About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Environmental Wrap-up
Author: BobR    Date: 05/23/2011 12:44:27

The environment is one of those issues near and dear to our hearts here at Four Freedoms Blog, and with several environment-related news stories all breaking this morning, I thought I would give a quick look-see at them, starting with the most distressing...

The big news this morning is that yet another massive tornado has slammed the midwest. Joplin Missouri was essentially "cut in half", and at least 89 are dead. The fire chief himself was not spared; his house was destroyed. The hospital is damaged (including their life-flight helicopter), and electrical service is down for most of the city. Entire neighborhoods are leveled. As always with these types of events, donations of money and blood to the Red Cross are important.

The severe weather conditions are effecting the entire planet, including as far away as New Zealand, where the La Niña is causing mass penguin deaths (let's get ahead of this one before the conspiracy theorists begin to blame this on some government operation):
This year's been a terrible year, we've had big starvation issues at sea," said Helps.

"A lot of chicks have starved to death before we could actually help them, then the adults started getting into trouble and started ending up too skinny to get the through the moult and this one was one of those... we've probably lost 80-90 percent of the chicks this year."

New Zealand's Department of Conservation (DOC) says the culprit is La Nina, a weather pattern characterised by unusually cool ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific.

UN scientists have linked La Nina to recent episodes of extreme weather around the globe, including flooding in Australia and drought in East Africa and the western seaboard of South America.

Unrelated to global warming, Europe is having its own problems as yet another Icelandic volcano has spewed so much ash into the air that authorities are concerned that it might affect air traffic:
An eruption by Iceland's most active volcano put Europe on high alert on Monday as a billowing ash cloud drifted toward Scotland and threatened to shut down airports across the northern edge of the continent.
[..]
The Grimsvotn volcano burst into life on Saturday, with dark plumes of smoke shooting 20 km (12 miles) into the sky, forming a bubbling mass which seeped above the clouds high over the North Atlantic island.

Of course - Europeans have a wonderful rail system, so those traveling within the continent certainly have other options. After many years of kvetching from us liberals on the fabulosity of the European rail system, it seems that Americans are finally getting the hint (or maybe it's just higher gas prices). Amtrack - after years of languishing - is finally seeing an uptick in ridership as it becomes popular with cost-concious travelers:
The price of gasoline has vacationers reluctant to jump into the car to experience a road trip, and airlines have passed on the fuel price increases they have experienced to consumers. In fact the average domestic airfare for this summer is expected to be around $375, which is a substantial chunk of change for anyone, let alone a family.

Travelers have found a new way to get to their destinations. In a strange twist of popularity, what was once old is new again, and folks are taking the train more than ever. Amtrak ridership has increased for 18 consecutive months. In April, Amtrak carried almost 2.7 million passengers, which is almost ten percent more than April 2010. The popular rail service has now set ridership records in seven of the last eight fiscal years, according to Rail.co. Last year, Amtrak carried 28.7 million passengers to their destinations.

The surge in rail travel is largely attributed to rising gasoline prices. Consumers looking to save a few dollars are turning to the rails; however, traveling by train has advantages and disadvantages much like any method of travel. While short distance commuting by train is popular, long distance travel can be a bit on the inconvenient side. Still, travelers fed up with fees associated with air travel, such as baggage fees, drink costs, and miscellaneous fees, find a degree of freedom and more legroom on trains.

Of course - speed is still an issue. If one decides to embrace the idea that the journey is as important as the destination, travel by rail can be a fun part of the vacation.

The post-tsunami reactor problems that have added to the devastation in Japan have created some changes in regards to energy policy. Part of the fallout (pun intended) is that Japan is considering putting solar panels on the tops of all new building construction. This seems like such a no-brainer to me. While it's true that the panels are not cheap, like anything else they will become cheaper as they become more popular. I hope we see a day where every house and building has solar panels on the roof.

Switzerland is also making changes after the problems in Japan. They are looking to wean themselves of nuclear power:
The damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has revived debate about energy policy in Switzerland, where the approvals process for three new nuclear power stations was suspended in March pending a review of safety standards.

The two papers reported Leuthard backed continuing to use current nuclear plants until the end of their lifespans, not building any new ones, and expanding alternative energy sources such as water power.

Finally, VW has created a two-person car that gets a whopping 261 MPG!! It's a concept car, but they will actually manufacture a small quantity of them for sale. The plus side of this is that they could expand it to be a four-seater with room for luggage and still have excellent gas mileage. That would go a long way toward reducing greenhouse emissions.

So here's hoping we all move towards cleaner renewable energy sources. Perhaps the worlds climate can recover back to some level of stasis, and we won't have to read about massive tornados and other storms every few months.
 

37 comments (Latest Comment: 05/24/2011 03:15:42 by Raine)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati