Thinking Green Thursday

Michelle has been our host for Thinking Green Thursday. When I read her post today I wanted to cheer, because she is championing a favorite topic of mine, and wanted to cry because it is such a sad topic.
I'm sure you have seen this logo on my sidebar in the past, and in several of my posts.


The story doesn't change. It only grows worse with every passing day. The owner of a mine, Massey Energy, once again found itself in the headlines this past week, when twenty-five miners died. Conditions for the miners are dreadful. Beyond that, conditions created by mining practices, particularly the practice of simply blowing off the tops of mountains, are so outrageously WRONG, I can't begin to express my feelings .

I quote from the site of ilovemountains.org:

"Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining where entire mountains are literally blown up -- devastating communities throughout Appalachia, polluting drinking water and destroying rivers. And the worst part is, you're paying for it.

If your home or business is on the electric grid, chances are you are connected to mountaintop removal in the Appalachian Mountains. Find out how -- and then find out what you can do about it."

I urge you to go to this site and read the details for yourself. Learn how YOU may have a direct connection to mountaintop removal.

I also urge you to go to Michelle's post. It is full of excellent information.

Thinking Green Thursday

Please visit Michelle at Rambling Woods, as she will be hosting Thinking Green for us, as she does each week.

On Tuesday of this week, I did a post on Mountaintop Mining. A number of us have been talking about this recently, and are very concerned that the authorities have been dragging their feet so long on this vital issue.

Today I only want, once again, to urge everyone in this country to do whatever they feel they can to push for action in this matter. Coal mining has always been a dirty occupation, in more ways than one. If we do not STOP the practice of literally blowing away mountain tops, not only will our lovely mountains disappear, but more and more of our waterways will be polluted, wildlife will continue to be displaced, and human lives will be destroyed. This is such a horrendous practice, my mind simply boggles. I cannot fathom the reasons that it has been permitted to continue for so long.

Please, please, please, go to ilovemountains.org right now. Read for yourself, watch the videos, and write or call Mr. Obama and your Congressmen.

Thinking Green Thursday

Michelle brings us Thinking Green Thursday each week. Please stop at her blog, and read some of her wonderful posts, and visit the other contributors.


Today I would like to direct your interest to a site that is new to me. I live in southern New Jersey, which is a beautiful part of our world. To see some really lovely photographs of my world, visit Michael Hogan. His pictures explore the environment and wildlife of the area. Here are two of his winter photographs of the New Jersey Pinelands.



Besides the Pinelands, he can show you our wild flowers and birds, the Delaware Bay, the rivers and beaches, as well as some of our history.


At present, I have only a few pictures of my own, taken out of my front or back door, of the snowy neighborhood. Can't get out myself right now. But Mr. Hogan's photos can show you how very beautiful South Jersey can be. And he can do it so much better than I.

Thinking Green Thursday

Thanks again to Michelle for hosting Thinking Green Thursday.


As I have mentioned in the past, one of my most exciting adventures was climbing to Point Sur Light Station in California, spiraling up the rock toward the lighthouse, pausing along the way to look out over the Pacific Ocean, and watching the whales breaching and spouting as they migrated past.

Each year these animals travel from their feeding grounds in the Bering Sea, to lagoons in Baja, California, where they calve, and back again.


In the 1990's, about 28,000 of the whales made this trip, twenty or thirty per hour, swimming in close groups. Last year there were only 17,000 to 18,000. Climate change is impacting the habits of so many animals, the gray whale among them.

Scientists are observing these changes. They are seeing the northern migration of the whales become more spread out instead of traveling in the close groups as before. Their 10,000 mile trip seems to have become too much for them to accomplish all at once. As the ice melts away in the north, more and more are lingering along the coast of Oregon and Washington for a time before moving on to their feeding grounds. We do not yet know how these changes will ultimately effect them. Once again, the actions of human beings are interfering with Mother Nature.

