Category: environment

Another one for the "Wish I’d Written It" File…

As Ford posts yet another crazy-ass quarterly loss ($8.7 billion), it makes one wonder how much better the US auto industry (and its unions) would be doing if they had let the government raise CAFE standards, huh? The government could’ve bailed them out of this mess.

And it makes one wonder how much better that industry would be doing if they hadn’t so viciously opposed Bill and Hillary Clinton’s 1993 health care initiative. In 2004, GM spent over $5 billion in health care costs — a number that is likely significantly larger today. That’s billions that would be off its balance sheet had they not opposed universal healthcare.

Lots of industries may shoot themselves in the foot, but none more so than the auto industry. It truly deserves the comeuppance it is getting (and it has gotten a healthy assist from its unions). The people who don’t deserve it — of course — are its workers, who are getting screwed.

~ Markos Moulitsas Zúniga

Yep, classic myopic behavior on the part of U.S. industry. Seems that the auto industry isn’t the only group that can’t see past its wingtips. I watched a film last night (can’t remember the name) that outlined the destruction of Western U.S. wildlands by the oil and gas industry. The gist of the film was that for the first time, environmentalists, ranchers and hunters were coming together to try to save public lands from rampant destruction.

The current administration has deregulated drilling to such an extent that oil companies have been granted leases in most of the Rocky Mountains’ public lands set aside for preservation. Many of these untapped sources of natural gas hold only a few days’ worth of inventory. So the plan is: go in and drill the crap out of these areas, run roads and pipelines throughout and leave these great lands scarred and torn. All for a little gas. Not very cool. Ranch lands are also affected with many unable to raise cattle due to the segmentation of the grasslands and poisoning of the aquafers due to spillage and open evaporation pits. One rancher had his stock tested and 90% of the cattle showed measurable traces of petroleum contamination. Not really something I would recommend getting into the food supply. (Yet another reason to shy away from meat.)

So all of this is pretty awesome. Or not.

On a completely separate note, I feel great, physically. Only a trace of soreness left yesterday after Sunday’s effort and I am fired up to start running again. Looking for the next great adventure. Fortunately for me, Rach is super supportive of these things and is always encouraging me to go out and have some fun. I may see if anyone needs pacing assistance at Leadville. I’ll keep you posted on that.

~stubert.

Did you watch the movie?

World Ocean impact map courtesy of Nature.com


Out there is our home. Home AUTO, and it’s in trouble. I can’t just sit here and do nothing. That’s all I’ve ever done! That’s all anyone has ever done on this blasted ship. ~ Captain

So there has been a lot of backlash from certain groups surrounding the magnificent film, WALL-E. Apparently, many of these people paid their $9.50 (or whatever movies in their area cost these days), bought their $6 tub of corn and $5 soda, selected their favorite place to sit and completely forgot to watch the moving pictures being projected on the massive screen in front of them.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD.

Now I can understand that some of these groups have misguided ideological mindsets that prevent them from rational thought regarding such notions as human impact on global resources, environment, etc. (c’mon, guys… if you have ever looked at a landfill, or say, Los Angeles, it is pretty obvious we are making our mark upon the planet) but the latest group to take offense at the message contained in WALL-E apparently, consists of the overweight. Gawker has a summary.

So this community of fitness-challenged individuals claims that Pixar has made a film that demonizes the community as a whole for being slovenly and contributing to the demise of the planet. So much so that humans are forced to leave earth and send down cleaner robots (WALL-E units) to help tidy things up so that stuff can actually grow and thrive on the surface once more.

Here is where I start to take offense with their criticism as the film make it abundantly clear using several very obvious and specific examples that the largeness humans have attained in space HAPPENED IN SPACE, not on the earth as these groups maintain in their complaints. Sure, Pixar is trying to demonstrate that our current love affair with throw-away products and super-sized, fat-laden “meals” has contributed directly to the state of the planet in which it has become uninhabitable but by no means have they stated that the morbidly obese are solely (or even at all) to blame.

Example number 1: The evolution of the Captain – In one scene, the ship’s captain looks back at headshots of all his predecessors and realizes that they get progressively more obese as time progresses (started out slim, got fat while in space, get it?)

Example number 2: Fred Willard, not so chubby – Now I am not going to say that Fred Willard is the poster child for fitness but any person with functioning eyeballs can see that he is not obese and according to the movie, he was running the show when humans finally had to abandon (earth)ship. So therefore, one can surmise that there were still some skinny people in charge when the proverbial shit hit the fan.

Example number 3: The back-to-earth instruction manual – This document clearly states (and is backed up by known science) that the humans’ bones may have atrophied during their extended sodjurn in space and this may contribute to their no longer being able to walk in a normal-gravity situation. This would lead us to the fairly obvious conclusion that they got this way while in space instead of pre-departure.

Yes, the characters are all slovenly, and obese, and more interested in television than what is going on around them, and seemingly addicted to Super Big Gulp servings of liquid meals but they redeem themselves and all seem more interested in living (a much more difficult) life on earth than being waited on hand and foot in outer-space. The message of the movie is to wake up, get off the couch and find your fucking dog. (Actually, it is to stop spending all your time in front of the boob tube, stop being wasteful and become a steward of the planet instead of a slave to consumerism. Stop buying plastic shit and oversized meals being foisted upon you by big-box, mega-mall shopping centers and fast food joints.) The larger of the human species are not to blame per se but we may all end up floating around on motorized couches and eating our meals through a straw if we don’t get off our asses and do something about the exponentially escallating impact we are creating on our natural resources.

</rant>

~stubert.