Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the most recent previous Green Spotlight. More than 24,500 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Analysis again shows: clean energy future totally affordable written by A Siegel: “Without doing fully burdened cost-benefit analysis, NOAA and University of Colorado Boulder researchers analyzed various electricity portfolios (article) over the coming decade and found that: Even in a scenario where renewable energy costs more than experts predict, the model produced a system that cuts CO2 emissions 33 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, and delivered electricity at about 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour. By comparison, electricity cost 9.4 cents per kWh in 2012. This team modeled an integrated national system -- leveraging regional differences for renewables based on high-fidelity weather records -- to foster a designed grid to reduce the need for backup generation to cover intermittencies. The grid buildout, in their model, relies heavily on HVDC (high-voltage, direct current) power lines which would enable moving electricity long distances with minimal transmission losses.”
Water Grabbing: A Global Epidemic? written by Madeleine Kando: “Although no one really knows how much oil is left in Saudi Arabia’s huge oil reserve, the Saudis probably won’t have to worry about keeping warm in the foreseeable future. It is one of those things that seem so unfairly distributed in the world, like beauty: some people are blessed with good looks and others aren't, it's just the way it is. What the Saudis are not so blessed with are water resources. There are no permanent rivers or lakes and very little rainfall. The Saudi desert sits on top of one of the oldest and largest aquifers in the world, which only 50 years ago, contained enough water to fill Lake Erie, but due to a combination of greed, stupidity and arrogance, the country has managed to drain its ground water supply and now has to rely on expensive desalination processing to provide drinking water to its growing population.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Daily Bucket: A Walk in Delnor-Wiggins State Park written by Lenny Flank: “A few days ago I spent a day in the Delnor-Wiggins State Park in Naples FL.”
Dawn Chorus: Open Thread written by matching mole: “This is an open thread with a few pictures from the aviaries at the Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson. Please post on any and all bird-related topics.”
Washing Ashore, Dead: Murre in Alaska written by Crimson Quillfeather: “I have not seen a diary on this yet. Surely, one more cannot hurt. When it comes to birds, I'm something less than an amateur. My relationship with them is to look upon them with warm amazement and awe and if possible, to offer adulation. In the daily rough and tumble of life, we have a more myopic and inward gaze at our lives and the world around us. At least that’s true for me. However, I noticed something recently – some mortality events. The Common Murre (Uria aalge) is a seabird and lives along the North American coastlines. It lives in low-Arctic range and boreal waters in the North-Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.”
Coho Salmon Returning to the Quinsam River on Vancouver Island written by MarineChemist: “The purpose of this short diary is to bring to your attention some beautiful video of Pacific Salmon coming home to British Columbia this past year. Eiko Jones is a photographer who specializes in underwater imaging and works out of Campbell River on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. [...] You can read about the technical details of the shoot at Eiko's blog if you are interested. The video shows these amazing fish completing their life cycle by returning to the natal river to spawn. Our monitoring project has been collecting coho, other Pacific salmon and marine organisms to look for Fukushima radionuclide contamination and to determine the impact of the disaster on ecosystem and public health.”
The Daily Bucket: Salmon Stream Sees Daylight After 120 Years - Padden Creek Update written by RonK: “Bellingham, WA. January, 2016. After 120 years, a half mile length of Padden Creek will once again see the light of day. In 1892, an eight foot by four foot brick tunnel was built to redirect the creek in order to drain adjacent wetlands and thereby enable building of a Great Northern Railway train station. Now, following a 30-year joint effort by the City, local residents, and the state Departments of Ecology and Transportation, migratory salmon can once again travel from Bellingham Bay nearly the full two-and-a-half miles to the Creek’s source (Lake Padden) to spawn.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Unprecedented! Three warm January Arctic storms aim to unfreeze the North Pole again this week written by Pakalolo. “Robert Scribbler: It’s worth re-stating. The Starks were wrong. Winter isn’t coming. Winter, as we know it, is dying. Dying one tenth of a degree of global oceanic and atmospheric warming at a time. Steadily dying with each ton of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses emitted through our vastly irresponsible and terrifyingly massive burning of fossil fuels. Scribbler warns that ‘we’ve never, not once, seen this kind of heat set up at the North Pole during January.’ Blame this coming event on the media named Winter Storm Jonas. The storm left 19 dead in the United States and now has Britain and Wales in its sight before getting sucked up in a northern low next week.”
