Science & Technology

Rant

Earth Day San Diego

Posted 37 months ago|14 comments|846 views
Written by
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
Every year, a big Earth Fair is held in Balboa Park.
Yay!


So, I think it's just ducky people are saving bits of saran wrap and rinsing out toilet paper or whatever. No, seriously, I do. I think it's really super neato that y'all form a great big traffic jam around Balboa Park so you can sit in traffic, burning fuel, while waiting for one of your other eco-warriors to give up a parking spot.

I think it's great that you descend on the park in a teeming horde, dragging your poor dogs along to demonstrate how much you love animals and the earth. Never mind that the dogs were panting like crazy in 90 degree heat while walking on black asphalt. I'm sure they really enjoyed their day out, and are probably recovering from burnt pads now. Assuming you are smart enough to notice them limping. Didn't see any dog draggers carrying water for their mutts, either.

I like how there are the usual carny booths flogging hot dogs on a stick, funnel cakes and other swill to stuff your maws.

I like how, since the first Earth Day, San Diego has allowed 99% of its wildlands to fall to development.

I like how we're on the edge of critical water shortages, and the city tells us to cut back while allowing more developments to reap the last of the open space.

I like how the Anti-abortion people were the first booth entering the Earth Fair. Yeah, have more humans, that's really eco-friendly! I liked how every nut case organization from the freaking Rainbow Family to the Scientologists were there, what fun! Scientology burns through trees like loggers through old growth, printing out useless crap that nobody will ever read.

I really, really, really hate Earth Day. It's like a Dead concert for hip Greenies; suddenly, ecology is like, totally now, and we're all about it for one day.

In 1970, I organized a desert tortoise restoration project for the first Earth Day. We collected endangered gopher tortoises from people who'd picked them up in the desert and took them home as pets. We then took the half dozen animals we'd collected to the Borrego Desert ranger station.

Now the military is demanding the right to hold war games in the center of tortoise habitat.

The Navy demands the right to blow off sonar tests that appear to cause fatalities in whales.

Hurray for wind farms, that make no attempt to deter the hawks, eagles, falcons and migratory birds the blades slaughter every year.

Yeah, yay for you for recycling and buying whole logs to burn as fuel. It's great that you're using a fabric shopping bag instead of sea-life choking plastic.

The NUMBER ONE problem on this planet is human overpopulation! All problems stem from that one, the one people are assiduously ignoring like the elephant in the living room.

So, no matter how hard you work, the mounds of trash are still going to grow, the habitat critical to species will continue to degrade. Look at the salmon off northern California. Then look at the letters written by idiots who can't understand the importance of smelt in the Sacramento Delta, because humans don't eat them.

And if you know diddly about ecology and the food chain, you'll quit electing actors and businessmen to office, and show the same responsibility you do for that plastic water bottle (which you should not be using) for choosing elected officials who are marginally qualified to steer this country and planet into what is looking to be a very very unpleasant session on planet Earth.
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COMMENTS
37 months ago: "Hurray for wind farms, that make no attempt to deter the hawks, eagles, falcons and migratory birds the blades slaughter every year."

Acually, with science, they are finding out more about bird migration patterns, to keep the wind farms out of the way. Also, not to sound cruel, but survival of the fittest will take out the the less fortunate birds. Also, compared to other energys like coal and oil, wind kills less birds. Still, dying birds is sad.
xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: Yeah, whatever.
Since birds apparently don't see the spinning blades, survival of the fittest doesn't fit. They are simply not genetically prepared for invisible bird grinders.

But hurray for cheap energy so you can run your tv and microwave, eh?
37 months ago: Lets say if all our energy was coal. It would kill more birds do to air pollution and habitat destruction then compared to a wind farms.

If you were really against wind farms still, use solar farms instead. This would however use land in the desert that could have been used as a wildlife preserve.

Over all, wind has less negative aspects then positive ones.

Also, yes hurray for cheap energy.

xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: You missed this part of my statement:
"Hurray for wind farms, that make no attempt to deter the hawks, eagles, falcons and migratory birds the blades slaughter every year. "

xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: Dammit. Anyway, my point was, they make NO effort to mark the blades so that birds might see them. Since birds can see in the UV spectrum, it wouldn't be that hard to paint them with UV reflective paint, which might deter them from turning into birdburger.

Fingernail polish reflects UV light. Paints, laundry detergents and other substances, including fish attractants, do too. And yet nobody bothers. So, until that effort is made, I am against wind farms.

It isn't that much effort, so why don't they at least try it?
37 months ago: Valid point
LhTsQq
LhTsQq
Canada
37 months ago: You are implying that the paint currently used doesn't reflect UVs? Do you actually *really* know this as a fact?

Oil/coal are finite resources. Winds isn't. Might as well create as much expertise now since we will have to rely on it a lot in the future.
xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: If it did, birdies would not be flying into the big, bright circle of death, don't you think? They're not stupid, you know.

It's just that humanity doesn't care.
LhTsQq
LhTsQq
Canada
37 months ago: You might want to contact authors of the study titled "Comparison of Avian Responses to UV-Light-Reflective Paint on Wind Turbines," to share your scientific findings. In their report, they were clearly mistaken, they stated:

"Can Birds Better Detect UV-Reflective Objects? No study has been designed to specifically answer this question. Although it is well known that birds can detect UV light, controversy exists as to whether birds are more sensitive to UV or visible light."

You might also be interested in the (obviously erroneous, right?) conclusion of this particular study: "The current study does not provide strong evidence that there is a difference in bird use, mortality, or risk between turbine blades painted with a UV-light reflective paint and those painted with conventional paint."

Fun project: two side-by-side lists of eco-problems to solve for 1) Fossil fuels, 2) Wind farms...
xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: Nice. You quote a "study" without providing any links to follow up with.

Kestrels can track a mouse by the trail of urine it leaves. The urine reflects UV light.

Parrots have UV reflective patches on their plumage. Yeah, I'm sure that is just a coincidence, right?

Put your source out there. I don't accept undocumented testimonials. Ask the Scientologists who post here.
LhTsQq
LhTsQq
Canada
37 months ago: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=%22Comparison+of+Avian+Responses+to+UV-Light-Reflective+Paint+on+Wind+Turbines%22

"Google is your friend" -- xenubarb
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/03/g-gordy-liddy-talks-with-anonymous-the-church-of-scientologys-arch-nemesis/#comment-9402
xenubarb
xenubarb
San Diego, CA
37 months ago: It is your job to provide evidence to back up your assertions.
Lrn2internet. Sheesh.
LhTsQq
LhTsQq
Canada
37 months ago: Of course, I just thought it was easy enough in the current case: First link in Google result. My bad. Here is the link, it will require cut & paste in your browser though (sorry): http://www.nrel.gov/wind/pdfs/32840.pdf

I initially questioned your assertion that the paint used to coat wind turbine do not contain UV-reflective additive, and the only "evidence" you eventually provided was your opinion that "if it did, birdies would not be flying into the big, bright circle of death, don't you think? They're not stupid, you know." Bit ironic?
37 months ago: The fan in my house has a surround that prevents me from sticking my little fingers in it and prevents the larger excrement from hitting it. Would it be possible to have similar surrounds to prevent birds from being ground up into little bird burgers?

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