(part 3 of 3)

The history of energy exploration, mining, and delivery is best understood in a range from benevolent exploitation to worker and public oppression. A company comes into an area, leases land in rural and agricultural areas for mineral rights, increases employment, usually in a depressed economy, strips the land of its resources, creates health problems for its workers and those in the immediate area, and then leaves.

It makes no difference if it's timber, oil, or coal. In the 1970s and 1980s, the nuclear energy industry promised well-paying jobs, clean energy, and a safe health and work environment. Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima Daiichi, and thousands of violations issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, have shown that even with strict operating guidelines, nuclear energy isn't as clean and safe as claimed. Like all other energy industries, nuclear power isn't infinite. Most plants have a 40-50 year life cycle. After that, the plant becomes so radioactive hot that it must be sealed.

In the early 21st century, the natural gas industry follows the model of the other energy corporations, and uses the same rhetoric. James M. Taylor, senior fellow at the Heartland Institute, claims on the Institute's website, "The newfound abundance of domestic gas reserves promises unprecedented energy prosperity and security."

The energy policy during the eight years of the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney administration was to give favored status to the industry, often at the expense of the environment. In addition to negating Bill Clinton's strong support for the Kyoto Protocol, signed by 191 countries, to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, former oil company executives Bush and Cheney pushed to open significant federal land, including the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), to drilling that would disrupt the ecological balance in one of the nation's most pristine areas.

A study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), published in 2004 concluded that fracking was of little or no risk to human health. However, Wes Wilson, a 30-year EPA environmental engineer, in a letter to members of Congress and the EPA inspector general, called that study "scientifically unsound," and questioned the bias of the panel, noting that five of the seven members had significant ties to the industry. "EPA's failure to regulate [fracking] appears to be improper under the Safe Water Drinking Act and may result in danger to public health and safety."

The following year, the Energy Policy Act of 2005-on a 249-183 vote in the House and an 85-12 vote in the Senate-exempted the oil and natural gas industry from the Safe Water Drinking Act. That exemption applied to the "construction of new well pads and the accompanying new roads and pipelines." The National Defense Resource Council noted that the EPA interpreted the exemption "as allowing unlimited discharges of sediment into the nation's streams, even where those discharges contribute to a violation of state water quality standards." The exemption became known derisively as the Halliburton Loophole, named for one of the nation's major energy companies, of which Cheney, whose promotion of Big Business and opposition to environmental policies is well-documented, had once been the CEO.

Bills introduced in the U.S. House (H.R. 2766) and U.S. Senate (S. 1215) in June 2009 to give federal regulatory oversight under the Safe Water Drinking Act to hydraulic fracturing languished. New bills (H.R. 1084 and S. 587), introduced in March 2011 in the 112th Congress, are also expected to die without a vote.

The natural gas industry has a long history of effective lobbying at the state and national level. America's Natural Gas Alliance has four former Congressmen as lobbyists, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). Through various political action committees (PACs), the industry has contributed about $238.7 million in campaign contributions, about three-fourths of it to Republican candidates, since 1990, according to the CRP. For the 2008 election, the gas and oil industry contributed $27.4 million, including contributions from individuals, PACs, and soft money, according to CRP data. Total contributions for the current election cycle, as of mid-March, are $20.6 million, with almost 90 percent of it going to Republicans.

The new law is generally believed to be "payback" by Corbett and the Republican legislators for campaign contributions. The industry contributed about $7.2 million to Pennsylvania candidates and their PACs between 2000 and the end of 2010, including $860,825 to the Republican party and $129,100 to the Democratic party, according to data compiled by Common Cause. In addition, the natural gas industry contributed about $1.6 million to Corbetts political campaigns during the past 10 years, about $1.1 million of that for his campaign for governor, according to Common Cause. Rep. Brian L. Ellis (R-Butler County), sponsor of the House bill, received $23,300. Sen. Joseph B. Scarnati (R- Warren, Pa.), the senate president pro-tempore who sponsored the companion Senate bill (SB 1100), received $293,334. Of the 20 Pennsylvania legislators who received the most money from the industry since 2001, 16 are Republicans, according to Common Cause.

Rep. H. William DeWeese (D-Waynesburg, Pa.), received $58,750, the most of the four Democrats. DeWeese, first elected in 1976, had been Speaker of the House and Democratic leader.

It's possible that the significant campaign contributions didn't influence Pennsylvania's politicians to rush to embrace the natural gas industry and its controversial use of hydraulic fracking. It's possible that these politicians had always believed in fracking, and the natural gas industry was merely contributing to the campaigns of those who believed as they do. However, with the heavy amount of money spent by the natural gas lobby and, apparently, willingly accepted by certain politicians, there is no way to know how they might have voted had no money or lobbying occurred.

Tom Corbett's first major political appointment after his election in November 2010 was to name C. Alan Walker, an energy company executive, to head the Department of Community and Economic Development. The Pennsylvania Progressive identified Walker as "an ardent anti-environmentalist and someone who hates regulation of his industry." A ProPublica investigation revealed that Walker had given $184,000 to Corbett's political campaign.

Shortly after taking office, Corbett repealed environmental assessments of gas wells in state parks. The result could be as many as 2,200 well pads on almost 90 percent of all public lands, according to Nature Conservancy of Pennsylvania.

Corbett's public announcements in March 2011, two months after his inauguration, established the direction for gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

In his first budget address, Corbett boldly declared he wanted to "make Pennsylvania the hub of this [drilling] boom. Just as the oil companies decided to headquarter in one of a dozen states with oil, let's make Pennsylvania the Texas of the natural gas boom. I'm determined that Pennsylvania not lose this moment." Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley would later boast, "The Marcellus [Shale] is revitalizing our main streets in downtowns."

Within the budget bill, Corbett authorized Walker to "expedite any permit or action pending in any agency where the creation of jobs may be impacted." This unprecedented reach apparently applied to all energy industries. That same month, Corbett created an Advisory Commission, loaded with persons from business and industry. Not one member was from the health professions; of the seven state agencies represented, not one member was from the Department of Health.

Between 2007 and the end of 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued 1,435 violations to natural gas companies; 952 of those violations related to potential harm to the environment. In March, Michael Krancer, the new DEP secretary, also a political appointee, took personal control over his department's issuance of any violations. By Krancer's decree, every inspector could no longer cite any well owner in the Marcellus Shale development without first getting the approval of Krancer and his executive deputy secretary.

"It's an extraordinary directive [that] represents a break from how business has been done" and politicizes the process, John Hanger told ProPublica. Hanger, DEP secretary under the Ed Rendell administration, said the new rules "will cause the public to lose confidence entirely in the inspection process." He told the Scranton Times-Tribune the new policy was the equivalent of every trooper having to get permission from the state police commissioner before issuing a traffic citation. Because the new policy is so unusual and broad "it's impossible for something like this to be issued without the direction and knowledge of the governor’s office," said Hanger. Corbett denied he was responsible for the decision. Five weeks after the Krancer decision was leaked to the media, and following a strong negative response from the public, environmental groups, and the state’s media, the DEP rescinded the policy-which Krancer claimed was only a three-month "pilot program."

"When state agencies say they will 'regulate' or 'monitor' hydraulic fracturing to reduce known threats, we should not accept this as a guarantee of any kind," says Eileen Fay, an animal rights/environmental writer. Fay argues that because of legislative corruption, it is a responsibility of citizens to protect their own health and environment by "putting pressure on our legislators."

In February 2012, Corbett proudly signed Act 13, a merger of the House and Senate bills.

(This is Part 2 of 3. Part 1 looked at a state gag order on physicians; Part 3 examines why Pennsylvania is giving special consideration to the natural gas companies.)

The natural gas industry defends hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, as safe and efficient. Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, a pro-industry non-profit organization, claims fracking has been "a widely deployed as safe extraction technique," dating back to 1949. What he doesn't say is that until recently energy companies had used low-pressure methods to extract natural gas from fields closer to the surface than the current high-pressure technology that extracts more gas, but uses significantly more water, chemicals, and elements.

The industry claims well drilling in the Marcellus Shale will bring several hundred thousand jobs, and has minimal health and environmental risk. President Barack Obama in his January 2012 State of the Union, said he believes the development of natural gas as an energy source to replace fossil fuels could generate 600,000 jobs.

However, research studies by economists Dr. Jannette M. Barth, Dr. Deborah Rogers, and others debunk the idea of significant job creation.

Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, says "no evidence directly connects injection of fracking fluid into shale with aquifer contamination." Fracking "has never been found to contaminate a water well," says Christine Cronkright, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Research studies and numerous incidents of water contamination prove otherwise.

In late 2010, equipment failure may have led to toxic levels of chemicals in the well water of at least a dozen families in Conoquenessing Twp. in Butler County. Township officials and Rex Energy, although acknowledging that two of the drilling wells had problems with the casings, claimed there were pollutants in the drinking water before Rex moved into the area. John Fair disagrees. "Everybody had good water a year ago," Fair told environmental writer and activist Iris Marie Bloom in February 2012. Bloom says residents told her the color of water changed (to red, orange, and gray) after Rex began drilling. Among chemicals detected in the well water, in addition to methane gas, were ammonia, arsenic, chloromethane, iron, manganese, t-butyl alcohol, and toluene. While not acknowledging that its actions could have caused the pollution, Rex did provide fresh water to the residents, but then stopped doing so on Feb. 29, 2012, after the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said the well water was safe. The residents vigorously disagreed and staged protests against Rex; environmental activists and other residents trucked in portable water jugs to help the affected families. Jospeh P. McMurry of the Marcellus Outreach Butler blog (MOB) declared that residents' "lives have been severely disrupted and their health has been severely impacted. To unceremoniously 'close the book' on investigations into their troubles when so many indicators point to the culpability of the gas industry for the disruption of their lives is unconscionable."

In April 2011, near Towanda, Pa., seven families were evacuated after about 10,000 gallons of wastewater contaminated an agricultural field and a stream that flows into the Susquehanna River, the result of an equipment failure, according to the Bradford County Emergency Management Agency.

The following month, DEP fined Chesapeake Energy $900,000, the largest amount in the state's history, for allowing methane gas to pollute the drinking water of 16 families in Bradford County during the previous year. The DEP noted there may have been toxic methane emissions from as many as six wells in five towns. The DEP also fined Chesapeake $188,000 for a fire at a well in Washington County that injured three workers.

In January 2012, an equipment failure at a drill site in Susquehanna County led to a spill of several thousand gallons of fluid for almost a half-hour, causing "potential pollution," according to the DEP. In its citation to Carizzo Oil and Gas, the DEP "strongly" recommended that the company cease drilling at all 67 wells "until the cause of this problem and a solution are identified."

In December 2011, the federal Environmental Protection Agency concluded that fracking operations could be responsible for groundwater pollution.

"Today's methods make gas drilling a filthy business. You know it's bad when nearby residents can light the water coming out of their tap on fire," says Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation. What's causing the fire is the methane from the drilling operations. A ProPublica investigation in 2009 revealed methane contamination was widespread in drinking water in areas around fracking operations in Colorado, Texas, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania.

The presence of methane in drinking water in Dimock, Pa., had become the focal point for Josh Fox's investigative documentary, Gasland, which received an Academy Award nomination in 2011 for Outstanding Documentary; Fox also received an Emmy for non-fiction directing. Fox’s interest in fracking intensified when a natural gas company offered $100,000 for mineral rights on property his family owned in Milanville, in the extreme northeast part of Pennsylvania, about 60 miles east of Dimock.

Research by a team of scientists from Duke University revealed "methane contamination of shallow drinking water systems [that is] associated with shale-gas extraction." The data and conclusions, published in the May 2011 issue of the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, noted that not only did most drinking wells near drilling sites have methane, but those closest to the drilling wells, about a half-mile, had an average of 17 times the methane of those of other wells.

"Some of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing-or liberated by it-are carcinogens," Dr. Sandra Steingraber told members of the Environmental Conservation and Health committee of the New York State Assembly. Dr. Steingraber, a biologist and distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College, pointed out that some of the chemicals "are neurological poisons with suspected links to learning deficits in children," while others "are asthma triggers. Some, especially the radioactive ones, are known to bioaccumulate in milk. Others are reproductive toxicants that can contribute to pregnancy loss."

An investigation by New York Times reporter Ian Urbina, based upon thousands of unreported EPA documents and a confidential study by the natural gas industry, concluded, "Radioactivity in drilling waste cannot be fully diluted in rivers and other waterways." Urbina learned that wastewater from fracking operations was about 100 times more toxic than federal drinking water standards; 15 wells had readings about 1,000 times higher than standards.

Research by Dr. Ronald Bishop, a biochemist at SUNY/Oneonta, suggests that fracking to extract methane gas "is highly likely to degrade air, surface water and ground-water quality, to harm humans, and to negatively impact aquatic and forest ecosystems." He notes that "potential exposure effects for humans will include poisoning of susceptible tissues, endocrine disruption syndromes, and elevated risk for certain cancers." Every well, says Dr. Bishop, "will generate a sediment discharge of approximately eight tons per year into local waterways, further threatening federally endangered mollusks and other aquatic organisms." In addition to the environmental pollution by the fracking process, Dr. Bishop believes "intensive use of diesel-fuel equipment will degrade air quality [that could affect] humans, livestock, and crops."

Equally important are questions about the impact of as many as 200 diesel-fueled trucks each day bringing water to the site and then removing the wastewater. In addition to the normal diesel emissions of trucks, there are also problems of leaks of the contaminated water.

"We need to know how diesel fuel got into some people's water supply," says Diane Siegmund, a clinical psychologist from Towanda, Pa. "It wasn't there before the companies drilled wells; it's here now," she says. Siegmund is also concerned about contaminated dust and mud. "There is no oversight on these," she says, "but those trucks are muddy when they leave the well sites, and dust may have impact miles from the well sites."

Research "strongly implicates exposure to gas drilling operations in serious health effects on humans, companion animals, livestock, horses, and wildlife," according to Dr. Michelle Bamberger, a veterinarian, and Dr. Robert E. Oswald,a biochemist and professor of molecular medicine at Cornell University. Their study, published in New Solutions, an academic journal in environmental health, documents evidence of milk contamination, breeding problems, and cow mortality in areas near fracking operations as higher than in areas where no fracking occurred. Drs. Bamberger and Oswald noted that some of the symptoms present in humans from what may be polluted water from fracking operations include rashes, headaches, dizziness, vomiting, and severe irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. For animals, the symptoms often led to reproductive problems and death.

Significant impact upon wildlife is also noted in a 900-page Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) conducted by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation, and filed in September 2011. According to the EIS, "In addition to loss of habitat, other potential direct impacts on wildlife from drilling in the Marcellus Shale include increased mortality . . . altered microclimates, and increased traffic, noise, lighting, and well flares." The impact, according to the report, "may include a loss of genetic diversity, species isolation, population declines . . . increased predation, and an increase of invasive species." The report concludes that because of fracking, there is "little to no place in the study areas where wildlife would not be impacted, [leading to] serious cascading ecological consequences." The impact, of course, affects the quality of milk and meat production as animals drink and graze near areas that have been taken over by the natural gas industry.

Christopher Portier, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, calls for more research studies that "include all the ways people can be exposed [to health hazards], such as through air, water, soil, plants and animals."

The response by the industry and its political allies to the scientific studies of the health and environmental effects of fracking "has approached the issue in a manner similar to the tobacco industry that for many years rejected the link between smoking and cancer," say Drs. Bamberger and Oswald. Not only do they call for "full disclosure and testing of air, water, soil, animals, and humans," but point out that with lax oversight, "the gas drilling boom . . . will remain an uncontrolled health experiment on an enormous scale."

Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician in Coraopolis, Pa., says she doesn’t want her patients "to be guinea pigs who provide the next generation the statistical proof of health problems as in what happened with those exposed to asbestos or to cigarette smoke."

[Assisting on this series, in addition to those quoted within the articles, were Rosemary R. Brasch, Eileen Fay, Dr. Bernard Goldstein, and Dr. Wendy Lynne Lee. Dr. Walter Brasch's current book is Before the First Snow, a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using "cheaper, cleaner" fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact. The book is available at amazon.com and from the publisher, Greeley & Stone.]

(Part 1 of 3)

A new Pennsylvania law endangers public health by forbidding health care professionals from sharing information they learn about certain chemicals and procedures used in high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing. The procedure is commonly known as fracking.

Fracking is the controversial method of forcing water, gases, and chemicals at tremendous pressure of up to 15,000 pounds per square inch into a rock formation as much as 10,000 feet below the earth's surface to open channels and force out natural gas and fossil fuels.

Advocates of fracking argue not only is natural gas "greener" than coal and oil energy, with significantly fewer carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur emissions, the mining of natural gas generates significant jobs in a depressed economy, and will help the U.S. reduce its oil dependence upon foreign nations. Geologists estimate there may be as much as 2,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas throughout the United States. If all of it is successfully mined, it could not only replace coal and oil but serve as a transition to wind, solar, and water as primary energy sources, releasing the United States from dependency upon fossil fuel energy and allowing it to be more self-sufficient.

The Marcellus Shale—which extends beneath the Allegheny Plateau, through southern New York, much of Pennsylvania, east Ohio, West Virginia, and parts of Maryland and Virginia—is one of the nation’s largest sources for natural gas mining, containing as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Each of Pennsylvania's 5,255 wells, as of the beginning of March 2012, with dozens being added each week, takes up about nine acres, including all access roads and pipe.

Over the expected lifetime of each well, companies may use as many as nine million gallons of water and 100,000 gallons of chemicals and radioactive isotopes within a four to six week period. The additives "are used to prevent pipe corrosion, kill bacteria, and assist in forcing the water and sand down-hole to fracture the targeted formation," explains Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research. However, about 650 of the 750 chemicals used in fracking operations are known carcinogens, according to a report filed with the U.S. House of Representatives in April 2011. Fluids used in fracking include those that are "potentially hazardous," including volatile organic compounds, according to Christopher Portier, director of the National Center for Environmental Health, a part of the federal Centers for Disease Control. In an email to the Associated Press in January 2012, Portier noted that waste water, in addition to bring up several elements, may be radioactive. Fracking is also believed to have been the cause of hundreds of small earthquakes in Ohio and other states.

The law, an amendment to Title 52 (Oil and Gas) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, requires that companies provide to a state-maintained registry the names of chemicals and gases used in fracking. Physicians and others who work with citizen health issues may request specific information, but the company doesn't have to provide that information if it claims it is a trade secret or proprietary information, nor does it have to reveal how the chemicals and gases used in fracking interact with natural compounds. If a company does release information about what is used, health care professionals are bound by a non-disclosure agreement that not only forbids them from warning the community of water and air pollution that may be caused by fracking, but which also forbids them from telling their own patients what the physician believes may have led to their health problems. A strict interpretation of the law would also forbid general practitioners and family practice physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreement and learn the contents of the "trade secrets" from notifying a specialist about the chemicals or compounds, thus delaying medical treatment.

The clauses are buried on pages 98 and 99 of the 174-page bill, which was initiated and passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and signed into law in February by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

"I have never seen anything like this in my 37 years of practice," says Dr. Helen Podgainy, a pediatrician from Coraopolis, Pa. She says it's common for physicians, epidemiologists, and others in the health care field to discuss and consult with each other about the possible problems that can affect various populations. Her first priority, she says, "is to diagnose and treat, and to be proactive in preventing harm to others." The new law, she says, not only "hinders preventative measures for our patients, it slows the treatment process by gagging free discussion."

Psychologists are also concerned about the effects of fracking and the law’s gag order. "We won't know the extent of patients becoming anxious or depressed because of a lack of information about the fracking process and the chemicals used," says Kathryn Vennie of Hawley, Pa., a clinical psychologist for 30 years. She says she is already seeing patients "who are seeking support because of the disruption to their environment." Anxiety in the absence of information, she says, "can produce both mental and physical problems."

The law is not only "unprecedented," but will "complicate the ability of health department to collect information that would reveal trends that could help us to protect the public health," says Dr. Jerome Paulson, director of the Mid-Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Dr. Paulson, also professor of pediatrics at George Washington University, calls the law "detrimental to the delivery of personal health care and contradictory to the ethical principles of medicine and public health." Physicians, he says, "have a moral and ethical responsibility to protect the health of the public, and this law precludes us from doing all we can to protect the public." He has called for a moratorium on all drilling until the health effects can be analyzed.

Pennsylvania requires physicians to report to the state instances of 73 specific diseases, most of which are infectious diseases. However, the list also includes cancer, which may have origins not only from chemicals used to create the fissures that yield natural gas, but also in the blow-back of elements, including arsenic, present within the fissures. Thus, physicians are faced by conflicting legal and professional considerations.

"The confidentiality agreements are worrisome," says Peter Scheer, a journalist/lawyer who is executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. Physicians who sign the non-disclosure agreements and then disclose the possible risks to protect the community can be sued for breech of contract, and the companies can seek both injunctions and damages, says Scheer.

In pre-trial discovery motions, a company might be required to reveal to the court what it claims are trade secrets and proprietary information, with the court determining if the chemical and gas combinations really are trade secrets or not. The court could also rule that the contract is unenforceable because it is contrary to public policy, which places the health of the public over the rights of an individual company to protect its trade secrets, says Scheer. However, the legal and financial resources of the natural gas corporations are far greater than those of individuals, and they can stall and outspend most legal challenges.

Although Pennsylvania is determined to protect the natural gas industry, not everyone in the industry agrees with the need for secrecy. Dave McCurdy, president of the American Gas Association, says he supports disclosing the contents included in fracturing fluids. In an opinion column published in the Denver Post, McCurdy further argued, "We need to do more as an industry to engage in a transparent and fact-based public dialogue on shale gas development."

The Natural Gas committee of the U.S. Department of Energy agrees. "Our most important recommendations were for more transparency and dissemination of information about shale gas operations, including full disclosure of chemicals and additives that are being used," said Dr. Mark Zoback, professor of geophysics at Stanford University and a Board member.

Both McCurdy's statement and the Department of Energy's strong recommendation about full disclosure were known to the Pennsylvania General Assembly when it created the law that restricted health care professionals from disseminating certain information that could help reduce significant health and environmental problems from fracking operations.

[Part 2 looks at the health issues and research studies. Part 3 looks at the truth behind why Pennsylvania has given advantages to the natural gas industry. Assisting on this series, in addition to those quoted within the articles, were Rosemary R. Brasch, Eileen Fay, Dr. Bernard Goldstein, and Dr. Wendy Lynne Lee. Walter Brasch's current book is Before the First Snow, a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using 'cheaper, cleaner' fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact. The book is available at amazon.com and through the publisher's website, http://www.greeleyandstone.com]

There are some that dismiss global warming outright. However, in the past few years we have seen increased melting at the poles that follows the predictions of climate scientists. NASA just published a study which shows that the earth is losing half a trillion tons of ice every year. And then there is this ominous crack in the Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica that will lead to the birth of an iceberg the size of Rhode Island very soon.

So when you hear Marketplace cheer on how good global warming will be for business, it might be good to remember that the melting means tremendous dislocation of seaside communities (including New York City) due to sea rise.

And when Heartland finds someone to develop classes to indoctrinate children that global warming isn't happening, then perhaps it's time to call them traitors to humanity and the rest of the earth.

Is global warming happening? The glaciers say yes. Is it good for business? Only if you don't give a f*ck about the people hurt by rising sea levels and the increasing instability of the weather.

An insightful body of analysis holds that sudden catastrophes, like earthquakes, fires and great storms, bring people together. They pitch in, cooperate, and ignore the economic and social divisions that previously held them apart. But drought is different. It is gradual and drawn out. An earthquake shudders and is over; a fire blazes and dies; a storm finally passes. But a drought creeps on. Drought doesn’t dissolve differences in the shock of thunderbolt change; it gives people plenty of time to erect defenses, pick sides, and meditate on the defects of their neighbors. Drought divides people, a fact that should remind us that solving the conundrum of water, growth, and hardened demand is work best done in the present, before the curve of rising need and the downshifting line of limits slam together.

Recently, Climate Progress reviewed Williams DeBuys' book, A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest which talks about the encroaching desertification of the Southwest and from which this frightening quote comes. Droughts provide a unique stress on human societies -- and with global warming we need to find ways to manage those stresses to avoid the worst outcomes.

One way to start to learn about our water challenges and possible solutions is to read Charles Fishman's The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water.

Fishman has done an incredible job in describing the varied challenges we face with water including long-term drought and providing some truly inspiring vignettes about people on the leading edge of providing solutions.

In The Big Thirst, Fishman writes about Australia and the recent drought as a harbinger of what the Southwestern United States of American faces.

Australia is a country where the cities themselves have begun running out of water during the last ten years -- a place that has discovered how quickly an elaborate system for gathering and providing water can become inadequate, or even irrelevant. Australia is also living through something completely new -- the division and damage that sudden water scarcity can do to the shared sense of values, to the politics, of a community.

Back when the people of Toowoomba, in the state of Queensland, thought things were bad -- when it hadn't rained in five years, when the city's reservoirs were down to 34% full -- they came together in their desperation to try a drought-ending strategy people have tried for five thousand years.

They turned their eyes and their voices heavenward, and they prayed for rain.
...
The Reverend Edgar Mayer, of Living Grace Church, offered God a two-for-one deal, "If it is our sins that caused the drought," he prayed, "then please wash away our sins away with your rain."

That evening's prayers were not answered -- not then, not by the following April, or the next, or the next, not even four Aprils later, by April 2009. It was impossible to know on that Thursday night, but Toowoomba's water troubles hadn't even begun.

In 2011 as the drought encased Texas, Governor Rick Perry also called upon Texans to pray for rain. The results of their request was not answered in 2011. Today the drought continues. Who knows how long it will take before it will be answered? [NPR's State Impact site continues to track this story.]

But even more unsettling, when the rains finally come, they can be a curse and not a blessing -- because global warming makes the climate more extreme.

After a decade of drought in Australia, the rains finally came. In 2011 Queensland experienced floods described as biblical. One of the places the floods came was in Toowoomba where six inches of rain fell in 30 minutes.

What Fishman shows through the book is that with careful planning and ingenuity, humans can solve the problem of delivering clean water reliably to everyone if we really want to. But we need to spend enough on our water infrastructure, conserve the resources we have and plan for the future.

The Scientific American has a very good review of this book.

Tucked between the New Hampshire primary and Ground Hog Day, and directly competing against an NFL playoff game, was Saturday's annual Miss America pageant.

Although the headquarters is still near Atlantic City, where it originated in 1921, the pageant-don't call it a beauty contest-has been a part of the Las Vegas entertainment scene for eight years. Apparently, the Las Vegas motto of "What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" wrapped itself around the pageant as well, with TV viewership dropping lower almost every year.

ABC-TV divorced Miss America in 2004, claiming irreconcilable differences. Viewership had fallen from a peak of 26.7 million in 1991 to an all-time low of 9.8 million, barely enough to keep a prime-time show on the air. The pageant"s CEO, trying to preserve what dignity was left, stated "We needed to find a better partner, one that better understands our values."

Apparently better understanding Miss America's values was Country Music Television (CMT). However, that marriage didn't last, and Miss America then hooked up with the The Learning Channel (TLC). By 2007, only 2.4 million viewers tuned in to watch who would be the next beauty queen to want world peace, save the whales, and "do her country proud."

Treating its demotion to the minor leagues as a chance for rehabilitation, the pageant made a few cosmetic changes, began playing with new ways of scoring, including viewer participation, and slowly brought its ratings back to about 4.5 million in 2010.

That's when ABC-TV and Miss America, after a six-year divorce, fell in love again. Apparently, CMT and TLC "values" (and money) weren't as good as a major network's. Promising eternal faithfulness-as long as the ratings increased-the two lovebirds were seen by about 7.8 million.

Now, it may seem that only TV executives and advertisers should care about ratings, viewer demographics, and selling fluff. But the contestants are well-trained actors in the made-for-TV show, complete with celebrity judges, most of whom are there solely because they are-well-celebrities.

About one-third of all contestants say they want to go into communications. As in almost every pageant for the past four decades, several want to go into television. Miss Delaware and Miss Nevada both want to be talk show hosts. Miss Louisiana wants to anchor the "Today" show; to get to that lofty goal, she plans to first get a master's in health communication. None of the contestants wanting to go into journalism have expressed any interest in first covering city council meetings, the courts, police, or Little League games. They plan to take their beauty and pageant poise, make up their hair and face, and stand in front of a camera to emphasize the reality that broadcast journalism has diminished to the point of style over substance.

Miss New York wants to be the editor of a fashion magazine. Miss Idaho wants to write for a health and fitness magazine. Miss Hawaii wants to be a film director; to do that, she plans to first get an MBA. There is no evidence she plans first to be an actor, set designer, writer, cinematographer, or in any of several dozen crafts.

Miss Utah says she wants to be an interpersonal communications presenter (whatever that is) and also a college dance team coach. Miss New Hampshire, who probably dressed Barbie dolls in corporate suits, says she wants to "own a large and prestigious advertising firm." It's doubtful she'll want to modify the gibberish of the organization that, with all seriousness, says it "provides young women with a vehicle to further their personal and professional goals and instills a spirit of community service through a variety of unique nationwide community-based programs."

A few contestants say they want to be "event planners," as if there already aren't enough people wasting their own lives by planning the lives of others.

Not planning to go into communications is Miss California who is earning a degree in something called "social enterprise." That could be anything from learning how to use Facebook to mixing the drinks at upscale parties. Miss West Virginia says she wants to go into the military, and then become secretary of state. Perhaps one day she might work for the 2011 Miss America, whose goal is to become president.

Several contestants plan to get MBAs, but almost everyone wants to use that degree to go into-prepare yourself!-a non-profit social service agency. It sounds good, and maybe they all mean it. But, dangle a six-figure salary, stock options, extensive perks, and a "golden parachute," and most of them will run over the Red Cross so fast it'll need blood transfusions.

Mixed into the career goals are some contestants who plan to be physicians, pharmacists, speech therapists, physical therapists, and others in the caring professions.

Miss America doesn't have to worry about a job or college for a year. Along with a paid chaperone, she will tour the country to sign autographs and give inspirational speeches about whatever her platform is-and, of course, to promote the Miss America Organization.

From the "toddlers and tiaras" stage to the stage at the Planet Hollywood Casino, beauty contestants are told how to look, act, and talk, even what to say or not say. The Miss America Organization-which makes the Mafia look like a second rate fraternity-doesn't tell contestants they must attend college. But, every one of the state winners is planning to be a college graduate.

There is a definite bias against those who don't think attending college is important at this stage of their lives. And so, we don't see talented actors, singers, dancers, and musicians who are bypassing college to attend specialized non-degree-granting schools and enter their professions. We don't see contestants who, although beautiful and talented, are planning to be plumbers, electricians, or firefighter/paramedics. We don't see contestants who want to be gardeners, floral arrangers, or chefs. And, we most assuredly don't see women who are bypassing college to be part of major social movements.

[Walter Brasch, who attended several beauty pageants, although as a reporter and not as a contestant, is a social issues columnist and book author. His current book is Before the First Snow: Tales from the Revolution, available at www.amazon.com or www.greeleyandstone.com]

My group found some very nice birds including this common loon and several bald eagles, one even carrying nesting material to its nest. And the coots! It seemed like every inlet and bay was carpeted with at least 100+ coots. The challenge is to scan the crowd as they disappear around the bend and not to miss a single one.

One of the area master birders buzzed through the neighborhood and produced a great report with some very nice photos before heading off to work at 11:30am.

It was a wonderful (albeit cold, but blessedly dry) way to finish up 2011. One of my resolutions is to get out birding more. Here's to hoping you all have your favored equivalent of a very birdy year in 2012.

If the first year gross anatomy class at the Penn State Hershey medical school needs spare body parts to study, they can visit the cloak room of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. That's where most of the legislators left their spines.

The House voted 124–69, Dec. 13, to send an animal welfare bill back to committee, in this case the Gaming Oversight Committee. The bill, SB 71, would have banned simulcasting of greyhound races from other states. Pennsylvania had banned greyhound racing in 2004. Among several of the current bill's amendments were ones that would also have banned the sale of cat and dog meat, increased penalties for releasing exotic animals, and stopped the cruelty of live pigeon shoots.

It's the pigeon shoot amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Maher (R-Allegheny), that caused legislators to hide beneath their desks, apparently in fear of the poop from the NRA, which lobbied extensively against ending pigeon shoots. The unrelenting NRA message irrationally claimed that banning pigeon shoots is the first step to banning guns. The NRA even called the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) a radical animal rights group. The House action leaves Pennsylvania as the only state where pretend hunters, most of them from New Jersey and surrounding states where pigeon shoots are illegal, to come to Pennsylvania and kill caged birds launched in front of spectators and the shooters.

Most pigeon shoots are held in Berks County in southeastern Pennsylvania, with one in the nearby suburban Philadelphia area. Scared and undernourished birds are placed into small cages, and then released about 20 yards in front of people with 12-gauge shotguns. Most birds, as many as 5,000 at an all-day shoot, are hit standing on their cages, on the ground, or flying erratically just a few feet from the people who pretend to be sportsmen. Even standing only feet from their kill, the shooters aren’t as good as they think they are. About 70 percent of all birds are wounded, according to Heidi Prescott, HSUS senior vice-president, who for about 25 years has been documenting and leading the effort to pass legislation to finally end pigeon shoots in the state.

Birds that fall outside the shooting club's property are left to die long and horrible deaths. If the birds are wounded on the killing fields, trapper boys and girls, most in their early teens, some of them younger, grab the birds, wring their necks, stomp on their bodies, or throw them live into barrels to suffocate. There is no food or commercial value of a pigeon killed at one of the shoots.

The lure of pigeon shoots, in addition to what the participants must think is a wanton sense of fulfillment, is gambling, illegal under Pennsylvania law but not enforced by the Pennsylvania State Police.

The International Olympic Committee banned the so-called sport after the 1900 Olympics because of its cruelty to animals. Most hunters, as well as the Pennsylvania Game Commission, say that pigeon shoots aren't "fair chase hunting." Almost every daily newspaper in the state and dozens of organizations, from the Council of Churches to the Pennsylvania Bar Association, oppose this form of animal cruelty.

On the floor of the House, Rep. Rosita C. Youngblood (D-Philadelphia), usually a supporter of animal rights issues, spoke out against voting on the bill, and asked other Democrats to go along with her. Youngblood is minority chair of the Gaming Oversight committee.

Youngblood's chief of staff, Bill Thomas, emphasizes that Youngblood's only concern was to protect the integrity of the legislative process. Although some members truly believed they voted to recommit the bill for procedural reasons, most members were just simply afraid to vote on the bill. Voting to recommit the bill were 52 Democrats, many of them opposed to pigeon shoots; 35 voted to keep it on the floor for debate. Among Republicans, the vote was 72–34 to send the bill to committee.

Germaneness: The Republican leadership had determined that all amendments to bills in the current legislative session must be germane to the bill. "You can't hijack a bill," many in the House, including key Democrats, claimed as the major reason they voted against SB71.

However, the Republicans, with a majority in the House and able to block any bill in committee that didn't meet their strict political agenda, raised "germaneness" to a level never before seen in the House. For decades, Democrats and Republicans attached completely unrelated amendments to bills. Even during this session, the Republicans, in violation of their own "rules," attached amendments to allow school vouchers onto several bills, many that had nothing to do with education. But, the Greyhound racing bill was considered under both gambling and animal cruelty concerns. Thus, the amendment to ban pigeon shoots could also be considered to be an animal cruelty amendment and not subject to the Judiciary Committee, where it was likely to die.

Separate bill. Several legislators believed the attempt to stop pigeon shoots should have been its own bill, not tacked onto another bill.

However, only twice have bills about pigeon shoots come to the floor of the House. Most proposed legislation had been buried in committees or blocked by House leadership, both Democrat and Republican, most of whom received support and funding from the NRA, gun owner groups, and their political action committees (PACs). In 1989, the Pennsylvania House had defeated a bill to ban pigeon shoots, 66–126. By 1994, three years after the first large scale protest, the House voted 99–93 in favor of an amendment to ban pigeon shoots, but fell short of the 102 votes needed for passage.

The bill would duplicate or repeal a recently-signed law:
Rep. Curt Schroeder (R-Chester Co.), chair of the Gaming Oversight committee, sponsored the House version of the Senate's bill. If it was truly an unnecessary bill, he or the leadership could have previously sent it to committee for reworking or killed it. According to sources close to the leadership, despite his concern for animal welfare, Schroeder was not pleased about the amendments tacked onto his bill.

Short time to accomplish much: Several Democrats believed that by spending extraordinary time on the bill, necessary legislation would not be brought to the floor and the Republicans could then blame the Democrats for blocking key legislation.

However, both parties already knew how they would vote for redistricting (the Republicans had gerrymandered the state to protect certain districts), school vouchers, and other proposed legislation. Further, the Republican leadership could have blocked putting the Greyhound bill into the agenda or placed it at the end of other bills. Even on the floor of the House, the leadership could have shut down debate at any time. Thus, the Democrats' argument about "only four days left" is blunted by the Republicans' own actions. During 2011, the House met only 54 days when the vote on SB 71 was taken. If the House was so concerned about having only four days left in the year to discuss and vote upon critical issues, it could have added days to the work week or increased hours while in session. Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), to his credit, wanted a vote, although he personally opposed the pigeon shoot amendment. "Let's put this issue to rest," he told the members. Taking the time to debate the bill, says Bill Thomas, "wasted taxpayer money and time." However, "the amount of time spent avoiding the bill," counters Prescott, "wastes far more time and resources than voting on it."

Nevertheless, no matter what the arguments, sending the bill to committee was a good way to avoid having to deal with a highly controversial issue. It allowed many legislators to pretend to their constituents that they still believe in animal welfare, while avoiding getting blow-back from the NRA or its supporters. Conversely, it allowed many of those who wanted to keep pigeon shoots to avoid a debate and subsequent vote, allowing continued support from pro-gun constituents who accept the NRA non-logic, while not offending constituents who believe in animal welfare.

Whatever their reasons, the failure of the many of the state's representatives to stand up for their convictions probably caused legislation to ban this form of animal cruelty to be as dead during this session as the pigeons whose necks are wrung by teenagers who finish the kill by people who think they're sportsmen but are little more than juveniles disguised in the bodies of adults.

[Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated social issues columnist, former newspaper and magazine reporter and editor, whose specialties included public affairs/investigative reporting. He is professor emeritus of journalism. Dr. Brasch's latest novel is Before the First Snow, a story of the counterculture and set in rural Pennsylvania.]

According to Dr. Jeff Masters in November, the expense from the mega-flood was about approximately $9.8 billion or almost 4% of the GDP of Thailand.

Today Intel created a major market drop when it reported that it would take a $1 billion loss this quarter because of the Thailand floods. And Toyota also lowered their profit forecasts because of the floods by $1.5 billion. Just last week the insurance industry estimated damages of around $10 billion but now with the stories from Intel and Toyota seems to be too small.

The main point to take away is that the overall costs of the flooding affected not just Thailand but an important part of our current global economy which is already under a great deal of stress.

These floods were the worst in Thailand for more than 70 years. Over 600 people died. So were they due to global warming? According to climate scientists, global warming made the disaster more likely, just like too many cheeseburgers and too much smoking leads to increased risk of heart attacks.

Scientists know that the increasing load of greenhouse gases we're pumping into the atmosphere doesn't "cause" extreme weather. But it does raise the odds, just as a diet of triple bacon cheeseburgers raises the odds of heart disease.

The floods that have been threatening to inundate Bangkok, Thailand, for nearly a week now are a perfect example. Since last summer, torrential rains have been pounding the Thai highlands, swelling the country's rivers, including the Chao Phraya, which flows through the capital. Many people have fled for drier ground, fearful that the city's dikes might not hold back the water - especially over the weekend, as the virtual tsunami from the north tried to empty into the Gulf of Thailand just as unusually high tides were pushing up the river. "It seems like we're fighting against the forces of nature," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told the New York Times last week....But climate change is an additional risk factor. Scientists have shown that torrential rains have gotten heavier in recent years, in large part because of human-caused global warming. This year's Southeast Asian monsoon may or may not have the fingerprints of climate change all over it, but in general, the trend toward heavier rains is likely to continue. Last weekend's high tide doesn't have anything to do with rising sea level; it was caused by an unusual alignment of Earth, moon and sun. But as climate change does raise sea levels over the coming century - by an average of 3 feet by 2100, according to the current best estimate - rain-swollen rivers will have a harder and harder time emptying quickly into the ocean.

No wonder Americans are starting to realize that climate change deniers are peddling junk because the signs of global warming are becoming too visible and too expensive to ignore any long.

See also: How bad is the hard disk shortage? which predicts that drive prices are going up and won't be coming back down anytime soon.

Our challenge is to force the politicians to do something to address the problem of global warming before it costs us an arm and a leg or too many more lives.

They buried Bouldergrass today. The cause of death was listed as "media-induced health."

Bouldergrass had begun his health crusade more than a decade ago when he began reading more than the sports pages of his local newspaper, subscribed to his first magazine, and decided TV news could be informative if it didn't mention anything about wars, famines, and poverty.

Based on what he read and saw in the media, Bouldergrass moved from smog-bound Los Angeles to a rural community in scenic green Vermont, gave up alcohol and a two-pack-a-day cigarette habit, and was immediately hospitalized for having too much oxygen in his body.

To burn off some of that oxygen, he joined America's "beautiful people" on the jogging paths where the media helped him believe he was sweating out the bad karma. In less than a year, the karma left his body which was now coexisting with leg cramps, fallen arches, and several compressed disks. But at least he was as healthy as all the ads told him he could be.

To make sure he didn't get skin cancer from being in the sun too long, he slathered four pounds of No. 35 sunblock on his body every time he ran, and went to suntan parlors twice a week to get that "healthy glow" advertisers told him he needed. He stopped blocking when he learned that suntan parlors weren't good for your health, and that the ingredients in the lotions could cause cancer. So, he wore a jogging suit that covered more skin than an Arab woman's black chador with veil - and developed a severe case of heat exhaustion.

From ultrathin models and billions of dollars in weight-reducing advertising that told him "thin was in," he began a series of crash diets. When he was down to 107 pounds, advertising told him he needed to "bulk up" to be a "real man." So, he began lifting weights and playing racquetball three hours a day. Four groin pulls and seven back injuries later, he had just 6 percent body fat, and a revolving charge account with his local orthopedist.

Several years earlier, Bouldergrass had stopped eating veal as part of a protest of America's inhumane treatment of animals destined for supermarkets. Now, in an "enlightened" age of health, he gave up all meat, not because of mankind's cruelty to animals, but because the media revealed that vascular surgeons owned stock in meat packing companies. Besides, it was the "healthy" thing to do.

He gave up pasta when he saw a TV report about the microscopic creepy crawlers that infest most dough.

He gave up drinking soda and began drinking juice, until he read a report that said apple juice had higher than normal levels of arsenic.

He ate soup because it was healthy and so Mmm Mmm Good, until he learned that soup had more salt than Lot's wife. When he found low-salt soup, he again had a cup a day-until last month when he gave it up because a Harvard study revealed that soup cans contained significant amounts of Bisphenol-A-, which can lead to cancer and heart disease.

For a couple of years, lured by a multi-million dollar ad campaign and innumerable articles in the supermarket tabloids, Bouldergrass ate only oat bran muffins for breakfast and a diet of beta carotenes for lunch, until he found himself spending more time in the bathroom than at work. He eliminated the muffins entirely after reading an article that told him eating oatmeal, bran, and hood ornaments from Buick Roadsters were bad for your health.

Bouldergrass gave up milk when he learned that acid rain fell onto pastures and was eaten by cows. When he learned that industrial conglomerates had dumped everything from drinking water to radioactive waste into streams and rivers, he stopped eating fish. For awhile, based upon conflicting reports in the media, he juggled low-calorie, low-fat, and low-carbohydrate diets until his body systems dropped into the low end of inertia.

At the movies, he smuggled in packets of oleo to squeeze onto plain popcorn until he was bombarded by news stories that revealed oleo was as bad as butter and that most theatrical popcorn was worse than an all-day diet of sirloin.

When he learned that coffee and chocolate were unhealthy, he gave up an addiction to getting high from caffeine and sugar, and was now forced to work 12-hour days without any stimulants other than the fear of what his children were doing while he was at work.

Unfortunately, he soon had to give up decaffeinated coffee and sugarless candy with cyclamates since both caused laboratory mice to develop an incurable yen to listen to music from the Grand Funk Railroad.

He gave up pizza when the media reported that certain "health care investigators" claimed pizza was little more than junk food. But, he began eating several slices a day to improve his health when Congress, fattened by lobbyists campaigns, last month declared frozen pizza was a vegetable. He figured it made sense, since three decades earlier the Reagan administration had declared catsup to be a vegetable, and five years ago the Department of Agriculture decided butter-coated french fries were a vegetable.

Left with a diet of fruits and vegetables, he was lean and trim. Until he accidentally stumbled across a protest by an environmental group which complained that the use of pesticides on farm crops was a greater health hazard than the bugs the pesticides were supposed to kill. Even the city's polluted water couldn't clean off all the pesticides. That's also when he stopped taking showers, and merely poured a gallon of distilled water over his head every morning.

For weeks, he survived on buckets of vitamins because the magazines told him that's what he should do. Then, after reading an article that artificial vitamins shaped like the Flintstones caused dinosaur rot, he also gave them up.

The last time I saw Bouldergrass, he was in a hospital room claiming to see visions of monster genetic tomatoes squishing their way toward him. He was mumbling something about cholesterol and high density lipoproteins. Tubes were sticking out of every opening in his emaciated body, as well as a couple of openings that hadn't been there when he first checked in.

In one last attempt to regain his health, Bouldergrass enlisted in Michelle Obama's Let's Move army. But the only movement he was doing was when the nurses flipped him so he wouldn't get bed sores.

Shortly before he died, he pulled me near him, asked that I write his obit, and in a throaty whisper begged, "Make sure you tell them that thanks to what I learned from the media, I died healthy."

[Walter Brasch, a robust figure of health, doesn't follow anyone's advice on what is or is not healthy. His latest book is the critically-acclaimed Before the First Snow, a social issues mystery novel. Brasch says the book is a great Christmas or Chanukah gift, and increased sales will improve his own mental, if not physical, health.]

In the United States we expect to have good, clean, drinkable water 24 hours a day, every day of the week. But we need to invest in the infrastructure to make this possible. And these days, when people like Grover Norquist are trying to drown government in a bathtub, it is refreshing to see that places like Portland are investing in public works that ensure our quality of life and the quality of our river. And as a city and a region that is known for investing in the right things, it is really nice to know that this project was completed on-time and under-budget. The salmon that navigate the Willamette to spawn in the creeks and streams feeding into the Willamette will find the river a healthier and better place in which to entrust their future descendents. And Portlanders will enjoy swimming or kayaking in the river even after big storms pass because they have invested in ensuring the quality of the water that runs off into their river for now and decades into the future.

