Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

[QC]

I have pasted below the contents of an email I received today about restoring the Salton Sea; California's largest "lake". This link is the State's site regarding the Salton Sea: http://www.saltonsea.water.ca.gov/

While the State is at least reasonably honest, the Environmental group totally leaves out that this "lake" was a total accident. It was formed in 1905 by a break in a levee system on the Colorado River around 100 miles or so away. This break wasn't repaired for a few years and there were some that thought it would never be plugged. Anyway, voila, trapped Inland Sea, that has increased in salinity ever since. It is a stinky cesspool that barely supports fish. The state brought in Corvina maybe 50 years ago and they can handle this extremely salty crap. I wouldn't boat there unless you paid me and it would have to be a lot.

Anyway, now of course it must be protected when frankly it should be allowed to flippin' dry up. Why? Why, must we spend millions and probably billions to protect this "key stopover" for migrating birds? Why must we spend anything to protect an unnatural environment? Why must we protect the Brown Pelican that isn't even indigenous to the flippin' desert? And why would a group that is trying to protect it need to be what I feel is dishonest? Yes, I think acting like this is some important environmental place to clean-up is dishonest if you do not also mention that it was an environmental disaster to begin with, man-made, and accidentally without any natural source of inflow other than rainwater to keep it going as is . . . Am I out of line here?

Big Decisions Ahead on the Salton Sea: Your Chance to Speak Out!
The Salton Sea is California's largest lake and a key stopover for millions of birds every year, including the threatened brown pelican, snowy plover and Yuma clapper rail. The fate of the Salton Sea hangs in the balance as the volume of water that sustains this 360-square mile lake will decrease by more than 30 percent within the next 20 years, rapidly shrinking the lake and increasing the amount of dust and salt that blows through the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

The California Department of Water Resources has just released its Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) assessing eight ways to restore the Sea and laying out the consequences if we fail to act. You can see this document at http://www.saltonsea.water.ca.gov/. The bad news is that no single plan provides a solution, in a reasonable timeframe, that maximizes fish and wildlife habitat while protecting air and water quality.

You can speak out on the Salton Sea by attending one of these public workshops:

Sacramento
Monday, December 4th (9:00-11:00 AM)
Resources Building Auditorium
1416 Ninth Street
Oakland
Monday, December 4th (6:00-8:00 PM)
Oakland Marriott
1001 Broadway Avenue
San Diego
Wednesday, December 6th (6:00-8:00 PM)
San Diego County Water Authority
4677 Overland Avenue
Written comments on the Draft EIR must be submitted by January 16, 2007.

For more information about the Salton Sea and the restoration planning effort, visit the website of the Salton Sea Coalition at www.saltonseacoalition.org.

 

[KaGee]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

You'd think that NASA could use another dry lake bed!

 

[heycods]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

OK QC you made uour point. Lets save the salton sea.:'(

 

[Boomyal]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Q, you should be surprised? I hope not by now.

 

[Parrott_head]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Maybe someone can research and find a sand flea that was unique to that area and requires the draining of the sea for its survival. That will put the extremists in a real moral quandary.

 

[QC]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

LOL @ Parrott head.

Naw Boomer, just a good example . . .

 

[jtexas]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

That reeks of a cause sought out by somebody who felt the need to "give back" to the community and it seemed like more fun and way less unpleasant than working in the night shelter and even though he or she didn't really know anything about it they did a bunch of internet research and, voila! something to do with her time that gives her a really good feeling all over. Okay maybe not all over. Yeah, maybe all over.

 

[Link]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

QC
Guess I'll steal a quote from Haut:
Going to show my soft underbelly here

Aside from target practice environmentalist do serve a purpose but the only time we hear about them is in whacked out stories like this one.

If I remember tomorrow I'll tell what they tried to do to my uncle
a cattle rancher. 8)

 

[RubberFrog]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Nuke the Salton Sea! :devil:

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

"It was formed in 1905 by a break in a levee system on the Colorado River around 100 miles or so away."

Just have to ask this question. Who built the levee system to begin with or was it a natural occurrence?

 

[QC]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Well, after all of the nuke recommendations, RF has probably nailed the one time I agree . . .

Yes, Link, even in the mainstream media, wacko environmentalists get made fun of. But the very next story could be about Al Gore and suddenly everybody's heads are nodding up and down, and you are an idiot or worse if yours is not going the same direction. Like my title suggests, I think their legitimate "causes" run at about a 10% hit rate. Their supportive BS ratio is probably in the neighborhood of 90%, but they are smarter than we are, so it doesn't matter . . . We simply do not understand, so just send money. They may enter into this with an altruistic mind set, but it becomes a business, with people to pay and budgets to meet. The conference circuit and grants are their revenue stream and there is no way to keep it going unless you can find new causes, or make yours more important.

Does anybody know where the revenue from An Inconvenient Truth goes? Not rhetorical, I don't know. The margins must be staggering. How much can it cost to film a slide show that people paid to get into?

