WHAT'S GOING ON (and how we'd fix it) [and] NITE SHIFT RESET

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJR71e6zTtc

Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
Fore we see it you take it

Oh, make you wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
This ain't livin', This ain't livin'
No, no baby, this ain't livin'
No, no, no

Inflation no chance
To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die

Oh, make me wanna holler
The way they do my life
Make me wanna holler
The way they do my life

Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah

Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
I can't pay my taxes

Oh, make me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it makes me wanna holler
And throw up both my hands

Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God knows where we're heading
Oh, make me wanna holler
They don't understand

Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah

Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we're wrong
Who are they to judge us
Simply cause we wear our hair long

Ah...the immortal words of Marvin Gaye, from his masterful 1971 l.p. "What's Going On". Here we are almost 40 years later, and has anything really changed, in this country, or the World, for all that much better, for most people? What do you think? 

Now, I know much of what you read here in the Alaska Progressive Review might be considered depressing, but we feel it is necessary, to describe WHAT'S GOING ON, in our society at large, for better or worse, so that we can make positive changes, to develop a sane, just, and sustainable society, based on meeting people's needs, and respecting Pachemama (the Aymara people's of Bolivia's term for Mother Earth). Rather than one based on greed, which is destroying the environment and maintaining billions of people in abject poverty. And if left unchecked, will bring an end to civilisation as we know it, by the end of this century.  

I'd like to introduce this article that was on today's CommonDreams website, one of our favourite news-sites. Because it illustrates so nicely how the system we live under works, which we'll discuss, and offer our take on it.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/06-5

Published on Tuesday, July 6, 2010 by the San Francisco Chronicle 

Dead Zone in Gulf Linked to Ethanol Production

by Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - While the BP oil spill has been labeled the worst environmental catastrophe in recent U.S. history, a biofuel is contributing to a Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" the size of New Jersey that scientists say could be every bit as harmful to the gulf.

The Gulf of Mexico dead zone threatens valuable commercial and recreational Gulf fisheries that generate about $2.8 billion annually. (Credit: NOAA)

Each year, nitrogen used to fertilize corn, about a third of which is made into ethanol, leaches from Midwest croplands into the Mississippi River and out into the gulf, where the fertilizer feeds giant algae blooms. As the algae dies, it settles to the ocean floor and decays, consuming oxygen and suffocating marine life.

Known as hypoxia, the oxygen depletion kills shrimp, crabs, worms and anything else that cannot escape. The dead zone has doubled since the 1980s and is expected this year to grow as large as 8,500 square miles and hug the Gulf Coast from Alabama to Texas.

As to which is worse, the oil spill or the hypoxia, "it's a really tough call," said Nathaniel Ostrom, a zoologist at Michigan State University. "There's no real answer to that question."

Some scientists fear the oil spill will worsen the dead zone, because when oil decomposes, it also consumes oxygen. New government estimates on Thursday indicated that the BP oil spill had gushed as much as 141 million gallons since an oil-rig explosion and well blowout on April 20 that killed 11 workers.

Corn is biggest culprit

The gulf dead zone is the second-largest in the world, after one in the Baltic Sea. Scientists say the biggest culprit is industrial-scale corn production. Corn growers are heavy users of both nitrogen and pesticides. Vast monocultures of corn and soybeans, both subsidized by the federal government, have displaced diversified farms and grasslands throughout the Mississippi Basin.

"The subsidies are driving farmers toward more corn," said Gene Turner, a zoologist at Louisiana State University. "More nitrate comes off corn fields than it does off of any other crop by far. And nitrogen is driving the formation of the dead zone."

The dead zone, he said, is "a symptom of the homogenization of the landscape. We just have a few crops on what used to have all kinds of different vegetation."

In 2007, Congress passed a renewable fuels standard that requires ethanol production to triple in the next 12 years. The Department of Agriculture has just rolled out a plan to meet that goal, including building ethanol refineries in every state. The Environmental Protection Agency will decide soon whether to increase the amount of ethanol in gasoline blends from 10 percent to 15 percent. 

A 2008 National Research Council report warned of a "considerable" increase in damage to the gulf if ethanol production is increased.

