Crossposted at Docudharma

Who Remembers the Snail Darter?

Or the Crazed Rabbit that attacked Jimmy Carter’s fishing boat in the 70's?

This is the tale of the tragic flooding of the Valley of the Little Tennessee River, the heroic folks who fought the TVA action, the creative lawyers and law students who won the precedent setting supreme court decision, the brave folks whose farms were taken and the stoic Native Americans whose homeland it was before - and the roles of the snail darter and the crazed rabbit.  And how it all comes down to - you guessed it - politics.

I meant to write this a couple weeks ago, but got distracted by my own environmental activism, Sierra Club meetings, showing William McDonough’s great film the Next Industrial Revolution, Earth Day events, lobbying in the state legislature for an increase in the coal severance tax, and an on-site visit of a mountaintop removal site.  

I originally thought I might tie this up with a message about activism to effect change.  Don’t know that I’ll make it to that point, as I am  demoralized recently about my own local efforts. And am ready to take a break in my garden for the summer.  Maybe that’s change enough . . .

Last night the Sierra Club hosted a nationwide conference call for any of its more than 700,000 members to call in to hear what the presidential candidates plan to do to fight global warming and put us on a path to a clean energy future.  Only the Clinton and Obama campaigns accepted.  (Note this was the day after Edwards New Orleans announcement.  The Repubs were also invited).

I'm not going to go into great detail about their specific global warming plans because you can go to their websites for that, but I think how differently they responded is somewhat telling.

I should add  here that I don't intend for this to be a candidate flame-throwing diary.  I'm an Edwards supporter and will still vote for him in the Feb. 5 Tennessee primary, assuming he's still on the ballot.

But I am an environmentalist and think how we address the global warming challenge is the most important issue for every living being on the planet.  I'm sorry that it's not gotten much attention so far in the campaign

I posted this at Docudharma a couple weeks ago.

I had been thinking it was too visionary, ie. not realistic enough for Daily Kos.

But after the last IPCC report on climate change, it does not seem so unrealistic.  And as one of the commenters at Docudharma said, it's good to begin talking about preparedness, survival, other modes of living.

Nuclear power is not the answer to global climate change. Other than the safety issues connected to nuclear waste, which are pretty well-publicized, there is a major problem with thermal load, which is not so well known.

Nuclear plants need cool water for cooling.  Hotter water temperatures in the Tennessee River this summer caused TVA to suspend operations at their Browns Ferry Plant.  Browns Ferry is downstream from 3 other TVA nukes which had already heated up the river to a point to prohibit further heating.

France and Germany have had the same problem - in the 2003 heat wave.  The rivers on which their nuclear plants were built were heating up beyond their environmental agenies' standards for aquatic life. A choice had to be made between nuclear power and the health of their rivers and aquatic life.  

As folks who read the great diary this weekend on Atlanta's water shortage must recognize, with climate change and rising temps, the cool water necessary for nuke plants will be a scarcity.

Saturday, October 6, 2007.   Solar homes, active and passive, all across the country are open to the public for viewing and learning about solar energy through the ASES National Solar Tour Day, www.NationalSolarTour.org.

To  find a location near you, go to http://www.ases.org/...

Every year, the first Saturday in October is National Solar Tour Day, as part of National Solar Awareness month.  

We’re participating for the second time.  Last year we had 95 people from all over the state visit our partially earth sheltered, passive solar designed home, to which we added 4kw of photovoltaic panels last July.

To learn more  . . .

100,000 citizens in Washington on September 15.  From all over the country. They came individually, or in small groups. Because they are upset at this horrendous war/occupation. At the devastation our government has caused, the 100's of 1000's of civilian deaths, the displacement of more than 4 million Iraqis, the destruction of the infrastructure, the “ethnic cleansing” of neighborhoods, the shame of the torture and secret “renditions”, the loss of America’s honor, the fact that the world now fears/hates us, our imperialism and hubris, and the looming war with Iran.

Here's my story of my trip to DC, the courage of my friend who volunteered to be arrested, the festivity of the day, and the feeling of witnessing a moment in history at the confrontation with the Capitol police, and the startling declaration of the clarion call that  “We’re in the Midst of an Insurrection in this Country.”

Charlie Rose had an interesting interview tonight with Terry McCarthy, ABC Baghdad correspondent.  I tried to get this in as a comment on Major Danby's Iraq diary, but think I was too late, as it seems everyone had closed up and gone to bed.

It's late now and I too want to go to bed so I'll post this, but won't be around for comments.  

I don’t know about you, but my head is spinning - what with the US Attorney firings, Gonzo's documented lies, Congressional investigations, the supplemental funding vote and Al Gore's testimony in the past week or two.

All the talk of run-up to war with Iran has had me on edge for months. I don’t really think the public is with us yet on recognizing the threat. But the public is definitely concerned about the mess in Iraq - and the public is starting to be concerned about global warming/climate change (which also has me on edge).

As I’ve been reading political blogs, my husband has been following up on his December training as a presenter for Al Gore’s Climate Change Project. Listening to a Union of Concerned Scientist webcast when the IPCC came out, and to interviews with Princeton’s Michael Oppenheimer, one of the authors of the IPCC on the Lehrer Hour and Charlie Rose, I was struck with how monumental - and related - the two threats are. I decided in early February to write my first diary on how we might be able to use the concerns about climate change to stop this escalating war in the Middle East.

Computer crises and a trip to the West coast derailed that diary - so now I've got the events of the last few weeks to consider in the mix.