I love salmon

The Alaskan wild salmon fishery has been threatened by overfishing, fish farming, and climate change

I mean it. Salmon is my favorite fish- but wild salmon only. Now, it along with several other fish I enjoy are off my table. Mercury, toxins, fish farms have limited my consumption, but now there just aren't any fish. Wild chinook salmon have collapsed. Last week California and Oregon announced what some had been speculating for the last month - the chinook salmon had collapsed, and the coho population was about to collapse. Less than 6% of the normal run is expected this year. All commercial fisheries are closed (putting many fishermen out of work) and the sport fishery is going to be small, and extremely regulated. How did we get here? We have known about declining salmon runs for years.

And why wasn't this tragedy screamed across the headlines of North America? In a time when sustainability is heard on every street corner, why didn't every newspaper pick up this story? Instead, I heard about it in a class, and then an astute student, Robert Walker, brought an article to my attention. Thank you Robert.

The collapse is being blamed on ocean temperatures and the use of water in California (irrigation) along with the usual culprits: destroyed habitats and pollution.

Many biologists believe a combination of human-caused and natural factors will ultimately explain the collapse, including both marine conditions and freshwater factors such as in-stream water withdrawals, habitat alterations, dam operations, construction, pollution, and changes in hatchery operations.

Fish varieties live best in a narrow range of temperatures. Though overfishing had a great deal to do with the collapse of the cod in the Grand Banks 15 years ago, the no-show return of the cod has been blamed on the change in ocean temperatures. Cod have a very narrow range, and the Grand Banks have changed, and scientists are learning more about why the cod are not repopulating the banks. global warming, ocean temperatures, and wild annual fluctuations of fish - all of this encompassed within theories of the non-linear progressions of weather and its relation to global warming, have caused havoc in the seas. Now salmon could also be another victim of global warming.

And California's need and lack of water. With 38 million people (1/8 of all Americans) and the largest agricultural economy in the nation, the need for water has always been a stumbling block for the state. Despite years of stealing water, diversions, and conservation, the state has found itself in a drought again (the state has a history of droughts), and water and fish have been victims. The state and federal regulators are diverting so much water to irrigate the farms, the fish have been dying.

The Bush administration says that the reason for the sudden collapse of the Sacramento fall Chinook stock is "not readily apparent," but fishing, tribal and environmental groups point to massive water exports from the California Delta in recent years and rapidly declining water quality in Central Valley rivers as the key factors behind the fishery collapse. Although the ocean conditions were undoubtedly poor, many of the fish never made it to the ocean because they were sucked into the massive state and federal export pumps in the Delta or starved as they migrated through the estuary, due to the collapse of the Delta food chain.

Where are we heading as a civilization? Should everyone read Collapse and get the message? How many more signs do we need?

• cod collapse
  
• deforestation
• desertification
  
• Arctic pollution
• Arctic warming
• rising prices
• resources exhaustion
• oil peak
• global warming
• extreme weather events
• weakened immune systems
• human population explosion
• honey bee collapse
  
• salmon collapse

According the Diamond's Collapse the reasons for collapse are

1. Environmental damage caused by humans
2. Climate change
3. The presence of hostile neighbors
4. The absence of trading partners
5. The nature of a society's response to points 1-4

What do you think? Is living sustainably an answer? Can sustainability reach far enough, deep enough in to the minds of people to make the changes that are necessary in the time that we have?

Chinese Smog in LA

That is LA down there. I return to LA each year and the smog is still there. But did you know that some of that smog is coming from CHINA?

For years now the United States has sent its polluting industries out of the country, Why? Because it would be AWAY and not HERE. We all know that there is an invisible wall that stops all pollution at the national border. Well, here is the rub. The invisible wall isn't there.

It seems that Los Angeles smog, which is of course, caused by the insane amount of cars on the road, is caused by the insane number of cars, BUT that is not the only reason. The smog is being imported along with all the other things we import---from China. That is right, coal burning power plants in China are creating so much pollution that it is being carried by the winds across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of America. China is the most polluting country on earth.

Experts once thought China might overtake the United States as the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases by 2010, possibly later. Now, the International Energy Agency has said China could become the emissions leader by the end of this year, and the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency said China had already passed that level.

While China is the fastest growing economy on Earth, it is also the most environmentally devastating. Just read about what the country is doing to make the Olympics be somewhat healthy, and what some athletes have done when they realize how unhealthy it is.
Click image for larger graphic

As we already know (at least I hope so) pollution from coal-burning power plants is damaging to health. For human health it harms the respiratory system, causes cancer, causes thousands of premature deaths. The land and air fare no better. It causes acid rain, sterilizing lakes, rivers, and streams.

