Global Warming

U.S. import prices rose 1.4 percent in February, the U.S. BLS reported today, following a similar 1.3 percent rise in January

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 11:25.

The  U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics just released its U.S. IMPORT AND EXPORT PRICE INDEXES – FEBRUARY 2011 - reporting ongoing significant price increase trends in core sectors of the global economy - like US import and export food and energy prices - that indicate US annual inflation in the double-digits for many products and services impacting daily life in America... like the price of gasoline, milk and bread. The impacts worldwide - especially in developing countries - will be staggering... radicalizing.

EPA's 2005 National Air Toxins Assessment looks at human health impacts from estimated, chronic air toxin exposure

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/14/2011 - 06:14.

EPA's 2005 National Air Toxins Assessment human cancer risk from estimated, chronic inhalation exposures based on emissions data from the 2005 National Emissions Inventory for hazardous air pollutants, assuming these emissions remain constant throughout one's lifetime
EPA's 2005 National Air Toxins Assessment looks at human health impacts from estimated, chronic inhalation exposures based on emissions data from the
2005 National Emissions Inventory for hazardous air pollutants, assuming these emissions remain constant throughout one's lifetime

On March 11, 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a press release (below) and held conference calls supporting release of the fourth update of the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) - a computer tool that helps federal, state, local governments and other stakeholders better understand the potential health risks from exposure to air toxics.  The EPA  states: "the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) contains 2005 emissions data submitted primarily from the states for 178 pollutants. Models are used to make broad estimates of health risks for areas of the country.  The tool is not designed to determine actual health risks to individuals living in these areas." "Because the data submitted varies from state to state, it is also not possible to use the data to compare risks between different areas of the country."

As someone who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, which the Federal EPA and their NATA prove is highly polluted and unhealthy, I truly appreciate access to all environmental data management and mapping services the EPA may provide, as real-time as possible. These federal government tools offer citizens access to information that allows us to make better life-decisions - like where to live - and empowers us to be better environmental stewards - like shutting down coal pollution in our own backyards.

Yale University Identifies Six Distinct “Americas” When It Comes To The Issue Of Global Warming - Where Do You Live?

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 03/13/2011 - 20:09.

U.S. Commerce Department Announces $12 million i6 Green Challenge to Promote Clean Energy Innovation and Economic Growth

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 13:20.

U.S. Commerce Department Announces Launch of i6 Green Challenge to Promote Clean Energy Innovation and Economic Growth

U.S. departments of Agriculture, Commerce and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation, support entrepreneurship initiative

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and its Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship today announced the opening of its $12 million i6 Green Challenge in partnership with the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology and U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. ‪

EDA will award up to $1 million to each of six teams around the country with the most innovative ideas to drive technology commercialization and entrepreneurship in support of a green innovation economy, increased U.S. competitiveness and new jobs. Its partner agencies will award more than $6 million in additional funding to i6 Green winners.

Celebrate the 2nd Annual Hemp History Week - May 2nd-8th 2011 - a national grassroots education campaign

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 03:44.

Hemp History Week website

Wherever you live in America, there should be some near-by gathering, event, public meeting or celebration in support of Hemp History Week - May 2nd-8th 2011 - and if there isn't, you may help organize one in your community. Check their website for planned events - and how to organize events - and do it ASAP, as events registered by March 15th may get hemp product samples to distribute, and that is worth hustling-for.

The sponsors and supporters of Hemp History Week include Vote Hemp, the Hemp Industry Association, and leading hemp manufacturers, natural foods retailers, celebrities, farmers, historians and hemp advocates. "Hemp History Week is all about celebrating the goodness of hemp", and that is something all these organizers and millions of other people are working hard to make legal in every state across America - like New Mexico is succeeding with this week - to making hemp agriculture legal in America and worldwide, as is the mission of Vote Hemp and other advocacy organizations, large and small.

The steepness of the drop prompted a skeptical reaction at Cleveland City Hall. "We believe it is a significant undercount"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/10/2011 - 01:44.


Data provided by U.S. Census Bureau.

Cleveland Sees Plunge in Population, reports the Wall Street Journal today, announcing: "A larger-than-expected exodus from Cleveland during the past decade shrunk the city's population by 17% to about 397,000, according to U.S. Census data released Wednesday." That's right, Cleveland's population has crashed below the 400K floor for the first time since around the start of the 20th Century, which triggers all sorts of unsustainable, shrinking, un-re-imaginable financial and political realities for leadership and citizens here.

