Earth Week nearly doubled the usual number of eco-Diaries, and quite a few made it to the coveted Recommended List.
Typically, our Eco-Diary Rescue focuses on an action item that relates to getting somebody else - a politician, a company - to do something, or not do something, or stop doing something. Among the plethora of Diaries this week, however, were a dozen or so seeking to discover what self-identified progressives are themselves doing or planning to do about their own impact on the environment.
Lurtz, for instance, wrote of personal experiences in this regard in the Diary, More Earth Week: Reducing Water Use?: "I've been trying to make our home more efficient. I've measured the electrical use on almost everything I can, I've installed compact fluorescent lights, experimented with a few LED lightbulbs, put most consumer electronics on a 'Smart Strip' which shuts off all power to non-essential things so they don't consume trickle-charges. We replaced our windows with double-pane, low-E windows. And our electricity use went from 650 kilowatt-hours a month to about 450 -- all really without much noticeable pain at all. (I was surprised that the lights were really energy-consuming). But now I want to reduce the amount of water we use."
Green questions for all: What have you done? What more can you do? What are you willing to do?
The DailyKos Environmentalists can be found here.
jillian provided a compilation of eco-stories in BREAKING!...the Earth (EARTH DAY VERSION): "In primary, it's not easy being green. There's been a lot of discussion as this primary season unwinds about which Democratic presidential candidate has more red state appeal or more blue state appeal, but little chatter about their very real ‘green’ credentials. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our favorite planet. The bottom line is that none of the candidates focus adequately on climate change, for this will be one of humanity’s great tests in the coming decades — and so far we’re failing. The New York Times."
ANIMALS
In the latest of his long-running Marine Life Series, Mark H told us about the secret lives of Squid Egg Mops: "The long-finned squid (Loligo pealei), one of about forty species that occur worldwide, is most abundant in the Atlantic and is the animal you are most likely eating when you order calamari. It grows to a little over a foot in length and, like all squid, have ten tentacles surrounding the mouth. These are used to capture prey and transfer them into the beak-like mouth. Loligo are solitary hunters at night and then gather in large schools during the day. In the spring these schools migrate into shallow water to perform a mating ritual. Although the mass of reproducing adults at first may seem haphazard, there is actually quite a bit of structure and hierarchy going on. Couples pair off based on size, with many of the smaller males getting left out at first."
overlander complained that With Dems running Montana, Yellowstone bison die off: "It's often very difficult to figure out what advantages come from electing Democrats. Consider Montana's destruction of 1,700 bison this winter ... Yellowstone bison really ought to be safe in Montana, which has Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer overseeing the state's wildlife management and its agriculture department."
ElaineVigneault said we should Demand Transparency In Animal Agriculture: "Video cameras are an excellent, economical supplement or alternative to hiring, training, and staffing more USDA inspectors to regulate the meat and dairy industries. Video cameras would help create more transparency in animal agriculture and would likely result in better accordance with the laws protecting public health and preventing animal cruelty. But many people in animal agriculture don't want video cameras. One must wonder, what are they hiding?Transparency is a really good first step to improving farm animals'lives."
lineatus brought us another Dawn Chorus Birdblog: "Pretty much everyone likes birdsong (with the possible exception of 3 a.m. mockingbirds), but few experience the Dawn Chorus these days. If you're fortunate enough to be awake before dawn without having to scramble off to work, it's wonderful to listen the birds wake up and say hello. One of the earliest voices in any chorus is the American Robin, who typically start singing a half hour or more before sunrise. As one of the most widespread species in North American, they will be the anchor of the dawn chorus almost anywhere in the country."
Here’s another (or maybe the) reason the honey bee population is suffering, wrote BKuhl in Trouble for the Bees: Why flowers have lost their scents: "To those of use who have been worried about bees dying off due to an unexplained syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder, a new study offers an interesting possible explanation: pollutants originating largely from car exhaust are interfering with the scent chemicals used by flowers to attract the bees. Basically, chemicals like ozone bond with flowers' scent chemicals, neutralizing them and making them undetectable to the bees. As a result, bees cannot find flowers as easily, and they both produce less food for themselves and pollenate fewer plants. This may result in a feedback loop. Less pollination leads to fewer plants, which leads to fewer flowers. Fewer flowers means less food for bees, which leads to fewer bees. And the cycle begins again."
dedmonds Diaried on the same subject in Flowers Losing Scent, Ability to Attract Bee.
And so did Nature Maven in Honey Bees in Peril: "Last night was a tough one for insomnia. So many thoughts rolling around, and absorbing late-night talk on ‘Coast to Coast Radio,’ I heard reporter Linda Moulton Howe reporting how the Colony Collapse Disorder affecting our North American honey bees is ‘worse than last year.’"
FOOD, AGRICULTURE & HORTICULTURE
High prices and shortages of food caught the eye of several Diarists.
Ctron took note of New York Sun reports: Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World: "The Bush Administration, long putting other country over ours is now faced with this sort of a dilemma. What will be our Presidents response, if hurricane Katrina is any indication, we could be in for one of the worst food shortages ever."
theRoaringGirl wondered Food Riots - does anyone care?: "OMFG!!!! A non-candidate diary!!! Yes, folks, food riots are on their way - Across the country, rice, flour and cooking oils are being rationed, er, restricted. - The cost of bread is rising, and the nation's poor are even hungrier than before."
Food Shortages Coming To America was Blue Texas’s look at the situation: "Costco has just implemented restrictions on how much rice you can buy in their stores. Rice and Food Riots are now taking place around the world because of the falling dollar due to Federal Reserve interest rate cuts to buoy the Financial Markets and failing banks brought about by speculators and billionaires."
