Every other week, I forget to include reference to a terrific resource for green Kossacks: DailyKos Environmentalists. So, here it is, at the top of the Rescue.
This week’s prize for the scariest Diary (and one that in condensed form ought to be published on a thousand Op-Ed pages) was TocqueDeville’s Time to Tell the Truth About Global Warming: "I have a confession to make. I've been lying about global warming for years. You see, I have known for over a decade that we were long past the "tipping point" for preventing catastrophic climate change. But I also believed, and still do, that it is a moral imperative to act as though we have a chance, just in case the data is wrong. And so when people asked if there was anything we could do to prevent global warming, I would lie. ...Let me tell you a secret. Or at least it might as well be a secret because hardly anyone talks about it. It's called residence time. This is the measure of how long a gas stays in the atmosphere before being reabsorbed. And the residence time for CO2 has grave consequences for our planet and our future - which is why I suspect no one wants to talk about it. It wasn't in Al Gore's movie. But if you're one of the overwhelming majority of people who has never even heard of this term, let that be an indication of just how far we are from having even a remotely serious discussion about global warming."
jillian compiled two collections of environmental stories the past week: BREAKING!...the Earth (After Effects of Tannin allergy version): "Massachusetts pushes green on all cylinders. Riding a green wave that is sweeping the country, state officials are aggressively launching legislative and legal efforts to protect the environment, cut back on energy use and solid waste, and reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Boston Herald." And BREAKING!...the Earth (yet another recall version): "Shipping pollution linked to deaths. A new health study links air pollution generated by international shipping to more than 60,000 premature deaths across the globe annually, including as many as 8,800 in North America. Long Beach Press-Telegram."
GREEN PHILOSOPHY & MISCELLANY
Contributing Editor Devilstower turned the tables on all the kvetchers about how environmental solutions are too expensive in The Enormous Cost of NOT Going Green: "It's impossible to put forward any energy plan, no matter how mild, without facing a deafening chorus of ‘it'll cost too much!’ That's the ultimate tool of the burn-everything status quo, the idea that any attempt to limit the damage we're doing to the world would be so costly that it would sink our economic ship. But even ignoring the fact that conservative policies celebrating unregulated greed have now brought us to the edge of the biggest economic abyss in a hundred years, there's something left out of all those dire warnings about the cost of going green. It's the enormous cost of not going green."
Just when you think you’ve heard the worst scenario, calipygian jumps in with something like Yellowstone could render Bush, torture, Iraq, Iran, everything irrelevant: "Yellowstone National Park, once the site of a giant volcano, has begun swelling up, possibly because molten rock is accumulating beneath the surface, scientists report. What is the implication?But 640,000 years ago, a Yellowstone eruption ejected approximately 250 cubic kilometers of material, blanketed most of the western half of the country in ash up to 20 meters thick, and left a crater that now contains Yellowstone Lake and extends 2400 square kilometers. In a world that has been plagued with a sense of existential dread since the invention of the atom bomb, one beset by worries of a lethal avian bird flu pandemic, peak oil leading to the crash of technological civilization, global warming leading to a mass extinction event, its almost comforting to know that the Earth (through the agent of Yogi Bear's home turf) could just flick us off her as easily as a person brushes off a flea.
Just This offered a warning in Environmental Econ101 - It is Generational Damn It: "The other day I said Hillary's environmental plan is bogus. I found it to be especially disingenuous and pandering. In the multipage plan she used "Green" 44 times and "Conservation" 1 time, "Conserve" zero. Nobody reads my posts but if you want to it is here. Before anyone says, yeah but what about Obama, what about Edwards, it is better.....They all suck because they are dishonest. In my view Obama is the most honest and while talking more about social issues than environmental, Obama is correct this is a Generational Problem. Before anyone says, "I am tired of the Boomer-bashing," get over yourself. It is not about boomers, it is about your parents and their parents and their parents and an economic system that discounts the lives of future generations."
juliewolf presented us with The Long View: What happens when all the oil's gone?: "Dark humor aside, we might argue over when, but at some point, the oil is going to run out. Today, I'll explore how we use energy, how we can change our sense of what energy means and why that change will be so much easier if started earlier than later."
It's official: Georgia's plan is to pray for rain was Jim J’s jab against supernatural approaches to problem-solving: "I kid you not. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican re-elected with 60 percent of the vote, has made praying for rain part of his official policy to deal with the ongoing draught and water shortage in north Georgia."
ScottyUrb played the role of eco-cheerleader in his Diary, Maroon and Gold goes green: How my school is helping Planet Earth: "A couple of months ago, I posted about Grand Rapids, MI, Mayor George Heartwell's vision of making Grand Rapids a 100% green-powered city, despite inaction from Washington on the energy crisis. So when I read about my university's efforts to make the school more energy-efficient, my interest was piqued."
DemandSide wrote about China: The first environmentally failed state: "Nothing displays the short-sightedness and obtuseness of business as usual more than the lionizing of China as an economic miracle. The country has made a great leap forward economically in terms of production, but has done so at the expense of its heart and lungs, its water and air. One percent of China's 592 million city dwellers breathes air considered safe by the European Union. More than half have no access to safe drinking water. The rivers are viscous sewers. The air is thick with particulates. Hundreds of thousands of people die each year from pollution. The water tables are dropping alarmingly. Henry Vaux of UC Berkeley has said that two hundred million Chinese depend on agriculture that is watered by unsustainable sources. ‘The situation is very, very bad.’"
