Earth Day 2026 -- Using Our Imagination

No, I'm not some radical Environmentalist, but I am an Environmentalist in many ways.  I believe in Conservation much more strongly than Preservation.  I see the Earth as my home, and I want my home to be clean, healthy and functioning properly.

The theme of Earth Day 2026 is "Our Power, Our Planet."  The focus is promotion of clean energy.  That's a tough one because Solar and Wind power are just as damaging to the environment as the oil and gas industry in many ways.

Most of us don't really think about the energy we consume except when we buy a tank of fuel for our vehicles or pay the electric bill.  We just expect it to be there ready to use, convenient and reliable.  

Our lives, jobs and recreation are filled with energy consumption.  The carbon you ingest as food is energy consumption.  The round of golf you play consumes energy -- the cheeseburger you just ate.  The burning muscles from a hard day of physical labor are the result of consuming energy that fuels your efforts.  Everything revolves around energy consumption and expenditure.

Reliable sources of energy and other resources have been the driving force behind wars.  The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in an effort to cripple the U.S. Military while Japanese forces seized the energy-rich lands of the Southeast Asian Islands.  Current events in the Middle East are to a large extent about energy as was the action in Venezuela.

Wind and Solar power are currently the darlings of the Environmental movement but the devastation of mining for rare earth minerals which are key to battery manufacture is often ignored.  The vast solar arrays which remove productive farm and ranch land are ignored.  The giant wind chargers which require tremendous manufacturing capabilities as well as the need for vast storage areas when they are scrapped also scar the land.

Wind, Solar and Water power are all very natural sources of energy, but not in the ways we have attempted to harness them.  Our food is captured solar energy.  That energy utilizes water and carbon which are drawn from the soil and the air to store itself in plants which are then either consumed directly or are further processed and concentrated by animals.  Wind and water shape the land and the things growing upon it.  Utilizing power from the sun, the planet itself along with the moon anchored to it generates the winds and cycles the water to sustain itself.  It conserves resources by constantly recycling them from one form to the next.  Even the waste leftover from our energy consumption is recycled.

We disrupt the natural cycles through chemicals and mechanical means, but nature itself carries the mechanisms to do all of those things on its own.  Soil microbes, plant roots, fungi, insects and worms are constantly breaking down the detritus of the living into food for the next generation.  Rather than focusing on unnatural processes and machinery to harvest our energy needs we need to re-think our approach and seek ways that mimic nature.

Below is a photo of an American Blusher Mushroom (Amanita flavorubens).  I have used a different photo of one in a previous post.  What many don't realize is that beneath the soil is a complex web of fibers connecting the mushrooms.  That's why we see "fairy rings" growing where mushrooms or toadstools are in the semblance of a circle.  The rhizomes threading through the soil not only break down plant and other material, but they also chemically transmit a message to nearby plant roots, insects and worms that food is nearby and available.  It is an amazing world we live in.  Let's keep it that way.

Global Warming Again

I can't decide what to think about "global warming". I don't trust the media, I don't trust politicians, I don't even trust the so-called scientists. They all have an agenda they are pushing which biases their positions. I think there are certainly observations and measurements of climatological factors that indicate that the earth is in a warming cycle -- at least some areas of the earth. Is the warming man-made, or part of the natural rhythm of the earth's climate?

I had a lot of training in statistics when I was in college. The old adage that "the figures don't lie, but liars can figure" is appropriate to consider, and certainly relevant to the question of climate change. If you have a particular point of view that you believe to be correct, the research that you conduct will be conducted in such a way that you will likely prove your point -- especially in an area that has as many variables as the earth's climate. If you believe that the polar ice caps are melting, you will look until you find evidence that they are melting. If you believe that the earth is warming, you will look until you find evidence of warming -- even if you have to measure the temperature in a thousand locations to do it! All research begins with the biases of the researcher. They cannot be removed from the process. I know that you "scientists" out there will disagree with this, but keep in mind that your disagreement is a bias in itself.

My training is in economics. Economics is a so-called social science. It is the study of the allocation of resources. It uses scientific methods to the extent possible. However, all economic problems are affected by huge numbers of variables. The larger the number of variables, the more inexact the conclusions. The large number of variables is one of the biggest problem with climatology. In economics, quite literally, the price of eggs in China can potentially impact the futures market for corn in the United States. Why? One possible scenario is that a high price for eggs in China could cause a shift in chicken raisers from meat production to egg production. This in turn could create a demand in China for imported chicken. Perhaps the chickens are imported from the U.S. as frozen, boxed chicken. The increased demand for chicken from U.S. suppliers could cause a price rise in chicken meat in the U.S. causing a shift in consumption by U.S. consumers from chicken to beef. In the feedlots of the U.S., corn is one of the primary feed ingredients. Therefore, the quantity of corn demanded would increase and the cash price of corn would increase -- at least temporarily until the farmers responded by planting more corn. The cash price increase would create a speculative increase in the corn futures market. An endless number of other scenarios can be concocted by any good economist that would provide the same or a different answer. It is likely that none of them are completely true.

Now all of that was said for this reason. How many variables affect the weather? Even solar flare activity affects the weather on earth. There is no way that scientists can know with certainty that human activity is causing global warming.

Al Gore has come to the forefront as one of the biggest "fear-mongers" of global warming. He's also making a lot of money in that role. Is he also running for President based on the questionable fears that he is creating in the American public? The general public notoriously follows the media. The media tends to give favorable treatment to the most liberal of ideas. It all just makes me suspicious.

It's time for the American people to take our country back from the vultures. If we don't, they'll soon be picking over our bones.

Shrunken Earth

The internet has really brought into focus how the earth has "shrunk". This blog is a portal to every country in the world. On the navigation bar at the top is a link that says "next blog". By clicking on it, Google will randomly select a blog site for you to visit next. I enjoy browsing using that "next blog" button. Much of the time I can't read the blogs that come up because they are in a language that I don't know. Sometimes, although the language may be unfamiliar, there are pictures of places in distant lands that are striking. They usually are not of the normal tourist places, they are of places that only the natives know. Occasionally, although in a different language, I can make out enough of the caption to know where they are located.

I know that people from other lands have visited my blog as well. The Sitemeter Counter at the bottom of the blog logs the country, state, and city of each visitor to my blog. I have had visitors from many different states in the U.S., but also from several Latin American, Asian, and European countries. Those of you who have been in the blog community for awhile are familiar with this.

I bring this up to say that blogging is a window to the world. In spite of the tensions and disagreements around the globe, this is a place where cultures can be shared by normal people -- people who get up each morning and go about their lives trying to make a living and to find some enjoyment. It is a place for people who aren't necessarily in positions of power, or influence, but who are making a difference by sharing who they are and what they do and know.

There are blogs out there that represent extreme positions on many issues -- especially politics. But most of the blogs are just ordinary people using this wonderful medium to express themselves. If you are reading this, thank you. Take a minute to click the "next blog" button at the top and see what you can find. You may be surprised. You may be shocked. Hopefully, you will be enlightened.