Last Saturday morning, I awoke early to make my way to North Avenue Beach in Chicago.  I was not there to play volleyball.  I was not there to fail at volleyball, either (I once was working on overhand serving and managed to hit my ball directly at the head of a guy putting a net up next to ours.  Three times in a row!).

I also was not there to stare at a crush of mine, although that happened.  I had no idea she was joining in the fun until I arrived.  Bonus!

I went to the beach, actually, to participate in a beach cleanup effort, organized by the Alliance for the Great Lakes.  I am not a janitor by trade and typically I would not have found picking up garbage out of sand and seaweed a great fun, but my increasing awareness of the hazards posed by water- and land-borne litter made this a fun activity.  The giant omelet and apple pancake afterward helped, too!  Plus the presence of a crush.

Turn any plastic bottle into a eco-watering can!

We’ve already mentioned the benefits of using a watering can around the house but today, we’ve got a tip for greening this already pretty green activity!

Behold the EcoSpout! The EcoSpout is a small spout kit that can turn almost any small plastic bottle or milk jug into a watering can.  The system will fit most quart and gallon plastic containers.  A new adapter will connect to snap-on and non-standard threaded jugs.  Included are a small spray spout and thin stream pouring spout.

How does the EcoSpout green your plant watering can?

Be sure to keep baking soda on the shelf at all times!  Why?  Beside the fact that it is an ingredient in many recipes, it is an environmentally-safe, healthy alternative with many functions.

Here are a four basic tasks for which you can use baking soda:

No, I don’t mean a weapons arsenal, but rather an arsenal of nuclear power plants the Republican Presidential candidate (John McCain) says he would like to spend $315 Billion of taxpayers’ money on new nuclear power plants.

This has gotten very little attention, and it’s understandable why, “drill here, drill now” gets more attention — it hits closer to home for most.  But as (the Bush run) Energy Department has said, there would be very little impact on gas prices from, “drilling here, drilling now,” and in about a decade.

So it makes sense for the U.S. to shift over to clean, renewable sources of fuel.  Unfortunately, nuclear power is neither clean nor renewable.

Sure, some will say that

Chalk one up for the environment!

From the New York Times’ Jim Robbins:

HELENA, Mont. — A federal judge ruled Monday that the Bush administration’s plan to allow more than 500 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks was not in keeping with the National Park Service’s responsibility to protect the parks.

The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan of Federal District Court in Washington, said park planners had failed to reconcile their mission to protect the parks’ environment with the increase in air pollution, the disturbance to wildlife and the impact on visitors that the snowmobiles would bring.

“The plan clearly elevates use over conservation of park resources and values,” Judge Sullivan wrote in his 63-page ruling.

Read more!

Commentary:

Here, the commonsense approach a judge took comparing the stated mission of the national parks to the purpose officials in the Bush Administration were wanting to do

This is a classic case of an envirohuman impact: humans use fossil fuels, such as petroleum, which upsets the delicate balances in nature that allow the weather patterns we are used to having and the earth then, “upset” by the changes, has more drastic weather patterns, and a general trend toward a warmer climate, worldwide.

Beside more frequent major storms, like Hurricane Ike, we can expect, the scientific communty’s consensus says, rising sea levels (leading to floods of densely populated areas worldwide), droughts and drinking water shortages in other areas, and mass extinctions of thousands of species.

So the pathway is:

For this week’s news segment, I’m going to concentrate my efforts to report two major stories, both of great importance to you.  The stories are of such signficance that they will each be followed by a special commentary from yours truly, helping to put them into context.

The first story I would like to bring to your attention is regarding one of California’s latest law proposals, which regards factory farms.  Known as, “Proposition 2,” the law would put severe restrictions on factory farms, which are of both growing ecological and ethical concerns for our population.

The story I read gives great insight into Proposition 2, but goes a step further to outline who has been funding a campaign against the measure to the tune of $4.5 million.  You guessed it!  Factory farmers.  But not only those from California, but from across the United States.  Read more about the story here.  Also, visit the Yes On Prop 2 Website to get involved or informed about the myriad issues at stake.

Special Commentary:

We often write, “EHI Quick Tips,” which outline simple, easy steps you can take to green your daily life.  The writers of EnviroHumanImpact believe that this is a great approach to those just begining to look at a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.  Once you have introduced a few greener buying options or changes to daily life, it can become difficult to stop yourself from adopting even more practices that will improve your envirohuman impact!

Here, we have compiled a short list of some of the easy, yet effective changes you can begin using in your daily life, right away!

