I Just Want To Celebrate

The news is full of Earth Day activities, most of which don't take place on this day.

Friday Central Iowa held a Trash Bash and it was a good thing that the sun was shining on that day because rain would delay it 3 days.

There's some commitment to Mother Earth for you and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Valley Junction is holding Earth Day in the Junction 5K Run Walk, be sure to click for driving directions.


Eastern Iowa chose to kick off their Earth Week Fair yesterday, with three special workshops appropriate for adults, children, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

That's an interesting breakdown.

One of the workshops is called “Get Geocaching!” and geocaching expert John Morgan gave the basics of the treasure-hunting game that’s played using GPS devices.

It looks like cars are required as simple caches are often called "drive-bys," or "park 'n grabs".

Another workshop was “What on Earth? Climate Change & Severe Weather Safety”.

This premise is completely wrong as “There is medium evidence and high agreement that long-term trends in normalized [property] losses have not been attributed to natural or anthropogenic climate change.” 

The Big Lug Nut was brought back into the news with a story on one of his pet projects, the Iowa Power Fund.

The BLN  called the program to support renewable energy research and development a resounding success by pointing to an algae production plant.

Algae? Isn't that President Obama's fuel of the future?

According to the BLN, the $4 million from the fund will grow substitutes for fish oil and proteins for feedstock.

Where's the power come into being?

Other Power Fund highlights(?) include, One company accidentally wasted most of its $1 million grant ordering equipment from an out-of-state supplier that went bankrupt and $2.8 million was spent studying a proposal to store wind energy that was later determined not to be feasible.

Don't forget the $19,000 given to Consumer Energy to study a plug-in hybrid electric car owned by Consumer Energy.

Results of the nearly two years of study found the plug-in battery used in the vehicle does not work well in the cold.

At the Statehouse two state senators got into a heated discussion about climate change, with Dummycrat Rob Boss Hogg playing the part of Al Gore -- “‘Scientists, including those representing 28 Iowa colleges and universities who recently released a statement, have warned us that changes in global climate patterns are brining more extreme weather events to Iowa, the United States and our world.’”

To which Republican Senator David Johnson responded -- “I’m on the side of the scientists I served with in Antartica and Greenland and I’m the only member of this body that has done that. And there is no agreement in the scientific community, no consensus that things have really changed because change happens.”

Johnson schooled the lawyer, who earned a master's degree in energy policy from the Hubert Horatio Hornblower...Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs.

Speaking of schooling, second grade students at Sunset Heights Elementary School in Webster City, and their teacher, will be on a Shower Strike this week.

They're promising to not take a shower or a bath until we’ve raised a thousand dollars to help build a well for a school in Kenya.

Here's hoping the winds blow out of the South until then.