Pluto advised us to Go Shop Now. Food Hoarding Begins in the US: "Today, Costco has started rationing rice and flour. I'm going back out today to stock up on other non-perishable items. This is the new America and it makes good business sense to invest in food at this time. It's bad yet? Let's put it this way -- you won't get a warning. No one wants to start a panic. Just remember -- the average city only has a 2 to 3 day supply of food for sale. And once it is forced to restock, you'll pay tomorrows prices, not today’s."
JDsg gave us an in-depth look in Rice Inflation: When Did It Start?: "The global food crisis has been getting a lot of well deserved press recently, and while several different crops have experienced varying levels of inflation, I thought I'd look at rice in particular. Although rice isn't a staple crop in America the way wheat and corn are, it's very much a staple crop here in Asia. Asian reactions to the price increases for rice have varied dramatically. Singapore, for example, has tried to reassure the public that there is plenty of rice while keeping price controls off and allowing companies to bring in additional supplies above and beyond what's normally imported to hedge against any future supply shocks. On the other hand, some other countries in this region (e.g., Vietnam, India and China) have temporarily banned the export of rice."
In a challenge of an article from Asia Times Online, cheap french wine wrote The nonsense of ‘Rice, death and the dollar: "This morning I was shocked to find ‘Rice, death and the dollar"’ on the front page of Dailykos ...The author – a certain ‘Spengler’ – admits there are ‘long-term reasons’ for rising food prices. Now that's an interesting remark. Unfortunately he doesn't identfiy what he believes those reasons are. But then he continues by stating that ‘the unprecedented spike in grain prices during the past year stems from the weakness of the American dollar.’ Now that's very interesting because it's almost certainly not true."
scharrison assigned part of the blame in The Looming Biofuels Disaster: "So another crisis is upon us, and the engineers are back to trying to figure out how to stretch more miles out of each gallon. And we're also trying to figure out how to stretch more gallons out of every gallon, and the magic word is ethanol, a sugar derivative. Unfortunately, the collision of the world's appetite for combustible fuel with the world's food-related agriculture is affecting a change that is already having a horrific impact on food security as well as the environment itself."
"Take Mine" was logsol’s proposal for doing something generous immediately: "There is a real food crisis worldwide and it's not going to get better any time soon. This is an opportunity for us to lead the way and show the world that there are still Americans willing to help. The normal supply of rice is down do to drought, pests, and the freezing of exports. This results in prices going through the roof on the futures markets. International aid organizations are getting less and less rice for their dollars, and people are dying. We can help feed these people with a ‘Take Mine’ approach. Just don't buy rice during the month of May – let those that need it have it."
Asinus Asinum Fricat suggested Tackling World Food Crisis: Agricultural Reform: "It took more than 400 scientists and three years of haggling, wrangling and heated arguments to come up with the report by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) ... The 2,500 page-report concluded that while advances over the last fifty years had resulted in the world's food production increasing at a much faster rate than its population, the present system of production and trade meant the benefits were spread unevenly, and as we know, at intolerable price paid by the small farmers, workers and rural communities and of course, the environment. ‘Malnutrition and food insecurity threaten millions,’ the authors of the report wrote, ‘rising populations and incomes will intensify food demand, especially for meat and milk which compete for land with crops, as will biofuels.’
Biofuels, indeed, was BillyZoom’s complaint in his World Food Crisis: Starve the Poor for Cheaper Gas: "In the US, farmers are doing all they can to get into ethanol. And who can blame them? Ethanol was to bring us cheap energy while revitalizing agricultural communities and saving rural America. Ethanol is good for not only American farmers, but also for those in other grain-producing nations like Brazil. This is not to say that ethanol is entirely responsible for global food shortages. Rising fuel prices, bad weather, and other factors also have a lot to do with the increased problem of hunger."
As if shortages and prices weren’t bad enough, teacherken pointed us to an emerging global story in Stem Rust - a major world threat: "Norman Borlaug, Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M, received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in developing and propagating more productive and disease resistant strains of wheat and other grains. This contributed to the so-called Green Revolution ... Borlaug has an op ed in today's New York Times entitled Stem Rust Never Sleeps which begins with this paragraph outlining the dire situation the world possibly faces: WITH food prices soaring throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and shortages threatening hunger and political chaos, the time could not be worse for an epidemic of stem rust in the world’s wheat crops. Yet millions of wheat farmers, small and large, face this spreading and deadly crop infection."
cheap french wine plugged global warming directly into the equation with CO2 and Food Crisis as a Foreign Policy: "During the next few decades the poor people of this earth are going to exterminated. Why is it ok to stand by and watch the killing of millions of poor people? They're humans too! But somehow, they're the ones who need to perish, for the better of humanity as a whole. It's not the first time in history one group of people are killed supposedly in favor of others (I know, you don't want to be compared to them). But how does this reflect on CO2? Global warming threatens humanity exactly because of the risk of food shortages."
oscarsmom urged us to, This Earth Day, Resolve to Cut Food Waste: "Of course there are many, many things we can all do individually to reduce our impact on the environment. Most Kossacks are well aware of them by this point. But one thing I rarely hear about is the amount of food Americans waste each year and each day. Be aware that when we buy food you do not end up eating, not only are we wasting the food itself, we are wasting the resources it took to grow the food--the land space, the water, the pesticides, etc.. Further, we are wasting the energy-slash-oil it took to transport the food to market, AND any resources involved in manufacturing the packaging, if applicable."
