Awaken Your Inner Gaia

No use crying over....whoops!

So places like WalMart, all its affiliates, and Costco have taken a step towards a greener earth.
No, they haven’t donated money, planted trees, or started using energy efficient bulbs in their super, colossal marts. They have manipulated their powers over a simple jug of milk!

Yes, moo cow milk!

This new milk jug is adapted to the new American economy and lifestyle. They are efficient in more ways than you think, but is that really a good thing?

So why does this peak my interest and why should it peak yours, let me take you through the pros and cons:

Pros:

1) They are more efficient and easy to stack, hence more milk in one place.

2) Sam’s Club reported savings of 10 to 20 cents a gallon.

3) Milk crates are gone. Now they are stack and shrink wrapped, then moved by a big machine instead of man power to load onto the semi. (Wait…machines use a lot of energy…energy costs a lot of money. Shouldn’t this be a con?)

4) The company that makes the milk in the jugs has saved a lot of money on water use by 40-60 percent and more milk per crate means less trips to the supermarket to drop off milk-a fuel savings.

Cons:

1) You can’t pour it.

In the New York Times article about the issue, they asked dairy owner Mike Compston who described the pouring technique in a telephone interview as a “rock-and-pour instead of a lift-and-tip.”

So this is the problem, is milk you can’t pour even worth it? Many bowls of Cheerios await your answer.

The name of this blog is on the tip of my tongue...

Ok so check out this awesome article from the boston globe…
(This article is interesting, I swear)

Now that I assume you have clicked on the link…
Even though you might not suffer from amnesia, I think this is a HUUUGE piece of medical history. It puts the brain in a funky state.

Imagine your brain is a messy desk. Unopened mail and scattered pieces of junk are everywhere. One letter in your unopened mail is…well, let’s say it’s your tax return. You know that something important is in that pile and you try to remember what it is, but you never knew it in the first place because it is bundled into a folder that may be called Importatnt Stuff to Remember versus _Tax Returns_. This is my own version of the metaphor, better explained by the article.

In the brain, things aren’t organized such as “The Tony Hawk file.” They’re organized as “Everything I’ve ever known about extreme sports.” And Tony Hawk might be in there, you just may have forgotten about his story – that simple.

Tasmanian Tiger is back

It's been 70 years since its extinction; 2 years since they almost abandoned the project, but now the Tasmanian Tiger is back!

Scientists harbored the DNA inside mice, the first time that extinct DNA has lived inside a different host and has been revived successfully. This brings to question, what else could scientists do with DNA? Could Jurassic Park become a reality?

This new discovery could also help scientists isolate Neanderthals' DNA and bring scientists one step closer to the "missing link" that could once and for all, prove evolution as a fact.

Mother's Against Paco

So I was reading this article and learned…

Argentina has become the dumping ground for South America’s low-quality, cheapo, cocaine or paco. In the five years that paco starting showing up on the streets, 15,000 people have become seriously addicted, and some have died!

Bilma Acuña’s son Pablo Eche sold everything he owned to get his fix, as well as committing violent robberies. He destroyed his house, sold the land, and lived on the streets cold and alone until his Grandma took him in. “The majority of the kids are using it here,” said Acuña. “My son saw what was happening with the kids in the streets that were using paco, and he always said he wouldn’t get caught up in that. But he did.”

She, as well as a group of other concerned Mothers have organized the only defense against the dangerous drug, which is nothing more than a highly addictive, smokable, cocaine residue, which is pretty much the left over crack of left over crack,that has killed thousands.

What is their answer to combating this noxious narcotic?

Recently, Acuña led a walk through the streets with about 18 other women. They pointed out the residences of current paco dealers. This area of town hadn’t been visited by the police in seven years. The Argentine Government has yet to produce a plan the tackle the addiction.
So Argentine citizens, led by the Mothers, are taking control of the situation. Acuña handles dozens of calls a week from people wanting to help their friends and family with the addiction. She refers them to clinics and urges others to join the force.

It’s unfortunate that there really isn’t anything many people could do in a situation like this one. But I think that if these Mothers could brew up a storm, the Argentine government may finally pay attention to the thousands of people becoming addicted and hardcore smash into those drug dealer’s pads and confiscate all the drugs in the facility.

Propel needs to get a grip

Okay. So this really ticks me off.
Propel water, using a stupid, sales strategy to throw a curve ball at vitamin water.