Perhaps the only silver lining is that this proof of Cleveland political and leadership failure will have a significant price of leaders' heads. From the Wall Street Journal:

Political observers said the decline could tilt the balance of political power in one of America's most hotly contested swing states.

"Ohio is expected to lose two congressional districts, and this big decline in Cleveland suggests that both could come out of northeastern Ohio," a Democratic stronghold, said John Green, a University of Akron political-science professor.

New Mexico State - House Agriculture Committee has passed Historic Bill HB 565 for licensing the growing of “Industrial Hemp"

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 16:21.


State Rep Ray Begaye (NM-4) discusses the positive impact of biotech and
the potential offered by hemp biotech in his state

Attached is New Mexico House Bill 565 (.pdf - 214 kb), and below is the press release announcing INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILL RECEIVING SUPPORT FROM NM LEGISLATORS - the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee has passed Bill HB 565 relating to agriculture: Providing for licensing, growing, selling and processing of “Industrial Hemp - Santhica”.

House Bill No. 565 is sponsored by Raye Begaye (D-NM 4th District ), NM State Representative 7th term: Vice Chair; House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee; Concurrent Jurisdiction for Tribes, Nations, Pueblos and the State of New Mexico.

The progess of this bill was announced by Ray Begaye - from their press release: "House Bill 565 passed the agriculture committee by a vote of 8-l this past Monday.  The bill will go to the Judiciary Committee and then onto the Floor of NM legislature.  House Bill 565 upon passage will stimulate the New Mexico economy with producers, processors, manufacture, and growers."

New Mexico Industrial Hemp Coalition Contacts are Bernice Muskrat, Attorney at Law and CFO for The Native International Solutions, Inc. - Bernicemuskrat [at] yahoo [dot] com - 575-759-4412... and Gloria Castillo, President; New Mexico Hemp Commission - gjc777 [at] gmail [dot] com - 505-554-5476. They are taking donations through the non-profit Rural Coalition to support these efforts.

They are each and all to be congratulated!!

Among the reasons New Mexico passed this bill, from their Press Release about NMHB 565 and industrial hemp: 

How Does the Electricity I Use Compare to the National Average? User friendly web tool allows Americans to search by zip code

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 12:34.

I just received an email from the EPA announcing it "updated its database that helps Americans understand the health and environmental impacts of electricity generation" and now provides a useful public interface - "Power Profiler is a user friendly online application that uses eGRID data to show air emissions information and the type of electricity generation, such as coal or nuclear, in various regions of the country.  By simply entering a zip code and selecting a utility, users can learn more about where their electricity comes from and what impact it has on air quality and the environment."

Good morning, The state of the American education system today is unacceptable.... let me know what you think:

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/08/2011 - 10:28.

The White House, Washington

Good morning,

The state of the American education system today is unacceptable. As many as one quarter of American students don’t finish high school. We've fallen to ninth place in the proportion of young people with college degrees. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.

For the sake of the next generation, and America's economic future, this has to change.

Advance in Biofuel - using bacteria to convert plant matter directly into isobutanol, which can be burned in regular car engines

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 20:07.

http://www.ornl.gov/ornlhome/images/print/header_print.jpg

Energy Department Announces New Advance in Biofuel Technology

Highlights Opportunity to Reduce America's Oil Dependence and Create Jobs in Rural America

March 07, 2011

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today congratulated a team of researchers at the Department's BioEnergy Science Center who have achieved yet another advance in the drive toward next generation biofuels: using bacteria to convert plant matter directly into isobutanol, which can be burned in regular car engines with a heat value higher than ethanol and similar to gasoline. This research is part of a broad portfolio of work the Department is doing to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and create new economic opportunities for rural America.

Green Power Network RFP Update: solicitations for renewable energy generation, renewable energy certificates, and green power

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 19:40.

This update contains solicitations for renewable energy generation, renewable energy certificates, and green power as a courtesy to our subscribers. Unless otherwise noted, these requests for proposals and solicitations are neither supported nor endorsed by the U.S. Department of Energy, Green Power Network.

March 31, 2011
Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L) RFP seeking qualified solid biofuel materials for use at two of its generating stations for the next three years to meet Ohio RPS requirements. DP&L will consider contracts for quantities starting in the 4th quarter of 2011 and in the years 2012-2014. Questions due by March 23, 2011.

