Many of the dozens of environmentally related posts that appear at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. So, more than seven years ago, a new feature was launched to highlight those diaries. Initially called Eco-Diary Rescue, the name was changed to Green Diary Rescue after a couple of years. Now, after nearly 17,000 green diaries have been rescued, the name is changing again. From now on, because of the growing number of diaries being posted at the site, Spotlight on Green News & Views will appear twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Wednesday's spotlight is
here. As has all along been true, inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
U.S. Solar Capacity up 418% Since 2010, Koch Bros Demand Tax on Sun—by
FishOutofWater: "U.S. Solar electric capacity has expanded explosively - 418% - from 2326 megawatts in 2010 to 12,057 MW in February 2014, an increase of 9,731 MW reports the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Solar has moved rapidly from a niche market to 1.13% of total U.S. capacity. To stop the rapid growth of solar, which is threatening to break Americans from the death grip of fossil fuels, the Koch Brothers are demanding to tax the sun. The rapid decline in the cost of solar panels and state and federal incentives have spurred investment in solar power at all scales from individuals to small businesses to large utilities. Net metering, which allows users to reverse their power meter when they produce more power than they consume, has incentivized rooftop solar. Moreover, states from Hawaii to South Carolina have developed programs to make the installation costs affordable to average consumers. Forbes reported in July 2013 on how Gov. Neil Abercrombie and Hawaii's Democrats made solar accessible to renters. This is exactly the kind of legislation I advocated a decade earlier when I ran for a position on the board of Kauai's electric power co-op. It's great to see seeds planted finally coming up and bearing fruit."
Reject = Protect—by
Michael Brune: "On the day that President Obama finally rejects the Keystone XL pipeline, the connection between tar sands development and climate disruption should be only one of the reasons (although it's certainly reason enough). For someone like Obama, whose first real job was as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago, the effect of the pipeline and its toxic payload on the people and communities in its path will surely also be a factor. This week, the president will hear the voices of those people loud and clear, thanks to the Reject and Protect encampment and march on the National Mall. Reject and Protect is being led by the "Cowboy Indian Alliance"—a group of ranchers, farmers, and tribal communities from along the pipeline's route. I visited them this week and was both impressed by their determination and moved by how they placed this fight in the greater context of environmental injustice."
New York Times Joins the Bumbling Keystone XL Cops—by
ClimateBrad: "In a New York Times Earth Day story, the usually excellent Coral Davenport grossly misrepresents the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline’s true impact on global warming, and questions the wisdom of pipeline opponents like the activists now encamped on the National Mall. The pipeline is intended to ship upwards of 830,000 barrels of tar-sands crude a day for a 40-year lifespan. The pipeline will add 120-200 million tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent to the atmosphere annually, with a lifetime footprint of 6 to 8 billion tons CO2e. That’s as much greenhouse pollution as 40 to 50 average U.S. coal-fired power plants. Furthermore the Keystone XL pipeline is recognized by the tar-sands industry as a key spigot for the future development of the Alberta tar sands, which would emit 840 billion tons CO2e if fully exploited."
Beyond Coal – Thinking About Progress Worldwide—by
John Crapper: "Coal companies, seeing little future growth domestically, have a new plan: strip-mine coal in Montana and Wyoming, transport it on long coal trains and massive cargo ships through Washington and Oregon, and sell it to Asia. Coal Train Facts does a great job of describing what has happened, what is planned and what the impacts will be for all parties impacted by this proposal. Here are some important excerpts from the site. [...] Remember that saying “Think globally – Act locally.” When thinking of coal that is exactly what we need to do. We might be making some progress locally in this country but when you broaden out your thinking and think about the issue from a global perspective it is hard to use the word 'progress' to describe what is currently happening. It is just a little ass-backwards."
You can find more rescued green diaries below the sustainable squiggle.
Climate Chaos
Disney Star Goes Political in Funny but Disturbing Music Video Parody about Climate Change—by kleb28: "In an effort to ignite awareness of climate change, Lucas Grabeel (High School Musical) and Mitchell Klebanoff (Beverly Hills Ninja) produced their latest music video parody, DROWN THE ALARM; a take-off on Nicki Minaj's POUND THE ALARM. Lucas Grabeel plays an oil executive in denial about climate change. The background inspiration was 350.org's DO THE MATH campaign and the problem that Oil Companies hold in reserve 5X the oil that scientists believe will wreak havoc on the planet."
