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 25,150 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
Besame writes—Self-assembling ant rafts teach us how to deal with climate chaos: “No, I’m not talking about building an ark. It’s more complex than that and not necessarily aquatic. Ants accomplish tasks through self-assembly—linking their bodies and forming chains, ladders, walls, or rafts. Sometimes the tasks are mundanely important (get food), other times they are urgently critical to colony survival. During floods, some ants self-assemble into living rafts to protect queens and other vulnerable colony members. Self-assembly is a process in which unorganized parts come together in an organized structure. Ants are social animals known for working together to solve problems far bigger than any one individual can handle. Like humans, ants enhance their individual response to emergencies by coordinating with others, and different members take on different roles. A recent study showed even more than this specialization—ants have memories of what roles worked best for the situation and their memories persist over time. There’s a lesson for us in the behavior of these humble ants. Humans now face the biggest problems of our species’ existence and consequences are rippling across the earth, touching all life. By acting collectively we can mitigate climate chaos problems.”
Dan Chu writes—Vital Ground: Grizzly Bears and Greater Yellowstone: “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed removing endangered species protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears. When the bear was first placed on the Endangered Species list 40 years ago, the population was less than 140 bears. Now in 2016, due in large part to endangered species protections, the grizzly bear population is estimated to be about 700 bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Unfortunately, such a rebound in the bear numbers is overshadowed by significant threats that remain to the recovering bear population. These must be addressed before grizzly bears are stripped of endangered species protections. One is the sharp decline of whitebark pine nuts due to climate change. Another is a drop in cutthroat trout. Whitebark pine and trout have been primary food sources for bears, and their loss has driven grizzlies to find other food sources, like garbage, hunter-killed elk carcasses or livestock, that often bring them into conflict with people. Yellowstone’s grizzly bears also face other challenges. They remain isolated from other bear populations, a disconnect which leads to inbreeding and all the problems associated with a lack of genetic diversity. They also face hostile state policies which focus on reducing bear numbers instead of implementing proven coexistence measures, and would allow sport trophy hunts of grizzly bears.”
Austin Bailey writes—Poop Me A Cup of Joe: “Humans show an amazing capacity to make life miserable for any animal that can help them make a buck. Evidence of this can be found in Bali, where civets are held in horrific captivity in order to literally poop out the world’s most expensive cup of coffee. It’s the world’s most expensive coffee, and it’s made from poop. Or rather, it’s made from coffee beans that are partially digested and then pooped out by the civet, a catlike creature. A cup of kopi luwak, as it’s known, can sell for as much as $80 in the United States. Civets are being caged and fed a diet of coffee cherries to generate a smoother, less acidic, coffee bean. This is a result of the interaction of a digestive enzyme that modifies the raw coffee bean as it is processed by the civet. More and more civets are being confined in cages to process more and more coffee beans.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
RonK writes—The Daily Bucket: Gray Whales of the Salish Sea & Pacific Northwest: “The Pacific Northwest has a tremendous array of aquatic wildlife but none more riveting or awe inspiring than the whales. In addition to our most iconic, the Orca, we also have Gray Whales and Humpbacks, both of which stop by the Salish Sea on their migrations to and from the Arctic. This bucket is based on my recent Gray Whale watching trip in April. Although the focus here is on the whales, I must say a word or two (brag) about the setting in which we were fortunate enough to view them. The whales chose and we followed them to a magnificent portion of Puget Sound/Salish Sea where they fed. They chose as their supermarket the relatively shallow waters off the south eastern end of Whidbey Island across Saratoga Pass to the nearby southern end of Camano Island. This area was bordered by the mainland and the city of Everett, just a few miles to the east. We were able to view these whales against the backdrop of three of Washington’s five volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains: Mt. Baker to the north, Glacier Peak to the East and Mt. Rainier to the South. Although we could see Rainier, it was rather hazy and did not come through on photos. Below are a few shots of the whales and the mountains.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - sponges on a coral reef (West Indies bucket #3): “Join me underwater for a look at some of the critters who make their home on the coral reef system of the Cayman Ridge. Coral reefs are an incredibly diverse and complex ecosystem so I can show you only a sampling. And today I’m going to narrow that down to just one kind of critter: sponges. Yes, sponges are animals. Each sponge in that group in the photo above is as big as a person. They have been growing there for hundreds of years. Sponges are just one type of creature inhabiting this coral reef ecosystem, and like everything in these finely tuned worlds, they play a significant role in the health of this one. As anthropogenic climate change increases ocean temperatures, the sponges, with their critical structural and food web importance, will be changing. I’ll write more about the imbalances I’ve been seeing in the Caribbean reefs from my POV as a diver in a future article, but today I want to give you a sense of the diversity of a single small component of this spectacular ecosystem.”
Austin Bailey writes—Republicans to Grizzlies - "Drop Dead! "Legendary conservationist Jane Goodall has added her voice to the growing chorus of conservationist and scientists contesting the removal of the Endangered Species protection of the grizzly population in the greater Yellowstone National Park ecosystem. A total of 58 experts have put their name to a letter urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to keep the grizzly bears on the Endangered Species Act, which has protected them from hunters and other interference since 1975. The USFWS decision, announced in March, has been widely criticized for inadequate research that overestimates the number of grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem and the adequacy of their food supply. In addition, experts believe that the USFWS significantly underestimate the impact of proposed trophy hunter of bears that routinely move in and out of the boundaries of Yellowstone and the adjacent Grand Tetons National Parks.”
Lenny Flank writes—Photo Diary: Coastal Georgia Botanical Garden: “When the Colony of Georgia was founded in the 1730’s, it was a privately-owned commercial venture, which had the purpose of making a profit by exporting agricultural materials like rice, silk, tobacco and tea to England. When the city of Savannah was founded by James Oglethorpe, one of his first actions was to set up a test plantation to try out various plants and see how well they grew. As it turned out, Ogelthorpe’s venture was a failure, the colony lost money, and eventually it gave up its charter, put itself under direct Crown control, legalized slavery, and lived on a cotton economy. In the 1920’s, the site of Oglethorpe’s first plantation was occupied by the USDA, as a test station to examine a number of plants that the US hoped to import for commercial uses, such as rice, bamboo and figs. Eventually the site was closed down and abandoned. Today, the old USDA “bamboo farm” is occupied by the Coastal Georgia Botanical Garden, which displays a wide variety of plants and flowers.”
Dan Bacher writes—Yurok Tribe adopts 4-day per week fishing closure to protect spring Chinook, green sturgeon: "The Yurok Tribal Council has adopted strict spring fishing regulations to protect spring Chinook salmon and green sturgeon on the Klamath-Trinity River system. Here is the press release from the Tribe: In response to the decline of wild spring Chinook salmon in the Klamath-Trinity Basin and concern about the status of green sturgeon, the Yurok Tribal Council has adopted stringent spring fishing regulations, including a four-day per week closure. ‘Closing the fishery is never an easy decision for our Council, especially when similar efforts aren’t made by others that harvest these imperiled stocks,’ said Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. ‘Our people depend on these fish to feed their families. We decided to make this sacrifice today to protect this crucial spring staple for future generations.’”
CLIMATE CHAOS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Monkey See, Monkey Do, With Philip Morris and Exxon Too: “ ‘These people are not scientists, they are public-relations people who happen to have degrees in science. These are people who make their living producing results that their clients want. And that’s not science.’ Sounds like a standard description of the fringe minority of ‘scientists’ who reject the consensus on human-made climate change, right? Except, it’s not. It's what tobacco expert Stan Glantz said of the people the Philip Morris company hired in its vain attempt to convince the courts and the public that their product isn't dangerous and addictive. The Center for Public Integrity carried Glantz’s quote at the end of their interesting look at how Philip Morris attempted to continue deceiving the public about the safety of its products. It’s practically a game of mad-libs where you could replace "tobacco industry" with "fossil fuel lobby,’ who used the same tactic of hiring fake scientists (like Marc ‘I'm not a scientist but I play one on TV’ Morano) to produce reports that don’t undergo real peer review (such as GWPF does) in an attempt to stave off the regulation of their product for as long as possible.”
lucid writes—So You're Concerned About Climate Change...: “If, like me, you are a human being possessed of self-consciousness and reason, living on this pale blue dot, you should not just be frightened by climate change, because you will be petrified by it. At just a 6 degree rise in temperature [predicted by 2100 at current models — which get revised downward everyday], the disruption to oceanic phytoplankton could render our atmosphere unbreathable. We’re not just talking, storms, disease, sea level rise, massive food and water disruptions — we’re talking breathing. The ‘serious people’ have plenty of solutions — from reducing emissions, taxing fossil fuels, increasing efficiency and transitioning to a ‘green economy’ on a macro level to reducing carbon footprints on a micro level. It is said that we need a ‘World War II mobilization’ to combat climate change — and that is by the most ardent of the ‘serious people’. What this approach fails to comprehend is that climate change cannot be fundamentally altered when the structure of the world economy itself is the cause. We can’t tinker at the margins and expect any appreciable positive change while we still base our entire economic order on manufactured scarcity. One can argue whether or not the notion of scarcity is at the heart of all historical economic orders, but it is inarguable that it is the central concept of capitalism.”
joeknapp writes—Climate change factor in Alberta fires: “With the wildfires causing the evacuation of Fort McMurray there is talk of the possible effect of climate change on the current hot and dry weather conditions in Alberta. The chart above showing the monthly high and low extreme temperatures for Calgary going back to 1890 and current through this month doesn’t show any particular warming trend. However, temperature in Calgary is relatively high at present according to the season. Here is the daily record for the last few years, current through May 4th [...] So yes, current weather conditions there are hot and dry, but individually not so much out of the ordinary. Perhaps a combination of the factors could reveal a trend caused by climate change. I.e., maybe the combination of hot and dry conditions is unusual. To that end, define a rudimentary “fire index” as the monthly high temperature in degrees C divided by the monthly total precipitation in mm. The units are arbitrary but give a measure of the relative fire danger. E.g, as temperature goes up and/or the precipitation goes down, the index goes up. Here’s the result 1890 to present [...] So by that measure the current fire danger is the highest since 1890, and there does indeed seem to be an increasing trend over the years, perhaps due to climate change.”
Steven D writes—Alberta Wildfires Out of Control. Blame Climate Change, with a little help from Hillary Clinton: “If you followed the links from the excerpt of article above, you would see references to a series of massive, disastrous wildfires across the upper Northern hemisphere, including boreal forests in Siberia, Alaska and the Northwest Territories in Canada since 2013, which predates the current extreme El Nino event. This sharp increase in both the extent and intensity of wildfires this far north, and the lengthening of the wildfire season across the globe, as acknowledged by this report in The New York Times, ‘Wildfires, Once Confined to a Season, Burn Earlier and Longer,’ is seen by many climate scientists as a clear indication that global warming is the clear culprit. [...] Perhaps you don't think this has anything to do with the current election, and in one sense you are correct. The media certainly hasn't made climate change a major topic of discussion, nor have the candidates. The Republicans, including the likely nominee, Donald Trump, almost to a man and woman, reject the science of climate change and deny that what we are seeing with our own eyes is real. It's happening now, not in some distant future when we will all be dead and won't have to worry about it. But they deny, deny, deny because to do otherwise would be to reject the position of their financial backers and all those conservatives who buy into the Fox Noise propaganda.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Fires in Alberta's Boreal Forest expanding rapidly w no end in sight until unusual weather stops: “The fires in Alberta’s Boreal Forests are expanding at geometric rates, and will continue to do so until the unusually hot dry spring weather pattern (that has made northern Alberta hotter than Texas this spring) comes to an end, the fires’ rapid expansion is likely to continue. Without rain, massive Fort McMurray wildfire expected to keep growing [...] Fire officials in Alberta do not yet know what started a massive wildfire that chased the entire population out of Fort McMurray, but they now know the only force that can stop it will be a significant change in the weather. Supercharged by winds of up to 70 km/h, the wildfire ballooned to 85,000 hectares overnight and is now raging on several fronts near the oilsands city. The main fire, now south of the city, is expected to continue to burn out of control today and perhaps for many days to come.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
RLMiller writes—In Kentucky for Bernie? Meet authentic progressive Sellus. Bernie Sanders is visiting Kentucky — last night in Louisville, tonight in Lexington. If you’re standing in line — or if you’re a Kentucky voter — keep an eye on Sellus Wilder, running for Senate as an authentic progressive for a brighter Kentucky. Yes, there are progressives in Kentucky. At a recent candidates’ forum, Wilder spoke the truth: coal jobs aren’t going to come roaring back to Kentucky, and statewide politicians vowing to fight an entirely chimerical “war on coal” are just peddling snake oil. Instead, Kentucky needs to invest in a clean energy future, turning strip mines into solar farms. And that’s why he’s earned a Climate Hawks Vote endorsement. Before Wilder became a candidate, he was a fractivist, helping to organize and promote the successful effort to stop “Kentucky’s Keystone XL,” the natural-gas Bluegrass Pipeline.
thePHATman writes—ROF - Hillary Already Backtracking on Climate Change: “From Ring of Fire Radio: It looks like Hillary Clinton’s opposition to the coal industry didn’t last very long. In a recent spat with pro-coal protestors, Clinton made it clear that she had little intention in hurting the coal industry. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this. This is just par for the course, is it not? This is just more ammo for the Trump to use in the GE, why the F%&k is she doing this? Coal is killing our planet, why could she just not say that? I’m sorry but I’m sick of this, I’m for it, no I’m against it, well, what-ever?”
Mark Sumner writes—South Carolina wants to make it easier to pollute: “You know who has it too hard? Polluters. Just because they put toxins in your soil, your water, your air, your kids… that doesn’t mean you should be able to do one damn thing about it. And if South Carolina legislators get their way, you won't. For the past 65 years, if someone — or some company — was illegally polluting in South Carolina, you could sue. The law was put on the books so that if South Carolina’s enforcement agencies didn’t have the time, money, or political backing to go after a polluter, the average citizen could step in. Now, with only a month left in its 2015-2016 session, the South Carolina legislature has picked up a bill that would do away with this ability. Of course, the bill is probably just stopping completely frivolous lawsuits. Because South Carolina agencies catch every polluter and have the time, manpower, and budget to follow up on every case. Except the ones that they’re ignoring intentionally–like massive spills of coal ash.”
tjlord writes—S.C. Bill 229 - sorry, path to the court house for your environmental lawsuit just may go away: "South Carolina’s House just passed Bill 229 out of committee. It removes the right for a citizen lawsuit over environmental contamination, especially coal ash, under South Carolina law. The bill’s language is here — sponsors are getting a beating in The State. For Democratic candidates in South Carolina, this should be a winner. Defenders claim the bill merely places significant barriers in the way of citizen lawsuits. Defenders of the bill claim the obstructions are just valid intermediate points. But what the law says is: SECTION 1. It is the intent of the General Assembly that no private right of action exists under the Pollution Control Act, as contained in Chapter 1, Title 48. Except as set forth in Section 48-1-90(A)(4), no claim or cause of action alleging a violation of the act may be filed in a court or administrative tribunal by any person other than the department or an agency, commission, department, or political subdivision of the State on or after June 6, 2012. Funny — that doesn’t seem to be a jog in the path; that seems to be a ‘do not pass go sign.’ It gets worse.”
lowt writes—Why is Sanders Pandering to Big Coal? ”About ten years ago I had a conversation with a teacher from West Virginia. She was lamenting how hard it was to teach in her area because so few of the students were motivated to graduate high school, much less prepare themselves for college or a skilled job. The reality for most of them was that they were going to turn 18, drop out of school, and become coal miners. I was reminded of this when Sanders was interviewed on Morning Edition during his visit to West Virginia. Sanders admitted that coal was a problem with relation to climate change, and the mortality rate due to the industry, but we had to primarily be concerned with jobs, so he would not support Clinton in the destruction of the industry. Clinton, who I think has the right policy toward the coal mining industry, has apologized for past comments that she wants to destroy it. While I am disappointed that Clinton one again is being unnecessarily politic, she is not going to win West Virginia in the general election, I am more disappointed that a progressive like Sanders is pandering to the climate change deniers for votes that, at this point, do not matter.”
Bethesda 1971 writes—Hillary's Imagination: Be Green, yet Humane: “David Brooks is worried about Hillary Clinton’s supposed lack of “imagination,” particularly in relation to her position on coal mining in W. Virginia. Hillary actually shows great imagination in her coal miners' proposal -- phase coal out, but help the miners. Here is her actual Program: • Protect health and retirement benefits for retired coal miners. • Ensure public schools in coal communities remain funded even as the coal-related revenues that currently support them decline. • Make major infrastructure investments in coal communities in order to grow local economies and increase employment. • Increase public investment in research and development in coal-producing regions. • Expand tax credits in communities that are suffering from the coal industry's decline in order to attract new private investment. • Provide job training for workers and technical assistance for small businesses in coal communities. • Fund programs that make homes in coal communities more energy efficient, saving families money on their electric bills. [HillaryClinton.com, The Briefing.”
Dan Bacher writes—Western States Petroleum Association President Receives Two Awards! “If anybody still has any illusions that California is a visionary ‘green’ model for the rest of the nation, the unfounded myth of a ‘green California’ promoted by Governor Jerry Brown and other state officials is quickly dispelled by an awards ceremony for one of the most powerful oil industry lobbyists in the country that will take place in Bakersfield on Saturday, May 7. In a salute to California’s status as third largest oil state in the country and Big Oil’s role as the biggest and most powerful corporate lobby in Sacramento, the ‘Women's Empowerment Summit; is honoring Catherine Reheis- Boyd, President of the Western States Petroleum Association and former Chair of the MLPA Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so- called ‘marine protected areas’ in Southern California, with the 2016 ‘Distinguished Woman and Petroleum Advocate of the Year’ award. In response to the flyer announcing the award, a tweet from the WSPA Truth Squad, a satirical website, commented, ‘Nothing screams "women's empowerment" like some #oilbucks. Am I right?!’ The event, sponsored by the California Latino Leadership Institute, is billed as the ‘First Annual CLLI Tri County Central Valley Women’s Empowerment Summit’ ”
AIR & WATER POLLUTION
Mary Anne Hitt writes—Marching for Clean Air in Philly: “Earlier this week I heard some very powerful and sad stories from two residents of Philadelphia. Teresa Hill spoke about her children's and grandchildren's struggles with asthma while living in the city. Then Vietnam veteran Sgt. Gerald Brown gave a very moving speech about losing a granddaughter to respiratory disease. Gerald says the Sierra Club has helped him make the connection between invisible pollution and his family's health.Teresa and Gerald were just two of nearly 80 Philadelphia-area residents who took part in a rally and march that I joined on World Asthma Day. The crowd - made up of volunteers with the Sierra Club, Moms Clean Air Force, and PennEnvironment - called for a transition to clean energy and marched to the local Environmental Protection Agency office to demand one of the biggest polluters in the state to be held accountable. Philadelphia is downwind from the Brunner Island coal plant, and the state is proposing to create a loophole for the plant so it doesn't have to operate its controls for smog-causing pollution.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
Peregrine Kate writes—President Obama Visits Flint. What Will That Accomplish? “Is this what the president’s visit was meant to facilitate in the end—a real conversation between Mayor Weaver and Governor Snyder?
Maybe so. But what does that say about our politics in Michigan if that is what it takes? Join me after the jump for other recent coverage of the ongoing, deepening, enraging #FlintWaterCrisis.”
