OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
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 24,175 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.
Long-duration Mississippi River Flood event underway written by terrypinder: “Heavy rains from Christmas week have drained into the Mississippi, forcing it to rise substantially. This is a significant Mississippi River flood from about St. Louis southward. This flood will last well into January. I’ve constructed a chart based on this site so you can know when the flood crest will pass your location, if you live anywhere along the Mississippi all the way to its mouth at the Gulf. The full chart is at the link. [...] It is very likely the Army Corp will open a number of spillways above New Orleans metro to lower the flood crest as it passes the city, otherwise this crest will be on 1/20 at 17 feet. This is just the Mississippi. The Ohio and the Arkansas, both of which empty into the Mississippi, are also both in flood, cresting not until early next week.”
Virus Outbreak in Brazil linked to Babies with Tiny Brains could spread to Southern U.S. written by FishOutofWater: “The Zika virus that is terrifying expectant mothers in Brazil could spread to the southern United States. Brazilian health officials have reported 2,782 cases of very tiny heads, known as microcephaly, in newborns this year to date, five times more than 2010. The sudden increase in babies with tiny brains has expanded with the outbreak of the Zika virus, but scientists haven’t found out what is causing the microcephaly. Brazilian officials officially reported a direct link between Zika and microencepahly after Zika Virus was found on autopsy in the tissues of the tiny brain of the baby of an infected mother. How Zika might cause microcephaly is unknown, but expectant parents in Brazil are near panic. [...] Zika has spread rapidly in South America because the mosquito that carries the virus, Aedes aegypti, is well adapted to cities and warm humid tropical and subtropical environments. The natural range of this mosquito includes the southern United States. Yellow fever epidemics once reached the southern U.S. through this mosquito vector. Successful campaigns eliminated the vector and yellow fever epidemics ended in the south. The success against yellow fever led to the end of campaigns of mosquito control. Now Aedes aegypti is back.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Dawn Chorus: 'Yard' birds open thread written by matching mole: “Sorry for the delay bird fans, I’ve lost track of the days. Just a short diary of birds from the Sulphur Springs Valley in Southeastern Arizona from ten days ago. Most are from our property and thus ‘yard birds’ in a sense although a couple are from a few miles away.”
2015 Backyard Science Yardbird Race Tally #10 written by bwren: “Welcome to the 2015 Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race. This is the 10th and penultimate tally for 2015, and is the official place to post your sightings, ask for help, and brag as much as you wish. Here's what the race is all about: The Daily Kos Backyard Science Yardbird Race is a birding competition where, over the course of one year, participants strive to identify the most bird species - by sight and/or by sound - from the confines of their yards. Everyone is welcome - new birders, experienced birders, and anyone in between. We're a very supportive group and will help as much as we can. If you're not sure about an ID, just do your best to give us a good written description. Images, even mediocre ones, can be a great help, too. There are a number of categories, so that people who live in urban centers don't have to compete against others who have a lot of open space or waterfront views.”
The Daily Bucket: Aravaipa Canyon written by matching mole: “This is a view close to one of the best backyards I’ve ever had, if only briefly, in my life. Ms mole and I are fortunate to have friends who live in Aravaipa Canyon, an hour’s drive north of Tucson. It is one of the most amazing places I have been to in my life. Back in the 90s, when we lived in Phoenix, we would house sit for them fairly regularly, keeping an eye on the house and the sheep often staying for a week or two. [...] In the arid southwest water is all important. Rivers and streams that provide a regular and dependable supply of water allow for a tremendous amount of life that could not otherwise live in the area. This is also true for human beings and our great skill at diverting this water for our own uses has caused many of the major waterways of the southwest to become shadows of their former selves or run dry completely.”
Daily Bucket: Listen to the birds (no not their songs - their warnings) written by Besame: “Birds are telling us that climates are changing all over the world. It’s happening at your home to common birds as well as uncommon species. Both winter and summer ranges are affected and birds capable of shifting with climates won’t necessarily survive. The species must find their habitat in the area of newly suitable climate. If the climate required for the species is present, but the new area is a city and the bird requires forest or grassland, the species will not thrive. A new website explains how birds reveal on-going climate change consequences, what might occur in the near future, and how we can help mitigate these climate change impacts. Last autumn, The Audubon Society released a report on Birds and Climate Change based on three decades of citizen-science observations (such as the Christmas Bird Count) to define ‘climate suitability’ for 588 North American bird species (the US and Canada, not Mexico). They used internationally recognized greenhouse gas emissions scenarios to determine how each bird species’ range will expand, contract, and shift as a result of climate change in three time spans: 2020, 2050, and 2080. They summarized their primary findings as follows.”
Hatchery Salmon Counts Don’t Reflect High Ocean Abundance Estimates written by Dan Bacher: “National Marine Fisheries Service ocean abundance forecasts released in February, 2015 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’s a total of 1,075,800 salmon. Yet 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. The numbers of salmon that have been counted this fall dovetail with the spotty 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 by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) when it crafts the 2016 ocean and river seasons.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Blistering indictment of how media drops the ball in reporting on Climate Change and our politics written by Lefty Coaster: “Dean Baker ridicules how our timidly our media is handling Republican denier politicians, in what will probably grow to become the biggest media story of this century: Climate Change and its many faceted repercussions. Dean Baker is the Co-director, CEPR (The Center for Economic and Policy Research). Most people don't spend their days enmeshed in policy issues; they have jobs and lives. They rely on the media to let them know what is important. Unfortunately, this has generally not meant much coverage of global warming. The media have largely treated global warming as sort of a sidebar of interest to a narrow clientele, kind of like sailboat races. Contrast the coverage of global warming with the near wall-to-wall coverage of Ebola back in the fall of 2014, a disease that infected a total of three people in the United States. Or, take the current coverage of ISIS. If we envision a worst case scenario for ISIS, there are probably several thousand times as many lives being put at risk by global warming than will ever be threatened by ISIS. We got an excellent display of the media's ability to ignore global warming in the two presidential debates that took place immediately after the Paris climate talks. There was not a single question on global warming in either party's debate.”
Climate Change effects on the human mind written by don mikulecky: “Meanwhile we on the left deal with people as if their minds were some mythical rational system that feeds on facts and data. We tend to ignore what cognitive scientists like Lakoff have been finding out to be more and more true. (Note the circularity as I appeal to you as if you fit the rational model). The human mind deals with new sensory input by using what it already has stored in its memory. These unconscious associations between incoming and already processed information are not rational thought. The rational thought comes after the the new information has been processed using existing frames and memes. Rationalization is one of our biggest hidden thought processes. It is interesting that the right wing long ago accused the left of using a ‘politics of fear’ concerning man made Global Warming. They should know about this ploy since they have perfected it. As the Climate Change situation worsens, and it will do that fast and with cascading effects, the human mind’s capacity to deal with the trauma will be overwhelmed. With all those guns out there I can conger up a whole bunch of scary scenarios.”
A Climate To Talk About Climate written and drawn by Clay Jones:
Shhh ... when it comes to #weather/#climate links, nothing to be seen here (@WashingtonPost edition) written by A Siegel: “Shhh ... there is nothing to be seen here. Even with perhaps the nation's top political cartoonist on climate change, Tom Toles, and the excellent climate/energy/science reporting of the likes of Chris Mooney, article after article in The Washington Post discussing 'weird weather' in the DC area and elsewhere goes with nary a mention of climate change. See the 26 December front-page, above-the-fold article ‘White Hot Christmas: Some rejoice in D.C's record-setting warmth, but others are unnerved.’ Even as Washingtonians found themselves luxuriating in the steam bath that was Christmas 2015, even as decades of meteorological records were shattered, they could not help but feel out of sorts, as if they were indulging in something that was not quite right. The article tells us that DC saw ‘the highest Christmas [temperature] reading in more than 30 years’ amid ‘ever-toastier conditions’ yet, amid dozens of column inches, we hear of ‘end times’ and recipes for a warmer Christmas but the words ‘climate change’ don't appear.”
#Climate change has changed my (and your) backyard written by A Siegel: “It is late December and things are out-of-whack in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Roses and azaleas blooming in the garden with cut flowers adorning the dining room table. Lettuce emerging through the winter cover. We're ‘looking toward’ fresh salad from the garden for a New Year's brunch. Let me tell you: this is not normal. Actually, correction: this was not normal. Sadly, the garden is likely a sign of 'the new normal': weird weather, with new extremes of all types, amid a warming global ecosystem. Washington is warm -- record-setting warm. Even the cherry blossoms are confused, looking like mid-April rather than December. And, while it gets warm during the day, it isn't cooling at night.”
The Climes, They Are A-Changin’…written by SamuraiArtGuy: The mere fact that the ongoing process has been re-christened the more politically palatable “Climate Change” from the more challenging, but accurate “Global Warming” tells you exactly how ready the general political and business world is prepared to face this issue. But it is clear that the powers that be will never, EVER, let go of Economic Growth as a universal good. But anyone with any sort of grounding in any kind of reality-based science is well aware that infinite growth within a closed system is flatly impossible. And the Earth and her ecosystem is absolutely a closed system. The only thing coming in is micrometeorites and sunlight; and in all irony, sunlight is now a problem, since we’ve ignored and fouled up the delicate inter-connected balancing systems of the ecosystem.
Extreme Weather
North Atlantic storm to lash the UK, push temperatures at the North Pole 50 degrees above normal written by Pakalolo: “The same weather system that spawned devastating storms across a large swath of the country over the weekend is expected to ‘explode’ into a monstrous storm over Iceland by Wednesday. The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang notes that although big storms are common in the winter, this particular storm will bring a surge of heat with it pushing temperatures at the North Pole up to 50 degrees above normal. The storm will contribute more misery to recently flooded areas in the United Kingdom as well. By Wednesday morning, when the storm reaches Iceland and nears maximum strength, its minimum pressure is forecast to be near 923 mb, which would rank among the great storms of the North Atlantic. (Note: there is some uncertainty as to how much it will intensify. The European model only drops the minimum pressure to around 936 mb, which is strong but not that unusual). Winds of hurricane force are likely to span hundreds of miles in the North Atlantic.”
ENERGY
Nuclear, Coal, Oil and Gas
US oil prices reach parity with global prices, and then some, et al written by rjsigmund: “several times over the past year we warned that if the ban on exports of crude oil from the US was lifted, US oil prices would rise to the level of the international benchmark price, and we'd all end up paying higher prices for all the oil based products we use...at most of those times, US prices had been averaging between $5 and $10 less than global prices, which would have indicated a 10% to 20% increase from the $50 dollar a barrel oil we were then seeing...what we certainly didn't expect is that both US and international prices would be near $35 a barrel when that parity was reached, and that it would come about as international oil prices crashed, instead of while US prices were rising, but that's what happened this week ...”
Dawn of the Atomic Age: The First Nuclear Reactor written by Lenny Flank: “In December 1942, the Atomic Age began, in secret, in a racquetball court under the bleachers of an un-used football stadium in the middle of Chicago. It was here, as part of the Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb, that a team of physicists put together the first nuclear reactor and produced the first self-sustained fission chain reaction. [...] By 1941, Fermi was ready to begin construction of a working reactor. Although some of his colleagues were alarmed at the potential results of an accidental runaway reaction, Fermi was so confident in his calculations that he boldly planned to build his reactor right there at the University of Chicago, in the middle of one of the largest and most densely-inhabited cities in the world. In the frantic race to build The Bomb before the Nazis did, such risks were considered to be acceptable. The reactor (or "atomic pile" as it was then called) was given the designation CP-1 (for ‘Chicago Pile Number One’). Since no one had built a nuclear reactor before, nobody knew which geometry was best. The original plans called for a giant sphere, but later calculations showed that this was larger than would actually be needed. So the design was changed to a cube of 24 feet per side. The reactor was, literally, a pile. It was made by alternating solid layers of graphite bricks over layers of uranium metal and/or uranium oxide pellets placed between graphite bricks. The long control rods were inserted through the lattice from the back. As construction went on, more calculations determined that the full cube wasn't needed either, so the top half of the pile was sloped inwards to form a dome, giving the finished reactor a shape like a beehive. The completed construction contained 40,000 graphite bricks and 5 tons of uranium pellets, arranged in 57 layers.”
"Miracle of American Oil": Continental Resources Courted Corporate Media to Sell Oil Exports written by Steve Horn: “A document published by the Public Relations Society of America, discovered by DeSmog, reveals that from the onset of its public relations campaign, the oil industry courted mainstream media reporters to help it sell the idea of lifting the ban on crude oil exports to the American public and policymakers. Calling its campaign the ‘Miracle of American Oil,’ the successful PR effort to push for Congress and the White House to lift the oil exports ban was spearheaded by Continental Resources, a company known as the ‘King of the Bakken’ shale oil basin and founded by Harold Hamm. Hamm served as energy advisor to 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The campaign launched on December 16, 2013, the 40th anniversary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo, and won the prestigious PRSA Silver Anvil Award. According to the document, submitted to PRSA to detail the logistics and reach of the PR effort, it was ‘designed to influence public policy and/or affect legislation, regulations, political activities or candidacies — at the local, state or federal government levels.’”
TRADE AND ECO-RELATED FOREIGN POLICY
Big Oil Argued for U.S. Crude Exports to Fend Off Iran, But First Exporter Vitol Group Also Exported written by Steve Horn: “The American Petroleum Institute (API) successfully lobbied for an end to the 40-year ban on exporting U.S.-produced crude oil in part by making a geopolitical argument: Iran and Russia have the ability to export their oil, so why not unleash America What API never mentioned — nor the politicians parroting its talking points — is that many of its member companies maintain ongoing business ties with both Russia and Iran. And The Vitol Group, the first company set to export U.S. crude after the lifting of the ban (in a tanker destined for Switzerland), has or had its own ties to both U.S. geopolitical rivals. In short, The Vitol Group is the most powerful oil and gas company you've likely never heard of, and one the Telegraph (UK) said ‘pulls the levers of the global economy.’”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Millions of trees, some of the oldest on the planet, are in dire need due to California's drought written by Walter Einenkel: “Since 2011 around 58 million large trees in California have been experiencing severe canopy water loss, according to researchers from the Carnegie Institution. Their new approach revealed a progressive loss of water in California's forest canopies over the four-year span. Mapping changes in canopy water content tells scientists when trees are under drought stress and greatly aids in predicting which trees are at greatest death and fire risk. ‘California relies on its forests for water provisioning and carbon storage, as well as timber products, tourism, and recreation, so they are tremendously important ecologically, economically, and culturally,’ Asner explained. ‘The drought put the forests in tremendous peril, a situation that may cause long-term changes in ecosystems that could impact animal habitats and biodiversity.’ The hopes of this new research, as with most scientific endeavors, is to get the word out and hopefully figure out ways to help ameliorate the damage being caused.”
NBC Promotes Desert Destruction written by hogly wogly: “Who needs ISIS when we have NBC and Redbull? I lived in Riverside, California, years back. At that time, the surrounding cliffs and rocks were breathtaking. One day I noticed something very wrong. The areas of natural beauty were looking more like industrial sites. Ugly paths were torn into the rocks. These eroded with each rainfall. Hordes of dirt bike riders were using the rocks as their playground. Everywhere you went in the desert, you found unsightly erosion and destruction. In a few short years, the cliffs were decimated to dirt piles of eyesores. I wrote a letter to the local paper, but the press is right wing. I then shot a documentary for the local station. Bikers were all over, They were actually tearing into protected desert land, like the Mojave Desert. Running over endangered Desert Tortoises. Pilots said that from the air, it looked like the desert had been swarmed by insects. Eventually, we moved east, and I felt that surely some of the environmental organizations would take up the cause. The ‘Redball Signature Series’ on NBC a few days ago put that fantasy to rest.”
ECO-ESSAYS & PROPOSALS
The Ongoing Environmental Disaster Currently Not Making The Headlines written by xaxnar: “The LA Times has a horror story that’s been going on since Oct. 23, when a Southern California Gas Co. natural gas well began leaking uncontrollably. The rate of leakage is estimated at 110,000 pounds an hour. That’s 55 tons, or the equivalent of 55,000 of these being emptied out every hour. It’s not burning, which is why it probably hasn’t gotten more coverage in the news, but 1,700 homes have been evacuated so far. Rents in the Porter Ranch area are going up as people try to find housing — while still having to pay rent, mortgages, etc. on their homes in the affected zone around the well. It’s not just the fire risk — it’s also the other chemicals mixed in with the leak, including the rotten egg smell of hydrogen sulfide. The gas company estimates it could take another 3 months to seal the well. The Environmental Defense Fund has video of the plume, made visible by using a camera that sees in the infrared range.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
The High Country Orchid: Getting Serious written by Phoenix Rising: “In the first installment of this series I talked a bit about lighting, and introduced the genus Phalaenopsis — the moth orchids. In the second installment I wrote about watering orchids, and introduced the genus Paphiopedilum — the Asian lady slipper orchids.My little table in my north-facing picture window was doing okay, but it wasn’t going to serve me for much longer. I had two problems coming up to hit my new-found habit hard: the lack of light, and the addition of a cat to our family. [...] As I mentioned in my last diary, I wanted variety from my orchids, and soon I found myself purchasing orchids that required more light than I had available. I was also running out of space on my little table. And though I love my cat dearly, she liked to nibble on the leaves of the newest orchids I had purchased. I needed an indoor growing room both to protect the plants from the cat, and to provide a more controlled and happy environment for my growing orchid collection.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
The five ways Big Oil and WSPA have captured California politics written by Dan Bacher: “The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) is not a household name in California, but it should be. It’s the trade association for the oil industry and the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in the state. It represents a who’s who of oil companies ranging from Chevron to Occidental Petroleum. The companies that WSPA represents account for the bulk of petroleum exploration, production, refining, transportation and marketing in the five western states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. (www.wspa.org) WSPA and Big Oil wield their power 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media.”
Clinton to Republicans on climate change: Not a scientist? 'Go talk to one' written by Kerry Eleveld: “Hillary Clinton has some sage advice for all those Republicans who claim they don't have the scientific expertise to address issues of climate change. Caitlin MacNeal reports: Clinton noted that when asked if human activity contributes to climate change, many Republican lawmakers respond by saying, ‘I'm not a scientist.’ ‘The answer to that is, “Go talk to one,” ‘Clinton said. The former Secretary of State said that lawmakers need to stop letting politics get in the way of policy to address climate change, criticizing Republicans who ‘are under the thumb of the fossil fuel industry, and in particular the Koch brothers.’ Wow, novel. Apparently, it's okay to seek the advice of experts on everything from the economy to education to the military, but when it comes to climate change, no can do!”
MISCELLANY
The Inoculation Project 12/27/2015: Fuel Cells & Girl Engineers written by belinda ridgewood: “Project: Fossil Fuels for the Future! Resources: 6 Saltwater Fuel-Cell Car, 1 Salt Water Fuel Cell Monster Truck [...] My Project: Powered by saltwater, these fuel-cell cars provide a low-cost introduction to alternative energy sources. No batteries required to introduce students to clean energy! The transparent case allows students to see the rhythm of the piston in vertical or horizontal position. In small teams, my students will be able to experiment with salt-to-water ratios for various effects on performance of their vehicle as they explore alternatives to the use of fossil fuels!”