Toxic Tar Sands Could be "Game Over" for Earth.

Even as a child, I felt a calling to Mother Nature. It all started with a book by illustrator, and children's author, Bill Peet. He was known for being able to convey deep topics to children while maintaining a creative and imaginative story to keep the kid's attention. I was an advanced reader with a serious-mind, so I often eschewed the usual fare of children's books that seemed to convey nothing but silly, fluffy rhymes about nonsensical story lines. Eventually, I found Bill Peet's book, "The Wump World" in a dusty corner of the library where I'd hide out during recess to avoid being bullied.



In this book lived these creatures called, wumps. They are a simple but noble community of beings whose planet was taken over by rampantly consuming and polluting humanoids known as the "Pollutians." After they trash the planet and use up all the natural resources they jet-off into space to find another planet to exploit. But, not all is lost when the wumps emerge from hiding and discover one small plant survived. It stirred me deeply and I mourned the actions of the Pollutians but it also stirred a passion for protecting nature that would develop in adulthood into a full-blown activism for Mother Earth. Yet, the Pollutians of planet Earth are still amongst us and about to rape the Earth so ruthlessly that such actions could be the breaking point for our environment.



The Pollutians of Earth are pushing to install a scarring, oil sludge pipeline (known as "Keystone XL") from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. It would cut across the heart of the American prairies that grow food for America and the world. But, this shit isn't just any oil--"It's not just regular oil, but highly corrosive and particularly carbon intensive. The process of extracting the oil from the sands is more energy intensive than drilling for crude. It entails destruction of Canada's Boreal forest, which serve as a carbon sink, making this particular resource extraction a global warming double whammy."



If these tar sands are tapped, the federal government’s premier climate scientist James Hansen says it would be “essentially game over for the climate.” "It would cross under 11 major rivers between Canada and southern Nebraska, according to TransCanada officials, and also would pass beneath several hundred smaller streams draining into major rivers. TransCanada has a dismal record of pipeline spills. Its Keystone 1 pipeline, which began operating in June 2010, transports tar sands crude from Canada to Illinois refineries and Oklahoma tank farms. TransCanada reported an astonishing 12 leaks the first year" [...] Beyond polluting major rivers and countless streams, toxic crude oil leaks could poison a major aquifer. The Ogallala Aquifer lies underneath parts of eight states, and most of the residents in those states depend on it for their drinking and irrigation water.



So, I am putting out the call to the grove that our Mother Nature needs us. She shelters, feeds and entertains us with the patience that only a mother can display. However, she can't help us if we continue to poison her mystical source of life. We have dishonored our mother by abusing her with pollution. We have exploited her gifts for our own greedy desires, which has often left Mother Nature powerless to protect our fragile animal cousins. But, all is not lost--she has given birth to a vast and diverse family of children; luckily, some of them have not strayed from her heart very far and are standing up to push back against the forces of destruction.



If you want to help protect our benevolent Mother then please join me in donating to stop the Canada Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Two organizations on the front lines that I'd suggest are: "Greenpeace Canada" (click here to visit their page). Then, visit "Tar Sands Action" (click here for their site) to sign a petition to stop this rape of our dear Mother. Whether you are in the United States, or Canada, I ask one last thing from you; please, email or call your political leaders and beg them to stop this risk to not only our climate but our health (and that of our children). President Obama's administration is leaning toward going ahead with the American side of the pipeline, so we have to act now.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Obama Reverses Campaign Message. Will Allow Offshore Drilling.

Feel that sharp pain in your back? It's a big knife driven into the collective backs of liberals, Democrats and environmentalists of all political persuasions. And it's not dripping blood but black, toxic oil. That's because despite campaign promises to the contrary, President Obama is now announcing that he will allow for oil drilling offshore from the pristine Florida beaches as well as others along the East coast. And additional drilling off the coast of Alaska--America's last wild frontier.

Et Tu, Barack? If you don't think this is a big deal then travel to the gulf coast off Louisiana and see the eye sores that are the line of oil pipes and rigs doting the coast line. Would you want to go to the beach in Florida to see the ocean only to have it scarred by oil platforms? And that's not even taking into account the oil spills that are likely to come with time that wreck havoc on the fishing industry and the ecology of marine life. Opening up these new regions to drill for oil is like handing a needle to a heroin addict.

We are addicted to oil and it will continue to cause wars, destroy the environment, pollute the atmosphere, which in turns damages our health. We need to go into rehab and get clean. The technology for a green energy plan is there but the political will is another story. The oil and natural gas lobby has oceans of money and have infested t.v. advertising with propaganda that oil and natural gas is essential to our modern way of life. This is a bald face lie, however but with their slick "family friendly" commercials I can see why people buy into this notion that oil companies are our friends.

I am seriously disappointed with the president on this one. It appears that he's doing this to try and get support from Republicans but they aren't slapping him on the back. They are still criticizing him regardless saying it doesn't go far enough. I expected the president to make monumental changes on green energy to get us off oil. I agree that oil will most likely be needed in a small amount for our military but other than that we should be moving toward weening us off oil--not doubling down. But the best defense against what Obama is now doing is from---OBAMA HIMSELF!!

~The Green Man has Spoken~

PHOTO CREDIT: Port Fourchon, Louisiana. Mario Villafuerte/Getty Images

Obama's Nuclear Nightmare.

