EcoNoticiario # 5 covers a broad range of topics: health of forests and wetlands in Spain and Cuba, a whole range of environmental news from Colombia, the effects of drought, rising energy costs and volcanic eruptions in Chile, and the ongoing farmers' strike in Argentina.

[I have been writing about the Spanish water crisis in a separate series of diaries. For the latest news see my recent diary: Ten Things America Can Learn From Spain's Water Wars.]

Your environmental word of the week:

sequía-drought

[As always: All translations are mine.]

"Hope is a good thing - maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies"

Stephen King

The latest news suggests that the Lieberman-Warner Coal Subsidy Act (theClimate InSecurity Act, CISA) has moved from critical condition to the morgue.  As it will require 60 votes to get past any threatened filibuster (not that the Senate Democratic Party leadership could force a filibuster on anyone other than their own Senators fighting for Americans' privacy rights),  corraling enough Senators to vote for even the CISA's inadequate measures looks to be an impossible task.  

From the Wonk Room.

Yesterday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) chaired a hearing of the Environment and Public Works oversight subcommittee investigating the politicization of science at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The administration witness was Dr. George Gray, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Research and Development at the EPA. At the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) described Gray's misuse of the English language as "Alice in Wonderland," telling Dr. Gray, "You have tried to defend the indefensible and you have failed." Sen. Whitehouse described the EPA's actions as "Orwellian" and concluded the hearing with the sarcastic salute:

I have to applaud Dr. Gray for his ability to say what I found to be preposterous things with a completely straight face throughout.

Here are excerpts from the Conservative's Dictionary Of Scientific Language discovered by the Wonk Room to help you translate Gray's tortured testimony...

Recently, the residents of Montville, a small community located in Maine, became the first town outside of California to ban the cultivation of genetically engineered crops.

To do so, they had to take on the deep pockets and misguided motivations of corporations such as Monsanto, the Halliburton of the farming industry.

(If you are searching for something pretty to look at now that the ugliness of the primary season is winding down (hooray!), you have come to the right diary. ;-) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the beauty that mother nature provides us in the spring and summer.)

For as long as I can remember, my father has had a passion for photography and wildflowers. It is not just a passing interest, mind you. Anybody can take their camera out on a nice day and find a pretty flower. My father has spent years going out to photograph, identify, and catalog (complete with description) as many wild, flowering plants in Oklahoma as he can find. It is a labor of love, and he is careful say that he is not a professional. For him, it is treasure-hunting; each new species is like finding a golden coin in the sand. Unlike treasure-hunting, though, he prefers to leave the prize for others to see, and keep only the pictures. But the images themselves are beautiful and artistic, and these are what I will share with you today.

As a mostly full-time environmentalist - for about a decade and a half now - in my efforts I have focused on the threats to human health, and the human prospect;

Climate change.
Mercury in flesh.
Phthalates, bisphenol A, and other plastic/chemical gambles with every child's destiny, via the endocrine system.

These are increasingly urgent problems. The list goes on and on, and sometimes it all seems overwhelming to many of us; Ocean acidification and oceanic dead zones flicker through newscasts. The disintegration of the life-support systems we depend on continues to accelerate.

The encouraging perspective would only fit after the flip:

Say what you will about the opulence of the United Arab Emirates, you have to respect the wisdom and visionary planning behind the Masdar Initiative. I just wish the planners in the booming Emirate of Dubai would take some notes.  But who am I to hate?  Nobody in the US is really making a concrete investment in creating a sustainable infrastructure within our own cities to meet the demands of the 21st Century. You would think that American innovation would be at the forefront of this movement. Yet, here we are, business as usual.  

This is most certainly a problem.

When I first decided to run for the Congressional seat in New Jersey's Fifth District, I did it because I knew that I wanted to be a voice for the families of North Jersey who have not had a voice in Washington the past five years.

Tuesday night, I met with leaders of the Ramapough Mountain Indians, whose land was used as a dumping ground for industrial waste for nearly two decades, and are now left to deal with the after-effects of an industry which has since pulled its jobs, and the wealth that came with it, out of the community.

Some of the excruciating details of their plight can be found at this invaluable website, http://toxiclegacy.com/ .  

I received almost 100 responses to my dolphin diary.  The five diaries I posted regarding the various aspects of the failure of our public education system and associated parenting received less than 100 combined.  My diary on wasting energy and trying to improve our "footprint" to conserve our resources received about 50 responses, many of which proceeded to tell me with great expertise how wrong I was.  I don't mind that, but the proportion of responses to topics is amusing, interesting and disappointing.

In the "other things are happening today besides Hillary and Obama" department... NYT informed that the new scores are up from Climate Counts, one of the more interesting NPOs that I know of. They track companies’ commitment to climate change based on a whole host of criteria with an emphasis on emissions reductions and corporate support for legislation to help curb global warming, and pays little attention to greenwashing efforts that put a green candy shell on a piece of damaging-in-the-manufacturing-sector chocolate.

They released their scores for 2008 today, and the 3% of my brain not devoted to the Democratic primary found a lot of interesting stuff in it. Scores are on a scale of 0-100.

Not everything is the Bush White House's fault.

Not everything.  

In this case, not fully their fault, but the contrast is too striking to go without comment.

The White House sent Laura Bush out to speak on the disastrous cyclone in Myanmar. She gave a prepared statement. And, then she took questions. And, the press had their chance to ask questions. Some were quite serious, quite on target.

But, toward the end the questions strayed to issues closer to Laura's heart. MSNBC, however, took a little time to pick up the shift of subject as you can see over at Huffington Post.  One side of the screen, disaster scenes from Myanmar/Burma, the other a laughing Laura chatting about Jenna's wedding.

Sigh ...

Another stain on America's image?

Asthma has been on my mind lately, because a child in my extended family was recently diagnosed with it after going to the hospital for respiratory problems. The chronic disease is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in children.

In addition, at least 20 million American adults are estimated to have asthma.

Yesterday was World Asthma Day, in connection with Asthma Awareness Month.

Join me after the jump to read about five policies our society should implement, as well as five steps individuals can take, to reduce the incidence and severity of asthma in our households and across the country.

Recently, the residents of Montville, a small community located in Maine, became the first town outside of California to ban the cultivation of genetically engineered crops. To do so, they had to take on the deep pockets and misguided motivations of corporations such as Monsanto, the Halliburton of the farming industry.

Just a few (possibly misconceptions) perceptions I've gotten around here lately, and I'm wondering if it's me or not. All answers welcome, all criticisms will be listened to.

I know it's de rigeur to laugh at David Broder, but his column yesterday may deserve some attentiion. Obama supporters,  I think you're about to be had.

The column which appeared in yesterday's Tallahassee Democrat (those of you who live in a real city may have seen this days ago--apologies if I'm rehashing old news) is titled
Who can save the Democratic Party?
I topic which I'm sure gives Dave many sleepless nights; without the DP, who could he concern troll?

The column is a "frank" interview with an unnamed Clinton staffer.

Over the hump to find the Easter Eggs...