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True Believers

I was looking at the coal company advertisements that the “Quit Coal” project put up. Basically, those advertisements criticize “aggressive” regulations put forward by the government, and policies pursued by Congress to control air pollution. Not surprisingly, the folks that worked in corporations did not want to be told how to run their business, much less do something that would put uncertainty in their business.

Some will say that coal companies were actively spreading lies and falsehoods. Or did they actually believe in what they were advertising — a statement of belief of reality as it appeared to a coal power plant operator? Certainly many of the pollution control technologies of early 1970s were not to the point where well tested or even scaled up. A coal power plant operator, who always operated their plant one way, did not want to deal with the risk of changing operating methods and technologies.

Some will claim that coal-fired power plant operators were mostly motivated by greed. Yet, if you look at historically, did the clean air equipment on power plants actually cost that much — especially compared to existing revenue? Most upgrades to power plants were covered by small increases in electric rates, granted by public service commissions. If anything, more pollution controls meant more employees, and more opportunities for companies to profit because now operated more complex power plants in a regulated market that fixed their profit above cost.

In retrospect, the coal power industry is run by people who believe their mission — to provide inexpensive electricity, using proven technologies. These people who are resistant to change, because they don’t always understand what it will mean in the future.

The lessons of coal advertising is three fold:

Most people don’t actively lie due to moral conscience, nor do the corporations that represent the aggregation of people lie due to threat to litigation
People and corporations that make them up are highly resistant to change, because they fear the unknown and potential costs of unknown, even if the costs really don’t prove to be significant over the long run.
Government has an important role in setting emissions and efficiency standards, to force corporations, which represent large aggregations of people, to take calculated risks to improve their environmental preformance.

Why Jones Pond is One of My Favorite Campsites

Jones Pond has 5 drive-in campsites on Jones Pond, a small public-private lake a little ways from Paul Smiths. A popular area on weekends, on weeknights, it is little used, but right on this beautiful lake.

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All of the campsites have “filtered” views of Jones Pond with tall white pines growing throughout the campground. The sun, year round sets on the lake, with views of Saint Regis Mountain te background. There is much beauty at all of campsites, with high sand dunes a little ways behind campsites, and sand dunes providing sound and light barriers between campsites.

Part of the generalized St Regis Canoe Area, it one of many nearby lakes. It provides a great place to make the night after a long day paddling, after watching the sunset, and the fire burn as the night progresses. Walk down to the shoreline, and look at the stars sparkle in the sky.

It’s not perfect. There is some road noise from Jones Pond Road, and certainly part of lake shore is privately owned, so there are some power boats occassionally on the lake. But still, it’s a wonderful experience.

Why I Like Using Christmas Lights at Camp

Several years ago, I got a set of LED Christmas lights that I bring almost every time I am roadside camping. I actually have several of the strings now, plus a LED rope light string that I bought this summer, that I don’t like as much although I still use it, because I paid for it, and does put out a bit of bright light.

LED Christmas light strings are great, because they put out a fair amount of direct light, yet consume minimal power. A typical string of LED Christmas lights consumes 4.5 watts, so you can pear together several strings, yet have minimal consumption of electricity — which is a big deal if your camping in woods, using a battery.

LED Christmas lights are just bright enough to keep one from tripping on various things in on the campsite, but not to take away from the campfire or darkness of woods. They give just the right light. One does not necessarily want their campsite lit up brighter then bright all evening long, while sitting next to campfire, enjoying a cold beer.

That November 2012 Trip

I have been toying around in mind what I want to do in mid-November as I take a week off from work to travel. While there is two big ifs in my mind — the exact amount of time I will have off and the cost of gasoline — the later being a big expensive question, I have already been thinking what I want to do.

Traveling in November can be tricky. You get up before sunrise, or near it. You have to rush around all day, knowing you have to locate a campsite by 3 PM or so, and be well on your way of setting up camp by 4 PM, because it will be dark out at 5 PM, and you will want to have firewood and a fire started by dusk. The long evenings are not much of a problem, as I have lighting powered by the deep cycle battery in my pickup, but still daylight limits day time activities. The potential for snow and hunting season are other constaining factors. Cold can be bad, but at least with my current set up with the truck, having a dead battery is not a real risk.

