Theory on Drought Monitoring

10/24
I keep mulling this over and just don't know quite how to express it, so here it is anyway. LOL
The articles below point to a term I hadn't heard before, but had been sitting in the back of my mind every time it rained (which it is now).

Impervious Ground Cover. Basically that means anything that keeps water from absorbing into the ground where it falls. This includes roof lines, cement, asphalt. It doesn't even go into the semi impervious of decking, brick walks, etc.

If, as these reports state, most urbanized or urban sprawled areas have 50% of their property - commercial, industrial and private - covered with impervious ground cover, the run off is incredible. At least 40%, right?

The reason I'm saying 40% is that maybe 10% of the water gets absorbed into adjacent ground before it runs off into creeks, storm drains, etc.

However, just as our greenspaces for wildlife are becoming more and more isolated, so is our lands' ability to absorb water for the water tables.

Add the substantial increased use of water by urban sprawl and the earth is in a constant state of drought even when we have "normal" or "average" seasonal rainfall. I understand why meteorologists must report the averages. But I think they need to start taking some additional responsibility in reporting what's needed, how far below normal the water table lies and how people can increase their property's ability to absorb water.

If you think of a bed sheet and you only water in a few spots, it takes a very long time for all of that water to wick throughout the sheet. So goes our property. And, it will dry very quickly, with no reserve to keep it moist, leaving all plants in a constant state of stress.

Ha! I found THE best policy article

It totally substantiates what I'm saying. I've been talking about the great plains aquifer since I lived in Dallas TX 7 years ago. I'm going to try to write a letter to the editor on this subject. If anyone comes up with an eloquent way of saying this in 150 words or less, let me in on it!
Leslie

10/30 Great Blog Post From The Grist.org

Excerpt from article on Shoreland Preservation
Bruce Ferguson, an authority on stormwater management from the University of Georgia,
noted that roads and parking surfaces cover approximately twice the area of their
associated buildings and represent a good 50% of a built up urban area. For this reason
alone, it is important that everyone involved in land development take seriously the
emerging technologies of porous pavement systems.

Study of Salt Lake City area by 'zoning' (V - vegetation, I - Impervious, S - soil and dead vegetation) Figure 5 on Page 5 - very telling.

Study of Atlanta's loss of canopy and gain in impervious cover:
Over the last decade, Metro Atlanta has experienced unprecedented population growth. This change in population has resulted in an increase in impervious surface and a decrease in forest canopy. Overall Metro Atlanta is accumulating 28 acres per day of impervious surface and losing 54 acres of canopy per day, resulting in a ten year loss of 196,921 acres of tree canopy and a gain of 103,273 acres of impervious surface.

More On Environtmental and Energy Bills

A Green Tug-of-War
Green groups battle over climate bills in the Senate By Brian Beutler
25 Oct 2007
From The Grist.org

When writer and climate activist Bill McKibben took to the pages of The Washington Post late last month to demand that legislators and activists back the most ambitious climate-change bill in the U.S. Senate, it was more than a call to action -- it was a public salvo in a contentious behind-the-scenes battle.

While senators are shaping and debating the merits of various global-warming bills, the really impassioned wrangling over climate legislation is going on not in the halls of Congress but within the environmental community itself. McKibben (who serves on Grist's board of directors) and activist-oriented groups like Friends of the Earth are calling for no "half-measures" or compromises, while more establishmentarian groups like Environmental Defense are embracing moderate legislation on the grounds that it might actually pass. Other green groups are staking out their ground in between, praising bipartisan progress while stressing that moderate legislation needs to be strengthened.

At the weak end of the spectrum of Senate climate bills is one offered by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). It centers around a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse-gas emissions, but initially it would hand out about 80 percent of emissions credits to industry instead of making companies pay for them, and it includes a "safety valve" mechanism that would dump cheap credits onto the market if trading pushed the price above a preset ceiling. It has virtually no support among Democratic leaders or environmental advocates, but a number of power companies and unions back it.

The strongest bill -- the one basically every enviro would choose to implement if given the keys to the American political system for one day -- was introduced months ago by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). It would cut greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, aggressive reductions on par with what the mainstream scientific community says are needed. Boxer chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, which has jurisdiction over this issue.

But much of the focus right now is on the America's Climate Security Act formally unveiled on Oct. 18 by Sens. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.). It's projected to lower emissions as much as 19 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and as much as 63 percent by mid-century via a cap-and-trade system, and it doesn't include a safety valve. It calls for about 20 percent of emissions credits to be auctioned initially, with the rest allocated freely to emitters and the states at a rate that declines over time.

Playing Defense

Environmental Defense is enthusiastically praising the Lieberman-Warner legislation -- but not yet formally endorsing it, as the group took pains to point out after being criticized by other activists. Said ED's Tony Kreindler, it "looks to be a very strong bill." Perhaps more tellingly, Kreindler said, "I think the political process is now behind Lieberman-Warner. ... Boxer said she would bring it to the floor."

The Natural Resources Defense Council considers the Sanders-Boxer bill the "gold standard," but David Doniger, who directs policy at NRDC's climate center, says they've been "engaged in discussions with the Lieberman-Warner people." A press release from the organization, timed to coincide with the bill's release, notes with some tepidity, "Although this bill is a strong start, NRDC supports changes that would improve the bill by ensuring that emission reductions keep pace with the science, and by reducing free allocations and directing additional resources to provide more support for critical program features, including consumer and low-income protections, safeguards for affected workers, and faster deployment of energy efficiency and renewable-energy solutions."

Loosely translated, that means they would like to see the bill strengthened as it makes its way through the congressional process, rather than see it heaved overboard and supplanted by a more ambitious but less politically feasible piece of legislation.

The Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, and Earthjustice, among other groups, are taking similar stances -- praising Lieberman-Warner as a marker of progress, but emphasizing needed changes. Their efforts have already helped to make the bill stronger than it was in early drafts.

Keeping the Pressure On

This strategy stands in sharp contrast to that of ambitious groups like Friends of the Earth and 1Sky, a new campaign formed specifically to push for aggressive climate action. They believe that anything short of the best bill in the Senate now could spell disaster -- and that it's worth waiting to act until after George W. Bush leaves the White House if it means a more radical path forward.

Behind these differences, notes 1Sky campaign chair Betsy Taylor, are "different theories of change." She continued, "I think groups like Environmental Defense and NRDC are conditioned by years of playing defense. But in the midst of all this, a lot's been going on because the science has been shifting incredibly rapidly. I think it's been difficult for the big green groups to respond in a timely way to that science. ... We need action commensurate to the problem."

McKibben believes much the same. In his op-ed, he wrote, "the legislative process is backing away from what science demands -- a strong bill put forward by Sens. Barbara Boxer and Bernie Sanders is in danger of being supplanted by half-measures proposed by Sen. Joe Lieberman."

As McKibben told Grist, "I don't see that as a deep conflict, really. It's a matter of cultures. If you spend all your time in Washington, the rules of the game in Washington come to seem like the fundamental reality of the world. ... There are people in D.C. who are such good dealmakers that the deal is as important to them as the climate itself."

Let's Make a Deal

The deal is indeed becoming the focus, according to staffers for the Committee on the Environment and Public Works, who, in the days leading up to the release of the Lieberman-Warner bill, said the priority seemed to be getting something done quickly: "Many of the [environmental] groups are enthusiastic about moving legislation now," noted one aide. "A few groups have more questions about that."

"Getting started is very important to the legislative process," the aide added, "and parts of Sen. Boxer's bill will be very important to that process."

