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) normally appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Wednesday Spotlight can be seen here. More than 22,860 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.
Financial Dominoes Fall for Coal as Divestment Trends Gather Steam—by
Mary Anne Hitt: "Fossil fuel divestment news filled my newsfeed over the past week, adding to a growing list of impressive divestment stories from the past year. Again and again, we see young people convincing their colleges to divest, activists convincing banks to divest, and shareholders convincing companies to divest. Financial dominoes just keep falling for the coal industry, which makes divesting from coal not just a smart move for the climate, but a prudent investment decision as well. SNL Energy just reported that the market value of publicly traded coal companies fell by 50 percent in less than a year."
Kinder Morgan Front Group Endorses Kinder Morgan Fracked Gas Pipeline—by
TheGreenMiles: "As John DiStaso reports for WMUR-TV, Kinder Morgan is launching a new ad campaign in New England to try to stamp out growing opposition to its fracked gas pipeline proposals: Fracking fluid wastes being discharged into interim storage pond. The Coalition to Lower Energy Costs has purchased time to air an ad 30 times over two weeks on the New Hampshire’s largest television station at a cost of more than $70,000. Anthony Buxton, a Maine-based attorney who is a leader of the coalition and also represents Kinder Morgan in a Maine Public Utilities Commission proceeding, said plans call for the ad to air for a total of about three weeks on WMUR. He said it will also air on another New Hampshire television station, as well as two Maine stations and 'several stations in Boston,' at a total cost of “several hundred thousand dollars.' The 'Coalition' is made up entirely of Kinder Morgan's big-money lobbyists and lawyers. Their plan is a thinly-veiled effort to scare New Englanders into building new fracked gas pipelines. It's blackmail—pay billions for our pipelines or we'll jack up your energy rates even higher!"
Heartland's Hit Parade of Love for Fossil Fuels—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Heartland is holding its annual Climate Conference, parading their reliable deniers, handing out the awards their sponsors bought and otherwise parading around their favorite myths and deniers. And lest you think that this bunch is above hypocrisy, think again. The Heartland crowd loves to cry ‘censorship,' but they had DeSmog's press credentials revoked and got security to throw them out. The denierpalooza was kicked off by Senator Snowball, who gave his spiel about the big bad UN coming to steal your freedom and pointed to God as an excuse for inaction (though someone with a little closer connection to the Big Man Upstairs has a slightly different view.) We won't bore you with the details, because if you're a reader you've heard all these arguments before. We doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that, while there are two rooms of speakers and seven different sessions, the conference has just been one long hit parade of love for fossil fuels. This isn’t unexpected, given that dark Koch or Exxon money is likely to be undergirding most, if not all of the organizations on their sponsor list."
You can find more excerpts from green diaries below the orange spill.
Climate Chaos
Soon-er or later, dark money gets exposed—by ClimateDenierRoundup: "Two interesting updates to ongoing stories came out this week, starting with a Guardian investigation into two of the biggest "Dark Money ATMs" of the climate denial movement, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. The two 'charities' sent around $125 million to various denial organizations over the span of just three years. By shielding donors from disclosure, the groups can operate as non-profit advertising firms, pushing industry messages without letting the public know who's behind the effort. On a similar note, the Climate Investigations Center released a report on their interactions with the journals in which Willie 'Prostituting Science' Soon published his 'eliverables' for coal giant Southern Company. They contacted the journals to clarify Soon's failure to disclose his financial incentive for publishing climate contrarianism, and found that it he appeared to have violated at least six conflict of interest policies (with the remaining journals lacking a disclosure policy to violate.) Rather humorously, a writeup in Science mentions that the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics stated that they don't have a disclosure requirement, because astronomy is 'sufficiently removed' from any sort of financial bias. That said, the editor there was shocked to hear that Soon claimed a paper that made 'no claim whatsoever of any relevance to climate" as a deliverable to Southern. He's quoted saying it "certainly does not reflect well on [Soon's] ethical standards'."
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
Critters & the Great Outdoors
The Daily Bucket: Frogs' Mitigation Area (FMA) Quarterly Report to FERC—by 6412093: "Here is my quarterly post-construction report to FERC (the Frog Environmental Regulatory Commission) regarding the suburban operation of .003 acres of created frog habitat, to mitigate at a 2:1 ratio for the clearing of .0015 acres of Lambs Ear wherein small frogs had previously sought shelter. Good Evening. I am the FERC hearings officer. Tonight's proceedings are for receipt of the Progress Report regarding the Frogs' Mitigation Area (FMA), and then I'll open it up for public comment. A few ground rules; please be courteous to other speakers, and each speaker is limited to 2 minutes. We'll begin with Redwood Man, the project proponent. Thank You, I am Redwood Man. Construction and initial operation of the FMA took place in June, 2014 so we have one year of data. The project included enlarging and deepening of a receiving pond to an-as-built dimension of 7 x 6 x 1.5 feet, relocation of a waterfall, and creation of a 30-foot, 2-foot-wide, 1-foot deep creek."
7 new frog species discovered in Brazil's rainforest—by
Walter Einenkel: "According to a team of researchers from the Universidade Federal do Paraná, we can now add seven new species of miniature frog to our understanding of our planet. Following nearly 5 years of exploration in mountainous areas of the southern Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, a team of researchers has uncovered seven new species of a highly miniaturized, brightly colored frog genus known as Brachycephalus. Each species is remarkably endemic, being restricted to cloud forests in one or a few adjacent mountaintops, thus making them highly vulnerable to extinction, particularly due to shifts in the distribution of cloud forest due to climate change. The Brachycephalus family of frogs are very well known to naturalists.
The first species of Brachycephalus was described in 1842 by the famous German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, yet most species in the genus have been discovered only in the past decade, particularly due to their highly endemic nature and the difficulty in reaching remote montane sites. Over the course of five years of fieldwork, a team of researchers has provided the largest addition to the known diversity of Brachycephalus, with seven new species."
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: Early Summer on the High Plains—by
skohayes: "Good morning and welcome to the High Plains of Kansas. As most of you probably know, we've had quite a bit of rain out here (over 6 months' worth in 3 weeks!), and when that happens just as spring has arrived with warmth and sun, the prairie throws a wild party. Stretching from western Texas and eastern New Mexico up through Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas, and into Canada, the vast western plains often appear sparse and dry to the casual observer. But a closer look, especially after spring rains, uncovers flowers of all colors, sizes, shapes, and fragrances. I've seen flowers blooming that I've never seen before, so let's jump over the tangled hose and explore the High Plains! The blue flowers in the picture above are called prairie spiderwort. These are bright blue, but according to the KState site, these wildflowers can also be found in rose and magenta! It's the first time I've seen these flowers blooming."
Energy
Coal, Oil, Gas & Nuclear
Jackson to Chair Senate Committee on Refugio Oil Spill—by Dan Bacher: "Three weeks after a corroded oil pipeline ruptured and sent thousands of gallons of oil pouring into the ocean off Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) joined legislators on June 9 from coastal areas around California and Senate leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) to announce the creation of the Senate Select Committee on the Refugio Oil Spill, which she will chair. Joining Jackson on the Select Committee will be Senator Bill Monning (D-Carmel), who will serve as vice-chair, and Senator Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Senator Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills)."
Fracking
Drinking Water, Fracking, and the EPA—by Michael Brune: "Last week, the EPA released 1,000-plus draft pages of its "Hydraulic Fracturing Drinking Water Assessment." The report took almost five years to produce and essentially tells us (in great detail) what we already knew: Fracking and drinking water are a bad combination. On top of that, the EPA finally admitted that water resources have already been contaminated by fracking: 'We found specific instances where one or more mechanisms led to impacts on drinking water resources, including contamination of drinking water wells.' So much for past assertions—not just from fossil fuel companies but also from Obama administration officials—that no instance of drinking water contamination has ever been documented. And don't even get me started on the fossil fuel PR hacks and politicians who tried to claim that this report shows that fracking is safe. When you add up the threat to drinking water and all of the other problems with fracking that this report doesn't address—the air pollution, the climate-disrupting methane, the landscape destruction, the earthquakes—it's as obvious as ever that fracking is dirty, dangerous, and a terrible idea.
OK, so we knew that. What else, then, does this report have to tell us? Here are five takeaways, one for each year the EPA spent on this."
Candidates, DC, State & Local Eco-Politics
I'll be voting for a climate warrior in 2016—by VL Baker: "I'll be voting for a climate warrior in 2016. I'm hoping that one will be on our ballot. Sure there are other important issues but if we don't solve our climate crisis so that we can have a livable planet other issues won't amount to anything. What will it matter having $15 minimum wage if food prices are so high due to droughts and floods that we still can't afford food for our families, when it is available, that is. Immigration? How will it fare legal immigrants when food, water and livable land is at a premium or just not available for everyone? Inequality? Everyone will be affected by climate change. You get the idea. As an Obama supporter I was most excited when in his primary victory speech he said "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal" Of course, it wasn't that easy and we find ourselves faced with a planetary emergency and not much time to solve it. We have certainly made progress and President Obama's has pushed, most often with executive order, to put us on a path of lower carbon emissions But his 'All of the above' energy policy has been a compromise we can ill afford. The Obama administration has been all in in using 'natural gas' as a bridge fuel for transition to an alternative energy future. That has certainly not been without its problems. Fracking for natural gas has created its own environmental catastrophes and also diverts funding from where it needs to be and that is with non-fossil fuel sustainable energy such as solar, wind and water."
Paul Ryan's Climate Change language contains more than just climate change—by e2247: "Ryan {WI-1, Chair, House Ways and Means Cmte.} did this & now even more people are even more furious with this idiocy. Working to amend into the 236 page Customs & Enforcement bill H.R. 644 — Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 as it appeared here on May 14, 2015 when the Senate sent it back to the House after the Senate had amended. There is a lot of stuff stuck into H.R.644 that would otherwise be a poison pill if that stuff was in TPA . Getting knowledgeable on customs & enforcement bill is thus also critical to strengthening the resistance to these iniquitous, nefarious, rotten, sinful, unethical, legislative complexes that Boehner, Ryan, and Obama (helped by Pete Sessions {TX31} Chair of House Rules Cmte. that had hearings on H.R. 644 today) are ramming down our throats."
Eco-Action & Eco Justice
Citizens Across U.S. Hosting Events to Demand WWII-Scale Climate Mobilization on Sunday 6/14—by The Climate Mobilization: "From San Diego, California, to Portland, Maine, citizen mobilizers from across the United States will be holding a variety of activities this Sunday, 6/14, as part of the first National Climate Mobilization Day. Events range from a teach-in held in New York City with speakers/performers like Reverend Billy Talen of the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, to a rally from the WWII Memorial to the White House in Washington DC, to a reenactment of Paul Revere's midnight ride during the American Revolution in San Diego, with Revere being played by former California Congressman Jim Bates and the British villain being replaced by the threat of climate disaster. For two decades, leading environmental analysts have called for a World War II-scale transformation of our unsustainable fossil fuel-powered economy, in order to head off the threats of climate change and the global ecological crisis. The Executive Directors of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, 350.org's Bill McKibben, and many other climate organizations endorsed this in a 2011 letter to President Obama calling for a 'wartime-like mobilization.'"
What's next?—by SninkyPoo: "So what's the next big climate change action? Has anyone heard? I have been tweeting like mad for months now (and now diary-ing). I've been repetitively tweeting individual legislators and sending my 'Daily Grove' to the House and Senate, and feeling frustrated as hell that I am not doing action in the real world. The #ShellNo protests continue here in Seattle, and I've been allowing myself to not join because I'm on deadlines at work. The climate march last September was the last concrete, real world ACTION that I took. It was amazing - incredible - miraculous, practically - and it seems to have nudged the dial, if we judge by the USA/China climate deal that followed on its heels. (This despite the incredibly poor media coverage. A-hem.) But it feels like it's time for something else concrete. Something BIG. Something Occupy-ish. Something 'in their face.'"
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
You can have your steak, and eat it too!—by VL Baker: "The most water intensive food is meat and dairy; so some Californians have come up with a new campaign that makes it possible for you to have what you love, in this case meat, by trading off one water resource overuse for another. Their brilliant idea is Skip Showers for Beef and their new spokesman is grammy winning and noted vegan Moby. Think Progress/Climate brings us this message from Moby to explain how it works:"
House Repeals Meat Labelling Law After WTO Dispute Settlement Ruling for Canada/Mexico Exporters—by Mark Lippman: "The case is amazing in its timeliness. It illustrates how trade disputes can jeopardize national sovereignty, with business interests forcing governments to roll back legislation that was passed to inform and protect consumers. Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 2393 – to repeal country of origin labeling requirements for beef, pork, and chicken. Congress enacted the legislation in 2002 requiring the labels on meat to inform consumers of the product's country of origin. Canada and Mexico challenged the law before a World Trade Organization adjudication panel, charging the US with a violation of WTO rules by discriminating against imported livestock. They claimed that the labeling reduced demand and the value of cattle and hogs they exported to the US. The WTO's final ruling, after appeal, would allow exporters in Canada and Mexico to impose billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on the US, if the labelling law remained in effect."
90 percent vegan—by SninkyPoo: "Okay, SninkyPoo... I'll bite. Just what is 90% vegan, anyway? It's just what it sounds like. Rather than committing to eating a 100% vegan diet, plan to get 90% of your daily calories from plants, and the remaining 10% from local, organic, free-range, sustainable animal sources. It’s something I think every American CAN do, and should do, for some pretty obvious and simple reasons. And what are those reasons? IMHO, eating 90% vegan is good for your: Waistline. Wallet. And it’s also good for the World."
Which 66 Democrats Want You to Eat Mystery Meat?—by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: "Yesterday, the House passed a bill (H.R. 2393: Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015) that would repeal country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef, pork, and poultry products. Last month, the World Trade Organization (WTO) shot down a country-of-origin labeling rule issued in 2013 that would require labels to say where an animal was born, raised, and slaughtered. Rather than revise the law, the House decided to repeal it entirely. In the Ag Committee, Collin Peterson (MN-07), Tim Walz (MN-01), Rick Nolan (MN-08), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM-01) wrote the following dissenting opinion explaining why this bill is an unnecessary response to the WTO and a bad deal for consumers."
Trade & Eco-Related Foreign Policy
The TPP threatens half a century of environmental progress just to strengthen corporations pockets—by VL Baker: "Ecowatch. The video shows how the TPP, a massive proposed trade deal with 11 other Pacific Rim nations 'would empower multinational corporations to sue the United States government in private trade courts over domestic laws.' It would also 'require the U.S. Department of Energy to automatically approve all exports of natural gas to countries in the pact, opening the floodgates to fracking across the U.S.' The video ends by saying, 'This is just some of what we know about the TPP. What lurks in the shadows of the pact may be even worse. The time has come to build a new model of trade that puts communities and our environment above corporate profits.' In under two minutes, this video tells the truth about a trade deal that the U.S. Trade Representative is hiding from the public” said Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program. 'Clean air, clean water and climate activists around the world can help bring this environmental disaster into the light of day by watching and sharing.'"
Eco-Essays and Eco-Philosophy
Seriously?—by SninkyPoo: "So I'm standing on the corner of a busy intersection in downtown Seattle yesterday, it's after work, and I'm waiting for the light. Past me in swift succession drives car after car after car after car (not a Leaf nor even a Tesla among them), all with one driver and no passengers. SUV after mid-sized sedan goes by, and I count almost twenty cars before a lone vehicle buzzes by with someone in the passenger seat. Climate change is urgent. Climate change can't wait for us to act. Climate change should be hair on fire for everyone now. Climate change should be keep-you-up-at-night scary stuff. It should be 'we start rationing immediately' urgent. It should be "you get pulled over and given a fine - a hefty fine - if you're caught driving with a single vacant seat in your car' urgent. But for most Americans right now it is NOT. It's not even CLOSE. And the apathy and inaction is terrifying."
Oceans, Water & Drought
California is literally sinking. Big time.—by VL Baker: "We all know about California's four year drought and the problems it is causing for farmers and city dwellers alike. We've also heard about some of the extreme remedies being taken to try to maintain semblance of a status quo. One of the measures farmers are taking is pumping water from aquifers to replace rain and melting snowpack. The pumping is becoming so intense that the ground is sinking in areas where there is extreme pumping. Reveal News has investigated the story: Last summer, scientists recorded the worst sinking in at least 50 years. This summer, all-time records are expected across the state as thousands of miles of land in the Central Valley and elsewhere sink. But the extent of the problem and how much it will cost taxpayers to fix are part of the mystery of the state’s unfolding drought. No agency is tracking the sinking statewide, little public money has been put toward studying it and California allows agriculture businesses to keep crucial parts of their operations secret. The cause is known: People are pulling unsustainable amounts of water out of underground aquifers, primarily for food production."
The wall of a canal (left) cracks as the earth around it sinks. The top of a well (right)
is pushed up and out of the ground as the ground around it sinks.
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
American Petroleum Institute Ads Target Smog Rules—by Marcia G Yerman : "In a move that seems ripe for a John Oliver comedy segment, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has taken to radio, print, television, and social media to blanket Americans with the concept that our air is just fine the way it is — more specifically, that ozone pollution doesn’t require any further regulation. They are disseminating a series of ads (one can only imagine what it cost to underwrite) that have an Orwellian quality about them. I could actually visualize the various focus groups they called in to come up with their strategy, determining how best to push hot buttons through key words and phraseology. There’s a lot of psychology at work, and a lot of conflation. The American Petroleum Institute is suggesting that the bigger our economy, the cleaner our air will be (Guess they haven’t visited China or India.) They present the premise that along with population and economic growth, as well as the amount of energy consumed, the quality of air has improved in tandem. Using statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency to illustrate the drop of ozone levels since 2000, the reasoning put forth is that the standards currently in place are doing the job and should be left alone."
Miscellany
Dear Sen Inhofe. The Pope's Job Is To Lead The Church—by La Feminista: "One of those jobs is to combat evil. Hmm 'Everyone is going to ride the pope now. Isn’t that wonderful,' Inhofe said when asked about the pontiff's views at the Heartland Institute's climate conference, according to The Guardian. 'The pope ought to stay with his job, and let us stay with ours.' Therefore, I would say he is doing his job just fine. If the Vatican commission appointed by the Pope finally faces up to child sex abuse within the Church. His fight against income inequality and unbridled capitalism is sincere. Now, if he can finally address family planning. Then he will have done an amazing reformation of the Catholic Church. Sen Inhofe what have you ever done to help anyone but yourself and your sponsors?"
Tolkien on Climate Denial and ODS—by Mokurai: "In the latest iteration of the nationalized Republican Southern Strategy, which began with Barry Goldwater, the Right invites all of the haters, including but not limited to the racists, the Religious Right, the Reagan Democrats, Fox News, and the Tea Parties to channel their inner Gollum against the thief, BilbObamaggins, who has made off with the source of their power, and is even now sitting in his place of power pointing and laughing at them. We hates it, Preciousss. We hates it forever! The Precious was designed to be the source of total power, including power over all other sources of power, if one is so corrupt as to desire that. As a result it is utterly corrupting to anyone who would wield it. Even carrying it has severe affects on the mind. It has been, for these factions of Republicans, the power of invisible privilege and the Dog Whistle, easily heard by them but implausibly deniable to Liberals and the media. But no more. Not only has Obama stolen their power, but Hillary also slips right past them, and the media too, while plainly exposing the Wraiths, especially Ronald Reagan, who are supposed to terrorize and intimidate us."