Earth Day was established in the spring of 1970 by Senator
Gaylord Nelson, inspiring a movement that had more than 20 million
demonstrators in a number of cities across the U.S., and creating an
"environmental conscience" not seen before in America.
The movement worked, forcing Congress to establish the U. S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 1970. Since its inception,
the goal of the EPA has been to create a healthier and cleaner environment for
the American people.
The purpose and goal of Earth Day when begun in 1970 was to
inform and amend practices that contributed to “dirtying our environment.”
Today, the purpose is the same because the problem is the same, but with
increased scientific certainty on climate change and its causes (primarily the
burning of fossil fuels), global warming has become the new focus.
We now know an immediate change in human behavior is what is
needed to stem the tide of global pollution of every kind. But there continues
to be a hypocrisy associated with Earth Day and its’ goals. Business
organizations, colleges, universities, federal, state and local governments
continue to talk the talk but not walk the walk. The “Green Banner” is hung out
mainly to generate revenues not results. My own local University claims it is a
nationally recognized “Green Campus”. But I see no solar panels on buildings,
compost gardens on campus, limiting the use of automobiles, encouraging
recycling. I only see more parking lots, doors left open while air conditioning
is on, lights turned on to all hours of the night, copier machines spitting out
copy after copy. This “Call Me Maybe”
hypocrisy must end.
The most respected scientific bodies have stated
unequivocally that global warming is occurring, and people are causing it by
burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests. This conclusion is shared by the
national science academies of developed and developing countries, plus many
other organizations, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
which was established by the United Nations and the World Meteorological
Organization to provide the world with “a clear scientific view” on climate
change.
In conclusion, global warming is caused by human activities
that produce heat-trapping CO2 and other greenhouse-gas emissions. The only
real debate now is about how fast warming will occur and how much damage will
be done. Do your part every day of the year to reduce energy use and encourage
your leaders to stop the B.S. talk and deal with it!
Dear
Rink Rats:
I would
like to start a compost garden, what do I need to do?
Sincerely,
In
Need of a Green Thumb
Dear In
Need of a Green Thumb:
Healthy
gardens start with healthy soil. And there's no better ingredient than compost,
whether you till it into beds or use it as mulch.
Once
it's in the soil, compost increases fertility; adds both micro- and
macronutrients; buffers pH; and improves soil structure. Below is his foolproof
method for making compost.
COMPOST
DOS AND DON'TS
Do
compost
Nearly
any plant material, including the following:
Brown
matter -
Dried
leaves, hay, straw, sawdust, wood chips, and shrub and tree prunings. Ned
Conwell collects his brown matter, but you can also use straw from a feed
store. He puts branches and anything thorny in a separate slow-roast pile in
the corner, where it breaks down over a much longer period of time. To hasten
composting, chop or mow prunings into pieces 2 inches or smaller.
Green
matter -
Green
weeds, fruit and vegetable scraps, cover-crop remains, and fresh grass
clippings. Also coffee grounds, tea bags, and uncomposted manure from cows,
goats, horses, or poultry. Pine needles take longer to break down, while
compounds in black walnut and eucalyptus leaves can inhibit growth in other
plants; compost those greens only if you combine them with lots of other
vegetative waste.
Don't
compost
Animal
products (bones, meat scraps, dairy products); plants with fungal diseases such
as fire blight or verticillium; or seedy or rhizomatous weeds like purslane,
Bermuda grass, or bindweed.
Do turn
the pile often.
Let the
pile heat up for 10 to 14 days. When the temperature inside reaches 140° or
150° f, pull off the straw cap and turn the pile by pushing it over and
dividing it. Then reassemble it, but not in layers, and put the straw cap back
on. When the temperature climbs back to 130° or 140° f, turn the pile again. In
all, turn the pile three times in 4 to 6 months, adding water if it starts to
dry out. After the first two temperature-based turns, the more often you turn
your pile, the quicker it will break down into compost.
The
smaller the pieces, the faster they'll compost. (Run the lawn mower over big,
leathery leaves before adding them to the pile.) To check the pile's
temperature use a 20-inch-long compost thermometer, available at most garden
centers.
Enjoy
your green thumb!
Sincerely,
Rink
Rats
MARKET
WEEK
– Wall Street's major averages are coming off their largest weekly drops of
what's been a very positive year so far. The Dow's 317 point decline (2.1
percent) was its largest since the week ending June 1, 2012, while the S&P
500 saw its biggest weekly falloff since November.
GOLD
DROP WIPES OUT $560B FROM CENTRAL BANKS - "Investors are dumping
gold funds at the fastest pace in two years in favor of equities, compounding a
slump that has wiped $560 billion from the value of central bank reserves. ...
Gold funds suffered net outflows of $11.2 billion this year through April 10,
the most since 2011, while global and U.S. equity funds had net inflows of
$21.25 billion. ... Central banks are among the biggest losers because they own
31,694.8 metric tons, or 19 percent of all the gold mined, according to the
World Gold Council in London. After rallying for 12 straight years, the metal
has tumbled 28 percent from its September 2011 record of $1,923.70 an ounce.
