WPA Bridge in Whatcom Falls Park in Washington State. See RonK's post
here.
Many environmentally related posts appearing at Daily Kos each week don't attract the attention they deserve. To help get more eyeballs, Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The most recent Wednesday Spotlight can be seen here. So far, more than 19,950 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this weekly collection since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
Because of the small number of eco-diaries in the past few days, the categories have been removed for this edition of the Spotlight.
New Study : Fracking Is Poisoning The Air We Breathe, Too.—by
Dartagnan: "
Dirk DeTurck had a years-old rash that wouldn't go away, his wife's hair came out in chunks, and anytime they lingered outside their house for more than an hour, splitting headaches set in. They were certain the cause was simply breathing the air in Greenbrier, Arkansas, the rural community to which they'd retired a decade ago. They blamed the gas wells around them. But state officials didn't investigate. Of course they 'didn't investigate.' Thanks to the Republican-dominated majority of the United States Supreme Court, any state or local elected official who finds him or herself standing between oil, shale extraction and mining companies and their outsized profits is now simply drummed out office by smearing attack ads financed by millions in untraceable, 'dark money.' For local politicians and state governments, thwarting these companies with rude and unsettling 'investigations' into their practices is tantamount to painting a large red bulls-eye on your back. And for those officials in charge of state agencies, issues of public health and safety tend to rapidly fade in importance in an environment where billionaires can destroy political careers and livelihoods with a few clicks on their mousepads."
The Hudson River Time Bomb - Looking Even Worse—by
xaxnar: "It may be my imagination, but it seems to me I'm not hearing anything this campaign season about infrastructure. You know, keeping the country from literally falling apart? Paul Krugman asked why we no longer invest in the country; Charles P. Pierce took note of another example of completely avoidable waste. There was a rare story of something getting done—but bradams found that trying to tell people the truth about it was too controversial. Too many Democrats have bought into the GOP framing that all government spending is bad/a waste/gets screwed up (except for wars—can't get enough of them.) [...] So things fall apart, the centre can not hold. No one dares talk about the critical need to invest in this country once more, to repair, renew and reimagine the vast shared commonwealth that is being run into the ground, privatized, and otherwise strip-mined like a corporation in a hostile takeover."
IPCC is conservative, not alarmist—by
ClimateDenierRoundup: "In his new position at the Washington Post, Chris Mooney has a great new piece about the scientific consensus represented by the IPCC. Using a new study, and older ones, Mooney lays out the peer-reviewed case for why and how the IPCC sometimes underplays the risks of climate change. The IPCC is conservative for a number of reasons, but Mooney narrows in on sea level rise as an example. In describing the worst case scenario for sea level rise, Mooney shows how the IPCC focuses on what will be the "likely" range. This ignores the 17% chance that it could be much worse, meaning the actual worst case scenario is even worse than the high end of the given range, which is 2.69 feet. Further, the 2.69 figure is JUST the mean increase expected between 2081-2100. The actual amount, not the one reported on by media, of sea level rise by 2100 is 3.22 feet. Continuing, the IPCC's estimate only takes into account a type of model run, and not expert opinion. One study (.pdf) taking into account expert analysis of different model projections shows an even higher worst case of 3.93 feet! So while deniers will rant and rave about the alarmist IPCC, the peer-reviewed literature actually suggests the opposite: that if anything, the risks of climate change could be greater than what the IPCC overtly describes."
You can find more rescued green diaries below the orange garden layout.
Global Warming: We are the 99.99%—by Mokurai: "It isn't 97% any more. Everybody quotes that one number from a few years ago on the scientific consensus on Global Warming. But a more recent study found one (1) paper by one (1) author rejecting Global Warming in 2013. [...] There is no way out. No Infinite Improbability Drive-powered spaceship is going to unaccountably turn up and scoop the Deniers out of this one at an improbability level of 2 to the power of James Hansen's telephone number in order to make the infinite improbability calculations complete. But it's OK. They can deny that, too, as I described in Grokking Republicans: Cognitive Dissonance, discussing the UFO cult in the book When Prophecy Fails."