There is a Dickensian feel to much of the region. Roads are covered in coal tar; houses are coated with soot; miners, their faces smeared almost entirely black, haul carts full of coal rocks; the air is thick with the smell of burning coal.

Yet, even as the air is filled with soot, and cancer rates have soared, the Chinese (and perhaps America if Dick Cheney has his way) continue to build more coal-burning plants. And they continue to do exactly as we did as our industrial might grew - subsidize the plants, the electricity, the lifestyle, so that they can grow all that much more. While they grow they cause more pollution, more global warming, more climate change, more CO2 more of the problems that threaten our lives in the twenty-first century.

At what point do we all just get it? When do we start to realize we all live on the same planet and there is no "away."

BioFuels and Global Warming

Surplus corn was seen across the Midwest in recent years, due to the US dependence on the grain. In 2007 it reached all time highs as farmers cashed in on the biofuel opportunities. But what was that all about anyway?

Anyone who drove through the Midwest last year couldn't help but to see that corn was growing everywhere. Acres were devoted to it far from the corn belt up near Traverse City, it was on every available acre that anyone could sow. The price was up and people were feeling good about helping global warming and the fuel, dare I say, crisis?

But what was going on here? It seems that everyone I spoke to who knew anything about corn, fuel, and the politics of biofuel, said the same thing. NO GO. And now the research is saying the same. Despite some supportive analysis, people are finding that those who knew what they were talking about, really did know. There are several interrelated issues with depending on corn for our future fuel.

For example, have you noticed the price of food lately? Have you any idea how much of our food is dependent on corn? (Read The Omnivore's Dilemma for a great analysis) More corn (27% in 2007, versus 20% in 2006) is being used to create ethanol. That means less is available, and supply and demand dictates that the price of corn will rise, as it did, and so did our food.

But there are now several references (this is the link to the Science article) to that fact that ethanol is not helping one of the main reasons we are moving in that direction - global warming is not reduced by using ethanol. Land use changes have released more carbon dioxide into the air. Unbroken soil is a great sequester of CO2. Oh yes, and since corn is a thirsty crop, it is straining already tenuous water supplies.

One of the new studies, however, found that due to the impact of plowing up new fields, corn-based ethanol nearly doubles greenhouse-gas emissions compared to gasoline and that fuels made from switchgrass increase emissions by about 50 percent. Not all biofuels were net losers, though. The study authors suggested that producing biofuels from waste products still makes sense. (Grist)

The studies continue on saying that there are better ways to convert fields to biofuel, better crops, and maybe even using less water. Corn uses a lot of water, and the varieties grown today are hybrids, dependent on fossil fuel based fertilizers.

But how did we get into this crazed mode last year when everything was coming up corn? Politics, in a word. Agriculture and farmers have been suffering over the past few decades, and anything that looks like profit will be followed by those who depend on subsidies in order to break even. The agricultural lobby LOVED the idea of more corn, and high prices, and pushed it on the farmers, and they bit without analyzing the economic and environmental costs. As it turned out it ended up costing the consumers higher food prices, and the environment with more global warming. Subjectively the farmers are always looking for something, anything, to make a profit. Agriculture is a rough and tumble industry. Farmers are played by the political forces, and objectivity (what is actually good for the people) is never really broached.

When will we learn to be objective? I thought that was what science was supposed to be all about. It is time to leave politics behind and begin find the best form of energy, and to learn conservation too. There are ways to be energy rich and be efficient too. We just have to buckle down and work. We are not entitled, we are responsible.

PS I am adding this on March 29. Just saw the new Time Magazine and corn and biofuels are on the cover. The clean energy myth.

Michigan elevates its wind power

A wind farm in the thumb has delivered the first large scale alternative energy to the state.

Thirty-two wind turbines now provide power to Pigeon, a community of 14,000. After years of talk the state—the 14th windiest in the nation thanks to its Great lake frontage—has finally entered the alternative energy race. These turbines join the 4 or 5 others in the state, and change the wind energy ranking from 30th to 22nd. Still only 3% of all Michigan's power is renewable, (60% is non-renewable coal) but growth has been steadily increasing. Twenty other wind projects are proposed across the state. Michigan has the ability to produce 267 times the current wind power.

Governor Jennifer Granholm has been vying for additional additional alternative energy sources, 10% by 2015, and if she succeeds Michigan would join the 28 other states that have required a commitment. Not only that, but the demand for wind power (which currently has wind companies with a two-year backlog) could bring up to 17,000 jobs and $6 billion in investments. The new wind turbines were made in Denmark.