Here's a great summary that describes the project from the Oregonian.

1. Who's paying for the project? You are. The series of projects to limit combined sewage overflow is being funded through debt being repaid by Portland residents through rate increases. Average monthly rates in 2001 were $30. Next year, they'll be more than $53, a 77 percent increase. They're expected to hit nearly $69 by 2016.
2. Where's the money going? In addition to the eastside pipe, a series of new "cornerstone" projects divert stormwater away from sewers, at a cost of about $145 million. A new east-west tunnel along Columbia Boulevard, completed in 2001, ran about $160 million. And the westside Big Pipe and pump station, finished in 2006, cost about $410 million.
3. What about the east side? That's the biggest and most expensive part, with costs of about $640 million. Of that, the Big Pipe portion is budgeted at about $433 million, although officials say it could come in about 10 percent under budget.
4. So is the Big Pipe really that big? Yes. Portions on the west side are 14 feet in diameter. On the east side, traveling through a 22-foot-diameter pipe on the train feels almost like a subway ride.
5. So there's a Big Pipe and a Bigger Pipe? Pretty much. But officials call them the same thing, at least when communicating with ratepayers. "It's one of those things that drives the engineers nuts, but the public-involvement people love the catchy name," said Bill Ryan, chief engineer for the Environmental Services Bureau.
6. And all this does what? It'll limit the amount of untreated sewer and stormwater that spills into the Willamette River. Pipes below old Portland neighborhoods mix sewer and rainwater. When it rains, overflow goes straight into the river. The new system will divert water in the Big Pipe to a treatment plant in North Portland. During storms, water will fill the entire Big Pipe, traveling at a minimum rate of 4 feet per second.
7. How did we build the Big Pipe? The city contracted with Kiewit-Bilfinger Berger, a two-company partnership. Kiewit Construction has a district office in Vancouver, and Bilfinger Berger is a German company. Saltzman said about 600 subcontractors have worked on the project.
8. How did they move so much earth? The Big Pipe itself is the direct byproduct of a 220-foot-long tunnel-boring machine that dug about 60 feet a day. Officials nicknamed her Rosie. And if she has a name, surely, she must have a Twitter account. Last month, Rosie tweeted: "I've enjoyed my time tunneling around Portland. But it's nice to be done with such a big job."

Good job, Portland! We who live along the Willamette River give our congratulations.

"O.K., class, we have a few minutes at the end of today's lecture about how the godless Communists created evolution to try to destroy the decent loyal patriotic capitalist society of America. Any questions? Yes, Billy Bob."

"Mr. Jim Bob, I heard about this thing called a person. What is that?"

"Good question. With all the distortions by the lyin' liberal left-wing, it can get confusing. But, it's really simple. A person is an egg that has just been fertilized by a sperm. We call this young person a Zygote."

"Does it have to be a goat? Can it be anything else?"

"Well, Susie Bob, if you nurture it, that fertilized egg can grow up to be anything it wants to be, because this is the United States of America. And no one has the right to tell us white folks what to do."

"Are there advantages of being a single-celled person?"

"Definitely. Their parents don't have to wait until they emerge from the birth canal to claim them as an IRS deduction. Also, with more persons in Mississippi, we can get more single-cell congresspersons to represent us."

"Then why did our parents vote against the constitutional amendment?"

"It was a close defeat. While those abortion activists voted against the measure, most of the opposition was because us conservatives were worried that the way the proposed amendment was written would allow them liberal types to go to Washington and overturn our states' rights."

"You mean Congress can do that?"

"No, Junie Bob, the Supreme Court can do that. It was a craps roll. You see, there are four decent Americans on the Supreme Court. And there are four who are women, or Jews, or both. And they were likely to say something stupid, like the state isn't allowed to use religious dogma to justify new laws. That would mean there would be a 4–4 tie. We couldn't trust the other judge to do what's right, because he changes what side he’s on all the time. Even our illustrious governor said he had doubts about how broad that amendment was, and what the courts would do."

"But he voted for it anyway."

"He's a politician, Kenny Bob. That's what they do. Next question."

"My mommy says that abortion and wearing condoms is murder, and to protect persons she plans to run down baby-killer doctors when she sees them on the streets."

"Your mommy is looking out for the best interests of the fertilized egg. In that case, the courts will rule that what your mother does is justified homicide. Just like them lynchings your pappies and grandpappies might have done for fun on some hot weekend. It sent a message that we don't tolerate uppity colored people doing dumb things like voting or demanding constitutional rights. Those were meant only for the white people."

"Is slavery still legal?"

"No, Bertie Bob, Mississippi outlawed it in 1995 when we ratified the 13th Amendment to the Constitution."

"Why did it take so long?"

"Well, Martha Bob, you have to understand that decent conservatives just don't go rushing into making important decisions. It takes time to figure out all the issues and their implications. Thirteen decades seemed about the right time."

"I'm still confused Mr. Jim Bob. My pappy says that we got to keep the gummint out of our lives, like not allowing revenooers on our property. Don't all of them laws intrude on our rights?"

"Sometimes, you have to intrude for the good of society. That's why we have laws about who you can and can't marry?"

"You mean, me and-?"

"Yes, Jenny Bob, I was planning to talk to you about you and your brother. Marriage has to be between a man and a woman who aren't siblings."

"So, it's OK for me and Calvin Bob to marry?"

"Since you're first cousins that's OK, just as long as marriage is between a man and a woman, as God intended."

"Is that why we don't like the coloreds and the Asians to marry us? I heard that half the state doesn't want intermarriages and the rest are the colored people."

"What people don't understand, Beauford Bob, is that we made those laws to help the colored people. Before the War Between the States-Praise Jeff Davis and Jesus, Hallelujah!-we allowed white slave owners to have sex with anyone they wanted, as long as they were women. But, then we realized that wasn't fair to the African people, because it diluted their purity. So, to protect the darkies, we didn't have any choice but to forbid whites from marrying anyone with even one-eighth dark blood."

"I heard about this thing called sodomy, which them homosexual and lesbian ladies practice. That's just yucky."

"Indeed it is. That's why sodomy is a felony, and homosexuals can get 10 years in prison, where they can practice deviant. After that, they have to register as sex offenders. That's another reason why the government is allowed into our bedrooms, so they can protect respectable voyeurs from having to participate in such immoral activity. Time for just one more question. Yes, Horatio Bob."

"Mr. Jim Bob, how did you become so wise?"

"I'm a graduate of the Mississippi school system."

[Walter Brasch’s latest book is the mystery/thriller, Before the First Snow, set in rural Pennsylvania. The book is available through www.greeleyandstone.com, amazon.com, and other bookstores.]

"Got any idea how to make a frozen daiquiri?"

Saturday. 6 a.m. A question no one else would have asked at that hour. I knew it had to be Marshbaum, my faux-friend foil.

"Too early to be drinking," I mumbled, then hung up. The phone rang again.

"It's not for me," said Marshbaum, "but since I'm going to own a bar, I should learn how to make drinks."

"Marshbaum," I said, reluctantly awake, "you can't even afford to buy soap to wash your fuzzy navel! How are you going to afford a bar?"

"The government's going to bankroll me," he said matter-of-factly.

"New kind of welfare?"

"Old kind of subsidies," said Marshbaum. "First thing those Santa Clauses in the red ink suits are going to do is to help me find an appropriate location."

"Something available in Afghanistan?" I asked.

"It's called exploration subsidy. Thanks to those patriotic pure-bred Republicans who just blocked the President's proposal to eliminate $2 billion in subsidies a year to oil, gas, and coal companies, all I have to do is say I want to build my bar over a proposed but hidden coal vein. Doesn't even matter if there's coal or not. All I have to do is say I think there may be coal. Later, I get a low-interest small business loan, build the bar, and deduct the mortgage interest from my income taxes."

"That deduction is meant to allow the common person the right of home ownership."

