Sunday, April 29, 2007

Tree Huggers Unite


Tree Hugger, originally uploaded by rt44man.

Are you a tree hugger? :-)

Tree Huggers Unite


Tree Hugger, originally uploaded by Photo Twister.

Do you have a Tree Hugger Picture... ? Add you picture

Good Vodcast on Web 2.0

Thomas Friedman and panelist on the growth of Web 2.0

Dick Gephardt has sold his soul to the DEVIL!



Dick Gephardt is now a lobbyist for the coal companies who wants to defeat efforts by Democrats to put caps on carbon emissions?!! Dick Gephardt the former Democratic House Majority Leader, lobbying for the coal companies; is there something wrong with this picture? Al Gore stuck to his guns when he was defeated and didn’t trade his long cherished beliefs about environmental issues for money. Dick Gephardt sold his soul to the devil for money!

He now is working for Peabody Coal and lobbying for more money to develop Clean Coal. In the Clean Coal environmental model, the coal companies will use carbon sequestration to offset the carbon emissions. That means burying the carbon dioxide in the ocean, which turns into thick gooey gunk that sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Wonder how many eco-systems in the ocean this will upset? Never mind that we get the majority of the oxygen we breathe from phytoplankton in the ocean and we have no idea how carbon sequestration will impact delicate balance of the ocean’s eco-system. Dick Gephardt is protecting jobs but this perhaps shows why the Democrats were on a losing streak under his leadership. This is so short sighted and so one dimensional. And to think, I he was once my favorite candidate in 2004. What a fool I was! I guess I'm taking off my rose-tinted glasses and learning to see things for the way they are. Good riddance Dick Gephardt!

Why Hillary Clinton will win the White House; but Biden is the best canidate and why I WON'T vote for Obama

Electing Obama to be the President of the United States would be a huge mistake. We would have another GW Bush in the White House: someone who is unprepared and over his head with little to no real experience in many of the issues that matter and needing to be told what to do by advisors who have more experience than he does. The “can’t we all just get along”; leader is not what we need in the White House in 2008. We need someone who has international leadership abilities that can clean up the mess that the Bush/Cheney/Rove/Falwell mess has left behind.

If the Democrats were going to pick the best team to lead this county it would be a Biden/Richardson ticket. I think they both have the leadership capabilities that are needed in this eleventh hour of the Iraq War and could really help restore America’s credibility around the world. I like Edwards, but his strength seems to be social and domestic issues, not international issues and unless we are able to straighten out this Iraq mess, we will not have the means to address the needs of this nation.

Unfortunately, I believe that Hillary Clinton is going to win the nomination for the Democratic candidate. I don’t dislike Hillary, I believe that she would be an effective leader, but I don’t think that she is the right person to lead our county at this moment in time. But she will win. The Clintons have too many political favors they can call in from Democratic leaders around this country. This is why she will win the nomination. Just like the Florida contest between Davis and Smith, Davis had the Democratic leadership’s support. It is pay back time for all the people that Bill Clinton helped when he was the president. The best thing about Hillary in the White House will be Bill Clinton. He will once again be active in the political arena and that would be good for our country, as long as he can stay away from the interns. Hopefully she will be smart enough to make Biden the Secretary of State. That would be a win-win situation for the country.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Ohio Vote Audit Turns Up Duplicates, Deletions

I don't believe that Bush won the election fairly in 2000 or 2004.
Here's a podcast on NPR examining the audit of Ohio's votes.

Interviews With Jeff Bezos

about where Amazon is heading in the new Web 2.0 world.

Green to Gold


This is the book I'm currently reading. For me, it lacks some of the punch I wish it had. It offers strategies for companies to think green. Monitor the NGO's and pay attention to their issues. Look up stream and down stream to see what footprint your product has and look for NGO hot issues. Make sure you are addressing their concern but secretly behind the scene, attack their rationale. It offers an interesting insight into what companies fear and where a NGO or environment group should focus their attention to make them become more responsible corporate citizens.

