Category Archives: Current Events

Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge Update

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The Denver Post had a Sunday front page article titled “Rocky Flats Ten Years After the Cleanup: A Safe Refuge?,” by John Aguilar. I commend the author and the Denver Post for an article that is balanced. There was a time when the media dominantly published the opinions of the anti-Rocky Flats activists. This article presents both sides.

I have always contended that a positive legacy of the Rocky Flats Plant is that it resulted in saving a segment of the high mountain prairie. “Just 16 miles from downtown Denver, it’s a tableau of wild beauty and one that few get to witness so close to a major metropolitan area.” The 5,000 acre Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is scheduled to formally open to the public at the end of 2017. There has already been what was officials called a “soft opening” with one guided hike that occurred on September 25 and another that is scheduled for October 16. You can call 303-289-0936 if you want to go on that hike. The announcement was made on the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge web page and said, “Join us to explore the wildlife, birds, and plants…Please be comfortable hiking up to 3 miles.” A Daily Camera article predictably adds that hikers can go, “…if they are not concerned about radioactive plutonium-239, which officials say is not a danger.”

The usual critics are cited in the Camera and Post articles with their usual warnings about why the public should not go onto the site. One said he wouldn’t let his children go there. I recommend reading the full Post article and note the assurances given by the various public officers. I’m guessing they would be proud  to show their families the beautiful place.

Death Sentence in Colorado

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I was baffled when the man who murdered twelve innocent people and wounded another seventy while they were viewing a movie in Colorado was not sentenced to death. I must say I commend the Denver Post and Jordan Steffen for publishing an article that attempts to explain the reasoning by at least one juror about the eventual life sentence. My reaction to the verdict had been that someone, or several, must have lied during jury selection that they could find for the death sentence when they secretly were not willing to do that. The Denver Post article provides some insight into the eventual outcome. My opinion is that the shooter clearly should have been sentenced to death, but reading the article made me more sympathetic to those who did not agree.

The article clearly describes the emotional impact of the trial on the jurors, or at least the impact on one who decided she could not vote for the death penalty. “She still cries when she thinks of the 12 people she never met. At night she imagines the horrors she only heard about…The gunman did not deserve a life sentence, but he also didn’t deserve to die.” I was confused when I read that last sentence, but eventually came to understand that the juror believed a life sentence was not enough punishment, but that the death sentence was too much punishment. I admit I don’t know what would be a “middle ground punishment,” but the juror needed whatever that might have been. The juror decided to speak to the press because reports indicated that a single juror spared the shooter’s life when there were three who could not agree with the death sentence. Continue reading →

The Arab Spring Has Become the European Flood

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The Arab Spring was the hopeful term for a new beginning when there were anti-government protests and uprisings in the Middle East. I recall universal media support to the decision to provide air support to the rebels fighting Gaddafi’s forces in Libya until he was captured and summarily executed. The Obama Middle East foreign policy, which included the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and killing Gaddafi, has contributed to in a virtual flood of refugees out of the Middle East to Europe. One reporting site records that there are “…nine civil wars now going on in Islamic countries between Pakistan and Nigeria. This is why there are so many refugees fleeing for their lives. Half of the 23 million population of Syria have been forced from their homes, with four million becoming refugees in other countries…Some 2.6 million Iraqis have been displaced by the Islamic State—Isis…”

From a USA Today article, “A record 522,124 migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe by sea this year, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. The number is more than double the previous high set only last year. Of the estimated number of migrants who made the hazardous journey by sea, 388,000 arrived in Greece and 130,891 in Italy. They hail from countries that include Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Bangladesh, the IOM said. Last year, 219,000 migrants and refugees escaping war and poverty sailed to Europe.”

Many of the images of the flood of refugees are of women carrying or leading children to a safer place. However, many of the images are of young men who are of “military age.” My question is how many of them are Isis who are taking advantage of the situation to infiltrate receiving countries to create mischief or terrorism?

I would be curious whether President Obama thinks his Middle East policy has been a success. .

Attack on Coal Mines

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The mining of coal in Colorado came under attack when WildEarth Guardians sued advocating that the environmental review for operating the Colowyo mine near Craig, Colorado did not consider the impact on global warming. “The Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation Enforcement issued its decision…five days before court-imposed deadline…” The review “…found that the burning of coal at the nearby Craig Generating Station would have ‘insignificant impacts’ on national greenhouse gas emissions and moderate impacts on emissions in Colorado. It also noted that only 20 acres of the 809 acres to be mined under the original permit still remain untouched.”

The ruling was good news to the 220 people who are employed at the mine, but the issue is a stark reminder of how far the environmental movement will go to shut down any generation of energy by any means other than solar and wind. Similar law suits have been filed against other coal mines, including the Trapper Mine near Craig and other mines in New Mexico and near the Montana-Wyoming border.

I find it frightening that some who are advocates of the dangers of global warming are willing to accept economic devastation of people who make their living providing the fuel that generates the energy that supports our lives. A smart friend has calculated that there would be an insignificant impact on global temperatures if the United States stops the use of all energy-producing methods that produce carbon dioxide emissions. (He allows for each of us to continue generating carbon dioxide in the breath we exhale.)

