Mama gnome meets Gnomemart meets Eco Hero?????

Mama gnome almost fell off the tree stump when she read this post by Matthew McDermott on treehugger.com:

"Walmart announces they will cut 20 million tons of greenhouse gases from supply chain by 2015."

Not only that.

Mama gnome almost choked on the oatmeal raisin cookie she was eating when she read this post by Tolly Moseley on Planet Green:

"Three Eco- and Socially-Conscious Companies to Watch: One of Them's Wal-Mart
One wants to reduce your paper usage, one wants to help non-profits, and yes, one is a big box chain store."

Mama gnome paced in front of the aga stove, back and forth with her arms crossed, her forehead furrowed.

Daddy gnome asked, "What's wrong?"

Mama gnome said, "What's wrong? This...this...Gnomemart...I cannot figure it out. Either all the humans who work there were abucted by aliens and replaced by humanoid eco-friendly aliens...or...or... Gnomemart is no longer an Eco-enemy but is now an...gulp...Eco-hero???"

Daddy gnome said, "Get a hold of yourself Mama gnome, the young gnomelets might hear you. What would they think? Why the whole world must be turning backwards or something. It can't be...It goes against everything we know."

"I know, I know, Daddy gnome but it's right here...Not just one, but two...two posts...Gnomemart is going....Green?"

Yes, Mama gnome straightened out her pointy hat and sat down to mull over these new developments.

Why would Gnomemart or as humans call it Walmart go green?

Apparently going green is the key to seeing Green, green with dollar signs.

Matt Kistler, Walmart SVP of Sustainability, said,

"Carbon is a cost. If we can remove carbon from a supply chain, ultimately they become more competitive. If they can use less energy in the manufacturing of the product, or if the consumer uses less energy, they are certainly reducing their costs or putting dollars in the pockets of their customer."

Just as Mama gnome had known all along, going green really pays.


From the cookie-choking report by Tolly Moseley, Mama gnome read:

"Walmart...Apparently wants to go local...A Chicago Walmart just started offering rental space to local mom-and-pop outfits."

I know, I know...

It's mind-boggling.

But Mama gnome gives credit where credit is due and Walmart gets high-fives from this old gnome for getting on the right path.

Now when this giant chain removes the plastic bags, also known as minions of Plastic Bag Monster, and instead offers reusable green bags, Mama gnome might need to be taken out on a stretcher.

Let's see how it's supposed to be done in this video:


video from: AnimalPlanetTV

Please make Mama gnome dizzy and light-headed and go Green!

(c) Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog

Meet my Copenhagen Frenemy...

Mama gnome can be quite old-fashioned sometimes and speaks in the manners of the old.

But 'tis is not the time to be quiet. Mama gnome will speak out against frenemies...

Eco-frenemies.

An eco-frenemy, a term coined by Mama gnome, is someone or something disguised as eco-friendly but in reality is an enemy...and therefore an Eco-frenemy.

And she has revealed such an eco-frenemy here.

At this time, Mama gnome would like to unveil a two-faced, sneaky, malarkey, heebie-geebies inducing eco-frenemy....CAP AND TRADE...

Cap and trade...

Aka...Emissions trading.

Aka...The-plan-to-make-money-from-carbon-emissions-but-not-necessarily-have-to-lower-their-emissions-let's-hold-off-on-doing-something-to-actually-solve-global-warming-but-how-about-we-make-some-money-in-the-meantime-plan-thingey, etcetera,etcetera,etcetera.

But don't take Mama gnome's oldie but goldie way of describing things.

This is how wikipedia explains Cap and Trade:

"Emissions trading (also known as emission trading and cap and trade) is an administrative pproach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Companies that need to increase their emission allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed."

No wonder there's global warming.

Come on...Mama gnome understands it's not as simple as shutting down all the coal factories.

But hey...you know what, that's exactly what Dr. James Hansen, NASA's climate scientist, said needs to be done. Not as short and straight like how I said it. But here's the video.


video from: IowaIndependent


Who supports cap and trade? Apparently Exxon Mobil supports cap and trade. I wonder why?

Hmmm. Could it be for profit?

Who are against cap and trade?

All these people laying down on the ground and protesting are against cap and trade.

photo of "Chicago Climate Justice activists protesting cap and trade legislation at the intersection of LaSalle & Adams in Chicago Loop" byWesha


Who else is against cap and trade?

Mama gnome, gnomelets and let me see...just to prove it's not just Mama gnome and her close relatives...here's a list from Steve Kirsch at Huffington Post.

The list includes Dr. James Hansen, Al Gore, Congressional Budget Office, the inventors of cap and trade, George C. Marshall Institute, Thomas Friedman, Sierra Club, even China, yes China.

Dr. James Hansen said of cap-and-trade, “They are selling indulgences there. The developed nations want to continue basically business as usual so they are expected to purchase indulgences to give some small amount of money to developing countries. They do that in the form of offsets and adaptation funds.”

What does Dr. Hansen and the other people and groups on the list support? Fee-and-dividend

Please read the comparisons made between cap-and-trade and fee-and-dividend here.

Here is a video that talks about Eco-frenemy Cap-and-trade.


video from:vegsister

Mama gnome wants to throw her pointy hat down and just say, "Wake up, people."

Cap-and-trade, should be called Cop-out-and-trade. It's a cop-out, a shriveled up, emission coated and oily cop-out.

Global warming will not be solved by half-measures and flimsy band-aid solutions.

We don't get to do Plan B in case Plan A fails. We're already running out of precious sustainable earth time.

Can we afford to do cap-and-trade until 2050 and say,
"Ummm...whoops..guess we should've done the other one instead. Can you pass me the oxygen mask and the dingy?"

No...no...no...

Mama gnome is afraid. She's really afraid.

Cap-and-trade is knocking at the door and a lot of people at Copenhagen is letting him in.

Wake up, wake up!

Mama gnome wants to announce Cap-and-trade when he walks in.

"Distinguished guests of the United Nations Climate Change Conference...please meet our Copenhagen frenemy...Cap-and-trade. Now say goodbye real quick, because Mama gnome is going to kick him out the door."

Go green...

(c)2009 Jenaelha, Friendly Gnome's Blog

"Oh, by the way, meet my Frenemy..."

Mama gnome is back.

She's not giving up.

As long as there is one seed left or one sapling standing, Mama gnome will fight for Planet Earth.

And oh, by the way, meet my Frenemy....


What is a Frenemy?

According to dictionary.com a frenemy is:

(noun): a person who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy; a rival with which one maintains friendly relations.

Do you know a frenemy? Do you have a frenemy?

Mama gnome wants to expose a frenemy.

A big one.

It is one of Mother Nature's Frenemies.

And Mama gnome describes Mother Nature's Frenemy as:

(noun): something disguised as eco-friendly, but is actually an eco-enemy.

An eco-frenemy!

And here is one of Mother Nature's Biggest Eco-frenemy:


The Three Gorges Dam

It is a behemoth of a dam that cuts through the Yangtze River in China.

photo by: Christoph Filnkößl

"It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind."

This is the supposedly eco-friendly part.

For this, about 1.3 million people were displaced from their homes. That doesn't sound friendly to me.

They touted this dam as a step to reducing greenhouse gases.

Yet even before completion, this news report came out.



video from: NTDTV

This article also reports:

"One of the most worrying consequences of the project has been the sharp increase in landslides around the dam. Studies by geologists have shown that the water seeping out of the reservoir and the huge pressure changes are weakening the banks."

The construction of the dam also "flooded several important archaelogical sites" according to an article by Time.

What do you think? Eco-friendly or truly eco-frenemy?

I think I'll check the eco-frenemy column.

Um, did I mention the dam sits on two major faults?

As in possible earthquake major faults.

As quoted from this article by Scientific American:

One of the greatest fears is that the dam may trigger severe earthquakes, because the reservoir sits on two major faults: the Jiuwanxi and the Zigui–Badong. According to Fan, changing the water level strains them. When you alter the fault line's mechanical state," he says, "it can cause fault activity to intensify and induce earthquakes."

Now is this eco-friendly or eco-frenemy? Try eco-frenemy and eco-crazy.

And don't even get me started on its effects on wild life. Too late.

You got me started.

The baiji is/was a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze river. What happened to it?
According to this the baiji is now "functionally extinct."

Organizers declared the Baiji "functionally extinct", which would make it the first aquatic mammal species to become extinct since the demise of the Japanese Sea Lion and the Caribbean Monk Seal in the 1950s. It would also be the first recorded extinction of a well-studied cetacean species (it is unclear if some previously extinct varieties were species or subspecies) to be directly attributable to human influence.

They explain that even though there might be one or a few baiji left, it is "not enough to save a functionally extinct species from true extinction."

Another fish in trouble is the Chinese sturgeon. Found only in the Yangtze river, it is classified endangered by IUCN.


video from National Geographic


So far I've counted a gazillion eco-frenemy points. Eco-friendly points? Zilch.


Now don't take my word for it.

Please watch this.


Video from: News Revue


So Mama gnome's just going to call it as it is.

This Dam is not Eco-friendly.

It's not even Eco-Frenemy.

It's truly Eco-Scary.

Rally around Mother Earth.

Rally around her and Go GREEN!


(c) Jenaelha Friendly Gnome's Blog