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 25,360 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
Pacificshift writes—The “greenest governor” vs. the climate kids: Running from Hansen’s science? “Gov. Inslee himself lauded the decision in a May 10 email to his supporters entitled, ‘HUGE ruling for our planet.’ ‘Eight courageous kids went to court to compel us adults to take action on climate change. I'm happy to say that they won. These eight kids know that our state can do more to fight climate change -- and I do, too. Their case has been a call for action to no longer ignore our climate and our kids. And now, the court has affirmed that our plan to reduce carbon pollution is the right thing to do, and now is the right time.’ Then, last Thursday, in what would seem a stunning contradiction of those statements, the administration filed an appeal against the victory in the Washington Supreme Court. The ‘greenest governor’ was going crosswise of the climate kids.”
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: roads are a serious threat to bats (especially boy bats): “Bats cross roads regularly as they use diverse parts of their habitat area and cover more territory than most other small mammals. They forage for food each night, and commute to different locations for mating, breeding (maternity and nursery sites), roosting and hibernation. Roads are recognized as a source of habitat fragmentation and disruption (when road construction removes features like roost sites or affects habitat thus reducing insect diversity) but a first of its kind study at the University of Exeter found that roads are a serious threat that directly affects bats. [...] The research found that bats are reluctant to cross roads, interfering with their ability to reach feeding and roosting areas and that direct collisions with vehicles result in at least 1,000 bat deaths per year. Roadkill bats are difficult to find due to their small size, so scientists believe actual mortalities are exponentially higher. More male bats than females are killed, perhaps due to how they compartmentalize the habitat, with females sticking together in breeding sites near prime habitat, thus forcing the males into less favorable areas close to roads.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - waiting....: “We heard Peregrine Falcons are nesting again on this cliff near where I live. Went down to see if there are any signs of them. No luck, this time anyway. It was a nice quiet afternoon on the beach though.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Wildlife in Lucerne: “Wildlife and nature photos from a day trip made to Lucerne, Switzerland during my recent trip to France. An overcast day with periods of rain and not much of a view of the nearby mountains.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Meteor Blades writes—Progressive congressional Democrats discuss treating Exxon and Big Oil like the 'new tobacco': “At a forum Wednesday co-sponsored by the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, participants discussed the theme of ‘Oil Is The New Tobacco.’ Zoë Carpenter at The Nation covered it: ‘Just like RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris before them, Exxon Mobile said one thing in public, and something else in private,’ testified Naomi Oreskes, a professor at Harvard and co-author of a history of climate skepticism called Merchants of Doubt. Oreskes traced the history of climate change denial back to the late 1980s, to a Washington-based think tank, the George C Marshall Institute, founded by a former tobacco industry consultant. The institute applied the ‘tobacco strategy’ to block action on climate, producing reports that challenged the scientific consensus around global warming. Exxon became a major funder of the institute and other denial groups in the 1990s, and played a ‘leading’ role in the Global Climate Coalition, an industry group created ‘with a specific goal of preventing the US Congress from signing the Kyoto protocol,’ Oreskes recounted. While Exxon claims it’s stopped funded such groups, Oreskes pointed out that it’s still a member of three trade associations that advocate against climate action: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Chamber of Commerce, and the American Petroleum Institute.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Bouncing Around The Room: From Exxon to GOP to Koch And Back: “John Cook, lead author of the 97% consensus study that’s been downloaded half a million times, has a guest post up at DeSmog that’s a simple history of climate denial featuring interviews with some experts and other great tidbits. Another enlightening tidbit about the interconnected world of climate denial comes from Politico’s Morning Energy newsletter. Yesterday, it carried the news that Kristina Baum will be leaving her position as spokeswoman for the Senate Environment and Public Works Republicans, chaired by Jim ‘The Greatest Hoax’ Inhofe (R-OK), to be communications director for the House Science Committee, chaired by Lamar "witch-hunter” Smith (R-TX), who has a history of employing Koch and Exxon operatives. Politico notes that Baum previously worked for Platts and DCI Group. DCI Group is one of the public relations firms that’s been targeted in the #ExxonKnew subpoenas. (Small update there: ExxonMobil’s suit against the Virgin Islands will be held in federal, not state court, a loss for Exxon.) A request for info concerning DCI Group makes sense, as it is has ExxonMobil as a client (and also represents Big Tobacco, Koch-funded groups, the coal industry and others). Specifically, DCI was the publisher of Tech Central Station, a now-defunct website that peddled pro-polluter propaganda including climate change denial as though it were news.”