A warm wind from the Arctic Ocean is howling over Siberia and it is bringing deadly cold to SE Asia written by Pakalolo: “CO2 levels like that have not been seen in three million years and there is a "total heat forcing at the top of the atmosphere that likely hasn't been seen for all of the past 10 million years.” Robert Scribbler reports the dire climate change news coming out of the Arctic once again and notes that it is colder in North Vietnam than it is on the shores of the Siberian Arctic. Temperatures in the Arctic are just off the charts warm for this time of year. It's the sad result for a region that now sits in the bull's eye of rapid heat accumulation due to human greenhouse gas emissions forcing the world above 400 parts per million CO2 and 485 parts per million CO2e.”
1 in 300,000 Odds that Warming’s Natural written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “You may recall Dana Nuccitelli's article from the end of last year about a study analyzing the risk of betting against global warming. Or, perhaps you've recently heard about the denier who is feeling ‘a bit stupid’ for putting his money on temperatures cooling from 2008 to 2015. Well, thanks to a new peer-reviewed study in Nature’s Scientific Reports, we can now pin down the odds that the global warming observed to date has been just a fluke of natural variability. The study, which co-author Dr. Michael Mann describes in an article on Live Science, takes a sophisticated look at the string of warm years post-2000. Using the most robust temperature measurements (which are those in the Northern Hemisphere), Mann and his colleagues find that in the absence of some sort of forcing (like fossil-fuel consumption adding GHGs to the atmosphere), the odds of 14 of the 16 warmest years in the 136-year record all occurring since 2000 are one in 300,000. When they included man-made forcings, the odds jump to 76 percent.”
UK Columns Still Dense with Denial written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “In a recent Guardian op-ed, Bob Ward of the Grantham Institute asks an important question: “Why are some British newspapers still denying climate change?” He points out that a number of UK papers still regularly feature climate change denying columnists, with the Daily Mail, Daily Express, London Times, Sun and Telegraph all giving ample space to deniers. In the US, the picture is flipped. The majority of papers accept the reality of climate change, and only a couple continue to deny the scientific consensus. The Wall Street Journal is the only bastion of denial, joined by a few long-running conservative columnists at The Washington Post, but these do not provide a steady drumbeat of absurdity on par with the UK’s current situation.”
A Climate Change and Weather Icon needs some help written by Skywrnchsr509: “Founded by American Meteorologist Abbott Lawrence Rotch in 1884, The Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, located in Milton, Massachusetts, began operations on January 1st 1885. The Observatory, designated by the NOAA as 1 of just 26 International Benchmark Climate Stations in the United States and as a Reference Climatological Station by the World Meteorological Organization, is home to the oldest continuous record of climate observations in North America with data dating back to the early 1830’s. [...] Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, the Observatory is now in a state of disrepair and has for several years now had its budget cut by the state and it is in danger of receiving no budget from the state again this year. Run as a non profit, the Observatory now depends on volunteers to keep equipment running and for day to day operations. [...] My request to you, if you are so inclined, is to go to our website and check out our membership options or donation page. We have some really great weather and climate information and a great set of webcams on top of the Prudential Center in Boston that record the weather 24 hours a day in our members only section and membership is as little as 30 dollars for a year.”
Severe Snow Storms Can be Expected in Global Warming written by Lib Dem FoP: “No doubt Trump will be cackling that “we could do with global warming” to counter today’s record breaking snow storm on the East coast of the USA. Contrary to this simplistic analysis, such storms are exactly what can be expected during the current climate instabiity caused by that warming. The extra precipitation is because the warm air and waters in the southern North Atlantic push larger and larger amounts of water vapor into the atmosphere, to be carried north and along the East coast by low pressure systems. At the same time, higher wind speeds to the North, again caused by more energy in the global weather system, is pushing the jet stream that goes round the poles further South (and North in the southern hemisphere).”
