Every week Daily Kos diarists write dozens of environmentally related posts. Many don't get the readership they deserve. Helping improve the odds is the motivation behind the Green Diary Rescue. In the past seven years, there have been 222 of these spotlighting more than 12,300 eco-diaries. Below are categorized links and excerpts to 84 more that appeared in the past seven days. That makes for lots of good reading during the spare moments of your weekend. [Disclaimer: Inclusion of a diary in the rescue does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.] |
Green Diaries of the Week
Instead of choosing a single exceptional Green diary this week, I picked instead the ongoing blogathon organized by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse to get spur an outpouring of public comments regarding the Keystone XL pipeline. The comments are part of a mandated process that encourages citizens to respond to the State Department's Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on proposal to construct the northern leg of the 36-inch pipeline dedicated to carrying diluted bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Included among those who have so far written diaries have been Bill McKibben, who has been arrested more than once for his peaceful protests against the pipeline, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee of California and the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Raul Grijalva. Here are those three:
KXL will carry as much carbon as all the cars on the West Coast, plus Michigan, NY, and Florida.—by Bill McKibben: "There are an awful lot of reasons to oppose Keystone XL, from the danger of spills to the hideous damage the mining does on native land in Alberta (the technical name for the vast tarsands complex, I think, is 'Mordor.')
Underlying them all, however, is the sheer quantity of carbon that the pipeline will pour into the atmosphere—and a new report just out today provides the vivid numbers. In a single year, the pipeline will add as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as all the cars in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Michigan, and New York combined. That is, you could park every single car in every one of those states—every Escalade in L.A., every minivan in Michigan—and the pipeline would make up for it. The president’s people keep boasting about his plan to increase automobile mileage—but this pipeline will carry near as much oil as that will save. Over the next 35 years this one pipeline would carry as much carbon as the entire U.S. burned last year."
Reject Keystone XL; Our Focus Should Be on Investing in a Sustainable Energy Future—by Barbara Lee: "We need to invest in a sustainable energy future. For our children's sake and our grand children's, we must not continue to build massive fossil fuel infrastructure that increases emissions, threatens our climate and makes extreme weather more likely. President Obama should reject this project."
Tell the State Department to Extend the Comment Period on Keystone XL—by Raul Grijalva: "A few days ago, according to Bloomberg, that changed. The State Department finally recognized that transparency is more important and valuable than controlling information and announced that it will publicize the comments. It's even considering extending the comment period beyond April 22, which many of you recognize as Earth Day. Now that we can actually see these comments, I'm hoping you'll sign my petition today to make sure the State Department and Environmental Resources Management extend the comment period, which is set to end Monday. Tell them there's no reason to hide and that we need to know who's saying what."
••• ••• •••
The rest of the Stop Keystone XL diaries can be found below the fold under Energy at the bottom of the GDR.
Food & Agriculture & Gardening
Marine Life Series: The History of Oyster Farming—by
Mark H: "Harvesting oysters in New England goes back to way before colonial times. Although today oysters are harvested mainly for food, back in the 1700s they were collected for their shells. Limestone, vital to the production of masonry mortar, was scarce in the northeast. So oysters and other mollusks were captured and added to kilns to take advantage of the calcium carbonate in their shells. [...] You’ll notice I left pearls out of this essay completely. You can learn about them
here, and I can guarantee that the way I describe how pearls are formed is nothing like you’ve been taught."
Small Farms Fight Back: Food and Community Self-Governance—by Bev Bell: "Small farmers are being pushed out of business because they are saddled with the financial and bureaucratic burdens of the same regulations as large industrial farms. Heather and her family’s Quill’s End Farm raise grass-fed cows, lambs, pastured pigs, chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys, dairy cows, and goats. The diverse mix is better both for the land and the economic viability of the farm. Given the scale of their business, building their own chicken processing unit was financially out of the question, so instead they were butchering at a neighboring farm’s USDA-approved unit. When state inspectors told them that USDA regulations didn’t allow them to share this neighbor’s facility, Quill’s End Farm was forced to stop raising and selling chickens altogether."
Spring has sprung.
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 9.9—by
Frankenoid: "After warming up some last weekend, this week we were hit again — well, except the snow actually arrived this time, giving us about 9” and it wasn’t quite as cold — although wet and cold stretch lasted from Monday through Thursday. We only really started to warm up yesterday, when we made it to the 60s. It’s been really disconcerting to have the color of the sky say spring, and the angle of the sun say spring, but go outside and have it feel like January."
Macca's Meatless Monday...everybody's going green—by beach babe in fl: "And as eminent climate scientist James Hansen has said: the most effective action we as individuals can take to reduce our carbon emissions is to greatly reduce or eliminate our consumption of meat. But, how to go about it? It's different for everyone. For me, I've been vegetarian for many years and after finding out about the huge carbon footprint of dairy products about two years ago, I decided to go vegan. I needed to find out how to start without a great disruption to my time challenged life. It was much easier than I expected. It was all about recipes and products."
Time to label meat Danger: Consume At Your Own Risk?—by beach babe in fl: "The USDA said eating food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, an uncommon but potentially fatal disease. They also said healthy people do not contact listeriosis; just those with immune deficiencies and I would guess that to include; the young, old and pregnant. Don't you feel better now? The case against meat keeps building. Not only is eating meat a serious personal health risk but it's also a public health risk due to the amounts of antibiotics and hormones added to animal feed."
