Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the most recent previous Green Spotlight. More than 25,335 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
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Why Do the Kochs Want To Hide Donations From The IRS? The Answer WON’T Surprise You! “On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives passed a ‘Koch-backed bill’ which would hide the names of those who donate to non-profits that are tax-exempt from the IRS. Some are concerned that this would allow foreign interests to illegally influence elections and politics in the US. A more local concern is that it would allow even more unlimited spending by the Kochs and others, and remove the one way we have of tracing their donations. Case in point: Graham Readfearn’s latest piece in DeSmog has tracked some of the millions of dollars in funding that keep the conservative media ecosystem alive. The sister ‘dark money ATM’ organizations of Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, for example, have given at least $6.8 million to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. And the Kochs have obviously spread some money around, so it's clear exactly why they want to be able to hide their funding streams from the IRS (and of course, the public).”
Pakalolo writes—River of ice discovered beneath Antarctica's Larsen C ice shelf. Antarctica CO2 hit 400 ppm: “ ‘Similar to syrup, warm ice flows more readily than cold ice.’ Bryn Hubbard. Larsen C ice shelf is in big trouble which means all of us are in big trouble. A disintegrating ice shelf will not raise sea level by very much. But once the shelf that buttresses the glaciers on the continent is gone, the glacial ice can rapidly enter the ocean, raising sea level. It is that ice which will flood our coastal cities. There has been catastrophic breakup events at Larsen A ice shelf which collapsed in 1995 and Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. Larsen C, which is larger than New Hampshire and Vermont combined, is next in line to crack up geographically. A team led by Prof Bryn Hubbard, director of the Centre for Glaciology at Aberystwyth University in Wales, released a research paper describing how a recently discovered river of solid ice under the Larsen C ice shelf could be speeding up the flow of ice to the ocean.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
ChrisTS writes—Injured Raptor Problem: “There is a juvenile, but very large, eagle with an injured wing down at the end of our pond. I have been frantically calling every resource I can find to get help for it. However, the only wildlife rescue place near us will not come to get it. Instead, their website says to call them for instructions specifically for safely capturing raptors. I called, but no one is answering. So, I don’t know what to do. This bird has enormous talons and a vicious looking beak, and it is very unhappy. I’m 64, arthritic, and the distance between the bird and my car is about 200 yards (mostly uphill). I also don’t have anything large enough to transport it in (without a fight over the entry). Does anyone here at DK have any advice/knowledge about such a rescue?”
Desert Scientist writes—Trees: “Trees are by their nature somewhat subjective in definition because some species that are normally ‘trees’ can be ‘shrubs’ and vice-versa. But then nature does not have to follow our classification systems. Some plant families (for example the Solanaceae or nightshade family) are normally herbaceous (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco, petunias, nightshade and sacred datura), but also contain a few tree species (the so-called potato tree of the American tropics.) Others that are usually trees (the Fagaceae or beech family) have shrubby members, such as shinnery oak. However, as one who spent a lot of time in shinnery oak ‘forests’ I can testify that even a few of these can reach tree status, dwarfing their nearby conspecifics. The very tallest trees — the redwoods, Australian gum trees, Douglas fir and others — reach over 300 feet in height, or close to and above 100 meters! A shrub is usually defined as a woody plant shorter than 20 feet, or 6 meters, although this gets a bit tricky at the high end. Botanists puzzled for years as to the mechanism trees used to transport water and nutrients to their upper trunks and branches against the pull of gravity, but this seems to have been solved (See: www.scientificamerican.com/....)”
JDWolverton writes—Don't Feed the Alligators! “No, I’m not going to say please. Don’t feed the alligators. It’s illegal to feed alligators in Florida. Gators and hurricanes are part of living in Florida. We may joke about it, but when it comes down to it, Florida takes real gators seriously. Oh sure, the gator is our official reptile and the UF Gatorsare a serious group of sports teams and who doesn’t know about Gatorade? The cutsey press gators get in Florida can give our visitors the wrong idea. Alligators are natural, deadly predators. They are not smart animals as a raccoon can outsmart a female and raid her nest for eggs, but sometimes the wild animal raiding an alligator nest dies in the attempt. Alligators are territorial and cunning. Their behavior is instinctual, not learned. We should not forget that Florida is a subtropical jungle with both beauty and deadliness. Please enjoy the beauty, but respect the deadly.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - bees, butterflies & babies: “Bumblebees were climbing all the way into the foxglove blossoms. The only time I could catch a photo of both together was when a bee was on approach, since they disappear inside. [...] Why the name? Fairies were thought to wear these flowers on their fingers. The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the flowers resembling the finger of a glove. It was originally Folksglove - the glove of the 'good folk' or fairies, whose favourite haunts were supposed to be in the deep hollows and woody dells, where the Foxglove delights to grow. Folksglove is one of its oldest names, and is mentioned in a list of plants in the time of Edward III. Its Norwegian name, Revbielde (Foxbell), is the only foreign one that alludes to the Fox, though there is a northern legend that bad fairies gave these blossoms to the fox that he might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled among the roosts. The earliest known form of the word is the Anglo-Saxon foxes glofa (the glove of the fox).”
RonK writes—The Daily bucket: Sea Star Recovery in Bellingham Bay – A good news – bad news cruise: “Early June, Bellingham Bay, Salish Sea. Along with OD, I have been monitoring the local sea star (Pisaster ochraceus) population following the devastating die-off from Wasting Syndrome over that past three years. As previously discussed, some pathogen and/or processes that are as yet not fully understood, have quite literally melted into goo upwards of 90% of west coast sea stars ranging from Baja California to Alaska. [...] Buoyed by ODs bucket on 6/03/16, I took a walk at a seasonally low tide (- 2.3’) to my usual sea star observing areas just a short way down the hill from my house. I found only two adult sea stars in the area in which just two weeks prior, I’d found 15. Although I didn’t see these small numbers as catastrophic or even necessarily bad, it was a bit concerning. [...] My conclusion after only a 3 hour cruise which I will illustrate, is that ‘yes,’ sea stars certainly do seem to be returning and in some places to what appears to be to pre-wasting syndrome numbers. This observation is also consistent with Oregon State University scientists monitoring on the Oregon Coast. A cursory count of stars just from just the photos I took showed about 250, most in clumps of 10 to 20. I saw at least an equal number that I did not photograph.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Walter Einenkel writes—ExxonMobil is suing a second U.S. attorney general: “ExxonMobil is going after the country’s attorneys general in the hopes of blocking further investigation into what they did and did not know concerning the science of climate change. They’ve already sued Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker to this end. InsideClimateNews is reporting that they are moving ahead with another lawsuit trying to stem the exposure of information. The company filed a complaint in federal district court in Fort Worth on Wednesday against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Her office subpoenaed Exxon records going back 40 years in an investigation of whether the company committed consumer or securities fraud by misrepresenting its knowledge of climate change. [...] In its lawsuit, Exxon said the Massachusetts investigation under consumer and securities fraud statutes is ‘nothing more than a weak pretext for an unlawful exercise of government power to further political objectives.’ The attorney general is ‘abusing the power of government to silence a speaker she disfavors,’ according to the lawsuit.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Mass Attorney General Issues Exxon-Related Subpoenas: “It’s been a little while since we’ve covered the #ExxonKnew investigations, so here’s something new: Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has issued civil investigative demands for Exxon’s communications with some think tanks and activists organizations, including Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity. She’s asking for 40 years worth of internal communications, according a copy of the subpoena-like request obtained by the denier’s favorite ‘reporter,’ Michael Bastasch at the Daily Caller, whose headline boasts of this “EXCLUSIVE” get. (The Hill had the story published within ten minutes of this supposed “exclusive.” And less than an hour after the Daily Caller story's publication, Politico PRO had the story, and even included links to the documents. Unlike Bastasch though, other coverage informs readers that ExxonMobil has filed an injunction against Healey’s investigation, which is the real story.) As per usual, even with this ‘exclusive,’ Bastasch gets key facts wrong. He says, ‘there’s a huge problem with Healey’s subpoena that shows just how broad this investigation has become’ and claims that Americans for Prosperity and Beacon Hill Institute have never gotten money from ExxonMobil.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Walter Einenkel writes—Keep your hands off our water! Small town in Pennsylvania beats Nestlé: “Pennsylvania, not unlike many states in the Union, is fighting a multi-pronged attack on their public water. Whether Pennsylvanians are trying to keep their drinking water from being contaminated by fracking operators, or just trying to stop bottling companies from privatizing public water, they have their hands full. Kunkletown, Pennsylvania has earned a small victory in one of those battlefields. Eric Andreaus, a hydrogeologist and spokesperson for Nestlé Waters North America, stood up during a monthly Eldred Township meeting in Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, on June 8, 2016, and announced that Nestlé was abandoning its plans to extract 73 million gallons of water per year from the local aquifer for its bottled water business. Sitting in the crowd with the other members of the public was Donna Diehl, a local school bus driver and one of the community organizers who had been helping lead the fight against Nestlé's proposal for over a year. She, like most everyone else who attended the meeting, was shocked. ‘They were going through the agenda, and [the] Nestlé water issue came up. All of us were surprised when Eric stood up to speak, and at first I was wondering where he was going with it. Then the last sentence came,’ Diehl told Truthout.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees writes—Sierra Club & Heritage Action Both Supported This Amendment to the Defense Bill...And It Passed: ”The House took roll call votes on 26 amendments to the FY 2016 defense appropriations bill. For the most part, the good ones failed and the bad ones passed. But it’s good to highlight examples of when a good amendment actually manages to secure a winning bipartisan coalition. That was the case with an amendment offered by Jared Huffman (CA-02) and Tom McClintock (CA-04) to strike a congressional earmark from the bill that would spend millions of dollars to ship Pennsylvania coal over 3,000 miles to American military bases in Germany. [...] The amendment attracted a “strange bedfellows” coalition of environmental groups, conservative anti-spending groups, government accountability groups, and anti-war groups ...”
ENERGY
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Steve Horn writes—TransMexico: Keystone XL Owner Wins Bid For Underwater Gas Pipeline Across Gulf of Mexico: “TransCanada, owner of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline currently being contested in federal court and in front of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) legal panel, has won a $2.1 billion joint venture bid with Sempra Energy for a pipeline to shuttle gas obtained from hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale basin across the Gulf of Mexico and into Mexico. The 500 mile long Sur de Texas Tuxpan pipeline, as reported on previously by DeSmog, is part of an extensive pipeline empire TransCanada is building from the U.S. to Mexico. The pipeline network is longer than the currently operating southern leg of the Keystone pipeline (now dubbed the Gulf Coast Pipeline). Unlike Keystone XL, though, these piecemeal pipeline section bid wins have garnered little media attention or scrutiny beyond the business and financial press. The Sur de Texas-Tuxpan proposed pipeline route avoids the drug cartel violence-laden border city of Matamoros by halting at Brownsville and then going underwater across the U.S.-Mexico border to Tuxpan. After it navigates the 500-mile long journey, Sur de Texas-Tuxpan will flood Mexico's energy grid with gas under a 25-year service contract. That energy grid, thanks to the efforts of the U.S. State Department under then-Secretary of State and current Democratic Party presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, has been privatized under constitutional amendments passed in 2013.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
Mary Anne Hitt writes—In Detroit, a Victory for Clean Air and Environmental Justice: “We’ve just taken a big step forward toward correcting a major environmental injustice in this country. After 5 years of advocacy led by local residents in the City of River Rouge, just outside Detroit, the local utility announced it will retire coal plants in the community that operate without modern pollution controls and are a major contributor to the area’s sky-high rates of asthma. I traveled to the area three times over the past year, and my heart was broken by stories of mothers who lost their children to asthma attacks, school kids leaving soccer fields in ambulances, and regulators who for decades had failed these families. But community leaders were standing up and fighting back, targeting two coal plants without scrubbers that were the source of the lion’s share of smog-forming pollution in the area. It was a fight that garnered national media attention, including a Newsweek cover story with the scathing title, ‘Choking to Death in Detroit: Flint Isn’t Michigan's Only Disaster.’ Then last week, Detroit Edison (DTE) announced it plans to close three of its coal-burning power plants, including the two near River Rouge, which currently account for 25% of its power generation.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
pumaconcolor writes—The GMO Elephant in the Room: Who OWNS that Frankenfish you will catch? ”There has been a lot of discussion regarding GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) plants and animals lately especially relative to their health safety as use for food. Admittedly, these issues are of extreme importance. Modifying plants for heavier doses of herbicides not only have safety concerns for farm workers but also for consumers of foods containing the herbicide residues. Plants modified to produce their own insecticides are even more troubling in that before we could wash off the insecticides but now these chemicals are embedded in every cell of the food we would eat. However, as troubling and dangerous these and more issues are regarding health safety, the one issue that seems to be not getting the attention it should is…ownership of the food. With significantly pro-industry decisions, courts in both the U.S. and Canada, and likely other countries, have legalized the patenting and thus ownership of food plants and animals that has been genetically modified, including the seeds and offspring these plants and animals produce. The implications of the ownership of food by the companies that modify them has already started to manifest itself.”
estreya writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging, Vol. 12.25: Birds, Bees and Peonies … “I wasn't born into a family of gardeners. For the most part, my father worked the land alone, mowing and trimming, spraying and clipping, lighting the caterpillar tents on fire. The grounds were always immaculately maintained, with varying shades of green and brown that coalesced like living sculptures around the house. As lovely as it was, there were very few flowers planted to color up the landscape. Except for the peonies. I remember the peonies - outrageous globes of petal-pink that stood like sentinels at the top of the stone steps. This past week, i brought a collection of potted peonies home from the garden center. I guess i was in the mood for something that connected me to the past. And the fact that a clump of peonies can live for 100 years or more is a notion that really appeals to me. Looking around, i'm actually not sure where i'll plant my new peonies. I read it's best to plant them in the fall, so there's plenty of time to think about it. Meanwhile, the pots will live on the stoop where i can dote and protect, making sure the summer drought doesn't get the better of them …”