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Snow timelapse video, 14 hours = 26 seconds written by Tuffie: “I set this up last night into Saturday morning in Havertown, PA. I’ve done better; I made a few bad choices here; should have set shorter intervals for a less choppy look. Anyway, it’s still fun. 1,726 still frames made 57 seconds; I edited and speeded it up a bit.”
Winter Storm Jonas crippling eastern US, the usual suspects gear up to snow America written by DarkSyde: “The keywords in the right-wing snowjob no doubt already underway are record snowfall and record cold. The key with how those words have been used in the past to mislead anyone looking for legit information on Jonas and climate in general is a well oiled deception falling under the umbrella term conflation. Definition of conflate: 1. transitive verb.1a: to bring together: fuse b : confuse. 2 : to combine (as two readings of a text) into a composite whole. The only physical requirement for liquid precip to turn into snow and ice is the ambient temperature -- it’s either below freezing or it’s not. The mere presence of snow on the ground, even in record quantities, doesn’t tell you much beyond that. Because record snowfall does not equal record cold. Record snowfall is completely independent of record cold.”
When Weather Becomes Political written by Xaxnar: “As the East Coast digs out from the latest record snowstorm, complete with coastal flooding, road accidents, canceled flights, collapsing roofs, tornadoes, power failures, blocked roads, and a number of fatalities and injuries, fault lines are showing. The old joke that everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it isn’t funny any more. The storm is just an extra-dramatic demonstration that the climate isn’t what it used to be. Every year is warmer than the last; records keep getting broken. The storm gets attention because in part it was so sudden. There was a massive amount of snow in a short time. (CBS Sunday Morning noted Washington DC normally gets about 19” of snow a year. This one storm dumped nearly twice that.) But… the slower changes may be even more damaging. The long running drought in the west has had a huge impact. Cities need water. Farmers need water. What happens when the choice becomes you can drink now — but you may go hungry later? Or vice versa?”
ENERGY
Nuclear, Coal, Oil and Gas
Southern California gas leak still spewing copious tons of methane every day. Is fracking to blame? written by Meteor Blades: “It’s been three months since a well at the Southern California Gas Co.’s Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility on the outskirts of Los Angeles sprang a big methane leak. On Saturday the California South Coast Air Quality Management District voted to require that once the leak is stopped, the 63-year-old well must be shut down permanently. But plugging the leak is weeks away, and even when it happens, the methane already released will continue to contribute to global warming for many decades. So far, the ruptured well has spewed an estimated87,680 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, equivalent to 7.3 million tons of carbon dioxide. This amounts to 25 percent of California’s total methane emissions, doubling the usual level of methane emitted in the oil- and gas-rich Los Angeles Basin.”
Hearing board action falls short of community demands to shut down Aliso Canyon Storage Facility written by Dan Bacher: “The AQMD Hearing Board engaged in a lengthy debate over whether a letter in which the executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission ordered SoCalGas to keep 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas in reserve at the facility undermined AQMD’s authority to shut down Aliso Canyon by requiring a complete draw-down of the storage facility. ‘This move by the California Public Utilities Commission doesn’t protect the health and safety of residents of Porter Ranch and neighboring communities. It protects SoCalGas’ assets and it appears to violate Gov. Brown’s order to withdraw the maximum amount of gas from the field,”’said Alexandra Nagy, Southern California Organizer with Food & Water Watch. “’oCalGas has been unwilling protect residents because to drain its facility would harm its bottom line. Absent consistent leadership from Gov. Brown, SoCalGas and the CPUC are working together to keep as much gas in reserve as possible, threatening residents with further exposure to toxic emissions. Gov. Brown needs to clarify his order and demand the drainage and permanent shutdown of the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility.’’
The impact of the coming surge of Iranian oil exports on the global glut, et al written by rjsigmund: “Oil prices have been quite volatile this past week, dropping almost 4% when the market opened Tuesday, and then latersoaring 21% from their Wednesday lows...recall that US crude prices for crude had fallen to 11 year and then to 12 year lows last week, when the contract price for February delivery started the week at $33.55 a barrel and fell to $29.42 by the Friday close, breaching $30 for the first time since 2003 ...”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Solar IS Civil Defense written by gmoke:
“I made that video in 2012. Recently (1/25/16), I did a little search to see the current state of the market for solar cell phone chargers, lights, and hand crank power. At the low end, prices range from $7 to $20 for solar flashlight, charger, or both. Add a bicycle generator and you have survival electricity as long as the batteries last, the sun shines, and there’s enough muscle and gristle to turn a crank or pedal. That’s part of what I mean by a solar civil defense. It’s also entry level power for the 1.4 billion people around the world who do not now have access to electrical power.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Will the State Water Resources Control Board Destroy the CA Delta? written by Dan Bacher: “In comments to the press at the “Water 2.0 event” sponsored by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) this January, Governor Jerry Brown claimed building the Delta Tunnels under the California Water Fix project is “absolutely necessary” for the ‘future’ of California. Delta and fish advocates strongly disagree with the Governor’s claim. Delta and fish advocates point out that the tunnels project will only exacerbate a disastrous fishery and ecosystem collapse spurred by massive water exports out of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. As Delta and longfin smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other species are driven closer and closer to the abyss of extinction, the State Water Board still operates Delta outflow on a 20-year-old Water Quality Control Plan that was due to be revised in 1998, according to Restore the Delta (RTD).”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Glacier Park: Going-to-the-Sun Road, Part 2 (Photo Diary) written by Ojibwa: “For most tourists, visiting Glacier National Park in Montana means either driving or taking a tour bus across the Going-to-the-Sun Road. While this is usually a breath-taking experience as the Sun Road winds through the Rocky Mountains, for a few drivers who are unaccustomed to narrow mountain roads with a switchback and steep drop-offs along the side, this can be a white-knuckle experience. The photographs below focus on the road itself, which is considered to be an engineering marvel, rather than on the scenery on either side. At the time of these photographs, the east side of the Road had already been closed for the season.”
Witnesses offer conflicting accounts in LaVoy Finicum's final deadly confrontation with police written by Jen Hayden: “Two people who reportedly witnessed the shooting of LaVoy Finicum are using social media to tell their story. Almost as soon as Finicum was shot, word began to spread among militia-types of his death, with many claiming that he was unarmed and had his hands up. While Ammon Bundy, Ryan Bundy, Ryan Payne and Shawna Cox were arrested at the scene, the man driving Ammon Bundy—Mark McConnell—and others were eventually released from the scene. As rumor began to spread that Finicum was not resisting arrest when he was shot, Mark McConnell took to his Facebook page to dispel the rumor. In the video he says that Finicum was driving the second vehicle and when they were stopped, one person got out and was handcuffed. At that point Finicum took off in the truck with passengers still in the truck. McConnell explained it was foolish for Finicum to take off in the truck and was an act of aggression.”
