AmeriCorps volunteer base tripled, other congressional happenings

courtesy of congress.org's megavote;

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act - Vote Passed (79-19, 1 Not Voting)

'The Senate passed this national service bill which would increase the number of AmeriCorps volunteers from 75,000 to 250,000 and designate September 11 as a national day of service and remembrance.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/opinion/24tue4.html?th&emc=th

"Essentially, the measure is an expansion of AmeriCorps, the existing domestic service program. It would increase the number of full-time and part-time service volunteers to 250,000 from 75,000 and create new programs focused on special areas like strengthening schools, improving health care for low-income communities, boosting energy efficiency and cleaning up parks.

Volunteers receive minimal living expenses and a modest educational stipend after their year of service. The bill raises the stipend to $5,350, the same as a Pell Grant. Special fellowships would be available for people 55 and older, as well as summer positions for middle- and high-school students. In tribute to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Sept. 11 would be designated a day of service and remembrance.

In all, the measure would cost about $6 billion over the next five years — a sound investment in the nation’s future. Once the Senate acts, reconciling details in the two bills should not be hard."

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (285-140, 6 Not Voting)

The House agreed to the Senate amendments to H.R. 146, sending this package of public lands, national parks and water development legislation to the president.

Federal Budget

The House and the Senate will be working on the budget this week, so be sure to call in and voice your opinions. Comment and let me know how it goes if you do.

Easier Access to Morning After Pill

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25wed2.html?th&emc=th

'A federal judge in New York has added his weight to contentions that the Bush administration delayed easy, nonprescription access to the morning-after pill for political and ideological reasons, not from a desire to protect the public’s health. Judge Edward R. Korman wisely ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available without prescription to women as young as 17 and to consider approving it for girls of any age, as major medical groups have long advocated.

Judge Korman lays out in detail the continuous efforts by the Bush administration to prevent easy access to the pill by requiring a prescription, contrary to prevailing medical opinion. The World Health Organization and a slew of American health groups had urged that the pill be made available without prescription and without age restrictions, and virtually all major industrialized nations did so years ago.

It was only after the Senate threatened to hold up confirmation of a new F.D.A. commissioner in 2006 that the agency finally approved sales without prescription to women 18 and over, provided the drugs were kept behind the counter.

The harder question is whether to remove all age and other restrictions, potentially allowing children as young as 11 or 12 to take the drug without medical supervision.'

Eco-Police

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/nyregion/26ecocops.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

'As a member of a small force of police officers whose sole focus is enforcing environmental laws, Officer Stevens carries a gun and handcuffs and can haul a suspect off to jail. These environmental conservation officers number barely 20 in New York City, out of about 300 around the state, but issue about 2,000 summonses for violations and criminal charges annually.

Created in 1880, when they were known as “game protectors” and watched over game and fish, these eco-police officers are now part of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and have become more prominent in recent years as public consciousness about the role of pollution in global warming has grown. They now answer complaints and respond to dispatchers’ calls in addition to carrying out spot inspections and longer investigations.

Environmental complaints in the city almost tripled in 2007 — to 621 a year from 226 in 2006 — and criminal summonses more than doubled, from 993 to more than 2,000. The numbers stayed high last year, with more than 1,700 summonses and 600 complaints, the major said.'

New York Eliminates Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Drug Crimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/nyregion/26rockefeller.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

'The deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences now in place for lower-level drug felons, giving judges the authority to send first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment instead of prison.The plan would also expand drug treatment programs and widen the reach of drug courts at a cost of at least $50 million.

The agreement, which requires approval in the Assembly and the Senate, would allow some drug offenders who are currently in prison to apply to have their sentences commuted. It was not clear on Wednesday how many current prisoners would be eligible to apply. Mr. Paterson has pushed to have fewer prisoners than legislative leaders would prefer.

Under the plan, judges would have the authority to send first-time nonviolent offenders in all but the most serious drug offenses — known as A-level drug felonies — to treatment. As a condition of being sent to treatment, offenders would have to plead guilty. If they did not successfully complete treatment, their case would go back before a judge, who would again have the option of imposing a prison sentence.

District attorneys have resisted an overhaul of the state’s drug sentencing laws, arguing that the system in place has led to lower drug crime rates and allowed more drug criminals to enter treatment. “The prison population is going down and public safety has improved, and I’d hate to do anything that would upset either of those trends,” said Michael C. Green, the district attorney of Monroe County, which includes Rochester.