Another source of jobs and entrepreneurship is to develop the current transmission infrastructure to support the new energy sources. Current transmission limits the distance that the renewable energy can travel. The best place to build wind turbines is in rural areas.
States' wind power

The United States added 5,244 megawatts of wind power last year for a total of 16,800 megawatts nationwide. The states with the most installed wind power as of Dec. 31:

1. Texas... 4,356 MW

2. California...2,439 MW

3. Minnesota...1,299 MW

4. Iowa...1,273 MW

5. Washington...1,163 MW

22. Michigan...56 MW*

* As of March 2008

Source: American Wind Energy Association

The Rising Cost of Food

Have you noticed what has been happening to the cost of food? If you haven't you should, it is going up. Way up. Along with energy and fuel costs, and related to it (how does that artichoke get from California to Michigan if not for fossil fuel?) the American consumer is finding out what it means to live in a world that depends on fossil fuel to transport its food an average of 1500 miles, and has had a steadily declining value to its currency (the value of the dollar has halved in relation to the Euro in the past 6 years). In the past 12 months the cost of food has risen 5.1% the worst inflation since the early 1990s. For example in the past years increases include:

• Milk and dried legumes are up 17%
• Cheese 15%
• Rice and pasta 13%
• Bread 12%
• eggs 25% (and 62% in the past 2 years)
• chicken up 10%
• apples up 11.7%
  

Click on
image to enlarge

So what's a person to do? Well, many of us have been doing this for a long time already - grow a garden (also in the Freep on 3/14/08). It has always made a lot of sense. No more cardboard tomatoes, and a bounty of fresh fruit and veggies with nutrition intact.

Now many people are going to turn ever more toward the cheapest foods-processed foods, but be wary - they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Processed foods lack nutritive value, made with the cheapest ingredients, and preserved with chemicals that shouldn't enter one's body unless they are interred (and I even question that). Processed foods have all kinds of bad fats (they are cheaper) and are filled with sodium and or sugar(to enhance boiled out flavor). They travel thousands of miles to sit on your store shelves. AND eating processed meats or red meats are an established source of cancer (reduce your meat consumption).

It is just more sustainable to eat what you grow (and have control over), reduce fossil fuel transport that is not necessary, and have a healthy nation (less obesity, less cancer, less diabetes). Don't you think?

Climate Change, Transportation, & Jobs

I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, August 1, 2007. Is aging infrastructure something 'they' don't want to own up to? Should there be more funding? Can we afford it with a growing population and a growing expense for natural resources?

Maybe you have been wondering about all the so-called jobs that will come with accepting renewable energy and living in a world with climate change. Well, this article is not directly about jobs, but read it and think about what types of jobs will be required to answer the questions that this article is addressing. The jobs will be unique for the current time, because they will be "thinking" jobs, ones that are not the same old, same old. It is the youth of today who will answer these questions and think up new ideas. What an exciting challenge. And those of you who have been a part of these blogs are well on the way to living in this "new" world that is coming. I have been very impressed with your thoughts and ideas and feel that you are on the right track to exciting opportunities.

And so, what is this article? Transportation. Changes that will be required because of climate change. Specifically it notes:

• increases in very hot days and heat waves
• increases in Arctic temperatures
• rising sea levels
• increases in intense precipitation events
• increases in hurricane intensity.
  

Each of these climate change results will create infrastructure headaches (and even a few 'good' things, like being able to sail the Arctic!). Things break, things age in the normal course. With climate change it will no longer be the old normal, but a new normal, one that is seemingly random or chaotic - until we have minds that begin to work WITH the changes, instead of trying to do the "conquering of nature" as we have in the near past.

Each of these challenges will require people who are thinking outside the current box, and creating a new box (which, of course, will also require going outside of it). People will need to be expert in various transportation modes, climate change and effects, as well as working with one another to adjust the infrastructure.

Infrastructure. A majority of the roads, bridges, highway, and tunnels in America were completed in the 1960s. That is now getting to be close to 50 years old. Everywhere there are problems with infrastructure that is aging. Roads with potholes, bridges falling down or on the cusp of failure, tunnels losing panels due to poor construction quality, highways congested and worn out. Not only to they all have to be corrected, but rethinking how to proceed into the new sustainable future. Do we all have to have cars ALL THE TIME? Is there a way to share some transportation, or heaven forbid, live nearby our work? Can we change the way we live? As we rethink our infrastructure we will need to also rethink how we live and can we continue as we have been? Do we need to rethink our patterns in life? Hey! we can use a few geographers and urban planners for that.

There are many jobs that have not yet come to be, but if you keep reading the many issues and new opportunities in the sustainable world we are shaping, then, you will find your way.