My source and photo: Sea Notes from Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Thinking Green Thursday

Thinking Green Thursday is always hosted for us by Michelle. Her posts are always timely and contain much very interesting and helpful information.

My post today is on the lighter side, and my source is, once again, the Monterey Bay Aquarium's blog, Sea Notes, both pictures and information. I do love this blog.

When Nature creates a pattern, you will find it recurring over and over again. The perfect example is the strawberry. We are all familiar with the fruit. What we may not be aware of is the fact that the pattern is repeated in such things as mushrooms. This one was found by the blog author during a hike at Point Lobos.

He also tells us of a strawberry crab. I doubt if many - or any - of us have seen this one. He has noted that this photo is courtesy of Ho Ping-Ho at the National Taiwan Ocean University.

I just found these interesting. Hope you do too.
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Have to add to this post. Thanks to Lisa Lakel, at Two Miles High, I have learned that the mushroom pictured above is an amanita muscaria, and is poisonous and hallucinagenic. How about that!

And a couple of people have commented that they have seen or heard of the recently discovered strawberry crab.

Think(ing) Green Thursday

Last April, Gina, aka The Pagan Sphinx, came up with a brilliant meme known as Think Green Thursday. I loved the idea and started to participate. When Gina's life became so busy and she found many duties so pressing that she could no longer find the time to blog regularly, she felt that she had to put the meme aside. At that time I wished that I could step up to host it, but I knew that, first, I did not have the skill necessary to handle the job, and, second, I honestly was not sure that I would be around to continue it very long.

Enter Michelle! She already hosted a meme on the environmental theme, Nature Notes Thursday. (Try it. You'll like it!) So she knew she could handle the ropes, so to speak. And the care and health of our world was her major concern. Michelle took over hosting what became Think(ing) Green Thursday.

Michelle does a fantastic job with both of her memes. She does extensive research on her topics each week, giving us so much information and marvelous and imaginative ideas on ways in which we can help our environment. Her writing style and her photography are superb.

But she worries. She feels that participation in her memes has not grown significantly. Why are not a great many people interested enough in our environment? I don't agree that the relatively small number of participants indicates a lack of concern for the topic. I believe that those of us who are participating have a great many more interested readers than our numbers would make us believe. What is happening to our world today is frightening, and that realization and the question of how we can deal with it is mind numbing. I'm sure many who would like to participate are intimidated by the subject. I am. I keep putting up posts because, for some reason it makes me feel better to write things down, even though I feel totally inadequate to the task of conveying anything of real substance. I tend to rely on supplying links to others who come up with more solid ideas. Maybe at least I can steer someone in the right direction. A lot more people do comment than participate. And a lot more people read the posts than leave comments. Those who have counters on our blogs know that.

Thinking green doesn't need to mean a post full of great ideas. It can be one expressing appreciation for what we have here on Planet Earth. Or it can be a photo. Some of our regulars post some really beautiful photos. I look forward to them each week.

Michelle has created this Green Thinker badge for those of us who are concerned with thinking green. THANK YOU, MICHELLE. She has asked us each to post something about what we try to do in our lives to help a little. I wish that I had the energy and physical ability to do much more, but I do whatever I can each day toward making our world a cleaner, happier place. I recycle of course, try to conserve energy, plant a garden, try to avoid buying or using plastics - all the much- discussed, mundane things. I often fail or forget, and become angry with myself for it. But you have to keep trying. When you stop trying you had better stop complaining, because then it becomes your fault. And while you're at it, write your congressmen about it (I do that too), and tell them what you think they should be doing. Write to the owners of the coal mines, and other large corporations whose actions are polluting our air and land and streams and oceans. Don't think about it. Do it! It isn't "just one letter", it's one of thousands - maybe millions! And blog about it too.

And maybe you could encourage us and one another by participating in this meme in any way you can. Those of us who do this every week would be very thankful tomorrow for your support and company.