Tag: national parks

TBC: Morning Musing 5.25.15

Well, Happy Memorial Day! Hope you all have a good day today and that you take a moment to reflect those who have fallen. And since it’s a holiday, I’ve got mostly fluff for your morning – but good fluff!

First, the non-fluff:

Catholics organize to promote pope’s climate change message

There will be prayer vigils and pilgrimages, policy briefings and seminars, and sermons in parishes from the U.S. to the Philippines.

When Pope Francis releases his much-anticipated teaching document on the environment and climate change in the coming weeks, a network of Roman Catholics will be ready. These environmental advocates – who work with bishops, religious orders, Catholic universities and lay movements – have been preparing for months to help maximize the effect of the statement, hoping for a transformative impact in the fight against global warming.

Jump!

Public Lands, the Solar Fast Track, and a Greener Future … hopefully

In case you didn’t know, Solar, Wind, Geothermal Projects, are being “Fast Track” by the Obama Administration.

Fast Tracking attempts to minimize the red tape, in order to get the boots on the ground as soon as feasible.

They are OUR Public lands by the way.  We should use them to secure our Energy Future while protecting our wonderful Natural Heritage.

Here are the highlights:

BLM> California> California Desert District> Alternative Energy> Fast-Track Projects

Fast-Track Renewable Energy Projects

Solar

Ivanpah BrightSource Solar Project

The 400-megwatt project would incorporate seven 459-foot tall power towers and 214,000 heliostats (each holding two flat mirrors).

The project’s power plants would share an administrative complex/construction logistics area on approximately 4,073 acres of public land.

The Democrat Party FINALLY Does Somethin’ Right

Glorious news from our nation’s capital (and/or Capitol) today!

Buried deep inside a boring bill about reformin’ credit card practices was a provision that stirred my patriotic loins in a way that’s been sorely missed since President Bush left office.  Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), seein’ a major flaw in this credit card legislation, fixed it right up there by insertin’ an amendment to allow loaded guns in national parks.  Check and mate, you greedy credit card companies!

These days the Democrat party usually strips all of the patriotism right out of bills like this and replaces it with socialism.  But not this time!  Coburn’s amendment passed with the support of 27 Democrats in the Senate, includin’ the majority leader Harry Reid.  That makes TWO patriotic things Reid did in ONE day, along with his come-to-Jesus moment on not closin’ Guantanamo.  Wow!  Maybe there’s hope for this guy after all.  Or, maybe not, accordin’ to Nevada’s likely voters.

Bush’s public lands legacy: half an acre

If you could suddenly find yourself standing atop the summit of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the highest point in New England and home at times to some of the most bitter weather on earth, and you should happen to be there on a day that was unencumbered by clouds or haze or fog, and you were able to take in the landscape all around you for 50 or 100 miles in every direction – if you could, in other words, see the entire state of New Hampshire from the summit of Mount Washington, all the way north up U.S. 3 to Third Lake and all the way south on 3 to Nashua – if you could somehow make that happen, then you would be able to take in with your own eyes an area the same size as all the public land that Bill Clinton single-handedly protected during his term as President by invoking the Antiquities Act of 1906: that is to say, more than 6 million acres.



Now – if you could find yourself suddenly transported from the summit of Mount Washington all the way across the country and down to sea level, to the Walgreen’s drug store on Olympic Boulevard in west Los Angeles, and if you could have an opportunity to take a good look around – to walk up and down the aisles, past the magazines and the makeup, past the hair color and the headache remedies, past the one-hour photo counter and the pharmacy – and you could make sure you covered the entire store, not missing anything, including the storage warehouse and the employee lounge in the back – if you could do that, then you would be able to take in with your own eyes an area the same size as all the public land that George W. Bush has so far protected during his term as President by invoking the Antiquities Act of 1906: in other words, about 15,000 square feet, or less than half an acre.

national parks

National Parks  

google search

http://www.google.com/search?q…

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/…

http://com.miami.edu/parks/iss…

http://www.democrats.com/node/…

http://foi.missouri.edu/federa…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17…

National Wildlife refuges budget cuts 20 percent staff reduction by 2009.

“Our national wildlife refuges are literally crumbling before our eyes. Across the country we’re seeing how the culmination of years of negligent funding devastates these special places,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.

budget cuts at np

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

2007 budget proposal “worst yet”

http://ga1.org/npca/notice-des…

http://democrats.senate.gov/dp…

jenna engaged at acadia – this from 2004:

http://www.bushgreenwatch.org/…

Acadia National Park in Maine, a 47,500 acre park sheltering over 1,000 species of plants and wildlife, including threatened and endangered species, and over 5,000 years of human history, faces a 53% budget shortfall. Acadia is understaffed by some 100 full-time positions, including an anticipated shortage of 20-30 seasonal rangers. Shortfalls in patrol staffing have resulted in damage from illegal snowmobile and allterrain vehicle use, illegal trail cutting, and poaching.

bush vetoed bill to restore everglades

http://ga1.org/npca/notice-des…