Oregon standoff update: 8 in custody, 1 killed, militants still surrounded in standoff with FBI written by Jen Hayden: “ Morning update from Oregon Public Broadcasting: Leaders of the occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge – including Ammon and Ryan Bundy – were arrested along Highway 395 between the towns of John Day and Burns, according to the FBI and Oregon State Police. Police said those arrested will face felony charges. All of the individuals arrested in Oregon were booked into Multnomah County Jail around 2 a.m. Wednesday. With the armed occupiers’ leadership in custody and another dead, the future of the occupation is unclear. The FBI has yet to confirm the man killed was LaVoy Finicum, known as “Blue Tarp Man” since an interview with MSNBC went viral earlier this month in which he was seen hiding under a blue tarp with a gun in his lap. On January 6, Finicum told NBC News there was no way he'd go to jail:”
Inside the Refuge (Part III): Lopsided Ovals written by Max Udargo: I met Ammon Bundy on January 9, inside the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. I was in the Bunkhouse where the occupiers were preparing dinner, and he was there with his wife, Lisa, and their six beautiful children. Ammon saw my unfamiliar face among those gathering for the meal, and came over to me and introduced himself. He asked me questions about who I was and what my purpose was, but he didn’t seem suspicious, just friendly. We had a very brief conversation before others solicited his attention. I had the opportunity to observe him for a couple of hours that evening, but I talked to him only that one time. [...] But the Bundy with whom I interacted the most was one of Lisa and Ammon’s children; a delightful, happy, hopping, twirling little girl who liked my smile and eventually sat down near me with a whiteboard and a marker and tried and failed repeatedly to draw a heart. I did my best to instruct her, but her hearts always turned out to be lopsided ovals.When Ammon came over to check on her and admire her artwork, she looked up at him and asked if he was coming home with them that night. He had to tell her he wasn’t. She looked sad but didn’t complain, she just drew another lopsided oval.
Will a book by the Oregon Standoff's only fatality become a Turner Diaries II(I) for RWNJs? written by annieli: ““Avenge me...” the Red Dawn protagonists’ father cries out, and with his passing, will LaVoy Finicum’s legacy be a 2015 novel that could become The Turner Diaries for a new generation of RWNJ.Finicum's 241-page apocalyptic cowboy thriller titled "Only By Blood and Suffering" is a how-to on surviving after a electromagnetic pulse or nuclear attack when your Escalade stops driving, the government has bought back all of your guns, President Bill Clinton signed away your country's missile technology to the Chinese, the Supreme Court is loaded with lefty judicial activists and you don't have an adequate amount of gold and "junk silver" to get by when the stock market implodes, interest rates balloon overnight and the value of the dollar collapses.”
NOT the response we were looking for, POTUS, regarding the Malheur Wildlife Refuge terrorists written by watercarrierrdiogenes: “I attend, whenever I can, a loosely non-organized librul discussion group in Hood River, OR. One of the non-leaders, David Hupp, responded to another member's call to sign the White House petition to get the administration (POTUS, DoJ, Atty.Gen, FBI, US Atty) off their dead asses in re the Masher NATIONAL (caps mine) Wildlife Refuge terrorists. Here's his response, edited only slightly: Note this: on january 4, white house press secretary josh earnest said, "Ultimately this is a LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MATTER (caps mine) and the FBI is monitoring the situation and offering support to local law enforcement officials." He added that the President was aware of the situation.”
The Bundystani Boomers of East Oregon: Moronic Land Jumpers waiting for the US Marshall written by annieli: “The sovereignist squatters at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge are much like the idiots who leave rounds in the chamber of their guns because Western quick-draw SYG situations happen all the time and aren’t we standing our ground every second in the unfenced 19th Century prairie. Even as there was a decline in defensive gun use last year, protecting property as theft of public land, like claim-jumping by force of arms seems to be de rigeur for the Captain and his Fluffy Unicornists. Continuing the negotiations in the fourth week proceeds even as Ammo(ro)n Bundy and his scofflaw sidekick, Fluffy Unicorn, gird their loins for what could be months of a siege with in-and-out privileges.”
Have you signed the WH petition to arrest Malheur Refuge occupiers? written by NDotGW in Utah: “This Petition isn’t just about a wildlife refuge illegally occupied "out in the middle of nowhere”. It’s about white privilege and the disparity between the treatment of People of Color vs. Whites (usually men) in similar situations. It’s about sending the wrong message to crazy white people with guns that they can get away with terrorizing people. This cannot be allowed to go on. There is no excuse not to sign: Arrest Ammon Bundy and the armed occupiers of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.”
