Since today is Earth Day I thought I would share in something that is near and dear to my heart, Steel.  As a product of the American Middle Class and third generation of Steel Mill Workers in Birmingham lets just say the post below is a hot topic for me. China’s Pollution Problem

Growing up in a state that has weak environmental laws that barely expand the basic laws the Federal Environmental Agency demands has always been issue for my community.  We have come a long way and still have further to go.  But one country is not doing its share of keeping the environment clean.  

American Steel is Cleaner than Chinese Steel

TreeHugger’s John Chamber’s has reported on AAM’s recent study of China’s steel industry.  Chambers notes that steel production in China creates 5 times more sulfer dioxide, 18 times more particulate matter and 3 times more nitrogen oxides per ton of steel than that of production in the United States.

Moreover, carbon emissions for each ton made in China are twice that of their American counterparts. The American steel industry has worked hard to cut their environmental footprint. The reduction of greenhouse gases means industry has surpassed Kyoto target by 240%. Plus, the Chinese companies can expect smaller fines for non-compliance of environmental standards for the iron-based resource from their centralized governments. The maximum fine in China is $14,000.00 compared to $450,000.00 in the United States.

Read the report.

Steel isn’t the only thing China is polluting with. You might want to Check out what the Brits are saying about pollution in China too.  Somewhere else too look is the Australian’s chatter on the topic.

A 2007 New York Times Article puts the pollution in Bejing in Perspective:

As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

 

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

 

No country in history has emerged as a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage that can take decades and big dollops of public wealth to undo.

But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.

Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.

Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the European Union. read more…

With all the problems China is inflicting on the world, why not buy American Steel?

Image from twoday.com

[sniplet 1st-YouTube-Post-Nannell]

My first ever YouTube post features my grandmother talking about Sears & Roebuck in her lifetime.  I have been part of other video’s but never posted my own video.  My inspiration for the video came from an assignment my mom gives to her 6th graders.

Every year my mom assigns her class a project where they either have to audio only record or video tape an interview with a veteran.  By doing this her students memorialize and document stories from the elderly.  My grandmother has lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Space Race, Cold War, and several presidents.  She has a story and experience for just about everything.  Over time I hope to make some videos for peronsal posterity.  I doubt I will post every video but hope to make many more.

Enjoy the video and tell me what you think about my fabulous video editing skills!  By the way the person in the background asking questions is me.  So for thoose of you who have never heard my voice please ignore the accented southern drawl.  I like to think my accent isn’t that thick.  Enjoy!

The main point of this is to talk about the atrocity in progress.

I happen to live in Alabama one of those Gulf States that already has off-shore drilling wells.  In fact as a kid, growing up in Central, Alabama, I remember playing baseball next to natural gas pumps.  So drilling and natural resource exploitation is nothing new to me.  In fact the oil and gas industry indirectly put the roof over my head and food in my belly.  Many of my friends, family, and neighbors do not agree with me and think I should be burned at the stake.  They don’t agree with me for the same reason why America’s wealthiest still think the economy isn’t in a state of turmoil.  It isn’t in their best interest!

Tonight on ABC News Nightline. The headline story was talking about Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Maine.  In short, and what I got out of the story, drilling shouldn’t apply to Maine and the cost of heating oil is going through the roof.

Look I get it, people are hurting for money, me too. I worked on Wall Street and not many days past the mortgage fall out.  But, is drilling really the answer?  I can tell you, NO it isn’t.  It’s only temporarily fixes the problem for somebody else to fix.  Exactly what the people before US said.  As a youngster that will be paying for the mistakes of the Ronald Reagan and Cold War Era… Lets Fix the problem! Don’t put a Band-Aid on it.

But again this isn’t my purpose of this post.

My purpose is to address the drilling location issue.  Why should we drill in the Southern Coast?  Because people in Maine Fish?  Lobster?  Why should we drill of the coast of Georgia?  (I really dont have anything).

I try to be objective about the issue.  But, it is hard to be when someone is trying to put an oil rig in your back yard.  When I see pictures of Maine I “aww” at the beauty.  When I hear the name Georgia I think sweet tea, hospitality, and golf.  My images of the south are just as beautiful as anything Maine has to offer!  Have you ever seen the fall leaves in the Southern Appalachians?  The sunset from Key West, FL?  Have you ever had Shrimp?

When the logging industry finally gets to clear cut the last few acres of natural forest to build the houses to pay for the people moving from Maine to the South for work… “There goes the fall leaves”.  What will thousands of tourist come to enjoy a romantic sunset on their honeymoon on the piers of Key West think when they find out that the green poof is from the Oil Refinery in Louisiana. Or, how about finishing off the demise of the shrimping industry with toxic waste from oil rigs raising our dependency on Vietnamese seafood?

My interpretation may be a bit extreme…  My point isn’t.  In fact it is simple. Who wants an oil rig in their back yard?

I gave him a set of tools that we will use together. I feel very lucky to have a father that has alwasy been there for me. No matter what corner of the world I move too I know I can always count on him for support. He helps move and gives ideas “why don’t you do it these way”. Man that guy is smart. Wise beyond my years.

I love my father and I am not afraid to say it. No matter if it was hgih school soccer game, chaprone for international trips where he would be responsible for for other people’s kids my father has always been there. He is a great man and I hope to live to be half the man he is.

Father’s want their children to be better than them. I try my hardest to live up to the hopes and dream he has helped shape for me. My father is a great husband, great mentor, and a great human being. I love you Dad.