ENERGY
Nuclear & Fossil Fuels
Walter Einenkel writes—Fifty-nine oil and gas companies have filed for bankruptcy in the past couple of months: “Crude prices have been dropping for a long time now and the effects on the oil and gas industry are not unlike those suffered by telecoms back in the early 2000s. This quarter, 59 oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy, including this week, when Midstates Petroleum and Ultra Petroleum filed. Charles Gibbs, a restructuring partner at Akin Gump in Texas, said the U.S. oil industry is not even halfway through its wave of bankruptcies. "I think we'll see more filings in the second quarter than in the first quarter," he said. Fifteen oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter. Some oil producers appear to be holding on, hoping the price of crude stabilizes at a higher level. In February, oil slumped as low as $27 a barrel from peaks above $100 a barrel nearly two years ago. U.S. crude has recovered somewhat, and on Tuesday was trading a little below $44 a barrel. [O/R] Banks have began cutting back on the borrowing they’re allowing companies in trouble and big mergers have not appeared to help many troubling companies. Heavy use of gas and oil are going to be things of the past at some point—hopefully sooner than later for all of us.”
xaxnar writes—Fusion - Update on the OTHER Nuclear Power: “An international consortium is working on the ITER fusion project. It’s based on atokamak design, which has been around for a while. The project is way over the original budget, years behind schedule, has the expected international bureaucratic complications — and no one yet knows how well it will work. The key test for a fusion reactor is the so-called break even point. That’s when the power it produces matches the power it takes to operate it. Getting past break even — and at an effective cost — is the big obstacle. They hope ITER will make break even, and pave the way for working fusion reactors. Others are looking at alternatives. The BBC has a report on some projects being funded by an eclectic mix of very wealthy people.”
Hydraulic Fracturing
Meteor Blades writes—Eco-coalition sues to force EPA to update its obsolete rules on disposal of fracking wastewater: “Seven environmental organizations—including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice—filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday to force the first upgrade in three decades of disposal rules covering hydraulic fracturing waste. Among other things, the injection of waste water from this fracking has been linked to earthquakes in Kansas and other states. Fracking itself has been linked to drinking water contamination in Wyoming, but the lawsuit doesn’t address that.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
NH Labor News writes—Why The Passage Of The Net Metering Increase Is Important Today And In The Gubernatorial Election: “In the past year we have seen an explosion in home solar panel leasing companies who provide panels at little to no cost. They promise to save you 5-10 cents per kilowatt-hour on your electricity bill. They do this by collecting energy from your rooftop panels and selling it to the electric company. Think of this like backfeeding the electricity grid with clean solar energy so the electricity company can reduce the amount on energy they need to produce from coal power plants. The solar company then subsidizes the cost of the electricity coming into your home saving you hundreds of dollars a year. The process of selling solar to the electric company is called “net metering.” The net metering cap is simply how much an individual could sell their solar energy to the electric company. On Monday, Governor Maggie Hassan signed HB 1116 into law doubling the net metering cap.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—The Birds and the ‘Bines: Wind Turbine Regulations Revised: “On Wednesday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced revisions to federal regulations on activities that affect bald and golden eagles. The focus of AP’s reporting was on the rule’s significance for wind farms. The rule, though, applies to any industry or individual who harms an eagle during activities that are otherwise legal, assuming that they’ve made every effort possible to avoid impacts. The American Wind Energy Association has a fact check that’s sure to come in handy as we inevitably see a fresh round of fossil fuel-penned pieces crying crocodile tears for birds. Their attacks will, of course, ignore the important fact that, by rough estimate, near about 3 percent of human-caused eagle deaths are caused by wind turbines. While this updated permitting regulation allows for 4,200 annual bird deaths, at present 970 million birds crash into buildings annually, 175 million die after flying into power lines, 72 million killed by misapplied pesticide, 6.6 million from collisions with communications towers, and ‘as many as 1 million birds die in oil and gas industry fluid waste pits.’ Wind turbines, by comparison, killed approximately 573,000 birds in 2012. These stats and more can be found in a debunking of the attacks repeatedly made by Robert Bryce in the Wall Street Journal. Bryce wrote op-eds attacking wind power in February, October and November 2013, which are all similar to one he wrote in 2009, and just like what he wrote in 2015. Since he already attacked wind power back in February of this year, one might think the WSJ editors wouldn’t want to go back to him for essentially a rerun of the same op-ed. But the WSJ has published over twenty of his pieces since 2009, all of which are either explicitly anti-wind or pro-fossil fuels.”