Walter Einenkel writes—ExxonMobil suffers loss in their attempts to block climate change subpoena: “A couple of months ago, the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker subpoenaed ExxonMobil for the release of over 40 years of documents pertaining to internal discussions and knowledge around the subject of climate change. ExxonMobil challenged the subpoena. Completely coincidentally (read: not coincidentally at all), Republicans like Texan climate denier Rep. Lamar Smith sent letters off to Attorney General Claude Walker and 16 other state attorneys general warning them that pursuing ExxonMobil in this way was an attack on the First Amendment. Yes. They went that direction with it. Good news for tree huggers everywhere as a Texas judge has ruled against ExxonMobil’s plea to have their challenge heard in state or federal court.”
juliaolson writes—About Gov. Inslee’s appeal of youth climate victory: “It was not until the kids met with Gov. Inslee in July 2015 that he finally directed Ecology to promulgate the Clean Air Rule. Sadly, the governor directed Ecology to target the rule to the outdated and completely inadequate emissions reductions determined in 2008, even though his agency recently admitted those standards ‘should be adjusted to reflect the current science [and] need to be more aggressive in order for Washington to do its part to address climate risks and to align our limits with other jurisdictions that are taking responsibility to address these risks.’ The governor and Ecology have vigorously defended against our youth plaintiffs’ case, and have rebuffed all attempts we have made to work together towards a scientifically defensible Climate Recovery Rule. Even after we prevailed in court again in April 2016, to date Ecology and the governor have ignored our requests to meet to discuss implementation of Judge Hill’s order.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Survey Shows Strength of Climate Science: "One of the first peer-reviewed surveys of scientists used to determine the level of consensus on human-made climate change was undertaken by Dennis Bran and Hans von Storch in 1996. They used a standard survey response format known as the ‘Likert Scale,’ where respondents answer questions based on a scale of 1 to 7 to determine, for example, how confident they are that warming is happening or that it’s human-caused. They’ve repeated the survey a few times since 1996, and have recently released the 5th International Survey of Climate Scientists, for 2015/2016. Bart Verheggen helpfully goes over the key consensus findings as well as a couple of issues with the survey. Because of the Likert Scale response format, though, describing the findings in numbers isn’t as effective as just looking at the graphs of responses. In many cases, the responses are so lopsided that some very clear statements can be made. We can see that, as science has progressed, the level of risk associated with climate change has increased as has what’s at stake. In contrast to folks like Judith Curry who play up uncertainty as an excuse for inaction, the majority of scientists think that since 1996, climate science uncertainty has dropped. Meanwhile, if society were to listen to voices highlighting uncertainty, and fail to act because of them, the potential for catastrophe for some parts of the world is fairly great.”
jfromga writes—Climate Change and Death: “The science on the effects of climate change continues to expand. New studies released by Columbia University indicate that by 2080, New York City could experience between 1500 and 3300 more deaths per year from heat. One city, located further north and on the coast than many other large cities, both of which factors tend to moderate the heat. www.scientificamerican.com/... The study considers a range of continuing emissions of carbon dioxide, which provides the high and low numbers of deaths. The less we do to stop carbon emissions and switch to cleaner energy sources, the higher the death toll will be. As always, the elderly and the young are at greater risk. So is anyone who works outdoors for a living. If New York suffers a few thousand more, what could happen in the rest of the country, the Southwest, the Midwest, or the South?”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Sacramento Judge Rules Delta Plan Is "Invalid": “Judge Michael Kenny of the Sacramento Superior Court on June 23 ruled that the Delta Plan is ‘invalid’ after a successful legal challenge by multiple Delta parties who argued that the controversial plan doesn't protect water quality or the many fish species that depend on fresh water flows for their survival. The Court, in its tentative ruling vacating the plan, said the Delta Stewardship Council must rewrite the Delta Plan to include a number of quantitative measures of performance, including reduced reliance on the Delta for future water needs by exporters. Since the Delta Plan relied heavily on Governor Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels Plan, now called the California WaterFix, to achieve its goals, Delta and public trust advocates see this as significant victory that will delay the twin tunnels for years. The Delta Plan was required by the 2009 Delta Reform Act, a law designed to implement the two coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. ‘The coequal goals shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place,’ according to the Act.”
