This is the 502nd edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the May 27 Green Spotlight. More than 26,975 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
HarrisonBeck writes—Why Pulling Out of the Paris Accord is Misguided and Uneconomical: “Two years ago, I travelled to Paris to research and witness the making of the Paris Climate Agreement. I returned from that trip and published this article to express how fearful I was regarding the agreement’s capacity to adequately address the very near and massive impacts of climate change. I am now, ironically, with the White House threatening to pull out of the Paris Accord, compelled to defend the agreement’s merits. With the President promising a decision to either stay in or retreat from the Paris Agreement within the next few days, we shouldn’t just be thinking about how detrimental doing so would be for our country’s capacity to function internationally, as it would isolate the United States in a real and powerful way from nearly every major ally it has. Nor should we be dwelling solely on how bad retreating from negotiations would be for our national security, leaving our coastlines, our farmlands, our national parks, and many of our neighbors and allies in serious risk and dooming many of the world’s most war-torn regions to violence inducing droughts, famines, and floods. We shouldn’t dwell, either, on just how terrible doing this would be for the poorest and most marginalized across the world. After all, the worst impacts of climate change—forced migration and displacement, major storms, flash floods, and famines, impact those already on the margins of our economies. Struggling farmers, impoverished women, the elderly, children, especially orphans, the mentally ill, the sick, and the poor are those without the means of adequately reacting to the impacts of climate change and will be the casualties of the White House’ decision. Rather, while the President and his cabinet weighs backing out of the Paris Climate Accord, we should take special consideration for how detrimental this decision would be for the American economy, realizing that the President’s agenda, whether agreeable or not, is predicated on the betterment and the expansion of that American economy.
Dan Bacher writes—The Epic Battle Between Big Oil and the People of California: “On Thirteenth Street in front of the Sacramento Convention Center where the Democratic Convention was being held on May 20, a group of activists held a mock ‘tug of war’ between the people of California and the oil industry for the loyalty of Governor Jerry Brown. On the left, people pulled an activist wearing a giant papier mache Jerry Brown ‘head’ towards them with the rope. Then others representing oil industry executives, dressed in white shirts and gray ties right next to a big oil barrel emblazoned with “Big Oil $,” tugged ‘Jerry Brown’ in their direction. The ‘tug of war’ took place for around 20 minutes, with neither side winning. The skit depicted the contradiction between Jerry Brown the ‘climate leader,’ who appeals to his Democratic base by preaching against climate change and for green energy, and the other guy, ‘Big Oil Brown,’ who supports the expansion of fracking in California and the construction of the Delta Tunnels — and has received millions in contributions from the oil and energy industries.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
6412093 writes—The Daily Bucket--Gaia Giveth a Little, and Taketh Away Plenty: “We had a Star Jasmine for ten years. It was about eight feet tall and I’d finally trained it to climb up the beam and onto the pergola’s roof. I often sat down on the other side of it and watched the frogs and tadpoles in Pear Pond. Sometimes I felt that when I brushed past the Jasmine and sat down, I’d passed into another world where it was just me and the critters in the pond. Last Winter we got five years’ worth of snow in one month, the coldest winter in almost 40 years, and a years’ worth of rain in six months. I think the Jasmine drowned. Dang, I regretted losing a mature plant that I’d trimmed and trained to climb, and that I’d sat beside while obsessing about the tadpoles in front of me. Like many fanatic gardeners, I figured a plant disaster was just an opportunity, so I am replanting two Star Jasmines.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: X is For...”Welcome to the twenty-fourth entry in our Backyard Science ‘Alphabet’ series. Today’s Bucket is brought to you by the letter ‘X’. (Cracks knuckles.) We got a tough one this week! [...] Horseshoe Crab part of the Order Xiphosura of which the Horseshoe Crabs are the only remaining extant species.