Healthy = (not) Salt Lake City (in January)

And that's not fog folks, that's pollution, or "inversion" as they like to call it. Yesterday we had the worst air in the nation. Today?

That's right worst again, by far. It's ungodly unhealthy out there. --> http://www.airnow.gov/
I am sooo happy I had to run to the bus stop this morning. Probably took 20 years off of my life.

In the News: Global Change vs. the Economy

In the News

Obama pushing stronger fuel-efficiency standard

Obama has hit the ground running. He has already managed to get praise and piss off people in one fell swoop. He recently proposed changes to the way the auto industry makes their cars to make them more environmentally friendly (AKA green). To do this the auto industry would need to make billions of dollars in changes in an already weakened, possibly dying industry.

Now here is where we have the problem. The auto industry in the first place is one of the most corrupt industries in America today. Chopping off the head may be the only way to save them. They made this blatantly clear when they all flew to DC in their private jets to asks for money from congress. The money from the flight alone could have been used to pay several employees for years, not to mention the cost of just maintaining the jets to be ready on a moments notice. I am all in favor of just letting them sort it out themselves. But the problem again is the American people. For the most part they did nothing wrong but they are the one's getting punished. Even with all the money Congress gave to the auto giants they are still laying off tons of people (I'm sure so they don't have to lose as much, better them than us). And they are still in threats of failure. What did the hard working line worker do to deserve this? It is probably all his fault to end up in a declining job market and be put on the butcher's block because some individuals desire to do whatever they please.

But if they fail, others will. We are a country and a society that is built upon itself, so much so that like Jenga, if you take out the wrong block, the whole thing could fail. I was just told that if AIG went under, then I would not have been able to come into work since they supply my company's insurance. It's insane that a company I had nothing to do with would hinder my being able to get a paycheck. The same could be said for almost all the mega-companies. Unfortunately they need to stay afloat - but at what cost to the "little man"?

To finish, I can just say that I commend Obama for enforcing greater restrictions, unfortunately it may be at an inopportune time. And I can say for certain, I will likely never buy an American car again, at least not until they clean up their act.

In The News: VP Debate and the Environment

In the News

One of my major concerns as a geologist is the environment. In regards to that, Governor Palin has come across as not only ignorant but down right backwards on her thinking. I think Biden's comment of "drill, drill, drill" hits the nail right on the head. Personally I think that instead of wasting time and money on more drilling we could spend the same time and money on renewable resources and get the return not only sooner, but then we would be sustainable.

However, the main focus of this rant is on Palin's comment about global warming at the VP debate:

IFILL: ... Let's talk about climate change. What is true and what is false about what we have heard, read, discussed, debated about the causes of climate change?

PALIN: Yes. Well, as the nation's only Arctic state and being the governor of that state, Alaska feels and sees impacts of climate change more so than any other state. And we know that it's real.

I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.

But there are real changes going on in our climate. And I don't want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?

We have got to clean up this planet. We have got to encourage other nations also to come along with us with the impacts of climate change, what we can do about that.

As governor, I was the first governor to form a climate change sub-cabinet to start dealing with the impacts. We've got to reduce emissions. John McCain is right there with an "all of the above" approach to deal with climate change impacts.

We've got to become energy independent for that reason. Also as we rely more and more on other countries that don't care as much about the climate as we do, we're allowing them to produce and to emit and even pollute more than America would ever stand for. So even in dealing with climate change, it's all the more reason that we have an "all of the above" approach, tapping into alternative sources of energy and conserving fuel, conserving our petroleum products and our hydrocarbons so that we can clean up this planet and deal with climate change.

How does that even make any sense? If somehow McCain wins, he better not die.