DarkSyde writes—Bleaching gangs up with sunscreen to pose another threat to coral reefs: “Last month was the hottest May on record—and with heat comes death for many of the world’s more fragile organisms. We've seen reports that coral bleaching has reached alarming levels this year, threatening the world’s greatest reefs. Even the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia is not immune. Now, it appears that there’s yet another human-induced risk: Scientists have also found that a common ingredient in sunscreen is killing and mutating corals in tourist spots. The new evidence of harm to corals comes as the most the most widespread coral bleaching event in recorded history is sweeping the world’s oceans. Water temperatures have been driven up by a run of record-breaking hot years, caused by climate change and the El Niño phenomenon. Very warm water causes corals to lose the algae that normally live inside them and help them feed. The suspected culprit is one of the ingredients in some formulations of sunscreen, called oxybenzone. It’s not merely divers who apply sunscreen and then enter the water.”
TRADE AND ECO-RELATED FOREIGN POLICY
SninkyPoo writes—Brexit and... climate change? “Not even I would have the wild-eyed zealotry to definitively link the recent (thus-far disastrous) Brexit vote to climate change, and only to climate change. But consider. The drought in Syria – and the subsequent violent unrest beginning in 2011 – has been more than tentatively linked to climate change. The violent unrest in Syria led to a wave of migrants – mostly poor, mostly brown people – who have been flooding into Europe. And it seems fairly certain that much of the impetus behind Brexit was xenophobia, pure and simple.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
Eclectablog writes—Rep. Cummings: "Mich Gov Snyder now appears to be openly defying Congress" re: the #FlintWaterCrisis: “The Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in Washington, D.C. is Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland. He has been a fierce progressive advocate during his tenure as Ranking Member, standing up to Republican absurdity and malfeasance during the Benghazi Inquisition, the Planned Parenthood Inquisition, and during hearing on the Flint water crisis where Republicans seemed more intent on hanging the responsibility for what happened in the beleaguered city on the federal government and the USEPA than on the true culprits: the Snyder administration. Following the Flint water crisis hearings, Ranking Member Cummings said publicly that the Committee had not received all of the information they had requested from Gov. Rick Snyder. I reached out to Rep. Cummings to follow up on that and other issues related to Flint.”
ENERGY
Hydraulic Fracturing
Walter Einenkel writes—New study shows that people living near fracking town have elevated levels of toxic chemicals: “Last year, when the EPA said that five years of study in Wyoming fracking had led them to believe that while there were concerns about drinking water contamination, there was nothing to prove that there was a systematic drinking water problem, it was very quickly pointed out that the EPA’s five-year study was woefully lacking. It turned out that scientists began very quickly discovering that Wyoming fracking did indeed show signs of having a systematically significant impact on drinking water. Now a new study has just been published that, at the every least, screams for further and more extensive research to be pursued.”
LakeSuperior writes—Federal Judge Strikes Down Obama Administration DOI-BLM Public Lands Rule on Hydraulic Fracturing: “The Obama Administration’s 2015 federal rule from the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of Interior to regulate hydraulic fracturing on federal and Indian lands has been struck down by a Wyoming federal district court judge. The Bureau of Land Management had sought the rule authority to set federal standards for well construction, underground hydraulic fracturing requirements, wastewater management, public disclosure requirements for fracturing fluid constituents and other requirements. States have traditionally regulated such matters of underground oil/gas development under state jurisdiction, rather than the Department of Interior.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Pricing
EARTHWORKS writes—Pennsylvania Declares Victory on Oil and Gas Regs While Failing to Protect Residents Health: “Thanks to a bill passed this June by the state legislature, Pennsylvania now has the dubious distinction of being the only state in the nation to abandon oil and gas regulations after they’ve been fully developed and publicly reviewed. While other states have modernized oil and gas oversight in the wake of the shale boom, no other state has exempted a major part of the oil and gas industry in the process. But that’s exactly what SB 279 does. Called the Penn Grade Crude Development Advisory Council bill, it wipes out updated environmental protection requirements for conventional oil and gas operations (known as Chapter 78). In effect, 178 state representatives and senators just overturned what it took five years, 12 public hearings, 30,000 public comments, and affirmative votes by public regulatory commissions and the legislature to accomplish.”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse writes—Transcanada Files NAFTA Action Against US for $15 Billion for Rejecting Keystone XL Pipeline: “Yesterday, TransCanada filed its NAFTA ‘arbitration’ request arguing the U.S. violated its ‘expectations’ and now should pay over $15 billion for rejecting a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. It is NAFTA's private tribunal system (investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS) that will ‘arbitrate,’ a system not accountable to our legal system, and one authorized under the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If the host country ‘violates’ rights granted to the corporation under a trade agreement, then the investor may bring the matter before an ‘arbitration tribunal.’ The ISDS is a new legal system for only foreign investor/corporations, it is not available to ‘nations, domestic investors, or civil society groups alleging violations of treaty obligations.’ ISDS panels do not have to follow legal precedent and its decisions cannot be appealed to a court. The ISDS arbitrators are not public servants, but ‘highly paid corporate lawyers [who] go back and forth between representing corporations one day and sitting in judgment the next’ in secret proceedings.”