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Widening Our Horizons: “Another abstract Bucket entry. Been “grayed in” for most of a week here in Philadelphia so the title is both a reference to my hopes for local weather and what I think is one of the main purposes of The Daily Bucket.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - evening cruise: “We chose to take our most recent cruise out to the Rocks in the evening, after looking at the tide forecast. With the recent extreme high and low tides, the tidal currents are running too strongly for our boat to make headway through these local channels. Slack tide was at 7:30pm so we went out after supper this time for a change. The sun doesn’t set until 9pm….plenty of time for a cruise, especially in calm water. It was a peaceful excursion and interesting to see how different things look as dusk approaches. With the sun at our back, there’s still a lot of light, casting long shadows. Birds were settling in for the night. [...] Quite a few sealions were out fishing. Sonetimes they work as a group directing fish for capture. The golden fur coats of Stellers glow in evening light.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
alixpippin writes—Paris Climate Petition: Tell Trump His Anti-environment Tweets Aren't US Law. alixpippin: “Hey, I got so angry at those Trump tweets with his cavalier disregard for the future of the planet— of any future but his own— I started a petition at whitehouse.gov. Believe it or not, Trump hasn’t gotten rid of this site yet, where citizens can post petitions and vote on them. (The most popular petitions are about impeaching him. :) I started this petition to support rather than withdraw from the global accord on mitigating climate change. This is a White House petition, so that the White House "must review it" if it gets enough signatures. Sign and share, if you're of a mind! A withdrawal should not happen on whim and without scientific and public discussion.”
Pakalolo writes—Axios scoop: Trump tells confidants U.S. will quit Paris climate deal: “A new Axios report published today states that Trump has already decided that he will, against all indisputable scientific facts and the will of the American people, will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. This is not much of a surprise. Trump has denied that climate change is caused by human activities for a long time because of Putin, because of big oil and the bigly dollars he, his family and his fossil fuel donors can profit from. When will complicity in mass extermination from the planetary catastrophe that is climate change be treated as the crime that it is? [...] Reports from Brussels reveal that the G7 discussion on climate change had been ‘very unsatisfactory,’ adding ‘we have a situation of six against one.’ That ‘one’ is our own, not wrapped very tight, Donald ‘take the oil’ Trump.”
Mark Sumner writes—Trump to withdraw from Paris climate agreement: “Barack Obama worked furiously to get the accord passed, approved, and to the current stage. Even industrial leaders in the United States have informed Donald Trump that the agreement doesn’t represent a burden, but provides much-needed targets and a sense of certainty about future requirements. European leaders made a desperate effort to persuade Trump of the unprecedented unity and literally life-saving scope represented by the agreement. So of course … President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, CBS News White House Correspondent Major Garrett confirms. Trump has also talked about “re-negotiating” the agreement, a work that was the result of more than a decade of global meetings, proposals and adjustments. A work which has been signed by 195 UN members and ratified by 147 national governments.”
Hammerhand writes—Elon Musk Is Having None Of It, Threatens To Quit Trump If US Pulls Out From Paris Climate Deal: “From WaPo: Tesla chief executive Elon Musk threatened Wednesday to resign his position as an adviser to President Trump if the United States withdraws from the Paris climate deal, a remark that highlights Trump's precarious position in a high-stakes international standoff. [...] Good for you Mr Musk. Many of us weren’t quite pleased when we learned you’d be part of that clown show, but this is showing you're taking it all too seriously. And literally the only people in the world who disagree with you/us are American Republicans. Unfortunately those Neanderthals control the White House and both houses of congress. No convincing them, or their minions.”
