Last week it was reported that the Beijing government issued a red alert over the air pollutant PM2.5 for the first time ever. Coal combustion generates particulate matter known as PM and China is suffering from a particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, hence PM2.5. The World Health Organization considers a PM2.5 reading of 25 micrograms per cubic meter unsafe. Last week Beijing's reading was over 300. Smog has been an ongoing problem in Chinese cities for decades with an average of 4000 pollution related deaths per day attributed to the problem according to some sources. The week before, it was reported by journalist Peter Ford that the air in Beijing was yellow and he could hardly see across the freeway outside his hotel window. According to him, the PM2.5 reading was close to 900 that day and the local officials did not declare a red alert. It could have been because China's leaders were under the impression that a shipment of Vitality Air was going to arrive sooner than it did. Confused, my loyal reader? Let me explain. Recently, two Canadian entrepreneurs Troy Paquette and Moses Lam decided to bottle and sell mountain air from their hometown, Banff, Alberta and are making a killing in China. Starting as a joke, the two sold a Ziploc bag of air (we all did this as kids, but we usually just sat on them to make them pop) on EBay for 99 cents. Their second attempt created a bidding war and sold for $168.00. Realizing a good get rich quick scheme when they saw it, they quickly went from Ziploc bags to aluminum bottles and marketed their "product" to pollutant filled countries such as China, India and Egypt. With China being the current front runner in the smog department due to a recent lack of rain and low winds, Vitality Air seems to have found some "new clothes" for the rube emperor. Paying from $14.00 up to $46.00 depending on the amount of air they buy plus shipping and handling Chinese consumers seem to be willing to try anything to alleviate their pollution problem while Troy and Moses capitalize on their stupidity.
Now, I use the term "stupidity" loosely because desperate people will do irrational things. So maybe that's a better description for the people of Beijing and other Chinese cities affected by the current situation. Especially since the citizens of Woodland, North Carolina are making the Chinese buying air in a can look like Rhodes scholars. Woodland, a small town in Northampton county with a population of around 1000, has just had it's town council impose a moratorium on solar energy farms. The moratorium was initiated after a rezoning proposal to allow a fourth solar farm to use land that runs along US Highway 258 was put before the town council. This land was chosen because it is near an electrical substation making it easy to add power to the local electrical grid. The rejection of the proposal was attributed, in part, to the negative reaction it received during the public comment potion of the council meeting preceding the vote. Among those that spoke on the record were Jean Barnes who claimed she represented many citizens who rejected solar farms in Woodland and presented a petition to the council that reflected the public sentiment she expressed, however, never explained why they objected to them. Mary Hobbs made her grievances a little more clear by claiming her house was surrounded by solar farms and her property is losing value because of them. Retired science teacher Jane Mann is concerned that the natural vegetation around solar farms will not be able to go through photosynthesis keeping it from growing. She claims that she has Observed areas near solar farms and panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight. She also questioned what she believes is a high number of cancer related deaths in the same areas and claimed that no one could convince her that solar panels didn't cause cancer. Her spouse Bobby Mann backed her play by stating that the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun, businesses would not come to Woodland and young people would "move out" because of them.
Several Strata solar company representatives addressed the council and citizens, including Beth Trahos and Brent Niemann. Trahos reminded the attendees that solar farms are a proven technology and have been deemed safe to exist next to and on homes for decades. She also offered data that showed there has been no negative impact on property values due to solar farms.... ever. Niemann informed everyone at the meeting that solar panels only use the sunlight that hits them directly and that they don't draw additional sunlight away from plants and homes. He also added that there are absolutely no toxic materials on site.
I have to ask myself, my fellow Observers, if the Strata representatives were addressing a town council meeting or my daughters first grade class. Wait... strike that! I think I may have just insulted my daughter and her classmates. For as much as I hate to be wrong, I think I have given some of these people more credit than they deserve. In And That's The Half www.halftime2015.blogspot.com I stated that certain people of the southern persuasion shouldn't be underestimated as "uneducated hicks". I went on to write that "most of them have some type of degree and it's their intelligence that makes them the most dangerous". Well..... to a certain extent, I suppose I was right. You do need a degree to be a science teacher. What scares me the most is that this woman was teaching children for years.... about science! As far as her husband is concerned my research didn't turn up anything definitive about his professional career. If the populations intelligence reflects the demographic opinion on matters of local common sense, this guy was probably a physics professor before he retired. I have to admit, most of what I read that these people actually believe went well past the point of ignorance for me. Ignorance doesn't even remotely define a miniscule portion of the stupidity in these statements and that's exactly what it is... simple.... sheer.... stupidity. Not a lack of knowledge, but having the knowledge and still believing in propaganda abandoned in the dark ages. And they wonder why so many consider those residing below the Mason-Dixon line as just a bunch of hillbillies and dismiss their opinions as nonsense. If these people ever want to climb out from under the "dumb hick" stereo-typical fodder that is shared by a lot of "Yankee" mentality, they have to hide idiots like these from the public eye or at the very least, deny them the right to speak in public. Moreover in front of the press.
Pastor Peter Laruffa of Grace Fellowship Church in Florence, Kentucky was quoted in the HBO documentary Questioning Darwinism saying "If somewhere within the bible I were to find a passage that said 2+2=5, I would believe it, accept it as true and then do my best to work it out and understand it.". That statement sums up the problem in an inane nutshell. This is exactly the kind of mentality that holds us back. When we are presented with a statement, proposition or ideal that goes against our better judgment or what we know is correct from the knowledge we've acquired, we have to question that statement, proposition or ideal. There's no need to "work it out". 2+2=4...not 5. We all know this, "understand" this and "accept" this because it is true. Just because someone is in authority, has a degree or claims the information comes from a deity doesn't make the correct solution wrong and never will no matter who's trying to sell us the latest bottle of snake oil. Ignorance on a subject is a poor excuse for inept statements made on the matter, but is better that being educated about it and still insisting that the answer is 5. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have to send some flash cards to Woodland.
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