Reframing was on respectisthehub’s mind in Branding the Halo (Save Our Sphere): "Hello. This is a cross-post from the earthfamilyalpha on the importance of being more specific about what exactly we are trying to save. It is a frameme, meaning that we want to present a frame that goes viral. Perhaps that is too wonky or redundant a word to try and coin, but hey... Save the planet? Save the halo. The third rock orbiting the sun is going to be just fine. It's the biosphere, our thin wisp life, water and air clinging to that rock that we need to worry about. This is an advertising issue, pure and simple. ... We need to stop talking about the blue marble, and start emphasizing the thin shell of human life between The Dead Sea (elevation negative 1360 feet) and Llasa, Tibet (elevation 12,002). If we can do that, then the advice about not dumping where you breathe might start to make sense."
While certain entrepreneurs ignore the big picture and think only of how they will turn global crisis into personal gold, hilage argued that Peak Oil = Collapse of Neo-Liberal Economics: "The resistance to the idea of peak oil is profound and comes from two, not necessarily opposed, places: Vested oil interests, a relatively small but exceptionally powerful group, and the intellectual business and economic elite who have created an economic model based on infinite growth, a larger and even more influential group than the vested oil interest. At stake is the founding myth of the modern global economy: That infinite growth of the world’s GDP is not only possible, but THE method for curing all the world’s social ills."
alefnot took the didactic approach in Subtitle 1: The Thermodynamics of Water: "Subtitle 2: Hurricanes, Ice Sheets, and Polar Bears, Oh My! A little respite from all the bad news from Pakistan, Mukasey, the freefalling dollar, etc."
It’s Easy Being Green if you fake it, according to Daveparts: "In the land of Tinker Bell and Captain Hook that is, in fact anywhere imagination reigns. This last week NBC, the television network owned by giant parent company GE you know the folks that bring good thermo nuclear things to life. Began a campaign to go green, so they have had environmental themes in all their programming. The Today show sent anchors to the poles but wasted the opportunity by bringing them back. ...They’ve even turned the NBC peacock green! You feel better now don’t you, it gonna be all right. The poles will stop melting now that the peacock is green."
boran2 wondered if perhaps the National Parks In Danger?: "Today, the House Natural Resources Committee will begin hearings on HR 3994, legislation that could put a number of national parks and national wildlife refuges under tribal control. Notice was given just 9 days ago. The overriding concern here is that little control would remain with the relevant federal agencies. Less than competent management would not necessarily call into question any agreements, only something much worse would. Under its terms, tribes could take over any Interior programs ‘that are of special geographical, historical, or cultural significance to the Indian tribe’ and receive federal payments covering all direct and indirect costs. The Interior Secretary would ‘establish programmatic targets’ ensuring that "a significant portion" of federal jobs and programs are included. Assumption would be mandatory wherever a tribe ‘has a federally reserved right’ in local fish, wildlife, water or minerals. In all other cases, Interior could refuse a tribe only where it can show a legal prohibition or "a significant danger or risk to the public health."
TRANSPORTATION
A Siegel informed us about an ongoing change in PHEBs: Plugging in that School Bus for an Energy Smart Future: "Hybrids are too often thought of simply in terms of personal vehicles. They are also penetrating the big vehicle market space. Consider the average delivery truck and all its starts/stops. There is a lot of energy to capture there, which is why UPS is pursuing hybrids. And, as per Walmart and its hybrid trucks, they are hitting the semi-trailer world. There are also efforts to apply hybrids to trash trucksand offer the opportunity to silence those squealing brakes at 5:45 am. Ann Arbor, Michigan, has started to get hybrid buses as is London. And, well, now they're coming to a school system (maybe) near you."
FOOD & AGRICULTURE
markthshark announced a personal dietary change in The ‘E Coli Loophole’ or, I’ve Officially Eaten my Last Burger: "What the two meat inspectors are referring to is the little-discussed fact (which, in essence means an injurious or illegal procedure) that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed it acceptable practice for meat companies to cook and sell meat on which the E. coli bacterium is found during processing. The pathogen can sicken and even kill humans when ingested. The contrived loophole affects millions of pounds of beef each year that tests positive for the presence of E.coli-O157:H7, a particularly virulent strain of the bacterium."
OrangeClouds115 made a change, too, a name-change or a rebranding or a reframing in Vegetables of Mass Creation - Two Women, Two Dreams: "For those familiar with this series, you are used to seeing the title as "Vegetables of Mass Destruction." The title came about when my vegetarian cooking website got hits from the IAEA website. I was baffled as to how that could be, and a Kossack (I wish I could remember who!) suggested that perhaps they were searching for vegetables of mass destruction. This week I felt that title was wrong. This diary is about two women, separated by about 2500 miles, each with a different background and a different dream, but sharing the same determination to help those around her connect with the land and with their food. In North Carolina, Tanya has worked tirelessly for a year to establish an organic farm as a holistic transitional community for women leaving prison. In San Diego, Julie is dedicated to building a community garden in Balboa Park (San Diego's Central Park). I spoke with each of them about their projects. ... I hope by reading their stories, others realize the power one person can have to change the world around them."
PA Secretary of Ag Screws Consumers, Helps Monsanto was Bob B’s take on a statewide controversy: "In October, Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture, gave a huge gift to the Monsanto company. Bovine growth hormone (BGH) is an artificial additive used by industrial dairies to increase milk production. Wolff issued an order banning dairies from using labels that say their products are free of BGH - even when those labels are telling the truth."
Asinus Asinum Fricat gave us Food for Thought: Obesity vs Starvation: "The reality is that globally far more obesity than undernutrition exists. How did we get there? A variety of reasons. China typifies the changes, with a major shift in diet from cereals to animal products and vegetable oils accompanied by a decline in physical work, more motorised transport and more television viewing (yep, that's how we become couch potatoes, a point to consider as I recently read that the average Japanese man walks 6,4km a day while almost a quarter of US adults may only walk between 1 000 and 3 000 steps a day)."