If you see, at the bottom of the screen, in tiny little white font, it says that the facts contrived are based on 20 fl oz. In this commercial, they make it seem like there is 125 calories in 8 fl oz, even though it does say at the bottom based on 20 fl oz, because all the people are holding just ONE bottle.
Sure okay, they got their facts right, 50 calories for 8 fl oz is exactly the same as 125 calories for 20 fl oz. And sure Propel has less calories than vitamin water. BUT COME ON!
Unless all you do when you work out is walk a mile, you need those extra calories. CALORIES CAN BE GOOD. Energy is measured in calories! More energy = more work = big juicy healthy muscles!

Sure fat has more calories, but aren’t you working that off anyway?! I mean, leisure biking that is less than 10mph (according to this nifty thing (link to: http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist.htm) That’s like 238 calories, almost 5 vitamin waters! Anyone who hydrates that much (40 fl oz) in one exercise might just die of over hydration. Or just get a headache. And what of just plain regular water? How many vitamins does one need during or after a workout?

It’s sick, it’s disgusting, and it’s a cheap way to get buyers. It just makes me sick and pisses me off. Pass me the one, the only, the original H2O please!

Would you drink it!?

Okay, this is recycling to the EX-stream…and saving water to another EX-stream. This is just EXTREME! And because of it, the people of southern California will be literally drinking their own waste.

Because of the crazy drought going on in that part of our country, river water has become extremely unavailable. So what does California decide to do? Stop watering their million dollar lawns? Stop filling their in-ground pools and hot tubs? Nope – they build a 4 million dollar plant that can take their sewage and transform it into drinking water. Pretty much, instead of dumping it in the Pacific Ocean, the waste goes to this facility and runs it through a super advanced filtering system. Officials are super confident that this water is safe to drink, even though state officials have yet to test the water to see if it’s up to par with the standards of drinking water. They say that the final product is as clean as distilled water and so pure that they have to add lime so that the minerals won’t deteriorate the concrete pipes that they have to go through. On the other hand, I am EXtremely skeptical. This sounds like something that will possibly fix the drought, help out with global warming, and all those goodies, but I believe that it will deteriorate the health of those who drink it. I know, I know, weird for someone like me to say, “ignore the environment, but what about us?!”

I seriously think that this is a bad idea. One screw up in the plant, and hundreds of people could get sick because they are drinking excrement. This could lead to contracting E-coli strain O157:H7.

Pretty much, good E-coli resides in your intestines, but the kind that ends up digested and gets past the large intestine safely, becomes rogue. Usually it is found in beef because of the poor conditions in slaughterhouses.

They are also putting calcium hydroxide in the water (lime), and an over dose of that can cause difficulty breathing, hypotension, internal bleeding, an increase of the pH in your blood (which can destroy your organs), and skeletal-muscular paralysis.

Any takers?

Didn’t think so.

The project is promoted as a way to reduce garbage, cost less, and since it’s recycling, it’s good for everyone. However, I don’t think it is, it might be good economically, but that seems to be all that matters. Its just an example of money mattering more than people.

Why I love energy drinks (An intro to conservation of energy)

Monsters, bulls, rockstars, and bawls are all hardcore, manly things. They also produce a lot of energy - in the form of energy drinks! Companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola produce billions of cans of these high-energy, sugar-filled delicious beverages like there is no tomorrow. Sounds exhausting...

They don’t stop producing, so you don’t stop buying, and with all that energy you’re getting, you keep going, and going, and going

soon you’ll be running like a Kenyan. (Let me tell you, that is a lot of fun!)

But what about other types of energy? Like the kind that can’t be reproduced in factories...what about oil, gas, water, wind, solar, corn and trees? These next couple of blogs will be about just that. Here at Team Gaia we believe in a better future, and I think respecting this “Law of Conservation of Energy” will help our Earth out big time in the long run. I mean, I’m sure you all knew that already. RIGHT? You only drive a macho man SUV because you completely reuse, reduce, and recycle everything else in your life, as well as also needing a bigger car to transport the eight kids you adopted from third world countries. Am I hitting home? I want to hear from you, speak up or forever hold your piece of the planet in jeopardy. It's all about dialog and dialog unites humanity - DUH! So let's get this party started - I'm on my third bull now.

