Gadfly Proclaims the International Year of Peace

It has been agreed by most all scientists (who are not in the pay of Exxon-Mobil or the Koch brothers) — climatologists to oceanographers to geologists to botanists and entomologists — that human activity has has heated Planet Earth wantonly by increasing the greenhouse gases in its atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are the two worst culprits. They are produced principally by burning coal for electric power plants, drilling for gas and oil, and using gasoline and diesel fuel for cars, trucks, airplanes and ships. But, not far behind on the short list of worst offenders are: war and the military preparations for war. Just compare how many (or few) miles to the gallon you get in your SUV, with how many gallons to the mile an F-16 uses every minute. It’s even worse with Navy ships, especially destroyers (how creatively named). Then add the CO2 when the shells and bombs and missiles explode. And what pilot of a plane or ship or tank drives cautiously, using a minimum of fuel?

The Gadfly Revelry & Research team, noting that April was National Poetry Month proposed that April 2017 to April 2018 be proclaimed the International Year of Peace. The Year of Peace would start with a competition for the best poem of peace. A vote was taken among the Gadfly membership, and the proposal was passed unanimously. A priceless, autographed copy of the Lilac Book of Peace—Axioms & Quotes will be awarded to the best poem.

The members of the GR&R team immediately started at work, and produced three poems, but were informed that they were ineligible because of their Gadfly membership. They reluctantly offered their poems as samples to motivate the vast readership of the Gadfly column.

1) Mild today at seventy two, 

    gentle winds play chimes

    pianissimo, streams add their

continuo, a woodpecker

    beats a tremolo

    on a leafless tree.  Not far from 

here, West Point trains the young in

      the arts of war to 

    keep us safe from terror untold.

2) The first flutes, fashioned of

    the hollow bones of vulture wings,

forty thousand years ago,

never were a call to 

    arms,  but just for music making,

dance, and sociality.

Millennia on, through

    reeds and keys, yet always one with

the glorious art of peace.

 

3) As primates

    are the highest form 

of life, I wonder if

it’s all about

    opposable thumbs,

or vocal cords, or minds

that thrive on

    signs and symbols.  Some 

say:  it’s not the ways we

live, but how

    we contend, each with

each, that makes us Us.  They

point to all

    our glorious wars.  I 

offer them:  bonobos.

———————————————————————————————————————

And now, let the competition begin.

Very Pure Chemicals

Over the winter, the more than 80,000 artificial chemicals in common use that have entered our environment, did not go into hibernation. They were still in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the foods grown in the Southern Hemisphere. [For such accounting, Mexico is in the Southern Hemisphere.] Soon, the farmers in the US will start planting genetically engineered (GMO) seeds and spraying pesticides and herbicides like Roundup.

In a sneak attack, Monsatan (er, Monsanto) has slyly convinced farmers, especially the industrial  farms raising single crops, to plant GMO corn, GMO soy, GMO canola (still called rapeseed in Canada), GMO cotton, GMO sugar beets, and GMO alfalfa. In fact, over 90% of these crops that are grown in the US are genetically engineered to be resistant to the chemicals in Roundup and such friends, but to kill everything else – grasses, weeds, dandelions … earthworms? bees? butterflies?

Monsanto and the other Big Biotechs have enlisted the help of rogue wordsmiths to find synonyms for those words of the trade that might turn off fussy consumers. So far as I know, no poets have accepted their employment. Yet, they have come up with: bovine somatotropin (BST) to replace bovine growth hormone, genetic modification (GMO) for genetic engineering, and pure canola for rapeseed oil (packaged in plastic bottles, not glass).

The FDA, the supposed guardian of consumers, doesn’t do its own research on the safety of the products that we eat or use on our bodies. It relies on the research submitted by the companies that apply for FDA approval – studies financed by the chemical giants who have been known to cut the funding of any research, before completion, that looks like it may demonstrate harm from GMO foods. Speak of the fox guarding the chicken coop. 

Independent research, largely done in UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Australia, has indeed shown: severe inflammation of the stomach lining, tumor formation of the intestinal wall, interference with reproductive function, and suppression of the immune system — of mammals that are fed GMO food.

When a small experimental plot in California was found to contain GMO wheat, despite Monsanto’s promises to the wheat farmers of the mid-west, their substantial wheat exports to South Korea, Taiwan. and Japan were cancelled by these Asian countries.

The fall-out extended to non-GMO produce. The apple growers of Washington State who use diphenylamine (DPA) to prevent the stored fruit from turning brown, are stuck with 400 million apples because the Europeans want nothing to do with them. DPA has been banned on all fruit treated with that chemical in the 28 EU nations since 2012. To be sure, anything grown in the US is suspect — rightly so, in light of the recent scientific analyses of many common foods for glyphosate (Roundup) residues. Alarmingly high levels of the chemical were found in 29 different foods commonly found on grocery shelves, including: Cheerios, Oreos (ohh!), Doritos, baby foods, even spinach (wait till Popeye hears of this). 

