The Ice Went Out With A Sigh

Living along a river, as I do, allows my daily life to include certain experiences that my upland brothers and sisters may never see or hear. On long hot summer nights, the whisper of a cool wind still finds a way down from higher ground along the river way. When we get either north or south winds in winter, the ice heaves or collapses atop the estuary as the great mass of water breathes with the wind. Creatures of the night stalk the banks whether the moon is out or not and during the day, the old winding river lures critters and city folk alike to her quiet. Drawn by the river's familiar but ever changing beauty and a chance to experience a degree of solitude rarely found in the city.

Each year we get to witness one of the sublime events special to a northern river, the day or two we call ice out. On rare occasions the river shatters into a billion shards and as they rush past our house, they sound like a giant wind chime or endlessly breaking glass. The tinkling can be heard for hundreds of feet and others who have had the chance to hear the phenomenon will talk about it for weeks afterward. Yesterday, the ice went out in chunks, things that looked like they ranged in size from nearly the width of the river all the way down to car-sized pieces with a few even smaller ones jostling about into traffic jams that alternately broke through under the bridge downstream and backed up again as a giant ice dam. Occasionally there were large piles about the size of beaver lodges, thrust up by the briefly intense collisions between masses of ice that would normally support a hockey team, but today ran away faster than children released from school.

The night before last we had a major rainstorm and the added push of the rising water left no quarter for the ice to retreat to, instead it was flushed away over the course of hours. Each heave of the ice dams brought more muddy water and as the water rose, even the few chunks that had been pushed up on the shore floated free and easily away. It felt as if Nature herself had become tired of Winter. This year it must have been unfulfilling for her because the week or two that the ice was thick enough to be explored was all that could be mustered to emulate the season of hard water. Instead of weeks below zero, we only got one or two nights. Instead of a dozen or more snowstorms that required shoveling, we got but three. Heck, we got more winter in a week the last two years than we had all winter this time around the cycle of the seasons.

Winter went somewhere else this year, but in Northeast Wisconsin, where people pride ourselves as hearty and able to cope with all that winter can dish out, we felt a bit of Nature's sadness over both the record temperatures and lack of snow and ice. That said, there were many folks commenting on the fact that they "didn't miss" the snow shoveling, but just as many, if not more, went on to say how much they had missed skiing, snowmobiling and even the opportunities for ice fishing.The black earth is calling many to get their seeds ready and their gardens planned. Perhaps it is not yet time to plant, but this coming week the temperatures are supposed to get to sixty and if it were not still March, many would be planting in temperatures like these. It remains to be seen whether the sigh that the ice has heaved was borne on hope for the coming Spring or tired resolution to the fact that winter has gone from the landscape just a little too early.

Homeless Children Deserve A Chance At Camp.

I normally don't get caught up in the media circus that is television "news", but the other day there was a special segment on homeless children, focusing on just one county in Florida. Needless to say, multiply that problem by thousands of counties nationwide, all hit by the same real estate collapse and the amount of heartbreak and stress that presents itself is beyond comprehension. Having worked at summer camps and in programs designed for latch key kids, I know what a single stable force amongst turmoil and desolation can make the difference between success and failure in life. Listening to the stories of homeless children eclipsed the deep love and protective feeling I have for the planet and perhaps even the Great Lakes Ecosystem.
Those who know me remember that I rode bicycle 4,280 miles (6,850Km) around all five Great Lakes, taking eighty days to rediscover my world in person. For years I studied he lakes in books and through research papers dedicated to their many environmental catastrophes, but in those two and one half months of travel, I learned a lifetime of lessons. That is why I want to share what I have learned about sustainability with the next generation and especially those who have prematurely had the weight of adult issues thrust upon them. I am willing to devote my entire working life to finding more and better opportunities to teach eco-ethics, sustainability theory and practices as well as an understanding of living in harmony with the planet as well as her creatures, including people as possible.
The closest estimation of cost is about $125 per day. That figure would allow staff to attend to all of the needs of children and provide enough trained guidance to know that the principles of sustainability are evidenced at all levels of their experience. From transport, whose carbon footprint is offset with our tree planting program, to solar and wind electricity generation, from aquaponic greenhouses providing vegetables and protein, to composting, vermicultue and free range chickens, virtually everywhere a student looked, they could see evidence of humans cooperating with nature exemplified. Two weeks at camp, can easily cost thousands, but we rely on many of our own programs, and long term support of committed individuals to offset capital investments that would be used to sustain the camp over the long haul. Blocks of eighty days ($10K) can be purchased to ensure that five children can attend out camp, each for two weeks. An investment in those five children attending our unique program would come with an additional ten day stay for the generous investor who wants to see our programs in action, or at your discretion, those days could cover ten additional days for a needy child's visit instead.

