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 24,101 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Paris: Musings on the Paris Agreement written by boatsie: “There was never a doubt that COP21 negotiators would deliver a deal which would at first glance appear ambitious enough to at long last acknowledge we’ve dug ourselves into one helluva hole here and its way past time we started collectively pulling together to do something, anything, about it. Yes, without doubt, COP21 was a media circus, Yet with all the hype, the crisis preceding the talks and the subsequent quelling of anticipated unprecedented activism, the two weeks of the summit were a mere blip on the screen of life for the everyday Parisian. Despite ongoing heightened security, they continued to flock to Le Village de Noël des Champs-Elysées, to marvel at the Starwars-themed holiday windows at Les Galeries Lafayette, to shop for fine foods at Place de la Madeleine. Make no mistake about it, however. Not everyone, at least not those who stand on the side of climate justice, is heading home happy this morning. Representatives from the world’s most vulnerable nations agree that once again international negotiations have sided with the powerful, offering no protection from ‘resource grabbing’ and staving off a legal commitment to fund nations most vulnerable to climate change impacts. ‘We, the peasants of the world, will now return to our territories and farms all the more determined to continue our struggle for food sovereignty for all the peoples of the world,’ said Antolin Huascar, a peasant leader from Peru. ‘The future of the planet is in the hands of the people.’”
Daily Bucket: Climate change issues eviction notice to coastal redwoods written by Besame: “Pick up your roots and run north now! Coastal redwoods need to shift about 200 kilometers northwest over the next 10-20 years to survive seasonal changes associated with global climate change. For now, eviction notices apply only to the redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) in the southern end of their range in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Big Sur regions. But some of these redwoods are 300 foot tall old folks who were babes when the Roman Empire flourished. Redwoods in Big Basin State Park near Santa Cruz are among the 5 percent old growth remaining of the 200 million acres of redwoods existing along the California coast prior to commercial logging in the 1850s [...] The Go North Mandate for coastal redwoods results from computer model research conducted at by Lara Kueppers with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute and grad students at UC Merced. (Sorry, the full study is behind a paywall and only the abstract is available at the link.) Studying the effects of climate change on this narrow belt of coastal redwoods that stretches from Big Sur in the south to just over the Oregon border in the north has been difficult because the coastal climate is strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean’s unique effects on temperature and climate.”
Well, I was wrong about $100 trillion ... written by NBBooks: “but I am not apologizing. Because, a $100 trillion price tag to stop and even reverse climate change is too low. The International Energy Agency estimated in a recent report that the world needs to spend $359 trillion between now and 2050 to avoid catastrophic climate change. All you jerks that contend mentioning such numbers just scares people away, please stfu, and read this instead: Nothing is possible so don't even try. We, really, really need to break through these psychological and ideological barriers that are preventing us from doing what needs to be done to save this planet. We have the technology. In hand. Ready to go. All we need is the money — and it’s not that much if you keep your wits about you. World GDP in 2014 was US$78.28 trillion. And the growth rate of world GDP has been around 3.4 percent annually for a number of years. Project the growth of world GDP out to 2050, add it all up, and you get US$ 5,630.5 trillion. $359 trillion is only 6.4 percent of world GDP over the next 35 years.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
We owe it to future generations to move aggressively to save this planet written by One Pissed Off Liberal: “Brothers and sisters, now is not the time to think small!” —Bernie Sanders. I look around and see a lot of people going about their business as if nothing has changed, as if we are not, by following our usual routine, posing an ever increasing existential threat to the ecosphere and to our species. I'm reminded of a relative who worships capitalism because it put a truck in his driveway. He knows little or nothing about greenhouse gases, rainforest depletion, ocean acidification, feed-back loops, tipping points, global warming or climate change and has no sense at all of the limitations, sensitivities and vulnerabilities of the planet. He thinks things are going to always be more-or-less exactly what they are right now, about which he knows so very little.”
In Midst of "ExxonKnew" Scandal, Company Hiring Climate Change Researcher written by Steve Horn: “Caught in the crosshairs of an ongoing New York Attorney General investigation exploring its role in studying the damage climate change could cause since the 1970's and then proceeding to fund climate science denial campaigns, ExxonMobil has announced an interesting job opening. No, not the new lawyer who will soon send the ‘private empire’ billable hours for his defense work in the New York AGprobe, though that's a story for another day. Exxon is hiring for a climate change researcher to work in its Annandale, New Jersey research park facility. ‘We are seeking a candidate to advance research and assessment providing fundamental understanding on global climate change issues,’ reads the job description. [...] So why hire a climate researcher now? Perhaps Exxon sees the writing on the wall, as it did the first time around the block in the 1970s, that climate change is a global priority that demands attention.”
#Hawkpup Saves The World written by RLMiller: “Hello, hoomins. It is I, #Hawkpup, last seen at a climate rally in February 2013 when I was a puppee. I am still a puppee. My hoomin has been talking #Earth2Perris for months, so I decided to organize another climate rally. Or two. Or three. Sadly, I’m on the no-fly-unless-crated list, so I had to organize in California. Here I am on November 29 while my hoomin said something about prosecution of Exxon. She was yelling loud about Jerry Brown signing SB 185, the coal divestment bill, so I barked louder. I iz helpful! Then she yelled louder about telling Kamala Harris to put Exxon in jail and everyone cheered, so I barked more! [...] I don’t understand this ‘fossil fuel’ stuff. They are made from dead dinosaurs and they smell yucky. I would not want anyone making fuels from dead doggies. It is much better to lie in the sunshine and chase the wind. And the best part is: when I was done going to climate rallies, my hoomin said it worked!!! they came to a paw circle agreement in Perris! So I napped. Saving the world is hard work.”
"How can I save the planet?" written by Raging Pencils:
Climate Change is about FAR MORE than "Talking about the Weather" written by jtg:
What to Do to Mitigate Looming Climate Change: 10 Specific Policies (updated) written by progressivewishlist: “Indicating what will be the most drastic measure to be taken in avoiding catastrophic environmental change, a recent study in the journal Nature found that 92 percent of US fossil fuels reserves must stay in the ground to keep worldwide temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, the threshold climate experts say would bring catastrophic floods, droughts, rising sea levels, heat waves, wildfires, ocean acidification and biodiversity loss and other extreme weather events. So, what to do now? Implement low-carbon energy base that promotes conservation, conversion into renewal energy sources and fusion technology, providing a fair transition from fossil fuels and a “global treaty” to block the export of fossil fuels. [...] (E) Keep it in the Ground Act. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, have introduced in Nov 2015 the bill Keep It In The Ground Act, that would bar new leases on coal, gas, oil, and tar sands extraction on federal lands in the U.S. The bill, would likewise, preclude offshore drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean and forbid the renewal of leases that haven’t yet produced fossil fills. ‘This bill is about recognizing that the fossil fuel reserves that are on our public lands should be managed in the public interest, and the public interest is for us to help drive a transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy future,’ Merkley said. ‘We don’t have a lot of time to do this, so there’s an urgency to it, and a place that’s readily available for us to act is on the fossil fuels that are on our public lands.’”
Paris Climate Pact
W/Paris #COP21 agreement, Climate Science Deniers populate US Sunday "news" shows written by A Siegel: “Huge news from Paris, so who do the Sunday morning ‘news’ (using that word very loosely) shows have on? A bunch of climate science deniers. ABC's ‘This Week’ - Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. NBC's "Meet the Press" - Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio. CBS' ‘Face the Nation’ - Secretary of State John Kerry; Republican presidential candidate John Kasich; Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. CNN's ‘State of the Union’ - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. ‘Fox News Sunday’ - Trump; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Let’s be clear, the Paris agreement is a rich glass half full, glass half empty situation. Far beter than Copenhagen, with serious discussion of important things even as there is so much more to do. Perhaps it sets stage for movement forward, globally, toward serious climate mitigation … perhaps … ”
Does the new climate deal prevent our prediction? written by don mikulecky: “We wrote this a few years ago: Global Insanity: How Homo sapiens Lost Touch with Reality while Transforming the World—The Global Economy that sustains the civilized world is destroying the biosphere. As a result, civilization, like the Titanic, is on a collision course with disaster. But changing course via the body politic appears to be well nigh impossible, given that much of the populace lives in denial. Why is that? And how did we get into such a fix? In this essay, biologists James Coffman and Donald Mikulecky argue that the reductionist model of the world developed by Western civilization misrepresents life, undermining our ability to regulate and adapt to the accelerating anthropogenic transformation of the world entrained by that very model. An alternative worldview is presented that better accounts for both the relational nature of living systems and the developmental phenomenology that constrains their evolution. Now we have a question. Has the prediction we made based on a very careful analysis been made less likely by the new climate agreement. If you forsake the distraction that the election is making it would seem that the same scientists we have been listening to all along are not happy. I have read much here in the last day or so that suddenly discounts their opinions almost as blindly as the traditional deniers. The climate agreement is wishful thinking at best.”