87% of supermarket meat tests positive for Enterococcus bacteria-it's from sh!t in your meat—by beach babe in fl: "My stream is filled with articles on meat production, so consider this a public service announcement. 87 percent of supermarket meat — including beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products — tests positive for normal and antibiotic-resistant forms of Enterococcus bacteria. Fifty percent of ground turkey contains resistant E. coli, 10 percent of chicken parts and ground turkey tests positive for resistant salmonella, and 26 percent of chicken parts come contaminated with resistant campylobacter. Resistant or not, the mere presence of these types of microbes means the majority of our meat comes into contact with fecal matter at some point. Hungry yet?"
Growing Wild Plants from Seed—by epjmcginley: "The vegetable gardener knows the joy of growing cultivated plants from seed. It is among the most satisfying garden activities. These plants, through generations of human handling, accommodate us generously. They emerge within hours or days of one another, each nearly identical to the seedling beside it, predictable and civilized like cultivated plants should be. After the prescribed number of days has passed, the intended crop appears, and the long-standing relationship between plant and human again bears fruit. One may go further and collect seed from an especially strong plant to improve the strain, and in this way, the cultivation continues. Our relationship with these domesticated plants is essential and sacred, just as our relationship with wild plants should be."
Fundie President of Eden Foods Responds—by radical simplicity: "Organic food purveyor Eden Foods is suing the department of Health and Human Services because they don't want their insurance to cover birth control and other women's health care, as required by the Affordable Care Act. When the news broke, I wrote a letter to the company, expressing my disappointment, and letting them know I would no longer buy their products."
Puritanism at an organic food company—by DWG: "I am allergic to nuts, at least the religious conservative kind, so I am more than happy to avoid Eden Foods."
What's For Dinner v.7.37 Garlic—by blueoregon: "Berkeley Documentary filmmaker, Les Blank, died last Sunday after a battle with bladder cancer at the age of 77. Although his film, 'Garlic Is As Good As 10 Mothers' is one of his better known, food was one of his favorite topics. Long before 'Food Inc.,' he filmed 'Chicken Real' about chicken production. Food can be political as well as erotic, taking us to far away lands even when eating in the restaurant down the street."
Local Farmer's Market. Do you attend?: Street Prophets—by BlueJessamine: "Recently Oregon Gal invited me to the Portland Farmer's Market where she is a vendor selling her out of the world goat cheese."
Oregon Gal purchases fresh oysters from a fellow vendor.
Climate Change
Antarctic Summer Ice Melt Accelerating Rapidly - Mostly Since Last Half of 20th Century—by Steven D: "A new study, "Acceleration of snow melt in an Antarctic Peninsula ice core during the twentieth century," published in the journal, Nature Geoscience, indicates that the rate of the summer Antarctic ice melt has increased by nearly ten times between the 15th and 20th Centuries. That increased melting has been caused by a progressively warmer environment. The truly disturbing finding, however, is that most of the increased ice melt in Antarctica has occurred in the last 50-60 years."
Thunderstorm Damage (including Tornadoes) has doubled since 1970 as Climate Change amplifies storms—by Lefty Coaster: "So as storms grow more violent and damaging the patterns of storms is getting more erratic with wider variations from one year to the next. Insurance companies rate thunderstorms — which may include hailstorms and tornados — as the second biggest cause of weather-related losses in the US, behind hurricanes. In 2011, a record tornado season in the United States, overall economic losses from thunderstorms added up to US$47 billion. Of those, only US$27 billion were covered by insurance."
Unpublished US Report on Climate Change creating a "global food crisis" made public—by Lefty Coaster: "The title to the article couldn't be more ominous. Climate change feared to create global food crisis: When Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire Dec. 17, 2010, it was in protest at heavy-handed treatment and harassment in his province. But a host of new studies suggest that a major factor in the subsequent uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring was food insecurity."
How to reverse climate change—by bbrake: "Watching Realtime last night Bill Maher's first guest briefly mentioned this TED talk and asked viewers to watch it. I did and it's pretty remarkable. I thought it would be of interest to many people in the community here. I'm not going to explain the content of video as I don't believe I could do it justice, all I ask is for you to watch. I know it's 22 minutes, but I think it's well worth the time. Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change."
New Study:Reducing Emissions of Methane,Black Carbon, Can Slow Sea Level Rise from Climate Change—by beach babe in fl: "A new study, a collaboration of the Scripps Institution for Oceanography,, The National Center for Atmospheric Research(NCAR), and Climate Central, is being published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. [...] The research team found that reductions in four pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could slow the annual rate of sea level rise by about 50 percent. The short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) are Methane, Black Carbon (Soot), Tropospheric Ozone and hydrofluorocarbons."
The Great Outdoors
Big Leaf Maple blossoms
The Daily Bucket - greening in the Forest—by
bwren: "Once again the canopy in the Forest begins to close. There is texture now in the vacant spaces that have been held open over the winter between the edges of the conifers: fading catkins of Alder and Cottonwood; incipient Dogwood leaves; pale flowers shining from wild cherries and crabapples; impossibly bright Big-leaf Maple blossoms."
The Daily Bucket: Jack and the Green Dragons—by PHScott: "Two inches of rain in Tallahassee makes a wet morning but now with a clearing sky. It's very green. About time to go walk around outside and see and hear whatever comes my way. Last week I discovered a native plant growing on my wooded slope -- green dragon Arisaema dracontium. 4 plants so far, all with 50' of each other. This one succumbed to my sharp-edged spade with the long handle. Chop Chop - it looked very much like the poison ivy and Virginia creeper I was chopping along the trail."
