How do you have a treaty with yourself?

A senate committee today voted to send a resolution to the full senate to reduce greenhouse emissions with credit incentives for those that cut and credit penalties for those that don't. Those most affected by this decision are utility, manufacturing and transportation businesses. Which in the end means the consumer and user. Thats you and me.

A vote most along party lines to progress the bill was claimed to help the children. Senator Barbara Boxer claims, "We are facing a crisis that will hit our children and our grandchildren the hardest if we do not act now. Not to act would be wrong, cowardly, and irresponsible."

Oh its going to hit our children alright. Higher taxes and consumption costs. The bill seeks to force companies to reduce greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide emissions much like the much ballyhooed Kyoto Protocols which have done absolutely nothing for those that elected to follow it since the mid 90's.

This time its just us. The good ole' US of A. The thought amongst the mostly liberal backing of this plan is that by America taking steps to control global warming other industrial states like China and India will follow suite. This is highly unlikely since China is a communist state only concerned about its own internal interests and India while a democracy is more concerned about becoming the China-alternative to leadership in Asia.

If this bill is ratified, it would surely increase the taxes the average American family would be required to pay. A Washington Times Article on November 11th, estimated that the burden for these caps would be about five trillion dollars over 40 years with no evidence of appreciable change in global warming patterns.

Sure that is a bit of alarmist mentality. Scaring people into radical conclusions seems to be the norm these days.

Turn out that lightbut keep your tv on

Sunday football has drunk the environmental kool aid. Over the last weekend while NBC (owned by General Electric) was doing a pre-game show, they turned off the lights in the commentary booth and began describing its mission statement of doing its part to help global warming.

So, what NBC is essentially saying is, "Watch your big screen plasma in the dark." I thought I wasn't supposed to watch tv in the dark. Isn't it supposed to ruin my eyes? I know I was told not to sit to close to television sets because that would ruin my eyes. Thats why I traded in my knob operated 13 inch black and white rabbit eared tv for my 60" HD DLP Flat screen with 1080i.

What's a fan to do?

What if I already converted my lighting to the horrendous glow of energy saving bulbs? Do I still need to turn them off even though I am only running 15 watts for a 100 watt bulb? Isn't it enough that I have to subject myself to the awful output of color by these bulbs? Conversely my wife tells me she would rather sit in a dark room with the tv off as along as she didn't have to watch or listen to football on Sundays.

Interesting.

I suppose the logical conclusion to this, using the main steam media model of, "tell a lie long enough and it becomes truth," global warming is going to shift all football games to morning and afternoons and only on days that are sunny and in stadiums that have retractable roofs or no roofs at all. "It's better for our environment to to not have stadium lights on during a night game," is the logical reason.

In the end, the NFL could care less about global warming. In fact most cold weather teams look forward to late season games in their home (cold air) stadiums because its a detriment to the visitors. The NFL cares about cash. The ones who get hurt are not the fans who are in a kajillion watt lit stadium getting their information from a billion watt speaker system and a jumbo tron, its us 'little' people who have to put up dorks trying to save a species one light bulb at a time.

BTW, do you think I have to take the bulb out of my microwave too? Microwaved pizza just doesn't taste the same unless I can see the cheese melting just right?

Conservatism vs. Consumerism

I have a ceiling fan hanging in the middle of my family room. It has a light kit underneath, nothing special about that. The photo is a representation of it, not the actual unit.

Over the course of a last week two of the three lights stopped working. In a matter of good conscious I decided to replace all three with CFL energy efficient bulbs. Again.

The first time I did this a year ago, yes before Al Gore's movie, the color emitted from them was a ghastly yellow green. Our family attempted to get used to the lighting but after a few days it was apparent we would rather sit in the dark than turn on the lights. Maybe thats how we are supposed to save money?

So they went away.

Sunday I replaced all the lights in the ceiling fan with CFL's. The lights this time are a perfect white light. I simply matched up the converted wattage of the CFL's to the normal bulbs but ended up with a much brighter room and a serious contrast to the lightening in the rest of the downstairs. Not to be deterred we decided next week we will buy more environmentally friendly bulbs at $3.88 a piece at a lower wattage to tone down the family room and move the brighter lights to the outside lights.

New problem.

Since Sunday I couldn't figure out why my tv remote was taking so many 'clicks' to react to a command. When I replaced the lights I also upgraded some wires on my entertainment systems' components. I figured I moved the cable box out of alignment with our seating. So I moved my arm up and down and stretched it left and right and sat in different spots always aiming the remote at the cable box. I changed the battery's. In all cases after several clicks the command would be accepted to change the volume or channel or whatever.