And please understand I have lived this phony business for the last ten years. At least we have a legitimate product, so I can sleep at night, but ethics go out the window when you need to meet payroll. Maybe meeting payroll is ethical, so it's OK . . .

 

[QC]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Who built the levee system to begin with or was it a natural occurrence?

Well it wasn't beavers or ants . . . I believe it was the Army Corps of Engineers, who actually did an awesome job up and down the river where it runs between CA and AZ. They even have little breaks along the way that formed awesome unnatural coves, roads on top of the levees, and little pullouts that now serve as campsites that Indian tribes get revenue from. I have no idea why they would've made things that work as campsites, but they did in some areas. There are other stretches that are very straight and kind of ugly. Maybe these were the areas that were most prone to meanders and flooding, I don't know. They left some great stretches totally alone. You really need a jet boat to navigate those sections, but I have donated a lot of propellers to the cause just for fun . . . I'd have to say, despite my love of the big lakes, I probably like the natural sections the most, so I'm not really a bulldoze everything type of guy. I just don't like BS.

Oh, oh, I forgot something. The area south of the Salton Sea is called the Imperial Valley, it is farmland that is basically reclaimed desert. There are quite a few diversion dams for irrigation that allowed the reclamation. It was probably one of these aqueducts or some such thing that broke.

 

[technostingray]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Who built the levee system to begin with or was it a natural occurrence?

Well it wasn't beavers or ants . . .

...Oh, oh, I forgot something. The area south of the Salton Sea is called the Imperial Valley, it is farmland that is basically reclaimed desert. There are quite a few diversion dams for irrigation that allowed the reclamation. It was probably one of these aqueducts or some such thing that broke.

No, no no. It was a developers conspiracy. They needed the space to build a ddt factory to kill all the mosquitoes in the fields they were going to develop in Imperial valley so they could build houses in Orance County... :yikes: Being skeptical isn't neccesarily a bad thing but making mountains out of mole hills is called progess.

 

[crunch]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Who built the levee system to begin with or was it a natural occurrence?

Well it wasn't beavers or ants . . .

...Oh, oh, I forgot something. The area south of the Salton Sea is called the Imperial Valley, it is farmland that is basically reclaimed desert. There are quite a few diversion dams for irrigation that allowed the reclamation. It was probably one of these aqueducts or some such thing that broke.

No, no no. It was a developers conspiracy. They needed the space to build a ddt factory to kill all the mosquitoes in the fields they were going to develop in Imperial valley so they could build houses in Orance County... :yikes: Being skeptical isn't neccesarily a bad thing but making mountains out of mole hills is called progess.

With all this eye rolling you do, don't they get a little gritty? Or do you have a maid that comes in to mop twice a day.

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Who built the levee system to begin with or was it a natural occurrence?

Well it wasn't beavers or ants . . .

I'm sorry you felt compelled to offer such a caustic answer. The question was legit. I've never been to California and my knowledge is limited. I now know a little bit more about it. Thank-you.

 

[tommays]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

You would like it here, the plant is hooked up to the sewer district so it requires a water test every week which come up with stuff we don't use like silver WTF several times a year

Now mind you we make soap that leaves here and legally goes down the drain anyway o


Tommays

 

[QC]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

BoatBouy,

That wasn't caustic. Just havin' a little fun. I understood your point and it was legitimate. If the diversion was natural, then it would've totally derailed my assertion that protecting a man made lake (especially an accidental pile of goo) is ludicrous. Excellent calrification to ask for. Sorry if I sounded like an asstro, should've used a smiley 8)

 

[jtexas]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

Yes, Link, even in the mainstream media, wacko environmentalists get made fun of. But the very next story could be about Al Gore and suddenly everybody's heads are nodding up and down, and you are an idiot or worse if yours is not going the same direction...

 

[Drowned Rat]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

QC, the Salton Sea is a natural basin lake that was only most recently re-filled in 1905 (through no fault of nature's I might add). It has existed for many thousands of years and has beed filled by a flooding Colorado many, many times. The "lake" is in the state it's in now due to stopping the natural flow of the Colorado (a manmade disaster). It's a natural part of the ecosystem with it's own important contributions. Is it worth saving in the state it's in? Debatable. But we created this mess.

 

[QC]

Re: Why I am Sceptical of Environmental stuff

I'll look into that DR. Couldn't you also argue that any dry lake bed is then a natural lake if you put a hose into it? An are you sure about this: "The "lake" is in the state it's in now due to stopping the natural flow of the Colorado (a manmade disaster). It's a natural part of the ecosystem with it's own important contributions."

In the interest of fairness I have researched the profit question I asked about Inconvenient Truth. This is actually the most supportive of many links I found. It appears that Al is training 1000 disciples to spread the word with the dinero. They have also pledged to make the production of the movie "Carbon Neutral". Which is commendable, although I doubt they even know how to do that . . . I am not being a total pirck here either, the math is very difficult and almost every study I have seen is easily disputed by expansion or contraction of the study's scope. Again, I am interested in the truth with these issues, so I appreciate your note DR . . .

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/06/ait_carbon_neutral.php