The friend posted a previous thoughtful and informative commentary on global warming. Part of what he wrote was that, “One of the major problems with the concept of global warming is, if it is caused by Man, the potential remedies could be catastrophic to society.  If we were to stop using fossil fuels, our society must change drastically.  It is only a dream that solar and wind power can replace fossil fuels.  There are some political facts that are “inconvenient truths.”  The three major CO2 producers are China, the U.S., and Europe, in that order.  China has recently agreed to consider curbing their fossil fuel use in the next few decades.  America has cut back significantly on the generation of CO2, but will have a real problem going much farther.”

Perhaps the environmental groups, such as the one who has been filing the lawsuits against coal mines, have discovered ways to heat their homes, drive their cars, power their computers, and recharge their cell phones without completion from the masses who aren’t as smart. There is no doubt that there will be severe energy restrictions if the only “allowed energy” is from solar and wind. Perhaps some antinuclear activists will be willing to consider nuclear if energy isn’t available to recharge their cell phone batteries?

Packing for Space – Oh, and Mars, too

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packing for marsMary Roach’s book Packing for Mars is not mostly about Mars. This annoys me. It opens hopefully with isolation studies aimed at all space travel, but in particular a mission to Mars; and the last chapter is aimed at Mars. But the subtitle is more accurate: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. The Void is zero-gravity.

Not everyone is annoyed like me. The book gets 4.5 stars on Amazon.

Roach presents the history of the US and Russia in space, from captured Nazi rockets to the International Space Station. She uses her signature method of digging into the gnarly nitty-gritty. “One of the things I love about manned space exploration is that it forces people to unlace certain notions of what is and isn’t acceptable. And possible.” This suits her style.

Zero-g and the human body
Zero-g presents a lot of problems for the human body. Roach is characteristically persistent in her exploration of how bodily effluvia are handled. Some of it is fascinating. Water, and therefore urine, acts very differently in zero-g where surface tension controls its movements. Urine builds up on the sides of the bladder, which fails to warn an astronaut it’s time to pee. The bladder can get so full it squeezes off the urethra and a catheterization is needed to avoid death. Imagine the obituary.

Poop is even ickier.

Space hygiene is an interesting contrast to all the gleaming white rockets and high tech equipment NASA likes to display.

Sex – shush
Sex in space is also explored and, since NASA won’t discuss the subject, Roach turns to marine biologists to learn about underwater mammals. She also includes stories of acknowledged hoaxes and pornography about sex in zero-g. That’s’ funny – for a while.

Sex is one thing and reproduction is another. Space-station research on rats suggests embryos may not be able to implant in zero-g.

What about Mars?
But I wanted to learn about a Mars mission. My ebook edition makes it easy to find all the mentions of Mars – seventy two times, in three clusters of references, within two hundred twenty pages of text. I’d become frustrated and started skimming in chapter four – Really? V-2 rockets and the first (unfortunate) monkeys in space? So counting made me feel better about the book.  Continue reading →

Temperature Changes in Alaska

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President Obama recently visited Alaska and stirred the urge to check into the global warming controversy. He visited the Exit Glacier and mentioned that it had retreated 1.25 miles in 200 years. I was inspired to check into temperatures in Alaska and found one web site that says it is managed by members of the “American Association of State Climatologists.” They observe that, “The topic of climate change has attracted widespread attention in recent years and is an issue that numerous scientists study on various time and space scales. One thing for sure is that the earth’s climate has and will continue to change as a result of various natural and anthropogenic forcing mechanisms.” (Bravo!)

The site presents a graph showing that temperatures since the late 1970s have trended upward. However, they point out there has been little warming “…with the exception of Barrow (on the coast above the Arctic Circle) and a few other locations. The stepwise shift appearing in 1976 corresponds to a phase shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation from a negative phase to a positive phase.” That causes “…increased southerly flow and warm air advection into Alaska during the winter, resulting in positive temperature anomalies.” I don’t understand how increasing levels of carbon dioxide could have caused that, but I’m not a climatologist.

One article I read about President Obama’s visit to Alaska should have been checked more closely for errors before it went to print. It said (and I’m certain this must have been an error) that “The administration asked Congress to speed the acquisition of a new heavy-duty Coast Guard ice breaker from 2022 to 2020 and begin planning for the acquisition of additional ships that could help maintain year-long access to polar regions.” Why am I so convinced this must have been an error? It makes no sense to build ice breakers when the global warming models indicate polar ice will be mostly melted in the next few years.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center web site shows current levels of ice are less than those measured in 2013 and 2014, equal to 2011, and much more than 2012. A quick look at the graphs for the last five years indicates the levels of ice are about constant. Perhaps we should hope the data eventually will begin to track with the predictions from the global warming models and we can save money by not needing ice breakers.

Ponderer was kind enough to comment on the information above and points out that Dr. Strangelove would have wanted us to not have an icebreaker gap with the Russians reminiscent of the fallout shelter gap of that movie (not the exact words, but sorta close). Ponderer also thought it would be fair to show a chart of Arctic sea ice from the 1950s, which dramatically demonstrates that there is much less ice today. Point taken. However, I continue to have the suspicion that nature (including solar activity) has more to do with the extent of sea ice than the influences caused by man.