The bats and the bees.

A year ago this week, people started to notice something.

Bees were disappearing. At an alarming rate.

Earlier this month, a tractor-trailer was in an accident, releasing millions of bees onto an interstate highway.

Those bees were being trucked to California to help pollinate the almond harvest. What's really alarming is not the people running up and down the pavement sporting bee-suits and smoke cans, but the fact that California has to truck bees IN TO the state to keep up with a natural process.

Let's examine some other species that are giving us clear and present alarms to what climate change is doing to the tiniest worlds around us.

Pine beetles are multiplying exponentially, with out a good, cold freeze in the winter to kill the population off. The result, is large expanses much like this on the West Coast:

See all that brown? Those are afflicted pine trees- but they don't turn brown until at least a year or two after they've died. For all we know, a much larger general area is afflicted with pine beetle population booms and we won't know it until it's too late. That's what climate change is doing. Does anyone remember studying food webs in grade school? They're food chains that are linked together to represent the greater scheme of nature.
This is a great example.

So, if one population increases beyond what the food webs can keep up with, other populations die- if one population dies off, every other population is affected- even if they don't eat that particular species. Do you see where I'm going with this? Now, let's focus on bats.

Bats that live in the North East, yes- even New Hampshire, are dying from a mysterious disease.

Right now, they're calling it White Nose Syndrome, since the affected bats have a white fungus on their nostrils, and pretty much every where else. This fungus is understood as a secondary symptom- it might not the cause of death. No one knows what's happening, but what really matters is that if these bats die as fast as they say they are we're in for a horrible mosquito summer. That means greater chance for West Nile Virus, Sars and other horrible diseases that are passed on through mosquito bites.

It all comes back to us- all of it. I'm just hoping that the bats deaths are not human related, though I highly doubt that. Here's a photo of a dying bat from the NY Times.

No one really knows why the bees are leaving. No one knows why this bat is covered with fungus. No one knows where pine beetles are anymore. Do you see a pattern? I do. What has changed the most in the past decade as far as the planet is concerned. Maybe temperature? How about strange weather patterns? There is no way this stuff isn't our fault. Climate change could explain all of it. I guess only time will tell. Share your thoughts, please. If you know something I don't- whether it is in favor of or counter to my argument, let me know- let other people know. We're part of the food web, too.

Love the birds and bees,
Say

Bringing dreams to fruition.

Okay ... you all know by now that I'm a journalist by trade. I work for one of the most read papers in the state of New Hampshire, The Hippo Press, as well as acting as the main contributor for their motorcycle magazine, OXX Cycle. Part of working for the Hippo is creating interesting content to keep our readership up to date about their community- we cover news and lifestyle issues pertinent to the Southern New Hampshire area. You can't be an active citizen in S. NH with out reading the Hippo at least once a week (it's out on Thursdays).

I'm getting to a point, I swear ...

Right now I'm working on a cover story pertaining to conservation in the area- often times the topic is left to private land owners and hush-hush town meetings. Lots of folks rarely know what's going on with the properties surrounding them. In order to keep the subject interesting, I'm devising a way for the information to be digestible, educational and sexy, all at the same time. This task is proving to be much harder than I had planned. At the moment, I'm proposing a look at the dichotomy that exists in the aftermath of putting easements on property. They lower a property owner's taxes and still allows them to harvest their land- so long as they don't develop. Normally, land owners who buy in to this option have a considerable amount of land. For example ... Manchester Water Works uses Lake Massabesic as a reservoir for the greater Manchester area. In an effort to protect the water quality there, Water Works put an easement on several hundred acres surrounding the Lake in the town of Auburn.

Because Water Works "owns" the property, they pay taxes on it. By removing the ability to develop that property, Water Works' taxes drop. To compensate for the loss of funds that ultimately aid the town of Auburn, Auburn residents have to pay higher property taxes. You can see where a line can be drawn.

This kind of face-off exists every time people are faced with paying more for anything, even if it is directly related to a town's quality of life through maintaining wild places.

