CO2, Methane and Climate

I've posted a few times on the global warming controversy (not that I see a controversy, but to be politically correct we'll call it a controversy). I wanted to pass on this link from Daily Kos from Friday because it puts most of what I've been saying into a single well written piece.

Science Friday: Pale Blue Flame

by DarkSyde

Fri Sep 15, 2006 at 02:52:46 AM PDT

Despite the common notion that the earth is in the sweet spot with respect to our distance from the sun, the truth is we're a little too far out. By the rights of simple thermal science, our planet should be locked in ice right now. And since our sun was even cooler in the past, the primeval earth should have quickly settled into a permanent, stable, snowball condition billions of years ago.

Go on over and check out the full post.

Buy local...Sustainable agriculture

I guess this is a prime reason for local sustainable agriculture if there ever was one...

Calif. Farm Firm Linked To Tainted Spinach - washingtonpost.com: "Federal health officials last night linked a deadly E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach products to a California farm company that sells organic produce in 74 percent of the country's grocery stores.

Natural Selection Foods, widely known for its Earthbound Farm brand, yesterday recalled all its fresh spinach products, along with packaged salads."

The really telling part of this story is that 74% of the organic produce in America comes from this one firm. I am really torn by this. On the one hand I am all for the organic movement in this country. I bought into the healthy soil - healthy food philosophy so long ago that I can't remember not believing organics were better for you.

I personally eat Earthbound Farm's Salads on a regular basis and have their Romain Lettuce in my refrigerator now. Will this change that? Probably not. Though I was surprised to learn the size of their operation...From their website

Serving as a catalyst for positive change

Earthbound Farm wants nothing less than to change the way America farms and the way America eats. Over the past 22 years, our land base has grown to 26,000 acres of organic farmland—much of that transitioned by Earthbound Farm.

Annually, Earthbound FarmÂ’s organic farming:

• Avoids the use of 267,000 pounds of toxic and persistent pesticides
• Avoids the use of more than 8,400,000 pounds of synthetic fertilizers
• Conserves nearly 1,381,000 gallons of petroleum by avoiding the use of petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers
• Combats global warming because carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is absorbed by organic fields at the rate of 3,670 pounds per acre—and with our acreage, thatÂ’s the equivalent of taking more than 6,000 cars off the road each year!

Organic farming is a sustainable method of producing safe and nutritious food for many generations to come. At Earthbound Farm, we believe organic is the healthiest choice for people and the planet . . . that it's truly "Food to live by."

So, yea, I'll probably keep buying their bagged salads until a local supply comes available. But like I said...even the organic farming movement has gone bigtime.