Now for the Rest of the Story

Howard Simons: Did you call the White House press office?
Bob Woodward: I went over there; I talked to them. They said Hunt hadn't worked there for three months. Then a PR guy said this weird thing to me. He said, "I am convinced that neither Mr. Colson nor anyone else at the White House had any knowledge of, or participation in, this deplorable incident at the Democratic National Committee."
Howard Simons: Isn't that what you expect them to say?
Bob Woodward: Absolutely.
Howard Simons: So?
Bob Woodward: I never asked about Watergate. I simply asked what were Hunt's duties at the White House.

Robert Redford, as journalist Bob Woodward, stars in the 1976 film "All the President's Men" that won four Oscars, and numerous other award nominations, for its portrayal of a Washington Post reporter (Woodward) covering initially a minor news story about a break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters that ultimately follows a trail leading through the Republican Party to the White House. The political manipulations of those in power over the media is well represented in the film, and the above scene depicts the exact premise the "Public Relations and Lobbying Industry" article from Corporate Watch presents.

Consider this corporate website copy, taken from an environmental company-focused national public relations firm:

"Effective environment PR specialists won’t just report your news, they’ll help you create it. There are many ways you can contribute to the environment and a savvy and experienced environment pr firm like [omitted] can help. If your product or service isn’t environmentally friendly, environment pr can get you involved in environmentally friendly fundraisers or event affiliations."

Manipulation. Strategy. Spin. Is this a surprise in today's mega-conglomerate, politically motivated, and special-interest controlled media? Not to me.

Even the more light and airy movie "Broadcast News" (1987), starring William Hurt as television news anchor Tom Grunick, portrays a scene in which Grunick says to fellow broadcaster Aaron Altman (played by co-star James L. Brooks): "Just remember that you're not just reading the news, you're narrating it. Everybody has to sell a little. You're selling them this idea of you, you know, you're sort of saying, trust me I'm, um, credible. So when you feel yourself just reading, stop! Start selling a little."

In these two instances, the movies do not stray far from truth about the media industry. Without a doubt, the PR of news spin is meant to attract ratings. Ratings attract advertisers. Advertisers keep the media companies on the air or in print. Investigative reporting and solid journalistic writing is becoming an "art form" skill of the past. Even Corporate Watch's 2003 report preceded the explosion in newspapers transferring their future business stakes to the internet and web broadcasts over the traditional print paper. All major broadcast outlets have presence on the web. Simply put, as the business of journalism evolved over the past two centuries, so too will it evolve with the current changing times. Today, it is social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, spreading news, tomorrow remains a mystery of the next novel approach. Consider all this carefully when selecting your source on environmental news or matters of energy development.

In today's model -- because of easy access -- almost anyone can create a news site, a news blog, or other presentable format to exchange information. Perhaps just as one does his or how own due research in finding a good doctor or dentist, so too does some burden rest with the public to demand quality in their source of news. Seek out those journalists and news providers that take their craft seriously, those that carry credentialed reporters trained in widely recognized (and accredited) schools of journalism, or those whose recognition is merited beyond popularity alone. Seek quality, balance, well researched, and creative individuality over regurgitated and warmed over monotony. In matters of environmental or ecological content, beware of "greenwashing" or the simple brainwashings from PR and advertising in not only news content, but also in product information from "environmentally-friendly" items.

I can't say that I am apathetic or angry about the current trend in media and public relations, certainly no more or less than with a whole host of other trends in our world (including my own industry of architecture and ecological design). Perhaps I reserve the right to choose -- to choose whether I read a particular columnist or newspaper or not, choose to watch or not a particular television news team or view a certain web source, or to choose to do my homework about a company or product. My naturally analytical and critical-thought oriented mind sees poor attempts in a flash, and my years experience in life and hard lessons taught me to not take everything you read or watch as absolute.

There are always shades of gray. And now, time for me to tune into the "rest of the story."

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford in "All the President's Men"

Utah's Stance on Green Becoming More Clear

 

The Green River and Flaming Gorge reservoir, Utah, is home to several recent controversial environmental and energy initiatives.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The 1st installment of a continuing story

The State of Utah's transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is well behind the pace of neighboring states, and continues but a trickle of initiative amidst murky public messages by its governing officials. This is all indicative of the weak advocacy of the State government to take a strong environmental position and proceed with action steps that support "green" energy -- steps even outlined in Energy Initiatives and Imperatives: Utah's 10-Year Strategic Energy Plan, released by Utah's governor's office, March of 2011. If someone were to only connect the dots across various initiatives, the position would be quite clear. Yesterday, it was announced Utah approved the water rights use for a proposed nuclear power plant to locate near Green River, Utah, another major step towards realization of that project. Major drivers for that project include the economic development surrounding its construction and operation, but also the move away from coal-generating plants to cleaner sources such as natural gas and nuclear.

Clouding the top brass' stance leading up to this point was recent news reported in The Salt Lake Tribune from last Tuesday, January 17, 2011, with respect to a Colorado developer-proposed 500-mile water pipeline that would deliver 200,000 acre-feet per year water from Flaming Gorge, Utah, across Wyoming, and then south past Denver to Pueblo, Colorado.  The article states officials from Utah Division of Water Rights are analyzing whether the Green River has enough water resource to supply the project, as well as meet Utah's needs, such as a southern state pipeline plan to divert water from Lake Powell to the town of St. George, or proposed needs of additional electrical generation.

"The [Green River] project also could supply water to eastern Wyoming, though the state has opposed the project," reported the Tribune, including Wyoming's Governor Matt Mead, along with Wyoming towns of Rock Springs and Green River, as well as a Colorado coalition of nearby businesses. Utah Governor Gary Herbert has yet to oppose the project formally, but was quoted "'If there's not water there, we'll do everything we can to block it,'" and continuing, "'We'll not relinquish one drop -- one molecule -- of Utah water.'" It would seem the supply to Utah's drinking water projects and recreational site needs could be threatened in this arid climate where reservoir levels have been diminishing in recent years should such a proposal advance to fruition; the precise allocation of water volumes rights from rivers complicates the equation further, both legally and practically. Opposition groups to the Wyco Power and Water proposal state that up to a quarter of the river's water flow could be diverted.

The plot thickens as Governor Herbert's pipeline message likely was for allowing the State Engineer's to reserve that water for another controversial Green River project: the proposed Blue Castle Nuclear Power Plant Project for a 1,700-acre parcel four miles west of the river and town of Green River in Emery County, Utah. This 3,000 megawatt plant is claimed could expand Utah's electricity generation by 50% for the next 50 years, but it would require nearly 54,000 acre-feet of water to be diverted from the Green River where "none of the water would be returned to the river," reported a November 22, 2011, article in The Salt Lake Tribune. Blue Castle Holdings announced yesterday (January 23, 2012) that it was granted approval for using the existing water rights for the project, as posted by Power Engineering.  "[Blue Castle Holdings] leased the water over four years ago from the Kane County and San Juan County Water Conservancy Districts for the expected 60 years of plant operations. After a review of the Districts’ applications for changing the points of diversion, places of use, nature of use, and storage of water, Utah’s State Water Engineer approved the 53,600 acre feet of water per year from the Green River for the proposed nuclear electricity generation project," stated the online magazine that focuses on the power industry.

Blue Castle reports only a 1% diversion of the river's annual water flow for the plant.  The Salt Lake Tribune article, however, points out that this water use calculation is based on a "normal" year, whereas in a dry year such as in 2002, the diversion could be up to 4%. Deseret News, in an article published October 30, 2011, reported that the Green River's annual flow of water is 6,048 cubic feet per second, or nearly 4.4 million acre-feet.   A look at the U.S. Geologic Survey's published data, the Green River is discharging approximately 2,120 cubic feet per second (mean). The maximum was 6,600 in 1985. For the past week, the instantaneous discharge has been hovering around 4,000 cubic feet per second. An acre-foot is the volume of water required to cover 1 acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of 1 foot and is equal to 325,851 gallons or 1,233 cubic meters. "An acre-foot is enough water to supply a suburban family's use for a year, and the 53,600 acre-feet the Blue Castle project intends to use is enough for about 230,000 people. So, the water the power plant would use is enough to serve all the residents of Salt Lake City and Draper combined," explained the November article from The Salt Lake Tribune.

