When it comes to trumpeting the failed policies and anaemic strategies of the national Republican Party, our local Republican Representatives never fail to live up to expectations.  Randy Kuhl and Tom Reynolds (who?) are both making public statements in favour of more drilling to solve our nation’s oil crisis.

Where is the pressure - from either party - on American auto makers to produce energy-efficient cars?  Where is the effort to bring manufacturers together around the idea of creating energy-efficient home appliances?

Debating the efficacy of drilling or bitching about coal isn’t getting us anywhere.

Via Itchy at RochesterTurning, the world’s largest uranium producer, Cameco, reports having accidentally leaked uranium, fluorides and arsenic into Lake Ontario.  Oops.

Yet another wonderful byproduct of the Manhattan Project:

The plant at Port Hope, Ontario, across the lake from Rochester and down the shore from Toronto, first refined uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been temporarily closed since July to remove contaminated soil.

I must say that, when a few weeks back, the drumbeat over Ethanol production creating the problems with rising food costs, I had quite a few doubts. I still do, but it was quite an eye opener to read that up to 30% or so of the corn production in this country is devoted to Ethanol production. Who knew it would grow so fast?

But of course, like everything else, we find ourselves wanting for genuine leadership from the White House and are left instead to blame the very same Ethanol that many people were only just recently praising. I wrote an article while back pointing out that some basic math proves Ethanol production alone cannot solve our energy crisis. I’m neither the greatest proponent nor the harshest critic of Ethanol, but that farmers would want to move into the more lucrative business of energy production shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise when fuel prices soar and there is no clear sense of direction in this country.

Another interesting argument is that we should suspend farm subsidies as a means to control the food price problem. The argument goes that we are paying farmers not to grow crops and increasing production would ease the world food prices. While the Farm Bill is without doubt a pork barrel mess of gargantuan proportions, it doesn’t seem to make sense to increase production for the sake of what is basically a conservation problem in the first place. Besides which, the original reason for the Farm Bill and farm subsidies was that over production caused the Dust Bowl. Perhaps some happy medium can be attained, but if so, we’re not hearing a lot of that kind of talk out of Washington.

So, what is to be done? Facing macro-economic crises on a scale that buggers the imagination of most Americans, we are once again left to fend for ourselves and find our own to find solutions, all of which seem too small to matter. Trusting that a drop begets a torrent and realizing there are whole blogs dedicated to much better ideas than my own, I’ll throw a few out that Sarah and I are trying to build towards. Anyone else coming up with new ideas for “resource effective” living? Post them in the comments:

1. Fast food is evil! Every snack cracker, Super Jumbo Prehistoric Posterior Value Meal and boxed lunch you’ve ever eaten is larded with corn syrup. There are any number of levels on which this is bad, but principally for this discussion, it is adding to the demand for corn production without really adding any value to your life. This one’s really tough, but we’re trying to slowly wean ourselves off those things and onto fresher pastures.
2. Build your sanctuary. As Americans, we tend to work ourselves to the bone, cut corners at home, and then long for a vacation every year. For Sarah and I, it is time to start thinking about making home feel like more of a sanctuary so we don’t have the same need for escape. Having a garden has been a big change for the better and the trendy new thing to do is landscape the hell out of your front yard. Eschew the boring suburban grass lawn and grow something that shows off a bit of personality!

I tell ya, today has been an interesting day of surfing over here at DFE, people!

The Herbwife’s Kitchen » Flax in the bedroom.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, gooey flax tea makes a great personal lubricant!

Homemade lube. How cool is that?

. . . .

My first response to that recipe is that the quantities are way too large (unless you plan to give some away to all your friends). We’re talking about a perishable product here, so I’d suggest making only a cup or two at a time.

And, . . . say! Doesn’t that website look an awful lot like RochesterTurning.com? No reflection on you guys, I’m sure! LOL!

Whoopsies. Every time the petroleum industry apologists come up with a new theory, science is there to bat it down:

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | More doubt on cosmic climate link

The idea that modern global warming is due to changes in cloudiness caused by solar influences on cosmic rays is popular with “climate sceptics”.

But scientists found changes in cosmic ray flux do not affect cloud formation - the second such report in a month.

You can survive for one hour. One hour only, but that aught to be enough. We’ve got scientists crunching the numbers.

“Oh, smashing news,” you say. “Hang on. Survive where? The moon?” No, Beijing, the world’s most polluted city, which is hosting the Olympic Games. Now, get out there and compete:

Athletes safe in Beijing air for up to an hour: IOC | Reuters

International Olympic Committee scientists have proved that Beijing’s air will present no health risk to athletes competing for up to an hour at the 2008 Games, IOC chief inspector Hein Verbruggen said on Wednesday.

The D&C is reporting today that a second location in the Rochester area is now offering E85 fuel. The first was in Brighton at the 12 Corners:

E85 fuel coming to city station || Democrat & Chronicle: Business

Tegg said he invested about $40,000 in station upgrades and special equipment last fall in anticipation of carrying either E85 or some other alternative fuel.The E85 is coming from the new Western New York Energy LLC ethanol plant outside of Medina, Orleans County, Tegg said, and will retail at $2.60 a gallon.

From Wired.com comes a brilliant discussion of the potential effects of global warming on our psyches. According to one man’s research, this change is already happening in the minds of many Australians and could set the tone for the coming decades of climate change:

Clive Thompson on How the Next Victim of Climate Change Will Be Our Minds

Albrecht believes that this is a new type of sadness. People are feeling displaced. They’re suffering symptoms eerily similar to those of indigenous populations that are forcibly removed from their traditional homelands. But nobody is being relocated; they haven’t moved anywhere. It’s just that the familiar markers of their area, the physical and sensory signals that define home, are vanishing. Their environment is moving away from them, and they miss it terribly.

The U.S. delegates to the Bali environmental meeting have taken it upon themselves to fight the good fight for developing nations, demanding that language calling for tougher sanctions in those nature be blunted. So sayeth the delegates:

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | US sets terms for climate talks

Any new climate goals had to “take into account the legitimate right of the major developing economies and indeed all countries to grow their economies, develop on a sustainable basis, and have access to secure energy sources”.

Ah, yes. The legitimate right of developing economies to grow. How positively altruistic of them!

Unless of course you consider that most of the “development” happening in those “developing nations” tends to be United States corporations deflowering poor countries. If you consider all the corporations spoiling natural resources at will, polluting the air with abandon, and hiring educated workers from elsewhere to steal the natural wealth of those nations while providing the people who live there with nothing more than coffers of gold for the top 1%, well that would be different. If you were to consider such things (and I don’t recommend you do), then that altruism would surely start to look a whole lot more like still more opportunism, wouldn’t it?

Well, if some people have their way, you’ll get taxed extra for that bambino.  All in the name of stopping Global Warming.  I’m all for finding ways to lower greenhouse gas emissions, but this one is probably not going to work out well.  But if you want to have a somewhat disturbing read, continue on to the comments of the above-linked article.  It’s an odd nexus of environmentalism and crass conservativism.