Aldous J. Pennyfarthing writes—It's a great day to remember this perfectly insane Trump quote on hairspray and the environment: “[T]o those of you who held out hope that Trump might be coached up on climate science enough to see reason — well, recall this perfectly insane quote from the campaign trail: ‘You know you’re not allowed to use hairspray anymore because it affects the ozone, you know that, right? I said, you mean to tell me, 'cause you know hairspray’s not like it used to be, it used to be real good. … Today you put the hairspray on, it’s good for 12 minutes, right. … So if I take hairspray and I spray it in my apartment, which is all sealed, you’re telling me that affects the ozone layer? I say no way folks. No way. No way. That’s like a lot of the rules and regulations you people have in the mines, right, it’s the same kind of stuff.’ Believe it or not, Trump is wrong about this. So give Trump a little credit: He took an issue that was of paramount concern to himself and Vidal Sassoon and used it to leverage the justified angst and rage of tens of thousands of Appalachian coal miners. There's a certain political deftness — even genius — to this, but that doesn't make Trump any less crazy either.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Trump’s got one hand in his pocket, and another one pulling out of Paris: “So while all we really want is to talk about this amazing Intercept investigation into how Dakota Access protesters were treated like terrorists by a private security firm working in tandem with government law enforcement, instead it’s time for yet another round of Paris pontification. And of course the pontification pun is intentional, given the Pope’s attempt to convert Trump by giving him a copy of the Papal Encyclical on the environment. But since the tract is full of eloquent writing and not graphs and maps, it’s probably not going to make much of an impact. Fortunately, the same goes for the Paris pull-out crowd, who’s busy drumming up pieces like this WSJ op-ed attempting to debunk the business case for Paris. But as you oughta know, and a handy Axios chart demonstrates, ‘most major corporations’ are on the pro-Paris side.”
boatsie writes—Trump en quittant Accord de Paris? A swing and a miss to stop climate and clean energy progress: “Nicaragua, which contributes 0.03 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions, rejected the agreement because they didn’t believe it went far enough. ‘We’re not going to submit because voluntary responsibilities is a path to failure,’ according to Dr. Paul Oquist, Nicaragua’s representative to the 2015 talks in Paris. ’It’s a failed mechanism that’s leading us down the road to 3 degrees Celsius, 4 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees Celsius. It’s a mechanism to let the target float. It’s like if you have a fixed interest rate and a floating interest rate and this will float according to whatever comes out of the INDCs. We don’t want to be accomplices to taking the world to 3 degrees Celsius to 4 degrees Celsius and the death and destruction that that represents.’”
Angmar writes—Global average temperatures could pass 1.5C within the next decade [Report]. Via Carbon Brief: “’Global average temperatures could pass 1.5C above pre-industrial levels within the next decade, new projections suggest.’ The timing of when we actually hit the 1.5C threshold will depend heavily on a natural cycle in the Pacific Ocean, the study finds, which can either dampen or accelerate global temperature rise. The results suggest, on current trends, that warming is likely to reach 1.5C between 2026 and 2031, though it could be even earlier. This means that, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change due to publish its special report on 1.5C in 2018, global temperature rise might arrive at that milestone just eight years later.”
John Crapper writes—Dreaming Big In Memory of John F. Kennedy on His 100th Birthday: “Just as JFK set a goal of putting a man on the moon in 10 years, we can and should set an ambitious goal of major CO2 reduction in the next decade to tackle the problem of climate change. The Climate Mobilization’s “Victory Plan“ aims to detail how a fully mobilized United States government could drive our economy to net zero greenhouse gas emissions within a decade, restore a safe climate, end the sixth mass extinction, reverse ecological overshoot — and revitalize America, with 100% employment for all who want work. That plan outlines a myriad of steps that can and should be taken to help change our CO2 emission trajectory. I invite you to read it. It’s well worth the time! But in this article I’d like to focus on one specific idea on this 100th birthday remembrance of JFK not mentioned in the Victory Plan. I think it’s time this country considers a compulsory national public service program designed specifically to tackle climate change.