Even before this recent disturbing news came out, a few states had ballot initiatives to require labeling of products with GMO ingredients, and let consumers decide for themselves. The industry poured millions of $$ into the campaign and barely defeated these initiatives in California, Oregon, and Washington. But, if GMOs were so advantageous to society and so harmless to consume, why didn’t industry join the campaign to “Just Label It?”

One of the Gadfly Revelry & Research gang wondered, “Whatever did farmers do before 1950 when there were few if any chemicals to spray on crops?” Another gang member looked at him in a tone of eye that said, “Mr. Pollyanna, they call it organic farming, now.”

Going back to when Monsanto applied for a patent on the warped form of life created by gene insertion, they told the Patent Office that it was unique, never invented, and never found in Nature. After the patent was granted, they told the public skeptics, “Don’t get so excited. It’s nothing more than farmers have done for centuries by breeding plants and animals —simple hybridization.”

Going forward, the next candidates are GMO grasses and GMO salmon. What will the hunters and fishermen say? They may suggest, instead, that Monsanto executives need a few genes inserted for ethics and honesty.

Global Heating? Well, Do Something

Global Heating? Well,  Do Something

The weather devils have been escaping from Pandora’s box, and the climate feedback loops are becoming self sustaining chain reactions. But, waiting at the bottom of Pandora’s box we still have Hope. Can we can reverse the death spiral that has already brought us: heat waves and wildfires, droughts, superstorms, and floods? Perhaps … if we 1) immediately and sharply reduce the amount of greenhouse gases entering the thin atmospheric envelope of the Earth and 2) rapidly increase the sequestration of carbon and methane in such natural storehouses as forests and coastal wetlands.

In the US, it’s not hard to identify the sources of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide:  1) the coal and gas fired power plants and 2) the cars, trucks, planes, and ships that transport our goods and us around. We must convince our government to close the coal burning plants and stop drilling for oil and “natural” gas. Wind farms can be installed in a matter of months. Solar panels take even less time. Battery technology has improved so much that electric vehicles have a carbon footprint almost as small as rickshaws.  Government fleets of cars can certainly be all electric. Light rail lines can connect nearby cities and suburbs . Bicycle lanes and walking paths (sidewalks) would be epic. Then, governments can place slow speed water turbines in rivers and tidal estuaries. On oceans, we can establish a merchant marine fleet of high tech sailing vessels carrying American made exports. We’ll call them Clipper Ships. 

Call the roof top solar panels, wind mills, and bicycles “distributed generation” — that sounds official and accredited.

Ten more things we can do individually and as The People:

1, 2, and 3.  Call, mail, and visit our elected representatives (supposedly, public servants), and hold their feet to the fire. 

4.  Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle — in that order.

5.  Plant trees … in forests, parks, and backyards. Trees are geniuses at capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it as wood and maple syrup. We haven’t figured that out yet. No, lawns don’t count for carbon storage; they are little better than Astroturf.

6.  Keep and protect coastal wetlands — salt marshes and mangroves. An acre of mangrove captures three times as much carbon as an acre of tropical forest. Require the Army Corps of Engineers to issue a environmental impact statement before dredging rivers or estuaries.

7,  Charge a fee (not a “tax”) for emitting greenhouse gases: diesel generators and pumps, fossil fuel power plants, fitness centers where heavy lifting causes heavy breathing … 

8.  Eliminate monocrop farming, which invariably requires heavy pesticide/herbicide use.  Return to farming that respects earthworms and honeybees. Call it “organic farming.” 

9.  Eat much less beef. Cattle produce massive amounts of methane. The 100 million cattle in the US pass 5.5 metric tons of methane per year.  

10.  Abolish war. War produces plenty of heat and tons of CO2 from all the shells and bombs and missiles that explode. Depleted uranium shells, most egregious, explode at 4,000 to 5,000º F. Of the tanks and planes and warships that merely patrol, the Abrams tank is the most efficient at 8 gallons per mile. Just turning an aircraft carrier around? Don’t ask. 

What is really efficient is statecraft: diplomacy, negotiation, mediation, patience, persistence, and creativity. No matter how hot tempered the disputants are, only metaphorical heat results. If a satirist is among the “honest brokers,” the worst would be a little carbon dioxide from a fit of laughing.

Nature has provided us with more energy than we can use, from:  sun, wind, rivers, tides, waves, and geothermal. The time to use them is immediately, if not yesterday.  Good planets are hard to find.