See matching mole's post on extremes here
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Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The most recent Spotlight can be seen here. More than 23,620 environmentally oriented diaries have been rescued for inclusion in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a diary in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
Gulf stream slowdown? Nothing to see here. Back to elections. written by
don mikulecky: "Would it not be a bit of irony if the election turned out just the way you want it to and you are still screwed? These conspiratorial scientists are at it again. Trying to distract us from what is really important. Looking at the diaries here I know they can't succeed. This report could be a bit worrisome though, if it is credible:Signs of Gulf Stream Slowdown—Sea Level More Than a Foot Higher off US East Coast. Now we know sea level has not gone up a foot off the East Coast, don't we? They say:
(Global sea surface height anomalies off the US East Coast are more than a foot (30 cm) above the 1979 to 2015 average. A clear sign that the Gulf Stream is slowing down, perhaps by as much as 15-30 percent. Complete shut down of the Gulf Stream, though unlikely without extremely large melt outflows from Greenland, would result in a very dangerous 1 meter sea level rise. An impact that is primarily driven by ocean current change. Sea level rise by thermal expansion and glacial melt would, necessarily, pile on top of this bulge of backed up waters. How can that be? "
42 Quakes M2.5+ Rock Oklahoma & S Kansas in 7 Days: 17% of world's earthquakes written by FishOutofWater: "Oklahoma and south Kansas had seventeen percent of the world's earthquakes M2.5 or greater in the past 7 days as of noon Oct. 16, 2015. Deep well injection of oil and gas waste has turned a seismically quiet area into one of the world's most active seismic regions. On October 10 a M4.5 earthquake rocked the critical infrastructure of the oil distribution and storage complex of Cushing, Oklahoma, but no major problems have been reported. [...] Faults associated with the billion year old rip through the heart of north America that crosses Kansas from Lake Superior to central Oklahoma, called the mid-continent rift, have been reactivated by high pressure injection of oil and gas waste fluids. In 2014 the U.S. Geological Survey warned of an increased risk of damaging earthquakes of M5.0 or greater in Oklahoma. To date, the largest earthquake probably triggered by deep waste injection is M5.6, in Prague Oklahoma. The fault structures are long enough to be potentially capable of even larger earthquakes, but it is not clear how much larger because of the lack of historic evidence and the fact that these faults are deeply buried under deformable sedimentary layers."
Bubble Plumes Off Washington, Oregon Suggest Warmer Ocean May Be Releasing Frozen Methane written by
pollwatcher: "Everyone who has been following the potentially devastating impacts of Global Warming has been very concerned about the release of other gases that can have a far greater temporary impact on the climate than CO2. Methane is one of those greenhouse gases that can be 25 times worse for the climate than CO2. A report from the American Geophysical Union is saying a new study to be published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems has found indications that frozen methane 'ice' may be melting off the western coast of the U.S. From the report: [...]
The study shows that of 168 bubble plumes observed within the past decade, a disproportionate number were seen at a critical depth for the stability of methane hydrates. [...] 'We see an unusually high number of bubble plumes at the depth where methane hydrate would decompose if seawater has warmed,' said lead author H. Paul Johnson, a University of Washington professor of oceanography. 'So it is not likely to be just emitted from the sediments; this appears to be coming from the decomposition of methane that has been frozen for thousands of years.'"
Below the orange spill you'll find more excerpts and links to green posts.
Climate Chaos
Study: Locked in Sea Level Rise to Swallow at least 414 US Cities & Towns home to Millions by 2100 written by Lefty Coaster: "Sea level rise posed an urgent threat to coastal cities and towns all across the planet. That's what a new study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates. Carbon choices determine US cities committed to futures below sea level. Historic carbon emissions have already locked in enough future sea level rise to submerge most of the homes in each of several hundred American towns and cities, according to Climate Central-led research published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The animated timeline on this page maps, year by year, how the total number of locked-in cities could climb to more than 1,500, if pollution continues unchecked through the end of the century. It also lays out an alternative timeline based on extreme carbon cuts, leading to fewer than 700 locked-in cities. You can watch threats unfold nationwide or for individual states, and track the potential fate of each municipality. Click on “Start” to begin. Our research does not project, and this animation does not show, exactly when sea level will reach heights great enough to pose these dangers — likely centuries. Rather, our findings assess when enough carbon pollution will have accumulated, under each scenario, to lock in future sea level rise posing existential threats for each town or city — sea level rise that could submerge land where more than half of today’s population lives."