My Simple-Minded Enjoyment of Spring: A Photo Diary—by
smoh: "I take an absurd amount of pleasure in watching the opening flowers of Spring. I'm not talking about big, splashy flowers like daffodils and tulips, but the the tiny ground covers I find in my lawn. They come thick and fast this time of year and I try to photograph them in order of appearance. I have tried to accurately identify them and in this I have been greatly helped by Portia Elm. "
Daily Bucket - A Rainy Day—by janislav: "This morning a Great Blue Heron was wading by the willows on the right when it captured a nice bluegill, carried it to "dry" ground, flipped it around, and swallowed it head-first. A Blue-winged Teal couple were cruising/dabbling nearby, having stopped in the northward journey to float-out last night's storm. Things are calming-down here and the sump pump is running less frequently, and little rain is forecast for the immediate future."
And here is a picture taken this morning...
The Daily Bucket: Heron or Eagle?—by
OceanDiver: "It's still a bit of a mystery still about the large bird tracks I saw on the beach at Barlow Bay a couple of weeks ago. It may always be a mystery, since marks in the sand are ephemeral, erased by tides and wind, as these are now. Photos help, but there are so many variables that affect what's left, it's hard to interpret. Any insights from fellow nature lovers, more experienced than me, would be very welcome!"
The Daily Bucket - Spiderwort—by foresterbob: "I like low-maintenance plants. Native perennials are right up my alley. Give them growing space that's to their liking, and they will return year after year. Some occupy more or less the same space each year. Others will expand their territory. Spiderwort falls into the latter category."
The Daily Bucket: The Lady Banks' Rose—by AZ Sphinx Moth: "One of the first things I discovered when I moved to Bisbee, AZ is that roses thrive in the area. A couple of years ago, I planted a Rosa Banksiae in honor of the famous rose living in Tombstone. My rose's annual show of flowers has arrived so I thought I would share with you the story of the largest rose bush in the world."
Lady Bank rose bush next to 6' 1" visitor.
Cross a Horse Chestnut with a Red Buckeye and you get…?—by
shortfinals: "Strolling along a country lane in the Peak District of Derbyshire, I turned a corner and was confronted by a ‘wall’ of bright pink blossom. Many young trees were vying for growing space, and at the same time pushing out a profusion of pink inflorescences. They exhibited the typical leaf shape of the Horse Chestnut, but had shocking pink flower spikes, unlike the snow-white flowers of the native tree. When I was a small boy, growing up in Derbyshire, I had always assumed that the ‘pink’ Horse Chestnut was just a ‘sport’, something that was caused by a recessive gene. Well, as I got older, I started to listen to my family on the subject of gardens and since I had an uncle who was the last Head Gardener at Butterley Hall, Ripley (before it ceased to be a family home, and became the Police HQ) and a father who was a member of the Royal Rose Society, it was a good idea to listen!"
Fish & Wildlife
Dawn Chorus: Spring Pilgrimage—by lineatus: "Another sometimes elusive bird who put on a great show for us - Lewis' Woodpecker. We pulled up at the first place where I generally look for them, and I was starting to describe what we'd want to look for - a bird who looks like a crow at first glance but doesn't fly or otherwise act like a crow - when a bird flew across the road and into a tree near us. Our first Lewis' of the day and we hadn't really even started to look. A little further down the road, we found another group in a tree with these apparent nest cavity openings. There were 3-5 flying in and around the tree, calling almost non-stop."
Lewis' Woodpecker
Obama's budget would kill dolphins and other stranded marine mammals—by
factchecker: "While many have rightly denounced Obama's vicious and heartless attack on Social Security and Medicare, there's another, less advertised, but immoral cut hidden in his budget proposal: the total elimination of funding for volunteer groups that rescue desperate stranded marine mammals. This cut could result in the gruesome death of many of these animals, such as the dolphins you might have seen last year struggling for breath after stranding on Cape Cod."
Commission adopts recreational ocean and river salmon seasons—by Dan Bacher: "The California Fish and Game Commission (FGC) adopted ocean and inland salmon season regulations for 2013 at its meeting today in Santa Rosa as anglers, tribal members and environmentalists fight to stop the destruction of Central Valley salmon populations under Governor Jerry Brown's peripheral tunnel plans. 'Forecasts of abundant Sacramento and Klamath River fall Chinook salmon allowed the FGC to adopt long seasons and liberal bag limits,' according to a news release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife."
Northern Rocky Mountain Wolf Recovery Program 2012 Interagency Annual Report—by ban nock: "The US Fish and Wildlife in collaboration with the state Wildlife Departments of the Northern Rockies as well as Native American Tribes and the Blackfeet Nation issued a very upbeat annual report. [...] If memory serves me this is the first year the entire area has been delisted for at least the second half of the year. By every biological measure the NRM DPS wolf population is fully recovered. Resident packs have saturated suitable habitat in the core recovery areas and the population has exceeded recovery goals for 11 consecutive years."
Eco-Activism and Sustainability
Unlikely Allies: Greens Join Coal Miners In ‘Patriot’ Coal Fight—by Phaedra Ellis Lamkins: "You don’t often read headlines about environmentalists joining forces with coal miners. Environmentalists want to shut down coal plants that pollute our air and water, while miners understandably fight to keep and defend the jobs that the coal industry provides. Between these two forces, there sometimes appears to be little common ground. But the events leading up to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Patriot Coal are so outrageous that the seemingly impossible has occurred—greens and coal miners are united in a common fight for fairness."