A third indicator of the inability of the current state governor's administration to commit toward renewable projects is another Green River area energy resource: oil shale. The Green River formation and Uintah basin contains the largest oil shale deposits in the world -- from 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil, of which 800 billion is recoverable with today's technology. This is triple the entire proven reserve amount of Saudi Arabia, and enough to fuel the United States' oil fuel needs for over 200 years. The hitch is that an almost equal amount of water is required to extract and make use of the oil. For an oil shale industry producing 2.5 million barrels per day (400×10^³ m³/d), this equates to 105,000,000–315,000,000 US gallons per day (400,000–1,190,000 m³/d) of water. These numbers include water requirements for power generation for in-situ heating processes, retorting, refining, reclamation, dust control and on-site worker demands. Hence, a 2.5 million barrels per day (400×10^³ m³/d) oil shale industry would require 180,000 to 420,000 acre feet (220,000,000 to 520,000,000 m³) of water per year, depending on location and processes used. In effect, the level of water diversion could reduce the Green River's water flow by up to a third or half.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a wonderful document to help calculate some of the math. For those inclined, I recommend downloading the PDF.

What will the environmental impact of these projects be on wildlife, vegetation, our own drinking water needs, recreation and tourism?

Sunrise

This lovely shot of a lone tree at sunrise in a lush green rolling field seems a nice metaphoric image to begin a new journey.

The 1st Post: from course requirement to ???

Today I visited a few online blogs focused on environmental topics and geared my visits towards sites from more reputable sources. My aim was to find a few sites that had credentialed, or maybe seasoned, writers. Flash and splash was not my interest, but content, quality writing, and topics of interest became important qualifiers.

The New York Times environment blog "Green: A Blog About Energy and the Environment" is organized within their online newspaper and the blog feels as though it is one of the columns one would read from a print paper. "A trustworthy source" is my first feeling and impression. The posts read as a news story -- with information and facts and quotes -- but succinct and in a first-person narrative.

Yale Environment 360 was another visit. This had much more graphic appeal and offered a rich display of choices from which to follow posts and articles. The posts were very in-depth, offered a length greater than a couple paragraphs, and presented each screen view with a logical and well-thought out arrangement.

Next, I discovered Inhabitant and enjoyed the features that displayed a variety of genres -- from architecture to automobiles. Treehugger was another blog that I was already familiar. Its organized with a rich volume of articles and posts, but many of the individual pieces are short and snappy. Some others I visited were decidedly not to become a part of my "bookmarks."

After rereading the Environmental Communications course syllabus several times to understand the requirements for the class, it became apparent that the best route to pursue was to create my own blog site.  This idea was not to compete necessarily with the sites I had seen,  but to establish my own outlet that could help hone my writing skills and document my ruminations and interests in a journal-like manner. It is this where I sense our instructor's true desire lay with his students -- to get us out in the world, writing, exploring, creating open dialogue to discuss the world's concerns. The connect of a blog to my own editorial duties for Friends of Kebyar and Taliesin Fellows publications and deeper interest in authoring books and articles in the future captured my attention as well.

It made sense. Where I'll find the time, I cannot say.  But now after a few hours I've established a space on Blogspot, it's time for me to go back and revisit that site by Yale's School of Forestry and glean some ideas...

A beginning

It has begun.
A blog.

Perhaps not just any blog.
My blog -- "the e(cological) sound."

This blog will be a spot to resonate thoughts and reflections, links and discoveries, information and news about all things ecological or environmental. Ruminations on beauty, nature, Organic Design, Green Architecture, and sustainability.

It may be just a blog nonetheless, but I am eager to let the exploration unfold...