Boxer is particularly stressing the importance of a "look-backs" provision in any climate legislation -- a sort of pre-scheduled legislative audit that gives Congress the chance to examine the impact of the bill, and, if need be, strengthen it in the future. As Boxer describes it, it's a provision "for continuing to review the science and the results of our policies at regular intervals."

Enviros who are pinning their hopes on Lieberman-Warner are likely to be keen on the look-backs idea. They'll continue working with the senators to push more aggressive provisions into the bill now, but they'll surely hope to be able to revisit the whole package down the line, should it eventually make it into law. (And that is still a long shot, as Bush continues to oppose mandatory emissions cuts.)

Hard-line climate activists like McKibben et al. don't want to count on a look-backs strategy. They want to get the bill right the first time, arguing that the urgency of climate change demands the strongest possible response, and that once Congress makes a grand bargain on climate change, lawmakers may not get around to revisiting the issue any time soon.

Should environmentalists jump on board the increasingly popular Lieberman-Warner bandwagon, hoping that a bipartisan, consensus-based approach will lay the groundwork for a long-term fight against climate change? Or should they hold out for the toughest possible bill?

Either way it's a gamble -- and the stakes couldn't be higher.

From MoveOn.org

Dear MoveOn member,
We've got good news and bad. The good news is after years of inaction, things are finally moving on the global warming front.
The bad news is the bill won't solve global warming, but it will give polluting companies billions in windfall profits.
The bill creates a system where polluters spend 'credits' for every ton of greenhouse gas they produce. If you want to pollute more, you need more credits.
If companies buy their credits from the government, we'll have billions of dollars to invest in solar and wind energy. And by limiting the number of credits available, we can reduce greenhouse gases. But this bill gives most of the credits away for free to the biggest polluters1—who can sell them off for massive profits.
This plan will be a huge windfall for corporations, and it won't solve global warming. We've got to act now—Congress is finishing a draft of the bill in the next few days. And many members of Congress think no one will notice this corporate giveaway. We want to get 100,000 voices to Congress to prove them wrong. Can you sign our petition? It says:
"Any climate legislation that gives 'pollution credits' away for free means windfall profits for big polluters. Congress should ensure that corporations pay taxpayers for these credits. The money raised should help develop clean energy sources and support the workers and consumers affected by the shift to clean energy."
Clicking below adds your name to the petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/nofreeride/o.pl?id=11538-1732535-hgaJk6&t=4
It's looks pretty likely that some kind of pollution credit system will be created soon, because so many folks want action on climate change. Polluting industries have seen the writing on the wall—that's why they're lobbying to turn the system into a massive program of corporate subsidies.
Their plan—giving away the credits for free to big polluters—punishes new companies and companies who got a jump on cleaning up their act.
On the other hand, an auction makes sure that everyone plays fair by charging them equally to pollute. And, at the same time, it raises money to help pay for America's transition to a clean energy economy.
This approach is called "cap and auction" and a bunch of the Presidential candidates have already endorsed it. Senator Obama was the most recent to come out in support of auctioning pollution credits—joining Dodd, Richardson and Edwards.2
The momentum behind the auction system is why industry's advocates are rushing to push a plan through now—before we have a new president and Congress that will do it the right way.
We can't afford to make this mistake. There are literally billions of dollars at stake. A cap and auction system of pollution credits would generate anywhere from $50 to $150 billion—money we need to ease the transition to a environmentally-friendly economy.
The money is there. If we want it to benefit all Americans, and not just big corporations, we've got to speak up now. Clicking below adds your name to the petition:
http://pol.moveon.org/nofreeride/o.pl?id=11538-1732535-hgaJk6&t=5
Thanks for all you do.
–Ilyse, Wes, Natalie, Daniel, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Sources:
1."Cap and trade bill is second rate," LA Times, October 25, 2007http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-captrade25oct25,0,6658349.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
2."In Obama's world, polluters must pay," LA Times, October 8, 2007http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-obama8oct08,1,7945139.story?coll=la-news-politics-national
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Green Halloween

Better late than never I suppose. Here it is, the 11th hour (almost literally) and I'm just thinking that, ooo, maybe someone would like to green up their All Hallow's Eve.


Go To Green Halloween for some ideas

A Few Suggestions From Environmental Defense

About.com's suggestions

From StopGlobalWarming.org

This Halloween, Think Green
by: Teri Goldberg 28 September 2006

Ten tips for an earth-friendly holiday

Consumers are expected to spend $3.12 billion on candy, costumes and other Halloween goodies this year, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation. That's a big pile of candy corn. It's also a lot of crumpled candy wrappers, paper party props and plastic political masks in the trash the very next day. So this Halloween, why not think green?

Putting together a green Halloween is as easy as an orange and black one. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. E-mail party invites rather than snail-mail them. Free e-mail greetings abound online. "Talking" and/or "dancing" ghosts, ghouls, mummies and more are there for the taking at cyber card shops postcards.org/postcards, greetingsdepot.com and e-cards.com. The best pumpkin card patch this year has to be castlemountains.com, which features 96 animated cards, some with short plots or story lines. Witches on brooms warn revelers not to drink and drive. Party invites come with electronic pumpkin piñata games.

For retro-themed parties, consider vintage postcards at Penny Postcards or Antique Halloween postcards. There's no flash but the illustrations are spectacular.

Kids also can carve out their own party invites at BillyBear4Kids.com.

2. Serve healthy and seasonal foods. The options are endless. Remember pumpkins are not just decorative items. The tender meat of the seasonal gourd can be pureed for soups, mashed for pies or spiced up for a main entrée, such as an Indian curry. Healthy recipes for all things pumpkin are posted at Vegweb, from vegetarian pumpkin chili to "Stroke of Midnight" pumpkin bread. Recipes for the sweet squash are also plentiful at epicurious.com/recipes. Serious home chefs might consider whipping up some pumpkin pesto or pumpkin flan with pumpkin seed praline.

Apples also are at their best this time of year. So make use of the crunchy fruit. Fill party bowls with several varieties of fresh apples, from tart Pippins to sweet Spartans. Serve cider hot or cold. Bake a few apples for healthy, tasty dessert.

3. Buy pumpkins, apples and other seasonal items from a farmer's market. Produce bought at farmers' market will not only taste better but saves energy. "Most foods in the United States travel an average of 1,300 miles before reaching us, burning large amounts of fossil fuels," according to the Web site for the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America held in Detroit in 1999. Buying produce directly from the farmer also cuts out the "middleman" and increases the farmers cut or share of the profits. (To learn more, see "Ten things you can do to support a sustainable food system")

Consumers in the Northeast can seek out apples with the seal of approval from Core Values Northeast (CVN), a partnership between apple farmers in the Northeast and Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet, a non-profit consumer advocacy group, which promotes "apples of superior taste and quality while maintaining healthy, ecologically balanced growing environments." The Web site lists stores in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which carry apples with the CVN eco-label.

4. Make use of all pumpkin parts. After carving a pumpkin, make sure to save the seeds. Bake them and serve them to party guests or feed them to our fine feathered friends, the birds. There's no problem putting pumpkin seeds out for birds, wet or dry, confirms Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, a nutritionist at the Saint Louis Zoo, which accepts pumpkin donations after Halloween to feed to the animals as a seasonal treat.

If possible, bury or compost the carcass. Check out pumpkin the burial rituals at pumpkin craving 101, to "lay your pumpkin to rest with love and dignity."

5. Use re-usable plates, cups, utensils, napkins and tablecloths. Paper party goods can be expensive and just add more clutter to our nation's landfills. Look for re-usable party props at house ware shops and dollar stores. The best deal I found online was a 12-piece set of plastic orange utensils at crateandbarrel.com for 75 cents, reduced from $2.95.

Pottery Barn Kids also has a delightful collection of Halloween-themed dinnerware and linens, now on sale. The festive tablecloths, which feature smiling pumpkins along its edge, come in two sizes. The small tablecloth sells for $23.99, reduced from $35. The large cloth costs $30.99, marked down $45. A set of four matching napkins and placemats are available for $9.99 and $19.99 respectively. The dinnerware set — now $26.99, reduced from $39 — contains four melamine plates, four bowls and four acrylic tumblers.

6. Make your own costume or buy one at a second-hand shop. An old sheet still makes a great ghost. Just make sure that the sheet cost less than a commercial ghost costume. Many boomers also have some hippie clothes stashed somewhere. Find them and let your teenager be a part of the Woodstock generation without living through all that rain and mud!

Can't find anything suitable in the house? Use Goodwill's online store locator to find a thrift store near you or shop at the online auction. This year, Goodwill not only organized merchandise into a special Halloween section but also offers up some creative costumes ideas made from second-hand garb.

7. Give out healthy treats. Finding nutritional treats has to be one of Halloween's challenges. But with some serious thought, it can be done. Some ideas that come to mind include:

Hand out individual microwave popcorn packs. Newman's Own Organic has three varieties of organic popcorn — butter, light butter and no butter/no salt.

Pick up some honey sticks or fruit leather at health food stores or tea shops. Stash tea sells honey sticks in bulk at its Web site. Each $7 pack contains 35 sticks. Fruit leather is available in bulk at Stretch Island Fruit Leather.

There's also plenty of healthy candy bars on the market these days. Sundrops, a fun treat made by nspiredfoods.com/sunspire.html, is billed as "a natural alternative to M&Ms." The candy-coated chocolate drops are pricey at about 89 cents a bag but they look like and almost taste like the real thing without having the artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.

8. Instead of using paper or plastic disposable bags to collect treats, use or buy a recyclable bag. Be creative. Make use of old straw baskets or an old metal pot with a handle. Exceptionally cute "commercial" totes are available this year at cyber party shop plumparty.com. The felt totes, priced from $6 to $12, also can be used as party bowls.

9. Teach your children well. Teach them not to litter. Tell them pumpkin jokes. My favorites culled from the Web include: What's the ratio of a pumpkin's circumference to its diameter? Pumpkin Pi How do you mend a broken Jack-O-Lantern? With a pumpkin patch What is a pumpkin's favorite sport? Squash.

10. Experience nature. Visit a pumpkin farm. Pick fresh apples. Talk a long walk outside. Look up at the sky. Notice the moon. Remember, it's Halloween.

Editorial Letter Wind Turbine Highways

Microturbines would allow us to use our highways to create electricity. 133 words.

Let us become the Valley of Ingenuity. Let us make our highways more than just roads.

Sound-reducing walls will be built to improve the quality of life throughout the area, reducing the ubiquitous noise pollution.

Within these walls will be the electrical infrastructure for wind turbines. Variable speed micro-turbines will be placed along the traffic corridors using natural and man-made winds for power production. This electricity will power the lights, rest stops, and toll booths.

Prairie grasses will be planted in the greenways, filtering gross particulates and carbon dioxide from the air. It will be sold and harvested frequently to produce ethanol, helping fund further construction projects and create green business/jobs regionally.

Let us seize this opportunity to be at the forefront of ingenuity. It is an idea whose time is now.

Sincerely,

Editorial Letter Vegetable Oil for Fuel

This is a year old, but still incredibly relevant. 168 words - before our paper went to a 150 word max format...

The biggest headache for every municipality in the country is the budget line item “Fuel”. Prices just keep going up and are forecast to continue until at least 2012.

So why are we still using straight diesel? Bio-diesel is now feasible and will become more economical in the near future. Straight vegetable oil has been FREE since fast food was created.

Local restaurants generally must pay to have it hauled to either the landfill or to another processing plant while all town vehicles running on diesel idle at the red light just across the street.

Conversion kits for diesel engines to burn straight vegetable oil (SVO) would pay for themselves in fewer than 12 months at last year’s prices. What about this year’s? SVO has the same mileage as diesel and better emissions.

Europe has been using this “technology” for over a decade and Canada has for more than 5 years.

Why aren’t we? Call your highway department and ask them. Keep asking them. It’s your money.

Sincerely,

Editorial Letter Water Management

Sending this to my local paper. 142 words - well within parameters of most papers...

To Whom It May Concern:

Our nation is running out of potable water. Rivers are failing to reach the ocean. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Aquifers are drying up. Locally, streams run dry annually - unheard of in our parents’ youth.

Overuse, single-use, and rapid runoff are all to blame. Each can be remedied if people know how and why. The news media, meteorologists specifically, must increase their role to educate and not just pontificate.

Redefine drought to include more variables than precipitation. Explain impervious ground cover and ways to lessen its impact. Teach proper irrigation (including NO irrigation) to the entire community. Introduce reuse (greywater) for many water needs.

Our children will see the day when water is sold on the world market much as oil is today. It is already happening in the Plain States and South West.

Let’s change that starting here and now.

Sincerely,


Resources
http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/Out/ch6_water.pdfhttp://narsal.ecology.uga.edu/atl_landcover/landcover.html

At Least 10 Uses for Old Jeans

I love denim. I think everyone in the nation loves old denim. But I use it in ways most people don't think of.
When I'm able, I'll keep searching for the column in This Old House for their 10 uses - very guy oriented and very cool!
The following pictures is my latest denim project. Will put a pic of all 4 chairs when they are complete...


Denim Insulation!
Bonded Logic: Bonded Logic They use Denim from textile factories and remake it into regular bat insulation! WOW. I would have used it in my latest construction project. Will next year in my upstairs renovations.


Wisebread.com
Posted Monday, September 24, 2007 - 13:09 by Myscha Theriault in Green Living (34 comments)

1. Pot holders. In my opinion, these look far better out of used denim than the new stuff. And you can incorporate your own style via choice of trim or a patch stitched to the outside. Here's a link to some tips for making your own.

2. Cool quilts. You can do this in many forms. Different shades of denim patchwork options abound and are certainly sturdy and fun. Unfortunately, one of the coolest ideas I’ve ever seen I’ve been unable to find pictures of. It was done with pieced denim, but they had left on all the details like pockets, buttons, belt loops, etc. It made for a really fabulous unique quilt with a lot of attitude. If anyone has a link to a picture of one of these, please post below in the comments section.

3. Hanging sleeves for storing plastic bags and cleaning rags. This is an idea I came up when trying to find a workable solution for giving up paper towels. I needed something convenient to store my cleaning rags in and made several out of the legs of old blue jeans.

4. Pocket books and backpacks. These are tons of fun as beach bags and particularly popular with the younger crowd. Easily jazzed up with pins various bits of clip on “flair”. Here are one, and two separate links for various sets of project directions.

5. Patches. If you happen to have a bunch from different events, great. Otherwise, I’ve seen some really unique custom patches you can make yourself that add tons of style. I personally like the make your own option, because it opens up many more possibilities for self expression and designer style.

6. Embellishments. Sometimes bead stores offer classes on “jazzing up jeans” where they will teach you how to add studs, crystals and various beads as well as other items. Lots of room for individuality with this option as well.

7. Pimp the heck out of them. Options abound here. Pimp my jeans is a great site to look for inspirationwhen jazzing up old jeans. They also have a great idea pictured there for a way hip fabric grocery bag of pieced together old denim. You'll be strolling to your favorite New York grocery in style with that one. Here is an additional link for airbrushing designs on your denim. My favorite though, is this way cool how to video from Threadbanger that shows you how to get a vintage tint as well as providing some easy fabric distressing techniques. Really, really cool.

8. Embrace the frayed edges and go hip with some slamming shoes and a great bag. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen fashion experts give this same advice on TV. What’s funny though is I seem to notice more people with money trying it out than people who are supposedly on a budget. It’s a very cool look to have a faded set of jeans with a few rips and tears paired with a newer sweater and some dressy shoes or boots.

9. Help dress a scarecrow. Fairly timely, considering the season. Here’s a cool picture of one.

10. Make a three pocket electric gadget protector. I found this set of directions on . Love that site! Looks like a cool addition for a daypack or purse. Here's a pic of the project:

11. Journal, photo album and school book covers. Say what? I found this neat online project for a jean covered journal held closed with a funky belt. Really fun. Tried to snag a pic and give them credit, but they preferred to keep everything in house. You cansee the whole thing with this link.

12. Hot or cold rice pack. I’ve always just dumped my rice in an old pillow case and tied a knot in the top. But these look cute, if you have the extra time. The one pictured in this link got me thinking about all those old floral jeans from the eighties getting a new life, but really, any kind of old denim will do.

13. Turn pieces of them into a jacket. Here’s a link to a project I found online for a crazy quilt style one. This is very similar to the type of quilt I mentioned above.

14. A little too out there? Try out this waist coat made from recycled denim. I can really see it with a crisp white shirt. Actually, it looks like a big vest to me, but what do I know about waist coats? Either way, it's pretty cool. Here are the instructions.

15. Sassy, rough edged skirt with urban style. I like this one because it's really a bit out of the ordinary and has tons of attitude. link to the instructions . A bit of trouble snagging a pic of this one, but you can see it on the link.

16. A wheelchair tote. This is too cool. Know someone who could use one to stay organized? link to a set of directions.

17. Coffee cozies. Love these! As with some of the other projects, you can really put your own spin on them. I found several blog posts on doing your own. This first one. The second? Slightly different with a button closure. Still cute though. If I had my sewing machine out of storage, I'd seriously be looking into making a few of these for Christmas package tuck-ins.

18. Custom camera bag. set of directions for one. Personal verdict? Pretty neat idea.

19. Unusual covered gift box. I thought this one was particularly out of the norm. Should make a fun package for a teen present, don’t you think? Here's a link.

20. Reusable lunch sack. I think you could be as individual here as with some of the jazz up your jeans ideas listed above (patches, airbrushing, crystals). It's made from a pant leg. How cool!

21. Picture frame. Not the most formal project idea ever, but a fun idea that would be great for a teen room bulletin board . no sew photo frame made from a jeans pocket.

22. Blue jean table. Pretty darned unusual, I must say. This is another item that is shown with more of a children’s room look. But I think you could pull this off with leather accents in a wild west art gallery or with silver studs and tears for a more urban feel. A bit quirky, but if you like that sort of thing . . .

23. Christmas stockings. Here’s a set of directions for making them out of old blue jeans . Use whatever trim and lining ideas you want. Definitely not for those Victorian style holiday planners.

24. Knee pads for gardening. Here's a link to a set of directions for one. You might need to use an old denim skirt or jumper for this one, but I still think it has merit, if you happen to have the time.

25. Beer cozies. Here's a link to a blog post for homemade deep pocket cold beverage cozies. There aren't detailed directions, but there are pictures from several angles. So if you sew, you can probably get the idea.

At least 10 Uses For Old Clothes

10/24 Just found this after a small ditty in a newspaper article...
Denim Insulation!
Bonded Logic:
http://www.bondedlogic.com/
They use Denim from textile factories and remake it into regular bat insulation! WOW. I would have used it in my latest construction project. Will next year in my upstairs renovations.

From Thrifty Fun.com
Welding Gauntlets From Jeans
I use the legs from an old pair of denim pants for welding gauntlets to cover my arms while welding. After cutting the legs off the pants, sew some elastic banding on both ends. that holds the gauntlet in place at the wrist and at the upper arm.
This protects the arms from welding splatter, and UV rays while welding. (Note - these are used in conjunction with welding gloves - OR the welding gloves can be sewn to the lower portion of your gauntlet instead of installing elastic there.)
Rex Smith

T-shirt Quilts (I have several patterns that people can use as ideas, if they're so inclined. Email me at onedndylyon @ aol.com for pictures. Leslie)
There is a pattern for making quilts out of tee shirts that have a special meaning. Maybe for the Sports enthusiast in the family for graduation. A tee shirt quilt made from all their sports teams shirts.
Donna

Weaving Pot holders
You can cut the sleeves from t-shirts into rings and use the rings instead of purchased loops for weaving pot holders. Great colors! You can also do this with the tops of worn socks.
jlxian

Denim Quilt
I have also made a Quilt out of my Hubby's old jeans! He never throws away a thing "it'll make a good rag someday" so when the pile became overwhelming I cut up the legs, stitched together with batting and a sheet and had a heavy warm quilt!
I also have made Pillows out of old, beloved Shirts from my kids. They work real well as throw pillows on their beds. Just stitch up the openings and stuff! too simple and they love them!
Terry R

T-shirt Pillows and Jeans Bags
I've made pillows out of old tees, they are so warm and comfy. Also, cut diagonally down the shirt from the collar to the bottom hem and sew for a simple dress up skirt, an adult tee shirt makes a child's size. Another fun thing is to make bags from old jeans and pants cut off the legs where they meet hem the remaining piece at the bottom and tie hobby rope to the belt loops of sew on straps from the jean leg. You can also make small bags from the bottom of the pant leg. Just cut about 20 cm from bottom of one leg, and hem the raw edges together, you can add handles also.
Hope you can use some of those ideas! E

From Associated Content.com
Draft Blockers
For those of us who live in old houses or apartment buildings, rattling windows can mean winter drafts. Old t-shirts rolled into tubes can help block some of the cold, drafty air in the crevices.

Wall Art
Let’s say you like the design on the front (or back) of your t-shirt - but it no longer fits you. Or maybe there’s a stain or hole elsewhere on the tee? If the design is nifty enough to be decorative, you can frame it. I actually stole this idea from department stores that display their t-shirt stock in perfect squares, folded and pinned around a piece of wood or plastic. Just wrap the t-shirt around the “backboard” of a poster frame, and stretch it to eliminate wrinkles. It should work with or without glass.

Tool Box Towel If you keep a tool box, large or small, it’s possible that you occasionally handle greasy or oily tools. You can use an old t-shirt instead of wasting paper towels or buying a package of rags.

Drawer Sachets
As a fabric, cotton does breathe. So you can trim pieces of an old tee into squares, sprinkle a little lavender or potpourri inside, and tie it up the bundles with string. As long as you don’t pick anything too potent, these cheap sachets are a nice way to keep your clothing smelling fresh inside dresser drawers.

The Sauce Shirt
Every time I cook pasta, it seems like I get some sauce on my shirt during the preparation process. Instead of wearing an apron (I hate aprons), I keep one t-shirt that I use for messy cooking enterprises. Then, I don’t have to worry about fussily using a stain-stick on my “good” clothes

From Frugal.Families.com
Denim
I could make a custom journal for myself or as a gift by covering a composition notebook with the jean fabric. One of the pockets could go on the front as a cute way to hold a pen.
I could use the jean material for a rag rug. Earlier, I wrote about doing this with t-shirts. Although the materials are different weights, they might go nicely together for a sort of americana, blue-jeans and apple pie sort of look.
I could sew up a cute denim purse for my niece. I could cut off the legs and sew up the bottom part above the tear, and then add a shoulder strap or little handle from some of the leg material.
I could make an apron by cutting the legs, opening up the fabric and putting a fabric belt through the belt loops.
The legs could be knotted and used for doggie pull toys for my friend's dog.

T-shirts
Dusting and polishing cloths: This one may be a little obvious for the truly frugal, but sometimes we can forget the obvious. The soft t-shirt material is wonderful for dusting and polishing. Just the other day, I saw Martha on TV polishing silver. She was using expensive cotton cloths to get up all of that yucky tarnish. Why? It would probably have been less expensive to buy brand new t-shirts and cut them up, let alone use old ones.

Old Towels
Repair: Simply sew a running stitch above the unraveling edge. Then turn that uneven edge into a nice fringe. Tada--new towels. Since I am unskilled in sewing, I asked a good friend to use her machine and sew the new hem for me. She even went ahead and did a pretty zigzag stitch in a contrasting color.

Washcloths: Cut the towels into squares, round the edges and sew around for brand new washcloths. This works especially well when there is a hole in the towel that you can cut around.

Diaper Wipes: This is one of my favorite things to do with old towels, probably because I have two little ones in diapers at the moment. I cut the towels up into squares and use them as homemade diaper wipes. No sewing needed. I simply wet them with a little water and go. I wouldn't recommend this for big messes, but for wet diaper changes or for an infant, the homemade diaper clothes work just fine.

Cleaning cloths: For cleaning clothes, you can cut the towels into whatever size works best for you (I like small dish towel size). Again, there is no sewing needed, although you could put a hem around them to make them last longer. I use these homemade cleaning cloths in my kitchen, in place of paper towels for everything from drying an apple to wiping down the kitchen counters and the sink.

Dusting cloths: soft, well-worn towels are perfect for dusting cloths. They seems to grab dust with ease and absorb just the right amount of furniture polish. No sewing needed on these. If they unravel too much, simply cut of the edges as needed.
Beach towels: Sew together two or three to make great beach towels. You can trim any ratty edges and still have enough material to wrap around a wet child or use on the hot sand.

Old Clothes in General
Reconstructing old wool coats into new coats for children, sofa pillows or even cloth handbags and clutches.
Old dresses usually have enough fabric to make a new dress for a child or a Halloween costume.
Cotton dresses can also be used to sew a small set of curtains for a bathroom or back door.

Sew the scraps into small squares and stuff with dried beans for bean bags. Or, turn the scraps into fabric Christmas ornaments, contrast collars for children's shirts, hair bands, or a cloth belt.

Men's plaid shirts can find new life as cotton handkerchiefs.
Save several plaid shirts to create a set of coordinated table napkins.
Men's cotton shirts make wonderful plush toys, lampshade covers, and summer quilts.
Cut with pinking shears, they also make terrific toppers for home canned jams.
Heavy wool fabric can be cut into strips, and turned into braided rag rugs. I have a circa 1890 braided rug that was made out of old civil war uniforms, which has outlasted every other rug I have ever owned.
Turn mismatched socks in sock monkeys and sock puppets.
When the fabric has been used every possible way you can imagine, it's time to turn them into animal bedding or rags. Shredded fabric works well for hamster and rat cages.
Old, worn out coats make great dog blankets.
Strips of old fabric can be used to tie climbing vines onto trellises or for staking your vegetable plants.
Threadbare cotton squares are terrific for straining jellies.

How You Eat Affects The Environment

10/19 From The Grist
Snack and Diane An interview with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz

Ever dreamed of eating your way across the country? This summer, Diane Hatz did just that on the Eat Well Guided Tour of America. Convinced there was more to the sustainable-food movement than met the eye (i.e., it ain't just happening on the coasts), Hatz and her colleagues from Sustainable Table partnered with several other organizations to organize a 25-city tour that stretched from West Hollywood, Calif., to New York's Hudson Valley. Hopping aboard a biofueled bus, the group set out to discover the true tastes of American eaters.

new in Grist: An interview with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz

How you eat affects the environment at least as much as how you drive your vehicle.

The following are points to consider when shopping, cooking, eating out, and eating the meal.

1) Quantity.
A woman whould eat no more than 1200 calories a day and a man should eat no more than 2000 calories a day. Most Americans eat far more than their recommended dietary limits. This affects more than just your body fat content.

It takes energy to produce any food. And since we are no longer the true hunter gatherers our bodies are designed to be, it takes far more energy than the sun to produce our grains and vegetables as well as the grasses eaten by our meat sources.

It takes petroleum fuels to plant, water and harvest our grains and vegetables. Then it takes petroleum fuels and electricity to transport these to processing plants. It takes petroleum fuels and electricity to process the foods, package the foods, deliver the foods and store the foods until we use petroleum products to pick the foods up. That's all before we even prepare it for ourselves.

If we eat less, we are using less fuels overall to sustain us and our lifestyle, thus helping our environment.

2) Where we eat makes an enormous difference. Americans eat out an average of 20% of the time. 1 out of 5 meals - or just over 4 meals a week.

When you take into account the amount of fuel used to get to the restaurant, then the amount of electricity and natural gas it takes to create your meal, there is a huge environmental impact. Now factor in the amount of fuel it takes to get all of the workers to the restaurant, the fuel it takes to remove the packaging and uneaten foodstuffs from the property. And finally, factor in all of the items from #1.

By eating at home, you have better portion control, use far less energy per serving, and far less petroleum fuels per serving from farm to plate. You also save an incredible amount of TIME - something we all need more of these days.

3) Where you shop has several implications. Driving around for bargains to save a dollar here or there ends up not being much of a bargain when you look at the amount of fuel wasted in the process. Considering the price of gas and the future of its price, shopping at only one or two stores begins to make far more sense.

When in season, shop your farmer's markets. Most small farmers are virtually organic (for economic reasons as much as environmental), so what you buy from them has far less impact on the environment than produce found in your large grocery store. Also, the amount of fuel consumed to bring it from farm to market is substantially less than that from grocery stores. Check the labeling on your produce at the store. CA, WA, OR, TX are samples.

Check the labeling on your seafood. China, Thailand, and other countries are common. Buy seafood produces in the US - the amount of fuel used to get it here in a fresh state from half way around the world is enormous!

4) #3 works right into #4. Eat for the season. Yes, strawberries in December are a wonderful treat, but consider where they had to come from - the southern hemisphere! Think of the energy impact of such a journey for a half a pint of fresh strawberries that don't even taste like your local strawberries.

Freeze some when they are in season locally for that December taste of June.

Buy and eat squash and apples - fruits and vegetables that store through the winter months.

5) How you shop is also a great segue from #3. Rather than making frequent trips to the store, make only 1 or 2 throughout the week. It takes a bit of planning and a bit of storing, but unless you can walk to your store, the amount of energy you save (not to mention TIME), will be substantial. Why waste all of that empty space in your refrigerator when you can use it - which will consume less energy than the empty space does? - an empty fridge uses more electricity than a full one.

6) Reduce your red meat. I like a good cut of beef as much as the next person. So I'm not advocating removing it entirely from your diet. That's foolish and unrealistic. But cutting down isn't. The amount of energy it takes to raise beef cattle far outweighs the amount of energy returned from the cattle in the form of meat and other products retrieved from the carcass.
Raising goats, chickens, fish, pigs, etc. is far more efficient than beef.

Also reduce your consumption of overfished species. Fishermen must take their boats out ever further to harvest the same amount as even just 10 years ago. Cod has taken an incredible hit in the fishing industry. Help the environment by eating fish that are either farmed by sustainable methods, or wild fish that are more plentiful and more sensibly harvested.

7) How you cook has a very large impact on the environment.
Cook in quantity. Rather than cooking a single serving for 5 minutes, cook 5 servings for 5 minutes. You use only slightly more fuel to cook all 5 at once than just a single serving.

Use your microwave to start the cooking process. I know no one who likes a full meal cooked in the microwave. Meat has got to be the worst tasting in the world. But by starting your vegetables, your oven-cooked meals and your reheating in the microwave can save 75% in fuel consumption.

If you make pies - use pyrex and start the pie in the microwave. 5 minutes in the microwave saves at least 20 minutes in the oven.

8) Recycle. It sounds foolish, but so many people don't. Compost your vegetable scraps and egg shells. Recycle your plastic, glass and metal containers that your food came in. Reuse your glass containers to store foods in the refrigerator. This helps cut down on the amount of plastics consumed in the way of bags and plastic wrap.

Bottled Water WHY?!

To look at water filters for your home - a small investment compared to bottled water:
http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/WaterFilter_Comparison.cfm

10/19 From - The Grist - Bottled Rage
Anti-bottled-water campaign kicks off in cities across U.S.

A "Think Outside the Bottle" campaign kicked off last week, urging municipal governments to cut off bottled-water contracts and to press for greater disclosure of the source of bottled H2O. The campaign is spearheaded by Corporate Accountability International and joined by cities including Boston, Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Portland, Ore., many of which held taste tests to see if consumers could tell the difference between bottled and tap water. Chicago's mayor urged a 10-cent tax on bottled water, while Salt Lake City Mayor (and official Grist crush) Rocky Anderson told it like it is: "When I see people ... waste their money buying bottled water at the vending [machine] when it's standing right next to a water faucet, you really have to wonder at the utter stupidity and the responsibility sometimes of American consumers." Not to be outdone, the International Bottled Water Association issued a press release stating that the campaign is based on "factual errors and subjective viewpoints."

sources: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, The Oregonian, PR Newswire
see also, in Grist: California may require labels on bottled water, Hatin' on plastic water bottles is all the rage

Thirst for bottled water may hurt environment
By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

America's infatuation with drinking high-priced "natural" water from a bottle rather than from the tap is contributing to global warming and could even qualify as an immoral act.

That, at least, is the position of a number of environmental, social justice and religious organizations.

"People need to think about all the unnecessary energy costs that go into making a bottle of water," said Peter Gleick, an expert on water policy and director of a think tank in Oakland, Calif., called the Pacific Institute.

More than 8 billion gallons of bottled water is consumed annually in the U.S. -- an 8-ounce glass per person per day -- representing $11 billion in sales. The Earth Policy Institute estimated that to make the plastic for the bottles burns up something like 1.5 million barrels of oil, enough to power 100,000 cars for a year. Nearly 90 percent of the bottles are not recycled.

Gleick offered a simple way to visualize the average energy cost to make the plastic, process and fill the bottle, transport bottled water to market and then deal with the waste:

"It would be like filling up a quarter of every bottle with oil."

One of the simplest things folks can do to reduce their "energy footprint," he said, is to drink tap water rather than buy bottled water. If you don't like the taste, he said, buy a filter.

"There's really no valid reason to think bottled water is any healthier than tap water," Gleick said. "Especially in Seattle. You guys have great water."

Despite the fact that the United States generally has high-quality tap water, it is the world's largest market for bottled water. There are a variety of explanations for this put forward by the purveyors of bottled water, including the contention that it is cleaner than tap water.

"It's about purity and convenience," said Trish May, chief executive officer of Athena Partners, a non-profit Seattle-based organization that produces Athena brand bottled water. "We're doubling our sales every year and now sell more than a million bottles a month."

Athena is one of the small, local bottled-water producers in the area. It is unique in this business -- and perhaps more difficult to make a target of ecological outrage -- because May, a breast cancer survivor, started selling bottled water to raise money for women's cancer research.

"We give every penny of our profits to cancer research," she said.

The water used by Athena -- just as for Aquafina, Dasani and other brands -- starts as plain tap water. It already has been through a purification process, but the water that will be put in bottles is further "purified" by a number of processes. such as filtration or reverse osmosis (which removes minerals that are then sometimes added back, mostly for taste reasons).

"I would submit to you that our purified water, with minerals added, is more pure than municipal water," May said.

That's not always going to be the case, said Gina Solomon, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The bottled water industry is selling a vision of purity and people are buying it with the best of intentions," Solomon said. "What they don't realize is that bottled water is actually much less regulated than tap water. There are a number of studies in which we find arsenic, disinfection byproducts and bacteria in bottled water."

The Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for regulating bottled water, last month recalled Jermuk bottled water, sold in California under five brand names, after finding levels of arsenic high enough to cause nausea. But such recalls are unusual.

The FDA does allow trace levels of contaminants in bottled water based on the same criteria set by the Environmental Protection Agency for tap water. But on the FDA's web site, the agency also says, "Bottled water plants generally are assigned a low priority for inspection."

The FDA is required to inspect water-bottling plants twice a year. In Washington, that duty is often delegated to inspectors with the state Department of Agriculture.

The FDA has a list of 44 firms it regulates here. State Agriculture officials listed 32 water "processors" they regulate and only about 20 of the firms are on both lists. That, officials said, may be because of the fact that some are just ice producers or that some have ceased operations.

"Also, if a firm does not engage in interstate commerce (receiving ingredients or shipping outside the state), it would not be considered an FDA workload obligation," said Stephanie Dalgleish, with the Seattle office of the FDA. That means anyone making bottled water here and selling it only in-state is not regulated by the FDA.

There are about 4,000 municipal water systems in the state that serve at least 25 people or more. These are regulated by the state Department of Health and the EPA on a near-constant basis.

"People are told within 24 hours if there's any problem, or potential problem, with their water system," said Leslie Gates of the health department's Office of Drinking Water.

A recent break-in at a water supply facility for the town of Orting, for example, prompted officials to suggest residents drink only bottled water until they could assure no contamination. There was none.

The water system for the City of Seattle, which also operates under EPA and Department of Health regulations, is monitored 24 hours a day, with constant sampling throughout the system and up in the wilds of the Cedar and Tolt watersheds.

"We never shut down," said Wylie Harper, water quality manager for the city. The water supplied to Seattle residents is purified through many of the techniques used for bottled water, so Harper joked that maybe the city should start bottling its water.

"But our focus isn't on making a profit," Harper said. "We provide a community service."

The bottled water market is big business. Coca-Cola (Dasani), PepsiCo (Aquafina) and Nestle (Perrier, Poland Spring and a host of other brands) are the major players in the United States.

Wall Street and investment managers are predicting the bottled water market (or, as one enthusiast called it, the "blue gold" market) will keep growing. Water, some financial investment managers say, is the next-best thing to oil or diamonds. And that's where the moral issues of bottled water come in.

The United Church of Christ, United Church of Canada, National Council of Churches, National Coalition of American Nuns and Presbyterians for Restoring Creation are among the religious organizations that have raised questions about the "privatization" of water.