niccolo caldararo made an interesting connection in Earth Day, Change and Hope: Embalming and GMO Foods: "This Earth Day let’s put forth some proposals to make significant change. Perhaps one of the most polluting things humans do is bury our dead, and the worst aspect of this is to embalm them. In her book The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford explained how embalming has nothing to do with sanitation, but everything to do with profits for undertakers and chemical manufacturers. Another important problem we face is the way we produce food. New techniques of seed preparation, fertilizing the soil and of preserving foods are using biotechology and radiation. We need to carefully consider the consequences."
jgoodman went about Questioning the Corporate Food System: "Not everyone can or wants to raise their own food. I guess as a farmer, that's good for my business, but I do want them to to care, to take part in the decision of what they eat and how it is grown. Just as it is wrong for the corporate media to only offer part of the news, it is also wrong for the corporate food industry to basically say ‘shut up and eat.’ When nearly 75% of the US market spinach crop is grown in one valley in California and repeated bacterial contaminations ensue, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system. When millions of pounds of beef are recalled due to bacterial contamination and when, by the count of the Centers for Disease Control, 76 million Americans come down with food poisoning, 73,000 cases of e-coli infection and 63 deaths occur in the US each year, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system."
North Carolina 8th Congressional District candidate Larry Kissell wrote about how Tractors are Sexy: "This Earth Day, I thought it important to consider an often unsung hero of the environmental movement that remains our best line of defense in securing the ultimate goal of environmentalism - our sustainable existence. That unsung hero is the local family farmer, and must be an integral part of the solution to the tsunami of interrelated epidemics on the global horizon from the world food crisis to the world energy crisis and every imported fruit and vegetable driven home from a Supercenter in a plastic shopping bag in between."
Fake Meat! was the alluring headline topping max stirner’s piece: "PETA has, in my opinion, done something very good. According to the Times, PETA will offer an X-prize like competition for development of test tube meat. The idea, clearly, is that if oen can produce steak and chicken without killing animals, then the moral dilemma many of us face when confronted with a cheeseburger (strong desire to eat it vs the belief that the pain caused in producing it is bad) will vanish Yet, I read in the same article that this is quite controversial. Apparently some animal rights advocates are opposed to fake meat."
With the possibility of buying farmland in the offing, SlyDi sought advice in 40 Acres - What To Grow?: "Here's what we get - the usual ‘40 acres, more or less’ of flat to rolling land. The current owner has spread manure from his livestock operation on the fields, and during last year's drought his corn crop fared much better than others in the county. About 30 acres is clearly tillable, with about 8 acres of hardwoods and a couple acres of "bottomland". A ditch runs through the bottomland and makes a futile attempt at draining it. The property is on a glacial ridge with serious wind power potential."
JDalton warned about some greenwashing in Coming to a Coffeehouse Near You: Wal-Mart Organic Blend: "I don't think any of us are going to rush to Wal-Mart to buy a bag of their ‘Swiss Water Process Decaffeinated’ (they're actually selling that), but Wal-Mart has been trading on the ‘we're going green’ image an awful lot lately, and I think we need to take a step back and remember what this company is all about. This is the same company that buys 70% of its products from Chinese factories that abuse workers and discard sludge into rivers. And it’s the same company that takes up more square acreage in America than the entire island of Manhattan. So in the future: Friends don't let friends drink Cafe Wal-Mart."
Uncle Bug found the Monsanto Obit Premature: "Although legitimate concerns can and should be raised about GMO technology, it is important that these arguments be based on solid evidence, rather than hyperbole. Waving this single scientific study around in the air and claiming it is ‘definitive’ proof that GM crops are not the answer to world hunger does not lend credibility to the argument in the mind of someone with scientific training who actually bothered to read the study."
Thomas Dobbs told us about his expertise in Policies to foster sustainable farming and food systems: Part 2, Europe and 'multifunctionality': "I was recently invited to present testimony as part of an economics panel assembled by the Committee for ‘Twenty-First Century Systems Agriculture.’ This committee was created by the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources (BANR), a program unit of the National Research Council (NRC). ... The Committee asked me to address four areas when it met in Kansas City on March 27th. I summarized the major points of my testimony in one area in my ‘Part 1’ Daily Kos posting. Here, in ‘Part 2.’ I summarize my testimony about policy lessons and models from Europe."
Computer problems were mostly on Frankenoid’s mind in her Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, Vol. 4.10, but she had a bit of garden commentary, too: "We did have some great weather — sunny and warm, not too windy. I got the compost bin re-loaded, and did more yard clean up, including bailing out all the crap that had collected under the back deck. Oh, and found a mouse drowned in a bucket (another bit of meat in the compost bin). I've even managed to get every single plant I bought at the nursery in the ground. Like, wow! Usually I manage to kill at least a couple by leaving them sitting in the sun without water, before they make it from nursery, to car, to house, to ground.The fruit trees are all in bloom, and the lilac is getting close -- the bleeding heart is blooming, which means the lilac bush can't be far behind"
Help make sure California is Sprayed! was the opposite of toys’s real point of view: "We need your help! A terrible, hungry moth has descended on California. Yes, the Apple Brown Moth (ABM) has everyone from Arnold on down running scared and the only solution is massive widespread spraying of over a wide area of California. ABMs are a danger to us all. It doesn't matter that hundreds of people have already gotten sick. They are obviously weak, and should be culled from the population anyway. The most important thing is not to worry the people running government or any of the large agribusinesses that are just too cash-strapped themselves to fund any research and must rely on the government. Don't say anything. Sshhh!"