Pet cause of Congress

One of the authors of that report, agricultural economist Otto Doering at Purdue University, said that a 50 percent boost in the ethanol blend in gasoline will significantly raise corn prices, driving farmers to pull land out of conservation and pastureland and into corn production. They are also likely to add more nitrogen fertilizers to boost yields.

Corn ethanol has been heavily subsidized since the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s. Viewed by the corn industry as a lucrative market, ethanol is a perennial favorite in Congress.

Ethanol consumes two-thirds of all federal subsidies for renewable fuels, said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy group, leaving solar, wind and the rest to fight over the remaining third. Corn ethanol cost taxpayers $17 billion from 2005 to 2009, his group estimates.

"This is another industry that's entirely a creature of the government, even more so than corn growing per se," Cook said. "The production of ethanol wouldn't happen at all without government subsidies and protection."

The National Corn Growers Association ran a media blitz in Washington last week to press for the renewal of the 51-cents-a-gallon tax credit for ethanol. With pictures of the BP oil spill looming in the background, the Corn Growers' video announces, "Ethanol: Now is the time."

Conservation plan hurt

The ethanol boom over the past decade has lured farmers to withdraw millions of acres from the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farms not to plant fragile land. Much of this land has been returned to native prairie grasses, at taxpayer expense. Millions more acres are up for renewal over the next few years.

"There's been a very large-scale conversion of these CRP lands to biofuel production," Ostrom said. Those soils have accumulated carbon from the atmosphere and stored it, becoming "a pretty significant sink for atmospheric CO2," he said. "If we suddenly start farming those soils, we basically release all of the carbon that's been sequestered for decades, and that may more than offset any carbon benefit of switching to biofuels."

To meet its goal of tripling ethanol production, Congress called for more cellulosic ethanol, which is made from wood, crop waste, perennial grasses such as switchgrass, and even native prairie grasses. Perennial grasses are considered far less damaging to the environment than corn because they require less fertilizer and their roots remain in the ground, helping to stabilize the soil and reduce runoff.

But commercial production of cellulosic ethanol remains a pipe dream. It would require large subsidies to dislodge corn ethanol.

There is no experience with commercial production of switchgrass. Purdue's Doering said it will require fertilizer and is likely to be planted on conservation lands and pasture instead of displacing corn.

Joan Nassauer, a professor at the University of Michigan who has studied how alternative agricultural policies could alleviate the dead zone, said cellulosic ethanol could work.

"It might be one of those win-wins, but it's not in production yet," she said. "What we've got now all over the Corn Belt is corn, and that's definitely not a win-win."

© 2010 Hearst Communications Inc. 

What this article shows, is that industry, in this case agribusiness, is driving U.S. government policy, which in turn is destroying significant parts of the global ecosystem, which is all interconnected, and which we all rely on to sustain us. Large agribusiness corporations, which make vast profits from growing and marketing basic commodities (and manipulating prices and supplies) like corn and soybeans, spend millions of dollars annually to fund armies of lobbyists on "K" street in Washington DC to pressure politicians to pass legislation favourable to them. Just as the energy companies lobbied lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to relax regulatory oversight, allowing tragedies like the BP methane/oil gusher-blowout to occur. And of course, all the corporations in the major economic sectors pay to get candidates elected who will defer to their wishes. The insurance industry,  financial, energy, military/defense, transportation, and so on.

This really accelerated during the 1980s, during the Ronnie Ray-gun administration, which worked hard to promote the idea that government was a problem, not a solution, to all of society's wants and needs. And this greedy, sociopathic philosophy (for that really is what it boils down to) is now accepted and promoted as normal and essential by the corporate media in the U.S., and swallowed by most of it's population. Even though it is causing them great suffering, which will continue to worsen, as long as the status quo is maintained.

Then there is this: BP and federal officials are deliberately downplaying/hiding health hazards/effects associated with the Gulf oil poisoning.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/07/07-4 Millions of people will possibly be affected by this over the coming months and years! It will be impossible to hide then.

Your lead author has been asked to dispatch to Venice, Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama in the last week. To serve as an incident meteorologist, forecasting weather conditions for the support/cleanup operations associated with the BP gusher. I haven't been able to go, because we are still putting together the Chugach Front Research Centre. But in a week or so, after we are finished with this, it's quite likely I will. I'm certainly uneasy, but there are very few meteorologists that have oil spill response training and experience, and so I feel a responsibility, as the safety of the people working there is our primary concern. Just have to hope for the best. It will be a great opportunity though for me to learn from people there how operations are proceeding, and how they feel they are being treated. As well as to see first-hand, the actual area/magnitude of the poisoning. We'll keep you posted!

So what are we to do, if we want to change things for the better? To make our national and global society healthy and sustainable, before it is too late? The Alaska Progressive Review thinks first that we need to step back, and examine just what we believe in, and lay out our priorities. Then find people and political organisations that believe as we do, and support them. So, for your edification, this is what we think, and would like to see.

That all human beings are entitled to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, and the possibility to engage in meaningful work that will benefit themselves and their families, as well as their society at large. THESE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS not "SOMETHING FOR NOTHING" as many conservatives like to describe social benefits, in countries that offer them. Many of them, if not most, probably never knew what it feels like to be out of work, with no prospects, while their families suffer. Now that almost all the manufacturing in the US has been outsourced to China and other low-wage countries (driven in part by governmental tax credits from the 1980s on, lobbied for by, guess who?), where are the 20 percent of the working population of this country who are unemployed going to find jobs [the official rate is listed as around 9.2 percent, but hey, guess what, the criteria for measuring unemployment, was changed in....the 1980s! eds]?

Something for nothing? How about the bailouts of the criminally greedy financial institutions, "too large to fail", that nearly destroyed the global economy, and which will end up costing trillions of dollars? Or, no-bid contracts for grossly inflated, un-necessary, and destructive weapons systems, in the offense (defense) industry.

But the "oligarchy" (large corporations, etc...) who drive US, and increasingly, global economic and political policy like having high percentages of unemployment. Because then desperate people will work for increasingly lower wages, and in worse conditions, raising profits. Which is why we will not see any significant relief in the overall dismal employment situation in this country, and why it will get worse, as long as the major two parties are in power in the US. And, within a few decades we will live in a society very much like the third world, where poor people literally die in the streets, and if they can find work, it is hard, physically debilitating, and without medical or retirement benefits. Don't believe us? Visit Mexico any time, it's the easiest for us in the US to see, and quite representative of how most of the World's population lives. 

Within a few decades, if not sooner, this is what we'll be seeing on the streets of any city in the US. A ten year old child (child labour still occurs in these countries), in this case, in Bangladesh, part of a group protesting low wages in their garment industry a few weeks ago, set upon by the police, paid for by their corporate masters. Look at your clothing labels, if anything is made in Bangladesh, this is what you are paying for! Those that are fortunate enough in these kind of societies to be in the "middle" or "upper class", surrounded by the prevailing poverty, live cloistered in fear behind walls and gated communities. In my Bolivian and Peruvian travels a few years ago, in the "richer" areas, the walled houses had razor-wire and broken glass on tops of them! Coming soon...to neighbourhoods like yours! If nothing is done soon...

So this is why we must first educate ourselves and others to WHAT'S GOING ON, and then find people and groups to work with to effect positive changes. We don't have much time! Here at the Alaska Progressive Review, we support the Green Party, as they espouse the same ideals and goals as we do. All the socialist parties, for the most part, do as well. 

What would we do, if the Alaska Progressive Review could decide on governmental policies? First and foremost, immediately cease all military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and bring all the soldiers and civilian contractors home.

Negotiate with the governments of those countries for reparations payments to be made to them, for the death and destruction caused by the illegal and immoral actions in their countries.


Slash the military offense (not defense) budget by 3/4, and close all overseas bases, 700 or more in number.

End "corporate personhood" by a constitutional amendment, and change campaign financing laws to only allow government funding of candidates, who initially are pre-screened by voters, then those selected in this process, stand in a general election. Immediately end "bailout" programmes to the finance industry, and force repayment from them. Implement small financial transaction taxes on stock, bond, and investment purchases. Strictly regulate this industry to downsize the larger institutions, and prevent them from engaging in risky and destructive trading/investment schemes. Create a national bank that caters to smaller customers for basic loans for housing, transportation, small business development, education, etc.. Declare college educations to be accessible to all, through guaranteed zero-interest loans, repayable after the student enters the workforce, with repayment scalable to income.