POLITICOS
Door#1: Fight Iran. Door#2: Fight Global Warming was Troutfishing’s smackdown of "Both Joe Lieberman and John McCain have invested considerable capital in pushing for action on Global Warming, and so they must be serious about the problem, right? Maybe. But their advocacy for action addressing Global Warming is radically undercut by their support for a US war against Iran; either their apparent environmental sensitivity is deeply disingenuous, duplicitous even, or the Senators are both psychotic. Given the political capital both senators have invested in addressing Global Warming I suspect the latter: psychosis."
Adam T conducted A discussion on environmental economics with a Republican Congressional candidate: "Alan Steinberg is running for Congress in the 22nd district in Texas. This is Nick Lampson's district. He is a young man with a degree in psychology who until recently was a senior staffer at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. As you are likely aware, Nick Lampson's district was held by Tom Delay until 2006 and it is probably the #1 Republican target this cycle. Steinberg is probably not a frontrunner which he is likely aware of. Anyway, because of a post he made on his website regarding environmental policy, I felt I had to respond. I thought you might be interested."
A topic much-remarked on by other Diarists, "planted" questions got a slightly different treatment by
Edgar08 in Clinton Staffer: Global Warming is Important Too!: "A Clinton staffer implored a student to ask a question about what? Global Warming. The Clinton campaign has admitted to planting questions in Iowa. They have confirmed that a campaign staffer approached a student to ask Sen. Clinton a question about global warming during a campaign stop at a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa, on Nov. 6. I have often thought that the Netroots values defeating Clinton more than stopping war. I'm now convinced the Netroots is more concerned about defeating Clinton than talking about Global Warming."
Target Global Warming discussed The Fight for Global Warming Legislation: "If the Final 50 members of the House of Representatives endorse the Safe Climate Act or the Climate Stewardship Act, we'll surpass 218--enough to pass a bill in the House that cuts global warming pollution by 2% per year. Today, the National Wildlife Federation placed an add in Roll Call listing the Final 50 and explaining the campaign. The other side of the ad thanks the 170 current cosponsors of strong global warming legislation in the House."
Ken Avidor challenged Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's Farm Subsidies: "Former Star Tribune political reporter Eric Black gave Karl Bremer a guest post on Eric Black's blog about Bachmann receiving farm subsidies: Guest Poster Karl Bremer of Stillwater, a marketer and free-lance journalist, considers himself U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s least favorite constituent. He has attempted to ask her questions by phone, email and letter and has never received an answer, including his queries relating to this piece. Looking at Bachmann’s financial disclosure statement, he found that Bachmann holds a substantial interest and receives income from a Wisconsin farm. Further down the paper trail, Bremer found that the Bachmann family farm received more than $125,000 in federal subsidies between 2001 and 2005. (The farm is very likely still receiving them, although the 2006-2007 records aren’t available online.) Bachmann generally opposes such big government excesses. So, is it hypocritical for her to benefit from them? Here’s Bremer’s report, you decide."
ENERGY
Congressman Frank Pallone weighed in with a Diary, Fighting for Clean Water and Protecting Appalachia: "For many years, I have been proud to stand with the people of Appalachia in opposing mountaintop removal, though like many of you here in the DailyKos community, I have seen mountaintop removal mostly fromphotos and satellite imagery in GoogleEarth. I’ve also sat with the people of Appalachia and heard firsthand their horror stories about how their health, water, communities and very way of life are immediately endangered by mountaintop removal mining."
Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse blasted Bush's Appalachian War: "Immunity" For Mining Companies: "Bush has ‘legalized’ valley fills despite the devastating impacts to people and environment. For years, mining companies obtained de facto "immunity" from environmental laws: Regulators simply ignored or twisted the laws to "authorize" valley fills. Citizens and environmental groups fought back with multipronged litigation to force compliance with the laws. Lower courts were shocked by the extent of regulator noncompliance and issued permanent injunctions to stop the valley fills. Not surprisingly, the conservative Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated these decisions, but not usually on the merits."
faithfull had a pair of Diaries in the series. First there was 30 days: Burning Coal, Exploding Jobs: "Mountaintop removal is devastating to the environment. That much is obvious, and its’ been inspiring to see the netroots give a collective ‘WTF?’ Furthering the discussion, I propose we start our conversation today on jobs and the economy with (as is becoming trademark...) an incredibly articulate chart."
And then there was Is John Edwards Coming around on Mountaintop Removal?: "Senator John Edwards, Democratic Presidential hopeful, notoriously voted to increase mountintop removal mining in 1999. While the vote he cast was for an amendment that never made it into law, Senator Edwards has never explicitly stated that he regrets voting for increased mountaintop removal and the dumping of mountaintop removal waste. While he is strong on a host of other issues, he had not officially come out against mountaintop removal this cycle, to my knowledge (please correct me in the comments if you know differently.) That is, until recently. It seems that Senator Edwards'position regarding mountaintop removal seems to be ... evolving."
I’d include the graphic from Devilstower’s Possibly the Longest Post Ever on Energy, but it’s more impressive in original form. So click on: "The really awful thing? That graph doesn't even cover the most recent request for additional funds in Iraq. If you included all the costs of Iraq, you'd end up with a chart that was like comparing the distance to Toledo, Ohio with the distance to the spiral galaxy in Andromeda. The really important thing? Small increases in those little bars at the bottom may be the best action we can take to make sure that one of those giant bars never happens again. "
When it hits the hoary broadcast media, you know it’s really real, as PLS pointed out in ABC Nightly News: 'Peak Oil has arrived'!!!: "Although without the !!!, I have to admit. Indeed, their announcement that Peak Oil has officially arrived was fairly low key. In a story about the new spike in crude oil prices, Gibson observed that the 100$ a barrel milestone was about to be breached. Following that he stated that prices were unlikely to fall soon according to experts, because supply is decreasing while demand is increasing. Got that? Every aspect of our lives is based on unbelievable cheap energy, energy so cheap that it makes sense to get your food from at least 3000 miles away and to kill of local agriculture. How much longer is that going to work as the price of oil keeps going up as supplies decline?"
Jerome a Paris noticed some other folks coming to their senses in Peak oil: BP, Conoco and IEA all say it's there: "After the CEO of Total (the French oil major) last week, two more CEOs of an oil major came out this Thursday to give stark warnings that mean that peak oil is happening right now. In addition, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (the IEA), one of the main cheerleaders of the "there's more than enough oil" camp until now, is giving an extraordinarily pessimistic interview in the Financial Times, following the recent publication of their latest World Energy Outlook." He also added another in his long-running series Countdown to $100 oil (53) - Saudis happy with $100 oil: "In an interview with the Financial Times, the Saudi oil minister, Ali Naimi, admits to his powerlessness in today's market ...So, he's claiming that oil prices today are not a threat to overall growth, that they are not caused by a lack of supply in the market, and that Saudi Arabia would be willing to step in with more production if needed (in this separate article, the FT notes that he mentions available capacity of 11.3mb/d vs 9mb/d current production). In fact, he specifically blames speculators and rebuffs the IEA, pointing that scaremongering pushes prices up and helps some make money."
gmoke gave us the low-down on Micro Wind, highlighting, among other things: "The Humdinger Wind Belt is a new wind machine that consists of fabric, a magnet, a coil, and a stretcher to keep the fabric taut. The fabric vibrates in the wind, and a magnet, attached to the fabric, creates electricity at one end of the device. He [inventor Shawn Frayne] says that, in a 10 mph wind, the generator is up to 30 times more efficient than the best rotary turbines. Adam Siegel from http://www.ecogeek.org/...
He also led us to an article by John Robb at Global Guerrillas in Solar Insurgency: "Small super-empowered vanguards can, with the use of systems disruption to amplify effort, delegitimize weakened governmental hierarchies and force them into the box of hollow states. However, instead of a pure organic government envisioned by Che, an organic open source insurgency, composed of a plethora of small super-empowered groups (that appeal to primary loyalties of tribe, cast, clan, family, gang, ideology, etc.), form in the vacuum. This open source insurgency will only bring fragmentation and perpetual conflict. The vanguard's role, is merely as a catalyst for its formation."
rfrank118 growled about CT Rate Payers Punished For Conserving Electricity: "H.B. No. 7432 Was introduced by My opponent and Speaker of the House Jim Amann. This bill is a Dream Bill for UI our electricity nighmare company now soaking us again and again with rate hikes that defy understanding or explanation. UI's profits soared and our Speaker Amann who also opposed the ‘windfall Profits Tax’ that Blumenthal so passionately wanted to protect CT's consumers, also voted to soak us again on electricity. So many of us cut down on our usage of electricity because the rates were so high. Just today my friend at the local gas station was telling me how his wife and children all sleep in one bedroom of their house to battle the unaffordable high cost of electric heat. Do our politicians care? Apparently not because House Bill 7432 punishes you the consumer for conserving electricity. It makes the little electric you do use even more ridiculously expensive by kicking back the lost profits to the Big UI energy company."
Max Wyvern delivered two installments of an in-depth review of Energy Victory: the preface: (Robert Zubrin's Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. Chapter One was described in Part 2Energy Independence within a decade: "Zubrin thinks he has the recipe for our salvation and he lays it all out in Chapter 1. He explains the scale of the problem by pointing out how much the Saudis have us over the barrel and how much worse it will get. "At currently projected rates of consumption, by the year 2020 over 83 percent of the world's remaining petroleum reserves will be in the Middle East, controlled by people whose religion obligates them to subjugate us."
NNadir offered us An Analysis of World Biodiesel Capacity: Environ. Sci. Tech. Paper.: "One of the great fantasies of the car culture - which set us free from those mean corporate railroad barons - is that it can be maintained by biofuels. One can spend a lot of time arguing about ethanol and biodiesel. Decades and billions of dollars have flown down this rabbit hole, and still US crude oil consumption continues to rise. Nobody speaks of that old Presidential campaign shibboleth ‘energy independence’ any more: It's all just a sort of nervous stomping and chafing about mere access. I don't like cars. I don't think we really want them, if you must know and in any case, I feel like they will go away because they can't be sustained. They question is how many people they take with them when they go. But, that said..."
In Some thoughts on the Heating Season OldCDR raised a why-hasn’t-anybody-thought-of-that-before question: "Crude oil prices will exceed $100 per barrel before the peak of this years heating season. If I, a simple country lawyer and retired helicopter pilot can see it coming, the oil industry experts must have seen this coming for months. Why can't we buy ethanol of our furnaces, they're a heck of a lot simpler than internal combustion engines after all and yet we're all buying pure petroleum for our heating needs. Can't our furnaces burn something we grew this summer? Turns out-we can."
mole333 talked positively about Investing in Alternative Energy: A Bullish Update: "Some time ago I wrote about how I started investing in alternative energy companies and have managed to make some good money doing it. Well, as the markets are looking a bit sad this week I noticed something...those alternative energy stocks, which have been going up as the market goes up, are still going up even when the market goes down. ... Here is a summary of the alternative energy investments I have made and the returns since I bought them (I leave off company names because I don't think it's right to plug them here): Solar Company: up 78%; Wind power company: up 1%; Solar Company: up 412% (this is the company I have invested in the most...I even sold two lots of my investment when it reached over 100%, so anything above that is pure profit); Wind power company: up 129%; Wind power company: down 36%; Solar/Semiconductor: up 26%; Solar company: up 12%. Of course all of this is speculating, some of them are actually penny stocks. Some of these companies could go under, of course. I try to be careful in my selections, but I do speculate and have been burned at times. "
A Siegel suggested a means for Getting Electricity Right: Three key regulatory challenges: "On October 30th, the Brookings Institution Hamilton Project had a forum entitled: A Climate of Change: Economic Approaches to Reforming Energy and Protecting the Environment. ... Perhaps the most interesting part of the morning were the comments by Kathleen McGinty, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Environmental Protection and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and head of the White House Office on Environmental Policy under President Bill Clinton. ... McGinty spoke to three ‘realities of the wholesale and retail electricity markets’ and what that mean ‘in terms of actually seeing cleaner power’ generation. She highlighted these three to point out that a price on carbon is a necessary, but not sufficient, means to change toward cleaner power generation. These three regulatory, procedural, policy changes require changing or the move to clean power will be significantly handicapped. And, yet, these occur under the radar scope for nearly all citizens and, probably, most political leaders."
Lost Patriot hit was with some breaking news: Brazil announces new oil reserves: "The Brazilian government says huge new oil reserves discovered off its coast could turn the country into one of the biggest oil producers in the world. Petrobras, Brazil's national oil company, says it believes the offshore Tupi field has between 5bn and 8bn barrels of recoverable light oil. A senior minister said Brazilian oil production had the potential to match that of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia."
In one of a dozen Diaries on the subject, pattyp provided an Action Alert: Keep the renewable energy standard and tax title in the Energy Bill: "I don't have much time to flesh this out, so I'm just going to post an action alert I received from The Vote Solar Initiative this morning. To summarize, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are planning to strip the Renewable Electricity Standard and the $32 billion tax package for renewable energy from the Energy Bill in order to try to keep increased fuel economy standards in the bill. In other words, they're caving to Republican demands AGAIN."
Break On Through heard that rumor, too, and wrote Don't Let Congress Leave Renewable Energy Behind: "According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), congress is currently in the process of leaving renewable energy out of the latest energy bill. For many reasons, this is bad for our country. While I don't work directly for the AWEA, I do own a startup wind development company and closely follow this market. At issue are two inclusions in the legislation that are crucial for the U.S. renewables industry to continue to thrive: the PTC and a federal RPS."
XOVER took issue with the article 'New Energy Crisis' says NYTimes: " ‘Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis,’ proclaims the New York Times on November 9, 2007. While the conclusion of the headline is correct, the reasoning of the article is grossly misleading, discounting the real specter laying just ahead."
Dinner With da Vinci asked a rhetorical question in his Diary, Would You Love to Pay a Dollar for Gas? Texas Natural Gas Is On The Way!: "We could be driving (natural) gas powered cars, only no one believed, we could be driving electric cars, only no one wanted them. Now there is possibly the largest natural gas field and carbon reserve in the world right in my backyard here in Fort Worth. Imagine paying as little as $1.25 for gas with a gas-powered car (see below). Would you buy such a car? Take poll. The natural gas is there, only the natural investors are needed to push this source of nearly unlimited energy. http://www.mywesttexas.com/... In addition, there are "oil field super centers" with players such as Haliburton."
Virginia Irish debunked the Gasoline Price Myth: "I am increasingly weary listening to the long running MSM big lie about how much better off we are in the U.S. compared to the EU when comparing gas prices. Yes we do pay less at the pump (when I lived in Europe the price per liter almost equaled our price per gallon) but it is never explained that most of the price difference is due to taxes. The European governments did this on purpose to encourage energy conservation and as a result people drive small cars with small engines and take public transportation as often as possible. The taxes were used both to build roads and maintain infrastructure, as well as building excellent public transportation systems."
filmgeek83 got jazzed from reading about Breaking: Researchers Create Cheap, Abundant Hydrogen,: "According to the AP, Penn State Scientists have discovered a way to make large amounts of hydrogen gas from biodegradable organic material. ...Microbial fuel cells work through the action of bacteria which can pass electrons to an anode. The electrons flow from the anode through a wire to the cathode producing an electric current. In the process, the bacteria consume organic matter in the biomass material. An external jolt of electricity helps generate hydrogen gas at the cathode. In the past, the process, which is known as electrohydrogenesis, has had poor efficiency rates and low hydrogen yields. But the researchers at Pennsylvania State University were able to get around these problems by chemically modifying elements of the reactor."
PUBLIC LAND, LAND USE & RESOURCES
A bit of good news (especially for the my family, which is thinking of someday moving to Portland) came in skywaker9’s Diary, Oregonians Reaffirm Devotion to Land Use Planning: "The citizens of Oregon spoke loud and clear Tuesday that they support Oregon's unique land use system by passing Measure 49. UPDATED! See below for more...According to local news sources, Measure 49 has passed. It is also passing nearly statewide. The Measure modifies 2004's Measure 37, which radically reformed Oregon's land use system to favor builders. With this vote tonight, Oregonians reaffirm their devotion to a strong land use system."
enthusiast was not enthusiastic about the news that Gas, oil, coal use is skyrocketing (w/poll): "Due to the global economic expansion witnessed in recent years, commodities such as oil, gas, coal, gold, etc. have undergone major price increases, as demand for these commodities has soared. Both the economy and the climate are, thus, ‘overheating.’ Despite all the consciousness raising efforts of Al Gore and other environmental leaders, the situation is getting much worse, not better. Our awareness is increasing, and we are taking small steps, such as building solar and wind energy resources, purchasing hybrid cars in increasing numbers. However, all of our awareness and all the movements toward alternative energy are just a drop in the bucket."
