Oysters Good To Eat, Good For The Environment

Not to sound like a sponsored post (because it isn't) but being the tail end of Earth Day-Week, I thought to reiterate what CNN was saying about how great oysters are. Not only are they great to eat, but when you farm them instead of just overfishing their natural habitat, they work as filters for pollution in the river. The cable news network highlighted a fisherman by the name of Tommy Leggett from the Chesapeake Bay who does exactly that.

From CNN:

"I've been a waterman for over 20 years," he says.

The difference now is Leggett doesn't fish anymore. He's an eco-conscious farmer and advocate who works on his sustainable oyster farm in the James River. He uses the term "aquaculture" to describe what he's doing here. "It refers to the husbandry, or farming, of aquatic species."

Leggett sells the oysters he harvests to local restaurants, growing about 100,000 a year as a part-time business.

He makes sure he always has a product to replace the ones that he sells. He shares his expertise with other watermen, educating them about oyster aquaculture and the importance of sustainability.

Leggett also sells his fresh products to the area market. "Customers want to know if the oysters they are buying are local, which means they're fresher and taste better."

It's a winning situation all around. Restaurants get the best product, Leggett is able to farm the river with consistency and the ecosystem improves from the restoration of oysters in the river. While this may be a success story in Virginia, it is also happening here in New York City. Restoration projects are under way, and who knows, one day the water in the harbor may once again be considered safe as it was 400 years ago.

President Bush Makes An Ass Out Of Himself At G8

It has become CW that George Bush is an ass, lacking etiquette, eloquence and anything that resembles being "Presidential." Well he confirmed that wisdom at the end of the G8 conference by making one of his more ridiculous statements ever this year this month this week. Though to his credit, his statement is technically true.

From The Daily Telegraph:

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

They may be shocked, but this childish behavior is nothing new for us. He seems to be proud that we are the world's biggest polluter and takes an evil and sadistic form of pleasure in it. Whoever tries to debate that George Bush isn't evil needs to try this one on for size. He may have been trying to be funny, but the environmental health of our planet is no laughing matter.

Senator Reid Takes On Dirty Coal

No matter what someone tries to tell you about "clean" coal, it is a dirty, filthy and unhealthy material from deep under the ground that pollutes the environment when used as energy. You can't just scrub it in a bathtub, ask any scientist (that isn't paid by the coal industry) and they will tell you that no matter what you do, coal will still do environmental damage. The myth that it is safer than 150 years ago is blatantly misleading and our Majority Leader in the Senate stated the obvious on Fox Business News.

From Politico:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't necessarily known as a multimedia sensation, but thanks to his "coal makes us sick" comment, Reid has rocketed to the top of YouTube.

This video of Reid on Fox Business Network now sits atop YouTube's "most viewed" list, with nearly 215,000 views, thanks in large part to a link on the Drudge Report.

Senate Republicans are sending around the video as part of an effort to make Democrats appear out of touch on the need to produce more energy and drill more oil wells. But Reid may get the last laugh, since he controls the Senate schedule and may force the GOP to take some difficult votes on energy policy in the coming weeks.

The only thing that Reid is out of touch on with this issue is the interests of the coal industry. Reid is right that coal is a sickening fuel source. Now you can laugh along with the Republicans who support "clean" coal or you can check out the facts on the matter. Personally, I'm going with the latter.

No Longer Can George Bush Claim To Be The World's Top Polluter

George Bush got sorrowful news today, learning that the United States can no longer be called the top fighter against the environmental enemy. He had been so helpful to oil producers, carbon-based power plant facilities and the mining industry. Every piece of legislation he helped push through was meant to keep the pace of pollution up, but alas China has passed us by anyways.

From RawStory:

"Our best forecast has Chinas CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions correctly surpassing the United States in 2006 rather than 2020 as previously anticipated," said the study by researchers at the University of California.

The report, written by economic professors Maximilian Aufhammer of UC Berkeley and Richard Carson of UC San Diego, is to be published next month in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Researchers compiled information about the use of fossil fuels in various Chinese provinces and forecast an 11 percent annual growth of carbon emissions from 2004 to 2010.

The problem for Bush was that although he was helping polluters here at home, he was also screwing the American economy by borrowing so much money from China to pay for his other destructive projects (see: Iraq War). Other ill-advised moves include allowing the mortgage industry to rape and pillage those that bought houses with sub-prime loans, deregulating vast swaths of the economy that caused a massive imbalance that increased the income gap and many, many, many other mistakes. So even though George tried to bring environmental destruction to us all as quick as he could, like everything else in life, he failed at that too.

The Dead Zone Off Of Louisiana

This isn't about the widespread devastation of the Gulf coast due to Hurricane Katrina or Rita. The Dead Zone is in the ocean, created by toxic runoff from the Mississippi River that creates algae blooms in the open water and then the decaying plants suck out all the oxygen in the water, essentially destroying the possibility of life in the area. According to scientists, it is now the 2nd largest dead zone in the world and growing larger year by year.

From The Sun Herald:

NEW ORLEANS -- Researchers predict the recurring "dead zone" off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to its largest size in at least 22 years, 8,543 square miles.

The forecast, released today by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, is based on a federal estimate of nitrogen from the Mississippi River watershed to the Gulf of Mexico. It discounts the effect large storms or hurricanes might have.

The "dead zone" in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is the second-largest area of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from sources including farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

If the economic situation wasn't bad enough already, this exacerbated problem will further hurt the economy of the Gulf coast. As the dead zone grows, the area where shrimpers and fisherman will shrink, resulting in a more crowded space and further depletion of the marine life that is still there.