China's air pollution leading to more erratic climate for U.S. says scientists reports Guardian—by HoundDog: "Jonathan Kaiman, writing from Beijing for the Guardian in China's air pollution leading to more erratic climate for US, say scientists, describes research published Monday the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. China's air pollution could be intensifying storms over the Pacific Ocean and altering weather patterns in North America, according to scientists in the US. A team from Texas, California and Washington state has found that pollution from Asia, much of it arising in China, is leading to more intense cyclones, increased precipitation and more warm air in the mid-Pacific moving towards the north pole. [...] Kaiman tells us 71 of 74 cities monitored by China's central government filed to meet it air quality standards. Chinese leaders say they aware of the problem and are raising the priority of environmental legislation and planning give their environmental authorities the power to shut down factories and punish officials responsible for pollution."
Averting planetary disaster means forcing fossil fuel companies to forego $10 trillion in wealth—by HoundDog: "If you already have a gloomy, depressed, and perhaps even a hopeless feeling about humankind's prospects of weaning ourselves from the dangerous carbon dioxide emitting fossil fuels quickly enough to avoid the 2 degree centigrade increase in temperature by 2050 that global warming scientist tell us is vital to avoid disaster, this article by Christopher Hayes, in The Nation is not going to make you feel better. In this five-page-long, dense essay, 'The New Abolitionism': Averting planetary disaster will mean forcing fossil fuel companies to give up at least $10 trillion in wealth, To put the magnitude of the challenge we face of trying to gain control of global warming and avoid planetary disaster Chris Hayes draws the comparison of the value of slaves to the old south and the value of oil and coal to fossil fuels companies which will not be burned if we follow the recommendations of global warming scientist and cut back on burning fossil fuels. Both, have a modern day equivalent of about 16% of total household wealth, or $10 trillion in modern day dollars."
Climate change denialism is a tribal marker for old white Republican males—by thereisnospoon: "Gallup is out with a new poll on climate change. It turns out that while climate denialism spiked in 2010, acceptance of climate science has increased such that only 1 in 4 Americans are climate deniers today. That's still far too high a number, of course, but more interesting is the demographic skew of the denialist rump. [...] The only compelling motivator for public opinion on climate science is partisanship. Simply put, the Republican Party has multiple compelling interests in denying the reality of climate change. If climate change is real, it's almost certainly a problem that requires preventative global governmental intervention rather than post facto free market corrections. Acting on climate change would also directly impact the bottom lines of traditionally Republican fossil fuel economy donors. They stand to lose a lot of money."
Snow Doesn't Disprove Global Warming—by PsychoSuperMom: "You'd think climate-change-deniers would reconsider their stance - if the evidence, or the overwhelming consensus by scientists didn't convince them, isn't it embarrassing enough to be on the same side as Donald Trump? But logic and reason aren't working. However, any good teacher knows that it's easier to get kids to learn when the lesson is set to music, from the alphabet to Schoolhouse Rock to 'Fifty Nifty' (a chirpy ear-worm of a song that has all 50 states in alphabetical order and comes in surprisingly handy for crossword puzzles). So here's a musical defense of basic facts, with climate-change-denial and 11 other rightwing myths debunked in under two minutes: 'Global Warming's Not A Theory, It's A Fact.'"
Food, Agriculture & Gardening
The Daily Bucket--Kos Bucketeer Indicted for Environmental Violations—by 6412093: "My house is on an extra-large corner lot west of Portland Oregon. I have room for gardening and landscaping. I've used strawberries in many locations for a ground cover because they fight for territory with their aggressive stringers. [...] This year, when it finally stopped raining for a few moments last weekend, I started on my latest project. I moved all the strawberries from under the apple tree and along the pond path to another existing elevated bed, murdered the quackgrass, and produced the space pictured below. It is begging me to fill it with fresh dirt and then transplant in the strawberries that are currently under the blueberries. In the following picture I wasn't quite finished digging up the Lamb's Ear (Stachys byzantina). Lambs' Ear is another good ground cover; it grows densely, so dense, in fact, that I doubted small critters could thrive underneath it. And that led to the following nightmare."