Yesterday President Obama announced the building of the first nuclear reactor in decades. I'm shocked that this is happening under a democratic president but further more I'm aghast that Obama is buying into this propaganda that nuclear energy is "green" and "safe." Sure it reduces green house gases but it more than makes up for that in waste. No one has solved how to properly and safely dispose of nuclear waste, so call me a "environmental nut" all you want but I personally I don't want uranium leaking into the ground and water table. The president and others say that they want to be like France who gets like 90% of their energy from nuclear energy but for one France is a smaller country but more importantly they haven't figured out how to deal with nuclear waste:

Nuclear waste is an enormously difficult political problem which to date no country has solved. It is, in a sense, the Achilles heel of the nuclear industry. Could this issue strike down France's uniquely successful nuclear program? France's politicians and technocrats are in no doubt. If France is unable to solve this issue, says Mandil, then "I do not see how we can continue our nuclear program."

Green Man: So before they dot the countryside with nuclear reactors and turn out mountains like Yucca Mountain into hallowed out trash bins for nuclear waste perhaps we should first learn how to solve the storage problem. Otherwise it's like prescribing medications to people whose side-effect is possible cancer and/or death. This is somewhat similar to what happened with the silver and gold mining in the 19th and 20th centuries where they didn't know what to do with the toxic byproducts of mining so they just flushed it down mountain streams. Now a century or so later we are having to invest millions if not billions of dollars to "clean" them up but nuclear waste is a lot harder to "clean up" than arsenic in water. You can't just bury nuclear waste, "away"--there is no away. Geology is a very intricate science and the make up for the ground below mountains and even valleys is full of aquifers where nuclear waste could easily leach into. Sure, sounds safe to me!!

And finally, did you know that Utah is looking to import nuclear waste from other countries? I'm sure glad I don't live in Utah anymore!! Yeah, Utah is considering importation of waste from Italy. I don't want to be reliant on Middle-Eastern oil either but nuclear energy isn't the way to do it. That's like getting off heroin (oil) and switching to crack (nuclear energy). So, now America exports jobs to other countries and imports other countries radioactive waste. What a great new slogan for American tourism. "America: The World's Nuclear Waste Dump." I have an idea of where to put the waste--in the backyard of the houses of all the politicians who support nuclear energy. Oh, and interestingly President Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the nuclear energy industry. Oops.

The Way of the Hermit.

The world is spinning out of control faster and faster with each passing day. Narcissism is rampant and sociopaths seem to reproduce with all the speed of aggressive and tenacious cancer cells. Embracing harmony, co-operation, kindness, sharing and compromise use to be the currency of sanity but now these traits are considered "weak" and "naive." It is a world I no longer recognize but instead feels like a parallel dimension, which embraces the opposite of what we use to consider appropriate and beneficial behavior. I have invested a lot of time and energy into politics over the past 15 years to do my part in trying to restore sanity to this world. This took the form of fighting the conservatives in nearly every venue. So naturally I supported the Democratic Party here in America as the only viable alternative. I had high hopes that I was on the right "team" and put my complete trust in them.

They have been in the minority for most of those 15 years and thus I assumed once they regained power that they would move quickly to effect change. Especially given that's what that fraud Barack Obama pumped us with for two years during the campaign. Imagine my surprise and disgust, however, when I realized that they were ineffectual leaders who couldn't even agree amongst themselves let alone change the status quo of self-destruction, which has been the direct consequence of 30 years of conservative rule and brainwashing of America. I was patient for months with the Democrats as they worked to fulfill the promises they made to a country desperate for help. Then came this health care battle and seeing how disastrously they've handle that has snapped my will to defend them any longer. I am done with their ineptitude and corruption -- and the conservatives are straight out sociopaths. Thus, I'm embracing the Green Party and European style government. So am I increasingly dropping out of the institutions of this bizarre existence and cutting my ties with society one by one.

That void is being filled by nature, which is the last barrier to total world destruction and eradication of humanity. As it is right now, we live in our own filth due to over-consumption and are destroying the only home we have--Earth. Thus, we are like parasites who suck the life force out of their host (Earth) before moving onto the next victim except there is no where else to go but the way of the dinosaurs. As a consequence I find much of humanity to be infected with insanity and as destructive and brain dead as zombies. Therefore I retreat further into the cave that is my home; surrounded by an artificial rain forest of plants. I am a happily reclusive being who embraces the simple, solitary life of a hermit because if I try to stay too much apart of society I will lose my mind. It is better for myself and everyone else that I avoid most people.

My day-dreams usually consist of various ways to be a hermit such as: Monk-hood at a far-flung Buddhist monastery, building a cabin tucked away in the deep bowels of a dark and inaccessible forest or wandering the Earth with nothing but a robe, a bowl for food and a walking staff. I want to return to the life of my ancestors -- a simpler life of balance and freedom from the traps of modernity. I want to grow a beard down to my waist in protest of societies rigid, soul strangling "rules." I have tried playing by societies rules for 34 years and it has left me drained of hope for a better society and drained of tolerance of year after year of failure upon failure of society to get its shit together -- even a little bit. I haven't asked for complete utopia in the least but American society can't even seem to handle basic progress.

In just about every way my nature is one that falls outside what rigid, American society tolerates. It's not even that I try to be someone who is on the fringe of society on purpose but it has just shaken out that way. The majority of America is Christian -- I'm a Buddhist with a Pagan streak. I have a brain disorder (schizoaffective) and America as a whole doesn't accept such illnesses as real. Or they accept them as real but reject us as "defective" and worthy of shunning. Liberalism runs in my veins yet I live in a country dominated by not just conservatives but conservative extremists. I'm bi-curious in a world that demands nothing less than straight, neanderthal manhood. I'm college educated living in a country that despises intellectualism and an environmentalist in a place that worships oil and denies global warming. Why should I continue to embrace and support a society that rejects everything that makes up who I am? One day I'll disappear into the mysteries of the mountains like a lynx and be gone.

PHOTO CREDIT: Shut up and whisper