Conserving Water for the Future

My colleague S. Singh recently wrote and article titled, "Xeriscaping for the future" that addressed the issue of water use in Texas. It emphasized that water used in lawn care is unnecessary and offers a possible solution through the use of xeriscaping.

I find the idea of water conservation vital to the future of the state and the people that live here. Singh points out in his post that it takes a lot of water to maintain a green fresh lawn and a large portion of household water is used in making this happen. I completely agree with this point and have even witnessed this first hand in many neighborhoods. Water is more scarce than people think, many companies and house holds will set up automatic sprinklers that go off even when raining or water in the middle of the day when most of the water will evaporate and do little good to a lawn anyway.

Another point Singh made was the the use of xeriscaping to replace a lawn with native plants and gravel or pebble ground cover instead of grass. The expense at first would be high but would lead to cost savings later on and help with water conservation. While I agree that a solution should be met with lawn cares intensive water use the appeal of replacing ones lawn with native plants and rock overlay does not work for everybody. Singh also suggested the requirement of new residential developments to use xeriscaping for their lawns to further decrease water use but I also feel that this is not a good solution.

I believe the best way to promote water conservation in Texas would be to provide incentive to take part. As I mentioned before many people may not like the idea of xeriscaping and so alternatives like native Texas grasses that can handle the heat without water might be better. Further informing the public about water conservation might also be a viable solution as many people don't know the true seriousness about Texas drought. Even when intensive fails I don't believe the forcing of lawn conversions in new neighborhoods is the way to go nor is this really helping the overall problem. Many companies have the ability to pay for as much water as they could possibly need so water conservation of any kind might not a top priority. In cases like this laws limiting water use on lawns would be more effective and would effect a lot more people.

Conserving water in Texas is of great importance and is a must if we want to continue to have water in the future. The upkeep of lawns takes a lot of water and needs to be met with a solution that works for us all and allows us to play an active roll in water conservation.

Texas Emissions

Carbon dioxide emissions in Texas is a growing problem that raises health concerns and environmental issues for the future of the state. Since this problem is caused by every day use of vehicles for tasks like getting food and going to work and power consumption needs like electricity for homes and companies it will continuously be a problem until something is done. Air that is not clean to breath is something that affects us all and will only lead to more pollution and additional spending especially on health care.

According the US energy information administration Texas ranks number one in carbon dioxide emissions. There have been acts addressed to emissions such as the federal Clean Air Act which allows the EPA to establish air quality standards for all of the states. The act also required that states have implementation plans so that they can reach these goals. Unfortunately setting standards and making a plan isn't enough. Texas is having a hard time keeping up with these standards because of its lavish energy consumption.  The US energy information administration also provides data on this showing Texas as number one in total energy production in the US. Power plants are burning more fuel to keep up with the demand for energy and thus  produce much of the states emissions and also keep it from getting any better. Emissions from vehicles have become increasing less of a problem unlike the power plants. Tighter emission testing and regulation have taken many older cars off the road and made the newer cars more efficient.

 Although I am glad that Texas does at least have some laws and regulations on emissions I believe the only way to truly do something about carbon emissions is for Texas to invest more money in renewable energy alternatives. This may be expensive at first but will solve two crucial problems in the future, air pollution and spending. Standards will only get stricter and this will mean putting older power plants and means of energy out of commission or spending more money to conform them to standards. Pollution will also never get better if we are still using power plants that run on oil and natural gas but never bothering to move to cleaner energy. Texas needs to think of the future and how its actions now can make up greatly later on.

Helping or hurting the environment?

I recently read an article by Nirmal Mulji called "Paper or Plastic?" that addressed the issues of environmental harm due to the use of plastic and paper bags. I found many of the statements and facts very relevant to his argument. It was basically about the fact that plastic bags cause a lot of harm to the environment and how paper bags are not the solution to this problem.

One of the points that Mulji made in his article was that plastic bags degrade very slow at a rate of 20 plus years. This coupled with the fact that very few people recycle them makes plastic bags a horrible environmental option. This is a prim example of how many people simply don't care about the environmental effects or possibly don't see the effects right away. If people really cared about the environment yet liked plastic bags over other types of bags then recycling would be higher than it currently is but this simply isn't true.

Another point Mulji brought up was how paper bags are no better than plastic. This is not because of the rate of decomposition but because of the heavier resources needed to make them. This includes more trees being cut down and more fuel burned to transport and make these bags. This makes a lot of sense and shows how easy it can be to think that just because something is biodegradable it can have underlying consequences.

Mulji mentioned one more point that I found interesting in is article and that was the banning of environmentally harmful bags all together. I agree with his point of bringing in government  although I think it might need to be handled in a different way. Banning of paper and plastic bags would mean the only alternative, reusable bags. Reusable bags can be costly and many people might not want to pay or even use them. Instead I think a gradual decline while informing the public of the dangers of plastic and paper bags would be best. This is already something that is going on in the smoking industry with the raising of cigarette cost and mandatory warnings on all cigarette packs to deter the use of tobacco.

