Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Solar Day Salt Lake!
Friday, January 13, 2012
Keystone XL: A Bad Idea
tar sands is an energy intensive and polluting process. And then a pipeline to Texas, just to then export it? Only greed could come up with it. NASA's climate expert James Hansen says it well: it's game over to avoid the worst of climate change if we proceed. Now is a great time to get the "NO" message to the state department and Pres. Obama. and also to anyone who thinks this pipeline is a good idea.
Who stands to benefit from such a pipeline? Follow this link to Think Progress.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Minority Rule in U.S. Congress
Minority Rule in U.S. Congress
The United States Congress allows itself to be bullied by a very small number of voters. Links in the two preceding postings take you to information about the Americans’ overwhelming support of family planning. The most recent describes an organization of Evangelical Christians who argue that family planning is in keeping with their beliefs about the family and the environment. So much for the supposed monolithic opposition to birth control of this religious group. Below that link is an article excerpted from a Rand study that found that a substantial if not overwhelming percent of citizens approve of government support for family planning both here and abroad.
All of us need to call our congressional representatives to account on funding for family planning.
Ann O'Connell
Monday, November 7, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Support for Family Planning and Abortion
Support for Family Planning and Abortion
Most members of the millennial generation (those between 18 and 29) believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases – as do most Americans between 30 and 65. (In a June 10th article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Most young Americans back same-sex marriage, abortion, Lisa Schencker reported on a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute of Washington D.C. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51971031-78/abortion-percent-americans-survey.html.csp?page=1
Abortion should be legal in all/most cases
Ages 18-29 60%
Ages 30-49 58%
Ages 50-64 59%
The responses to this survey released in early June, 2011 should be considered along with the results of a Rand Organization sponsored survey of 2003, (Grammich, Changes in American Opinions about Family Planning.) http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reprints/2005/RP1148.pdf. The topic was different Some of the questions, a repeat from a survey of 1998, asked respondents if they supported family planning policies including U.S. health insurance coverage of family planning services and U.S. sponsorship of family planning programs in developing countries. Although there has been some decline in the support for both domestic and third world family planning the approval rates are still substantial. For example, support for family planning programs in developing countries received 87% approval in 1998 and 76% in 2003. The authors of the Rand study try to tease out the reasons for the 10% decline in support for family planning here and abroad and I recommend the article for this analysis. However the important question to be asked is that when a substantial majority of Americans approve of making family planning available and abortion legal, why can a small but vocal minority so easily thwart the will of the majority?
Ann O'Connell
Saturday, June 4, 2011
GPI STUDY: WE MUST JUSTIFY THE USE OF ANY RESOURCE
dana_dolsen@hotmail.com
Monday, May 2, 2011
GPI is a Valuable Study for Utah
Friday, October 10, 2008
Flushing the Toilet
"If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down."
Now, I don't know how much water I am saving the planet by doing this but, I do know that our toilet uses a lot of water and my philosophy is that every little bit helps...so, make up a song teach it to your partner, kids, friends, whatever...have fun with it and when guests come over...don't worry about the fact that there is yellow water in your toilet...just teach them about ecology and let them know that you are doing your best to save the environment.
I am thinking that if we only flush the toilet every 5 times or so, that we are saving our earth at least a little bit...thanks and heres to thinking creatively about living in peace with our planet.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Salt Lake City's Carbon Footprint
Salt Lakers' footprint decreased 3.88 percent between 2000 and 2005. Interestingly, although the portion of the footprint due to transportation use went up 9.9 percent, the portion due to residential use went down 18.3 percent.
The Brookings report cited "significant policy leadership" from states and cities producing a "staggering" diversity of activities. Mentioned in the report were the Western Climate Initiative and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, with participation from Utah and Salt Lake City, respectively. The report called for expanded federal action to decrease the energy intensity and carbon intensity of the U.S. economy and cited numerous federal policy failures.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Drive at 50 instead of 70 mph
I submitted this letter to the editor this week:
We could do something immediately to reduce our gas consumption, improve air quality, reduce global warming, save money and lives. Let's drive at at 50 instead of 70 mph on our freeways. Department of Transportation studies show that such a speed reduction would increase average gas mileage by 20%. The reason is that the power needed to overcome air resistance increases as the cube of speed. If you cube the ratio of 70/50 you get 2.74 or a 274 % increase in power requirement. At $3.50 per gallon a 20% improvement of gas mileage will save you 70 cents per gallon. This is much better than the proposed savings by eliminating the federal tax on gas of 18 cents.
The proposed speed reduction will reduce stopping distance by half as well as the energy absorbed by your car and your body in a crash. This is due to the fact that kinetic energy is proportional to speed squared. A reduction in the 40,000 killed, 3 million injured, and more than $200 billion in car insurance per year would likely be another advantage. Contact your representative to propose such a change.
-Andy Schoenberg