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Thursday, February 27, 2014

February happenings

Skinning up the Dhu
Skiing the Dhu
View of Phoenix Mtn from the dacha
I love how Canadians fly the flag everywhere
A view from Phoenix Mtn looking over to the Dhu
I love storm days
Making a black burrito of a kid
Mainstreet Greenwood
And it's not over yet!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Fossil Fuel Resistance

I watched the Bill Moyers show with Bill McKibben interviewed.  There were many good reasons about why the world citizens and particularly President Obama needs to stop the Keystone Pipeline from being built. In January a report was issued from the state department that was the final Environmental Impact Statement. It basically said that the pipeline was safe and that the pipeline didn't contribute to climate change. Of course it didn't talk about all the heavy oil that would be flowing through it and those consenquences.

The bottom line is this project needs to be stopped in order to shut down the extraction of the oilsands in Canada so that there is a chance for international negotiations to take place to come up with a plan to stop continued warming of the planet.  We need to resist continued use of fossil fuels.  Period.  You would think a war would get that point across as well, but then I guess really in the end it's all about money.


Snowden?  Did I miss it that some of the data he released from the NSA was that the United States had placed "bugs" in the Copenhagen 2009 climate change summit that failed so poorly?

No wonder the United States wants Snowden's head.

So, watch the interview- it's worth the time.  The politics and the money and the different sides are difficult for me to understand.  What's the point of talking about richer corporations getting richer, normal people having jobs, and a safest pipeline designed if the climate continues to warm up?  I'm intelligent enough to know that the continued burning of fossil fuels is the route to this catastrophe and we all need to make our opinion known.  There is plenty of evidence already that the 1 degree warming is too much already.

Spend time to send a letter to President Obama and Secretary Kerry and tell them that the Keystone Pipeline needs to not be built.  Perhaps that will buy us some time to really get to work and get off fossil fuel.

President Obama:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

Secretary of State Kerry:  Response Via Email(Support Agent) - 02/18/2014 01:26 PM
On January 31, 2014, the Department of State released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline project. It and additional documents are available on the State Department’s website: www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov. A 30-day public comment period will begin with the publication of a Federal Register notice on February 5, 2014 and will close on March 7, 2014. During this period, the public and interested parties are encouraged to submit comments on the national interest to http://www.regulations.gov. Comments are not private and will be made public. 


I love snow and so do polar bears.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Executive Order pretty please

It's been a long time since I've been here, but I think this place should be part of an executive order for permanent protection from oil and gas development.  It's winter now, dark and cold, but very much alive in the winter, and in the summertime, which is when I visited.  It's the equivalent of the greatest national parks in the world. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge needs permanent protection from any sort of development, and that means being used as a staging area for off shore oil drilling as well.   Polar Bears den onshore here. It is also the calving ground of the internationally shared Porcupine Caribou Herd that uses this area every summer for breeding.  Millions of birds breed here.


I hope I can go visit again soon and hopefully I won't have to stand in front of the bulldozers.