Gemina13 took issue with a local heavyweight in Welcome to Atlanta! We Have Plenty Of Water!: "Chris Michael Carlos, of the notable Carlos family (benefactors of Emory University), has a 14,000 sq. ft. property in Atlanta. Pictures on ABC's website Atlanta's Water Shortage, and One Abuser show an estate with a waterfall and fountain. The house has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. It would be understandable if he used more water than his neighbors. However, it's estimated that Carlos's water usage exceeds 400,000 gallons a month; he uses about 60 times more water than his neighbors do. His lawns are lush. His fountain(s) play. And the water company claims they not only have no proof that he's wasting water, they can't do anything to stop him if he is. Talk about proof of there being one standard for them and another for the rest of us."
Land Use Watch bemoaned the fact that Texas' Christmas Mountains Ranch... up for auction: "Oftentimes land trusts will buy land and convey it to a public agency, the BLM, the forest service, national parks, or a state agency. After all, while TNC and other trusts have preserves, larger tracts are often joined with abutting existing systems. That's presumably the idea when the Conservation Fund bought 9,270 acres of the Christmas Mountains Ranch bordering Big Bend National Park in Texas. They stipulated that it must be "forever wild" and transferred it to the State of Texas. But Texas is a Republican state. And elected Republicans in Texas have no desire for their state to hang onto public land. They want to sell it."
POLLUTION & RECYCLING
Quite a number of Kossack Diarists took note of the oil spill in San Francisco Bay. ortcutt was the first with SF Bay Collision Spills 58,000 gal. Bunker Fuel: "Wednesday morning at 8:30 AM, the container ship Cosco Busan collided with one of the piers of the west span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge tearing a 160 ft gash into the ship. Throughout Wednesday we were hearing numbers like 140 gallons for the amount of bunker fuel spilled in the bay. ... Now the truth is coming out. The new estimate is that 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel spilled into the Bay."
Contributing Editor Plutonium Page took notice on the Front Page in 'Dire consequences': The 2007 San Francisco Bay Oil Spill: "There are many, many concerns. For example, the oil will affect herring spawning, and therefore everything that depends on herring; it's the same case with juvenile crabs. The oil affects small mammals in the same way that it affects birds (increasing heat loss, for example). The list goes on and on, and it's obvious that it will create a ripple effect in the food chain. No one is debating the immediate effects of the spill on the Bay's wildlife. And, depending on the success of the cleanup, the long-term effects may vary in magnitude... but there will be lasting effects, and scientists are extremely concerned about the environmental persistence of the oil."
Dawn Chorus Birdblog: The Big Spill was lineatus’s plaint, complete with photos: "The timing of this spill couldn't be worse for most of the affected birds. They breed in the far north, then winter in the Bay Area. Most have just arrived, and have used up much of their energy reserves on migration. In a few more months, they'll have rebuilt the reserves enough to have a better margin of safety, but right now, they're running on empty."
For many Kossacks the spill took on a personal hue, as was the case for Blissing, as she wrote in SF Bay Oil Spill: My Heart Breaks: "I was born and raised in San Francisco. I know I mention it a lot. For one, it's slightly unusual as a lot of the people who live here now were not born here. Two, it speaks to my deep love for the land and the ocean here. That's why this oil spill is so heartbreaking to me. I can't believe that Ocean Beach, the first place I ever saw the mighty ocean, is closed. Baker beach where I used to go with my first boyfriend is closed. The water nearest to me in Berkeley is contaminated. I would have to travel at least an hour or more to find an uncontaminated beach right now."
NNadir was ready with a solution to future spills, as he wrote in What Would Have Happened If The Dangerous Fossil Fuel Accident in S.F. Bay Involved DME, Not Oil?: "I'll tell you what would have happened: Most of the DME would have evaporated before it hit the water. That which got into the water would have completely dissolved, maybe killing some phytoplankton and a bucket full of fish within 100 meters of the spilling ship. The DME would have rapidly established equilibrium with the atmosphere and in a short time, probably less than half a day, it would have mostly diffused into the atmosphere. The half-life of DME in the atmosphere is about 5 days. Within two months, less than 0.02% of it would remain, the missing material having decomposed to give carbon dioxide (ultimately) and water. That should conclude this diary, but let me say something else because every single dangerous fossil fuel accident brings me to the point of rage. None of these accidents are necessary and all of them result from stupidity and conservativism, conservatives being a set of people who think that nothing should be done the first time or that dogma, not data, justifies ignorance. And let's be clear. Not all conservatives in the energy discussion are REPUBLICANS."
renaissance grrrl did something we all should do on a multitude of out-of-sight, out-of-mind issues, she asked a question – Dude, where'd my tires go?: "Monday I replaced the tires on my car. They were all-weather tires that had come with the car from the factory in the summer of 2002, and were going bald and cracked. Since my car's a four-wheel-drive, I replaced all four. But as my daughter and I had walked by the open garage, piled high with tires, she'd marvelled. Look at all those. Yeah, there were a lot, but I've seen more simply dumped in piles here and there across the landscape. My biggest reluctance in tire replacement was not price, it was waste. What the hell was going to happen to my, and everybody's, old tires? If there are miles-long rafts of plastic bags floating in the Pacific Ocean, are there tire buttes, mountains, jetties? ... Seriously, where are they gonna go?"
truck pollution was mattinjersey’s concern: "Today I was driving behind a large construction truck that was spewing thick clouds of black smoke. That truck put out more carbon in five minutes than my Honda Accord puts out in five years. So I got to wondering - what are Barack, Hillary,and Edwards going to do about truck pollution and fuel economy? And I mean the simple things that are within our technological grasp. Not the $10 billion programs to develop new energy sources, but simple laws that will regulate pollution and improve our roads immediately."
