butt.  These pants were low like the hip huggers, without belt loops with a low short front zipper.  In the back they were a bit higher, curved up higher at it rounded the sides then straight across the back, in the front, right below the belly button they curved down in a little arc dipping low where the zipper closed.  Did I say tight, you could see my junk, no hiding, your out there man, couldn't wear underwear or they showed up big time and looked really terrible.  We wore them once together on a walk through town, we didn't go unnoticed.  I wore mine to a club once, as happy as I was with the junk I had, having it out there while I elbowed for a place at the bar with a bunch of guys named Horst and Helmut, well it was not always enjoyable.

The last time I saw her she had a tiny studio apartment in Frankfurt and she offered I could stay the night.  I arrived late, we went to a little lowprice neighborhood restaurant then to the apartment.  We had slept together a couple of times over the years, but she slept in her clothes each time, I figured it would be something along that model again.  To my surprise our shared vision of a young women was in her apartment, pretty, slim, sexy.  We had some laughs and talked about my leaving for the US tomorrow and her job in Frankfurt and her girlfriend talked a bit about her job.  Mi also told me in very scary terms she had met someone in the BaaderMienhof gang, a communist German terrorist group, who had killed and bombed and evaded the police from 1970 into about 1990, in 1977 they caused a national crisis there, it was only a few people but intensely disruptive.  This was worrisome.  But Ok, back to the night in her apartment.  Mi prepared a place for me to sleep on the floor, inches from the bed.  She also told me in a whisper, that she and her friend might make a lot of noise during the night, stay on the floor and keep your hands to yourself.   To my dismay the apartment had typical German metal external window shades, with those and the curtains closed it is very nearly a total blackout at night.  I couldn't see a thing, I desperately wanted to, it was torture by eroticism.  What began as muffled giggling and whispering,  evolved into a little moan from time to time, then what sometimes sounded like a high impact exercise routine followed by intervals of rest with deep breathing, and hardest to take was the sounds of kissing while one of them whispered or huffed at the air in the room.

The next morning they were up early for work, I had to leave in a hurry.  Mi talked talked for a while and we said good bye.

I have never seen her again.  I am in contact with 6 people that knew her, including one in her family, the friends don't know where she is, and the family member only replies she is doing fine, they ignore my request for an address or phone number.  Every few months I listen to some of the music we liked, Eric Clapton, John Baldry, John Mayall, Faces, Cream, Traffic, Ten Years After, Moody Blues, Osibisi, The Band.   I would love to go on a walk again with her, from the rivers edge up through the wine fields and the broken castle, through the forest into the high meadows and stain our feet yellow on carpets of dandelions shining golden back at the sun. That would be a nice day.

"The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys"

If I gave you everything that I owned
And asked for nothing in return
Would you do the same for me as I would for you?
Or take me for a ride
And strip me of everything, including my pride
But spirit is something that no one destroys
And the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound
The low spark of high-heeled boys (heeled boys)

"You load 16 tons, and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt."  Some of you might have heard the old song "16 Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford about a poor coal miner.

When I read about our smokestacks and tailpipes hosing us everyday and night with climate changing CO2 (carbon dioxide), tons of it, the numbers are always so damn big.  No wonder so many don't pay attention, we don't understand it, I guess lots of us slept, or lusted, our way through the delicious Miss Nipplemyer's 8th grade science class.

So, in the words of my Italian friend, OK now I splain you!  Fuel has carbon in it, pretty much has to.  When burned, each carbon atom in fuel combines with 2 oxygen atoms, making CO2, The atomic weight of this CO2 is 44, or 3.6667 times the weight of carbon.  We started weighing 12, and burning it raised it to 44.  Is that easy or what?  Oh Miss Nipplemyer, now I understand, let your passion fires burn and it turns into something even bigger.

Different kinds of fuels contain different amounts of carbon as a percent of their weight. This is why you get numbers like this:
1 gallon of gasoline at 6.6 lbs = 19.6 lbs of CO2 when burned
1 gallon of diesel = 22.38 lbs of CO2 when burned
1 short ton (2,000) of coal = 3,740+ lbs CO2  (carbon content in coal varies)

That old song tells it perfectly, every ton of coal we load into the sky, the further we go out of kelter on our environmental account book and doing little to correct it's damage, a little more stress on the soul. The video of Mr. Ford turns the song into something fun, but this is a song of poverty, entrapment by corporations and transference of violence within the community.

I can see under your tutu

XL pipe adds zero to our oil supply, we're just the sewer it flushes through.

Religious zealots must be opposed, no matter which church they are from.

Separation of church and state is essential, over their, and here.

I have the exact dates you will die. Are you a little curious?

Last night I went to a legislators forum, about 20 south central Kansas legislators spent 3 hours listening to 3 minute speeches from the public.  I have been to these before, but this one was a doozey.  A whole string of bible thumpers lashed the crowd and the legislators with barbed biblical furvor for causing earthquakes, tornados, cold weather, by their failure to destroy the constitution tramplers and gays that spread their nation crushing filth with the blessing of liberals.  They assured us God was the author of the constitution, and by adding the age of Abel at his death with the number of pages in the angle authored 1320 bible found behind Ogla the hashish vendors stall in Damascas, from adding this together with the numbers given in code theirin they devined the very date the power grid will fail, it's Sept. 20th, chaos will reign until October 24th when ye all will die under the barbed whips of the angel of death if ye not be right with Jesus no later than Sept 19th 11:59pm central time.  Furthermore corrupt county judges will be whisk off to the pearly gates where they will try to bribe their way into heaven but money has no value at the gates of Eden, crestfallen they will be torn apart by a vengiful god himself  eviserating his enemies in ways to cause the most discomfort, not even fit for hell, Jesus will sweep them out.  I was going to speak, but after the creator of the universe's hall monitors identified themselves, I hid among the huddled masses, behind a school bus driver, who frequently turned to me and said, "Oh my, I should have never come here".  It was amazing to hear the exact dates of our death announced with such glee, but it was good to know that the  county judges were going to be thrashed into bloody hummus, that was kind of cool.
From there the evening went down hill.

Elsewhere.
Fox news says the killings in Paris are the fault of Obama because he didn't call it a terrorist act soon enough after the murder.  Post incident causation, thats powerful stuff.
Fox also says the bombing in Colorado Springs of a black organization was a lone wolf thingy, not racist, not terrorist.  Prolly Obama caused this too.
Demoted Catholic Cardinal Burke, says pedophile priests were caused by the feminists.  Well I don't believe that but I do believe that well known line, It's easier for a priest to pass through a sphincter than to get into heaven.