Green Travel

Good stuff on a International Green Certification program for hotels and the travel industry.
Worldwide Green Hotel Certification Programs
Below are six of the most highly regarded hotel certification programs. All are independently audited, but they don't all take the same factors into account. To make it easy to identify which sustainable tourism issues each program addresses, we've listed them at the end of each entry.
Energy Star
An EPA program that rates energy efficiency not just in lightbulbs and refrigerators but in hotels as well. More than 150 properties participate, but just being a part of the program doesn't necessarily indicate much—look for a score of 75 or higher out of 100.
www.energystar.gov
EU Eco-Label
A rigorous new program that certifies hotels and campsites throughout the European Union's 25 member countries. Fifty-one hotels currently participate—with more on the way.
www.eco-label-tourism.com
Green Globe
Probably the best-known label. Based on stringent Australian guidelines, it certifies properties primarily in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia but has begun to expand into the Caribbean and elsewhere.
www.greenglobe.org
Green Leaf
A Canada-based label, run in association with Audubon International, this program has just begun to expand into the United States. (Thailand's highly regarded, though unrelated, certification program is also called Green Leaf.)
www.greenhotelsonline.com
Leed
Created by the U.S. Green Building Council to certify that buildings meet with standards of energy efficiency, conservation, and sensitivity to locale. Hotels have been slow to take up the challenge; only about 20 throughout the country have applied. San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, opening next month, hopes to be the fifth to receive accreditation.
www.usgbc.org
Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas
A joint effort of the Rainforest Alliance and the International Ecotourism Society that links certification programs from several countries to maintain minimum— and evolving—environmental standards throughout the Caribbean and the Americas.
www.eco-indextourism.org.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The Threat to the Planet by Dr. Hansen

Dr James Hansen

Papers by Dr. Hansen; the research scientist at NASA who spoke out about Global Warming/Climate change that the Bush admin tried to hush and censor.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Bad Don Imus: PS. What's on the iPods of the Rutgers Women Basket Ball Team?

The only thing I want to say about Imus. Yes, it was bad what he said, but for me there seems to be a double standard. I'd love to hear what the Rutgers Women Basketball Team has on their iPods! I wonder how many of them listen to Gangsta Rap and don't get offended? I wonder why it's OK for Gangsta Rap Artists to pollute the minds of the audience with their trash talk and popularize it, but its not OK for a sixty year old shock jock to use similar language? I wish the talking heads had asked all of the African American leaders who were outraged by Imus what their kids listen to and what they have on their iPods.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Checking out this blog

I'm wondering if I can get insight into what is happening to Alaska due to climate change issues.
Blogger is recommending it as a good blog.

Missing email by Rove

I hope the Democrats stay on this. Here is another example of how the Bush people operate. They think they are above the law. The law says government leaves a paper trail. It is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Transparency in government is required so that people can know what the government they elected is doing. So what does Rove and Company do? They thumb their noses at "the people" who they are supposedly working for and work outside of the limitations of which they were supposed to be operating. We make the rules... that is their attitude. We can do what ever we want, because we are the ones who have the power. As Bush said, "I'm the Decider."I hope the Democrats keep attacking. Sooner or later, they are going to find evidence to prosecute Karl Rove!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Unabashed Tree Hugger

Notice the black square in the bottom right side of the pix equals a whole football field.

How Illegal Timber Travels

Source: 2007 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive


Every day huge volumes of logs, many of them harvested illegally, stream toward Chinese factories where workers churn out products such as furniture and floorboards. These wares are shipped to major retailers like Ikea and Home Depot, and are bought by shoppers with little inkling of the wood's origins.


The Article: Corruption Stains Timber Trade

Forests Destroyed in China's Race to Feed Global Wood-Processing Industry By Peter S. Goodman and Peter FinnWashington Post Foreign ServiceSunday, April 1, 2007