ANIMALS
Kenevan McConnon made note of what some urban environmentalists might consider unlikely allies in Hunters are in the Fight for our Wild Places,: "I have written a couple of times about the tangible ways that the Republic Party's ties to the extraction industry will start costing them votes. Things have are hitting critical mass this season. The votes are there for the taking if Democrats in the wild west court the hook and bullet crowd. ... The message is simple: Preserve Habitat; Clean Water; Local Jobs. Right now, crews are being shipped in from China to work the gas wells. The gas wells are exempt from water quality laws. Elk, mule deer, pronghorns are all being displaced by the gas wells."
Land Use Watch urged us to Help Send Bird Killers to Jail!: "We need your help to ensure that people who intentionally and wantonly kill protected birds receive strong penalties! We have an unprecedented opportunity before us to increase protections for native birds. Representatives DeFazio, Hooley, Wu and Blumenauer have introduced an amendment to the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act that would make it a felony to intentionally kill protected bird species. We need your help to ensure that this legislation is adopted by Congress!"
SUSTAINABILITY
From my old hometown of Denver, Frankenoid was right on time with her Saturday Morning (Home And) Garden Blogging Vol. 3.38: "As regulars of Garden Blogging will recall, last Summer we had raccoons invade our neighborhood (and yard, and house). The raccoons have gone — indeed, I haven't see them after I put the scat mat out in front of the cat door — but we have a new interloper: a fox."
AnnieJo filled in for sarahnity at Frugal Fridays: Frugal Gifts Holiday Edition: "The gift catalogs are filling the mailbox en masse, the piped-in Christmas music fills the stores, and the desperate holiday advertising clamor grows louder by the day. And Halloween is only a week gone! It must be time for... the Frugal Gifts Holiday Edition for Frugal Friday! ... Do you want, or need, to spend less?Are you fed up with the consumerist rat race?
Do you want to avoid creating clutter? Do you want your gifts to do something more than line the pockets of some large corporation? Will de-emphasizing the gifts help you to focus on more important meanings of the holiday?
CLIMATE
Jamess warned us as England surrenders some of its Coastline to the Sea -- Are We Next?: "The Climate Crisis just ratcheted up a few more notches. In England, a non-public government report has leaked out. It concedes that several areas of its Coastlines, many with historic significance, many with communities still living there, that those Coastlines will be surrendered to the rising sea levels. They have decided that trying to protect them from the inevitable floods, will just be too darn expensive!"
WattHead informed us that Time Magazine Says Its Time for Washington D.C. to Listen to the Millenials on Global Warming: "With the Millennials set to be the largest demographic bloc in America history, it might be time for Washington to listen" to them when it comes to Climate Change, says Time Magazine in an article published online last week. In the wake of Power Shift 2007 and Step It Up 2, Time Magazine ran a story featuring interviews with Energy Action's Jessy Tolkan, 20-year old University of Tennessee-Knoxville junior, Katelyn McCormick, and yours-truly, Jesse Jenkins of the Cascade Climate Network. The story is accompanied by a long podcast interview with author, activist and Step It Up co-founder Bill McKibben."
A Siegel posted some very clever YouTubes to watch in Video Warfare against Global Warming: "How our paths of communicating, learning, coordinating, and well, so much else are changing minute from minute. And, well, with all of the legitimately horrible news about Global Warming, Mountain Top Removal, Peak Oil, well, sometime one needs a way to look at these problems, to communicate wtih a laugh rather than a yell. And, well, the video world can come to the rescue. If the video in the intro is a powerful ad, a powerful image that says so much, the following are three of my favorite Global Warming-related videos."
chapter1argued The Case for Optimism on Global Warming: "here's recently been lots of depressing news about Global Warming. The northern ice cap is melting faster than scientists predicted, emissions are growing faster than anyone expected, American policy may take a huge step backwards. Hundreds of millions may die and half of all species may vanish. But this diary makes the case for optimism about Global Warming. I don’t dispute anything mentioned above, and this diary is not snark. I'm not a Denier, and I won’t tell you about the benefits of reducing hypothermia deaths or the Greening of the Sahara. Rather, I'm going to argue that Global Warming is a solvable problem. Then I’ll tell you how we might solve it."
The Baculum King had to tell us several things that his Diary, Like Masturbating With Sandpaper, was not about before he got to the point: "Dr. James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia Hypothesis and one of the very first to try to sound a warning, thinks the planet in a few decades will be able to support maybe 500 million people; I think he's optimistic. If you really want to do something for future generations, figure out how to convey an apology across the collapse of agriculture and civilization. ... Switching your lightbulbs to compact flourescents is, well, re-read the Title."
WeatherDem introduced a Discussion of the Colorado Climate Action Plan in two Diaries: "Yesterday, 300spartansgym wrote a diary at SquareState announcing Gov. Bill Ritter's "Strategy to Address Global Warming."
The pdf version of Ritter's plan is here. The second installment included Details of the Colorado Climate Action Plan: "A couple days ago, I presented a summary of Gov. Ritter's strategy to take action within Colorado on what I view as the most critical issue facing us: global warming. There has been a distinct lack of willingness to deal with this issue in any real way by either our state government prior to Gov. Ritter or by the federal government for some time. The good news is we the people are leading on this issue and folks grounded in reality like Gov. Ritter are now responding."
A Siegel wondered why it’s taken so much effort for Getting the Next President to Talk About Global Warming/Energy: "Notable in the Presidential debates, on both sides of the aisle, has been a relative silence on such minor issues as energy and Global Warming. Peak Oil matter? Evidently not, based on the hours of debates. Global Warming? Well, Tim Russert has asked over 200 questions, not one related to this that I can find. Nor, for example, did it come up at the Yearly Kos Presidential forum in August. And, this is the case even with every single one of the Democratic candidates having serious energy plans and concepts, all calling for far reaching change from the policies of the current mis-Administration. Well, this relative silence might change and change significantly due to an event less than two weeks away."