Malheur 'Militia' Just Keeps Getting Crazier and Crazier written by liberalConspiracy: “The bright and shining examples of pure idiocy in Eastern Oregon have decided they weren’t being crazy enough; so they’re upping the ante. These nutballs have decided they’re going to be forming a ‘citizens grand jury’, something that means absolutely nothing and carries no legal weight whatsoever. Their plan is to indict people they believe have slighted them in some way or just plain don’t like. This ‘jury’ is to be made up of sovereign citizens (yes, the guys that think the law doesn’t extend to them) and according to OPB news, Sheriff Ward will ‘face trial’. Now, there is no legal merit to the proceedings they are planning other than in their own minds. And as such, there are no legal consequences. However, if someone is indicted, they face harassment in the form of stalking and threats, and may even have acts of violence committed against them. That is most decidedly not legal. Anywhere.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
More on the heroes of the Flint water crisis written by Vann R Newkirk II: Most of the reporting on the Flint water crisis has been about the government wrongdoing and neglect that led to citizens being exposed to lead in their drinking water. That reporting, here and elsewhere, focuses on the decisions at the local and state level to switch to the Flint River as a temporary drinking water source, and the total failure of oversight and infrastructure in protecting ordinary citizens. However, that reporting also tends to minimize the role of some of the grassroots leaders and heroes involved in pressuring the government to even respond, albeit belatedly. These leaders and whistleblowers—like LeeAnne Walters, a Flint mother who fought to have the Environmental Protection Agency investigate her family’s water—have been vital in keeping the pressure on, as Mother Jones reports.
Michigan Governor Snyder seeking additional Medicaid expansion for Flint children written by Vann R Newkirk II: “Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is requesting an additional Medicaid expansion for all people under 21 in Flint regardless of income or prior insurance in order to provide adequate and lower-cost services for young people who may have been affected by the lead crisis. Detroit Free Press reports: Specifically, the initiative, which is expected to be sent to the Obama administration in the next week, seeks expanding Medicaid eligibility to those affected regardless of income level. The request would also include the expansion of Medicaid coverage for people already enrolled in other forms of insurance. The idea, state officials said, is to spread comprehensive benefits to children who may have come into contact with lead in the water regardless of their ability to pay.”
While Gov. Snyder Did Nothing, One Organization Proactively Tried to Help Flint, MI Residents by Chris Reeves: “During the month of October, months ago, one group started working to help the residents of Flint Michigan. They were caught red-handed doing this little thing called protecting everyone’s health but especially young children, pregnant mothers and infants. Don’t worry. I’m sure this is the kind of work that still has Michigan advocates clamoring for Governor Snyder to defund Planned Parenthood. Nothing says how much you hate life like being the organization trying to make sure children aren’t born with birth defects and a city isn’t poisoned. But, you know, just Planned Parenthood. Doing Planned Parenthood things.”
Updated &Updated***Breaking*** New Revelations in Flint Water Crisis. ALEC & Snyder lies written by christy519: “SO, I’ve been watching this story closely as I live 50 miles from Flint. And I found this interesting bit on MCMuckraker’s twitter feed. This is a copy of a memo sent in 2013 from the DWDS (Detroit Water and Sewage) offering Flint water at about HALF of the going rate that the suburbs pay. [...] From what I can tell, Jim Fausone is an Attorney in Northville. That is to whom the memo is addressed. We all know, Flint wasn’t allowed to ‘accept’ this deal as the Emergency Manager who is an unelected, undemocratic, hand-picked minion of the Snyder Administration wouldn’t allow. The EM holds power OVER the Flint City Council AND the Mayor.”
Flint Water Crisis: The Stunning Incompetence and Deceit of Those In Power written by TRAmnesia: “As more facts come to light in ‘The Flint Water Crisis,’ this story of government over-reach, the incompetence and arrogance of those in charge of the health and safety of millions of Michigan residents, and the resulting human tragedy is no less than stunning. The facts surrounding the switch from clean, fresh, safe water from Lake Huron, to the caustic, polluted, and bacteria laden, water of the Flint River for the single purpose of saving money is well documented and irrefutable. What followed in the weeks and months that followed is unimaginable in a technologically advanced society.”