SUSTAINABILITY
Suburban sprawl was on a few minds, including Contributing Editor Devilstower who wrote Ghost Towns with Granite Countertops: "The direction that America took after World War II -- the dissolution of residential cities and the building of a vast system of highways and suburbs -- allowed families to have the illusion of a "more natural" setting (and to discretely exercise their prejudices), but it came at a monstrous cost. From the beginning of this urban exodus, city planners, environmentalists, and everyone with the foresight to see two steps ahead had warned that the strain on the infrastructure, the displacement of agriculture, and the damage to the environment were all insupportable. But no argument seemed capable of stemming the unidirectional flow from cities to suburbs. Now it seems that trend is halting rather abruptly, and some subdivisions are seeing so many foreclosures that they risk not just becoming slums, but ghost towns - tributes to the high tide of wastefulness."
Asinus Asinum Fricat too on the subject in Urban Sprawl and Sustainability: a Tale of Northern Cities: "The following diary has been written by Ms AAF, who is currently going through her post-grad psychology master and has little time to squander on the tubes (though she patrols this site and mine) and having read her latest essay, which fits nicely with today's world food crisis, I have persuaded her to let me post it here, unabridged and link-less. Be gentle or I won't be allowed back into the house! The developed nations of the North, and especially the USA, as the biggest economy in the world, directly and through the institutions under their control, have dominated the world economy in the 20th century. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, the poor neighbors/cousins of the USA. Latin American cities in the 20th century developed along the lines of the North American model of a high-priced downtown business district and sprawling suburbs. Due to this sprawled layout, North American cities themselves are largely car-dependent, although here the affordability of modern technology leads to the pollution being less intensely felt by the cities' inhabitants."
And penguinsong challenged the role of policy in exacerbating the situation in Government Subsidized Suburban Sprawl: "The number one contributor to suburban sprawl is the price of housing. Houses will not be built if it is not profitable to build them. The price of housing determines profitability. Higher housing prices mean more development and construction. This is an immutable law of economics. Wealth is transferred from taxpayers to homeowners using the mortage interest deduction, the capital gains tax exclusion, government financing and loans to housing. In general the larger and more expensive the house the larger the government subsidy. These government subsidies increase the price of housing which in turn leads to mindless but usually very profitable development and construction."
WATER, FORESTS & LAND
NoMoreLies gave us reasons why we should treat Landscaping as if Water Mattered: "On this Earth Day, it's time to take another look at how our landscape choices are impacting the planet. Last year I posted a diary here taking our default landscape choice, the lawn, to task over its extreme dependency on petroleum, and accompanying waste of this dwindling resource. It is not only oil, however, that our landscapes waste. They waste productive human labor, money (over 45 billion dollars per year in the United States), fertilizers that could be better directed to crop production, but most of all, they waste and abuse water. Water is the basic resource upon which life depends, but our current landscape choices behave as if it were limitless."
1Eco1.1 Billion need safe water. Video Featuring Jennifer ConnellyJennifer Connelly is the perfect example of a leading lady that understands the importance of excellent non-profit work. 1.1 Billion in poverty needing safe water assisted by CharityWater.org through a series of individual water projects. To me this is project based support of the highest order. Without water there is no life.
Yes winning the election is a major focus just now, as it is with many here, however helping people in need maybe the truth path to a NOBLE GREEN COMMUNITY VICTORY, beyond who may, or may not lead us as a NATION.
Two Diaries on water were contributed by Asinus Asinum Fricat, Precious Water: Mixed News Roundup on Earth Day: "The problem of water scarcity is a growing worldwide phenomenon. Net renewable water resources per capita have declined dramatically over a single generation, and in little less than 20 years from now will reach dangerously low levels. Water scarcity already affects every single continent and four of every ten people in the world. The situation is getting worse due to population growth, urbanization and the increase in domestic and industrial water use." The Other Blue Revolution We Should Be Having: "The world needs to start another revolution, IMO, to preserve, conserve and manage freshwater supplies in the face of huge growing demands from population growth, irrigated agriculture, unregulated industries (in most parts of the world) and sheer wastage: a Blue Revolution. ... Just as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture in the 1960s, a Blue Revolution ought to galvanize this earth into action, and everyone, from those in government to the multinationals and from the self-employed to the workforce and those at home should play a role as there is no more water on earth now than there was 2,000 years ago, when the population was less than 3% of its current size. Glib? It's worse than that as per-capita water consumption is rising twice as fast as the world's population."
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse provided some good water-related news in Creating Drinking Water From Air: "At least 36 states will face water shortages in the next 5 years as supplies decrease due to drought, rising temperatures, population and inefficient management. Tensions created by mandatory conservation restrictions have turned neighbors against each other by reporting to the water police suspected illegal watering based on a lawn that was simply too green. For a change, there is some good environmental news. Companies and individuals have developed technologies to capture water vapors in our air to create drinking water... or, as in this picture, a water maker that collects dew.
And, in Protecting New Mexico's Outstanding Waters, environmentalist let us know about how a popular governor wants to do something to protect the water we do have: "The Clean Water Act allows state Water Quality Control Commissions to designate certain important waters in the state as Outstanding National Resource Waters, thereby affording those waters the utmost protection under the Clean Water Act. It is an interesting and under-used tool.Governor Bill Richardson is seeking Outstanding National Resource Waters (ONRW) protection under the federal Clean Water Act for a little more than 5,300 miles of New Mexico's rivers and streams."
geodemographics gave us the skinny on Quebec's Boreal Forest: "Large tracts of Quebec's boreal forest have been systematically plundered by the forestry industry over the past fifty years as a result of poor management practices by companies and the provincial government. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Abitibi region of northwestern Quebec, where forestry has played an important role in economic development since the beginning of the century."