Big Hero takes on Big Agribusiness—by Agathena: "After Tyrone Hayes said that a chemical was harmful, its maker pursued him. Syngenta, one of the largest agribusinesses in the world, had asked Hayes to conduct experiments on the herbicide atrazine, which is applied to more than half the corn in the United States. Hayes was thirty-one, and he had already published twenty papers on the endocrinology of amphibians. [...] But, when Hayes discovered that atrazine might impede the sexual development of frogs, his dealings with Syngenta became strained, and, in November, 2000, he ended his relationship with the company. Hundreds of Syngenta’s memos, notes, and e-mails have been unsealed following the settlement, in 2012, of two class-action suits brought by twenty-three Midwestern cities and towns that accused Syngenta of 'concealing atrazine’s true dangerous nature' and contaminating their drinking water. Stephen Tillery, the lawyer who argued the cases, said, 'Tyrone’s work gave us the scientific basis for the lawsuit.' [...] For more information on how Syngenta tried to discredit Mr. Hayes, The New Yorker article tells us how they pursued him for 15 years. He fought back and he would not back down. At times he talked to them with street talk as if they were street punks and they were highly offended as they consider themselves 'the captains of industry.' The EPA in this case might be called the IPA, the Industry Protection Agency."
The Vermont Legislature leads the charge on GMO labeling says Brattleboro Vermont Reformer—by HoundDog: "Talia Mindich, of PBS, brings us the good news that Vermont to become first state to mandate GMO labeling, for food made with genetically modified organisms, starting July 1, 2016, despite opposition from the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin says he looks forward to signing it. [...] Bracing for a legal counter-attack from the national Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Vermont legislature has put aside $1.5 million in a legal fund. Crop plants are often genetically modified so that their roots are more resistant to insects, germs, or herbicides. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the Biotechnology Industry Organization reassure consumers that there is 'no material difference between food produced with genetic engineering and those without GMOs.'"
DIY: High Fructose Corn Syrup—by VL Baker: "What's really in high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and how dangerous is it to your health? While in the School of Art, Media and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design Maya Weinstein pulled back the curtain on the product more American than Apple Pie. She dissected the recipe for HFCS and created it on her own."
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 10.10—by Frankenoid: "After a week of beautiful weather (and I include the overnight rain mid-week as 'beautiful'), this weekend Denver is anticipating what could—nay, shall!—be the last blast of winter 2014. Which is good, as I'm running behind… again. The Mister's re-do of our garden shed stretched out to fill the week (and this weekend), so I don't have the wall-o-water's set up for the tender plants, and the kohlrabi and cauliflower are still in pots on the front porch, rather than in the ground of the veggie patch. But the shed will be great: the Mister picked up a set of cabinets at the Habitat Store, so now it will be at least possible to keep it more organized."
Energy
Solar Power - Even When The Sun Isn't Shining—by xaxnar: "This is a quick note about the Solana solar power plant, southwest of Phoenix, AZ. The largest of its kind in the world, it can supply power on a regular, reliable basis even when the sun isn't up. How? Abengoa is a Spanish company specializing in sustainable technologies. The use of molten salt to store heat energy from the sun addresses one of the shortcomings often used to dismiss wind and solar as a viable base load power source. With stored heat, the plant can smooth out solar fluctuations during the day, store power for use even after dark, and adapt output to changing demands during the day - all with zero carbon emissions. While the number of sites in the U.S. suitable for this kind of generating plant may be limited, it's one more example that serious alternatives to fossil fuels are already here and on-line."
Solar Power's 60th Birthday—by jimstaro: "And just think where we would be, cleaner healthier energy sources, if we had allowed the advancements in as we once had in many area's, envied by many on the rest of this planet. I have for years, as a construction multi trades professional who had helped install or been on sites where they were some forty years back, mostly residential who's owners had the systems working for years. Instead we allowed the same special interests, funding same today, to block that advancement as they also started the new capitalism, top enrichment, and shipped our innovative experienced trades offshore for huge bottom line profit growth, not for cheaper consumer products, with much lower labor costs, stagnated and falling wages here, and very little regulations. They now are rapidly advancing, in alternatives and more, after building up their economies the old fashioned way with fossil fuels."