At any rate, I'm developing the story as we speak. I'll be sure to keep all of you posted in regards to my progress and I'll eventually let you know about the print date.

Hooray for writing. I'm seriously having one of the best days ever.

Hugs for trees and smooches for the wild-things.
Love,
Say

Thanks again goes to Susan- who's always on top of things.

A fellow word smith of mine, Susan Ware, was reading my blog yesterday and asked if I had seen an episode of Scientific American Frontiers with Alan Alda ...

Here's the link to a particular episode that is directly related to yesterday's post.

All of the major road blocks for introducing hydrogen power into our economy are addressed- and pretty much answered, but the real roadblock that faces every alternative energy is money.

Money owns us more than we own it. Encouraging major corporate entities to change over their current technologies is more difficult than pulling teeth. Ultimately, there has to be incentive. You think coal supplied power plants will change over their technology voluntarily? Keep dreaming. That costs a lot of money and the only way to convince them such action is a good idea requires tax cuts, carbon cap-and-trade policy and funding from state and federal levels of government.

The switch to environmentally friendly infrastructure is going to cost a lot. We all know that, but isn't it true that by creating new infrastructure we create new jobs at the same time? And by creating new jobs, we create new cash flow? And by creating new cash flow, we reverse the current recession, lower the national unemployment rate and become a leader in the global field of new technologies? Yeah, you have to spend some dough to get there- but you have to spend a little money to make even more money. That's capitalism.

Here's a link to a policy issue site, explaining market-based strategies to reduce green house gases.

So, when it comes down to it, should we be encouraging carbon taxes? Shouldn't we suggest that we reallocate spending to compensate for a lack of industry incentive to perpetuate environmental practices? This isn't just about "us"- my generation- having to deal with climate change and its repercussions. This is about raising our children in a world that is unhealthy, unfit even, for healthy human development. I mean, women who want to have healthy babies shouldn't eat fish because of mercury levels in our oceans. Who's fault is that? The climate cycles? No. It's our fault. We're poisoning ourselves because it isn't financially sound to save ourselves.

Think about it.

Please comment. Let me know what you think.

Love your Mother, Earth.
*Say

To every thing, turn, turn, turn.

This is the molecular structure of water. If you passed 8th grade, you know water is made up of two hydrogens and one oxygen. Hydrogen and carbon make up most of the stuff on Earth, it's in endless supply.

I am hydrogen

Fantastic. Big thanks goes to Dan Brian for allerting me to this interesting development. Hydrogen cars, people- the way of the future. I'll be honest, I had no idea President Bush had invested in hydrogen fuel technology. My favorite part of this article reads as such:

"The federal government has spent $1.2 billion on hydrogen in the five years since President Bush announced an initiative to develop a national hydrogen infrastructure. We'll need a whole lot more than that if we're to meet the president's goal of replacing fossil fuels by 2040.

Hydrogen advocates like the National Hydrogen Association say we could put 70 percent of all Americans within 2 miles of a hydrogen fueling station for $10 to $15 billion. They like to point out that's half the cost of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (in today's dollars) and about what we're spending each month in Iraq."

Well whattayaknow?! Fantastic- now all we need is to come up with the dollars and enough interest for the economy to proceed in that direction. Hydrogen is everywhere, isn't it?

What I really like about most environmental blogs is that reader comments are welcomed and are more often than not posted by rather intelligent people. Scrolling down to the comments on this article, you'll notice a common theme: It takes electricity to make the hydrogen these cars would need. Also: Spending money on hydrogen is a bad idea.

Let me propose this then: Are all ideas that take us away from oil dependency worth the investment? Even if the technology doesn't get off the ground, all of that planning develops into something that ultimately works.

For example ...

CFL Light Bulbs had to come from somewhere. Edison wasn't the only person working on an incandescent light bulb.

It takes a lot of money, man-power, creativity and passion to make one good idea work. In order to get to the correct answer, all routes need to be taken on the way to solving the problem you're trying to fix. Some inventions are realized by accident on the way to something entirely different.

