To see more elk, visit Ojibwa’s story here.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
El Niño Does Something It's Never Done Before. Watch Out, California—written by FishOutofWater: “Tropical Pacific water temperatures are shockingly hot. Last week equatorial Pacific water temperatures averaged3 degrees Celsius above normal for the first time ever in the key Niño 3.4 region. The previous weekly high Niño 3.4 value of 2.8 degrees was tied last week with Nov. 28, 1997. The Niño 3.4 region, used to measure the strength of an El Niño ranges from 170W to 120W from 5 degrees north to 5 degrees south of the equator. If temperatures continue to rise, or plateau for a few more weeks, this will be the strongest El Niño in history. When warm water stored below the surface of the western Pacific ocean moves east along the equator it moves the earth’s tropical atmospheric convection cells with it. Responding to the eastward shift in the tropical convection, the jet stream moves south on normal on the west coast bringing heavy winter rains to California in strong El Niño years. With this year’s El Niño at record or near record strength NOAA’s CFS climate model predicts a strong southward drop of the storm track off the west coast. A very stormy winter can be expected from California, across the gulf states and up the east coast. This year’s intense jet stream pattern will bring much warmer than normal temperatures to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.”
Methane feeds subsea ice mounds off Siberia and may be the step before the dreaded methane blowout written by Pakalolo: “A recent study by Pavel Serov, PhD at Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate (CAGE) has documented pingo (‘Pingos are spectacular landforms associated with permafrost in the Arctic. They are circular or elliptical formations protruding from the level ground of the tundra, and can be up to 60 meters high. In essence, they are huge lumps of ice covered with soil. Similar structures are now found strewn on the ocean floor in the Arctic shallow seas.’ Like features have been discovered in the thawing of the subsea permafrost off the South Kara Sea Shelf in Siberia. FishOutofWater has frequently written about the Siberian land craters that were discovered in the Siberian permafrost back in 2014. This new study focused on two subsea pingos that were identified offshore the very same area of the mysterious Yamal peninsula craters.”
Critters and the Great Outdoors
The Daily Bucket - first big winter storm written by OceanDiver: ”November 12, 2015. Salish Sea, PNW—You could say summer was over in the Pacific Northwest back in September when a few wet frontal systems blew through, putting an end to our unprecedented 5-month drought. And while we’ve had a few rainy days since then, the huge river of moisture that’s been dumping many inches of rain over the last few days is our first serious winter window-rattling tree-toppling gully-washer of the season. The leading edge of this storm was a blast of wind. Before it got too ferocious and wet, I took a walk out on the bluff. Few birds to be seen in the 30+ knot gusting wind funneling down the Strait from the open ocean. Big swells were breaking on reefs and the cliffs. This rare winter surf explains the caves carved into bedrock here, hard to imagine with our usual tranquil waters. I kept away from the edge of the cliff, what with the unpredictable gusts, but I could see and smell the spray, and hear the booming thumps below.”
Dawn Chorus: Fall Seabirds written by matching mole: ”Four weeks ago (seems like a lot longer now) I went on a pelagic trip with Westport Seabirds from the coastal town of Westport, Washington along with kossack Pandala who was going on her first pelagic since the 1970s. Along with Milly Watt I’d been on a trip on the same boat in late June of last year. This offered an opportunity to see the same habitat in a different season. In this diary I’m just going to show the birds we saw and I will diary the other organisms in a Daily Bucket in the near future.”
Thanks to conservation efforts, the 'butterfly highway' saw a ton more traffic this year written by Walter Einenkel: “Earlier this year it came to our attention that since 1990, almost 1 billion monarch butterflies have vanished. That number was 90 percent of previous peaks in monarch populations. In reaction to this staggering number, conservationists in North America began working in their regions to create something called the ‘butterfly highway.’ The idea was to make safe sections, specifically in the U.S. where monarch populations would be able to leave eggs and be safe on the migrations from Canada to Mexico. Good news, as environmentalists are touting these conservation measures are quickly showing improvements for the monarch. Mexican environmental authorities said Thursday that the iconic monarch butterfly's population may quadruple this year, citing joint efforts by Mexico, Canada and the US. ‘We estimate that the butterfly population that arrives at the reserve is as much as three and could reach four times the surface area it occupied last season,’ Mexican Environment Secretary Rafael Pacchiano said at a press conference at the Piedra Herrada monarch reserve.
Yellowstone Park: Elk (Photo Diary) written by Ojibwa: “One of the most common animals that tourists encounter in Yellowstone National Park is elk, particularly along the Madison River near the west entrance and in Mammoth near the north entrance. Below are a few photographs of elk in the Park.”
Daily Bucket: I Have Lunch With an Osprey written by Lenny Flank: “Last week I spent an afternoon at the Warbird Museum in Titusville FL. While waiting for the bus home, I had a bite to eat in a small park across the highway, right along the water.”
Remember That Dentist Who Killed Cecil The Lion? written by Dbug: “This happened recently, about 20 to 30 miles from where I live, in Minnesota. Here's the article: DNR officials investigating alleged illegal hunting tactics on Walter Palmer's Clay County land. A senior conservation officer with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Thursday that an allegation has been leveled that illegal ‘herding’ of deer by pickup trucks is occurring on land owned near Barnesville by Palmer, the Bloomington dentist who stirred an international uproar when he killed the beloved lion Cecil this summer in Zimbabwe. The hunter who filed the complaint said that, on two occasions, a pickup truck chased deer back onto land owned by Walter Palmer. In MInnesota, it's a misdemeanor to herd wild animals (including deer) using a motor vehicle. The fine is relatively small: $287 plus court costs.”
The Daily Bucket: Whales and other sea-faring critters written by matching mole: “Just about a month ago I took a pelagic trip with Westport Seabirds, the last one of the season before they stopped for winter. The main goal of these trips is to see pelagic bird species but a definite bonus is the other marine life you can see along the way. On this particular day, at least for this observer, the marine mammals definitely outstripped the birds in terms of excitement. During the nine hours of the trip no fewer than seven species of Cetacean (whales and dolphins) were seen by at least someone on the trip with four of them being seen by everyone on board. Two of the ones I missed were a brief, distant look at a humpback whale and harbor porpoise. If I had to miss something those would be OK with me as I have seen humpbacks several times and really all you ever see of a harbor porpoise is a brief glimpse of the back. The third one I missed though, that’s a different story. A pod of northern right whale dolphins was spotted in the far distance. They are easily recognizable by their complete lack of a dorsal fluke which is how they get their name (right whales also lack a dorsal fluke but the two species are not closely related). Very sorry to have missed them.”
Climate Chaos
GET RICH or LIE TRYIN' - Climate Hustle propaganda movie written by cgibosn: “If you've ever turned on the TV and seen a charismatic, boyish, conservative looking man yelling at scientists in an animated fashion, there's a good chance it was Marc Morano. Marc's new movie, Climate Hustle, is slated for release during global climate change negotiations next month. As in past years, Marc Morano will be among a contingent of a dying breed of science deniers attending the COP with the simple intention of interference. Having met Marc before, I know what it's like to look into the eyes of someone who is paid to misrepresent truth with confidence, and attack my natural hesitation to call out his dishonestly. Last June, at The Heartland Institute's tenth climate denial conference--a desert of true climate science expertise--I recorded my conversation with Marc. At minute 2:45 in the recording of our talk, he pulls a classic move. Listen to him pull a a double-layered lie, baiting me to confirm that 2014 was the hottest year on record, then attacking me for saying yes.”
