Washington Spends Sloppily

Senator George Lemieux from Florida has a point here. He says that government spending is a problem, which is inefficiency. Tax payers money does go and should go necessary programs such as Medicare and Social Security, but a large sum is wasted in an unclear fashion. If taxes were raised after the recession and government spending was more efficient, wouldn't a grand sum of capital be available for paying off America's crippling amount of debt?

For love and/or Money

The Census Bureau reports that there is a sharp rise in unmarried opposite sex couples living together. As the economy has rendered more than 10 percent of Americans unemployed, saving money by housing with a boyfriend or girlfriend is becoming more popular. Fox News reports:

'It would be odd to say this year was emotionally different, so it's more likely practical considerations that are behind the increase in cohabitation,' said Rose Kreider, a family demographer at the Census Bureau who reviewed the numbers.

Her analysis, published Thursday in a 19-page census working paper previewing the 2010 data, shows that newly formed unmarried couples living together were more likely to have one partner unemployed, who was often male. They also typically lived in the South where poverty was more widespread and sometimes in larger households, such as with parents or other couples.

The economic downturn in recent years has affected many aspects of life for different people. The multiple statistics that the Census has provided exemplify how much life has changed. It is now much more practical to move in with a girlfriend or boyfriend to save money when more and more individuals are unemployed or have lost their old homes to foreclosure. Until the recession starts to significantly look up, America should expect more unmarried couples living together. Though, one may be able to look at the recession in a positive light because couples are closer to each other than ever before.

China Blocks Earth Exports

A Chinese fisherman collided with two Japanese fishing boats while in mixed territory. The Chinese fisherman was taken by Japanese. As a result of this recent altercation between China and Japan, China has chosen to stop exporting crucial minerals to Japan until the man is returned.

HONG KONG — Sharply raising the stakes in a dispute over Japan’s detention of a Chinese fishing trawler captain, the Chinese government has placed a trade embargo on all exports to Japan of a crucial category of minerals used in products like hybrid cars, wind turbines and guided missile.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao personally called for Japan’s release of the captain, who was detained after his vessel collided with two Japanese coast guard vessels about 40 minutes apart as he tried to fish in waters controlled by Japan but long claimed by China. Mr. Wen threatened unspecified further actions if Japan did not comply.

This article also brings up this frightening statistic:

China mines 93 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals, and more than 99 percent of the world’s supply of some of the most prized rare earths, which sell for several hundred dollars a pound.

Japan requires China's earth exports, as Japan itself does not have many natural resources.  As a result of this dead stop in supply, earth metal prices are soaring up. The world is hesitant to dig into their own supplies of natural minerals because of the high cost of separating the wanted deposits from the unwanted and the dangers of releasing harmful chemicals into the environment. As a result, China now dominates the earth market which allows it to have almost complete control over supply and cost. China's monopoly of rare earth minerals is surely a subject that countries should stress more of.

Quran Burning

Tom Friedman, in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, says that one of America's greatest problems is that the public has a tendency to act as "dumb as we wanna be." I tend to agree with this idea, as many Americans are ignorant and lack knowledge about  foreigners. Friedman reports in the opening of his book that America is closing up it's borders mainly because of this ignorance which causes America to be portrayed negatively throughout the world. This stereotype of Americans does accurately describe the recent story of Terry Jones, a pastor in a small town in Florida. Terry Jones plans to hold a ceremony on 9-11 to burn the Muslim Qoran, the equivalent of the Bible for Christians. This next excerpt is about how the ceremony would be a strong statement saying America is not tolerant of Muslims and other faiths. The Associated Press reads:

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States is calling on conservative radio and television host Glenn Beck to denounce the planned burning of the Quran to show that Americans are tolerant of other faiths.
"I think it would help if Mr. Glenn Beck came out against it, and said that people of faith do not burn the books of people of other faith," Husain Haqqani told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Beck earlier this week wrote in an Internet blog posting that burning the Quran is like burning the flag or the Bible — something people can do in the United States, but shouldn't.
"Our good Muslim friends and neighbors will be saddened," he wrote. "It makes the battle that they face inside their own communities even harder."

Terry Jones is a prime example of "dumb as we wanna be" as said by Thomas Friedman. It is wise to have some sort of influential voice (Glenn Beck) raise awareness against this pastor so that to prevent any further tainting of America's perceptions. I completely agree that Koran burning is a heinous action against Muslims. This 9-11 ceremony would not only portray America as intolerant or evil, but also put Americans in more danger by Muslim extremists... and rightfully so.

2050

Britain's population will be the biggest of European nations by the year 2050. This prediction, along with other predictions of population growth in the rest of the world, all point to the next few decades as the deadline to make drastic changes in environment and population growth.

Nowadays financial markets are more than ever concerned with making it as far as day’s end; what’ll happen in 2050 tends to worry them about as much as what happened in 1850. These forecasts barely rate a shrug.

People need to think more than ever before about growth in economics, population, and pollution in the environment. Thomas Friedman says in Hot, Flat, and Crowded:

Our young people are so much more idealistic than we deserve them to be, and our broader public, though beaten down at times, is eager to be enlisted - enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others.

If what Friedman says is true about the new generation, it will be a great burden off the back of the world. Fixing the degrading Earth is more of a necessity than ever before.

Are electric cars the future?