They regard the industrial purchase and repackaging at a much higher resale price of this basic resource as an unethical trend. (Bottled watercosts about 1,000 times more than tap water.)

"The moral call is for us to not privatize water," said Cassandra Carmichael, director of eco-justice programs for the National Council of Churches. Bottled water is the tip of the iceberg, Carmichael believes, in a push by industry to take ownership of this basic resource.

"We're scratching our heads on that one," said Preston Read, spokesman for the American Beverage Association. "Water privatization is certainly a big issue but I don't see it as connected to bottled water."

As for the claim that bottled water causes global warming, Read said the same argument could be made against any beverage that is packaged in a plastic bottle, transported and sold.

"I think it's a little bit odd that bottled water is being singled out in this way," he said.

Ethos Water says its goal is to use profits to assist poor communities hard hit by the world water crisis. Ethos is a water bottler that was acquired in 2005 by Starbucks. Its founders say they launched the company a few years before that, in California, to raise money for water projects in the developing world.

Today, as a subsidiary of Starbucks, Ethos donates five cents for every bottle sold toward the goal of raising $10 million for water projects in poor countries.

"I wanted to create a brand that would raise awareness about the world water crisis," said Peter Thum, founder of Ethos Water and now a vice president at Starbucks.

Thum says he respects Gleick and understands his complaint about the energy costs that go into bottled water. He said he didn't know the economics of the situation well enough to respond to concerns about water privatization.

"I'm not going to defend the bottled water industry," Thum said. "Ethos Water can't answer for what others in the industry are doing. We're just trying to take the demand that is there and divert it to do some good."

Though not everyone accepts that Ethos Water is indeed focused more on doing good than making a profit, Ethos has already funded a number of water improvement projects in places such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Honduras and India.

But Athena and Ethos are hardly representative of the bottled water industry. Thum and May were willing to tackle these concerns, but most of the other bottlers and distributors contacted for this story did not respond.

Gleick said he is not opposed to water privatization, as long as the focus is on providing people with affordable access to water. But he and others are definitely opposed to the unnecessary use of bottled water because of its environmental impact.

But it is the demand for bottled water itself that many believe is bad.

"This is not an issue that's going to go away," Gleick said. "If anything, it's a growing movement. I think consumers deserve the option of drinking bottled water. But I also think they need to be informed about its true economic and environmental costs."

Also:
http://www.wisebread.com/bottled-water-bottled-hype-part-1
This is the first in a three-part series about bottled water. To read the second installment, click here. To read the third installment, click here.

Carbon Tax Bill

The Dingell Life
Michigan Rep. John Dingell drafts a carbon-tax bill

Michigan Rep. John Dingell (D) has drafted a carbon-tax bill and posted a summary to his website to solicit public feedback. In its current form, Dingell's legislation would phase in over five years a $50-per-ton tax on carbon and a tax of 50 cents per gallon on gasoline and jet fuel (after five years the tax would be indexed to inflation). The bill would also phase out tax deductions for homes over 3,000 square feet. A carbon tax is beloved by economists and other wonks as the most transparent, efficient means of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Voters, however, tend to hate the idea, and thus most politicians do as well. The 81-year-old Dingell, who has served in Congress for 52 years and chairs the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has been accused of pushing "political poison" in order to torpedo other climate bills that include boosts in CAFE standards. He denies it, but then again, he says this: "I'm trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that it's going to have a measure of pain that you're not going to like." The man sure knows how to excite voters!

Also
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/12/20/dingell/

The formidable Democrat from Michigan, now 80, has served 51 years in the House of Representatives -- the second-longest of any congressional career in history. During that time, he played a key role in pushing through many of America's cornerstone environmental laws, including the Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the original Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) system that has defined America's automotive energy-efficiency strategy since 1975. "I've been a busy little boy," Dingell says in describing his own environmental record.

But despite these achievements, environmentalists are not uniformly overjoyed that Dingell will soon take the helm of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees most energy-related bills. As they see it, his record has a sizeable hitch: as representative for a district that includes suburban Detroit, Dingell is a dogged defender of the U.S. auto industry. Though he helped author CAFE rules 30 years ago, in the midst of the Arab oil embargo, he has since staunchly opposed ratcheting up fuel-economy standards, on the grounds that it could imperil the American economy.

That's why some environmentalists see Dingell as the single biggest roadblock on the path toward meaningful climate policy in the 110th Congress, while others are busy crafting Detroit-friendly climate plans that they hope will win Dingell's support.

Dingell spoke with Grist from his office in Washington, D.C., giving insight into what the climate-policy landscape may -- or may not -- look like over the next two years.

(Opening questions only, not the entire interview)

What major environmental breakthroughs do you see on the horizon for the 110th Congress, in an ideal world?

Oh, you're a smart girl, because that's a nasty question. You know, this is going to be very difficult. There's still harvesting of the ill will that's been sown over the last dozen years. We've got a Republican president, and we've got to bring the Republicans in and establish some cooperation, of which there's been relatively little of late. I'd rather tell you on what we're going to work than tell you what we're going to do, because I don't like to look foolish by having promised something that I don't deliver.

What are your environmental priorities for the 110th Congress, particularly for the Energy and Commerce Committee?

We'll have to see first what is ready, what is ripe, and what is doable. We've got a bunch of things. Proper funding for brownfields and for Superfund, administration of the Clean Air Act and other acts under the jurisdiction of the EPA. We're going to take a look at global warming and see what has to be done there.

Barbara Boxer [incoming chair of the Senate Environment Committee] has said repeatedly that she sees global warming as the single biggest environmental threat on the horizon. Do you agree with her?

I don't agree and I don't disagree. I don't know what the biggest one is. Certainly if there is environmental warming, it is a very major environmental problem and it should be addressed.

So you don't believe the scientific consensus on global warming is established at this point?

This country, this world, the [human] race of which you and I are a part, is great at having consensuses that are in great error. And so I want to get the scientific facts, and find out what the situation is, and find out what is the cure, and find out what is the cure that is acceptable to the country that I represent and serve.

You mentioned in our last conversation that you want to call for climate hearings. Is your hope to get a clearer idea of the science and the potential solutions?

Yes, yes. We need to hold hearings to gather the facts on questions of both science and policy solutions. Let's talk global warming. If you remember, Kyoto was, in an anticipatory fashion, rejected 95 to nothing in the U.S. Senate, on the Byrd-Hagel resolution, which said that the Senate would not ratify any agreement which imposed burdens on the United States which were disproportionate to the burdens that everybody else was going to get. And so Kyoto never got ratified by the Senate. That's a serious matter. So if we're going to deal with this problem, you have to recognize we're not the only people that burn coal, emit carbon dioxide or pollutants of any kind. New Zealand, which has relatively little industry, is an enormous emitter of CO2. They've got a bunch of sheep over there that do it.

The methane.

The methane. So, we are not alone in this problem, and we should not be alone in the solution.

Would it not be wise to introduce domestic solutions in the meantime, even if we don't yet have an international agreement?

Is that going to solve the problem? China has an exemption from the Kyoto agreement because it's classified as a developing country. The Indians are, too. In a meeting about the Kyoto agreement, I asked the Chinese, "How long are you going to be a developing country, before we can expect you to participate in cleaning up?" They looked me in the eye and said, "Dingell, we're always going to be developing. We aren't ever going to be a stable, staid, complete society. So we're never going to be covered by it. We're just going to go ahead and burn all the damn coal, emit all the carbon dioxide that we want to emit." And they will very shortly be the biggest emitter in the world. Far bigger than we.