CO2 removal cannot save the oceans from acidification. Traumatizing upheaval to plankton predicted written by Pakalolo: “As the oceans absorb the huge amounts of carbon that we produce, the acidity of sea water has increased, a phenomenon that is known as ocean carbonic acidification. [...] Microscopic marine plants known as Phytoplankton, form the foundation of the marine food web. In a balanced ecosystem, phytoplankton provide food for a wide range of sea creatures, including whales, shrimp, snails and jellyfish. Being sunlight dependent, they live near the surface allowing photosynthesis to occur. These tiny creatures supply half of the planet’s oxygen, as much per year as all the land plants combined. They account for 98 percent of the ocean's biomass and they were the only life form on Earth for the first 2 billion to 3 billion years. Because they take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, when they die they sink and carry atmospheric carbon to the deep sea, making phytoplankton an important actor in the climate system. In the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers report that increased ocean acidification by 2100 will spur a range of responses in phytoplankton: Some species will die out, while others will flourish, changing the balance of plankton species around the world.”
October 2015: hottest month in recorded history written by Keith Pickering: “A few days ago, the Japanese space agency JAXA released their global temperature data for October, and it was so way out of line that you had to be a bit skeptical. According to them, October was not just hot, but it was very hot. Then yesterday, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) came out with their data for October, and it shows the same thing. [...] Of course, 2015 is a strong El Niño year, so next year is likely to be a bit cooler. How long will it be before we hear the deniers wail: ‘Global warming stopped in 2015!’?’”
While Right Wing Calls for More War on Terror, CIA Chief Warns Climate Change Can't Be Ignored written by xaxnar: “Hat Tip to Kevin Drum for picking up on remarks by CIA director John Brennan. While the headlines are seizing on his talking points about more attacks in the pipeline and policies that make surveillance more difficult, Drum finds he has some pretty tough talk on Climate Change as well in an address to a security conference. To expand on some of the points Drum found, here’s some of the things Brennan had to say: [...] When CIA analysts look for deeper causes of this rising instability, they find nationalistic, sectarian and technological factors that are eroding the structure of the international system. They also see socioeconomic trends, the impact of climate change, and other elements that are cause for concern. And so let me touch upon a few of those this morning…. ...Mankind’s relationship with the natural world is aggravating these problems and is a potential source of crisis itself. Last year was the warmest on record, and this year is on track to be even warmer. Extreme weather, along with public policies affecting food and water supplies, can worsen or create humanitarian crises. Of the most immediate concern, sharply reduced crop yields in multiple places simultaneously could trigger a shock in food prices with devastating effect, especially in already-fragile regions such as Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. Compromised access to food and water greatly increases the prospect for famine and deadly epidemics.”
Stop Runaway Global Warming! written by Allen Insight: “It’s too late to ‘Stop Global Warming.’ The fossil fuels we have already burned will be part of Earth’s atmosphere for centuries to come. Even if we stopped all fossil fuel emissions tomorrow, our historical emissions will continue to warm the climate and disrupt ecosystems and agriculture all across the planet. But this would be a good outcome for us, because if we phased out fossil fuels quickly, the rate of warming would be slow enough for our civilization to adapt. Hopefully. Our battle today is to “Stop Runaway Global Warming” because Runaway Global Warming will likely destroy human agriculture, human civilization and perhaps even lead to human extinction. And unfortunately for us, we have already arrived at the tipping point where Global Warming accelerates into Runaway Global Warming. To win this battle, we need political messages which are easy to understand, easy to explain, and hard to oppose. And by ‘hard to oppose,’ I mean ‘hard to oppose’ from the perspective of the targeted voters of the message. Truly great political messages are even ‘hard to oppose’ from the perspective of average voters who are not the target audience.”
Study: By 2100 Changing Climate will shrink World Economy by 23% poorest 40% of countries by 75% written by Lefty Coaster: “When the world heats up, economies around the globe will cool down. That's according to a new study which predicts that rising temperatures due to climate change will wreak havoc on economic output. ‘Our best estimate is that the global economy as a whole will be 23 percent smaller in 2100 than if we would avoid climate change entirely,’ said co-author of the study Solomon Hsiang, an associate professor of public policy at the University of California Berkeley. The study looked at the relationship between temperature and economic activity in 166 countries over a 50 year period. The findings indicate climate change will widen global inequality, perhaps dramatically, because warming is good for cold countries, which tend to be richer, and more harmful for hot countries, which tend to be poorer. In the researchers' benchmark estimate, climate change will reduce average income in the poorest 40 percent of countries by 75 percent in 2100.”
Global Warming, Terrorism and War written by hlmslane: “The recent horrific events in Paris and the refugees fleeing from the violence in Syria reminded me of a particular effect of global warming: sea level rise. What, you ask, does a rise in seal level have to do with terrorist activities and people trying to escape a war-torn country? Simply that people now living in low lying areas are going to be forced by the sea to move to higher ground. That doesn't sound so significant until you consider the sheer magnitude of the number of people who will be affected.. A sea level rise of 10 meters is quite possible in this century especially in view of the feeble efforts being made by industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By some estimates, a rise of this magnitude would force the relocation of as many as three quarters of a billion people.”
Mother Earth makes all things right written by BOHICA: “Morning ear worm. While over at BBC News there was an article Where are all the climate change songs? For most of the past year, the United Nations has been desperately trying to get you to listen to some songs. There's one called Love Song to the Earth featuring everyone from Paul McCartney to the rapper Sean Paul, and about a dozen more - one sung by Native American schoolchildren, another by middle-aged farmers. [...] But chances are you won't have heard any of them, or even known they've existed, for the simple reason that - how can I put this nicely? - they are almost unanimously awful. My internal song index kicked in and stopped at Tom Rush’s Mother Earth. While not a song about climate change its a catchy little tune that is now stuck in my head.”
Calling Don Draper! The Case for Advertising Climate Change written by SninkyPoo: “Advertising. What if advertising is a big part of the solution? First, here’s the problem, as a series of related and overlapping questions: Why aren’t average Americans more worried about, and engaged with, climate change? • Why, if a majority of Americans “believe” that climate change is real, do so few rate it as a high priority for action? • Why, in this hottest ever year on record, aren’t average Americans badgering their representatives and senators in Congress to DO SOMETHING, and do it NOW? • Why, after years of messaging about environmental issues in general, and climate change in particular, is the climate change message not gaining more traction? • Why, when asked to rank their worries, did Americans place climate change almost dead last on their list? Advertising is the lingua franca of the United States of America. We swim in a sea of advertising from the moment we wake up until the moment we fall asleep. We are surrounded by, engulfed in, and showered with countless advertising messages every day – from radio ads with the morning weather report, to billboards as we drive to work, to advertising hoardings around the field at the Big Game, to relentless streams of commercials at the movies and on television, to TV, on You Tube and Yahoo and all of the websites we use.”
Paris COP21
Lomborg’s Lopsided Paris Pledge Analysis for WSJ written by climatedenierroundup: “Surprising no one, Bjorn Lomborg has distorted reality yet again in another WSJ op-ed where he argues that climate action is prohibitively expensive. Lomborg criticizes the UN for failing to tally up the costs of Paris pledges, while he fails to account for the cost of climate inaction. By looking at pledges from the US, EU, Mexico and China, Lomborg presents readers with a price tag. He bases his numbers on Stanford Energy Modeling Forum data, but then runs his own analysis to come up with a cost. What exactly his “regression analysis” entails isn’t explained, but given his history of misinformation, it’s unlikely the analysis is accurate. And, as mentioned, Lomborg doesn’t mention the price tag of climate change, should we fail to take appropriate action. While Lomborg makes hay out of the few percentile points climate action could temporarily shave off of the GDP, arecent Nature study finds that unchecked warming would cut average incomes by 23 percent by the end of the century and by an astonishing 75 percent in the poorest 40 percent of countries. The study looks only at the impact of warming temperatures, so it doesn’t even include the effects of drought on agriculture, storms on infrastructure, or sea level rise on coastal communities.”
Denier Responses to Paris Attacks written by climatedenierroundup: “While it is distasteful to even begin discussion on the scientific link between climate and national security so soon after the tragic event, some of the commentary deserves calling out. For example, Mark Steyn—a pundit who frequently fills in for Rush Limbaugh and is currently facing a lawsuit for his attacks on Dr. Michael Mann—didn’t restrain his shock-jock character when discussing Sanders’ comments. Steyn mocked the senator with gruesome imagery by attempting to make a joke on Fox Business that Sanders would fight for climate action even while being beheaded by terrorists. [...] But the worst comes from someone we wouldn’t necessarily expect to be quite so brazen: University of Alabama-Huntsville’s Dr. Roy Spencer. In a Facebook post made the morning after the tragedy, Spencer wrote what he later called ‘some sarcastic remarks…[about] the hypocrisy of COP 21’ that gave the impression that Spencer wanted ‘terrorists to attack COP21’ (an accusation he writes off as ‘craziness’). This interpretation is a result of the fact that Spencer ended the post by suggesting that since many of the politicians attending COP21 support gun control measures, ‘any personal security personnel accompanying them should be unarmed.’”
ENERGY
Imagine if leaders said after 9/11: "We're going to be free from energy dependence in 20 years" written by akadjian: “A few weeks back New York Times Magazine asked the question: Could you kill baby Hitler? via Twitter and it’s made it to the point where presidential candidate Jeb Bush has weighed in. The question itself has been beaten to death. If you want to see some of the better responses try here, here, andColbert. What I want to look at is the question and its relationship to war propaganda. Not only that, but I also want to talk about how we can fight it. [...] And for the future, let’s break our energy dependence on Arab oil. Imagine if we’d of spent $1 trillion on new energy technology? Instead of fighting another $1 trillion war, I’d rather fight to be free from energy dependence. I’d be happy to spend some of that money on veterans and the homeless too. ”
Nuclear, Coal, Oil and Gas
oil prices crash again, more oil companies report 3rd quarter losses, et al written by rjsigmund: “[O]il prices took a major hit this week, while natural gas prices came close to 3 year lows before recovering and closing higher … the recent drop in oil prices really began in the middle of last week, when oil prices fell from $47.68 a barrel to close at $45.55 on Wednesday, after EIA stats showed an ongoing buildup of oil inventories and a continuing increase in US crude oil production; prices for oil then slid both Thursday and Friday to close last week at $44.29 a barrel … Tuesday of this week saw the only increase, as oil prices rose from Monday's close of $43.87 a barrel to $44.21, but they then dropped steadily the rest of the week, culminating in a 5.2% drop to $40.74 a barrel over Thursday and Friday, in the fastest 8-day slide in oil prices since December … to help you visualize how that relates to the other oil price changes we've seen, we'll include a graph that tracks the daily closing price of the current US oil contract on the NY Mercantile Exchange over the past year.”
Blockade of Chicago Petcoke Facility Calls for Green Jobs Instead of Toxic Fossil Fuels written by Willinois: “Seven community members and concerned citizens are blockading entrances to the Koch Carbon Transfer Terminal (KCBX) on Chicago's Southeast side. The blockade began at 8am Monday morning. By 9am they were joined by 10th ward Chicago Alderwoman Susan Garza who sat in support with the blockaders. Over a dozen trucks have been prevented from entering or leaving the facility. The seven blockaders are determined to stay until forcibly removed. Sixty foot tall piles of petcoke, a byproduct of refining oil, began appearing on Chicago's southeast side near the Calumet River two years ago. Community action won the closure of two storage sites, but one transfer site remains open, menacing the health and well being of residents. ‘In the two years our community has been fighting the open storage of petcoke, I have had a baby. I live in constant fear of my seven month old son have respiratory problems. I am disgusted by corporations putting their profits over the health of our community. I feel like we have gone through all of the formal complaint processes and it is time to take direct action. I don't know what else to do to protect the health of my baby,’ said Kate Koval, a local mother and lifetime community resident, who is sitting in the blockade.”
Precious Hydrocarbons written by carrow: “Burning hydrocarbon is doubly sinful. First, it destroys a precious resource that we ought to be saving for future generations and Second, the carbon dioxide produced is warming the planet and acidifying the oceans. We all know by now about the catastrophic buildup of CO2, but have you ever thought about the wastefulness of burning the wonderful stuff. See below the fold how vital to our way of life are the products derived from hydrocarbons? Even if we manage to stave off the looming environmental disaster, the day will come when our descendants will curse us for wasting the earths supply. They may ask ‘What were they thinking?’”
Emissions Controls
With Paris conference looming, Republicans officially diss Obama's key climate-change initiative written by Meteor Blades: “Neither the Senate resolutions passed Tuesday to kill the administration’s Clean Power Plan regulating carbon dioxide at new and existing power plants, nor the House combination of those resolutions being discussed, will survive President Obama’s veto. But Republicans (and a few Democrats) are determined to let every American know that they will do all they can to undermine government policy designing to ameliorate and adapt to climate change. [...] Among the supporters of the Senate resolution—introduced under the Congressional Review Act—were three conservative Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who has argued that the EPA must find a “path forward for coal.” Attorneys general for those three states and 23 others are also suing in federal court over the Clean Power Plan, lawsuits that are as likely to fail as the seven previous ones have done.”
Renewables & Conservation
Can Renewable Energy Projects and Native Habitats Co-exist on California Desert Lands? written by Besame: “How and where can solar, wind and geothermal energy facilities be developed on 22 million acres of California desert land with the best protection of and least potential harm to native habitats? Desert Renewables Lives Again discusses the most recent plan to achieve both renewable energy development and conservation. What is being called the biggest change in the California since the landscape-altering activities of the last century, the The Desert Renewable Energy and Conservation Plan (DRECP) was begun in 2008. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) analyzing impacts, mitigations and best land use practices for a large swath of Southern California public land slated for renewable energy development was released on 13 November 2015. The 30-day protest period for stakeholders and conservation groups ends on 14 December 2015, and then a Record of Decision will be issued and Phase 1 concluded (Phase 2 will cover private lands). The complete Phase 1 document can be downloaded here. Primarily drawn up by the Bureau of Land Management, the document proposes establishing renewable energy Development Focus Areas (DFAs) on 388,000 acres of public land in the California desert. That's around 606 square miles, approximately the size of Los Angeles and Bakersfield combined. . . . only a fraction of that land would actually be developed for solar, wind, or geothermal; the agency estimates that actual proposed projects in the DFAs would cover about 157 square miles, with the permanent disturbance limited to 75 square miles. ... ”
Open thread for night owls: Community-owned renewable power could be a game-changer in California written by Meteor Blades: “Back in 2002, in the wake of the Enron-induced crash of California's electricity system—which to this day has left rate-payers bailing out the utility companies—California passed AB 117, the Community Choice Aggregation law. This law allows a city, county, or any grouping of cities and counties, to “aggregate” electricity customers in their jurisdictions for the purpose of procuring electricity on their behalf. Under this arrangement, a public agency—the newly formed Community Choice program—decides where electricity will come from, while the incumbent utility delivers the electricity, maintains the electric lines, and bills customers. The new program is a hybrid between a public agency and a private utility. The utility owns the distribution infrastructure, but the public is in the driver’s seat regarding energy decisions. ‘It puts our community in control of the most important part of our electricity system,’ explains Woody Hastings of the Center for Climate Protection in Sonoma County, one of the jurisdictions that has opted for a Community Choice energy program.”
5 Things You Should Know About Renewables written by FredTedTucker: “So there are about 115,227,000 households in the US. What would it take to turn them all into little power plants? Let’s say for ease of brain wrapage you add solar and wind to each one so that wind production offsets solar when the sun isn’t shining and vice versa. Lets also say the systems you add are about in the middle of the average ranges (more, more, MORE, EVEN MORE) of installation costs for solar and wind which puts us at about $50,000 per household. Simple math and zero counting tells us that it would take $5.8 trillion to make every household in America powered by renewable energy. Sounds like a lot but ...”
