Patagonia takes you to remote Utah, a couple years ago when people were campaigning for area to be set aside in what became Bears Ears National Monument. This area was declared a national monument in 2016 and on December 3rd Donald Trump announced that they are going to try to cut the size of the monument by about 90% to allow for mining, ranching, and drilling.
The capitol city Delhi, the largest city in India and roughly the 3rd largest in the world, is currently experiencing a pollution emergency. This photo is one of many showing the degree of thick smog currently enveloping the city. One minister, in a highly publicized quote, described the conditions this time of year in Delhi as comparable to a “gas chamber”.
Earlier this week we covered the enormous smog outbreaks in China that regularly occur during the fall. https://www.facebook.com/TheEarthStory/posts/587965911264457). Compared to those levels, much of the world is doing better…but a recent report on the state of the air in Europe illustrates how far society still has to go.
The report was issued by the World Health Organization, a group independent of European politics, and thus was able to be very critical of the state of the air.
The parks having reasonable admittance fees should be maintained by tax money. Parks simply can’t operate without federal and state funding. It’s not how it works, sorry.
I just wanna talk to whoever thought this was a good idea
This is probably even more shady than it seems. They raise the rates and then less people go. Low attendance numbers leads to that park getting less attention and less money. This discourages new parks and devalues current parks. Then the government can be like “lol people don’t care about nature let’s drill” Parks and libraries should be free places for people to enrich themselves, but smart sheep aren’t worth anything 🐑
^^^This. It’s why they’re also slashing park funding. According to the linked article, the current budget proposal includes:
Cutting base operating funding by $132 million, affecting at least
90 percent of parks. This includes cuts to law enforcement, health and
safety, natural and cultural resource projects, and volunteer and youth
programs.
Cutting 1,242 staff positions.
A 37 percent cut to the Historic Preservation Fund.
A drastic cut to federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which
helps parks purchase private lands within park boundaries from willing
sellers that would otherwise be vulnerable to inappropriate commercial
or residential development.
Elimination of the National Heritage Area program, which preserves
large historic landscapes managed through innovative partnerships.
Combined with the drastic rate hike, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a ploy to force park closures.
This proposal is currently open for public comments and will be open until November 23.
Comments can be written by anyone. You don’t have to live in America.
Please write a comment saying how much you love the parks or a certain park or why you think this is a bad idea. If you don’t live in America write something about how you travel here to see the parks or how you wish that your country had a park service like America (the American government loves having its ego stroked)
Public comments are the only thing the park service is going to see. They aren’t going to see how many notes this post gets, they’re going to look at that comments page to see how many people they would tick off it they did this. So please, reblog this post but go comment, it’s the only way to let the parks service know how you feel.
PLEASE do this ^^^
PLEASE go comment!!!
Hi guys I don’t do politics much but this is vitally important. A HUGE chunk of Colorado’s economy depends on people visiting the parks, not to mention that they’re beautiful and don’t deserve this bullshit. Commenting DOES make a big difference and you don’t have to give them any personal information if you don’t want.
I feel like an important message is trying to be communicated to me but I have no idea what it is
Our forests are being cut down 3x faster than they can grow! One acre of hemp produces as much cellulose fiber pulp as 4.1 acres of trees!!! This is super useful for so many things, especially paper production! In addition, hemp takes in carbon dioxide 4x as fast as trees do, which makes it especially valuable in the act of reducing CO2 emissions/greenhouse gases! 🌲🌲🌲 source
Important reminder that industrial hemp can’t be used as a recreational drug, so if anyone tries to pull that card you can just stop them then and there. There are no real arguments against using industrial hemp, even if you’re rigidly against the legalization of any recreational drugs.
AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I never see pro-hemp on my dash, woo!
Usually the argument on why you can’t have hemp is because then people will hide marijuana in it.
yeah, sure…. if they want shitty, shitty marijuana.
It would be like growing sweet corn and dent corn together. Yeah, they look similar at a distance and they’re closely related, but you don’t want them next to each other as they’ll cross pollinate and you’ll end up with bad versions of both.
Same deal here. a patch of marijuana grown in an open field of hemp IS going to get contaminated and it’ll lower quality of BOTH crops. Your hemp farmer doesn’t want that and if likely going rip out any patches trespassers try to add for same reason.
and the big issue is not even the THC content. Because most quality marijuana is intended to be grown indoors or greenhouses, its a dwarf variety. Short. Fiber hemp is bred for height so as to maximize fiber production. super tall. It’s going to be really obvious, really fast if you’ve got both in the same field even before you get to the point of pollination. what’s this runty bullshit doing in my field?
They also have different growing needs with regards to spacing, harvest time, etc. so the argument that you can hide marijuana in industrial hemp fields are basically bullshit.
anyway… aside from paper, hemp fiber can also be used to make earthquake resistant concrete that’s actually LIGHTER than conventional concrete while being stronger. It’s better at resisting flexing or warping, so ideal for stuff like bridges and highway supports as it’ll better resist large temperature swings and vibration. (”hempcrete” is slightly different, but makes great fire resistant insulation)
You can also use the waste after fiber harvest for animal fodder, including silage. Comparable to corn. and remember, that’s the waste after you’ve harvested for fiber!
Just to add, it can be used for paper, concrete, insulation, cloth and rope (both rough like sack cloth and smooth like cotton), bio degradable plastics (oddly same for banana trees I believe) and then of course for things like fishing lines and nets etc.
It’s a very versatile and useful plant that has been used for hundreds or maybe even thousands of years for material uses, and with modern advances is becoming even more useful thanks to chemical engineering and similar.
If you miss the amazon rainforest then stop buying sugar, soy, palm oil, tea, coffee, chocolate, bananas, pineapples, charcoal, diamonds, aluminum, oil, copper, gold, and paper
And can I ask–when you say you miss the amazon rainforest, do you also mean you miss the 90+ indigenous tribes that have been completely wiped out by corporate death squads who didn’t even bother to give them the chance to run for their lives before murdering them for land and money?
Or, are you just willing to admit you care more about a pretentious, fictional moral high ground gained by not eating animals than you do about human rights and environmental issues
As the world waits for corporations and society to transition from
dirty, polluting industries like oil, coal and plastics to cleaner
“green” forms of energy and building materials, there’s a battle going
on behind the scenes.
What will happen as Trump’s new EPA takes shape is anyone’s guess,
but it’s important to know the true history of the United States before
the EPA was able to carry out its mission.
Take a good, hard look at the pre-EPA America, courtesy of these photos shared from the U.S. National Archives…
ifesbob 