Amazing Chicago Coal, Clean Air Activist Wins Goldman Environmental Prize—by Mary Anne Hitt: "Every year the Goldman Environmental Prize committee selects an amazing group of winners from around the world to receive what is sometimes called the environmental Nobel prize - and I could not be more thrilled with their pick for North America this year: Kim Wasserman Nieto of Chicago, Illinois. Kim is a phenomenal environmental justice activist and mom from the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. Her work with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) has been inspiring and ground-breaking. The Little Village community is primarily Latino, and is located next to one of the most notorious, polluting coal-fired power plants in America. As a woman of color on the frontlines of the fight to stop the pollution, Kim not only served as an inspiration to many others, but she also led a winning campaign that ultimately secured the retirement of not one, but two, deadly coal plants."
Forests & Public Lands
DKos Tour Series: Hiking The Grand Canyon "Highways" (Special Supplement)—by richholtzin: "When hiking in the canyon you really want and need to be aware of common ailments that could turn serious, and in some cases, lethal. For example, a medical condition known as hyponatremia. It’s a long word for hikers who experience an electrolyte imbalance. In short, sodium concentration in the serum (blood plasma) is lower than normal. Another way to think about it is how an excess body water entails diluting the serum sodium. Simply not good! A sure sign something’s awry with your body, and caused by dehydration, is an old fashioned cephalalgia. That’s a fancy word for headache. I mention this because those who do understand the benefit of drinking water when a headache comes on, especially at higher elevation levels, tend to drink and not eat."
Forestry Interpretive Center (Photo Diary)—by Ojibwa: "Western Montana has abundant forests and thus forestry has been an important part of the region’s history and economy. Shown below are some photographs of the Forestry Interpretive Center at Historic Fort Missoula in Missoula, Montana."
One of the many outdoor exhibits at the Forest Interpretive Center.
DKos Tour Series: Cedar Breaks National Monument (Not Bryce Canyon, But Close)—by
richholtzin: "The monument is tucked into Utah's 800 square miles Markagunt Plateau (a Southern Paiute word meaning "highland of trees"). Climatic conditions and Cedar Break's geology are ideal for the formation of its whimsical hoodoos. Early settlers called this type of setting badlands or breaks. Their description eventually became the designate for this monument by combining breaks with cedar to represent the area's many juniper trees (often incorrectly called cedars). Incidentally, the lodge at Cedar Breaks is considered the smallest of all lodges operating in a national park or monument."
Cedar Breaks arch
Eco-Related DC & State Politics
Urgent: Support Shared Renewables in California by Sending a Letter Today—by Mosaic Blog: "Solar leases are helping far more people go solar than before and are helping spread solar in a big way. In 2012, third-party-owned solar represented 74% of California’s home solar market. And much of that market’s growth was in low- and median-income areas. That’s great news! Still, about 75% of us are still left out of the equation. We may have shaded roofs, rent our homes, or live in multi-unit buildings. Businesses can run into these issues as well."
House Committee pro-KeystoneXL Reps received 6X more Big Oil cash than counterparts—by dturnbull: "Today in Big Oil’s grip on Congress…we saw a vote in the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee regarding Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska’s “H.R.3“, which is a bill that would circumvent standard processes and force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline without the standard presidential permit. [...] Well today it passed one hurdle—clearing the Energy and Commerce Committee in a 30-18.
This bill is simply dripping in oil."
Super-buff Republican seeks to protect junk food makers from CDC criticism—by Laura Clawson: "Rep. Aaron Schock, the abs of the House, is upset by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's efforts to promote healthier eating through ads educating the public on unhealthy foods. Or, as Schock puts it:We are talking about hundreds of millions of tax dollars that are being used to discourage the consumption of lawfully marketed American-made products."
OR-Sen: Jeff Merkley (D) & Ron Wyden (D) Renew Call To Stop Environmentally Damaging Mining—by poopdogcomedy: "Senators Jeff Merkley (D> OR) and Ron Wyden (D. OR) are looking out for Baldface and Rough and Ready Creeks in Southwestern Oregon."
HI-Sen: Brian Schatz (D) Talks About Climate Change & The Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative—by poopdogcomedy: "Senator Brian Schatz (D. HI) opened up to the local press recently about action that's be taken on climate change in Congress and how the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative could be good model to battle climate change."
NH-Sen: Jeanne Shaheen (D) Reintroduces The Energy Savings And Industrial Competitiveness Act—by poopdogcomedy: "Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D. NH) has teamed up with Senator Rob Portman (R. OH) to reintroduce their energy efficiency legislation."
NH-Sen: Can The Shaheen-Portman Energy Efficiency Bill Actually Pass Through The House?—by poopdogcomedy: "Over the course of months-long negotiations, the senators have won the buy-in of more than 200 organizations, from the Union of Concerned Scientists to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They’ve alleviated the concerns of Republican senators wary of federal mandates and expensive new programs. And they’ve reached out to their counterparts in the House."
Paul LePage, energy expert and conspiracy theorist—by blue aardvark: "I don't think it's because Exxon owns his soul. I think he's just terrified of admitting liberals are ever right, on any topic. He's a conservative due to reflexive anti-intellectualism, and he is terrified he might have to learn, or to think."
AK-Sen: Mark Begich (D) Vs. Frankenfish, GE Salmon—by poopdogcomedy: "U.S. Sen. Mark Begich and Sen. Patty Murray sent the FDA a letter expressing grave concern [over genetically altered salmon]. Upon the senators’ request, the FDA extended the public comment period to April 26. The FDA will review comments before approving the product. The senators write: 'Legislation will be introduced in the 113th Congress to seek a more comprehensive environmental review of this and other genetically engineered fish, and require labeling of any such products sold in the U.S. so consumers are aware of what is on their dinner plates.'"
CO-Sen: Mark Udall (D) Questions U.S. Forest Service Chief About Effects From The Sequester—by poopdogcomedy: "Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, questioned U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell Tuesday about how the agency plans to grapple with budget cuts that could impact its ability to fight fire this season. The forest service expects to add next generation, or modernized air tankers, to its fleet this month, but will still have to deal with cuts to its fire suppression programs. In short, although it has yet to get seriously underway, wildfire season 2013 could be an expensive endeavor for the agency."
LA-Sen: Bill Cassidy's (R) Big Plan To Weaken The EPA—by poopdogcomedy: "So we are all familiar that Senator Mary Landrieu (D. LA) is one of the most oil-friendly Democrats in the Senate. She hails from a big oil state. But her opponent, Congressman Bill Cassidy (R. LA-6), makes Landrieu look like an environmentalist by comparison."
Transportation
Free test drive in a Smart electric—by indycam.
Miscellany & Essays
#NoKXL: InsideClimate News Wins Pulitzer for Coverage of Kalamazoo River Dilbit Spill in 2010—by peregrine kate: "To the undoubted surprise and delight of many in the climate change movement, this year’s winner of the Pulitzer Prize in the category of National Reporting is the three-reporter team that covered the Enbridge pipeline rupture that occurred in July, 2010, along the Kalamazoo River for InsideClimate News. Lisa Song, Elizabeth McGowan, and David Hasemyer were commended by the Pulitzer jury in their category for their rigorous reports on flawed regulation of the nation’s oil pipelines, focusing on potential ecological dangers posed by diluted bitumen (or 'dilbit'), a controversial form of oil."
Have you donated a water test kit today?—by MsSpentyouth: "How do we get from pollen-clogged storm sewers to streams and then all the way to the clean water in our homes? The Center for Human-Earth Restoration not only teaches students that process but also engages them in the effort to measure the water in the creeks and streams in their local parks and neighborhoods. We could use your help for our young scientists! We need 20-30 water-testing kits for our upcoming youth camps so that our junior scientists can measure the chemical makeup in local streams over the coming weeks, track that information, and extrapolate from the data. Check out our website and donor packets for more information on how you can support budding scientists."
Hey Ken Cuccinelli, What Are the Real "Crimes Against Nature," Sodomy or Destroying the Planet?—by : "This whole video of The David Pakman ShowL mocking Ken Cuccinelli and Virginia's "crimes against nature" law is very amusing, but I particularly enjoyed this part: Now, the case at hand consensual, heterosexual oral sex, but...it is a complicated situation, it involves a 47-year-old man and two teenagers above Virginia's age of consent. So I can understand why people would be concerned about this case. But to say that the policy should be that the state decides that consenting adults should not be able to engage in oral sex seems a little bit antiquated to me...and Ken Cuccinelli, I don't know what he's thinking here...Yeah, I mean it's funny, earlier we talked about Exxon, if anyone's guilty of crimes against nature, it's them, but this guy's talking about oral sex...No, people engaging in consensual oral sex, those are the crimes against nature. ExxonMobil spilling oil, not paying for the cleanup, and lying about where they're pumping the oil, that's, I dunno, money is speech, that's just free speech...of course, yeah."
Energy
Victory! Off Shore Oil Drilling Stopped in Belize—by beach babe in fl: "Tuesday, Belize’s Supreme Court declared offshore drilling contracts issued by the Government of Belize (in 2004 and 2007) null and void, effectively ending the Belizean government’s immediate effort to allow offshore oil drilling in the Meso American Reef, the second largest barrier reef in the world and providing definitive setback to The Government of Belize and the petroleum prospecting companies issued the contracts. In 1842, in his study of the evolution of coral reefs, Charles Darwin declared that Belize was home to 'the most remarkable reef in the West Indies.' The ruling, was in response to a case brought by Oceana, COLA, and the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage. "
HELLO from the Future-uture-uture. This is what our energy mix looks like in 2050! It's awesome.—by Muskegon Critic: "It's pretty great here in the future: lower lung disease and respiratory issues, lower infant mortality, no more are 600,000 infants born each year with abnormally high mercury levels. CO2 emissions are way, WAY down. And the Industrial Belt is now a hub for wind turbine and solar production creating good, family sustaining jobs for tens of thousands of folks. We're the envy of the World, exporting renewable energy components to China and worldwide. And the weirdest thing? Our entire energy mix of the FUTURE-uture-uture in 2050 is all based on 2013 technology. Weird, right?"
Solar Energy Industry Pays Rush Limbaugh To Attack It—by ProgLegs: "[D]espite Limbaugh's efforts to scare their investors away, solar energy companies are inexplicably lining up to advertise on his program.
In the last week alone, at least 7 solar energy companies have run ads on the Rush Limbaugh Show--9 in the last month."