Bill Gates, Big Coal and Bjorn—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Graham Readfearn at DeSmogBlog has a great new piece dealing with the Gates Foundation's recent embrace of contrarian Bjorn Lomborg. (Though Graham did somehow neglect to mention that Lomborg gets paid $775k a year to run his Copenhagen Consensus Center out of a shipping center in a run-down looking part of Massachusetts). In his piece, Graham explains how Lomborg misrepresents the problem of indoor air pollution in a video that Gates featured in his 'GatesNotes' blog. Lomborg says indoor air pollution is a big killer (it is) and claims that using more fossil fuels, which would allow more people to have access to electricity, is the solution. What he neglects to mention is that a fossil fuel (coal) is a big part of that indoor air pollution problem! Readfearn goes on to explain how Lomborg's schtick—that we shouldn't worry about climate and should instead focus on energy poverty—is one developed by Burson-Marsteller, the PR giant, on behalf of coal giant Peabody Energy. In fact, Lomborg will be appearing at a Peabody event just days before the G20 summit, likely to deliver Peabody's message that the poor need coal."
'I am not a scientist' is shorthand for 'David Koch doesn't want me to answer that'—by Hunter: "A good New York Times read on what Republicans get from their curious new climate-denier talking point 'I am not a scientist.' Short answer, they get to run away from the question. Jon A. Krosnick, who conducts polls on public attitudes on climate change at Stanford, finds the phrase perplexing. 'What’s odd about this "I’m not a scientist" line is that there’s nothing in the data we’ve seen to suggest that this helps a candidate,' Mr. Krosnick said. 'We can’t find a single state where the majority of voters are skeptical. To say, "I’m not a scientist" is like saying, "I’m not a parakeet." Everyone knows that it just means, "I’m not going to talk about this." That problem, you see, is that it's no longer credible to deny that climate change is happening—voters don't buy it. But acknowledging that it is real would quickly end the campaign dreams of any Koch-affiliated Republican who tried."
Bárðarbunga: "Capital of the North" Hits 4000 µg/m³; Hospital Forced To Shut Off Ventillation—by Rei: "Happy Halloween to you all. Up here, trick-or-treating doesn't generally exist; the holiday is mainly just used as an excuse for teenagers and young adults to throw costume parties. ;) But nature is certainly trying to help with the ambiance. In the interest of avoiding treating random field reports as definite fact, when we got a report of increasing gas emissions at the vent, I didn't treat what seemed like increasing number of pollution events to it. When we got the superspike in Höfn the other day, I mentioned the report only in passing. But it just keeps getting harder not to believe that there hasn't actually been an increase in emissions—or at least something, be it weather patterns or whatnot, which is making the pollution problem worse. It even visibly even looks worse, like it's gearing up for Halloween."
Fukushima Causes Another Shake-Up at the NRC—by Joieau: "On March 11 of 2011 the Great Tohoku Earthquake [9.0] occurred off the coast of northeastern Japan, and caused a 40-meter tidal wave that inundated the coastal areas killing as many as 20,000 people and wiping entire villages off the map. The wave also overtopped the known to be inadequate seawall enclosing the Pacific Ocean 'harbor' at the 6-reactor Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station, destroying the emergency diesel generators that had kicked in when the quake caused the grid to crash. These were powering the residual heat removal systems in oceanfront units 1, 2 and 3. All of which had been operating at or near 100% power when the quake occurred. The resulting triple meltdowns, melt-throughs and subsequent exploding reactor buildings at those three units and the #4 reactor building caused the world's worst nuclear disaster (so far), still ongoing more than three and a half years later."
The country has greater renewable energy potential than the Clean Power Plan demands—by katedeangelis: "The United States and the rest of the world must move quickly toward an energy system based on clean renewables. Only a rapid and coordinated system shift will avert the worst impacts of climate disruption. This transition requires countries to invest in renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar, and to build corresponding infrastructure. Continued reliance on dirty fossil fuels like natural gas and coal will result in further investment in the current infrastructure, locking in our dependence on these fuels for decades to come. The Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed carbon pollution standards for existing power plants that could provide an important opportunity to encourage states to increase their reliance on renewable energy. Unfortunately, in calculating the state targets, the EPA assumes that states will only grow their renewable energy capacity at around the rate of their neighbors as mandated by their current renewable energy policies. Therefore, for those regions where states have taken little to no action, the EPA’s projections for their renewable energy were incredibly low."
Denton Texas is a study in fracking's big business trying to buy and then extort—by Walter Einenkel: "This coming Tuesday the citizens of Denton, Texas, will have a chance to decide whether or not to ban fracking within their city's limits. But with big money to be made there are big money interests trying to fight the ban: As election day approaches, it appears outside entities are funneling more and more money into the race. Close to $80,000 has gone to the 'Pass the Ban' committee, with more than half of that coming from the Washington D.C.-based environmental group Earthworks. The figure pales in comparison to what oil and gas companies have donated for efforts opposing the ban. [...] Obviously, this in and of itself is not news. Big money gets thrown around all of the time when big business feels threatened. What's interesting to break down here is that where in many cases there are real job opportunities being held out to communities affected by fracking, real money for the town or city, the fact of the matter is that Dentonites DON'T NEED fracking."
The Daily Bucket--The Last Pear—by 6412093: "For a decade, we've harvested Bartlett pears from a tree in our back yard. It stands about eight feet tall and its umbrella shape sometimes yields over 10 pears a day during the hottest summer days. We recently removed a hedge of 30-foot-tall arborvitae, which had hemmed in a different pear tree; a Comice. The Comice's elongated, spindly tall shape diverted so far from the pear tree's classic umbrella-shape, that a professional arborist mistook it for an Ash tree. He became angry when I pointed our his error. We were happy to have a new pear supply. And the Comices began falling, practically when the Bartlett tree stopping providing pears, for a seamless transition."
Spooky Pumpkins hidden in the yard—by
VL Baker: "Halloween has never been my favorite holiday because (don't hate me!) I don't like candy. Even as a kid I would give away the contents of my trick or treat basket (except for the Chocolate Bars!). But this time of year does usher in some finally cool weather in Florida and a welcome change in my cooking. I look forward to the winter squashes, especially pumpkin, cranberries and the first local oranges in my market. Today I'm going to share some recipes for your left-over jack-O-lanterns. You can also subsitute butternut or acorn squash for pumpkin in any of these recipes. [...] PUMPKIN RISOTTO
1/2 cup extra virgin Olive Oil
1 small Red Onion (diced)
1 Sugar Pie Pumpkin (carved, seeds separated, meat diced, shell and lid reserved)
1 ½ cups Arborio Rice
1/2 cup dry Marsala or white Wine
8 cups vegetable Stock (boiling)
4 TB unsalted Butter (I use Earth Balance)
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese or use vegan cheese
Handful of Fresh Sage (shredded)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)"
Driving Ass-forward - Commuting Efficiently - (Part 2)—by John Crapper: "October 31, 2012: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would restrict car traffic coming into Manhattan to vehicles carrying three or more passengers until Friday in an attempt to cut down on congestion in the city. If this kind of action can be taken during times of emergency it might be time to consider the same for day to day commuting. It might be time to jump out of the box in our thinking. Ever notice the number of cars on the road every morning and afternoon going to and from work with only 1 person in them? It's a shitload. With gas prices where they are these days it just might be time to reevaluate how we get to work. It might be time to look at things a little differently."
"Win Ugly or Lose Pretty" says Oil Lobbyist in Secret Recording—by murrayewv: "Richard Berman is advocating oil and gas companies fight an 'endless war' against environmentalists like Greenpeace and Sierra Club. He is promoting a campaign called "Big Green Radicals" to accuse those opposed to fracking as liars. The campaign is currently running in places like Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York. (I expect I will be seeing it soon in West Virginia, except people here are selling out to fracking so fast it would make your head spin. West Virginia is a cheap energy data.) His advice is to do background research on environmentalists and trivialize them where possible, accuse them of being radicals opposed to progress and hypocrites. [...] Sure. Take your oil company millions and make ads to make it look like my measly few bucks to West Virginia Rivers Coalition or Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Coal Mountain Watch look like I am a 'radical.' Or radicalization like joining grassroots movements like Occupy the Hollers and Kanawha Forrest Coalition, so small and grassroots they are just Facebook pages and blogs and small fundraising sites via social entrepreneurship. Richard Berman is striking a blow at me personally when he tries to demonize the environmental movement- me and millions like me who support environmental groups."
Richard Berman and the Oil Industry Lobby's 47% Tape—by joedemocrat: "On June 25, 2014 Richard Berman gave a presentation to oil industry executives entitled 'Big Green Radicals: Exposing Environmental Groups.' In this presentation, Mr. Berman talked about an 'endless war' against environmentalists and detailed his 'war plan' to discredit the environmental movement. A transcript of the presentation can be found here. What Mr. Berman did not know is an executive in the audience was so disgusted by the presentation he secretly recorded it and turned the tape over to The New York Times. An audio tape of the presentation can be found here. And The New York Times recently published an article about it, Hard-Nosed Advice From Veteran Lobbyist: ‘Win Ugly or Lose Pretty,’ highlighting the fossil fuel industry's new public relations campaign called 'Big Green Radicals' designed to discredit environmentalists."
Only way to get solar in the sunshine state: get rid of Rick Scott—by VL Baker: "In the sunshine state residents have had to turn to pitchforks to demand a sustainable energy future. In St. Petersburg, Florida yesterday crowds turned out to protest Duke energy's obstruction to solar energy and for charging customers for a nuclear energy plant which will not be built. This is what happens when a state is in total republican control; there is non- existent utility regulation and the utility monopolies do whatever helps their bottom line regardless of the impact on the states environment. When you're a monopoly you don't have to listen to your customers because they have nowhere else to go. [...] Rick Scott has been an obstruction to clean energy in Florida, and in fact, his campaign is being financed by those who will profit by keeping the energy status quo, including Duke Energy,which has given Scott's campaign 1.2 million dollars !. Whereas Charlie Crist had a strong pro-environmental record as governor and has a strong plan (pdf) to protect Florida's environment should he be elected."
Gas prices plummet. Where's the "Thanks, Obama,"?—by Lily O Lady: "In the senatorial and gubernatorial races in Georgia, some of the most 'damning' (if you are Republican) ads are those that link the candidates with President Obama. All the "charges" are either false or foolish, such as predictions of higher taxes even though the Obama Administration has overseen tax cuts There has always been a national debt, but according to the GOP, President Obama invented it. His "job killing regulations" are legendary. In other words, there is absolutely nothing the Obama Administration has done right. And yet, at gas pumps across the nation, prices have dropped to a three year low. President Obama had allowed 'drill, baby, drill' to remain part of his energy policy even while embracing alternative energy sources. And as a result of Obama's acceptance of Big Oil and Gas prices are falling at the pump, at least for now."
How John Leal Put Poison In Our Drinking Water--And Saved Us All—by Lenny Flank: "In 1899, a medical doctor named John L Leal, who worked as an inspector on the Board of Public Health in Paterson, New Jersey, quit his job with the city and went to work as a sanitary consultant for a privately-owned water company, the Jersey City Water Supply Company. Paterson did not have a sewer system, and its raw waste was being dumped into the Passaic River. The infant mortality rate was over 20%, caused mostly by diarrhea and cholera from contaminated drinking water. The JCWSC had just won a contract to develop a new clean water supply by damming the Rockaway River outside of town. [...] It was then that Dr Leal made a proposal to the company. Instead of building an expensive sewer system that would not solve the problem anyway, he proposed making the reservoir water safe by using a disinfectant to kill the bacteria in it. As a medical doctor, Leal knew that chlorine was extremely effective in killing germs (a fact he confirmed for himself with some experiments at home), and he was familiar with the tests that had been carried out in Germany and England. So he proposed adding a solution of dissolved calcium hypochlorite powder (which today we would call "bleach") to the city's water, at a concentration of around 0.3 parts per million, before it was pumped out for distribution. This was enough to kill all the germs, but too low a dosage to cause any human effects. And how would Leal get around the massive hysterical public opposition to the "poisonous water!" that this plan would surely bring? Simple—he wouldn't tell them."
Big Tobacco, Health Care Industry Team Up to Fund Prop. 1 Campaign—by Dan Bacher: "Tobacco giant Philip Morris and the robber barons from the health care and insurance industry have joined a rogue's gallery of corporate agribusiness interests, Big Oil and greedy billionaires in funding the campaign to pass Prop. 1, Governor Jerry Brown's water bond boondogle. The California Hospitals Committee on Issues, sponsored by California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems has contributed $500,000 to the Yes on Prop. 1 and 2 campaign, according to the California Fair Political Practices Commission website. Dignity Health has donated $250,000 to the campaign. The organization, a three-state hospital chain based in San Francisco has agreed to pay the government $37 million to settle claims that it overbilled Medicare and a military health care program for years, according to the San Francisco Chronicle."
Fracking Moratorium Measures Need Your Help!—by Dan Bacher: "The debate over the pros and cons of Prop. 1, Jerry Brown's $7.5 billion water bond, is very important, but an even bigger issue in any environmental battle or process is the money behind the campaign. The big corporate money behind the water bond largely determines who the bond will benefit - billionaires, corporate agribusiness, oil companies and the 1 percent, not the people, fish or wildlife of California. Contributions to Governor Jerry Brown's Yes on Props 1 and 2 Committee have jumped to $13,880,528.43, according to the latest data posted on the California Secretary of State's website. The contributions feature millions of dollars from billionaires, corporate agribusiness, Big Oil and and the tobacco industry—corporate interests that all expect a big return for their 'investment' in the corrupt 'play to pay' politics that rule California today."
The Daily Bucket - Parallel Lines—by Milly Watt: "Fog + spiders + spaces to build spider webs between these parallel lines = a Fall geometry lesson."
The Daily Bucket - an octopus fights back—by
OceanDiver: "Mr O who is driving says Look over there! I turn quickly from the gulls I'm watching, see a flash of pink and a Harbor Seal. We thought in the moment maybe it had caught a salmon? I took a few pics as we passed (try not to be intrusive with wildlife, keep a respectful distance) and it's when I looked at the pics later I realized what an extraordinary event had been going down. Never seen anything like it...if any of you Gentle Readers out there has had experience with these creatures, I'd really love to hear your story. [...] That's an octopus! We are looking at one of the eight arms of a Giant Pacific Octopus (known to local scuba divers as a GPO, and to science as Enteroctopus dofleini). It's a pretty big one, judging from the size of the arm and the pink all around the seal underwater."
An October walk through Whatcom Falls Park—by RonK: "An overcast October day seemed like a great time to take a hike though Whatcom Falls Park (Bellingham WA) to get some pics of Whatcom Creek and the turning foliage. The city park has been around for over 100 years but some of the infrastructure was built during the depression era (WPA). The creek drains from Lake Whatcom and runs about 3 miles into Bellingham Bay. The drop of about 400 feet from the lake to the bay enables a number of picturesque waterfalls both within and outside of the park itself. At the head is a pond called Derby Pond , specifically designed for youngsters’ fishing in the spring – no adults allowed to fish. The park also houses a fish hatchery with Rainbow Trout as big as small salmon. On the Creek’s course to the bay, it runs through Whatcom Falls Park, an industrial area, then through town, and over a final waterfall into Marine Heritage Park where there is a salmon hatchery. Along the creek are popular and well used walking, running, and biking trails that meander through cedar, fir, vine and big leaf maple trees."
Nature Conservancy contributes $500,000 to Yes on Prop. 1 campaign—by Dan Bacher: "The Nature Conservancy, one of the largest recipients of Walton Family Foundation money every year, has joined Big Oil, corporate agribusiness, the health insurance industry, tobacco giant Philip Morris and greedy billionaires in dumping big money into the Yes on Proposition 1 campaign. Opponents of Prop. 1, Governor Jerry Brown's State Water Bond, responded to the $500,000 political contribution to Prop. 1 from The Nature Conservancy by calling it 'disturbing.' Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said, 'Donors to Prop. 1 want this water bond to pass so that they can get something from it: short-term jobs building dams that will be created with public tax dollars, land to manage bought with public funds, and taxpayer-subsidized water to grow permanent crops on unsuitable land.'"