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Social Justice Concerns: War and Peace
THE WAR DISEASE

We still stay stranded
On that uneasy shore
Kept there by politicians
Bought by the great gods
Of greed and power
Of male egoism
Of female submission
Of religious fanaticism
And by ourselves
Chained to apathy and fear
And courageless comfort
Would that Dunkirk’s seafarers
Through bitter wind and wave
Could pluck us from
This nightmare beach
Where young men still fight and die
Where young women
Now become new cannon fodder
While the old leaders
Self proclaimed champions
Of state and national security
Watch through field glasses
Far from the battle front
And send progress reports
And occasional body count
Messages to those
Who speak to the people
About the national interest
About imminent danger
About the true religion
And God always blessing America
About how the budget will not allow
Any swords into plough shares
Any submarines into school buses
And we the people
Our tongues have turned to stone.
 
                                    j.j.adam
                                    Orlando 2008
 
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Quote of the Month

"A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.

This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty."

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive."  Albert Einstein

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Social Justice Concerns: Climate Change
WHAT YOU DO MAKES A DIFFERENCE
 
Documented results of climate change in Florida include higher temperatures, rising sea level, greater variability in rainfall patterns and intensity, longer periods of draught, and, potentially, more intense storms.  These changes can affect our landscape, our water supply, our agricultural industry and economy, and our way of life.  Fortunately, there is much that each of us can do to protect the climate and at the same time conserve energy, water, and air quality
 
CONSERVE WATER
 
Half of Florida’s drinking water supply is used for irrigation, much of it for water-hungry turf grass and exotic (non-native) plants.  Before humans invented irrigation, native plants survived both droughts and floods.  Once established in the landscape, native plants can survive on available rainfall.  Permanent irrigation can be minimized, and in many cases, eliminated entirely.  Native plants also naturally make optimum use of “too much water,” such as after summer rain showers or tropical storms.
 
 
What You Can Do
  • Completely eliminate or greatly reduce turf grass
  • Choose naturally drought-tolerant native plants
  • Use portable, easily regulated micro-irrigation systems
  • Absorb rainfall by densely planting trees, shrubs, and groundcovers
  • Collect rainwater from your roof in barrels or cisterns.
  • Reduce storm water runoff from your property by planting swales
  • Use native plantings to filter water entering your pond, lake, or riverfront.
 
CONSERVE ENERGY & REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES
 
Exotic plants are transported all over the planet and typically require regular applications of fossil fuel-based fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides.  By purchasing native plants from local growers using locally harvested seed, you can greatly reduce the amount of fossil fuel burned to transport, grow, and maintain landscape plants.  Native plant growers also generally limit their use of pesticides (made from petroleum products) and synthetic fertilizers (made from natural gas and coal).
 
What You Can Do
  • Choose locally grown native plants
  • Choose native plants grown from locally harvested seed
  • Stop using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers
  • Stop using gas-powered lawn equipment
  • Plant trees and shrubs to shade your house and grounds
  • Remove more carbon dioxide form the atmosphere with dense plantings of deeply rooted native plants.
 
ENHANCE AND PRESERVE BIODIVERSITY
 
Long before we were here, Florida’s wild creatures were using native plants for food, shelter, and nesting.  Many native plants rely on wild animals and insects for flower pollination and seed dispersal and germination.  Planting natives and preserving natural habitat attracts and supports wildlife, reduces pest insects, plants, and diseases, and preserves ecosystems that supply our water, nourish our soils, and moderate our climate.
 
What You Can Do
  • Preserve existing native vegetation whenever possible
  • Plant natives in associations that mimic natural ecosystems
  • Plant many species to support year-round blooms and fruits
  • Remove and destroy invasive exotic pest plants
  • Keep cats indoors and prevent dogs from chasing animals
  • Learn to appreciate and co-exist with insects and reptiles.
 
ENHANCE STORM RESISTANCE
 
Observe the large canopy trees in our forests and any coastal community – they’re native, they’re old, and they have withstood prior storms.  Native trees are generally slow growing and deeply rooted, adding to their natural resilience.  Mixed groves of trees of different types and sizes, such as found in a native forest, have much greater wind resistance than a solitary specimen surrounded by sod (the typical urban landscape).
 
What You Can Do
  • Choose strong, regionally appropriate native tree species
  • Plant mixed groves or groupings of trees
  • Surround trees with shrubs to deflect wind upwards
  • Reduce wind impact by planting dense layers of trees and shrubs
  • If needed, prune trees to maintain a low center of gravity and lessen foliage density
  • Plant native groundcovers and grasses that protect against beach and soil erosion.
 
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Social Justice Concerns: Climate Change

THE SHORT SIGNIFICANT LIST OF THE TOP 10 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING AND REDUCE DRASTIC GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

 If your family did all of the items listed here, you could cut your own global warming pollution by more than 11,000 lbs per year!