IAE report: World has stalled on clean energy—by davidwalters: "The stern message from IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven was that "the carbon intensity of the global energy supply has barely changed in 20 years, despite successful efforts in deploying renewable energy." She complained that progress towards clean energy "has stalled" and that "market failures are preventing the adoption of clean energy solutions." One of those market failures relates to nuclear power, which IEA said needs to provide 16% of generation by 2025 in orer to match its scenario where global warming is limited to 2ºC (known as the 2DS). But to achieve this, the sector has to expand at a rate of at least 16 GWe capacity per year to 2020 and 20 GWe per year after that - or even more if current units cannot operate as long as expected. In reality the nuclear sector has only achieved 3.6 GWe net growth on average over the last three years, taking into account the losses of the Fukushima accident and subsequent shutdowns in Germany."
How to Depreciate the cost of Hydrogen Fusion—by Frank Paine: "The most efficient way to develop breakthrough technology is for the government to cover the up-front cost of Research & Development. We’ve done this before with the atomic bomb, the space program and we need to do it again to develop Hydrogen Fusion."
Small Modular Reactors get funding—by davidwalters: "A formal agreement with the US Department of Energy (DoE) means that Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) mPower can access the first $79 million of federal funding under a government program to accelerate commercialization of small modular reactors (SMRs)."
Old Nuclear Waste Found in English Channel—by Eternal Hope: "The revelation undermines the case for nuclear power as an energy source in the future. The unintended consequence of having more nuclear plants in the future is, where will all the waste go? Dumping waste in the ocean creates a long-term health risk for fish caught in the area."
Gulf Watchers: Another April Anniversary Approaches—by BlackSheep1: "In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded. To paraphrase Bill Nye, The Science Guy, who is also CEO of the Planetary Society, that blowout changed the world. Not in a good way, for the families of the 11 workers who died during the explosion. Let's take a second and remember them, may we?"
Keystone & Other Fossil Fuel Transporters
My government doesn't believe in climate change—by
Tzeporah: "Last week Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources in Canada, Joe Oliver claimed that “some scientists” say action on climate change is “not urgent” and that 'there is no problem.' His statements stand in stark contrast to the agreement President Obama signed this week with China to scale up cooperation on climate action in which it is acknowledged 'the overwhelming scientific consensus regarding climate change constitutes a compelling call to action.' In reporting on the agreement even Canada’s far right newspaper the National Post notes that it could impact the Canadian governments plans to triple the growth of the oilsands which will triple greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as, 'the expansion is largely dependent on building pipelines such as the Keystone XL.'"
#NoKXL: (un)Ethical Pipeline?—by A Siegel: "Perhaps you missed it, but dirty oil money backed a (serious) play to brand heavily polluting tar sands as "ethical oil". After all, Canadians don't chop people's hands off and Canadian oil barons don't speak Arabic. As with all such propaganda efforts, this (un)ethical campaign built on kernels of truth but was / is not truthful. This, in many ways, is my reaction what might be referred to as the 'throw up the hands in surrender' approach that underpins the State Department's (horribly) inadequate environmental impact statement as to the Keystone XL pipeline."
#NoKXL ?? The Keystone XL Pipeline, Deep Time, and the Nature of Humanity—by gregladen: "As the sea level rises, a very large percentage of the human population, which at present lives in cities along the edge of the ocean, will have the opportunity to abandon their tired old cities and move to newly built quarters inland. The roads, rail lines, and sea ports will be abandoned and we will have the opportunity to build a new transportation infrastructure. Power plants that are near the sea now will have to be dismantled or covered in concrete and newer power plants constructed near the newly built cities. This is an amazing, wonderful opportunity to totally rethink what a city looks like, what a house looks like, what a factory looks like."
Rivaling Keystone: Dramatic Increase in Heavy Crude to be Shipped over the Great Lakes—by Muskegon Critic: "It's like these guys keep trying to outdo one another for worst possible idea. If you thought the Keystone XL Pipeline was bad, a newly proposed project is a pipeline moving more heavy tarsands oil than the XL Pipeline would move....but to really shoot for the moon, they're also adding refinery shipping docks along Lake Superior which would be capable of shipping over 13 million barrels of heavy crude oil over the great lakes via oil barges. OH! And on top of THAT, Enbridge, the same company responsible for dumping nearly a million gallons of tarsands oil into the Kalamazoo river, is behind part of the project."
Scientific American:"Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Exacerbates Climate Change"-Consultant's Bias EXPOSED—by Lefty Coaster: "The US's most widely read scientific publication Scientific American has confirmed what critics of the Keystone XL Pipeline have long contended, that the Keystone XL Pipeline would have a significant detrimental effect on Greenhouse Gas emissions accelerating the rate of Climate Change by burning the world's dirtiest oil. The article demolishes the fallacious assumptions that State Department report made on the environmental impacts of not building the Keystone XL pipeline could be dismissed because not building Keystone wouldn't stop Tar Sands oil from reaching overseas export markets (the intended markets for most of the Keystone XL Tar Sands oil). Industry documents show Keystone XL is being built for overseas export markets."
#NOKXL Blogathon - Keystone Principles and the Line in the Sand—by John Crapper: "President Obama repeatedly talks about an "all of the above" approach to our energy future. I really wish he meant what he said. If it was truly an "all of the above" approach we would not be digging from below. We would instead be focusing our efforts on generating energy from above ground sources and leaving the below ground sources of energy where they are. We would be dramatically expanding solar. Look up above. What do you see? The sun. The largest and primal source of all energy we use here on Earth. We see it every day but for some reason we refuse to fully tap its potential to provide this planet with the clean energy it is thirsting for."