Since [2004], the Assembly, which is dominated by Democrats, has routinely passed legislation that repealed mandatory minimum sentences for many drug crimes. But the bills always failed to get past the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans until January.

The deal comes as the state is facing a $16 billion budget deficit for the coming fiscal year. And finding the money needed to pay for drug addiction programs, which could reach near $80 million, will prove difficult, those involved in the negotiations said.

But in the long run, the changes are expected to save money because sending offenders to treatment is less expensive than spending $45,000 a year to keep them confined.'

Picturesque Green Lawns Are An Ecological Nightmare

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/opinion/22op-classic.html?th&emc=th

In 1991, Michael Pollan wrote an op-ed in the New York Times urging then president George HW Bush to tear up the white house lawn. Mr. Pollan then recommends the lawn be replaced with an orchard, a meadow, wetlands, or a vegetable garden. What is interesting is that Mr. Pollan is more interested in getting rid of the lawn then in planting, say, a vegetable garden, as the Obamas have now begun to do.

'Beginning in the 19th century, at the urging of such landscape designer-reformers as Frederick Law Olmsted and Andrew Jackson Downing, we took down our old-world walls and hedges (which they had declared to be "selfish" and "undemocratic") and spread an uninterrupted green carpet of turfgrass across our yards, down our streets, along our highways and, by and by, across the entire continent. Front lawns, we decided, would unite us, and, ever since, their maintenance has been regarded as an important ritual of consensus in America, even a civic obligation. Indeed, the citizen who neglects to vote is sooner tolerated -- and far more common -- than the citizen who neglects to mow: in hundreds of communities the failure to mow is punishable by fines.

[The lawn] carries an absurd and, today, unsupportable environmental price tag. In our quest for the perfect lawn, we waste vast quantities of water and energy, human as well as petrochemical. (The total annual amount of time spent mowing lawns in America comes to 30 hours for every man, woman, and child.) Acre for acre, the American lawn receives four times as much chemical pesticide as any U.S. farmland.

The lawn is a symbol of everything that's wrong with our relationship to the land. Lawns require pampering because we ask them to thrive where they do not belong. Turfgrasses are not native to America, yet we have insisted on spreading them from the Chesapeake watershed to the deserts of California without the slightest regard for local geography. Imposed upon the land with the help of our technology, lawns encourage us in the dangerous belief that we can always bend nature to our will. They may bespeak democratic sentiments toward our neighbors, but with respect to nature the politics of lawns are totalitarian.'

My family got rid of our lawn several years ago and not only does our yard look more interesting but I certainly appreciate not having to bring out the mower every other week. So talk to your family and try and get rid of your lawn. Maybe also talk to your local town board and remove punishments for not mowing / try to provide incentives for gardens instead of lawns.

Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/dining/20garden.html?th&emc=th

Digging for the garden began yesterday (Friday March 20th). This will be the first vegetable garden at the white house since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during WWII.

'While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.

“My hope,” the first lady said in an interview in her East Wing office, “is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

Whether there would be a White House garden had become more than a matter of landscaping. The question had taken on political and environmental symbolism, with the Obamas lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally, and organically, can lead to more healthful eating and reduce reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.

The plots will be in raised beds fertilized with White House compost, crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, lime and green sand. Ladybugs and praying mantises will help control harmful bugs.

For urban dwellers who have no backyards, the country’s one million community gardens can also play an important role, Mrs. Obama said.

But the first lady emphasized that she did not want people to feel guilty if they did not have the time for a garden: there are still many changes they can make.

“You can begin in your own cupboard,” she said, “by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.” '

Rape Prevalent in the US Military

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/opinion/21herbert.html?th&emc=th

'[Bob Herbert] had a conversation several weeks ago with a former Army officer, a woman, who had been attacked in her bed a few years ago by a superior officer, a man, who was intent on raping her.

The woman fought the man off with a fury. When she tried to press charges against him, she was told that she should let the matter drop because she hadn’t been hurt. When she persisted, battalion officials threatened to bring charges against her.

“They were talking about charging me with assault,” she said, her voice still tinged with anger and a sense of disbelief. “I’m no longer in the Army,” she added dryly.

New data released by the Pentagon showed an almost 9 percent increase in the number of sexual assaults reported in the last fiscal year — 2,923 — and a 25 percent increase in such assaults reported by women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Try to imagine how bizarre it is that women in American uniforms who are enduring all the stresses related to serving in a combat zone have to also worry about defending themselves against rapists wearing the same uniform and lining up in formation right beside them.

