Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

Renewable Energy & Protecting the Environment Should Not Be Partisan Politics   Originally published in The Lowell Ledger 7/7/2022   Why on Earth has protecting our environment and conserving natural resources by “going green” in any way we can is turned into a partisan, Democrat vs Republican thing? It should not be this way. Please stick with me and read this whole column before you toss the paper in the trash bin, or better yet the recycle bin. I am hoping I can challenge the thinking of both Blue and Red readers.  The Eagle is the symbol of our country – it is not a mascot for the Red or Blue team. One of the best things I have seen in my lifetime is the return of eagles, not only in Michigan, but all over the country they symbolize. When I was a kid in the early 1970s, my mom had me read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” a book about how we were trashing our environment. At that time, DDT and other pesticides were decimating eagles and other birds of prey...

Water Is Life – We Cannot Take It For Granted   Originally published in The Lowell Ledger 6/25/2022   Michigan truly is a water wonderland. As residents of a state surrounded by twenty percent of all the available freshwater on the entire planet, we might take water for granted. Yes, our little mitten shaped portion of the globe gives us access to one fifth of the fresh water available to the world. Let that sink in, will you?   Julie and I recently took a work vacation trip to Las Vegas to attend a jewelry show. We stayed some extra days so that I could check a visit to the Hoover Dam off my bucket list (more on that later). For most of the daylight hours during our six days out west the temperatures were triple digits – the highest was 111 degrees. Sure, it is a “dry heat” compared to Michigan with the humidity levels at 10 to 15 per cent. However, 111 still feels like walking around in an oven and the decided lack of humidity, read WATER, is the subject ...

  Go ahead - you can touch these frozen sand dunes. Standing slack jawed in the 109 degree heat at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area it was hard to imagine anything being frozen at any time in this natural oven. That is probably why I got such a kick out of the description of the beautiful red and tan sandstone formations surrounding me – “frozen sand dunes”. During our recent work-cation to a jewelry show in Las Vegas, Julie was busy working the search engine on her phone to find places to visit that would expose us to the incredible natural wonders that are just a short trip from the non-stop neon spectacle of the Vegas Strip. Our plane had not touched down before she had our first day trip all mapped out for us. Red Rock Canyon is just 24 miles from the Strip and is well worth the drive. One of the best things about Red Rock is that if you have absolutely no desire to exit your vehicle and take advantage of one or more of the 26 different hikes and trails, you can...

Michigan truly is a water wonderland. As residents of a state surrounded by twenty percent of all the available freshwater on the entire planet, we might take water for granted. Yes, our little mitten shaped portion of the globe gives us access to one fifth of the fresh water available to the world. Let that sink in, will you? Julie and I recently took a work vacation trip to Las Vegas to attend a jewelry show. We stayed some extra days so that I could check a visit to the Hoover Dam off my bucket list (more on that later). For most of the daylight hours during our six days out west the temperatures were triple digits – the highest was 111 degrees. Sure, it is a “dry heat” compared to Michigan with the humidity levels at 10 to 15 per cent. However, 111 still feels like walking around in an oven and the decided lack of humidity, read WATER, is the subject I want to address here. In case you are unaware, many parts of the Western US have been experiencing draught conditions over the last...