Dan Bacher writes—Another CA Oil Spill: Up to 29,000 Gallons of Crude Spilled in Ventura County: “Just thirteen months after the massive Refugio Oil Spill fouled the pristine waters off the Santa Barbara Coast, a leak in an oil pipeline in Hall Canyon in Ventura County was reported at 530 a.m. today. As many as 29,400 gallons of crude oil has been spilled, according to the latest reports. Fortunately, Ventura County Firefighters have stopped the oil from flowing towards the ocean, according to Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Mike Lindbery. ‘The forward oil flow progress has been stopped,’ said Lindbery. ‘There is no environmental threat to ocean and no evacuations in the area.’”
signrus writes—Update on the Oregon Oil Train Derailment: “On June 3 an oil train derailed in Mosier, Oregon, in the Columbia River Gorge. The preliminary findings are disturbing, to say the least. Federal investigators on Thursday blamed Union Pacific Railroad for a fiery oil train derailment along the Oregon-Washington border, saying the company failed to properly maintain its track. Report Blames Union Pacific.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
Karen from Maui writes—Hawai'i Pesticide Ordinances In 9th Circuit Court: “The Ninth Circuit Court Judges came to Hawai’i to hear four appeals to rulings that held that county ordinances and a citizens initiative were pre-empted by state and federal law. The proceedings were live-streamed as residents from neighbor islands packed the court to overflowing. If the Ninth District rules with the pesticide companies, these cases could torpedo GMO and pesticide ordinances in West Coast communities like Oregon. This video shows the problems and passions ignited because Hawai’i is being used as pesticide experimenting grounds by the chemical/GMO companies, Syngenta, Monsanto, Dow, Pioneer and Bayer.”
skohayes writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: Wheat Harvest Edition: “Good morning Gardeners, and Happy Harvest! Although most of you think of harvest season happening in the fall, out here on the High Plains, the beginning of summer means the beginning of the winter wheat harvest. I will be out hauling wheat to the co-op for a friend this afternoon, if the weather holds out. His wife, who normally drives the truck, has a broken leg, and so I volunteered to help. It’s all hands on deck when the harvest starts around here, plus I’ll get a great dinner as a reward! Wheat is planted in the fall and grows over the winter and early spring, and then harvested in the beginning of summer. Fun fact: it takes a combine 9 seconds to harvest enough wheat to make 70 loaves of bread!”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
Leslie Salzillo writes—NASA announces electric aircraft that will save fuel, travel time, and cost: “In a press release this week, NASA has announced its electric plane that will save fuel, time, and reduce pollution, thus helping the environment: Energy efficiency at cruise altitude using X-57 technology could benefit travelers by reducing flight times, fuel usage, as well as reducing overall operational costs for small aircraft by as much as 40 percent. Typically, to get the best fuel efficiency an airplane has to fly slower than it is able. Electric propulsion essentially eliminates the penalty for cruising at higher speeds. The plane was named after James Clerk Maxwell: NASA researchers working directly with the electric airplane also chose to name the aircraft ‘Maxwell”’to honor James Clerk Maxwell, the 19th century Scottish physicist who did groundbreaking work in electromagnetism.”