An Illinois Styled Suggestion for FLINT written by agnostic: “Crestwood, Illinois, (population 11,250) is a village located in the nether regions of southern Cook County. This Chicago suburb was ruled by one family for years, beginning with Chester Stranczek. In the early ‘90s, he began refunding property taxes because he claimed to have not only balanced his budget, but he made serious inroads in his city’s spending. One national magazine called him the Mayor of the Year, and another named his town the ‘best-run’ city in the USA. Here is how he did it. In 1985, his engineers told him that his water mains were leaking, and leaking badly. To replace them would have cost millions of dollars. The leaks meant that City of Chicago water (Lake Michigan — a tiny body of water that serves more than 20,000,000 with all their fresh water needs) was being bought and piped by Crestwood, and a good deal of it was spilling out of its ancient, leaky, mains, instead of making it to household taps and water supplies. The mayor had several choices, including the simplest — fixing the damn pipes. But Chuck was a TeaBuggerer before TeaBuggerers existed. Staunchly conservative, having a crucifix in his offices, and terrorizing those who stood in his way, Chuck figured out how to save even more money. Rather than fix the mains, he ordered opened a large, unused well pump and had that well water mixed with the Chicago supplied water.”
Pumping Lead written by Raging Pencils: “It was only pure coincidence that the area of Michigan affected by the poisoning of the water supply was occupied by a poverty-stricken, minority population. Yeah, that’s probably all it was. Just a fluke. No decent white male person, or persons, would ever conciously plan such a thing. Nope. Never. Not in America.”
Jimmy Fallon donates to Flint's water crisis and challenges other celebrities to do the same written by Leslie Salzillo: “Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon announced on Sunday he is donating $10,000 to help the city of Flint, Michigan with their toxic water emergency. Alerts to the city were issued in September and since then, the community has become unraveled and plagued with a state of emergency due to the dangerous levels of lead in drinking water. It is reported at least 10 have died as a result of the contamination. Governor Snyder is calling the disaster his ‘Katrina.’ ‘It’s a disaster,’ he said when asked about the comparison some critics have made to the 2005 natural disaster in New Orleans that became a symbol of government mismanagement—city, state, and federal. ‘It’s clearly a negative on what we’ve accomplished since I’ve been governor.’ But many are not buying his regrets.”
Great, just what we need in Flint, the Michigan militia! written by vzfk3s: “The Detroit Free Press is reporting that these wackos are in Flint demanding that the goverment supply free water to the people of Flint. While I support the idea that the state should supply water for free until this mess is fixed, the Michgan Militia is using this as a anti-government pretext. Don’t forget that one of their members, Terry Nichols was responsible for the OK City bombing.”
A Toxic Timeline of Flint's Water Poisoning written by Eric Nelson: “After reading the recently released and redacted e-mails (pdf) by republican Michigan governor Rick Snyder, I ran across something called a BWA advisory (Boil Water Advisory) that was issued to the people of Flint Michigan weeks after the republicans in charge switched Flint’s water supply source from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to more corrosive and polluted Flint River water, treated [treated — ??? — an open question] at the Flint water treatment plant.”