The truly chilling fact is that, as the Pentagon readily admits, the overwhelming majority of rapes that occur in the military go unreported, perhaps as many as 80 percent. And most of the men accused of attacking women receive little or no punishment.

Louise Slaughter, a Democratic congresswoman from upstate New York, said: “I know of women victims, women in the military, who said to me that the first response they would get if they tried to report a rape was, ‘Oh, you don’t want to ruin that young man’s career, do you?’ ”

Ms. Slaughter has been trying for many years to get the military to really crack down on these crimes. “Very, very few cases result in court-martials,” she said, “and there are not that many that are even adjudicated.”

The Department of Defense has taken a peculiarly optimistic view of the increase in the number of reported sexual attacks. The most recent data is contained in the annual report that the department is required to submit to Congress. The report says that “the overall increase in reports of sexual assault in the military is encouraging,” and goes on to explain:

“It should be noted that increased reports of sexual assault do not reflect a rise in annual incidents of sexual assault. Sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes in the United States. Estimates suggest that only a small percentage of sexual assaults are ever reported to the police. The department suspects that the same is true for military society as well. An increase in the number of reported cases means that the department is capturing a greater proportion of the cases occurring each year.”

The military is one of the most highly controlled environments imaginable. When there are rules that the Pentagon absolutely wants followed, they are rigidly enforced by the chain of command. Violations are not tolerated. The military could bring about a radical reduction in the number of rapes and other forms of sexual assault if it wanted to, and it could radically improve the overall treatment of women in the armed forces.

There is no real desire in the military to modify this aspect of its culture. Real change, drastic change, will have to be imposed from outside the military. It will not come from within.'

US Military Spending - Too Much?

http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13314915&fsrc=nwl

'According to the latest comparable figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, America accounted for 45% of the world's military spending—$1.2 trillion in 2007—more than the next 14 biggest countries combined.'

Getting Nukes Out of the Department of Energy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/opinion/18cooke.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

'Today, the department’s main task is managing the thousands of facilities involved in producing nuclear weapons during the cold war, and the associated cleanup of dozens of contaminated sites. Approximately two-thirds of its annual budget, which is roughly $27 billion, is spent on these activities, while only 15 percent is allocated for all energy programs, including managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and researching and developing new technologies.

Of the $135.4 billion spent on energy research and development from 1948 to 2005 (in constant 2004 dollars), more than half, or $74 billion, went to nuclear energy, while fossil-fuel programs received a quarter, or $34.1 billion. The leftovers went for alternatives, with renewables getting $13 billion, or 10 percent, and energy efficiency $12 billion, according to a Congressional Research Service report written in 2006.

That historical pattern of spending continues to this day. This year nuclear energy research is receiving $1.7 billion, including for a weapons-related fusion program being touted for its supposed energy potential. Nuclear weapons programs are getting $6.4 billion, with an additional $6.5 billion allocated to environmental cleanup. Millions more are spent on efforts to reduce the risk of weapons proliferation, and recovering nuclear and radioactive materials from around the world.

Against this background, alternative energy solutions are but an afterthought: in the current fiscal year, for example, all of $1.1 billion is apportioned for programs falling under this category, not including the stimulus money.'

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.” - President Barack Obama in his inaugural address

Helping People Vote

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/opinion/18wed1.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

'At a hearing last week, the Senate Rules Committee released a report sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the sorry state of voting. It said that administrative barriers, such as error-filled voting lists or wrongful purges of voter rolls prevented as many as three million registered voters from casting ballots. Another two million to four million registered voters were discouraged from even trying to vote because of difficulty obtaining an absentee ballot, voter ID issues and other problems.

The bad news didn’t end there. According to the report, another nine million eligible voters tried to register but failed to because of a variety of hurdles, including missed deadlines or changes in residence.

One of the main reasons voting is in such bad shape is that the states have far too much leeway in running elections, ranging from what ID they require to the number of polling places they open and the allocation of voting machines, which has a big impact on how long the lines are on Election Day. Registering to vote and casting ballots in federal elections are federal acts, which should be governed by uniform national standards.

Senator Charles Schumer, a Democrat of New York, is the new chairman of the Rules Committee, which oversees elections, and last week’s hearing is an encouraging sign that he intends to push for new laws.

