See Lefty Coaster’s post below on the fires in Western Australia.
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 24,260 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
Brilliant Must-Read Article at Slate on Oregon Occupation - And the Media written by xaxnar: Joshua Keating has put together a brilliant piece of writing on the standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. If It Happened There: Armed Rebel Faction Occupies Government Building does two things. Through word choices and descriptive phrasing, it frames the occupation as the U.S. Media would report it if it took place in another country. This puts an entirely different slant on the situation, breaking it out of the standard tropes the press relies on. As such, it’s like getting a whole new view of what’s going on. It’s an antidote to automatically pigeon-holing the story into the habitual categories, almost forcing a fresh look at it. Rather, the latest incident is rooted in a long-running conflict between pastoralist tribal groups and the central government. These tribes believe the traditional way of life they have practiced for centuries is under threat from a government that restricts their right to graze their herds of cattle where they please. While the latest standoff is related to a case involving another pastoralist family, the Hammonds, setting fire to forests owned by the government to acquire more grazing land, it likely reflects large prevailing anxieties among a portion of the citizenry over economic development, political centralization, and globalization. Experts believe conflicts over grazing land may only become more common and intensify thanks to the changing weather patterns caused by climate change. The second thing it does is reveal by contrast, how news reporting too often filters and slants stories in a way that trivializes them and obscures the larger import.”
US Food Waste Reduction Goals written by jkozma: “I thought this September 16, 2015 news release from the USDA, USDA and EPA Join with Private Sector, Charitable Organizations to Set Nation's First Food Waste Reduction Goals, might be of interest, so I first checked to see whether there's a tag for foodwaste. (There is-- click here). Though they don't mention the USDA news release, there are a couple of recent diaries on the topic. A general web search turned up Food Waste in America - An Update, by Robocop, which may have gotten more views if it included more relevant tags. Facilitating more relevant tagging for Daily Kos diaries might be something worth looking into, but for now, I'll just post a few of my thoughts on food waste and the USDA initiative. There are quite a few interesting facts in the USDA news release about food waste: Food loss and waste in the United States accounts for approximately 31 percent--or 133 billion pounds--of the overall food supply available to retailers and consumers and has far-reaching impacts on food security, resource conservation and climate change. Food loss and waste is single largest component of disposed U.S. municipal solid waste, and accounts for a significant portion of U.S. methane emissions. Landfills are the third largest source of methane in the United States. Furthermore, experts have projected that reducing food losses by just 15 percent would provide enough food for more than 25 million Americans every year, helping to sharply reduce incidences of food insecurity for millions.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
The Daily Bucket - winter waves & tides on the Olympic Peninsula written by OceanDiver: “We make an annual pilgrimage out to the ocean in winter to revel in the vitality of waves and wilderness. Unlike the inland sea, the ocean here roars and rattles the beach stones, spraying salty mist high, and tossing huge driftwood onto beaches. We go no matter what the weather or tide will be ...the unpredictable nature of the ocean is part of the attraction. We hike the same beaches but they are different every year. I love the waves. These have traveled thousands of miles across the Pacific gathering energy that is finally released onto the solid shore, lifting and churning the local water, which erodes and moves anything it touches. It’s infinitely dynamically beautiful. Every wave — and its effect — is unique. I’ll share a sampling of waves from our trip last week. This year the high tides were in the early afternoon, and they were pretty high, being just past the full moon. That makes it a bit problematic hiking down the beaches. Rialto Beach was completely unwalkable for a while, big waves crashing right up into the driftwood. Mr O contemplates the possibilities in the photo [below].”