The next day, after a long day of work, sitting in front of my gigantic flat screen DLP HD tv, in my ultra bright family room, I started to get frustrated flipping between programs. And when I get frustrated I get inspired. So I asked my wife who was walking by to flick off the lights.

Immediately the tv began accepting my commands. Could it be?

Yes! After a few minutes of flicking the lights on and off and quite a few "Oh My Goshes", it was confirmed that three 100 watt CFL bulbs 8 feet up can disrupt the commands sent from a tv remote to a cable box, a distance of about ten feet apart.

There's some moral decision here. First, I could stop watching television in a well lit room out of frustration of pushing a button five times for one command. Two, I could go out to the garage and tap the stockpile evil incandescent bulbs and zone out stress free in beautiful soft white light.

Yeah. I know. The garage.

This week was the 515th anniversary of Columbus reaching the New World. I have a feeling that well before we even get to the 200th anniversary of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb he will be subjected to the same outrage. Thomas Edison the destructor of the environment for creating the light bulb! Well I say how dare people tell me I have to use energy efficient light bulbs when that means I waste energy switching channels. Where is the savings in that?

Seasons over

Tonto National Park is closing Canyon Lake later this month to work on the dam that sits on its western shores. The water level will drop about 50 feet. I love this lake and swim in it twice a week from essentially Valentines Day through Thanksgiving. Most people would kill for open water swimming for that long each year. Of course at the beginning and end of the seasons we are in full wet suits and neoprene caps and gloves.

On the last swim of the year, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, those of us brave enough to last the 50 degree water hold a small BBQ on the beach. This year however with the lake closing in September we decided to hold the event this weekend.

What does this have to do with being a green conservative?

In thinking about my year up at Canyon Lake, since February, I have pulled out at least 200 pounds of others peoples trash. That is a lot of beer bottles, cans, caps, boxes, batteries, broken glass, fishing containers, diapers, napkins, wipes, plastic bags, used utensils and deflated inflatable pool toys. Mostly beer containers though.

Littering frustrates me. Its such a lack of respect to not pack out your own garbage, especially when the person or group is not tidy in how they spend their time there to begin with. It would be great to just have to pack out already bagged trash, but when it's just strewn about with no care or thought it really chaps me.

I still hope to go up to Canyon Lake the rest of the year, if for no other reason than to do some running and cycling among the deserted highway in solitude. I'd like to see what the landscape looks like under all the hundreds of miles of swimming I have done there.

The Tonto Park Rangers are woefully understaffed in maintaining the cleanliness of the parks around the lake. It's to bad really. Every time I am there, I see them working hard at just keeping the trash cans empty and the bathrooms maintained. They do what they can with the litter and am sure they are on top of it much better than I give them credit for. I have run through the beach area's on early mornings after holiday weekends and it is smelly and atrocious.

So long Canyon Lake swimming. Till next year.

Little things

I may be the only person I know who has kept a New Year's Resolution for more than six months. I have kept it for five years and never change it. I return shopping carts to there proper place in parking lots so the car slots are not clogged with carts. I know its a pretty small thing but people with little care for others generally just leave carts strewn about parking lots make the place a mess.

I have also taken to not using plastic grocery bags or paper bags when I can at the grocery store. I bought a nylon sack, a total copy of a plastic shopping bag except that it has a built in sack and d-ring to store the bag when not in use. Some stores will give a credit for those that use their own bags, which is really not an incentive to buy a nylon sack since it would take many uses to break even, but again its a small thing I can do.

I also realized that with my lifestyle of running shorts and wanting to be a hands-free guy, I carry a backpack or drawstring bag with me pretty much everywhere I go and can put lots of what I purchase in it, saving on bags. I do get some looks and confusion from cashiers but for the most part they notice I am trying to save bags.

For those that also feel they want to do good with their plastic bags, here are some ideas. First they can obviously be re-used for grocery shopping. When retail stores use ones that are unique consider using them for sorting your items when you travel. Bright blue can be your pants, red for shirts. By compartmentalizing your clothes it becomes easier to pack. Keep a couple in your car for picking up litter at places you frequent like parks and water areas.

Just a few ideas. Little things

Hugging Trees

A friend of mine said to me the other day, "Have you seen the movie Happy Feet? No. Don't. Its got a lot of environmental stuff in it."

My response I could tell was a bit shocking to her, "You would be surprised at how I view the environment."