ECO-ESSAYS & PROPOSALS
fqwatkins writes—Humans of Climate Change: Michelle Ignacio, Tacloban, the Philippines: “This is the fourth of four ‘Humans of Climate Change"’stories from Tacloban, the Philippines. Tacloban was one of the cities hardest hit by the 2013 supertyphoon dubbed "Haiyan" internationally and "Yolanda" in the Philippines. For an overview of the storm's impacts in the region and the influence of climate change in increasing the severity of tropical storm impacts, visit the series introduction here. Other stories: Imelda Rona, Eva Postre, John Andrew Lajara.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
CaptainDwt writes—Why Civil Action will be required to substantially decrease carbon emissions: “Oil and gas prop up the economies of so many nations! The wealth of the top 500 multinationals is tied to this process. It is therefore unreasonable to believe that the governments of these nations or the elite directors of the multi-nationals are going to shut this entire system down within the 15-30 years we have left to get it done and avoid catastrophic climate change. Quite the opposite, they are totally committed, blood (yes, yours) and fortune (yes, ours too), to oil and gas economies for the foreseeable future! Given this, what does a non-binding climate agreement mean? You already know the answer. So, is the Breakfree2016 movement the right idea? Sure looks that way from here. And, Escobar illuminates this also, showing how Globalization is dividing the entire world into a small population of the wealthy, a very small population of the ultra-wealthy oligarchs , and the remainders, the ‘surplus’ are driven into grinding poverty, starvation, suppression, and outright slaughter in the mega-slums.”
Dan Bacher writes—Breaking: Kern Co. Residents Conduct Capitol Sit-In to Protest Central Valley Oil Drilling: “Governor Jerry Brown has become infamous for spouting off about ‘climate change’ and ‘green energy’ at international climate conferences as he promotes environmentally destructive policies, including fracking, pollution trading and R.E.D.D. and the salmon-killing Delta Tunnels, back at home. Three protesters from Kern County are apparently tired of Governor Brown’s green rhetoric and pro-Big Oil actions and are currently conducting a sit-in outside of Governor Jerry Brown’s offices in the State Capitol as part of ‘Break Free,’ a global wave of actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Farmers, nurses, and environmental justice activists alike traveled from California’s Central Valley to participate in this peaceful, nonviolent protest, according to a joint news release from the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) and 350.org.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Besame writes—World Naked Gardening Day is tomorrow. Do you have plans? (photo guide included): “Strip down and commune with nature Saturday for World Naked Gardening Day. The holiday was created in 2005, but naked gardening began millennia ago and ended you-know-where. What we have now, post Garden of Eden, is neo-retro-naked gardening day. WNGD has a website if you need instruction on how to do this. Come on, you know you wanna! Slough off winter, politics, dire news, and the week’s routine blah. Take off your clothes, go outside, and fondle some fruits. Fertilize veggies. Benefits of naked gardening that may outweigh mosquito bites in awkward spots include sensations of • breezes ruffling your body hair • plant leaves tickling you oddly • sun’s warmth touching places usually hidden, and • moist earth springing under bare feet. No clothing constricts freedom of movement. It’s easy to go jump in the lake and wash off after getting dirty, then air dry as you return home. Remember, naked swimming is always in fashion.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Mark Sumner writes—Someone is lying about electric cars on the internet: “Now, somehow I’m willing to bet that someone, sometime has told you that lithium mining is awful. That it requires big holes like that one that was used to make the copper pipes, and copper wires, and copper electronics you use every day. Someone told you that, even though it’s not true. Why did they tell you that? Because someone knew just enough to know that lithium is used in electric car batteries, and that someone was enough of a dickweed to want to make electric cars look bad. Even though they knew they were lying. [...] Now, about those oil sands. “Oil sands” is is one term for them. The phrase you hear more often is actually “tar sands.” Why? Because what’s in those sands isn’t nice, fluid oil. It’s sticky, thick, blocky and solid. If you cut a chunk of it, oil doesn’t pour out. It’s just stinky black sand. And getting oil out of the tar sands? That’s not done with a neat little well. There are two primary ways of extracting oil from tar sands. One is to force steam into the sands through a series of horizontal wells. Then another series of wells is drilled to extract the oil freed by the steam. And all it takes is about 1,500 cubic feet of natural gas to make the steam that drives out a single barrel of oil.”