Daily Bucket: Naples Beach written by Lenny Flank: “It’s been a while since I was at the ocean. So here are some photos from a walk at Naples Beach in Florida.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
The Farce Awakens: Deniers dispute 2015’s record heat written by ClimateDenierRoundup: “In an attempt to get out ahead of the joint NOAA/NASA press conference on January 20—at which time the organizations are expected to announce that 2015 was the hottest year on record—Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama in Huntsville has published a blog post that attempts to contradicts the anticipated announcement. You might remember Spencer from his racist comparison of the Paris climate talks to a Native American pow wow, or for referring to those who use the term ‘deniers’ as ‘Nazis.’ Spencer's latest piece employs the old denier tactic of using satellite temperature data instead of data from the global surface thermometer data to talk about global temperature. Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail and Daily Caller have picked up the piece. The UK tabloid’s headline states that, ‘2015 may NOT have been the hottest year on record after all,’ while the Daily Caller says that, “2015 wasn’t even close to being the hottest year on record." According to Spencer, 2015 was only the third hottest year, behind 1998 and 2010. As legitimate media sources start reporting on the reliable thermometer record showing 2015 as a record-hot year, we can expect deniers to push back with the satellite data. But that puts them in the uncomfortable position of admitting that, even according to this problematic data, the three hottest years have occurred since 1998, which doesn’t exactly support the position that there's been no warming.”
Extreme Weather, Natural Phenomena & Natural Disasters
Record Warmth and Rain to come to the Northeast written by Skywrnchsr509: “2 Low pressure systems are set to effect the Northeast by the end of this weekend with some heavy rains soaking much of the area through Sunday and snow and ice falling in some locations. Strong winds and potentially record breaking warm temperatures will accompany these systems starting tonight in Western Pennsylvania and New York and concluding Monday morning for Northern Maine with the exception of Lake Effect Snow Showers that will remain on the Northwesterly winds.”
Enormous fire in West Australia swallows small town and threatens two larger towns written by Lefty Coaster: “An enormous fire burning mostly in West Australia’s Darling Range engulfed the town Yaloop destroying the homes of its 500 residents. It’s threatening two larger nearby towns Waroona to it’s north, and Harvey to its south. [...] Tonight an emergency warning remains in place for Waroona, Harvey and surrounding areas, including Preston Beach, Lake Clifton and Myalup. The full extent of the losses in Yaloop, which are likely to run into the tens of millions of dollars, are yet to be assessed but the buildings damaged include the hotel, post office and town hall. Residents who remained in the town last night to defend their properties from the firestorm were due to be evacuated to Pinjarra early this afternoon.”
Freaky Weather: North Pole is melting on Dec 30, 2015 written by Churchill.
ENERGY
Nuclear, Coal, Oil and Gas
Porter Ranch residents tell Air Quality Board to shut down Aliso Ranch Storage Facility written by Dan Bacher: “Under increasing political pressure from environmentalists, public health advocates and Porter Ranch residents, Governor Jerry Brown on January 6 issued an order declaring a state of emergency in the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak disaster that started on October 23. Porter Ranch residents will rally Saturday before a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing to demand an immediate shutdown of the facility. Many consider the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak to be the worst disaster of its kind since the BP Horizon Oil Spill of 2010. [...] Granada Hills, Los Angeles — As a noxious gas blowout detected 77 days ago continues unabated in their community, residents of Porter Ranch will rally Saturday before a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing to demand an immediate shutdown of the facility. Hundreds of residents are expected to turn out to testify that an AQMD-stipulated Order of Abatement negotiated with SoCalGas over the massive leak at its Aliso Canyon Storage Facility falls short of what is necessary to protect residents’ health and property, and the climate, from this ongoing disaster and from future leaks. Residents will urge the Hearing Board amend the Order for Abatement to include the shut down of the facility.”
