After the Boom in Natural Gas

"Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, which spent $41 billion to buy XTO Energy, a giant natural gas company, in 2010, when gas prices were almost double what they are today, minced no words about the industry’s plight during an appearance in New York this summer.

“We are all losing our shirts today,” Mr. Tillerson said. “We’re making no money. It’s all in the red.”

Like the recent credit bubble, the boom and bust in gas were driven in large part by tens of billions of dollars in creative financing engineered by investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Jefferies & Company.

After the financial crisis, the natural gas rush was one of the few major profit centers for Wall Street deal makers, who found willing takers among energy companies and foreign financial investors.

Big companies like Chesapeake and lesser-known outfits like Quicksilver Resources and Exco Resources were able to supercharge their growth with the global financing,"
read more NY Times.


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What to do with those Leaves?

Read the New York State Conservationist on the leaf issue. 

Fall is a beautiful time of the year; trees are dressed in brilliant colors of yellow, red and orange. But as fall progresses, that colorful foliage starts dropping, covering your lawn in a carpet of leaves. If left intact on the grass, these leaves will deprive the lawn of oxygen and sunlight resulting in dead spots the following spring.

To maintain a healthy lawn, fall's leaves must be managed in some way. If you live in a city, town or village, many of these municipalities provide a service to pick up the leaves and take them to a compost facility. There the leaves are most often put into long piles (called windrows) to biodegrade and turn into compost. Often a portion of this compost is made available to residents. Compost can be used as mulch, tilled into the soil or spread in a thin layer on the lawn. It retains soil moisture, adds nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, and improves soil structure.

to read more go to ...http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/85020.html

The I81 Challenge

Recently the  http://thei81challenge.org/   - was featured on the Public Television show - Insight.

Watch 10/19/12 on PBS. See more from Insight.

Neighbors cover up Wetland Garden

DeWitt, NY -- More than a dozen DeWitt residents got the town’s backing to plant a wetland garden last year at Franklin Park not far from Carrier Circle.
The town received a $4,030 grant from the Onondaga Environmental Institute to help control storm water runoff in various parts of the town, including Franklin Park. The town used some of the money to buy native wetland plants and trees for the park.
Neighbors looking out on the wetland garden were not too pleased with what they say was an eyesore. They complained, the town listened, and earlier this month the town dug up the plants.


Read on Syracuse.com

Collective will can shift path of global warming | syracuse.com

Collective will can shift path of global warming | syracuse.com

Like a slowly building wave, it has taken time but it is here: Your future has arrived. This summer's record-breaking temperatures, the droughts and floods, the forest fires. As bad as it is today, it will get a lot worse in your lifetimes. I apologize. 

I am like so many others, a creator of your future. I own a car - one of the 1 billion worldwide. There may be twice that many by 2050. I'm a traveler who contributes to the world's 94,000 commercial airline flights a day. I live in a house built for five, but only two of us live there. 

Just like so many others, I helped cause the fires in Colorado, where drought and warmer temperatures stressed trees and allowed bark beetle populations to explode - killing the pines and producing a vastness of dead, bone-dry wood waiting for a spark. And add melting glaciers, retreating arctic sea ice and failing oceans. 

A good portion of the state's apple crop has been lost - caused by the unusual warm spell in March that caused the blossoms to open too soon. Then the heat and lack of rain stressed what survived.


read more here - > Collective will can shift path of global warming | syracuse.com