It's too late baby now, it's too late written by xxdr zombiexx : "to save 400 US Cities from the rising sea levels An alarming new study has found that, no matter what we do to fight climate change, it is already too late for more than 400 U.S. cities — including Miami and New Orleans — which will be overcome by rising sea levels caused by anthropogenic climate change. Under a worst-case scenario, New York could be unlivable by the year 2085. Most of the population in those cities live within five feet of the current high tide line.For the life of me I have no real clue why we have all this denial: it seems rather plain to me and I am not a chemist or astrophysisizist. I'm a guitarist and psychotherapist. I am NOT your go-to source for the ultimate explanation of this stuff. And if I get it, I sorta think others can too. None are so blind, though, as those who just refuse to see."
My brother shows me an article saying more average americans are doubting climate change... written by Woofhound: "I don't give a flying duck if there is a growing number of average Americans that don't believe in climate change. They aren't scientists, they aren't the vast majority of scientists that collectively DO believe that drastic climate change is happening. The average American that doesn't believe in climate change ISN'T qualified to have a scientific opinion on the case.The average politician who isn't a climate scientist ISN'T qualified to have a scientific opinion on the case.These non-scientists can go on believing whatever they want, it isn't going to reverse climate change. You can all continue to disbelieve anything you want as people, it's a free country for your own personal beliefs. But until you can show me that the vast majority of climate scientists are not believing in climate change, I'm going to side with the more knowledgeable climate scientists."
Whoa, Nat'l Geo! "Climate Change is Here" written by divineorder: "Hello from the remote Africa island country of Mauritius where we have been visiting and more than once wondering what the impacts of climate change will be here. Taking a little down time this morning hanging out on the free wifi where we are staying and saw this. [...] Climate Change Is Here—National Geographic Magazine Record heat, fading ice, and rising seas show how climate change is affecting us. But there's new hope we can cool the planet. ... Climate change is here. [...] National Geographic has a beautiful website on its Climate Change special issue, with multiple parts including one on solutions and living with it."
Open Letter to Climate Change Deniers written by Bill Day: "So you say you don’t believe that the earth is warming. Or maybe you believe that the earth is getting warmer but that the warming is not caused by humanity. Or maybe even that global warming is happening and is caused by people, but it won’t have serious consequences. I have a few questions for you then. First, on what do you base your denial of global warming? On the opinions of politicians and pundits? Or on the opinions of scientists? If on the scientists, what scientists? Were they scientists who actually study the climate, or were they specialists in other fields such as organic chemistry or meteorology? Have you read the science?"
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
And the Forecast calls for -- Five Feet of Mud written by jamess: "Mudslide buries I-5 north of Los Angeles in 5 feet of mud (with Video) [...] Emergency teams rescued 14 people from a section of Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles late Thursday after flash floods unleashed mudslides that stranded hundreds of vehicles and forced many drivers to scramble to the roof tops of their cars. Up to five feet of mud covered some parts of the northbound lane of the freeway 75 miles north of L.A., around Fort Tejon State Park. Hundreds of vehicles remained stuck in the mud as of Friday morning, the Associated Press reported. More than 45 miles of I-5 is closed from Santa Clarita to north of Fort Tejon State Park, according to the California Department of Transportation. [...] "
Critters & the Great Outdoors
The Daily Bucket: Extreme Yellowstone written by matching mole: "Back when I was a young lad nature shows were fairly low key. Marlin Perkins could hardly be described as dynamic even if he did send Jim off to wrestle an anaconda every now and then. And Jacques Cousteau and co-narrator Rod Serling kept the undersea world pretty calm. Nowadays you have athletic thrill-seeking herpetologists wrangling venomous snakes bare-handed, exaggerated danger left, right, and center, and carnage everywhere in between. One of the most striking examples of this was some show I saw a few years ago that was constantly talking about extreme animals, the fastest, the strongest, the most hideous, the most likely to remind you of a Doctor Who villain, and so on (OK, I made the last one up). The Daily Bucket seems kind of stodgy and old-fashioned in comparison. So today we're going to have an EXTREME BUCKET!!!! [...] Just over a week ago I visited Yellowstone National Park. Today I want to discuss two organisms I saw there that could reasonably be considered EXTREME (cue music)."
