Welcome to what is probably the last DK3 eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.
Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.
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Tonight's editor: boatsie who dedicates this earthship to our leader Patrick.
Middle East/Africa Protests Mothership #17: Ghonim Interview Must See
Demonstrators Praying in Tahrir Square. Photographed By: Ramy Raoof
Kudos and thanks to the crew participating in the spectacular ongoing coverage of events as they unfold in Egypt. كل عمل
Hey, Charles: Seems like climate denial is a religion
A passionate rant on the climate change deniers directed to Charles Krauthammer apres this Washington Post piece ... direct relevance: Is severe winter weather related to global warming?
Query:
Is Charles Krauthammer, a man with a degree in Medicine (psychiatry) and Economics who plays a know it all on TV simply Ignorant, Stupid, Lazy, Evil or All of the Above?
As the Sportscasters say, Let’s go to the tape:
Dear Charles, I checked. You’re wrong. Climate scientists do not worship a Nature deity called Climate Change, nor is Al Gore their High Priest. They do not gather together in conclaves to perform rituals and offer up prayers, nor do they all adhere to a single dogma of faith in unseen forces that control humankind’s destiny. In short, none of them claim to be infallible, unlike the Pope or the claims made by adherents of other major religions for their holy books.
What they do is adhere to the Scientific method. They fight and argue about their work but when someone proves them wrong they usually admit their errors. That’s because their mission in life isn’t to find some supernatural force to explain all of unanswered questions regarding the universe. All they try to do is explain what they observe happening and how it happens to the best of their ability. Reason and logic, data and the experimental method are there guidelines to discovery the truth about our world, not faith or belief in prophets or reputed Gods or holy scriptures.
Scientists develop new theories based on known facts and prior scientific theories that have been tested and found to accurately depict the physical processes that affect our world. Then they test their new theories by comparing the predictions made by those theories to actual real world data (i.e., information). Read on. Enjoy
Biomess: Burning Trees for Energy
Coal fired power plants want to burn trees as "biomass" on a huge scale to make energy and call it "green and clean." The Ohio Public Utilities Commission has approved this practice to receive renewable energy credits. Old coal power plants prefer not to use agricultural crops for fuel because they cause corrosion and high emissions. Chipped trees will be the fuel of choice to burn with coal in a practice called co-firing.
Current proposals from power plants would require the clear-cutting of all forests in Ohio in just over 15 years to supply fuel. Trees were included as a renewable fuel in Ohio’s Renewables Portfolio in SB 221, and power companies are driving a fleet of trucks through this loophole in order to avoid expensive investments in wind and solar. Adding insult to injury, burning trees for energy emits 150% of the CO2 that burning coal does, because wood is an inefficient heat source. In addition, it will take 30-90 years of new growth to re-capture the CO2 that is released instantly from burning trees for energy.
Old. New Orleans, French Quarter by Irene 2005
NOLA News
MR-GO restoration discussion focuses on diversion location
The Army Corps of Engineers should use the Violet Canal as the site of a freshwater diversion that is at the center of a sweeping $2.9 billion plan to restore the environmental damage caused by the construction and operation of the now-closed Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, St. Bernard Parish, New Orleans and Metairie residents and representatives of several environmental groups said Tuesday night.
A number of St. Bernard Parish residents speaking at Light City Church in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans at the third public hearing on the corps proposal warned that dredging another canal through the parish would result in a repeat of the damage caused by the MR-GO.
eco city lovers lane by Eesmyal Santos-Brault
Smart Cities/Aging Boomers & The EPA
As baby boomers age, the need for elderly friendly towns and cities becomes increasingly important. This week, the EPA announced the winners of the fourth annual Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award. The award honors communities that are improving quality of life through "smart growth," or growth designed to cut down on commutes and environmental harm; preserve open space; encourage community collaboration; and mix land uses.
Two communities--Charlotte, North Carolina and the Brazos Valley Council of Governments, Texas--won in the achievement category (for neighborhoods or NGOs that demonstrate excellence in building healthy communities for active aging). This is how they did it.
electric car shop, brooklyn by Nathan Kensinger
DOE: How to Get to 1M Electric Cars by 2015
The U.S. Department of Energy issued a report Tuesday outlining how President Obama will reach the goal of 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. The answer: basically combine the stimulus package funding for auto and battery technology with the fuel economy standards and add in some more incentives.