NOKXL: Dilbit in the Pipeline—by Agathena: "What's going to be in the Keystone XL pipeline? Heavy Canadian Crude from the Tar Sands in Alberta. Here is a list of industry names for it: Access Western Blend, Borealis Heavy Blend, Christine Dilbit Blend, Cold Lake, Heavy Sour Dilbit, Peace River Heavy, Seal Heavy Blend, Statoil Cheecham Blend, Wabasca Heavy Blend, Western Canada Select, . All the sites on the map are producing tar sands bitumen. In some areas it is strip mined and in others it is extracted by steam. Let me be clear, it is DILBIT, diluted bitumen from Alberta Canada's tar sands ecocide. It's the dirtiest crude in the world, full of muck, sand and extra chemicals. The exact formulae are proprietary secrets but you can find a list of what might be in it here: under Heavy Sour Dilbit."
Calculation of the Hourly Pumping Rate, Keystone XL Pipeline, for Spill Planning Discussion—by LakeSuperior: "In evaluating an upper bound on the potential spill volumetric rate estimation for the Keystone XL Pipeline the first item of necessary consideration is the nominal hourly pumping rate that would be a maximum amount of potential spillage per hour while pipeline pumping operations continued after commencement of a spill until the time the pumping ceased."
NOKXL: The Ill-Logic of Keystone XL—by Kelly Rigg: "So how urgent is it that we take action? Why does one more pipeline really matter? After all, we’re talking about 4° by the end of the century – seems like a long time off. Unfortunately, due to the long lag time in the climate system, it is what we do right now that will determine whether we stay under the 2° limit or not. According to the International Energy Agency, within five short years we will have locked in all the emissions to take us to 2°. What they mean is that when you build a new coal-fired power plant with a 60 year lifespan, or invest billions of dollars to pump tar sands out of Canada, you need to calculate the CO2 which will be emitted over the full lifetime of the installation."
Watch it Now! Fantastic Live Hearing Opposing Keystone XL Pipeline from Nebraska—by JekyllnHyde: "This is what real democracy looks like, not some cooked-up version sponsored by lobbyists, fake grassroots groups, and Big Oil. Citizens from all walks of life - environmental activists, Native American leaders, farmers, religious leaders, and average members of the local community - are petitioning their government to do something in their own interests. It is quite uplifting to know that there are many people in the country whose lives are not primarily motivated by unlimited greed and obscene profits. How quaint an idea!"
Live Right Now! Strategy Debate on the fight over the KXL Tar Sands Pipeline from DC—by beach babe in fl: "On Feb. 17, more than 40,000 people rallied in Washington, D.C., to convince the president to reject the Keystone XL, a proposed 875-mile pipeline running from the Canadian border into Nebraska and slated to transport oil from tar sands (which is 17 percent more greenhouse-gas intensive than standard crude oil). The crowds outside the White House provided overwhelming proof that opposing Keystone has mobilized a new and powerful grassroots constituency. But in the U.S. Senate, the mood was different. In a non-binding vote, 62 senators — including 17 pro-Keystone Democrats — voted to approve the pipeline. Just 37 senators voted against it. So are activists’ efforts all in vain? What will happen to the environmental movement if President Obama ultimately lets Keystone go forward?"
Keystone XL Pipeline Hearing, April 18th—by Bateach: "To get into the hearing, metal detectors, purse search, cameras on (No video or computers allowed). Having never been to a national hearing, we kept on moving in the L O N G line.With about 1,000 people attending it was a long wait to get into the hearing. Some people had already began to speak when we entered. We did get seats and began to listen to the speakers statements. Whenever someone spoke against the pipeline, "Pipeline Fighters" would stand in support. When the opposition spoke, the black arm bands were held above people's heads. Very peaceful, non verbal disagreement. Very few "smart" remarks were made, as all wanted to hear what was said. It was an orderly event, because the people attending, made it that way."
Nebraska Hearing: Pipeline Fighters Dominated—by janefleming: "The final tally at the State Department hearing showed one thing loud and clear, folks from Nebraska and all over our great country want President Obama to deny the Keystone XL permit.
• Over 1,000 total attended the hearing.
• The crowd was easily 80% against the risky export pipeline.
• Pro-Pipeline: 26 total testified with 24 having direct ties to TransCanada, LIUNA, Chamber of Commerce or the oil industry
.
• Anti-Pipeline: over 200 speakers from across the country including landowners, moms, young people, retired grandparents, small business owners, teachers, priests, tribal leaders, farmers and ranchers."
#NoKXL: The Future Is In Our Hands; Say No To The XL Pipeline Disaster—by beach babe in fl: "The New York Times makes it's opinion known: Mainstream scientists are virtually unanimous in stating that the one sure way to avert the worst consequences of climate change is to decarbonize the world economy by finding cleaner sources of energy while leaving more fossil fuels in the ground. Given its carbon content, tar sands oil should be among the first fossil fuels we decide to leave alone. In their avarice and greed for money the fossil fuel industry is risking the health and safety of the species that inhabit our planet including our own. There are few restrictions on their activity."