The most important change Congress can make is to require universal voter registration. That would put the burden on states to register eligible voters — identifying them from other government lists such as tax and motor vehicle databases — rather than forcing prospective voters to navigate the obstacle-ridden path to the voting rolls. States should also be required to make registration permanent so voters are not purged from the rolls because of a move to a new address or a name change.

Congress should enact lenient federal rules for voter identification, allowing voters to present a wide array of IDs. Far too many states have onerous requirements that make it particularly hard for poor people and racial minorities to vote. And it should outlaw vote suppression and other campaign dirty tricks.'

USB Finger Drive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7949018.stm

'A Finnish computer programmer who lost one of his fingers in a motorcycle accident has made himself a prosthetic replacement with a USB drive attached.

Jerry Jalava uses the 2GB memory stick, accessed by peeling back the "nail", to store photos, movies and programmes.

The finger is not permanently attached to his hand, so it can be easily left plugged into a computer when in use.

He says he was inspired to create the unique storage device when doctors treating him joked that he should have a USB "finger drive" after finding out that he was a software developer.'

CIA Black Site Torture Descriptions

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15danner.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

When 14 “high-value detainees” were transferred from the overseas “black sites” to Guantánamo, the International Committee of the Red Cross was “advised of their detention, and [given] the opportunity to meet with them.”

'A few weeks later, from Oct. 6 to 11 and then from Dec. 4 to 14, 2006, Red Cross officials — whose duty it is to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions and to supervise treatment of prisoners of war — traveled to Guantánamo and began interviewing the prisoners.

Their stated goal was to produce a report that would “provide a description of the treatment and material conditions of detention of the 14 during the period they were held in the C.I.A. detention program,” periods ranging “from 16 months to almost four and a half years.”

As the Red Cross interviewers informed the detainees, their report was not intended to be released to the public but, “to the extent that each detainee agreed for it to be transmitted to the authorities,” to be given in strictest secrecy to officials of the government agency that had been in charge of holding them — in this case the Central Intelligence Agency, to whose acting general counsel, John Rizzo, the report was sent on Feb. 14, 2007.

It is impossible to know definitively what benefits — in intelligence, in national security, in disrupting Al Qaeda — the president’s approval of use of an “alternative set of procedures” [AKA torture] might have brought to the United States. Only a thorough investigation, which we are now promised, much belatedly, by the Senate Intelligence Committee, can determine that.

What we can say with certainty, in the wake of the Red Cross report, is that the United States tortured prisoners and that the Bush administration, including the president himself, explicitly and aggressively denied that fact. We can also say that the decision to torture, in a political war with militant Islam, harmed American interests by destroying the democratic and Constitutional reputation of the United States, undermining its liberal sympathizers in the Muslim world and helping materially in the recruitment of young Muslims to the extremist cause. By deciding to torture, we freely chose to embrace the caricature they had made of us. The consequences of this choice, legal, political and moral, now confront us. Time and elections are not enough to make them go away.'

Preserving Electronic Records in Government

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/opinion/16mon3.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

'A measure moving through Congress would strengthen the power of the National Archives to require that the White House and other related agencies preserve all of their electronic records. The office of the archivist would establish better procedures and would be required to check and certify that the systems are doing the job. This is crucial, since Congressional investigators found that archive officials backed off from inspections of e-mail storage during the last administration.

Maybe it was a coincidence that hundreds of thousands of the missing e-mail messages went missing during the lead-up to the Iraq war — with its manipulated intelligence — and the outing of Valerie Plame and the decision to destroy C.I.A. interrogation tapes.

Congress must protect this priceless taxpayer property before any more history goes missing.'

Highlights From Ike's Farewell Address

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/dwightdeisenhowerfarewell.html

Delivered on January 17th, 1961 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity, and integrity among peoples and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension, or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.

...

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.

Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

...

As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

During the long lane of the history yet to be written, America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent, I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war, as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years, I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.

Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road."

Proper Ways To Interrogate

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/opinion/11alexander-1.html?th&emc=th

'The most effective strategies for relationship building are the kind that interrogators used to extract critical information from high-level Japanese and German prisoners during World War II. Interrogators who were familiar with the detainees’ language and culture, and who exhaustively studied each prisoner’s case, used charisma and empathy to patiently elicit vital intelligence. Similarly, it was a relationship-building approach that we used to persuade a detainee to give us information on the whereabouts of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia — information that led to his being located and killed in 2006.