annieli writes—For ߷rump, the environment is just where he leaves his stuff:
m2c4 writes—Trump’s Withdrawal From Paris Agreement Again Puts US On Wrong Side Of History: “Even here is the United States. Trump’s decision will not significantly slow the inexorable movement toward renewable energy and cheaper natural gas solutions and the resulting shuttering of coal-fired plants. This is largely based on pure cost analyses but also a result of utilities planning for the future they know is coming. So, while Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will not change these trends, per se, other actions by the administration certainly would. One example is the report in the NY Times today that the Trump administration is considering removing subsidies for solar and wind power. Currently, government subsidies for wind power come to between $3 billion and $4 billion per year. At times of low energy demand and high production by wind farms, this actually allows the cost of wind energy to fall below zero. The Trump administration is apparently claiming that these subsidies undercut the competition from coal and nuclear power plants. The reality today, however, is that is the cheap cost of natural gas that is largely responsible for the problems in the coal and nuclear energy sector, as opposed to renewables.”
POLLUTION, TRASH, TOXINS & HAZARDOUS WASTE
rodwebber writes—Becoming a planet of trash: “We make so much garbage that there's a patch of trash in the middle of the ocean the size of Texas, called the Pacific garbage patch. Think about that. Texas is so big you can fit all of the original United States in it. And there's a mound of human trash the size of that just floating around between Hawaii and Japan--and sometimes it comes to make a little visit by California to visit its relatives in Hollywood. If you were a dolphin, what do you think to yourself when you see that thing come floating by? Bearing in mind that the average dolphin intellect is higher than that of the average high schooler and those dolphins could probably be making a couple extra bucks finishing your son's SATs if they weren't cursed with flippers and lived in the ocean with a freaking garbage patch the size of Texas chasing them around. There's garbage particles showing up in the salt now. The garbage patch has been floating around so long that the ocean has been breaking up all the plastic into microscopic pieces that are attaching themselves to the salt in the water. And then when they harvest the ocean for salt, there is plastic in the salt and we put it on dinner.”
CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
Activate Virginia writes—Backroom Endorsements from Virginia Sierra Club? “Last weekend, Sierra Club celebrated it's anniversary - 125 years of fighting to preserve and protect our environment. But here at home, we've become confused by our Sierra Club Virginia Chapter. We've learned that several weeks ago, under the radar, Sierra Club Virginia endorsed a set of candidates - all of whom are [House of Delegates] incumbents. It's reasonable that they'd endorse incumbents earlier than other candidates. But we find three details distressing: (1) Sierra Club Virginia endorsed Democratic incumbents David J. Toscano (HD 57) and Delegate Jeion Ward (HD 92), both of whom have primary challengers, without sending these challengers an endorsement questionnaire or engaging them on their policy views. Both of these challengers were thus excluded from the endorsement process, a reality that calls into question these endorsements themselves.”
ENERGY
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
Hariette Darling writes—US Loses On Green Energy As Developing World Gains: “There’s an ill wind blowing around the Department of Energy right now, and one thing is for sure, it’s not going to be converted into power. Because in the global arms race to come up with the next big thing in clean tech, President Donald Trump is putting down his weapons and declaring himself a conscientious objector. According to a draft budget document, the administration wants to cut the department’s renewable and energy efficiency program by nearly 70%. In real terms, this means that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) could lose around $1.45 billion from its $2.09 billion budget for 2017. This comes on top of Trump’s proposed reductions to the EPA and the complete dismantlement of Obama’s flagship Clean Power Plan. Clearly, Trump is driving his administration in one direction when it comes to environmental issues, and he certainly doesn’t care what is coming out of his exhaust. Clean energy is out and old energy is being welcomed back into the fold. This means that we are now living in a paradoxical reality in which the polluters of yesterday, such as China and India, and major fossil fuel producers like Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia, are now doing more to protect the environment than Washington.”
