2011 Nine Mile Run Calendar is Here!

http://www.lulu.com/content/legacy-lulustudio-calendar/nine-mile-run-2011/9677255

Team 4: Pa. Streams Drained Dry By Drillers - Pittsburgh News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

Team 4: Pa. Streams Drained Dry By Drillers - Pittsburgh News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh

HEY HEY, HO HO, STAY AWAY FROM OUR H20!

Election Blues

It only takes a drop to cause a ripple, your vote can make a difference.

I will be glad when this mid-term election is over. The mud-slinging was pretty bad this year, much different from the "HOPE" and "Yes We Can!" campagn of 2008. It appears that the Democrats will be taking a beating and the GOP is salivating at the prospect of gaining a majority in the House. This of course sickens me to no end. Picturing Karl Rove and Dick Cheney rubbing their evil little hands together and belting out the deepest and most evil laugh is a picture hard to dig out of my psyche.

That's why we need to get out and VOTE!!! Vote against the hate and bigotry out there. Vote for a candidate that believes in global warming and is not a climate change denier. Vote for a candidate that says corporations should pay their fair share of taxes, just like everybody else, and should not get away with gouging natural resources at the expense of human life and our environment.

That is why I am leaving my little "blue" light on and letting it shine. I hope you do too.

There's my little drop: "Plunk!"

Clean Water for Everyone!

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world's bloggers in posting about the same issue on a single day – October 15.

Last year, more than 13,000 bloggers participated from 152 countries. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion about an important issue that impacts people around the world.

In order to participate, all you need to do is write a single post on your blog about the issue of water on October 15th. If you’re not sure what to write about, don’t worry – we have a great list of suggestions for possible topics that we’ll send you.

Register your blog to the right. We'll add a link to your blog and your post will appear on the Blog Action Day site on October 15. http://blogactionday.change.org/register

Sign the Petition



There's something about water. It is the most basic element for life on our planet. Our bodies are composed mostly of it, the planet is literally awashed in it. It falls from the sky and floats as vaporous clouds in myriad shapes.

We take it for granted.

For most of us in the United States, we simply turn on or open the faucet and water freely gushes out.

But as I get older, or shall we say more mature, the more I understand how water works in larger ways: in ecosystems and watersheds. In the city where I was born there were very few places where you could see how water worked in springs or streams. Our urban area paved over most of these water sources a hundred years ago thinking that is was healthier to do so. But at the same time we as a society were dumping our waste into the streams and rivers, literally using them as toilets.

I think we know better now.

We know the importance of keeping our local water sources clean, and where we can, clean it and put it back. We know what industrial waste can do to harm an aquatic ecosystem to the point where no wildlife is sustainable. We know better how wetlands work to clean polluted ground water runoff. We know that what we throw in urban streets ends up in sewer systems and that water must be cleaned by the limited resources of our sewage treatment plants otherwise it stays in the environmment and doesn't just disappear.

Speak Truth to Power

I have been becoming more deeply concerned with the fossil fuel industry (oil, coal & gas) and the increasing evidence of its finacial power to influence the public and politicians. As in the previous post, I noted a massive increase in PR spending by the industry, as evidenced by a multi-media blitz of television, radio and internet advertising touting the virtues of natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of the Appalachian mountain range in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York. It's no coincidence that this upswing comes as the election heats up for its culmination in November.

What's most disturbing to me is a conservative Republican running for PA govenor who is claiming to be an "environmental" candidate as he has "done more" to protect the environment than any other candidate. The psychological gymnastics are astounding!

I'm personally endorsing PA Democrat Dan Onorato as closer in line with more progressive values. Though not perfect, he doesn't put up with the nonsense of a conservative anti-tax candidate. But even Mr. Onorato seems to be bowing to the potential billions in profits by an industry with a horrendous track record when it comes to basic values of clean air and water.

We have seen what happens when industry is unregulated. Conservatives appear to want to "trust" the industry and only take action after clear violations of the law have been documented. We have seen those results. A true environmental candidate would take pre-emptive action to prevent air and water pollution by industry regulation up front, not after the fact. Conservatives therefore tend to place the environment more at risk. Because we know the best way to protect an ecosystem is to not pollute it in the first place. We should not have had to deal with the BP oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill which devastated the lives of millions on the Gulf coast, not to mention the outright killing of 11 men. We should not have had to deal with the coal mine explosion in West Virgina killing 29 men. And we should not have had to deal with the death of men from exploding gas wells in the Marcellus Shale region. Clearly, the financial and political influence of the industry weakened our (federal and state government's) ability to enforce any regulations at all. Without a more powerful government to hold billion-dollar industries (like fossil fuels, as well as finance) accountable, we are all at risk of losing whatever we have been able to save through our own hard work. We have no future, unless we hold these larger entities accountable.