Growing economies and corporate profits, along with slowing inflation, boosted
global equities by $2.28 trillion this year at the expense of the traditional
store of value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ...
"Gold futures in New York slumped 17 percent this year
through yesterday, the worst start since 1981, after a 9.3 percent drop on
April 15 that capped the biggest two-day decline since January 1980. The metal
tumbled into a bear market on April 12, losing more than 20 percent since the
record close in August 2011, the common definition of bear market."
JOE
SCARBOROUGH on 'Morning Joe,' re the Senate's defeat of
expanded background checks for gun buyers (54-46 in favor, short of the 60
votes needed for passage): 'This fight has just begun. ... We are the 90
percent. ... 90 percent will not be ignored. ... The American people were insulted
yesterday. ... This is going to be a turning point in the history of the
Republican Party. ... This party is moving toward extinction.'
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK – Carol Burnett (90), Tim Duncan (37), Gene Hasse
…The Man, Ann-Margaret (72), Jack Nicholson (76), Al Pacino (73), Joe Zanetta
…famous friend who knows everyone.
TREASURY'S
MARY MILLER SAYS TBTF IS OVER - Big bank executives rejoiced
last week at Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Mary Miller's speech
at the Minksy conference in New York on how Dodd-Frank does, in her view,
definitively end "too big to fail." From the speech: "The
'too-big-to-fail' catchphrase appears to mean different things to different
people. A common use of the 'too-big-to-fail' shorthand is the notion that the
government will bail a company out if it is in danger of collapse because its
failure would otherwise have too great a negative impact on the financial
system or the broader economy. With respect to this understanding of 'too big
to fail,' let me be very clear: It is wrong. ...
"As a result of the comprehensive reforms passed by
Congress and signed into law by President [Barack] Obama, no financial
institution, regardless of its size, will be bailed out by taxpayers again.
Shareholders of failed companies will be wiped out; creditors will absorb
losses; culpable management will not be retained and may have their
compensation clawed back; and any remaining costs associated with liquidating
the company must be recovered from disposition of the company's assets and, if
necessary, from assessments on the financial sector, not taxpayers."
Yeah, and the Houston Astros are going to win the World
Series this year. Call Me Maybe. AND then there is this…
WALL
STREET RETURNS TO RISK PRODUCTS - "The alchemists of Wall
Street are at it again. The banks that created risky amalgams of mortgages and
loans during the boom ... are busily reviving the same types of investments
that many thought were gone for good. Once more, arcane-sounding financial
products like collateralized debt obligations are being minted on Wall Street.
'The revival partly reflects the same investor optimism that
has lifted the stock market to new heights. ... But the revival also
underscores how these investments, known as structured financial products, have
largely escaped new regulations that were supposed to prevent a repeat of the
last financial crisis.
"Banks are turning out some types of structured
products as fast or faster than they did before the bottom fell out. So far
this year, for instance, banks have issued $33.5 billion in bonds backed by
commercial mortgages, slightly more than they did in early 2005 ... according
to data from Thomson Reuters. Banks have won over investors by taking steps to
make this generation of structured products safer than the last one. But with
demand for these products on the rise, credit ratings agencies and regulators
are warning that the additional protections are already dwindling."
CNN
TAKES A HIT OFF RINK RATS WATCH LIST: "The news audience has
been chopped up into ideological camps, and CNN's middle way has been clobbered
in the ratings. ... But the biggest damage to CNN has been self-inflicted -
never more so than in June, when in a rush to be first, it came running out of
the Supreme Court saying that President [Barack] Obama's health care law had
been overturned. ... On Wednesday at 1:45 p.m., the correspondent John King
reported that a suspect had been arrested. It was a big scoop that turned out
to be false. Mr. King, a good reporter in possession of a bad set of facts, was
joined by The Associated Press, Fox News, The Boston Globe and others, but the
stumble could not have come at a worse time for CNN.
"When viewers arrived in droves - the audience tripled
to 1.05 million, from 365,000 the week before, according to Nielsen ratings
supplied by Horizon Media - CNN failed in its core mission. It was not the
worst mistake of the week - The New York Post all but fingered two innocent men
in a front-page picture - but it was a signature error for a live news
channel."
DRIVING
THE WEEK – CFPB Director
Richard Cordray testifies before Senate Banking on Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT ...
House Financial Services has a hearing at 10 a.m. on Wednesday on reforming the
housing finance system ... HFSC subcommittee has a hearing Wednesday at 2 p.m.
on the U.S. contribution to the IMF ... Existing home sales this morning at 10
a.m. expected to rise to 5 million from 4.98 million ... New homes sales at 10
a.m. Tuesday expected to rise to 416,000 from 411,000 ... First-quarter GDP on
Friday at 8:30 a.m. expected to come in at a strong 3.1 percent. That could
well be the high-point for the year, however, as the payroll tax hike and
sequester spending cuts take an increasingly large chunk out of growth ...
University of Michigan consumer sentiment at 10 a.m. Friday expected to drop to
73.5 from 78.6.
Next week: Jack Ass of the Month and my double life.
Until Next Monday, Adios!
Claremont, CA
April 22, 2013
#IV-1, 158
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