Peg in the Machine

Since it’s almost time for fall (or is it already?) I always wonder what types of environmental based things can be done to try and get ready for winter, spring and the following summer.  Is it a good time to try and push riding bicycles so places have more time to pay for things?

Or is it better to try and make sure there’s places where those in need of heat can find it?  Short term, or long term… Of course it always seems that the short term things are always available as someone’s trying to get in the papers.  If anyone has any ideas, pleace contact us.

Here at Peg in the Machine we’re starting a campaign that we’re going to be trying in our town — and hopefully have it catch on.  It’s a “walk to work day”.  In all honesty we’re going to try and have it be “walk to work almost every day” policy, but stay tuned.

We’re planning on making the policy something done at the city and county level (meaning we’re going to try and get something setup with the politicians in the town). Basically we’re going to try and do a campaign that will cause more people to walk, potentially even getting something special from the city/county for doing so — all the while saving gas, helping the environment, and getting people in better shape….

So keep on checking back…. hopefully something good will come from it.  We’ll be posting if it does.

According to the people over at The Nature Conservancy pollution is damaging every ecosystem on the planet.

While it’d seem quite obvious, since if you put it in the air, it’ll eventually fall back down and enter the land and water.  It’s even logical that things in the air don’t recognize county, state or country borders — afterall the borders are imaginary (other than some going by rivers and such to make it easier).  So you could live in the best pollutant-free county on the planet, but if your neighbors put up so much smoke you can’t see the sky it doesn’t really matter.

That’s the one thing people always seem to forget — they talk about how the “other” countries are doing bad things to the environment like what’s being done there stays there.  We all share the same atmosphere, and more or less the same bodies of water (despite the different names — do you really see a line in the water?).  What one country does affects all the others eventually.  One day, hopefully before everyone starts to die off, people might start to realize that every country needs to inact environmental controls and standards.  It’s something that has to be worldwide.

Every day there seems to be more and more trees cut back to almost nothing. Large, lush trees that provide shade over large areas — then they trim them back so it looks like a palm tree. When did trees become some evil thing that must be “fixed”?

What’s even worse is when you see a tree completely cut down for no apparent reason other than “it was in the way” or as sometimes people say “I didn’t like cleaning up the leaves”. Huh? You chop down a tree to save you the hassel of mowing over the leaves maybe three times a year?  You mow grass once a week  and you don’t go paving over it!

Let’s take a look at trees for a moment….

• They remove up to 13 pounds of CO2 from the air a year (per tree)
• Prevents or reduces soil erosion
• Decrease noise pollution
• Can reduce utility bills by 15-50% (compared to no tree being placed)
• Can cut heating costs up to 30% (as they provide wind breaks in winter)
• Trees can produce food for humans and animals
• Some trees can be used for medicine to prevent or treat disease (such as cancer)

So why on earth would you want to remove these things?  Heating and cooling bills are through the roof.  Flooding is commonplace.  Food found in the stores is becoming contaminated.  More and more people are driving cars (thereby increasing noise and pollution).  People aren’t able to make enough to sustain their lives, seasons appear to all blend in with no real distinction (places that used to have snow and blizzards, now frequently have snowless winters [or close to it], and people wearing shorts during it).  Power plants keep on chugging out the pollutants as do our fuel plants — all polluting the atmosphere even more.

We need trees now more than ever!  Yet why is it people keep on chopping down these life-sustaining devices?

There’s just something sad when “progress” and “improvements” involve destroying nature to put up a concrete platform.  Instead of removing trees, you should be planting them.  Build your own personal forest.  The earth will thank you.

Here lately in my town, and county as well to an extent, there’s an interesting thing happening: dead grass circles and rectangles (although ovals is probably a bit more accurate than circles).

For no apparent reason, a yard with green grass all of a sudden develops a small dead patch, then it grows. Sometimes it grows outward in a circular pattern, other times it forms as a line and moves out diagonally until it forms a rectangle. But then once it hits a certain size (which varies), it stops. Everything within the spot dies — even weeds! Till in new topsoil and plant grass, it dies. Try fertilizer, it dies. Some people in the area have removed six inches of topsoil and thrown it out (I’ve seen it carried away) and filled it in with entirely new soil.

A good fix right? Nope, next year it too is dead! Think of that for a moment… soil that’s good one year is dead the next, in the exact same spot as the old dead soil. And the real strange thing is, there’s no pipes or anything under the dead spots. Nothing that would make sense. The spots are surrounded by what seems to be completely healthy grass. And it all makes me wonder, why is this happening? How is it that grass all over the place dies out in random formations – and the soil won’t sustain any life?

I know that this week I’m going to be taking a sample in to a college extension office so it can be examined — but it makes me wonder all the same. Is it the oil refinery in town that’s causing the rain to be toxic — and these spots just happen to be collecting spots for the rain water (although why in fairly standard shapes is still beyond me)? Or is it some weird geological activity that’s causing gases to rise, and it just happens to be causing the problem?

Well I sure hope it’s not the latter as that wouldn’t make me feel too comfortable about where I’m living. But what is the problem? There’s trees, about 1/10 that have lost entire branches from death, with about 1/50 trees all-but-dying…. related, or coincidence?

All I know is it’s been going on for about 4 years now…. but here lately it’s getting worse. People’s gardens aren’t growing as well as normal — some are even saying they might not get anything from the plants this year (and yes, they’ve been using fertilizer, and some even a crop-rotation of sorts [plant things in different spots]). It’s like the earth is slowly dying.

While this isn’t a political thing, nor a government thing, I put this here as once I do get an answer I’m going to act on it. And if it happens to be something related to government in any form or another — you better believe I’ll be bringing it up at all the town and city meetings around me. But I wonder…. are things like this happening other places as well?

If you’ve experienced things like this, have any suggestions, etc, please post.

UPDATE: Well…. apparently our local University Extension office doesn’t do soil testing (despite being an agriculture-based extension)… so to get it tested I have to pay….. Considering the number of spots and all, not sure when, if ever, it’ll be done now. But I’m still looking into it.