"And what's more common than taking someone else's money? Besides, it isn't the middle-class that gets most of the benefit." He explained that almost 100 percent of everyone with at least a $100,000 mortgage takes the interest deduction, while fewer than 20 percent of Americans below the poverty line get federal rental subsidies.

"You'll still have to pay property taxes," I reminded him. He reminded me that it didn't matter.

"Most local and state governments will be so happy to have me build a business and hire minimum-wage bar girls, they'll probably waive my taxes the first year or two and then give me tax rebates for a couple of more years."

"O.K., for awhile you have a cheap bar. How are you planning to keep the lights on?"

"Electric companies save about $210 million a year when they buy electricity below cost from the federal dams. I just tap in on some low-voltage energy."

"Even with cheap utilities, you'll still have problems keeping it going."

"Only problem I'll have is deciding which line on the income tax form is for deductions for advertising, dinners, and research at the country club."

"I suppose you have other scams?"

"Other subsidies, just like everyone else," said Marshbaum snippily correcting me.

"The government pays farmers about $20 billion a year to grow feed grains to assure there will be an adequate supply. I plan to get some of those bucks by selling malt liquor. Rye. Barley. Wheat. Corn. It's the Basic Four food groups. I can even water down my drinks since the government also provides about $400 million a year in water subsidies."

"The agriculture subsidy program was begun during the Great Depression to benefit poor farmers who-" Before I could finish, Marshbaum interrupted.

"It's true that the largest 10 percent of the corporate farms get over 75 percent of the subsidies. But, as a poor struggling farmer, I may get $500. That's still money in the pocket."

"So, you're saying that the government wants you to sell more drinks?"

"And less too," he said. "There's far too many of those nauseous appletinis. I might be able to get a government subsidy not to grow apples or tinis." He thought a moment. "Maybe I can feature kahlúas. The government has a minimum price on milk. I may even get NAFTA trade concessions for my Friday Night Margarita promotions. Olé, y'all!"

"Aren't you just blowing a lot of smoke past me?"

"Smoke," said Marshbaum, "will fill my bar. It's the least I can do to help the tobacco cartel, which gets about a billion dollars a year. I'm sure the tobacco growers would want me to have several cigarette machines in my bar."

"And what happens when the bar fails. Your business record is as bad as cheap vinyl on a 50-year-old 45."

"I expect to fail," said Marshbaum. "It's all part of my business plan."

"Why would you want to fail?" I naively asked.

"So I can get money to keep from failing even more. Three trillion went to financial institutions. I figure I should get something for being greedy and a failure. That's the American way!"

"Even if all of what you said is true, President Obama has been trying to reduce subsidies to the rich and to eliminate most of the annual $100 billion in corporate welfare."

"As long as the Republicans control Congress," said Marshbaum, "the American way of life will be preserved. Want a drink now?"

[Walter Brasch is author of the social issues mystery, Before the First Snow, and 16 other books. Before the First Snow is available at www.greeleyandstone.com, amazon.com, and other stores.]

Newspaper columnist Ann Coulter, spreading the lies of the extreme right wing, called the Occupy Wall Street protestors, "tattooed, body-pierced, sunken-chested 19-year-olds getting in fights with the police for fun." She claimed the protestors, now in the thousands in New York, are "directionless losers [who] pose for cameras while uttering random liberal clichés lacking any reason or coherence." (Several hundred thousand of these "directionless losers" attended rallies in more than 650 cities, Oct. 15.)

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), House majority leader, called the protest nothing more than "growing mobs," completely oblivious to his myriad statements that he supports "mobs" when they are from the Tea Party. Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tacking as far right as possible to avoid anyone thinking he was once a moderate, called the protest "dangerous."

Republican presidential contender Herman Cain, in a moment that demonstrated how out of touch he is with the economic reality of the five-year recession, argued, "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks; if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!"

Glenn Beck, too irrational even for Fox News, which terminated him less than two years after it tried to make him a TV superstar, told his radio audience, the protestors "will come for you and drag you into the streets and kill you."

Lauren Ellis of Mother Jones, at one time a cutting edge magazine for social justice, believed that the protestors have a "lack of focus." Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, wrote, "A protest without an objective is like a party or a picnic of the unemployed and the indolent. Unless you have an objective, what are you doing out there?"

First, let's see just who these protestors really are. And then, let's see what they stand for, since the mainstream media, of which Fox News is an entrenched part, don't seem to be getting the message from the people.

The protestors rightly say they are part of the 99 percent; the other one percent have 42 percent of the nation's wealth, the top 20 percent have more than 85 percent of the nation's wealth, the highest accumulation since 1928, the year before the Great Depression. Even the most oblivious recognize the protestors as a large cross-section of America. They are students and teachers; housewives, plumbers, and physicians; combat veterans from every war from World War II to the present. They are young, middle-aged, and elderly. They are high school dropouts and Ph.D.s. They are from all religions and no religion, and a broad spectrum of political views.

Support has come from senior politicians with very different philosophies. Vice President Joe Biden believes the protests are because "In the minds of the vast majority of the American-the middle class is being screwed." Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), unlike a vast majority of Republican politicians, stated, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed-I would say, 'good!'"

Second, like all protests, there are different opinions within the ranks. But, there is a core of beliefs. The protestors are fed up with corporate greed that has a base of corporate welfare and special tax benefits for the rich. They support the trade union movement, Medicare and Social Security, affordable health care for all citizens, and programs to assist the unemployed, disenfranchised, and underclass. A nation that cannot take care of the least among us doesn't deserve to be called the best of us.

They're mad that the home mortgage crisis, begun when greed overcame ethics and was then magnified by the failure of regulatory agencies and the Congress to provide adequate oversight, robbed all of America of its financial security. During the first half of this year alone, banks and lending agencies have sent notices to more than 1.2 million homeowners whose loans and mortgages are in default status, according to RealtyTrak. Of course, less regulation is just what conservatives want-after all, their mantra has become, "no government in our lives."

The protestors are mad that the wealthiest corporations pay little or no taxes. They point to the Bank of America, part of the mortgage crisis problem, which earned a $4.4 billion profit last year, but received a $1.9 billion tax refund on top of a bailout of about $1 trillion. They look at ExxonMobil, which earned more than $19 billion profit in 2009, paid no taxes and received a $156 million federal rebate. Its profit for the first half of 2011 is about $21.3 billion.

They rightfully note that it is slimy when General Electric, whose CEO is a close Obama advisor, earned a $26 billion profit during the past five years, but still received a $4.1 billion refund.

They're mad that the federal government has given the oil industry more than $4 billion in subsidy, although the industry earned more than $1 trillion in profits the past decade.

They're mad that Goldman Sachs, after receiving a $10 billion government bailout, and a $2.7 billion profit in the first quarter of 2011, shipped about 1,000 jobs overseas. During the past decade, corporations, which have paid little or no federal taxes, have outsourced at least 2.4 million jobs and are hoarding trillions which could be used to spur job growth and the economy.

They're mad that corporations that took federal bailout money gave seven-figure bonuses to their executives.

They're mad that the U.S., of all industrialized countries, has the highest ratio of executive pay to that of the average worker. The U.S. average is about 300 to 475 times that of the average worker. In Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and England, the average CEO earns between 10 and 20 times what the average worker earns, and no one in those countries believes the CEOs are underpaid.

They're mad that 47 percent of all persons who earned at least $250,000 last year, including about 1,500 millionaires, paid no taxes, according to Newsmax. If you're a Republican member of Congress, that's perfectly acceptable. They're the ones who thought President Obama was launching class warfare against the rich by trying to restore the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans. They succeeded in blocking tax reform and a jobs bill, but failed to understand the simple reality-if there is class warfare, it is being waged by the elite greedy and their Congressional lackeys.

Herman Cain, Fox TV pundit Sean Hannity, and others from the extreme right wing said the protestors are un-American, apparently for protesting corporate greed. The Occupy Wall Street protestors aren't un-American; those who defend the destruction of the middle class by defending greed, and unethical and illegal behavior, are.

[Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated columnist, and the author of 17 books. His latest book is Before the First Snow, a social issues mystery set in rural Pennsylvania.]