And, although he wrote UPDATED: Pity the fool: Limbaugh falls for Global Warming Denier hoax, he was pitiless when he started writing: "Oh, the violins are playing, the tears are flowing. Rush Limbaugh chose to headline with a false paper proving that Global Warming is a Hoax. (For a moment, one must imagine that James Inhofe's heart was beating ...) UPDATED: Spoofer revealed: Low Carbon Kid. Extracts in diary."
cskendrick took a crack at How We Respond To Global Warming: Three Futures: "Back around the start of October, I thought it might be a good idea to recruit some Kossacks to help me out. So, one slow Friday, I posted a survey, and the following Monday, I wrote Results from the Future 2030 Survey, a presentation of the data collection methodology, a summation of the results, the so-called "consensus future". If you are curious about methodology, go check out the prior diaries. I have three I'd like to share -- one based on the survey responses from homogenius, a world where it's already too late, and another based on Athenian's answers, where a country far more ecologically challenged than our own at the moment falls into civil war, and rises out of it scarred but smarter, and even more powerful than before. The third is the consensus future, based on all 14 datasets collected from Kossack respondents."
Global Warming Makes Us All Developing Nations was BruceMcF grim assessment of our current situation: "Everywhere in the world has to act like a developing agrarian nation, and we have to drop the load of horseshit policies that we have been pushing for thirty years, go back to when we were seriously trying to get it right, and then get it right. ... The problem is fundamentally this: what works for agriculture in one area will not reliably work in that area indefinitely. The relationship between what works in one area and what works fifty miles north, south, east or west will not remain stable either. In low-income and medium-income developing nations, we need small market towns in which to locate the basic social infrastructure for a progressive developing agriculture, with a small market town in the local transport distance of each rural village. That small market town needs a regulated market, transport to external product and supplier markets, medical care, schooling, a credit union, and perhaps most importantly proving fields for the local extension officers to run the local field trials."
The Cunctator, who hosts the blog Hill Heat was on hand for Hill Heat: Trillion Dollar Climate Bill Hearing LIVE twice: Hearing on S 2191, the Global Warming Cap and Trade Bill that Gives a Trillion Dollars to Polluters: Peter A. Darbee, Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President, PG&E Corporation; Jonathan C. Pershing, Director, Climate, Energy and Pollution Program Climate and Energy, World Resources Institute; Anne E. Smith, Vice President, CRA International; Dr. Margo Thorning, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, American Council for Capital Formation; Wiley Barbour, Executive Director, Environmental Resources Trust. PG&E and WRI are members of US-CAP. The Environmental Resources Trust is connected to Environmental Defense, another US-CAP member. Thorning has appeared regularly as a minority witness challenging cap-and-trade in previous hearings. Anne Smith also has appeared as a minority witness challenging cap-and-trade in a recent House hearing." The second round was Hill Heat: Trillion Dollar Climate Bill Hearing LIVE."
Controversial author Michael Shellenberger wrote Preparing for the Fire Next Time: "Just a few years ago, arguing for a strategy of adaptation to global warming was viewed by most environmental leaders as defeatist – perhaps because the only people arguing for adaptation were the same people who argued against preventing it. But now, everyone from the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations Panel on Climate Change to last year's seminal Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change commissioned by the British government have joined the insurance industry, which will pay out over $1 billion for the California fires, in acknowledging the need for an aggressive strategy of global warming preparedness. Every U.S. city and state should immediately undertake a comprehensive review of the likely impacts of global warming on their region, evaluating potential risks from things such as worsening natural disasters and reduced water supplies."
dday challenged comments floating around wwwLand regarding New Savior For Global Warming Denialists: A Local TV Weatherman: "I noticed a lot of comments in the linked article from denialists and far-right types, touting that ‘The head of the Weather Channel thinks global warming is a scam... how could it be true if the founder of the Weather Channel doesn't believe in it?’ Let's explore this, shall we? [John] Coleman ran the Weather Channel for a year. He's no longer involved in any way. And they've embraced science at this point, making the fight against global warming part of their mandate."
ClimateLurker suggested we’d be wise to go about Saving Energy by Saving Water - and Vice Versa: "We have a climate problem, and we also have a drinking water problem in some parts of the country. These two problems are related, and the link goes both ways. Yes, global warming can impact rainfall, but that's not all. The water supply sector uses large amounts of energy to transport, treat, and deliver water. On the flip side, vast quantities of water are required to generate power."
Captain Future predicted what he thinks will be Climate Crisis: The Emerging Republican Plan: "As I see it, there are two parts to this plan, and though the second part may take some time to become obvious, I think we have to understand it now in order to be ready for it, and to counter it, maybe even pre-empt it. The first strategy is well-known: the Bushite pattern of denying, suppressing, minimizing and co-opting the Climate Crisis. In the campaign, I expect the emphasis to be on co-opting: offering solutions that aren't solutions. But equally if not more dangerous is the likely longer term strategy--and Democrats don't seem to be prepared for it. Neither does anyone else. "
Stuffing our Oceans Full of Soot was the graphic description in OneRandomScientist’s Diary: "A group of researchers from Germany and Norway published an article in Nature today (as an advance online publication before it appears in the magazine) regarding the effects of increasing CO2 concentrations on the ocean's global ecosystem. According to the group, If CO2 emissions continue to rise at current rates, upper-ocean pH will decrease to levels lower than have existed for tens of millions of years and, critically, at a rate of change 100 times greater than at any time over this period. It is very difficult to accurately model such large-scale effects as doubling the ocean's CO2 concentration and lowering its pH by 0.3 (the more precise calculations from the paper), so they go about the problem experimentally, by pumping CO2 into devices containing captured ambient water. While people can always doubt your conclusions when you use a highly complicated, opaque computer algorithm (no matter how sound), it's a lot harder to argue with a direct, real life observation."