Interrogation is likely to remain critical to waging the global war on terrorism and other future wars. Unfortunately, though, we have not yet taken a scientific approach to improving the way we practice it...our military lacks an elite unit of highly trained interrogators to call upon when high-level people in terrorist organizations are captured. Too often, the questioning is left to whoever is closest at hand.'

Colorado Pays for 85-100% of EV Conversion Cost

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/ariel-schwartz/sustainability/green-pimp-my-ride-ree-v-converts-cars-electric

Ree-V, a company that converts cars to run on electricity, has been set up in Colorado to take advantage of this huge tax credit, mentioned below.

'Conversions to a lead-acid battery cost a pretty penny--between $17,500 and $200,000. And most converted cars are only suitable for quick trips around town. Ree-V's 1995 Geo Metro conversion, for example, has a top speed of 70 MPH and a range of 25-35 miles.

But Ree-V CEO Luc Nadeau notes that his Colorado-based customers can receive the Colorado Alternative Vehicle Fuel Credit, that reimburses the majority--and in some cases all--of the conversion. A car older than 10 years is eligible for a 100 percent credit, while newer cars receive an 85 percent credit. And in case that isn't attractive enough, electric vehicle drivers can slash gas completely from their budgets.'

Color Photos From Way Back

Color photos taken between 1939 and 1945, by Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information photographers.

http://www.pdnphotooftheday.com/2009/03/628

The End of Farmer's Markets?

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7362

HR 875 - Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

'What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the “Food Safety Administration.” Even growers who sell just fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production. The frequency of these inspections will be determined by the whim of the Food Safety Administration. Mandatory “safety” records would have to be kept. Anyone who fails to register and comply with all of this nonsense could be facing a fine of up to $1,000,000 per violation.'

I haven't read the bill yet, so I'm not sure the above description is accurate. Seems awfully stringent.

"Pentagon Knowingly Exposed Troops to Cancer-Causing Chemicals"

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Pentagon_knowingly_exposed_troops_to_cancercausing_0310.html

The hazardous chemicals are released through the practice of burning trash in open air pits. A leaked document (dated Dec. '06) outlining the problem can be seen here;
http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/us-iraq-balad-burn-pit-hazards-2006.pdf

'The leaked report was signed off by the chief for the Air Force's aeromedical services. Its subject is Balad Airbase, a large US military base about 70 kilometers north of Baghdad.

"In my professional opinion, the known carcinogens and respiratory sensitizers released into the atmosphere by the burn pit present both an acute and a chronic health hazard to our troops and the local population," Aeromedical chief Lt. Colonel James Elliott wrote.

According to the document, a US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine investigator said Balad's burn pit was "the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited," including "10 years working... clean-up for the Army."

Last December, the Pentagon issued a "Just the Facts" sheet about the burn pits to troops. While acknowledging that lab tests from 2004-2006 had found occasional carcinogens, it asserted that "the potential short- and long-term risks were estimated to be low due to the infrequent detections of these chemicals."

The Pentagon report adds, "Based on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance, long-term health effects are not expected to occur from breathing the smoke."

The flyer given to troops appears to contradict assertions by the Air Force's own investigators. In the leaked document, titled "Burn Pit Health Hazards," Air Force Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight Commander Darrin Curtis expressed shock that troops were knowingly exposed to such risks.

"It is amazing that the burn pit has been able to operate without restrictions over the past few years without significant engineering controls being put in place," Curtis wrote.

"In my professional opinion, there is an acute health hazard for individuals," he added. In addition to carcinogens, "there is also the possibility of chronic health hazards associated with the smoke." '

Sustainable Forestry Management Can Create 10 Million Jobs, UN Reports

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/10/un.forestry.jobs/index.html

Asia, particularly China and India, and nearly every country in Africa are good locations to implement these jobs. Latin America also has opportunities in this regard.

'Sustainable forestry aims to prevent depletion of forests by managing them and making sure their use does not interfere with natural benefits or the local environment.

For example, in forests where wood is being removed, the United Nations is suggesting that people be hired to monitor and manage how much wood is taken out to ensure the forest does not become depleted and can grow back fully. Managers also would make sure the wood harvest wouldn't affect biodiversity and the water supply.

The report will be discussed and analyzed next week at the U.N. Committee on Forestry meeting in Rome, Italy. The Food and Agriculture Organization has designated next week as World Forest Week.'

