The Wateing Hole: Tuesday September 9, 2014 – Envionmental News and Food Politics

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1. Is this money well spent?

The grass is greener…

A better idea might be to replace the lawn with wildlife friendly native plants, or a vegetable plot. Here in Eugene, you’ll see many font yards tuned in to productive organic gardens.

 

2. If you can handle the English spellings and can convert from Euros to dollars, here is a compelling article.

The case for smaller, healthier dairy herds

Got milk to throw away?

 

 

70 thoughts on “The Wateing Hole: Tuesday September 9, 2014 – Envionmental News and Food Politics”

  1. I’ve reached a point where I dislike lawns.
    They’re nothing but work and they offer no return on labor.
    I’d rather let them go to wild flowers and stick a bunch of hives around the yard and enjoy the bees.
    The Mosquito Lagoon is experiencing a severe die off of turtle grass and an increase in alge blooms.
    They are attributing it to fertilizer run off from over use and improper application.
    The domino effect has begun.

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  3. The Universe, with it’s infinite wisdom and ironic sense of humor has decided that S. Truett Cathy will be reincarnated as a lesbian biker in the San Francisco chapter of Dykes on Bikes.

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  6. Good post nonewhere. Just returned from a trip through the Cascade Lakes region, water issues are looming large. Oregon at least seems to have a clue about sustainable resource practices. There’s hope!

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  7. GENEVA, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse gas hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.

    “We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud in a statement accompanying the WMO’s annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.

    “Past, present and future CO2 emissions will have a cumulative impact on both global warming and ocean acidification. The laws of physics are non-negotiable,” Jarraud said. “We are running out of time.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/greenhouse-gas-levels_n_5788788.html

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    • I don’t recall who it was but some wise guy said “the Arabs don’t hate us for our freedom; they hate us for our golf courses”. Said wise guy then went on to explain that people who kill each other for water might resent watching scenes of rich, flabby, white dudes playing a mere game in a location that wastes enough water each day to keep a poor Arab family alive for decades.

      My own personal gripe against golf courses is that the local ones regularly relocate and/or kill geese that dare to poop on the grass and a couple times a year the closest golf course sprays insecticides that kill songbirds. I tried to start a stink when I discovered a pair of purple finches dead on the sidewalk just beneath their nest in the ivy but it’s really hard to find people willing to piss off richer people when it’s hard to put food on the table. I have considered engaging in a little ecoterrorism by sneaking in at night and planting some dead 20 pound carp around the grounds but, you know, cameras.

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        • That’s the problem. I’ve never been adept at dumping on command.

          They also have enough lights to turn night into day so I have to assume that there are cameras recording at all times. A friend of mine got in trouble for “breaking in” and doing a couple laps around the course on his cross-country skies. The few spots where I could conceal a rotting fish from outside the surveillance net are not on the side of the course where the prevailing winds would waft the stench in the desired direction. And? There’s only one putting green I think I could reach with a balloon filled with diesel oil, salt, and Roundup.

          Believe me; I have several plans tumbling around my noggin but I want to avoid making any money for a lawyer or losing money for myself.

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            • As an avid RC pilot I have considered the “throw away drone” option for several nefarious schemes. Oh yeah. The “high-end” planes now come from Hong Kong. The cheap stuff is manufactured on the mainland.

  13. QOTD:

    “If the goal of terrorist groups is to sow irrational terror, has anything since the 9/11 attack been more successful than those two journalist beheading videos? It’s almost certainly the case that as recently as six months ago, only a minute percentage of the American public (and probably the U.S. media) had even heard of ISIS. Now, two brutal beheadings later, they are convinced that they are lurking in their neighborhoods, that they are a Grave and Unprecedented Threat (worse than al Qaeda!), and that military action against them is needed. It’s as though ISIS and the U.S. media and political class worked in perfect unison to achieve the same goal here when it comes to American public opinion: fully terrorize them.” — Glenn Greenwald, getting it right.

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  15. Looks like everyone missed this….. or…. the world has simply moved the fuck on?

    MH17 – preliminary findings point to high velocity shrapnel penetrating in many places from outside the plane consistent with a proximity-fuse missile, the plane did not do anything out of the ordinary according to the black box and ATC records, and there are impact holes all over the aircraft including the front of the aircraft, none of which are consistent with bullet holes or an exploding engine. And if you have ever watched aircraft combat, shooting down an aircraft usually happens from the rear of the plane.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29119024

    I make these points because the official Russian explanation (and the anti-West/Kyev conspiracy theories) for this is that the plane was deliberately steered over the battle zone by Kyev ATC where a Ukrainian SU27 fighter somehow climbed to 50% higher than it has ever been before and machine-gunned the plane until it exploded…..

    The Dutch have found shrapnel in some of the bodies, we will probably find out soon what kind of shrapnel it is….

    A BBC documentary on Monday published eye-witness accounts (which I heard of days after the incident) of sightings of a Russian BUK launcher crewed by Russian regulars within 10km of the site on the day of the shootdown…..

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29109398

    Mr Putin and his thugs in the Donbass – their pants are on fire. 300 people were murdered in that plane…. what more do they have to do before the West acts?

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  17. I just rediscovered one of my songs/poems!

    The milk is changed to heavy cream
    The dinosaurs to gasoline
    We haven’t kept our playpen clean
    And Mother Nature’s getting pissed

    Chemicals that change the taste
    Continents being defaced
    Swimming ’round in toxic waste
    And Mother Nature’s getting pissed

    Chrous: We’re living on a shit baaaaaaaarge!
    A garbage scow in Space
    We’re living on a shit baaaaaaaarge!
    And mother nature’s getting pissed

    Forests replaced by concrete
    Bare earth trampled under feet
    Resistant strains and mad-cow meat
    And Mother Nature’s getting pissed

    Extra legs on all the frogs
    Tumors growing on our dawgs
    Acid rain and killer smogs
    And Mother Nature’s getting pissed.

    Chorus:

    Breeding like a swarm of flies
    Fouling water, land, and skies
    While we live the planet dies
    And Mother Nature’s getting pissed

    Chorus:

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