I have three different trip options in mind:

Tug Hill/Northern Tier/Adirondack Trip
Southern Tier/Western NY/Northern Tier of PA Trip
Wayne National Forest and Monongahela National Forest Trip

The Tug Hill/Northern Tier/Adirondack Trip would take me up through the Tug Hill checking out Whetstone State Park, maybe Moose Plains or Independence River Wild Forest, Brasher-Bombay State Forest near Massena, and then maybe somewheres around St Regis Canoe-area. Would have to worry more about snow, and it would be big game season, but its the shortest and most economic trip especially if gas prices are high.

The Southern Tier/Western NY/Northern Tier of PA Trip would have me going out US 20, probably camping at Stony Pond Campground, then out to East Otto State Forest or maybe Sugar Hill in between. I would check out Zoar Valley, and then probably drive down to Chautauqua County and ultimately to Allegheny National Forest. Probably stay there a couple of days, then head back east on US 6, through the Endless Mountains, and return through Binghamton. That said, this is somewhat repeative of the mid-summer trip, so I don’t know if I want to do it again.

Then there is the trip I really want to take, which is to Coal Country Ohio and West Virigina, and the Wayne National Forest and Monongahela National Forest. It would be a delightful trip, even if it was kind of a lng trip. But that is dependent on gas prices, and if I can get a week plus off to make it all happen. But I have truck and gear, so it could be really awesome trip if I could make it happen. I want to travel to new frontiers, and I am ready to make that happen.

Still Recovering After Vacation

I really like Northwest Pennsylvania. It’s so wild and different then anything in New York State, without all of the restrictions applied on the land and people of a liberal state like New York. All things rugged and back country are vastly different then in Albany.

Time seemed unlimited on vacation. Eight days and nights sure seemed like a long time. Every morning lighting the cook stove, cooking up breakfast on styrofoam plates, packing up the gear, tearing down camp, and heading out for the day, exploring truck trails and wild landscapes. Set up campsite, turn on Christmas lights, build a campfire, and burn the day’s garbage, while listening to country music with my cowboy hat on.

In contrast, the land of work is vastly different. It’s setting an alarm clock, getting up, making breakfast on an electric stove, and catching the bus to work, and sitting in an office all day. Then come home, cook dinner, wash dishes, and sort the trash for recycling. Walk down to the park or the library. No opporunties to burn anything.

Man cities, and my urban reality in the state that best represents liberal statism, sucks.

In eight days, I managed to burn through 86.8 gallons, travel 1490 miles, and got 17.0 MPG. Those truck trails sure make Big Red burn a lot of gas. And I sure need the $310 to cover the cost of gas, plus the other $90 for beer, food, and supplies. Hell, even the styrofoam plates and paper towels aren’t free.

I also realize that I won’t be up for such an adventure for quite a while. It’s a mix of money and just getting the time off, but the reality is I probably won’t be back in Pennsylvania for a while. Somehow, trips to Adirondacks don’t seem so far or exciting, as Northwest Pennsylvania.

After looking forward to this trip, all that is left is some pictures, burn out tin cans for recycling, and the hang-over made up of memories.

The Mohawk Valley Farm Belt

Both sides of the Mohawk Valley, for about ten miles north and south of the river have extensive dairy farming going on. Not large confined animal feeding operations, but instead relatively small dairies that overlook the river, and leave mostly a pastorial landscape of pastures and corn fields, sloped along the hills that overlook the river.

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There are certainly other farming locations in state, but there is something specifically quite pictorial of this area, all overlooking the river, with the relatively high hills that surround the Mohawk River. Few areas of state are as open, or is farming concentrated around a single valley. Most farming areas in state are single valleys — like the Black River Valley — and not hills surrounding a major river.

The Mohawk Valley Farm belt tends to petter out, as you climb out of the Mohawk Valley. Head to far north or south, and the farms are replaced with a lot of scrub land, where less productive farms, with poorer soils and shorter growing seasons have been abandoned. These lands nowadays are primarily owned by rural residents, and used mostly for hunting in the fall and the production of firewood. The worst parcels of all, as it comes to farming, are largely owned by the state, for timber and public recreation.