How doable is his plan? Analysts and researchers are predicting similar — albeit somewhat lower — figures without much more government support. Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted late last year that there could be 1.6 million plug-in cars on the road by 2020, and 4 million by 2030.
earthship koch reboot
Checking out how MSM covered last month's protest against the Koch Bros 'secret' meeting, the NYT article quotes attorney Bradley A Smith, well known for his work in support of Citizens United and the go-to-guy on corporate hung government.
The protest was "an open assault on rights of association," said Bradley A. Smith, a professor at Capital University Law School, whose writings on easing campaign finance restrictions have been influential among conservatives.
The Koch retreat "will harm no one," Professor Smith said. "They are not going to do any more than talk and listen to speakers. That this alarms these protesters is an ironic commentary on their lack of faith in the American electorate and the power of their own ideas." that would be the same Professor SMith, who deemed last Jan. Supreme Court decision on Citizen's v. United A great day for free speech
Check out Smith's take on Citizens:
Contrary to the claims some have made, it does not allow foreign corporations to contribute, as a separate provision of the law, not at issue in this case, prohibits foreign nationals (corporations and individuals) from making expenditures, or even being involved in decisions about making expenditures.
Contrary to some claims, it does not upset "100 years of precedent." It overrules a 20 year old case, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, that virtually all campaign finance scholars, even those who agree with it, recognize was at odds with older precedents of the Court. The statute it overturns was passed in 1947, as part of the Taft-Hartley law, but which was rarely enforced. It is not an "activist" decision, but one that properly removes an outlier from the law and restores the Constitutional doctrine to what it was just 20 years ago.
And it is not radical or leading us to some unchartered frontier. In fact, even before Thursday's decision, 28 states, comprising 60 percent of the nation's population, already allowed independent expenditures by corporations and unions. These states, such as Utah, Virginia, and Washington, were not dominated by special interests, and in fact are over-represented among the best governed or fastest growing states in the Union.
Cover photo: Langelle/GJEP-GFC
Z Magazine: Outrage at the UN Cancun Climate Talks
The February edition of Z Magazine features an article by Global Justice Ecology Project Co-Directors Anne Petermann and Orin Langelle titled, "Activist Outrage at the UN Climate Conference: World Carbon Trade Organization vs. the People and the Planet"
The article describes in detail the positions of many of the climate justice and environmental justice organizations that were present at the UN Climate Convention in Cancún, Mexico. It also discusses the concerted effort by the UN Climate Convention to shut down dissent as well as the actions taken by organizations and governments to respond to this silencing.
From the article:
During protests against the WTO (World Trade Organization) meetings in Cancún, Mexico in September 2003, Lee Kyung Hae, a South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member, martyred himself by plunging a knife into his heart while standing atop the barricades at Kilometer Zero. Around his neck was a sign that read, "WTO Kills Farmers." read article here
WarrenS made a New Year's Resolution to write a letter advocating climate action every day. The result is over three hundred letters to congresspeople, newspapers, President Obama, and more. Warren has even had letters published in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and the Boston Globe.
Learn Warren's letter writing technique here. Be sure to steal his stuffand visit his blog.
Year 2, Month 2, Day 8: Whiteout!
Written and sent to the Chicago Tribune on February 1, as Chicago is getting ready for its own massive snowstorm. Typically, the article is all about municipal preparations, ignoring the webs of causality that link this weather event with all the other crazy stuff that’s coming out of the sky elsewhere in the world.
As Chicago braces for a "once-in-a-decade" snowfall, it is easy and tempting to think of it as an isolated phenomenon. But this blizzard, like the multiple winter storms that are hammering the East coast, is part and parcel of the same complex set of phenomena that gave us the floods that have inundated Pakistan, the cyclone that’s headed for Australia, and the drought that devastated Russia last summer.
If we wish to build a future for our children and their children in turn, we must face the reality of global climate change. While no single weather event can be blamed on the greenhouse effect (science doesn’t work that way), there is no longer any serious doubt among experts: anthropogenic climate change makes extreme weather overwhelmingly more likely. The fact that the phrase "climate change" does not appear at all in this article is an unfortunate abdication of journalistic responsibility.
Warren Senders