Your Questions About Green Living

Do you agree with game wardens being trained to fight crime in wilderness and along border?

Is this a good thing?
Will this help an understaffed, over worked border patrol when others working the border get trained to fight the crime at the borders?
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Game wardens entering new territory
51 cadets graduate in largest class ever, trained to fight crime in wilderness and along border.
By Danny Yadron

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Libby Balusek graduated from Texas A&M University in 2007 with a degree in wildlife conservation science.

On Tuesday, after seven months of training, the 24-year-old became a Texas game warden, a job that will take her to Cameron County, where she will help keep an eye out for illegal immigration and drug trafficking, as well as the usual plethora of environmental crimes associated with the position.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department graduated 51 game warden cadets Tuesday, the largest class ever. Part of the reason for that is the state needs more boots on the ground to keep up with Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to increase border security, Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Lydia Saldaña said.

It’s not the department’s main job, but cadets get enough training in law enforcement to deal with border issues, or at least to hold a suspect until an officer from another agency arrives, said Col. Peter Flores, director of the game warden program.

“We’re not in the immigration business. … We’re not in the narcotics business,” Flores said. “We operate in areas no one else does.”

Wardens, traditionally tasked with looking out for illegal hunting, fishing or other environmental crimes, are often in charge of huge tracts of Texas wilderness, as well as the state’s Gulf Coast.

As Perry continues to lobby Washington for a greater military presence on the U.S.-Mexico border, game wardens have become sort of all-purpose law enforcement agents, detaining boats with illegal nets that happen to have drugs on board, or arresting ranch trespassers who happen to lack U.S. identification, Flores said.

There are 15 full-time game wardens posted on the border, and the state Legislature commissioned another 15 this session, Saldaña said. That’s in addition to about 100 wardens that the state sent to the area last week as part of a multiagency border patrol surge, Flores said. Texas has about 500 game wardens.

Since late 2007, the state has used hundreds of game wardens to help patrol the border area as part of Operation Border Star, a Perry spokeswoman said. As members point out, the position has always been about multitasking, but Tuesday’s ceremony demonstrated how the title “game warden” is now something of a cross between Eagle Scout and state trooper.

“We get into more stuff now than we can keep up with,” said Capt. Fred Churchill, head of a six-county district, including Travis County. “They gotta train for a lot.”

The governor acknowledged the job’s demands Tuesday, as he inducted the newly minted game wardens with a short speech and a handshake.

“You take a calculated but necessary risk for the rest of us,” Perry said. “We need you now more than ever.”

Drew Spencer, 31, who is headed to Starr County, said the looming task doesn’t phase him. “I’m going to resort to my training,” said Spencer, who used to work as a game warden in New Mexico. “This is truly the best job in the world.”

Career Decision help! Im graduating and want to work with the environment.?

Ok, so here it goes. I have a bs in business management and will graduate next year with a general mba from texas a & m. With all my years spent avoiding actually making a decision on what to do when I grow up :), I finally have to make a choice. One thing I am very interested in is the environment and fighting our dependance on foreign oil. From recently finishing an enlistment with the army guard and two deployments to both afghanistan and Iraq I feel that the solution to peace is not from picking up a weapon but to work to fix the root causes of these problems which I beleive is mainly from oil. What career can I go into where I can push these issues? The field Im interested in is energy, and bringing about less oil dependance with already proven resources such as electricity, like electric cars and etc. I know im simplifying it, but It is pretty clear to me that if we did not need as much oil, we wouldnt be at war and could bring about new industries and increase strengthIn our own country through new cleaner and more environmental sound industries essentially killing two birds with one stone. I know that this post is rather long, but I have thought long about these issues and theres no other way I can simply put them down without being kind of long winded. What would be some paths that I could take to go about working on these kinds of issues?

democratic national committee?

DRAFTING AL GORE ???

In the past Al Gore as a candidate has frustrated me. I thought that he paid too much attention to pollsters and conflicting advisors, and failed to heed his own convictions. He knew that the environment is the most important long-term concern that this nation faces (pollution, global warming, energy resources, topsoil erosion, etc.), but he was afraid that the American people would not listen, or that he would be tarred as an out-of-touch policy wonk.

Now things have changed. The nation seems to be spontaneously greening. The big oil companies tout their green energy programs; evangelical Christians are going green; architects win prizes for their green building designs; large companies spontaneously are capping carbon emissions; environmental organizations are finding new clout (witness their influence in the recent $45 billion buyout of the energy giant TXU in Texas); people are buying hybrid cars; trying to reduce waste, recycle, and compost. We have a long way to go as a nation, but it is becoming obvious that the people (the electorate) are way ahead of the politicians. A critical mass may be coalescing. A sea change in public thinking may be on the horizon.

Major cultural changes don’t happen until the time is ripe. That is why I believe that it may be time to draft Al Gore for the Democratic 2008 Presidential race. I don’t believe he will aggressively seek the nomination and confront Hillary. But his recent Oscar for “An Inconvenient Truth” has undoubtedly stoked the old fires of political ambition. Gore is smart and articulate, deeply comprehends foreign and domestic policy issues, and will be a shrewder campaigner than before. And he does have a dry sense of humor. Hillary remains a polarizing figure. Obama is young and inexperienced. Gore is unquestionably the best-qualified individual on the scene today to lead our country out of the current morass.

