Outdoor Source Magazine

Over the past few weeks, I’ve actually been able to get out and do some things — no major backpack or hiking trips, but I’ve been able to get outside. I’m in the process of putting together a couple of posts.

The first one is going to be about a great family activity for those in the northeast. Apple picking.

The other one will be a photo essay. There’s only a few wooded patches left on Long Island (i guess a 120 mile by 18 mile island can’t hold too many more than 5 million people. Anyway, the Muttontown Preserve towards the north shore in Nassau County offers up some great woodlands as well as meadows. I’ve decided to return to this meadow several times as we get through autumn to illustrate the changes that come during this time of year. Most people in the northeast are so focused on the changing of the leaves that they miss an incredible amount of life offered in these meadows. That’s what my photos (with accompanying text) will be illustrating and discussing.

Over the next several weeks/months we’ll be putting together a series of tips to help you enjoy your outdoor experiences.

Oh man, the senate finally did something right. In the current energy bill that’s being debated on Capital Hill was a series of taxes that would essentially have allowed the US government to take as much as $32 Billion away from the oil and energy companies and give it to companies to establish renewable energy sources.

This would have been a collosally stupid idea if it went through (and it passed the Finance committe by a vote of 15-5). Honestly, you really have to wonder why they were considering that in the first place. Companies based in our own country that are responsible for creating energy on our own soil — now how would THAT get us off foreign oil? Wouldn’t it make us more reliant on not only foreign oil, but foreign companies exploiting our own resources.

This is going to be a short post - because I’m so relieved that this collection of idiots that we have in Washington finally did something smart. Congress really does have to understand that when the price of oil and gasoline gets high enough for the American public to finally give a damn — the PUBLIC will force a change. We all have to remember, we all need to get to work and we all need to stay warm in the winter.

Yesterday I said that I would continue my post regarding energy.

Yesterday, the senate closed a motion to proceed towards an energy bill and will begin debate on this subject. To many citizens this is the third most critical issue behind the Iraq situation and personal finances, but in all honesty there’s no Iraq situation without our need for energy and you really don’t even HAVE personal finances without the energy to get to and from work and to move goods and services, etc.

This is going to be a very interesting process because the skeptic in me is pretty interested to see how this proceeds. The real interest (to me) is going to be who gets preferred treatment in this bill. The bill will focus on:

• Boosting domestic renewable fuel supplies in a manner that will reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions and spur regional diversity of biofuels production and infrastructure.
• Enhance economy wide energy efficiency in a way that will reduce our nations imports of foreign oil and provide significant savings to consumers.
• Invest in the carbon capture and storage technologies that will help cut back on green house gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve got a lot of fear about this. First, whatever the government is going to legislate into our daily lives is going to be thought out based on back room deals, not what is truly good for the American people. Second, things are a bit early in the whole global warming research to legislate anything at this point. The Senate is made up of lawyers, not scientists so whatever they legislate at this point is going to be based on the panic being raised by the environmental nazis.

The consensus opinion regarding any ramifications of global warming is that the oceans might increase by an inch or two, not the 28 feet of the most extreme estimates.

Just remember, only 25 years ago not only would Saccarine give you cancer, but we were also heading for an ice age. This flip flop on where the climate is forecast to be going makes me think that we will waste every penny that we put into trying to prevent something that’s going to happen anyway, but I’m worried that the senate and the house will do the exact wrong thing — forcing us to use bio fuels like ethanol will drive up the price of everything that we use corn for, like food, cattle feed which will drive up the price of beef. AND we give developing countries like India, China, Vietnam, etc. a complete pass on the subject.

 

If you find any ticks you need to remove them as soon as possible. A few things regarding removal of ticks:

- Crawling ticks can be easily removed by hand. They will not bite.

- Attached ticks may be removed with fingers shielded by a paper towel or tissue or by grasping firmly with tweezers crosswise as CLOSE TO THE JOINT OF ATTACHMENT as possible. Pull the tick steadily outward without twisting or jerking so that the mouth parts, which are imbedded in the skin, do not break off.

- If the mouth parts of the tick DO break off, consult your physician.