Barry in MIA warned that Pine beetles: canaries in the forest mine shaft: "Advance apologizes for the mixed metaphors. But, the pine beetle is the canary in the mine shaft of the western lodgepole pine forests. It's proof positive of both the reality and the negative health, safety and economic consequences of global warming, threatening life and livelihood. Millions of acres of Canada's lush green forests are turning red in spasms of death. A voracious beetle, whose population has exploded with the warming climate, is killing more trees than wildfires or logging."
Confusion ensnared Code Breaker until s/he delved into the details of Arbor Day or Ecological Devastation Day?: "So here I am, innocently trying to figure out why we need both Earth Day and Arbor Day in the same week when yet another shred of my ecological innocence is torn asunder. No, it wasn’t the revelation that Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday of April in the U.S. that horrifies me. What made my jaw hit the floor was the folksy, dewy-eyed origin of Arbor Day, as recounted by the Arbor Day Foundation."
POLLUTION & REGULATION
From up north, sagesource bade Goodbye to Bisphenol A: "Canada has become the first jurisdiction in the world to take steps towards ending the use of bisphenol A, widely found in baby bottles and can linings, which can mimic estrogen and has been accused of causing genetic damage. Present measures will formally ban the use of plastic baby bottles containing the chemical by next year. In response, retailers have already taken most of the offending products off the market voluntarily."
Free trade is reversing the historical flow of industrial poisons back to the United States, according to LakeSuperior in NAFTA - 20000 Tons of Mexican PCB Waste to Texas: "Let's not forget that NAFTA also means free cross border transport of toxic and hazardous waste. The current example appears in today's Federal Register with a pending comment period on Mexican PCB waste coming to Texas. If memory serves me correctly, this facility has been locally controversial for accepting liquid wastes from US Army nerve gas destruction processes. Residents in the African American community of Port Arthur have more recently been vocal about all of the industrial facilities and high emissions affecting the local area. I don't know what the current state of PCB waste management capacity is in Mexico and why this waste is proposed for cross border transport."
Science and Politics at the E.P.A. are still with us FWIW wrote: "The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has released a new report, ‘Interference at the EPA: Science and Politics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.’ ... The report is based on survey results from 1,586 scientists employed at "EPA headquarters, all 10 regional offices, and more than a dozen research laboratories across the country." The survey included comments from more than 850 scientists in dozens of interviews with current and former EPA scientists. The results show ... an agency under siege from political pressures. On numerous issues — ranging from mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate change — political appointees of the George W. Bush administration have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations."
GLOBAL WARMING
GernBlanzten said he was happy to learn about an Earth Day gift from Gore: Inconvenient Truth (the sequel): "Al Gore announced today that he will make a sequel to the Academy Award-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. ...One can only imagine the impact that this film will have on framing the issue since ICT was released in 2006. But this time it appears that the once-and-future President's goal, now that public opinion has firmly shifted in favor of action, is to expand the majorities of the world citizens who are demanding action and to persuade policy makers that the time for action is now."
In Earth Day: The Port Fourchon (La) perpetual motion machine, Mike Stagg pondered media blindspots: "Several Louisiana newspapers carried the Associated Press version of the Baton Rouge Advocate article on the Loren Scott & Associates study on the economic importance of the Port Fourchon energy complex. In the style that has become expected of studies for hire, the report lays out the case for which it was produced, namely that getting more money to raise the road to the the port is a very important project. However, in making the case, it ignores the reason that the road must be raised — a sinking coast and rising sea levels."
environmentalist began a series, Drilling the Climate: Part I - This is a big deal: "Last week, six New Mexico conservation groups and the Western Environmental Law Center filed a protest with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the April 16, 2008 sale of eighty-three oil and gas leases in New Mexico totaling nearly 103,000 acres. Why is this a big deal? This protest is groundbreaking. As far as I know, a protest of oil and gas leases based on the effects of climate change has never before been attempted. This is a big deal." Here is Part II.
In two Diaries, bklynarch talked about methane..METHANE...M-E-T-H-A-N-E: "Spiegel Online has a frightening confirmation of the peril we face with just the slightest further warming of the planet. As I discussed previously in "The Awakening Great White Whale", look to the Siberian permafrost for the most critical planetary tipping point." And here, M-E-T-H-A-N-E....(Back by pop demand-with NEW BREAKING INFO!).
Then there was his : "The volcanoes will save us!With the global warming induced spreading of beetles set to turn the borreal forest from a carbon sink into a huge net emitter, to the horrific news that the methane train is leaving the station, you'd think, at first blush, this report on increased volcanic activity, is a sign that nature is piling on."
Ellinorianne also chimed in on gassy troubles in More Carbon and Methane means less global stability?: "It also looks that the fears of many climatologists are coming true. As the permafrost warms it can potentially release huge amounts of Carbon and methane which have been stored in this "permanently frozen ground" for millions of years. This continued warming can accelerate the changes in the world's permafrost and the chain continues to unravel from year to year. This continued increase in Carbon and Methane in the atmosphere begs the question, are we moving closer to the tipping point where any human intervention cannot turn the process around? And the measurement of Carbon and Methane are just two factors, there is a whole process to consider, such as the ocean's ability to soak up the excess carbon has been decreased recent years."
And so did DWG in Another surge in greenhouse gases: "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) just released data on greenhouse gas emissions for 2007. The news is all bad. The levels of two major drivers of global climate change, carbon dioxide and methane, reached new record highs. Last year alone global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 percent, or 19 billion tons. Additionally methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase."