The Daily Bucket: Fly Fly Away written by
PHScott: "Doing my best to spread Milkweed far and wide.
October 2015. Milkweed sailing sounds like a good pasttime for the Virginia mountains. Pick any embankment along the road where they seem to grow best. Wait for a breezy day - gusts to 30 MPH are cool. Find your inner kid, that little pistol back in the day, grabbing the weedy pods to throw, rip, shake, and marvel at the parachutes sailing off in the winds, sunlight sparkling."
New research shows that whales may speak in dialects written by Walter Einenkel: "Whales and monkeys have been shown to have more of a 'culture' than previously imagined. New research may have just added a huge feather in whale culture's cap. Sperm whales live in tightly knit and very chatty clans: The study was led from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. It investigated sperm whales swimming off the Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific. Two frequently observed clans were seen using distinct click repertoires, or codas. 'These codas sound like Morse code - patterns of three to 12 or 15 clicks that vary in rhythm and tempo,' explained PhD student Maurício Cantor. 'In one clan we call the "regular clan," we heard regularly spaced clicks, but in another vocal clan that we call the "plus-ones," the coda types they make have an extended pause at the end before the last click.' The two clans of whales have different ways of handling themselves and the tasks their clan perform (i.e. child care). However, the differences in dialect is not the same as birds separated by geography, it's not a matter of being isolated from other clans."
The Daily Bucket - twisty trees written by
OceanDiver: "
Autumn 2015. Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest. Thinking about matching moles's Bucket the other day about how organisms adapt to extreme conditions, like boiling sulfurous hot springs or wide open spaces with fast predators, I realized that in the lowland maritime Pacific Northwest our terrestrial habitats are generally more benign and easy to live in than many around the country. Due to the moderating influence of the ocean, it never gets hot and rarely freezes. There's ample water much of the year. We have a mild climate and varied topography. However one resource that is scarce on the Salish Sea islands is soil. These mostly bedrock mountaintops emerging from the sea were scraped clean of topsoil by repeated glaciation until soil had a chance to rebuild starting 10,000 years ago, a blink of geologic history. On the steep rocky slopes of headlands there's still very little. It's a challenge for trees to get anchorage and find adequate water and nutrients."
German Hunter Pays $60K To Kill Exotic Elephant In Zimbabwe written by
librarisingnsf: "It's Cecil the Lion all over again, except this time it's one of the largest elephants ever sighted in Zimbabwe. The animal was slaughtered by a German hunter (at least it wasn't another idiot American hunter). From Towleroad:
Conservationists and elephant lovers around the world are outraged at news that a 40-60 year old large-tusked African elephant, one of the largest ever sighted in Zimbabwe, has been slaughtered by a German hunter. Photos of the hunter posing with the tusks and the elephant’s carcass were posted to Facebook by Anthony Kaschul, the owner of a photographic safari firm in Gonarezhou. The Telegraph reports: It was shot on October 8 in a private hunting concession bordering Gonarezhou by a hunter who paid $60,000 (£39,000) for a permit to land a large bull elephant and was accompanied by a local, experienced professional hunter celebrated by the hunting community for finding his clients large elephants. [...] The kill was celebrated in hunting forums around the world, where it was suggested he might have been the biggest elephant killed in Africa for almost 30 years.
"
Museums 101: The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (Photo Diary) written by
Ojibwa: "In addition to providing homes for grizzly bears and wolves which cannot be rehabilitate to the wild, the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana provides a number of displays which provide scientific information about these animals. The Discovery center points out that bears—both grizzlies and black bears—don’t typically die of natural causes, such as starvation or old age. According to one display:
'They are usually killed by people—either directly or indirectly when people’s activities and developments expand into their habitats.' Another display indicates:
'Although the grizzly inspires fear and can pose real danger to people, human beings are powerful natural enemies of this bear. Through killing this animal and competing for the use of its habitat, humans have eliminated the grizzly from most of its original range. The grizzly bear had disappeared from Texas by 1890; from Utah by 1923; from Oregon in 1931; and from Arizona and New Mexico between 1933 and 1935. By 1940, the grizzly populations in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming were threatened. When the European invasion of California started, there were an estimated 10,000 grizzlies in the area and by 1922 the state’s last grizzly had been killed."
Energy
Coal, Oil, Gas & Nuclear
Obama administration tightens Arctic drilling rules and Interior cancels two future leasing auctions written by Meteor Blades: "From a press release the Department of Interior has just issued: In light of current market conditions and low industry interest, the U.S. Department of the Interior today announced that it will cancel the two potential Arctic offshore lease sales scheduled under the current five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program for 2012-2017. The decision follows Shell’s announcement of its exploration results at the Burger prospect in the Chukchi Sea and that the company will cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future."
Governor signs two bills responding to Refugio Oil Spill written by Dan Bacher: "While heavy lobbying by Big Oil resulted in the elimination of a key provision of SB 350, the renewable energy bill, and the defeat of several other industry-opposed bills this Legislative Session, Governor Jerry Brown last week signed two bills authored by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) that arose in response to this year’s Refugio Oil Spill in Santa Barbara County. The legislation would require more frequent oil pipeline inspections and improve oil spill response - and represents a step forward in preventing future oil spills from devastating sea mammal, bird and fish populations and the ocean ecosystem along the California coast. 'These two key oil spill bills arose out of the devastation caused by the Refugio Oil Spill this year in my community and the very serious threat it posed to our wildlife and economy,' said Senator Jackson. 'I do believe that if the pipeline that ruptured and caused the spill had been inspected annually, the corrosion would have been detected and we would have been able to prevent this spill. This legislation represents a very important step forward for our environment and our beautiful and economically vital coastline.'"
Candidates, DC, State & Local Eco-Politics
Seth Macfarlane explains why we need Bernie Sanders to be our Next President Climate Change written by wade norris: "I was surprised to see and hear how eloquent and intelligently (and witty) Seth explained why we need a President that believes in Science and views Climate Change as our number 1 threat to National Security. [...] I want to tell you when, for me, Bernie Sanders won last night's debate. The Question was asked 'What is the greatest threat to the United States?' All the other candidates gave answers like the crisis in the Middle East, Nuclear Iran, Isis, Cyber warfare, Offensive Tweets (laughter), All legitimate threats to be sure. But Senator Sanders was the only person who gave the Correct answer—Climate Change."
Climate Change is a National Security Threat written by ClimateDenierRoundup: "The first Democratic debate featured a number of climate change mentions, with Martin O'Malley making numerous references to his plan to get America to 100 percent clean energy by 2050. But the most controversial climate-related moment was when Bernie Sanders said point blank that climate change is the biggest national security threat facing the United States. Predictably, the right has not taken this well. For example, Media Matters points out that on Fox & Friends, Jeb Bush said he doesn't 'think climate change ranks in the top ten list' of threats. Not only does this put him at odds with Senator Sanders, but also the Department of Defense, the National Research Council, the CNA Corporation Military Advisory Board, and the G7 Council on Foreign Relations, which all consider climate change to be a major national security issue. As US National Security Advisor Susan Rice just told an audience at Stanford, there is ample research connecting rising temperatures with escalating hostilities, meaning that climate change is a clear threat multiplier. And in 2013, the head of US Pacific Naval forces, Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, said that climate change is the biggest long-term threat to the Pacific region."
Exxon Mobil may face Department of Justice investigation for concealing climate change data written by Jen Hayden : "Recently, information came to light that proves Exxon Mobil executives hid data showing a direct correlation between fossil fuels and climate change. They'd been sitting on and concealing the data since 1977! Now that those late 1970s memos have seen the light of day, two Democratic congressmen are demanding an investigation: Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Walnut Creek) wrote a letter Wednesday to Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch asking the Department of Justice whether the company violated the law by 'failing to disclose truthful information' regarding climate change. What did they know and when did they know it? Rep. Ted Lieu and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier would like some answers—under oath."
Climate change is, as Sanders says, our top nat'l security issue, but most of GOP still in denial written by Meteor Blades: "There was a hint of hopeful news in the NSEE survey: Over the last year the percentage of Republicans that stated there is not evidence of global warming decreased by 15 points from 41% to 26%. But whatever may or may not be happening among Republican citizens, the loudest voices on climate change in Congress (and in the parade of Republican presidential candidates) still belong to the deniers, a word the Associated Press Stylebook editors don't want us to use anymore, replacing it with doubters instead, apparently having passed over more accurate choices such as charlatans and bullshitters. While their Republican constituents seem, maybe, to be moving toward accepting what the overwhelming number of climate scientists have been warning us about, their stubborn representatives show no signs of budging. More than half are in the bullshitter/charlatan camp. All five Democratic candidates at Tuesday's debate were asked what they think is our greatest national security threat. Bernie Sanders' clarion statement on the matter got far less media attention than most other subjects raised that night."
Bernie sees the real threat: Climate Change written by One Pissed Off Liberal: "During the recent Democratic debate, Bernie revealed a great truth when he identified climate change as the single greatest threat facing our nation. I thought that was a home run, and distinguished him perfectly from those who want to scaremonger and wave 'enemies' at us. Bernie sees the real threat. Smart people are going to see that. Let's hope there are enough of us. I'm betting there are."
Hillary touts her role weakening "toothless" Copenhagen Climate Deal as example of her commitment? written by Lefty Coaster: "Hillary Clinton's Big Climate Change Accomplishment Was Actually a Huge Failure. About midway through the debate, Clinton staked her climate record on what's widely perceived to have been one of the biggest diplomatic failures in recent history—the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009. After years of anticipation, the meeting of world leaders ended in disarray, with Obama and his aides famously wandering around the convention center, looking for the leaders of China, India, Brazil, and other key nations. The toothless deal struck at the last minute was called a 'grudging accord' by The New York Times the next day. Yes, Obama—and Clinton, then his secretary of state—were instrumental to that deal, but it's hardly something Hillary should be proud of. [...] If Hillary's role in Copenhagen negotiations was to resist more effective legally binding targets, settling instead for woefully inadequate aid to developing countries as a largely symbolic gesture, would she replicate that recalcitrance to treat Climate Change with the urgency it deserves as President?"
Denier Takes Coal Money, Attacks Coal Detractors written by ClimateDenierRoundup: "While we all more or less assume that deniers who attack climate scientists aren't doing so just for fun or for accuracy’s sake, it's always interesting when a direct financial relationship between a fossil fuel company and denier operative comes to light. In this instance, we now know that Alpha Natural Resources paid noted denier Chris Horner at least $18,600 dollars. After Alpha went bankrupt, the coal giant's financial information was made public—revealing the Horner connection. The Intercept reported on Horner's funding back in August, but a more recent story in the WSJ detailed the actual payment amounts. From May to July, Alpha cut three $6,200 checks to Horner, the Senior Legal Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (EELI, formerly the American Tradition Institute). It's unclear what exactly Alpha got in return for the payments, but it's worth noting that Horner and EELI have been using normal stakeholder engagement as the basis for leveling accusations of collusion at the Obama administration, the EPA, state governors and various environmental NGOs. They've also targeted the Sierra Club, accusing the nonprofit of having a conflict of interest pertaining to its Beyond Coal campaign, because a couple of donors have connections to renewables. Then, in honor of the pope's visit, EELI put together a laughably sinister video that attempted to negate the pope's climate stance."
Eco-Action & Eco Justice
Bill McKibben has been arrested in front of Mobil station written by
VL Baker: "Bill McKibben: 'No corporation has ever done anything this big and this bad.' Bill McKibben is putting himself on the line for all of us. Read the powerful words that he has written above and if possible send him a tweet thanking him for his decades of work in trying to prevent humanities greatest disaster."
Divestiture is the wrong response written by wizodd: "For the past couple decades, on of the responses to corporate irresponsibility has been to demand that public funds invested for pensions and other purposes divest themselves of their holdings of companies which have been reckless or irresponsible. From the first I saw such recommendations, it seemed completely wrong and backwards as a response. As a stockholder, these funds have the right and responsibility to hold the management accountable, and the power to enforce such demands. Divestiture removes their right and power to make such demands and changes."
Agriculture, Food & Gardening
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: Harvest Season! written by skohayes: "Good morning, gardeners! You can always tell when it's fall around here, because the grain elevators are starting to fill with corn and milo. The combines are in the fields mowing down rows of brown dried corn stalks, and trucks and tractors fill the normally quiet roads, as farmers start the harvest. And what a corn harvest it will be this year, with all the extra rain we got this summer! And what a corn harvest it will be this year, with all the extra rain we got this summer! [...] There's not much going on in the garden in my yard, I've cut down all the spent maximillian sunflowers to prevent reseeding and about the only thing left blooming is my zinnias and dahlias. That was fortunate, because the monarch migration was 2 weeks later than normal, so there was still some food around for them."
2015 Wyoming Leopold Conservation Award Recipient written by ban nock: "Common ranching practices done well probably describe the King Ranch (the one in Wyoming no relation to the one in TX) winner of the 2015 Leopold Conservation Award in Wyoming. I'm familiar with the habitat of their ranch as it's not far away, they're in those rolling low hills and flat prairie east of Cheyenne. It's delicate country and gets little rain. With careful use it can sustain cattle and even improve with every season. Careless misuse would destroy it. Summer range is in the Medicine Bow National Forest. Mark Eisele the owner of the ranch said, 'One of our crowning victories is our Forest Service deal," Eisele said. "We maintain the water development and the modes of ingress and egress that help the wildlife there - we alter the fence lines to allow for wildlife to water, and to keep them out of danger from crossing the highway at inappropriate places.'"
How The Intractability of the Meat Industry Hurts Us All written by Robocop: "Every five years the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services appoints a committee of ten to fifteen nutrition experts to revamp the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. This has been going on since 1980. The committee writes the guidelines, presents them for public comment, and then the USDA and HHS decide what recommendations should be included. The new set of guidelines won’t be released until later this year, but the committee recommendations have proven to be controversial. For the first time, in addition to the expected exhortation that people need to eat more fruits and veggies, the committee provided an opinion concerning sustainability. The exact wording is that 'consistent evidence indicates that, in general, a dietary pattern that is higher in plant-based foods…and lower in animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with a lesser environmental impact (GHG emissions and energy, land, and water use) than is the current average U.S. diet.' Given that the Guidelines are put forth by the federal government, they are not a mere admonition against the meat industry, and indeed included two phrases allowing that 'lean meats can be part of a healthy dietary pattern,' and that Americans can achieve more sustainable diets 'without excluding any food groups.' In other words, be conscious and educated about what you consume and the effect a moderate diet will have on personal health and the health of the planet. The meat industry, as one would expect, had a hissy fit and fought back."
Transportation & Infrastructure
The First Small Cars written by
Major Kong: "While Dinosaurs ruled the Earth back in the day, not everybody drove a '59 Cadillac or a full-size Chevy Impala. Even in the 1950s and 1960s, some people cared about fuel mileage. A nasty recession in 1958 pinched a lot of pockets and caused some folks to rethink the "longer, wider, faster" trend. So let's take a look at some of the first "economy" cars of the modern era. Note - I'm sticking with the US market here. This will unfortunately exclude a lot of the cool micro-cars from Europe. I'm also limiting it to the 1950s and 1960s. The fuel crisis of the early 70s brought on the second round of small cars in the US but I'm more interested in the early days here."
VW's Homeland tells automaker to "Volk Off" orders recall 5X size of US action written by benamery21
Sustainability, Extinction & Population
Which is worse, overpopulation or climate change? written by Woofhound: "Overpopulation, I feel, can be inferred if the rapid use of non-renewable resources or the capacity of the environment to sustain life degrades to the point of non sustainability, and with life expectancy getting longer and longer, and live birth rates increasing. One of the largest causes of overpopulation is the advancements of medicine in the field of longevity. The United Nations and the US Census Bureau put the world population at around 7 billion people. At our going rate the world population is expected to be around 10 billion by 2045 or so. The largest growth in population has been over the last 50 years. Some countries rely on importing food for their population because there isn’t enough agricultural products coming from their native lands, for example Britain and Japan, though I do believe that the birthrate has significantly declined in Japan lately. Some good news is that many people are heeding the warning of overpopulation and in many countries the birth rate is beginning to fall. China as we know limits birth rate to one child per family, because of their severe overpopulation. India is another example of severe overcrowding."
Trash, Pollution & Hazardous Waste
St. Louis Landfill Fire Threatens Illegal Nuclear Waste Dump written by Joieau: "Underground fire 300 meters from nuclear waste causes St. Louis to hatch contingency plan— Government officials have quietly adopted an emergency plan in case the smoldering embers ever reach the waste, a potentially 'catastrophic event' that could send up a plume of radioactive smoke over a densely populated area near the city's main airport. Cold War/Manhattan Project nuclear waste illegally dumped in a north St. Louis landfill that was designated a Superfund site in 1990 but never cleaned up, is now threatened by an underground fire that has been burning since 'at least' 2010. The waste was dumped in 1973 by Mallinckrodt Chemical company's uranium processing operations into an unlined waste pit in the West Lake Landfill, situated next to the Bridgeton Landfill in north St. Louis. Both operations are owned by Republic Services, and both are sited in an alluvial flood plain where migration of the nuclear waste cannot be managed. In an independent analysis report issued in March of 2014 to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, DNR Director Sara Parker Pauley and Missouri Senators Roy Blunt and Clair McCaskill, it is noted that evacuation of the surrounding population may be necessary as the fire approaches the bulk of nuclear waste, and that a planned pit-buffer between the burning sections and the Superfund site could not be excavated because it is already contaminated with alpha-emitting Radium [226, 228] and Thorium [230, 232] isotopes."
From Sociology to Salvage — Dan Knapp's Relentless Pursuit of Zero Waste written by j be: "Waste isn’t waste until it’s wasted.' So says Dan Knapp and his wife, Mary Lou Van Deventer, who own and manage the three-acre salvage yard in West Berkeley called Urban Ore. Near Ashby and Seventh Streets, Urban Ore sells doors, windows, sinks, bathtubs, furniture, cabinets, housewares, hardware, appliances, even jewelry. Thirty-eight people keep the place open ten hours a day, seven days a week, and thousands derive at least some of their incomes from trading goods and services there. That’s quite an accomplishment, which is why I used Dan and Mary Lou’s quote as the epigram in my new book, Wasted, and got in touch with Dan to check on his latest thinking. Below is an edited transcript of our phone and email conversations."
Bring Blue Skies Back to Red Rock Country written by Michael Brune: "The red rock country of the Colorado Plateau, which includes parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah, boasts some of the most remarkable scenery in the U.S.—if not the world. That is, when you can actually see it. That's because this stunning region of high desert and deep canyons, which contains more national parks than any other, is also plagued by smog. And air pollution doesn't respect state—much less national park—boundaries. That's where the Regional Haze Rule of the Clean Air Act comes in. Under the rule, all of the states in the region are required to outfit polluting coal plants with the "best available retrofit technology" to reduce emissions. It's a commonsense approach that works great—as long as every state does its part. Unfortunately, Utah has not. Why is Utah the outlier? It's not as though the state has nothing to lose by forsaking clean air and clear skies."
Forests, Wilderness & Public Lands
History of the Antiquities Act-Part 5- Clinton, Utah and the Supreme Court written by MorrellWI1983: "This is the fifth part of the my series on the history of the Antiquities Act [...] By the time President Clinton took office in 1993, it had been over a decade since a new national monument had been proclaimed by the president, due to reaction to Carters actions in Alaska. Both Reagan and Bush 41 did not create any new monuments, all the monuments created in that time were created by Congress. Clinton, who would eventually invoke the Antiquities Act more often than any other president except for FDR, did not create his first monument until the closing months of his first term. but that monument, Grand Staircase-Escalante, would set off a huge firestorm in Utah, and became the fourth major challenge to the Act legality, following the creation of Grand Canyon, Jackson Hole, and the creation of 17 monuments in Alaska by Carter."
Miscellany
Church opposes DC's proposed bike lane because ‘rights of religious freedom’ written by Jen Hayden: "As Washington, DC officials consider adding a bike lane, the United House of Prayer is firmly opposing it in the name of freedom: The District government is going through the rather municipally boring process of determining where to build a bike lane on the east side of downtown. And one church has given a charged response to some proposals, saying that a bike lane near its property would infringe upon 'its constitutionally protected rights of religious freedom and equal protection of the laws.' Are they serious? Yes. Yes, they are. The parking loss would place an unconstitutionally undue burden on people who want to pray, the church argues, noting that other churches already have had to flee to the suburbs because of similarly onerous parking restrictions. The church says that DDOT lets cars park diagonally on the street during busy times, which would be seemingly impossible if a protected bike lane were on the street. The city says is it listening to all sides and hasn't made a decision yet."