Amend the Constitution to declare that food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and gainful employment, are human rights, and set policy accordingly. For example, expanding medicare to cover the entire population, and creating massive public-works programmes to rehabilitate decaying infrastructure such as roads, bridges, rail-lines, schools, and hospitals.

Increase corporate income tax rates to companies that have outsourced significant portions of their labour force. Give tax credits to those who will return jobs to this country. Give tax credits to worker-owned, and publicly owned cooperatives, like credit unions, farmers cooperatives, public utilities, etc.. Either nationalise or strictly regulate corporations that government regulations require people to purchase from. Automobile insurance companies, for instance.

Expropriate the resources and infrastructure of all the major energy companies and merge them into a nationalised energy sector. Expropriate all the major "defense" corporations resources and infrastructures, unless they agree to be bought out for fair and reasonable sums. Put the people and resources of these high-technology corporations immediately to work developing and building alternative energy and transportation sources (solar power stations in desert areas, wind-farms, geothermal power stations, high-speed inter-city rail systems, intra-city light-rail systems, improved battery technology for electric cars, intensive algae cultivation to produce aviation fuel that is carbon neutral, etc..).

So there you have it, some ideas from us, about how we would like to change things. The important thing is to think about these things, talk about them with people, and support groups and politicians who can help make them happen. Forget the commercial, corporate media, for the most part. Get your real and unbiased news from web-sites like truthout.org, counterpunch.org, commondreams.org, and many others. Together, we need to make a difference, before it is too late! We must have a political and economic system that is based on meeting people's needs, and respecting the environment, it's that simple. There is no alternative, if we with to preserve some form of civilisation.

                                            NITE SHIFT RESET  

Part of your lead editor's other job as a meteorologist, which helps fund the Chugach Front Research Centre, and the activities of the Alaska Progressive Review, entails working night shifts, about one week out of four. After working a string of these, I need to come back to the day world, as after a few days off, I'll be on day shifts again. And I much prefer being a day person. One thing I've found which really helps me make that transition, is to do something physically tiring, so that after getting off my last shift in the morning, that same night, I'll fall down hard, and get a good sleep. And be mostly transitioned, in one night. It usually works quite well.

This last 04 July, after working five 10 hour nite shifts, from 1900-0500, I slept about four hours, got up, and we decided a good thing to do, would be to hike up to Konoya point a 1423 metre (4669 ft) knob in the Chugach Range, visible from, and looming above the Chugach Front Research Centre.

We would have liked to do an overnight or two night pack trip, but the weather promised to get colder and rainy at the higher elevations, so we decided just to make a day hike out of it. But which would still tire us out, as it is a very steep route, going from only 30 metres elevation, up to 1423, in only 8-9 km (though the last 3 km were very steep).

The view from the Research Centre in the morning, after we got up, showed the higher peaks in the clouds. But we were expecting some clearing, so we headed up around noon. Less than a KM from the research centre is our portal to a different world. A small trail cuts in to the wilderness from the end of 36th street. As soon as we enter the boreal forest of birch, aspen, and spruce, the sights and sounds of the city vanish, on the small, rocky, rooty trail. This in turn, leads to the "Tank Road". A road that travels through this area of the Fort Richardson army base, which tanks sometimes do travel upon. But in our several weeks of using it, we've seen very few people, and no vehicles. Another KM down the Tank Road, takes us to the North Fork of Campbell Creek trail, which is not listed or described in any guidebooks. It leads right to the top of Konoya Point, and has side trails that connect with others.

The lower parts of this trail are overgrown with grass and shrubs, prime bear country! We see lots of bear scat, but so far, never have seen any actual bears. Mattie and Homer are always wearing bells though, so they know we are coming!

In much of South-Central Alaska 1/3 or more of the standing spruce has been killed by bug infestations, due to the warmer winters of the last 30+ years. Very unfortunate.

As we get higher, towards 600 metres or so, the boreal forest starts opening up into stunted alder and willow thickets, before giving way entirely to tundra, above 900 metres, due to the much cooler summer conditions at and above this elevation.

At this point, you can start to see the layout of the valley of the North Fork of Campbell Creek, which is a classic, glacially-carved, U-shaped valley (during the ice ages, 10K+ years ago). 

Konoya point, where we are headed, is the highest exposed point on the left, here.

The trail steepens rapidly above this point. When we run up to here, it's too steep, I have to break stride and walk.