ClimateLurker compiled Global Warming: Earth Week in Review: "In honor of Earth Week, this is a bigger-picture diary than my usual offering. Instead of covering a single topic as I normally do, I thought I’d give an overview of some of this week’s developments in climate change research. Follow me over the fold for the latest on ocean acidification, Greenland’s glaciers, and the costs and opportunities from fighting global warming."
ENERGY
A Siegel said Obama Message Coopted by Pollution Front Group: "The Astroturf Organization Formerly Known As ABEC has come out with a doozy of a first ad. In the battle to protect our future, the alphabet list of astroturf organizations working to undercut a habitable tomorrow is an ever-growing soup. Tracking the $35 million+ associated with "Americans for Balanced Energy Choices provided easily full-time employment for some dedicated people. Perhaps, these astroturfers felt some pressure. Recently formed, just in time for Earth Day, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.When you hear/see that term, think Clear Skies and other Bushisms ... 'Clean Coal' is a euphemism for Sort-of Less Dirty Coal, Somewhat Less Polluting Coal, Supposedly Less Deadly Coal."
He followed up with Coal Industry "Principles"?: "The Coal Industry came a callin' in one of my diaries exposing their activities, complaining that I had not adequately examined their "principles" in commenting on the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity's (ACCCE's) new advertising campaign that bears an unnerving similarity to wording from Senator Obama's Presidential campaign and from Al Gore's Wecampaign. Their comment (complaint): By concentrating on the name change, as you do, you glossed over the REAL news about the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity: For the first time, we have over 40 coal-related companies agreeing to federal regulation of carbon dioxide, provided our 12 principles are met. Is this ‘REAL news’ or is that ‘provided’ an opening for a subordinate clause that is dominant?"
In a five-part series, xaxnar discussed The Earth, the Energy Crisis and the Silver Bullet - Part 1: Coming Together: "It's getting harder to block awareness that the world is facing an energy crisis that isn't going to solve itself (unless you're George W. Bush); unfortunately awareness is only the first step in dealing with it. The crisis transcends rising prices at the gas pump or geopolitics in the Middle East. A number of trends are coming together in a way that recalls "The Year of the Jackpot". Deeper understanding of just what the crisis is, is a prerequisite for making choices and developing effective solutions." Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; and Part 5.
Gas Tax Holiday will Hurt the Economy declared ThatPoshGirl: "The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has come out against McCain's ‘gas tax holiday.’ Their concern is that the tax break will hurt the transportation infrastructure and won't provide the economic stimulus that he claims. Here is why: While we need new ideas for economic growth and prosperity, the three-month gas tax elimination proposal is simply a shortsighted band-aid that would have little impact on the average American, who, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), would only save $28, an amount that doesn’t even begin to cover one gas fill-up for many Americans. $28? That's not even a week's worth of groceries for most families. Despite only giving relief of a few dollars to the average person, the tax holiday would take a huge chuck of funding from public transportation."
grassroot found a poll Astonishing: 76% of Americans think oil has peaked!: "If this poll is accurate, it shows once again that the American people are a lot smarter than their elites. Almost no one in government is talking about peak oil, nor in the mainstream media, nor even, for the most part, in the liberal blogosphere -- Jerome a Paris's excellent diaries being the exception that proves the rule. In fact when the MSM talks about this, they are generally saying just the opposite -- that high gasoline prices are due to temporary imbalances, or speculation, or what have you, with the clear implication that they will be comning back down and we can all go back to our "happy motoring" (in the phrase of the indispensible James Kunstler)."
Contributing Editor Devilstower thought that perhaps April 22 needs renaming – Maybe It Should Be ‘Mars Day’: "The connection between mountaintop removal mining and Washington, D.C., is both political and physical. Big coal lobbies hard to keep this abomination going, despite laws that were intended to make mountaintop removal illegal decades ago. The Bush administration has obliged the industry with ruling after ruling that has weakened environmental laws and made the most destructive practices more profitable year after year. And as more of the Appalachians are reduced to rubble, the bones of the mountains are being burned right down the road."
We Can Solve Our Energy Crisis was the optimistic assessment of carver: "The current edition of Vanity Fair an article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the form of a letter to the next President makes the case for a comprehensive energy policy that is straight forward and convincing in its logic. His argument debunks the "move slowly and cautiously" meme. He makes an excellent case for an aggressive, realistic policy that can be accomplished with the technology we have."
Having apparently taken the helm for those who favor nuclear power at Daily Kos, davidwalters offered his latest argument Greens lay eggs of coal, read all about it!: "The result of anti-nuclear policies in Italy and Germany are now showing it's real ugly side with the expansion of coal fired power plants. The politics of the Greens, among many others, are showing it's fundemental reactionary side of the debate in Europe. Italy is an interesting case in point. In the panic over Chernobyl and rising costs, Italy shut down its nuclear industry in one fell swoop. That made our Italian Greens feel real good. What they don't like to talk about is that Italy's major utilities are still major investors in the ultimate expression of NIMBYism: building/investing in nuclear outside the borders of Italy to be used inside of Italy!"
Rainforest Action Network found a Surprising Witness for Mountaintop Removal: "Rebecca Tarbotton, director of the Global Finance Campaign here at Rainforest Action Network got a surprising date this week. She went to Citi's annual shareholders meeting to confront the bank's financing of the coal industry. Citi is the largest funder of coal in the United States and as we all know coal is the single biggest source of greenhouse gasses. During the meeting she asked Citi's CEO to join her on a flight over Appalachia to witness the effects of mountaintop removal, financed by his bank.He stumbled for a minute, but then the company's chairman said he would commit to taking the trip and seeing firsthand how devastating mountaintop removal coal mining can be."
