GAIA

Panic, panic everywhere

This week I have stumbled upon a variety of panic items:


FOREIGN FISH

2 recent immigrants to North America from Asia - Asian carp and snake head fish -- have been causing panic. At a metre long and able to jump high over canoes and barriers (Asian carp) or walk on their fins on land for up to 4 days breathing air (snake head ) these new fish are seen as deadly, voracious invaders who, without natural predators, will soon wipe out local fish and animal populations.


MY PERSPECTIVE:

Funny thing is both are prized delicacies in Asia (see Wikipedia) and, somehow, back home, they are not causing mass extinction.

Maybe the U.S. and Canadian fishing authorities should check with those in Asia to find out why they are not a problem there, and figure out how to capture them here for the North American Asian population diet.


CANADA GEESE

Mclean’s magazine, August 30, 2010, pages 50-51 condemns efforts in the U.S. to cull Canada geese in New York city as captured birds are euthanized with carbon dioxide and then buried. The article’s author, Josh Dehaas, recommends they follow Canadian practice at Toronto and Vancouver airports: scare off the geese (and seagulls) using trained hawks and other raptors or use loud canon noises, or plant long grasses the geese don’t like.

MY PERSPECTIVE:

As the article notes, there are 250,000 geese residing in New York state and 85,000 is the acknowledged ideal size for this species for New York state’s area. So how do you cope with massive goose overpopulation? Scaring them off means they soon return, or become someone else’s problem.

The geese, like seagulls and duck, constitute a life threatening hazard for jet planes at take off as they clog and shut down engines when sucked into the turbines.

Their large and extensive poop droppings are an even greater and widespread hazard – on beaches, in water, at golf courses, on sidewalks and public parks.

Bottom line: when it comes to choosing between a wild, overpopulated animal species and human safety, I vote for the latter.

Burial, however, seems such a waste. After all, humans raise geese for food and it is a French delicacy. And a quick Google search finds many wild goose recipes.

Anyone for Canada goose under glass in New York?


FLORIDA Everglades

A recent National Geographic on the Everglades and how they are endangered focused on 2 problems. One, there is less water flowing into the southern tip of Florida reducing plant growth and creating shallow rivers that harm animals. The reason: watershed in mid-Florida is being diverted – for … PEOPLE as the human populations expands.

Pythons were another focus and example of foreign, exotic animals being released by former pet owners. The pythons are huge creatures and can travel for over 30 miles, thereby endangering local animals.


MY PERSPECTIVE:

Since when are PEOPLE not important or worthy of drinking water? If the mindset is to preserve nature at all costs, then humans should all be sent to the Moon or Mars, because we cannot farm or build or propagate into the billions without somehow bumping some other creatures and their habitats.

So get real!


Secondly, this fear of invasive animals is poor history. Are we to believe that creatures only now come to the Americas secretly in boats? What of all the ships of Columbus and the Pilgrims, etc.? Did trade between Europe and the China of Marco Polo and thereafter not include some animal, plant and disease cross-pollination, so to speak? Did not the very first humans to come to the Americas from Asia via the land bridge of the current Bering Sea not introduce new animals and plants?

And what of horses, introduced to North America by the Spanish? Should they have been hunted down and exterminated as ‘invasive creatures? Just ask the plains Indians?

Put simply, animals, plants and diseases## are and have always been transmitted to new environments by human travel. It is nothing new and local eco-systems will adapt as they have done for centuries.


## Yes, diseases. Small pox, for example, came from Europe, and we now know that syphilis originated among the natives of the New World. HIV and AIDS are of African origin and influenza and SARS originate in China, as is the Avian flu virus spread by wild bird migrations.



EXTREME WEATHER

This summer’s floods, droughts, forest fires, super heat waves, etc. bode ill and it will get worse. So claims the article in MacLean’s re: flooding in Pakistan, droughts in other areas, forest fires and the super heat wave in Russia. (Maclean’s Aug 30, 2010, pages 38-44)

Put simply, the argument is that the Earth is becoming a climate roller coaster of extremes as it heats up due to Global Warming. And things will definitely get worse and worse and worse!


MY PERSPECTIVE:

Unfortunately, the article’s writers ignore the historical record some of which he mentions in passing. Pakistan’s floods are the worst in 100 years and Russia has not had such a heat wave since the 11th century (Maclean’s p. 39, last line).

Oh … then such extreme weather has happened before and not just recently.

Maybe they and others should check out a little known but well documented weather blip called the ‘Little Ice Age’. a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries across Europe (see Wikipedia and Google search articles).


+ + + + + + +


Again, the Global Warming mindset and animal/nature lover purists get plenty of space to propagate their views in mainstream media … but often with poor facts, limited historical perspective and little or no regard for human beings.

TECHNOLOGY

‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 2

ELECTRIC CAR RECHARGING WILL CRASH THE ELECTRIC GRID SYSTEM

Aside from the problems mentioned in Part 1 re: electric car distance range, the real ‘killer’ is the recharging. At 8 hours using 240volts, recharging will be such a drain on the grid system as to ensure immediate and continual crashing!

Don’t believe me? Well maybe you will trust Anthony Haines, the head of
Toronto Hydro -- which handles the electricity needs of Canada’s largest city.

According to the article in Toronto Metro, September 2, 2010, page 04,
Haines is quoted as saying “If you connect 10% of the homes on any given street with an electric car, the electricity system fails.” “It basically can’t handle that load.”

Why?

a. Electric cars are electricity HOGS!!!

1. recharging a electric car takes 3 times the power a home normally uses in a day (according to Haines)
2. if you recharge as soon as you get home you overload the grid since early evening is the peak home use time already
3. recharging at work or during the daytime is instant blackout as the grid is already at max from commercial and industrial use

b. Our electrical grid is OLD and already having trouble coping with new
housing, new malls, new industry etc. as it was designed in the 1970s
and 1980s.

c. To cover the cost of ‘maintaining the current grid needs and replacing frayed wire lines and worn out parts, electricity costs across North America will be skyrocketing upward. In the Toronto area, word is that next year electricity will go up 25% just to cover current ‘urgent’ repair/replacement needs.

So, where will all the extra electricity come from to recharge – in future -- the over 120,000,000 ( yes, 120+ million!!!) cars, vans and trucks currently used in the USA alone? What will be the cost of electricity if it is also needed to run the equivalent of 360,000,000 extra houses every day? (Remember, a 1. Each 8 hour recharge equals the electricity usage of
3 houses.)




And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.

That’s NIMBY thinking.