The Paris Climate Talks & the 1.5C Target: Wartime-scale Mobilization is Our Only Option Left written by The Climate Mobilization: “The Paris climate talks are over, and the postmortems on the final agreement are flooding in. Here’s our take: • After 21 years of negotiations, we finally have an agreement that the majority of nations are expected to ratify. This is a critical breakthrough in terms of shared global understanding of the crisis. We are grateful that world leaders have agreed to make an effort to collectively tackle the climate crisis. • However, we are disturbed that it has taken this long, and that the agreement is not even close to strong enough to effectively protect civilization and the natural world. [...] • Ultimately, the Paris Agreement’s target of global net zero greenhouse gas emissions in “the second half of this century” represents a cataclysmic failure of leadership – and likely a crime against humanity and the natural world – that will devastate the planet and civilization if it is realized. We believe humanity can still prevent civilization-destroying global warming – but only if we undertake a WWII-scale Mobilization to restore a safe climate immediately. We need to transition off of fossil fuels and carbon-intensive agriculture as soon as humanly possible. That means an emergency restructuring of the entire ecodnomy at wartime speed to achieve net zero emissions in the U.S. by 2025, net zero emissions globally by 2030, as well as an urgent effort to draw down the excess carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.”
Climate activists knew going into the Paris talks they would still have tons of work to do afterward written by Meteor Blades: “Sanders is right. The agreement hammered out in Paris doesn’t go far enough. That doesn’t mean it isn’t ‘historic’ or that the talks were a waste of time or that they are, as James Hansen labeled them, ‘bullshit,’ though that pre-eminent scientist is right about the need for a global levy on carbon. ‘Not enough’ ≠ nothing. Saying it does creates despair and defeatism, which generates cynicism. That trio produces apathy, and apathy kills activism. And making the words of the Paris pact actually become a turning point will require massive activism. That’s Sanders’ clear message. [...] What Sanders and McKibben and hundreds of thousands of activists know is that the climate movement has much to do to transform the forward motion provided by the flawed Paris pact into an even bigger movement dedicated to getting the world off fossil fuels far more rapidly than all but the most ambitious nations’ plans. Yes, that brings up (gasp!) Denmark again, already getting 40 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and planning for 100 percent by 2050. That ought to be a goal worthy of emulation rather than sneering. Iowa, it should be noted, got 28 percent of its electricity from wind turbines in 2014.”
Paris Climate Summit Ignores the Reality of Nogales written by Ojibwa: “What follows is a letter I received from Scott Nicholson, a community organizer who has been working on the U.S.-Mexico border in Nogales, Arizona. It is posted here in full with his permission. Dear friends, The neighborhood where I live in Nogales is called Bella Vista (‘Beautiful View’). The view disappears in the haze on these winter mornings as desperate impoverished people burn whatever they can to ward off the cold. This toxic reality of corporate ‘free trade’ was not addressed during the recent ‘Climate Change Conference’ in Paris. The U.S. government demanded that the emissions reduction targets set by individual countries not be legally binding, and that countries harmed by climate change should not be able to take legal action for that damage. As reported by Naomi Klein, that’s exactly opposite to the U.S. stance on ‘free trade’ agreements which are legally binding.”
Climate scientists and activists cheer historic COP21 agreement, but the real work is just beginning written by Lawrence Lewis: “Many of the world's leading climate scientists and activists are reacting favorably to the COP21 climate agreement, with the consensus being that it is truly historic and a huge step forward, yet only the beginning. Joe Romm is the Founding Editor of Climate Progress: In a literally world-changing deal that was almost unthinkable just a year ago, some two hundred leading nations unanimously embraced a plan that will leave most of the world’s fossil fuels unburned. As part of a concerted effort to avoid catastrophic climate change, the world unanimously committed to an ongoing effort of increasingly deeper emissions reductions aimed at keeping total warming ‘to well below 2°C [3.6°F] above preindustrial levels.’ The full text of this Paris Agreement goes even further, with the parties agreeing ‘to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.’”
James Hansen And Climate Scientists Aren't Impressed By The Historic Climate Agreement written by bbwatch: “As detailed in a Guardian article, one of the most prominent scientists addressing climate change, James Hansen, is not happy with the COP21 agreement and in fact calls it a ‘fraud.’ ‘It’s a fraud really, a fake,’ he says, rubbing his head. ‘It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. [...] ‘The current text is weaker than the final agreement that came out of [the failed] Copenhagen [summit in 2009],’ said Kevin Anderson, deputy director of the Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research in the UK, …the text does not even contain the words “fossil fuels’ ...’It is not consistent with science.’ ...’Negotiators are praising this text as ‘practical,’ but for whom? For poor, non-white people in the southern Hemisphere, it falls somewhere between dangerous and deadly. But we still have 24 hours here to pull something more serious together.’”
Paris, the Pleistocene, and finding the grit to grapple with climate change written by Steve Masover: “I believe the Paris agreement (of which the above tongue-in-cheek summary is only that) is about as good as anyone with their feet on the ground could have expected. After all, this was a negotiation that could only succeed by satisfying representatives of nearly two hundred sovereign nations. Depending on who else you ask, the Paris agreement is universal and ambitious (Al Gore in The Guardian: may have signaled an end to the fossil fuel era); the beginning of the beginning (the NY Times editorial board: Now comes the hard part); a fraud (James Hansen in The Guardian: no action, just promises); or a vast left-wing conspiracy (blowhard and outlier Cal Thomas of Fox News: In my opinion, belief in "climate change" is on a par with childhood faith in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy). During the COP21 conference in Paris, I stayed put here in California and read a slim volume of what you might call speculative non-fiction: In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: Global Warming, the Origins of the First Americans, and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene. The book was written by Doug Peacock, the indomitable author of Grizzly Years and the late Edward Abbey's real-life model for George Washington Hayduke III of The Monkey Wrench Gang.”
The Word From Paris written by Michael Brune: “The conference made history, in a good way, before it even began. That's because 186 different countries submitted individual commitments for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. That those commitments collectively fall significantly short of what's needed in the long run to avoid catastrophic climate disruption, though, was lost on no one. That may help explain one of the most surprising and extraordinary COP21 developments: the setting of a more ambitious target of keeping total climate warming well below 2 degrees C (and ideally less than 1.5 degrees C). Add to that an official commitment from all 195 countries to ‘reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible’ and to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the end of this century.”
Deniers Follow Oil Script in Paris Response written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “With the adoption of the Paris Agreement, nearly two hundred nations, even petrostates like Saudi Arabia, agreed to begin phasing out fossil fuels. Climate deniers were unable to manufacture another controversy like Climategate to distract the press and upend the proceedings. This transformative agreement from the twenty-first COP shows that though the fight is long, things can change. But of course, on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, nothing changes. They published a piece Sunday evening that pulls straight from the fossil fuel industry talking points. Literally. In ‘Climate of Conformity,’ WSJ disses the deal as ineffectual. They stand in opposition to the idea that government invention could be successful, and suggest that the only way to reduce emissions is through ‘human invention and the entrepreneurial spirit.’ This sounds strangely similar to something NOAA witch hunter Lamar Smith published Sunday evening in USA Today: ‘Let’s harness entrepreneurship and innovation and let technology lead rather than impose burdensome and ineffective regulations on the American people.’”