At this point, around 1000 metres (3280 feet), we are entirely above tree-line. Every time I've been up here since late May, temperatures have only been around 5-10C (41-50F), with stiff winds, which is why there are no trees! Low pressure systems, with cool air, often hang over the Gulf of Alaska, just to our south, and in these, free-air freezing levels are often only 1500-2500 metres (4920 to 7300 feet). Meaning, that not too much higher above, the temperature drops to near freezing, and below. And nothing much can grow.

There are three level benches on this route, that make for good photo, lunch, rest, or camping spots. This is the second one, at about 1300 metres (3600 feet). There was a good stiff southeast wind here (the circulation around a low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska), and the temperature was probably about 6-7C (43-45F). 

One thing we found interesting was just a little higher from this spot, a few scattered mountain hemlock trees were growing. They looked like they were 20-30 years old, at most. It is our supposition that the warmer winters, and slightly warmer summers, are allowing these trees to expand their range further north, and higher in elevation. As they are usually found in milder, maritime mountains, south of here.

I was mentally rather foggy, from my five night shifts, and sleeping only four hours. But Mattie, as usual, was displaying her tremendous level of energy, running up and down the steepest slopes at full bore. If only I could do that! Her energy and exuberance in these settings is truly inspiring.

Equally inspiring, as we ascended, were the views in every direction. The city of Anchorage bustles 1100 metres below, as a few clouds begin to move in.

As we got above 1200 metres (4000 + feet), clouds began building in. We were hoping it would stay clear enough, so that we could see the trail and adjacent slopes, as it gets quite steep and rocky toward the top of Konoya Point.

As air ascends these slopes and cools, the relative humidity increases, and clouds form, if the air is moist enough to begin with (and often it is here, days can go by sometimes where we can't see the tops of the peaks from the Research Centre).

In fact, as we got to within only about 50 metres of the summit, the clouds closed in. We turned back, because I was mentally foggy, and the trail was very steep and rocky, requiring some scrambling, and I needed good visibility. We came down some, then went on the other side of the ridge though, where it was clearer, and got some good views, down into the valley. On the far right is the U-shaped N. Fork of Campbell Creek valley. Such beautiful terrain here, and this high in the tundra, the footing is good, and you can go anywhere. There is a trail that branches off this one, just a KM in from the Tank Road, following the creek on the north bank. However, it is very overgrown and brushy. And we feel, probably unsafe, as brown and black bears will be in there, while the salmon are running. It'll be a great ski route in winter though, not too steep, and penetrating directly into the heart of the Chugach. Can't wait!

There is great beauty in every natural setting, no matter where you may find yourself. Here of course, it's not hard to see! The colour of this lichen-covered rock is pretty interesting.

And on smaller scales too. The tundra vegetation contains dwarf species of birch, willow, and aspen, as well as small, ground-hugging flowers like these phlox. Staying low to keep out of the ceaseless cold winds at these higher elevations. A marvel of natural adaptation to this harsh environment.

After about four hours of hiking, up, then down, we stopped at a little pond for lunch, and a short nap (I was quite mentally tired at this point). Just about 15 minutes really refreshed me. I find short naps like this can work wonders, whenever I'm tired, and during long hikes, bikes, or ski outings, sometimes I will take one at an opportune time, and feel much better afterward. 

Homer and Mattie were very happy to be out and in their element, which shows on their faces.

Homer's energy level picks up markedly the cooler it gets, with his thick coat. Even yesterday, at his mature age of 14, he ran 32 KM with Mattie and, such an inspiration!

Mattie of course, never ceases to amaze us, with her amazing energy, endurance, and courage. Yesterday on our 32 KM run, she chased and ran off a cow moose and calf, though I tried to stop her. I had a talk with her afterward, we'll see if it does any good.

Her fearlessness is comforting, though, because I know she'll give her all for us, if a bear sets upon us, but I don't want her to get injured! Who would ever guess this sweet little 29 kg three year old lab/husky mix would have that in her! Where did that come from?

We finished our hike in six hours, traveling up 1300 metres, then back down. After my nap and lunch on the trail, I felt much better, and was able to stay up until 2300, then get a good night's sleep, to transition back to the day world the next morning. We are so fortunate to be able to do this right from our door!