Fracking
Oklahoma has had 30 earthquakes reported in the last 19 hours written by Walter Einenkel: “Oklahoma has had some considerable seismic activity the last few years. It has led to the closing of fracking wastewater wells throughout the state. Last night, a 4.7-magnitude quake, followed seconds later by a 4.8-magnitude quake, woke a few people up. The 4.8-magnitude quake was the strongest in the Sooner State since the November 2011 swarm that included the state's strongest on record, a 5.6-magnitude temblor in Prague on Nov. 6, 2011. It was the fourth strongest quake on record in Oklahoma, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey (OGS). This was one of 30 separate earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater reported in Oklahoma within a 19-hour span from Wednesday evening through early Thursday afternoon. Twenty-seven of those, including the two strongest quakes mentioned above, were clustered in southern Woods County. Two others were reported in the far northern Oklahoma City metropolitan area east-northeast of Edmond, and a third occurred around midday Thursday near Perry in north-central Oklahoma.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Pricing
Saving the world one state at a time: existing carbon-pricing schemes in North America written by Fake Irishman: “With the Paris climate accord in place, now comes the hard work of actually implementing emissions reductions goals to, well, save civilization. There are many, moving parts to making this work; one of the largest set of which involve putting an accurate price on emitting carbon. There are two major ways to do this: cap-and-trade program, and a direct carbon tax. Cap and Trade sets a total cap on emissions for regulated sectors then lets entities purchase emissions credits they can cash in for their emissions or sell on a secondary market if they don't exceed their cuts. Carbon taxes, in contrast, directly place a levy on carbon emissions from regulated sources. Both have their supporters and detractors, and I'm not going to wade into that debate here (personally, I'd support a well-designed plan of either). Follow me below the fold for a brief look at the carbon-pricing landscape in North America.”
Renewables & Conservation
German Spiegel Magazine Ranks U.S. as one of the World's Future Energy Superpowers. Thanks Obama! written by Lawrence: “The German Spiegel Magazine has a fascinating, informative article up that details the transformative ongoing and future shift of the global power structure in energy generation. The main thesis of the article states that traditional, big fossil energy superpowers will see a massive decline in influence while those countries that lead in clean tech innovation and massively build out their renewable energy and clean tech infrastructure will see huge benefits. They rank the U.S. as the world’s #2 future energy superpower, behind India, and predict a serious decline in power and influence for traditional energy export countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia. Google translate does a fairly good job of translating the entire article, but I will also provide a more precise translation for the section pertaining to the U.S.”
Nevada's PUC has just killed residential solar written by IWatch4U: “It wasn't until 2010 that residential solar panels were feasible for most consumers because even with Nevada and Federal rebates it would costly financial outlay. A new business model appeared in Nevada with Residential Solar Panel leases. This allowed a home owner to reduce there electric bill approximately 20% and have the maintainence done by the lessor with little or no upfront costs to the homeowner. Large Solar installation companies came into Nevada as this made economical sense to the Nevada residential consumer. In 2013 Nevada Power was bought by Warren Buffet and he expressed his continued support for renewable energy. In early part of 2015 it became aware that the residential cap would be breached in a very short time. Nevada legislature was heavly lobbied by NVPOWER to not increase the caps. So they Nevada legislature did nothing and stated they would leave this up to the PUC. The PUC 3 members are all appointed by the governor and the chairman of the PUC name is David Noble who is also reported to be against solar panels and is only supportive of geothermal production. The PUC Not only just rejected the cap increase they also enacted a new rate structure for net metering by slashing over five years the price paid for excess power generated. They also implemented a 15 minute demand fee during peak time. New a grid use rate that increases over 5 years as well. Surprising everyone the 17,000 existing solar residential users weren't even grandfathered as is normal when changes take place.”
NEXTGEN Climate America Report Projects NH Job Growth Through Clean Energy Investment written by NH LABOR NEWS: “As we begin 2016, a brand new economic report released by NextGen Climate America is giving New Hampshire a glimpse into the clean energy future –and the economic prosperity that it will bring to Granite Starters from Manchester to Colebrook. As further detailed in Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, efforts to cut carbon pollution and expand clean energy resources will create thousands of jobs in New Hampshire, increase Granite Staters’ household disposable incomes and help stimulate massive growth within the state’s economy. Among the report’s key findings was the groundbreaking revelation that a clean energy economy will Create up to 8,000 additional New Hampshire jobs by 2030 and 15,000 new jobs by 2050; boost New Hampshire’s economy by over $1 billion by 2030 and over $2 billion by 2050; and increase New Hampshire families’ household disposable income by over $500 in 2030.”
Pipelines & Other Oil Transport
Opposing The Kinder-Morgan Pipeline Does Not Make Me Anti-Union written by Matt Murray via NH Labor News: “Richard Kinder, CEO of Kinder-Morgan, has a history of supporting anti-union politicians. Recently I have been taking a lot of flak from some of my union brothers for my staunch opposition to the Kinder-Morgan Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline. People have accused me – a union member, labor activist, and the creator and managing editor of the New Hampshire Labor News – of somehow being anti-union because I will not support the pipeline, even though it is backed by some unions. Let me be very clear: it is not anti-union to oppose a construction project just because a union worker would be hired to complete the job. I support union workers and I have built the NH Labor News to help promote the positive message of labor. I have been against the NED pipeline since its inception, just as I was against the Keystone XL pipeline. The newly-signed agreement to use union labor to construct the NED pipeline is not going to sway my opposition. It is my belief that we should be moving away from fossil fuels and rebuilding our energy infrastructure with new, more efficient, renewable energy.”
TransCanada is suing the U.S. government for over $15 Billion over Keystone XL Pipeline written by smaylone: Robert Reich: “TransCanada, the giant Canadian energy corporation headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, is suing the U.S. government for more than $15 billion for denying the company’s permit to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. How, you may ask, can a foreign country sue the U.S. for making a domestic decision to protect the environment? Because of a provision inside the North American Free Trade Act allowing Canadian and Mexican companies to take action against the U.S. if any of our regulations causes those companies to lose potential profits. Neither I nor anyone else who was present when NAFTA was negotiated recalls how this provision was slipped into the deal. But a much larger version of it appears in the pending Trans Pacific Partnership – representing nearly 40 percent of the global economy -- allowing companies from any of the nations that sign on to the TPP to sue governments if health, safety, environmental, or other regulations result in lost profits.”
Why the Keystone XL loss is not our responsibility written by TheTransplant: “I want to talk about why the losses that TransCanada have incurred over their failure to obtain the necessary approval is not caused by the American public, and our objections to their route. TransCanada is being deceitful when they claim that the president’s veto is the reason they have suffered billions of dollars in losses, since the sole responsibility for those losses lie at the feet of the CEO of the company who made a series of bad decisions that he now wants the American taxpayer to reimburse the company for. Let’s look at the issue state by state, because as you see, the pipeline traverses the entire United States, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.”
POPULATION, SUSTAINABILITY & EXTINCTION
The Overpopulation Problem written by DaveWicks: “My premise is that the biggest problem facing us now and in the future is over-population. I say this because population pressures exacerbate most of our other problems. This includes air and water pollution, lack of water, disease, food production, the health of our oceans, species extinction, global warming or climate change (whichever you prefer), and many others. I will be making the assumption that all of the earth’s resources may be committed to the support of humans to the exclusion of other species. This is a short- sighted point of view because many other species ensure that our environment is livable for humans. Think about the production of oxygen from carbon dioxide by trees that aren’t cut for lumber. But, nevertheless, for the purposes of this discussion, that is my assumption.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
The Daily bucket: Drought, What Drought? written by RonK: “As many of the readers know, the West as well as other parts of the world has experienced significant drought this past few years and particularly this past year. Washington State and the Pacific Northwest were no exception. Its usual watershed, the mountain snow-pack, was at a long time low over the past summer. This low reserve was not from lack of precipitation per se which was close to normal State wide. Rather, it was due to warmer temperatures such that much of the winter precipitation fell as rain which in turn melted what snow was there. Many people are ascribing these warmer temperatures and the resultant drought to the early effects of climate change. But, is this so? Was this lack of significant snow pack that typically fills our reservoirs and rivers due to climate change and global warming? This diary takes a look at the drought and its possible causes.”
Governor Brown's budget DOES include $3.6 million for Delta Tunnels written by Dan Bacher: “In a media teleconference today, three Brown administration officials claimed that no money in the $122.6 billion General Fund budget for 2016-17 unveiled by Governor Jerry Brown at the State Capitol would be used to implement the Delta Tunnels under the ‘California Water Fix.’ In response to a reporter’s question about whether any budget money would be used for the Delta Tunnels, John Laird, California Natural Resources Secretary said, ‘California Eco Restore has been separated from the California Water Fix,’ the conveyance plan. Likewise, Mark Cowin, Director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), affirmed, ‘There’s no money in the budget to advance the study of the California Water Fix or tunnels as you call it. Those activities are funded entirely by the state and federal water project contractors that benefit from the project.’ [...] However, Restore the Delta (RTD) disagreed strongly with administration officials’ contentions that no budget money would be used to fund the controversial conveyance project, pointing out the budget released today does include $3.6 million for the Delta Tunnels (California Water Fix).”
TRADE AND ECO-RELATED FOREIGN POLICY
Lifted Oil Export Ban Will be Huge for U.S. written by harryreardon: “The United States has finally lifted a ban on oil exports that was put in place in the mid-1970s. While there were, and still are, opponents of this decision, most believe the choice to lift this restricting embargo will ultimately prove to be a monumental and successful decision in U.S. history. The only question is, how exactly will this affect the economy, Middle East, and oil and gas industries? For years, conservative politicians have called for a lift on the oil export embargo that’s been in place for more than 40 years. Most recently, presidential hopeful Jeb Bush announced his plans to lead a charge that would ease restrictions amidst an unstable domestic business climate. ‘More domestic energy leads to more jobs, higher wages, lower gas prices, and smaller electricity bills,’ wrote Bush this past September. ‘In short, it means more money in people’s pockets, allowing them more freedom to make more choices for themselves and their children.’”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS & OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Hammond, Bundy, the Wise Use Movement, and what this is really about written by gjohnsit: “The current armed stand-off at Malheur National Forest in Oregon has been mostly put into the context of a right-wing militia against federal authorities. However, this spin ignores the 30-year old fundamental ideological conflict that has gotten us to this point known as the astro-turfed Wise Use Movement. For instance, Hammond and his son, Stephen, are scheduled to return to jail for setting huge fires on public land, but largely left off the news reports is how far this goes back. It’s important context that Hammond has been at war with the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and federal authorities going back to the 1970s and that he was arrested in the early 1990s for blocking a fence being built on the Refuge border. These incidents were well before the 2001 arson, for which they were convicted and for which Hammond and son are now in prison. Thus the Hammonds became hero/martyrs of the Wise Use Movement more than 20 years ago. [...] What we are seeing is a recycling of the same old libertarian argument that was being spun in the early 90's. There are many complicated rationalizations behind the Wise Use Movement, most of them sound like conspiracy theories, but what they inevitably come down to is the unshakable faith that private ownership is always better than public ownership. No exceptions. This is the central idea that must be addressed.”
The ladies of the Oregon standoff record themselves talking about Daily Kos bird watchers written by Jen Hayden: “You may have seen Daily Kos user Norwegian Chef’s recent diary ‘Warning from the Birding Community to the Terrorists in Oregon: We're Watching You.’ Well, you weren’t the only ones. The ladies of the Oregon standoff gathered around the back of an SUV where Deb from the Pete Santilli Show (who’s alternately “press” and a self-appointed spokesman for the ragtag Y’All Qaeda group) had a livestream set-up to watch the Idaho 3%-ers roll into the parking lot to meet with the Bundy crew. The Santilli live stream captured the ladies talking about recent media reports, including the Norwegian Chef’s bird watching story. ”
Y'all Qaeda's occupation is f-king up the community and the conservation of the wildlife refuge written by Walter Einenkel: “By now you have heard about this ragtag bunch of patriots-who-love-beards who have decided to illegally squat on federal land in some perverted attempt at achieving freedom from the tyranny of our government. This is the same government many of these guys get free stuff from. So while they record private testimonials (with all of the histrionics of a 14-year-old theater kid), get drunk and steal money, and lie about their military credentials—the essential work of maintaining the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge … for worthwhile wildlife, is not getting done. Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, hopes the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by a militia group concludes before the explosion of life in April, when some three hundred bird species arrive to nest and forage. ‘This refuge is one of the most important in the United States — it’s one of the crown jewels,’ Sallinger said. ‘It needs to get back to the business of managing birds and restoring habitat.’ What’s at stake here is the 15-year management plan being collaborated on by many local groups.”
Militia Insurrections, Fourth Generation Warfare, and the Billionaires' Land Grab written by drscaminaci: “The first background strategy of the Christian Right and its armed wing, the Patriot militia, is Fourth Generation Warfare. The central objective of Fourth Generation Warfare—a strategy and type of warfare developed by the Christian Right’s leading political-military theorist, William S. Lind, formerly the director of Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation, in two U.S. Marine Corps Gazette articles (1989 and 1994)—is for a non-state actor to contest and undermine the legitimacy of the central government, in this case, the federal government, while also contesting and removing the central state’s monopoly on the use of force through the formation of its militias. The second background strategy is the transfer of hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands containing hundreds of trillions of dollars of mineral wealth owned by the American people, first to western states who lack the financial and expertise resources to manage these lands, and subsequently to the gas, oil, coal, precious metal mining, and timber companies, and individual billionaires.”
Stop The Bundys: Don't Steal OUR Public Land written by Homers24: “Please sign and help promote this White House .gov petition to force the Obama Administration to enforce the laws and protect our federal lands.”
Paiute tribal chair: 'Don’t tell me any of these ranchers came across the Bering Strait' written by Meteor Blades: “As the media continue spotlighting the armed extremists occupying the federal headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, their complaints about federal government “over-reach,” and their demands that the feds “give the land back,” members of another group say that if there were to be any giveback, they ought to be first in line. They are the Burns Paiute Tribe, descendants of the people the U.S. Army under Gen. George Crook starved and murdered into submission in the 1860s in a successful effort to confine them to a 1.8 million-acre reservation. This was later reduced to the 1,000 or so acres where the 420-member tribe is now headquartered. The Paiute leaders are profoundly irked by the occupiers’ demands. Amanda Peacher reports: ‘Armed protesters don’t belong here. By their actions, they are endangering one of our sacred sites,’ said tribal Chair Charlotte Rodrique. Rodrique said she told a friend she was offended by the militants’ notion that they could return the refuge lands to their rightful owners. ‘I’m sitting here trying to write an acceptance letter for when they return all this land to us,’ Rodrique said.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
After ISIS Battles, Libya's Largest Oil Terminal Erupts In Fire With Poisonous Carbon Plumes written by Pakalolo: “This is not what our overheated planet needs. A battle between ISIS and Petroleum Facilities Guards caused this massive fire on Libya's Mediterranean Coast. Islamic State has never had control of any oil installations in this war torn country. This mission was quite aggressive but ultimately unsuccessful. NASA’s Earth Observatory images can be found here [...] Reuters reports: Three days of Islamic State attacks on Libya's biggest oil terminals have started fires that have spread to five massive oil storage tanks, a guards spokesman said on Wednesday. Ali al-Hassi said the Petroleum Facilities Guards were still in control of the neighboring ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, where at least nine guards were killed and more than 40 injured near the ports' perimeters on Monday and Tuesday. Hassi said guards had recovered bodies of 30 Islamic State fighters, and had captured two military tanks and other vehicles from the militants.”
How to help the people of Flint written by ShoshannaD: “As pretty much everyone knows by now, the city of Flint is in crisis. Their water is toxic and is poisoning the citizens and most devasating of course the children of Flint. The Rachel Maddow show, and we (former and current) Michiganders owe her a debt of gratitude, has covered this extensively. If you want more information about the issue itself, please go to her site or the many other articles about this. While some action has been taken about this crisis, the people of Flint still need clean water now. Her show has put together a list of ways you can help which I have linked [here]. Also, of course, please feel free to add any links or info you choose.”
Republican Cuts Poison: How Michigan's Governor Poisoned a Whole City to Save Some Cash written by ealtieri: “Governor Snyder was just following the classic Republican mantra of ‘all budget cuts are good cuts’ when he broke Flint away from Detroit's water system in 2014 to save an estimated $15 million a year. He pursued this plan while ignoring reports that showed Flint’s water would likely be contaminated with lead and unsafe for drinking. But, like any ‘good’ Republican, the governor decided that the risk of poisoning an entire city was a small price to pay in order to save some money. Now, the health and well-being of all the city's residents are in severe jeopardy. That's why the Agenda Project Action Fund has just released the third installment of our ‘Republican Cuts…’ campaign, Republican Cuts Poison. This online ad comes in the wake of a state of public health emergency being declared in Flint over the city’s ongoing water crisis. The ad is being distributed in partnership with our friends at Progress Michigan.”
Flint Michigan Water Crisis - They Really Aren't Very Smart written by commander ogg: “The unfolding investigation into the poisoning of Flint Michigan’s water supply (you are the best Dr. Maddow) seems to confirm what most of us Liberals already new about the majority of Conservative Politicians. 1. They are ruthless, ambitious and have no loyalty beyond their own self-interest (even for other conservatives). 2. They view Government and taxpayer money as a source of income. 3. They do not care if they break the law as long as they do not break Heinlein’s 11th Commandment. 4. They are NOT VERY SMART. The last bullet point is capitalized because it is the most puzzling aspect of this entire disaster unfolding in Flynt: nobody who achieves a position as the Chief executive of a state could be that stupid. Could they?”
ECO-ESSAYS & PROPOSALS
Systems science and climate change ala NASA written by don mikulecky: “Systems science is the opposite of reductionism. They are both valid ways of studying nature but reductionism does little to help us understand complex systems and often leads us astray. NASA uses systems science to study Earth as an integrated system. Earth system science is the study of how scientific data stemming from various fields of research, such as the atmosphere, oceans, land ice and others, fit together to form the current picture of our changing climate. Climate scientists separate factors that affect climate change into three categories: forcings, feedbacks, and tipping points. You will note that their systems approach incorporates a bit of reductionism in order to study the system but with full knowledge of the possible problems from this. We need to be aware of the tipping points for they are usually points of no return.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
175 More Reasons to Avoid Processed Food written by Robocop: “Most of us are aware of the dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA), which is found in most food wrappers and tin cans. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has stated that BPA can cause “altered development of the brain, causing behavioral abnormalities and earlier onset puberty, [and] reproductive abnormalities such as lower sperm counts, hormonal changes [and] enlarged prostate glands.” These conclusions are based on animal studies, but the NRDC says that “more than 90 percent of the general population has BPA in their bodies, at levels close to those which have been shown to cause harm in animals.” A recent study by the Food Packaging Forum, which is blocked by a paywall, shows that an additional 175 hazardous chemicals are routinely used in food packaging. Food packaging that is in contact with food continuously release these chemicals into food which are then consumed. The fact that these chemicals are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproductive procedures apparently doesn’t stop industry from using them or cause our government, at least, from banning them.”
USDA Calls for Limiting Sugar Intake - Industry groups call guidelines "bad science" written by tblock46: “Just one day after the USDA announced new guidelines urging Americans to limit their intake of added sugar, industry organizations called the guidelines misleading and based on bad science, according to Reuters. Characterizing the USDA’s actions a ‘war on sugar,’ there was almost unanimous disagreement from sugar producers, trade associations and soft-drink manufacturers. The Sugar Association, which represents sugar companies, criticized the guidelines, saying they were based on ‘weak science.’ In a statement, a spokesperson for the association, Candace Cloying, said, ‘Clearly this is weak science concocted by the same discredited scientists who have been pushing the completely unproven climate change hoax.’ Cloying went on to say, ‘When is the government going to get smart and start hiring scientists who can look at the statistics objectively and come back with research that supports our agenda?’”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Senator Snowball likes Rubio as GOP Nominee written by Climate Coach: “He told the Tulsa World, Rubio, ‘is the one I really do like. The reason I say that is he’s so knowledgeable,’ Inhofe said. ‘I’d love to see him in a debate with Hillary (Clinton) just for my own personal entertainment.’ If Inhofe thinks Rubio is 'so knowledgeable,' that must mean Rubio is as bad on climate as Inhofe himself. After all, climate change is Inhofe's signature issue; he is one of the world's leading voices denying the existence of climate change. For those thinking Rubio is somehow more moderate on climate than other GOP candidates, look at the man who is close to endorsing Rubio's candidacy, the reigning king of climate denial.”