How are we to compete with million-dollar PR budgets? Vote, and encourage your friends to vote. We will never outspend fear-mongering billion-dollar corporations and those who support them. But we can support those who refuse to place profits over safety and human lives. Whoever you vote for, vote for a candidate who supports critical thinking skills in educating our children to be leaders rather than blindly following irresponsible corporate action like de-regulation and anti-tax positions. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for it.

Bamboozled

bam·boo·zle (bm-bzl)
tr.v. bam·boo·zled, bam·boo·zling, bam·boo·zles Informal
To take in by elaborate methods of deceit; hoodwink. See Synonyms - to deceive.

The oil and gas industry is taking the entire Marcellus Shale region for a ride. Literally billions of dollars are now being spent to buy up the mineral leasing rights and to begin the wholesale gouging of the Earth as well as the American public. The Public Relations campaigns are very pretty and paid for by an industry that is heavily subsidized by your tax dollars. They promise to bring jobs and deliver an alternative fuel for the next 20 to 30 years. But at what price?

Just like victims of the greatest bamboozler of them all, P. T. Barnum, we are about to get our wallets neatly lightened at the expense of increased risk to basic healthy water necessary for life to exist. Barnum would argue that he is doing a public good by teaching people a lesson. But what lesson will we be learning from an energy industry who has reaped profits at the expense human life and our aquatic ecosystems that sustain us. How much longer will we take the disrespect and outright abuse of our natural resources? Might as well paint WELCOME on our foreheads and bend over and thank them for what they do for us. Every month for the past 6 months there have been major accidents, often at the cost of human life, by an energy industry that insists that its ways are "safe" in the face of incontrovertable evidence that their ways are not. Funny how we, the American Public, seem to have shorter attention spans when money is involved. We take the money in the shadow of Gulf coast oil rig explosions, coal mine explosions, and Marcellus Shale gas rig fires, all which have cost human lives and billions in clean-up efforts. We are like the unemployed battered wife returning to her abuser. Haven't we learned our lesson, yet?

Bad Company: A History of Corporate Irresponsibility & Abuse

(Nine Mile Run, Pittsburgh, PA)


Let's face it. Corporate America has a hideous track record when it comes to protecting the basic health and welfare of Americans. As a lifelong Pittsburgher, I know all too well what history has taught us: corporations will literally bulldoze the general public for a buck. Pittsburgh is just one glaring example of a city where a corporation or two will extract resources and labor only to cause environmental disaster in the long run for short-term economic gain. Entire neighborhoods have been bulldozed for "progress." (e.g., the Hill District, North Side) Entire valleys, like the one pictured above were fill-in with the waste material of industry with no regard for public health and safety. Not without a response from the public, mind you. But public protest falls on deaf ears when corporate profits are involved. We have literally spent billions of dollars cleaning up the mess left by our irresponsible corporate citizens due to the failure of our federal government to rein-in out-of-control corporate greed. Those advocating "small" federal government and De-regulation know this. (Yes, I'm talking about the current Tea Party movement.) You likely have an example of corporate abuse in your own city: New York, Detroit, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, you all know it.

Corporate arrogance has been astounding over the past century. They make outrageous claims that their particular procedures are safe for the public and besides, the economy is most important for the greater good. (e.g., Andrew Carnegie, Henry Frick, and U.S. Steel. Massey Energy and its spokesman Don Blankenship.) Like an effective abuser, they minimize and discount their particular industry's role in the relationship to public health, denying any wrongdoing, while at the same time continuing to practice their ways, and blaming the public for being irrational or illogical in their thinking. This is the the same psychological tactic an abusive parent uses when caught brutalizing a child.

Now the Oil & Gas industry is invading the Marcellus Shale region of the Appalachian mountain range and using the same tactics as their historic predecessors in coal, and steel and finance. They label people environmental "extremists" who have concerns about their drinking water and rivers and streams, not to mention the air they breathe. They minimize and discount documented evidence of tainted drinking water, polluted rivers and streams, dead and deformed farm animals, and accidents at their well sites. You can almost hear them saying "Oh, that's just those extremists." Or, "That's not our fault. That was a naturally occuring phenomenon."

It's time that Americans stood up against the abusive corporations. It's time that responsibile corporations hold each other accountable. And it's time for government to rein-in the bad companies that have a reckless disregard for the health and safety of families and children.