Not usually given to snark, at least not in headlines, The Cunctator lobbed one at Big Oil: 'Together, We Can' Ignore Global Warming: "The American Petroleum Institute (API), the trade organization for the oil and natural gas industry, has just begun running a feel-good commercial that argues "America's future" lies in drilling out domestic reserves of oil and natural gas."
POLITICOS
Faye Armitage- The Better Choice for Florida’s Environment, wrote kimw, is
"Faye Armitage, who is running for Congress against John Mica in District 7 ... the smart choice to help protect Florida and the Nation’s natural resources. Armitage vows to make the U.S. a leader on climate change. She will invest in a clean energy future, increase fuel economy standards, invest in a digital smart grid and increase the use of biomass, solar and wind resources. Faye Armitage will increase tax credits to help Americans purchase hybrids, solar panels and other energy efficient products to save money and help save the planet. Faye Armitage will also help to bring green collar jobs to our area."
Margery offered a kind of poem on Clinton's Green Dollar System. Here’s the first stanza:
Clinton’s plan is to create a green, efficient economy
With as many as five million new jobs!
She will improve standards for energy and auto efficiency
And increase long-lasting light bulbs.
nytcek pondered Where would Dick Cheney Spend Earth Day?: "Who would Cheney hang with on Earth Day? The owners of Koch Industries, that's who. Cheney is hosting the fund raiser at their home in New York. According to the Steve Harrison For Congress Folks. Here are some quick facts: It's been responsible for over 300 oil spills. Fined over $40 million by our government. In the months preceding the 2000 elections, Koch Industries faced a 97 count federal indictment.After George W. Bush became president, 88 of the charges were dropped.Koch Industries had donated $800,000 to Bush and other Republican candidates."
Maura Satchell called for action in This Earth Day, Send Lamar (TN-SEN) Packing!: "Lamar voted for offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 and led the charge for offshore drilling off the coast of VIRGINIA(!) in 2008! By trying to attach it to the budget! Pilot Oil, the Tennessee-based oil distributor, ranked 20th largest contributor and added $12,000 to Lamar's coffers in the 2002 Senate race. So apparently pleased with his performance in the Senate, they've upped the ante to $29,600 so far this election cycle, and are the third largest single corporate contributor this time around, just behind two other issues near and dear to his and most other Republican's black hearts: Healthcare and privatizing the Prison system."
Chris Kelly’s chosen green candidate (ggreen, not Green) is in OH-03: Mitakides Campaign Goes Carbon Neutral: "Many politicians use Earth Day for their own purposes, focusing on environmental issues for one day a year. However, global warming doesn’t take a vacation for the other 364 days a year - and neither can we. That’s why Jane has decided to walk the talk of green solutions by making her campaign carbon neutral, and committing to work for renewable energy and green jobs when elected to Congress. By underwriting carbon offsets from CarbonFund.org, an organization that helps individuals, businesses, and organizations to eliminate their carbon footprints, the Mitakides campaign becomes the first one of the first congressional campaigns in the nation (and the first in Ohio) to take responsibility for their own greenhouse gas emissions."
WattHead promoted Act Blue for an Energy Smart Congress: On Earth Day, we celebrate our unique blue planet and look for ways to advance a sustainable future. So this Earth Day, let's Act Blue and do something that can have a lasting and significant impact: support Energy Smart and Earth Friendly candidates for Congress! One of the highlights of the 2006 elections was the defeat of former Congressman Richard Pombo (CA-11), a man who seemed to make it his singular mission in Congress to rape and pillage the environment, including leading the charge on repeated attempts to gut the Endangered Species Act and open up ANWR for oil drilling."
A Siegel made the same suggestion Act Blue for the Earth: "One of the greatest joys in the 2006 election, amid the triumph of capturing both the House and Senate, came with now Congressman Jerry McNerney's defeat of Richard Pombo in CA-11. Pombo was in real competition to be the worst member of Congress when it came to energy and environmental issues. On the other hand, McNerney knows energy, clean energy. During his career in wind energy, McNerney's work contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants. In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials."
BlueTape announced that WA-08: Darcy Burner endorsed by founder of Earth Day: "In the midst of all the attention being paid to the Pennsylvania primary today, I thought it might be a good idea to give a small update regarding an '08 congressional race that's been much talked about on DailyKos and elsewhere. Darcy Burner, running for Congress in the Washington 8th against Bush stalwart Dave Reichert, has been endorsed by Denis Hayes, [coordinator] of Earth Day [1970, 1990, 2000] and chairman of Earth Day Network."
The Big E picked a Minnesota politician to pick on in Earth Day and Norm Coleman: "Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) has been lousy on environmental issues. He's been lousy on global climate change. You name the specific environmental issue, Norm's been bad on it. The League of Conservation Voters gives him a 26.8% overall rating. After the Republican electoral defeats in 2006, Norm realized he was in trouble and began moderating his conservative positions. The two main areas he began moderating was on the occupation of Iraq (he initially opposed the surge though by the time the first vote occurred, he was back in the stay-the-course fold) and environmental issues."
In FOE Action tells McCain in TV ad, "No more pork for corporate polluters!", TomP took note of a Friends of the Earth Action effort, an ad in which FOE president, "Dr. Brent Blackwalder, calls out McCain: You know how self righteous John McCain can be when he talks about corporate pork and earmarks, but do you know why he opposes the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill? He plans to vote against it not because it could lavish $1 trillion on the profitable oil, gas and coal industries, but because he wants to add hundreds of billions of dollars more in earmarks for the nuclear industry! Yeah, what a maverick."