1. EHI Quick Tip: Unclog that Shower Drain
2. EHI Quick Tip: Get a Watering Can
3. EHI Quick Tip: Ditch those Paper Statements
4. EHI Quick Tip: Buy a Tea Kettle
5. EHI Quick Tip: Ride the Elevators Less at Work

You might notice a common pattern here: most of our quick tips are easy and focus on reducing our energy, water, or other resource usage.  What ideas do you have for improving one’s envirohuman impact?

Yes, I questioned whether or not that was the best way to get your attention.  I could have said, “Power to Our Poop” and you still would have clicked much the way you did to read this juicy log (pun intended) of news.

Sure, we see new small ways that whether in labs or on larger scales, people are taking large environmental matters into their own hands.  So, power from poop?  

Well, yes.  And on a commercial, large-scale.  You may have heard that methane gas is a major contributor to global warming, and this is one argument made against eating meat (or so much meat) because the animals (I’m thinking cow pies) release methane gas along with their excrement.  Well, we humans’ business has a similar effect, if on a, er, smaller scale. 

And the city of San Antonio is taking advantage — to the tune of capturing that methane and selling it for a profit!  The methane gas, once processed can be used at power plants as, “natural gas.”  Natural — I’ll say so!  

Read the entire story.

It’s about two months until the presidential election, and there is a lot of wasted breath from pundits and politicians alike regarding offenses from the other side, really bad campaign ads that outright lie (I won’t go into specifically which ones, but let’s just say they’re perverted ads saying that the other candidate, whose legislation tried to help protect youngsters from pedofiles is being accused , if not insinuated of being perverted).

Enough is enough!  If they are not discussing pork barrel spending, then they’re discussing how if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig — an old adage.  But John McCain’s own campaign manager has said, this campaign is not about the issues.  But we all know it should be.  

This, “lipstick on a pig,” phrase offers rhetorical message, just to say that people will try to dress up to distort who they really are, but that the identity still shows through and the true identity persists.  John McCain said it months ago about Hillary Clinton.  This week, Barack Obama said it about McCain and has since been pounced on by McCain and others that he was saying it about McCain’s running mate, Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin.  Oh the irony of McCain calling Obama sexist; but they know it’s not true, it’s feigned outrage just to distract from the issues.

Sorry, my slant is coming out and you did not come here to see me grind a political axe (though I must say, these apologies that Obama could offer McCain are pretty funny!).   But I have a tie-in to all of the pork being talked about.  Though they’ve had no trouble being in favor of pork in the past (Palin was for  the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it), McCain-Palin now say they’re against porkbarrel spending.  McCain will refer to the his plan of cutting approximately $50 billion in pork barrel spending as a way to balance the budget.  Yeah, because the other hundreds of billions will materialize when he further cuts taxes for the rich?  Whatever you feel about the Iraq War, Bush and the Iraqi government (and the people of Iraq) have all said it’s time to set and follow a timetable for withdrawal (read: an end to the war).  That’s $10 billion per month right there — or $120 billion per year — saved.  So how about ending that before we cut the pork?

That’s right, I’m in favor of pork barrel spending.  We ought to be spending five to ten times as much as we are now on pork barrel spending.  And we’ll generate the tax revenue by having a truly progressive tax system, where those who make the most money pay the highest percentage of their income compared to other taxpayers.  After all, they’re the group that benefits the most from the systems, the security, government provides (their right to make so much money is protected because of such government functions as the military and transportation, which are subsidized by the government).  They should therefore pay for it.

We’re in both an energy crisis and climate crisis.  Our energy crisis is exacerbated by our main sources of energy being controlled in large part by rogue states, forcing our military to cowtow (let’s bring another farm animal reference into the mix!) to regimes that treat their citizens horribly (think how our government treats Guantanamo Bay prisoners — on a larger scale).  We need pork barrel projects not only to keep levees and bridges functioning well (as well as all of our other essential infrastructure) but also for green projects.

Green Eggs and Ham

Need a catchy title?  Since, “green pork barrel spending” lacks pizazz, let’s go with, “green eggs and ham” for all of the increased spending in a smart grid that will allow transmission of green energy, followed by actually implenting green energy projects (the government does not have to wait for private companies here — green energy is about as important as the highways we subsidize) as well as recycling and composting programs nationwide (but let’s check with the owners of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham for permission).  Start in urban areas to achieve scale and then move outward to cover every town in America.  

Failing to care for the environment is a moral issue. Failing to tend to the climate and energy crises is irresponsible.  I admit it, the “green eggs and ham” moniker needs some work; it’s obviously cheesy, but the point is that we need a heaping pile of green eggs and ham spending to get this jump-started before it’s too late.  Obama’s $150 billion over ten years in federal dollars is a good start, but The United States needs to lead on these issues and the world will take our cue.  We need a President who understands that and is willing to put the U.S. tax dollars money where his mouth is.