New York Times Green blog reports how in the next few decades there may be massive improvements in electric car batteries. As it is, it takes hours to replenish the energy, but if improvements are continually made recharging could take place in minutes. What caught my attention was this excerpt:

In the end, Mr. Wilcke said, breakthroughs in batteries and electric cars may happen elsewhere.
“What we do in the U.S. doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is what China does. The Chinese government has a goal that 50 percent of all new cars sold in China by 2020 will be battery-powered. That is what will change the game.”

One of the biggest players in pollution  is China, so it is obvious that if they change their energy habits, the environment would take a step forwards towards the better. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Tom Friedman talks about how China and India are now consuming more energy than ever.

That (combination of population growth and greater wealth) is what's new about the forces propelling the Energy-Climate Era: They are demand -driven, as so many more people suddenly are, can, or will be living a middle-class lifestyle.

As more and more people come from the rural areas in China searching for the middle-class life, it is important that energy efficient energy is pushed forward in time for any more population booms. If the new electric car batteries are developed sooner than later they will be just in time for upcoming generations.

Oil Embargo

There is a bounty of tension between what should be done about energy, namely nonrenewable energy such as gasoline and coal. Americans are in the deepest rut of this problem as a result of heavily relying on middle eastern countries for oil. This excerpt from Tom Friedman's book Hot, Flat, and Crowded beautifully depicts how far behind America is from being an energy independent country:

I can think of no better example of America's lack of sustained focus to take on a big challenge than the way we have dealt with our energy crises. In the wake of the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, the Europeans and Japanese responded by raising gasoline taxes and, in Japan's case particularly, by launching a huge drive towards energy efficiency. France invested especially heavily in nuclear energy as a state project, with the result that today France gets 78 percent of its energy from nuclear plants and much of the waste is reprocessed and turned into energy again. Even Brazil, a developing country, launched a national program to produce ethanol from sugarcane to make itself less dependent on imported oil. Today, between Brazil's domestic oil production and its ethanol industry, it doesn't need to import crude oil.

New York Times produced this article:

An explosion on April 20, 2010 aboard the Deepwater Horizon, a drilling rig working one mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, led to the accidental release of nearly five million barrels of oil, the world's largest spill by far. BP, the rig's operator, failed repeatedly to plug the leak but the catastrophe did not lead to widespread efforts to reduce oil use.
It did, however, lead to a wave of new regulation and legislation that promises to fundamentally remake an industry that has operated hand-in-glove with its government overseers for decades.  Some in the the industry feared that the BP accident would be a turning point for oil exploration the way the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident in 1979 contributed to a virtual 30-year moratorium on nuclear plant construction.

From these two articles it is easy to see how far behind we are in the world when it comes to independence from oil and abundance of clean energy. The recent BP oil spill is similar to the Three Mile Island incident thirty years ago. The nuclear accident caused anti-nuclear energy sentiment causing a ban on construction. Looking back, however, the idea of stopping the production of clean energy sounds, well, dumb. The relationship between the BP spill and the Three Mile Island breakdown could show some positive movement in the future. The best outcome would be to reduce our usage of oil and to start catching up to countries such as France and Brazil. Both countries' energy standards are something to look up to.

Spare The Air Day(s)

The fourth Spare the Air Day of the season was called for Thursday as hot, stagnant air remained in the Bay Area.

After going most of the summer without a Spare the Air day, the Bay Area is having its third in less than two weeks.
With ozone levels in the air expected to approach unhealthy levels today, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District declared a Spare the Air day for the region.
The agency encourages people on Spare the Air days to take bikes, public transit or carpools instead of driving solo, to cook indoors rather than barbecue, and to avoid using aerosol sprays and gas-powered gardening equipment.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/01/BA4A1F6ETS.DTL&type=science#ixzz0yKxo4lwW

 San Fransisco promotes another Spare the Air Day today. The aspirations of this tradition seems to be a great idea just before the traveling weekend coming up, especially as drivers start to ravage the roads. It is reported that this weekend traveling is going up 11% so people can head to cooler areas.

The travel organization projects that 3.5 million Californians will drive to their destinations over the three-day weekend. Roughly 315,000 will fly, and 170,000 will use a train, bus or boat.

 The negative aspects are inevitable this weekend, so it is fortunate that the Bay Area is promoting green thinking. As Thomas Friedman says in the introduction of Hot, Flat, and Crowded, it is becoming increasingly important to diminish the threat of global warming. Save the Air Day is one idea that will hopefully contribute to the end of our unhealthy reliance on energy.

Air Can?

Thomas L. Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded explains the necessity for a better environment. Friedman argues that the world has a problem and we need to make changes, fast. This Hong Kong infomercial about fresh air in a can demonstrates the need for improvement in the air.

The New York Times reported:

HONG KONG — ‘‘Do your feeble breathing skills let you down? Does standing up tire you out?’’ The answer: Buy a breath or two of ‘‘Fresh Air’’ — the ‘‘revolutionary new product’’ that lets you experience breathing ‘‘like the rest of the world does.’’

The product's main focus:

‘‘Fresh Air’’ is the new campaign tool of Hong Kong’s Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes awareness of, you guessed it, the wretched air quality in this city of seven million.

Although this product might seem like a joke, it does raise awareness of the bad air quality of major cities and the need to reduce pollution. Tom Friedman stresses a move to Code Green, influencing innovation in energy efficiency and clean power. The world faces this problem, and this Hong Kong campaign is a force than can help propel improvement in the atmosphere.