What I Missed Seeing While Ziplining In New York, Texas

The kids and I had been planning our October getaway for a few months now. We were turned onto zipling by our friend Durango. He's never been, but I've got specific instructions from Mrs. Connie, "Tell Durango, he's still got two free tickets waiting on him. We'll put him through ground school and I'm sure he'll have a wonderful time." Okay, Durango...you've been informed.

The ride up to the zipline adventure was truly amazing! Tons of trees, forest green foliage, clear blue skies...m'm, m'm...just beautiful. The entrance, lined with cascading trees, led up to a most amazing house set high upon a hill. From talking with Connie's husband, they moved the house there! That was his profession, a house mover. I might have to look into that soon.

Connie's son, Carson, instructed us in the fine art of zipping, across a line, that is. He was very patient and had a great sense of humor. Durango, I'm thinking you'd like meeting this family very much. Carson's best friend also works for the family business and the two worked very well together. In our party, a gentlemen of 81 was trying out his hand at ziplining. He became a pro and was the best at braking amongst our group of four.

But...you know what I didn't see up there while moving effortlessly through the trees? I didn't see oil wells. Nope, I looked all around. I saw leaves of orange, red and green, but no oil wells. I also didn't see piles oil field debris. Looked hard for it, but not there.



I also didn't see open pits of ooey, gooey, stinky sludge. Nope, just beautiful moss green ponds filled with fish that you could eat, lined with healthy trees, surrounded by lush grasses.


You know what else I didn't see? Faulty, leaking, corroded oil and natural gas equipment. Not at all. I saw a lovely home surrounded by gorgeous trees, hilly skyline and an abundance of fragrant flowers. And you know what? I didn't miss seeing that stuff one iota.

Climate, A Child's Right Issue

Parents can be imprisoned for child abuse, couldn't it be said that polluting the air and water of children by big oil & gas the same as child abuse? Didn't Aruba knowingly sling toxic drilling mud all over the Ruggerios' yard? And doesn't their nine year old daughter play in that yard? Shouldn't Aruba then be charged with the knowing endangerment of a child? You think I'm kidding? I'm not the only one thinking along these lines.

Lord David Putnam, the Unicef UK Ambassador expresses his view in the Green Room, a weekly opinion piece in the BBC News.

" the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, Unicef UK is urgently pushing for the rights of the child along with those of future generations to be acknowledged in the UN climate change negotiations."

At the end of the article, people get to comment. I loved this comment:

"Lord David Puttnam's views are of no consequence. He hasn't a clue about the physics of climate. He, like the majority of GW'ers, is simply reiterating what a dozen or so fanatics have told him. This whole GW fiasco is a giant storm in a tiny teacup. Let's get some really unbiased scientists together and get a truly rational appraisal. The leader of this cadre should be Dr Bob Carter of Cook university in Austrailia."
Lenedwin, Seattle/ USA


Notice where the fellow who commented is from, yep...that's Seattle...now, I'm assuming Seattle, Washington. According to sources, Washington state is one of the "greenest" states in the union. This fellow doesn't live by compressors, oil & gas wells, strip mines, toxic waste dumps, open pits full of drilling waste, condensate tanks, sink holes...nope, this fellow probably lives in the cleanest little area of America there is. How unbiased is he? I bet he's an oil or gas executive. I've always wondered where the majority of them reside.

The New York Times Joe Niocera Is In Pickens Back Pocket

Okay, for those of you who love the idea of oil and gas drilling...you know, the Drill Baby, Drill, shrill...please do not read this.

For the rest of you, please read on.

I read a rather disturbing reply by Joe Nocera regarding comments made on his previous opinion in The New York Times. Well, at first I thought that he was just uneducated on the matter of natural gas fracking...but it turns out that he is Picken's lackey. Please tell me you have not forgotten T. Boone Pickens.

What caught my eye about Nocera's opinion was this line:

In Texas and Oklahoma, it has been used for decades, with nobody complaining much about environmental degradation.

Really? NOBODY has complained MUCH? Well, I know for damn certain I have complained A LOT and I live in Texas.

Then, Mr. Informative lists the three main reasons and quickly dispels them without an ounce of back up or provided research.

fracking supposedly allows gas and dangerous chemicals to seep into the water supply. This is pretty implausible.

Well, if I remember correctly I just read an article about an EPA study concluding that fracking has contaminated drinking water. And you know what else? THE NEW YORK TIMES also reported on the same story! Hey, Joe? Do ya not read anything else besides your own bloated arrogant opinions?

The second problem is the disposal of the chemical waste.

Yeah, no kidding. This is a problem and no, Joe, they do not all bury it under the ground in spill proof containers, there are reports of it being dumped late at night off of county roads or kept in big open pits lined with plastic.

natural gas is dirtier than coal.

He quickly dismisses this as a biased opinion. What I find rather ironic (or maybe moronic) is that at the end of the article he then admits that there are problems with natural gas drilling and fracking the Shale, but that with best drilling practices and with strong state regulation (bahahaha, snort, choke...ouch) we, America (covers heart and sheds a tear) can finally end our dependence on foreign oil...and his cliched rhetoric doesn't stop there...

while diminishing the strategic importance of the Middle East, where American soldiers continue to die.

Of course, I wanted to leave my comment on his article, but due to the outpouring of outrage about his uniformed ignorant rant...he is no longer accepting comments.