#NoKXL — The Pipeline To Oblivion: Memes From The Climate Letter Project—by WarrenS: "The Climate Letter Project is now in its fourth year of daily letters to the editor, and if you exclude "idiotic Republican denialists," there's probably no single topic which has triggered more LTEs than the Keystone XL pipeline. Since Transcanada's pipeline project first reared its ugly head some years ago, it's provided me with fodder for indignant 150-word outbursts to print media outlets all over North America. Many have seen print, but far more have languished in editorial file-and-forget folders. That's okay; writing letters is what I do."
#NOKXL - A Dispatch From The Committee To End The Future—by joe shikspack: "To cut to the chase, though, the reason for this communication is to warn our fellow inhabitants away from a very dangerous movement that could potentially disrupt our game and cause something of an annoying reset just as we are getting close to declaring a winner. We have discovered to our dismay that a small but noisy group of citizen activists wish to rein in the emission of carbon and methane which are essential to both our economy and completion of the Game."
President Obama Must Say 'No!' to the Keystone XL Pipeline—by julesrules39: "Saying "NO" to the pipeline is sending a message to the world that the US is committed to solving the problem of global warming. How can we expect any other country to do more than we are willing to do ourselves?"
NOKXL: Guess What's NOT in POTUS Budget Rhymes with Shnipeline—by ericlewis0: "The GOP is trying to get Congress to force the administration to approve the pipeline. [...] So we need to sway vacillating Democratic congress members and, if we're lucky, a few Republican ones to our side. And we need to make it crystal clear to the President that KXL approval is an unacceptable concession to the GOP. Also, if the chained CPI flap doodle is any guide, a budget's inclusion or omission is not necessarily reflective of what authors of said budget want implemented. I strongly believe that the President wants, nay needs us to "make him" prevent the construction of the KXL pipeline."
Collision With Reality—by James Wells: "So when people raise concerns about KXL, the message exists on two levels simultaneously. On one level, we’re pointing to the facts of the specific matter, such as the considerable risk of spills from extraction operations, the pipelines, or downstream processing and shipping. On another level, the really important message is: “Don’t Trust the Glossies!” This draws our attention directly to the ugly seam between what big carbon promotes, and how these extractive industries actually work. We’ve heard it all before: Don’t you worry your pretty little head. Never mind Exxon Valdez and other spills. Air pollution or global warming? Meh — it’s not our concern what happens farther downstream."
Keystone East: Doubling down? Or admitting KXL defeat?—by Roger Fox: "Do not mistake the Tar Sands Partners for political neophytes, they are politically savvy and from all appearances are planning for all contingencies. They are conducting a 3 front campaign to deliver tar sands oil to the Pacific, the Atlantic, and to the Gulf coast. From there supertankers will take to oil to markets in Western Europe and Asia. Remember that at $10 a gallon, a worker is Asia can afford to spend $20 to fill the tank of a scooter to drive to work for the week. Our suburban sprawl makes that impossible for many Americans."
The Tar Sludge Deadzone—by veritas curat: "Once again, Very Serious People, will tut-tut about hyperbolic phrases like "nasty and brutal collapse" and work hard at discrediting the silly screeching of dirty hippies about the unanimous conclusions of atmospheric scientists regarding the catastrophic consequences of burning fossil fuels. Such burning is inevitable they say. If the pipeline is blocked the tar will be transported to market and burned by other means. There is too much money buried beneath those magnificently beautiful boreal forests for them to be left untouched and unravaged. And that's how it works. Concern for such non-monetary values like "beauty" or "wilderness" is discredited as the silly natterings of people who don't understand the economic necessities of running large, powerful societies - or corporations."
Keystone XL: Wildlife in the Crosshairs—by Target Global Warming: "The Keystone XL pipeline is a veritable grab-bag of controversial issues, but with so much debate over energy security, jobs, and politics, the most urgent problems of tar sands development are put on the back burner. For those of us who work on wildlife issues, however, the crisis couldn’t be clearer: Wildlife from Canada to the Gulf coast of Texas and beyond face a true calamity if Keystone XL is built."
Oglala Sioux Tribe renews vow to stop XL Pipeline—by Bateach: "The details are listed on The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council's action to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would cross the Rural Mni Wiconi Water pipeline, which supplies water to tribal lands and seven non-indian counties in South Dakota."
Oops, Inc.: Firm with History of Cover-Ups Hired to Clean Up Arkansas Tar Sands Spill—by Steve Horn: "Arkansas' Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has contracted out the "independent analysis of the cleanup" of the ExxonMobil Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill to Witt O'Brien's, a firm with a history of oil spill cover-ups, a DeSmogBlog investigation reveals. At his April 10 press conference about the Mayflower spill response, AG McDaniel confirmed that Exxon had turned over 12,500 pages of documents to his office resulting from a subpoena related to Exxon's response to the March 29 Pegasus disaster. A 22-foot gash in the 65-year-old pipeline spewed over 500,000 gallons of tar sands dilbit through the streets of Mayflower, AR."
Pollution, Toxins & Regulation &
Toxins, Fracking and Our Children—by jimstaro: "Thought I'd share this Bill Moyers and Company show from last night. As I'm sure most, if not all, were riveted to the many other channels, especially news, as to the quickly developing issues in Watertown MA and the Boston Marathon Bombing watching a PBS show, even if a regular viewer, probably was off the minds radar. Doubt if many are thinking of streaming the show today also. In my mind this is one that many should view: Full Show: The Toxic Assault on Our Children.