Off-Script Deniers Confused About Paris written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “While the pros at WSJ and in Congress are sticking to the script on Paris, the rest of the denialsphere is floundering for a response to Paris, leading to some rather amusing contradictions. For example, Joel Pollak writes in Breitbart that the agreement is a threat to US sovereignty because it doesn’t need congressional approval. Meanwhile, Chris Horner of CEI/EELI writes in Daily Caller that Paris is in fact a treaty, and therefore needs congressional approval. Bjorn Lomborg wrote in the UK tabloid the Daily Mail that Paris won’t alter the future of fossil fuels, whereas the head of Europe’s Coal lobby said that Paris means coal companies will now be seen by the public ‘in the same way that slave traders were once hated and vilified.’ In reality, the pledges made by each country are legally binding within that country. So the US is bound by its own laws, India its own, China its own.”
James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud' written by geebeebee: James Hansen didn’t mince words regarding the Paris climate agreement: ‘It’s a fraud really, a fake,’ he says, rubbing his head. ‘It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. As long as fossil fuels appear to be the cheapest fuels out there, they will be continued to be burned.’ He did have a better solution: Hansen, 74, has just returned from Paris where he again called for a price to be placed on each tonne of carbon from major emitters (he’s suggested a “fee” – because “taxes scare people off”—of $15 a tonne that would rise $10 a year and bring in $600bn in the US alone). There aren’t many takers, even among “big green” as Hansen labels environment groups. Hmm. Great minds think alike, huh? Bernie introduces legislation for $15/ton carbon pollution fee starting in 2017.”
Spencer’s Racist “Paris Pow Wow” Rant written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “Dr. Roy Spencer is, with Dr. John Christy, in charge of the NASA satellites that measure the atmosphere’s temperature (though they rely on others to catch their many mistakes.) So one could be excused for assuming that he would be a level-headed scientist who should be taken seriously when it comes to climate change. Last year, though, when he wrote that it was ‘time to push back against the global warming Nazis,’ it became crystal clear that he isn’t the sort of wise and dispassionate thinker that many assume scientists to be. Now he’s taken it even further, with a post about the Paris climate talks that is unabashedly offensive, titled ‘Paris Pow Wow Heap Good.’ It’s overtly racist, and the author knows it. He prefaces the article with a mention that ‘Hollywood seldom uses such racial stereotypes anymore…unless they are of White Southerners.’ [...] Dr. Spencer makes an attempt in a note following his racism to defend it by saying the real racism is that ‘Paris-supported energy policies pushed by mostly white-skinned rich westerners would kill millions of mostly dark-skinned poor people by making the energy they desperately need to be inaccessible.’”
Post-Paris Party Winds Down written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “The drop-off in deniers’ attention to the Paris Agreement has been pretty steep, as they move on, eager to forget that they lost the battle and the war when the world came together and agreed to transition away from fossil fuels.
Media Matters really drove this home with a piece about how the denier event in Paris was a flop. Reporters barely noticed it, and the mentions it received in mainstream press were largely not the sort Morano was hoping for. Reuters described deniers as ]yesterday’s men,’ while Politico pointed out there was ‘little interest’ in the event. Other coverage was quick to point out how they stood on the wrong side of the science and history. In another piece, Media Matters took a look at the opinion pages of major newspapers, finding that the vast majority of coverage was sensible. Of the ten most widely circulated US newspapers, only four published deniers, for a total of nine pieces out of hundreds written about the talks.”
World Reaction to Paris Climate Agreement written by ericlewis0: A look at the responses of several newspaper front pages and a magazine cover.
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
The Daily Bucket - rowdy sea lions written by OceanDiver: “December 2015. Salish Sea, PNW. It’s the off-season for sea lions here in the Northwest, and usually they are pretty laid back as they lounge around their haulout site at Whale Rocks, snoozing. Occasionally when we take a circuit around the Rocks some are more active and it’s fun to see them interacting. Sea lions are intensely social creatures. This is non-pupping season. In summer at their rookeries on the open coastline of British Columbia they all expend huge quantities of energy; the males establishing and defending territories, the females pupping and raising their new babies, the subadults learning from their elders, practicing to be grownup sea lions. Winter is a time to build up energy feeding, resting and molting. Aside from the posturing and roaring that goes on as these golden giants climb out onto the rocks to find an available resting spot, most of the activity seems to be the youngsters playing amongst themselves.”
Daily Bucket: You Otter Be Breeding Now written by Besame: “If you are a female North American river otter, it’s time to choose a mate and get pregnant. Then, instead of gestation, future mama otter can delay implantation of fertilized eggs until two months (the gestation period) before the optimal time to birth otter pups. Tuleyome Tales reports on river otters and their life history: River otters breed between December and April, and the mama otter can have up to six pups in a litter. Pups are born fully furred, but can’t see or hear until they are about a month old. [snip] Mother otters need a place to stay where they can rest and have their babies, but they are loath to building anything for themselves and often take over the abandoned beaver dens or burrows of other animals. If there’s no vacancy anywhere, otters will use whatever else is available such as hollow logs. Once the otters establish themselves, their home is referred to as a ‘holt.’ The holt usually has several entrances, including at least one that leads directly to a water source.”
Dawn Chorus: Winter Wonder(bird)land Open Thread written by Kestrel: “The fall migration has brought us a number of bird species who will be with us through the winter and beyond. I thought it might be a good time to share with other folks here who some of our visitors are in our areas. I’ll start off with Cedar Waxwings, one of my favorite birds, so sharply defined with their distinctive markings. They have that Lone Ranger mask and look like they sat right on the edge of the paint can, dipping their tail tips into bright yellow paint.”
What's in the budget for nature written by ban nock: “Congress just passed a big budget bill that covers just about everything. There was some good and some bad for public lands, conservation, clean water, air, etc. It was the very first thing I went searching for. Most people are talking about the gifts to big oil. There are other things of more import to me. First off the funding for the Land and Water Conservation fund was increased and extended for 3 more years. Up $150 million to a total of $450 million. Not permanent but I’ll take it. Cuts to the EPA so folks can pollute more. No money for forest fires. The forest fires are killing Forest Service’s budget. Money spent on fires is less for forests. 10% increase for BLM to something like $1.2 Billion. Fish and Wildlife a $69 million increase to $1.5 Billion. Park Service a roughly 10% boost to 2.9 billion.”
The Daily Bucket: - Ice Age Sculpting of the Grand Coulee and the Colombia River drainagewritten by RonK: “The third leg of my October trip over the North Cascade Mountains (first and second here) into the cataclysmically shaped Eastern Washington landscape included visits to: • The terminal Moraine of the Okanagan lobe of the giant Pleistocene’s Cordilleran Ice sheet, • The terrain engraved by the Ice sheet and resultant massive floods down the Columbia River drainage, such as The Grand Coulee and Dry Falls, • The Grand Coulee Dam – a modern day American engineering wonder, • The upper Columbia River below the Grand Coulee Dam. We began heading east from Chelan, across the Columbia River and up onto the Columbia Plateau. In what would generally appear to be a desolate farming area with few points of interest, our guide (GaryK) directed our attention to several geologic features worthy of attention. First, we were in the vicinity of the southern and terminal edge of the Okanagan lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. What looks like generic hills to the uninformed eye, were in fact the terminal moraine itself. These hills had been built up and pushed along as the ice sheet plowed south until it eventually stopped, melted, and receded, leaving its freight as hills.”
Feather River Hatchery finishes spawning salmon - Run is 7400 fish behind 2014 written by Dan Bacher: “The Feather River Fish Hatchery staff has finished spawning fall-run Chinook salmon for this season and hasn’t started spawning steelhead yet. The facility has trapped approximately 16,349 adult salmon and 7,763 jacks and jills, a total of 24,112 fish this season. That compares to 24,893 adults and 6,620 jacks, a total of 31,513 fish, in 2014. That puts the run 7401 fish below last season. The hatchery has taken enough eyed eggs, 11-1/2 million, to produce their goal of 8 million smolts, according to Anna Kastener, hatchery manager. ‘The fish were really healthy, although they appeared to be smaller than normal. We saw a lot of jacks and jills this season,’ she observed.”
The Daily Bucket: Some (Brave) Birdies at Gatorland written by Lenny Flank: “Gatorland, in Orlando FL, breeds American Alligators for their meat and hides, and also exhibits gators (and other Florida wildlife) to the public. As with any zoo, there are lots of uninvited guests who hang around hoping to steal some food from either the gators or the tourists. Here are some photos from a recent visit.”
ENERGY
Nuclear, Coal, Oil and Gas
oil and gas prices tank again, oil exports, global rig counts, and Fault Lines: Earthquake State written by rjsigmund: “[I]n the aftermath of last Friday's OPEC meeting, oil prices crashed to a 7 year low on Monday and continued falling from there, while natural gas prices fell below $2 for the first time since early 2012 on forecasts of continued warm weather...we'll start by including 18 months charts on both, so the numbers will have some perspective… the first graph shows the past year and a half track of the January contract price per barrel of the US benchmark oil, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), when it's stored at or contracted to be delivered to the oil depot in Cushing Oklahoma...on Thursday, after the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expected oil prices to remain low until 2017 due to an ongoing oversupply of oil exacerbated by Iran’s return to the global oil market...in the wake of that advice to consuming nations, and with a new report out that OPEC pumped more oil in November than in any month since late 2008, exceeding the ceiling they set last Friday, oil prices continued to fall Friday and [...] closed at $35.62...U.S. oil prices last settled this low in February 2009 and are very close to an 11-year low, while international oil prices as benchmarked by Brent crude fell to $37.93 a barrel, a price not seen since December 2008...”
Call your congresspersons and tell them to vote "no" for fossil fuel exports. Please do this written by Septima: “The House is set to okay exports of fossil fuels with the collusion of many elected as ‘Democrats.’ TPP and TTIP are waiting in the wings, but did you know that, according to Susan Sakmar (google her: an energy expert) well over fifty percent of U.S. fracked gas has been okay’d by the DOE for export to both free trade and non free trade countries? And export pipelines are proliferating on both coasts to effect the heist of U.S. gas for private wealth. If you have any fantasies of ‘energy independence’ for the U.S., you can kiss those good-bye. A worthy book by Bill Powers, 2013, Cold Hungry and in the Dark, talks about wildcatter and investor hyperbole, and how fantastical remarks of how much recoverable gas have grossly exaggerated the amount of gas recoverable by fracking. Powers talks about this hyperbole (quoted by gulled politicians), and how well production declines dramatically in all but a few wells after the first year. He also writes about the ‘red queen’ scenario, with exports, where more, and more, and more land will be ruined (along with copious amounts in the billions of gallons of drinking water: that’s right: fresh water. It is ruined in use, and in the dumping of frack fluid (ruined water).”
In Stunning Act of Bad Faith After Paris, Congress & Obama to Lift the Crude Oil Export Ban written by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: “Although many articles about the Paris climate deal spoke of the ‘end of the fossil fuel era,’ the deal itself said no such thing. As Naomi Klein pointed out on Saturday, the words ‘fossil fuel,’ ‘oil,’ and ‘coal’ are nowhere to be found in the text of the deal. You can check for yourself here.Keeping warming below 1.5°C would, however, certainly require keeping a significant amount of fossil fuel reserves in the ground, even though the goal was more aspirational than real. Back in April, a number of well-known scientists said that 75% of known reserves would have to be left in the ground to meet the 2°C target. To meet the more stringent target of 1.5, an even greater share of fossil fuel reserves would have to be left in the ground. And the US is already ignoring these implications and trying to boost its status as a petrostate. In the omnibus bill negotiated by Democratic and Republican leadership and appropriators—and which Obama promised to sign, the parties agreed to lift the long-standing ban on crude oil exports. This has been a huge priority for Big Oil, as they expect to gain $22 billion in profits from it. And when Big Oil wins, the climate loses. And when the climate loses, so do we.”
Only 18 Dems Voted against the Big Oil, Dark Money, Suveillance-Stuffed Omnibus Bill written by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees: “Today, the House voted on the omnibus bill so that they can all go back home for Christmas (Santa will probably be giving most of them coal.) There are many horrible things in the omnibus bill. Here’s a decent run-down of some of the damaging riders by David Dayen in TNR: In the first major piece of legislation to pass after the historic Paris climate deal, the omnibus will lift the 40-year-old ban on domestic oil exports. Not only does this bail out a sick domestic oil industry by opening up new markets, it over time incentivizes nationwide oil drilling—exactly what the climate deal purports to prevent. Democrats claim that they offset this impact by getting five-year extensions of solar and wind-energy tax credits, but as green groups noted in a letter last week, trading off investments in renewables with incentives for fossil fuels just cancels out the climate gains and makes reaching clean-energy goals harder.”
Budget Deal: Republicans In Service To Oil Companies, Never The Public written by davej: “Having won another $650 billion of government defunding while handing $650 billion to big corporations, Republicans will soon come back and complain about "deficits" and demand a new round of cuts in the things our government does for us. [...] But Republicans especially fought for lifting the ban on exporting U.S. oil. This was their highest priority. This is a typical news reports on the budget deal: ‘By far the biggest win for Republicans, besides the extended tax cuts, is a measure that would lift a four-decade-long ban on exporting crude oil.’ Why is this a ‘win’ for ‘Republicans?’ Because oil companies wanted it, period. The Republican Party is nothing if not always, always in service to oil companies. A political party placed ending the oil export ban as their highest, highest, do-or-die priority. It does nothing for the public, the country, the climate, jobs or anyone or anything else except for the oil companies, and this is what the Republican Party laid itself down to get done.This puts more oil on world markets, just after the Paris climate talks.”
Fracking
Oil Exports! Frack and F**k the Future written by RandW: “Lifting the 4 decade-long US crude oil export ban was a part of a “Grand Deal” to fund the government and get some Democratic wins, including getting renewable energy tax incentives extended. As Bill McKibben observes, it is hypocrisy (and bad policy in so many ways). With the Paris accords, ‘solemn and pious talk about saving the planet,’ Bill wants a word for such ‘simultaneous hypocrisy’ — I’ll try to think of a word, but the essence of that, with regards to the planet, I suggest, is encapsulated in the phrase ‘F**k the planet, F**k you very much.’ That, because it will be ‘Frack, baby, frack.’ As Bill points out, it’s ultimately about the math of the physics. It’s as inescapable as driving a car too fast, approaching a cliff. This deal steps harder on the gas pedal. It’s the wrong thing to try to bargain with. While the deal is one step forward for renewable energy, it’s a larger step backwards toward the cliff (108 million new cars, or 135 coal-fired power plants). I’m not sure what other poker chips the Democrats could ‘cash in’ or ‘sell out,’ but make NO mistake, this was a costly, costly ‘victory.’ ”
Jerry Brown grandstands in Paris as he fails to protect Latino children from fracking written by Dan Bacher: “A Kern County family is appealing a court decision to dismiss their lawsuit claiming that the Brown administration’s fracking regulations disproportionately affect the health of Latino public school children, a news release from the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) announced on December 15. A CRPE lawsuit in July challenges state regulations on the grounds they illegally allow fracking wells to be located close to schools with large percentages of Latino students. ‘The appeal highlights Governor Jerry Brown’s hypocrisy in allowing fracking pollution to harm some of the most vulnerable Californians,’ CRPE stated. ‘As Governor Brown travels the globe touting his efforts to stop climate change and protect disadvantaged communities from the impacts of greenhouse gasses, local residents are wondering why he continues to ignore the daily struggles of their communities.’ ‘Governor Brown’s efforts to flight climate change are leaving communities of color behind and putting the health of my daughters and her classmates at risk,” said Rodrigo Romo, the plaintiff in the suit. ‘We’re not going to give up the fight to protect our children. We’re going to push this lawsuit until we can send our children to school knowing they’ll be safe.’”
Renewables & Conservation
U.S. Wind & Solar Power Get a Huge Surprise Boost written by FishOutofWater: “In an unexpected show of reason and bipartisanship the U.S. congress renewed federal tax credits for investments in wind and solar power for 5 years. The surprise extension will lead the the installation of 20 additional gigawatts of solar power over the next 5 years, more than had been installed up to 2015 according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The wind credit will create an additional 19 gigawatts. The 39 gigawatts total will fully power 8 million homes. This extension will have a bigger impact than the Paris agreement in the U.S. for the next 5 years, and it will ensure that the U.S. is able to meet its commitment to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The tax credit extension is critically important because it will be an economic bridge to the time that solar and wind power are cheaper than fossil fuel power without a carbon tax. ‘This is massive,’ said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF. In the short term, the deal will speed up the shift from fossil fuels more than the global climate deal struck this month in Paris and more than Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan that regulates coal plants, Zindler said.”
Now THAT'S how you do solar energy written by Molly Weasley: “Morocco is in the process of building a complex of four linked solar mega-plants as big as 35 soccer fields. According to a story from The Guardian, the huge effort will, alongside with hydro and wind, ‘help provide nearly half of Morocco’s electricity from renewables by 2020.’ It’s hoping to export any excess solar energy to other countries, especially those in Europe. [...] The first phase of the project, called Noor 1, is due to open this month and will bring energy to 1.1 million people. The method of capturing solar energy, as described by EcoWatch, is more expensive and goes a lot further than most solar technology, such as photovoltaic cells. ‘The plant employs a large number of movable mirrors that can follow the sun’s path and harness sunlight to melt salt,’ the EcoWatch story says. ‘The molten salt stores energy and can be used to power a steam turbine, allowing for energy production even at night.’ Each parabolic mirror is 12 meters high and is focused on a steel pipeline carrying a “heat transfer solution,” or HTF, that is warmed to 393 degrees Celsius.”
Climate change pact creates impetus for renewable energy push written by Molly Weasley: Many in the environmental community, including 350.org founder Bill McKibben, say that the agreement falls short. In an opinion piece in The New York Times, McKibben argues that the pact is 20 years too late, saying it’s ‘like an ambitious agreement designed for about 1995.’ If all of the countries keep their promises as specified in the agreement hammered out at the United National Climate Change Conference in Paris, ‘the planet would warm by an estimated 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit, or 3.5 degrees Celsius, above preindustrial levels,’ he adds. ‘And that is way, way too much.’ The pact may not be enough, and it may be only a blueprint, but it’s the only time the world has ever agreed on such a blueprint. To paraphrase a certain former disgraced secretary of defense, you work with the the climate agreement you have, not the one you’d like to have.
Woodland, NC bans solar farm out of fear it will steal sun's energy . . . No, seriously! written by ecostar: “The stupid, it burns .... The worst of the lot? A former SCIENCE teacher that said she was afraid it would hurt nearby plants making them unable to photosynthesize ... Woodland’s Planning Commission banned the solar farm on a 3-1 vote. That’s right, 75% of the planning commission was either too afraid to tell their stupid residents the actual scientific truth, or they’re just as stupid as their residents. As detailed in this Roanoke Chowan News Herald story. Bobby Mann said he watched communities dry up when I-95 came along and warned that would happen to Woodland because of the solar farms.”
Dim Bulbs: Solar Farm Will Cause Cancer, Disrupt Photosynthesis and Soak Up All the Sun's Energy written by Antitheist: “Woodland resident Bobby Mann spoke and stated flatly, as fact, the farm would ‘suck up all the energy from the sun and businesses would not come to Woodland.’ Bobby’s wife, Jane Mann, a retired Northampton science teacher, advanced the ‘sciency’ notion that photosynthesis might be hindered, or not happen at all, in proximity to the panels, noting brown patches of vegetation near other solar panels. She continued, using the most effective bar to knowledge known to man, contempt prior to investigation: She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer. Fear, suspicion and willful ignorance all collide and the bloodiest casualty is the truth. The data is available. The facts can be proved. We know how photosynthesis works and whether or not you can ‘suck up all the sun.’”
N.C. takes anti-science to a whole new level. Solar panels steal sunlight from plants written by Mentat Render: “I’m probably not the right person to be covering this as I am about as far removed from North Carolina as it is possible to be but this popped up on FB at a good time for comment. A proposal to rezone land for solar power has been rejected based on a vote in the town council. Now there may have been other considerations such as people’s view, grid loading and people’s feelings however the public comments prior to the vote are concerning. ‘Jane Mann said she is a local native and is concerned about the plants that make the community beautiful. She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the plants from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight. She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.’ The amount of un-science going on here is unbelievable, I have checked for deep deep sarcasm but it looks like there is an epidemic of chronic scientific illiteracy in Woodland NC and likely Northampton (where Mrs. Mann taught).”
Japanese Solar Farms Are Not Like North Carolina Solar Farms written by gmoke: “Woodland, NC, made the news recently for banning any new solar farms. In a public meeting at the town council residents accused the solar farms of harming the surrounding vegetation and possibly causing cancer. Meanwhile, in Japan farmers have been building solar panels above their crops without reducing yields. Turns out you can cover about a third of the area above plants without diminishing their growth. They call it solar sharing and it is made possible because of the ‘light saturation point.’ The rate of photosynthesis increases as the irradiance level is increased; however at one point, any further increase in the amount of light that strikes the plant does not cause any increase to the rate of photosynthesis. ... Based on the tests conducted at his solar testing sites in Chiba Prefecture, he [Akira Nagashima, the developer of the solar sharing system] recommends about 32% shading rate for a farmland space to reach adequate growth of crops. In other words, there is twice as much empty space for each PV module installed.”
Keystone XL & Other Oil Transport
Michigan's U.S. Senators/Democrats, Gary Peters & Debbie Stabenow, Lead on Pipeline Safety Bill written by LakeSuperior: “Michigan’s two U.S. Senate Democrats—Gary Peters & Debbie Stabenow—have been working on bipartisan pipeline safety legislation. Legislation is moving through committee, and I wanted share this news I just received from Senator Peter’s office … I’m happy to let you know that the Commerce Committee unanimously approved a pipeline safety bill that will help protect communities and the environment, especially the Great Lakes, from pipeline accidents and spills. Senator Peters was a lead cosponsor of this bipartisan bill and I have included his press release below. We are optimistic about this bill advancing on the Senate floor, hopefully sometime in early 2016. The legislation, known as the Securing America’s Future Energy: Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (SAFE PIPES) Act, included several pipeline safety provisions from the Pipeline Improvement and Preventing Spills (PIPS) Act that Peters introduced in September, along with Senator Debbie Stabenow. ”
You Work for Steyer? written by DaveElder: “A quick Google search had yielded informative articles from reliable sources confirming the multi-million-dollar Koch holdings in Canada tar sands operations, and their Gulf Coast refinery setup as well. Armed with some confirmable specifics, and basically trusting Greg Palast as a dependable source for the rest of it, I readily dove into the KXL thread with the evidence about the Kochs.A day or two after I offered my input, I got back that strange question, accompanied by one or two others and the usual bogus BS about the purported benefits of the KXL project. Did I have some vendetta against the Kochs? Did I have a climate change axe to grind? The woman’s Steyer question implicitly assumed that anyone spending that much time posting and discussing environmental issues on FB must be getting paid for doing so. It might be one thing to discuss your latest recipe or your cat’s recent antics, but who would put in that kind of time on an FB page just out of concern for breathable air and a livable environment? Not her, obviously. I thought her question quite likely revealed something about her own motivations, and while I could not prove that she gets an income from the Kochs, I do know that the petrochemical dynastic duo buys a lot of propaganda in various guises, so I suspected that she might very well number among that bought-and-paid-for crowd, or she may have a first cousin on the board at TransCanada.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL PARKS & FORESTS, AND OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
We are collectively killing our Wildland Firefighters written by evergreen2: “I have become a student of wildfire. And of wildland fire-fighting. Admittedly, from the vantage point of my computer. While, also, from the vantage point of living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after having lived in the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona, during the 1980’s. Houston, We have a Problem. Our wildland fire-fighters are getting killed and burned and maimed in this enterprise, in what is called the “Wildland Urban Interface.” Three died this summer in Washington State on the Twisp River Fire. And four more almost died on that wildfire. And five almost died, also, on the Valley Fire, north of San Francisco, California. And I intend to write more about this here in 2016. I started observing wildfires and how communities used the Internet to deal with them in the 1990s and early 2000s.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Flint, Michigan, mayor declares state of emergency over lead levels in water written by Joan McCarter: “Flint, Michigan, is in a state of emergency—a long-term public health emergency that will cost the city and its residents for years and years to come. Lead levels in the city's children are so high that Mayor Karen Weaver has had to resort to the emergency declaration to get the federal help the city will need to deal with the long-term effects. The Hurley Medical Center, in Flint, released a study in September that confirmed what many Flint parents had feared for over a year: The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014.The crisis reached a nadir Monday night, when Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency. ‘The City of Flint has experienced a Manmade disaster,’ Weaver said in a declaratory statement.”
CA regulators want to conduct regional reviews of MPAs only once every decade written by Dan Bacher: “Rockfish and lingcod fishing for boat-based anglers along the Northern and Central California Coast will close on December 31. The fishing has been superb for anglers fishing from charter boats on private skiffs when the weather allows them to get out, but big swells from a latest storm prevented boats from Bodega Bay to Morro Bay from fishing at press time. While waves were pounding the California coast, George Osborn of the California Sportfishing League was at the December California Fish and Game Commission to question the apparent failure of the state to conduct a regional review of the so-called “marine protected areas” created under the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative every five years, as was originally planned. ‘As anglers know, the State of California designated over 800 square miles of the Pacific Ocean off limits to recreational fishing—in large part due to overfishing by the commercial fishing industry,’ according to Osborn. ‘However, the State said these marine protected areas would be temporary and after five years, they would conduct a regional review to determine when they open to recreational angling once again.’ ‘Well... that was then. Now, they want to extend this review process out another 5 years! Why? They don't have the money,’ he said.”
Numbers of salmon counted at Central Valley fish hatcheries are below last year's counts written by Dan Bacher: “Preliminary figures from Central Valley fish hatcheries reveal that the numbers of salmon that have returned to Sacramento River tributaries to date are below the large numbers projected by the federal government earlier this year. National Marine Fisheries Service abundance forecasts released in February, developed in modeling based on the 2014 returns of salmon to the rivers, indicated there would be approximately 652,000 adult Sacramento River fall Chinook salmon and 423,800 adults from the Klamath River fall run in the ocean this year. That would be a total of 1,075,800 salmon. However, the numbers of salmon that have been counted this fall dovetail with the mediocre commercial and recreational fishing reported on the California coast this year. In the coming two months, state and federal government fishery managers will be tallying up the data on spawning escapement in the Central Valley rivers and hatcheries to be used in crafting the 2016 ocean and river seasons. Note that the numbers of jacks and jills (two year old fish), which the fishery managers largely base their abundance on, are larger than those counted last year on the Feather River and Nimbus facilities.”
Drought Bill Update: You Can't Save Delta by Pumping More Water written by Dan Bacher: “As Governor Jerry Brown resumes his campaign to build the salmon-killing Delta Tunnels after spending a week green washing his image in Paris at the Climate Summit, Congress is doing its best in Washington D.C. to eviscerate protections for Central Valley and Trinity/Klamath River salmon and steelhead. HR 2898, an agribusiness-backed ‘drought relief’ bill that would strip environmental protections for Central Valley salmon and steelhead and Delta smelt, is back for the third time, like a pesky zombie or vampire that just won’t die no matter what you do. Valadao’s original bill would have repealed San Joaquin River restoration, replacing it with a smaller program. It would add hatchery raised salmon or Delta smelt to be included in counts of Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta fish populations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Finally, it directed the sale of the New Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River to local water districts. The good news is that Senator Dianne Feinstein appears to be “holding the line on Endangered Species Protections for Delta” in the drought bill negotiations, according to an update from Restore the Delta (RTD).”
Drought legislation could threaten the very existence of salmon and other fish species written by Dan Bacher: “Urge Senator Boxer To Protect SF Bay-Delta From HR 2898. HR 2898, an agribusiness-backed “drought relief” bill that would strip environmental protections for Central Valley salmon and steelhead and Delta smelt, is back for the third time, according to Restore the Delta (RTD). Senator Dianne Feinstein appears ready to sign off on HR 2898, the Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015, after negotiations with San Joaquin Valley House Congressmen who want to over pump the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, the group said in an action alert Friday. ‘Californians have not seen the federal drought bill,” said RTD. “We need to make sure it does not harm our Delta estuary, which is on the verge of collapse in this extreme drought. Senator Barbara Boxer says she will NOT sign off on any bill that weaken existing federal protections.’ RTD urges people to call Senator Boxer ASAP at (202) 224-3553.”
Omnibus Spending Bill Includes Funds For Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels written by Dan Bacher: “The Brown and Obama administrations are not the only ones pushing for the construction of the Delta Tunnels under the California Water Fix, as evidenced by the inclusion by Congress of a provision to fund the widely-contested project at taxpayer expense revealed today by Restore the Delta (RTD). ‘Deep within the 2009 page Omnibus Spending Bill, up for a vote in Congress on Friday, is a provision called the CALIFORNIA BAY-DELTA RESTORATION starting on page 401 and referenced again on page 409. This would once again allow some $37 million in federal tax dollars to help plan and build massive export tunnels that would take essential freshwater and export it to irrigators south of the Delta,’ reported Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. ‘Funding for the tunnels export project was to be paid for by water users, (i.e. the water districts that support industrial-scale crops for foreign export and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,’ she said. She noted that over $257 million has been spent so far on the delta water export tunnels.”
EPA investigated for clean water act "violations"? by tapu dali.
TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
The Children of Flint Deserve Justice (Updated) written by peregrine kate: “Not to be poisoned. But the latter is what has happened, thanks to the malfeasance of the people put in power over them, which makes the former now a moral obligation. As Joan McCarter reported yesterday, in Flint, Michigan, mayor declares state of emergency over lead levels in water, Flint, Michigan, is in a state of emergency—a long-term public health emergency that will cost the city and its residents for years and years to come. Lead levels in the city's children are so high that Mayor Karen Weaver has had to resort to the emergency declaration to get the federal help the city will need to deal with the long-term effects. The officials who were appointed to attend to the provision of safe drinking water to the people of Flint have failed in their most fundamental duty. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The federal EPA. Not least, the Emergency Manager, Darnell Earley, under whose auspices the transition away from the Detroit water system to a different system was made. Then from him back to Governor Rick Snyder, who has so far not acknowledged the failure of the city and the state to fulfill their responsibility to our citizens.”
ECO-ESSAYS & PROPOSALS
Go Green Young Woman, Young Man written by Michael Klare via TomDispatch: “Historically, the transition from one energy system to another, as from wood to coal or coal to oil, has proven an enormously complicated process, requiring decades to complete. In similar fashion, it will undoubtedly be many years before renewable forms of energy — wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and others still in development — replace fossil fuels as the world's leading energy providers. Nonetheless, 2015 can be viewed as the year in which the epochal transition from one set of fuels to another took off, with renewables making such significant strides that, for the first time in centuries, the beginning of the end of the Fossil Fuel Era has come into sight. This shift will take place no matter how well or poorly the deal just achieved at the U.N. climate summit in Paris is carried out. Although a robust commitment by participating nations to curb future carbon emissions will certainly help speed the transition, the necessary preconditions — political will, investment capital, and technological momentum — are already in place to drive the renewable revolution forward. Lending a hand to this transformation will be a sharp and continuing reduction in the cost of renewable energy, making it increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), between now and 2040 global investments in renewable power capacity will total $7 trillion, accounting for 60% of all power plant investment.”
One way to stop global warming cold written by nictels: “But its relevance here is simply that it reminded me of the well established correlation: cold temperatures imply a greater abundance of beige fat, which implies a higher basal metabolism, which implies more calories burned. So exposure to cold is one key to losing weight. Now, we’ve all been exposed to fewer and fewer cold days over the last sixty odd years. And as we all know, this has coincided with a period in which obesity has become epidemic in the good old US of A. Now as a sober reader of Nature, of course, I have no idea how much of that epidemic is attributable to the warmer climate; or even whether the amount of its contribution is measurable. But dammit, those are mere numerical details. The American public isn’t interested in higher mathematics. And the direction of the climate’s influence on body weight is irrefutable science. It is time for us to get the word out! Americans do not care, or at least so far have not cared, about the devastating effects of global warming on vanishing species, vanishing polar habitat, vanishing Sisland nations, or future generations. But we know what as a nation we do obsess about. And politicians will no longer be able to resist the pressure to battle climate change once the truth sinks in to Oprah watchers from sea to shining sea: Global Warming Makes You Fat!”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
GrubHub Says No More Shark Fin Soup written by pmustain: “Today, we celebrate a huge step towards protecting sharks, many of which are threatened with extinction. Grubhub, the popular online food delivery service, has banned the sale of shark fin products through its website and subsidiaries. It is joining the ranks of other companies like UPS and Marriott in rejecting the trade and transport of shark fins, and is the first food delivery service to take a stand for sharks. Shark fin soup may not be everyone’s first seafood choice. But internationally, and especially in some Asian countries, the dish is a status symbol, and a single bowl can sell for up to $300. Shark finning, the practice of cutting off the shark’s fins, is less palatable. Since only the fins are used in the dish, the rest of the shark is often wasted—mutilated and tossed overboard to bleed to death, starve, suffocate, or become prey. Mmm … shark fin soup.Oceana works to protect shark populations in our oceans, and is determined to end the destructive practice of shark finning, as well as the overfishing of threatened shark populations.”
Help an Urban Farm Make History and Move Toward a Greener Tomorrow written by Diana Somerville: ”Port Angeles, Washington—A dazzling variety of salad greens thrive year round in the cool and cloudy Pacific Northwest, nurtured by urban farmer, sculptor and teacher Maureen Wall. Her creative experiments in aquaponics—which combines growing plants in water (hydroponics) with aquaculture (raising fish in tanks)—may herald the future of food production. Edible plants with their roots water fertilized by the fish using no soil and only a tenth of the water conventional agriculture demands maximizes the amount of food you can grow in a small space. Wall’s innovation —using no electricity for light and heating—makes this green system even greener. Some fish thrive in cold water Three years ago Wall began raising cold water fish, not the conventional catfish or tilapia, in her tanks. ‘I knew delicious, high-value fish like Arctic char, sturgeon and trout all thrive in cold water. I live in Port Angeles, Washington—the home of cold water. So why waste energy to create an artificial environment for fish that won’t naturally thrive in the conditions we have?’ She’s now proven you can successfully raise cold water fish in an aquaponics operation.”
The High Country Orchid: Keeping It Alive written by Phoenix Rising: “In my first installment of this diary series, I focused on finding enough light for my first orchid growing attempt, and I introduced the the genus of moth orchids, Phalaenopsis — the first orchid you’re likely to encounter in a store, and probably the easiest to raise. My little table in my living room by the north-northeast facing picture window got me enough light (barely), and fortunately the living room is on a programmable thermostat, so my orchids weren’t going to die of extreme temperatures. The hard part remained…CHALLENGE 2. Orchids are kind of picky about watering. Most orchids that you can buy in a store are epiphytes — that is, they grow on trees. Some grow on rocks (lithophytes), and a very few are more traditional, terrestrial plants. Plants that grow on rocks and trees aren’t used to having a lot of moisture clinging to their roots. They want outstanding drainage and no standing water, but they need something to hold a bit of moisture near to them like they’d get from the bark of a tree. So what better way to plant them than in tree bark! This is how you’ll find most orchids potted for sale today. Most common orchid species take the same basic watering scheme: water thoroughly, drain, and let dry before watering again.”
Decolonizing Our Minds and Our Lands: Reviving Seeds, Culture, and African Strength written by Bev Bell and Simone Adler: “Recolonization is happening. There is a second scramble, not just in Africa, but across the global South. Corporations started it. We need to name and shame these corporations – Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, and the program promoting them, AGRA [A Green Revolution for Africa] – to take this battle to the next level.The wars [of conquest of Africa] have not actually ended – the artillery has just transformed into a different type against us farmers today. All of us are fighting. Organizing from the Grassroots, to the National, to the International. The problems we’re facing today can’t be solved by individuals. The way to fight the war is through a collective approach. The African Biodiversity Network is working to bring communities across Africa together and connect them to strengthen the grassroots. Communities are reviving their culture and their seeds, and forming local alliance which we call “communities of practice.” Then we connect these communities of practice at the local, national, and regional level, and they form active coalitions. This is why the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa formed, which consists of 13 networks collectively covering 40 of the 54 countries. We have huge strength. We can actually change farming, seeds, and culture en masse in Africa.”
Saturday Morning Garden Blogging: Winter in the Garden written by skohayes: “Good morning gardeners and welcome to the winter wonderland! Now that the garden is cleaned up nicely, and the dahlia tubers resting comfortably (I hope), it’s time to enjoy the holidays with family and friends and take a garden break. But winter in the garden certainly gives us photographers plenty of great photo opportunities, doesn’t it? [...] A snowstorm that looked like soapsuds from an overflowing washing machine.”
No, Bacon's Not Better Than Veggies for Climate written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “A newly released study is making headlines and causing some glib cheer in the deniersphere, as it purports that eating lettuce produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than bacon. Climate Depot posted the press release in full, and Bastach at the Daily Caller did his usual churnalism, rewriting the press release into a post. According to the study, a diet that reduces caloric intake reduces emissions. However, it also claims, that switching to USDA recommended food patterns, whether reducing caloric intake or not, increases emissions. The UK’s Independent actually sought out an independent expert for their coverage of this study, a researcher who has studied the link between meat consumption and emissions in the past. He found (like all of the other studies) that reducing meat intake does in fact reduces emissions and explains how this study reached its counterintuitive conclusion. This new study looks at caloric intake, instead of protein, the latter being the more common—and accurate—metric for comparison.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
End of the Petroleum Era? Zero-Emission Vehicles and the Electric Economy written by FrustratedProgressive: “A little more than a week ago, I posted a diary about Porsche setting up to build a long-range electric car to challenge Tesla's Model S. Today I have even bigger news to report. The International ZEV Alliance has used the COP21 meeting in Paris to set a very ambitious goal for reigning in emissions in the automotive sector. By 2050, they want all new vehicles sold in member states and countries. Eight US states are members of the Alliance, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Together they account for one-fourth of US light-duty vehicle sales. I applaud the Alliance for aiming high. Their goal goes beyond the usual power sector or economy-wide emission reduction plans, which usually call for 80% reductions by 2050. This announcement also comes at a time when the industry is actually doing very well improving fuel economy and reducing emissions.”
Trains in the Night - Late Bulletin written by xaxnar: “ England at least has one advantage the U.S. lacks — passenger trains that don’t have to share tracks with freights the way Amtrak has to in most of the U.S. They can afford to invest in higher speed equipment running on rails that can permit those speeds to be realized. At least the new transportation bill has some money for rail in it. Authorization for passenger rail is in the surface authorization for the first time. While the bill does far too little for truly making our system multimodal and making greater investments in more transportation options, it takes a positive step by bringing passenger rail into the larger surface transportation authorization for the first time ever. (This was typically passed as a standalone bill and Congress usually had little impetus for quick action.) Passenger rail will still have to go through the general appropriation process each year (getting started now for FY16, if you’ve been following along) to get their funding, but this positions it well for the long-term hope: including and funding passenger rail with guaranteed funds from a multimodal, 21st century transportation trust fund in the years ahead.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Bernie's Plans on Climate Change will Lea America Back to its Position as Global Leader written by EuroYankee: “I grew up in the 70’s when America was leading the world in green technology and environmentalism. The ozone layer was disappearing, and we solved the problem by leading the world in eliminating CFC’s. Jimmy Carter had a program under which homeowners would get a tax deduction for installing solar hearting panels on their roof. While in college I actually had a summer job selling these systems. They were very popular! And our President led by example as well: Carter installed solar heating panels on the roof of the White House. Under Carter, America started to move to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, and lead-free gasoline was introduced to work together with catalytic converters to lower the pollution caused by automobile exhaust. Then Ronald Reagan was elected. Almost on the first day, he ripped out the solar panels on the White House and set about getting America back into the fossil fuel camp. SUV’s were introduced, and the size of American cars swung to the other end of the size spectrum.”
Bernie Sanders Isn't Impressed By The Historic Climate Agreement written by sholmberg: “Parting ways with Hillary and a majority of the world, Bernie denounced the Historic Paris Climate Agreement. ‘While this is a step forward it goes nowhere near far enough. The planet is in crisis. We need bold action in the very near future and this does not provide that,” Sanders said in the statement. ‘In the United States we have a Republican Party which is much more interested in contributions from the fossil fuel industry than they care about the future of the planet. That is true all over the globe,’ he said. ‘We’ve got to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fight for national and international legislation that transforms our energy system away from fossil fuel as quickly as possible.’ [...] Bernie is not alone however. Thousands of activists took to the street to also denounce a deal they feel was no where near strong enough."
Bernie Sanders proposes his own plan to curb global warming written by DownstateDemocrat: “After an international agreement to curb man-made global warming was announced earlier today, Bernie Sanders unveiled his own plan to curb global warming, which goes further to protect the environment than the Paris Agreement does: Cut U.S. carbon pollution by 40 percent by 2030 and by over 80 percent by 2050 by putting a tax on carbon pollution, repealing fossil fuel subsidies and making massive investments in energy efficiency and clean, sustainable energy such as wind and solar power. • Create a Clean-Energy Workforce of 10 million good-paying jobs by creating a 100% clean energy system. Transitioning toward a completely nuclear-free clean energy system for electricity, heating, and transportation is not only possible and affordable it will create millions of good jobs, clean up our air and water, and decrease our dependence on foreign oil. • Return billions of dollars to consumers impacted by the transformation of our energy system and protect the most vulnerable communities in the country suffering the ravages of climate change.”
Karl Rove Thinks Climate Agreement is BS Because We'll All Be Dead by 2080 Anyway written by Th0rn: “Karl Rove seems to accept that climate change is real, and thinks the climate deal that was struck in Paris this weekend was a piddling effort because it sets no targets, and that therefore we'll all be dead from climate effects by the time the treaty concludes in 2080. But he thinks the REAL problem with the agreement is that now poor countries won't get to use cheap fossil fuels to power their economies. Wut? This was Bush's Brain? WALLACE: And we're back with our panel to discuss the climate deal. Karl, what's wrong with this agreement? And is there anything in it that's useful? ROVE: Well, two things. I was interested in the comment of Dr. James Hansen, sort of the high priest of global warning, who said it was B.S., because it didn't have targets. It calls for no new net emissions, that's the target, 2050 to 2080. We'll all be dead, and very few of the people who are sitting in Paris will be alive at that point, I suspect, when we hit the 2080.”
Do you believe Clinton is unaware of top fossil fuel donors? written by willinois: “Hillary Clinton’s opponents in the Democratic primary pledged to not take donations from the fossil fuel industry. It’s an appropriate response to the fossil fuel industry’s tremendous influence in Washington, despite their presenting a catastrophic threat to the future of civilization. When an Iowa voter asked Clinton to take the same pledge she dodged the question by saying, ‘I don’t know that I ever have. I’m not exactly one of their favorites.’ By the numbers, in fact, she is one of their favorites. Oil and gas companies have contributed more than $700,000 to Clinton’s campaigns throughout her political career, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2008, she was the seventh-largest recipient of oil and gas campaign cash in the entire Congress. Meanwhile, oil giant ExxonMobil has given at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation and $2 million to its event arm, called the Clinton Global Initiative, according to the Wall Street Journal. ExxonMobil has contributed $16.8 million to Vital Voices, a nonprofit that Clinton co-founded to empower women, the paper reported. ”
Environmental fear and loathing on the campaign trail, 1972 and 2015 written by joeknapp: “To my mind, it’s off base to downplay the importance of the Paris agreement by nitpicking specific clauses, like a blind man feeling an elephant. The elephant here is the rather momentous event that 195 nations have signed on the dotted line to finally address carbon pollution. To see how events might play out from here, consider an analogous situation, albeit on a binational rather than global scale, from 1972, [...] President Richard M. Nixon and Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau signed a joint agreement today to begin the large-scale job of cleaning up the Great Lakes, the world’s largest supply of fresh water. … At a signing ceremony here this morning, Mr. Nixon noted that in recent years "the quality of the Great Lakes' water has been declining, with ominous implications for 30 million Americans and seven million Canadians who live near their shores.’”
Paging Bernie Sanders: Free Trade Agreements and Spending Bill Just Screwed Us on Food Labeling written by Topical Solution: “I just opened an email I received, called the National Hog Farmer Weekly Wrap-up. Then, a fist reached from my computer screen and punched me in the gut. The email, citing the National Pork Producers Council, reports that the U.S. labeling laws requiring and relating to country-of-origin and other facts of animal handling, meat, fish, shellfish, and more, were repealed at least in part by passage today of the federal spending bill. The ‘COOL’ statute was challenged by Canada and Mexico with the World Trade Organization, and apparently the U.S., and those of us who believe that we are entitled to full disclosure about our food products, lost. So if President Obama talks about the successful U.S. defense of free-trade agreement challenges, and defends free-trade agreements despite the impact on U.S. laws and voter preferences, he really means that we should vote for Bernie Sanders.”
Trump Decisively Loses Scottish Wind Farm Battle written by ericlewis0: “From Think Progress: Donald Trump may be leading in the GOP primary polls in the U.S., but he just lost a major battle in the U.K. The billionaire businessman has been fighting to prevent the construction of a wind farm off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, since 2013. And on Wednesday, Britain’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Trump, who had argued in his lawsuit that the Scottish government’s approval of the 11-turbine farm was invalid. Trump has maintained that the wind farm, if constructed, would ruin the view of a luxury golf course he owns near the planned site of the farm. The Scottish government approved plans for the wind farm in 2013, and since then, Trump’s challenge had lost twice in Scottish courts.”
WI, NH, OH & NV-Sen: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D. OR) Wants These Climate Fighters In The Senate written by poopdogcomedy: “Received this e-mail from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D. OR): We’re at a tipping point in the climate fight. The world made critical progress in Paris with a historic agreement. The President’s Clean Power Plan is steering us in the right direction, and we’re pushing ahead with a plan to end fossil fuel extraction on our public lands and offshore waters. Will we take the next critical steps of keeping carbon-based fuels in the ground and igniting a clean power revolution? It’s only going to happen if we take back the Senate. Our goal is to raise $5000 for these progressive Climate Fighters by the end of the year. Chip in right now and let’s get it done! Russ Feingold, Maggie Hassan, Ted Strickland, and Catherine Cortez Masto are committed to the climate fight. Electing these proven progressive leaders will also mean “King Coal” Mitch McConnell no longer sets the agenda in the U.S. Senate.”
President Obama tells GOP an inconvenient truth on their climate change stance written by Egberto Willies: “President Obama gave a news conference on Friday in which he highlighted his accomplishments as President of the United States. He discussed climate change in detail. He pointed out that every step made in trying to cleanup the environment was met with cries that it would kill industry or destroy the economy. Instead, steady progress has always been made. ‘Every time we have made a decision,’ President Obama said. ‘You know what, we are going to have clean air. The predictions were, everything is going to fall apart. And lo and behold it turned out that American innovation makes getting clean air a lot less expensive than people expected and it happened a lot faster. When we made the decision that we would double fuel efficiency standards on cars, everybody said it's going to ruin the American auto industry. The American auto industry has been booming over the last couple of years.’”
MISCELLANY
Reimagine! Race, Poverty and the Environment written by kid oakland: “This holiday season is special for me, as this year I met my life partner, Christine, and I now make my home in San Ramon with Christine and her two daughters. (My handle now feels double off as I was a kid very, very long ago, and now I don’t live in Oakland anymore!) But I do have a connection to Oakland that I’d like to share with you this holiday season… :: I’m doing some work helping an Oakland-based, reader and community-supporter journal called Reimagine! Race, Poverty & the Environment, which has re-launched as an independent, subscription-based publication. Reimagine has been in existence for 25 years writing at the intersection of social, racial, climate, environmental and gender justice and is currently doing a fall/winter subscription drive. This fall’s issue, pictured above, entitled "Alive! Strategies for Transformation" features absolutely amazing writing including a new essay by Alicia Garza ‘Black Love-Resistance and Liberation,’ a report on the battle against coal at the Port of Oakland and a multi-essay report from Silicon Valley entitled ‘Silicon Valley: Renters, Riders and Workers.’ (Here’s a link to the table of contents for the Spring Issue.)”