Meteor Blades writes—U.S. needs to accelerate growth in green jobs by treating climate change like the crisis of WWII: “In this era when every day can bring another profoundly disturbing bit of news about climate change, it’s easy to miss the good news about what’s being done to keep it from becoming worse than it could be. What’s happening in the world of clean, green energy is one of those bright spots. Not that the gains in this field will rescue us entirely from the impact of global warming, but they will make a difference if we can elect enough right-minded people to accelerate the energy transformation that’s already underway and push a transformation of agriculture and transportation at the same time. The good news comes from the International Renewable Energy Agency’s annual review of jobs and clean energy for 2017, which was released last week. That review found that in the United States there are now 800,000 clean energy jobs, more than 360,000 of those in solar and wind alone. Just the 51,000-job increase in wind jobs over the past three years is equal to the total number of U.S. coal-mining jobs.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS, OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
enhydra lutris writes—Happy Birthday Sierra Club -- Eastern Forests Move West: “On May 28, 1892, John Muir organized the Sierra Club in San Francisco. Now, 125 years later we find eastern forests moving West & North. There are no reports of Treebeard, however, and their march is exceedingly slow. From this article in the Christian Science Monitor: ‘Different species are responding to climate change differently,’ Songlin Fei, one of the authors of the study, told The Atlantic. "Most of the broad-leaf species – deciduous trees – are following moisture moving westward. The evergreen trees – the needle species – are primarily moving northward.’ There are exceptions, of course: The eastern pine has moved more than 80 miles west, while the eastern cottonwood has shifted 77 miles north, but the overall trends are clear. ‘I think it's important not to lose track of the finding that hardly any shifts were reported to the south,’ says Lookingbill. ‘These are not random processes going willy-nilly in all directions.’ Why? Are you ready? Climate change is the suspected reason, specifically shifts in moisture patterns. Introduced pests may also play a role.”
ECO-ACTION & ECO JUSTICE
MTmofo writes—Mercenaries provided surveillance info on DAPL protesters to client Energy Transfer Partners: “A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project. Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as ‘an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component’ and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters. One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement ‘generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.’”
Bev Bell writes—Gustavo Castro Witnessed the Murder of Berta Cáceres. That Means His Life Is in Danger: “In the face of silence from Washington, the Clinton-backed coup government in Honduras is mopping up activists for democracy and indigenous rights. Now Gustavo Castro Soto may also be framed as the murderer of his long-time friend. Mexico’s ambassador to Honduras, Dolores Jiménez, and Castro himself are worried that the Mexican national will be charged by the government for the killing, they told the National Commission of Human Rights of Honduras on March 16. [...] Castro — who, as the lone witness to the murder, is able to identify Cáceres’ killer — is an impediment to the plan that the Honduran government is clearly advancing, which is to pin the murder on members of the group which Cáceres founded and ran: the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations, or COPINH. So the fraudulently elected Honduran regime may dispense with Castro by charging and arresting him.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
montanafarmer writes— Farm Policy in the Trump Era: Another Perspective: “The largest farmers, as in any other business, have the most advantage (buying in bulk, spreading risk, making large volume profits off of small per-acre net returns, etc). This has allowed them to become larger, and larger, and larger over time, at the expense of both smaller producers and rural communities. I am not opposed to the largest farmers having to bear more risk on the largest of their acreages. In theory, a policy like this, if done correctly, would allow more folks who had the desire to farm, to do so. Agriculture has gone the way of technology, of manufacturing, of finance, etc., in that it has come to reward the largest (and thereby most efficient) producers, while necessarily making it harder for those at the small end of the spectrum to remain competitive, or even remain solvent. That cycle then repeats, another round of producers sells or rents out their ground, and on we go, larger and larger. The problem I have with this budget cut is, as you now know, not that it cuts the top end of crop insurance subsidies for the largest farmers. And it’s entirely possible that the number would need to be adjusted higher, as I’m not as familiar with what subsidies are paid into corn and soybean policies in the midwest. But a cap is not unreasonable. Capping subsidies is unreasonable if you turn around and give those dollars to defense contractors.”