EPA Awards $32 million to fund four Clean Air Research Centers at universities conducting cutting edge air pollution research

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 18:59.

EPA Awards $32 Million to Understand Health Impacts of Air Pollution

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $32 million to fund four new Clean Air Research Centers at universities conducting cutting edge air pollution research. The research will focus on the impacts of air pollution mixtures on people’s health. It is important to understand the health risks associated with exposure to multiple air pollutants because people are exposed to more than one pollutant at a time.“These centers are critical to understanding how to improve air quality and protect Americans’ health from complex mixtures of air pollutants,” said Dr. Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “The centers will focus on important scientific questions remaining in air research.”

Energy Matters, the quarterly newsletter for the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program (ITP)

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 03/07/2011 - 18:44.

Winter 2011 Issue of Energy Matters Now Available

Energy Matters, the quarterly newsletter for the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), provides in-depth articles to help industry professionals save energy, reduce costs, and increase productivity.

The Winter 2011 issue includes the following:

EPA Seeks Comment on Their Environmental Justice Action Development Process Guide - Close of Public Comment Period April 8, 2011

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 19:07.

Environmental Justice - It ain't a RACE thing - it's an INJUSTICE thing

As thoroughly documented on realNEO, over a course of many years - and now being thoroughly addressed by the EPA through their courses of action - Cleveland has environmental justice problems to solve.

Right now - through April 8, 2011 - the EPA is asking for your help determining how they carry out that responsibility, as they want public comment on THEIR Guide to Providing Environmental Justice for YOU.

As quoted from the EPA's Interim Guidance on Considering Environmental Justice During the Development of an Action, introduced and linked below: "Environmental justice (EJ) is central to the Agency’s mission and is the responsibility of everyone at EPA".

Peak Drupal 2011: Real Drops of Open Source Alternate Energy to Fuel and Feed Villagers in "The Social Network" Desert

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 15:00.

Screen Shot of White House Gov website March 2 2011

At the beginning of the 21st Century - a time when the pace of global evolution was certain to be astounding in every way, in accelerating change each day - especially as driven by transformational new Information Technologies (IT) and services - a serious, young college computer science student wrote some historic collaboration software, in his dorm-room, to help his fellow students communicate more effectively in their evolving, un-tethering, socially-networked world, and that software has been helping citizens freely interconnect with greater impact each day since, to save the world.

The early days of this software are beloved, in real geek-lore:

In 2000, permanent Internet connections were at a premium for University students, so two students set up a wireless bridge between their student dorms to share one of the students' ADSL modem connection among eight students. While this was an extremely luxurious situation at that time, something was missing: There was no means to discuss or share simple things.

This inspired the other student to work on a small news site with a built-in web board, allowing the group of friends to leave each other notes about the status of the network, to announce where they were having dinner, or to share some noteworthy news items.

The software did not have a name until the day after that student moved out after graduation. The group decided to put the internal website on-line so they could stay in touch, keep sharing interesting findings, and narrate snippets of their personal lives. While looking for a suitable domain name...

Mr. Wolstein, Please hold off on using the Forum Architects' plans for your redevelopment in the Flats, as much has improved

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 04:44.

Sunset over Lake Erie from Whiskey Island, and a nearly perfect Summer's day. Dedicated to Citizen Ed Hauser.
Sunset over Lake Erie from Whiskey Island, on a nearly perfect Summer's day. Dedicated to Citizen Ed Hauser.

Dear Mr. Wolstein,

Please hold off on using the Forum Architects' plans for your redevelopment in the Flats, as much has improved in the prospects for this city and region since they were conceived - there is new energy, life and opportunity coming into Cleveland that will improve the prospects for this most important historic site that I've been vocal in my disappointment to see go.

As you are moving forward in new directions, Cleveland and regional leaders including myself must move forward in many new directions previously inconceivable. As such, planning needs frequent re-visioning - and may in fact be open sourced, real-time and community enabled with world class information technology, which we'll be developing more of in Northeast Ohio in the future.

Most significant, we are in the process of removing from our community the dangerous pollution emitted from the coal burning at FirstEnergy Lake Shore (already decommissioning), MCCO, in University Circle, and Cleveland Thermal, next door to your site (your greatest liability, easily made an asset), and the outrageous environmental injustice from Mittal and some other industrial operations - and the direct and fugitive emissions from the mobile pollution sources servicing them - ships, trains and trucks  - that are just not safe for dense urban neighborhoods, which we must save and restore. There are economically viable solutions to all these challenges - it does not need to be this way!