Just because my political beliefs point firmly to the right doesn't mean I, or other concerned and informed conservatives, don't have opinions that when viewed from the right seem out of phase with the GOP. It seems far to often that when you are pigeon holed as being republican or democrat, that all your opinions are in agreement with either Rush Limbaugh or Rosie O'Donnell. My thoughts on the environment are not based on my belief in business or from what I hear from talk radio. Nor is it based on 'An Inconvenient Truth' and Greenpeace or lately Outside Magazine.

My thoughts on the environment come from a life lived outdoors; fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, 4x4ing, trail running and traveling. I worked as a National Park Service Ranger. It comes from a father who I have no clue if he's a democrat or republican but retired as a Colonel in the National Guard and worked as both a Fish and Wildlife agent and a EPA criminal investigator. I have cut down a few trees and planted a few more than I have cut down.

In regards to open spaces, our wilderness is a precious commodity and the word that comes to my mind is stewardship. The environmentalist mentality cloaked in socialism and bolstered by most liberals in congress is a Leave It All Alone mentality. They would prefer to fence it all off, fine anyone inside it and let it do its thing.

I will certainly not stop any movement to conserve our open lands but I have a serious problem with not doing anything in it. It is not enough to protect these lands from elements who would do harm to it, but it must be protected from itself.

Think of city park. In the proto-typical environmentalist mentality the park will be fenced off and only walkers will be allowed inside. There are no garbage cans because users must follow a personal code of Leave No Trace Behind. In time the park will be in disrepair because there is no maintenance crew to trim the trees, pick up trash or maintain pathways. In time no one will go to the park because it is ugly or forgotten. Someone starts a fire and because of overgrowth the park burns unmolested and threatens a nearby apartment complex.

In the context of federally protected land areas, these parks need to be cleared of low lying brush so forest fires will not have the capacity to reach hundreds of thousands of acres and threaten homes and families. Back burning is necessary to create fire breaks and protect communities. Fire roads need to be created, not only for access to remote areas but act as a 'rally point' for hikers.

A rally point, or similar term such as handrail or protective line, is used to describe the direction of travel if lost. When your hiking in the backcountry it is good to have an agreed upon place to meet if someone from the group is lost. As not everyone carries a map but everyone should have a compass, cardinal directions are best. Based on where you are at on your trip, having a pre-determined grid coordinate to meet at is unrealistic whereas knowing anyone considered lost will travel east to a logging road or a lake is realistic.

The crux is this, as a green conservative, it is incumbent upon me to ensure our lands are protected for not only our future enjoyment but our future industries. It is one thing to protect our lands but another to realize it can improve the lives of those living around it or that a portion of those lands can limit our dependency on foreign imports. Business is not always bad for wilderness. Hunting is not bad for wilderness. Forestry projects are not bad for wilderness. Leaving wilderness to itself can be bad for for our economy in terms of forest fires, increased federal spending on fighting those fires; lost homes and lives, increased insurance payouts based on those loses; not to mention decreased ability to discover and sustain natural resources that can benefit our countries well being.

Take one (bag) for the team

On Sunday, I was the only person to show up for an open water swim practice that my triathlon team does a few times per week. Everyone was sleeping in or racing out of town. It gave me an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of our wilderness on my own...and pick up all the trash that people leave at our little spot.

Its unavoidable especially at close areas like Tonto National Forest that people who have low regard for nature will leave their trash, smash their bottles and scrawl graffiti on US Forest Service buildings. Just in the last month there is over a dozen new tags in the rest room I occasionally hit before swimming.

The spot we swim at is outside the beach/boat areas but still sees a fair amount of people who fish and perhaps engage in gazing and drinking alcohol. Littered around the area was ripped up Styrofoam coolers, broken liqueur bottles, soda cans, used napkins and other detritus. I filled a large garbage bag from my car and wished I had another. I took it to the dumpsters within the beach area.

Some of this trash is packed down into some of the rock crevasses or tucked under prickly trees or cactus. Later in the day while grocery shopping I picked up some more trash bags and one of those reaching grabby things called Trash Tongs to pick up the broken glass shards and hard to reach stuff.

I wish people would take better care of their personal trash outdoors. When I was in the military and later in my civilian business I was instilled with the habit of leaving a place cleaner than I found it; I even wipe down counters in movie theater bathrooms and at restaurants that still have paper towels.

After my short swim I hiked up into the canyon to find the Lost Dutchman's goldmine. Well I was more taken by the scenery than looking for caves but legend has it the unfound mine and many others are in the area. It made for a good day of training and my team mates will hopefully find a cleaner spot the next time they go to drop their towels for a swim.