Fracking
Case Study: 29,000 Jobs in Los Angeles.—by RLMiller: "Los Angeles County has become a fractivism hotbed. The City of Los Angeles has voted in favor of a fracking moratorium. The county has 87 additional cities, many of which are angry about the aggressive oil extraction technique. The city of Beverly Hills voted for a fracking ban on April 22. Not to be outdone, the small city of Carson enacted a complete ban on fracking on March 18, to expire May 2. It's considering extending the ban to cover a full year. The city has legitimate reasons to be concerned - a housing tract sitting atop an old oil tank farm declared a local emergency is only the most visible symbol of Big Oil coming to town. But oil-soaked businesses don't like the idea of a fracking ban. The Western States Petroleum Association commissioned a report claiming that the oil/gas industry in Los Angeles County supports 17,000 jobs directly in the oil extraction industry, and another 12,000 gas station jobs, reports the Los Angeles Times."
Vice President Joe Biden Promotes U.S. as Fracking Missionary Force On Ukraine Trip—by Steve Horn: "During his two-day visit this week to Kiev, Ukraine, Vice President Joe Biden unfurled President Barack Obama’s 'U.S.Crisis Support Package for Ukraine.' A key part of the package involves promoting the deployment of hydraulic fracturing ('fracking') in Ukraine. Dean Neu, professor of accounting at York University in Toronto, describes this phenomenon in his book 'Doing Missionary Work.' And in this case, it involves the U.S. acting as a modern-day missionary to spread the gospel of fracking to further its own interests."
Keystone and Other Fossil Fuel Transportation
Last Call to Join the NoKXL Reject and Protect Procession on the National Mall this Saturday.—by mimi: "Thanks to Kossack northerntier I got the following videos and information via email. Most of the material has been prepared and was collected in this format by the organizations "Idle No More" and "Bold Nebraska.org" in cooperation with other activist. Please visit their sites and if you can, contribute and donate to their cause. I am so happy to be able share it with you. May it incite your interest and arouse the wish to join the march on this Saturday, April 26th at the National Mall at 11 am in support of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline. This video I just saw this morning. It is so beautiful that I want to add it at the last minute. From Let's rally to send farmers, ranchers and tribal members to REJECT and PROTECT."
MSNBC/Rolling Stone: Obama to Say NO to Keystone XL Pipeline (Unconfirmed)—by ericlewis0: "…Although no final decision has been made, two high-level sources in the Obama administration told me recently that the president has all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline—a dramatic move that would light up Democratic voters and donors while further provoking the wrath of Big Oil. Finally, Obama is positioning the U.S. to play a key role in negotiations on a new global-climate treaty that will begin next year, establishing American leadership on climate issues and giving him one last chance to lead the world to a cooler future before he leaves the Oval Office…"
Eco-Related DC & State Politics
The Big Oil Dirty Dozen—by Dan Bacher: "California is a state where many powerful corporate interests are based, ranging from corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley to the computer and technology industry in the Silicon Valley, but none are more influential in state politics than the oil industry. Stop Fooling California recently revealed in a chart that the oil industry, including the Western States Petroleum Association, Chevron, BP and other oil companies, spent over $56.63 million on lobbying at the State Capitol in the five years from 2009 through 2013. This money is enough to spend $471,000 on each California Senator and Assemblymember, according to Stop Fooling California (http://www.stopfoolingca.org) "an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to mislead and confuse Californians."
Critters
The Daily Bucket - nesting excitement at the dock—by
OceanDiver: "Celebrating the annual return of the local Pelagic Cormorants to the Anacortes ferry dock for their communal nesting. Oh yeah! It's a scene, and I love seeing it every year. Here are some pics of what's happening right now, late April. The only time I can observe them is when I'm on a ferry that is docked for loading or unloading traffic. It's a very short window of time, just a few minutes, so I'm either craning over the side ready to leap into the car to drive off the ferry, or jumping out after we park to hustle up two flights of stairs and turn on the camera before the boat leaves the dock. But seeing this annual nesting event is often the high point of a trip off the island, so I hustle. Hope the sun isn't in my face and it isn't raining. Pelagic cormorants, strictly marine and only on the west coast of North America, are considered solitary even when nesting, but that is definitely not the case here at the ferry dock. The dolphins and wingwalls that guide ferries into the dock are filled with perfect nesting spots for this small cormorant, and birds congregate here in large numbers to take advantage of them. The surrounding waters are plenty fishy too, for growing babies. Not sure why these cormorants are named 'pelagic' since they live in nearshore waters, not out to sea."
Big Oil's threat to whales and dolphins—by Nathan Empsall SierraRise: "This is bad. As you probably know, whales and dolphins rely on their ears to find food. Even the smallest damage to their hearing can pose a grave threat to their survival. A deaf dolphin is a dead dolphin—but that hasn't stopped Big Oil from moving full speed ahead with plans to explore the Atlantic Ocean using seismic airguns! Their blasts will render these beautiful creatures deaf and helpless. If we let Big Oil get away with this, then over 100,000 dolphins and whales could die—including some of the world's last North Atlantic right whales."
The Daily Bucket - Desert Photos - B Side—by enhydra lutris: "Ana-Borrego Desert."
Hare and quail
Eco-Activism & Eco-Justice
"Working to Save the Amazon & Its Communities": Ecuador, Chevron, & The Yasuni-ITT Initiative, Pt. 2—by Randle Aubrey: "Even the most stalwart of proponents of corporate benevolence are occasionally forced to concede that no major multinational corporation is above a certain level of malfeasance, especially when it comes to the petroleum industry. The global demand for oil is so high that companies will go to disturbing lengths to obtain it, committing all manner of abuses while the general public largely turns a blind eye, easily swayed by multi-million dollar PR campaigns and the promise of cheap fuel for all. Nowhere in recent years has this been more apparent than in the nation of Ecuador, and few companies have committed more atrocities in the name of oil than industry titan Chevron has within Ecuador's borders, according to Flora Lu, professor of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz, Nestor Silva, a PhD Anthropology Student at Stanford University, and Pablo Fajardo, the now-famous Ecuadorian attorney who won a landmark class action lawsuit against Chevron in 2011."
National Parks & Other Public Lands
Tell Cliven Bundy to Stop Stealing My Land.—by kestrel sparhawk: "The coverage of Bundy has it all wrong. It’s not about the 'government' vs. the 'individual.' I’m an individual. And the property he’s using without compensation? It’s mine. I don’t hold with government bodies coming in and taking land from individuals. Yes, it was legal when the U.S. did it – they didn’t count the people who lived there in those days as 'people' – and I don’t hear Bundy complaining. After all, if they’d let the natives keep it, Bundy would have to pay THEM compensation. As a racist cheapskate, that wouldn’t be a choice he’d want to make. But until the next moodswing of history, the property is 'ours.' By which I mean, it belongs to my family – the United States of America. So it’s my land, honey. Mine and … well, yours too. But Bundy, though a family member, doesn’t like what the majority decided to do, which was to charge people who use it for private profit."
Expanding the National Park System #18-Louisiana—by MorrellWI1983: "This is the seventeenth diary in my "Expanding the National Parks" diary series. Last week, I was in Kansas, this week I'm in Kentucky. Kentucky has 5.4% of its land owned by the feds, good for 26th in the country. Currently, Kentucky has 1 national park, 2 national forests, 3 wildlife refuges, and 4 historic sites. I will be proposing the first monuments in the state."
Why Is Jamaica Selling Out Its Environment to a Blacklisted International Conglomerate?—by Pakalolo: "Tourism has long been the leading economic sector in Jamaica, bringing in half of all foreign revenue to support a quarter of all jobs. Yet government officials now risk jeopardizing that lucrative business, and Jamaica’s reputation in the international community, with a secretive deal to let a Chinese company build a mega-freighter seaport smack-dab in the nation’s largest natural protected area. The planned port would occupy the Goat Islands, in the heart of the Portland Bight Protected Area, which only last year the same government officials were petitioning UNESCO to designate a Global Biosphere Reserve. Instead, the lure of a $1.5 billion investment and a rumored 10,000 jobs has resulted in the deal with China Harbour Engineering Company, part of a conglomerate blacklisted by the World Bank under its Fraud and Corruption Sanctioning Policy."
Pollution, Hazardous Wastes & Trash
Duke president says removing toxic ash would cost $10 billion and take decades which is "too much"—by HoundDog: "In a galling an arrogant presentation Duke Energy president Paul Newton told North Carolina lawmakers that "removing all of the company's coal ash away from the state's rivers and lakes would take decades and cost up to $10 billion," nearly all of which would be paid for by electricity customers. Duke Energy to lawmakers: Moving toxic coal ash costs too much. [...] Duke energy is a Fortune 500 company whose profits last year were $2.7 billion. An alternative proposal for mismanaged and improperly disposed of coal ash which seems to have been going on at least since 1950, if not well before, from what I can gather, would be to garnish the next 4 years of profits. Duke Energy has made no compelling argument for why North Carolina's electric customers should have to bear the responsibility for whatever combination of incompetence or malfeasance was the root causes of this disaster."
BP Oil Spill: BP Pays PR Trolls to Threaten Online Critics—by Brian J Donovan: "In this video, Abby Martin speaks with investigative journalist Dahr Jamail, who has uncovered BP's online scheme to silence critics of their Gulf of Mexico clean-up, with methods such as bribery and death threats."
Transportation & Infrastructure
Scary and sad: There are 63,000 structurally deficient bridges in the U.S.—by Laura Clawson: "There are 63,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States. Let that sink in for a minute. Then ask yourself: How is this not seen as a national scandal? After all, even though 'structurally deficient' doesn't necessarily mean 'likely to collapse tomorrow,' we have seen some major bridge collapses in recent years, and 63,000 is a lot of bridges. Collectively, these bridges are crossed 250 million times a day. So again, why is this not something the government is aggressively working to fix? Oh, wait: With an ample boost in federal money, $100.2 billion was spent by governments on all levels in 2010 on capital improvements for the nation’s 604,493 bridges and 4.1 million miles of roads. [...] In the shorter term, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association suggests posting signs identifying bridges as structurally deficient. That's a great idea—want to bet politicians would get a lot more pressure on this issue if every time anyone crossed a structurally deficient bridge, they passed a sign labeling it as such?"
Eco-Philosophy & Eco-Essays
Climate Change: Thoreau Sets An Example for Citizen Scientists—by xaxnar: "Many people are familiar with Thoreau's Walden. What is less well known is the citizen science Thoreau carried out. Among other activities, he kept tables recording the annual flowering dates for more than 300 plants found in the vicinity. In doing so, he was following the example of numerous naturalists in an era when anyone with a keen eye for observation and the ability to keep good records could contribute to a growing understanding of the natural world; a degree in science was not a prerequisite. And those kinds of observations are no less vital today. Biology Professor Richard B. Primack of Boston University decided to move on from 21 years of studying tropical rain forests for work closer to home. The result is Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau's Woods. A review in New Scientist looks at how it unfolded."
Problem-Solving Or Fighting the Fight?—by richturc125: "Donald A. Brown of Widener University School of Law has done a masterful job of covering the issue of ethics and climate change. [...] When one’s primary interests in any endeavor and in any profession are not to maximize the good for the most but instead to maximize the most for the few, the rest of us are going to have some problems. It’s true in politics, business, energy supply, and climate … for starters. Citizens would be wise to make use of their own skills and opportunities to start learning a bit more about these matters of great public impact and influence. Two sides of the story can always be found. Whether they’re volunteered or not is another matter."
A Conversation with Irene Hardwicke Olivieri—by Marcia G Yerman: "Her concern for the environment and the future of the planet is acutely palpable. Climbing the giant has a plaintive sensibility as Olivieri asks in her wording, 'How can I paint about our beautiful and troubled world? How can I speak with my paintbrush? Help me in my simple way.' Yet by 'bearing witness,' Olivieri is painting about the environment 'as an antidote to the agony I feel about what is happening to it.' In Some kind of wilderness, the female figure embraces nature, while the background circular printing gives the names of new species that have been discovered in the past decade. Olivieri’s fascination with science overlaps her art in the series made with animal bones regurgitated and removed from owl pellets. Combined with porcupine quills and shells, at first glance they could be woodcuts. Olivieri calls them 'paleo mosaics.' The visually rich output of Olivieri brings to mind a profusion of influences and associations: The art of Mexico, the meditative qualities of Tibetan art, devotional art, and Persian miniatures. There is even a nod to the complex narratives of Hieronymus Bosch."