Now you ask, if we were to terminate all of the burning of coal and all of the production of CO2 in this country, and China and India and Europe and everybody else in the developing world keeps going, I don't think you're going to be looking for much in the way of a resolution. This is an international problem.

So you believe the emphasis needs to be on how we're going to rally the world to address climate change, not how we're going to rally ourselves to address it?

Well, we have to do all of the above. We've got to begin to find out what we can do, and how we can do it without destituting the American society. But by the same token, we're going to have to help others to do the same thing and persuade them to be participants in that undertaking. In terms of diplomacy, that's probably one of the single biggest problems this country's got.

But you've got a lot of [Americans] saying, "We're going to solve the problem. We're going to make these cars." Well, we could all be riding around in kiddie cars and we wouldn't solve the problem. And we'd have an awful lot of angry Americans. You're not going to solve [the climate] problem yourself any more than you're going to solve Iraq by yourself.

What's a kiddie car?

Don't you know what a kiddie car is?

No.

It's one of those three-wheel things that kids get when they start out, they sit on and it's got a little handlebar, and they sort of pad around on this little three-wheeled tricycle.

Got it. What type of climate legislation should we be talking about domestically?

If I knew that, I'd be glad to tell you, but I don't. We're going to try to find out what we need to do and proceed in a responsible fashion.

You were one of the authors of legislation establishing CAFE standards in the 1970s, but you've since opposed raising the standards. Do you still oppose raising them?

The law says that the government has the authority to fix fuel efficiency at the maximum technologically feasible [miles-per-gallon] number. It has raised this a little bit, but it's not been able to make any radical changes from the numbers we wrote back in the 1970s. I will probably be asking if there is greater efficiency that can be achieved, and if so, how. We'll also ask how this can all be done without destituting American industry.

Global Warming and National Security

When Coast Guard Adm. Thad W. Allen imagines a melting Arctic, it's not a pretty sight: Cruise ships collide with icebergs. Oil tankers and ore ships run aground. Foreign fishermen sneak into American waters.

Even worse, the nation's top Coast Guard officer fears he may not have the tools to respond to these future crises.

At a time when Russia, Canada, Norway and other Arctic nations are scrambling to stake out turf in the still-frozen north, the United States' two most powerful icebreakers sit at a dock in Seattle, nearing the end of their working lives.

One is manned by a skeleton crew. Both are about 30 years old, and nothing is on the drawing board to replace them.

"We have the responsibility for maritime safety, stewardship and security," Allen said. "But how do you respond up there if you have no presence?"

Allen and others are urging the U.S. government to prepare now for the changes global warming will bring to the Arctic. The nation needs to figure out how to protect American interests, handle disasters and enforce laws in a region that will still be ice-choked much of the year, he said.

"Icebreakers will have an important role to play," Allen said.

A National Research Council panel concluded last year that planning and construction should start immediately on two new icebreakers. "U.S. icebreaking capability is now at risk of being unable to support national interests," the panel warned.

Each of the new ships could cost $750 million or more, experts estimate.

The Arctic ice cap shrank to a record low this summer, opening up the Northwest Passage along Canada's fringe for the first time.

Scientists say the ice is melting much faster than global-warming models predict, with the possibility that the Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free in summer by 2050.

But the region will remain frozen in winter. And the Arctic's notoriously variable weather also means that entrepreneurs, tourists, fishermen and explorers lured into the area by its beauty and the promise of profit are likely to encounter bad weather and ice year-round.

More people traveling in icy waters translates into more accidents, more oil spills, more security problems -- and more need for powerful icebreakers, says Scott Borgerson, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Coast Guard officer.

"Climate change is giving birth to a new region and allowing for all kinds of access," he said.

"A global chess game"

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates a quarter of the world's untapped oil and gas resources may lie beneath the Arctic Ocean. Oil and mineral companies are already building ice-strengthened tankers.

After a Russian minisubmarine planted a flag on the ocean floor beneath the North Pole this year, the Canadian government announced plans for military bases and a $3 billion fleet of ice-reinforced ships to patrol the Northwest Passage, which the country claims as sovereign territory.

President Bush countered by insisting the passage is an international waterway. Norway asserted its territorial rights, while Denmark, which controls Greenland, appealed for calm.

"We're seeing a global chess game play out in the Arctic as nations position and stake claims for the region's vast, untapped resources," said Coast Guard Cmdr. Brendan McPherson, Allen's press secretary.

If icebreakers are among the chess pieces, the United States is outnumbered.

The nation has three multipurpose icebreakers, all based in Seattle. The aging Polar Sea and Polar Star, both able to ram through 21 feet of ice, have primarily been used to break open a route to U.S. research stations in Antarctica.

The newest member of the fleet is the Healy, an eight-year-old ship capable of continuously breaking through 4-foot-thick ice and designed mainly for Arctic science. A fourth icebreaker is leased by the National Science Foundation exclusively for research in Antarctica.

With a much more extensive Arctic coastline, Russia has 18 icebreakers, seven of them nuclear-powered. Finland has a fleet of seven. Canada has six.

But it's not really a numbers game, says Lawson Brigham, deputy director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and former captain of the Polar Sea.

The United States needs to be able to patrol Alaska's 2,500 miles of Arctic coastline, conduct research in both the Arctic and Antarctic and respond to emergencies. The National Research Council panel concluded that a fleet of three modern icebreakers can do the job.

Arctic research includes underwater mapping, which is key to territorial claims under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Every Arctic nation except the United States has signed the treaty, which gives countries rights to underwater terrain extending from their continental shelves.

The 420-foot Healy is heading back to Seattle now after a two-month mapping voyage in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast.

The lead scientists on the project say their work has already shown that American territory extends at least 350 miles from land -- well beyond the traditional 200-mile limit. In the Chukchi Sea, the U.S. may be able to stake claims even farther out.

But first the United States has to ratify the treaty, something the Coast Guard and many maritime experts have been calling for.

"We have to join the treaty if we want to participate in carving up the Arctic," Borgerson said. "At the moment, we don't even have a seat at the table."

Ships take a pounding

U.S. icebreakers trace their origins to the revenue cutters that policed the new territory of Alaska. During the Cold War, a large fleet serviced military outposts and early-warning radar stations in the Arctic, ground zero for the nuclear faceoff between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

The 399-foot-long Polar Sea and Polar Star were built in Seattle in the 1970s. The 60,000-horsepower cutters use their contoured bows to ride up on the ice, crush it with their bulk, then push the chunks aside, Brigham said.

"The noise, the vibration -- it's really something."

The ships take a pounding, and maintenance budgets have not kept pace, the National Research Council found. Replacement parts often have to be built from scratch.

The Coast Guard calls the old icebreakers "operationally challenged." Borgerson puts it more bluntly. "They're geriatric. Moribund," he said. "It's just like a car. You can't drive a car for 300,000 miles ... and expect it's going to be in great condition."

The National Science Foundation, the icebreakers' main "client," took control of their budgets a few years ago. In 2006, the foundation temporarily hired a Russian icebreaker to open the route to McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

The ship broke a propeller, and the Polar Star was dispatched from Seattle to assist. Since that mission, the Polar Star has been in "caretaker status," essentially docked to save money. The Polar Sea remains fully staffed and operational.

Even if work started tomorrow on new icebreakers, it would be 10 years before they're ready to launch, said Jacqueline Grebmeier, a University of Tennessee polar researcher who served on the National Research Council panel.

"If people think it's important to have these ships," she said, "some decisions need to be made now."