Solar Balloons

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13174508&subjectID=348924&fsrc=nwl

Company making the solar balloons: Cool Earth Solar of Livermore, California

'Cool Earth’s insight was that if you coat only one half of a balloon, leaving the other transparent, the inner surface of the coated half will act as a concave mirror. Put a solar cell at the focus of that mirror and you have an inexpensive solar-energy collector.

Cool Earth’s balloons are rather larger than traditional party balloons, having a diameter of about 2½ metres (eight feet), but otherwise they look quite similar. The solar cell aside, they are ridiculously cheap: the kilogram of plastic from which each balloon is made costs about $2. The cell, the cost of which is a more closely guarded secret, is 15-20cm across and is water-cooled. That is necessary because the balloon concentrates sunlight up to 400 times, and without this cooling the cell would quickly burn out.

The result, according to Rob Lamkin, Cool Earth’s boss, is a device that costs $1 per watt of generating capacity to install. That is about the same as a large coal-fired power station. Of course, balloons do not last as long as conventional power stations (each is estimated to have a working life of about a year). But the fuel (sunlight) is free. When all the sums are done, Mr Lamkin reckons his company will be able to sell electricity to California’s grid for 11 cents a kilowatt-hour, the state’s target price for renewable energy, while still turning a tidy profit.

That belief will soon be put to the test. Cool Earth plans to open a 1-megawatt facility this summer. If it works, more will follow...'

California Drought Has Some Positives

California's drought has some upsides. It created a water market (sort of like cap and trade) and has led to improved water efficiency like drip irrigation.

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13237162&subjectID=348924&fsrc=nwl

[Side note: I'd be interested to do more research into the price/cost of water. It's unbelievable that possibly the most valuable resource on the planet is free at any faucet.]

'Before the 1930s this land was desert. Then the federal government built a vast irrigation system. Water from the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California is pumped out of the Sacramento delta and dumped into a canal that runs 400 miles (640km) through the temperate Central Valley. It is an engineering marvel and an economic boon. In 2006 California’s agricultural output was worth $31 billion, more than any other state. By contrast, worldwide ticket sales for Hollywood’s films in that year amounted to $25 billion.

The trouble is that there is not enough water to go round. Snow levels in the Sierra Nevada mountains are below normal for the third year in a row.

As farmers take land out of production, employment falls and the price of some crops is likely to rise.

But the drought is also forcing changes that will help agriculture in the long run. Farmers like Mr Errotabere have begun to use water more efficiently, dripping it through perforated hoses rather than flooding fields. There is a growing market in water trades between farmers. Most important, the state has set up a water bank. Farmers north of the Sacramento delta, many of whom grow rice, can offer to keep fallow their least productive lands and sell water to cities and needy farmers farther south.

This is no free market. The state sets the price...The market is also crimped by a rule that no more than 20% of farmland in any county may lie fallow.

Yet it is a crucial change. The problem with water in the American West is not that it is too scarce but that it is too cheap. Low, stable prices have encouraged some farmers to waste water and to pour it on low-value crops like rice and alfalfa, while others struggle to sustain valuable almond trees. The water market that is emerging in California helps change that. There is an old saying that water flows towards money. At last it is starting to do so.'

Soft Toilet Paper "Worse Than Hummers"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/26/toilet-roll-america

'More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin forests, said Hershkowitz. In Europe and Latin America, up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products. Greenpeace this week launched a cut-out-and-keep ecological ranking of toilet paper products.

The New York Times reported a 40% rise in sales of luxury brands of toilet paper in 2008. Paper companies are anxious to keep those percentages up, even as the recession bites. And Reuters reported that Kimberly-Clark spent $25m in its third quarter on advertising to persuade Americans against trusting their bottoms to cheaper brands.

But Kimberly-Clark, which touts its green credentials on its website, rejects the idea that it is pushing destructive products on an unwitting American public.

Dave Dixon, a company spokesman, said toilet paper and tissue from recycled fibre had been on the market for years. If Americans wanted to buy them, they could.

"For bath tissue Americans in particular like the softness and strength that virgin fibres provides," Dixon said. "It's the quality and softness the consumers in America have come to expect."

Longer fibres in virgin wood are easier to lay out and fluff up for a softer tissue. Dixon said the company used products from sustainbly farmed forests in Canada.

Americans already consume vastly more paper than any other country — about three times more per person than the average European, and 100 times more than the average person in China.

Barely a third of the paper products sold in America are from recycled sources — most of it comes from virgin forests.

"I really do think it is overwhelmingly an American phenomenom," said Hershkowitz. "People just don't understand that softness equals ecological destruction." '