TRADE AND ECO-RELATED FOREIGN POLICY
Twelve Partner Nations Agree to Collectively Transition to a Low Emissions Economy written by rktect: “After all this negativity about the TPP, Chapter 20 Article 20.1,- 20.19 regarding market based incentives, and public private partnerships, Those of us who are interested and want to do so can get involved in the development of criteria used to evaluate environmental performance and can be encouraged to develop mechanisms (WARNING LABELS?) that are truthful, not misleading and take into account scientific and technical information about what the threat is to our survival. It’s been touched on lightly like stepping out onto thin ice or putting your big toe into the ocean to see if its too hot. It’s baby steps that don’t even come out and say it’s a transition from protecting the environment to reversing climate change but it’s the first time that we have gotten our foot in the door and agreed we should do it together. There is provision for market-based incentives, and public private partnerships and other interested persons involved in the development of criteria used to evaluate environmental performance, to encourage those entities and organisations to develop voluntary mechanisms that, among other things: (a) are truthful, are not misleading and take into account scientific and technical information.”
Eco-Essays & Proposals
It Costs Too Much To Save the Earth written by veritas curat: “I'm wondering these days what an economy is for. I always assumed that it had a purpose somehow associated with human happiness. But lately I've been wondering if our economy is a machine that is being driven by fools into a future of great misery and suffering. [...] Via Wikipedia: An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area, the labor, capital and land resources, and the economic agents that socially participate in the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area. And in today’s global economy that ‘area’ is basically the entire planet. If you take the biologically productive land and sea areas of the earth and divide them by the human population you get about 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) – per person. But this is if the entire earth were a human family farm – no wilderness whatsoever and no place for species that aren’t of use to humans. I think, therefore, it would probably be a good idea to have some biologically productive land and sea set aside for the other millions of species that aren’t consumed by humans. Some would disagree.”
Feel the Photon or Face the Caliphate written by DonMend: “Naomi Klein in her recent book and new film ‘This Changes Everything’ has argued that the answer to climate change is a planetary transition from global corporate capitalism to locally based versions of social democracy. I agree: the extractive/consumptive monoculture of international capital investment, with its ransacking of ‘developing’ regions, its rigged trade agreements, its leaky oil tankers, its gridlocked expressways, its franchised shopping malls, its cloned GMOs, and its critique-killing sound bites constitutes both the economic base and the ideological superstructure threatening thermal apocalypse. We must rebuild humanity's productive base in a manner free of reflexively consumer-driven ideology in order to assure our own future, a legacy for our children, and the dignified safety of our fellow humans beings across the planet. New modes of production will have to rely on locally democratic and renewably sustainable forms of clean energy from solar, wind, and geothermal sources.”
Agriculture
City Agriculture Links - November 16, 2015 written by gmoke: “I publish an occasional email of City Agriculture links which I archive at cityag.blogspot.com as well as publish here. Contact me if you want to join the CityAg mailing list.”
Largest pediatricians group says antibiotic use in farm feed is compromising our children's health written by Walter Einenkel: “The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the largest of its kind in the U.S., released a report today saying that antibiotic use in the feed given to healthy livestock is creating drug resistant bacteria, that can make treating infections in people, most notably children, ineffective. Each year, more than 2 million Americans develop antibiotic-resistant infections and more than 23,000 die from these infections, the academy said. And in 2013, the highest incidence of such infections was among children younger than 5, federal government statistics show. ‘Children can be exposed to multiple-drug resistant bacteria, which are extremely difficult to treat if they cause an infection, through contact with animals given antibiotics and through consuming the meat of those animals,’ report author Dr. Jerome Paulson, immediate past chair of the academy's executive committee of the Council on Environmental Health, said in an academy news release.”
Dangers of the Gates Foundation: Displacing Seeds and Farmers written by Mariam Mayet via Bev Bell: “Our farmer-managed seed systems in Africa are being criminalized and displaced by a very aggressive green revolution project of corporate occupation by big multinational companies. This violent agrarian transformation is facing profound objection. African farmer organizations are outraged because decisions have been made and imposed on us in a very patronizing, patriarchal way, as if the agrarian vision and solution has been designed for us. The Gates Foundation is funding the green revolution, along with the many governments linked to the old hub of capitalism, including your government [the US], the UK and the Netherlands. It is working in very close partnership with around 80 African seed companies. The Gates Foundation is the kingpin in charge of coordinating the various green revolution initiatives taking place in Africa. The green revolution projects are a very expensive technological package for farmers to buy into. Tens of millions of small-scale, resource-poor farmers cannot afford the high costs of inputs unless they’re subsidized by our governments or your taxpayer money. This money goes into the public purse and out to agribusiness such as Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred for hybrid or improved seed and agrochemicals.”
Candidates, state and DC Eco-Related Politics
Those who laugh off Sanders' linking climate change to terrorism are the ones who should be mocked by Meteor Blades: “If Bernie Sanders can be criticized for his comments about terrorism at Saturday’s second Democratic presidential debate, it’s not because he linked terrorism to climate change. It was his opening statement with a few sentences about the attacks on Paris, which were crowded clumsily into a preface of his standard speech about economics. Even avid Sanders supporters like me winced at that. But there were, as The Hill reported, lots of raised eyebrows later when Sanders repeated in the second debate what he said the first debate about climate change being the greatest threat to national security—raised eyebrows and mockery. But Sanders was and is right. And the mockers’ truncating of what he actually said at the debate and on Face the Nation shows that it’s not he who is off base.”
Bernie is Correct: Climate Change and Corporate Greed are the Top Two Threats to National Security written by LadyOFrohan: “I feel compelled to address the absolutely crucial issue of national security that seems to have generated a lot of hot gas post-debate. Bernie is absolutely right in his statement that climate change poses the number 1 threat to national security. I find it mind boggling that people cannot see that. The DOD is fully aware of it, as is the CIA, and spelled out by the White House. Majority of the people, however, seem to have buried their heads deep in the sand on this because the truth is too frightening to accept and deal with. Let's be rational about it. Yes, it is extremely frightening but by not doing anything about it we are not exactly making things any better. Unless you believe in some kind of religious reckoning and eternal life among lions and bunnies on sunny meadows filled with flowers, ambrosia and nectar....If you do, then why don't you just speed up your own reckoning and leave the running of the country to those of us who are using the power of rational thought and science?! It has been known and shown to those who care to do the research, that the current crisis in Syria was hugely exacerbated, even sparked, by a historic drought.”
What President Obama should also do for the environment written by seabat: “Okay, he nixed the XL Pipeline. But he also approved drilling in the arctic, but Shell then wisely abandoned its plan. As Bernie Sanders says, global warming will impact the world supply of potable water, resulting in more hate and discontent and the inevitable wars to follow. Now that denialist lackeys of the fossil fuel industry are fully in control of both houses of Congress, it’s up to President Obama to avoid the the impending disaster of climate disruption, and set an example for the rest of the world to follow.”
Oceans, Water, Drought
Nestlé: The Grinch Who Stole Our Water written by Dan Bacher via Mokurai: “The ‘Crunch Nestlé Alliance,’ the group that "shut down" the Nestlé Waters bottling plant in Sacramento in March 2015 and October 2014, will be protesting at the plant again on December 4, but this time the alliance is doubling down on a shut down. This time the group is also going to shut down the Alhambra Water Company, owned by DS Waters of Atlanta, Georgia, located directly across the street from Nestlé Waters. The theme of the protest is "The Grinch Who Stole Our Water," according to Bob Saunders of the alliance.”
Miscellany
The Daily Bucket - first big winter storm, reprise....with Turnstones by OceanDiver: “ For our late Bucket today, my view of the last of the big storm yesterday as it blew itself out. It rained and rained, another inch and a half, making it 4 and a half inches in one November storm (typical annual precipitation here is 20”). Then the wind picked up again, blowing straight in from the west with steady 40 knot winds, gusting into the 50s. The power went out county-wide so I went for a walk during the short daylight left, and it was a wild walk! There’s a spot half a mile from my house where the beach takes the brunt of westerly winds. The Mew gulls in my last post were at this beach. Today the wind was much fiercer, and while I stood out there watching for an hour, I was sheltered behind a building or big driftwood as much as possible. Partly to avoid getting blown over, partly to protect my camera from salt spray.”