10.       Plant a couple of additional trees around your home/church.
            Pollution reduction = 20 lbs/year
 
9.         Next time you buy a refrigerator, purchase a high-efficiency model with the energy star logo.
Pollution reduction = 220 lbs/year
 
8.         Buy food and other products with reusable or recyclable packaging.
            Pollution reduction = 230 lbs/year
 
7.         Next time you buy a washing machine, purchase a low-energy, low-water-use machine with the energy star logo.  Front loaders are best!
Pollution reduction =440 lbs/year
 
6.         Install a solar thermal system to help provide your hot water.
            Pollution reduction=720 lbs/year
 
5.            Recycle all of your home/congregation’s newsprint, paper, cardboard, glass and metal.
Pollution reduction=850 lbs/year           
 
4.         If possible, leave your car at home two days a week.  Take public transportation to work, school, or on errands instead.  Do all your errands in one day.
Pollution reduction=1,590 lbs/year        
 
3.            Replace the most frequently used light bulbs in your home/church with compact fluorescent light bulbs.  Promote L.E.D. lighting, the next breakthrough in lighting.
Pollution reduction=2300 lbs/year        
 
2.            Insulate your home, tune up your furnace and AC, and install low-flow shower heads.  Consider the new insulated windows to reduce noise, dust, pollen, and pollution.
Pollution reduction=2480 lbs/year        
 
And the #1 thing that you can do …
 
1.         Next time you replace your most frequently used automobile/bus, purchase a fuel-efficient car, rated up to 32 mpg or more, or a bus that uses natural gas.  Better still, the new hybrids.  Please work for hydrogen fuel cells.  Protest corn ethanol fuel!
Pollution reduction=5600 lbs/year   

 

Commentary
Beth Kassab
Orlando Sentinel Columnist

FILL ‘ER UP WITH THAT ETHANOL BLEND

Looking to fill up your tank with something other than ethanol-laced gasoline?  Forget about it.  Pumps in Central Florida now exclusively sell what is known as E-10, a 10 percent ethanol blend, and buyers should beware. The vanishing of non-ethanol gas is the product of political pressure and distribution logistics.

Gov. Charlie Crist wants all gasoline in Florida to be part ethanol by 2010, and the Legislature included that provision in the energy bill it passed last week.  And the company that transports gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to Orlando recently switched to an all ethanol-infused supply at its Taft distribution facility.  (Jet fuel and diesel remain ethanol free.)

 The rhetoric on ethanol is endless.  You hear that the biofuel made from grain and corn is good for the environment and lessens our dependence on foreign oil.  But the demand for ethanol is also putting strain on the world’s food supply and urging prices upward.  In addition, there are lots of questions about just how efficient ethanol is inside your car’s engine.
 
Kenneth Wood, who operates about 50 local Chevron, Texaco and Shell stations, doesn’t like that he can’t offer customers a choice.  To do so has become much too expensive.  For a while, before he was forced to switch to the ethanol-blend, RaceTrac and Hess had a 10-cent advantage over him because they were already offering the cheaper blended product.  He said he lost money because he had to price to compete, especially as consumers are increasingly price-conscious with gas hovering above $3.50.
 
While ethanol appears to be cheaper at the pump, you may find that you have to fill up more often.  “You’re going to see at least a couple miles less per gallon in your vehicle,” Wood told me.
 
The Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, a lobby of gas station and store operators, made a last-ditch effort in Tallahassee on Friday to force suppliers – such as the one in Taft – to offer both blended and non-blended gas.  It failed Friday in the final hours of the legislative session.
 
“All I was trying to seek was access to fuel that we could provide to our customers and assure them that whatever they’re buying is not going to harm whatever they’re putting it into,” Jim Smith, the association’s president, told me Friday.  In its mandate for all gasoline to be ethanol blended by 2010, the Legislature allowed for exemptions such as boats, personal watercraft, generators and antique cars, which would likely be damaged by ethanol.
 
In April, a California boat owner who saw ethanol cause $35,000 in damage to his boat because it destroyed his fiberglass fuel tank, sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and other producers.  The suit alleges that the companies sold ethanol-blended fuel at marinas without warning boaters about potential damage.  California began requiring all gasoline be made up of 5.7 percent ethanol in 2004.
 
New pipeline, too
 
Meanwhile, Central Florida’s fuel supply company is preparing to make the 104 mile underground pipe that streams gas from the Port of Tampa to Orlando the nation’s first ethanol-capable pipeline.  Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, which also operates the Taft facility that receives fuel from the pipeline, is planning to run the first test batch in the third quarter.
 
“Hopefully, we’ll have routine commercial operation by the end of 2008,” Said spokesman Joe Hollier.
 
Orlando Sentinel
May 5-11, 2008
Beth Kassab can be reached at
 
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