February 27, 2014

Basic hydrology is how.

Basic hydrology is how.

A mile is just over 5,000 feet. It's not uncommon for domestic water sources to be located nearly 1,000 feet down. While the intervening 4,000 feet may sound like a lot, it is only an impermeable barrier in textbook-ideal-theoretical-land, not in real earth. In real ground, soils and rock layers are often heterogeneous, ground shifts due to weather, seismic activity, the high pressure of the fracking itself, etc., and the fracking chemicals themselves are powerful solvents. These chemicals will move. Also, the fracking and injection wells and casings themselves are subject to failure. When (not if, but when) they fail, the well itself becomes a superhighway for groundwater pollution.

-app

February 26, 2014

I find it absolutely horrifying that we routinely spray RoundUp on crops just before harvest.

I find it absolutely horrifying that grain producers routinely spray RoundUp on crops just before harvest. Grain dries-down naturally, so all this spraying accomplishes is speeding-up the process a little. While I can certainly see the advantage of greater control, especially in my rainy neck of the woods, RoundUp (glyphosate) is a systemic poison. Why would we ever poison our food this way?

Whether or not glyphosate residues are contributing to gluten intolerance (which I suffer from), I think that they are certainly affecting our health in some negative manner. \

You learn something new every day, and most of these learned things add to the argument that organic foods are the healthiest and best choice for all of us.

-app

February 25, 2014

More authoritarianism at DU. Sigh.

More authoritarianism at DU.

Sigh.

Just today, I've read supposedly-progressive DU'ers telling me that the EPA should regulate wood stoves basically out of existence, how rifles should be seized from the citizens of CT ('The Constitution State') using 'MRAPs' and the threat of 'cold dead hands,' how small-scale farmers ought to be inspected and regulated by the FDA until the burden drives them entirely out of business, and now I get to be told that once I decide to travel by the most common avenue open to Americans, all rights are automatically waived.

No. Just no.

I am an American - a citizen of a Constitutional Republic. I do not consent to the further erosion of my rights.

-app

February 24, 2014

There are better solutions than an expensive wood stove redesign

I burn wood occasionally in a very primitive, steel fireplace insert inside a masonry chimney. Basically, I'm using 18th century technology, yet I am hardly polluting at all. What's my secret? I use thoroughly dry wood and pay attention to my fire, adjusting the draft and damper accordingly. I burn so cleanly that after five years since the last inspection and sweeping, the chimney guy this year said that if I stuck to these protocols, I wouldn't need a visit from him for another five years. No creosote and hardly any ash up my stack.

Trying to idiot-proof a wood stove to be smokeless even with wet wood and other stupidity is asking all of us to pay for the actions of a dumb minority that shouldn't be using a wood stove in the first place. A good education program via a public agency such as the state Cooperative Extension services would cost less and do more. Plus education about how to properly manage a wood fire will not further alienate rural voters who might already have the impression that Democrats are rural, elitist, nanny-staters who don't even try to understand the difficulties of country life. Banning simple, efficient wood stove designs, on the other hand, certainly will.

From the article:

-app