I Googled Ron Paul

All over this “little” town of Jacksonville, Florida, and probably other towns too, people have printed the three words: “Google Ron Paul” on colorful sheets of paper and posted them on poles. I drive at least 4 hours out of my day and I swear- I see at least twenty.

So I googled Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), and this is what I found:

1. Limited constitutional government.
He wants to restrain the government, not the people. He says that the constitution was written in the first place to protect the people from an overbearing government. He finds national ID cards to be leading us into an "Orwellian world of no privacy," (pretty much, IDs with all of our intimate details on them will create a communist society). He wants to create the ultimate privacy, both financially and medically. Which I find to be good because your medical insurance company should not be able to delve into your personal information. He is also against The Patriot Act, because the government shouldn't tap into our personal lives without our permission or even our knowledge. (Thank you very much!!)

2. Low taxes.
Ok, as I read the low taxes bit on his website, I read that “Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy — that means all of us.” I read an article in English class about how Bush told us when 9/11 happened to treat everything as normal, or in fact spend more money. Craaazy!
(The article also compared our reaction to this war to the reaction of the people of the World Wars, who gave to the war instead of spending more on themselves. Have we now replaced Patriotism with Consumerism? Personally I think taxes should be a tad more, and then we can have universal healthcare!!!)

3. American Independence and Sovereignty.
He believes it's threatened by world government organizations, like the UN. I agree that America shouldn't be taxed by world organizations, but I am nervous that a little rebellion against the tax might cost us our relations with the world.

4. Property Rights.
"We must stop special interests from violating property rights and literally driving families from their homes, farms and ranches." These people should not have their property taken from them, in fact, Americans automatically have the right to own property, a right that _no one_ should intercept.

5. Health Freedom
"Americans are justifiably concerned over the government’s escalating intervention into their freedom to choose what they eat and how they take care of their health." He is against socialized medicine because it would not be an automatic cure for this country, but instead has a similar plan to fix government controlled medicine, so that every one has their health coverage. (Mhmm...nothing wrong with that!!)

6. Foreign Policy
"The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it." Our American army has been spread too thin throughout the Middle East, and all we're doing is trying to help. And we shouldn't get involved in a "war" to help other countries either. We've done it in the past, armed them, trained them, and strongly supported their betterment, and now it has backfired and they have bitten the hand that fed them, so to speak.

7. The Second Amendment.
He shares the belief that Americans have he right to bear arms. I am not exactly supportive on this one. The right was created so that Militiamen during the Revolutionary War could protect on demand, and instantly. Now people use it to hunt game, and to kill fellow human beings at their whim. But, like prohibition, if we ban gun usage, it will travel in the black market and then prove to be twice as dangerous. If we could instill a unity within Americans perhaps guns could be less dangerous, but as of now it seems they have more of a lock-down on illegal downloads than illegal gun possession.

8. Home Schooling & Education.
He doesn't believe the government should interfere with education. I'm all for the separation of school and state, but the way that Paul described it was awkward and made it seem like taxes would be super high, which contradicts his pull for lower taxes. He talks about a monopoly in the education system that I don't understand.
I need more clarification here before I can take a stand one way or the other.

9. Social Security.
"Today's social security system has become broke and broken." I completely agree. With Paul's plan, it would keep taxes relatively similar, while also making it easier to save money for when us youngin's get really old. And with the fact that people are living longer now, that could be REALLLLY OLD!

10. Environment.
"The federal government has proven itself untrustworthy with environmental policy by facilitating polluters, subsidizing logging in the National Forests, and instituting one-size-fits-all approaches that too often discriminate against those they are intended to help." Thank you! Thank you,thank you,thank you!!!! Finally, another Republican running for President that cares about the enviroment.

12. Racism.
He is against the federal government dividing us by race. Which is good. Especially since its has been outlawed for the government to discriminate against Americans by race or gender, and its been that way since the civil war. (Although, I must point out that the Equal Rights Amendment which provides "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." was never fully passed, so what's a woman got to do to be equal in this country?)

13. No Taxes on tips earned by waiters and waitresses (Never knew that was an issue…)
and tons more...

That’s a lot of stuff. Yup. But I certainly agree with a lot of his ideas. He is surpassing McCain and Giuliani as my choice president in the Republican race. He stands for more things that are important to me, and I think these ideas would really help fix up this country. He is realistic, and that's the stuff I like to see.