To sum things up, plastic and paper bags are by no means helping the environment. The law is a necessary tool for cracking down on the wide spread use of these bags and promoting better alternatives for the future.

Illegal immigration: fiscal issue

The issue of illegal immigration into Texas is a fiscal burden that effects Texan tax payers each year. As more illegal immigrants enter the state, less money is being generated by these immigrants then spent in tax money. An executive summary on the Texas illegal immigration burden by Jack Martin revealed that in 2013 Texas tax payed payed about 12.1 billion dollars and only received 1.27 billion in tax money back. On top of these costs are the cost of damages and crime that rises from illegal immigrant entering the state. Texas should definitely focus more on decreasing the number of immigrants entering the state since it effects every Texan in the form of taxes and would save a substantial amount of money.

In order to prevent these deficits in tax revenue and remedy the crime increase that comes from illegal immigration a decrease in immigrants coming into the state would be the best way to go. Unfortunately it seems that political solutions to this problem has been nothing but temporary. Gov Rick Perry stated that he would send 1,000 national guard troops over the next month to the border to combat illegal immigrants entering the state. This solution will only last so long and will cause a slight decrease of immigrants for a short time if anything. Perry also tried requesting federal aid through Obama's power to send troops as commander-in-chief of the army. This is just as bad as the first approach at fixing the problem and even Obama stated in the meeting that it would only be a temporary solution.

Although I agree with Rick Perry's concern for immediate relief from this wave of illegal immigrants entering the state I feel that its just as important to think of a future solution like increasing border security in the form of a wall or permanent structure. This might impose a lot of money at first but it will pay off over time as it saves money by preventing immigration.

Texas House Stepping on Border Crisis to Secure our Border

State Rep. Dan Flynn  posted a commentary titled "Texas House Stepping on Border Crisis to Secure our Border", in the Texas Insider blog talking about federal law interfering with Texas ability to limit border passage of Mexicans into the state. 

The writers argument is that Texas cannot properly protect its citizens when it can't enforce federal immigration policy, this forces Texas to hand any individuals that have been caught over to the US border patrol. The author noted that a federal policy allowing any immigrant granted with "permisos" is allowed to travel anywhere in the US and choose where they want to "promise" to show up for a court date. The author believes the only solution is for the Obama administration to properly address the border concerns in Texas.

It is completely agreeable that border concerns need to be addressed properly by the Federal Government especially since it's federal policy that is conflicting with how Texas is trying to handle the problem.  Although it might seem like the Federal Government needs to fix this problem, it would ultimately be Texas who has to maintain border control. The only way for that to happen would be to rewrite the federal border policy. This would allow tighter control by Texas of its own border with less federal interference.

The author makes a point from a quote in the commentary that other states have tried to take border control into their own hands and found them selves with lawsuits. This reinforces the idea that we need to fix this problem through the Federal Government, and how big of a problem this really is.

The author was able to make their argument credible by presenting some history about border control and quotes from a meeting on the border crisis by some of the State Representatives. Since this is an issue that affects almost every Texan, it was meant to reach every Texan.  In the end the reader understands what is being done about the continuing effort to secure our state border.

Helping Middle Class

Our nation is mostly made up of middle class working Americans striving to receive help for their problems and even achieve better life styles than they currently have. Our politicians work to help achieve this goal but it can be hard to take them seriously when they talk from a higher income level. I recently read an article about this going even more in depth on the issue of rising expenses with stagnant wages and how our upper class politicians don't exactly know how to fix a problem they don't truly understand. I can only assume that this articles audience is primarily middle class as the issues discussed would only interest someone in the middle class. These problem don't pertain strictly to money either, many of the issues that middle class Americans face every day require different laws that affect different things.

In the article the author talks about Florida Senior Marco Rubio and his solution to helping middle class with increase child tax credit and lower cost online education. These solutions seem so narrow to solving the grand scheme of middle class problems and the author equates this to a temporary solution of the main problems for the middle class. The author also argues that most Americans see middle class as different things explaining why lawmakers put the threshold of middle class a little higher. While I agree with why they would raise the threshold I don't see why that makes a difference in how people view them.

Overall the author seems logical and credible in his article, bringing in examples and real life situations showing how his points relate to what is actually going on around us.

School District Audit

Article

Tax money is supposed to be spent for the good of the people and bettering society. Education is a large part of this but not all of it is spent correctly.
In the article I have linked it explains the situation where a school audit in Fort Worth Texas found that millions of dollars in computer equipment in a North Texas school district was purchased and never used over 7 years. Money was then used on maintenance fees for the unused equipment.
This is a very interesting topic in that it shows the underlying abuse of government money. Education is very important but it surprises me that something like this could happen. More importantly even if the equipment couldn't be returned it could have been used by less fortunate schools that would benefit far more from the equipment.
I encourage anyone to take a look at this article since it's something that affects us all, down to the money we pay for these school districts to have what they need to operate.

Nick