And Mister Bush caught more scolding from DWG in Bush flips off California (and every other state) on Earth Day: "The Los Angeles Times has a sweet little editorial about the latest Bush gambit on the environment. It is worth a read. The opening paragraph gets to the heart of the matter. For Earth Day this year, the Bush administration sent California a few million tons of carbon dioxide, then tried to pass it off as a gift for the environment. The proposed federal fuel economy standards issued Tuesday represent a backdoor attempt to thwart the will of the state, Congress, the federal courts and possibly even the Supreme Court. That's quite a day's work even for President Bush."
GREEN PHILOSOPHY
A Siegel wrote Husband or Wife? Framing Environmental Issues: "How should environmental organizations and prominent 'environmental' politicians speak to supporters when it comes to environmental issues and when it comes to the Lieberman-Warner Climate (In)Security Act? This is a serious issue that can get some blood boiling. Privately, some have sent complaints that Plumbing Lieberman-Warner's Shortfalls Doesn't Meet Scientific Requirements wasn't fair since it did not fully quote all the materials that a group sends out, cherry-picking from opening paragraphs to supporters without dealing with all the qualifications that were in the following paragraphs. Plumbing Lieberman-Warner focused on gaps between analysis of science on Global Warming, from environmental organizations, and those organizations comments re the Lieberman-Warner Climate (In)Security Act. On reflection, this seems to suggest a relevance of domestic relationships to how one messages with supporters on complex issues."
He also pondered Buying our way to a better planet ...: "There is a debate, subdued at times, between various approaches toward changing the planet to the better. In many ways, my viewpoint (on the optimist side) tends toward the 'enviro-capitalist', thinking that we can work to structure the economy to make the right choice, the easy (and preferred) choice. There is a challenge between using financial mechanisms as a tool to move toward a A Prosperous, Climate-Friendly Society and going overboard. The line can be thin ... or thick."
I asked Five Questions for Earth Day Maven Denis Hayes.
xofferson wrote about Earth Day's real, lasting legacy: "Maybe we should start with a disclosure that I am Gaylord Nelson's biographer, which may give me a somewhat different perspective on Earth Day, founded by Senator Nelson (pictured at right), than some others. That said, do take time to read Meteor Blade's commentary and Q-A with Denis Hayes, who has been associated with Earth Day since Gaylord Nelson hired him to coordinate the first one in 1970. Earth Day, it is true, has not solved all of the world's environmental problems. But it has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on how people think about and relate to the environment."
Contributing Editor Devilstower, who, given his output on the subject, obviously took Earth Week seriously, Belated Earth Day: The Big Gulp: "Because consumption of oil is, at its heart, a social issue. There's no Second Law of Petrodynamics that states every human being must have 20 gallons of high test to get through the day. Sure, it will be great to have plug-in hybrids and full bore EVs on the road, but we don't have to wait until then to tackle this problem. We can choose to end the oil crisis, and it involves no technological breakthroughs at all. The solution lies in making choices as boring as picking up that fluorescent light bulb. The answer is conservation: drive less; take public transit; walk; if it's too far to walk, use a bike; if it's too far to bike, and there no public transportation, car pool; if you can't car pool, use a smaller, more efficient vehicle; if you have a long commute, move closer to work; if you can't move closer, take a closer job; if you can't get a different job, see if you can telecommute. It really is that simple.Which of course, doesn't mean it will be easy."
Eric Zencey offered a frame that could make Republicans go green in Carbon caps and ‘values’ voters: "Those of us interested in saving industrial civilization from cooking itself to death face an uphill slog: the Republican base doesn't cotton to environmental types. But there is a way to turn these voters into carbon cappers. What they need to appreciate is the connection between controlling carbon and the "family values" that was their watchword last presidential election season. Controlling carbon = ‘family values.’ It's that simple."
Ken Ward took a dark view in The Rainbow Covenant: "Earth Day is supposed to be a day of celebration, but there is little to celebrate today. As Kurt Vonnegut once said...I wish I could bring light... but there is no light. Everything is going to become unimaginably worse. If I lied to you about that, you would sense that I'd lied to you, and that would be another cause for gloom, and we have enough causes already. It is true that there are fewer bald-faced lies being told about the state of the earth - even our President now admits that climate change is, well shucks, kind’ve a problem - but fewer lies does not mean that there is more truth...."
The cost of greening up was on Tracker’s mind in Happy Earth Day!: "Ok, let's make a list: What are Kossacks doing to reduce their carbon footprint? What would we like to do? Why aren't we doing it all? For me it's a question of money. Most of my carbon-reducing tactics are also frugalities. Most of the things I'd like to do, I can't afford to. And some of the activities I love (like hiking in NH mountains) is no longer economically feasible). So what's your list?"
activationensues Earth Week, Day Two: "While I said yesterday I was going to write about gardening as a method you can easily do to change your environmental impact, I decided that that was too big a change for most people, and decided to concentrate today on a different topic, one that requires less of a commitment and more of just conscientious consumerism. First off, I'd like to address the issue of reusing those plastic bags you might get while out shopping, as well as considering purchasing reusable totes to start using instead."
Winter Rabbit expressed some pain about what it means to go Back to the Artificial Environment & Back Again: "I drive home from having been with the Earth Mother for any length of time and feel clarity about our artificial environment. The longer I’ve been with her, the more profound the clarity is. I stare straight in the face of ‘progress’ as phone lines, gas stations, and eventually the hazy horizon over the city appears. I can’t help the feeling of wrongness I feel, though I can see some progress is useful, schools are for example. Still, I can’t help the feeling of wrongness."