- Do not kill the tick while it is still attached to the skin (if you can). Dispose of the tick by dropping into alcohol or flushing it down the toilet.

- Apply antiseptic to the site of the bite.

Be alert for any symptoms which may appear after the bite (between 2 and 12 days). Symptoms may include: an expanding red ring around the bite; fever and headache followed by a generalized skin rash; chills; sore at the site of the bite; swollen, painful lymph nodes. If any of these symptoms occur, consult your physician immediately.

For further information on some of the diseases these nasty things carry, please consult WebMD at the links below:

Rocky Mountain Fever

Lyme Disease

Tularemia

Babesiosis

I’ve had the opportunity to be working out of the house a couple of times a week for the last month or so. This will be continuing for a while. Some of this has to do with the fact that going to the office is depressing since the one side of the business isn’t doing well right now and spending $10 a day for the drive doesn’t sit well with me.

Anyway, I was watching CSpan a little earlier today and there were 2 senators (one from Tennesse and one from North Dakota) talking about renewable and other energy sources. I find it very interesting what they had to say. Lamar Alexander was going on about a wind farm that resides across a ridge in his home state of Tennessee and how it’s an eye-sore. The blades alone of these towers span 80 yards and can be seen from 14 or 15 miles away. He went on to discuss how inefficient it is when it comes to generating power. This was a classic NIMBY speech –> he even came out and said that these wind farms should all be up in North Dakota where they are having some success.

Byron Dorgan was the next speaker, the senator from North Dakota. This man actually made perfect sense. He referred to some charts in his speech — the first one indicated that 70% of the oil consumed in the US was used to power ‘transportation’, he was pointing at automobiles in particular. Whether or not the %age is correct, it’s definitely a very high percentage. His next chart presented how automobiles have significantly increased their power, but their average fuel efficiency has been flat during the last 20 years or so.

These 2 speeches really highlighted the problem with energy and the politics that innevitably follow the issue around.

Just before the turn of the century between the 1800s and 1900s, the average family in the US made an equivalent of $4,000 per year (in todays $) and worked no more than 12 miles from home. With the cheap energy supplied by oil and the use of the automobile the US has enjoyed incredible prosperity. The ‘green’ crowd has to understand that there’s no way that the politicians can point the country back towards that lifestyle again, there’s just too many of us. For example, my 50×100 plot of land will never supply what my family of 3 needs to survive.

My unobstructed view of things is that the US needs to incorporate the following into a comprehensive energy plan. This will be incredibly difficult because of personal preferences for big, fast, powerful cars and trucks (when it’s not necessary) and the special interests of the ‘green crowd’ will have to be put aside in order to get us off the arabian oil gig and supply us with what we need for economic prosperity.

First - trucks and automobiles have to increase fuel efficiency by 300%. It should be unlawful for a car to be sold in the US that gets only 10 miles to the gallon.

Second - we need to be able to drill for fossil fuels in the waters in the Gulf of Mexico (yes, new wells) as well as in ANWR.

Third - we need to construct new refineries so that if one goes off line for maintenance for 2 months, the price of gasoline does not go up by 15%.

Finally - all alternatives need to be commercialized and economized (made cheap enough to be profitable for the seller and economic for the user), even if the source of energy only provides us with 15% of our usage –> that’s a 15% cut in at least one of the costs.

I’m going to continue this in a 2nd post.

I don’t know how things are in the rest of the country, but up in the Northeast if you want to go outside and be near trees, you have to worry about ticks.

There are a couple of different types of tick that you need to be aware of. First, the American Dog Tick.

The female is dark reddish brown with a crescent shaped, light colored plate near the front of the body. The male is completely covered by a plate that is mottled in appearance (see the images below).

The American Dog Tick is commonly found on medium height grasses and shrubs on the leeward side of sand dunes, brushy or overgrown fields and open areas in or adjacent to woodland groves. This tick carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

The Black Legged Tick is also known as the Deer Tick. This is the one that’s been making the most news over the last several years. The Deer Tick is common in areas containing woodlands inhabited by deer but can be found in other areas as well. The Deer Tick is known to carry Lyme Disease, Babesiosis and Tularomia.

The female has a reddish body with dark brown legs, a dorsal plate and mouth parts. The male is primarily dark brown in color (and is smaller than the female). The image below is the female Black Legged Tick.

Keep in mind that not all ticks are capable of carrying and transmitting the diseases they are known for. They can carry additional microorganisms that can cause serious illness and even death in humans, so being carefull and doing a thorough search of your body is critical. Ticks climb (usually from 6 inches to 2 feet) on vegetation and wait near the end of a twig or blade of grass. When a person or animal brushes against the plant, the tick transfers from the plant to the person or animal.

Here are some precautions:

• Apply insect repellent, particularly to clothing from the waist down
• Stick to the center of trails where possible to avoid brushing against plants
• Light colored clothing makes it easier to spot ticks.
• Tuck your pants into your boots or socks and your shirt into your pants. You’ll look like a dork but they won’t bite you where you can’t see them (at least in public).
• Check clothing constantly while working or walking in areas inhabited by ticks. Check exposed body areas and clothing again after you leave the area and make sure you check your unexposed areas before retiring at night.
• Ticks usually crawl on clothing in an upward direction until they find a site on the skin for attachment. Common places for ticks to attach are the back of the neck, the scalp, behind the knees, arm pits and in the groin area.
 

As promised, we’re going to be presenting information covering both sides of every issue that we cover here.

Right now in NY City, there is a summit on global warming will have 33 Mayors and/or governors as well as delegations from 18 other cities, from around the world, including New Yorks own Mike Bloomburg. The purpose of the meeting was to continue a series of meetings that began in 2005, designed to reduce carbon emissions within major cities. The outcome of the first meeting was to form the committee that organizes these conferences so that it is something that will continue into the future.

The summit includes the following events:

The Economic Case for Climate Action

Transport Beating Congestion & Surviving Your Next Election

Energy The Energy Revolution

Water Keeping the Tap Running without Running the Well Dry

The Business of Climate Change: Job Creation & Development

Buildings Creating Green Skylines

Communicating Change & Ensuring Action

Transport Fuelling Urban Transit Alternatives

EnergyAdopting Renewable Energy Systems

Waste Wealth from Waste

Cities Can Thrive in a Low Carbon Economy

C40 General Assembly

On the website for the summit NYCClimateSummit has some excellent case studies about how major cities around the world are working to begin to use alternative energies in order to try to reduce carbon emmissions within their city.

Personally, whether or not it does reduce carbon emissions, I think that it’s a great thing because it could (over a period of time) work to reduce the costs of alternative energy sources so that the costs of providing them can be reduced. A combination of reduced cost combined with a non-political environment actually making decisions on the future is required for good decisions to be made –> we all know that as soon as the oil companies get nervous about reduced profits, the cost will come down to keep oil the cheapest source of energy.

The biggest environmental issue over the last century revolves around this hot-button topic. We here at Outdoor Source magazine believe that all 3 sides of this issue need to be discussed and debated. It seems as though there never really WAS a debate. We went from the late 1970s where “all scientists agree that we’re heading into an Ice Age” directly to “human activity is causing catestrophic global warming”. The issue was never debated either publicly or within the world of science.

The 3 sides to this debate are:

• Global Warming is occuring and it’s caused by human activity.
• Global Warming is occuring and it’s due to natural climate or other cycles.
• Global Warmins is not occuring

Over the next period of time, we will be doing a lot of research and we will be looking for people that have done significant research to ALL sides of this issue. The purpose is to collect as much information as possible and have it all stored in 1 place. This way people that are trying to figure out the truth about the issue are not swayed by some agenda. It’s really simple, I don’t have an agenda that I’m trying to put forward. I don’t get oil money. I don’t get money from environmentalists. I only have my own personal well being and my own philosophies to worry about. Most importantly — I don’t have anything to prove to anyone on the subject.

I know that many people that see this will automatically assume that I have a position on this subject. I do — however, as I do research I am keeping a completely open mind to this argument (yes, it’s an argument). I believe that there are too many people out there that have something to gain that are trying to set their opinion as the only opinion and they are trying to profit from it. That is most definitely not my goal here.

Believe me, I look forward to a very healthy debate on this subject.