Regardless of Bush's junk science statements, global warming is very
real according to the vast majority of independent scientists. This is
an interesting step. Our world must change. Or we will face calamities.


Wal-Mart's Semi-Green Week
Last week, Wal-Mart opened an "eco-store" replete with wind turbines
and bio-fuel recycling. It also applied for a banking license in
Utah. Will the superstore never stop?
By Kelly Hearn
AlterNet
July 28, 2005

http://www.alternet.org/story/23711/

Looking to shave operating costs and revive a wilting reputation,
Wal-Mart last week unveiled an eco-friendly store near Dallas, Texas,
an experimental Supercenter complete with wind turbines,
rain-harvesting ponds, bio-fuel recycling and no flush urinals.

For Wal-Mart's purveyors of aw-shucks public relations, the event was
a softball. Press documents gushed with enthusiasm and statistics,
while officials trumpeted the store's expected savings in water and
energy consumption. The retail goliath even said it plans to share
its best practices to help the entire retail industry become greener.

Some of the highlights:

* Bioswales, or channels of shrubs, grass and rock were planted
to snag pollutants and help clean water, while permitting it to
infiltrate into the ground and replenish groundwater sources.
* Improved refrigeration systems were built to save 645,000
kilowatts annually, enough power for 65 single family homes for an
entire year.
* Condensation from the store's air conditioning and
refrigeration systems will be stored in a pond on the east side of
the building, and used to help irrigate the landscaping.
* A mix of recycled cooking and automotive oil will help heat the
facility.
* Waterless, odorless urinals that keep smells down using a
special oil film will result in water savings of hundreds of
thousands of gallons per year.

Wal-Mart has contracted the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to test and
analyze the system over a three-year period and the company says it
plans to share its best practices.

"Sharing the results of the store's experiments with the rest of the
retail and development industry could turn low-volume, rare
technologies into industry standards," said a company statement.
"Wal-Mart hopes to learn new environmental conservation best
management practices and benchmarks that will serve as future design
standards in the retail industry when it comes to land development
and building construction."

The company is working to build a conservationist reputation,
publicizing the fact it pays to preserve one acre of wildlife habitat
for every acre it develops. It also floats recycling statistics. Last
year, it recycled 2.8 million tons of cardboard, 9,416 tons of
plastic, 262 million aluminum cans, glass containers and plastic
bottles, and 49 million disposable cameras.

Recent greening aside, it's easy to imagine the waste that falls
through the cracks in Wal-Mart's 3,500 facilities in the U.S. alone
(company documents say there are also 1,290 international
facilities).

A Different Shade of Green

Perhaps not coincidentally, last week's feel-good environmental story
hit the news cycle as Wal-Mart made a briefer and markedly less
effusive announcement that it was applying for a banking license in
Utah.

On July 19 the company asked the Utah Department of Financial
Institutions and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for
permission to operate an industrial bank which will reside in Salt
Lake City and have local employees and board members.

Officials said the intention is to save processing fees currently
paid to third party financial institutions that process Wal-Mart's
monthly load of 140 million credit, debit and electronic check
payments. There will be limited deposits from non-profit and
charitable organizations, but the company has "no plans to operate
branch banks" and "will not engage in lending of any type," according
to a press statement.

The "no-branch" pledge did little to put the banking industry at
ease. The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) responded
that the world's largest corporation has the financial prowess to
drive credit unions and community banks out of business. It already
offers check cashing, wire transfers and money order services for
nearly half what other services charge. Small banks fear that an
"everyday low cost" Wal-Mart bank -- one that accepts deposits and
doles out consumer loans -- could one day appear in every store,
eviscerating customer bases. They also worry that Wal-Mart could
engage in preferential loaning practices to its affiliates or refuse
loans to competitors of an affiliate or parent company. What's more,
industrial banks are not regulated by the FDIC.

Why Utah? "We made the decision to file in Utah because of the state
industrial banking laws and it is natural to locate in the state
capital," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber in an email.

The company has been trying to elbow its way into banking for several
years but has failed in past attempts to acquire financial
institutions, most notably in California and Oklahoma. But it seems
likely that in Utah, where companies such as Target and General
Electric have established industrial banks, things might go easier.

If they do, the introduction to freelance journalist John Dicker's
new book, United States of Wal-Mart, will taste even truer.

''It's hard to know exactly when it happened, just as it's impossible
to know when, or if, it will end," Dicker writes. "But for now it's
clear: we're all Wal-Mart's bitches."

Kelly Hearn is a former UPI staff writer who lives in Washington DC
and Latin America. His work has appeared in the Christian Science
Monitor and American Prospect.

Beach Runner wrote:
> Regardless of Bush's junk science statements, global warming is very
> real

Ipse dixit. No, it isn't.

> according to the vast majority of independent scientists.

Appealing to authority and popularity. Actually, scientists are split on
the subject.

Survey Shows Climatologists Are Split on Global Warming
A survey of climatologists from more than 20 nations has
revealed scientists are evenly split on whether humans are
responsible for changes in global climate. The findings refute a
widely reported study by a California “Gender and Science”
professor who claimed that, based on her personal examination of
928 scientific papers on the issue, every single one reached the
conclusion that global warming is real and primarily caused by
humans.
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17181

Surveys have shown scientists split on the issue of whether
global warming theory has been adequately proven...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scienti...climate_change

Etc.

> Our world must change.

No, it mustn't.

> Or we will face calamities.

Your stupidity is the greatest calamity we face at afv. BTW, you're off
topic.