2006 Elections

One week from today voters will go to the polls and vote for candidates on the local, state and federal level. The Sierra Club has endorsed candidates in all of the federal and state elections and has even endorsed some local candidates. The most competitive U.S. Senate races are in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. The Sierra Club has endorsed candidates from both parties in each of those races. In Florida Bill Nelson (D) is running against Rep. Harris (who is responsible for Bush's 2000 win in Florida). The Sierra Club has endorsed Bill Nelson in that race because of his great support for environmental issues. In Maryland the Sierra Club endorsed Ben Cardin (D) who is running against moderate Republican Lt. Gov. Steele. The Sierra Club chose Ben Cardin over Steele because they feel that a Democrat will be more effective than a Republican in times like now. The Sierra Club also endorsed Robert Menendez (D) who is running against moderate Republican Tom Kean Jr. The Sierra Club explained that Tom Kean Jr. while in the state legislature was supportive of environmental issues but that Menendez has shown a greater commitment in his campaign. In Rhode Island the Sierra Club endorsed Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee who is considered to be the most liberal Republican in the Senate. In Pennsylvania Bob Casey was endorsed. Casey is running against Rick Santorum who was on the League of Conservation Voters "Oil Sick Seven" List. We can save our Earth and slow down the Climate Change if for once we vote our conscience and not our wallets.

Wasting Paper

I get really annoyed when people (like the people on the WCU campus yesterday) hand out papers that are only going to be thrown out. When a street preacher or protestor hands you a paper or pamphlet what do you do with it? I can tell you that I almost always see people throw out the paper in the garbage on the next block. We cannot afford to be wasting trees like these extremist protestors have for so long. We need to conserve our paper. Also I do not like it when professors are always making us print 50-75 pages worth of power point slides. I find it funny how my science professor has us print more in her class than I do in any other class because she is an enviornmentalist!

This Rutgers University website is really helpful when it comes to conserving paper: Enviro-Purchasing - Conservation

Lovely Philadelphia

This weekend I went down to Temple University to visit some of my friends from high school. If you really want to view an environmental unfriendly place, I suggest you visit Philly. There are a million little things that you see that make you feel sad about how poorly we are treating this wonderful Earth.
First off, I took the train down. That dirty mess of metal burns tons of fuel, and makes a million stops, which lessens its efficiency. All along the ride I looked out the window to see trash and tree stumps, and just a wreck of filth. Finally after getting off the train I walked out onto the lovely paved city of Philadelphia.
There are like two trees for ever nine buildings down there, that's exaggerating, but it’s still not an eco-friendly place. All along the roads was nothing but trash and garbage. The smells coming up from the subway lines tell you that they can't be good for the atmosphere, let alone all the different building pumping out black smoke, and all the cars and buses' exhaust.
Granted, I love the city, I think certain aspect of it are lovely, what with the beautiful architecture and wonderful sites and shops, and the food is glorious, but from the view of an environmentalist, Philly's a bad place and is polluting the world.

Wind Energy

I recently attended the annual Farm Aid concert which was in Camden, NJ this year. At the concert Silk(R), which is a company that makes soy milk, was handing out information on wind energy. Using windmills for power is not a new idea and is probably the most efficient and clean source of energy. If we were to switch our power plants to run on wind energy we would have a much more clean environment and our energy costs would be a lot lower. The amount of energy you get from a windmill in one year is what you get from a typical polluting power plant in four years. Wind mills are four times more efficient than what we are using now, I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to have a cleaner environment and save money at the same time.

We Are Pathetic

i know i dont have the facts to back up anything really that i'm attepmting to argue, but ill type what i type and let u complain. i love the world and the woods and trees and the environment as much as the next tree hugging smelly hippie weirdo does, but i think they might be being a bit harsh on humanity. i mean, as a whole, we havent destoyed THAT much of the planet, right. what, we've been around...hmm roughly 250,000 years, and the earth's been around something like 4.57 billions years and we have only partly destroyed the earth because of our lovely wars, machines and industry. gosh, and if we keep it up the way we're going we might get another 200 years untill we completely detroy the place. i say we DONT find alternatives to gasoline burning, and we DONT stop making nuclear bombs and other ridiculous weapons that will one day detroy us and the world around us, and we DONT re-plant trees. Damn, the Earth's only been around like 20,000 times longer then us, why the hell should we respect it enough to keep it going another hundred years or so?

The Earth is What You Eat

Although I am not a vegan or vegetarian I do think about the environment before I eat. By consuming (or not consuming) certain foods we can save our planet. Beef production is one of the largest threats to the earth. The majority of Brazil's destroyed rain forests were the affect of cattle pastures. There is currently a topsoil shortage in the United States, this lack of topsoil is an affect of the soil erosion that occurred because of cattle production. Most of the water consumed in the United States is consumed by cows, imagine how much more water we could have if we ate less beef. Most countries do not consume as much beef as the United States. If every nation in the world consumed beef like Americans there would be no more oil in the world, with no oil left in the world George W. Bush would have a cow (no pun intended).