Picture credit

His website is very well developed. It seems to me like he’s a cool guy with interesting ideas such as “The federal government does not own our children. Yet we act as it if does by letting it decide when, how, and what our children will learn.”
So if you think Dr. Paul would be a good President, vote for him! As for me, I'm gonna sit back, watch the race unfold, and let you know what I think of all the madness!

Vote 2008-The Republicans!

On November 28th 2007, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson were all invited to the Republican debate in St. Petersburg Florida, also known as the CNN/YouTube debate--moderated by the great Anderson Cooper. Though the debate was very insightful, I want to discuss my opinions on the “top four” Republican candidates, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain.
Since birth i have been raised by republicans, at first rebelliously seeking different points of view. Eventually i found the world through the eyes of an elephant to be intriguing. Now you will know exactly how i feel about the republican candidates. I hope I don’t let my Republican family down.

Mike Huckabee:

This former Arkansas Governor, and a man that’s jumping ahead in the polls in Iowa, plans to solve America’s energy crisis. He preaches every energy source you can think of - clean coal, bio diesel, nuclear, wind, solar power, hydrogen, biomass, corn-based ethanol, cellulostic ethanol, the highly controversial drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and even conservation. But he doesn’t tap in on any specific plan or even lay out the steps for us to see.

Wildly enough, he believes he has a responsibility to God to protect the planet. “This world doesn't belong to me. I'm a guest here. I don't have a right to abuse it, any more than I have a right to abuse someone else's property if they were to let me stay in their apartment for a weekend." (Hmm, I guess drilling for oil in the Refuge isn't abusing any homes for living beings...) "It's a sin against future generations for me to act as if there are no future generations that should enjoy the world as I do.” And though this isn’t a bad thing at all, he shouldn’t feel like God told him to save the planet, I think he should - we all should - have an un-divine calling to take care of planet Earth.

Something that really bothers me about him, and other republican candidates, is that he doesn’t believe that climate change is related to human activity, which is something I find to be pretty "obvious". He should take a look at the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al Gore shows the graph comparing CO2 emissions since the first Ice Age. That should change everyone’s mind.

Even if he isn’t my first choice for a Republican President, it’s pretty cool that he doesn’t think we need to increase our fuel-economy standards to become energy independent- I am extremely sick of forking out forty dollars to fill my tank!
Official website

Mitt Romney:

Mitt Romney supports contraceptives in schools, and has actually experimented with this in Massachusetts. Considering my previous blog on this subject, I first believed that I might actually like this Romney fellow. I was wrong. He has a great idea (as well as the other candidates) to fix America’s dependence on oil and energy efficiency, but he supports some terrible subjects to go along with it. He supports drilling off of US waters and also drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (he opposes oil drilling in the Florida Everglades), and nuclear power.
I probably wouldn’t vote for this guy either. But, at least he has a 54 page PLAN to fight climate change, even if he doesn’t believe in "global warming."
Official website

John McCain:

John McCain was the first high-profile Republican to begin talking seriously about climate change, and has even called Bush’s approach on the issue “disgraceful.” In fact, he is very outspoken about Bush’s lack of action on several topics. In lieu of sponsoring the first Senate bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as similar bills since then, he has earned the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters in his 2004 Senate campaign.

He is known as the strongest candidate for Republicans that want to “vote green.” He also wants to use the cap-and-trade proposal that Obama is also planning on using if he becomes President. In an interview with Amanda Griscom Little of "grist.org" he quotes Tony Blair for his reason for believing that global warming is important “Suppose we're wrong, and there's no such thing as greenhouse-gas emissions, and we adopt green technologies. All we've done is give our kids a better planet. But suppose we're right, and do nothing? Then what kind of a legacy are we handing on to future generations of Americans?”

McCain also has a strong reason for keeping troops in Iraq, not exactly a war for oil or nuclear weapons, but a war for national security. He was also a war hero, which I think would be good for our country because a) he has had great training and could run this country with responsibility, discipline, and a charge to get things done and b) when was the last time we had a kick-butt war hero president!? John F. Kennedy? Mayyyybe George Bush senior? The only thing more powerful is if California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was our President.(Can you say "Terminator?") These points really almost won me over for him, though I am a bit mystified by his views on war.