There is no shortage of children who can benefit from some time in the country, experiencing nature and having fun adventures in fresh air and all kinds of weather. especially in these times where the number of homeless children in America has doubled from one year ago, it is high tiome that we respond with an innovative program of training our most disadvantaged children what can be done with an eye to the future and the inspired actions toward sustainability. children of hardship often become future leaders and knowing that the goodness to help out exists especially when the chips are down, can make a world of difference in how they turn their lives, and our planet around.
Many of our actions are designed to make our immediate friends, family and environment better, through our unique programs, we allow exponential change to occur and spread it all around, into other communities, that the children return home to and into the future as they raise their own families into the future. The time has come to re-think education from the ground up. Living the future now is the only way to invite the next generation to accept the inevitable change that is needed to achieve sustainability in their lifetime.
Tony Saladino is a liflong environmentalist, shaman and permaculture enthusiast who has led the organization, ECO-Tours of Wisconsin for the last seven years and was formerly the local leader of Citizens for a Better Environment's Green Bay office. Prior experiences as nature guy for the City of Green Bay and for College Settlement Camps of Philadelphia make him an excellent choice for both outdoor guide,sustainability expert and guide for those interested in having both the highest standard of living possible, while assuring that mother Earth will not suffer in the process of providing you abundance.
Corporate rentals during the off season at our facility include leadership training and team building exercises and outdoor adventures to build cohesion between employees and management teams.
Reach us at (nine2zero) 884-triple two-four or write using snail mail to 1445 Porlier street, green Bay, Wisconsin 54301-3334. you can also make donations directly through paypal at: tnsaladino(number forty-two)@hotmail.com. You can also e-mail us at that address.
bless you for sharing this note around. If you cannot personally invest in giving a child this opportunity, let others know who can either consider a gift or share this opportunity with their friends.
bless you for taking the time to read this post, I know it was a little long.

Beyond Petroleum

The recent ad campaign mounted by BP would be inspiring if it were not so sad. The bucolic pictures of hard hatted men swinging solar panels into place, climbing atop giant wind powered electric generating turbines, and holding up beakers presumably full of bio-fuels are heart warming. Sadly, each of these technologies is over 100 years old and their effectiveness proven. In the Netherlands, wind power and dikes have allowed them to push back the sea, creating more country. Solar panels have been on most calculators since I can remember, and provided reliable power in virtually all space flights. Bio-fuel has had a proud history as far back as cavemen who used fire to heat their homes. Many of the first steam powered cars ran on wood. It is time non-fossil fuel use. The mess in the Gulf of Mexico just proves what has been said for the last few generations.

I just wish that BP had spent as much on safety as they had on their promotional ad campaign. Perhaps if they had done that, we would not be faced with yet another oil related catastrophe. I cannot understand the big oil mentality of paying lips service to transforming the energy economy, while simultaneously pocketing the largest profits in history. If you take the profits over the last three months alone for BP and the top four US oil companies they made twenty-five billion. Their profit alone was nearly two hundred and fifty dollars per US household. In just three months!

Using this as a starting point, because most of their increased profits were tied to the rising price of oil, which will continue to go up. Every household in the US could be supplied with either a solar furnace (which would provide direct heat in cool climates) or a Photovoltaic system (which would provide electricity in warm climates) Because of scale, approximately one hundred million total units, the cost would be reduced significantly. At current prices, this investment of, say, just a single year's worth of profits could provide half of either home heating costs (in cool climates)or half of the electricity consumed (in warm climates) Even without the benefits of scale, within at least five years, we could have all of our home energy needs met through solar alone. I don't advocate confiscatory tax systems that would make this a government program, I'm just making a point. This is the kind of money we are talking about. Twenty-five billion dollars every three months. Just think what good it could do!

Wisconsin's Legislature Stimies Clean Energy Bill

Once again, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce has had their way with Wisconsin's leaders. They claim that the potential rise in electric rates that Wisconsin's Clean Energy Legislation might bring would have a chilling effect on Wisconsin businesses. These are the same lobbyists who have opposed every significant environmental regulation that Wisconsin has attempted to pass as far back as my memory serves. The 16 Billion that Wisconsin shells out for imported energy each year was swept under the carpet by WMC and the people who want to continue business as usual. These dollars that we pay, for fossil fuel based energy, go away for good, creating jobs in far off regions, destroying the foundation of our quality of life. Renewable energy sources are all around us. If our business leaders can't see the damage that energy costs have on our daily life now, they are too well paid to understand the reality of the situation. Shame on our leaders who have once again knuckled under to the most powerful interests in the state, the few, the ignorant and the wealthy.

Every single person that sees renewable energy sources, in place and working is impressed by the quiet, clean and logical approach to harvesting available energy. As an energy producer, who uses a solar furnace to supplement about forty percent of one of my houses heat budget, I have begun to realize cost savings after only two winters. Of course, with more expensive production facilities, the pay off might take longer, but the solar furnace I own was built in 1972 and has only four moving parts, two automatic dampers, a thermostat and a fan. It continues to provide heat, and will for years to come. What is required to make positive changes that effect the future is will. "You can't get something for nothing" the old saying goes, but when what you have no longer meets your needs, it is time to look elsewhere for better ways of getting them met.

What Wisconsin's leaders fail to realize is that the time to act has come. Leaders can only be called that when they lead. Letting a special interest kill legislation that will create jobs, limit energy production costs and create a new infrastructure that will allow Wisconsin residents to keep more dollars inside our borders is criminal. Each and every one of us deserves to have our say in the direction our state is headed, not just the most wealthy among us. These are the same folks who opposed every piece of clean air legislation that was proposed for the state, clean water regulation, and recycling efforts. Even though,in the end, the regulations that passed helped rather than hurt their members. I'm sure that many of the folks who oppose any government oversight or leadership feel that government has grown too large. However, when we all work together to do what is right, it makes the job easier, more cost effective and stands as a testament to our cooperative spirit. Fighting the inevitable is Quixotic but Don Quixote was only a hero in a play! Tilting at windmills is not only dangerous, counter productive and futile but also just plain naiive.