Dear Mr. Mowry, Chief Information Officer, Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Welcome Home.

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Mon, 02/28/2011 - 17:17.

Broward County homepage February 28, 2011

Dear Mr. Mowry, Chief Information Officer, Cuyahoga County, Ohio:

Welcome Home.

Without a doubt, you hold the most opportune and important office in the region, today, and I wish you great success.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Charles Frost on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 23:39.

We Don't Need Alternative Energy! - Global Warming Solution - Easy!!!!!

(A) Small Nuclear War Could Reverse Global Warming for Years

http://news.nationalgeographic.com

( categories: )

Dear Governor Kasich: Show REAL NEO You Are Serious About Ohio's Future By Ending The $3.5+ Billion ODOT I-90 Bridge Fiasco Here

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sun, 02/27/2011 - 07:10.


Cleveland Institute of Art BA and Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative planning Master Joseph Stanley
had a more intelligent design for the future of Cleveland than the leaders of our community have embraced - BIG SURPRISE... he's not an idiot!

Dear Governor Kasich:

Show REAL NEO You Are Serious About Ohio's Future By Ending The $3.5+ Billion ODOT I-90 Bridge Fiasco Here!

I'm sure, with little effort, you may find leadership in Columbus and the great-big-real-world to brief you on the runaway stupidity and corruption surrounding the "planning" by corrupt "idiots", as you say, at Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), to replace our poorly maintained I-90 bridge over the polluted Cuyahoga River into Downtown Cleveland's Innerbelt "Trench". My good friend Ed Hauser was leading the battle against this stupidity before he was killed by pollution exposure here, and I am asking you to take his place fighting for our citizens. The war is well documented here on realNEO - and nowhere else on Earth. Google "realNEO ODOT Dream" or search within realNEO for links to ODOT, Bridge, Cleveland and Hauser.

To speed-up your assessment, I include below some links I have surfaced from our years of battling government stupidity, corruption and incompetence with ODOT here, as well as my most recent posting on realNEO about this matter.

Demonstrating leadership of Cleveland Plain Dealer, Clinic and Cleveland are unintelligent, compromised and bad for our health

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Sat, 02/26/2011 - 16:53.

FURTHER demonstrating the leadership of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland are unintelligent, compromised and bad for people's health... read how they define hazards to public health without addressing air pollution and lead poisoning, still again.

CON-MEN, WORKING FOR KOCHS!

The best line in this article is "What Dr. Eric Bieber, chief medical officer at UH, likes about resolution is that it will make it easier for people to do what's right." Yes, that would seem easier to someone who just had his coal power plant shut-the-F-down. That sure as hell wasn't easy on citizens!

Why must all the wrong people live long, healthy lives while we poor victims die of the toxins of their rich? I pray for divine intervention in the lives of these evil leaders here... as clearly they drink too much Tea and huff too many lead and coal fumes to think clearly themselves... especially if they put Cimperman in charge of OUR PUBLIC HEALTH!

Can you say take me to the Mayo Clinic please!

If there are any concilpeople with brains still functioning in Cleveland (Cummins), please bring up the obvious in the Council hearings on our leadership's stupidity - IT'S THE LEAD POISONING AND AIR POLLUTION STUPIDS - or face the consequences!

Dear Very Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral: Praying for your health, happiness and wisdom

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 15:14.

As I informed the Very Reverend Lind, of Trinity Cathedral, I am posting this outreach for the help of her good people to move Cleveland Thermal and so Cleveland beyond coal. Please reach out to these friends of the community with your words of support for a cleaner, safer, healthier, more prosperous Cleveland and NEO for all, beyond coal.

Dear Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral:
Norm Roulet <norm [at] realneo [dot] us>     Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 4:01 PM
To: tlind [at] dohio [dot] org
Cc: Nachy Kanfer <nachy [dot] kanfer [at] sierraclub [dot] org>
Dear Very Reverend Lind and supporters of Trinity Cathedral:

I appreciate your presence and good work in this community, and know you are prominent preachers for goodness, on a good Earth.

It has come to my attention that Trinity Cathedral is a customer of the Cleveland Thermal coal steam plant in the Flats, providing excessively-polluting utilities to your facilities on Euclid Avenue - that is featured on their website at http://www.clevelandthermal.com/services/case-studies

Cimperman for Congress 2008 - Top Donors - featuring Charles Evans from Dominion Cleveland Thermal for $2,000

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 13:52.