Overall, I think I would most likely vote for him, because while looking at his platform I found almost nothing that I disagreed with (the two exceptions being that he is Pro-Life and supports protection of the "Second Amendment":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) and through performing extra research I believe he is the most responsible Republican candidate and I personally would most likely vote for him.
Official website

Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani has had perhaps the most impressive gain of support than any other candidate in this election.

Just as every other candidate, he believes in strong energy independence and that climate change is a problem, but doesn’t recognize it as a major issue. "I do believe there's global warming, yes. The big question has always been how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention."
He supports several things that I am strongly against, like offshore drilling (including the Everglades) and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also has tried to sell hundreds of community gardens in New York City.

Giuliani also believes that freedom is going to win this war of ideas. America will win the war on terror. He also has several points that I support on the “war on terror.” He prays for the war to be over and the troops to return home, but he thinks a timeline planning their return would be ridiculous, and will encourage our enemies. And when it comes to abortion he is pro-choice, supporting reasonable reasons for abortion while increasing adoptions.
He used to be my first choice for a republican candidate because of the impressive amount of support he's getting-so something must've been great about him. So i talked to my friend about it and heard all of these great things! But then i remembered how super republican/pro-bush she was, and realized how pro-bush Giuliani is. Oof.
He isn’t my first choice for the Presidency, but if he did win, I think he would take great charge of issues that need it because he did take great charge when he took care of New York City.
Official website

Vote 2008-The Democrats!

The 2008 elections are just around the corner and it seems to me that it is time to talk about candidates! Since the environment, energy, and global warming are on everyone’s minds, why not start the Vote 2008 blogs on that tough topic.

Let’s first review the top three Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards.

Sen. Hillary Clinton

It seems the question on everyone’s minds is “I wonder if America is ready for a woman president?” Though considering that this would be a fair election, I don’t think America should have much to be prepared for. Even though she is a woman, she is a powerful woman with great plans on her mind-we shouldn’t hold back our applause for her because, as said by several of my friends, “she might paint the white house pink!”
But Hillary the Great may be the exception to the ordinary first lady and presidential candidate. Her platform clearly shows her support for “energy independence”. Most believe that she doesn’t give the full deal on the energy crisis, emphasizing her support for “clean coal” while the other candidates support corn ethanol.
Hillary’s past efforts have earned her a 90% lifetime voting score from the League of Conservation Voters.
I believe Clinton would be a fair choice for a Democrat president, probably my second choice for a president of our country. All in all I think America needs a president that could restore our economy, and once that is restored, begin a campaign to conserve our Earth. If she represents what you believe, vote for her-Argentina already has a “pink house.”

For an interview with grist.org on energy and the environment, click here.
Official Website

Junior Sen. Barack Obama

Another controversial candidate…our only African American candidate (the only African American candidate in the U.S. Senate), raised by a Muslim father, and spent most of his childhood outside of Continental U.S. He’s so different and exotic!!
Despite all of the taboo, Obama is a champion of the national effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions and he has a sure-fire plan to tackle both our economy and global warming.
He has mapped out the steps for this type of progress in our country, focusing on implementing an economy-wide cap-and-trade program, which contrasts other approaches such as carbon tax. A cap-and-trade program takes its roots in the marketplace by creating a cap on carbon emissions, the capped emissions then are divided into individual allowances that ultimately represent the amount that is allowed that can be emitted.
He also has other ideas that make sense, like countering terrorism while Clinton has been noted to be inconsistent on her opposition of the Iraq war. Obama plans that the first thing he will do is begin deployment and said “It is very important for us to draw a clear line and say, ‘We are not going to be governed by fear. We will take threats seriously and take action to make sure that the US is secure.’”
Despite all of the gossip, I think Obama would be my first choice out of the Democratic Party for president. He takes care of everything that I think is important for our country to value, our earth and our economy.
Official Website

Sen. John Edwards

Though third in the Democratic field, John Edwards also works to save the environment, eliminate poverty, universal health care, and withdrawing troops from Iraq. Edwards is also a family man, and plans to unite America. Which I think is a great quality to have because when you look at other countries, they all have a loving bond towards each other and the people strange to them, while Americans are taught in school and home to not talk to strangers. Overall I think he sounds rather weak compared to the other candidates, but I did strongly support him in the beginning of his race. What changed my mind about him was when all of his plans seemed too surreal to actually work. His domestic values rested so much in the home, like eliminating poverty and restoring rural towns and communities, but he seemed to miss a crucial step for this plan -taking our country out of debt.
Official website