Any route we take away from our dependence on oil is the correct one for now. If we could only stop spending money in the Middle East, we would have plenty of money to invest and an economy stable enough to support those investments whole-heartedly.

What do you think? Please share your thoughts with me.

That's all I have time for, for now. More later. Thanks for reading.

*Say

L'onion.

How To Make Iraq War More Eco-Friendly

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God bless the Onion, everyone's favorite fake news magazine. The rhetoric here is extremely sarcastic and hilarious, but the message is still maintained. The Onion will never let us down.

This is all I have time to blog right now, the Hippo and OXX have me by the jugular this week. There is much to do and it's all due by Thursday and Friday.

I've already said too much. I'll be back up to par soon enough. I promise!

Best,
Say

Doing it with the lights out and the engine off. Ooh Yeah!

Good Friday everyone! It's foggy in Manch Vegas this morning, but the weather has been consistently bearable- which is giving me the Spring itch. I can't remember the last time I was excited for mud season ... I better sport some galoshes this year and save myself a lot of heart ache.

So, back to what I was talking about yesterday and a mention to a movement that I'm really quite enamored with.

On to those idling engines.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has a great explanation of the repercussions of idling your engine before you go to work in the morning, while waiting at stop lights, sitting in a parking lot- you get the gist.

I've been a victim of needing to warm up the car in the morning, but I've decided to put an end to the waste that ultimately causes. Need to defrost? Buy a window scraper and brush. Cold hands on the steering wheel? Wear gloves. Finishing a great song in your car before going inside? Keep the battery on, shut off the engine. This is one simple effort that can make a huge difference in the amount of gas we consume and the pollution we ultimately put into our atmosphere. I'm willing to try- are you? Please comment and we'll see what kind of conversation we can get going on this topic.

Now, for one of the more innovative and interesting movements I've ever been involved with:

Earth Hour will rock your soul.



*This graphic might be too large for this post, but check out the Earth Hour website for a better look at it.

I've made mention of this global partnership in past Myspace blogs, but since I got an e-mail reminder from the group this morning, I figured I would attempt to put it in readers heads once again.

Earth Hour will take place on March 28, between 8 and 9 p.m., all over the world. Participants agree to turn off all their lights, appliances, anything that sucks up electricity for one hour.

I know what you're thinking: "So what?"

Imagine if, for that one hour, all of New Hampshire turned out the lights. Imagine what that would do to, say, PSNH? What if all of Dublin (one of the flagship cities for Earth Hour) turned off all of their power between 8 and 9? What kind of impact would that have on the European Union and their energy sources?

The point is, we use a lot of energy as humans. If we could make the effort to use less of it- if we could make a conscious effort to unplug appliances when not in use and turn of lights when we're leaving a room, imagine the impact we could make in a whole day instead of one hour. It could be amazing.

So, please visit that above link and pledge your hour for March 28. We can make a difference, we can send a message to others. Plus, your electric bill will drop, even if it is just a few cents. Pennies add up, guys.

Well, that's it for now. I hope everyone has a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. Mark and I are going snowshoeing this Saturday at his cousin's house in Raymond- they live on some conservation land that we're all really excited to explore. I'll see if I can't fix my camera and take some pictures along the way.

One hug to a tree per day will keep your woes at bay.

Love,
Say
[That salutation was a bit much, huh? Sorry.]

Idle hands make the devils work.

I apologize for my lack of posting the past day or two- this job keeps me busy, that's for sure. I had the opportunity to sit down with the vice president of the Forest Society, Jack Savage, today- what an interesting guy, such a pleasure to speak with. I admire his passion for forest preservation. We had a great interaction today and I hope we can meet to chat again soon.

In other news: my green decor section of the Hippo got printed yesterday! Hooray!

You can see the feature piece at www.hippopress.com. I haven't gone into checking it myself (to see if my section is available) and I probably should have, but you guys can tell me if it's there or not, right?

What I really wanted to talk about today- and no longer have time to do so until tomorrow morning- is something like this.

I see it happening all the time and I hear the arguments that people make in defense. I totally understand, but in the long run, would you rather drive with cold hands for a few minutes or a lung full of smog in a few years? I would take the former, but that's just me.

Tomorrow- I will get into this subject a bit more. For now, happy Thirsty Thursday ya'll! Remember- drink draught! Hehehe.

Hugs, trees, birds and bees,
*Say

Cheers to NH Liquor Stores

I'm sure it seems like I'm writing about booze a fair amount, but this particular news item was sent to me by my friend and co-worker, Heidi. This was an AP story yesterday ... Here's the link:

Absolut Green Initiative.

It's happened with out Mark and I having to go door to door to restaurants, begging they start recycling more. The NH Liquor Commission, along with the Restaurant Association, has partnered with Absolut Vodka to begin the transition to running all NH Liquor Stores as green as possible!

Oh my goodness! What a wonderful development! New Hampshire is the first of 18 states to get this underway- primarily because NH distributes liquor through the government, not private enterprise. So, it's easier to get all of NH's Liquor stores on the same page rather than try to get a couple in Massachusetts to consider participating. We're going to be a shining beacon for the rest of the country and I couldn't be happier. Soon, restaurants will be converting wasteful practices and I won't have to give up bottles of Sierra Nevada when I go out with friends.

Leave it to that big gold dome in Concord for making this all possible. I'm so pleased with where the Capitol City is headed recently. I mean, check this out:

Green Concord? This can only get huge, I know it.

Now the city is supposedly putting recycling bins next to the trash recepticles on Main Street, too. Holy Moly. I think I should write about that for the Hippo.

Yeah ... that's a good idea.

Psyched!

Alright, time to get some work done. I have a few interviews today, so I should be traveling a fair amount. Wish me luck, guys!

Love,
Say

A decent argument was raised- I have to make mention of it.

Okay, Casey- I see your waste water and energy consumption and raise you distribution and glass bottle production.

Waste water can be treated. Energy can come from renewable resources. I guess what I'm trying to drive home is how much SPACE we can save in landfills.

However, you're right about putting hazardous cleaning chemicals into ground water and using energy to sanitize glasses- which many bars do continuously every night to keep up with the crowds.

So, are we damned if we do- damned if we don't? Anyone else have any input? Some insight that can save us from ourselves?

I look forward to seeing some comments.
Best,
Say

I only drink draught.

On Friday night, Mark and I and some friends went to the Legion down the street. The pitchers there are a mere $4.50 and the 5 to 6 of us shared several in a few hours. While we were sitting at the bar I noticed the bartender continually throwing away glass bottles and a thought occurred to me: How many bottles were we saving by choosing pitchers instead of bottled beer?



I'm going to fudge some numbers right now, so bear with me ...

There were five of us, and we drank an average of five beers a piece. That's 25 beers- 25 fewer bottles thrown away. Now, if there were a guestimated 50 people in the room, who each drank an average of 5 beers as well- and they chose tap over bottles- that's 250 fewer bottles thrown away.

There are an average of 7 to 8 bars in town. Let's stick with 8, for formula purposes. If each bar holds an average of 50 people (I don't know why I'm sticking with this number, it just works math wise), than there is an average of 400 people drinking each night. If they all chose to drink 5 beers off tap instead of bottled, that would save 2,000 glass bottles. Woah. Now imagine if my numbers were more accurate. I can guarantee the numbers would be much bigger.

But, you see my point, don't you? Doesn't it make sense to use a glass that gets washed instead of ending up directly into a landfill- sitting idly while waiting the hundreds of years it takes to break down. Asking restaurants to recycle is probably a tough sell- though Mark and I have been formulating ways to present the idea in a way that is cost beneficial to restaurant and bar owners. If people make the choice to drink draught in the mean time, think of the difference it could make.

I'm asking you folks to consider doing this the next time you're out having beers with your friends. Coors light bottles might be on special, but those bottles will be polluting the planet after you're done being out for the night. A pint glass can always be washed and reused.

Thanks for reading, more tomorrow.
Drink safe- stay satisfied.
Best,
Say