Cimperman for Congress 2008 - Top Donors - featuring Charles Evans from Dominion Cleveland Thermal for $2,000 - I assume the DiSanto, Frederick D. of Ancora Advisors LLC listed here for $2,300 is the same Ancora of Grenwich, Connecticut that bought Cleveland Thermal from Dominion in 2004:

RICHMOND, Va., July 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion (NYSE: D) announced today that it has agreed to sell Dominion Cleveland Thermal to Ancora Management LLC of Greenwich, Connecticut. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2004. Terms of the sale were not disclosed and the sale is subject to regulatory approval.

Look at all the other corrupting industrial and developer scum on Cimpermans buy-list who have been screwing Cleveland... wonder what each one wanted in return for their $1,000s... lucky Cimperman lost by a mile. Time to rid Cleveland of the power of all these self-serving, citizen-killing parasites forever!
 

Top 100 Donations/Contributions in the '08 Election Cycle to
JOE CIMPERMAN FOR CONGRESS

Name/
Location
Employer/
Occupation
Contribution
$ Amount
Primary/
General
Date
Adams, Al T.
Cleveland, OH
44114
Baker/Attorney $2,300 P 02/12/2008
Alexander, Anthony
Akron, OH
44308
FirstEnergy Corporation/President $2,300 P 02/28/2008

Cleveland Thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company... I know the Pieces Fit!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Fri, 02/25/2011 - 12:12.

An ambient film of real NEO people walking, shot from outside the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper headquarters, featuring late afternoon activity in the newsroom as seen from Superior Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, realNEO... "Schism" by TOOL is playing in the background, accompanied by the sounds of realNEO..

I've often wondered why the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been so disrespectful and harmful to me - I believe the following documents will explain - The Cleveland Plain Dealer is a Cleveland Thermal customer and so Cleveland Environmental Justice criminal - I know the Pieces Fit!

Document Record

View Image
Date Filed:  Document Type:  Number of pages:  Case Numbers:  Summary: 
2/5/1997 7:20:03 AM
TX-Text
000012
89-0362-HT-AEC
Alternate energy steam service agreement between Cleveland thermal Energy and The Plain Dealer Publishing Company, filed on behalf of applicant by S. Howard. (12 pgs.)

Half of world’s population could face climate-driven food crisis in second half of the century

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 13:09.

From Climate Progress:

Half of world’s population could face climate-driven food crisis in second half of the century - Science study warns: “Ignoring climate projections at this stage will only result in the worst form of triage.”

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 06:41 AM PST

[I'm on travel, so I'm updating this timely 2009 post on food insecurity.]

The quote above is the powerful final sentence from a 2009 study in Science, “Historical Warnings of Future Food Insecurity with Unprecedented Seasonal Heat.”  The University of Washington news release release explained:

Rapidly warming climate is likely to seriously alter crop yields in the tropics and subtropics by the end of this century and, without adaptation, will leave half the world’s population facing serious food shortages, new research shows….

“The stresses on global food production from temperature alone are going to be huge, and that doesn’t take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures,” said David Battisti, a University of Washington atmospheric sciences professor.

Yes, this 2009 study is a serious underestimate of the speed and scale of likely impacts for two reasons.

Dear Sierra Club President: Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and Begin Organizing!

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 02/24/2011 - 10:47.

Dear Sierra Club President and Nachy Kanfer - Campuses Beyond Coal:

Please Add Cleveland State University to your "Campuses Beyond Coal" Campaign and begin organizing against their primary energy provider, the astoundingly deadly, coal-polluting, private-investor-owned Cleveland Thermal coal furnace in the Cleveland Flats!

Cleveland State University (CSU) is the largest customer of Cleveland Thermal, and so must take a lead in moving this community beyond coal.

I don't imagine President Obama realized this sad situation, prior to his recent visit to Cleveland to meet with small business leaders and government representative at CSU about "jump-starting" our local economy, killed by pollution. I'm sure if he knew he was supporting environmental injustice here, in that way, he would have chosen a more socially-just venue to promote. Cleveland State University is not included in your "Campuses Beyond Coal" campaign, and should be added and activated immediately - Cleveland Thermal is one of the largest polluters in America - we must bring this to light and move them beyond coal to protect Clevelanders.

From realNEO: