The first rule of the Art Of Surviving Cleveland is PROTECT YOUR DNA!

As reported on realNEO: "what we have learned after sampling and genetically profiling many gull families is that colonies close to integrated steel mills transmit DNA mutations to their offspring more frequently than those at rural sites. In addition, the closer the colony to steel mills, the higher the mutation rate".  Further, "Our genetic analyses of environmentally exposed mice revealed that offspring from the steel site inherited nearly double the frequency of DNA mutations compared to their rural counterparts. Clearly, air pollution near integrated steel mills can induce genetic damage. At this time we cannot identify the class of chemical pollutant responsible, but suggest that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, by-products of coal combustion, are a likely candidate."

In other words, and further: if you want to live a long, healthy, normal life and perhaps have offspring... DON'T live, work, eat, visit or play near a steel mill or any coal-burning facility... DON'T DO THIS:

Because Cleveland has an awesome Ukrainian community - one of MY communities - still rooted in Tremont, it is possible to visit Saints Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church on W.7th at College, on Fridays from 9AM - 1 PM, to purchase what are certainly the most authentic and excellent pierogies possible on Earth. I haven't been in years so plan to visit this Friday, in celebration of Taste of Tremont... for good... for real.

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NOTE: So far this year, NE Ohio has experienced ozone exceedances of the USEPA health-based standard on April 15, May 27, June 18, and July 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 15.  Hot summer, folks!

 
Northeast Ohio - Temperatures will be in the 90's tomorrow, and humidity will be very high.  The wind will be almost calm in Northeast Ohio.  Consequently, an Air Quality Advisory is being issued for the counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage, and Summit for Thursday, July 15.

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Did You Know? A Coal-Burning Power Plant is Polluting Our Neighborhood and Endangering Our Health

Concerned? Speak Up!

I am not a professional sports fan or expert in professional sports regulation but it is obvious the professional sports teams are all owned by a small number of astoundingly rich and powerful global cut-throats - in many or most cases monopolists in extremely socially repugnant fields like banking, ticketmaster, cable, loans, waste management, and cruising - and they each always get their way, one way or the other. They control a select set of GLOBAL monopoly franchise, licensing and ticketing system that restrict all free trade in their industry to the point of making both players and fans slaves to the owners collective, greedy, collusive antitrustful whims.

Broken Air Pollution Monitoring Station in Cleveland, Ohio, on an UNHEALTHY DAY - July 5, 2010

As highlighted in my posting on realNEO July 8, 2010 - "Texas regulators are failing to properly monitor, control and enforce federal emission standards! Like in Ohio?!" - I've concluded that "Ohio regulators are failing to properly monitor, control and enforce federal emission standards, and that I believe that political, business and environmental leadership are hiding the violations of polluters by causing ineffective and so publicly harmful and dangerous pollution control practices here, which are made possible by government failure here to really monitor, control and enforce federal emission standards."

Further, I make clear, "the Sierra Club and the Federal EPA are taking legal action AGAINST the Texas STATE REGULATORS and the world's largest corporations because they are not in fact protecting the environment, as required by the Federal government," I go on to report "I have been compiling evidence of corrupt and/or incompetent pollution control in Ohio for many years, and have now formally requested the help of the Sierra Club and their affiliates around the world to force change upon Ohio regulators who are failing to properly monitor, control and enforce federal emission standards here."

I conclude: "As I am seeking real, good outcomes for here - elimination of physical harm from Mittal and other excessive polluters in this region - like being realized through real environmentalism in Texas, my role in this community is not Mr. Nice Guy. I am the uncompromising polluter-killer who makes the Sierra Club seem like a breath of cool fresh air on an astoundingly dangerous Cleveland July afternoon, like today..."

Right on cue, like a breathe of fresh air, I recieved copies today of correspondence from the Sierra Club addressing this very issue, and I asked permission to share that on realNEO as public information and motivation for citizens to engage the government on these issues

Real bicycle commuter riding to work in a lumber yard in the Cleveland Flats. His work didn't cause this smog.

Why am I so hostile toward Ohio leadership?

Must be the poison in the air!

And, the life in hell lived by real environmentalists.

Consider what is necessary to clean up the air in environmentally-compromised Texas, where "Environmental groups say Exxon Mobil refinery violates U.S. air law" - "The environmental groups' legal maneuvers are part of broader accusations by the organizations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that Texas regulators are failing to properly monitor, control and enforce federal emission standards."

You think it is any easier to deal with the greatest corruption on Earth - the corruption of our environmental laws - right here in highly corrupt, polluted, old-economy Northeast Ohio?

Now in our sixth day of high temperatures, high humidity, high levels of air pollution harm and considerable human suffering, the Cleveland-Akron-Lorain area of Ohio now has the distinction of being on the U.S. EPA's Forecast list of 5 worst pollution locations in the county for July 8, 2010 - and our pollution monitoring equipment is not working consistently in the region, so our air pollution is likely worse than recorded and/or reported by the EPA. So, if the EPA finds real NEO #2 in America for pollution, I'm quite sure we are in fact #1.

Not a reason for LeBron to remain in Cleveland. Definitely a reason to stop burning coal in Northeast Ohio and world-wide.

Air Quality Advisory Extended for Northeast Ohio 
Thursday, July 8, 2010 - Ozone and Fine Particles

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By all standards, the environment in Northeast Ohio this week is harmful for all citizens. In addition to daytime temperatures in the 90s, there are high levels of pollution in the air - the region has been under air pollution advisory conditions since July 3 and the crisis is far from over. While our temperatures are not as high as some parts of the Eastern United States, the pollution is worse in few places in the country... only conditions in southern Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky are as poor or worse right now. And much of our regional pollution monitoring equipment is broken right now, so our conditions may be far worse than reported.

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Dear citizens who are concerned about the coal burning power plant operated by Medical Center Company (MCCO) in University Circle, and another that has been planned by MCCO for construction in East Cleveland...

...and who are interested to help the Sierra Club with preparations for an upcoming EPA hearing on the renewal of the permit for the MCCO plant to continue burning coal in our neighborhood - August 10, 2010, 4:30-6:45 PM at the MLK Branch of the Cleveland Public Library...

...you are invited to join Sierra Club Campuses Beyond Coal field organizer Matthew/Mattie Reitman for an informal planning session at 1894 Roxbury Road, East Cleveland, Ohio, tomorrow, July 7, 2010, from 8-9 AM.

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I'd like to make a suggestion to all the "environmentalists" in Northeast Ohio - the sustainabillies as well - Celebrate A/C-Free World Day and make a pledge to not use any air conditioning tomorrow, July 7, 2010, at all anywhere or at any time of the day - from 12 AM until midnight. No A/C at home - not in your car - not at work. If you live, commute, study, play or work in air conditioned places where you cannot control the temperature, realize you are a de facto prisoner of an excessively air polluting culture and environment harming the Earth. If you are able to be free of air conditioning air polluting, realize how polluted the natural air around you has become in this region, and how unhealthy this region is for those unable or unwilling to afford A/C, whether from poverty or higher consciousness. And realize very few Americans will make the "sacrifice" to live without A/C, as much as they may bitch and moan about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and other environmental catastrophe now omnipresent in this failing world. Now, know your right to air conditioning has expired, and you and your children and grandchildren had better get used to a globally warming world without relief for eternity. Burn baby burn. About "Losing Our Cool":

Also see www.losingourcool.com

In Losing Our Cool, I show how indoor climate control is colliding with an out-of-control outdoor climate. In the United States alone, energy consumed by home air-conditioning and the resulting greenhouse emissions have doubled in just over a decade; energy used to cool retail stores has risen by two-thirds. Air-conditioning is approaching 20 percent of year-round electricity consumption by U.S. homes, the highest percentage in history. But air-conditioning has shaped human life in other, sometimes unexpected ways that go far beyond the monthly utility bill.

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Air Quality Advisory Issued for Northeast Ohio

 

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Saturday, Jul 3:		Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups		Ozone

For additional information concerning the air quality forecast, contact one of the following agencies, or visit http://airohio.epa.state.ohs .

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Map 7.1: Potential Energy Distribution among Ohio Counties (in Billions)

Joe Koncelik's Ohio Environmental Law Blog recently reported "Benefits of Biomass Power Questioned - Implications for Ohio", about a renewable fuels permitting issue that has surfaced with a FirstEnergy coal powerplant being converted to biomass, which offers great insight on the development and future of our biomass industry, and links to valuable source material for those considering the economic and environmental future of energy in Ohio, America and worldwide. In this excellent posting, Koncelik points out, "

Ohio's best hope for reducing its overwhelming dependence on coal for electricity generation is  biomass.  While wind and solar have significant benefits, it is unquestioned that current technology does not allow these renewable sources to be forms of base-load power generation. 

Biomass does have that potential in Ohio, as is evidenced by the recent announcements of the conversion of 312-megawatt First Energy's Burger coal-fired power plant to biomass generation.  Now that proposal is meeting opposition by environmental groups. As reported in Biomass Magazine."

In fact, environmentalists and regulators are demanding that FirstEnergy identify what biomass they intend to use from where to power their proposed-to-be "renewable" fuel plant - that is good economics and environmentalism. The dynamics of the Burger plant application are interesting and important for the future of the biomass sector in Ohio - while Ohio has a bright biomass renaissance ahead, we are still in the dark ages of its development.

"I wrote this song following Hurricane Katrina. The question is timeless." Charlie Mosbrook

"Who Here Will Lead Us"

Here's a story for the PD-I can hook you up with a follow-up. 

Two college students from Russia are staying in Cleveland this summer.  One is from Siberia and one from Moscow.  They flew into Cleveland, booked a hotel and went straight to the Cleveland Public Library Main Branch where, lo and behold, they found someone to take them in for the summer.

How many American college students would take on that kind of adventure? 

U.S. industrial hemp development continues

Developers and farmers continue to pave the way for hemp as a biomass crop in the United States.

The U.S. Appeals Court in St. Paul, Minn., heard arguments Nov. 12 by two North Dakota farmers trying to get a lower court’s dismissal of their suit against a federal agency overturned. David Monson, Osnabrock, N.D., and Wayne Hauge, Ray, N.D., have state approval to grow industrial hemp in North Dakota, but are suing the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to get a federal permit to grow industrial hemp. Hemp is related to the illegal drug marijuana and under federal law some of the industrial hemp plant is considered a controlled substance. The three-judge appeals panel will issue a written decision, but that isn't expected to be available for several months.

While a number of states allow hemp research, North Dakota was the only one to allow hemp cultivation until Vermont granted permission earlier this year.

In Massachusetts, a developer sourced the hemp he used for product evaluation from Canada where the crop is legally grown. Jim Pillsbury of Framingham, Mass., is developing hemp for heating pellets. In 2007, Pillsbury had a Canadian prototype biomass research facility, ViFam Pro Services of Kirkland, Quebec, test hemp leaf biomass for heating pellets which were then analyzed at the Twin Ports Testing Labs in Superior, Wis.

Before the Deepwater Era of today, there was the Sustainabilly Era of the past decade, when environmentalism was as easy as drinking the right beer, and green-washing was punctuated by mega-conglomerate mind-control spam promoting a clean, sexy, prosperous life for all, by all simply being beautiful energy-bimbos with ecomagination.

In the Sustainabilly Era, there was a global competition of dirty energy companies seeking to seem clean and beautiful... and to make their dirty energy offerings seem clean and beautiful. Industrial powerhouses like BP and GE barraged the world with sexy portrayals of their most "Sustainable" vision for the future - our world "Beyond Petroleum" of their "Ecomagination".