SUSTAINABILITY & EXTINCTION
Free Charleston's Tiny Houses written by WJHAMILTON29464: “Join us in a citizens campaign to open the way to establish villages of Tiny Houses, small affordable dwellings in a planned community context that will liberate our community from the problems caused by a lack of affordable housing and a landscape which is often alienating and dominated by economic considerations above all other values. Over 1000 people in our area live in tents. In December two people died in Tent City Alone. In January a 3 day old newborn come there to live after leaving the hospital. The Tiny House Fit for a King is nearly finished, and in safekeeping with the City of Charleston. Unfortunately, it’s not available to be worked on and completed. It can’t be occupied until we have the location for a village to be located. Other tiny houses are available, completed now, which could be moved to Charleston’s first Tiny House village. Charleston’s Tiny Houses are locked up and they need to be free to form new, supportive communities to build a stronger, more just city.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
Action Diary: No More Flints! Water Privatization in Wisconsin written by badscience: “While all eyes are on the human rights disaster in Flint, MI, the Wisconsin legislature is busily moving through a bill that would make it nearly impossible for the citizens of the state to stop water privatization in their municipality. Assembly Bill 554 (AB544) has already passed the State Assembly (gerrymandered for a long-term Republican majority; 63 R, 36 D) and has made its way to the Senate Workforce Development, Public Works, and Military Affairs Committee (known as the Workforce Development Committee). That committee is made up of 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats, and is poised to pass THEIR version of this legislation, Senate Bill 432 (SB432) very soon. In fact, sooner than they thought they would.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Obama finds a final year pet project and possible legacy in driverless cars written by harryreardon: “Until last week, driverless cars were the playthings of dotcom billionaires. These vehicles were forecasted to reach the rest of the country in the eventual future. You were more likely to spot one these vehicles in Nevada’s barren deserts than ever see one in your neighbor’s garage. Not anymore. A star-studded announcement featuring Google, Ford and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx has brought the automated commute closer than ever. The federal government has set aside $4 billion which is now earmarked for automated vehicle research and development in 2017. The money will be directed into real-world pilot projects. The aim will be to get driverless cars on the road in under a decade. This is not like other pet projects. The Obama administration fast-tracked the project. Guidelines for next year are expected to be on the table in only six months’ time. This is lightning fast compared to other transportation projects.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
As California Gas Leak Continues Bernie Sanders Is First Candidate To Call For Fracking Ban written by VL Baker: “As the Porter methane gas leak upends California’s climate progress; Bernie Sanders is the first 2016 presidential candidate to call for fracking ban. Attention to the environment and climate change is nothing new for Sanders; he has been endorsed By Bill McKibben and there is no doubt that theclimate platform he has put forward is the strongest of any 2016 presidential candidate (Hillary has yet to reveal a serious climate platform).”
O'Malley pinpoints climate change as most important issue for young voters written by Kerry Eleveld: “A 23-year old woman from Drake University in Iowa opened the floor Monday night for Martin O'Malley to name which issue he thinks should be the ‘most important’ one to young voters. ‘You know what I believe is the biggest issue that I think you should be concerned about as a young person who has more time on this planet than I do — and that is climate change,’ O'Malley responded, calling it the ‘greatest business opportunity’ to come to the United States in a century. He added that he was the first candidate in either party to put forward a plan to move us to a ‘100 percent clean electric energy grid by 2050 and create five million jobs along the way.’”
Noam Chomsky on GOP candidates: 'What they are saying is, let's destroy the world' written by Leslie Salzillo: “Today, the Republican Party has drifted off the rails,” Chomsky, a frequent critic of both parties, said in an interview Monday with The Huffington Post. “It’s become what the respected conservative political analysts Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein call ‘a radical insurgency’ that has pretty much abandoned parliamentary politics.” Chomsky goes so far to say that the current Republican rhetoric and policies pose a “serious danger to human survival.” In regard to climate change, 97% of scientists say the crisis is real and caused by humans, yet none of the GOP candidates seem to take climate change seriously—with some being outright climate deniers. "What they are saying is, let's destroy the world. Is that worth voting against? Yeah," Chomsky said in a recent interview with Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeera English's "UpFront."
MISCELLANY
The (Hot) Cold Equations written by Jaxpagan: “I grew up on a steady diet of classic Sci-Fi short fiction. Asimov, Bradbury, Ellison, Heinlein, Le Guin — these names were the landmarks on my literary terrain. I loved the compact stories, the simple (and sometimes not simple at all) moral questions, philosophical musings, and powerful visions (both optimistic and fearful) of what might lay ahead. Lately, I’ve been thinking about one in particular. Lately, the simple yet devastating moral truth that lay wrapped in prose at the center of that story seem to speak to me more and more. I find myself looking at our world now and thinking about hard choices in the face of the inescapable ... the central theme of Tom Godwin’s ‘The Cold Equations.’”