What sane person would today want the daunting job of U.S. President?
Gore is indeed sane, and if he can be persuaded to run, our country will be very fortunate. Let’s try to see that he is drafted. Please join me in discussing him with progressive influential friends, forwarding this e-mail, or whatever you can do to get the ball rolling. We owe it to our country – to our children and grandchildren, — and to our planet, which is our only home.

Neal Chandler, March 2007

Why Isn’t BP Under Criminal Investigation?

That’s the question several former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials have been asking in the aftermath of the catastrophic explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig last month that killed 11 employees and ruptured a newly drilled well 5,000 feet below the surface and has spewed tens of millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf if Mexico, which now stands as the largest spill in US history.
Like previous BP-related disasters in Alaska and Texas, evidence has emerged that appears to show BP knowingly cut corners on maintenance and safety on Deepwater Horizon’s operations, which, according to blogger bmaz, who writes about legal issues at Emptywheel, could amount to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act. Additionally, because people were killed, BP and company officials could also face prosecution for negligent and reckless homicide.
Scott West, the former special agent-in-charge at the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, who spent more than a year probing allegations that BP committed crimes in connection with a massive oil spill on Alaska’s North Slope in 2006, said the company’s prior felony and misdemeanor convictions should have immediately “raised red flags” and resulted in a federal criminal investigation.
http://www.alternet.org/story/147045/why_isn%27t_bp_under_criminal_investigation?page=1

EnvironMENTALists predictions ALWAYS end up being FALSE so why should we buy this “Global Warming” CRAP?

There is a noticeable pattern in the evolution of environmental scares. A scientist starts things off by discovering a potential threat. Then, the media picks it up, and oversimplifies and exaggerates the situation. Next, the environmentalists polarize the issue—one either agrees with the prediction of coming doom, or one must be in the pocket of uncaring big business. Soon, the bureaucrats get into the act, setting up regulations to avert the coming disaster. The skeptics then jump in, claiming that the scare is exaggerated. Finally, the official consensus is that the magnitude of the disaster has greatly shrunk.

Let’s just look at the predictions from 1970 “EnvironMENTALists shall we?

• “…civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “…somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “…the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “…eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

• “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” biologist Barry Commoner, University of Washington, writing in the journal Environment, April 1970.

• “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from the intolerable deteriorations and possible extinction,” The New York Times editorial, April 20, 1970.

• “By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half…” Life magazine, January 1970.

• “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• “…air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone,” Paul Ehrlich, interview in Mademoiselle magazine, April 1970.

• Ehrlich also predicted that in 1973, 200,000 Americans would die from air pollution, and that by 1980 the life expectancy of Americans would be 42 years.

• “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” Earth Day organizer Denis Hayes, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

• “By the year 2000…the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia, will be in famine,” Peter Gunter, North Texas State University, The Living Wilderness, Spring 1970.

By 1985…air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight
reaching the earth by one half” – Life magazine, January 1970

Then there are some more recent predictions:

In 1984, the United Nations claimed that 21 million hectares of land were succumbing to desertification every year. Actually, since then, there has been no net advance in deserts worldwide.

Starting in 1973, the Worldwatch Institute has repeatedly predicted that the food needs of a growing world population would exceed agricultural production, but this has never occurred. In spite of a doubling of the population since 1961, food production per head has risen by 20%.

Global 2000, a report to the U.S. president written in 1980 claimed that food prices would rise between 35% and 115% by 2000. In reality, the world food commodity index has fallen by 50%.

In 1972, the Club of Rome published a highly influential report called Limits of Growth, which said that total global oil reserves amounted to only 550 billion barrels, and could be used up by about 1990. However, from 1970 to 1990, 600 billion barrels were withdrawn, and estimated reserves by 1990 were 900 billion barrels.

In the early 1980s, it was reported that half of Germany’s trees were dying from acid rain, and, in 1986, the United Nations claimed that 23% of all trees in Europe were damaged. But, by the end of the 1980s, the biomass stock of European forests had actually risen, and forests were thriving.

Forests in America were also said to be under threat from acid rain. Yet, a ten-year study concluded that there was no evidence of general or unusual forest decline in either the U.S. or Canada.
Chosen: Yup…I am only pointing out that part of the word “Environmentalist” is “MENTAL” and there are plenty of folks like yourself that put the “MENTAL” in “enviroMENTAList.”
LOL Darwin…you also put the “MENTAL” in envorMENTAList!
Darwin…you are actually trying to justify predictions made in 1970…that’s so cute…now twll me the one about Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster!
Justm399: Please re-read the predictions and tell me how with predictions that dire what we did to prevent them? Any minor steps that were taken couldn’t have possibly stopped the level of disaster that was predicted. It’s kind of like someone tells me you are bleeding to death and I give them a Scooby Doo bandaid to give to you…but as it turns out you weren’t actually bleeding to death it was a pin prick and suddenly the Scooby Doo bandaid saved your life….see where I am going?