The belt is pretty clearly defined. Where farms begin and end in scrub land are as visible by the view of the window in your truck, as they are in view from the aerial photos looking down onto the earth. Farming, while an important part of the economy, really is limited to where can occur, and beyond that, most of the land is wasted.

Biomass companies, and alternative crops some day promise to recover this scrubland, that is all but abandoned for anything but deer hunting. It would be nice, but we will see the impacts to the environment once it happens. Scrublands, and recently abandoned, to the human mind look so disorderly, at least until they revert back to full forest.

Why I Enguage in Zero Landfill Camping

Zero Landfill Automoible Assembly Plants.

You often hear commericals on radio that “Subrarus are made in zero landfill factories.” Basically, what they are talking about is their automobile assembly factory, where manufactured components are shipped in reusable containers (to save money), bolted or welded together, and finished up.

They do not include manufacturing of components, or the mining of raw materials to build the cars. Even at zero-landfill assembly factories, some waste is generated, but valuable metal scraps are sent to scrap dealers, and plastic garbage and other wastes are shipped off to municipal trash incinerators, and burned for energy. Zero-landfill Assembly factories typically also have recycling programs in lunch rooms for aluminum cans and recycling for paper in offices, which is fairly common in most industries.

When you read into the claim, you have to be kind of skeptical. Indeed, zero-landfill is much different then zero-waste, or near zero-waste as many environmentalists are persuing. Indeed, much of it’s just certification, rather then any real change in process — as it’s stupid not to reuse shipping containers, scrap waste metals, and do other things that save businesses money.

Zero Landfill Camping.

I don’t generate any trash when I camping that I haul home, and then take to the transfer station for disposal in a landfill. I seperate out the burnable trash from the non-burnable trash, the later which I take home for recycling either for remedemption of the deposit or regular municipal recycling at transfer station. I don’t leave any waste behind, and indeed, I often pick up litter from other persons, including small scraps of paper or plastic people overlook.

I do use styrofoam plates and plastic forks, paper towels, wet whipes, and often camp food comes in more packaging then stuff you get a home, as more stuff is canned or in dry packaging. I don’t use reusable bags when buying camp food, because having lots of plastic bags is handy for camping. It’s a lot easier to burn your trash, then have to wash up a lot of dishes. Food waste is also burned in a hot fire, because one doesn’t want attract bears.

I generate a lot more trash at camp then I do at home. Yet, I don’t want to haul a lot of smelly trash around, so the garbage gets burned at the end of the evening in the campfire. The day’s plastic bag full of burnables gets burned in the hot campfire at the end of day — and is almost instantly incinerated. I like watching trash burn, and I’m not that worried about it compared to what a lot of farmers and rural folks in more rural states burn regularly in their burn barrels and pits.

Tin cans are burned out, to rid of food residue, and tossed in the bin with the aluminim beer and beverage cans. Glass bottles are washed out. Anything that doesn’t burn is hauled home for recycling. I make sure to pick out any aluminum foil or partially burnt trash out of the fire pit. I don’t litter, and there is no trash generated that ever sees a landfill.

Mocking Zero-landfill Concept.

To a certain extent I am mocking the concept of zero-landfill manufacturing, that some manufacturers like to brag about it. Are farmers and rural residents who burn their garbage, recycle tin cans and glass, compost, zero-landfill folk? They are keeping their waste out of landfills after all.

But more seriously, it’s not zero-landfill but zero-waste we should be getting to as a society. It’s one things for a country boy out in the boonies to burning his garbage in a fire, it’s another thing for an urban society to be taking steps to reduce it’s waste. All of the country boys, farmers, and rural residents of the world, generate relatively little trash compared to what our big cities generate.

Cities need to find steps to recycle more of their waste, and recover their organics through source-seperated organics composting, biogas, or source-seperate organic biomass energy production. Cities need to find ways to keep their organic waste seperate from toxic technical materials — we got to stop dumping massive quanities of plastics and metals mixed with organics like food waste and brush into massive garbage incinerators and landfills.

Andy Arthur.org

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