2011 Tournament of Roses: Foreign-grown flowers, 800 gallons of gas burned along the 5.5-mile route

[Amerigo Vespucci]

January 01, 2011 12:00 PM
2011 Tournament of Roses: Brought to you by Corporate America and Foreign Flowers

By karoli



In a LA Times report about Honda being the first to use a hybrid motor to power their float, they note that today's Tournament of Roses is neither green nor local.

Leading Saturday's 122nd Tournament of Roses will be a 35-foot fairy tale castle called "A World of Dreams," the first float to be powered by fuel-efficient hybrid technology. And the pace car will be the fuel-sipping Honda CR-Z.

But behind the World of Dreams will be a whirl of planet-warming emissions: 46 floats powered by V-8 engines, some supplemented with gasoline-powered motors for moving parts, that are expected to burn through about 800 gallons of gasoline by the time they finish their 2.5-mph cruise along the 5.5-mile route. Mixed in are 80 auxiliary trucks, 145 fleet cars and dozens of law enforcement vehicles — all of them powered solely by old-fashioned fossil fuels.

Festooned to the floats are an estimated 20 million flowers transported from around the world in aircraft and trucks: orchids from Asia; dried everlasts from Africa; roses from Colombia and other South American countries; and tulips from Holland.

The reason for the foreign-grown flowers? Trade agreements, of course.

The exact "carbon footprint" of the parade and related festivities is difficult to calculate. But California growers are quick to point out that their home-grown ingredients have been forsaken for energy-intensive but still less expensive imports. Those flowers became increasingly available after 1991, when the United States struck a trade agreement with Colombia and Ecuador in an effort to curtail cultivation and processing of coca for cocaine. That gave cut-flower farmers and floral exporters duty-free access to the U.S. market, where 70% of flowers sold now hail from Colombia, according to the California Cut Flower Commission.

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/2011-tournament-roses-brought-you-corporate

[midnight]

1. K&R

[Cleita]

2. I just finished watching it.

The Reagan float was particularly condescending. Too bad, no one in the crowd threw rotten tomatoes at it.

[somone]

3. What a gaudy piece of junk

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. WOW...especially that black & white part. Amateur hour!

:rofl:

[femrap]

6. Just plain ugly....

just like the man.

[FarLeftRage]

7. OMG!!! What an UGLY piece of JUNK!!

Why the fuck would ANYONE want to "honor" that worthless piece of shit???

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[itsrobert]

8. Ketchup would have been better

If you know what I mean.

[MilesColtrane]

9. That one made me throw up a little.

Lionizing Reagan is a fool's mission.

History will eventually out him as the disengaged, evil tool he was.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. 800 gallons in total for all floats? Doesn't seem that much for a once a year spectacle

[Amerigo Vespucci]

11. It's not so much 800 gallons as 800 gallons in 5.5 miles

Seems like there's a better way...not sure what that it, but it seems like it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. Well, there are a lot of floats, big heavy things. Engines idle for hours

[GeorgeGist]

10. That float could be Socialist ...

depending on who is collaborating.

[Initech]

12. Why must everything be ruined?