Environmental Toll

I can barely watch.

Obama Wants To Get Clean

Clean vehicles at least. He wants to set 2025 emission standards now. I feel like it's a little too soon and we should take steps to have cleaner vehicles. We don't know what technology that will develop in the next 15 years. The standards set today could be pedestrian in 2025.

Dirty Bird

The Oil Spill Is Getting Dome

The skinny:

PORT FOURCHON, La. — A 12-man crew was making final preparations Wednesday to take a 100-ton contraption 50 miles off the Louisiana coast in an unprecedented attempt to help funnel out oil spewing from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

The giant-concrete-and-steel box is the best short-term solution to bottling up the disastrous oil spill that threatens sealife and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast.

What did you think I meant by dome?

Sure to Be Blown Out of Proportion

This is sure to be blown out of proportion, pun intended:

NEW ORLEANS — Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana is now covering more than 1,800 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the water’s surface.

You know environmentalists will capitalize on this.

French Failure

France backed off initiative to introduce a carbon tax on domestic polluters:

"We have to amplify measures that help reinforce the competitiveness of our economy," Mr Fillon was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
"In that spirit, I would like to indicate that the decisions we are going to take regarding sustainable development have to be better coordinated with all European countries, so as not to widen our gap in competitiveness with our neighbour Germany."

Pretty disappointing that they didn't follow up on this. It would have been a significant move by one of the largest countries in the world and would send a message to the rest of the world that they are serious about the environment. It's very disappointing that they did not stand up for this, but only understandable because it would probably affect their economy. I hope that they can find a way to better institute this type of legislation that better targets the problem.

Snow...

...it ain't what it used to be.

I remember as a kid, snow was cold, soft, and wet. Snow nowadays is so dry. It's sticky, but it's not slippery. You can't slide around in it. I can't imagine how it is to sled or ski. It's inferior to the snow of yesteryear. It's really sad and depressing, and I would have to guess that the change in the composition of snow is due to environmental changes from anthropogenic pollution. With rain, you don't really notice differences. It can be annoying and it'll make you have to go slower on the highway, but you don't see or feel the differences. With snow, you can hold it, you can play with it, you can play in it. Well, I don't think you can get the same enjoyment from snow as you could back in my childhood days. I can only imagine how good snow was in the childhood of those that lived here before me.

Little things that you notice have changed in your lifetime like this can be very disheartening.